The atmosphere in the dark office was depressing.
The skinny man sat on the ground and sighed, the muscular man smoked cigarettes one after another, his left hand on his thigh repeatedly clenched and unclenched, the man in a suit folded his arms thoughtfully, and the only girl, "Sister Taoer" was nestled in He lowered his head and clasped his hands in the chair, occasionally wiping his cheeks with the back of his hands, looking frustrated and aggrieved.
Silently watching these four strangers, Li Liang's heart felt completely calm.
No matter how deep their emotions are, they are just foreshadowing the next "plot", but everything in this office does seem extremely real.
The floor is covered with a gray carpet common in office buildings, with a thick layer of dust and messy footprints. There are long-dead potted plants in the corners, and cups, A4 papers, data cables, etc. are scattered among the tables and chairs piled on both sides. Wait, there are still notes and stickers left on many partition boards, it seems like the people who work here left in a hurry.
There is a smell of decay in the air, mixed with the smell of plastic from the operation of medical equipment. There is a vague buzzing sound outside the office, and sometimes the sound of a car engine can be heard far away outside the dark window. The building is not far from the road.
Li Liang lowered his head and looked at himself, his sweat-soaked white shirt, wrinkled suit pants, and a pair of scuffed leather shoes.
This outfit is quite poor, but the watch on her wrist is expensive, a "Richard Mille" with a hollow dial.
The blue hands jumped moment by moment, showing that time was passing second by second. He suddenly realized that the most obvious difference between this fictional scene and the false life created by Elune was time.
Looking back on that "perfect life", it was long but short. Every moment is like an ordinary person looking back on the past aimlessly. It is always difficult to clearly perceive the length of life, and most of the life experiences are vague. The lake was unclear, only some impressive fragments flashed through my mind.
However, at this moment, he could truly feel that he was "spending" every second and every minute. Time was invisible and intangible, but even and certain.
However, no matter how perfect the illusion is, there will always be a time when the picture is gone. He had imagined the situation of encountering a time observer. Compared with being strangled on the spot as soon as he met, there was at least room for mediation in the current situation.
At this time, the man in the suit seemed to have finally made up his mind, stood up slowly, and said to the skinny man: "That's it, Xiaofan, let's go through the previous process... again."
"Still leaving? Mr. Guo..." Xiaofan sighed, "I have tried so many times before, hundreds of times, but it didn't work. They wouldn't believe it. Mr. Li failed, and Xi'an is finished. …”
The muscular man stood up with a cry: "What the hell do you mean!"
"What do you mean!" Xiaofan also jumped up, "Yan Hao, Sister Tao and I risked going to jail to come here. It's interesting enough, what else do you want me to do!"
"Fuck you..." Yan Hao violently threw the cigarette butt on the ground and grabbed Xiao Fan's neck. Sister Tao on the side was so frightened that she covered her face and screamed.
"That's enough!" Mr. Guo's voice was low but loud, "Yan Hao, let go."
Yan Hao stared, breathing rapidly, and finally slowly let go of his hand.
"Xiaofan," Mr. Guo stepped forward and held Xiaofan's shoulders, "You and Xiaotao are still willing to come at this time. I am very grateful to you. Li Liang is also grateful to you. He told me in private before that if he fails Now, let me give you and Xiaotao a sum of money so that you can go back quickly and work and live well in the future. Things here have nothing to do with you anymore..."
Xiaofan glared at Yan Hao, shook his head and said, "Mr. Guo, you know I'm not doing this for money..."
"I know, Xiaofan," Mr. Guo lowered his gaze, "You, me, Tao'er, and Yan Hao, since we have chosen to stay, we have tried our best. As for the outcome, we have to leave it to fate."
"I understand," Xiaofan rubbed his neck and nodded.
Mr. Guo patted him on the shoulder, turned around, walked to Li Liang and stretched out his hand: "Let me formally meet you. My name is Guo Xudong, and I serve as the global vice president of Xi'an Technology."
Finally, it’s time for the “Character Introduction”…
Li Liang, who had a "watching the fun" mentality throughout the whole process, smiled, raised his hand and shook it: "Hello."
"Fan Yazi, the design director of "Tian Ling"," Xiao Fan smiled bitterly, "I also made a guest appearance as the technical director in the past few days."
"My name is Tang Xintao, leader of the Afferent Nervous System Research Group of the BIC Technology R&D Department," Sister Tao had not recovered from the shock just now, and her expression was sluggish when she spoke.
"Hello, hello," Li Liang nodded in greeting, "and this one, Yan Hao, right?"
Yan Hao remained silent, with an expression on his face as if he was visiting a close friend who was terminally ill, his eyes full of sadness.
"How are you feeling, Li Liang?" Guo Xudong handed over a bottle of water. "Next, we will take you to a place. It may take a long time. Do you want to take a rest now?"
"Thank you," Li Liang took the water bottle and put it on the coffee table aside, "No need to rest."
"good."
"Wait a moment, Mr. Li, let me help you remove the bic," Tang Xintao walked around behind the sofa, "There may be a little stinging sensation..."
What is bic?
Before he could react, Li Liang suddenly felt as if he had been pricked by a needle on the lower part of his head. Looking back, he saw Tang Xintao holding a "capsule" as long as her little finger in her hand, with four pairs of "tentacles" on the outer shell.
He instinctively touched the place where the pain had just occurred. He was stunned for a moment when he touched a hard object the size of a coin in his hair. It felt as cold as metal and seemed to be directly embedded in his skull.
"That is an invasive neurotransmitter editor," Tang Xintao explained, "It can also be called bic, which is the abbreviation of brain-computer interface."
Li Liang was not surprised when he heard about brain-computer interfaces. His younger brother a thousand years ago was very obsessed with brain-computer interfaces and artificial intelligence. Since the "story setting" of this scene is "everything he experienced was a game." , then the younger brother’s “guest appearance” will definitely be indispensable.
"Okay," he stood up, "Where to go."
After a while, a group of five people left the office and came to the dark corridor.
"This way," Fan Yazi took out his mobile phone, turned on the "flashlight" function, and led the way.
The corridor was surprisingly long, with mostly glass walls on both sides. The sign at the door had been removed. Using the light of his mobile phone, Li Liang noticed that some of these spaces were open offices. The tables, chairs and debris inside were also covered with dust, and some looked like The medical laboratory is equipped with various instruments and several locked doors. It is probably the management's office or conference room.
Halfway through, Guo Xudong suddenly slowed down and said in a low voice: "Li Liang, I know what you are thinking now. Do you think that I, Yan Hao, Xiaofan, Xiaotao, and everything you see are fictitious?" Yes, so, it doesn’t matter, you can listen to what I’m going to say next as a story.”
Li Liang glanced at the middle-aged man walking next to him. In the darkness, his weathered face looked particularly tired.
"In the summer of 2030, your brother Li Shuang received a master's degree in neuroscience from Harvard University, and then went to Scripps Research Institute. Three years later, he was invited by Hoffmann-La Roche to go to Roche's Basel, Switzerland. R&D center, where he formed a young team to conduct research on neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, autism spectrum disorder, depressive disorder, etc. Only five years later, he achieved a key breakthrough …”
Guo Xudong's voice came faintly,
"The story begins from that day. At that time, Li Shuang was ambitious and was far from satisfied with overcoming one or several stubborn diseases. He just wanted to thoroughly understand all the secrets about the brain, but he did not know that he was embarking on an impossible path. The road back, the end of that road, is the boundary between reality and fiction..."
