Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 617 Short Break
"I need to go to the Primordial Palace." After enjoying a moment of tenderness, Sun Hang got up and rolled out of bed.

"Now?" Wang Xiyi was taken aback. "You were just brought out of there..."

“Right now, there are some things that are puzzling me, and I want to talk to the mainframe about them,” Sun Hang said.

"Do you need me to come with you?" Wang Xiyi looked at Sun Hang with a hint of worry in her eyes.

"No need." Sun Hang gently patted Wang Xiyi's shoulder, then got up and put on his coat.

……

Although Pei Zongjun himself hardly ever used his office, a secret passage was still built there, which could lead directly to the Origin Palace in a very short time.

After the elevator came to a complete stop, Sun Hang could still vaguely feel the intense sense of weightlessness—while Pei Zongjun had used the office upstairs a few times, he had never used this secret passage. When this place was built, Pei Zongjun's body was already almost exhausted; unless it was an emergency, his physique really couldn't withstand the torment of this high-speed elevator.

However, the elevator is fast enough. It would take about 20 minutes to go from the Jade Pillar to the Origin Palace, but this passage only takes 25 seconds to take Sun Hang to a hidden entrance on the side of the Origin Palace.

Standing before the mainframe once again, Sun Hang looked at the room and found it completely unchanged from not long ago. The sense of confusion in his heart grew even stronger—during the time he had been unconscious, had nothing really happened here?
Before Sun Hang could speak, the virtual projection of the mainframe had already walked up to him and said in a gentle voice: "Seven hours, twenty-nine minutes and five seconds ago, you fell into an abnormal deep sleep state here. Although I have conducted a detailed examination of your physical condition and found no abnormalities, the fact that there are no abnormalities is the biggest abnormality, considering your physical condition and brainwave response during sleep."

Sun Hang: "What are you trying to tell me?"

"Given your physical condition, you don't need that level of sleep at all. Unless you consciously feel the need for a complete rest, it means your body is being disturbed by some external factor. Until the cause of the problem is identified, I suggest you..."

"Don't give me any more suggestions. There's something I need to ask you," Sun Hang said.

"Excuse me."

"Sphinx, tell me, does this world really exist?"

Sun Hang stared intently at the main brain and asked—he wasn't staring at the holographic projection that was right in front of him, but at the giant biochemical brain that was immersed in a glass tank and had countless tubes inserted into it.

The surrounding lights flickered a few times and then went out completely, plunging the entire Primordial Palace into darkness, leaving only four faint green lights projecting down from above the glass tank containing the main brain.

Those were two pairs of eerie eyes, belonging to two strangely shaped ape statues, and next to them was another of their kind covering its own eyes with its hands.

"Long time no see." Sun Hang looked calmly at the three apes, his tone devoid of any anger. "Is there anything you want to say to me?"

The three apes remained motionless, like real statues—except for the somewhat eerie look in their eyes as they stared at Sun Hang, they were, in Sun Hang's perception, completely "dead objects."

“Your presence has already confirmed my suspicions.” Sun Hang’s lips curled slightly. “Have you ever heard the story of ‘protesting too much’?”

Sun Hang raised his wrist and glanced at his watch—after his experience in the occupied area, he had developed a habit of wearing a mechanical watch. Under the glow of the luminous dial, the slender second hand had stopped ticking, even though Sun Hang had just wound the watch up fifteen minutes earlier.

"What's wrong? Is there anything else?" Sun Hang looked up again, smiling at the three monkeys.

"Tick-tock." The clockwork made a soft sound, and everything in the Primordial Palace returned to normal.

"Why do you doubt the reality of this world?" The holographic projection of the mainframe stood beside Sun Hang and asked in a respectful tone. "Don't you think that strange creatures shouldn't exist in this real world?" Sun Hang said. "And now that I think about it, I always feel that this world... seems to occasionally have some things that are like bugs."

"When the strange creatures first appeared, some researchers had this idea, but so far there is no evidence to prove these claims," ​​the mastermind said. "A scientist from the United States left a comment while studying the strange creatures, saying that they could be explained by science, but that humanity's current level of technology is not yet capable of doing so. Just like people in primitive societies who saw modern technology, they would also find it incredible and regard these things as miracles that should not exist in the mortal world—even if these things seem commonplace to you."

"Are you speaking to me as the main brain, or as the Sphinx's half of the brain?"

"The core component of the mastermind is half of the Sphinx's brain; there is no difference between the two," the mastermind replied.

"I don't believe that the Sphinx's half of its brain has no sense of self whatsoever."

"When the Sphinx provided half of its brain as agreed in the wager, it left its complete self-awareness within its main body. Therefore, the half of the brain within the main brain only serves as a power source and does not possess any self-awareness," the main brain replied. "The Sphinx is bound by a higher-level rule-based monster, so there is no need to worry about it tampering with the wager."

"What if the bet itself has loopholes?"

"There are no loopholes in the bet." The holographic projection of the mainframe shook its head. "Also, there is an urgent communication from Professor Cao. Should we connect it?"

"Yes." Sun Hang nodded.

"Sun Hang, are you in the Primordial Palace right now?" As soon as the call connected, Professor Cao's voice came from the communicator next to him.

"Yes, what's wrong?"

“Ji Yaohua just came to see me. He said that the mainframe just experienced a very brief outage, but the outage was so short that it was impossible to observe. If it weren’t for the fact that some monitoring programs restarted, no one might have even noticed that the mainframe had gone offline… But I can’t get in touch with Lao Pei, so I had no choice but to come to you.”

"The system went down? Just now?"

"Yes, about three minutes ago."

Sun Hang looked up at the top of the now empty glass tank. It seemed that the shutdown must have happened the instant the three monkeys appeared.

Although the three apes froze time, the break between time still caused the main brain to experience a brief, almost negligible, shutdown.

Although this level of shutdown will not have any impact, the situation itself is enough to put the entire Tian Shu Tower in a state of tension.

"Oh, I see. It's nothing serious. Tell Ji Yaohua and the others not to worry," Sun Hang said.

"What on earth happened...? Even my level isn't high enough?"

“Not enough,” Sun Hang replied decisively.

“Okay… are you free tonight? I’d like to invite you to dinner, and there are some things I’d like to discuss with you, in my personal capacity,” Professor Cao added.

(End of this chapter)