Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 565 Intermittent Signals

The Moon Palace is a city built from light-colored ceramic base stones and light-colored filling materials.

Looking down from above, all you see are low, two- or three-story buildings, neatly arranged and evenly distributed across the desolate, vast lunar surface.

Inside a large laboratory in this lunar city.

Zhou Yi was deep in thought.

In front of him was a device shaped like a large flask, which was entirely assembled from special lenses, and at the bottom of the flask was a small figure about the size of a hand.

The little figure was wearing a hoodie, was tall and thin, had short hair, a little mustache around his lips, and his eyes still held the clarity and confusion unique to adolescence.

The little man in the bottle is named Xu Yuhang. He says he comes from 2025, is thirteen years old, and is in the first year of junior high school.

However, according to the records of the electromechanical city.

The history of the old human race ended on December 11, 2024.

Holding the electric walkie-talkie, Zhou Yi said, "Do you always feel like you're sometimes inexplicably dreaming, and sometimes you suddenly wake up?"

The voice was converted into text by the power adapter and projected onto a special display on the bottle.

This display, which incorporates framing technology, serves as a tool for communication between the outside world and the little person inside the bottle.

The boy's voice came through the electric cat walkie-talkie.

"how do you know?"

“Because I saw it.”

"Can you enter my real life?"

The boy's face showed surprise, and his eyes widened slightly.

"You are like a mirror, allowing us to see the scenes of your life..."

Zhou Yi said.

When he came, he brought Canghai Jun, the Book-Eating Demon, and Sun Hao with him. These three are all professionals in the field of consciousness, capable of participating in the analysis of the little man in the bottle and making up for the consciousness defects that electromechanical life forms cannot directly access.

This team immediately proved to be of great use after they arrived.

Canghai Jun was the first to notice: "Chairman, Xu Yuhang and Kobayashi Hina are both complete consciousness entities, which is very peculiar. They are perfectly intact, just like normal human beings."

Zhou Yi asked, "You mean, they are indeed human?"

"Yes. We have lived alongside humans for tens of thousands of years, so this judgment is unlikely to be wrong. But they also have things that are different from ordinary people."

Canghai Jun adjusted his glasses: "Their consciousness evolution has stopped, which is usually a result of death."

"According to the natural cycle of consciousness, the consciousness body should gradually decompose into consciousness fragments, then enter the Great Holy Spirit, and then undergo random combination and regeneration."

"The little man in the bottle was forcibly stopped from this process, and locked at the moment of death."

"They must have been bound by some force or technology, fixed in an independent space, with no contact with other consciousnesses outside. They are trapped in a fictional space of consciousness, where memories are constantly and randomly combined to construct the illusion that they are living normally."

"Based on their characteristics, this shouldn't have been done by celestial beings, as it's not their area of ​​expertise. We still need to trace these consciousnesses further back to their origins."

"But this will be very difficult, because since they can break free from the Great Holy Spirit's bondage, the strength of their conscious control must be astonishing..."

The Book Eater used its self-developed information technology to mark and track the two bottle-shaped figures using the "Book of All Beings".

Her investigation indirectly confirmed Canghaijun's statement.

The fact that the little man in the bottle appears and disappears is a normal phenomenon.

The Book-Eating Demon said, "I verified the two of them through the information layer."

“What Xu Yuhang said is true and consistent with the information in his mind, whether it is the game or his personal identity. In the information space he is in, these experiences are indeed true, and the 2025 he is in is very stable.”

"Kobayashi Haruna lied. She is not 16 years old as she claims, but 19. She dropped out of school early and lived on the streets, making a living through compensated dating and theft. However, her name is real, and it is true that she lived in 2017."

"These two people have very different life experiences, but they share the same characteristic. They both live in a period of time that they feel comfortable with."

"The difference is."

"Xu Yuhang thought he was still growing up, but because he could no longer evolve, he could only reassemble the past into the future. The painful and uncomfortable memories were all blocked out, leaving only the comfortable and pleasant ones."

“Kobayashi Haruna lived in a recurring 2017. She was keenly aware of the abnormality early on, but she didn’t care and just enjoyed immersing herself in various desires.”

Sun Hao said, "Father, their memories of each other are being erased."

"I think this is the corrective force behind the existence of the lockdown mechanism."

Connect the two little figures in the bottle.

This was proposed by Lumi, who is in charge of the Man in a Bottle project. She is an electromechanical life form that has awakened from a supercomputer and is also an A-3 level expert at the forefront of technology.

More data can be obtained by interacting directly with the little character.

That was indeed the case.

Zhou Yi turned his gaze back to Xu Yuhang.

The boy in the bottle looked bewildered: "You mean, I'm dead... but my consciousness is sealed inside something? You think you're still alive?"

"That's one way to understand it. Do you know about the brain in a vat?"

"I think I've heard of it, but I don't understand it..."

"Let me put it this way. Imagine a person's brain is removed, placed in a tank filled with nutrient solution, and connected to a supercomputer. The computer uses electrodes to simulate all sensory signals, such as vision, hearing, and touch, making him believe that he is still living a normal life. Everything he sees, hears, and feels is a computer-generated virtual experience."

"You mean, I am the brain in a vat?"

"Our deduction is as follows."

"But...why is this happening?"

Xu Yuhang's eyes were filled with confusion: "I'm just an ordinary junior high school student. Why are they doing this kind of experiment on me? My family doesn't have any money... and I'm not special at all."

Zhou Yi told him, "It's not just you, there are many others in the same situation... Kobayashi Haruna is the same."

"Hina? Where did she go?"

"She will be back soon. Our technology is not enough to completely rescue you from inside. We can only maintain an intermittent connection, so the signal may be lost at any time."

Xu Yuhang's expression kept changing.

This information seems a bit too stimulating for a junior high school student.

He gradually disappeared into the bottle.

About an hour later, Kobayashi Haruna emerged from inside.

She was dressed in a high school girl uniform, walking around inside the bottle, looking left and right, as if searching for Xu Yuhang's whereabouts.

She almost had a passionate encounter with that middle school student in a bottle before.

Zhou Yi happened to witness that scene.

However, this is where the limitations of consciousness itself become apparent. Here, they cannot change their appearance, nor can they influence others, making them completely different from consciousness in its normal state.

Hina tried to look outside through the telescope.

"Hello, Mr. Lumi, are you outside?"

"exist."

"That's great."

Hina smiled and asked, "In your world, are there any interesting things? Like a better environment and cities, more charismatic idols, or more fashionable and convenient things?"

Zhou Yi said, "Unfortunately, we are in a wasteland world, a post-apocalyptic Earth that has been rebuilt after the Circular Flow eruption. In terms of convenience and sophistication, it cannot compare with the human civilization before the disaster."

"I see... Then life over there must be very tough. Is Mr. Lumi a scientist?"

"You could say the same thing."

"According to what you said before, you can enter the dream I'm in. Could you create a more glamorous and luxurious dream life for me?"

Unlike Xu Yuhang, Kobayashi Hina only cares about the present moment in her life.

For her, neither reality nor illusion matters.

The important thing is to make yourself happy.

Zhou Yi inquired with Canghai Jun and learned that it was indeed possible to create dreams.

“Chairman, dreams are a deep derivative of consciousness. This is a good idea; we might be able to obtain more information through her dreams.”

Once he confirmed that it was safe, Canghai-kun infiltrated Kobayashi Hina's consciousness and began to create a dream.

Hina soon fell asleep in the bottle.

After waking up, she stretched and waved happily, "Thank you, Mr. Lumi, what a wonderful dream! All the guys were my type, and there were also some interesting dates and trips!"

Canghaijun returned and reported, "Chairman, apart from obtaining some of her personal information, we haven't made any other new discoveries."

soon.

Xu Yuhang has reappeared.

The two little people in the bottle started chatting enthusiastically again.

Perhaps it was meeting a kindred spirit in a foreign land, or perhaps it was finally able to break free from the repetitive cycle, but they all showed a curiosity and interest in each other, and could talk endlessly about even the most ordinary little things.

According to Earth time, the days pass one by one.

Xu Yuhang is getting closer and closer to disappearing completely and becoming unreachable.

Zhou Yi told him to make a choice.

"Either go back to your previous life or pretend this was all a dream."

"Or, we could try to help you get out of that enclosed space. But we can't guarantee we'll succeed."

"You choose."

The junior high school student was very hesitant.

He looked out of the bottle: "How did Hina decide?"

Zhou Yi stated frankly, "She will go back and continue her previous life."

"..."

Xu Yuhang remained silent for a long time.

"Then I want to go back too."

"understand."

Zhou Yi wasn't surprised.

If I were to encounter such a situation, I would feel much more at ease choosing to stand on the side of common sense rather than on a strange monitor that is full of unknowns and dangers.

He asked, "Will I ever see Hina again?"

"No."

"Where can I get to your side? Can I transfer there to reach Hina's world?"

"...unless you are connected together, but that is also very risky, though technically feasible in theory."

"can!"

I want to try it!

Zhou Yi was finding it difficult to remain calm.

Middle school students are indeed bursting with hormones; Xu Yuhang was somewhat smitten with Hina at first sight. But thinking about it, it's normal; he himself acted impulsively like that when he was a teenager.

"Have you made up your mind?"

"Think about it!"

That being the case.

Zhou Yi immediately arranged for Lumi and Canghai Jun to begin the experiment.

It's happening right here.

The Book-Eating Demon ran over excitedly: "Found it! Found it! I asked the Night God for help, and we found the source of their information layer, which is on Earth."

Guess where it is?

Zhou Yi's first thought was: "City 404?"

"No. It's the Forbidden Continent, or more precisely, the Spark Plains!"

(End of this chapter)