Wasteland Development Diary.

Chapter 598 Town Monster
Zhou Yi was still very concerned about rescuing the old humans. He thought that if he was lucky enough, he might be able to save one or two people he knew.

Although this is a very low probability event.

But it's always good to have hope.

He first visited the old human town created by the Night God.

It was a world fixed within a structure of white, blue, and black gemstones.

Zhou Yi can project his image directly onto the black gemstone.

The town has only one main street in a cross shape, with houses of varying heights on both sides, some self-built in the 1990s and others built after 2000. Facing the street are various small shops, including building material stores, curtain shops, hardware stores, convenience stores, car washes, dry goods and daily necessities shops, and small restaurants.

Sparse pedestrians, cars rushing by, and electric scooters weaving nimbly through the streets, with shouts and calls of vendors echoing from time to time.

The familiar scent of old humans returned instantly.

Zhou Yi was somewhat surprised: "There are already so many people?"

He could see that there were already dozens of people in the town.

"Not many, there are currently 170 real people in the town."

Yagami was still dressed in his usual work attire: a white lab coat, glasses, and his hair in a bun.

She said, "There are also more than 300 people who are projections I created, or what you old humans would call NPCs."

“It is difficult for the old humans who enter here to identify them because these NPCs are not rigid mannequins. They are connected to electromechanical life forms in the outside world and are controlled by Lumi and others to communicate and behave.”

"If you want to buy something, you have to pay for it. The money is the reward you get for participating in our research. If you don't have the money and try to take something away, the police will show up and arrest you."

"If you are accidentally hit by a car, you will be seriously injured and have to stay in the hospital for a long time. If you are unlucky, you may die here and have to wait for the next round of opening before you can come in."

"In short, things that couldn't be done in the old human societies can't be done here either."

She gave a smug smile: "This is a super realistic old human town."

Zhou Yi couldn't help but wonder, "They clearly know this place is fake, so why would they still be willing to come here?"

"Yes."

Yagami asked, somewhat puzzled, "Aren't you an old human? Why don't you understand anything?"

She looked ahead.

There were two male Old Humans sitting on the side of the road, drinking canned beer. They seemed to be having a good time, both with smiles on their faces.

"When the past can never be relived, all that remains is nostalgia and memory."

"The sowers created a mental prison for them, designed entirely for moments of happiness and pleasure. But after a while, they realized something was wrong, but there was nothing they could do about it."

"Just like wine, if it's all sweet, it's not wine. It must have a little bitterness, a little aroma, a little intoxication and sourness, and even a bit of spiciness, to be wine."

Yagami said with a serious expression, "What makes people like alcohol is not only the relaxation and forgetting it brings, but also its bitter aspects."

"At least the sowers didn't care about this."

Zhou Yi remembered.

Yagami loves alcohol and has repeatedly allowed herself to drink, then savoring the fragments of her own alcoholic consciousness. Because she is a conceptual being, she cannot directly digest alcohol, so this peculiar form of indirect alcohol-smelling has emerged.

Zhou Yi looked out onto the street.

A girl was flying a kite by the roadside, while an elderly man across the street was playing with a small dog. Behind the elderly man, a middle-aged man was peeling a hard-boiled egg and slowly eating it...

There was also a child wearing a birthday hat, holding his mother and father's hands, looking very happy.

These are all ancient humans.

Aside from the child's parents—who are NPCs projected from electromechanical life forms, which Zhou Yi can identify through the light core—[the text abruptly ends here].

Noticing Zhou Yi's gaze fixed on the NPC's parents, Night God said, "Coming here was their own choice. They could have chosen not to come at all; you know, there's no coercion involved."

"But in the end, they were still willing to come to this flawed, disappointing, and potentially unlucky town rather than stay on the safe side and be the protagonist on their own."

"If you eat too many desserts, you might want to have a drink."

"Everyone has been trapped in their own world for too long and longs to meet other people, even if the outcome may not be good."

Zhou Yi remained silent.

he thought.

I seem to be the same way.

After ten years of Dead Sea hunting, he finally left his comfort zone and came ashore to make a change.

Zhou Yi gathered his thoughts and looked at Ye Shen: "You mentioned encountering some strange problems before, what were they?"

"Oh, you know, what's here is actually a projection of the old human consciousness, not their original selves."

Yagami, with his hands in the pockets of his white coat, said, “The large amount of projections into this gem-like space will create a lot of pressure, because these projections need to interact with the entire town.”

"For example, if a brick is broken, a corresponding gap will be created. If a car accident occurs, it will cause a series of chain reactions."

"In short, the entire town needs to be built from the ground up, including every stone and every grain of sand, and it must conform to the original material characteristics... Otherwise, it will become a situation where a certain place is destroyed and then there is nothing inside."

Zhou Yi understood: "So you need a complete simulation of a realistic physics engine to fix the bugs?" "Yes, that's it. So we need to retrieve a lot of data from the electromechanical city and then build it layer by layer, which is much more difficult than it looks."

“Unlike dreams, which can completely disregard these factors because dreams are fleeting and inherently lack precision, replicating the old human world requires ensuring the consistency of these fundamentals; otherwise, it's just a castle in the air, making it impossible for people to be willing to stay there long-term.”

Yagami demonstrated high standards of self-discipline in his work.

"However, this is a problem that can be solved with time. There is another problem that is more troublesome at present."

"An unknown monster has emerged in this small town."

"monster?"

Zhou Yi was taken aback.

"Hmm. You see."

Yagami grabbed Zhou Yi's hand. Suddenly, Zhou Yi gained her perspective.

There were many humanoid shadows in the town, each following behind a different ancient human.

There was a child following behind the one with NPC parents, whose body formed a kind of ethereal connection with the child, as if it were absorbing the former's soul.

Another one was behind the two men drinking by the roadside; its body was also ethereal, absorbing some kind of power from the two men.

These two reminded Zhou Yi of the Dementors from Harry Potter.

"What are they?"

"Uncertain. All I know is that they are actually a whole, but they can appear in different areas at the same time."

Night God said somewhat sullenly, "I only recently discovered this vague consciousness. It wanders around suspiciously, specifically targeting the old humans, absorbing the fragments of consciousness emanating from them. I don't know how it sneaked in; it's very strange."

"Actually, I've already cleaned and eliminated them several times."

"But it won't be long before it's born again."

"The monster in the town has nothing inside it; it is just a monster of consciousness formed by the aggregation of various fragments of consciousness."

"Therefore, I suspect it is a product created by the old humans themselves. They are here, and they generate a very large number of special consciousness fragments. Coupled with their communication with each other, this process is accelerated."

A thought popped into Zhou Yi's mind.

Could it be that a nightmare has hatched?
He immediately summoned Canghai Jun and asked this Dream Demon employee to also enter the Projection Town.

After observing the monster in the town firsthand, Canghaijun revealed a strange expression.

"Chairman, they are not nightmares yet."

"Not yet?"

"It has certain similarities to the nightmare... It is based on this town, on the collective consciousness born from these old humans, and can be considered the prototype of conceptual life."

Zhou Yi was stunned: "A conceptual life form can be born so quickly? What does it mean that it's not a dream demon?"

"Chairman, have you ever heard this saying?"

Canghai Jun said solemnly, "Dreams are myths when we are awake, and myths are dreams when we are in a collective slumber."

"The earliest dream demon was just an ordinary and fragile consciousness. But after it learned to create dreams, it gained its own exclusive living space, and that's how dream demons came to be."

"As far as I know, the first conscious life form to be born was a dream demon, which gradually developed self-awareness. Dream demons are the most active group on the conscious side, and by constantly stimulating the imagination and memory of material life, they indirectly also facilitated the birth of a large number of conceptual life forms."

"The collective consciousness we see before us is consistent with the history of nightmares."

"It is the earliest conceptual life form to be born here, and also the connection point of consciousness for all the old humans in the town."

A rare hint of excitement appeared on Canghai Jun's face as he stared intently at the black monster: "Here, the scene of the birth of the first conceptual life at the beginning of the world has been recreated."

"Because this place is completely enclosed, there is a material side provided by gems, and a consciousness side composed of projections. Consciousness and matter interact with each other, so it has all the conditions for a basic world."

"I never expected to see such a scene, I'm so lucky."

Zhou Yi was somewhat bewildered.

Is this... Yagami creating a second creation?

That really does fit her public persona as a god.

"Most importantly."

Canghaijun stared intently at the monster in the town: "The original concept of life is also the prototype of the Great Holy Spirit. However, as time goes by, it will gradually become a stream of consciousness without self-awareness, just like a larger version of the Dead Sea Lord."

"Now, in theory, it can be selectively cultivated and modified."

"Chairman, if we can cultivate it into a powerful new Great Holy Spirit, we can use it to promote the Great Holy Spirits of Earth and even have a huge impact!"

"Only the Holy Spirit can interact and influence one another! This is a function that only the Holy Spirit can perform! Its value is immeasurable!"

Zhou Yi touched his chin as he listened.

That sounds pretty good.

(End of this chapter)