The male supporting character was actually myself.

In reality, Lu Xinnan has an ordinary appearance, slightly dark skin and looks a bit haggard, but she has a gentle demeanor, which is similar to the impression she gives off.

"I also found information about the other people you mentioned."

Feng Yuan, a postgraduate student in the Department of Physics at Huadu University, was hit by an ashtray thrown from a high-rise building when he was passing by the No. 3 dormitory building at noon on April 21. He is currently in the intensive care unit of Huadu First Hospital.

Li Zixuan, a student at Beijing Medical Technology College, was found by staff at 6:00 AM this morning to have choked on vomit in a private room of a bar. She is currently in the intensive care unit of Beijing Ocean Hospital and has likely just been resuscitated.

I'm having the branch office send people to check their surveillance footage to see if there are any clues about the appearance of this new, unknown entity.

After finishing his work, Li Chengze sat in the helicopter, looking at the passing scenery with a heavy heart.

Could it be a coincidence?

What unknown entity killed Qin Rufeng and set its sights on Jiang Chen?

Could they be related to the strange main system?

Why was Qin Rufeng, who disobeyed orders, killed directly, while Jiang Chen, who followed orders, escaped death?

If the unknown entity's goal is to kill, why make it so complicated?

Chapter Two: You Know Nothing About Power

Qinghong County is not far from Angu City. The two people in the helicopter dispatched by the security team landed at the Qinghong County Security Team branch building in no time.

Li Chengze naturally took care of the small talk and polite interactions.

“It only takes us about ten minutes to drive to No. 1 Middle School.” He quickly came over with his car keys, found the exact address on the navigation software, and opened the car door that had been prepared beforehand. “Are you sure you don’t need the security team to come to your house to check on things?”

Jiang Chen sat in the passenger seat, fastened his seatbelt, and shook his head, saying, "You can check the footprints anytime. Once you figure out the situation, you can take the equipment and scan them to understand."

I have a gut feeling that the unknown entity that appeared in my house and the one that killed Qin Rufeng are not the same type.

In my opinion, the unknown entity resembling Spider-Man harbored no ill intentions.

"Well, first you stopped breathing, then the Spider-Man Unknown Entity came to check on you, and you woke up not long after they left. In that short period of time, your soul went through many worlds, like a cycle of reincarnation."

Li Chengze, driving the car, guessed, "Your intuition about unknown entities has always been very accurate."

Since there seems to be no ill intent, perhaps the Spider-Man Unknown is helping your soul return to your body?

“Very likely.” Jiang Chen rubbed his fingers, pondering Qin Rufeng’s situation, when suddenly a thought flashed through his mind: “When did you discover the No. 7 unknown entity?”

"I received the notification at 5:45, and then I led a team to the scene to check before sending you a message and having the traffic police close off the road. Earlier, around 5 o'clock, the staff responsible for the western suburbs discovered energy fluctuations, but that area was quite large and the search took a lot of time."

According to the initial report, the No. 7 unidentified entity had already eaten and was lying there sleeping.

It is estimated that it is evolving after being digested.

Based on the information currently available about Unknown Entity No. 7, they are not very intelligent, so it is normal that they would be discovered because they do not hide their tracks.

What's wrong? Is there something wrong with it?

Have you ever wondered—where does it get its fill?

Li Chengze subconsciously stepped on the brake and stopped on the side of the road. He looked at the other person with a surprised expression, and the two exchanged glances and instantly understood each other's meaning.

"You mean, the unknown entity we're dealing with, number 7, might have consumed Qin Rufeng's soul?"

“The time and place match up. Wait a moment.” Jiang Chen noticed a toy store that was open for business next to where he parked. He unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the car door, got out, bought a huge plush rabbit doll, and put it in the back seat.

Li Chengze was still processing what he had just said.

As he started the vehicle and moved forward slowly, he still asked in confusion, "But there is no trace of Number 7 at the scene. Qin Rufeng lives on the seventh floor. With Number 7's size of three meters tall and two meters wide, it is impossible for it to devour a soul without leaving any trace."

"Do you remember when I mentioned the concept of 'zookeeper' a long time ago?"

The towering buildings on both sides of the wide road converge into a steel torrent of vehicles, while the busy commuters on electric bikes and bicycles and the calls of roadside vendors create a strong sense of daily life.

The busy masses all think that the world is as ordinary and normal as they see it.

Ninety-nine point nine percent of people, from birth to adulthood, through schooling, marriage, and children, until the end of their short lives, never have the opportunity to understand the other side of the world—the unknown entities that live in the cracks between humanity.

They come in various shapes and have different abilities, living in some dark corner according to their own habits.

Only a very small number of people with special abilities can see, study, and hunt them when necessary.

Jiang Chen is familiar with all the known and common unknown organisms, and has even assigned them different numbers according to their habits to distinguish them. As early as three or four years ago, when he was studying the habits of unknown organisms, he proposed a concept—the zookeeper.

He believes that, apart from the Soul Eater, most other unknown entities that devour souls rarely attack humans on their own initiative.

They are more like domesticated pets, whose souls are extracted and fed by some unknown entity that has not yet been discovered.

However, Jiang Chen's idea has never been supported by strong evidence.

The scene of Qin Rufeng's death might be able to solve this mystery.

“If there really is such an unknown entity as the zookeeper, and it took Qin Rufeng’s soul and fed it to the unknown entity No. 7 that you killed, then why would it also gouge out his heart and brain?” Li Chengze found it hard to understand. “I have never seen such a bizarre death scene before.”

The unknown entity is an energy entity and can freely move through buildings.

Their food naturally falls into the category of energy, and no unknown substance has ever directly harmed the human body.

“Although I often say that we cannot understand unknown entities with human thinking patterns, Qin Rufeng’s heart and brain must have undergone some kind of change, which caused the murderer to have to take it away to prevent us from discovering the secret.” Jiang Chen looked at the No. 1 Middle School that was getting closer and closer, and lowered his voice, “I think there is a connection between the unknown entity and the main system.”

Qin Rufeng's death, on the surface, appeared to be caused by an unknown entity, but in reality, it was very likely due to a destruction order from the main system!

"The unknown entity is under the command of the main system?" Li Chengze became more and more confused as he analyzed the situation.

After thinking for a moment, he asked in return, "Can you still remember the details of the worlds you traveled to?"

Like a dream or…

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and slowly said, "This is the truly terrifying part."

Although I only remember fragments, I clearly recall that those virtual worlds were no different from the real world. Pain, touch, suffering, pleasure, and even every plant and blade of grass in the world were real.

The main system can implant my soul into a brand new body and instantly possess all of his memories.

When I leave that world, all the memories that have lasted for decades or even centuries are folded up and disappear.

This can be understood as the brain's storage being formatted before entering the next world.

I've been thinking about this ever since I woke up this morning: Is the world we live in real or virtual?

After all, from the perspective of how the brain perceives the outside world, this place is no different from the virtual world I experience.

"That's a really scary way to put it." Li Chengze chuckled weakly, parked the car in a roadside parking space, and said firmly, "Reality is definitely different from the virtual world."

At the very least, I'm certain that I won't be tampered with.

You can grab any person off the street, and their memories and relationships with family and friends can corroborate each other. How can that be faked?

Jiang Chen raised his hand to check the time; it was still early. He chuckled and said, "You know nothing about the power to control the world."

Take now, for example. It wipes out all your memories and then instills entirely new ones.

Your brain tells you that your name is Jiang Chen and you live at No. 28 Paradise Street.

The people around you have also had their memories altered, and they greet you warmly with "Little Jiang." Your altered memories are completely identical. Can you still find clues in your life to prove that you are Li Chengze and not Jiang Chen?

Li Chengze opened his mouth, but his face turned pale and he couldn't say anything.

He suddenly remembered a computer game that was all the rage a while ago. All you had to do was input the character design, basic background, and story framework in the background, and after clicking start, the computer would automatically generate the character's image and start living and developing according to the pre-set story.

The more detailed the information input during modeling, the more realistic the characters and the more reasonable the storyline will be.

The game was highly sought after upon its release, and the most important reason was that it allowed people to experience the joy (or rather, the ecstasy) of being a creator.

What if this world is really just a more sophisticated and grander virtual game?

Chapter Three: Reunion with Lu Xinnan

"You've made me suddenly start to question the meaning of life." Li Chengze's angular profile gleamed in the sunlight as he took out a cigarette from his pocket, which he had only taken two puffs of, and lit it.

He leaned his arm against the lowered window, took a few deep drags on his cigarette, and exhaled faint smoke rings.

The carriage was filled with the distinctive smell of tobacco.

"If everything is truly virtual, and we are like puppets, working and living according to the creator's will, what is the meaning of such a life?"

Jiang Chen doesn't smoke, but he doesn't dislike the smell of smoke. Leaning back in his seat and watching the hurried pedestrians, he comforted them, "It must be meaningful."

At the very least, the world we live in has logic and rules, and isn't so arbitrary.

Moreover, the other hosts I can remember also come from our world.

This is important; we just haven't found the connection yet.

“I suddenly thought of a possibility.” Li Chengze accurately tossed his cigarette butt into the trash can, his peach blossom eyes shining slightly with excitement. “The world we live in is real.”

Putting aside your and Qin Rufeng's identities...

You suddenly stop breathing in the middle of the night;

It is highly likely that Qin Rufeng's work and rest schedule led to his sudden death. Moreover, since his heart and brain were removed, it is impossible to check whether he died suddenly. Let's assume that he died suddenly for some reason.

Lu Xinnan died suddenly due to overwork;

Feng Yuan was seriously injured and fell into a deep coma after being hit by an object thrown from a high-rise building;

Li Zixuan fell into a deep coma due to aspiration asphyxiation...

The people you can remember all died for various reasons. Could it be that some factor caused your souls to leave your bodies while your bodies were not completely dead at the time of your 'death'?

The main system may simply be maintaining some kind of balance...

"You mean, the main system makes us keep reincarnating in the virtual world to buy time?" Jiang Chen immediately followed his line of thought and guessed, "It can manipulate unknown entities to reward or punish."

The souls of those who comply have the opportunity to return from the virtual world to their real bodies;

Those who disobey orders are simply eliminated.

The new type of unknown entity executes commands and feeds its soul to other unknown entities.

Is the existence of the main system and the unknown entity for the purpose of purifying the world and maintaining some kind of balance?

"Great, now that we have the theory, how do we prove it?"

“Let’s start with Lu Xinnan.” Jiang Chen took the huge plush rabbit out of the back seat, opened the door and got out of the car to explain, “I vaguely remember that she has a daughter who is having her birthday today.”

You play it by ear; our main focus is observing her condition and whether she still has any memories of the virtual world.

The two often cooperated, and many times they could understand each other with just a glance. Therefore, they entered the Tianxi Jincheng residential area after discussing the purpose of their trip.