Rule Strange: Urban Legends That Don't Exist

Chapter 948 Miao Shuisheng's Nightmare Drifting ([-]): The Red Pill
At this time, Liang Ansheng was standing in place like Miao Shuisheng just now, trembling all over.

The call from the depths of the soul made Liang Ansheng's whole body convulse, every cell was telling him his fear.

"Ah Kishi..."

After a call and also a sigh, Liang Ansheng withdrew his twitching hand as if being shocked by an electric shock.

Miao Shuisheng glanced past Liang Ansheng's face, and saw the cocklebur appearing behind Liang Ansheng.

He was much older than the last time we met, but he seemed to be in good spirits, black and white were distinct in the lens, but his eyes were still filled with that consistent divine light.

He was wearing a Tianshenzhou-style brown blouse as usual, and his lower body was a pair of taupe jeans. These jeans were made entirely of rotten canvas recycled by the gang, so they not only looked greasy, but also had a lingering smell. A sense of cheapness that people look down upon.

Miao Shuisheng never looked down on him.

In fact, Miao Shuisheng never even dared to look at him because of the awe that was close to fear in his heart—in his short life, Miao Shuisheng had never looked at Xanthium annuum.

Xanthium put a little force on Liang Ansheng's shoulder, and said in a deep voice:

"You have worked hard these years, and your efforts will surely bring us great rewards."

He reached across Liang Ansheng's completely stiff armpit, and took out a red capsule pill from the medicine box in front of Liang Ansheng's hand.

"Kansheng, go and rest."

As soon as the words fell, Liang An's heavily corroded body began to disintegrate inch by inch, and in an instant it turned into countless bubble-like data floating points, disappearing into the air.

What kind of means did he use?
Miao Shuisheng doesn't care about this issue, because he knows that cocklebur's logic is different from that of normal people, and his understanding of the world is also different from normal people. Miao Shuisheng has never understood his methods.

Without Liang Ansheng, there is no barrier between Miao Shuisheng and Xanthium.

"You have not been tired these days."

Xanth stared at Miao Shuisheng, the warmth in his eyes was undisguised.

Miao Shuisheng tensed up all over, and the trembling in the depths of his soul made him completely disappear even the resistance hidden in his subconscious:

"There is not a day that I do not remember my father's teachings."

He didn't even dare to think "how could this old immortal monster be here".

Xanth said again:
"Why did you come here."

Miao Shuisheng was embarrassed and overwhelmed like a child whose secret was discovered, and he replied in a babbling voice:

"Yes...it's a request from one of my partners..."

He didn't dare to hide anything, and told the whole story about the cooperation between himself and the final sacrificial priest.

After hearing this, Xanthium frowned.

This frown made Miao Shuisheng's heart fluctuate violently.

That is the wave called "fear".

After frowning once, Miao Shuisheng's inner fluctuation disappeared as Xanthium's brows relaxed, and his mood stabilized.

"Although there are only thirteen final sacrifices, it doesn't mean that each of them has the [authority] you imagined."

Cocklebur obviously knew something.

"That was the only one who came back from the [wilderness] pilgrimage back then, and it was only because of great luck that he was able to bring back some valuable things from the [wilderness]."

Miao Shuisheng leaned over and listened, with a pious posture.

In fact, the knowledge mastered by Xanthium can indeed give Miao Shuisheng a lot of inspiration. In addition, his logical basis is completely derived from Xanthium, so it is easier and faster to obtain knowledge from Xanthium. knowledge, understand that knowledge, and integrate that knowledge into one's own worldview.

Xanthium came to a hospital bed and looked at the patients on the bed with a deep expression:
"Besides, those of us who come later are always standing on the shoulders of the predecessors to observe the world, understand the world, and create logical tools to understand the world."

"When the holy monk went on a pilgrimage to the [wilderness], the technology was not yet developed, and the schools of supernatural beings did not have a deep understanding of the deeper level, and human beings did not have today's logical tools, so the pilgrimage was extremely difficult and dangerous, and the saint went through disasters. .”

"Today, when technology is highly developed, all kinds of logical tools for opening up the world have been manufactured. Even people like you and me who have not walked very deep on the extraordinary road can use tools to reach such a deep world."

"Is such a deep world already close to the origin of the world?"

Miao Shuisheng had a submissive look, even if he didn't understand, he didn't ask, his posture was low and abnormal.

"aquatic."

Xanthium glanced at him, that gaze seemed to have weight, pressing on Miao Shuisheng's body, bending his waist even more.

"I said earlier that you don't have to be like this...that's all, let you go."

Xanth turned his head and looked at the patient on the hospital bed.

Unlike everyone before, the patient raised his head and looked at him only under the condition of "watching" instead of "touching".

When Xanthium asked, it turned out to be a strange question that sounded completely incompatible with the surroundings:
"Do you like playing online games?"

Miao Shuisheng noticed the particularity of the incident of "playing online games" - the online game industry in the empire is not well developed. In a sense, compared with other civilian computer technology industries, the online game industry in the empire is inferior is very backward.

Against such a background, the group of "playing online games" is even more minority.

Why choose such an unpopular question?
Why use such an unpopular question to ask a disabled person who was tortured to amputation due to omnicosis experiments?
What Miao Shuisheng didn't expect was that the patient actually answered.

"Play... play! Fun! Games! Fun!"

The man swayed on the bed as if in a state of madness, one eye popped above the eye socket, the other eye fell below the eye socket, his tongue hung out from his mouth, white foam flowed from the corner of his mouth, and he said inarticulately:

"What are you playing?"

Cocklebur asked back:

"what are you playing?"

A perverted and deformed expression appeared on the man's face:

"I... I play with wood! Big trees! Big castles! Big dragons! Big preserved eggs!"

The time the man had just uttered a few words, his skin had already turned red, his body was emitting steam visible to the naked eye, his blood vessels became hideous due to congestion, like long worms running under the skin.

Xanthium had a serious expression, and put his hand on the man's shoulder, so the red skin of the man faded to a certain extent, and the steam emitted from his body also weakened a lot.

"He doesn't have much time." Xanthium whispered: "Shui Sheng, listen carefully, write down every word he says, and then, pay attention to his eyes."

Miao Shuisheng didn't dare to be careless, so he concentrated and looked into the patient's eyes while listening.

The next moment, Miao Shuisheng opened his eyes wide in vain.

The patient's eyeballs... what was reflected in the patient's eyes was not him and cocklebur, nor the pale ward, but rows of computer screens!

What did he see? !

Where did he see it? !

Xanthium continued to ask:
"How much does the game cost?"

A frustrated expression immediately appeared on the patient's face:

"It takes... a lot of computing power... a lot of computing power, and the computing power earned by running in the running room is not enough... I want to sell myself, sell it to the corner alley, sell it to the red light street, sell it to In the window building... I want to earn computing power! I want to be with preserved eggs!" [Note 1]

Miao Shuisheng couldn't digest such endless information.

The same is true for cocklebur.

But Xanthium did not stop asking:

"Do you like rainy days?"

This problem is even more weird. Byron Weiss Group's empire headquarters is in Yanan City, and its laboratory is also most likely established in Yanan City. Even if it is not in Yanan City, it is mostly located in Yanan City. A deeper world of anchors.

The summer in Yanan City, which is located in the extreme north of the empire, is extremely short. Even though the smog is severe due to the advent of the steam era, the air humidity is high, there are not many rainy days, and the air is more humid. The north is still very dry on the whole. .

So...why ask?Why don't you ask "Do you like snowy days?" There is still a lot of snow in Yanan City, and it snows for almost half of the six-month winter.

The patient replied in a "really bad" tone:
"I don't like it! I really don't like it! It rains every day in this place! It rains all day and night! I've had enough!"

He then changed his "happy" tone and continued:
“But it doesn’t rain in the game! There are four seasons in the game! You can even change the weather with props—whatever weather I want!”

"The key is that the game is cheap! 1 point of computing power can buy 30 years of game time! I am so happy!"

Um? 30 years of game time?
Cocklebur, who had the same doubts as Miao Shuisheng, immediately asked:
"How many years are 30 years in the game in reality?"

The patient screamed almost excitedly:

"The 30 years in the game are as long as the 30 years in reality! But 30 years have passed in the game, and only one hour has passed in reality! I earned my blood! Haha!"

Cocklebur and Miao Shuisheng were silent at the same time.

"It's hard for me to imagine such a world." Xanthium said.

"Yes." Miao Shuisheng responded from the side. He looked at the defenseless back of Xanthium annua, and he didn't have the slightest thought of taking advantage of this opportunity to attack.

"It sounds like some kind of brain-computer technology... or, in other words, some kind of brainwave technology that can deceive people's concept of time, or accelerate people's neural activities, so as to achieve subjective consciousness. results over a longer period of time.”

Xanthium made a guess, but did not think that such a guess had a high accuracy rate.

Xanthium continued to inquire, and every time he asked, the veins on the patient's body swelled a little. He had to put his hands on the patient's shoulders frequently to calm the patient's spirit, so that the patient's body did not collapse soon.

"Does it rain a lot?"

"Yes! There are many, many rainy days! It rains almost every day! Acid rain! Acid rain everywhere! Acid rain... there are monsters in acid rain?"

"monster?"

"Yes! It was originally a monster that transformed people! Those guys were born by [Mom], but because [Mom] took too long to run, sometimes the program would run wrong, so those monsters were born..."

"Are they dangerous?"

"Yes! They will be hidden in the bathrooms of abandoned buildings, they will be hidden in sewers that seem to be intact but are actually broken, and they will be hidden under the manhole covers in the back streets outside Internet cafes! As long as you go a little inside, you will They will be caught in the sewer!"

"What do you usually do to earn computing power?"

"I mainly step on the treadmill in the running room, and then sell myself in the corner alley. I have been doing it for a long time, and I have some regular customers..."

"What do your regular customers do?"

"There are some white-collar workers from the upper echelons of the city, some workers in factories, some garbage guys who pick up trash in the lower echelons of the city, some wandering monks outside the city, there are drivers of private shuttles, and there are channel administrators of private channels, There are digital ghosts for hire...more gangster businessmen...these are hard-working people."

Xanthium didn't ask questions immediately.

Miao Shuisheng stood bent over behind him, with a respectful posture, quietly, without saying a word.

After a while, Xanthium said:
"It seems that there is no difference between that world and the world we are in."

Miao Shuisheng asked with a compliment that was just right and undetectable:
"That world?"

Xanthium did not answer his question, but seemed to talk about a completely unrelated topic:

"Shuisheng, do you know what cancer is?"

Xanthium has talked about cancer-related issues with Miao Shuisheng more than once. When Miao Shuisheng was ignorant of Xanthium, he also made a detailed investigation of cancer and analysis experiments on different cancer cells.

So Miao Shuisheng knew that what cocklebur asked was not the definition of cancer, but the logical nature of cancer.

This is a test.

All the cells of Miao Shuisheng's body in this world tense up.

He had to answer correctly the logical nature of cancer.

"Cancer is a natural attempt by cells to find a way out of life."

Miao Shuisheng's knowledge was condensed to its peak at this moment.

"Cancerization is essentially the reproduction of cells. The infinite proliferation of cancer cells is like the reproduction of human beings, and it is more like human exploration of the world-humans will always explore the unknown and move forward in a further direction. Humans will always Won't stop, humans will reach an unknown place, settle in that place, and start multiplying - the same is true for cancer cells, they spread farther, reach an organ, then infect those organs, on this organ reproduce.

Modern medicine believes that cancer is a malignant mutation of the gene, and the organ collapses and deteriorates because it cannot bear the cancer cells.

In my opinion, this is not the fault of cancer cells, but simply because human organs are too fragile - the speed of organ evolution cannot keep up with the speed of cell evolution, and cancer appears.

Cells are looking for their own way out. Cells want to achieve [reproduction], the most essential pursuit of any life, so cells begin to increase in value-I don't think there is anything wrong with this process.

The fault lies in the fragility of the rest of the human being.

In my opinion, cancer is a dangerous exploration of the [evolution] path by human beings as life itself. "

[Note 1]: The setting of "selling your own use rights to make money" first appeared in the science fiction writer William Gibson's "Neuromancer", which was completed in 1984. I recommend everyone to watch it.

(End of this chapter)