Star Ocean: Starting from the Abandoned Mining Space Station.

Chapter 352 Cities
Chen Ming opened his eyes.

For some reason, he suddenly found himself in a bustling city, standing on top of a tall building in the center of the city.

Looking outside, in the sky there are shuttles flying along the controlled waterways within the city, and on the ground there are busy cars and people hurrying by.

Where was he taken by his boss?
"here……"

"In my head."

The boss's voice suddenly came from behind Chen Ming.

He looked back and saw his boss standing next to the elevator going down from the roof of the building. There seemed to be some indescribable meaning in the look he gave Chen Ming.

He didn't say anything directly, but waved to Chen Ming, motioning Chen Ming to come over.

The boss’s consciousness space turned out to be a city where people lived.

Chen Ming never expected that such a situation would occur.

But no one can say for sure about psychic powers.

Chen Ming accepted this special situation and followed his boss.

The boss took Chen Ming into the elevator, turned to look at him and said, "Now is a good time for us to talk."

"I remember you were always curious about why I was willing to help you and guide you in the beginning, but you stopped asking later."

Chen Ming replied: "Because it is no longer necessary."

Whatever the reason is, it affects everything your boss does, so there's no need to take it too seriously.

"But I can tell you now."

The boss didn't say it directly, but continued to take Chen Ming to the shuttle boat landing pad outside the building.

He boarded a shuttle with Chen Ming and rose into the sky, allowing Chen Ming to see the entire city.

Seeing all the details in the city, seeing different people doing different things, even chatting with each other, everyone seems real, as if this is really a real city.

Of course, Chen Ming also saw those places that became increasingly blurred in his vision as he got closer to the edge of the city.

Let Chen Ming know that this is still in the consciousness space.

The boss suddenly asked again: "Did you see it? This city and the people in it."

"Ah."

“This city is a replica of the city where I was born, and the people living in it are all projections of the people I have heard and known.”

"Projection? Why does the consciousness space become like this?"

"This...consciousness space can symbolize the power of a psychic, and can also become the power of a psychic."

"It is actually the foundation of a psychic's spiritual power, the spiritual basis. Of course, it is also possible to call it the consciousness space."

"Everyone's consciousness space is different. I choose to make consciousness space my strength."

“So I created a city like this.”

The boss suddenly opened his arms, as if he wanted to embrace the whole city.

“By listening to other people’s life experiences, I create projections that exist in the city, and each projection provides me with strength.”

"What's the principle behind this?" Chen Ming asked with some confusion.

“Human existence itself has power. The extent of that power is determined by one’s experiences, and each person’s experiences determine each person’s mind.”

"Most people who don't have natural abilities awaken after experiencing some major and special events that affect their lives. You should know that, right?"

"So that's where the power comes from when I replicate those projections."

Chen Ming thought of Lu Bai, who had awakened his psychic power after he had taken great risks to break into Yu Hui's giant shipyard and cooperated with Chen Ming to complete an unprecedented feat.

His other familiar Thousand Faces is the psychic power he awakened after experiencing years of domestic violence and killing his father on the day he came of age.

It is true that they all awakened after experiencing major events.

Chen Ming asked again: "If we reproduce the projection by understanding people's experiences, what if what other people say is false?"

"False experiences have no power. They cannot correspond to or resonate with people's hearts, and they cannot be replicated. Real experiences, even if they are simply told, can make my heart surge."

"If you look closely at the projections, some are completely solid, while others look a little 'vague'. Some are strong, some are weak, and that's the difference."

"People who have experienced a lot and have a strong mind will eventually create a stronger projection and provide more power."

"I went to the Pirate Space Station specifically to meet all kinds of people."

Chen Ming said at this time: "It shouldn't be just like this, right?"

The people you can contact in the prosperous star field are definitely more than those in the pirate space station in the marginal star field.

The boss, a level 6 psychic, obviously has other reasons for hiding here.

“I like people with a lot of experience.”

"Although the prosperous star field is prosperous, the truly valuable things you can experience are not more than those in the marginal star field."

"People living in a stable star field definitely don't have as much experience as pirates struggling on the line between life and death."

"There are indeed other reasons, which involve many things. We will talk about them later."

“I like people with rich experiences, and I also like to train people who may have rich experiences.”

"You had a lot of stories when you first started, so I thought you had a lot of potential, and that's why I approached you in a friendly way and tried to train you."

Chen Ming also understood what his boss meant.

Obviously, the boss's work results did not disappoint expectations.

His experience can be said to be quite rich, and because of the boss's sincere treatment, he was not reluctant to tell his boss most of his experiences in full.

Chen Ming also gradually understood his boss's abilities.

The boss is also a psychic.

But he was completely different from the psychic from Zuo Jing whom Chen Ming had killed before.

The boss's psychic power is about the power of the human mind, while the psychic power of the psychic lies in the power of the mind itself.

The boss needs to rely on the existence of "people" to improve himself, no wonder he hates the Scarlet Dimension so much.

After all, this kind of thing that affects people's consciousness will have an extremely terrifying impact on the boss's city in the consciousness space.

"What are you thinking about?"

Just when Chen Ming's thoughts were wandering, the boss asked this question.

Chen Ming explained his thoughts.

"wrong."

The boss corrected him: "It's just because the source of power in my consciousness space is the human mind, so the power I show is spiritual."

"There is a reason why I deliberately guided this. You know I used to study psychology, so I let my spiritual power change in this direction."

Chen Ming nodded, not worrying about the specific way to realize spiritual power. It was useless to worry about it.

He asked curiously, "Is my projection here too?"

"Here I am."

The boss said, and suddenly changed the subject: "Actually, I have to thank you."

"Thank me?"

"Look at this city, what do you feel?"

Chen Ming looked outside through the porthole of the shuttle that was flying to the outskirts of the city and said, "It's very lively and very much like reality, but it seems to be missing something."

"Yes, all the inhuman beings are missing."

The boss didn't keep the audience in suspense and directly said the key question: "I have always regarded people as the key, so there were no creatures other than humans in my city before."

"I don't have much chance to come into contact with those creatures. The only chance I have to come into contact with animals and plants on the space station is at the dining table."

"It was not until you mentioned that you wanted to rely on my psychic power to communicate with the phase beasts that I realized that not only humans, but any living creature and even any thing can be recorded in my consciousness space."

"Everything is animistic."

"The power of the mind is not limited to humans. I can continue to grow, so I have you to thank for that."

Chen Ming said that when he mentioned this matter to his boss two days ago, his boss suddenly agreed decisively and then remained silent for a long time.

I believe that the city in this consciousness space is now gradually becoming more vibrant.

The boss's abilities should also be enhanced after a period of time.

"What about the Phase Beast?"

"It's already in the city. We'll go meet it later."

"But before that, there is something I need to tell you. You need to take a look at yourself."

The boss waved his hand, and a light curtain projected a picture of a place over.

Chen Ming looked over and found that it was the picture of his projection in the boss's consciousness space working.

His projection held an important position in the city's government building, on the top floor of which he had just stood.

All the other people working around are extremely solid projections, with a very obvious difference in strength from ordinary people outside.

Chen Ming took a few glances, but couldn't see anything wrong, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

The boss waved his hand again, and the light curtain disappeared.

"Your physical body is still intact, and you even have multiple physical bodies as backup, but your consciousness has begun to have problems."

As he spoke, he took out a small mirror from his pocket and handed it to Chen Ming.

Chen Ming took the mirror and looked at it.

His eyes widened subconsciously.

Because the person in the mirror does not look like a normal human being.

His body in the mirror had two heads that were almost completely overlapped.

It has a mechanized body, but the mechanical structure does not completely protect the body.

Through the gaps in the machine, one could see the translucent gray-green internal organs, as if some thick liquid was flowing inside, and his right arm had become the shape of a tentacle.

Although the left arm still barely maintains a human appearance, if you look closely, you will find that there are blood-colored threads running through the pores of this arm.

His legs felt like nothing, but he was still able to stand.

Apart from maintaining his overall human shape, there is no sign that he is a person.

"..."

Chen Ming could probably understand why his consciousness looked like this.

The two overlapping heads are the basis of his abilities, which are the result of the fusion of consciousness between the time traveler Chen Ming and the repairman Chen Ming.

The mechanized body corresponds to his most basic ability, controlling spacecraft and machinery.

The Zerg's organs and tentacles correspond to his connection with the Queen.

The bloodshot on his arm represents the power he seized from the Scarlet Dimension.

As for the empty legs, it might be caused by the phase force, or it might be because part of his consciousness was somewhere else, so part of his consciousness was missing.

Chen Ming felt that the latter was more likely.

Of course, this does not mean that the other prostheses controlled by Chen Ming are all controlled by the legs. The absence of consciousness should be more symbolic.

Just like now, when Chen Ming looked at the body of his consciousness with his own eyes, everything was normal.

His perception of himself is that of a normal human being.

But Chen Ming was not sure whether the boss had made a mistake.

So he immediately used part of his consciousness that was outside to contact the Queen of Insects, and asked her to describe the appearance of his conscious body.

The Queen Zerg's consciousness space is linked to his, which is the giant Zerg battleship next to Chen Ming's steel jungle island.

So the Queen of Insects must have seen what his consciousness looked like.

The Queen of Insects understood Chen Ming's meaning and directly created two prostheses, or rather, two monsters.

People were the first time the Queen Insects saw the appearance of Chen Ming’s consciousness when she faced Zuo Jing’s recipient after her spiritual connection with Chen Ming.

It was extremely similar to the boss's consciousness space at the moment, except that there were no bloodshot veins on the left arm, and the legs were those of a normal human being.

The other one is the current one, which is exactly the same as the one in the boss’s consciousness space, but the legs are just as intact. It can be confirmed that the consciousness body is incomplete because part of it is separated outside.

His consciousness is indeed in its current monster-like appearance.

Wait a moment.

So he just kept chatting with the boss like this for a long time?
No wonder the boss looked at him with something strange in his eyes at first.

Then why didn't the Recipient and Thousand Faces have any problem with his appearance before?

The recipient can be said to have gone mad.

But Qianmian was at most brainwashed, not to the point of madness. What's more, Qianmian who communicated with him could be said to be very sober.

It might be because Qianmian used his consciousness space to construct the environment in his memory at that time.

The consciousness space corrected his appearance so that the remnants of the Thousand Faces consciousness did not notice anything wrong.

Of course, it is also possible that Qianmian discovered that Chen Ming was a monster, and let An Wuping, his clone, integrate the source of chaos as his own power.

So it doesn’t matter what Chen Ming looks like.

But to be honest, Chen Ming felt that it was normal for his consciousness to become what it is now, or it should be like this.

He is not an ordinary person.

He is a psychic, he is a time traveler, he is a mind-wandering entity.

However, Chen Ming didn't know what to say, so he finally said ambiguously: "I think everything is normal for me, maybe only other people think I am abnormal."

"That means there is something wrong with your cognition. The state of your consciousness is also not right. I think it is because you have too many psychic abilities."

"Just like the psychotic entity, the superposition of multiple psychotic abilities will cause psychotic behavior. The superposition of multiple psionic effects should also have similar negative effects."

"Although there is no problem yet, I think this problem must be solved."

"You need to sort out your psychic powers."

Chen Ming asked: "How to comb it?"

"It depends on you. I can only speak from my own experience because I have been in similar situations before."

"When I first started projecting images into my city, the projection experience would interfere with my consciousness, causing traces of other people to appear on my consciousness."

"Look, I'm fine now."

"As long as you can clearly identify who you are, the traces of others will naturally disappear."

Chen Ming said: "Find out who you are? I have always known it very well."

"I've already said that this is my experience, and I can't just apply it to you."

"I can only tell you that you are a human being. You can't just see yourself as a human being in your own eyes. That's wrong. You have to let others know that you are a human being."

Chen Ming has always thought that he is a very obvious and standard person.

But the boss's words at this time, and the various mutations that occurred in his consciousness, made him a little less confident.

He focused his consciousness on his conscious body.

In the final analysis, there are only three kinds of power in his consciousness.

A basic psychic power awakened based on the concept of dimensional infection, originally a mechanical power.

A power belonging to the Zerg that is derived from the mental connection between the biological spacecraft and the Queen.

And the power belonging to the Scarlet Dimension that he personally seized after entering the Scarlet Dimension.

Plus the foundation of everything, people.

These three forces and the concept of "human" itself are all part of him, and are important parts of him that he absolutely cannot give up.

Then there is only one way left.

Chen Ming temporarily gathered all his external consciousness into his body, allowing his consciousness to become completely solid.

Then, his body twisted.

Humans, machines, Zerg, Scarlet, everything is twisted and fused together.

There was even a hint of blue-purple light that quietly merged in.

The product of chaotic fusion condensed into a human form under Chen Ming's control, and condensed all the organs and tissues needed for a person to survive.

Finally, based on the human form, a layer of skin appeared that looked exactly like a normal person.

All the products of chaos are contained within the human appearance.

Chen Ming moved around a bit, adjusted some of the chaotic structures inside his consciousness, and said, "I've finished sorting it out."

"I feel...good."

Chen Ming's consciousness clenched his fists.

After following his boss's teachings and choosing to completely integrate the power into his being as a human being, his level of control over all power was improved again.

He felt that he was becoming more and more like a typical psychopathic entity.

He Gu once said that the psychic energy possessed by the initial psychokinetic entity was still very scattered and relatively clear, and different psychic energy fluctuations controlled different psychic powers.

In the middle stage, the psychotic entity only needs to call upon one kind of psychic energy fluctuation to control all psychic energies.

He is at this stage now.

I don’t know what will happen if I continue.

Chen Ming thought it wouldn't be a bad thing.

If he were an ordinary person, an ordinary psyker, then becoming a psychopathic entity would indeed be the worst thing that could happen to him.

But if it is a travel from another dimension, it is no different from a dimensional infection, and it is also a mentally deranged entity.

Then there is no problem in becoming a late-stage psychic entity.

The boss standing by fell silent as he watched Chen Ming crush his own consciousness and restore it into a human form again.

But at least the result looks good, so it should be alright...

"I remember before, a long time ago, when you were still on the pirate station."

"You came to me one night. You were a person who didn't drink at all, but you drank a lot that day."

"Although you smell of alcohol, your consciousness is not disturbed at all."

"I actually thought it was strange at that time, but I didn't say anything until later on, when it was officially confirmed that you had the ability to create clones."

"Later, I learned that An Wuping was also your clone. The power of the Zerg almost made me think that you were possessed by something."

"But you gave me a complete surprise, astonishment, delight and shock in the end."

"And your clones are getting weirder and weirder."

"I can no longer tell what your consciousness is like."

"From today on, I may really have nothing to teach you."

"I think there is more." Chen Ming said: "And I am still me, I am Chen Ming."

"Well, come to think of it, you don't need your own body anymore, right?"

"Correct."

For Chen Ming now, the conscious body is his essence.

No matter whether it is the original body, the prosthesis, a robot made up at random, or even any Zerg, as long as Chen Ming's consciousness passes through it, it is him.

Of course, Chen Ming is still a human being at heart, and he is also a nostalgic person. He is willing to continue to control his own essence.

Even if it gets damaged one day, he will find a way to make a new one that is exactly the same.

Of course some minor changes may be made.

For example, implanting some Zerg organs, modifying some mechanical structures, and adjusting the original genes to achieve the most perfect level in this concept of human beings.

That's what his psychic powers are for.

After hearing Chen Ming's answer, the boss said, "I've heard before that when a psychic's ability reaches a certain level, the spiritual nerve awakening is just a sign."

"I previously thought that one had to reach the legendary level 7 psychic to be able to do this, but it seems that the conditions are not what I imagined."

The boss was a little emotional.

"But why do I feel that the intensity of your psychic energy fluctuations has not changed for a long time?"

"Is there some problem with his psychic power? Or has he finally reached his limit?"

“It’s not a limit, it’s a bottleneck.”

Chen Ming explained: "The amount of my mental power has long exceeded the normal level. It is enough to cover a galaxy of average size when released, but I just can't break through this bottleneck."

"I can feel it's there, but I can't find a way to contact it. Even if I gain a lot of power from the Crimson Dimension, the Zerg, and the Mechanoids, I can't break through it."

"I feel like I still need an opportunity, so for now I can only develop horizontally and see if I can take advantage of this period of time when I'm stuck at a bottleneck to study more about the uses of psychic energy in other areas."

The boss thought about it for a while and said, "Let's do it this way for now. We can talk about consciousness and psychic power later."

"Now you should talk to your older friend first."

He snapped his fingers.

The shuttle that had already flown to the outskirts of the city entered the phase space.

The phase space of this city belongs to the boss's consciousness space.

There should have been no phase space before.

This phase space did not come into being until the arrival of the phase behemoth.

The consciousness of the phase beast was now wandering over the suburbs of the city in the boss's consciousness space.

(End of this chapter)