A program monitoring the virtual world—this was Nolan’s true identity.
Hao Ren found tons of information about the construction of the virtual world in the equipment in the cave, which contained information about Nolan. A flash of thought brought Hao Ren to do a background check on Nolan and revealed her identity.
The people of Zorm and the First Born had collaborated to build a huge virtual system that almost 100% mimicked the real world. The system consisted of two parts: the biological consciousness of the First Born and the AI of the machine. The biological consciousness of the First Born was the main body of the virtual world. The whole system was actually built in the dream of the ancient creature; the enormous mind power of the First Born could accommodate more than one billion human beings in the same dream. The machine’s AI was like an auxiliary component to maintaining the system, living in the machines that connected to the First Born, including the alloy cylinders and the array of servers deep in the refuge. These machines constantly monitoring the virtual world were the sentinels and nannies of the people of Zorm in the real world.
And, Nolan was one of the interfaces of the monitoring programme.
But, she did not aware about her identity because the earliest settings had changed her cognition. She was only living in this virtual world, experiencing everything in the virtual world the human way. Her perception was converted into a human perspective by the simulation. It was how the monitoring system determined whether the virtual world was still suitable for human, and Nolan’s mission was to be the ‘test probe’ in the virtual life.
Hao Ren did not know what the final task of Nolan was in the original plan because system error had corrupted this part of the information. Since the ‘return to reality plan’ of the people of Zorm had blown up in the face, studying the original trajectory of the virtual world was no longer meaningful. And, to be honest, this was not the time for this.
Under the guidance of the MDT, Hao Ren ordered the autonomous robots to plant more test probes on the ganglion of the First Born. This was supposed to strengthen the physical connection that allowed him to walk into the dream of the First Born without using the hibernation pod. He leaned on a tentacle, as close as possible to its nervous system. Then he told Lily and Vivian, “I’m going to talk face-to-face with it. You two keep an eye on things here.”
Lily asked in a loud voice, “Mr. Landlord, what if the cave collapses?”
Hao Ren shrugged. “Then we should run.”
“I thought you would rather die than run?” Vivian smiled, leaned down and patted Hao Ren’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Unless the cave collapses, I will never let anything disturb you.”
Hao Ren made a V-gesture with his finger. He then leaned his head on the tentacle behind him, and muttered in his mind. “Activate the link.”
The quake and strange noises in the cavern receded as darkness closed in from all directions. Then, a strange burning and dull sensation surged toward him as if they were going to bury him. Hao Ren opened his eyes and found himself standing in a world of darkness.
It was a weird and bleak world, with black, white and grey forming everything in it. There were city ruins in the vast wilderness, naked skeleton and cement waste of buildings were what remained in the ruins. Like 3D models, everything lacked details and rendering. The structure was simple, the surface rough, and the randomness of these structures reflected a dreamlike grotesque feeling. There were no sun, moon and stars in the sky, and there was no light, only grey-white fog floating at high altitude covered the earth.
There was only one thing left in the faceless world; that was humans.
Humans were everywhere but lying on the desolate land. Their clothes had turned silky smooth, almost rubbery like inferior three-dimensional models. Their fresh was the only thing that still retained the intricate details, which suggested that the data of their souls had not dissipated. Hao Ren took a casual glance; the bodies seemed to be asleep and in a dream, their expressions calm with a weird smile on their faces, as if they had attained an eternal peace in their dream.
This was the euthanasia of worldwide scale; it was weird and certainly very creepy.
Hao Ren looked up and around for Nolan. He used Nolan as a springboard to enter this world; naturally, she should be nearby, and sure enough, he heard Nolan’s voice. “The sky has disappeared, the plants have disappeared, the colours have disappeared… The whole world has become lifeless…”
Hao Ren turned his head around at the sound, Nolan was sitting on a grey cube that could be a part of a building, but had now turned into an unpainted block. She raised her head slowly and looked at Hao Ren, her voice sounded as if she was sleep talking. “Why didn’t I sleep like them? Do you know what happened to this world?”
“The darkness before the dawn,” Hao Ren stepped forward and held Nolan’s hand, which seemed to cheer her up a little. “Do you trust me?” Hao Ren asked.
“What else can I do?” Nolan asked back.
“Open your heart,” Hao Ren looked into Nolan’s eyes. “I need you to be my springboard so that I can talk to the controlling consciousness behind this world. By doing so, you will feel that all your body and mind are as if being searched, but I assure you that I will not do anything to your mind, I just need you to be a bridge. It is difficult to explain, and I can’t explain it. Are you… willing?”
Nolan slowly blinked. As the machine in the real world was gradually collapsing and had affected her thinking. But she understood what Hao Ren said. She nodded slowly. “I don’t know what to do; it’s all your call.”
Hao Ren nodded quietly and commanded the MDT, “Open the login interface of Nolan, and switch on the translation mode.”
As the connection established, Nolan’s body shook a little, her eyes widened as if her soul had left her body. At the same time, Hao Ren felt that his spirit was suddenly brought to another massive, indescribable, almost invisible body of consciousness incomprehensible to human.
For the first time in history, a human had connected his mind with a First Born.
It was an unprecedented adventure and feat, because no one could stand before the mind power of the Guardian, let alone a direct connection. Even the spiritually strong monks in Holletta had gone mad by just hearing the faint voices of the First Born and the guardian giants; making direct mental connection with them was simply dicing with death.
But, there was sign that he was going mad. Despite he realised that he was connected to a complex consciousness no humans could not understand, this complex consciousness was not hostile.
The First Born was only observing this ‘little creature’ curiously, wondering why he had come suddenly. But, the First Born had sensed something familiar. One of them was the divinity of the goddess, Raven 12345’s reflection, while the other familiarity included the lifeblood, the Goddess Creation, and some other things that it could not comprehend.
Hao Ren seemed to have seen an endless light in an illusion, a cloud of shadows of indefinite shape, untold colours and sizes. He thought it was the First Born; in a form that his human mind could comprehend. He tried to talk to the shadow. “Can you hear me?”
A deafening silence ensued, as if it had lasted for a century before he finally heard a voice in the illusive space. “Pain.”
“Pain?”
“It hurts, it’s hot…” the voice seemed to be omnipresent. “I’m scared…”
Hao Ren froze, he knew this voice must be the thought of the First Born, but he had not expected it was so forthright, like a child.
“You are the guardian of this planet, aren’t you?” Hao Ren asked. He had quickly came out from the brief shock, but his voice sounded anxious. “I know you are very painful now, but please hang on a little longer. We’re looking for ways to take you—”
He was interrupted; the First Born seemed to have sunken into a state of chaos. The voice of its chaotic mind suddenly came down on him.
“Mother asked me to protect my brothers and sisters here, but since then Mother had never spoken to me…”
“Mother said that my brothers have gone mad. She asked me to hide the entire ecosystem…”
“I could only get everything back to the lifeblood, but why didn’t Mother tell me what to do next…”
“Outside is hot, very hot…”
“I didn’t hurt anyone. I’m just helping my Mother look after the garden…”
“Why didn’t Mother talk? Mother hasn’t talked to me for a long time…”
“I miss Mother; I really miss my Mother…”
The voice of the First Born was like a myriad of thoughts mixed together; it was noisy. The massive amount of thoughts almost ripped Hao Ren’s head apart, but just when he was about to be overwhelmed, the divine blessing of Raven 12345 suddenly woke him. Grasping this moment of sobriety, Hao Ren shouted probably the most powerful word under this circumstances. “I will take you to your mother!”
A group of voices spoke at the same time, “Mother?”
“Yep. We are also looking for the Goddess of Creation—your Mother,” Hao Ren said, shaking his head. “Something happened to her, she is currently sleeping deep in the universe. If you can hold on a little longer, I will take you to your Mother.”
“Who are you?” the First Born asked, finally awakening to the question.
“Who we are is not important. The most important thing is that we are helping you,” Hao Ren said. “This planet is falling towards the sun. But I have a spacecraft that can transfer your brain out. You save all the consciousness and soul of the people of Zorm in the brain… You do know about the brain, don’t you? It is the core of your mind, where all the memory is stored. I will take it to a safe place, so the problem will be solved. You will not die burning in the sun, you must trust me!”
The eldest son was silent for a moment. When it spoke again, there was a sense of regret in its voices. “No, it won’t work.”
“Why?”
“There is no brain…”
“What?”