After a while, Bai Lixin felt the aircraft slow down and finally come to a stop.
The sealed door made a hissing sound before slowly opening.
Light streamed in, and Bai Lixin squinted to look outside.
“This is a small base of the rebels, located within the Fairness District,” Zhou Guang explained. “There’s an NPC named Dr. Serkhi here. His research inventions have greatly advanced the field of artificial intelligence. Many people support his technology, but there are also some who oppose his inventions. These opponents are the current Rebel Alliance, they believe that excessive artificial intelligence will lead to the replacement of humans by AI, and ultimately lead to the extinction of humanity.”
Bai Lixin: “Do the rebels and the Order Legion often have conflicts?”
“Yes,” Xia Chi chimed in, “anyway, it’s quite chaotic out there now. Some players are part of the Rebel Alliance, and some are from the Order Legion in the Three Major Districts. Anyway , there are several factions. Compared to other factions, our identity as rebels is quite convenient. Task Two is for us to find the ‘Mysterious Object’ in the hands of the rebel leader. It’s easier for us to approach the rebel leader in the guise of rebels.”
Bai Lixin: “So have you found the rebel leader?”
Xia Chi scratched his head in embarrassment, “Not yet. This rebel leader is really elusive. We’ve been in the rebel camp for so long, and we haven’t even caught a shadow of the leader.”
Bai Lixin said “oh,” , then followed the others off the aircraft.
It was an underground base where the sky couldn’t be seen, and was illuminated only by lights.
Bai Lixin followed the others along the corridor, and from time to time he would see passers-by walking in pairs.
Everyone was dressed similarly, which seemed to be the uniform of the rebels.
Zhou Guang and the others led Bai Lixin to a room similar to a conference room before stopping. After making sure there was no one inside or outside the room, they closed the door to have a private discussion.
Bai Lixin: “Are those outside all players, or are there NPCs too?”
Zhou Guang pulled out a seat and indicated for Bai Lixin to sit down. “Some are players, some are NPCs. The people we just passed by were NPCs.”
Bai Lixin found a seat and sat down. “They don’t seem curious about my appearance. Is it because rebels often bring back newly awakened people?”
Others took their seats one after another. Zhou Guang nodded, “Yes, since Serkhi’s technology became popular, the living environment of the rebels has gradually been squeezed. The rebels need to replenish their forces, and these people who were asleep are the easiest to persuade.”
“After the Dark Steel City became a neutral planet without the threat of war, the population began to grow rapidly. But with the increase in population, there was an energy shortage on the Dark Steel City, and people’s living pressure and dissatisfaction increased day by day. To alleviate the pressure on the planet, the Order Legion began to promote the virtual world through the media, encouraging people to enter the virtual world to survive.”
Bai Lixin: “How do people enter the virtual world?”
Zhou Guang: “People who want to enter the virtual world can sign up at the local official department. After signing up, they will be sent to the virtual base. There, they only need a certain amount of nutrient solution to enter a virtual world without any pain or pressure.”
“At first, everyone was skeptical about this activity, and only a few people chose to try the virtual world.”
“As the media continues to project the beautiful life in the virtual world in reality, more and more people are starting to try it.”
“People can have a one-month trial period, during which they can wake up from the virtual world at any time. After the one-month trial period, they can choose to live in the virtual world permanently or never enter the virtual world again.”
“Many people are homeless and starving in reality, but in the virtual world, they become influential figures. Some people face tremendous pressure in real life but find freedom and happiness in the virtual world. Some people after suffering from emotional pain in real life find true love in the virtual world. In short, after tasting the sweetness, many people are unwilling to give up that happiness, so more and more people are choosing to live in the virtual world.”
“The authorities promise to provide them with nutrient solutions for free until the end of their lives. After all, it’s a lifetime, whether it’s in real life or in the virtual world. Many people are willing to choose a happier life in the virtual world.” Li Cancan continued, “The Order Legion has established many hive points on the planet, and nearly half of the people have chosen the virtual world.”
“We also noticed that the virtual world is not just one world. People from the same base are generally in the same virtual world background.”
Bai Lixin: “Does ‘living a lifetime in the virtual world’ mean dying in the virtual world? Whether it’s accidental or not, as long as you die, you have completed your life?”
“Yes!” Xia Chi said, “How did you know, brother?”
Bai Lixin: “I saw it through the firewall.”
He rolled up his sleeves and showed the little mosaic snake biting its tail, then told everyone about the firewall, Pris Xingchen’s Sky Trilogy, and the Trojan virus to everyone.
After listening, everyone fell into contemplation.
Li Can: “Is it possible that this Pris Xingchen is the rebel leader we’re looking for?”
All eyes turned to Li Cancan’s face.
Li Cancan explained, “Look, Pris Xingchen has a significant role. He seems to know a lot, and he doesn’t have any malice towards us. Just now, God Xin recited the lyrics of his songs. If you understand them as calling for everyone to wake up, see the world they’re in as virtual, and encourage everyone to return to the real world, it makes sense.”
Suddenly, she thought of something, “God Xin, didn’t you draw a portrait of Pris Xingchen? Let’s take it and ask the core members of the Rebel Alliance. Maybe we can get some clues.”
“But if the rebel leader doesn’t want to show up, even if we show the portrait to the core members, they won’t reveal any information to us. On the contrary, it may arouse the suspicion of the core members.” Zhou Guang negated.
Li Cancan: “Of course it’s not appropriate for us to ask, but there is one person who is very suitable.”
After she said this, everyone looked at each other, and all eyes turned to Bai Lixin, who was still wearing a white robe.
Bai Lixin: “…”
—————————–
Half an hour later, Zhou Guang, Song Yuantian and Bai Lixin knocked on the door of the small leader of this rebel organization.
According to Zhou Guang, the small leader of this base was named Capra Blair, one of the trusted aides of the rebel leader, and he was in charge of this small base.
Blair was working in his office when he saw Zhou Guang and Song Yuantian bringing in a stranger. He put down his pen and paper. “Is this the person you just rescued?”
Zhou Guang: “Yes, boss. His name is Bai Lixin. I brought him here to thank you.”
Blair stood up from behind his desk, slowly walked to Bai Lixin and looked him up and down.
While Blair was sizing up Bai Lixin, Bai Lixin was also sizing up Blair.
Blair was tall, with dark skin and curly black hair, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses. He looked scholarly in his shirt, but the muscles under his shirt were visible.
Blair patted Bai Lixin on the shoulder. “Welcome back to the real world, my friend. How does it feel?”
Bai Lixin smiled. “It feels great, thank you for rescuing me from hell.”
Hearing this, Blair happily patted Bai Lixin’s shoulder again and led them to sit on the sofa.
Blair: “I’m surprised that you described the virtual world as hell.”
Bai Lixin: “Because I saw the destruction of the planet.”
Blair was taken aback. “Destruction of the planet?”
Bai Lixin described what he saw in the second virtual world to Blair. After listening, Blair’s expression turned grim. “I knew the leader was right. Serkhi’s mad research will destroy the world. You must have been terrified.”
Bai Lixin: “I was okay in the second world because I already knew that the world might be a virtual one. But in the first virtual world, I was really scared. Fortunately, there was someone beside me who helped me wake up and realize that it was a virtual world. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have been able to escape the virtual world.”
Blair: “Oh, what kind of person was he?”
Bai Lixin: “His name is Pris Xingchen, and I have his portrait.”
He casually took out a folded paper from his pocket and carefully unfolded it towards Blair.
During the unfolding process, he secretly observed Blair’s face, not missing any changes in expression.
Blair picked up the portrait and examined it seriously. “Pris Xingchen, a friend of our rebel army.”
Zhou Guang asked, “Do you know him, boss?”
Blair shook his head. “No.”
Zhou Guang: “If you don’t know him, why do you say he’s a friend of the rebel army?”
Blair put the portrait back on the table. “Haha, because he helped Bai Lixin, this proves his opposition to the official virtual world. The enemy’s enemy is a friend, so he is naturally a friend of our rebel army.”
Zhou Guang, Song Yuantian and Bai Lixin looked at each other.
Bai Lixin: “Yeah, he helped me, but I don’t know who he is. I really want to find this person in the real world and thank him in person.”
Blair laughed heartily. “There will be a chance, my friend. Tell me how he helped you.”
Bai Lixin briefly recounted his experience in the first virtual world, focusing on the description of Pris Xingchen. He glossed over some things and didn’t mention others.
Blair was very surprised after listening. “There are actually people in the world who can freely enter and leave the virtual world. Why haven’t I encountered such people? Dear Bai Lixin, can you leave this portrait to me? I want to find this person. If such a person joins our rebel army, it will definitely help us defeat Serkhi’s conspiracy.”
The three looked at each other again. Bai Lixin nodded and agreed, leaving Pris Xingchen’s portrait to Blair.
They chatted briefly, then the three left Blair’s office.
After walking a distance from Blair’s office, Zhou Guang said in a low voice. “It seems like he really doesn’t know this Pris Xingchen.”
Song Yuantian: “Could it be an act? Pretending not to know?”
Bai Lixin: “It doesn’t seem like it. His reaction was too natural, without any traces of acting. He really doesn’t know Pris Xingchen.”
Zhou Guang frowned. “In that case, we’re on the wrong track. Pris Xingchen is not the leader of the rebel army. Then who is he? And where is the leader of the rebel army hiding?”
With no useful harvest, the three returned to their meeting room.
As soon as they returned to the room, Hongyue walked over excitedly. “So, is Pris Xingchen the leader of the rebel army?”
After the three gave a negative answer, the light in Hongyue’s eyes dimmed, but soon she became excited again. “But there’s still good news. Bai Lixin, Li Cancan said she found Li Cangshan.”
This might be the best news Bai Lixin heard since returning to the real world.
Ever since he knew that Li Cangshan couldn’t see the taskbar, he had been worried about Li Cangshan’s condition. The game system’s address book couldn’t be used, so he couldn’t know Li Cangshan’s specific situation from there.
Li Cancan was typing on a computer. Bai Lixin walked up to her and asked, “How is Li Cangshan?”
Li Cancan: “Li Cangshan said he’s safe now. He infiltrated the Order Legion and it is actually the team protecting Dr. Serkhi.”
Bai Lixin: “How did you contact him?”
Li Can: “God Xin, don’t forget that I am a coder. People in this world generally have a social account, especially us players, everyone has one. And I found that the naming of social accounts is usually with one’s own name, but I can only find the account after the player wakes up. I’ve tried to find the people I know before, some were found, while others were not. I couldn’t find Li Cangshan’s before.”
“You just said that Li Cangshan should have woken up, so I tried to find him, and I really found him.”
“He contacted me and told me he’s safe now.”
“He also said he’s undercover at Dr. Serkhi’s place for us. If there’s any news, he’ll inform us in time.”
“But because our current roles are somewhat special, we can’t meet.”
Li Cancan quickly typed on the keyboard: “God Xin, Li Cangshan sends his regards to you.”
Bai Lixin: “Tell him to stay safe.”
Li Cancan quickly typed a few more times on the keyboard, then ended the chat with Li Cangshan.
Bai Lixin: “It ended so quickly?”
Li Cancan: “He said there are many monitors around him. He’s afraid of being discovered, so he ended it.”
She stood up and walked to a drawer, taking out a metallic patch. “This is for you, God Xin. It’s a communicator with our contact information inside. With it, we can communicate even if we’re not together. I modified it myself. Although it’s not as good as the chat window built into the game system, it’s better than nothing.”
Bai Lixin thanked her and followed Li Cancan’s instructions to attach the metallic patch to the back of his neck, hiding it in his hair.
Then a row of names appeared before him.
[Zhou Guang]
[Xia Chi]
[Li Cancan]
[Liang Xi]
[Song Yuantian]
[Hongyue]
[Lin Jue]
[Emil]
And so on…
Bai Lixin looked at the names on the communicator. “Lin Jue and Emil are also in this copy?”
Song Yuantian: “Yes. But they are not members of the rebel army, they belong to the Order Legion. With them, we can promptly get information about the Order Legion’s movements. They are our hidden pieces planted in the Order Legion.”
The communicator made a “beep” sound in his mind. Bai Lixin looked at the contact list and saw Xia Chi’s name flashing.
He opened it, and a dialogue box popped up immediately.
Xia Chi: [Brother, can you see my typing?]
Bai Lixin: [Yes, very clearly.]
He looked up at Xia Chi, who grinned at him, showing off two tiger teeth: [I had a lot to say to you, but when we finally met, I couldn’t remember anything. Anyway, seeing Brother makes me feel warm.]
Bai Lixin could even imagine Xia Chi’s vivid expression when he was typing this.
His tense body relaxed unconsciously, and Bai Lixin’s expression softened a bit: [Me too.]
Xia Chi: [Where’s the big boss? Have you met him, brother?]
Bai Lixin finally remembered about Dijia. He walked over to Li Cancan, who was about to shut down her computer. “Can you help me find someone, too?”
Li Cancan, who was ready to shut down her computer, sat back down in front of the screen when she heard this. “Sure, is it a player? What’s his name?”
Bai Lixin: “Dijia.”
As soon as Li Can Can’s fingers touched the keyboard, she suddenly stopped and looked up at Bai Lixin embarrassedly. “What? I didn’t catch that, can you say it again?”
Bai Lixin: “… Dijia.”
Li Cancan: “What Jia?”
Bai Lixin: “Um, maybe you can teach me how to do it, and I’ll do it myself.”
Li Cancan stood up and gave up her seat apologetically, “Sorry, God Xin, I may not have slept well recently, and I’m a bit of forgetful.”
She pointed at the screen, “You input the name of the person you want to find into this dialogue box, then compare and exclude them one by one from the photos.”
Bai Lixin followed to Li Cancan’s instructions and operated the computer. He entered “Dijia” on the computer, but as soon as the name was entered, the text on the computer immediately turned into garbled characters, replaced by other text.
Bai Lixin didn’t give up and tried several more times before giving up using this method to find Dijia.
It seemed that having a “100% unrememberable name” not only applied to players, but also the technology or props created by players couldn’t recognize Dijia.
Staring at the garbled text in the search bar for several seconds, Bai Lixin silently deleted those characters and replaced them with a new name.
—Pris Xingchen.
As soon as he pressed the Enter key, a prominent prompt “No such person found” popped up on the screen.
Li Cancan, who was standing beside him, also saw this scene, and a hint of regret flashed in her eyes: “I also used this program to search for Pris Xingchen just now, but I couldn’t find him. How could a big living person not be found? It’s strange.”
Bai Lixin was also puzzled.
As he stared at the large red prompt on the screen, he suddenly remembered something.
“Pris Xingchen is not his real name. I remember, I once met Pris Xingchen’s agent, and she said that the name Pris Xingchen was given by her.”
Li Cancan suddenly realized: “That explains why I couldn’t find this person. It seems that we won’t be able to find this person for a while. God Xin, why don’t you go back to your room and rest for a while? You just came back from the virtual world to the real world, we can talk about it tomorrow.”
Bai Lixin also needed to change into clean clothes. After hearing this suggestion, he agreed decisively: “Okay.”
Zhou Guang had prepared a small room for him. Although the room was a bit simple, it had both a bathroom and a toilet.
After saying good night to everyone, Bai Lixin closed the door and walked into the bathroom for a refreshing hot bath.
Half an hour later, Bai Lixin changed into a set of clothes and walked out of the bathroom, his body surrounded by steam.
After drying his wet hair, Bai Lixin casually attached the metallic patch for communication to the back of his neck.
The moment he opened the contact list, a strange number appeared before him.
That number had left several messages for him, clearly indicating that this person was not one of the people he had talked to today.
Opening the person’s number, several messages immediately popped up.
[God Xin, I’m Li Cangshan.]
[I’ve infiltrated Dr. Serkhi’s lab.]
[I’ve made a major discovery.]
[I need to see you and talk to you in person.]
