Chapter 26

Lin Xiaoxiao asked, "Since you can resist the nightmare, why did you still come in? If you could stay awake for five minutes, you would naturally be free from the nightmare's call."

"I thought you had something to say, so I came," Qingchen said. "What test do you want to conduct this time?"

"Starting today, it won't be a test anymore. Instead, the boss wants me to take you on a journey," Lin Xiaoxiao replied.

"Take me on a journey?" Qingchen was puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Using the nightmare to evolve your humanity and make you experience some hardships," Lin Xiaoxiao said. "But since you can resist the nightmare so easily, it seems the nightmare won't be useful anymore. The boss will have to take you personally."

Qingchen pondered for a moment.

This nightmare was different from the last one; it felt more like a course arranged by a teacher for a student.

But at this point, Lin Xiaoxiao said, "Don't think too much. The boss still just admires you. Whether you can become the boss's student in the future is uncertain."

"You're envious," Qingchen said.

"Envious," Lin Xiaoxiao admitted frankly. "Not everyone can become the boss's student. At least, neither I nor Ye Wan can."

"Why?" Qingchen was confused.

"Because neither of us passed the first test," Lin Xiaoxiao said. "But the boss thinks you can make it through."

"Make it through?" Qingchen was taken aback.

Lin Xiaoxiao smiled mysteriously. "It's a path of life and death. Each time you improve yourself, you have to go through a desperate situation and experience pain."

"Why me?"

"Because the boss says you have the courage to face death and then live."

"Since it's so painful, why are you still envious?" Qingchen asked.

"Because it's a path of cultivation with infinite potential, and the limits of Ye Wan and me are already set," Lin Xiaoxiao said with a hint of longing. "Although the path is painful, you must understand that a life that has experienced pain is of a higher quality."

Qingchen didn't dwell on this issue but asked about other doubts. "How old is Mr. Li Shitong?"

"Why do you ask?" Lin Xiaoxiao was puzzled.

"Just asking," Qingchen said.

He asked this because: if the time in the outer world was relatively static when he came to the inner world, it meant he would age faster than ordinary people.

Not that his physical functions would age faster, but he was dividing his life between two worlds.

By the time his peers were forty, he would already look and function like a sixty-year-old.

So he wanted to know if Li Shitong's extraordinary abilities could extend one's lifespan.

Lin Xiaoxiao glanced at him. "Guess? The boss's age is hard to guess."

Qingchen thought for a moment and said, "40 years old?"

"Too young," Lin Xiaoxiao said.

"60 years old?"

"Wrong."

"120 years old?"

"Stop, stop, stop. Don't guess anymore, or you'll guess the boss away," Lin Xiaoxiao said. "The boss is 52 years old this year."

Qingchen was immediately shocked. After all, Li Shitong looked no more than thirty-five or thirty-six.

"Look at you, so naive. I wouldn't be surprised if the boss lived to be over a hundred," Lin Xiaoxiao said. "We've been with him since we were very young, and I haven't seen him change at all over the years."

"Why do you follow him?" Qingchen asked.

"There's no reason. I, Ye Wan, and many others are orphans," Lin Xiaoxiao lay on the hot sand, propping his arms behind his head and looking up at the sky, which suddenly turned dark, and the air wasn't as hot anymore. "You were born into the Qing family, so you can't understand how harsh life can be outside. Becoming an orphan is very easy."

"Maybe your parents just happened to meet some gang members on the street and had a quarrel, or maybe you just got paid and were targeted, or maybe there was a chemical leak in the factory that caused pollution, or maybe you were attacked by hackers while using a neural connection to the virtual network. Anyway, people just die so easily."

"Then you can't pay the property tax, the insurance company refuses to pay, and the bank takes your house and kicks you out onto the street. No one cares whether you live or die."

"At that point, your life is already dark and bleak. The gang wants to use you as a drug mule, or worse, abuse you and film it to sell as a virtual life."

"At such a time, if someone appears and says, 'Come with me, I'll give you a new life,' you'll follow them no matter who they are."

Qingchen looked at Lin Xiaoxiao quietly. At that moment, he realized that compared to Lin Xiaoxiao's life, his own hardships were nothing.

"Why did he adopt you?" Qingchen asked curiously.

"Because we are useful," Lin Xiaoxiao said. "What he wants to do, one person can't accomplish alone."

Qingchen was taken aback. He still didn't know the goals of the Knight Organization and the Spade Organization, or what the Spade was trying to oppose, whether it was the five major companies or something else.

But it was clear that Li Shitong had adopted Lin Xiaoxiao, Ye Wan, and others with the intention of using them, yet Lin Xiaoxiao and the others didn't seem to mind.

With that, Lin Xiaoxiao got up. "Alright, get some rest early."

The nightmare dissipated, and Qingchen was still in the dim prison cell, lying on the cold bed.

Now that he had seen Li Shitong's mysterious level, would the Canon in his hand be enough to exchange for the opportunity to open the door to a new world?

Qingchen wasn't sure if the Canon was enough, and he couldn't explain its source.

Wait a bit longer.

Hope and waiting, all human wisdom is contained in these two words.

...

Countdown: 24:00:00.

In a corner of Prison No. 18.

"Is anyone there? Let me out! Why am I locked in here!" Someone was pounding on the alloy gate, shouting loudly.

Luo Cheng's穿越者 Liu Dezhu was locked in a separate cell, different from the ordinary prisoners' cells, as there was a surveillance camera tightly watching the detainee.

After completing a task for Li Shitong, he was locked in this hidden corner and ignored.

There was no concept of time here, and he couldn't see the sunrise or sunset. Liu Dezhu could only judge the time by when the robots delivered his meals.

His pounding on the alloy gate grew weaker until he had no strength left, and his voice was hoarse.

It seemed like he was the only one left in this prison, and no one responded to his requests or anger.

Liu Dezhu couldn't understand why others in the inner world were doing so well, with mechanical limbs and gang members, but he ended up like this.

And before he came, he had just bragged to his classmates about being a穿越者.

After 24 hours, when he returned to the outer world, how would he explain it to his classmates?

If his classmates asked, "What is your identity in the inner world?"

How could he start?

Say that he has a secure position in an administrative unit in the inner world, where he doesn't have to do anything and gets food every day?

Say that he has successfully changed his profession? To a prisoner?