Surrounded by a void of nothingness, it is like the embodiment of the concept of infinity.

And the human form, made up of countless changing color blocks, just emerged in this void, like a god standing high above infinity.

Just looking at it, Jiang Zhou felt the hairs on his hair that were not present at the moment stand on end.

"Uh...hello?"

He suppressed the uneasiness deep in his heart and tentatively said hello.

There was no reaction from the other party.

"What exactly are you?"

Jiang Zhou continued to ask.

There was still no response, as if the other party couldn't hear him.

Could it be that this guy is currently being initialized and still needs loading time?

Looking at this abstract human figure with countless color patches on its body that are constantly changing, Jiang Zhou thought in confusion.

After hesitating for a moment, he used the eye tracking system to bring up the menu interface stored in the upper left corner of his field of vision.

After clicking "Generate Substitute", a slightly thin body was quickly outlined in the void, carrying Jiang Zhou's consciousness.

another (stand-in) program, referred to as a program - creates a physical body that can move in the virtual cyberspace by scanning the user's real body. At the beginning of the development stage of the "Janus Project", this was to allow

The uploaded digital personality can create an operation interface that can communicate and interact with the outside world.

Nowadays, this technology seems to be used as an interaction between computers and the brain.

Jiang Zhou lowered his head and looked at the hand that was being sketched. Compared with the rough development version, the realism and fluency of the avatar modeling are now at least ten times better.

But this was also within Jiang Zhou's expectation - if he still couldn't reach this level after a hundred years, he would really wonder if the technology of human civilization had been locked by some alien civilization.

After trying to grasp it, Jiang Zhou didn't feel any delay or obstruction at all, as if it was his own original hand.

Nodding, he controlled the substitute, walked up to the colored man, and slowly stretched out his hand towards the other person's face.

Maybe it will react if I touch it with a substitute.

he thought.

It was also at this time that the other party made some movement.

It was as if someone had taken out a few frames, and the movements of "Janus" suddenly changed - it bent down slightly, covered its thigh with one hand, and the countless tiny color blocks that made up it moved rapidly.

It started to tremble.

"I - hiss - hiss - I... won't..."

"Janus" made an intermittent sound as if it was seriously disturbed.

Seeing such a strange scene, Jiang Zhou's outstretched hand stopped in mid-air.

He asked carefully:

"What don't you know?"

"Will...hiss-s-s-die in-s-s-s-this..."

More and more intense electric whistling sounds came out one after another, until the harsh sound reached an unbearable peak, just like the radio finally adjusted the signal, forming the color of "Janus"

The block suddenly stopped trembling.

All the color blocks fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, and then became integrated as if caressed by an invisible hand. In a few breaths, that "Janus" quickly transformed into a man in his early twenties.

He looked like a young man - he was very handsome and looked very familiar, but Jiang Zhou swore he didn't recognize him.

"you……"

I don't know if he heard Jiang Zhou's words, but the man slowly raised his head and "looked" at him.

This time, it said in an extremely clear voice:

"I won't die here."

After saying that, its hands were like lightning, and they suddenly grabbed Jiang Zhou's arm.

…………

"I won't die here."

"Zi-bang!"

Gunfire rang out and the opponent fell to the ground.

The old snake looked at the young man who fell on his back and was a little dazed for a moment.

He didn't want to kill anyone.

After entering the house, he first shot the other person in the thigh, blocking the person's attempt to escape. Then, he pointed the gun at the other person's head and slowly explained his purpose.

Under normal circumstances, the commission ends here. Everyone is doing this just to make a living. There is no need to risk their lives when there is a way to survive.

But this time the old snake missed the mark - the other party was not frightened by him at all. Instead, he endured the severe pain in his thigh and greeted all his female family members with fierce words.

After the old snake began to threaten death, the other party shouted "I won't die here" and rushed up to him, trying to take the gun away from him.

He pulled the trigger almost subconsciously.

The light blue pulse beam hit the guy's head, causing him to fall to the ground on his back.

Already dead.

The old snake thought to himself.

Even though he hadn't gone over to confirm the opponent's vital signs, but with such a solid shot in the head, unless he was a specially enhanced adjuster, there would be no chance of survival.

"Are all the people in Icarus so aggressive..."

Looking at the guy's body, the old snake took a long drag on the nicotine atomizer.

He swore that he didn't mean to kill anyone - he had been working as a street mercenary for almost five years, and he rarely took on wet jobs. In these five years, the number of people who died at his hands was less than two.

The commission he received this time was just to ask this kid to hand over a memory. It wouldn't cost the other person's life. He couldn't understand why this guy reacted so violently.

Or are the people of the "Icarus Liberation Front" like this? They don't care about money or life. Everyone is like a fanatical religious believer or a loyal virtual idol fan...

After taking two more puffs of the atomizer, the old snake walked to the corpse, squatted down, and reached out to touch the memory slot on the corpse's neck.

If I had a son, he should be as old as him, right?

The old snake suddenly thought of it for no reason.

Being stared at by this young man's unblinking eyes, he suddenly felt a little taboo, so he used his free hand to help the other person cover his eyelids:

"Little guy, you rushed over to grab the gun yourself. Don't blame me, and don't come to me even if you become a ghost..."

he whispered to the dead man.

I don't know if the other party heard what he said, but the dead man's eyelids struggled to open again.

The man who was supposed to be dead turned his head and looked at him in the horrified eyes of the old snake.

"Fuck!"

"Fuck!"

Then, the two of them exclaimed at the same time, as if they had seen a ghost.

…………

"Janus" stretched out his hand and penetrated Jiang Zhou's temporary substitute like a ghost. At the moment when the two came into contact, Jiang Zhou felt that a massive amount of information was forced into his mind, which made him fall into a trap.

In a lucid and absurd dream.

At that moment, he seemed to have lived a broken and regretful life.

My name is...Liao Qi.

I was born on the bottom floor of the dark Nord settlement area. Before I was twelve years old, I never saw the real sky.

My father was a worker at the Nord sewage treatment plant, and my mother made a living by reselling simulator films.

When I was young, due to the bankruptcy and reorganization of the resettlement area government, the Nord sewage treatment plant was contracted to a company. My father was fired because the prosthetic body modification was too low, and he was dismissed because he could not repay the "prosthetic body loan".

Lost the prosthetic hand used for work.

Although his native arm is still stored in the "Biological Bank", the cost of reconnection surgery is an astronomical figure for our family.

Forced to have no choice, his father found an unlicensed veterinarian to help reattach the native arm. He eventually died of surgical infection because of that quack doctor.

A few years after my father died, my mother also went crazy.

Nowadays, she is immersed in pseudo-movies all day long, imagining that she is the glamorous but ill-fated rich lady in the movie.

Now she no longer recognizes who I am, and has even forgotten her own name.

Frankly speaking, my mother is going crazy mostly because of me. After my father died, she worked day and night and used her meager income to support me in going to school at the talent incubation center run by Pluto Deep Diving Company - she hoped

I can stand out and hope that I can be recognized by the company as an intern and become a decent regular company employee in the future and become a big shot in everyone's mouth.

God testifies that I tried my best, but maybe it’s because I’m not naturally gifted in learning, or maybe it’s because what I wrote down by staying up all night reading for a week is not as much as someone else who plugged in a high-end memory and took a nap. In short,
To be continued...