Chapter 44: Exercise? Absolutely Impossible

Why so much sarcasm...

Because, after all, the list of tycoons who made their fortune during the era of natural disasters boiled down to just two types: real estate moguls and internet entrepreneurs. When disasters wiped out real estate, only the internet remained...

If there were still money to be made, Ye Chao’s path would have been that of a self-made man, hitting hundreds of small targets in succession.

And you say money is gone, so making money is meaningless...

Wait, are you really like Daddy Ma?

Ah, so many complaints I want to voice.

Yet, Ye Chao’s idea to create a new profession, to become a cardigan monster, is anything but absurd.

Even in the era of calamity, remote communication methods still exist—

Radio, telegraph, broadcast receivers; but these are too low-tech and inconvenient. Abilities to communicate directly are hard to popularize. There are satellite phones, barely affected by the disaster, but after thirty years of neglect, with the sky in ruin, few satellites remain...

A convenient and fast mobile internet is precisely what this era lacks.

First, the technology is so advanced that the vast majority of people cannot comprehend it. Because civilization has fractured, and knowledge has lapsed.

The best proof lies in the textbooks... Alpha Ji glanced through them—high school materials are only at the level of pre-disaster middle school.

How much can you expect from the minor subjects?

From this perspective, Ye Chao, who self-studied to university-level courses in certain fields during high school, is no mere top student, but rather a bona fide “exam god”—scoring a perfect hundred because the test only allows a hundred.

Secondly, abilities can repair and maintain the hardware and even software of the network, but cannot restore the soil in which the network thrives.

WeChat is convenient, but without servers, it’s barely more useful than a diary; Taobao is handy, but without free shipping, it’s just a pile of product brochures; Meituan is efficient, but without shops and delivery men, it’s meaningless...

Without the soil, the once-dominant network, though scattered remnants remain thanks to the most widespread repair abilities, no one can reweave them into a true web!

Ye Chao intends to be the one who rewrites the net.

No one knows if this path can be walked, but its starting point is truly unique.

Alpha Ji finally understood why Ye Chao's role change in the second half of the internship was so seamless, why his performance improved so much. It wasn’t talent; he had simply encountered the perfect stage of his dream.

Binge-watching dramas, chatting idly—pure waste of time and life;

But connecting and communicating online, rallying forces—that’s the right way.

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Under the same conditions, with the same mindset, Alpha Ji hoped Ye Chao would become the Alice of the disaster era; whereas Ye Chao himself wanted to be Yang Wei-li.

The dream is beautiful, even ambitious—yet it could get you killed...

“In short, exercise is impossible, not in this lifetime.”

“Instead of imagining impossible things, why not seriously consider whether you could one day really fight on my behalf? Just like you made my nose bleed earlier; if you can hit me, you can hit others too.”

“Or use your projection ability to create illusions, even a clone of me, to interfere with the enemy when necessary...”

“Or research whether the imaginary space can store information. For instance, my book—could you make an identical one and put it in the imaginary space?”

Wow, you really know how to intercept!

Alpha Ji nearly exploded on the spot.

Clone techniques, mirror shadow, multiple shadow clones, invisibility... These were secret skills she’d pondered in secret for quite some time, yet he casually claimed them for himself!

Storing books in imaginary space—that was just her idea too...

You’re like Sakuragi Hanamichi’s “hm hm hm” defense! Like Tencent’s endless copying without compensation! Like Lu Xiaoshu’s lethal retorts!

Ah, so frustrating!

[Ye Chao’s favorability -66]

No, no, can’t get angry, can’t get angry! Nearly at 1600...

Unperturbed by honor or disgrace, watching the flowers bloom and fall in the courtyard; indifferent to comings and goings, letting clouds drift as they please...

Let growth and decay follow fate, meet challenges earnestly, stay grounded, let it be...

After a bout of Buddhist self-hypnosis, Alpha Ji finally calmed down—and suddenly realized something: Ah, her goal had been achieved!

What goal?

“To copy a book in imaginary space? You want to swap places? Well, that’s exactly what I intended!” In truth, Alpha Ji had said so much to Ye Chao just to stop him from staring at the book.

When he fixated on the book, her activity space shrank to nothing but its pages...

“Swap places? What?” Ye Chao was puzzled.

“That is, you go study in imaginary space, and I get to play outside. As you said, putting the book into imaginary space is totally doable—I can scan it, even the tablet and F91...” Alpha Ji gestured at F91.

Then, F91 abruptly vanished, together with the plugged-in USB drive.

...

...............

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Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

“It wasn’t me, I just touched it lightly...” Anxious, the calculating Ji’s accent slipped.

Alpha Fang’s One Ratio Ji.

Ye Chao, though not high in emotional intelligence, could tell at a glance that this truly wasn’t Alpha Ji’s plan.

But unlike Alpha Ji, he didn’t panic. After thinking briefly, he closed his eyes.

The next moment, he saw F91.

In the imaginary space, where the dream began.

Though Alpha Ji had built a new tower and decorated her own room, the original location remained.

At the center of the room, the Earth hologram still hovered.

Below it, F91 sat perfectly intact, USB drive still connected, data still copying.

“This, this, this...” Alpha Ji, who followed him in, was stammering like a stunned spore.

Ye Chao had said imaginary space was magical, full of incredible uses, but she never imagined it could be this miraculous!

A living laptop had been brought inside!

She had meant to suggest that if Ye Chao needed the tablet and F91 to read, she could simulate them in imaginary space. She never thought simulation wasn’t needed at all.

Alpha Ji wasn’t the only one shocked—Ye Chao was too.

Except he always wore a blank face, so it hardly showed...

Humanity—or rather, the Cloud State Alliance—had barely begun to tap the potential of imaginary space, as so few possessed it, and even the awakening method was unknown... His own imaginary space, for instance, came about wholly by accident.

Ye Chao had tried, according to legend, to project outward or twist reality with his will. None worked. The only success was—getting punched by Alpha Ji until his nose bled.

He even suspected, in secret, that his imaginary space wasn’t truly such, but more like a data space. It belonged to him, to Alpha Ji, perhaps mainly to Alpha Ji.

Hence his earlier suggestion that Alpha Ji study it carefully.

Never did he expect this function! Why hadn’t it been discovered before?

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