Chapter Nine: Schizophrenia of Reality and Illusion

“So identical to reality...”
Chen Nian murmured softly.
Suddenly, an intense wave of dizziness swept over him once more.
This time, he nearly collapsed to the ground.
“What’s going on?”
He felt a sense of helplessness.
He pushed aside the issue of superpowers for now; what mattered was this dizziness—why was it happening?
He had only just arrived in this alien metaverse, yet he’d already felt dizzy several times.
He couldn’t recall ever experiencing such symptoms in reality.
“Don’t be afraid, it’s me adapting to this body.”
At that moment, a distant, indifferent voice sounded in his mind.
Chen Nian was startled, unable to react immediately.
“You heard right; I am speaking to you.”
The voice came again.
“Who are you?”
Chen Nian instinctively asked.
As he spoke, he considered several possible answers:
Perhaps a system, an old sage, an alien...
But the reply he received was utterly beyond his expectations.
“I am another you.”
“Another me?”
“Heh, I won’t tease you anymore. Goodbye.”
With that, the voice vanished completely.
Chen Nian stood there, unable to regain his composure.
Yet the dizziness was gone, and the extraordinary power he’d felt before had vanished as well.
...
Half an hour passed quickly.
Everyone gathered their most important information and relayed it to Zhou Zhicheng.
As one of the outstanding representatives of the new humans, Zhou Zhicheng’s memory was astonishing—he was like a human computer.
Once all the information had been collected, he began to summarize: “First, let me talk about this world...
You’ve all seen it. If we open our eyes wide, we see two strings of numbers.
The top string, 952.35, 635.52, indeed represents coordinates.
After repeated measurements, moving roughly one kilometer changes the digit in the second decimal place.
Assuming this world contains coordinates ranging from 999.99, 999.99 to 0, 0, the area would be ninety thousand kilometers by ninety thousand kilometers—which is 8.1 billion square kilometers, about fifteen times the size of Earth.
And that’s a conservative estimate.
We don’t know if four-digit coordinates exist.”
Those around him inhaled sharply at his words.
Zhou Zhicheng continued: “As for the environment—gravity, air, climate, and so forth—all are similar to Earth, even groundwater is present.
For now, you can imagine this place as a gigantic terrestrial planet.”
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He chuckled, “Perhaps this proves that Earth-like environments are a necessary condition for the emergence of intelligent life.
Of course, my comments are limited to the few kilometers surrounding us.
...
Next, let me discuss the characters we’ve created.
Allow me to call them ‘characters’ for now—no matter how real they feel, they are not our true selves.
From what I understand, the character here is exactly the same as we were when we entered the metaverse pod.
Everything, including our physical condition, is identical.
Even I, as a new human... retain all the traits of a new human.
This is important; let me explain.”
As he spoke, Zhou Zhicheng crouched and drew a small circle on the ground, then a larger circle around it.
“This likely means... If our human technological level is the small circle, then the alien civilization that created this virtual world is the large circle.
We are entirely encompassed within theirs.
Why do I say this?
Let’s take metaverse games as an example.
As you all know, in a metaverse game set in a cultivation world, it’s impossible to build an interstellar battleship.
Because the database of the game client doesn’t contain battleship data.
But I was able to create a new human character in this world.
That means the database of this alien metaverse contains the complete technology for new humans.
Even our most advanced genetic technology is casually preserved in a virtual world’s database—just imagine how much we lag behind...
In short, one thing is certain: the alien metaverse’s database surely contains technology beyond our imagination.
For humanity, this world is an immense treasure.”
...
“Could there be supernatural powers in this world?”
A middle-aged man in the crowd asked.
Zhou Zhicheng pondered for a moment before replying, “It’s possible.
From our human perspective, we create virtual worlds largely to do things impossible in reality.
That’s the main purpose of virtual worlds.
So the alien civilization likely set some supernatural abilities here.
If you encounter anything supernatural in the future, don’t be surprised—it’s normal.”
At this moment, Chen Nian squeezed through the crowd and cautiously asked, “Dr. Zhou, the alien metaverse was able to create such realistic characters because it must have read all the information in our minds, right?
Is it possible that someone with a condition like virtual-reality schizophrenia—who’s lost himself after prolonged immersion in the virtual world, convinced he’s a superhuman—and the alien metaverse reads this and creates a superhuman character here?
Think of it as exploiting a bug...”
A bug?
The others looked at Chen Nian in surprise.
They had to admit, this top-level metaverse player’s thinking was indeed unusual.
Zhou Zhicheng smiled faintly, then shook his head.
“The possibility is very low.
As I said before, everything in this world—characters and objects—must have existed in the alien metaverse database first.
The superhuman beings we imagine don’t have any theoretical basis, so they couldn’t exist in the database.
To create a character who starts out as a superhuman, I see only two possibilities.
First, the superhuman you imagine is identical to the one imagined by the alien civilization, and the database contains such a superhuman design or model.
That’s almost impossible.
Second...
You are a genuine superhuman in reality, with scientific backing and theoretical support.
The alien database contains the technology to make such a superhuman, and thus reproduces your real condition here.
For example, myself—a new human.”
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...
Zhou Zhicheng’s words echoed ceaselessly in Chen Nian’s mind.
He wasn’t obsessive by nature.
The voice he’d just heard had felt very real.
His first suspicion was that he suffered from virtual-reality schizophrenia.
After all, this condition was common among players.
It wouldn’t be surprising if he developed it.
The reason his symptoms didn’t show in reality might be because he was always immersed in virtual worlds.
Virtual-reality schizophrenia manifests as an inability to distinguish between virtual and real worlds, leading to bizarre behavior.
Since he seldom ventured out in the real world, he naturally had no chance to display symptoms.
So, in theory, it was possible he suffered from the condition without knowing it.
But Zhou Zhicheng’s words clearly denied his hypothesis.
Imagined superhumans or superpowers could never appear in this world.
For example, deities and gods—the database doesn’t have such settings, so no matter how much you imagine, you can never be recreated here.
Only true superhumans, theoretically possible, can be replicated—like new humans.
So how did his superpowers exist?
Who was that other self?
Chen Nian couldn’t figure it out.
Zhou Zhicheng continued his summary, but Chen Nian could hardly pay attention.
...
Once everyone had finished exchanging information, Wang Yinlong spoke with a chilling tone: “Next... it’s time to send a message to the outside world.”
They were trapped in the alien metaverse, unable to leave, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t transmit information outward.
He waved his hand casually, and soon twenty space force soldiers escorted ten prisoners before him.
All ten were heinous death-row criminals.
Their method of sending a message was to execute these criminals in the virtual world...
Whether the criminals exited the virtual world or something else happened, the outside would likely receive some information.
“At present, we haven’t encountered any danger; we’re alive and well. Let’s execute Prisoner Number One.”
Prisoners One and Five had been classified according to danger levels in this alien metaverse.
Number One represented the lowest risk, Number Five the highest.
...
“Let me go! I am the messenger sent by the God of Death! If you kill me, you’ll be punished by the God of Death!”
Prisoner Number One screamed hysterically, his face contorted.
Wang Yinlong glanced at him coldly.
This prisoner was severely mentally ill, always fantasizing that he was the messenger of Death, and had murdered many innocent people in reality.
Even here in the virtual world, he still lived in his own reality.
“Take him away.”
Wang Yinlong ordered coolly.
Two space force soldiers dragged Prisoner Number One behind a large tree nearby.
With a single scream, he became the first member of the advance team to die in this virtual world.
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