Chapter Twenty-Six: Forging

Page 1 of 3
August 17, 1993, 5:30 PM
7,328 meters southwest of the rendezvous point, Sasser Street, Small Car Motel

“This is Grizzly City Channel One, breaking in with urgent news.”

“Umbrella Corporation executives have just met with the mayor. The company has issued a strong condemnation of recent irresponsible rumors circulating in the city.”

The camera cut to the front of City Hall, where Manager B was being interviewed.

“This is a shameless fabrication. Umbrella is purely a biopharmaceutical and chemical company. All this talk about gold is false, completely false! Please, don’t believe it!”

“Then, Manager, why didn’t your company come out earlier to refute the rumors?”

“Because it’s laughable! Gold… I’ve worked here for over ten years and never seen any gold! If you don’t believe me, we’ll open our underground lab. Anyone who wants to see is welcome!”

The broadcast returned to the studio.

“The mayor has also condemned the rumor-mongers and expressed appreciation for Umbrella’s willingness to open its underground laboratory to representatives of the public. Representatives are currently being selected, and tomorrow morning at eight they will tour the underground lab, rumored to be a gold production site.”

…

“Damn it!”

Seeing the news so completely at odds with her demands, Tang Xiaoxiao cursed, flinging her clown mask aside.

She stood up, pacing the room in agitation. “Is he suspicious of me? Or is something else going on?”

Why now? Why is the mayor choosing people for the tour? Why isn’t it what I asked for?

Zhu Cunjia put down his pistol and tried to reassure her.

“It’s already this late; it doesn’t matter anymore. I’d wager the company put pressure on the TV station too.”

“It just means we’ll have to work a little harder. We’ll have to watch the exits and see what they’re moving out.”

Page 2 of 3
August 17, 1993, 5:34 PM
8,652 meters southwest of the rendezvous point, Sasser Street, Old Duerte Motel

“Did you see it?”

Yang Wentian had rushed straight to Wang Luo’s room after seeing the news. But as soon as he opened the door, he found the place in chaos, littered with crumpled paper.

“What’s all this?”

“Just some thoughts, scribbling at random,” Wang Luo replied, holding up his pen. “What did you see?”

“The news.” Yang Wentian turned on the TV. “Channel One just announced that Umbrella is opening its underground lab for a public tour.”

“Tomorrow at eight?” Wang Luo lowered his head, jotting down more notes.

“Yes, the mayor did as you asked, right? What’s our move tomorrow?”

“Just be at the door by eight.” Wang Luo balled up his half-written page and tossed it aside. “When we finish the mission, can general points be exchanged for real-world currency?”

“Yes, gold and all sorts of currency.”

“How’s the purchasing power?”

“About ten points for a kilogram of gold. Wealth from the real world isn’t worth much in the scenario.”

“So,” Wang Luo’s eyes gleamed with a certain light, “as we progress, the growth in general points must be huge. After overcoming some difficulties, it should be possible to earn tens of thousands in one go, right?”

“There are people like that,” Yang Wentian said, recalling the prices of high-level equipment in the space market. “Some even have hundreds of thousands or millions.”

“How much gold could that exchange for? If someone traded for several hundred tons of gold or billions of dollars at once, what would that do to the real world? There isn’t that much in circulation—if the real world were hit with such a shock, would it still recognize the currency exchanged from this world?”

“Well…” Yang Wentian spread his hands. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve never seen anyone try it.”

“If doing that caused a real-world imbalance, would the space have any measures in place? Also, according to space’s information, our bodies have been digitized. So, could a digitized body produce children with a regular woman? If so, would the child be digitized or an ordinary human?”

Page 3 of 3
I could guess now what all those crumpled papers were about… “You’re asking me things I don’t know either… Never seen it, never thought about it,” Yang Wentian said helplessly, looking at his overly curious teammate.

“Just like the people here? Are they so excited to have adventures in a novel world that they forget everything else? Or are they so accustomed to their environment that they have no curiosity about its underlying nature?” Wang Luo’s brow furrowed in thought, his pen racing across the page. “Did the space alter their thinking patterns when it changed their bodies? When they start pondering such questions, does something subtly nudge their minds away? Or is it that, under immense pressure, there’s simply no room to consider these things? Or perhaps the lure of pleasure is so strong that they lack the energy to think about it?”

“Mentally, what stops them from exploiting the vast differences between these two spaces? Why does the space set up these scenarios? What does it gain as people pass through them? Entertainment? Or is it running experiments?”

“And by what criteria does it select participants? What traits are favored, allowing entry? What power draws people in, and what binds them, preventing leaks of its own information? Killing? Ridiculous. There are too many fearless or useful people for that to be enough.”

“Suppose.”

“Suppose this is a real world, and the people here are as alive as in my original world. What is their material basis? Another planet? Outside this scenario, has similar history unfolded as on Earth, with the same countries? Were they here before I arrived, and will their lives go on after I leave—is that how it works?”

“What kind of experiment could prove or disprove these hypotheses?”

“This is awkward…” Yang Wentian said with a wry smile as he watched Wang Luo’s musings. “Maybe I’ve run into a fake transmigrator.”

Wang Luo looked up at him. “Has anyone ever tried what I’m doing?”

“At least, I haven’t seen it,” Yang Wentian shook his head. “Maybe the space erased them all?”

“It’s possible,” Wang Luo drummed his finger on the table. “To be honest, I’m prepared to be erased myself, just for hypothesizing like this. But anyone who comes here might accidentally wonder about these things—if every curious person were erased, the space would be empty by now.”

“That’s true.”

“So, at least we can conclude one thing: the rules that bind us are far from simple.” Wang Luo picked up his pen and wrote this down on a fresh piece of paper. “Discussing these things gets you further than just daydreaming alone.”

“Better not,” Yang Wentian bared his teeth. “Like you said: when you gaze long into the abyss, the abyss gazes back. Better to survive first—study these things when you’ve got the luxury.”

“Habit, just a habit.” Wang Luo gave a smile, like a child discovering a new toy. “When you’re under enormous stress, focused to the extreme, if you survive, whatever you did at that moment fuses with your soul, becomes instinct. So I’ll worry about it later? When I have the luxury?”

“When that day comes, I doubt I’ll remember anything but how to enjoy myself.”