In the darkness, Lin Yu opened his eyes.

He looked around in confusion, but the moment the surrounding scenes came into view, he suddenly realized that something seemed amiss.

He was not in Mountain City, the virtual city.

The space he was in...

...was reality.

Lin Yu sat up, feeling the real fatigue that was similar to what he experienced in the virtual city, yet upon closer examination, he found that there were some differences.

Where is this place?

It seemed to be... a tent?

Lin Yu's eyes widened in bewilderment, and just then, someone lifted the tent flap and came in.

"You're awake?"

The person spoke.

A helmet and mask completely covered his face, but through his voice, Lin Yu immediately recognized his identity.

"Chen Jian... Mr. Chen!"

He instinctively stood up and then, looking down, found his real body.

I have already come outside of Mountain City.

But is this a temporary escape or permanent freedom?

He looked hopefully at Chen Jian's face, and the latter seemed to understand his expression, nodding without a hint of hesitation and said:

"Just as you think, you have left that virtual city."

"We cleared all the data from the virtual city—not cleared, rather, preserved."

"That city no longer exists."

"However, we preserved a relatively small but sufficient computing space for you, to ensure that you can continue to live in the form of a 'human'.

After he finished speaking, Lin Yu's eyes widened.

He took a deep breath, feeling the real sensation of air passing through his nasal cavity into his trachea, and then filling his lungs.

He tentatively waved his hand in front of him and asked:

"So... I've become a normal person again?"

"Not exactly."

Chen Jian spread his hands.

"You can't be defined as a real human."

"Due to algorithmic limitations, Lingxi ultimately cannot fully simulate all human behaviors."

"The most typical problem is that you have a subconscious, but you can't dream."

"Of course... there are simpler verification methods."

"You hardly make any mistakes, nor do you experience symptoms of sensory disassociation."

"In short, you are now... half-human."

Half-human?

Lin Yu was momentarily stunned, but then he felt relieved.

At least, it's much better than being trapped in that virtual city forever.

At the very least, his feelings at this moment are real.

He nodded, and Chen Jian across from him spoke:

"You should adapt to this body yourself."

"By the way, I asked Fu Xi to inject a signal indicator into your sensory system."

"If the signal weakens, turn back immediately. Don't go to places without a signal."

"Otherwise, we'll have to rescue you—we don't have that many spare bodies for you to use."

"Understood."

Lin Yu first nodded, but then he asked in confusion:

"What about those... bodies?"

"There should be more than a few... artificial bodies in Mountain City, right?"

"They've been buried."

Chen Jian answered:

"They shouldn't be... alive like that."

"...Understood."

Lin Yu nodded once more.

And at this moment, he felt an unexpected sense of relaxation in his heart.

Indeed.

Those bodies without consciousness shouldn't be alive in that way.

He watched as Chen Jian walked out of the tent, and then he too got up and walked out.

It was only then that he realized that the mist shrouding Mountain City had completely disappeared.

The sky was clear, and sunlight poured down from overhead, making the entire city glisten as if washed in water.

Lin Yu gazed obsessively at everything in front of him, and for a moment, he even doubted whether he had truly left that virtual city or was still living in the dream spun by "Lin Xi."

Just then, he suddenly felt someone come up behind him.

"Awake?"

A familiar voice came.

Lin Yu turned to see that the person was Ji Xing.

"You came?"

His eyes glanced over the bandages on Ji Xing's shoulders and neck, and he asked with slight confusion:

"Are you injured?"

Ji Xing shook her head and replied:

"No."

"This is a side effect of the brain-machine interface."

"I'm using an older generation brain-machine, which requires an open wound along the entire spine."

"This... counts as a fairly serious injury, with a risk of infection."

"So, this is how it is."

Ji Xing shrugged and then said:

"But it's not so bad—as Mr. Chen said, it's as if I got two days off."

"Off?"

Lin Yu had no concept of that.

In fact, not just him, the entire wasteland had no concept of that.

Surviving was hard enough, not working for a day could lead to starvation or getting killed by monsters—a day off?

Still, he roughly understood Ji Xing's meaning.

It was essentially... a rest.

Thinking of this, before Ji Xing could answer, he continued to ask:

"You're off... what about the others?"

"What do they need to do?"

"A lot."

Ji Xing pointed to the passage leading underground in the distance, answering calmly:

"This entire underground city is much larger than we expected."

"Both in scale and functionality."

"It's not easy to complete the takeover in a short time—and that's just at the level of physical equipment and facilities."

"In fact, the biggest difficulty lies in data reception."

"Although Fu Xi has taken control of computing power, many key data are still independently preserved."

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