For the next few days, Xiao Lin never left his house, instead indulging in logging on.
The Spiritual Internet was somewhat similar to the internet Xiao Lin knew.
Here, every person was a "user," and every building was equivalent to a website, some private and some public.
The entire internet world was surrounded by an invisible Black Wall, with all users residing within. Outside the Black Wall was known as the Grid Wasteland.
The Millennium Bug, capable of destroying the entire internet world and killing all Spiritual Transcendents, wandered there, carrying overwhelming greed and hatred.
However, unlike the traditional internet, the immersion of the Spiritual Internet was extremely high, capable of approaching the real world infinitely.
So some people even chose to stay in the Spiritual Internet forever, never returning to reality.
At this moment, Xiao Lin was sitting on a bench in the Recruitment Center.
This was a huge ring-shaped pie-chart building. The hall was boundlessly vast, standing with hundreds of thousands of figures.
A pillar hanging in the center supported a ring of huge display screens, showing recruitment information for major projects.
The magnitude had reached the millions, and every minute new projects were created, while old ones were completed or abandoned.
Xiao Lin simply browsed through them. Almost all of the top few hundred were projects from Wisdom City itself.
Project 1: World History Deduction Plan
Affiliation: Wisdom City
Content: This project aims to gather the wisdom of all humanity to deduce the correct history and guide humanity in the right direction.
Project 2: Millennium Bug Eradication Plan
Affiliation: Wisdom City
Content: This project aims to eradicate the rampaging Millennium Bugs on the Grid Wasteland, protecting the safety of the human subconscious and Spiritual Transcendents.
Project 3: Network Black Wall Service Plan
Affiliation: Wisdom City
Content: Reinforce the Network Black Wall, resist Millennium Bug attacks, and ensure the safety and integrity of the Spiritual Internet.
"Display details of the World History Deduction Plan," Xiao Lin commanded. The content on the large screen expanded. Ignoring the thousand-word introduction, Xiao Lin's gaze fell on the data at the bottom.
Current Participants: 702,565
Monthly Salary: 500,000 Credits.
Interview Requirements: IQ 130+, or expert-level historical knowledge.
"500,000 credits." A wave of shock surged in Xiao Lin's heart.
Lin Niannian also had a job in the Spiritual Internet. She was working as a calculator for a mathematics society, but her monthly salary was only 3,000 credits.
Xiao Lin was slightly tempted. After all, as a transmigrator, he was intimately familiar with history from two hundred years ago, and might be the only one who knew the correct history.
But he didn't want to join Wisdom City, nor did he want to attract the attention of such a massive organization.
After thinking for a moment, Xiao Lin clicked on the participant list. Dense names presented themselves before his eyes. Perhaps he could find someone from within to provide information, and he could just take the money.
Just as Xiao Lin was aimlessly scrolling through that list, suddenly, a subtle sense of discomfort surged into his heart. Those texts seemed somewhat... distorted.
He blinked. He saw that amidst the long list of participants, a black dot had appeared.
He subconsciously scrolled up the list; the black dot did not disappear. Then he looked elsewhere; it still existed, extremely abrupt, like a tiny dead pixel on a monitor.
Then, the process of it growing larger was like cauterizing the surrounding space—deadly silent, cold, soundless.
In the blink of an eye, it turned into a black color block about half a meter in size, occupying his field of vision, dark to a disturbing degree.
Xiao Lin did not panic. He gazed at the black color block before his eyes and said softly: "Delete specified object."
The basic functions dominated by the internet's underlying logic immediately began to operate, executing Xiao Lin's command.
But a few seconds later, a prompt popped up: "No object requiring deletion detected."
Immediately after, Xiao Lin's vision began to distort, and scribbled scarlet text floated onto that black color block.
"Revenge."
"Destruction."
"Log out," Xiao Lin murmured softly.
The next instant, everything around dissolved like ice shards, and he returned to the real world.
This was the second time...
And Xiao Lin could be sure that the thing was something capable of bypassing system supervision. Was it some kind of virus? Or was it an attack from someone?
Or was it related to the Millennium Bug he witnessed back then? Because the last time a similar phenomenon appeared, it was precisely after the Millennium Bug attack.
Xiao Lin had a slight headache and decided to write a letter to ask Lin Niannian.
He pulled a sheet of Swallow Paper from the desk, briefly explained the situation, then folded it into a paper airplane and threw it out the window.
That paper airplane swayed unsteadily and disappeared outside the window.
Satellite Town. Torrential rain.
In Lin Niannian's office, she sat before the window with disheveled hair, holding a pen in one hand and clutching her hair with the other. A thick stack of Swallow Paper lay on the table beside her.
She wrote something on the paper then scratched it out, then crumpled the Swallow Paper into a ball and threw it into the trash can.
Just then, the office door opened, and Zhou Zheng walked in carrying a cup of coffee: "How's it going? Still no news?"
Lin Niannian scratched her hair in frustration: "Mm, I don't know why."
"Maybe she went on a long trip," Zhou Zheng placed the coffee on the table. "This was brought by Mr. Bai. Rations are scarce; this cup is my treat."
"Thanks!" Lin Niannian beamed with joy.
"It's only right. You've worked hard during this time."
Afterwards, Xiao Lin didn't try to log on again. Instead, he got up to go to the restaurant to eat. He synced the food from the restaurant to the real world every night, so there was always prepared food available in the restaurant.
He served himself a few simple dishes and sat alone in the vast, bright restaurant, eating while his mind wandered through all sorts of random thoughts.
Over the past few days, his control over the Demon of Wisdom had become more and more proficient. The essence consumption had decreased significantly, and he had gradually mastered the Demon of Wisdom's terrifying ability—Mental Pollution.
However, he didn't have the Demon of Wisdom's physiological structure, so the effect he could unleash was far inferior. Regarding this matter, Yue Taizhou was already researching it. Yue Taizhou said the ultimate goal was to surpass the Demon of Wisdom. Only by achieving this step could Xiao Lin have a smoother power progression curve.
He also suggested that Xiao Lin shouldn't travel far before then. However, going to Yunze City shouldn't count as traveling far.
After the Satellite Town matter was settled, he could go to Yunze City with Bai Xiaoyun to learn about the world, and incidentally scout for new prey.
Just then, a paper airplane slowly flew in through the window. It circled around Xiao Lin and finally landed on the table.
Was it a reply from Lin Niannian? Didn't that girl especially love folding ugly origami cranes? Why switch to a paper airplane this time?
Xiao Lin picked up the paper airplane. The surface was still damp, but he quickly realized something seemed off.
This wasn't a reply from Lin Niannian. It was the very Swallow Paper he had sent to Lin Niannian. It hadn't reached Lin Niannian; it had returned.
Was it related to the heavy rain Bai Xiaoyun set up?
No... Swallow Paper was waterproof and highly resistant to heat.
The only explanation was that the Swallow Paper failed to find Lin Niannian.
For some reason, a sense of unease settled in Xiao Lin's heart.