"Another disease"

Here.

The logic is consistent, and the reasoning is clear.

There are even levels of distinction.

The youth nodded to himself.

Is this dream I constructed?

Interesting.

Meng Laoda patted the youth on the shoulder, "Kid, don't lose heart. As you stay here longer, your integration rate will slowly increase."

"Even in the test field, you can't expect certain things to just appear out of nowhere."

"It's like geometric figures, stacking one block at a time, eventually forming a great wall!"

"Keep it up."

"One day, your brain will also burst with potential."

"Who knows, you might awaken a one in eight billion reality enhancement."

"When that happens, you'll cover for me."

The youth smiled, "I'll sleep more comfortably tomorrow, dream a good dream."

"You silly kid, not dreaming but always talking in your sleep!"

Just then, an anomaly occurred in the distant sky.

A black barrier suddenly appeared in the sea of clouds, as if someone had vertically stood a black scroll between heaven and earth.

Then slowly unfolded it.

It was very thin, like a sheet of black paper, connecting the sky and the earth.

At the moment, the 'scroll' ends curved, slowly enveloping around, slicing through the sea of clouds.

The youth was startled, "What's this?"

Meng Jihe smiled lightly, "Don't be nervous, it's just a competitor."

A competitor?

The other party must be a great master, right?

Meng Jihe casually said, "Although the test field is vast, the land also has ownership. What you see, that thing called the Iron Curtain, belongs to the technology of the metaverse, a type of enhanced plasma defense shield. You can think of it as a fence, used for marking territory."

The youth understood, "Your competitor is also a design company? What's the point of them encircling themselves?"

"Heh, it's just like a dog marking its territory to declare sovereignty to me!"

"That company is called 'Mingtu', currently ranked second in Echo Hill."

"They bought the land near mine, trying to 'isolate' me."

Meng Jihe smiled, "It's actually meaningless. In terms of design capability, they're not up to par."

"Mingtu..."

Qin Yiguan curiously asked, "Is their boss also 'reality enhanced'?"

Meng Jihe smirked, "Kind of. Their boss loves raising birds. After reality enhancement, he can communicate with birds, speaking bird language, sending sparrows and the like to eavesdrop on our meetings. Just a trash."

The youth was stunned, "That works too."

...

800 kilometers away.

In a giant black warehouse, a middle-aged, balding, greasy man looked at two black crows in a cage in front of him.

He opened the cage, one crow landed on his hand, the other on his arm.

The fat man sneered, "Meng Jihe... the Twin Brain clearly stated, order -50%!"

"So, I will act according to the logic of the Twin Brain. Business competition and such are too boring. My goal this time is simple... to kill you!"

"My two little treasures, go... When you return, describe Meng Jihe's miserable state to me! Haha!"

The two crows flapped their wings and flew into the sky!

...

In the Geometric Design Group building.

The youth watched the Iron Curtain approach from afar.

It was like a black blade, silently slicing everything.

Meng Jihe appeared somewhat surprised, "Hiss... something's wrong, it's crossed the boundary! It has entered my territory! Damn, has he grown bold?"

As soon as he finished speaking.

The Iron Curtain, stretching from heaven to earth, suddenly grew, in a flash moving dozens of kilometers closer, arriving at the sides of Meng Jihe's aerial building, making close contact and abruptly closing into a circle with a diameter of a hundred miles!

Meng Jihe was no longer as calm as before, panic flashing in his eyes, "What does that bald dead man want to do, cut my building in half and then crash it? Has he gone mad?!"

Thump!

A muffled sound echoed between heaven and earth, as if an invisible war drum was struck.

In an instant, darkness enveloped everything around.

The lights within the building went out, and darkness fell between heaven and earth.

Meng Jihe exclaimed, "It has blocked all visible light within the Iron Curtain. What does that bald dead man want to do!"

But this darkness was not the same as the extreme darkness in the youth's room. Looking into the distance, the youth felt as if the darkness twisted with black lines, his vision blurring as if his eyes were dazzled.

"Some areas within the Iron Curtain are not fully covered..."

"Either pure black..."

"Or bright..."

"I cannot see other colors or faint light in the darkness..."

Qin Yiguan's expression turned somewhat unpleasant, instinctively stepping back as if fearing the darkness ahead.

Meng Jihe supported the youth, laughing off, "I almost forgot, you kid have a psychological disorder. Always in the night, imagining clothes on a chair as demons, then curling up under the covers, trembling with cold sweat."

"Or walking outside at night, always mistaking the swaying trees as skeletons rushing towards you!"

"Ha ha."

"When we were kids, I always held you while we slept."

"Yiguan, you didn't have to worry when you were young, and you don't have to worry now, I'm here for you!"

"That dead bald guy is just trying to scare me, he dares not do anything excessive!"

"I'll settle the score with him later!"

Squeak...

Boom!

Suddenly, the ceiling in the distance exploded, sparks flying, and pieces of building material fell down!

The thin Iron Curtain began to grow again, inch by inch cutting into the building!

Meng Jihe looked around, frowning deeply, "He dares to do it for real! He wants my building to fall, he wants my life!"

At this moment, Qin Yiguan's expression was solemn.

He stared at the darkness ahead, where the black light twisted, feeling an overwhelming fear from the depths of his heart.

Cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

It's common for kids to fear the dark, seeing objects as monsters.

But I'm different.

I have a severe case.

Dr. Haus once diagnosed me.

That condition... is called Level 16 [Gestalt Collapse]!

It has two possibilities.

One condition is that by staring at a certain character for a long time, the brain, to reduce energy loss, will block repetitive neural information, causing the person to suddenly 'not recognize' the character.

That's manageable.

But the other condition,

If in the dark, the visual information is incomplete, then the brain will operate on its own, filling in the scenery with the most feared images from the depths of the heart!

The youth's face trembled, "I often find myself trapped in it, deeply afraid, unable to extricate myself, even to the point of mental breakdown!"

Just then, from the darkness in the distance,

Suddenly two red-eyed crows flew out.

These birds, which are not large in size, appeared as two twisting black dots from afar.

But their sudden appearance caused a huge ripple in the youth's vision.

"What's that..."

"Two birds?"

The youth's eyes trembled.

He felt a severe pain in his brain, his consciousness surging uncontrollably!

In his vision, a tide of darkness swept over everything, drowning all, then madly converging into the two black birds.

What no one else could see was that the codes of the metaverse also became chaotic and aggressive in an instant.

The codes seemed to be stirred, losing their original arrangement.

"No..."

"It doesn't seem like birds..."

The youth's eyes widened further.