Huo Wuling and Herinos looked over at the same time to see a man appear inside of the protective shield and pull Ji Ning into a tight hug.
He was a young man, wearing a white uniform. He had a handsome face, inky black hair, and a white earphone in the shape of a wing attached to his right ear. His hands were covered by a pair of white gloves and he wore black leather shoes. A faint cold light seemed to surround his whole body and the edge of his figure was faintly transparent, giving an inhuman, mechanical feeling.
Herinos frowned and glanced at Lai, but the Necromancer seemed to have no intentions of doing anything, so he asked, “Who is he? Do you know him?”
“No, I don’t know him.”
Lai easily denied, “But I have seen him in ‘time’. He controls ‘here’ and comes from the same world as teacher. He knows everything about teacher.”
“So he’s similar to a God?” Huo Wuling raised the corners of his lips and seemed to be very interested, but his gaze remained cold.
Future didn’t respond to them, continuing to gently cradle Ji Ning, but he raised his warm eyes to look at them one by one.
Suddenly the protective shield broke and the last remaining pieces of sky and ground shattered. The final false layers peeled away and everything fell into darkness.
After a while, the world lit up again, a pure white world which shone with a faint light.
This was the data world.
The world that had surrounded them only minutes ago had been transformed into data and no longer existed. Only the protagonists who had been in contact with Ji Ning remained inside this pure white space. Fu Qinghan and the other protagonists who had been suddenly transferred were on guard, watching each other suspiciously before one by one, they focused their attention on Future.
“…Hello.”
Seeing that everyone had appeared, Future finally spoke. The data around him formed a virtual bed. He gently placed Ji Ning on the bed, straightened up, and continued.
“My name is Future, and I am the operational AI of the Future system.”
“Who are you? What is the Future system? What are you going to do to him?”
After opening his eyes, Ark found himself inside a strange world. In front of him there was an unfamiliar man holding an unconscious Ji Ning. Filled with anxiety, he wanted to attack the unknown opponent and save Ji Ning, but he found both his strength and his movements were restricted.
They were just a few metres away, but it was as if there was an invisible barrier between them, stopping him from getting close.
“Please don’t be impatient.” As always, Future’s voice was cold and calm, “I will let everyone understand the whole story.”
Once he finished speaking, a white beam of data surrounded them, transmitting digital memories into the minds of everyone present.
Before this moment, neither Qin Ruwang nor Ying Qianqiu had ever been exposed to the interstellar future, but due to the rapid transmission of data, they received a lot of information in a short period of time and could understand the existence of Future.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The ‘Future’ system had been very recently developed in Ji Ning’s world as an experimental medical system. After Ji Ning suffered a serious accident, putting him on the verge of death from a traumatic brain injury, the ‘Future’ system was used for the first time to continuously stimulate Ji Ning’s brain activity in order to prevent him from suffering brain death.
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But there was no other way to keep Ji Ning’s state stable with the current medical technology. His family had quickly agreed to the hospital’s use of Future. Even if it was a big risk, it was better than letting him die.
In this era, AI technology was well developed and reliable. The instability of the ‘Future’ system was because the core AI was developed using the brains of dead people.
This method had never been done before. Although the technology was crude, Future had the human ability to think independently. Its complex cognitive abilities were far greater than ordinary AI, which were incapable of thinking beyond their programming.
Yet it was precisely because Future had both the creativity of human thinking and the high speed operation of AI that it could continuously stimulate the operating capacity of Ji Ning’s brain. Ordinary AI would never have been able to keep all areas of his brain alive and fully functioning.
After analysing Ji Ning, Future decided that the best way to keep his brain active was to keep giving Ji Ning tasks to complete. Using this method, the more complicated and difficult the worlds and tasks, the better. Future created many different worlds for Ji Ning and presented them to him as novels. If he needed to, he would have kept giving Ji Ning worlds to complete forever.
“What do you mean,” Huo Wuling narrowed his eyes dangerously, “Everything in our worlds, including us are fake, just illusions created by you?”
“You’re not creations.” Future said, “My creative abilities aren’t that powerful, but because there was a problem with my operating procedures, I shared my thinking with you. To be more precise-”
His eyes slowly swept over everyone present.
“You are me, and everyone else here. We all share the same mind.”
…
“You say we’re the same person?”
Ozer laughed at the ridiculous idea. “Can you even be considered ‘human’?”
Just now, Future had injected a lot of information into their consciousness, including information from the ‘outside world’, Future’s creation, and what had happened to Ji Ning. However, Ozer suspected that someone had invaded his spiritual power. It was simply impossible to accept this information when there was the possibility that someone had tampered with his memories.
Yun Yuan’s expression also turned cold. He could understand Future’s explanation. It was the same as when he separated pieces of his spiritual consciousness. The fragments of his consciousness were still connected to his mind and original body, even though they had their own thoughts. Even if he erased the existence of the original from the fragment’s memories, it didn’t mean the original no longer existed and it didn’t stop them from being the same person.
However the ridiculous thing was that his cultivation was one step away from becoming an immortal, yet the original suddenly appeared in front of him and said that he was just a fragment whose memory had been erased. It wasn’t rational to deny everything he had experienced in his life, and it wasn’t fair.
“I know what you’re thinking.”
Future said, “I’m sorry about this, but for Ji Ning’s sake, I can’t explain everything to you. If Ji Ning realises this world is a simulation, he will wake up in the middle of the operation, which will likely kill him.”
The external operation also impacted the simulated world. If there were complications during the operation, not only would Ji Ning’s body be in danger, but the simulation would also deteriorate.
In fact, there had been a lot of problems at the start of the operation, and coupled with the instability of the ‘Future’ system there had been an accident right from the beginning. Parts of Future’s consciousness had entered the protagonists of the simulated worlds, allowing them to generate their own emotions and memories.
So from the very beginning, these protagonists were not the simulations they were supposed to be, but carried their own consciousness. Future was meant to be the only free thinking component, using the protagonists as terminals to act out the scenarios he’d planned, but once they gained individual consciousness, they had equal power to Future himself.
This destabilised the ‘Future’ system even further, but once his consciousness had been shared, Future couldn’t withdraw it at will. If he forcefully withdrew his consciousness and the protagonists had a strong resistance, it would inevitably lead to the collapse of the system.
This situation was reported to the control centre via Future’s data connection, the so-called ‘System Operator’. The control centre responded to Future immediately.
They told Future that the operation couldn’t be stopped as it was the only thing keeping Ji Ning alive. However, since it was also impossible for Future to withdraw his consciousness either, he should take peaceful means to stabilise his split consciousness.
At the same time, they restricted Ji Ning’s amygdala, to prevent any huge emotional fluctuations and to ensure he could always maintain a calm state as much as possible. Since they didn’t know what those uncontrollable pieces of consciousness might do, they had to minimise the risk of any scenario. For example, there was no way Ji Ning could be allowed to fall in love with anyone as that could make him lose the will to wake back up.
At first, everything processed smoothly, but as the operation continued, more problems developed. At the same time, the pieces of Future’s consciousness became more and more difficult to control.
These critical conditions were reflected inside the simulation world, that is, the planes began to merge and the fragments of Future’s consciousness began to appear in front of Ji Ning one by one. All of them loved Ji Ning and wanted his love in return.
These fragments of consciousness caused Ji Ning massive waves of emotional stimulation, enough to break the block put on Ji Ning’s emotions. This was enough to impact his body in the outside world, negatively affecting the operation.
However, because of Lai’s plan, Yun Yuan shattered the void and tore apart the simulation space. The energy generated in a single instant exceeded the ‘Future’ system’s upper limit, causing Ji Ning to wake up for a moment and see the external situation. This glimpse of the outside world was enough to destroy the stimulation world.
Future concluded, “The operation is about to end and I should have been able to gently guide Ji Ning out of the simulation world.”
Future’s eyes fell on Lai, “But because of your interference, this is the situation we’re in. If I try to wake Ji Ning now, it will result in brain damage. What was your purpose for doing this?”
“My purpose is simple,” Lai said, “I don’t want to just disappear.”
After he’d reached a status close to a god hundreds of years ago, he took authority over time and looked into the future, where he saw this current scene.
His world would crumble apart and he would gather with familiar strangers around a man who had a close relationship with teacher.
He knew that his teacher came from a higher world, a world that he wouldn’t be able to reach even if he became a true god. But in the future he saw, he knew that if he could generate a huge amount of energy, he could catch a glimpse of that world. After waiting for hundreds of years, he’d finally grasped the opportunity to see teacher’s world.
And more than that.
He’d come to understand that this man wasn’t just an ordinary medical system. In the past, he’d been human, and had known teacher for a long time…
“You say that teacher’s operation is about to end, right?”
Lai smiled suddenly, an object appearing in his hand. It was Ji Ning’s terminal. He threw the terminal into the whirling data around them and the next second, the pure white space began to change as a new scene was simulated.
This was one of the preparations he’d made in the hundreds of years he’d had to plan. The ‘space’ magic he’d created could fuse with the system’s data. The ‘game’ he’d created was just a decoy as he waited for this moment.
“Why don’t we take a look?”
As the space around them changed, he spoke slowly.
“I’ve released the block on teacher’s emotions. Let’s say we were all in the same world, who would he fall in love with?”
“If he chooses any one of us, the others should take the initiative to integrate with them. This will also restore stability to the simulation that fractured due to our free consciousness and will ensure teacher’s operation concludes smoothly. I don’t think any of you want to watch him die.”
“Everyone’s powers will be sealed and their identities changed. Teacher won’t remember our past or experiences with him. For the sake of fairness, Future will supervise. Of course, if you don’t want to be integrated, it’s best to participate.”
“Come, the final game has begun.”
The author has something to say: This chapter may be a little complicated. Let me summarise:
- It is a fragment attack. Future was the original main body, but he doesn’t count here, and everyone is an equal fragment.
- Ji Ning could never fall in love with any of them due to his emotions being locked, but now Lai has reopened them…
- The final fight has begun
I’m not sure if my meaning has come across clearly enough so let me summarise:
- Future is an experimental medical AI used to prevent brain death
- Ji Ning was his first patient after our MC was in an accident
- Future was just meant to keep Ji Ning’s brain stimulated so that the doctors could properly operate on him, but since he is only experimental (this does not sound MHRA approved) there was an error and parts of his consciousness fragmented into the male protagonists of the worlds he’d created for Ji Ning
- This caused complications in Ji Ning’s surgery and Ji Ning is currently at risk of dying during his surgery
- Lai saw this future and planned to use Yun Yuan in order to catch a glimpse of Ji Ning’s world. At the same time, now that Ji Ning’s emotional block has been released, he’s giving all the protagonists a fair chance to win Ji Ning’s heart
- The person Ji Ning chooses will become the main consciousness, while the other protagonists have to integrate into them
What a plot twist!! (thinking back to the early chapters when I was saying Future was a much better male lead (´∀｀)) I’m impressed that so many people have guessed this because this stupid translator had no idea~
Ahhh, I don’t want them to integrate and lose any of the protagonists, I love them all so much (つ﹏⊂)
My Gu Chen was heartlessly abandoned more than thirty chapters ago – I miss my sweet actor!!
Wait – does this mean Fu Ji is gone???
My final exam is next week Wednesday, so I’ll be missing this Saturday’s update as well (for studying -_-), then back to my regular updates!! Sorry :3
I’M SHAKING IN MY BOOT’S I’M SO EXCITED cue vibrating around the room
Good luck with your exams dear translator~ ٩( ๑^ ꇴ^)۶
Thank you thank you!! This is where it gets complicated ψ(｀∇´)ψ
Wait wait wait okay. So everyone is part of System. And System is made from the consciousness of a dead guy… and System knew Ji Ning before… and Ji Ning wants to live for the sake of the friend who died before him… so System is this friend Ji Ning wants to live for—-so when I made the prediction that Huo Wuling (who has the store where he’s waiting for someone in his mindspace) was connected to the dead friend of Ji Ning… I was technically right!! Except it’s not just Huo Wuling. It’s all of them. Tho he’s still the best.
I don’t want Huo Wuling to disappear 🫠
I have the smartest readers (≧▽≦) It turns out it was Ji Ning’s mysterious friend all along!
I don’t want any of them to disappear, this novel’s so tragic…
Good luck with your exams!!!!
( ﾉ ◕ ヮ ◕ ) ﾉ *: ･ﾟ ✧
Thank you, I’ll work hard!!
The feral energy of a harem of yandere’s vying for Ji Ning’s love has me EXCITED!!!
And the best of luck in your exams!!! All of us in the comment section are rooting for you! ✺◟(＾∇＾)◞✺
*Ji Ning, the emperor who didn’t even want to be there *＼(º □ º l
Thank you so much – everyone here is so lovely, I’ll do my best!!
I feel like Future is MC’s friend who died in the car accident. And likely also like our MC,otherwise there is no way the other fragments will fall in love with him if the core doesn’t have any feelings for him. Maybe after becoming AI he forgot his human memory which cause this all trouble 🤧.
Ji ning maybe will choose his childhood friend
NOOO WHAT ABOUT FUJI AND YUN DAO 😟😟😟😟
additionally, I have a very strong guess on who Future is based on… cough we haven’t seen childhood friend to lovers trope yet cough
oh ew this is going to be a confusing arc
Dang, I expected it but its still a huge plot twist
Oh. My. God.
So this was all a simulation, and ji Ning is the first living person to use this equipment. Did they use the brain of his past friend to make the AI somehow? And the reason all the protagonists, all the versions of future, fell in love with him time and again is because his friend was in love with him..? (But is his friend really dead now?😭)