Genius Playground

Chapter 331: Chapter 13: Rabble, Part 2

“But, there’s a rumor… They say that deep beneath the Human Civilization Memorial Hall in East Sea City, there’s a secret room that even Pompey himself doesn’t have the clearance to enter!”

“You have to understand, Pompey is the creator of this Virtual World. He has the highest level of clearance, so it’s hard to imagine a place he can’t get into.”

“A lot of people suspect that room holds the greatest secret of the entire Virtual World. That’s also why the memorial hall here has never, ever been open to the public.”

“What’s more, not only is security in this area tight, but it’s also completely sealed off by Permission Walls… those invisible virtual barriers that make it fundamentally impossible for anyone to cross even a single step.”

“So, this memorial hall is the most impregnable fortress in the Virtual World. There’s no way to break in.”

Jiang Ran looked up.

“Then what are we wasting our time for?”

As a computer science student, Jiang Ran knew full well that in a Virtual Digital World like this, the highest mountain, the longest river, the most insurmountable barrier… was, in reality, all about permissions.

Everything here was made of data and operated on rules completely different from the real world. If the program restricted entry to an area, then it was, in the most absolute sense, impossible to enter.

Take the Permission Wall Sang Biao had just mentioned, the one that was impossible to cross by even a single step. In the Virtual World, creating something like that was easy.

In the real world, theoretically, no wall is truly insurmountable. Even the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, was conquered by humanity long ago. Even the atmosphere, hundreds of kilometers high, could be traversed by space shuttles.

But in a Virtual Digital World, if you were to program an invisible wall that was infinitely high, infinitely long, infinitely deep, infinitely hard, and indestructible… then it would be, in the most absolute sense, insurmountable. Not even a god could get past it.

Because in the Virtual World, a god would also be just electronic data, equally subject to all sorts of permission restrictions.

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

“So, you’re telling me there’s a room down here that even Pompey can’t enter, and it’s behind a Permission Wall that’s impossible to cross? Then what are we even doing here? We should just pack it in and go home.”

“Hey, what’s your hurry! I’m not finished! Can you have a little patience?”

Sang Biao waved a fat arm, interrupting him.

“But at 10 AM sharp this morning, all of those Permission Walls vanished! And I was absolutely the first one to notice!”

He snorted, full of confidence.

“Ever since I hatched my plan to get Pompey’s treasure, I’ve come here every single day to stake it out and look for a way in.”

“For all those days before today, this place was locked up tight, no weaknesses at all. But at exactly 10 AM this morning, every single Permission Wall vanished!”

“The fully-armed robots on the surface are still operational, so we can’t break through from the front. But we’ve been exploring these sewage pipes for a long time. I know these sewers like I know my own intestines!”

“Er…”

Jiang Ran held up a hand, but hesitated to speak.

In the end, he swallowed the sarcastic comment on the tip of his tongue and decided to just accept Sang Biao’s… incredibly apt metaphor.

‘Still, the timing was incredibly interesting.’

’10 AM sharp, all Permission Walls vanished… Wasn’t that the exact moment I traveled through time and arrived in the year 2045?’

‘Is this a coincidence, too?’

‘Could it be… my sudden arrival didn’t just overload the server Pompey had spent years developing, but also shattered the Permission Walls?’

For some reason, a particularly interesting meme came to his mind.

The image showed two little kids fighting, with the caption: “Two supreme masters wage war to the desolate edge of the universe, grinding the very fabric of reality to dust.”

Ahem.

Jiang Ran didn’t think he was that capable.

‘Besides, the number 3911 in Pompey’s last letter proved he had calculated the end of the Virtual World years in advance. Surely he couldn’t have had the power to see the future, to know that I would arrive today, right?’

‘That was just too ridiculous.’

‘Because if Pompey really could see the future, he wouldn’t have committed suicide out of regret, and he wouldn’t have orchestrated this whole operation to destroy human civilization.’

So, Jiang Ran’s gut feeling was still—

‘The Virtual World’s cycle of crashing and rebooting every 39 minutes and 11 seconds had nothing to do with his arrival. It was simply a problem with the world itself.’

“This way.”

Sang Biao pointed to a corner of the sewer, and continued to lead Jiang Ran forward.

“We’re definitely not the only ones after Pompey’s treasure. We have to race against the clock and grab it before anyone else realizes the Permission Walls are gone!”

“You’re pretty lucky, then.”

Jiang Ran looked at his digital watch.

“The Permission Walls just so happened to disappear today, and you just so happened to be the one to discover it.”

“That’s because I’ve been staking this place out for ages!”

Sang Biao snorted.

“No wonder! It’s like they say: the early worm gets eaten by the bird. Hell, I started staking this place out three years ago!”

“So… heh heh, I actually know something that nobody else does! And it’s that very secret that convinced me Pompey definitely hid a treasure down here! Something truly priceless!”

“What is it?”

Jiang Ran was instantly intrigued.

“Quick, tell me, Brother Biao. What’s the exclusive scoop?”

Sang Biao stopped, made a show of looking left and right, then leaned his pudgy face close to Jiang Ran’s ear.

“I’m telling you this in secret, so you absolutely cannot let anyone else know!”

“Don’t worry, Brother Biao.”

Jiang Ran spread his hands.

“Right now, inside your intestines… ah, no, I mean inside this sewer, there are only the three of us. No one else is going to hear.”