Reality Programming Association

Chapter 83: Chapter 35: ”Isolated Island

”Old Yu, we can’t just stand here and watch...” Shi Zuozhou looked at his roommates on the two nearby beds, no longer able to smile.

”What if it’s like you said? If this thing can actually kill people, then aren’t they...”

Yu Xian grabbed his hand. He was conflicted. Reason told him that without any proof or a logical explanation, forcibly dragging them out of the Paradise Dream Realm would not only be met with ingratitude but could also lead to a heated conflict. Emotionally, however, even though he wasn’t close with them, they were still his roommates. He couldn’t just watch them walk into a pit of fire.

”Let’s wake them up.”

Yu Xian sighed. ’Better to get chewed out than have something terrible happen.’

”Okay!”

The two split up. Yu Xian went to Zhang Yang, and Shi Zuozhou went to Li Boxue. They threw open the light-blocking curtains, yanked off their headphones, and shook them vigorously for a long time.

”Boxue, Zhang Yang, there’s a fire! Stop sleeping! Get up!” Shi Zuozhou shouted.

Zhang Yang twitched violently and his eyes fluttered open, completely blank.

After several seconds, his eyes slowly focused, and he made out Yu Xian standing by his bed.

”Yu Xian?” Zhang Yang’s voice was terribly hoarse, as if he hadn’t completely returned from another world.

On the other side, Li Boxue had also woken up. He sat up groggily, saw Shi Zuozhou’s anxious face, and his morning temper flared instantly.

”What the hell are you two doing up in the middle of the night?! This is so annoying! Are you morons?!”

”No, Old Li, just listen to me.” Shi Zuozhou tried to explain, but his voice was unsteady from a lack of confidence.

”That audio file... there’s something wrong with it. We’re worried it’ll be bad for you if you listen to it too much. Seriously, we’re just looking out for your health...”

”You two are being so superstitious. The flood outside has cut off the internet, and we’re trapped in here like prisoners. We finally find something fun to do, and you two have to go and make a big deal out of it.”

Zhang Yang snatched the headphones back from Yu Xian’s hand and looked at them like they were idiots.

”We’re really doing this for your own good. We don’t know where this thing came from, and listening to it too much might cause mental problems,” Yu Xian said gravely.

Li Boxue’s temper had cooled a bit, and his tone softened.

”You two are just like Liang Zhichao’s grandma from my neighborhood. When they were going to install a 5G tower, she insisted the tower had radiation that would cause cancer. She made them tear it down, and the whole neighborhood lost its signal.”

”Alright, alright, we know you mean well. But I didn’t feel anything wrong just now. It’s just like what people online call a lucid dream, and lucid dreams aren’t harmful.” Zhang Yang tried to smooth things over.

”If you guys think it’s dangerous, then don’t use it. I don’t see any problem.”

With that, he ignored them, stuck the headphones back in his ears, tapped the music file to play again, and pulled the light-blocking curtain shut.

On the other side, Li Boxue also put on his headphones and went back to sleep.

A dead silence fell over the dorm room once more.

Shi Zuozhou turned to Yu Xian and silently mouthed, ”We’re screwed.”

Yu Xian shook his head, threw on a jacket, and walked out of the dorm room. Shi Zuozhou quickly followed.

Shi Zuozhou squatted on the ground, clutching his head.

”Old Yu, is there really nothing we can do?”

”You saw the look in their eyes. If it weren’t for the fact that we’re roommates, they probably would have started swinging.”

Yu Xian tightened the jacket around himself.

”I’ve already sent the audio file to Wen Xiao. She’s decompiling and reverse-engineering it right now.”

”Wen Xiao?” Shi Zuozhou paused. ”Can she really do it?”

”She’s very capable. She’s already managed to decipher part of it. As long as we can find the specific malicious code, we’ll have solid proof.” Yu Xian paused.

”Then, whether we go to the police or the university, we’ll have grounds to stand on. And even...”

”Even what?”

”If we can figure out how it works, we might be able to write an ’antivirus program’ to counter their malicious code.”

Yu Xian quietly watched the heavy rain outside. He’d already figured out most of the issues concerning the ”Midnight Bus” audio file.

1. Why could it be played on headphones? Why could it be played on different devices? Because the second ”black box” in the audio file didn’t contain any modifications targeting a specific device’s audio fingerprint.

2. Why could it construct the ”Midnight Bus” scene in a dream? Because the fourth part contained a ”blueprint” for accessing keywords and memories within the brain.

3. Why could he remember the contents of the dream? Wen Xiao speculated it was because the third ”black box” might contain a waveform that suppressed the firing of MCH neurons.

But the more he learned, the more he felt something wasn’t right—

Why was it that the first TDI audio file, which clearly didn’t contain the part that suppressed MCH neuron firing, still allowed him to remember what happened in that dream?

It was a huge logical flaw.

If Wen Xiao’s analysis was correct, a normal person would need the brute-force intervention of the ”third part”—that external patch—to fight the brain’s natural instinct to forget.

So how, without that patch, did he remember everything that happened in the white room from the TDI dream?

’Could it be... that the MCH neurons in my own brain, the ones responsible for forgetting, are inherently different from a normal person’s?’

”Old Yu, what’s wrong?” Shi Zuozhou’s voice echoed in the empty washroom.

Yu Xian snapped back to reality and pushed the thought down. Now wasn’t the time to be analyzing his own physiology.

”Let’s go. We’ll head back for now.” Yu Xian turned around. ”Even if there is some malicious code, it’s not going to take effect in a single night. We still have time.”