Chapter 1 The Same as Before

Zhou Ming returned to his bachelor apartment. Everything was exactly the same as when he had left.

Stepping onto the familiar, slightly worn floor, seeing the unchanged objects in the room, and hearing the whirring of the computer fan from the always-on PC, his thoughts gradually calmed down. A subtle and indescribable feeling stirred in his heart. Zhou Ming stepped over the scattered clutter on the floor and walked to the tightly closed window, looking out at the constantly undulating white fog.

He stared at the fog for a long time, then reached out and pushed the window. As expected, it didn't budge. The flour on the windowsill and the deliberately stacked empty cans remained in their original state, as if silently conveying a lonely and silent atmosphere.

For a long time, he stood quietly by the window, seemingly gazing out at the fog, but with nothing in his mind. Only after an unknown period of time did he suddenly blink, turning his head to the side like a statue coming to life.

Beside the unmade bed, the computer monitor on the desk was faintly glowing. The notification box indicating no network connection still popped up in the lower right corner from time to time. The notebook he had used to take notes before leaving was still thrown in the corner of the desk, a notebook he hadn't touched in a long time.

Zhou Ming walked over, sat down at the desk, and stared blankly at the empty screen for a while. Then, he reached out and dragged the keyboard and mouse that he had pushed into the corner, opened the browser, and casually typed a line of text into the search box: "Outside the fog, does the world still exist?"

Of course, the browser didn't provide any valid search results.

After pressing the Enter key, the cursor on the screen flickered a few times, then a "Network connection interrupted" and "Remote server not responding" error page appeared.

This result was naturally expected. Zhou Ming had known from the beginning. Long ago, when the fog had just sealed off the room, he had already tried various ways to contact the outside world using this strangely malfunctioning computer.

He didn't expect the screen to show anything different from before. He just wanted to type that sentence, without asking anyone, and without expecting any answer.

Listening to the monotonous whirring of the fan, Zhou Ming took a breath and threw the keyboard and mouse back into the corner. Then, he picked up the notebook, randomly opened it to a blank page, leaned over, and wrote carefully on it: "To the world outside the fog, the person in the room sends greetings.

Before too long, I will arrive at that place on the other side of the door. It is a city-state located on the frontier. I am going there to confirm some things, but even if I don't confirm them, I think I already know the answer. Because in that strange world on the other side of the door, countless unimaginable things are really happening, and my intuition there has always been very accurate.

Based on this, I no longer expect a response from outside the fog, nor do I expect anyone to come knocking on my door or window through the fog. I still can't be sure what exactly has happened to this world, but perhaps… it's not me who has changed, but you in my quiet and narrow little house.

Everything is still the same as before. Here I have a bed, a sofa, a coffee table, a desk, and a chair. My wardrobe is next to the bed, and there is also a large shelving unit, most of which is still empty.

I haven't cleaned the room in a long time. There is almost no dust here. I know that most of the dust in human dwellings comes from human skin flakes and pollution caused by daily life, and I don't spend much time here.

So most of the room is actually still very clean… but even without dust, the room now seems a bit cluttered, because I was in a hurry the last few times I returned to the room, and I didn't clean up before leaving.

It's not good to be so messy… If everything is really as I think, I think I should make this room clean and tidy."

"Also… perhaps I shouldn't say this, perhaps saying these things is meaningless, but I hope everything is well with you outside the fog. Goodbye… Now I'm going to clean this room." Zhou Ming took a breath, threw the pen back into the pen holder, and carefully looked over what he had just written. Then, he closed the notebook and placed it in the corner of the desk.

Afterward, he silently got up and began to carry out what he had planned in the notebook, cleaning and tidying the room, starting with the slightly messy bed, making the bed, and arranging the pillows and sheets. Next were the things on the desk, the things on the coffee table, then the wardrobe, the bookshelf, and the clutter on the sofa and floor.

There wasn't much dust, and there was no need to mop the floor. He simply wiped the only dust on the surface of the furniture with a piece of paper, then threw it into the trash can.

In the end, Zhou Ming came to the window. He silently looked at the things on the windowsill, and after standing there for a long time, he reached out and put away the tools he had tried to use to open the window, including the hammer and wrench, into a toolbox beside him. Then, he put the stacked empty cans and other clutter where they belonged.

Then he wet a paper towel, held it in his left hand, and pressed it against the windowsill. He stayed in this posture for a full ten seconds, finally took a deep breath, and slowly wiped across the windowsill. The flour that had been used to confirm whether anyone had opened the window and entered the room was wiped clean by the moist paper towel. Now the room was thoroughly clean and tidy.

Zhou Ming took a breath and calmly surveyed the room, confirming the results of his labor. Then, he picked up a bag of garbage that he had just gathered. The black plastic bag wasn't very heavy, because it mostly contained waste paper and empty cans, but when he picked it up, he still felt that the bag was quite heavy.

He carried the things to be discarded to the door of the apartment and opened it. The dark and surging fog was as ever, rising and falling at the door. The fog seemed to hide all the secrets of this world, but it was so chaotic that it couldn't be understood by reason.

Standing in front of these surging black mists, Zhou Ming hesitated for a moment, then raised his hand and threw the bag of garbage into the fog. At the moment the plastic bag left his hand, he had a strong urge to pull the bag back.

It was as if the waste paper and empty cans were the only treasures left in this world, and he was the only gambler left in this world, who had to desperately hold on to every gram of matter in the room.

However, he suppressed this impulse after all. He opened his hand and calmly watched the plastic bag fall into the other side of the door, instantly disappearing into the surging fog.

He knew that those things would not reach the other side of the door. Only he himself could arrive in that world as Duncan. Apart from that, all matter would disappear into the surging fog when it passed through the door.

Now, the things that should be discarded had completely disappeared from the world outside the room. Zhou Ming wiped his hands and took a step forward, preparing to leave this place. On the other side of the door, Alice was still waiting for him for dinner.

But just as he was about to step across the door, a faint sound caught his attention. It was the sound of the computer fan suddenly speeding up.

Zhou Ming stopped instantly, retracted his steps, and looked in the direction of the sound. On the faintly glowing computer screen, the interface that had previously displayed the "Network connection interrupted" and "Remote server not responding" messages was flickering.

Then, those notification texts suddenly disappeared, and immediately afterward, the loading progress bar at the bottom of the page turned from red to green and began to slowly move forward.

Zhou Ming felt his heart pounding as if it would explode at that moment. A feeling of suffocation filled his chest. The next second, he slammed the door shut and rushed to his desk.

The loading progress bar at the bottom of the browser interface was still moving forward, the faint green light seemed slow and steady, a spreading flame. And on that originally blank page, content was actually being loaded. It was a picture.

Zhou Ming stared intently at the gradually emerging picture. The moon… It seemed to be a view taken directly from somewhere in space. What was presented in the picture was the moon floating in the dark universe, its gray and white surface covered with ring mountains forming ravines.

Like many strange, alternating light and dark patterns. Even if he wasn't an expert in astronomy, Zhou Ming was extremely familiar with this classic image.

And he once again confirmed that the painting he had seen in Tyrian Bey's office was indeed and certainly depicting the moon… The details were exactly the same. Obviously, only someone who had seen the moon with their own eyes and carefully copied it at close range could have created such a picture.

Zhou Ming slowly sat down in the chair, leaned back, and stared, with a frozen expression, at the moon image that almost occupied the entire screen. After a long time, his gaze moved upward to the line of text he had just entered in the search box.

Does the world outside the fog still exist?!

He was silent, and only after a long time did he suddenly wake up from his statue-like state and quickly grab the keyboard beside him, typing new text into the search box: "This is a reply!

Who is giving this reply?!"

After quickly typing these two questions, Zhou Ming stared intently at the computer screen in front of him. However, no one gave a response. No new patterns or loading bars appeared on the screen. Only the cursor was turning in place stiffly, like a silent and sluggish eye.

Apart from the gradually recovering low and faint sound of the fan spinning, all that was left in his ears was the sound of his own breathing and heartbeat.

After a while, the moon image on the screen was refreshed due to loading failure. The interface returned to pale, leaving only a line of text: "Network connection interrupted or remote server not responding."