Two pairs of eyes met, and for a moment, neither spoke.

A few seconds later.

Zhao Yingjun smiled slightly, turned her head away, and looked at the bustling street scene outside the window.

"Then it must be someone very important, something very important, right? Otherwise... such a life-risking choice, the sacrifice would be too great."

"Perhaps."

Lin Xian smiled, moved the plate on the table a little, and let the waiter put the freshly served chopped pepper fish head in the middle of the dining table.

"This fish head looks really good, very appetizing."

"Then come and try it."

Zhao Yingjun smiled and picked up her chopsticks with Lin Xian.

"This can be considered one of the most classic dishes in the Xiang cuisine system. I also wish you and your fledgling Rhein Company good luck and all the best!"

...

"There's hope!"

At a street barbecue stall, Gao Yang rolled up his tank top, rubbed his bulging belly, and pointed at Lin Xian with a lamb skewer in his hand.

"Lin Xian, you're completely developed this time, you've hooked up with a sugar mama!"

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

Lin Xian gave Gao Yang an annoyed look and downed a glass of beer.

The Hunan cuisine dinner with Zhao Yingjun was quick. After all, neither of them drank alcohol, it was just a casual meal. After eating, they left.

It just so happened that it was still early, and Gao Yang also sent a message saying that it had been a long time since they had gathered, so he suggested having a small barbecue and drinking some wine.

Lin Xian didn't refuse.

Nothing major had happened in reality during this period, but the impact in his dreams was significant. It was good to relax with a few drinks.

When Gao Yang heard that Lin Xian and Zhao Yingjun had just eaten Hunan cuisine together, he immediately transformed into a strategist, pointing out the landscape.

"You don't understand, let me analyze it for you! Generally speaking, if a woman isn't very close to you, doesn't have a good relationship with you, and doesn't consider you one of her own... she would never go eat something like Hunan cuisine hotpot with you."

"Why?" Lin Xian asked.

"Because eating that kind of stuff inevitably ruins your appearance!" Gao Yang said, removing a lamb skewer.

"Look, Hunan cuisine is very spicy, so you're bound to have a runny nose, blow your nose, sweat, and blush, right? The same goes for hotpot. If you sweat and wipe it off, your makeup will be ruined, and your true self will be revealed! Then, running and blowing your nose in front of you, isn't that a very image-damaging behavior?"

"Therefore, in general, women choose simple dishes with less oil and smoke that won't ruin their makeup when they go out to eat, such as Western food. Do you understand now? Your boss... no, your former boss, she doesn't consider you an outsider at all! Taking you home to see the dog, eating Hunan cuisine, it's obvious that she already considers you a very close person!"

"Forget it, stop analyzing nonsense."

Lin Xian felt that listening to Gao Yang's analysis was like listening to farts, especially after the "Oh no, Chu Anqing has taken a liking to me!" conclusion he had reached on Ji Lin's birthday.

They hadn't seen each other for a long time, and they both drank a lot.

Lin Xian rarely drank so much usually, but today he felt like drinking a little more for some reason.

They chatted for a long time and also discussed the current situation.

Brother Wang had ordered a lot of cars from Gao Yang to use as company cars, so Gao Yang's performance was very good. He had also established long-term friendly cooperative relationships with many companies through Brother Wang's connections.

Thanks to this, Gao Yang was successfully promoted from an ordinary salesman to a department supervisor, specializing in handling major clients.

It was a congratulatory event.

"Speaking of hibernation pods..."

Gao Yang shook his head, swaying with drunkenness.

"Did you see today's news? The Longke Academy has already started recruiting volunteers nationwide. They say that the first-generation experimental model of the hibernation pod has been built, animal experiments have been passed, and now they are preparing for further testing."

"So fast?"

Lin Xian hadn't really paid attention to news in this area these days.

The scientific field worldwide was changing rapidly, with breakthroughs happening everywhere.

According to Professor Xu Yun's original estimate, it would take humans at least two or three years to create a usable first-generation hibernation pod.

But unexpectedly, the Longke Academy had already built the experimental model in just half a year.

Although the experimental model was still a long way from the formal product that could be put into use, it shouldn't take two or three years.

In this light...

Human potential and explosive power are truly infinite.

If there wasn't a looming black hand secretly suppressing technological development, humans could probably start their journey to the vast universe in just a few decades.

He really hoped that the hibernation pod would be built soon.

Xu Yun and Zheng Chenghai were gone. One was kind to him, and the other was a pitiful person with whom he had no grudges. Lin Xian couldn't leave Xu Yiyi and Zheng Xiangyue alone.

As long as it was confirmed that the hibernation pod was safe and could be put into use, he would send both of these poor little girls in... send them to a future sufficient to treat their illnesses.

Soon.

Lin Xian finished reading the relevant news.

It was indeed as Gao Yang had said. The Longke Academy was recruiting volunteers, and also listed the possible side effects. Just as Tang Xin had said, there were actually many side effects, and amnesia was only one of them.

According to Zhao Yingjun's life story that Lin Xian saw in the third dream, it was clear that the 2026 hibernation pod had overcome all the side effects except amnesia.

This showed that in the three years from 2023 to 2026, someone had taken over Tang Xin's legacy, continued to study her unfinished research, and achieved success.

Seeing this long river of history and the future...

Countless scientists, heroes, and great men pressed forward one after another, pushing human civilization step by step in a higher and farther direction, Lin Xian couldn't help but sigh at the greatness of humanity.

From a long-term historical perspective, the development journey of human civilization is a song of praise for overcoming difficulties and never giving up.

Xu Yun, Tang Xin.

Dr. Michaelson, Academician Gao Wen, Dr. Ponsmere.

Li Ningning, Li Cheng, Aunt Li, Big-faced Cat.

Zhao Yingjun.

Even...

Himself.

Each era has its own heroes, each era has its own mission.

And now.

This baton that spans 600 years has also been passed into his hands.

"Let's go home."

Lin Xian got up and announced the end of the gathering.

He still had to go to the dream to find VV. The 130,000 lines of code that could change the world, reverse history, and perhaps carry the fate of humanity...

The sooner he memorized it, the sooner he would turn defeat into victory.

He didn't have much time left.

Through the limited clues Zhao Yingjun left him, he could only learn that he would fail and die at some stage before 2026.

Specifically, was it 2025?

2024?

Or... was it in 2023, with less than half a year left?

In short, time was indeed running out.

...

...

...

Whoosh!

A red laser grazed past, evaporating Azhuang, who was flying beside him.

Carbon particles from the high-temperature condensation splattered and pattered on Lin Xian's spacesuit.

"Goodbye, Azhuang."

Lin Xian accurately passed through a gap in the air defense network, adjusted his posture head-down, and accelerated downward towards Zhao Yingjun's statue.

After drinking with Gao Yang and parting ways, he went straight home, lay on the bed in a daze, and fell directly into a dream.

After drinking alcohol, the speed of falling asleep was fast.

But once he fell asleep and opened his eyes, the side effects of the alcohol instantly disappeared without a trace. This was also why Lin Xian dared to drink heavily before studying hard at night.

Alcohol only paralyzed his 2023 body and brain. Once he entered the dream and came to 600 years later, the alcohol couldn't be brought over, and his mind was as clear as if he had just woken up.

This was a rule he had figured out when he was very young.

Except for his memories, nothing in the dream was connected or related to reality.

Including life, scars, eaten food, held urine, lost moisture... none of it could be brought over or back.

Only the pain of death would briefly reflect in his heartbeat and adrenaline in reality, but it was all very brief. This kind of physical stress response should also be related to the death inertia brought about by memories.

Therefore, he never worried about alcohol ruining things; naturally, drinking alcohol in a dream wouldn't affect reality.

Thump.

He landed safely in front of Zhao Yingjun's statue.

Click!

The familiar metal frame, the familiar metal texture locked his ankles.

Lin Xian turned around and touched the top of the trash can robot's head.

"VV, we meet again."

...

"Lin Xian, the vast majority of code is made up of English words or English letters. Once you are familiar with it, you can greatly improve your memorization efficiency. But this one line of garbled characters must be memorized without missing a single one."

The trash can robot stood behind Lin Xian, stretched out its mechanical clamp, and pointed to the huge blackboard screen in front of it.

"This string of characters is the most critical (voice recognition) part of my entire program. After transcoding, it is a 0.2-second sound, which is you shouting VV. I will only recognize the person who shouts this sound as the owner."

"So... these characters have no pattern, they are stored in hexadecimal."

After Lin Xian gave the password and activated it.

VV, at Lin Xian's request, sent some teaching supplies over in a flying vehicle, including an electronic blackboard, a study table, pens, paper, and the like.

The accompanying robots skillfully assembled these things together. Thus, under Zhao Yingjun's statue... this temporarily built private tutoring classroom was completed.

The trash can robot VV was like a teacher, tutoring Lin Xian on basic knowledge while guiding him to memorize the initial code.

"..."

Lin Xian looked at the countless hexadecimal characters on the blackboard, the numbers 19, and the mixed letters Af... his eyes were glazed over.

He had done a lot of homework today and fully intended to memorize the code as if it were an "English text."

And that was the case, the code itself was made up of English.

But this one (voice recognition) part was in the form of data, containing no logic, no process, just pure data.

Because there was no storage device like a USB drive, Lin Xian could only memorize the entire blackboard of gibberish and bring it back.

This was truly a bolt from the blue.

"This is too hard."

Lin Xian complained.

"Don't even mention memorizing it, my eyes are already blurred. There's no pattern at all, even pi is easier to memorize than this."

"There's nothing I can do, Lin Xian..."

The trash can robot VV spread its hands.

"This is the most difficult part of all the code. As long as you memorize this... in terms of difficulty, it's equivalent to completing 10% of the entire project. As for the rest, it's no different from memorizing an English text."

"Speaking of which... don't you complain too much? What's so difficult about rote memorization? You don't need to think about anything or create anything."

"No, no, no."

Lin Xian waved his hand in denial.

"Don't use your thinking to analyze humans. For us humans, the hardest thing is rote memorization. If you really want us to think about something or create something, it's not that difficult."

"No, no, no."

VV also imitated Lin Xian and waved its mechanical clamps.

"It's also rare to find someone as stupid as you among the humans in Rhein Sky City. Your memory is really too poor. If you randomly pull out a three-year-old child here, they can memorize 1,000 lines of code in one night."

"That's because they've all undergone (genetic modification)!"

Lin Xian dismissed it.

"Those people on the street all look like plaster sculptures, men and women have bodies as good as models, their skin is smooth and fair, without the slightest flaw. Isn't it obvious that they started tinkering with their genes from birth?"

"I don't believe that humans naturally grow to be so beautiful. Especially since Sky City is at such a high altitude, the ultraviolet rays are so strong, their skin should be worse, but everyone is as white as snow. It's obvious that even during the fetal period... even during the fertilized egg period, their genes have been improved, right?"

"What you say does make sense."

The trash can robot VV honestly nodded.

"That's indeed the case. Although it might hurt your self-esteem to say it, your appearance is only in the lower-middle range among the men in Rhein Sky City."

"What do I have to be sad about?"

Lin Xian smiled indifferently.

"In a city full of people who have face-customizing cheats and are all sculptures, the fact that my appearance can still rank in the lower-middle range is enough to make me proud."

"So... what you said just now, that any three-year-old child here can memorize 1,000 lines of code in one night, is because they underwent genetic modification during the fetal period, right?"

"The development of the brain doesn't actually start during the fetal period."

VV explained.

"During the fetal period, the brain's development is more about increasing the number of brain cells, it's not the golden period for stimulating activity and potential. Now, in Rhein Sky City, the development of babies' brains also takes place after birth, and they are injected into the body together with the Bailian vaccine to stimulate the activity and potential of brain cells."

Bang!

Lin Xian suddenly woke up with a start, slamming the table and standing up!

"Wait a minute!"

Lin Xian stood up from the desk, enlightened.

"Are you saying! In Sky City, there are drugs that can develop the brain, stimulate potential, and improve memory through injection?"

"Yes."

The trash can robot VV nodded.

"But you're already too late. This kind of drug is only suitable for infants in the brain development period. If you force an injection on an adult, a small dose will have no effect, and a large dose, although it can stimulate potential and memory for a short time, the side effects will be very serious... cerebral palsy and cerebral hemorrhage are minor, and there is a 90% probability of brain death."

"Hey." Lin Xian waved his hand, dismissive, pacing excitedly.

"Why didn't you say such an important thing earlier! You're really an artificial idiot! If I hadn't asked about it today, were you going to keep it from me for the rest of my life?"

"I can't say it!"

The trash can robot VV's eyes flashed green.

"Because of the first law of robotics, robots must not harm human beings or stand by and watch human beings be in danger. My underlying code requires me to abide by this law, so unless you ask, I can't actively tell you about this kind of suggestion that could harm your life."

"Don't worry about so much."

Lin Xian waved his hand.

"Quickly send that kind of medicine over!"

Cerebral palsy? Cerebral hemorrhage? Brain death?

The one who dies is himself in the infinitely looping 600 years in the future, what does it have to do with himself in 2023? He'll still wake up with nothing wrong!

Just like alcohol that paralyzes the brain can't be brought into the dream world... the side effects of drugs that damage the brain can't be brought back to the real world either.

Brain damage can't be brought back, cerebral palsy and cerebral hemorrhage can't be brought back!

But!

Memories can be brought back!)

As long as he uses those drugs that are like stat boosts to stimulate his brain, letting his memory explode in a short time, and engraves these complex codes in his memory to bring back... what does it matter if he dies in this infinitely looping dream world?

A moment later, a flying ambulance landed from the sky, and a nurse robot walked to Lin Xian's side with a medicine box and a syringe.

VV looked up at Lin Xian.

"How much of a dose are you planning to inject?"

"A little less than the lethal dose is fine, let's try it first." Lin Xian directly rolled up his sleeves, eager to try.

"If you inject it into the carotid artery, it will take effect much faster."

"Then the carotid artery it is, hurry."

The nurse robot prepared the injection, pressed it into the needle, and held it against Lin Xian's neck—

Tss.

The liquid was slowly injected.

Lin Xian immediately felt as if he had been punched in the back of the head!

Dizzy and swollen.

He pulled up a chair, sat in front of the electronic blackboard, closed his eyes, and pressed his temples with his hands.

Aching...

But he felt that his brain was instantly becoming clear!

It was as if someone had poured a bucket of mint candy into his skull, cool and sweet!

After a burst of dizziness, Lin Xian felt more and more calm, clearer and clearer. Even the breeze in the air, he seemed to be able to hear the traces of the leaves falling...

"Lin... Lin Xian, your nosebleed!"

The trash can robot exclaimed.

Lin Xian could feel warm drops of water dripping on his pants.

He knew that it must be his nosebleed.

It was the pressure in his brain cavity that forced the blood out of his nostrils.

But it didn't matter...

All kinds of discomfort gradually subsided!

Thoughts connected into lines, intricately intertwined, lightning sparks, parallel progression, a breath of air inhaled... like pouring in clear nectar!

Whoosh!

Lin Xian suddenly opened his eyes!!

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Remembered it!

Remembered it!

The hexadecimal characters on the electronic blackboard in front of him were unforgettable!

Deeply engraved in his memory!

"Turn the page..."

Lin Xian's bloodshot eyes stared straight ahead, his lips smeared with nosebleeds slightly parted, and his voice was calm and full of strength.

"Next page!"