Chapter 5: High-Dimensional Analysis
Li County Weaving Institute, a corner of the Imperial Storage.
Liu Sheng woke with a gasp, clutching her neck, breathing heavily, as if she could still feel the pain and suffocation from having her neck sawn off.
She took several deep breaths, and her oxygen-deprived, muddled brain finally cleared. She found herself sitting at her workbench.
In the flickering candlelight, the box that once contained the weird object numbered 34576 had been opened. The weird object, as described, was square and thin like a book, placed on a metal stand beside it. The metal stand was connected to a wooden box, and embedded in the lid of the wooden box was a palm-sized, square, thin piece of white jade polished to a mirror-like surface. Several lines of text were displayed on it:
Item Name: 34576
Analysis Completion: 0%
Effect Description: Unknown
Influence Rank: D
Analysis Evaluation: You are dead.
Points Gained: 0 (Current 0)
Analysis Reward: None, do you still want one?
High-Dimensional Analysis Count: -1 (Remaining 2 times)
This wooden box was precisely the analysis device she had lost!
But what was written on this jade screen displaying the analysis results?
Before, it was just a simple line describing the effect. Now, there were so many other messy things. For a moment, Liu Sheng couldn't understand or interpret these words and symbols.
Suddenly, Liu Sheng felt an intense pain in her brain, as if a thousand needles were piercing deep into her skull. She clutched her head and collapsed onto the desk, feeling every beat of her pulse intensify the agony.
In this intense pain, she seemed to touch upon certain memories.
She remembered.
...
Liu Sheng did not attend the luncheon with the Chief Inquisitor and Zhang Yuanzheng.
She returned to the Imperial Storage and worked for a while, then received the newly acquired weird object 34576 from a colleague. So, she took out her newly modified analysis device from the small locked cabinet beside her desk.
Yes, she had modified the Weaving Bureau's standard analysis device.
In her article, "Analysis of Analysis Paths for Artifact-Type weird objects," she also analyzed the shortcomings of the analysis devices currently on the market: First, they could only analyze the effects of weird objects, and the descriptions were too simple; Second, the classification of danger was too simplistic and crude; Third, they could not analyze non-artifact weird objects such as scenes or formless weird objects, nor could they analyze larger weird objects; Fourth, they still could not trace the origin and source of weird objects.
Therefore, while completing her research paper, Liu Sheng, based on her research into weird object analysis during this period and after consulting a pile of ancient texts, attempted a series of modifications to the analysis device using what she learned from the Tiangong Department of Hanshan Academy.
It took her three months, secretly working little by little during overtime breaks, and she finally completed it last week.
Now, only empirical evidence remained.
weird objects already in the Imperial Storage could not be called upon at will, so she could only use newly entered weird objects.
She waited for a week and finally got 34576.
However, she didn't expect that when she activated the analysis for 34576, something in her brain was instantly drained, like squeezing a sponge. Her exhausted and empty brain caused her to fall into a coma, vaguely entering a dream world that was both real and illusory.
In the dream, she was working overtime, but because she couldn't find the analysis device, she decided to go home early. Now, thinking back, of course she couldn't find it; the analysis device was working in the real world.
And her going home was not to her real home, the home of her parents in Little Green Garden, but to the home of "Yi Yu" in the dream, and she was killed by her mother in the dream for refusing to work overtime.
It seemed that the draining of some substance in her brain when the analysis device was activated caused her memory loss and confused thoughts, leading her to fully immerse herself in the role of "Yi Yu" in the dream, almost failing to find her original self again.
At this thought, Liu Sheng couldn't help but shiver and touched her neck, as if the pain of being severed still lingered.
This dream was too real, with all five senses intact. She could taste the food, feel the temperature, and experience death.
And recalling the details, she seemed to have unknowingly entered another world on her way home.
That world was completely different from the world she was currently in. That world had subways, tall buildings, mobile phones, and computers, whereas her current world was more like the ancient world she understood from "Yi Yu's" memories in the dream. Whether it was the system, life, culture, or thought, it was very similar to the Tang and Song dynasties recorded in historical texts.
However, because of the Supreme God's protection, this world had already lit up a completely different technology tree, gradually embarking on a technological Dao powered by Spiritual Qi.
She looked at the weird object 34576 again. Wasn't that "Yi Yu's" mobile phone? Even the tiny scratches were identical.
She picked up the suspected mobile phone with a specially gloved hand and long-pressed the power button, but there was no response. It might be out of power or broken.
In Liu Sheng's world, communication tools similar to mobile phones, called "spirit message," had already appeared, but they were centered on Formation and driven by Spiritual Qi. The form of use was also more three-dimensional and intuitive due to the use of illusion techniques. However, because they were difficult to make and expensive, they could not be as common as in "Yi Yu's" world, where almost everyone had one.
Liu Sheng, too, admired the latest technological achievements and wanted to study the core Formation Plate structure. She gritted her teeth and bought a lowest-configuration one with three months' salary. Anyway, her food and lodging were mainly provided by the Weaving Institute, and she didn't go out or shop, so she had no other expenses besides buying some Artifact Refining Materials.
How could something like a mobile phone, which doesn't conform to the current technological level, appear in this world?
She couldn't help but recall the allusion from her dream memories—Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly. Zhuangzi dreamed he transformed into a freely soaring butterfly, but after waking, he began to question whether it was Zhuangzi who dreamed of the butterfly, or the butterfly who dreamed of Zhuangzi.
For her, was that world full of modern technology really just a dream?
Or, was this ancient world she was currently in, full of weird objects and with a god's face in the sky, the true dream?
She was a little confused.
She had a guess that during her attempt to use the modified analysis device to explore 34576, she inadvertently triggered some unknown power, perhaps what was written on the jade screen as "high dimension analysis," which brought her consciousness into another world, the world where this weird object was born.
Liu Sheng took a deep breath, temporarily setting aside these chaotic thoughts.
Overthinking was useless. The immediate priority now should be to restart the analysis device.
But before that, she had to eat something.
She clutched her rumbling stomach and checked the clock in the room. It was just past Xu hour, after dinner time. Although she had spent at least three or four hours in the dream, in reality, she seemed to have been unconscious for less than half an hour, which translates to less than an hour.
Normally, at this time, she would still be working and wouldn't have much appetite, so a simple meal would suffice. However, now she felt much hungrier than usual. If there were a cow in front of her, she estimated she would eat it all.
She carefully put the weird object back into its Seal box, pressed the button on the top left corner of the workbench, and a hidden cabinet with a surface covered in Formations popped out of the wall. She opened the cabinet and locked the weird object inside this special temporary storage cabinet.
Then she locked the analysis device back into the cabinet beside the desk. A vague premonition rose in her heart: she absolutely could not let anyone else know about or touch this new analysis device until she had fully figured it out, otherwise, it might lead to a great disaster.
Happy New Year! Get ready for a Happy Spring Festival!