Two decades ago, in the era of the second-generation photon computer, the psychological nervous connectivity technology could already read the user’s memory. In other words… in that era, many countries had this phase of anti-nervous connectivity technology and protection of human privacy. But in the end… humanity bowed to technology because technology not only changed the world but could also change humanity’s living status and consciousness. Society’s suspicion of new things still remained, but some would survive while others would be eliminated.
The mass usage of landlines, the emergence of the beeper, the rise and fall of the mobile phone, the advent of iPhone…
Personal computers became everyday objects, internet seeped into everything, the domination of markets by software companies, the arrival of the electronic era…
The examples were endless. Humans were far more pliable to change and forgettable than they credited themselves, so the rivers of time would never stop.
For example, by the year 2020, people have gotten used to ad messages and scam phone calls. People have gotten used to plugged-in ads and various underhanded promotions. People are used to filling up their personal information in various forms or sharing it all online.
Therefore, as a youth living in 2055, Feng Bujue could completely digest what was happening before him, and he naturally accepted this setting.
“Fine… memory space it is,” Feng Bujue said. “How difficult can it be? Am I to be trapped inside my own home?”
He opened the cupboard, took out a large towel, and tried to dry himself as good as possible. Even though it did not help game-wise, it made him feel better. Suddenly, Feng Bujue was reminded of something. He put down the towel swiftly, ran to the sink, and took out a first aid kit from the small cupboard above the sink.
“Oh… it’s just like the one I have at home.” He opened the box. He inspected the items through the menu, wishing to find one that could cure the broken bone status. Unfortunately… there was none.
Brother Jue’s first aid kit only had normal stuff, like bandages, ointment, alcohol spray, tweezers, scissors, and so on. One needed a cast to deal with broken bones or at least two wooden boards to fix the leg. After some ransacking, Brother Jue groused, “So, my house has such lousy first aid preparation. If I slip in the shower and break my arm or leg, it’ll be over for me.”
With nothing else to go on off, he picked up the towel to wipe the water off his body again. Once he was drier, he blew himself with the hair drier. Then, he used the bandaged to wrap around his knees and leg.
“Okay… let’s see what I have,” Feng Bujue said as he placed the items one by one into his inventory and then took them out. This way, all the items would turn back to their unwet state.
“A match, a folding knife, a Nokia phone… Oh, it still works even though it has been soaked.” He could not help but sigh in relief as he saw the screen come on. “A small notebook, a ballpoint pen, a lighter, a flashlight with battery… And what I originally had in my inventory.”
He placed all these things on the ground, and he leaned against the side of the tub. He lowered his head slightly and used his left hand to support the elbow of his right hand. He placed the pointing and middle fingers of his right hand on his forehead and slowly slid them down his nose. When he went through his habitual action, Feng Bujue had already collected and arranged the information he had so far. He snapped his finger and smiled.
“There is no place like home…” He repeated the first message in the experiment zone. “So, that is a reference to this situation… It seems the game has just begun.”
Feng Bujue put away the stuff on the ground and drank a health potion. With the self-recovery, his Life Points had risen to sixty percent. Then, he stood up and tried to walk around. The pain from his left leg had diminished. As long as he did not move too fast, the small pain could be ignored. He could move around with some wiggling here and there. Feng Bujue was particularly sensitive to doors in-game, so he did not hurry to explore his own bathroom but headed to the door and examined the lock.
A bathroom door naturally did not need a key and a keyhole. There was just a doorknob. From inside the bathroom, under the doorknob, there was simple turning lock and a latch lock. In other words, the door could only be locked from the inside. There was no way one could be trapped inside.
Feng Bujue extended his hand and tried to turn the doorknob, but at that moment, the system announced, “There is a swirling evil energy curled outside the door. are you sure you want to open the door?”
“Huh? F*ck… The game is not afraid of mentally scarring its players? This is my own damn home!”
Well, in any case, he was not going to get any mental scars.
“There hasn’t been a single hint since we entered the scenario, but once I touched the doorknob, this announcement came.” Feng Bujue let go of the doorknob. “Then this is a instant-death trap…”
He moved backward in thought.
“Then… undeniably there is something I need to solve in this bathroom…”
With that thought in mind, he turned the lock and put on the latch before turning back to focus on the bathroom.
For Feng Bujue, cleanliness was godliness, but he was not obsessed with it. His home… looked like a bachelor pad. It was between clean and dirty, but there was order within chaos. In any case, he could easily remember which item was placed in which corner of which room.
Therefore, his search was very efficient.
In about five minutes, Feng Bujue scanned the bathroom, comparing it to the one in his memory. Generally, this place was no different from his bathroom in real life. Everything was there—soap, shampoo, toilet cleaner, brush, aspirin… Everything was shown as a tool or consumable. Nothing was shown as ’plot item’.
But… Feng Bujue still found something strange.
Just above the bathtub, the pattern of the shower curtain seemed to be different from what he remembered.