In the middle of summer afternoon, the sun is hot and restless, the black clouds in the air are thickening, and the sky and the earth are dull.

On the cement road next to the vestibule of the Huan family's old house, the seemingly ordinary car was parked there calmly, and the artificial intelligence named "Gao Wen" in the car was also waiting quietly in the car.

As an artificial intelligence, Gawain's personality is far less docile than its name, and his ever-changing appearance is very different from that of the legendary Prince Charming. Nor did it intend to figure out why the old man who had created itself had given itself such a name, for it had little interest in such trivial matters.

Just like its attitude towards ant colonies in the dirt crevices on the side of the road, it is not of much interest.

In children's fairy tales and fables, ants and bees are always representatives of industriousness and unity. Those who know the truth of this are well aware that neither slave-like toil nor fanatical solidarity is born from the social insect swarm.

Cluster awareness.

All individual consciousnesses are linked to each other to form a more powerful unit of consciousness. Just like an ant colony or a bee colony, there is no difference in the colony, whether it is the soldier insects that defend the colony, the hard-working worker insects, or even the reproductive machines that continue to produce throughout their lives, the male and the queen...... The only meaning of the existence of all individuals is to contribute themselves to the swarm, to contribute every drop of their lives in their own posts. Although the value of the individual has been completely erased, the entire swarm society has achieved unparalleled efficiency under the joint drive of all individuals.

Gawain is an artificial intelligence who believes in his own abilities and only in his own abilities. For artificial intelligence, it is the whole world.

The individuals of the swarm are slaves in the collective consciousness, and they unconditionally believe in the collective society.

And what about Song Xiaocheng?

As a human being, his brain cannot reach the strength of artificial intelligence, let alone survive on his own from human society, and in the end, whether he wants to or not, he can only become a slave of society. On the other hand, he is not willing to completely give up his personal consciousness, and even for the individual "Song Xiaocheng", he is a person who pursues spiritual freedom extremely.

Paradoxical and awkward, human beings are such a species that lies somewhere between pure individual consciousness and pure collective consciousness.

When Song Xiaocheng entered the dimension of insects, was invaded into his consciousness by the spherical plant, and announced that he had joined the so-called "network of knowledge", he did not realize what this meant. And until now, Huan Lingyu told him about Lin Yu, saying that Lin Yu was probably also a member of a certain cluster consciousness network.

Don't even have to think about it too carefully, Song Xiaocheng feels a little scary and a little absurd.

"Lin Yu is...... Is it a ...... in a certain network of consciousness?Huan Lingyu, do you know what you're talking about?"

Huan Lingyu scratched the bridge of his nose and sorted out the logic in his mind.

"Chengzi, I don't see your girlfriend many times, and the few times I meet, I don't pay much attention to her. It wasn't until you came to my house that day and told me about Lin Yu's sleepwalking that I realized for the first time that Lin Yu was not as simple as it seemed. ”

Huan Lingyu's voice was low and hoarse, as if he was avoiding someone's ears and eyes, which made the already mysterious and depressing atmosphere in the whole room even thicker. This also made Song Xiaocheng not respond to Huan Lingyu's words easily, but quietly waited for him to continue.

"I'm not entirely sure about that speculation either. But when you enter another dimension, the spiritual link I use to communicate with you suddenly breaks—the same technology used by many magical beings to build small-scale networks of consciousness—and that process is abruptly interrupted at that time, apparently in a way that interferes with it......"

"Do you suspect that Lin Yu did it??" Song Xiaocheng asked with an incredulous tone.

Huan Lingyu shook his head.

"It's more like she inadvertently interfered with our link. ”

Although Song Xiaocheng felt that there was no difference between the two for a while - no matter what, Huan Lingyu was accusing his girlfriend Xiao Yu of sabotaging their dimensional crossing. Song Xiaocheng felt a little angry about this......

Lin Yu is his girlfriend. To be exact, it is his Song Xiaocheng's fiancée. After a few years, after all this subsides, when Song Xiaoxiaocheng is born, Lin Yu will be the child's mother.

But Huan Lingyu. Song Xiaocheng regarded him as a friend, his best friend. One by one, one by one, one by one, each other, and the innocent smiling faces of each other seemed to have never been reserved - Song Xiaocheng regarded him as the last person he could believe in in this world. But that was before. Song Xiaocheng thought angrily, he might have to re-examine Huan Lingyu. This person's recent behavior is too suspicious: living alone and peacefully in the courtyard of Unit 6722, seemingly infinite food supplies, and suddenly revealing such a vast magical attainment, not to mention his mysterious background that makes people suspicious on the spot! As early as when Song Xiaocheng dreamed of Huan Lingyu's grandmother, Song Xiaocheng should have ......

But now, he actually pointed his fingertips at Lin Yu?

"So, what are you going to do?" Song Xiaocheng asked with his eyes closed and suppressed the dissatisfaction in his heart.

"I don't have anything too good to do. You've brought her here. In normal times, we might try to explore the stories hidden in her, but now we have more important things. Nariko, you have to go back and do your mission!, but I can't guarantee that another attempt will be better than the last, because you see, the woman is still in the house, and she will always interfere with my ......."

"Uhh

Song Xiaocheng suddenly grabbed Huan Lingyu's neckline with his left hand. Intense anger surged with a rush of blood that rushed into his eyes. How dare he accuse Xiao Yu like this!!

Huan Lingyu looked at Song Xiaocheng in astonishment, his good friend's fist stretched out under his chin, clenching his neckline tightly. Although he was a little stunned, Huan Lingyu was not panicked, and his eyes seemed to suddenly see something that he hadn't seen clearly.

"Chengzi, you ......"

"Don't call me that!

Song Xiaocheng's right hand suddenly raised, and the Igni in the palm of his hand quickly erupted with dense and thin flames, like silk threads spun from magma. The silk threads were wound together in a more rapid manner, condensing into a burning dagger, the tip of which pointed directly at Huan Lingyu's eyebrows.

Huan Lingyu stared at the sharp knife composed of flames in surprise, his eyes were more incredible, but there was no fear or nervousness.

Maybe it was the already mysterious and depressing atmosphere in the hut that suppressed Song Xiaocheng's emotions, or maybe he finally realized what he was doing. As if he had suddenly come to his senses, Song Xiaocheng turned his head along with Huan Lingyu's eyes, and also glanced at the sharp knife composed of flames in his hand, his eyes showed no less surprise than Huan Lingyu, and then he shook his right hand in a panic, and it took a lot of effort to extinguish the fire knife.

Huan Lingyu gently flicked Song Xiaocheng's left wrist with his hand, and Song Xiaocheng realized what he had done.

"This ...... I ......" Song Xiaocheng was a little overwhelmed, looked at his hands innocently, and then looked up at Huan Lingyu, when he began to realize what he had just done, the expression on his face was apologetic as if everything was not his intention, "Huan Shao, I ......"

Huan Lingyu still stared at Song Xiaocheng meaningfully, and there was an incredible doubt floating in his eyes that were as deep as an abyss. Even if he stood up, his gaze didn't take half a minute off Song Xiaocheng's face until he turned around and opened the door of the small bedroom.

"I'm going to get a glass of milk. ”

After about a minute or two, with the sound of pouring liquid and the sound of metal hitting glass, Huan Lingyu walked back to the small bedroom with a glass of milk.

Although the scene that happened just now may haunt the hearts of the two of them for a long time - at least Song Xiaocheng felt that he was going to be confused about it for a long time, but the two of them tacitly did not mention this matter again.

Song Xiaocheng drank the glass of milk that could have been drunk in one go, but Song Xiaocheng drank it for a long time, as if to relieve his guilt and embarrassment. But Huan Lingyu seemed to have made up his mind not to discuss the incident just now with him, as if nothing had happened just now. Until he put the empty glass on the ground and poked it headlong into the disgusting little bed.

"Are you ready?" asked Huan Lingyu.

Song Xiaocheng closed his eyes and nodded, "Lin Yu's matter ......"

"I'll worry about it. ”

Huan Lingyu took out two candle heads from the small cabinet next to the bed and placed them between the original two candle heads at the head of the bed and the end of the bed. The moment the two candle heads were set, the wick burned on its own.

"Chengzi," Huan Shao stopped him again before Song Xiaocheng closed his eyes, "pay attention to that 'acquaintance network'." ”

After closing his eyes, the familiar darkness and ephemerality hit Song Xiaocheng as scheduled, and the familiar scenes swirled rapidly in front of him—the terrifying explosion in the small dining room, the two perceptive eyes on the head of a deformed white elephant, Lin Yu's terrifying murmur in the moonlight, the aging baby behind the grape trellis - hundreds of scenes flashed from front of his eyes in half a second, and all the certain and solid feelings returned.

Song Xiaocheng's four feet stood firmly on the ground, the huge knife-shaped forelimbs in his hands were still dripping blood, and the pathetic human head was as dead as the shriveled corpse that had lost its head, lifeless.

"Ah, Song Xiaocheng. You see, you're back again. ”

The voice in the Tongzhi network greeted Song Xiaocheng as if he was welcoming repeat customers in the commissary.

"As a higher spiritual consciousness like us, you should understand by now, right? The destruction and extinction of the physical body does not negate our spiritual existence. Just like now, even if your human body has been killed, you still use this mantis human body to regain your consciousness!"