When Zhao Pengcheng woke up, he found that he was still in the interview room of the prison. His body was back to what it had been when he was younger, with heavy, cold shackles on his feet. He and Aoki faced each other across the table, and neither of them spoke, and the prison guard next to him was looking at them with a strange look.

This should have been a scene from more than thirty years ago?!

He couldn't figure it out, was the long life he had just experienced a dream?

No, it's not at all like a dream from the past. Many of the things in this dream did not exist in his memory, and many of the deductions in the dream were beyond the ability of a conscious individual, and it was impossible for the subconscious mind to create such a dream.

Either this is a real experience, and the time and space twist the moment Aoki escaped from the zero-dimensional corridor, pulling him back in time. But if time is turned back, the physical structure of the brain will also go back to the past, and everything that happens after will not be stored in his brain memory; Either he is in someone else's dream, but this dream is so big, whose spiritual power can support such a huge dream?

Zhao Pengcheng glanced at Aoki opposite.

No way! No matter how strong Aoki's power is, it is impossible to create such a dream. In his long memory, there were many secrets that others did not know, and Aoki should not have known Ronald Cohen, let alone met other comrades in the organization. And the evolution of the organization going forward, Ronald's reincarnation, and what the hospital and the morgue look like, all of which are so real.

Zhao Pengcheng felt a deep fear. This fear does not arise from some emotion or instinct of the human being, but from his consciousness itself.

He didn't know why this was happening, and before parasitism, he was carefree. He, like his companion (now called comrade), has no memory, no feeling, like a blank sheet of paper, nothing. They only obey the call of the race to find parasites and make the race continue better.

They consider themselves to be the highest beings in the universe – spiritual beings, and those who are the lower beings are nothing more than providing them with a physical dwelling place for their better evolution and continuity. Like ants and wasps, they can sacrifice themselves without hesitation for the sake of the entire race, and the individual who leaves the tribe loses the meaning of existence.

However, when he parasitized the humans on this planet, he experienced so many complex emotions. I have experienced the conflict between the group and the individual, the joys, sorrows, and sorrows, and even the life and death that I have just experienced in a long life that I don't know whether it is a dream or reality. The taste of life and death, which in the past, was unthinkable in their race.

"I'm poisoned!" Zhao Pengcheng said.

He was not referring to the poisoning he had drunk his life's chicken soup more than twenty years ago (or more than a decade later), but to the fact that he was now infected with everything that humans had thought was negative.

"No, it should be said - you're awake!" Aoki said on the other side.

"Awake?" Zhao Pengcheng looked at Aoki, "Maybe." Who the hell are you? ”

"I'm Aoki."

"No, you're not human! Oh no, I mean, I don't believe you're a normal human. ”

"To be honest, I don't know who I am, but I don't think I'm not a human being." Aoki said, "In a way, we are similar, but I'm a little better than you, and I know I'm Aoki, but who are you?" ”

"Me?" Zhao Pengcheng thoughtfully, "I"

He wanted to say "I am Zhao Pengcheng", but suddenly found that this was not a completely equivalent answer to "I am Aoki". Aoki is Aoki, there is no doubt about it. And what about him? Is it Zhao Pengcheng? It doesn't seem to be. He represents the interests of a non-human race, and he cannot say exactly what this interest is. Isn't it? But he occupies Zhao Pengcheng's body, and all the humans who know him think that he is Zhao Pengcheng.

"Who am I?"

Zhao Pengcheng moved his body, which was a little numb from sitting for a long time, and the shackles on his feet rattled. The prison guard next to him seemed a little nervous, his eyes fixed on his every move.

He had never thought about it before. Who am I? When he thought about this question, like many of the sages of mankind, he asked a series of questions related to it.

Where am I from?

Where will it go?

What am I doing for me?

What am I doing?

Why am I doing this?

In the ancient history of mankind, individuals have also existed for the sake of the race, and in fact, until now, most of the mission of the individual human beings still seems to be to serve the group, for the continuation of the race and civilization.

Every thought of the philosopher liberates the human personality and makes the existence of the individual more and more meaningful.

Is this an inevitable process of the evolution of all life?

Zhao Pengcheng suddenly began to suspect that his race might not be as advanced as they had thought in the past. When survival is no longer the only goal of life, the liberation and evolution of individuality may be the eternal theme, just as the universe is constantly expanding, and all galaxies are moving away from each other, rather than huddling.

"What do you want me to do?" Zhao Pengcheng asked.

Aoki smiled. He knew that today's meeting was more than half successful, so he leaned back in his chair and said, "Cooperation." ”

"Do you want to be a traitor and do things for you humans?"

"No, it's not us, it's me." Aoki denied, "You don't have to be a traitor, I won't ask you to help humanity destroy your race." You just have to work with me, and in some ways, we have the same goal - to solve the mysteries of this world. ”

"Puzzle solving?"

"Yes. For me, the world is a mystery. I'm a mystery to the world. I believe that I must have come into this world with some kind of mission, just as you came here with a mission. I have made countless conjectures, but I have never been able to convince myself, until I meet you, I think I have found the meaning of existence, which is to stop your aggression and prevent you from destroying the entire human civilization. But from how you've changed over the next few decades, I've seen a lot of things that are different from what I imagined. I have a new understanding of the world, and of course more confusion, so I'm going to solve the mystery. I believe you are as confused as I am now, if not more than I am. ”

Zhao Pengcheng admits that Aoki is right. He can no longer do what he did without thinking as he did in the past, and he will do whatever the organization tells him to do.

"What's in it for me?" He asked.

"Your scalpel is good." Aoki didn't know when there was an extra scalpel in his hand, and the blade was bright and dangling, and it seemed to glow slightly red.

"This" Zhao Pengcheng was taken aback, wasn't this the scalpel he had gathered spiritual power in his dream just now?

Of course, it is impossible for the things in the dream to be brought to reality, so it can only mean one thing, and it is still in the dream!

Zhao Pengcheng looked up, the boxy room, the cold walls, the big red slogans, the prison guards with serious and slightly nervous expressions, everything was the same as the interview room he entered.