Chapter 108: Dreamscape: The New Resource Star
by xennovelThe two of them chatted and laughed until Ning Shuangshuang escorted Du Qiu down to the ground floor.
Unable to hide his reluctance, Du Qiu said, “Come upstairs for a bit?”
“It’s too late, you should go up by yourself.”
“Alright, but… could you give me a kiss?” Du Qiu suddenly leaned in and whispered to Ning Shuangshuang.
A flash of panic crossed Ning Shuangshuang’s eyes as she retorted, “Don’t get any silly ideas!”
“I’m fantasizing with open eyes.”
“By the way, your first love, Imanka, she probably didn’t get any substantial intel on aircraft carrier construction.”
Ning Shuangshuang changed the subject abruptly, leaving Du Qiu to take a moment before catching on.
He settled back into his seat and looked at Ning Shuangshuang, saying, “She couldn’t have come away with absolutely no intel, right?”
“Indeed, she must have used some sort of device for long-distance detection.”
“Does that still count as not having obtained any intel?”
Ning Shuangshuang smiled mysteriously and said, “I can’t tell you that, but in any case, she didn’t obtain any substantial intel.”
Du Qiu was a bit taken aback, but since this was clearly a state secret, it was improper for him to know too much, so he refrained from asking further questions.
“As long as the country hasn’t suffered a loss, that’s good. I won’t have any more contact with her from now on… don’t bring her up again, okay?”
“Alright then.”
“Well, I’m heading back.” Du Qiu reluctantly pushed open the car door.
“Wait a moment!”
Du Qiu turned around just in time for Ning Shuangshuang to peck his cheek as quick as lightning.
“Hey, that was a sneak attack!”
“Hurry down, someone is coming over there.”
Du Qiu helplessly got out of the car and watched as Ning Shuangshuang drove away, touching his face and remarking, “This feels like being indulged like a child.”
After Du Qiu went upstairs, a figure emerged from the shadows near the building’s door—it was Zhang Mingliu!
She looked up at the windows of Du Qiu’s apartment, her eyes brimming with tears.
Zhang Mingliu had mustered the courage to look for Du Qiu again tonight, but she hadn’t expected to witness the scene of Ning Shuangshuang kissing Du Qiu’s cheek.
It seemed she had truly lost Du Qiu for good.
She walked step by step towards the exit of the residential area, occasionally looking back at the windows of Du Qiu’s home, but eventually, she quickened her pace and left.
It was exactly ten o’clock at night.
Du Qiu arranged the crystal pillow he had made, then laid down on it.
It had been four long months since Du Qiu last entered the dreamscape.
Oh no, that’s not quite right—he could still enter that state where he roamed the universe, but he was no longer connected to alien civilizations’ supermachines.
In light of this, Du Qiu had spent this time diligently developing the Tiangong-1 in parallel with starting to study and research astronomy.
Comparing the star maps from his research with those he had seen in his dreams, he discovered that the locations of the star systems he had seen in his dreams could actually match some in reality.
This revelation amazed Du Qiu; what state of consciousness was he in during his dreams that allowed him to actually voyage through the cosmos?
So what exactly is consciousness?
However, Du Qiu was practical; that question was merely a fleeting thought, for he knew the current level of Blue Star’s technology was not adequate to fully understand what clearly was a divine-level civilization’s technology.
His time was precious, and there was no room for him to focus on this matter; currently, he had the technology to create crystal pillows and to connect with the supermachines using them.
Perhaps, once he managed to reconnect with the supermachines, he would find a way to return to the Processor and possibly obtain information on how the consciousness upload module was manufactured.
With that data, he could replicate the technology, allowing him in reality to control intelligent robots through the crystal cubes.
Of course, if he ever had more money in the future, he could set up a research team and leave such topics to them.
It wasn’t necessary to delve into everything himself; how could one person decipher all of an alien civilization’s technology?
Before he could study much, he would probably have died of old age.
Thinking of death, Du Qiu felt regretful for not having seen the intelligent life forms of an alien civilization. In his opinion, this civilization, being at least level four or perhaps even higher, would surely possess intelligence that far outstrips that of humans from Blue Star.
If he could acquire this longevity-extending technology, that would be the ultimate achievement!
Du Qiu’s head rested on the crystal pillow, and in five minutes, he was precisely on his way to the dreamscape.
Soon, his consciousness began to roam in the vast universe.
Du Qiu noticed something: if he could connect to the alien civilization’s supermachines, his consciousness would follow a set trajectory through the endless void until it connected to the supermachine.
However, during the periods when connection to the supermachine wasn’t possible, his consciousness seemed to float aimlessly, wandering through the cosmic sea of stars.
Having experienced this for four months, Du Qiu found that his head aches, which had previously plagued him, had not occurred for a long time.
Subconsciously, he wondered if he might have healed.
But why, when his consciousness roamed the universe, would his headaches be cured?
What exactly had he hit his head on all those years ago?
Sometimes, he felt the urge to have someone else try sleeping on the crystal pillow.
This thought, however, was extinguished the moment it arose.
Sleeping on a pillow made from crystal cubes, able to voyage through the cosmos and connect to supermachines of an alien civilization—that secret, he would not share with anyone.
All other considerations could wait until he was more powerful.
Or, if he could control the connection to avoid linking to the supermachines of other civilizations, maybe then others could try it.
As Du Qiu’s consciousness traversed the sea of stars, he also continuously memorized the positions of those stars to mark them on his star map upon waking.
Now, the star map Du Qiu had created spanned a sphere with a diameter of about 100 light-years.
Curiously, the center of this sphere was not the solar system where Blue Star was located, but a stellar system in the Pleiades cluster.
Given that the Pleiades cluster is 400 light-years from the solar system, the area extending to the solar system on his star map was still blank.
Night after night, for four months, Du Qiu’s consciousness roamed the starry sea for a long time.
But this night was different; after travelling through just ten star systems, his consciousness suddenly began to speed along a specific path.
As the path stretched out, Du Qiu instantly remembered this was the path to connect with a supermachine!
He was immensely excited.
To be honest, it had been four months, and he had nearly given up hope, fearing that the supermachine had been destroyed in subsequent wars.
As before, along the trail he had traversed previously, after passing through a boundless dark area, a white vortex appeared as expected.
“…… consciousness upload successful!”
This half phrase echoed in the depths of his mind at the instant, and Du Qiu once again beheld those familiar luminous stars.
“I’m back!”
Du Qiu felt like a traveler returning from afar, just about to descend, when he suddenly became alert.
“Don’t be impulsive, be careful!”
Du Qiu forcefully stopped his focus on the egg-sized stars and rapidly checked the three external white vortices for the first-tier protective net.
After four months, who could say whether the Keeper had implanted any new surveillance measures in the processor’s intelligence core?
After all, four months ago, he had reverse-traveled to the processor’s intelligence core and modified the relevant reverse restriction codes.
Even though he had been very discreet, what if it had been discovered by the Keeper after such a long time?
If the Keeper found out, it would definitely realize there was an issue with the processor, and it would then likely know the first-tier protective net was ineffective and would fortify or change the monitoring method.
Reconnecting again, Du Qiu treasured the opportunity and proceeded with caution, knowing that recklessness could cost him this technological treasure trove.
After spending a considerable amount of time on the inspection and noticing some changes in the code of the first-tier protective net, he couldn’t discern any specific targeting measures.
It seemed, it might be, that it was just a routine upgrade.
Afterward, Du Qiu rapidly sensed the status of all stars, gaining a general understanding of the current operational state of the supermachine.
Strange, it seems not to have started any production yet, but it’s already in production status, not transportation status.
Then, Du Qiu passed through the 80 white vortices, checking the state of the sub-intelligence cores; everything was operating normally, with no signs of alterations.
Feeling reasonably assured, Du Qiu finally decided to descend into the intelligence core.
After focusing for several seconds, a message arrived as expected.
“Producer 10220028801 approved for descent. Current task list……”
Hmm? Du Qiu had a very clear memory of his dreams, and he immediately noticed something odd.
He remembered the supermachine producer was renamed by the Keeper as “Producer 10210028801 modified.”
Now it was “Producer 10220028801 modified”!
The fourth digit of that long string of numbers had changed from “1” to “2”. But what did this change imply?
Du Qiu didn’t dwell on it and simply made a mental note.
After descending, he first checked the program he had loaded to modify the first-tier protective net using the computing power of the intelligence core, then quickly scanned through all the modules.
Once certain there were no evident changes, Du Qiu exhaled in relief.
He then cautiously activated the super magnet imaging subsystem of the perception system, choosing not to alter the default perceptive distance.
Then, the images within a 10-kilometer radius gradually materialized, starting from the closest.
To his surprise, there lay a new resource star!
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