Chapter 1: Neural Link
Lin Che took a deep breath. The AIr in the Weihuan Technology experience center carried a distinct scent – a mixture of ozone, disinfectant, and an indescribable, faintly sweet perfume. This smell represented the future, represented expense, and represented technological heights that he, an independent game developer, could scarcely reach.
Today, he had gotten incredibly lucky. Through an extremely selective lottery, he had won a first-day experience pass for the world’s most advanced VR device – the “Oracle” Ultimate Edition.
“Mr. Lin Che, this way please.” The guide’s voice was sweet, her smile as standard as if generated by AI. She led him into a pure white room. In the center sat a single, sleek, ergonomically designed silver chair, resembling a piece of modern art. This was the “Oracle” link pod.
“Before we begin, please confirm once more that you understand and voluntarily assume the risks associated with the experience, including but not limited to motion sickness, temporary spatial disorientation, and…” The guide paused, continuing in a softer tone, “…a potential blurring of reality.”
“I understand,” Lin Che nodded, his heartbeat involuntarily quickening. He knew the agreement’s clauses by heart, but to personally experience the legendary “full immersion,” any risk was worth it.
He lay down in the seat as instructed; it felt cool and contour-hugging. The guide retrieved a streamlined silver headset, its interior lined with extremely fine sensor contacts.
“This is the core of the ‘Oracle’ – the nanoscale neural interface. It will establish a non-invasive connection with your thalamus and cortex, directly interpreting your neural signals while feeding back compiled sensory information,” the guide explained proficiently as she fitted it on him. “This means that within the ‘Mirrorworld,’ everything you see, hear, touch, even smell and taste, is indistinguishable from reality, perhaps even… more perfect.”
As the headset closed around his head, Lin Che felt a faint, tingling numbness at his temples, as if countless tiny ice crystals were gently brushing his skin. His vision darkened.
“Neural link initializing… 10%… 50%… 100%.”
“Link stable. Loading Mirrorworld initial experience program – ‘City of Dawn’.”
An electronically synthesized, calm yet majestic voice sounded directly in his mind – the “Oracle’s” guide AI.
The darkness receded like a tide. No, not receded, but was driven away by a surge of overwhelming light.
Lin Che found himself standing in a void, swirling nebulae beneath his feet. Then, countless streams of radiant, colorful data flowed like brushes at the dawn of creation, sketching grand lines and blocks before his eyes. Skyscrapers piercing the clouds sprang from the ground, their surfaces flowing with dynamic light and information; anti-gravity skiffs glided silently along invisible tracks, creating subtle ripples in the data; on either side of the street, holographic billboards featured virtual idols dancing, every glance vivid and lifelike.
He subconsciously raised his hand and saw a virtual body that perfectly replicated his real one, yet appeared more agile and powerful. He clenched his fist tightly, feeling the clear pressure in his knuckles, even the slight friction of his palm prints against the virtual air.
He tried taking a step. The sensation underfoot was solid yet resilient, no different from real concrete, but with an added layer of… optimized comfort.
“This… is the ‘Mirrorworld’?” he murmured to himself, his voice trembling slightly, audible to his own ears in the empty virtual street. This wasn’t just a trick of sight and sound; this was full-body, full-mind immersion. He could smell the simulated, uniquely fresh air of a futuristic city, mixed with the faint, elusive aroma of coffee from a distant virtual café.
He walked to a tree at the roadside and reached out to touch a leaf. His fingertips registered the clear texture of the veins and the cool, vibrant sensation unique to plant life. He could even control the pressure, feeling the leaf’s flexibility.
“Too perfect…” He was utterly enchanted.
The guide’s voice sounded appropriately in his mind, carrying a hint of pride. “Mr. Lin, what you are experiencing now is the baseline reality constructed by the ‘Oracle.’ Its level of realism reaches 99.7%. Please feel free to explore. You can run, jump, even… try flying. Just focus your intent.”
Lin Che concentrated, and his body lifted lightly off the ground, soaring between the urban canyons. The sensation of wind pressure rushed against his face, rustling his avatar’s hair. Looking down at the shrinking cityscape below, an unprecedented sense of freedom filled his chest.
However, just as he landed on the top of the tallest spire, overlooking this dazzling digital kingdom, a discordant glitch, like a fine crack in a perfect canvas, quietly appeared.
At the far edge of his vision, the brilliant sky simulating the sunset glow flickered—extremely briefly, almost imperceptibly. It wasn’t a change in light, but more like… the code of the entire world losing synchronization for an instant, revealing the underlying, cold, monotonous torrent of binary beneath.
Immediately following, a sound absolutely not part of the guide program—fragmented, distorted—pierced his consciousness like an icy needle, catching him completely off guard:
“See… the… truth…”
The voice cut off abruptly, as if severed by an invisible hand. The perfect “Mirrorworld” instantly restored itself. The sunset remained, the city still bustled.
Lin Che froze, the joy of flight and the thrill of immersion instantly freezing solid.
Was it an illusion? A normal side effect of the initial neural connection?
Subconsciously, he pulled up the system menu, wanting to check the logs. Just as the menu appeared, he noticed, at the very bottom of the status bar, a line of nearly transparent, rapidly scrolling code flashed past. It seemed less like an error message and more like a… greeting, or perhaps a warning.
The core meaning of that code, which his programmer’s intuition barely managed to capture, was:
[… Anomalous data stream… Source: Unknown… Clearance: Beyond… Message: … Warning… Awakening…]
“Mr. Lin, your initial experience time is complete. How did it feel?” The guide’s sweet voice became clear again as the connection began to fade, the magnificent city before him dissolving like a receding tide.
Lin Che lay in the cold link pod, slowly opening his eyes, returning to the pure white reality.
He removed the “Oracle” headset, his palms slick with cold sweat.
“It was great… incredible,” he forced a polite smile at the guide, but his heart was pounding heavily in his chest.
That momentary flicker, that broken whisper, that bizarre line of code… lingered in his mind like ghosts.
What was hidden beneath this flawless “Mirrorworld”? Was the perfect virtual paradise promised by Weihuan Technology truly as pure as it appeared?
He knew, from this moment on, what he saw would no longer be just dazzling technological marvels. The glimpse of the “abyss” had cast an indelible shadow over his heart.
The successful neural connection had also connected him to the edge of an unknown, and potentially dangerous, truth.
