Three days had passed. The awe from the “Mirrorworld” experience had gradually settled, but that icy sliver of doubt, like a persistent affliction, had not faded. Instead, it had taken root and sprouted within Lin Che’s heart. The whispered “see the truth” and the anomalous data stream replayed constantly in his mind. He tried to convince himself it was a system glitch, a hallucination from Sensory overload, but his programmer’s intuition sharply rebutted the idea.
It was then that he received an emAIl. The sender was prominently “Verhi Technology Human Resources Department.”
The email was politely and precisely worded, praising the “unique logical thinking and narrative potential” he had demonstrated in a certain small puzzle game he developed independently. Based on his previously submitted (he had almost forgotten) public resume, it invited him to the Verhi Technology headquarters – Verhi Tower – for an “informal technical exchange and potential assessment.”
The timing was unnervingly coincidental.
Lin Che barely hesitated. This was not only a dream opportunity for countless developers but also an excuse he couldn’t refuse to get closer to the secret. He needed answers, needed to know what truly lay beneath the glossy surface of the “Mirrorworld.”
On the appointed day, he stood at the foot of Verhi Tower.
Looking up, the tower rose like a drawn sword, piercing the sky. Its surface wasn’t traditional glass or steel, but a dynamic adaptive material that shifted in color and texture based on light and weather, sometimes like flowing mercury, other times like deep starfields. It felt less like a building and more like a living, silent behemoth overlooking the entire city. This was the heart of global technology, the nest of countless data streams and secrets.
After passing through layers of security – retinal scans, voiceprint verification, rapid micro-expression analysis – Lin Che finally stepped into the main hall. The interior space was staggeringly vast, with a ceiling nearly a hundred meters high. Sunlight, filtered through a special dome, cast a soft, pure light. Holographic information panels floated in the air, displaying Verhi’s achievements and real-time data streams. Employees in minimalist uniforms walked briskly with focused expressions, different colored badges on their chests denoting varying clearance levels. Occasionally, elegantly designed service Robots glided quietly along preset paths.
Everything was efficient, pristine, futuristic, as perfect as the “Mirrorworld” itself.
Yet, Lin Che keenly felt an omnipresent pressure. The very air seemed heavier here. Sensors were hidden in every corner, an invisible web of surveillance enveloping everything. Conversations were hushed, smiles restrained, as if any superfluous emotional display was a sacrilege against efficiency.
He was guided to a waiting area to meet his contact. The massive floor-to-ceiling windows offered a view of the bustling city, but he felt confined, as if inside a giant, precision instrument.
“Mr. Lin Che?” A mild male voice sounded.
Lin Che turned to see a man around thirty-five or thirty-six, wearing rimless glasses and a friendly smile, dressed in the standard uniform of a Verhi mid-to-upper-level manager. The blue badge on his chest indicated considerable access. He extended his hand. “Hello, I’m Chen Yuan, head of the ‘Mirrorworld’ Ecosystem Optimization team in R&D. Very glad you could come.”
“Mr. Chen, hello.” Lin Che shook his hand, noting Chen Yuan’s slender, meticulously manicured fingers.
“Please, no need for formalities. Call me Chen Yuan.” He guided Lin Che towards an internal corridor. “We were quite interested in your work, particularly the handling of spatial logic and narrative layers in ‘Labyrinth Retrograde.’ We feel it aligns well with the ‘Deep Narrative Experience’ direction we hope to develop for the ‘Mirrorworld’.”
They passed through several high-tech corridors lined with transparent meeting rooms where people debated heatedly in utter silence thanks to the soundproof glass. Lin Che engaged in the professional discussion about game design with Chen Yuan while subtly observing his surroundings.
At a corner, they passed a small group. The leader was a tall man with a stern expression, wearing a tailored dark suit but no employee badge. His left eye seemed different; deep within the pupil, there was an occasional, extremely subtle, non-human flicker of icy blue.
Lin Che’s heartbeat skipped. A cybernetic eye? Military-grade visual enhancer?
What struck him more was the man’s left arm; its movement had a faint, unnatural stiffness. When he raised his hand to press a communicator behind his ear, the suit sleeve outlined an arm that suggested a blend of metal and biological tissue.
A mechanical prosthetic? And not a standard civilian model.
Chen Yuan, noticing Lin Che’s gaze, explained quietly, “That’s Mr. Qin Yue, head of the Security Advisory department. He isn’t often in this section.”
Security Advisor? Lin Che mentally filed the name. Verhi’s head of security, equipped with such cutting-edge military-grade cybernetics…
Just then, a heavy, unmarked metal door ahead requiring dual biometric verification slid open, and a technician stepped out before it closed. In that instant, Lin Che caught a sound from within that was utterly alien to the rest of the tower – not the hum of machinery nor the silent rush of data, but a low, oppressive noise, like countless people moaning and weeping in extreme distance. It held an eerie resemblance to the distorted whisper he’d heard in the “Mirrorworld.”
A chill crawled up his spine.
Chen Yuan seemed completely unaware, still smiling as he outlined the bright future of the “Mirrorworld.” Lin Che could no longer focus.
He realized this magnificent Verhi Tower was more than just a tech sanctuary. It was a massive shell, meticulously encasing something. Beneath that perfect exterior lay cold metal, anomalous data, and… possibly imprisoned “voices.”
Was this invitation a staircase to his dreams, or the first step into a trap?
Looking at Chen Yuan’s friendly face, then recalling Qin Yue’s cold cybernetic eye and the strange noise from behind the door, the answer seemed to point toward the latter.
