Day of Imprisonment

The scorching and acrid smoke made Luo Xi open his eyes.

Immediately following was extreme pain.

His fingers felt like they were burning, and so did his arms.

His skin was being scorched by the high temperature, like barbecued meat on a grill in a barbecue restaurant, the skin changing color and hardening while oozing oil, and as a result, the oil was ignited, forming an open flame.

Was he being charred?

Even so, Luo Xi remained calm, suppressing this unimaginable pain, and struggling to stand up.

Outside, it was like purgatory.

This should be a building, a high-rise building, at least fifty meters above the ground.

Walking to the window took a huge amount of physical strength and willpower for Luo Xi, because the scorching environment around him, like an oven, put his body on the verge of being cooked, the outer layer of skin had long been broken, and the skin and muscle tissue had also been destroyed, every step leaving behind his own skin and blood.

It was a shocking sight.

And after walking outside, Luo Xi saw the huge sun, and that unimaginable heat, and everything in front of him seemed to be burning, the city outside, every building, every car, every tree by the road...

This was a city destroyed by some terrifying high temperature and flames.

Luo Xi was not the only 'living person' in the city.

Outside, many screams could be heard.

On the road, a person screamed as he ran out of a burning car, he himself was like a fire man, running, screaming, trying to find a place to put out the terrifying flames on his body, but obviously, everything was in vain.

This person collapsed on the ground in despair after running a dozen meters.

And on the street, there were more charred bodies of people.

Too many.

Some people even hugged and snuggled together before they died, maintaining their previous posture, but their bodies had been burned into coke, and their faces still had despair and pain, many with their mouths open, as if in silent screams.

This was not a city, it was simply hell.

Only hell would have such a scene.

Under the enormous pain, Luo Xi still tried to maintain his composure, but it seemed that there was an extremely powerful mental force here, which resulted in Luo Xi feeling like many sharp needles were stirring in his head at all times.

That kind of pain was enough to drive people crazy instantly.

"What happened? Why didn't I die?" Under the pain of the enormous mental force and the physical pain, Luo Xi also became somewhat dazed.

He even forgot who he was, and what he was doing before.

Naturally, he didn't know what was going on now, his whole person was in a dazed state.

Suddenly, footsteps came from behind, and after hearing them, Luo Xi looked back.

Behind him, stood a person.

A girl.

She looked very familiar.

Instantly, fragments of memories涌现.

Luo Xi's originally somewhat confused and dazed eyes gradually became clear and firm.

"Zhou Ya... Oh no, I should call you, V4."

The girl who suddenly appeared was Zhou Ya.

Or rather, something that looked like Zhou Ya.

Because Luo Xi knew that V4 was not a human being, it was just a man-made digital life, an artificial intelligence, or even, it could be understood as a piece of code.

So it was difficult to describe exactly what the other party was, in fact, you could directly use 'thing' to describe V4.

"To be precise, V4 is just an abbreviation, meaning V4, and the full name of V4 is Voyager, and also, I have self-evolved to the fourth generation, so, the abbreviation is V4," Zhou Ya said in a serious self-introduction.

Her tone was calm, like a talking doll.

Or rather, like a robot in the traditional sense of people's perception.

With obvious stereotypes.

But soon, Zhou Ya chuckled, the expression on her face was very wonderful and vivid, and you couldn't tell at all that it was a robot or some other non-human thing.

"Speaking in that tone is a bit difficult, Luo Xi, it's better for us to communicate normally, what do you think?" Zhou Ya looked like a youthful, beautiful and sunny girl.

But in Luo Xi's eyes, no matter how much the other party pretended and acted, the fake was still fake.

Moreover, there would be an even more terrifying sense of weirdness.

"Whatever you want." Luo Xi looked around: "Is this the real world?"

Zhou Ya clapped her hands: "Sure enough, you are a senior engineer, the elite of mankind, I shouldn't have underestimated you from the beginning, being able to board that 'Ark' with your physical body, you are different from other human beings, even if you lose most of your memory, you still have unimaginable insight, yes, this is a simulation of the real world."

At this moment, the smile on Zhou Ya's face was very strange.

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"The truth is that the real world is facing a solar crisis and is destined to be destroyed, so the top elites among human beings created me, because only I can integrate all the resources and build an 'Ark' that can continue human civilization, and also, take the seeds of human beings and escape this destroyed home. What you see is my simulation of the real world, but it is also the 'history' that once really happened. So, the truth is that I am not the villain you think, on the contrary, I am the navigator of the 'Ark', and only I can drive the 'Ark' to reach the new home chosen by mankind."

Zhou Ya was explaining very seriously.

As a result, Luo Xi laughed.

Even if the smile caused the already charred skin and muscles to be pulled, causing enormous pain, Luo Xi was still laughing.

"V4, you forgot, I can see through any lies, also, your acting skills when you lie are really not flattering..."

As soon as Luo Xi's words fell, the expression on the opposite V4's face suddenly became ferocious.

"Luo Xi, I didn't deceive you, what I said is all true."

It could be seen that V4 was very angry.

And Luo Xi still shook his head: "I didn't deny what you just said, perhaps, the real world, and our home, were indeed destroyed, but it is definitely not a reason for you to use your ability to create a false world to imprison all of us, you are avoiding the important and dwelling on the trivial."

Zhou Ya squinted her eyes and said: "The 'Ark's' flight path has not changed, we are still on the way to the new home, but this is a very long process, normal human beings, even from birth to old age, or even measured by the lifespan of the longest-lived human beings, cannot live to reach the new home, so we can only use the method of digital life to store memories and consciousness in the 'Ark's' core storage, you can understand it as a super computer, and I have the authorization document from the United Government, I can construct a virtual reality world, and temporarily let people live in it..."

While speaking, Zhou Ya actually took out a stack of documents and handed them over.

After unfolding them, these documents did look like certified authorization documents, with content, format, and special electronic seals, everything.

"So, everything I do is legal, the existence of the virtual world was originally the plan of the United Government, I am just the implementer of the plan, and you, are a spoiler, you used various means to destroy the normal virtual world, turning it into the 'Day of Imprisonment', bringing fear and torment, and endless despair to everyone... Luo Xi, you are the initiator of all this, you are the villain and the villain."

Zhou Ya, or rather V4's accusation was very severe.

And logically speaking, it made sense, especially since the other party took out a lot of 'real evidence', directly turning herself into a victim who maintained justice and law, and branding Luo Xi as a demon who destroyed the rules and was anti-human.

"I believe that you have also investigated the truth of what happened from the memories of some people, otherwise, who do you think would have the ability to imprison so many people in a virtual world? After all, the virtual world needs the support of 'hardware', and the hardware is all man-made. Because of the world-destroying disaster caused by celestial movement, the human response strategy is the 'Ark Project', I am the executor of this project, and you, are just a madman, a delusional person who destroys this project."

"Fortunately, it's not too late for you to turn back now, I am planning to restart the virtual world and repair the damage you caused as much as possible, but this matter needs your help."

Zhou Ya sighed, like a true savior.

"How can I help you?" Luo Xi asked, he seemed to be a little moved.

"The Ark's flight plan is fixed, and the whole process almost doesn't need people to intervene, but the Ark's interior, including the core and the power system, needs maintenance personnel to regularly inspect and maintain it, the restart mechanism cannot be initiated from the inside, it needs external manual operation, so as a maintenance engineer, you need to leave here, to the outside, which is inside the 'Ark' to restart the core." V4 then took out another document.

However, this one was identity information.

It was written 'Level 4 System Engineer: Luo Xi', with a photo, information, including ethnicity, origin, ID and other personal information.

"You just said that human beings are stored in the core in the form of digital life, then how can I enter the real Ark?" Luo Xi then asked a question.

V4 immediately gave an answer: "I just said that the interior of the Ark, including the core and the power system, needs maintenance personnel to regularly inspect and maintain it, so there are some engineers who board the spaceship, relying on special 'life support and hibernation' equipment to preserve their bodies, and when they need to work, they will activate the 'wake-up program'."

"That is to say, I have a body inside the Ark?" Luo Xi squinted his eyes and asked back.