Memory inheritor

Chapter 251 Hidden Dangers (Part 2)

Liu Lu silently noted down Wei Hongsi's analysis and speculations. When she returned to her dormitory, she would organize these contents into materials and report them to the leaders of the special task force.

Wei Hong thought of the task Liu Lu still had to complete. She had been following her own pace all day and didn't have much time to do this task, so he said to her, "There's no need to rush the decryption of the encrypted text information."

A slight smile appeared on Liu Lu's lips as she said, "Yes, I understand."

Soon the car arrived at Zhiwei's apartment. They parked downstairs and went back to their respective dormitories.

Wei Hongsi took a shower, changed into loose and dry pajamas, and sat down at the corner table, immediately feeling much more comfortable.

He changed into new clothes for work today. At first, he felt a little uncomfortable, but he got used to it after a short time. However, after changing out of the clothes, he realized that his body was still somewhat restricted.

Wei Hongsi picked up the chest bag on the table and took out his phone.

This chest bag is a casual, sporty style, and it's foreseeable that I'll be using it less and less for work in the future, because it doesn't match my current style of dress at all. Lu Jiaqi and Liu Lu didn't point this out simply because he wouldn't carry a bag everywhere like Liu Lu does, so it wouldn't look so conspicuous.

Wei Hongsi scrolled through his phone and saw a message from Shen Qing a few minutes ago: "Have you arrived at the dorm yet?" He replied: "Yes, I just finished showering."

A moment later, Shen Qing sent another message: "Are you going to rest soon?"

Wei Hongsi: "It will be a while."

Shen Qing: "Our new song's ranking is really not good, it's only at number 75. It looks like there's absolutely no chance of it making the top 20!"

Wei Hongsi couldn't help but ask in surprise, "You went to look at the rankings?"

Shen Qing: "Yes, it's been three days already, we should at least find out. I knew the results weren't ideal, but I didn't expect them to be this bad."

Wei Hongsi thought to himself, if you had looked earlier, your ranking could have been higher, but there doesn't seem to be much difference between 72nd and 75th place.

He turned on his computer, logged into ZhiXun, and typed, "Weren't you not planning to watch it this week?"

Shen Qing: "I don't plan to watch it because I don't want the rankings to affect my mood. Tonight's experience made me realize that it's not a big deal, so I'll just watch it casually."

Wei Hongsi: "After watching it, did it affect your mood?"

Shen Qing: "Aside from being a little angry after seeing some comments, it's actually okay. Rankings don't prove the quality of our song, right?"

Wei Hongsi: "Of course, there's absolutely no problem with the quality of our song."

Shen Qing sent a grinning emoji and said, "I'm so sorry that you've had to bear so much criticism!" She followed it with a prayer-like hand gesture and a teary-eyed emoji.

Wei Hongsi: "It's our song, so it's not normal for me to get criticized. Although many of the comments were harsh, they didn't make any sense, so I'm not too angry."

Shen Qing: "So you're still a little angry?"

Wei Hongsi: "I was indeed a bit angry when I saw those comments, so I didn't read them much today."

Shen Qing: "Then don't watch it for the next few days either, just let it be."

Wei Hongsi chatted with Shen Qing via text for a while and felt that she was in a good mood.

It seems that Shen Qing's self-regulation ability is indeed very strong, and there should be no further delayed stress response after the interaction of consciousness.

She seemed to have gained some insights from it; things that used to make her anxious had become unimportant.

Many people who have experienced near-death experiences undergo drastic and lasting changes in their values ​​and worldview. Things that were once considered very important, such as wealth, power, and status, suddenly become less important; while things that were once ignored and taken for granted, such as health, family, and friendship, become cherished.

In essence, this change is a profound and comprehensive cognitive reconstruction.

Some research institutions are attempting to utilize this brain mechanism to treat severe, complex, and persistent psychological problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and existential anxiety. However, the results of this cognitive restructuring are not always positive and may even lead to adverse effects.

This technology has not entered mainstream clinical application because it can lead to paranoia, alienation, or even antisocial tendencies.

In the last ten seconds or so of the consciousness interaction, Shen Qing had a feeling of being on the verge of death, but because of the beacon, she knew that she was in the other person's dream and the scene she was experiencing was not real. Therefore, it was still a little different from a real near-death experience, and there was no so-called "carousel" in front of her.

However, this experience clearly brought about some changes in her.

Wei Hongsi then remembered that there was a condition attached to Shen Qing's new song's chart performance, so he asked, "I remember you said that if 'The Brave' doesn't make it into the top twenty, it will affect your new album release?"

Shen Qing: "Yes, the time will be postponed."

Wei Hongsi: "Is there a specific deadline?"

Shen Qing: "Probably around February or March next year."

Wei Hongsi: "Can we still release singles like we do for chart rankings?"

Shen Qing: "That won't work either. Sending it again would be a breach of contract."

Wei Hongsi is not a conspiracy theorist, but he still can't help but wonder if the company Shen Qing signed with is also involved in the schemes of the Daoguang Society.

Knowing that Liu Lu was still awake, he sent her a message explaining the situation.

Liu Lu quickly replied: "Received, we will investigate this lead."

Shen Qing's new album release is basically destined to be delayed. As a rising star singer, not being able to release new songs for more than half a year will definitely be a huge loss, and she may even be forgotten by then.

However, Shen Qing herself doesn't seem to care about this, saying that she can use this time to recharge, study, and do some things that interest her, since life is the best source of creation.

Shen Qing also sent Wei Hongsi her general plan for the second half of the year, which included doing research with Wei Hongsi.

When the topic came up, Shen Qing asked, "I think the 'Other Shore' system you developed is probably not just for achieving a fully immersive gaming experience, is it?"

Wei Hongsi: "That is Feng Weixu's ultimate dream. Of course, we also look forward to that day coming true. However, this research has a very wide range of applications, and we can't possibly imagine what it will be used for when it is fully realized."

Shen Qing: "Even the research and design team couldn't have imagined this?"

Wei Hongsi: "Of course. Just like optical fiber, it was first developed for medical endoscopes, but now it has become the physical backbone of the Internet. And the steam engine, its main purpose at the beginning was to pump water from mines, but later it became the most widespread power source. The technology of boiling water is still mainstream today, only the form of the steam engine has changed a lot."

Shen Qing smiled when she saw the long text, guessing that Wei Hongsi was typing it on a computer.

She pondered for a moment, then placed her finger on the voice input button and said, "It'll probably be a long time before we can achieve fully immersive gaming applications, right? I think that taking 'Lucid Dreaming' as a standalone application would have a promising market prospect, wouldn't it?"

After she finished speaking, she corrected the typos and then sent it out.

Wei Hongsi: "This application direction certainly has great potential, but there is still a considerable distance to go before it can be commercialized. The device you see is only a part of it. This system is highly dependent on the computing power resources of large computers. If quantum computing technology matures one day, we can take this step."

Shen Qing: "I think a lot of people will want this experience then. It's like turning a dream into reality, even if it's just in a virtual dream, it would still feel great!"

Wei Hongsi: "What did you dream about in your lucid dream?"

Shen Qing: "(Covering face emoji) I'm not telling you."

Wei Hongsi: "In fact, lucid dreaming has many negative effects. As you said, it's like turning dreams into reality, which is very addictive. If you become overly addicted, it can also lead to a blurring of the lines between reality and illusion, causing severe hallucinations in reality. In addition, experiencing dreams through dreams is too easy to achieve, which raises a person's satisfaction threshold infinitely, causing them to lose interest in anything in reality."

Shen Qing thought to herself, "So he wasn't trying to pry into my dreams, but rather he was concerned about me."

With a smile, she said into the phone, "Don't worry, I didn't have any of those silly dreams. By the way, are you saying it's possible to have lucid dreams without any devices?"

Wei Hongsi: "Yes. Some people occasionally have lucid dreams, and some people, through conscious training, are able to become aware that they are dreaming and then enter a lucid dream state."

Shen Qing thought to herself that this kind of conscious training was quite similar to the guided state before conscious interaction. She asked, "Do you have this ability?"

Wei Hongsi: "No."

Shen Qing then asked, "Are there many people with this ability?"

Wei Hongsi: "Many people have had lucid dreaming experiences, but most of them have only experienced it once or a few times. Only a very small number of people can reach a frequency of once a month or even once a week. In general, entering a lucid dream is not entirely controllable and is quite different from what you experience through a device."

Shen Qing nodded, holding her phone.

If lucid dreaming were so easy, it should be a hot topic, but I've never heard anyone around me talk about it, which makes sense. And that's precisely why it's a potentially commercially viable area.

Shen Qing chatted with Wei Hongsi for a while longer, then, seeing that it was getting late, she ended the chat and said goodnight.

She put down her phone, took off the hair drying cap, and let her long hair fall over her shoulders. She still felt a little cool, which meant she wasn't...

It is completely dry.

After Wei Hongsi and Liu Lu left, she took a shower, changed into her pajamas, and then sat on the sofa in her workspace to send and receive messages.

She wasn't sleepy yet, so she wasn't in a hurry to dry her hair. She walked over to where the guitars were, picked up the natural wood classical guitar, sat back down on the sofa, and began to play the "Chaconne".

After playing it once, she sighed softly. This piece was truly difficult; she still couldn't achieve the desired effect, it didn't sound like the effortless, carefree style she used when playing during a lucid dream. It seemed she needed to practice more; she hadn't been spending enough time practicing the guitar.

Shen Qing played for a while longer, then felt tired and put down her guitar to go to bed in her bedroom.

In a hazy state, she heard a familiar melody playing—the "Chaconne." Shen Qing held a guitar in her arms, her fingers skillfully plucking the strings, each note perfectly placed.

I'm making rapid progress!

Shen Qing nodded in satisfaction, but then she sensed something was amiss.

It seems like I wasn't at this level not long ago, so how did I suddenly jump to a higher level? I haven't been spending much time practicing guitar lately, which makes no sense!

Am I dreaming?

As this thought arose, Shen Qing noticed something strange about the street scene outside the French windows. Even though it was broad daylight, many places were indistinct and unclear.

She was already very familiar with the scenery outside the window, but she couldn't remember every detail. It's like the saying, "Knowing something like the back of your hand, but not being able to remember every line on your palm."

Once she realized this, Shen Qing knew that she had entered a lucid dream state.

She couldn't help but feel a little surprised. She had just heard Wei Hongsi say that evening that it wasn't easy to enter a lucid dream on one's own, and she never expected that she would master this skill unintentionally.

She started playing the Chaconne again, feeling extremely relaxed and carefree. But after playing for a while, she thought, if she were to immerse herself in this feeling, wouldn't it just become a boring, wishful dream? So she decided to practice when she was more awake.

Shen Qing didn't know how long her lucid dream would last, nor did she care what she wanted to achieve in the dream, but doing nothing would be even more boring.

She blinked, and Wei Hongsi appeared on the small sofa next to her.

"Do you play the guitar?" she asked.

Wei Hongsi asked, "Would I do it, or wouldn't I?"

Shen Qing couldn't help but laugh and said, "Oh, I don't know either. You didn't play it when I asked you to last time. I'll ask you when I wake up from this dream."

Wei Hongsi said, "Okay."

Shen Qing said, "If we don't play the piano, what should we do? Hmm—I've got it! The music I heard during my consciousness interaction with Zhou Huai can actually be partially reproduced."

Wei Hongsi asked, "How do we restore it?"

Shen Qing said, "I'll give it a try." She waved her hand lightly and instantly teleported to the electronic piano on the worktable, raising her hand to play a chord on the keyboard.

Looking up and seeing Wei Hongsi still on the sofa, she said, "Come over here too!"

The next instant, Wei Hongsi appeared on the chair in front of the mixing console next to him.

Shen Qing felt this feeling was wonderful, and then she heard Wei Hongsi say, "Don't get too caught up in this feeling, or you'll confuse the illusion with reality."

Shen Qing smiled and said, "Teacher Wei is right! But this kind of magical phenomenon is clearly not reality. I think to distinguish between the two, we should make the dream even more magical. What do you think?"

Wei Hongsi said, "I think what you said makes sense."

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