Reborn in Hollywood

Bagos's voice trembled.

"Who...who are you? No—I should be asking, are you really human?"

Li Rui shrugged.

"Have you seen Star Wars? Didn't that scene just now look familiar? May the Force be with you!"

A joke that wasn't too big or too small made Bagus open his mouth, but he just couldn't say a word.

Li Rui asked again.

Where is Trinity?

Bagos paused for a moment.

"Wh...what?"

Trinity.

Li Rui repeated, "Neo's beloved, she's still alive, still in the anomaly handling department. If we don't save her now, she'll die from lack of oxygen, just like everyone else on this farm."

Baggs' eyes widened.

How did you know—

"There's no time to explain."

Li Rui interrupted her, "I have destroyed the power and energy systems of the mechanical city. The humans on the farm are doomed. It would be a miracle if they survived even half an hour. But if you want to save Trinity, there is still a chance."

He paused.

"Also, notify Neobi to send out all the hovercraft in Io City to rescue people, as many as you can."

Bagos's expression changed drastically, and he turned around and rushed into the cabin.

"Quick! Start the backup power and contact Io!"

Li Rui stood still, looking at the dark mechanical city in the distance.

Then he turned around and disappeared into the ruins in a few leaps.

He was going to the heart of the Mechanical City to make sure the analyst and his boss were both dead.

More accurately, it has "vanished," since talking about death for mechanical life has a touch of dark humor to it.

At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure that the matrix is ​​completely paralyzed.

And in this world, there will be no more machines enslaving humanity.

Three hours later, Li Rui stood in the ruins in the center of the mechanical city.

The surroundings were deathly silent, with only the occasional sound of metal breaking.

He found the analyst's control room—or rather, the place that used to be the control room.

Now all that's left is a pile of charred remains, not even half a human figure can be seen.

What about matrices?

Li Rui looked around.

Those massive server arrays, those gleaming ports, those densely packed cables—all of them were burned out.

The whole world was pitch black.

Li Rui walked out of the control room and onto the streets of the mechanical city.

Everywhere there are the remains of mechanical life.

Those once-majestic sentinels, those once-arrogant programs, are now nothing but scrap metal.

Li Rui suddenly had an idea.

Could there be more than one mechanical city in this world?

In the movie, the machine empire spans the globe.

He only destroyed the main city.

Are there any others?

Li Rui quickened his pace.

For the next month, he traveled all over this wasteland.

Sleep when you're tired, and drink the nutritional liquid produced by the Machinery City when you're hungry or thirsty—it tastes like swill, but it's plentiful, filling, and nutritious.

Li Rui found countless mechanical wrecks, two other human breeding farms, and more places that were once cities.

Without exception, all of them were deathly silent.

There was no life, no signal, no movement.

The humans on those farms were doomed to die the moment the main server crashed.

Hundreds of millions, billions, or even tens of billions of people?

Now they are all dead.

If we were to choose a butcher in film and television, perhaps only Palpatine, who readily chooses to destroy planets, could surpass Li Rui.

But Li Rui felt no remorse whatsoever.

In his view, the humans in those farms were nothing but living dead; their lives and destinies were all false.

Since they are not living people, there is no need to worry about the dead.

Li Rui stood before the ruins of yet another livestock farm, gazing at the densely packed nutrient tanks. Human silhouettes were still faintly visible inside, but all signs of life were long gone.

At the moment the Judgment of Light was unleashed, those golden lightning bolts engulfed everything.

Li Rui turned around and continued walking forward.

He found more breeding farms.

They're all the same.

Pitch black, deathly silent, utterly lifeless.

On the thirtieth day, he finally confirmed something.

The main city he destroyed was the sole core of the entire machine world.

If the main server stops, all extension servers will be paralyzed.

The humans on those farms, the mechanical lifeforms, the intelligent programs—they're all dead.

The only remaining lives in this world are those of the people in the city of Aiou.

Li Rui stood on a high slope, looking at the ruins in the distance.

The wind blew by, carrying a burnt smell.

He thought this was fine.

Li Rui already disliked that poorly made sequel.

Warner Bros.' forced fourth installment completely ruined the classic status of the first three films.

it's good now.

The world has been reborn.

No machines, no matrices, no those damn farms.

Only a small number of humans are still alive.

Li Rui turned around and continued his trek.

A few days later, he could no longer find any signs of life.

On this day, Li Rui found a building that had been abandoned for hundreds of years, lay down inside, and closed his eyes.

Sleepiness crept in.

When I opened my eyes again—

The ceiling is white.

The familiar bedroom, the familiar curtains, the familiar bedside table.

Li Rui returned to the familiar Malibu.

He sat up and looked at his hands.

It was spotless, without a speck of dust.

Before he could think it through, a semi-transparent light screen suddenly appeared in front of him.

[System Prompt]

[Host's behavior in the Matrix world has been detected as exceeding controllable limits]

The core storyline of this world was completely destroyed, the Matrix system was completely paralyzed, the mechanical civilization was wiped out, and all human farming farms became ineffective.

According to system rules, such behavior will result in the following consequences:

All purchasable items in this world have been cleared.

This world will be permanently removed from the host's list of accessible worlds.

This world will be unvisitable.

[Note: The system encourages the host to freely explore the dream world, but if the world's core collapses or a race is wiped out, the world will be permanently deleted from the panel. Please consider this carefully in future actions.]

Li Rui looked at the line of text and was speechless.

But then I thought about it again...

Let's just clear it out!

The purchasable items in The Matrix are inherently very limited.

He couldn't afford the Matrix technology, he dared not use the brain-computer interface, and those superpowers could only work in the Matrix world.

It doesn't really matter as it is now.

Li Rui turned off the control panel, stood up, and went into the bathroom.

Although he hadn't showered for only a month in the dream world, Li Rui still felt incredibly dirty all over.

On October 3, Li Rui boarded a flight to St. Vincent Island.

Ali came to see him off and asked as he stood at the airport entrance.

"How long will it take for you to come back?"

Li Rui felt a little helpless when this was mentioned.

"Five months! It'll be March next year."

In Li Rui's view, this is probably the most inconvenient aspect of Hollywood blockbusters.

After all, they only film one movie every six months?

This is taking up way too much time!

Ali laughed in a grotesque manner.

"The money from the Big Six isn't so easy to earn!"

Li Rui waved his hand and turned to walk towards the security checkpoint.

"I'm leaving! Don't forget to call me if anything happens."

-----------------

Saint Vincent, Pirates of the Caribbean film crew.

As soon as Li Rui arrived at the film set, he saw a familiar figure standing there.

Bob Anderson.

The old man who taught him "swordsmanship" on the Star Wars set.

Bob also saw Li Rui at the same time, and his expression was a little... nervous?

After all, Li Rui had forced him to give up during his first swordsmanship lesson in Sydney.

Li Rui couldn't help but smile.

"Hi Bob!"

Bob coughed lightly, looking somewhat awkward.

"Raphael, I'll suggest to Jerry that your training session be canceled. You're welcome."

Li Rui laughed even more heartily.

"No way, Bob, maybe I can even train other people for you, what do you say?"

Bob glared at him, but there was an undisguised smile in his eyes.

As the two were talking, producer Jerry Bruckheimer walked over.

"Raphael, welcome to Pirate Paradise."

He held out his hand. "Bob told me before that your swordsmanship requires absolutely no training."

Li Rui glanced at Bob.

"He's exaggerating."

Bruckheimer waved his hand.

"Bob rarely compliments people; if he says he doesn't need it, then he really doesn't need it."

Bruckheimer paused for a moment, then continued, "But you still have to stay here and keep up with the crew's pace, is that alright?"

Li Rui shook his head.

"no problem."

On his first day on set, Li Rui was struck by the scale of the film.

The film set was located in a huge open-air venue, with the Caribbean Sea in the distance.

Staff members were coming and going, and props were piled up like mountains; there were seven or eight costume trucks parked there alone.

Clothing Director Connie pulled Li Rui aside and handed him a set of clothes that looked dirty.

Li Rui took the clothes and found them covered in stains and holes.

"The distressed effect is really good," he remarked casually.

Connie smiled.

"Do you know how it's done? With a cement mixer."

Li Rui was stunned for a moment.

"What?"

Cement mixer.

Connie repeated, "Throw the new clothes in with the bricks and gravel, and mix until you get the effect I want."

Looking at the clothes in his hand, Li Rui suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for their previous fate.

Johnny Depp joined the cast on the third day.

When he arrived, the entire set fell silent for a second.

Smoked makeup, filthy braids, a worn-out tricorn hat, walking unsteadily, with a toothpick dangling from his mouth.

Li Rui looked at him and suddenly remembered the comments he had seen online in his previous life—"Depp is Captain Jack Sparrow himself."

Now that he has seen it with his own eyes, he feels that what he said is absolutely true.

Depp walked over, glanced at Li Rui, and then gave him a meaningful smile.

"The little blacksmith?"

Li Rui nodded.

"captain."

Depp laughed, like a child who had stolen candy.

"interesting."

He leaned closer to Li Rui, opened his mouth, and revealed a few gold teeth.

"See? I paid for it myself."

Upon closer inspection, Li Rui discovered four gold teeth, each a different color.

How much did you spend?

Depp thought for a moment.

"I don't remember, but the dentist said one was 14K gold, one was 18K gold, one was 22K gold, and one was platinum."

Li Rui was speechless.

"You even differentiate between purity levels when you get gold teeth?"

Depp nodded seriously.

"Pirates, after all, all have rotten teeth. They lose all their teeth at a young age, so of course they have to be particular about their appearance."

That's how the two met.