This time I chose Paladin

Nie Weiyang rubbed his brows. Fortunately, the teleportation had reset his physical state, so the mud and rain from outside the dungeon hadn't been brought in. Now, the rain he was getting wet in was all from within the dungeon.

随着细微的机械传动声响起，胶囊舱室另一侧的气密门打开，一个便携式终端与挂耳式单侧耳机被机械臂上的托盘送到他面前，他看了它一眼，上面已经登记好了使用者信息码：20-18-1-9-12-2-12-1-26-5-18。

He took it, rolled up his sleeves to reveal the silver-gleaming arm armor, and put it on the arm armor.

The moment he put on the headphones, the voice of 'T-4701-AI' rang in his ears: "Hello, Administrator Two. Today's shelter system integrity is 100%. Total number of registered personnel inside the shelter: 2808. Total health index is displayed on the portable terminal.

"The ecological circulation chambers have been disinfected, the water circulation system has been cleaned, the main ventilation system currently has a wind speed of 9m/s, and the laboratory ventilation system currently has a wind speed of 0.4m/s.

"Nerve relaxants are not currently available in the shelter. If you require a supply, please consult with the medical staff."

2808... This means that if he has confidence and patience, he can even choose to close the checkpoint at the door now and not let anyone in.

People need to go into shelters, apparently because there is danger outside - which is absolutely true nonsense.

Nie Weiyang didn't know why he had no entourage, but he couldn't rule out the possibility of human intervention. If it was human intervention, these people would likely have blended in with ordinary people and entered Shelter 4701.

If we stop accepting more people, we might be able to keep them out, but Nie Weiyang is not prepared to do that...

The airtight door opened completely, and bright light fell on the scarlet eyes.

Nie Weiyang put his sunglasses back on. A cacophony of noise washed over him. The air was filled with the faint scent of ozone, the scent of people, the aroma of food, and more. He saw a vast hall, a hall with two circular emblems echoing each other. Inside, people of all kinds moved: some were researchers, some were soldiers, and some were just ordinary people.

He knew, perhaps better than most people here, that the shelter system was originally designed to be a place of tranquility, an eternal paradise. But from a certain point on, time invaded it.

Alienation begins from then on.

Chapter 36: Boundary War? Cognitive War

Nie Weiyang walked into the hall of the shelter.

Only now had he finally entered Vault 4701, but this wasn't the main part of it. According to the panoramic map of the vault accessible to administrators, it actually had four floors: one underground and three above ground. The main structure of each of the four floors was essentially the same: modular buildings arranged around a central hall.

Nie Weiyang found the room marked "Administrator's Office." It was located deepest on the third underground floor and not on most maps. He didn't rush to interact with the others, but took the elevator downstairs alone and quickly entered the administrator's office.

The office was located at the end of a separate tunnel. When Nie Weiyang approached, the sound of machinery running could be faintly heard, and the heavy silver door opened automatically.

The office is spacious and simple, without any ostentatious decorations, yet every detail exudes rigor and efficiency. In the center is a large solid wood desk, its surface as smooth as a mirror and its edges inlaid with metal edging.

There is a curved terminal on the table, and the wall on the left is an entire electronic monitoring screen, divided into dozens of small windows, silently displaying real-time images of key areas of the institute.

An intelligent temperature control system ensures a constant, optimal temperature, with the occasional faint sound of airflow emanating from hidden vents. The space is sparsely decorated, its only touch being a small biotope in the corner of the desk, housing a few unique fluorescent plants. These plants glow a faint blue-green in the dim light, adding a subtle touch of life to the space.

Nie Weiyang knocked on the ecological tank, which made a crisp sound, rippling the water, and the fluorescent flagella swayed gently.

"Take this away," he said.

'T-4701-AI' responded, and soon, a set of mechanical arms extended from the ceiling, neatly completed the disassembly work, and left Nie Weiyang's sight.

He stared at the scene, then turned to look at the surveillance footage.

There can't be only a few dozen cameras in the shelter.

Nie Weiyang seemed to be lost in thought. He did not act rashly, but sat down in an uncomfortable chair, opened the desktop terminal, and read the information of everyone in the shelter, including himself.

……

Nearly 12 hours later, Nie Weiyang finally closed the shelter's personal database and rubbed his brows.

The situation was worse than he had imagined. The disaster outside the shelter was indeed registered as the 'Boundary War', but it was not any of the previous ones he knew of.

Boundary War, this term represents a supernatural public disaster that has appeared many times in history, and each time it is a danger that endangers all living things, because the "boundary" here refers to "definition".

Or……

【Reality】.

To understand what boundary war is, one must understand 'defining reality and deconstructing reality'.

In human theory, the act of "definition" is an act that humans perform based on their own cognition. People try to capture the essence or core characteristics of a concept and transform it into an image that is easier to communicate and understand using some form of generalization.

But this risks reducing a complex, dynamic, multidimensional concept to a static label.

Real-world objects and concepts are often fluid, context-dependent, and have fuzzy boundaries. A rigid definition cuts off this richness, hindering deeper, more flexible understanding. Furthermore, things evolve; a definition that works in a particular historical period may become outdated or inapplicable in the future. Clinging to old definitions hinders the emergence and development of new cognition, new theories, or new phenomena, while creating the illusion of complete understanding. This false clarity can mask the underlying complexity, contradictions, and uncertainty of a concept.

Furthermore, defining what something is is also defining what it is not, a process that inevitably excludes some marginal or ambiguous cases or perspectives.

“Who has the authority to determine this boundary?” asked the human.

People have pondered this question for thousands of years, and after the Boundary War came, it had a temporary answer.

"I have it. If you don't accept it, just hold it in. If you don't accept it, you will hold it in until you die." Boundary War replied.

The way humans think determines that if we think too much about these issues, we may fall from the trap of being defined and solidified into another trap of "deconstruction, dissolution and nothingness".

But Boundary Wars aren't playing games. They're designed to erode your perceived reality, altering the very definitions of the words you know. Words that once referred to A now refer to BCDEF, and A is then manipulated by them, with the rest of the world suffering no better. Boundary Wars alter reality, and these alterations are widespread and nearly permanent. Even if they are subsequently reversed, the traces of their influence remain.

But if you want to guard against it, you will find that it is completely impossible to guard against it - just like a word will have a problem of semantic dilution after being used too much, words like life and civilization, which are inherently fluid in nature, are themselves an endless war of boundaries.

When the meaning of a word is changed and the corresponding things in reality also gradually change, the thing it originally referred to is basically dead.

It’s like a person’s name, identity, life, and social relationships are completely replaced by another person, and no one remembers the former’s existence. Then the former is equivalent to being dead.

Even twenty years later, after countless setbacks in the Boundary War, humanity still couldn't figure out what had initiated this direct surgical operation on cognition and reality. They only knew that the purpose of the shelter was to preserve "things that remain unchanged," to preserve the sparks of the past, and to release them in some form later...

Homo sapiens has never triumphed. Homo sapiens has simply avoided destruction.

Every time he entered the shelter, Nie Weiyang's identity in the story was a complete combatant, and the issues revolving around those stories were at most questions like "technology", "art", "bloodline", "ethnicity", and "whose name is XXX".

And now, Nie Weiyang sat in the administrator's position, staring at the internal information of the shelter.

The screen displayed the core vocabulary being deconstructed in this boundary war:

【Emotional resonance】

This is one of the important foundations for communication and understanding between people.

There are at least four factions here, with their leaders in charge of security, logistics, medical care, and technological research, respectively. And everyone, including the leaders within these factions, is filled with hostility. Why?

Because people no longer know what true mutual understanding is.

...Everyone in this shabby place has a heart barrier AT stance! And he, Nie Weiyang, the second-in-command whose vision is slightly lower without his glasses, has to unite these people, survive the future disaster, and recognize his achievements as an administrator!

Even Nie Weiyang felt a bit of a headache at this moment. What was even more troubling was that he could see from the surveillance footage that Security Minister Kang Sen was walking quickly through the corridor towards the administrator's office.

The movement was so large that Nie Weiyang could tell with just a glance...

The other party was equipped with a gun.

Don't worry, Old Nie won't be too soft on these people.

If there is no consensus, create consensus (Hey

The next chapter begins to create consensus (

-

It's so strange. If the setting is to release these two chapters at the same time, they will be released in reverse order. I was confused and spent a long time to fix it. I think the second update will be a little later in the future.

Chapter 37 Threat

The development of things within the copy must also follow basic rules.

It has been 12 hours since Nie Weiyang arrived here. The shelter had closed its gates 6 hours ago. No one can enter or leave without the administrator's authorization.

Before this, Kang Sen could only figure out where Nie Weiyang got into the family's car. He had no way of knowing any other information, let alone any evidence against Nie Weiyang. Otherwise, judging by the other party's personality, he would definitely bring a team with him.

So, a threat?

Because the administrator is the boss of the security chief and has the authority to directly command the security department, does this guy think that part of his ecological niche has been replaced?

No, that's too stupid. As I said, things in the dungeon still have to follow basic rules. Kang Sen can't be that stupid if he can get to this position.

At most, he just came to warn Nie Weiyang.

Nie Weiyang's fingers tapped slowly on the armrest of the chair. He had no intention of getting up to greet them, but continued to browse the information on the screen, such as 'The Source'.

There are two types of people in this world: those with Sources and those without Sources. "Source" here refers to something traceable. Whether someone is a Source is determined by the "Center." The Center is located in the "Central City," where all Sources go for training.

This is a world where everyone can release mental power, and using mental power to communicate is naturally a basic operation.

'Empathy' is a way of communication that opens the soul. It makes love and hate become straightforward. Communication between people once reached a level where there were almost no lies. Races and cultures merged, and people began to give up their surnames, leaving only given names to distinguish individuals.

But starting from a certain point in time, people's ability to project their minds outward gradually weakened, from almost everyone being able to use mental power to change reality, to people only being able to use mental power to move objects, and then to mental power only being used to query compressed information and communicate emotions... Until now, their mental power has even lost the ability to communicate emotions.

For thousands of years, this entire society has been accustomed to using mental power to express and receive. Suddenly losing this convenience, these people have no idea how to sort out their own emotions.

Because their culture, art and thoughts tend to describe the interaction between the soul and mental power, pure verbal communication has only been around for the past hundred years. The instincts passed down in their genes make people anxious and uneasy, just like normal people outside the copy have their tongues cut off and their mouths sewn up since birth, but instinct tells them that they should make sounds with their mouths.

The tower of civilization once built by spiritual empathy now collapses into ruins.

Over the past hundred years, society has become unstable and turbulent. Malice, like the love it once had, has become sharp and direct. Humanity's influence outside the planet has rapidly shrunk, and only the "Hope Space Station" remains. But even within the Hope Space Station, people gradually lose trust and work efficiency declines...

The Source People appeared during this hundred years. The biggest difference between this group and ordinary people is that they have been trained to be calmer, more rational, stable, and non-instinctive, making them more suitable for management and command work, and they are less dependent on mental strength in life and combat.

Their power comes from other sources.

Nie Weiyang couldn't find out what those 'sources' were, but he knew very well that those with sources were a completely privileged social class here, and they hardly looked like creatures of the same race as the others...

The game system arranged Nie Weiyang to have such an identity in the copy story, which was not only to cause trouble for him, but also to disgust him.

Now, Nie Weiyang has to play the role of a person from a privileged class while gaining the trust of others.

This "other" includes ordinary people, normal people, abnormal people and the original privileged group within Shelter 4701 - most importantly, he cannot reveal his true identity.

Nie Weiyang licked his sharp fangs and felt his hands itchy.

The AI ​​began broadcasting the information about the security chief's visit. He let the message play three times before closing the information query interface and saying, "Please let him in."

The silver door opened, and Kang Sen's face turned black outside. He was very dissatisfied with this neglect, but he said nothing.

"After discussion, you have been granted the right to stay here temporarily," he said, "until the war ends, or..."

"What?" Nie Weiyang asked back. Although most of his expression was blocked by his sunglasses, his whole body exuded a strange gentleness and kindness.

He's playing dumb.

Kang Sen was silent for a moment. He walked into the office, put one hand on the desk, and stared at Nie Weiyang's face. "Here, you are the outsider... the source. Lower your attitude, it will be better for us all."

Nie Weiyang tilted his head slightly, and his eyes behind his sunglasses flickered.

"If this was a warning, you should have gone in with them," he said. "Or, uh... the conference room is on the second floor, right?"

Under Kang Sen's cold gaze, the tall young man stood up. He calmly walked around the desk and gestured to the reception area nearby.