Sea of Consciousness

"You want me to turn into a tainted witness?"

"Not really; the premise of a tainted witness is that you have already had criminal collusion with the Dragon-Tiger Gang, but you are innocent. I would like you to become a hidden police officer and cooperate with our investigation into the current crimes of the Dragon-Tiger Gang."

"Just like a spy."

"INDEED."

"But it's too dangerous for me, and I know little about the Dragon-Tiger Gang. I'm afraid I'm hardly up to your task."

"From a police officer's professional point of view, this is a perfectly ordinary sacrifice. And, of course, I can fully understand your concerns." Terrence hesitated for a short while and said.

"What would I get out of it if I agreed?" Yisi did not say outright that he wanted to "refuse"; in fact, in his heart of hearts, the option of "refusing" did not exist.

But he had to pretend to be hesitant now, keeping with the actual state of an ordinary stowaway.

"We can offer you a prosthetic transformation. Come on, you don't even have a brain-machine interface until now. It would be hard for you to get a decent job in Manyo City like that."

Lawrence pointed to a crack at the back of his neck that looked like the charging socket of a mobile phone, which Yisi guessed was the so-called 'brain-computer interface.'

"It does, after all, as you know ... I'm poor. And prosthetic modifications are a big expense." Yisi nodded, agreeing.

"Becoming a police officer, especially a secret one in a dangerous position like you, gets you a patronage fee, and you can have as many smart modifications as you want,"

Lawrence said as he gestured to Nightingale to show Yisi a success story using the technology of virtual projection:

A young policewoman, whose entire body from the neck down had been biologically modified, with four extra fingers embedded in her arms and octopus-like suction cups at the end of her fingers, her entire mechanical prosthetic limbs working together so well that she could even climb tens of meters high on glass with her bare hands, just like a natural superpower!

Yisi couldn't help but be dazzled: everything here was beyond the borders of his imagination; if this was the pinnacle of human technology, if this was the future of bio-modification, then this was too cool!

Before entering the wonderland game, he thought of the words he had read: "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

The flesh is weak, and the spirit is willing to, so in the world of Wonderland, people choose to mechanize their flesh in exchange for spiritual health.

Officer Lawrence's words interrupted his thoughts, "It's all up to you. Are you willing to pay a hefty bail and be deported back to Whitefall City by us in a month, or ..."

Lawrence's art of speech was masterful, he didn't say directly what he needed from Yisi, but Yisi understood precisely what he intended to do.

"I can consider your offer, but before I do that, I have a question to ask," Yisi said deliberately, a question that he had been thinking about for a long, long time:.

"How do you ensure I don't expose my real identity in the Dragon Tiger Gang? Or, how do I play a good senior hacker?"

Having said this, Yisi's heart rate spiked, and he now couldn't wait for the police's answer.

"I'll train you and help you learn about the Dragon Tiger Gang quickly." Nightingale broke the silence in the interrogation room, "Lawrence, is it possible for me to implant a part of my auxiliary program into Yisi's intelligent terminal?"

"There is no problem on a legal level, provided that Yisi herself needs to give her consent," Lawrence said as he gazed at Yisi, his eyes holding too many unspoken emotions.

It was as if Lawrence was saying with grey eyes: agree, agree! Why not agree?

"I agree, on the condition that you train me." Yisi pretended to contemplate for a long time. He looked up at Lawrence and, at the same time, noticed that all the surveillance cameras in the interrogation room were constantly following his movements and adjusting their angle. Was it Nightingale watching him on a monitor? Or maybe it was some high-ranking officer of the police department, hiding deeper, staring at him?!

"I swear." Lawrence nodded at him, "We can even open up access to the Sea of Consciousness for you."

"Sea of Consciousness?!" Yisi and Nightingale were surprisingly on the same frequency at the moment, except Yisi's tone were one of confusion while Nightingale was incomparably shocked.

"The Sea of Consciousness, the largest storage space for human consciousness services in the Federation, where you can even meet the consciousness of former Federation presidents." Nightingale quickly collected herself as she dutifully played the part of a science populariser.

"The Federation officials, for some special purposes, will take the consciousness of some of the dying people and manage it through instruments that will store the "human consciousness" in a giant intelligent cloud."

"The counterpart to consciousness uploading is consciousness downloading. Unfortunately, the current state of technology only allows for the uploading, but not the latter."

As Nightingale explained, all the lights in the interrogation room were simultaneously extinguished at this moment.

Yisi saw a huge three-dimensional projection appear in front of him. He was suddenly wrapped in a False Red-and-Black Mist, with only a scattering of tiny points of light trembling slightly around him as if they were stars blinking in the Milky Way.

"The fog that surrounds you is the Sea of Consciousness. Don't worry; none of this is real; it's a display. Each dot of light is human consciousness only. At the same time, their physical body has withered; their spirit lives on in the sea of consciousness."

"I'm sorry, it's hard for me to describe how I feel. It's beyond my imagination and comprehension." Yisi felt wracked by a great fear at that moment:

This Red-and-Black Mist was all too familiar to him! It had been mentioned countless times in the news on Earth and was the eerie presence that welcomed Yisi to the Otherworld!

If this is the "Sea of Consciousness" that Nightingale is showing, is he, and other players, like these points of light, already dead and dying for the Earth?

Is it possible that all the players who enter Wonderland are dead on Earth? And Wonderland is a "sea of consciousness" for all otherworldly travelers. It serves as a buffer, a depository for souls that have died on Earth.

Wonderland repeatedly emphasizes the destruction of the physical body and the existence of the spirit. It is like a man's thoughtful rant: don't fear annihilation; learn to accept death!

"The sea of consciousness holds countless souls that have died in reality, and you, need to play one of the senior hacks." Terrence snapped his fingers, and then all the illusory projections disappeared at that moment. The soft light that had just returned to the interrogation room.

"You mean I need to play someone who used to exist? And he ... is dead?"

Suddenly! The game prompt suddenly changed dramatically:

["Cat Catches the Rat" current mission progress: 8% → 50%]