Ming Po felt as though he had a very, very long dream.
But by the ti he woke up, he had already forgotten the specific details.
He only felt... that it hadn't been a good dream.
It was filled with blood and cries of agony... freezing downpours, betrayal, and slaughter.
When Ming Po opened his eyes again, he found himself lying in his own bed at ho.
Tick, tick, tick...
The ticking of clock hands echoed in his room, coming from sowhere unknown.
"Ugh..."
Ming Po slowly sat up, feeling a dull ache in his head.
It felt like a lack of sleep, or perhaps a hangover—although Ming Po had never been hungover, he had heard this was what it felt like.
The pain wasn't the throbbing of blood vessels in his forehead, but ca from deep within his brain. It was like a walnut stuffed into an empty soda can, rattling with the slightest shake.
"To think it teleported directly back here..."
Ming Po clutched his head, muttering softly.
However, a few things felt slightly off.
He clearly rembered that his house never had the ticking of a clock before.
This familiar ticking... Ming Po felt as if he had heard it sowhere before.
He slowly got out of bed and searched the room for the source of the noise.
Ming Po first opened the door to Ai Shiping's room, discovering that Ai Shiping hadn't returned—which was to be expected. He had prepared for his promotion at Gao Fan's house, so naturally, he would return there upon clearing the ga.
He just needed to verify that his good friend was still alive.
A Host didn't have an Anchor Point of their own.
If Ai Shiping had died in the Promotion ga and beco a Host, his room would have reverted to black and white. Following the ticking sound, Ming Po walked over.
He finally saw it... the sound was coming from the countdown in the living room.
Did the countdown make a sound before?
Ming Po thought back for a mont, realizing his mory of it was a bit hazy.
But regardless, there was no way its sound could have been loud enough for him to hear it clearly from his bedroom.
And the numbers on it had also changed—
-71:50:58
-71:50:57
The last ti Ming Po exited the "Terror Broadcast" ga, the countdown had over 101 hours left.
But now, that blood-red countdown had officially been compressed to under 72 hours.
Ming Po reached out to touch the countdown, and imdiately heard the ticking of the clock hands shift from his ears directly into his mind.
Perhaps... his headache was because this ticking was too loud while he was half-asleep?
"Only three days left..."
Ming Po murmured softly.
At that thought, he suddenly paused.
Because Ming Po realized sothing—since he beca a Deceiver of the World, only four days had passed.
He had participated in so many gas, killed so many people...
Yet, it had only been four days?
"I wonder what exactly will happen when the countdown ends..."
The corners of Ming Po's mouth curled up slightly. "I'm looking forward to it more and more."
anwhile.
Wuchang District, Wuhan, Hubei.
Within the black-and-white world, a profound and elegant palace stood abruptly, enveloping more than half of Han Street.
The longest side of the palace stretched for nearly a kiloter, covering a staggering area of seven hundred thousand square ters, not inferior in the slightest even when compared to the Forbidden City. The brilliant lights of the adjacent Chu River Street illuminated the deep exterior walls of the palace, casting them in a resplendent gold-red glow.
Inside one of the side halls of the palace was a magnificent banquet room.
The thick carpets were so soft it felt like stepping on clouds in a heavenly palace.
People dressed in suits and evening gowns chatted and laughed rrily inside. So sat alone in corners, while others gathered with friends. However, the largest table held no more than six people.
There were only fifty to sixty people in total, making the side hall appear sowhat empty.
This was exactly the headquarters of the Chinese Chamber of Comrce.
"Co, let us offer our congratulations—"
An old man with hair and a beard as white as snow, and a gaze as sharp as a falcon's, raised his champagne glass. "Congratulations... to Mr. Shen, for successfully seizing the future."
"Congratulations, Mr. Shen."
The four much younger businessn sharing his table all clinked their glasses.
Among them, the most radiant was the youngest person at the table.
He looked to be barely in his early twenties, possessing a handso face and fair skin. At this mont, a bright light shone in his eyes—it was hard to tell if it was the light of hope or simply the reflection of the crystal chandelier overhead.
"I should be the one toasting The Doctor."
This incredibly young "Mr. Shen" stood up and respectfully offered a toast to the white-haired elder. "If it weren't for The Doctor's guidance, I might have beco a 'Host' by now."
"But you succeeded now, didn't you?"
The corners of The Doctor's mouth lifted slightly. "As they say, the winner becos king and the loser becos the bandit... Zhou's Azure Lead is already considered the backbone of our organization. To be promoted to this level in just three months, in my opinion, the President still evaluated you too low.
"Let alone Silver of Moon... you might even be able to try for Ti Gold."
Mr. Shen simply smiled, not taking The Doctor's words too seriously.
"The President is right, Doctor. I have no ambition for promotion... Reaching the level of Zhou's Azure Lead and obtaining my own 'palace' is enough to allow to integrate and incubate Paradoxical Technology."
His voice was clear, full of vitality and energy.
The others seated at the table were roughly the sa age as his parents or even grandparents.
Looking at such a spirited young man, the others revealed kind, encouraging smiles.
"Young people are always so full of vigor."
A middle-aged man said with a laugh, "We don't have that kind of drive anymore. Little Shen, let give you a reminder... Even though you already have a 'palace,' when creating a paradox loop, you must rember not to exceed the establishnt ti of your company.
"Just bring the technology back little by little. You can't be too far ahead of your ti, otherwise, 'Heavenly Query' will notice you."
"Rember to be patient, Little Shen."
A woman who looked to be in her thirties with exceptionally well-maintained skin also spoke with a smile. "Don't just focus on bringing back technology. The most important thing is actually 'business direction.' Take The Doctor for example—back then, he developed his own feature phones, and his company was dragged down by the R&D team.
"The first thing he did after returning to the past was adjust his company's business direction. He shifted from independent R&D to OEM manufacturing, and saved his company relying on Nokia's orders.
"Did he bring back any technology? No. Because not all technology can be digested imdiately."
"Three years."
The middle-aged man raised three fingers. "Even though Paradoxical Technology is mature when it is sent back... generally speaking, you still need to leave a three-year margin... What are you planning to send back?"
"A robot."
"Mr. Shen" answered without hesitation. "Currently, the multi-functional robots in our company have almost fully integrated with Artificial Intelligence. They can execute simple operations through voice commands. At the very least, following and carrying items are not an issue, and the action response ti is within 0.5 seconds.
"I plan to send it back. The primary loop plan is to compress the response ti. My ultimate goal is to compress the response ti to within 0.1 seconds, reduce the false recognition rate to within 0.1 percent, and have it capable of completing simple household chores like cooking and cleaning at the very least."
"This robot of yours..."
The woman's expression turned a bit peculiar. "Have you considered cooperating with the military? A robot of this level will definitely be investigated."
"The biggest issue is the unemploynt rate."
The Doctor spoke slowly, "You need to pay attention to cost control. The cost cannot be too low. If it becos too widespread, it will cause the unemploynt rate to spike. If the higher-ups notice you, they might dispatch Divine Cody to investigate.
"The situation now is different from our era, after all. We didn't have the supervision of Heavenly Query back then; as long as we kept a low profile, nothing would go wrong.
"There is another problem. You want to iterate on the technology... are you planning to bring Artificial Intelligence back with you? Is your company also going to do algorithm R&D?"
"That shouldn't be an issue."
Mr. Shen stated without hesitation, "I have a partnership with Mr. Gao Song of the Gaotian Construction Group. He plans to open up a portion of his Artificial Intelligence technology to .
"Once I start the paradox loop, I will transmit the relevant technology to his side, and we will open our authority levels to each other."
But upon hearing his words, the others fell sowhat silent.
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