Chapter 48: The Origin of the USB Drive |
Lucy was not a lengthy movie.
In just 90 minutes, the director had expanded the creativity of the human mind to a limitless boundary.
Even if all of it was just smoke and mirrors.
However, the moment the movie ended, Chen Chen abruptly shot up from the sofa. His eyes were wide open, fixed intently on the screen!
Having undergone the baptism of the USB drive, NZT, VR glasses, and other items that had surpassed natural logic. From a common poor boy to having a net worth in the range of tens of billions, Chen Chen had achieved the impossible. However, at this moment, Chen Chen felt a chilling sensation all over his body.
What he was feeling now stemmed from a scene in the movie —
After the protagonist had absorbed several computers, a tower-shaped black object with its top shaped like the peak of a mountain was constructed. According to the movie, it was a biological computer from the future.
In the end, the humongous computer became condensed into a ball of black substance.
It was a pitch-black USB drive…
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The professor acted like he was intentionally teasing Chen Chen. He brought the USB drive in front of the frame and fiddled around with it.
There was no mistaking it. It was the USB drive…
Chen Chen looked down at the USB drive on his arm.
It was far longer than a common USB drive, measuring at twelve centimeters long. Painted pitch black, there were no labels on it whatsoever and it looked just like a carbon rod…
It was the exact same thing!
Chen Chen had the USB drive for nearly a year. He was almost inseparable from it the entire time. Every single detail, its surface, and color were carved deep into Chen Chen's mind.
"A billion years ago, we were given life. Now, you know what to do with it."
Said the protagonist at the ending of the movie.
It was as she whispered it into Chen Chen's ears…
Chen Chen suddenly came to his senses!
There was nobody behind him.
Drops of cold sweat poured down from his forehead. Chen Chen sat in place like this for awhile without making the slightest movement.
"Phew!"
After god knew how long, Chen Chen exhaled deeply. It was as if time resumed flowing after remaining stagnant for some time.
He slowly took out an NZT-48 and tossed it in his mouth without hesitation.
One second, two seconds, three seconds…
After about three minutes had passed, Chen Chen lifted his head. His pale cheeks had regained their color.
"Very interesting…"
Chen Chen sat up again. He rested his elbow on the sofa armrest and pressed his right hand to his forehead.
Who would have known that such a discovery would come from watching a movie?
Chen Chen took the USB drive and played around with it while deep in thought.
Why did his USB drive appear in the ending of the movie? Could it merely be a coincidence?
Maybe he was looking too much into it. Perhaps some studio executives had watched the movie and recognized the potential so they bought the copyright to make a spinoff.
The strange thing was that the USB drive which he possessed was not ordinary either…
Then came the problem - was the USB drive in the movie the same as the USB drive in his possession?
If so, why was it here?
Or was it that the USB drive was also extracted from the movie itself?
If that was the case, then it explained why the USB drive had so much energy when he had discovered it.
However, why were there four horror films on the USB drive?
Did its previous owner put them in there?
If so, why did the previous owner give it up?
Or maybe there was no previous owner. The USB drive was just delivering some sort of message to the world?
Was there some unknown secret in these four horror films?
Countless thoughts were racing through Chen Chen's mind. He squinted his eyes and suddenly saw a phrase fixed at the ending of the movie.
"I'm everywhere."
'I'm everywhere.'
"No, there's still a place in which you don't exist. Reality…"
Chen Chen mumbled to himself and an idea suddenly came to him.
At the ending of the movie, the protagonist became an all-knowing being but did she notice this particular thing?
"X, let me ask you something," Chen Chen spoke suddenly.
"Ok Dad, ask away," Little X replied.
"You've been living in a virtual network ever since you were born. Let's assume that you don't know about the existence of reality and one day, you suddenly realized that the universe you're in is a manufactured one. There exists a universe beyond the universe you exist in. What would you do?"
"Of course, I'd try to find a way to enter the wider universe," X answered without skipping a beat.
"That so?" Chen Chen was intrigued.
Perhaps the protagonist in the movie had wanted to leave her universe and enter the real world?
No, she had already lost all forms of desire. Unless her entering the real world was just an act of fulfilling her curiosity for the unknown?
However, you had to understand that the universe which you came from and the real world were incompatible. In your universe, the human mind may be expanded a hundred times but that was not the case in reality.
The moment you came to reality from your virtual world, your powers would cease to exist.
Therefore, since your power was no longer present, you would not be able to break through your universe with your power into reality…
This was a question without an answer.
Chen Chen remembered the three questions of the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato:
"Who am I? Where do I come from? Where will I go?"
The three questions could be boiled down to one question: What was the meaning of life?
Did this statement not echo the sentiment of the protagonist's statement in the movie?
"A billion years ago, we were given life. Now, you know what to do with it."
The protagonist's words once again rang in Chen Chen's ears.
"Box theory?"
Chen Chen speculated.
The box theory was a scientific theory that first made its appearance in the last century. Due to advancement in computation and artificial intelligence slowly incorporating themselves into part of daily life, some creative people came up with a terrifying prediction —
What if one day, computers gained sentience and began to develop a civilization of their own without knowledge of the existence of the real world? From their perspective, everything in their world was products of nature.
Until one day, computer civilization created computers of their own as well. They began experimenting artificial intellectual life on these computers, manipulating and observing artificial life…
This was the famous box theory.
Simply put, a lot of people pessimistically believed that the world in which they existed was not real. Just like the entities in the computer, this world which we live in was a sealed box as well.
Chen Chen held up the USB drive. The two of them silently looked at each other. It was as if the USB drive could sense Chen Chen's gaze as it emitted a dark light.
It was looking back at Chen Chen.
At that moment, Chen Chen finally understood why he could instantiate objects.
It was a key.
It was the key to bringing life from within the box to the outside world.
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