Heroes' Prison

Chapter 1841 - 1759: The Ultimate Secret of the World! What Do You Choose to Believe?

Chapter 1759: The Ultimate Secret of the World! What do you choose to believe?

Huang Yi pressed his lips tightly together, saying nothing.

Cold Storage is a well-established technology. Previously, when Earth’s environment deteriorated, humanity went through an era of Cold Storage, waiting fifty years for Earth’s ecosystem to recover.

But now, storing for several hundred years is astonishingly long; even for someone as worldly as him, it’s hard to decide in an instant.

What would human society become after hundreds of years? Would the people he knew, his friends, and the brothers in his organization, still be alive?

Perhaps when he emerges from cold storage, no one he knew would still be around?

It seemed that Mr. Huang Sha had noticed Huang Yi’s hesitation. He patted him on the shoulder and smiled, "This is just our speculation, you needn’t be scared. Once Quantum Combat Body technology matures, you can explore that real universe and possibly discover things only imagined before, like cultivation abilities that might extend your lifespan unexpectedly. Perhaps you won’t need cold storage to live so long; it’s just the best method we have now, but the future is ever-changing. You need to look at problems with a developmental perspective."

Huang Yi nodded, finally relaxing a bit.

By now, they had reached the Lake Heart Pavilion where a black cat lay lazily sleeping on the ground. When it saw them approach, it just slightly raised its head and flicked its tail before continuing to sleep.

On the stone table lay a fishing rod. Mr. Huang Sha suddenly turned to glance at Sharp Sword and smiled slightly.

He picked up the fishing rod, baited it, walked to the railing, and cast out with force, catching a fish.

Huang Yi sensed an odd atmosphere between Mr. Huang Sha and Sharp Sword but hesitated to ask, standing silently in the back waiting for Mr. Huang Sha to speak.

After a while, Mr. Huang Sha finally spoke: "God of Slaughter, I want to discuss a ultimate topic with you. Last time you asked me about the true purpose of the Virtual World, I gave you part of the truth. But there was another part I didn’t tell you back then, which is what I’m here to share with you today."

Huang Yi felt a chill in his heart; he was finally about to confront that earth-shattering secret. He and Sharp Sword were just about to make some choice.

Mr. Huang Sha continued: "Do you remember the question I asked you last time — what is true, what is false? Or rather, what is reality, and what is illusion? I asked you then to think about it carefully. Have you thought about it now?"

Huang Yi pressed his lips together, finding the question still difficult to answer, finally shaking his head: "I can’t say, but I can tell by instinct."

Mr. Huang Sha’s face became serious as he said: "Next, I’m going to tell you a secret most people in the world don’t know. You and Sharp Sword need to judge whether this secret is true or false, and then you must make a choice. Your judgment and choice will directly affect how we arrange things for you. Of course, I already know Sharp Sword’s choice; now I just want to hear your judgment."

"Oh? Tell me!" Huang Yi instantly held his breath, not daring even to blink.

Mr. Huang Sha pressed his mouth, slowly speaking a phrase —

"In fact, the reality is also a Virtual World!"

The air suddenly fell silent.

A breeze blew over, stirring ripples in the lake water and swaying the lotus flowers.

"What?" Huang Yi was stupefied for a moment before finally recovering, staring at Mr. Huang Sha in shock.

Mr. Huang Sha smiled: "How do you distinguish between the real world and the virtual world?"

Huang Yi calmed his shocked heart, swallowed and said: "It’s obvious at a glance! The two worlds are entirely different—with Giant Dragons, Magic, The Seven Archdemons, you can fly and travel underground, blow up planets with one punch, all sorts of fantastical things in the Virtual World; whereas the real world is full of skyscrapers with a technological feel, cars, commercial streets; everything is real, without absurd events."

Mr. Huang Sha shook his head: "We can completely make the Virtual World look like the real world, for example, your Hero Guild’s Dragon City, we could turn that into a place full of skyscrapers, commercial streets everywhere, cars everywhere, and delete all those cataclysmic magical skills. Remember your Third-tier Trial? That scene you entered was a real world—you entered an internet café from over a hundred years ago and saw games like Legendary, World of Warcraft from more than a hundred years ago. If we wish, we can completely make the Virtual World look modern; how would you distinguish whether it’s a Virtual World or not then?"

"The virtual world has System Prompts!" Huang Yi continued.

"The System Prompts are set by us; we can cancel any System Prompt."

Huang Yi thought for a moment and said, "In the virtual world there are no physiological needs, but in the real world you need to eat, drink, and use the bathroom."

"Those in Cold Storage don’t need to eat, drink, or use the bathroom either." Mr. Huang Sha smiled faintly.

"In the virtual world, you can be resurrected after dying, but in the real world, you can’t be resurrected."

"Who says you can’t be resurrected in the real world? Didn’t you just resurrect?" Mr. Huang Sha retorted.

"That’s because you have resurrection surgery; it’s due to medical means that I was resurrected." Huang Yi argued.

"The resurrection surgery is controlled only by Era of Corporation; no one has ever seen the implementation process of the resurrection surgery, how do you know it’s real? Maybe the resurrection surgery is just a symbolic ritual and actually useless?"

"But, we’ve experienced real deaths in Freedom Organization. These deaths are true and real."

"You can think of it as their data being erased by the system." Mr. Huang Sha stated calmly.

Huang Yi was at a loss for words and couldn’t help but turn to look at Sharp Sword.

But Sharp Sword remained silent, clearly having already made a judgment and choice.

"God of Slaughter, have you heard of the ’Brain in a Vat’ hypothesis?" Mr. Huang Sha smiled and looked at the wall across the lake. "This hypothesis was proposed more than a hundred years ago: imagine your brain being taken out by an evil scientist and placed in a glass vat, soaked in nutrient solution to stay alive. Then, a computer connects to your brain, inputting various biological signals to give you tactile, gustatory, sensory, olfactory, and other real feelings. You would think you are a real person living in a real world, momentarily drinking and chatting with friends, watching a movie in a cinema, listening to Mr. Huang Sha, the president of Era of Corporation, telling an absurd story called ’Brain in a Vat,’ holding a phone to read a novel called ’Heroes’ Prison,’ breathing, heart beating, blinking ... everything is real. How would you determine that you are not in such a state?"

Huang Yi bit his lip and thought for a while but couldn’t come up with a method, so he asked: "Then how do we determine it?"

"That’s precisely the question I just asked you. How do you know that the real world isn’t a virtual world? Our virtual technology has already reached the ’Brain in a Vat’ level, capable of inputting tactile, olfactory, auditory, and other biological signals to the world’s people, making them live according to our design. We can create their life experiences, decide what happens to them, what they encounter, and how they spend their lives. You should know that the first generation virtual world ’Hope’ is a product of the Cold Storage era. Decades ago, due to global environmental deterioration, everyone except a few entered Cold Storage, existing as consciousness in the virtual world. This continued until fifty years later, in 2109, when global Cold Storage was opened, and people returned to the real world."

Mr. Huang Sha paused and continued, "Here’s a hypothesis! Actually, in 2109, the global Cold Storage was never opened; people didn’t end Cold Storage but continued to live as consciousness in the virtual world. We only created a virtual world called the ’real world,’ giving everyone the illusion of awakening from Cold Storage, letting them think they left Cold Storage and returned to the real world, from then on learning, falling in love, working, marrying, having children, growing old, and dying in the real world. Of course, this so-called ’real world’ also contains a sub-level virtual world you call ’The Second World,’ making you think ’The Second World’ is the virtual world, while the real world is the genuine world."

Huang Yi frowned and said, "Are you saying those in Cold Storage are like being in layers of dreams, and the real world is just another layer of dream?"

"You could put it that way! But this dream will never truly end, or rather, you can’t determine if you have awakened. That way, you can explain the question that puzzled you before—why did the Demon Clan launch such a large-scale catastrophe in The Second World? Players painstakingly built cities were destroyed, virtual assets suffered significant losses, affecting the financial realm of the real world, triggering economic crisis and causing social chaos, yet Era of Corporation didn’t intervene? Because the real world itself is false, so no matter what upheaval happens, it doesn’t matter; the real people are still in Cold Storage."

Huang Yi shook his head: "I didn’t experience that global Cold Storage era. People from Freedom Organization told me my parents were among the few who stayed outside the Cold Storage. I was born and raised in the outside world."

"It seems you haven’t truly grasped what I’m saying." Mr. Huang Sha shook his head. "Have you considered that Freedom Organization is also false? Rose Prison is false too? Your life is something we designed in the virtual world?"

Huang Yi was stunned, saying nothing, pondering that possibility.

Mr. Huang Sha stared at Huang Yi, continuing: "We’ve just discussed the reality of the world; next, let’s discuss the truth of people—how do you distinguish between NPCs and players?"

Huang Yi took a deep breath and said, "NPCs are virtual data, players are real people with their own reality lives."

Mr. Huang Sha shook his head and said, "That definition is inaccurate! Since we can create a virtual world, why can’t we create virtual people? In The Second World, to make it easier for players to distinguish, we deliberately let NPCs display characteristics of NPCs, such as never logging off, having names suitable for NPCs, having unique appearances, having low intelligence, not mentioning anything related to the real world... all these are intentionally set by us. We can completely remove these settings, making them identical to players... In fact, we have indeed done this."

"What do you mean?" Huang Yi was baffled.

"In fact, some players are not players but NPCs we created, only we let them possess the traits of players. They will discuss stocks with you, gossip about movie stars, complain about work troubles, appearing as real players. In other words, maybe among your friends and family, some are not real people, but fake NPCs, just a string of data, for example... Qin Shiyu."