112: Chapter 112 Information Surge, Hidden Dragon in the Abyss

Ling Ye endured the throbbing pain and dizziness in his brain and shut down the old computer that had just finished cracking the password. The chip was destroyed, and the information within (whether complete or not) had already been poured into his consciousness; the computer had no further value for now. He carefully placed the black box back into the hidden compartment and returned the 《Interstellar Plant Guide》 to its original place. The study returned to its original state, as if nothing had happened.

He walked back to the living room, drew the curtains, and left only a wall lamp with soft light. The environment needed to be as quiet and controllable as possible.

Then, he found a relatively empty spot on the floor and sat down cross-legged. The posture was not the standard cultivation "five centers facing the sky," but a sitting posture adjusted for the flexibility and comfort of this body. He needed to meditate, not to absorb Spiritual Qi (there was none in this world), but to gather his mind, organize his consciousness, and attempt to actively control the newly born "High-Dimensional Information Perception."

First, it was about processing the torrent of information in his mind.

He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness (let's call this space of consciousness that for now). Here, there was no longer the chaotic star sea of the "reincarnation seal," nor the Sword Intent sky of the Lingyun Sword Sect, but a chaotic "Information Storm Zone" composed of countless broken light and shadows, twisted symbols, fragments of strange languages, star coordinate fragments, remnants of technological blueprints, and the terrifying scene that kept flashing repeatedly.

"Stabilize." Ling Ye murmured in his heart, and the powerful willpower tempered during the Reincarnation trials began to take effect. Like a pillar in the middle of a rushing river, he remained unmoved, letting the information storm wash over him. He no longer tried to "read" or "understand" all the information, as that would trigger consciousness overload again. Instead, like a highly sophisticated information processing hub, he began to classify, archive, and tag.

He extended his consciousness "tentacles" into the storm, capturing those relatively stable and clearly structured fragments:

Star Map and Coordinate Algorithm Fragments: This looked like the most "practical" yet potentially most dangerous information for now. He carefully stripped away these shimmering fragments—composed of points, lines, planes, and complex mathematical formulas—and built a temporary "Star Map Area" in a corner of his consciousness. He discovered that these fragments were not a complete star map but more like the "index" and "algorithm core" of a massive navigation program, missing key "initial coordinates" and a large amount of "path data." However, these fragments alone were enough to vaguely perceive that it pointed to a dark space marked as an "Absolute Silence Zone," located outside the known spiral arms and not labeled on the Federation star map. This matched the location in the final scene he saw.

Unknown Symbols and Language Samples: A large number of incomprehensible geometric figures, fluid patterns, and wave frequency records. Some had a vague similarity to the star runes on the "ancient ring" in his memory, while others were completely alien. He categorized these as a "Symbol Library to be Parsed," leaving them for future study after his knowledge increased.

Technological Blueprint Remnants: Fragmented mechanical structures, energy circuits, and material ratios. Some clearly surpassed the mainstream technology of the Human Federation he currently understood; the style was vastly different, full of a weird sense of organic-mechanical Fusion, and even carried some kind of... biological "active" characteristics. This likely came from that terrifying entity, or the civilization it belonged to. He marked it as "Xenotech Fragments" and sealed it away as well.

Whispers and Hissing Fragments: The most chaotic and unsettling part. It was not received through hearing but acted directly on the consciousness level as "Information Turbulence." It was filled with coldness, greed, indifference, and a certain hatred for "Order." Merely contacting the residual "feelings" of these fragments made a chill rise from the depths of his Soul, confirming once again the similarity to the aura of the "Nine Nether Realm." He carefully isolated and compressed these negative information streams, marking them as "Forbidden Echoes," to be avoided unless necessary.

Federation Research Ship Scene: This was the clearest and most core "evidence." He repeatedly "watched" this memory image, not missing any details. The model of the research ship, the blurred hull number, traces of non-standard modifications on the hull, the characteristics of the surrounding absolute dark space (no starlight, no background radiation, as if devouring everything), and the specific morphological characteristics of that terrifying entity (the arrangement pattern of the tentacles' eyeballs, the way metal and shadow combined, and that "discordant sense of existence" exuded overall). He extracted this image separately and set it as the highest priority item.

"the key... must be recovered..." Intent Echo: The fragments of this grand, inhuman intent were marked as a key point. This likely revealed what that terrifying entity, or the forces behind it, were looking for. "the key"? Did it refer to tokens like the "Ancient Ring" or the "bone ring"? Or did it refer to specific items, technologies, or even... individuals capable of opening the "Star Gate" or some kind of passage?

It took Ling Ye nearly two hours to initially organize, partition, and suppress the information storm in his mind. Although most of the content was still incomprehensible, at least it no longer chaotically impacted his consciousness, and the headache had eased significantly. He felt that his Mental Energy, during this forced, high-intensity information processing, seemed to have been tempered, becoming more refined, and his control over his consciousness had become a bit more precise.

"High-Dimensional Information Perception" seemed to become more "tamed" and clear in this focused state. He could perceive more clearly that this ability was not on 24/7, but required him to concentrate, or was passively triggered when stimulated by specific types of "information" (such as seeing that black box or chip). Its manifestation was more like an intuitive insight into "patterns," "associations," and "potential possibilities" that transcended common sense, as well as a vague resonance with things containing special "information density" or "rule fragments."

Next, the body.

He ended his meditation and stood up slowly. His body was still weak, but much better than when he had just woken up. He walked to a slightly more spacious area in the living room and began to try moving his body.

First was the most basic stretching to feel the flexibility, strength, and coordination of this body. The result was better than he expected. Although the original owner was depressed, he was young after all, the foundation wasn't bad, and with the repair and optimization of the "Reincarnation Pool," the potential of this body was quite good. It was just that due to a long-term lack of systematic exercise, the muscles were a bit weak, and his endurance, explosive power, and nerve reaction speed were far from meeting the standard.

He began to practice a simplified set of dynamic exercises derived from the basic body-tempering methods of the Lingyun Sword Sect. This set of movements originally required coordination with breathing techniques to guide Qi and blood and mobilize internal breath. But there was no Spiritual Qi in this world, so internal breath was out of the question. Ling Ye modified it, retaining only the effects of stretching tendons and bones, exercising the core, coordinating full-body force, and cultivating a certain martial arts consciousness of "movement and stillness as one, mind following." The movements were slow and extended, like practicing a health-preserving boxing style, but every move required absolute control over his own muscles and joints.

At first, the body was a bit stiff, and the movements were deformed. But he adjusted patiently, and with his powerful consciousness's high-precision control over the body, he quickly mastered the rhythm. After finishing the set of movements, his body was slightly warm, but his breath was longer and steadier than before, and his brain was clearer due to the physical activity. More importantly, he felt the "fit" with this new body increasing, and the feeling of being able to command it like an arm was slowly returning.

Subsequently, he tried standing post-practice, not pursuing Qi sensation, but only seeking a centered posture and inward-focused spirit, further condensing his mind in silence, feeling the subtle changes in his body, and attempting to actively "stimulate" or "guide" that newly born, weak Mental Energy.

Time passed rapidly in focused cultivation and organization.

When Ling Ye opened his eyes again and looked at the holographic projection of the old-fashioned clock on the wall, he found it was already late at night. He had actually been practicing and organizing alone in the apartment for nearly ten hours, drinking only a few sips of water in between.

Hunger struck like a tide. He walked to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There were only some expired nutritional pastes and synthetic foods inside. Obviously, the original owner's living state was extremely poor before the "accident."

He cleared away the expired food and ordered a basic comprehensive nutritional meal from the automatic delivery terminal in the apartment using the credit points pre-stored by the community. In the gap while waiting for the meal, he reopened the personal terminal, not to check common knowledge this time, but to start searching with a purpose.

The keywords he searched for included: "Crystal-Armored Beast Ecological and Behavioral Anomaly Report (Recent)," "Recent Safety Incidents at Dawn City Third Colonial Academy," "Public Information of Deep Space Exploration Institute (Three Years Ago)," "Support Policies for Families of MIA Personnel in the Federation," and "Civilian Anomaly Reporting Forum (Unofficial)."

He was not in a hurry to delve into the core of the "Star Gate Echo," but wanted to start from the most likely to be contacted, least conspicuous edge information of "Ling Ye's" identity, while simultaneously verifying the role of "High-Dimensional Information Perception" in information filtering.

The search results refreshed like a waterfall. Ling Ye's gaze scanned quickly, and High-Dimensional Information Perception worked silently. Most of the information was quickly filtered out, but when his gaze swept over a post title published on a local community forum with only a few replies, his perception moved slightly.

Post Title: "Strange noises occasionally at night near Oak Street, like metal scraping or low roars. Investigation drones found no anomalies. Has anyone heard it? Poster: Midnight Wind. Time: A week ago."

Oak Street was exactly the community where he was. The time point was around the time of his "accident."

He clicked on the post. The content was very brief. The poster claimed that for several consecutive nights, near midnight, they heard indescribable strange noises coming from the direction of the abandoned old Ore processing plant on the periphery of the community, intermittent. After reporting to the community management office, the dispatched automatic patrol drones did not find any abnormal biological or human activity traces. There were only a few replies under the post; some joked that it was wild dogs or the sound of the wind, others said they slept soundly those days and didn't hear it, and it quickly sank.

This kind of urban legend-like post could appear in any community and usually ended up with nothing. But the slight movement of "High-Dimensional Information Perception" made Ling Ye take it to heart. He recorded this information along with the poster's ID and time.

The nutritional meal arrived; it was a bland but nutritionally balanced paste and energy bar. Ling Ye ate it expressionlessly, tasteless as chewing wax, but his body was indeed replenished with energy.

He also searched for recent official reports and academic articles on the "Azure Planet Crystal-Armored Beast." The Crystal-Armored Beast was the culprit of his "accident." The official report was normal, emphasizing that the Crystal-Armored Beast population was stable, their temperament was gentle, attacks on humans were extremely rare, and the last such incident was five years ago, caused by the beast being infected with a rare parasite leading to mania. The academy's accident report also cited this conclusion, qualifying it as an "accident."

But he noticed an inconspicuous detail in the appendix data of an academic paper studying the local ecology of Azure Planet: In the past six months, the global magnetic field monitoring network of Azure Planet had recorded several extremely weak, very short-duration (millisecond-level), unknown-source, and special-frequency "background radiation disturbances." The author of the paper believed it might be occasional interference from deep space high-energy particle streams or errors in monitoring equipment and did not conduct in-depth discussion.

"Magnetic field disturbance"... "Crystal-Armored Beast"... "Community strange noises"...

These information fragments seemed insignificant individually and could even be easily explained. But Ling Ye's "High-Dimensional Information Perception" and his crisis intuition after experiencing Reincarnation made him vaguely feel that there might be some extremely subtle connection here. Especially after he personally contacted the scene of that terrifying entity in the chip, any "anomaly," no matter how small, was worth being vigilant about.

"It seems that this world is not as calm as it appears on the surface." Ling Ye closed the terminal, walked to the window, lifted a corner of the curtain, and looked at the quiet community street glowing with violet night light outside.

The shadow of the demonic calamity might have already permeated here in another form.

And he needed to become stronger faster.

He returned to the center of the living room and sat down cross-legged again. This time, he did not organize information but began to try a most basic meditation method from the Reincarnation Legacy, specifically used for tempering the Divine Soul, condensing willpower, and improving the purity of Mental Energy—the "Star Gods Mental Concentration Chapter."

This chapter originally involved meditating on the stars of the universe and drawing on the power of the stars to temper the Divine Soul. In this world, the power of the stars (starlight) was essentially electromagnetic waves, different from the star power of Spiritual Qi, but the core essence of the meditation method— "calm the mind and contemplate, use intent to control the spirit, outline eternity in the void, and see the true self in silence"—and the requirement for fine control of Mental Energy were universal. He did not need to draw on the power of the stars, just focusing on the process of "meditation" itself was enough to temper his spirit.

He adjusted his breathing and gradually entered a state where he forgot both himself and the world. In his consciousness, there were no concrete images of stars, but he tried to "outline" the "structure" and "rhythm" belonging to the "star map algorithm" that remained in the chip information, full of the beauty of reason and Order.

Time passed quietly.

When he woke up from deep meditation again, the horizon outside the window was already showing a fish-belly white, and the violet sky was gradually brightening.

Ling Ye slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air, his eyes shining with divine light. Although his body was still tired, his spirit was unprecedentedly clear and condensed. One night of meditation had significant effects. He felt that his thinking speed, memory, and especially his control over "High-Dimensional Information Perception" had all improved significantly. Now, he could more actively "focus" this perception to observe specific things, rather than just passively receiving fragments.

He stood up and walked to the holographic photo frame hanging with a family photo. In the photo, his young parents were smiling brightly, and little Ling Ye was carefree.

"Ling Ye..." He whispered the name, which was both this body and his new life in this world.

"Your Karma, your worries, your mysteries... I have taken them on."

"And my path, my tribulation, my return... will also start from here."

He needed to return to the academy as soon as possible to complete the "return" of his social identity. But before that, he had one more thing to do.

He changed into another set of clean casual clothes sent by the community, put on his personal terminal, picked up the temporary traffic card, and gently opened the apartment door.

The cool air of the early morning mixed with the unique fresh scent of blue oaks poured in.

Ling Ye walked down the stairs, walked out of the apartment building, and according to the memory on the terminal, walked unhurriedly toward the edge of the community, in the direction mentioned in the post, near the abandoned old Ore processing plant.

He wanted to see and hear for himself.

Using these new eyes to observe whether there was really an "anomaly" hidden behind this seemingly calm world that only he could perceive.