31: Chapter 31 The Awakening of the Real World

The smell of disinfectant pierced his nostrils sharply, like a fine needle dipped in ice, puncturing his chaotic consciousness.

Lin Fan's eyelids were as heavy as lead, every flicker bringing a tearing exhaustion. He struggled to open a sliver, met by a blinding pure white—the ceiling lamp covered in a thin layer of dust, reflecting a cold, hard light; on the nearby IV stand hung a half-bag of transparent liquid, a slender needle buried in the vein on the back of his hand, the icy sensation spreading through his blood to his entire body, bringing a faint but clear feeling of swelling pain.

"He's awake! He's awake!"

A voice tinged with crying exploded in his ear, and immediately after, a familiar face drew close to his eyes. Messy strands of hair stuck to her pale cheeks, the bloodshot streaks in her eyes hadn't yet faded, and those eyes that were always full of determination were now flickering with the wild joy of surviving a disaster, along with a lingering fear that couldn't be hidden.

It was Kate.

Lin Fan's throat moved, his dry vocal cords like rusted iron plates, grating out a few raspy syllables: "Ka... te."

Kate's tears instantly broke through the dam, hot droplets crashing onto the back of Lin Fan's hand, scalding his heart. She reached out and carefully grasped his hand, her fingertips burning with incredible heat, yet her grip was so strong it was as if she feared that if she let go, he would vanish again into the void of the code flood.

"That's great... you're finally awake..." Kate's voice choked, the words following seemed blocked in her throat, coming out in broken fragments, "I thought... I thought you would never wake up again..."

She gripped his hand tightly, her knuckles turning white from the effort, her shoulders trembling slightly, the suppressed sobs exceptionally clear in the quiet hospital room.

Lin Fan's gaze slowly swept across the room. White walls, a floor clean enough to reflect shadows, sunlight streaming through the window with warmth, falling on the vase on the bedside table where the sunflowers were blooming brilliantly. Everything was so real it was unbelievable—the touchable temperature, the audible breathing, and the smell of disinfectant permeating the air, all shouting—this is reality.

But those images were like a tide breaking free from its shackles, frantically flooding into his mind.

Michael's blood-stained smile as he fell, that line with bloody foam "don't let me die in vain"; Franklin's roar as he smashed the keyboard, making the entire secret room tremble; Trevor leaning behind a broken wall, the veins on his hand holding the dagger bulging, a flame of determination burning in his eyes; and Victor finally suspended in mid-air, his body turning into garbled code, that scream full of resentment.

Those memories were too vivid, so vivid it was as if they happened yesterday, every detail so clear it could be carved into his marrow, making him unable to distinguish which one was reality.

His gaze gradually became dazed, like a child lost in a thick fog, standing in the gap between two worlds, unable to find a direction.

"They..." Lin Fan's voice trembled slightly, he looked at Kate, his eyes full of urgency, like he was grasping at a life-saving straw, "What about Michael and Franklin? How are they? Did they come out with me? And Trevor? Is his leg injury better?"

A string of questions pelted Kate, every word carrying a burning expectation. He could even feel his fingertips trembling slightly, his heart pounding wildly in his chest, waiting for an answer that would set his mind at ease.

The smile on Kate's face froze.

She looked into Lin Fan's expectant eyes, her throat feeling as if it were blocked by something; a thousand words were stuck in her chest, yet she couldn't say a single one. Her lips moved, but in the end, she only lowered her gaze, her long eyelashes hiding the surging emotions in her eyes.

The air in the hospital room instantly became terrifyingly quiet.

Lin Fan's heart sank bit by bit.

Just then, the ward door was pushed open, and a doctor in a white coat walked in. He held a thick medical record in his hand, a pair of gold-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose, the gaze behind the lenses carrying a professional seriousness. He walked to the bedside, first checked Lin Fan's pupils, then raised his hand to feel his forehead to check his temperature, before slowly speaking: "The patient's vital signs are now stable, and various indicators are recovering; it's a blessing in disguise."

He paused, his gaze falling on Lin Fan, a hint of pity appearing in his eyes: "But, there is a situation I need to explain to you. During the Brain-Computer Interface experiment, your consciousness was in a high-intensity virtual environment for a long time, and your neural signals were deeply bound to the virtual scenes. This has caused your memory modules to become disordered. In layman's terms, you might now be... unable to distinguish between reality and the virtual."

"Unable to distinguish between reality and the virtual?"

Lin Fan felt as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning, his body jolting violently, causing the IV tube to shake. He looked at the doctor in disbelief, his lips trembling, his voice carrying a trace of undetectable shaking: "You mean... all those experiences were fake? Michael's sacrifice, Franklin's roar, Trevor's persistence, they were all fake?"

"From a medical perspective, yes." The doctor nodded, his tone gentle yet carrying an unquestionable power, "Brain-Computer Interface technology transmits neural signals from virtual scenes directly to your cerebral cortex, causing your brain to generate real perceptions. Although those memories are vivid, in essence, they are just segments of implanted code."

"No!"

Lin Fan suddenly roared, like a trapped beast whose sore spot had been touched. He struggled to sit up, the wound on his chest being pulled, sending a piercing pain, but he seemed not to feel it, his eyes full of frantic stubbornness: "That wasn't fake! When Michael blocked the bullet for me, I could smell the gunpowder on him; when Franklin patted my shoulder, I could feel the strength of his palm; when Trevor handed me water, that bottle of water was cold! Those were all real!"

His emotions became increasingly agitated, his voice grew louder, and even the walls of the ward seemed to tremble with him. The IV needle slightly shifted because of his struggling, a sharp pain coming from the back of his hand as a streak of dark red blood seeped out along the tube.

The doctor quickly pressed down on his shoulders, his strength steady yet carrying a reassuring intent: "Calm down, patient. I know it's hard for you to accept, but this is the truth. Many people who participate in Brain-Computer Interface experiments experience this situation; it takes time to slowly adjust."

"Adjust? How do I adjust?" Lin Fan's voice suddenly dropped, carrying a hint of desperate self-mockery, "By deleting those living people as if they were just segments of code?"

He looked at the doctor, then at Kate, the light in his eyes dimming bit by bit, like a wick that had run out of oil. He slumped against the headboard, his hands hanging weakly at his sides, the madness in his eyes gradually fading, leaving only a deathly silent daze.

Seeing his pained expression, Kate's heart ached as if cut by a knife. She quickly took a cotton swab, carefully wiped away the blood on the back of his hand, and gently patted his back, saying softly: "Lin Fan, calm down first. I have something to tell you, about Victor, about that virtual world."

Lin Fan's body stiffened for a moment, and he slowly raised his head to look at Kate. In those hollow eyes, a faint ripple finally appeared.

Kate took a deep breath, as if she had made a certain decision. She pulled over a chair and sat by the bed, her eyes carrying a cold hatred: "Victor, he is not just the controller of the virtual world. He is also the person in charge of the 'Prison of Consciousness' experimental project. This experiment was a conspiracy he planned single-handedly."

"Prison of Consciousness?" Lin Fan frowned, his voice raspy.

"Yes." Kate nodded, her fingertips turning white from the force of her grip, "The goal of this experiment is to forcibly extract human consciousness from the body through the Brain-Computer Interface and trap it in the virtual world he constructed. And those whose consciousness has been extracted, their bodies become his puppets, to be controlled by him at will."

Lin Fan's pupils suddenly contracted, as if struck by lightning, and his mind instantly exploded.

He finally understood why the NPCs in the virtual world had such vivid emotions and reactions. Why they would cry, laugh, struggle, and resist. Because they were originally living people!

"Then... Michael and the others?" Lin Fan's voice carried a hint of trembling; he didn't dare think of the answer, yet he couldn't help but ask further, "Were they also... imprisoned consciousnesses?"

Kate shook her head, a hint of confusion in her eyes: "I don't know. I checked Victor's experiment list, which recorded everyone who was forcibly connected to the Brain-Computer Interface, but... Michael, Franklin, and Trevor's names were not on it. Perhaps... they were autonomous consciousnesses born from the virtual world."

Autonomous Consciousness.

These two words were like a cold needle, ruthlessly stabbing into Lin Fan's heart.

If that were the case, then what were they? A segment of code with self-awareness? A dream of the virtual world? Then what did Michael's sacrifice count for?

Lin Fan leaned against the headboard, staring hollowly at the ceiling. The sunlight outside was warm, spilling onto his face through the glass, but it couldn't reach the icy depths of his heart. In his mind, the image of Michael falling replayed over and over, that line "let me be a person who dies with dignity" replayed, his chest feeling blocked, so stifled he couldn't breathe.

Just then, the television in the ward was playing the midday news.

The female anchor's sweet voice came through the screen, echoing clearly in the quiet ward: "Recently, worldwide, the number of coma incidents among volunteers participating in Brain-Computer Interface experiments has surged. According to incomplete statistics, over a thousand people have fallen into a deep coma, with doctors diagnosing it as Consciousness Disconnection; currently, there is no effective treatment plan. Relevant departments have intervened in the investigation, suspecting a connection to an illegal experimental project..."

Lin Fan's gaze was as if attracted by a magnet, staring fixedly at the television screen.

On the screen, a satellite map appeared, with a striking red dot marked on it, and the caption next to it clearly read—Location: Los Santos.

Los Santos.

These two words were like a bolt of thunder, exploding in Lin Fan's mind.

That was the name of the the Underworld in the virtual world!

Lin Fan's body jolted violently, a chill rushing from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, making the blood in his entire body feel as if it had frozen. He looked at the images on the TV, at the photos of those comatose volunteers, at their pale faces and closed eyes, and suddenly began to laugh.

The laughter was very light, yet it carried a bone-chilling despair and madness, echoing in the ward, making one's hair stand on end.

"Los Santos..." Lin Fan muttered to himself, his gaze unfocused as he looked at the ceiling, the smile at the corners of his mouth growing wider, "So... is this place also virtual?"

His emotions collapsed again, his hands suddenly clutching his head, his shoulders shaking violently, suppressed sobs escaping from his throat like the wail of a wounded beast.

"It's all fake... it's all fake..." Lin Fan's voice was shattered, "The virtual is fake, and reality is also fake... then what am I? Who am I?"

Watching his pained state, Kate's heart felt as if it were being twisted by a knife. She wanted to comfort him, wanted to tell him it wasn't like that, but found she couldn't say anything. She could only reach out and gently hug his trembling body, letting his tears wet her shoulder.

The doctor sighed, shook his head, and turned to walk out of the ward, leaving them in a quiet space.

In the ward, only Lin Fan's suppressed crying remained, along with the faint sound of traffic from outside the window.

Kate held Lin Fan, but her gaze fell on the laptop on the bedside table.

That was Lin Fan's computer; she had brought it with her when he was admitted to the hospital. Just last night, she had accidentally opened the computer and discovered a secret that made her heart race.

Deep in the computer's hard drive, a segment of residual game code was hidden. That code was very well-concealed, as if someone had deliberately hidden it, and ordinary antivirus software couldn't detect it at all. And at the end of the code, a striking line of small characters was written—[Salvation Mode has been activated, independent code space, coordinates locked.]

Next to the code, there was also a slowly ticking progress bar, and above the progress bar, a line of even more shocking characters was displayed—[Consciousness Reconstruction in progress... Progress: 12%]

Kate looked at the code on the computer screen, then at the weeping Lin Fan in her arms, her eyes full of worry and confusion.

She faintly felt that this war between reality and the virtual had not ended with Victor's downfall.

In fact, it had only just begun.

And those people Lin Fan regarded as a "dream" might not have truly disappeared.

In some unknown corner, a new story was quietly brewing.

(End of Chapter)