200: Chapter 200 My Own Private Space

Chapter 200: A Private Space of One's Own

Time quietly passed, and the sunlight outside the window grew increasingly bright.

Fang Cheng sat cross-legged upright on the bed, his hands resting lightly on his knees, and his eyes closed peacefully and lightly.

The room was completely silent, with occasional breezes blowing the curtains and making a subtle rustling sound.

It felt as if someone was whispering softly in his ear.

After a long while.

Fang Cheng suddenly opened his eyes, a sharp glint flashing across the depths of his pupils, and he murmured softly:

"It should be fine now."

He then stretched his legs to get off the bed, without putting on shoes, and stepped barefoot directly onto the floor.

Raising his eyelids, he looked around and thought to himself.

Let's start trying from his most familiar bedroom.

Fang Cheng took a deep breath and used the Speed Reading skill once again.

As he entered the state, it felt as if a button had been quietly pressed in his mind.

In that deep and dark Universe Void Realm within his skull, hundreds of millions of neuronal synapses flashed like stars, colliding instantly to produce dazzling sparks.

Massive amounts of information surged and shuttled along the nerve fibers like super-light-speed particle streams, as if trying to break through the boundary between reality and fantasy.

At the same time, Fang Cheng's eyes were like opened channels of the Soul, flashing an exceptionally brilliant light from the depths of his pupils.

Then, like a laser printer, he almost instinctively scanned and recorded everything he saw before him.

Wherever his sight reached, from the bed, desk, and bookshelf, to the wardrobe, walls, and ceiling.

And the window glass stained by sunlight, and every little floral pattern on the curtain gently brushed by the wind.

Fang Cheng turned his body in a circle, his gaze sweeping quickly and meticulously across everything in the room.

Afterwards, he walked out of the bedroom, came to the living room, and continued this reading and memorization that exceeded normal brain load.

Moving forward slowly step by step, his gaze was so deep and sharp as if it could pierce through space, not missing any shady corners.

Every inch of area in the home, every detail, and all decorations and furniture were deeply branded into the bottom of his heart.

The soles of his feet stepped directly on the floor, feeling wisps of coolness transmitted from the fine wood grain, which seemed to bring a strange tactile sensation as well.

Fang Cheng lowered his eyes to scan the worn-out old floor beneath his feet, suddenly frowning tightly with a troubled look on his face.

He then interrupted the skill state, using both hands to rub his glabella and temples vigorously.

After a few minutes, he finally let out a deep breath.

Suddenly, there was a sense of relief, and even cold sweat broke out all over his body.

It seemed that due to excessive brain use, his ears were buzzing, his temples were throbbing, and there was a vague sense of nausea.

Estimating in his heart, from activating the skill to ending its use, it was probably only about ten seconds.

It seemed that the Memory Palace indeed consumed a tremendous amount of mental energy.

"This shouldn't be..."

Fang Cheng muttered to himself in a low voice, somewhat surprised.

You must know that his mental attribute was as high as 43 points, far exceeding ordinary people.

Even among those gifted individuals, it could be considered quite outstanding, and definitely could not be called weak.

Although the Memory Palace was relatively complicated to use, ordinary people could also achieve a degree of proficient use.

Even with his first performance, it shouldn't be like this.

Slowly rubbing his glabella, Fang Cheng looked at the panel information emerging before his eyes.

[Warning! You have overdrawn your spirit, and your physical condition is very poor. Please pay attention to rest.]

His gaze swept past this warning message and continued to look down.

Several new messages regarding the increase of skill experience made Fang Cheng's eyes light up.

[You have completed the first step of building the Memory Palace—imaging, Speed Reading experience +10]

[Next, you can choose to connect these image materials at a certain level of consciousness to carry out construction work]

[Given that you have already mastered the Meditation skill, you can try to use this skill to further improve the specific effect of the Memory Palace]

"What does this mean..."

Fang Cheng's gaze flickered slightly, and he let out a soft exclamation.

His thoughts turned, and he seemed to perceive something with a flash of insight.

He then returned to the bedroom and rested with a bit of Meditation.

Closing his eyes, the whole person quickly calmed down and slowly cast aside distracting thoughts.

After a moment, countless human voices suddenly surged towards his ears like a tide, and then receded as quickly as the tide.

In the faint depths of his consciousness, however, Fang Cheng suddenly opened his bright and spirited eyes.

He saw that the scene of the home had completely disappeared, and the surroundings were pitch black, as if stepping into the Chaos Void Realm.

Looking afar.

Within his field of vision, apart from tiny points of light blinking like stars, there was endless black fog shrouding the entire world.

It was as if he were at the end of the world, and taking one step further would plunge him into an even deeper, darker abyss hiding countless evil things.

Looking at the black fog that his sight could not pierce, and the numerous points of light hidden within it.

Fang Cheng's expression was calm and he was not surprised.

Because this was the mental space that established communication with the Smiling Demon.

That was, a special layer located at the connection point between a person's subconscious and conscious mind.

That's right.

Fang Cheng's intention was to treat this barren area as a construction site and carry out the construction work of the Memory Palace.

If he constructed the Memory Palace in the purely conscious area like ordinary people, it would be a bit cliché and lack miraculousness.

Entering the deeper subconsciousness, on the other hand, was too risky and full of unknown factors and uncertainties.

Therefore, choosing the layer between the two as the construction location was obviously the most appropriate.

Of course, this was also inspired by the Smiling Demon.

That dark room serving as a voice chat room was perhaps, in a sense, an existence similar to the Memory Palace.

Regardless, he possessed expert-level Meditation skills and the marvelous Flame of Spirituality.

Coupled with a mental attribute with a Breakthrough exceeding 40 points, he could completely make a bold attempt.

Hoo—hoo—

Vaguely, one could hear the howling of wild winds or the sound of waves crashing.

Not a shred of light could pierce through this ink-thick black fog.

Everything within sight was a piece of Chaos, and all things between heaven and earth seemed ultimately unable to escape the fate of being swallowed by it.

This was not just a physical perception, but an icy chill rising from the depths of the Soul.

It was as if a biting undercurrent was flowing in the dead Void Realm, freezing all light and hope wherever it passed.

Travelers who occasionally arrived here could simply not maintain calm, and only wanted to escape as soon as possible to avoid the fate of falling into the abyss.

And the faint light shrouding his figure also seemed like it could be blown out by the fierce wind at any time, completely lost in the darkness.

Under such harsh conditions, wanting to stay for a long time.

inevitably required a "target" that could allow his consciousness to anchor.

Fang Cheng continued Meditation, his eyes neither fully closed nor open, his ears neither fully hearing nor deaf, slowly adjusting his mood and gradually returning to tranquility.

Then.

As his mood calmed down, a tiny trace of light was faintly lit in the darkness.

At the same time, a red light faintly oozed from the space between Fang Cheng's eyebrows.

It was as if this bit of light illuminated his entire body, making him translucent and blooming with infinite light.

He... seemed to become an Incarnation of a wisp of lamp flame burning firewood.

Poof!

Following closely, a raging fire instantly enveloped Fang Cheng's entire body.

At this moment, he was like turning into a humanoid torch ignited in the darkness.

The blazing flame light was like arrows shooting in all directions, piercing through the thick, flowing black fog, illuminating this Chaos Void Realm located in the depths of consciousness.

The thick fog that could not be dispelled originally melted rapidly, turning into wisps of finer smoke, floating away into the distance and retreating.

As the light expanded to the surroundings, a relatively stable and peaceful area abruptly appeared around him.

Fang Cheng slowly opened his eyes, his gaze deep and clear.

Now he had completely "settled down".

Not only was his inner heart extremely calm, but his physical sensory perception also reached its Peak state, having a clear feeling that surpassed instinct.

It was like standing at the junction of reality and illusion at the same time.

Then.

Fang Cheng raised his head and sniffed gently.

It seemed that in this dead and chilly darkness, he smelled the unique scent of paper and the faint taste of morning light permeating the air.

It was refreshing and incomparably pleasant.

No mistakes, first release, content is all there to see!

Fang Cheng's eyes shone brightly, and then he took a step forward and reached out his hand.

His fingertips gently touched the air that seemed substantial yet was completely empty.

Subsequently, a corner of a pure white piece of paper was first revealed, slowly unfolding.

Accompanied by the flickering of micro-light, rows of handwriting faintly emerged on it, gradually becoming clear.

Dense and numerous, forming paragraphs, just like countless living elves waking up and moving about.

Soon, a page of paper filled with text abruptly presented itself before his eyes.

After turning it over, a second page immediately emerged.

Swish swish—

As the speed of the paper appearing became faster and faster, the frequency of turning pages also became more and more frequent, continuous like the wind blowing past.

In the blink of an eye, it stacked up into a thick book, and finally a sturdy cover was added.

A 1,658-page national dictionary vividly reappeared in the conscious space.

Fang Cheng reached out to gently smooth out the wrinkles of the pages. The moment his fingers touched the paper, he seemed to be able to feel knowledge flowing at his fingertips.

Then, taking this dictionary as the source, it emitted weak fluctuations, rippling circles of ripples in the air.

As the ripples rapidly diffused outwards, it was as if some kind of magic had been cast.

A solid wood desk rapidly extended and formed beneath the dictionary.

Fang Cheng's palm gently stroked those deep or shallow wear marks on the desktop.

It was as if he could see his once naive self, during countless dawning mornings or dead of night, lying on this desk, taking the pen as a sword, and battling fiercely against the sea of questions.

A corner on the left side of the desktop was worn particularly badly.

Because stacks of heavy reference books used to be piled high there, bearing the weight of striving for dreams.

Stroking all the marks, those past memories of studying diligently with head down, which had already faded somewhat, instantly projected before his eyes like a movie.

Yellowed pages, dense notes, the alarm clock that accompanied him in studying, and the desk lamp that was always lit until very late.

As his thoughts spread out layer by layer like ripples, a miraculous scene appeared.

On the originally empty desk, neatly stacked books, a fountain pen with its cap open, an alarm clock with its second hand slowly turning, and a desk lamp whose light was re-lit abruptly appeared.

One thing after another successively emerged before his eyes, filling the entire desktop.

Then, taking the desk as the source, as if a chain reaction had occurred, scenes that looked just like reality diffused towards the surroundings.

The windowsill, green plants, curtains, glass...

The wardrobe, calendar, walls, ceiling...

Fang Cheng's eyes shone brightly, like a creator, his pupils reflecting the scene of various objects being born from the void.

At this moment, he had completely comprehended the knack of building the "Memory Palace".

The key consisted of three steps: imaging, connecting, and constructing.

Imaging meant changing the information of memory from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, and placing it into a virtual scene.

Whenever recalling, one only needed to enter this scene in the mind, and they would "see" the required information.

However, there was a key problem in this.

Once there was too much information, the memory would become increasingly chaotic, making it difficult for the brain to clearly distinguish the truth.

Therefore, at the very beginning of building the Memory Palace, a "lead-in" was needed.

It was like walking to the door of the room, opening it, and seeing a pair of slippers at the porch.

Then putting on the slippers, other furniture and decorations in the room rushed into sight like water one after another, recalling them one by one and stringing them together into clues.

Fang Cheng's lead-in to enter the Memory Palace was the National Dictionary in his hand that prompted the skill to finally achieve upgrade.

As for connecting, it was the most important and most difficult step in building the Memory Palace.

Because all the information stored in the Memory Palace must have close connections with each other in order to sustain itself.

For example, finding a book in a huge library could be retrieved and located logically from partition and classification down to the specific bookshelf.

Only when each piece of information was connected more closely to each other would this Memory Palace be more solid, so that it wouldn't fade with time and slowly collapse.

And the "Memory Palace" effect that Fang Cheng wanted to achieve far exceeded the imagination of ordinary people.

The image materials for building this ideal palace also carried information from numerous memories at the same time.

The amount of information contained herein could be described as an astronomical figure.

Without an extremely powerful memory and extraordinary mental ability, it was simply impossible to complete such an arduous task.

Therefore, when scanning and imaging earlier, Fang Cheng felt that he had used his brain excessively and overdrawn his spirit.

Looking at the initially formed bedroom scene around him, Fang Cheng's complexion was slightly pale, slowly rubbing his glabella that was beginning to swell.

It seemed... the rest could only be temporarily postponed.

Suddenly, a faint "creaking" sound rang out.

The thick black fog flowed slowly like ink, as if making a comeback.

Just like countless nether giant snakes entangling the lonely light domain in the deep sea, constantly squeezing, grinding, and devouring.

Trying to crush this newly budding "Memory Palace" emitting a warm micro-light back into nothingness.

Fang Cheng immediately gathered his mind, lowering his head to look at the pitch-black, drafty empty hole beneath his feet.

He then bent over and stretched out his hand to touch the ground that seemed hidden in the darkness.

Then, pieces of red pine wood flooring with delicate textures emerged, rapidly expanding and extending to the surroundings.

In a flash, it filled the small room.

In this way, the dark and chilly world was completely isolated outside the house.

Fang Cheng looked around, the wall color was elegant and plain, with a few subtle marks left by years or bumps.

Outside the window, the sunshine was bright, and large areas of golden silk threads passed through the glass, wantonly scattering on the desktop.

Those piled and scattered books and fountain pens seemed to be endowed with life in an instant.

The desk lamp shade exuded a warm luster, and Fang Cheng casually turned the switch, extinguishing it sometimes and lighting it up sometimes.

Then he opened the drawer, inside which sundries were placed orderly—an old diary and several yellowed photos.

Sitting heavily onto the bed, he could truly feel the softness of the bed and the fluffiness of the quilt.

The wrinkles of the bedsheet and the shallow dents on the pillow all seemed to describe the scene after waking up in the early morning.

Every single detail was a puzzle piece of memory, fitting seamlessly, piecing together a complete and vivid scene of home.

This was the ideal "Memory Palace".

A private space that seemed to truly exist, carrying one's life memories, and completely belonging to oneself.

The joy in Fang Cheng's eyes was beyond words.

[You have successfully built the embryo of a Memory Palace, Speed Reading experience +50]

[You have successfully built the embryo of a Memory Palace, Meditation experience +30]

[Speed Reading Lv2 (60/500)]

[Meditation Lv1 (72/250)]