360: Chapter 360 Trampled Underfoot!

Lin Yuan smiled, standing with his hands behind his back in a relaxed posture.

He raised his hand, his fingertips casually sweeping across the vast, empty Initial Space around them, his tone as calm as still water.

"Others naturally will not appear here."

"This is the Initial Space."

Yang Tongan's brows twitched slightly, his gaze withdrawing from the horizon to land on Lin Yuan.

"Initial Space?"

"Yes."

Lin Yuan nodded, his eyes filled with the composure of someone who had everything under control.

"Every person who enters the second world, upon their first connection, will first arrive in their own Initial Space."

"You can understand it as a buffer zone in both a physiological and psychological sense."

"The body in reality has just completed the neural connection, and the brain needs a relatively quiet environment to complete its cognition of the basic rules of the second world."

As he spoke, the wind from the distant grasslands swept past the three of them.

The fine blades of grass bent and sprang back up, and the moist scent of earth in the air became increasingly distinct.

Lin Yuan looked at the two and continued:

"Of course, to use a more colloquial term among young netizens today, it is also like a 'spawn point' in online games."

"However, the second world is by no means just a toy for amusement."

"The social functions it will bear in the future are far weightier than any game."

Upon hearing this, Old Zhang lightly tapped his palm with the fingers resting at his side.

The confusion that had originally gathered in his eyes had dissipated quite a bit.

This explanation was not complicated.

If a person suddenly enters a brand-new world without even the most basic foothold and cognitive transition, what awaits them will not be a celebration, but chaos.

Especially since the first batch involves a full 100 million users connecting simultaneously!

That is not ten thousand, not a hundred thousand.

It is 100 million real individuals, each with different cognitions, habits, and emotions, suddenly entering a new world with realistic five senses.

Without the Initial Space as a buffer, the first second of the public space opening would easily turn into a chaotic torrent.

"Of course."

Lin Yuan did not give them too much time to buffer, continuing at a leisurely pace.

"The Initial Space for ordinary users will not be as vast as the area we are currently in."

"The grassland you see now is a display area under special permissions."

"When ordinary users first enter, the space will be smaller and simpler."

"However, there is no difference in essence."

"It is still a place for users to first find their footing and understand the basic common knowledge of the second world."

Old Zhang nodded slightly, quickly grasping the key point.

"Since everyone has their own Initial Space, there must also be a public space that everyone can reach and which is used for social operation, right?"

"That is only natural."

Lin Yuan raised his hand and tapped lightly in mid-air.

"Hum—"

Accompanying this action, an ice-blue light screen emerged in the air before the three of them.

The light screen was not glaring; it was woven from countless fine data streams.

On one end, it was marked "Initial Space."

On the other end was the outline of a city so vast that its boundaries could not be seen.

Skyscrapers, plazas, roads, suspended tracks, government affairs centers, trading zones, learning zones, work zones...

All the buildings were merely translucent phantoms, yet they were enough to let one glimpse their magnificent prototype.

"After the second world is officially opened, the core carrying area will be the public space."

"There, users can socialize, study, work, trade, and access various public services that the state will open subsequently."

"For example, online government service halls, virtual classrooms, remote meetings, digital trading markets, and even some public activities that cannot be realized in reality due to distance and cost."

"These will all be gradually migrated in."

"Of course, in the early stages, they will not all be opened at once."

Lin Yuan swiped his fingertip lightly.

The translucent city phantom flashed, and quickly divided into regions of different colors.

Some were bright, while others were in a dim, locked state.

"The order of the new society must be built layer by layer."

"Opening up too aggressively at the beginning will only cause people to lose their way."

Old Zhang stared at the virtual city that had not yet fully unfolded, his fingertips slowly rubbing the edge of his sleeve.

His gaze paused on the four characters "Government Affairs Center," and his Adam's apple moved slightly.

He could already imagine the height to which the operational efficiency of the entire state apparatus would be pushed once countless administrative processes from reality were migrated here.

Yang Tongan looked at another gray area marked "Training and Calculation Permissions."

That area had not yet unfolded.

But given his status, he naturally understood what that meant behind the scenes.

The public space was by no means just a lively virtual plaza.

It would become a second society in the true sense.

"As for the way to travel from the Initial Space to the public space, it is also very simple."

Lin Yuan looked at the two, his tone casual:

"You only need to clearly generate the thought 'I want to go to the public space' in your consciousness, and the scene transfer can be completed."

Yang Tongan raised his eyelids:

"Just by thinking?"

"Correct."

Lin Yuan nodded.

"The second world connects to the consciousness instructions of the cerebral cortex, not the clumsy physical keyboards and mice of the old era."

"As long as your thought instructions are sufficiently clear, the underlying system logic can decode and execute them."

"Of course, the system will intelligently filter out those chaotic and disorganized thoughts."

"For example, if the word 'public space' just casually flashes through your mind, or if it is just a vague image in your subconscious, it will not teleport you."

"It must be a clear, stable, and executable consciousness instruction to be recognized by the system."

"Otherwise, if a person were to let their mind wander for a few seconds and end up being teleported back and forth across countless scenes, that would be a catastrophic problem."

Upon hearing this, the corners of Yang Tongan's mouth moved imperceptibly.

Old Zhang also let out a low cough.

This addition was very realistic.

The human brain is never a machine that only executes single-threaded commands.

All kinds of distractions, associations, and images will emerge rapidly in one's consciousness.

If the second world could not even handle this, then the so-called consciousness interaction would become a complete mess.

They also deeply realized just how extraordinary this new world was.

In reality, human civilization has developed for thousands of years, and operating any tool ultimately depends on this carbon-based body.

Fingers clicking, eyes confirming, mouths speaking.

From the first flint of the Stone Age to the keyboards and mice of the Information Age, and then to touch screens and voice recognition.

Tools are becoming more and more advanced, but there is always a lagging process of "external physical operation" between humans and tools.

But here, the interaction between humans and the world has had those tedious physical steps in between completely and brutally erased.

Consciousness is instruction.

Thoughts are buttons.

The interaction logic of this brand-new world, starting from the most basic first step, has already mercilessly trampled the technological common sense of the old era underfoot!