Chapter One Hundred and Thirty

"Going to your place because that is where it all began, and if it ends, it should naturally end there too. After all, what we are about to do next is far too dangerous, and even after discussing it for a long time, we haven't found a very good solution. So, we've simply decided to take no precautions at all." David whistled.

"What do you mean?" Li Daoran asked, somewhat puzzled.

Natasha extended her hand out of the car window as the vehicle maintained a steady speed of sixty miles per hour. Smiling, she said, "We just felt it was getting too stuffy staying in one place all the time. So we thought we'd come out for a drive. After much thought, you probably want to go home the most, so we arranged this trip."

"Hey, why does this feel so strange? Uh, are you granting my final wish before I die?" Li Daoran grew even more perplexed, sensing that these people were acting rather odd today.

"No, it's that from now on, we will grant all your wishes," Charles leaned forward and said.

"Why?" Li Daoran asked.

"Because from now on, you're going to have cheat codes. And it all depends entirely on you, so of course we have to butter you up properly." Hou Liang also smiled. Even the big guy, Tam, though hunched over inside the car, revealed a row of neat, pearly white teeth as he smiled at Li Daoran.

"You guys are completely baffling me. Can anyone tell me what is going on? You're acting so weird." Li Daoran felt completely at a loss. A whole carload of people were smiling at him, and the crucial part was that he had no idea why. It was genuinely terrifying.

"Do you remember Yuan Muyeling's hypothesis?" David asked.

"Long forgotten. Didn't you guys say it was complete nonsense?" Li Daoran rolled his eyes. That was from a day ago; who would remember that?

"Uhm, while it was nonsense, it did have some logic to it. Do you think that honey makes any sense logically?" David asked.

"Give me the conclusion, don't ask me so many questions," Li Daoran said irritably. Did the honey make logical sense? If it existed, it was reasonable. To him, it tasted sweet and was produced by bees—how could it possibly defy logic?

"That honey gave us a very strange feeling, like a prop in a video game. With just that tiny bit, wounds healed in fractions of a second. It defies all our understanding," David explained in detail.

"There are plenty of things in that damned world that defy understanding," Li Daoran retorted.

"No, generally speaking, things there still conform to our understanding—or rather, the understanding of most of us, falling within an acceptable range. But the effect of that honey was simply too exaggerated. Remember what Yuan Muyeling said? You might be mentally ill," David said.

"You're the one who's mentally ill. Do you think I'm crazy and all of this is just a delusion? That would be great!" Li Daoran grew a bit angry. Everything he had experienced was real and tangible; how on earth had he turned into a mentally ill person?

"No, the injuries we sustain aren't an illusion, so that world does exist. But in what form does it exist? We've never figured that out. However, combining it with Yuan Muyeling's hypothesis, let's assume the world you visit is a virtual one. Then what does it rely on to exist? Only you. You are the carrier of that world, which is why when your consciousness leaves, the entire world pauses.

"Consciousness can affect the physical body, so when your consciousness returns, the injuries manifest on your body. The only thing we don't understand yet is why all of humanity synchronizes with your body, but we can study that later. The crucial point is that if our hypothesis holds true, your envisioned possibility can completely be realized. In other words, you can possess the ability of infinite resurrection in that world. This is why we value this so much, and the premise for us finally relaxing.

"If the experiment succeeds, we will have plenty of time to achieve our goal because here on Aquamarine, we can guarantee your absolute safety. If in Daoran's World, you possess the ability of infinite resurrection, then for humanity, it won't be a danger—it will only be a blessing. So, naturally, we have to fulfill your wish first!" David's mouth moved like a machine gun, gesturing wildly as he talked on and on.

"You haven't even run the experiment yet, and you're already certain it will work?" Li Daoran asked.

"Theoretically yes, so it still depends on whether you can pull it off. The key rests entirely with you. Whose wish should we fulfill if not yours? Just name it—what else do you want to do, what do you want? As long as you don't mess up at the critical moment, that is. Because even if that world is virtual, it still has to follow rules, namely the time lag—three seconds. The moment it exceeds that, the injuries will have already synchronized over, and we're all screwed," David shrugged and said.

"Sorry, Daoran, we've thought of many methods, but not a single one can reliably help you. So, in the end, we decided that relying on yourself is the safest and most reliable option. Bear with the hardship," Natasha patted Li Daoran's shoulder, offering an apologetic smile.

No method was as reliable as Li Daoran mastering this technique himself. Therefore, they ultimately decided to do nothing and let Li Daoran explore and train on his own.

"Who says that? Who says we're doing nothing? Daoran, let me tell you, to support you, we've already prepared ourselves to take on seven or eight extra injuries a day—any more and we wouldn't be able to take it, especially that three-centimeter-long wound of yours!" David complained discontentedly, rolling up his sleeves to display the three small scars on his arm. In reality, they were already invisible; for a normal person, a three-millimeter wound would heal and disappear within an hour or two, without even forming a scab.

Li Daoran pushed David's arm away and said, "So currently, the plan is for me to return to Daoran's World, come back, and keep running back-and-forth experiments, right? Can I train without opening up any wounds?"

"Pressure breeds motivation. If you just shuttle back and forth, we aren't sure whether you'll panic and make a mistake at the critical moment. Therefore, we need to keep you under pressure from the very beginning," Hou Liang said.

"But I am still a long way off," Li Daoran said. He believed they knew this, yet they didn't seem worried in the least.

"Take it slow, we have preparations too. First, we are returning to where you started. I imagine no villa can be as relaxing as your own home. Plus, you Easterners are superstitious—since things started here, there must be something special about this place. After that, it's us: we have prepared a special lullaby for you. Although we cannot enter that brainwave frequency, we can convert it into sound. Listening to this lullaby should provide some auxiliary assistance." Charles nudged Tam, shifting his backside forward. Although the car was large, squeezing into the backseat with Tam was still uncomfortable.

"You guys definitely are hiding something from me, but I'm already used to it," Li Daoran swept his gaze around and found that they were all smiling at him with tacit understanding. But having spent a fair amount of time with them, he knew that usually at times like this, they would explain the vast majority of things while hiding a tiny fraction—and invariably, that hidden fraction was the most critical part.

Yet, they had never harmed Li Daoran, because that hidden fraction usually pertained to Aquamarine, or matters that would be useless for Li Daoran to know anyway.

In their own words, knowing it would be useless for Li Daoran and would only bring him needless anxiety; they would handle it and tell him when necessary. And Li Daoran had already grown accustomed to this.

The other five maintained completely blank expressions, acting as though they had no idea what Li Daoran was talking about, and successively claimed nothing of the sort was happening. Li Daoran did not press the issue further. One thing they got right was that upon leaving the base, Li Daoran's mood genuinely improved a great deal.