Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 21: Anchoring Agent
Suguru's conversation with the nun lasted no more than ten minutes, and he didn't come to his senses until 3 p.m.

Perhaps it was the long-awaited sunshine and the sandalwood and lotus fragrance in the gentle breeze that calmed his mind, as he rested against the railing for three hours.

The information brought by Yang Guan cleared away a layer of fog for him. In the still confusing situation, the only variable he could control was to develop a consciousness anchor.

When he left the monastery, Suge was in much better spirits and began to carefully observe his surroundings.

Compared to Buddhist temples in the 21st century, Chiming Temple is quite different in both scale and form. Its overall layout is reminiscent of the Seven Halls of the Sangharama, but the buildings are much denser. The buildings with their interlocking eaves reminded Su Ge of Du Mu's description of the Epang Palace in his high school textbook.

He observed the murals, caissons, and brackets and found that the patterns in the lacquer paintings completely encompassed symbols and images from Hinduism, Bon, Tibetan Buddhism, and Han Buddhism, indicating that the religions of this era had undergone multiple cultural integrations.

The Buddha's illusory image preached in the lotus realm, and many monks in yellow robes listened to the sutras with their heads bowed and eyes lowered, their expressions serene, as if they would never have any troubles.

These images were so sacred and compassionate that Su Ge was momentarily shaken, wondering if his understanding of gods and Buddhas was too narrow.
But soon, he left the Five-Colored Mountain Gate and passed through the raging flames that divided the mortal world.

As the sightseeing elevator descended, the sunlight quickly disappeared, and he seemed to hear the Rebirth Mantra echoing in the underground passage again.

After parting ways with Yang Guan outside Luye Garden, Su Ge returned to the cramped space of Room 1521 in Luyingting.

He lay down on the bed, buried his nose in his collar, still immersed in the smell of direct sunlight.

After resting for a while, he used the consciousness anchor trainer to simulate the scene by the lotus pond again, and this time the accuracy of his brainwaves was unprecedented.

……

On July 12, at 8 p.m., it started to drizzle in Yingchuan City.

Rainwater, shielded by the crisscrossing sky trains, reaches Quanjin Road and simply drips down along the edges of buildings and neon signs.

The projection of the Night Wanderer floated in mid-air, and residents bustled through the streets.

On the steps of Exit 12 of Quanjin Station, Shen Ke leaned against the railing, glanced into the distance, and walked toward the street corner next to the vacuum transit rail station.

Suger followed, passing through several narrow alleys, surrounded by buildings, with advertisements for bio-modification, prosthetic body acquisition, and virtual sex services plastered everywhere.

Suger's passing seemed to trigger an advertising delivery mechanism, and his field of vision was immediately crammed with crowded holographic images, with pale flesh practically overflowing the screen.

Even with his right eye closed, he could still hear waves of hawking cries, so he quickly took off his glasses.

The world instantly became quiet, the empty streets reflected the neon lights, drones silently shuttled between the buildings, and the messy graffiti on the walls shimmered with a dim fluorescent light.

The roller shutter door at the bottom of the dilapidated old building, piled with green metal boxes, was open. Shen Ke stood next to a metal cabinet and said to him, "Let's put the Vision here."

Suger noticed the faint smile on her lips.

"You deliberately?"

"what?"

"You didn't remind me."

“This thing is just too outdated.” She looked into Suger’s field of vision and shrugged. “But the ads don’t really matter. The main thing is that wearing it means you’re being monitored all the time.”

Clearly, she was being much more cautious this time than when trading military exoskeletons.

“I’ll just carry it with me,” Suger said.

"Just put it here." She didn't offer any room for negotiation.

Sog hesitated for a moment. The view represented the last line of defense, but it was being monitored.

For Shen Ke, it's about freedom, opportunity, and risk.

He clenched his fist lightly, feeling the strength emanating from each knuckle; he now possessed some ability to protect himself. In the last transaction, Shen Ke had also been a reliable intermediary.

He made his decision, focusing his gaze on the metal cabinet that seemed to offer little security, and asked, "Can I buy equipment that won't be monitored?"

"Unless you can make one yourself, it's just a matter of who's monitoring you."

Shen Ke lowered her head to light a cigarette, and when she caught a glimpse of Su Ge's thoughtful expression, she smiled knowingly.

"Hey, you're not really thinking of making one, are you?"

"why not?"

Suger took out a very old-fashioned QR code deposit slip and put it in the pocket of his hunting jacket.

“You can give it a try.” Shen Ke shrugged.

"However, I still want to remind you that modern spiritual technology is not quite the same as you imagine. You can't understand their underlying architecture. Just like the human brain can't calculate even the complex system changes in a glass of air, the simplest spiritual device is not something you can make by hand."

Shen Ke's words were cruel to Su Ge. After waking up in this era, all the knowledge and professional skills he had learned in his life were useless.

Now he only has two choices: either sacrifice his body and mind to integrate into normal society, or continue like this, seeking a slim hope in the darkness.

"Where are we going this time?" he asked.

"follow me."

Shen Ke walked into the passageway inside the roller shutter door.

Suger followed, her footsteps echoing in the enclosed space as the ventilation ducts clung to the ceiling like exposed veins.

Su Ge suddenly realized that even without his active control, the Gu Diao's walking volume remained below 30 decibels.

……

Yingchuan City has a vast underground space, with interconnected tunnels and elevators connecting underground apartments, commercial areas, abandoned parking lots and subway stations, resembling a giant anthill, where the whirring of the ventilation system can be heard everywhere.

After wandering between elevators and passageways for nearly twenty minutes, the two entered the underground plaza, where the empty shells of abandoned vehicles lay prostrate in the darkness, as if their internal organs had been removed.

Outside the iron gate in the corner of the square, Shen Ke passed through facial recognition and entered a nearly completely dark corridor.

When they reached the middle of the corridor, she had Suger wait in a studio.

Su Ge connected with the Gu Diao, and through the Gu Diao's infrared and acoustic imaging systems, he was able to see the environment inside the studio.

Numerous robotic arms were installed on the roof, and a large workbench was placed in the center, with thick optical shock-absorbing pads underneath. The workbench was cluttered with astronomical instruments, superfluid ornaments, copper coins, and a ram's horn chalice.

Behind the workbench was a strange person, completely covered up except for his eyes, ears, nose and mouth, flipping through a paper book in almost complete darkness.

Shen Ke called out "Master Chengyang," entered the studio, and closed the door.

When she came out, she was holding a vial with aluminum foil clamping the rubber at the neck. Through the brown glass, she could see the lyophilized powder injection inside.

She walked along the wall to the other side.

"Follow me to the deep-sea room first."

The two walked through the corridor and entered the room at the end, where Shen Ke finally turned on the light.

The so-called "deep-diving room" is a room with a closed somatosensory cabin. Shen Ke walked to the table, took out a bottle of glucose solution with ease, injected it into a vial, and diluted the powder injection to a dark brown color.

"what is this?"

Su Ge watched as Shen Ke shook the medicine bottle and slowly filled the syringe with the liquid.

"This drug can deeply stimulate your prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, allowing you to enter a hypermemory state. For people with different constitutions, the onset time of the drug is approximately between eight and thirty seconds."

"Hyperthymesia?"

"Have you heard of hyperthymesia? In this state, you can remember any detail clearly, including emotional states, and you can recall them even many years later."

Socrates asked, "Then is this drug a prohibited substance?"

Yang Guan said that consciousness anchors are regarded as an important standard for screening the ability to regulate consciousness, and this drug will undoubtedly undermine this evaluation system.

“It wasn’t originally a contraband drug; it was just used to treat mental illness.” Shen Ke threw away the empty medicine bottle. “But after its side effects were discovered, it became an ‘anchoring agent.’ This drug was popular for a long time, but it was later listed as a Class A contraband drug, production was stopped, and it’s now out of print.”

How much is this one?

Su Ge discovered that as soon as he showed even the slightest hint of his intention to make a request, Shen Ke would immediately use the fait accompli approach to close the deal.

"Nine thousand."

She said in a seductive tone, "How about it? If you use it properly, you can complete a permanent and stable anchoring in less than half a minute."

Thank you so much for the chapter recommendation from the great author, Qingheyishen!

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(End of this chapter)