Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 58, Section 57: Painted Skin (Part 7) [Thanks to the Alliance Leader for the 5.5 million likes! Recording in progress]

Ryoko Chiba passed by the bedside without Yang Guan noticing. She walked out of the room and across the corridor. The apartment door opened, and she went down the seven-shaped corner staircase, disappearing into the reddish night.

The main body of "it" was hidden in the lower area, with colorful lions soaring and drones clustering into a golden dragon. She passed the screen showing the shadow puppet show and turned into the alley in the street. Wooden planks and lantern stands were piled up under the wall, incense ash was accumulated on the ground, and gods with golden armor and faces were painted on the wall, with golden crowns on their heads and two extremely long pheasant feathers fluttering in the darkness, illuminating the huge "帥" character behind them.

Ryoko Chiba entered through the narrow door next to the statue, and the elevator went deep underground.

She walked through the passageway, where the side walls were covered with graffiti of various human figures and faces, which gradually turned into vivid human faces.

"It's right there in there."

Ryoko Chiba stopped, and the dim light in the corridor ahead illuminated only four or five doors.

“There is a separate virtual space running there, which is part of the dark web, and its backup and grid are connected to it.”

“There are cameras up ahead, right?” Su Ge regained some consciousness. He discovered through Chiba Ryoko’s sensors that logistics and cleaning robots were almost extinct here.

“The camera is a minor issue; it can be resolved like we did just now,” Shen Ke said. “But to catch it, we need to control all the channels connecting it to the outside world. Otherwise, we can’t stop its location from escaping.”

How do you control the channel?

“It’s impossible,” Shen Ke said. “Unless we can mobilize the local security bureau, it’s almost impossible to cut off all of its escape routes in a short period of time.”

"Is there no way to stop it...?"

By a series of unexpected coincidences, Suge finally found its location in the real world. If it didn't seize this opportunity, it might never have been able to find Jiangning again.

“There should be,” Shen Ke said, “but your use of supernatural powers is too crude; it seems you can only use them intuitively.”

Ryoko Chiba stood quietly among the graffiti on the masks.

Su Ge could connect to Shen Ke's backup machine, but he couldn't find her location from the data, nor did he know how to use his imagination to perform the abstract actions of confining the location and cutting off the channel.

“You say I have a very high status, that Larson also calls me Buddha… but that fake Jiang Ning can also control Yang Guan’s brain.”

“It didn’t control his brain-computer interface.” Shen Ke shook his head. “It just tampered with his sensory information, tricked his brain-computer interface, and made him believe it was real. Once the investigator realized something was wrong, he could still control his body, and if necessary, he could use the consciousness anchor to sever the brain-computer interface connection. But Larson is different. He knows he’s being controlled by you, but he still can’t resist.”

"Is there absolutely no way for a lower-ranking person to fight back when facing a higher-ranking person?"

"More or less." Shen Ke paused for a moment, "Anyway, I've never heard of it."

Socrates pondered for a moment.

"We can't stop it from escaping, but is there any way to make it give up?"

……

Half a human face was reflected in the bronze mirror.

It wore a bright red embroidered outfit, raised its eyebrows high in front of the mirror, and drew the lines of drooping outer corners of its eyes. It was a man's eye, and the bridge of its nose was very straight, just like Yang Guan's.

Countless human skin masks appeared on the dark walls, the faces of men, women, and children displaying expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and fear.

Years ago, it lost its identity, its very being sold to a company. The reasons are hazy; there are always various causes for such things, but the outcome is always the same. However, it no longer lacks an identity.

It added the final stroke at the corner of its mouth, and the human skin masks on the wall all smiled with satisfaction.

But a thought popped into its mind: "It's not so easy to peel off the skin of a security bureau investigator."

It suddenly realized that this was not its own thought, but rather something that was echoing in its mind. At the same time, all the human skin masks spoke the same words.

"Who?"

It suddenly looked up and around, and all the masks simultaneously revealed expressions of fear. Something had affected it.

Its behavior may have attracted the attention of the Feathered Robe Envoy, but the Feathered Robe Envoy could not influence its thoughts; the newcomer was undoubtedly a being of a higher status.

"The Feathered Envoy has already been alerted; it should have been Li Lou who came."

Another idea popped into mind, and all the masks spoke at once.

It wasn't Li Lou who came; it was clearly this mysterious "He" who saved it.

At this moment, it had no doubts. He could influence its thoughts, so its doubts could not escape His notice. It dared not show the slightest disrespect. To Him, a single thought contained ninety moments, and a single moment was subject to nine hundred births and deaths. In a single thought, He could destroy countless versions of it.

It knelt in the darkness, speechless, its thoughts weaving together supreme reverence and gratitude.

Why strip so many identities?

The thought popped into its mind as if it were being tortured by Him.

“This is the disciple’s practice,” it replied respectfully. “Only by shedding the skin can one truly understand the meaning of selflessness. The disciple is doing this to liberate them.”

"What about those who were 'skinned'?"

It spoke again, as if it were asking and answering itself along with the mask on the wall.

“Some people suffer in the process of selflessness, while others will have an epiphany like the disciple.”

After it finished speaking, there was a moment of silence, and then all the masks on the wall asked again:
"How is the hibernator you've become now?"

"Jiangning..."

As it spoke, the masks on the wall dimmed, revealing one of them, a human skin mask, that resembled Jiang Ning. Jiang Ning's mask seemed to come alive, generating a wealth of audio-visual data.

Most of the scenes depict Jiang Ning's lonely life in the city.

In one scene, Jiang Ning is dressed in a long robe, and there are many people dressed similarly to him.

In the darkness, the firelight flickered. They were naked, their skin reflecting the firelight as they passionately made love.

In the center of the crowd stood a man whose physique seemed to embody all the proportions of beauty found in nature; he was called the "Perfect Man".

……

"This is all I know." It lay prostrate, realizing that He might have come for Jiang Ning, and couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. It tentatively asked, unwilling to give up, "Didn't the Bodhisattva come to save me?"

The light in the darkness responded to it.

A white figure appeared in the darkness, with silver chains hanging from her feet like a galaxy. She wore a white robe and had white hair, and the black hair between her eyebrows shone brightly.

The countless beings of the Great Thousand-Petaled Lotus World, anyone who enters the Lotus Treasury Pure Land, will be guided by it.

The faces of men, women, and children showed disbelief, then turned to ecstasy, and they laughed with their mouths wide open.

"Hahaha, hahahaha, good, good!"

It ripped off the newly painted face of Yang Guan, revealing a smooth face beneath the mask, devoid of features, with the mouth wide open in the hollow beneath the fleshy membrane.

"Bodhisattva, look! Your disciple has already let go of his ego!"

Sorry, I overestimated my ability to update yesterday. I fell asleep while writing last night.

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(End of this chapter)