Cyber ​​Ghost Record

Chapter 60, Section 59: Floating Light Syndrome

Communication hang up.

"Very good……"

"Sug said in a low voice."

He walked to the sink and wet his face; the dim sunlight shone through the window onto his back.

He had been connected with Chiba Ryoko for most of the night, and even with Yang Guan at the same time; he should have been exhausted by now.

But he looked quite energetic in the mirror.

At least in the room's surveillance footage, he didn't look tired at all.

He washed his face, ate breakfast, urinated, and then began his daily morning exercise routine.

In the real world, Sog's figure and the sound of water in the toilet disappeared, and only the vision breathing light that had just been used for communication flickered.

……

The sand-counter sits in the void.

All the human skin masks in the space had disappeared. The identity information they represented was handed over to Yang Guan when Chiba Ryoko came into contact with them, along with the instruction to return them to their rightful owners.

She looked down at the painted-skin ghost crawling beneath the dressing table.

"Is there anything about Jiangning that we've missed?"

"No, he has been missing from the Spiritual Society for a long time. There is no trace of his activities or death certificate, so the disciple used his identity."

The painted-skin demon's voice sounded like the high-frequency flapping of insect wings.

The sand-counter nodded.

The painted-skin demon lowered its head.

"I have relinquished my status and done as the Bodhisattva instructed, so why hasn't the Bodhisattva saved me yet?"

"Insufficient merit and deep sins make it difficult to enter the Pure Land, even with wisdom."

The painted-skin demon looked up, its smooth, featureless face gazing up at the sand-counting man.

"I have converted so many people and given away so many physical bodies, how can I still..."

“Not enough,” the sand-counter shook his head.

"How could it not be enough!" The painted-skin demon's voice became shrill, then suddenly it realized something and lowered its head, "Please, Bodhisattva, guide me, guide me..."

“Now that a Buddhist disciple has been reincarnated, I have descended from the Lotus Treasury to protect the Dharma for him.”

The voice of the sand-counter seemed to come from a distant paradise, carrying with it a faint chant.

"Your opportunity has arrived. If you can follow him, the day he attains Buddhahood after countless tribulations will be the day you achieve enlightenment."

……

Neon lights shone through the morning mist into the missile silos.

Will it believe it?

Suger's true form sat on the vast expanse of bedding, leaning against the wall, his face pale, his clothes soaked with sweat.

“It can only trust.” Shen Ke sat opposite her, arms wrapped around her knees, and glanced at Su Ge’s head. “Anyway, you control its position.”

Her words seemed to have a hidden meaning.

Suger breathed a sigh of relief, closed his eyes, and took deep breaths to relieve his headache.

“Its backup is in Suyang City,” Shen Ke said. “Chiba Ryoko has an official status and can return to Yingchuan. But she can’t bring the backup back. This kind of thing can only be smuggled, and you can’t afford that kind of money.”

She saw through Suger's wealth.

“Hmm…” Sog responded weakly.

"However, its position is with you, and you can control it at any time."

As she said this, she glanced at her backup machine.

Su Ge heard Shen Ke's words in their entirety, but he could hardly piece together the complete meaning of those words and phrases in his mind.

Prolonged use of his abilities has taken a toll on his physical and mental health.

He was surprised that he could maintain the connection for several hours. Previously, he could only hack into drones for less than ten minutes. Of course, he did not use his full strength when hacking into drones, but his ability had undoubtedly "improved".

This may be the effect of the personality examination he experienced on the dark web when he connected with Shen Ke.

The feeling of being disoriented made him want to vomit, so he tilted his head back and tried to make himself more comfortable.

A jumble of thoughts raced through his mind.

A scene of Jiang Ning living alone in the city.

Jiang Ning's wife and daughter in virtual space.

In the dim firelight, the man and woman made love passionately.

Among the crowd, there is a "perfect person" wearing a mask.

This is the key information about Jiangning that the painted skin captured.

【The Perfect Person】

Then some more images popped up.

The giant in the smoke and dust knelt on one knee, defeated by the black-clad, silver-masked god.

The graffiti artist said, "He is a sage, the leader of the Spiritual Society, and he knows the true meaning of how the flesh can overcome the prosthetic body." Jiang Ning's disappearance is related to the Spiritual Society.

It was a gathering of people who rejected cybernetic enhancements.

Suger had been invited to attend the rally.

It seems no coincidence that Jiang Ning, also a completely natural hibernator, came into contact with the Spiritual Society.

The silver mask beneath the black clothes, the mask of the sage, and the human face painted with the painted skin in the graffiti constantly switch and merge in Su Ge's chaotic thoughts.

He shook his head vigorously, his heavy eyelids opening a crack.

Shen Ke was looking at him from the opposite side.

Her eyes, as clear as water lilies beneath her short, titanium-white hair, seemed somewhat ethereal.

The next moment, those eyes disappeared.

Her nose and mouth were gone, leaving only a bare face!
Suger got goosebumps all over!
He tried to prop himself up with his hands and feet, but felt that his hands and feet no longer belonged to him. This movement caused him to fall hard, hitting the back of his head against the wall, and his consciousness went blank.

A surge of heat rushed up his throat, and he collapsed to the ground, vomiting up puddles of pinkish, pasty substance.

His hands and feet twitched slightly, and he vomited for two minutes until there was almost no acid left in his stomach.

As consciousness and awareness gradually returned, his head throbbed with pain, and his throat felt like it was on fire.

Shen Ke crouched in front, but Su Ge's vision was still blurry, and everything seemed to be doubled.

The missile silo, which was originally dark, seemed to be floating with neon-like lights and shadows.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked.

"You...your..."

"Ok?"

Suger's lips moved like a fish out of water, but he made no sound, only panting, his nostrils filled with the sour smell of vomit.

His strength seemed to have been drained, and he could almost feel the blood flowing through his numb limbs. After a few more minutes, he felt his body return to the control of his brain.

He tentatively moved his fingers and arms, spat out the vomit in his mouth, and shakily propped himself up to sit up, looking at Shen Ke in a daze.

Her facial features are still intact.

“Your face…” Soger’s voice was hoarse, “was gone just now.”

"A hallucination." Shen Ke wasn't surprised at all. "Did you see anything else, like, for example, light spots?"

Socrates recalled those floating, blurry lights and nodded.

"Ah."

"Hallucinations, light spots, confusion, loss of limb control."

Shen Ke sat on the shock absorber and looked Su Ge up and down.

"Typical early symptoms of levitation syndrome."

"Folling-eye syndrome?"

With each word Suger spoke, his breath burned his throat.

"This disease didn't exist in your time, but it's very common nowadays."

Shen Ke looked at Su Ge's hair.

"To put it simply, the human brain, starting from apes tens of millions of years ago, evolved to be adapted to have two eyes, one hand, and two legs. When you use a prosthetic body, you are loading an extra plug-in into the biological brain, which will cause confusion. The stimulation of exogenous neural data will form new synaptic structures in your brain, and unless you stop using them, this effect is difficult to reverse."

Wang Mang's experience had already served as a warning to Su Ge.

When connecting the cockroach robot and the Gu Diao, Suge realized that these things would affect his nervous system.
But he didn't expect his "illness" to come on so quickly.

“You mean… my reaction just now was only an early symptom,” he said in a low voice. “What if it gets worse?”

"You will be unable to distinguish between reality and 'mental imagery'."

Shen Ke braced herself against the metal frame of the buffer device with both hands.

"The term 'phantom vision syndrome' is just a common name; its scientific name is psychoimage syndrome. Virtual neural data leaves traces in your mind, so you can see their afterimages in reality."

"mental image..."

Suger raised his hand and looked at his palm.

His abilities have always been invincible.

But now he is experiencing its side effects.

"What are some solutions?"

"To train the ability to coordinate consciousness, one must at least be able to distinguish the source of consciousness, whether it is external or internal. In addition, one must simultaneously undergo brain-computer interface implantation programs with different levels of adaptation."

Shen Ke paused.

"However, these are all 'convenient methods,' not 'ultimate solutions.' They can alleviate symptoms, but they cannot completely solve the problem."

"What... is the ultimate Dharma?"

"Ascension."

Shen Ke's voice echoed in the dim light and shadow.

"Only ascension is the ultimate path."

(End of this chapter)