Void Jigsaw Puzzle

Seeing Zhong Chenmu's face flushed and trembling slightly, the boss asked with concern, "What's wrong with you? Do you want me to find someone to help you? It's not easy for you to come here alone."

Zhong Chenmu then realized that he had been a little too excited and lost his composure, so he quickly smiled and said, "Thank you, boss, I'm fine, no need to call anyone."

He looked around and changed the subject, asking, "Your business seems to be rather slow."

The boss sighed, "Ah... I'm sorry to have embarrassed you. People from outside always think our place is very unique. From time to time, groups of people come here to play and do business. But us locals have it hard. This area is called Sifangping. It's considered the most lively place in our Kunlun City, or at least in District C. But don't be fooled by the large number of stores. Business is not good in every store. Only restaurants and massage parlors are slightly prosperous. People have to eat after all, and when they make a little money, they always want to enjoy themselves... I don't understand. The government has been very encouraging our free development, usually there is little supervision, and the taxes are not high, but the overall situation is not getting better. Our income is very low, and many people have to work several jobs at the same time to support themselves and their families..."

This question seemed to have touched the boss's sensitive point, and this somewhat depressed middle-aged man probably had a lot of grievances but nowhere to vent them. He happened to meet Zhong Chenmu, a foreigner and a pleasing-looking young man, so he told him everything at once.

Anyway, just say it and forget it. Zhong Chenmu probably won’t spread it around, so it’s better than keeping it in his stomach.

Zhong Chenmu listened attentively, not interrupting his boss, but patiently listening to the end. He bit his lower lip and said, "Boss, thank you for your trust and for telling me so much. I want to ask, can outsiders come and go freely here?"

"Of course, how else would you have come?"

Zhong Chenmu thought to himself, "This is different from Nameless City... It seems that the Helium Clan's attitude towards Kunlun City is completely different from the Hydrogen Clan's attitude towards Nameless City. After recreating and incarnating it, they have always kept it open. This is quite broad-minded."

He had no idea that this situation wasn't caused by the Hei Clan's generosity, but simply because their leader, Hei Jia, was lazy. No, the entire Hei Clan was lazy.

But now, he continued to ask: "You just mentioned the government, what kind of organization is it?"

"You don't even know about the government?" The old man looked surprised. "It's the organization authorized by us to manage and organize us."

"What is its main function?"

"They organize us to do things together, help us do things, especially those that benefit everyone, such as building roads and bridges, opening hospitals and schools, etc. Of course, they don't work for free, they also charge us money, and this money is called tax."

Zhong Chenmu quickly synchronized with the system again and soon learned that in the Earth civilization of that time, "government" was a very powerful existence. Although it did not directly create wealth and productivity, it played a role in organization and management.

Therefore, he couldn't help but compare it with Wuming City: "Wuming City doesn't seem to have such an institution. It lacks an overall organization and can only rely on wealthy and prestigious families like Mr. Liang, the Gu family, and the Shen family to manage it. However, their restraint is very limited. Mr. Liang was even killed by Pu Yue with a rocket launcher..."

At this point, a judgment in his mind became stronger and stronger, almost ready to come out, but he was not in a hurry to draw a conclusion. Instead, he continued to ask: "Do you have a car here?"

The boss was puzzled: "What is a car?"

"Where's the bicycle? Where's the tricycle?"

"What are these?"

After saying this, the boss added: "You know what, I've actually heard people mention these things. They said they saw them when they were reading. I don't read books, so I haven't come into contact with them, but we definitely don't have them around us."

Zhong Chenmu felt his heart beating violently. He could almost determine what the "conjugate technology" mentioned by the system just now meant.

Simply put, in the original Dandelion Project, after the humans on Earth packaged their digital civilization, in order to ensure multiple backups and avoid single points of failure, they sent signals carrying this data in all directions of the universe. In order to prevent all signals from being "annihilated" in the void of the universe, humans adopted the "conjugation technology", which is equivalent to linking all the data in different directions. Once the data in different directions have the opportunity to be reproduced and embodied, they will use the conjugation technology to compare information. If some information of one party is reproduced, the other party will no longer give priority to reproducing this information, so as to maximize the use of the reproduction resources and opportunities of good-intentioned civilizations in the universe that are willing to help reproduce data. In this way, if the information in several places is eventually reproduced and reborn, they can maintain maximum complementarity, thereby maintaining the integrity of mankind in the dimension of the entire universe.

Therefore, Wuming City has cars, buses, and bicycles, while Kunlun City has none of these; conversely, Kunlun City has a government, but Wuming City does not.

Zhong Chenmu became excited again. He felt that this experience of accidentally coming to Xumi Star was really worth it!

He would immediately return to Nameless City and tell the members of the Jigsaw Team all this, letting them know that they had made a breakthrough in their previous goal! If Kunlun City and Nameless City were complementary, wouldn't their integration mean that human civilization would be more complete? And perhaps in Kunlun City there were loved ones of the disabled people in Nameless City!

Thinking of this, he bowed slightly to the boss: "Thank you for your time, boss. I suddenly remembered that I have something else to do, so I have to go!"

The boss was stunned and quickly came out from behind the counter. "Don't be impatient, young man... Look, I need someone to talk to. You just told me about a lot of new things, such as this car and that car. What are these things? You have them, right? Tell me about them in detail!"

"Boss, I really have something to do..." Zhong Chenmu continued walking towards the door.

But he found that the boss was very agile at this time. He rushed to him in one step and held out his hands: "Young man, give me a little face. How about this, I invite you to sit in the store for a while, have some tea, tell me about what happened outside, and then I will personally take you back. How about it?"

"..."

Zhong Chenmu found it hard to refuse the kind offer and could only reluctantly agree.

However, his heart was filled with turmoil: "Send me back personally? Can you do it? Are you going to carry me all the way to Baihe Bridge?"

The boss was delighted to see Zhong Chenmu accept his offer, and bustled about setting up tables, chairs, and boiling water for tea. His shop wasn't big to begin with, and now with the two of them sitting face to face around the stove, brewing tea, it seemed quite crowded and lively.

While the two were drinking tea and chatting, several groups of people came to join in the fun, and the boss also sold a few things.

Finally, Zhong Chenmu stood up and said goodbye for the third time.

Seeing that he couldn't be persuaded to stay, the boss agreed and reluctantly sent him to the door of the store. Then he said, "Young man, come and play often."

"..."

Didn't you just say it nicely? You want to "send me home personally." So, what? Just send me to the store door? It's only a few steps away!

Zhong Chenmu smiled helplessly and waved goodbye to his boss.

He was going to walk back to Baihe Bridge along the same route.

However, the journey just now was down the mountain, but now it turned into climbing a mountain. He looked up and felt that it was harder than climbing to the sky.

But he still had to climb up. After all, he had just tried to transmit to the nearest elemental node and then return to Taibai Star, but found that nothing happened. So, he initially concluded that in the realm of humans or embodied civilizations, this virtual race method would not work. He could only rely on the embodiment to walk to the elemental node of Baihe Bridge and start transmitting there.

After finally climbing to the halfway point of the mountain, although he still had enough strength, he subconsciously decided to take a rest, still on the stone bench where he had just come down.

At this time, there was no one else on the entire staircase, and it seemed very quiet. There were various green trees planted along the path on both sides of the staircase, which was pleasing to the eye.

Just at this moment, he heard a noise coming from above. Looking up, he saw a woman staggering down the stairs. She almost fell several times. Zhong Chenmu was frightened and quickly stood up and stepped quickly to the center of the stairs.

"If she slips and falls, at least I can still block her..."

As he thought about it, he looked at the woman carefully and was suddenly stunned.

"Isn't this the woman who was standing not far behind Qingsa when I first arrived at the Baihe Bridge? She was staring at me then, too. Why is she running downstairs in such a panic now?"

Just as he was thinking, the woman had already rushed to a place not far in front of him, with only dozens of steps between them. At this time, Zhong Chenmu also saw clearly that there were two people chasing after her not far behind.

They were the two big men guarding this side of the Baihe Bridge at that time!

In a flash, Zhong Chenmu made several judgments.

First of all, the platform where the woman was standing just now and the downhill passage of Baihe Bridge probably merged into one somewhere, so the woman had to run down along the path she had just walked.

Secondly, the woman must have been threatened in some way, and these two big men were obviously in the same group with Hydronsa and others. The threat was most likely from Hydronsa?

besides......

Before he could finish all his judgment, the woman had rushed in front of him and quickly hid behind him, pleading in a trembling voice: "Please... no matter where you come from... take me away!"