The middle-aged man was named Yamada, a name that sounded quite feminine, yet it was the true name of this iron-blooded, robust man.
He was born during the mid-period of the Third World War.
Contrary to what people in the twenty-first century had envisioned, the Third World War did not end swiftly; it lasted a full one hundred and twenty years! In 2317, the remnants of the Western Alliance launched a surprise attack on the Eastern Alliance's capital and various important cities and military districts.
The portable Phase Array Nuclear Bomb was first applied to the battlefield, a nuclear weapon that broke through the critical mass lower limit of nuclear weapons, with the smallest portable Phase Array Nuclear Bomb weighing only sixty grams!
As the Eastern Alliance was caught off guard, the remnants of the Western Alliance and neutral countries from the Third World successively declared war on the Eastern Alliance, thus igniting the Third World War.
Due to the existence of the Electromagnetic Sky Shield Force Field, conventional high-power nuclear missiles were rendered ineffective, so the mushroom cloud apocalypse did not arrive.
Instead, a miniaturized, widespread, nanotechnological, and biochemical Third World War unfolded, involving the entire global population of 11 billion, with no place deemed safe, and no one able to remain uninvolved.
After one hundred and twenty years of world war, the Eastern Alliance collapsed, the Western Alliance was completely finished, and almost all countries in the world lost their unified governments.
Humanity was fragmented into small teams fighting alone, and the world turned into isolated islands, all due to the biochemical rampage that evolved in the later stages of the Third World War.
This was not a biochemical crisis but a far more terrifying scenario where biochemical mechanical nanolife self-replicated and self-evolved globally, attacking any form of life, killing it, and using its body as material for further replication.
From the worldview known to Wu Qifu, the later stages of the Third World War were roughly equivalent to the worldview of the Heavy Armored Soldier game he once played, where any animal could sprout machine guns, cannons, or laser guns from its mouth at any moment, tearing nearby humans to shreds.
Due to this catastrophe, civilization was nearly obliterated, human races and nations were shattered, various skin colors cohabited, multiple languages conversed simultaneously, and various races evolved into one another.
Yamada was born and grew up on such a battlefield, unaware of who his parents were, or rather, the elders in his team were all his kin, and the oldest among them was only in their forties, also born and raised during the Third World War, having never attended a day of school, knowing only bits and pieces about the prosperous world before the war.
Moreover, due to the complete mixing of civilization, nations, and ethnicities, regardless of skin color, names were often of this strange gender-neutral and indistinct nature.
Yamada was a battlefield veteran, and his greatest fortune was encountering the Salvation Organization.
At the most desperate time for humanity during the Third World War, an organization named Azure emerged.
This organization possessed pre-war human technology, had a highly organized political structure, and harbored the grand ambition of saving humanity and the Earth.
Countless humans joined this organization, and Yamada was one of them.
Although a battlefield veteran, he was at the very bottom of this organization, belonging to the type of soldier whose name might not even be recorded in the organization.
He suffered severe injuries on a battlefield against giant biochemical weapons.
Such injuries would have been declared fatal in the twenty-first century.
Although emergency treatment on the battlefield saved his life during the Third World War, it could not allow him to continue living.
Ultimately, due to his sacrifices for the organization and the merits accumulated from his battlefield contributions, he was frozen and fell into a state of dormancy, becoming a "Future Person" like Wu Qifu.
Those who froze themselves due to terminal illnesses, injuries, and various reasons to await awakening in the future hundreds of years later were collectively referred to as Future Persons.
Then, in 2877, at the moment Gaia was completed, Yamada, like Wu Qifu, was revived by the unified human government.
However, he also incurred an astronomical medical debt to the unified human government, ultimately having to sign a Maintenance Personnel Contract, thus becoming a glorious maintenance personnel.
In contrast to Yamada, the name of the voluptuous woman was much more normal; she was named Xu Shilan.
She was not a Future Person but a criminal within the unified human government, a former citizen, now a maintenance personnel.
Fraud, theft, murder, arms dealing with the Human Revolutionary Alliance, war crimes, and massacre charges, with a sentence of eight hundred years! This information was, of course, not disclosed by Xu Shilan herself but was marked by the mainframe for everyone to see.
This was also to distinguish between Future Persons and criminals.
Although the unified human government treated them all as maintenance personnel, Future Persons were those who, after having made contributions and endured hardships, could barely be considered citizens, while criminals… the unified human government would rather see them all dead, especially serious offenders like Xu Shilan.
Regarding the crimes marked by the mainframe, Xu Shilan showed no signs of rebuttal; she merely gazed at Wu Qifu with great interest, making him feel somewhat awkward.
Xu Shilan was indeed a very seductive woman, not because of how revealing her attire was; on the contrary, she wore the standard uniform of maintenance personnel, with her entire body covered except for a little above her neck.
However, her posture, expressions, and movements all exuded charm, and even a mere glance made one feel she was… very alluring! At this moment, Wu Qifu was answering various questions from Yamada, with only Yamada inquiring, while Xu Shilan quietly displayed her allure.
"You say… this is not a biochemical beast?" Yamada frowned and asked.
Wu Qifu replied with certainty, "Yes, neither of them is. One is a Deformed Entity, and the other is a Contaminated Entity; neither is the biochemical beast you mentioned."
Yamada was puzzled and looked at Xu Shilan.
At this moment, Xu Shilan finally spoke, spreading her hands, "Sorry, I also don’t know what a Deformed Entity or a Contaminated Entity is. Although I am a citizen of the unified human government, uh, a former citizen, I know about the Thirteen Singularity Technology Company, I know about the Human Revolutionary Alliance, I know about black technology, but I still don’t know what a Deformed Entity and a Contaminated Entity are."
Both looked at Wu Qifu again, who recalled and said, "The so-called Deformed Entity is a monster that undergoes physical and consciousness changes due to being unable to withstand… observation. They are all material entities and do not possess infectious, contaminative, erosive, or parasitic properties, making them the easiest type to deal with among all horrors. Of course, don’t underestimate Deformed Entities; some powerful Deformed Entities, although lacking the aforementioned peculiarities, can possess exaggerated strength, and also…"
"Wait a minute?" Yamada rubbed his forehead and temples, "I understand what you’re saying, but I don’t understand what you’re really talking about. Also, unable to withstand what? You haven’t said anything at all."
Wu Qifu spread his hands, "I can’t say, not even describe. Mainframe, how long until the 'Week' ends?"
A countdown projection appeared before the three.
"Six days, eight hours, forty-two minutes, fifty-one seconds."
Both stared blankly at the countdown, and Yamada immediately pointed at the total behind the countdown, "Why is it sixty-six days, six hours, six minutes, and six seconds? Does this have any significance?"
Wu Qifu nodded, "Yes, a 'Week' lasts sixty-six days, six hours, six minutes, and six seconds. I’m not sure what the specific significance is; it has just been like this since I self-awoke."
Xu Shilan, with a flirtatious tone, asked, "What will happen after the countdown ends?"
Wu Qifu spread his hands, "The truth… the truth you want to know will be revealed."
Yamada immediately asked, "Have you experienced the Week?"
Wu Qifu's expression darkened as he nodded, "Yes, I have experienced it, twice… It has only been one hundred fifty-six days since I awakened until today; don’t think I have been awake for dozens or hundreds of years."
Yamada and Xu Shilan exchanged glances, and Yamada said seriously, "Then, can you tell us from start to finish what exactly happened?"
"Sure."
Wu Qifu recalled the day he awakened.
At that time, there were still several seniors in the 6123 area, but as time passed, only he remained.
"Initially, I awakened from dormancy just like you. During that awakening, I did not encounter any Deformed Entities; both I and the other two awoke normally."
"I was informed by the seniors that the entire Gaia had turned into a terrifying cage filled with monsters. The mainframe had sealed off almost all passages, isolation rooms, and various convenient buildings and functional structures because these places were filled with monsters, horrors, ghosts, or things that only existed in some fantasies."
"The reason was due to… observation, the dream network underwent a catastrophe, and all citizens fell into the dream network. Only maintenance personnel who were not connected to the dream network could awaken normally."
"This catastrophe is inexplicable and incomprehensible because it was supposed to be illusory. As a virtual reality-like dream, it unexpectedly became a dream world that one could physically enter and bring out real objects."
"These dream worlds were classified by the mainframe, evaluated based on a baseline reality. Baseline Reality One is the real world, with no horrors, no supernatural powers, and no changes in history or culture. Starting from Baseline Reality Zero Point Nine, subtle changes begin to appear.
For example, my power; you must be very curious about what this power is, right? This is National Art, a method of physical training and cultivation, something that could not possibly exist in the real world, yet I obtained it in the world of Baseline Reality Zero Point Nine.
The further down you go, the greater the deviation, and even ghosts, monsters, curses, legendary creatures, and even… gods and demons may appear!"
"Of course, not all supernatural beings in the dream world necessarily have malicious intent; some may be friendly, some neutral, and some dangerous, much like us humans. The only difference is that they possess supernatural powers, making them dangerous to humans. The real deadly threat comes from Nightmares, a terrifying existence born in the dream world, specifically targeting us maintenance personnel who enter the dream world!"
"And we must face these terrifying existences…"
At this point, Yamada suddenly interrupted him, "Wait a minute, if what you say is true, that the dream network has undergone such an incredible change, can’t we just not go in?"
"Eat."
Wu Qifu said helplessly.
"What do you mean?" Yamada and Xu Shilan asked simultaneously.
Wu Qifu spread his hands, "The mainframe has sealed off all passages. Our current activity area is only the dormitory and this maintenance base; we cannot go anywhere else. Therefore, aside from fresh water, we have no food here, not even a little bit."
"Not going into the dream world to eat, are you planning to cultivate here in this enclosed space?"
(End of Chapter)