Since learning that Jiu Jiu possessed human intelligence, Wu Pi Fu's attitude towards her had changed significantly.
Not only did he engage in conversation with her, but he also shared important matters with her.
This change in attitude undoubtedly made Jiu Jiu very happy; she flew onto Wu Pi Fu's shoulder, chirping excitedly.
Wu Pi Fu then took out an old piece of paper and said, "There aren't many words on this, but it's extremely important. I don't know where you found it... Other information is of little use, but this segment is crucial: 'We have preliminarily confirmed the standards for determining the pollution source.
Taking our world as the real anchor point, the pollution characteristics are zero, meaning our reality does not possess any pollution unless it is brought by something from below. The first layer below shows a pollution level digitized from one to one hundred, the second layer from one hundred to one thousand...'
This is the important information that the mainframe needs! It's probably contained within this USB drive."
Jiu Jiu chirped and hopped back and forth between Wu Pi Fu's shoulder and the paper, tilting her head to look at him.
Wu Pi Fu reassured her, "Don't worry, I haven't peeked at it alone. This information is extremely important; the mainframe is even willing to offer rewards for it, so it's definitely something good. We'll wait for you to wake up to look at it together."
Jiu Jiu chirped joyfully in response, and Wu Pi Fu laughed, "You sleep so soundly, like a pig, eating and then sleeping, waking up after half a day..."
Jiu Jiu became furious, charging at his face and then pecking at his forehead.
In the midst of the commotion, Wu Pi Fu picked up the black device and said, "Mainframe, play the content."
"Confirming playback... Confirmation complete, about to play the content of this information carrier..."
"Warning, this information carrier contains high-level information pollution, preliminarily assessed at a baseline level of 0.5..."
"Information pollution has been removed. Comprehensive assessment shows that 68% of the information is missing... Do you wish to continue playing the content?"
Wu Pi Fu's expression turned awkward; he truly did not expect that after removing the information pollution, only 32% of the information would remain for viewing.
He could only helplessly say, "Play."
Soon, a light screen descended, and a virtual reality-like projection appeared.
Wu Pi Fu and Jiu Jiu found themselves in a conference hall, but this conference hall looked somewhat strange, filled with square metal blocks.
The participants either sat on the metal blocks or stood on them, and all these metal blocks were floating in mid-air, including Wu Pi Fu and Jiu Jiu, who were on the largest metal block.
There were only about forty people in the entire conference hall, each with a unique appearance... truly unique.
Some had three heads and six arms, some had wings on their backs, some had snake-like lower bodies, and others had the lower bodies of gigantic spiders.
Of course, there were also those who looked like ordinary humans, a total of over forty, resembling a gathering of monsters and humans.
As Wu Pi Fu and Jiu Jiu surveyed their surroundings, a half-mechanical being about six meters tall spoke, "From the summary of information transmitted back by 320,000 exploration teams, we can draw the following conclusions."
"The reality level we are in can be identified as the material reality world, where there is no pollution. Of course, you all understand what I mean by pollution; I am not referring to various radiations, biological entities, or meme-like contagions, but rather to ******..."
"Current observations and calculations show that in the first layer below us, the pollution source ranges from one to one hundred, and in the second layer, from one hundred to one thousand, and so on... So far, we have discovered a total of six layers below, meaning the pollution source digitization ranges from one million to ten million..."
At this point, the various beings let out a sigh of relief, with several of them breaking into smiles.
A creature with the upper body of a giant elephant and the lower body of a horse said, "Although it is still terrifying, it is not beyond reach. As long as we can unite, with all departments and academic factions cooperating sincerely, we can withstand the erosion of millions of pollution sources. I will set an example; my faction, the Giant Alchemy Sect, is willing to share all our alchemical techniques with everyone!"
With someone taking the lead, the others naturally did not want to fall behind, each expressing their willingness to contribute their faction's or school's resources, alchemical techniques, experimental products, weapons, and so on.
For a moment, it seemed that everyone was selfless.
Wu Pi Fu keenly noticed that what these beings were talking about all mentioned one thing...
Alchemy!
Moreover, he saw several beings floating in mid-air, their bodies displaying flames, lightning, and other phenomena with a mere snap of their fingers.
Although it could be explained by scientific instruments, it looked like extraordinary power.
While everyone was engaged in heated discussions, the massive half-mechanical being at the center, where Wu Pi Fu was located, suddenly spoke, "This is the explored portion, consisting of six layers. However, beyond this, our exploration teams can no longer advance and are unable to investigate the deeper structures. Now... everyone, please activate your strongest alchemical defense formations. The next thing to be played is the final transmission from our most elite team, led by heroes with single-digit titles, whose strength is comparable to ours present here. This is the last visual they sent back..."
Then, the entire virtual image froze, and after a few seconds, the scene flashed, revealing a vast expanse of ruins and debris.
Most of the strange beings they had seen before were either shattered or had vanished, leaving fewer than ten beings present, and the massive half-mechanical being was left with only half of its body, sparking with electricity.
"It's just a segment of footage; why is it like this? Why does it have sentience...?"
"... Is there really a deity? Is there really a demon? Are there truly those religiously significant existences?"
"If so, then what are we...?"
The half-mechanical being emitted such voices, and then the entire scene ended, returning to the view of the Gaia Maintenance Base.
Wu Pi Fu and Jiu Jiu remained motionless for a long time, as what they had just witnessed truly opened their eyes.
One was from the twenty-first century, and although there were computers and smartphones, this immersive, full-scene imagery was still a first for him.
Jiu Jiu, coming from the ancient Song Dynasty, had even less exposure to such things.
The man and the bird were stunned for quite a while before they exchanged glances.
Then Jiu Jiu began to chirp excitedly, while Wu Pi Fu seemed to understand and shook his head, saying, "It's over; I didn't turn it off. All the available information has been played."
Jiu Jiu let out a somewhat dispirited chirp, and Wu Pi Fu looked at her, saying, "I didn't expect you to be a bird that enjoys binge-watching... It can't be done now, but once we access those entertainment facilities, you'll be able to watch many good movies and animations."
Only then did Jiu Jiu fly back to Wu Pi Fu's shoulder, chirping incessantly at him.
Wu Pi Fu's attention was focused on the imagery they had just seen.
"According to the content shown in the footage, if the scenes depicted are in the real world, then the one to one hundred pollution source world corresponds to a baseline reality of 0.9, and the one hundred to one thousand pollution source world corresponds to a baseline reality of 0.8... Then this alchemical civilization corresponds to having explored a world at a baseline reality of 0.4, and when exploring the baseline reality of 0.3 world, they encountered great terror. Even the mere return footage regarding this terror caused massive deaths and damage... It's simply terrifying."
Wu Pi Fu was secretly alarmed, growing increasingly wary of the deeper dream worlds.
However, in the information they had just viewed, although much was removed due to information hazards, they still gained many useful insights, such as... the digitization and standardization of pollution sources.
The pollution source at baseline reality 0.9 is from one to one hundred, and for each layer down, the upper and lower limits of the pollution sources increase tenfold.
This alone is fine, but the real key is... is it limited to pollution sources only being from one to one hundred?
"The Lifeless Old Mother cannot travel from the vacuum homeland to the 0.9 world; otherwise, I might not even be alive now. But there are exceptions; if a Level Two Nightmare travels from a lower-level dream world to a higher-level dream world, its strength does not diminish. So what allows this to happen?"
Wu Pi Fu pondered carefully over all these connections.
He was not particularly clever, and all this information was full of mysteries to him, but he still keenly identified one crucial factor... the Sanctuary!
A Level Two Nightmare cannot simply travel from one dream world to another; it can only do so through the sanctuaries established by the maintenance personnel.
This includes traveling from the dream world to the material world.
Does this mean that the Sanctuary is the only exception that breaks the limits of pollution sources in the dream world?
"And one more thing, if this alchemical world is also a real world, then where... are they now?" Wu Pi Fu asked this question, harboring some guesses in his heart.
However, these guesses were too shocking, so he merely shook his head silently, burying all these thoughts deep within.
"If the content mentioned in this important information is all true, then we can roughly determine the strongest combat power of a level dream world, the most terrifying Nightmare's strength... at least we can estimate it."
Wu Pi Fu fell into silent contemplation.
Suddenly, he said, "Mainframe, open the map of Zone Z, District 6123."
Instantly, light and shadow fell, forming a complex, maze-like map before Wu Pi Fu.
He looked at this intricate map and said, "Show my current location, display the positions of surrounding isolation walls, and show the locations of all nearby restaurants, maintenance bases, medical bases, weapon depots, entertainment facilities, and other buildings."
Immediately, various markers of different colors and shapes appeared on the map, with his location highlighted, and each building had text annotations.
Wu Pi Fu examined the map for a while, confirming the area of the medical base he had chosen, and then headed towards a certain position in the sleep chamber.
This area had only two isolation walls; one connected the medical base to the sleep chamber, while the other led from the medical base to a large square outside, and that large square belonged to...
Zone 6122!
"The Pink Snake, huh?"
Wu Pi Fu stood in front of a metal wall of the sleep chamber and turned to Jiu Jiu, saying, "I don't know what kind of monster is behind this, but since there is an isolation wall, there must be a monster behind it. According to the predecessors, the larger the area sealed by the isolation wall, the stronger the monsters present. This medical base has a small enclosed space, and there is only this public facility, so the monster shouldn't be excessively powerful. When the battle breaks out later, you should stay far away, understand?"
Jiu Jiu hopped around, chirping non-stop, and then flew to a distant sleep chamber to perch.
Wu Pi Fu then turned back and said, "Mainframe."
"Open the isolation wall in front of me!"
(End of Chapter)