Han Yanyan opened her eyes, the first thing she did was to look down at her belly. It was flat, and her waist was slender. The so-called child had indeed remained in that other world. She was still wearing the same cloth dress she always appeared in this pure white space. There were no mirrors here, not even walls, so Han Yanyan had no idea what she looked like in this space. Was it her true form?
However, these details were unimportant.
“Leo, tell me,” Han Yanyan asked, “has this world succeeded or failed?”
That was the crucial matter. The answer to this question would determine whether her judgment was right or wrong.
“It can be said to be quite good,” Leo replied cheerfully.
This answer made Han Yanyan finally confirm some things.
“Eh, what are you laughing at?” Leo asked curiously.
Leo was actually observing Han Yanyan from a holographic perspective, making her appear right before him. Therefore, the slight smile at the corner of her mouth was incredibly clear, somehow making him uncomfortable.
“Leo, stop using that synthetic voice; it's too grating. Just talk to me in your real voice,” Han Yanyan said, “you’re not a real system anyway.”
Leo: “...”
Leo felt a bit exposed and irritated at having lost control. But continuing with that fake voice felt particularly ridiculous, so he reluctantly switched to his own voice and asked darkly, “When did you figure it out?”
“I knew from the very beginning,” Han Yanyan replied.
“What? Impossible,” Leo didn’t believe it.
Han Yanyan laughed.
“Quick Travel World? Care to explain what a Quick Travel World is?” she mocked.
Leo paused, then responded, “It refers to a person who quickly traverses different worlds within a few years to decades, solving different problems and achieving various goals.”
Clap, clap, clap. Han Yanyan applauded him.
“Very accurate, very good,” she said, teasing him.
Leo realized something must be off, that he certainly had misunderstood something, but he didn’t know where it went wrong.
“What’s the problem?” he couldn’t help but ask, “This concept is clearly…”
He halted himself in time, but Han Yanyan finished for him.
“It’s because the information was extracted from my brain, right?” she smiled.
Leo froze, “How did you know?”
Han Yanyan was surprised, “You don’t really think this information is true, do you?”
“While it is indeed not scientifically plausible… No, no, but this information in your brain is very clear and precise, and can be classified as knowledge on the surface level of awareness…” Leo refused to believe it, “If it were false information, it shouldn’t be so clear.”
“This might relate to my profession,” Han Yanyan explained, “I’m a writer, a storyteller. My mind often fills up with various content that may completely disconnect from my reality, and it might not even exist.”
Leo was left speechless in shock, “Really?”
Han Yanyan grinned, “For instance, the name ‘Han Yanyan,’ did you extract that from my brain and assume it was my name? That’s quite careless of you!”
Leo was even more shocked, “So you don’t actually go by Han Yanyan, but your brain shows…”
Han Yanyan sighed, “A name so melodramatic and embarrassing like that—how could anyone dare to use it in reality?”
I can’t possibly know if your name is pleasant or shameful! Leo felt frustrated.
“In your brain’s awareness, it shows that all information about ‘Han Yanyan’ is from the first-person perspective; it’s you!” he argued angrily.
“That day, the day you captured me, I was driving while considering what to write for my next piece. I can multitask like that.” Han Yanyan continued, “I was hesitating on whether to write a Quick Travel story or first work on that apocalyptic tale.”
“Indeed, the so-called Quick Travel is merely a genre of novels in my world. How could a Quick Travel world possibly exist! Ridiculous.”
“That day, I went to a VR venue in the city to experience the feeling of a zombie apocalypse, and then I decided to write the zombie apocalypse tale first.”
“So Han Yanyan is actually?” Leo asked.
“Right, you guessed it?” Han Yanyan said, “She is the protagonist of the story I was conceiving. Certainly, in the first-person perspective, as a female author, I would naturally project myself into the female lead. Besides, at that time, the concept hadn’t fully formed; I was still in the character design phase. While driving, I was flooded with thoughts about Han Yanyan. Perhaps that’s why, when you extracted the information, you simply concluded I was Han Yanyan.”
Leo reluctantly acknowledged, “That is correct. The volume of information in the human brain is enormous; after extraction, the system directly sorts, categorizes, and judges it. The information I received was already classified. So, from the very beginning, the system made a misjudgment?”
“Perhaps your system failed to consider that a person’s mind could fully imagine themselves as another individual,” Han Yanyan stated, “after all, it’s a machine, not a human.”
Leo felt like this remark was another way of mocking him, yet it also felt genuine, leaving him both irritated and unable to retaliate.
“You’re really something; what else have you guessed?” Leo said in a sarcastic tone. So what if she guessed? She was still under his control.
“From the moment you called me Han Yanyan, I knew the ‘Quick Travel World,’ and ‘system’ were all false. You were merely utilizing the information in my brain, deceiving me with my own understood concepts, possibly to make me believe it was real to get better performance from me. Or perhaps to have me invest my emotions more genuinely? To make everything seem more realistic?” Han Yanyan reasoned, “I suspect your constructors are not acting voluntarily; likely, they were brought along and coerced, just like me. Do you tell different stories to everyone?”
Leo huffed in acknowledgment.
“But you always ‘marked’ me, deliberately creating obstacles for me.” Han Yanyan declared. “I suspect that the ‘mark’ erased a segment of my memory? After all, you need me to work; it’s impossible for you not to let me know anything. After your communication with me, you’d erase my memory, reverting me back to a state of ignorance, entering the so-called world without knowing, believing it was real.”
“The first world was too ridiculous. Looking back, I could somewhat guess why it collapsed.”
“After you revealed the true situation to me… I recall the very first time I asked you the purpose of the Quick Travel; you mentioned something about changing mission objectives. But even you weren’t clear on how to change it. I suspect I suggested it, perhaps I told you that love could change everything.”
Leo jumped in outrage, “You dare say that was a broken framework!”
“Because you were too stingy. You definitely didn’t allow me to understand all the information I should have known. While I am human, without complete information, I too may misjudge. I underestimated the person you wanted to tackle. I built a…” Han Yanyan recalled that world and winced, “cough, a ridiculous early romantic Mary Sue world.”
“That was the type of writing I had done the most in the past. I merely needed to change the protagonist’s name and appearance description. They all followed the same pattern, a domineering CEO fell for me. That’s just my nature; I usually probe cautiously. At that time, I knew nothing about you. Upon realizing I needed to construct the world, I first chose the pattern I was most familiar with.”
“The problems arose from that pattern. Such a brainless sweet logic that even the villain has negative intelligence could only deceive elementary and middle school kids and factory girls; how could it fool that person?” Han Yanyan sighed, “To Zheng Yao, that world must have seemed ridiculous and false. In his mind, it was impossible, leading to the world collapsing in his perception.”
“Yet at that time, due to your memory erasure, I lost my memories and couldn’t confirm that the world was constructed by me. I merely speculated whether I entered someone’s dream.”
“And then came the zombie apocalypse world.”
“I suspect the ‘mark’ should appear in pairs, right? It should be ‘mark - end mark’. During the marking period, I should be able to recover all my memories. Is that so?” Han Yanyan inquired.
Leo huffed once more, and Han Yanyan knew she had guessed right again.
“When the domineering CEO's world collapsed and you raged at me, I couldn't use those overused story patterns anymore; I got serious. I employed the framework of the zombie apocalypse story I had long been yearning to write, constructing the apocalypse world.”
“I lost my memory again. But as soon as I entered that world, I almost confirmed that this world was indeed constructed by me.”
“Han Yanyan, an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl, with fair skin and long black hair, wearing a white cotton skirt that stood out against the environment. Right, this was the female lead image for my apocalypse tale.”
“To speak a bit shamefully, this ‘cold girl in a white cotton skirt’ image is actually very outdated and completely out of style now. However, it’s a standard trope in the ‘youth pain literature’ I was so fond of back then. It struck me strongly, so I wanted to indulge myself by writing one too.”
“Damn,” Leo cursed.
“Moreover, from the very beginning, I realized one important thing in that collapsing domineering CEO world: the ‘world’ didn’t consist solely of me as a real person. I boldly speculate that Zheng Yao, like me, should also be a real existing person.”
“However, I couldn't confirm how others were. The domineering CEO world was too lacking; everyone’s intelligence was negative, making it hard for me to verify if they were real people.”
“When it came to the apocalypse world, it became even harder to verify. This world was already quite structured; I had definitely put in my effort into building it. More importantly, besides Ding Yao, everyone else…”
Han Yanyan paused for a moment before saying, “Qi Tongtong, Zhao Yuxuan, Sun Lijun, Lin Ling… each one felt very vivid. At that time, I really couldn’t judge whether these people, besides Ding Yao and me, were real people or not.”
“Hahaha, Han Yanyan, you crack me up!” Leo finally managed to get back at her, laughing heartily, “You’re actually really concerned about Qiao Chengyu, right?”
Han Yanyan’s hands clenched into fists.