Chapter 352 City
Chen Ming opened his eyes.
For some reason, he suddenly appeared in a bustling city, standing on the top of a tall building in the center of the city.
Looking outside, in the sky are shuttle boats flying along the controlled waterway in the city, and on the ground are busy cars and hurried pedestrians.
Where was he taken by his boss?
"Here..."
"It's in my head."
The boss's voice suddenly came from behind Chen Ming.
He looked back and saw that his boss was standing next to the elevator going down from the top of the building. There seemed to be something inexplicable in his eyes when he looked at Chen Ming.
He didn't say anything directly, but waved to Chen Ming, motioning for Chen Ming to come over.
The boss's conscious space is actually a city with people living in it.
Chen Ming didn't expect this to happen at all.
But no one can say for sure about psychic powers.
Chen Ming accepted this special situation naturally and followed the boss.
The boss took Chen Ming into the elevator, turned to look at him and said, "Let's have a chat now."
"I remember that you were always curious about why I was willing to help you and show you how to get started in the first place, but then you stopped asking."
Chen Ming replied: "Because it is no longer necessary."
No matter what the reason is, it affects everything your boss does. There is no need to pay too much attention to it.
"But I can tell you now."
The boss did not say anything directly, but continued to take Chen Ming to the shuttle boat landing pad outside the building.
He and Chen Ming got on a shuttle boat and rose high into the sky, allowing Chen Ming to see the whole city.
Seeing all kinds of details in the city, seeing different people doing different things, and even chatting with each other, everyone seems real, as if this is really a real city.
Of course, Chen Ming also saw the places that became increasingly blurry in his field of vision as they got closer to the edge of the city.
Let Chen Ming know that this is still in the consciousness space.
The boss suddenly asked again: "Have you seen it? This city, and the people in it."
"Yeah."
"This city is a replica of the city where I was born, and the people living in it are all projections of the people I have heard and learned about."
"Projection? Why do you want the consciousness space to become like this?"
"This... consciousness space can symbolize the power of a psyker, or the power of becoming a psyker."
"It is actually the foundation of psychic abilities, the spiritual base. Of course, it is not impossible to call it consciousness space."
"Everyone's conscious space is different. I chose to make my conscious space my strength."
"So I created such a city."
The boss suddenly opened his arms, as if he wanted to embrace the whole city.
"By listening to other people's life experiences, I create projections that exist in the city. Every projection provides me with strength."
"What's the principle?" Chen Ming asked with some confusion.
"Human existence itself has power, a person's experience determines the strength, and each person's experience determines each person's mind."
"Most people who are not born with abilities only awaken after experiencing some major and special things that affect their lives. You should know that, right?"
"So that's where my power comes from recreating those projections."
Chen Ming thought of Lu Bai, who awakened his spiritual power after taking great risks to break into Yuhui's giant shipyard, and cooperated with Chen Ming to complete an unprecedented feat.
And his other familiar Thousand Faces awakened his spiritual power after experiencing years of domestic violence and killing his father on the day he came of age.
It’s true that they all wake up after experiencing something major.
Chen Ming asked again: "If we reproduce projections by understanding people's experiences, what if what others say is false?"
"False experiences have no power. They cannot correspond or resonate with the human heart, so they cannot be reproduced. Even a simple narration of real experiences will make my heart surge."
"If you look carefully at those projections, some are completely solid, and some look a little more 'empty'. They are strong or weak, and this is the difference."
"For people who have experienced more and have strong minds, the final projection will be more powerful and provide more power."
"I went to the Pirate Space Station specifically to meet all kinds of people."
Chen Ming said at this time: "It shouldn't be just like this, right?"
The prosperous star field can definitely reach more people than the pirate space station in the edge star field.
The boss, a level 6 psyker, came to hide like this, obviously for other reasons.
"I like people who have rich experiences."
"Although the prosperous star field is prosperous, the truly valuable things that can be experienced are not as many as those in the edge star field."
"People who live in a stable star field have definitely not as many experiences as pirates who are struggling on the line of life and death."
"There are indeed other reasons. This involves a lot of things. Let's talk about it later."
"I like people with rich experiences, and I also like to train people who may have rich experiences."
"You had a lot of stories to tell at first glance, so I thought you had great potential, so I got in friendly contact with you and trained you."
Chen Ming finally understood what his boss meant.
Obviously, the results of the boss's work did not live up to expectations.
His experience can be said to be quite rich, and because his boss treats him sincerely, he is not shy about telling most of his experiences in full.
And Chen Ming also understood the boss's ability.
The boss is also a psychic.
But it was completely different from the Zuojia psychic that Chen Ming killed before.
The boss's psionic powers were about the power of the human mind, whereas the psionic person's psionic powers were about the power of the psionic power itself.
The boss needs to rely on the existence of "people" to improve himself. No wonder he hates the scarlet dimension so much.
After all, something like this that affects people's consciousness will have an extremely terrifying impact on the boss's city, which is far away from his consciousness.
"What are you thinking about?"
Just when Chen Ming was thinking, the boss asked.
Chen Ming explained his thoughts.
"Wrong."
The boss corrected: "Just because the source of power in my conscious space is the human mind, the power I show is spiritual."
"There is a reason for my deliberate guidance. You know I used to study psychology, so I let my spiritual energy change in this direction."
Chen Ming nodded and did not bother about the specific way to realize spiritual energy. It would be useless to worry about it.
He asked curiously: "Is my projection here too?"
"Yes."
The boss said something and suddenly started talking about other topics: "Actually, I have to thank you."
"Thank me?"
"Look at this city, how do you feel?"
Chen Ming looked outside through the porthole of the shuttle boat flying towards the outskirts of the city and said: "It's very lively, very much like reality, but it seems like something is missing."
"Yes, all inhuman existence is missing."
The boss did not show off and directly stated the key issue: "I have always regarded people as the key, so there were no living creatures other than humans in my city before."
"I don't have much chance to come into contact with those creatures. The only chance I have to come into contact with animals and plants on the space station is at the dining table."
"It wasn't until you mentioned that you wanted to rely on my spiritual power to communicate with the phase beast that I realized that not only people, but any living beings and even any things can be recorded in my consciousness space."
"Everything has animism."
"The power of the mind is not limited to humans, I can continue to grow, so I have to thank you."
Chen Ming said that when he mentioned this matter to his boss two days ago, his boss suddenly agreed decisively and then remained silent for a while.
Presumably, the city in this consciousness space has gradually begun to gain more vitality.
Boss abilities should also be enhanced over time.
"What about the phase beast?"
"It's already in the city, we'll see it later."
"But before that, I have to tell you something. You need to see what you look like."
The boss waved his hand, and a light screen projected the picture of a place over.
Chen Ming looked over and found that it was his projection in the boss's consciousness space at work.
His projection plays an important role in the city's government building where he just stood on the top floor.
The other people working around are all extremely solid projections, which are obviously different in intensity from ordinary people outside.
Chen Ming took a few glances but didn't see any problem, so he asked, "What's wrong?"
The boss waved his hand again, dissipating the light curtain.
"Your body is still intact, and you even have multiple bodies in reserve, but your consciousness has begun to have problems."
As he spoke, he took out a small mirror from his pocket and handed it to Chen Ming.
Chen Ming took the mirror and looked at it.
His eyes widened subconsciously.
Because he doesn't look like a normal human being in the mirror.
His body in the mirror has two heads that almost completely overlap.
He has a mechanized body, but the mechanical structure does not completely protect his body.
Through the gaps in the machine, one can see the translucent gray-green internal organs, as if there is some thick liquid flowing in them, and his right arm has also become the shape of a tentacle.
Although the left arm still barely maintains a human appearance, if you look carefully, you will find that there are blood-colored threads running through the pores in this arm.
His legs were nothing, but he could still stand where he was.
Apart from maintaining the overall human shape, there is no sign that he is a human being.
"..."
Chen Ming can probably understand why his consciousness looks like this.
The two overlapping heads are the basis of his ability, which is caused by the fusion of consciousnesses of the time traveler Chen Ming and the repairman Chen Ming.
The mechanized body corresponds to his most basic ability, controlling spaceships and machinery.
The organs and tentacles of the Zerg correspond to his connection with the queen.
The bloodshot veins on his arms represent the power he wrested from the scarlet dimension.
As for the empty legs. It may be caused by the power of the phase, or it may be that part of his consciousness is in other places, which leads to a partial loss of his consciousness.
Chen Ming feels it is more likely to be the latter.
Of course, this does not mean that the other prostheses controlled by Chen Ming are controlled by the legs. The lack of conscious body should be more symbolic.
Just like now, when Chen Ming looked at his conscious body, everything was normal.
His understanding of himself is that of a normal human being.
But Chen Ming was not sure whether the boss had made a mistake.
So he immediately contacted the Queen of Insects with part of his external consciousness and asked the Queen of Insects to describe the appearance of his conscious body.
The consciousness space of the Insect Queen is linked to his, which is the giant Zerg warship next to Chen Ming's steel jungle island.
So the insect queen must have seen what his conscious body looked like.
The insect queen understood what Chen Ming meant and directly created two prosthetics, or in other words, two monsters.
The human being was the first time the Worm Queen saw Chen Ming's consciousness when she faced the recipient of Zuo Jing after the spiritual connection between her and Chen Ming.
It is very similar to the boss's conscious space at this time, except that there are no bloodshot holes on his left arm, and his legs are normal human legs.
The other one is now, exactly the same as the one in the boss's consciousness space, but the legs are still intact. It can be determined that the consciousness body is incomplete because part of the consciousness is separated.
His consciousness is indeed the monster it is now.
Wait a moment.
So he just kept talking like this with his boss for a long time?
No wonder the boss looked at him a little strangely at first.
Then why did neither the recipient nor Qianmian express any problem with his appearance before?
The recipient can be said to have gone crazy.
But Qianmian was at best brainwashed, not to the point of madness, not to mention that the Qianmian who communicated with him could be said to be very sane.
Maybe it was because Qianmian used his consciousness space to construct the environment in his memory at that time.
The consciousness space corrected his appearance, so that the remnants of the Thousand Faces Consciousness did not see the problem.
Of course, it is also possible that Qianmian realized that Chen Ming was a monster and asked An Wuping's clone to merge with the source of chaos as his own power.
So it doesn't matter what Chen Ming looks like.
But to be honest, Chen Ming felt that it was normal for his consciousness to become like this, or that it should be like this.
He is not an ordinary person.
He is a psyker, he is a time traveler, he is a psychic entity.
However, Chen Ming didn't know what to say better. In the end, he said ambiguously: "I think everything is normal in myself. Maybe it's only in the eyes of others that I'm abnormal."
"That means there is a problem with your cognition, and your state of consciousness is also very wrong. I think it is because your psychic abilities are too numerous."
"Just like the mental rampage entity, the superposition of multiple psychic abilities will lead to rampage, and the stacking of multiple psychic effects should have similar negative effects."
"Although there is no problem yet, I think this problem must be solved."
"You need to sort out your psychic powers."
Chen Ming asked: "How to comb it?"
"It depends on you. I can only speak from my own experience because I have been in similar situations before."
"When I first started projecting into my city, the experience of projection would interfere with my consciousness and make traces of other people appear on my consciousness."
"You see, everything is fine with me now."
"As long as you can clearly identify who you are, the traces of other people will naturally disappear."
Chen Ming said: "Find out who you are? I've always known it."
"I have said that this is my experience and cannot be directly applied to you."
"I can only tell you that you are a human being. You can't just see yourself as a human being in your own eyes. That is wrong. You must let others know that you are a human being."
Chen Ming has always considered himself to be a very obvious and standard person.
But the boss's words at this time, and various mutations in his consciousness, made him a little less confident.
He focused his awareness on his conscious body.
In the end, there are only three powers in his consciousness.
A basic spiritual energy awakened based on the concept of dimensional infection, initially a mechanical power.
A power belonging to the Zerg derived from the spiritual link between the biological spaceship and the Zerg Queen.
And the power belonging to the Scarlet Dimension that he personally captured after entering the Scarlet Dimension.
Plus the foundation of everything, people.
These three forces and the concept of "people" are all part of him, and they are all important parts that he can never let go of.
Then there is only one way left.
Chen Ming temporarily combined all the consciousness outside into one body, completely solidifying his consciousness.
Immediately, his body twisted.
Humans, machines, Zerg, Scarlet, everything is twisted and blended together.
There was even a hint of blue-purple light quietly blending in.
The product of chaotic fusion condensed into a human form under the control of Chen Ming's power, condensing all the organs and tissues a person needs to survive.
Finally, based on the human form, a layer of skin appeared that looked exactly the same as that of a normal person.
All the products of chaos are contained under human appearance.
Chen Ming moved a little, adjusted some of the chaotic structures inside his consciousness, and said: "It's sorted out."
"I feel...good."
Chen Ming's consciousness clenched his fist.
After following his boss's teachings and choosing to completely integrate power into a part of who he is as a human being, his level of control over all powers has improved again.
He felt that he was really becoming more and more of a standard mentally violent entity.
He Gu said at the beginning that the spiritual energy possessed by the initial mental rampage entity was still very scattered and relatively clear. Different spiritual energy fluctuations controlled different spiritual energy powers.
In the middle stage, the mind-robbing entity only needs to invoke one kind of spiritual energy wave to control all spiritual energy.
He's at this stage now.
I don’t know what will happen if I continue.
Chen Ming thought it wouldn't be a bad thing.
If he were an ordinary person, an ordinary psyker, then becoming a psychotic entity would indeed be the worst thing that could happen.
But if it originally came from another dimension, it is no different from a dimensional infection, and it is also a mentally violent entity.
Then there is no problem in becoming a late-stage mental rampage entity.
The boss on the side fell into silence as he watched Chen Ming crush his consciousness and restore it to his human form again.
But at least the result looks fine, so it should be fine...
"I remember a long time ago, when you were still on the pirate space station."
"You came to me one night. You didn't drink at all, but you drank a lot that day."
"Although you smell of alcohol, your consciousness is not disturbed in the slightest."
"At that time, I actually felt strange. But I didn't say anything, and it wasn't until later that it was officially confirmed that you had the ability to create clones."
"Later, I learned that An Wuping was also your clone. The power of the Zerg made me almost think that you were taken away by something."
"But you gave me a complete surprise, surprise, surprise and fright in the end."
"Then your clones are getting weirder and weirder"
"I can no longer tell what is going on in your consciousness."
"From today on, I may really have nothing to teach you."
"I think there is more." Chen Ming said: "And I am always me, I am Chen Ming."
"Well, speaking of which, you don't need your own body anymore, right?"
"Yes."
For Chen Ming now, consciousness is his essence.
Whether it's the main body, a prosthesis, a randomly made robot, or even any Zerg, as long as Chen Ming's consciousness passes, it will be him.
Of course, Chen Ming's essence is still a human being, and he is also a relatively nostalgic person. He is still willing to keep controlling his body.
Even if it gets damaged one day, he will find a way to make a new one that is exactly the same.
Of course some minor changes may be made.
For example, implant some Zerg organs, modify some mechanical structures, and adjust the original genes to achieve the most perfect level in the human concept.
That's what his psychic powers are for.
After hearing Chen Ming's answer, the boss said: "I heard before that when a psyker's ability reaches a certain level, the spiritual enlightenment nerve is just a sign."
"I used to think that I had to reach the legendary level 7 psyker to do it, but it seems that the conditions are not what I imagined."
The boss was a little emotional.
"But why do I feel that the intensity of your psychic fluctuations has not changed for a long time?"
"Did you encounter some problem with your psychic abilities? Or did you finally reach your limit?"
"It's not the limit, it's the bottleneck."
Chen Ming explained: "The amount of my mental power has long exceeded normal conditions. It is enough to cover a galaxy of average size when released, but I just can't break through this bottleneck."
"I can feel it there, but I can't find a way to contact it. Even if I gain a lot of power through the Scarlet Dimension, the Zerg and the Machine Tribe, I can't break through it."
"I feel that I still need an opportunity, so for the time being I can only develop horizontally and see if I can take advantage of the period of being stuck at the bottleneck to research more on the uses of other aspects of psychic energy."
The boss thought about it thoughtfully and said, "Let's do this for now. We'll talk about consciousness and spiritual energy later."
"It's better to talk to your big friend now."
He snapped his fingers.
The shuttle boat that had flown to the outskirts of the city entered the phase space.
The phase space of this city that belongs to the boss’s consciousness space.
There should have been no phase space before.
This phase space did not exist until the arrival of the phase beast.
The consciousness of the phase beast is currently wandering over the suburbs of the city in the boss's consciousness space.
(End of chapter)