Chapter 16: The World Within the Watch

Ren Zhong lay quietly on the single iron bed.
The night remained as cool as water, tranquil and peaceful.
He squinted, cautiously surveying his surroundings.
Across from him, Zheng Tian was already deep in sleep.
Her long lashes rested gently over closed eyes, making her look endearingly innocent, a sweet smile lingering on her face as if she were lost in a pleasant dream.
She always fell asleep in just a second.
Earlier, Ren Zhong had accompanied Zheng Tian to meet the town mayor, Ma Dafu, to obtain temporary residency status for outsiders in the town.
He wondered whether Zheng Tian had spoken to Ma Dafu beforehand, as the chubby old man’s attitude was much improved compared to last time. He never once mentioned the upcoming census or the impossibility of settling down for newcomers like Ren Zhong. Instead, he warmly asked Ren Zhong for his impressions of the town.
Unaware of the hidden context, Ren Zhong followed the principle of never hitting below the belt and simply replied, “It’s all right.”
Ma Dafu chuckled, “Then I’ll take that as a compliment, shall I?”
Ren Zhong forced a laugh, feeling awkward.
The old man was truly thick-skinned and completely oblivious.
...
Ren Zhong gently rubbed the circular wristwatch fastened to his right wrist with an anti-theft chain, unable to suppress his emotions.
At first, he had worried he wouldn’t be able to use it, but soon realized his concerns were unfounded.
Once he put on the watch and powered it up, a tingling sensation spread through his wrist.
Ren Zhong focused on the change, guessing it was caused by subtle bioelectrical currents.
The numbness traveled up his right arm, spreading to the rest of his body at a rate of one decimeter per second. In just over ten seconds, it enveloped him completely, with his cerebral cortex, eyeballs, and ears experiencing an especially intense tingling, as if nerves were being repeatedly rubbed with a stick.
Light returned to his tightly shut eyes, and his vision was filled with snowy static, reminiscent of old television screens with poor reception.
A buzzing sound echoed in his ears, akin to the tinnitus that plagues insomniacs. The buzzing grew louder, morphing into the white noise of a radio failing to catch a signal.
After thirty seconds, his vision and hearing offered new feedback.
A VR-sized giant screen appeared before Ren Zhong, displaying various icons resembling those on a Windows desktop.
The white noise faded, replaced by a melodious synthesized female voice.
“Welcome to the eighth-generation portable auxiliary brain. Deep Communications Group, dedicated to developing human potential and improving human life, is at your service. This auxiliary brain system was developed in the year 418 of the New Source Era, undergoing eight major revisions…”
Ren Zhong thought, What a long advertisement. Can I skip it?
The next second, the broadcast abruptly stopped.
Huh?
Ren Zhong felt a pleasant surprise and returned his attention to the giant screen.
His first focus wasn’t the colorful or monochrome icons, but the desktop background at the base of the screen.
It was a dynamic wallpaper, depicting a stunningly futuristic city from above.

Towering buildings pierced the clouds.
Transparent, three-dimensional transport pipelines were neatly arranged in grids.
In the sky, shuttles of varying sizes zipped back and forth at astonishing speeds.
At first glance, their routes seemed chaotic, the pace reckless, as if a midair collision could happen at any moment. But on closer inspection, each flying machine followed an invisible, meticulously organized path; intersections occurred, but collisions never did.
The city’s aerial traffic network followed a hidden order, like a work of art—a blessing for obsessive minds.
It seemed all the machines were orchestrated by a colossal super-intelligent brain, maintaining efficiency and safety with the precision of a biological system.
This city radiated vitality, exuberance, and prosperity, burning bright like oil on fire—matching everything Ren Zhong imagined and hoped for in a future metropolis.
He was utterly captivated by the dynamic wallpaper.
He vaguely saw several words atop the tallest central tower.
He wished he could zoom in for a clearer view.
Ren Zhong thought.
In that instant, white fog appeared at the edges of the wallpaper, and the image rapidly advanced forward.
When the scene stabilized, Ren Zhong’s viewpoint was now two hundred meters in front of the building.
He could read the words on its facade.
“Deep Communications Group.”
Ren Zhong understood.
The futuristic city in the wallpaper was the headquarters of Deep Communications Group.
He also guessed the principle behind the watch.
By interfering with the human nervous system using tiny bioelectric currents, the device generated information flows directly within the neural network, matching the body's own signals and creating hallucination-like visual and auditory experiences. It could also detect clear, directed thoughts in the brain and respond accordingly.
Ren Zhong found it almost miraculous!
He was deeply shaken by the precision and power of this portable device, so much so that this genius from the twenty-first century felt a pang of rustic inadequacy.
Such a high-tech product was already commonplace, available to anyone as a wristwatch. Somewhere, countless brilliant minds must be working tirelessly for the advancement of humanity.
Just imagining this filled Ren Zhong with envy and admiration, though deep down an irrepressible sense of competitiveness lingered.
Though times had changed, he still confidently believed himself equal to the best.
Such is the pride of a genius.
Previously, Ren Zhong’s expectations for this world had been dampened by what he’d seen and heard in Spark Town.
Now, hope and passion were rekindled within him.
No matter what, since he had emerged from the freezing chamber and been granted new life—along with S/L abilities—he would one day visit such a city, perceive this world more clearly, relearn, and access knowledge his twenty-first-century self could never have imagined. How wonderful would that be?
Ren Zhong’s breathing grew heavier.
Father, mother,

I have seen it.
This is the new era.
Thank you for rescuing me from the hands of death.
Thank you for giving me a second life.
I will embrace it with all my strength.
Though you can no longer witness it, I want you to know your efforts were not in vain.
After a long while, Ren Zhong regained his composure, his focus returning to the desktop layer, gazing at the icons.
New User Manual, Basic Information Database, Professional Training System, Scientific Knowledge Training System, Hypnosis, Internet (grayed out).
There were six icons in total.
The first five were usable, with the last one locked and inaccessible.
Ren Zhong tried it and found the internet function was disabled due to the watch being rented.
He didn’t mind; the first few were enough for him to explore.
He was easily satisfied now.
He opened the New User Manual first.
The manual explained the basic usage of the auxiliary brain watch and mentioned the rules for earning contribution points while sleeping with the watch, though it didn’t elaborate on the principle.
Ren Zhong skimmed through for two minutes, then quickly returned to the desktop and tapped “Hypnosis.”
The giant screen before him rippled as if disturbed, then swiftly cleared again.
Ren Zhong knew he was now in deep sleep, yet his mind remained perfectly lucid.
This state was called the sleep space, or more specifically, a “dream” in which memories could be made.
He was amazed.
Wasn’t this equivalent to having twenty-four usable hours every day? This was paradise for scholars!
That kind of productivity would be explosive...
Just as he was rejoicing, he remembered the sallow, gaunt outsiders.
Strange.
Never mind, it was beyond him.
That night, Ren Zhong slept soundly and lived an incomparably fulfilling experience.
He finally managed to tear open, just a little, the veil shrouding the truth of this world.