Chapter 33: Rushing Back (Part ?)
Xie Junping’s luxury car was rushing down the high-speed maic rail. His Phantom had been collected, but for a rich kid like him, this was nothing more than a chance to show off the car collection from his garage.
Looking out of the car window, one could see that Xia City had already entered into the color of night. Now was the peak of when people got off of work, but traffic was rarely seen in Xia City.
Through the course of dozens of years, through hundreds of millions of tons of earth, steel, and other various extraordinary materials, through the determination of the human race, arge collection of magnificent metropolises were built. Over two hundred million people were crammed into this finitend. But high efficiency operation was still just as possible as before.
Just for traffic alone, Xia City discharged twenty floors of traffic from the subterranean to the high altitude skies. Over a million calcted means of transportation of all kinds were divided and flowed. Even during the period of the greatest concentration of traffic, only approximately twenty minutes were needed to rush down a forty kilometer road.
Xie Junping had offered to send Luo Nan back home, and so Luo Nan was cheerfully rxed right now. He took this bit of time to get familiar with the new flexible e-ink screen he had just purchased; he was mainly getting familiar with the feel between the screen and his pen.
The other devices for configuration were absolutely meaningless. All he had to do was integrate the external receiving neuron and connect it to the battery module. Then the familiar interface of five years would appear in front of him once again.
However, the icon of gear, which had existed within theboratory, already disappeared. This showed that the external neuron was absolutely influenced by the underlying software and hardware.
Luo Nan’s finger rubbed twice against the location where the Gear icon once was. Then he immediately opened the drawing software, which he hadn’t used for a while.
The picture of the burning wraith was still ced on the upper mostyer of the software interface, looking just as malevolent and terrifying as before. Having been enriched by the concise abstract lines of the wraith sign, Luo Nan just felt that this sketch was truly an eyesore; there were so many things bad, wrong, and twisted about it.
He shook his head and directly deleted the demonic sketch. The earlier drawn sketch of the nightclub entrance was naturally substituted.
“Hey hey hey. Delete this one too. Switch to a better looking one.”
Xie Junping had turned his head over to look right at this time. He saw that Luo Nan had just deleted a sketch, but he wasn’t able to see the details of it clearly. However, the next image could not be clearer. He had blurted noisily on the spot.
Luo Nan gave him a nce. He spoke not coldly, but not warmly: “Pay attention to driving.”
“We’re on the high-speed maic rails now. How can I drive?” Xie Junping ced his hand on the steering wheel and received a warning from the car’s AI system. The car first entered into a switching region before allowing Xie Junping to modify the maic course. This was to avoid hitting the cars around them.
Xie Junping donned an innocent state.
Luo Nan didn’t feel like paying attention to him. He made a nk page on the drawing software and his pen went down on the screen.
Xie Junping breathed and drew close to him. He looked at Luo Nan using the digital pen to draw indistinct background shadows. It was very likely to be the inneryout of Gear. Xie Junping was suddenly stunned during this period of excitement: “Who is that person...... That bodyguard with a darkplexion? Why are you drawing him?”
“I’ve encountered him before.”
Luo Nan drew an approximate outline of the darkplexioned bodyguard. He wanted to add a few fine lines, but there was some hesitation. This was a rtively rare situation.
Xie Junping was still a bit unsatisfied: “Who is he man?”
“I saw him yesterday on Ship Lanshan. He’s probably...... a burner of Quantum Corporation.”
“Burner!?” Xie Junping’s chin smashed down onto his own shoulder.
“He should be.”
On the warship at the time, it was none other than the darkplexioned male who was towing the Deep Blue Walker exoskeleton armors of Quantum Corporation. He drove across in front of Luo Nan and the visions of the two intersected. The darkplexioned male had covered the exoskeleton armors with a tarp to protect them from malevolent eyes. The whole course of events couldn’t have been described as pleasant.
Xie Junping felt a cold sweate. Didn’t he exchange contending gazes with the darkplexioned male while he was giving his fervent speech? If that male sent a palm flying over, his just-escted mouth might fearfully be smashed to pieces......
Inparison, Quantum Corporation’s military might wasn’t that direct.
Luo Nan could only shake his head when faced with Xie Junping’s expression. He flipped away from this page and his pen dropped down onto the screen once more. This time he really drew Xie Junping’s form.
Although this was clearly a gift, Luo Nan didn’t deliberately add strokes; it was still minimalist. Then the clear form of an image appeared.
This silhouette had an arm around a person’s shoulder and was waving with the other arm in roused spirits. It seemed excited, wrathful, and a bit deranged. But the arm embracing the neck and the shadow to its nk made these somewhat-out-of-control movements turn into something defender-like, upright, and unafraid.
Xie Junping initially was arguing saying, “How am I that crazy,” but when he saw the wholeposition of the piece, he grew more delighted the more he looked. Thissted until he was grinning from ear to ear, his satisfaction at its peak.
In the end there was only one thing unsatisfactory about it: “That’s you to the side. Why didn’t you draw yourself out?”
“I’m not good at self portraits.”
Luo Nan gave a simple response, then he immediately sent the picture over. He didn’t care what Xie Junping would do with this picture.
Then next, Luo Nan took these two pictures and his old umted pictures and simultaneous selected them. He long pressed the screen for several seconds and the secondyer of the drawing software, aka the true features of the software, were opened.
He had tried and failed yesterday in the confinement room of the warship. But today he had swapped to a new device, and everything went smoothly without a hitch.
The bulk of the secondyer interface was none other than the tetrahedron on the title page of his grandfather’s notebook. However itcked the inscribed sphere and the outer scribed sphere. Instead the tetrahedron was divided by four level cuts to form five levels of approximately equal height. The tetrahedron rotated within a gray background.
Xie Junping’s gaze moved across. He was a bit curious:
“Maslow?”
This interface looked to be really close to the ssical diagram of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This theory listed a person’s needs from low to high, from basic needs toplicated needs. They wereid out in fiveyers like a flight of stairs.
All one needs was a bit ofmon sense in sociology and psychology, and one would not find this diagram, corresponding to a ssical theory of the previous century, strange.
Xie Junping pointed out: “From bottom to top. Physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization?”
“It’s student, office worker, technician, clergy, and politician.”
“How vulgar...... I’m saying that these upations can be arranged in this increasing order?”
Luo Nan didn’t exin. He just took the dozen or so sketches he had selected and sent them into the confined space of the tetrahedron. There were at least several hundred simr works inside, dispersed and scattered.
All the sketches were shrunk in size within the confined space. They began to rummage up and down when the new sketches were entered in. It looked like a fantastical card shuffler. They were shaken repeatedly under the power of the software to beid out in a new arrangement.
The positions of the several hundred works of art were set by the “card shuffler machine” several secondster. The overwhelming majority of works were ced in the lower two levels. Once in awhile there would be one in the third level. But the fourth and fifth level werepletely empty.
“They can act as a tarot card deck? For fortune telling? Man, whatpany made this software?” Xie Junping was drawn into the fantastical change in the interface. His brain asked questions as he opened his eyes wide. He strived to look for the sketch of himself.
“It should be my father’s work.”
“......”
Xie Junping immediately became sincere. He had a rough feel for Luo Nan’s character now; he knew that Luo Nan certainly wouldn’t have a good mood when it came to any matters involving Luo Nan’s “Father”.
Luo Nan was a lot quieter for the rest of the drive. The flying car arrived in Blue Bay Community at approximately 7 o’clock. He had gotten home just a little bitter than normal.
He bid farewell with Xie Junping and entered themunity.
Luo Nan went into to the apartment elevator with his head down the entire time. He selected the floor and then opened his notebook once again. He stared at the flexible e-ink screen, at the special secondyer interface, lost in thought. Then he gave a coldugh.
That coward’s existence was disyed clearly here, forever hiding like a turtle withdrawn into its shell.
The drawing software was like this.
The external receiving neuron was like this.
The space within the tree...... Wasn’t it also like this?
Luo Nan didn’t know the answer to this, but the oil burning mes of the fervent feeling of pain within his heart could not be clearer!
The elevator reached the desired floor, the metal door opened wide, and Luo Nan closed his notebook with a bang to walk out withrge strides. The home AI system had detected his existence and had already confirmed his identity; the main door opened.
Luo Nan walked in with a step, but was a bit startled.
The living room lights were on, revealing a middle aged woman who was sitting on the sofa and doing work via her wristband. She raised her head when she heard the door open and her gaze fell directly across, her face expressionless.