Chapter 45: U Disk

After an unknown period, Chen Ling finally calmed down. He spoke coldly:"Officer Han Meng, if your questioning is over... please leave my home."

Han Meng said nothing further. He silently rose and walked towards the door.

He pushed open the door, and swirling snowflakes drifted into the room, lightly stirring his four-striped black trench coat. He paused for a moment, then looked back at Chen Ling.

"Whether you believe me or not, I have always fulfilled my duty... If you truly feel this world lacks justice, perhaps you should become it yourself."

"You passed the martial arts test as the top candidate for the provisional seats, and now you are a formal enforcer. You can report to headquarters tomorrow."

"And..."

"The qualification to enter the Ancient Military Repository is also yours."

Having said this, he stepped out into the heavy snow, his black trench coat gradually disappearing at the end of the street.

Chen Ling's gaze swept across the empty room, his expression complex. Once Han Meng was far away, he too left the house and headed towards the back mountain.

The mass grave.

Chen Ling, carrying the uncut cake box, slowly sat down in the snow.

"A'Yan, I'm here," he murmured, looking at the uneven pit he had dug in front of him.

Tiny snowflakes clung to the boy's temples, like white hair. He removed the candles from the cake one by one and stuck them into the snow.

"You already made your wish earlier, so I won't light the candles... I'll cut the cake for you."

Chen Ling pulled a plastic knife from the box and carefully cut the cake into two halves. He neatly placed one half in front of the pit and picked up his own portion from the box.

Ice and snow drifted onto the cake's surface with the wind. Chen Ling took a bite, unsure if it was cream or ice shards.

As he chewed, he spoke indistinctly:

"A'Yan, do you know?"

"This world is truly awful... This cake is so bad, and it costs two hundred copper coins. In my original world, two hundred yuan would buy a cake much bigger and tastier than this."

"If I had the chance, I'd really want to take you back with me. Even though your brother here is just a corporate drone, I'd earn enough for you to live comfortably."

"But then again, if you came back with me, you'd definitely live better than I do... You're so good-looking, and your singing is beautiful. You could easily become a short video blogger with tens of millions of fans, a true inheritor of traditional Chinese culture."

Chen Ling's face was red from the cold wind. He took several more bites of cake, his gaze turning to the sky.

"But there are good things here too..."

"The aurora here is beautiful, both day and night."

"But what good is beauty?"

"Just surviving takes all my effort..."

"The path you gave me seems powerful, but it also seems to affect my mind... Is this what you meant by 'turbulent'?"

"Han Meng wants me to join the enforcers, but the 'World-Ending' calamity within me is a ticking time bomb. Once it erupts, I'll become a target... So, does joining that 'Society' mean I've already taken the direct route?"

"Instead of letting them find and arrest me, should I just start by opposing them?"

"A'Yan... what do you think I should do next?"

Chen Ling muttered to himself, facing the pit.

*Clink—*

Just then, something slipped out of his pocket and landed in the snow.

Chen Ling picked it up. It was the small silver cube Chu Muyun had given him earlier, chilling to the bone in the biting wind.

Chen Ling remembered Chu Muyun saying that this object might help him understand them better... But how was he supposed to use it?

He fiddled with the silver cube in his hand for a long time. With a gentle push of his fingertip, a silver slider detached from the main body, revealing a section of silver metal with some square holes. It looked exactly like a standard...

"USB drive?!"

Chen Ling stared at the USB drive in his hand, dumbfounded and bewildered.

Ever since arriving in this world, Chen Ling had assumed its technological level was roughly comparable to China's Republican era in his previous world: kerosene lamps, rickshaws, salt for melting snow, old-fashioned pistols... But seeing this USB drive, Chen Ling was suddenly confused.

Was this thing... supposed to exist in this world?

Where would this world have computers?

Without a computer, where would he plug in this USB drive?

One question after another flashed through Chen Ling's mind. Driven by an inexplicable impulse, he picked up the USB drive and inserted it into the snow beneath him...

The next moment, a string of dark green code automatically appeared on the snow!

Reading...Read complete

Chen Ling's eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.

"Woosh—"

The sound of rushing water echoed in his ears.

Chen Ling suddenly opened his eyes, as if waking from a nightmare, his back drenched in cold sweat.

At some unknown point, he had left the mass grave and found himself in a small, square space. The sound of a flushing toilet gradually faded, replaced by a series of urgent knocks on the door.

"Brother, are you done yet? I can't hold it anymore..."

Chen Ling came to his senses, his gaze quickly sweeping his surroundings...

"...A toilet?"

Chen Ling's eyes widened in astonishment.

It wasn't the dilapidated toilet in his home on Frost Street, but a clean, bright, modern bathroom. Everything, from the sensor light above to the "TOTO" toilet behind him, filled Chen Ling with a strong sense of familiarity.

"I... I'm back??" Chen Ling's eyes were filled with confusion.

"Brother, if you're going to put your pants on, do it quickly. If not, I really can't hold it..." The man's voice from outside the door was full of urgency.

Chen Ling immediately pushed open the toilet door. The man in the polo shirt at the entrance instantly rejoiced, squeezed into the stall, and slammed the door shut, followed by a comfortable groan...

Chen Ling looked around, then instinctively quickened his pace and walked out of the restroom.

The first thing that caught his eye was "HEYTEA."

Beside it were KFC, Muji, Zhou Hei Ya, Auntie's Dumplings...

Seeing these familiar brands and the pedestrians walking through the mall, Chen Ling's pupils constricted slightly. As if something struck him, he frantically sped up, pushed through the crowd, and, amidst countless strange glances, rushed out of the mall!

The moment he saw the towering skyscrapers with his own eyes, only one thought remained in Chen Ling's mind...

He was truly back.

"Did... did I have a dream?" Chen Ling murmured, clutching his head with both hands. "No, if it was a dream... why would I wake up in a toilet?"

"Just now, I was at the mass grave, talking to A'Yan... then I plugged the USB drive into the snow, and then..."

"Was it that USB drive??"

As Chen Ling murmured to himself, the large screen on the opposite building suddenly flickered to life.

"We interrupt this program for an urgent news bulletin."

"This morning at nine o'clock, a red meteor grazed Earth. Simultaneously, small localized earthquakes erupted across the country..."

"Within just three minutes, hundreds of buildings split and collapsed, including the Meishang Hotel, Jiangkou Football Stadium, and the Capital Grand Theater... According to incomplete statistics, the current death toll exceeds two thousand people..."