Chapter Thirty-Six

Hollen received another mysterious phone call. No one knew who had contacted him. After finishing the call, he changed his clothes and hurriedly left the laboratory. The assistant in the white coat noticed something unusual and asked, “Doctor, are you no longer monitoring the experiment’s progress?”

“No, I’m just stepping out for a moment. I’ll be back in a few minutes,” Hollen replied, implying he’d return soon. Yet he never appeared again. No one knew where he went.

He hadn’t gone far—only strolled to the garden behind the laboratory. But in the blink of an eye, he vanished without a trace. Later, the SNS Center extracted the surveillance footage for review; astonishingly, it showed him disappearing into thin air on the green lawn. It happened in just two seconds—the man ceased to exist. The footage was too blurry for close examination. Still, upon careful observation, one could discern the signs: a fleeting seam appeared, flickered, and closed. The camera couldn’t capture it, but had one been there in person, it would have been visible.

Afterwards, only the assistants, several programmers, and medical personnel remained in the laboratory. With Hollen gone, the experiment was abruptly halted by his father, who terminated the project. He soon learned of his son’s inexplicable disappearance. The corporation launched a full-scale search to no avail—it was surely caused by a greater force, yet besides grief, the SNS president was powerless. It wasn’t abduction or kidnapping; it was disappearance without a trace! What kind of advanced technology could do this? Or was it an illusion?

At the same time, the team monitoring the experiment discovered the program system had been suddenly attacked and invaded. The system was severely damaged and could not be restarted; the consciousness replacement program was thus terminated. In the end, only the No. 2 consciousness entity awakened. The No. 1 entity was declared officially dead before 10:00 p.m. that same night.

Recalling her perilous journey through the consciousness replacement program, Xiaoya Xian remembered it vividly. At the final moment, Aiwen activated the code to crack the replacement program and simultaneously opened the portal to the Elephant Crossing World. Each returned to their rightful place. Xiaoya Xian’s last conversation with Aiwen lingered in her memory—

Aiwen said, “You just have to shatter your dream consciousness to return.”

The pendant had always been in Xiaoya Xian’s hand. Aiwen pointed at the pendant, “Place it where there’s light. The refraction cast onto yourself will begin to break apart this consciousness entity, which will shatter the H Space.”

“If I break myself, H Space will shatter? That’s quite the design. Will it hurt?” Xiaoya joked.

“What we see is just an image. Consciousness isn’t material, so how could it hurt? The point is simply to break your own image.”

“I understand. Where do I find the light?”

“When you return, go to the center of your room. There’s a floor tile marked ‘aw’—that’s my plugin hint. Stand on it, and a beam of light will appear.”

“How did you prepare this plugin hint?”

“It’s already set up. You’ll easily find the hint, don’t worry.”

Xiaoya Xian examined the pendant on her necklace. It was merely a small, crystal-clear object, yet it concealed immense power. She had relied on it for guidance; now, even returning to reality depended on it.

After this ordeal, even if Xiaoya Xian shared her experiences, no one would believe her. She would bury it deep within herself—a secret between her and herself. Their extraordinary encounter had led to unimaginable events.

“I’ll never forget these moments, not even in my next life,” Xiaoya Xian said with feeling.

“I feel the same. It’s been wonderful to know you, Xiaoya.”

“That’s what I wanted to say! Meeting you is my fortune! You’re amazing, Ai!”

“Lastly, let me describe again: consciousness can follow the logic of quantum mechanics. If we transmit brain consciousness into a computer and simulate particle states to quantify consciousness, I’ve left a particle-state consciousness in your right brain. We can continue to stay in touch afterward.”

“I’ll remember that, don’t worry. Through what my left eye sees, you can learn about the real world. I won’t contact you too often, nor will I forget your words—unless you find me too bothersome,” Xiaoya said with a smile.

“All right, I’ll wait for your message in the Elephant Crossing World, like transferring files in a database—quantized electronic transmission, digital delivery. If consciousness is quantized into particles, it can dissolve and recombine at will. This is my long-standing idea. I also adopted folded space-state storage in the Elephant Crossing World.”

“What’s that?”

“I’ll give an example. If you fold an ultra-thin sheet of paper several times, the area shrinks but the paper thickens. The folded space I envisioned keeps shrinking the area but doesn’t increase thickness. It becomes smaller than nanoscale, invisible to the naked eye, even only inferable by quantum concepts. Super microscopes might not even detect it. Micro objects are wondrous like that.” The code space around them now displayed an imagined visualization of folded space. The sensory rendering captivated Xiaoya Xian.

“It’s marvelous…” Xiaoya Xian exclaimed.

“Once consciousness is quantized into particle states, it can freely traverse the network, and its terminal storage is in folded space. When I devised this logic, I began practical operations and finally created the Elephant Crossing World.”

“So you mean the Elephant Crossing World was designed with folded space logic?”

“Yes, but that’s not all. Evolution within the Elephant Crossing World is chaotic.”

“What does that mean?”

“I call it the ‘Disordered Domain.’ This is the second characteristic of the Elephant Crossing World. It’s also one of the ports in the code system I embedded within the replacement program.”

“How many ports did you mention before? Is it the long corridor I was in?”

“That long corridor connects two consciousnesses. Besides linking dream consciousness—like Hollen’s H code nightmare space—and memory consciousness—our initial space—there’s a third port: the Disordered Domain. The entrance to folded space leads straight to the Elephant Crossing World.”

“I understand. I’ll find my port, follow your instructions, and locate the hint light to break my consciousness entity.”

“Yes, once you awaken, we’ll communicate again with particle-state consciousness. May you succeed!” Aiwen finished her instructions and formally bade farewell to Xiaoya Xian.

Xiaoya Xian looked at her once more—after this farewell, only telepathic sensing would connect them. “All right, see you next time!”

After an embrace, the two parted ways. Xiaoya Xian quickly found the hint light and shattered her consciousness entity. She saw fragments of herself drifting away, vanishing in seconds. With that, H Space collapsed, and Aiwen entered her own port, stepping into the Elephant Crossing World—a world uncertain and chaotic.

Aiwen arrived in the Elephant Crossing World and reunited with her family. These were memories from her own mind, continuing to unfold endlessly within the system. Zhao Lihua and Eddie Ming awaited her at home, and the next morning the family planned to drive to Lake Guanshan Scenic Area to watch the sunrise.

In the real world—

Life quietly resumed its original pattern. Xiaoya Xian returned to her restaurant job, busy as ever day after day. Yet her face now bore a calm, contented satisfaction.

At home, her brother prepared dinner for her. The two lived ordinary, peaceful lives, day after day—

Inside the Elephant Crossing World—

On a vast, open meadow, Aiwen, Eddie Ming, and Zhao Lihua sat atop the hill, watching the sunrise.

The three nestled together, chatting and laughing, their faces radiating incomparable happiness and fulfillment—