Chapter 15 : Mind Palace

“This is…?”

When Ming Po opened his eyes, he discovered that he was actually lying on a bed.

Somewhat confused, he propped himself up and looked around.

This was a bedroom arranged in a rather strange way, yet it possessed an oddly lived-in atmosphere.

On the wall beside the head of the bed were several game posters, all from the game Ouroboros Ring, which Ming Po had once participated in making. Facing the foot of the bed was a 75-inch smart screen.

On one side of the room was a balcony with its windows shut tight and curtains drawn. A work desk with a laptop on it sat right beside the curtains, and three books were stacked next to it. There was still some leftover tea in the teacup. On the other side were a wardrobe and an enormous six-tier bookshelf.

The first and sixth tiers were filled with anime and game figurines, while the middle four tiers were packed with books. Whether it was the displayed figurines or the books, all of them had been neatly arranged in order according to some kind of rule.

This was Ming Po’s bedroom.

“…Was it a dream?”

Ming Po murmured.

But the moment he got out of bed, he realized that was impossible.

With a flip of his right hand, a red copper chip appeared between his fingers as if by magic.

It was a numberless chip. The outer edge of the chip was wrapped in red and black, and on both sides was an etched hourglass pattern decorated with black stars.

And the moment it appeared in his hand, the method of using a Time Chip also surfaced in Ming Po’s mind.

It was very simple.

State an exact request to it, then destroy it.

There was no limit to the method of destruction. For example, biting it apart, crushing it, or smashing it would all work. Time would change from the moment it was destroyed.

If the request could be fulfilled, then it would immediately become fragile enough to break; conversely, if the request could not be fulfilled, then it would remain harder than metal.

But there was one taboo that was not particularly easy to trigger: after making the request and before the chip was destroyed, it could not be touched by another Deceiver. Otherwise, its execution would immediately be terminated, and it would turn back into a hard metal chip.

Ming Po toyed with it in his hand for a moment, then put it away.

Immediately afterward, he took out the newly obtained chip of “False Gold of Days.”

It shone with a dim golden light, its outer edge wrapped in rust and orange. The pattern in the middle was a distorted sun.

Ming Po stared at it for a while before confirming that this was indeed not gold.

The color looked a bit like an old five-mao coin. Compared with gold, its luster was clearly duller.

So it’s brass? Then again, it might also be bronze or pyrite.

Ming Po remembered that before bronze rusted, its color should also be earthy yellow, not bluish green. Pyrite was likewise golden and looked somewhat like gold.

When Ming Po repeatedly rubbed this chip with his hand, the sun pattern on it gradually became blurred, and the faint number “24” appeared beneath it. After Ming Po moved his hand away again, it disappeared once more and turned back into the sun.

Does this mean… it can be split into twenty-four “Red Copper of Hours”?

But chips could be split apart and not combined. Before confirming what higher-level chips could be used for, it would be best not to split it yet.

However

“Why here?”

Ming Po murmured softly as he paced around the room.

His memories still had not fully recovered.

Whenever Ming Po looked at any facility in this room, a fragment of memory would faintly surface.

A subtle anxiety from an unknown source made his brows knit slightly, while the peace of being in a safe space also made him feel relaxed.

As his lost memories slowly flowed back in, Ming Po’s heart gradually became a little calmer. It was like his hollow heart was being filled again, bit by bit… For even a brief instant, he felt as if he were still that ordinary person living a normal and peaceful life.

Ming Po tried taking a book down from the bookshelf and found that he could still read it normally.

He could also open the laptop by the bed, as well as the phone placed at the bedside… They could even still be charged. They simply could not connect to the internet anymore.

“Is this my ‘mind palace’?”

Ming Po made a joke and smiled self-mockingly. “It seems to be… the place I feel safest?”

Thinking this, Ming Po tried walking to the balcony and pulling open the curtains.

Yet to his surprise, he discovered that outside was still that gray world!

It was the same as the world outside the room in the game Ming Po had participated in earlier!

The only difference was that it was not frozen. Time was flowing—the traffic downstairs could be seen clearly. Sound was also not completely absent; it was just much quieter. It was probably about the same as wearing noise-canceling headphones. He could vaguely hear intermittent honking from outside. As for the sound of cars roaring past, that could no longer be heard at all.

Apart from that, there was also a slight difference in color tone.

It was as if the whole world had been covered with a hazy black-and-white filter.

Ming Po tested it and discovered that the window could be opened. He threw a balled-up tissue down and discovered that it could indeed be thrown out… only it disappeared the moment it landed.

“Could it be…”

His heart stirred, and he left his bedroom.

The living room also had color. Although it was still in cool tones, it was indeed different from the black-and-white world outside.

There was a soft leather sofa, as well as a fairly old LCD television… Ming Po could not remember how many years old it was, but he had bought this television back when he was in high school.

Beside it were his game consoles—PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Switch. The games he had played from elementary school all the way until after graduating from university were all here. In the plastic boxes on the other side were piles of game discs, along with some tabletop game rulebooks and maps.

Unlike his roommate, who preferred playing MMOs and FPS games, Ming Po was a console player. Sometimes, he would also play tabletop games—though there was no one to play with him. Back then, he would spread out the tabletop by himself and set up the pieces. He would play the host and the players alone at the same time, constantly switching roles as he acted them out, walking around the table and muttering to himself.

Although it sounded a little pitiful, Ming Po actually thought of it as a form of contented self-entertainment.

Ming Po’s family background was fairly good. At the very least, it was good enough that his family would buy genuine game consoles for him when he was in elementary school.

He was not a Shanghai local. It was only because his parents had come here to do business that he had moved here when he was very young. This apartment in XH District was his school district apartment from elementary school—back then, this apartment was still not considered expensive, less than five thousand per square meter. After high school, he moved to Baoshan District. He moved homes roughly every two or three years.

After graduating from graduate school, Ming Po returned and tidied up this apartment again.

After all, it was relatively close to his company. It only took twenty minutes to walk there, which he treated as exercise.

But thinking up to this point, Ming Po hesitated slightly.

If his memory was not wrong, his parents should still both be alive… right?

In his memories, his impression of those two at home was far too faint.

They were two workaholics who almost never returned home on normal days. When Ming Po was in elementary school, they would occasionally come back, but from middle school onward, they had completely handed him over to the auntie at home, all the way until he went to university.

Although they were family, they were not very familiar with one another.

After growing up, Ming Po also learned to take care of himself, so he had always lived in this apartment alone. Only during the New Year would the two of them return for a few days. Usually, they basically ran all over the world.

Until three years ago, one of Ming Po’s few friends moved in because he had lost his job.

That friend was the name Ming Po had falsely used in the game: Ai Shiping.

Because their relationship really was quite good. Though accounts between even real brothers should be settled clearly, Ming Po was honestly too lazy to ask him for rent. Having one more living person at home, adding a little more liveliness, was a good thing. So Ming Po tidied up the guest bedroom for him—that had been the children’s room Ming Po used to live in, and it was just right for this “son.”

And the other party’s skin was indeed thick enough. He really had the nerve not to pay.

This nominal tenant could actually be considered employed in a certain sense, just not in a particularly proper way. He usually did some boosting or gaming companion work, and his income was pretty good.

Relying on rather excellent gaming skills, along with a glib tongue that could talk well and especially knew how to coax girls into happiness, his monthly income could basically reach twenty or thirty thousand—of course, part of that came from the extra “pocket money” rewarded by the other party.

In truth, if he were willing to become a streamer, the money he earned would definitely be far more than that… It was just that he did not seem to like relying on his face to make a living, so he was rather unwilling.

Although he did not pay rent, that fellow was loyal enough. He liked ordering a huge table of takeout and waiting for Ming Po to get off work so they could eat together.

That fellow was rather cheerful. Having someone noisy and lively at home at least made Ming Po feel that his mental state had improved quite a bit.

Living alone for too long really could make someone sick, Ming Po thought.

Somewhat nostalgic, he opened the other person’s door, wanting to see whether he was inside.

But at that moment, Ming Po froze.

Because there was only a door between them—yet that room had become black and white.

The furnishings inside were not particularly different from before: two connected ultrawide monitors, a microphone with a suspension arm, a PC tower with flashy RGB lighting, two fairly expensive speakers, and beside them, a headphone stand with two different pairs of headphones hanging from it.

Ai Shiping did not use an ergonomic chair, but rather a rather sci-fi-styled RGB gaming chair, as well as a Coca-Cola mini fridge filled with canned ice-cold Coke.

His bed was completely different from Ming Po’s and somewhat messy. Pajamas and lounge pants had been tossed on the blanket. The computer was still on, automatically playing a dungeon guide video for Ouroboros Ring. Judging from the fact that the video had not been turned off, he should have only just gone out not long ago.

Ming Po tried opening the fridge to grab a can of Coke to drink—but he failed.

Unlike in the colored world, his hand passed straight through the fridge.

“Could it be… I’m a ghost right now?”

Ming Po frowned and returned to the colored living room.

Although the lighting here was not particularly bright either, looking like the afternoon of a cloudy day, even a little dim, at least it seemed much livelier than the black-and-white filter.

Ming Po tried opening the fridge in the living room.

This time, he succeeded.

However, his pupils suddenly contracted, and his gaze became cold and sharp.

Because inside that empty fridge, there was a human head!

A thin layer of frost covered its skin, and its eyes were tightly closed.

That was Ming Po’s own head!

(End of Chapter)