Light Fortress
Chapter 533 - 124 Balance_3

Chapter 533: Chapter 124 Balance_3

The place was located in the tropics, extremely hot, and the white robe worn by passersby was actually used to shield from the heat... However, the extreme climate could not affect the Transcendents, who only needed to operate Spring Breathing to feel a wave of coolness throughout their bodies.

Gu Shen, using the identity of "Amir," successfully entered Xiyin City. Cui Zhongcheng had prepared a "luxury hotel" for him in advance, which, according to the aerial photo from Chu Ling, was situated in a very harsh environment in this old town of the Southern Continent, probably akin to a slum.

Gu Shen had rejected many requests from children wanting to carry his bags along the way. He traveled alone, took a stroll around Xiyin City, passed through alleys, and saw many destitute beggars who huddled under bridges, laying on straw mats.

Perhaps, this was their home.

Could such a place even have a "hotel"?

Yet, unexpectedly, just across a river, the central area of Xiyin seemed incredibly prosperous with skyscrapers towering overhead and pedestrians adorned with gold and silver jewelry.

There really were hotels here, and they were quite luxurious.

After nightfall, Gu Shen stood on the top floor, overlooking the view outside the window... The side of the Xiyin River he was on boasted splendid prosperity, with shimmering lights; the other side of the river was dismal and muddy, filled with struggling poverty.

He remembered what Cui Zhongcheng had described as "equalization"... Before today, living in the East Continent, he had no idea that the Southern Continent looked like this. The real life of Xiyin City might have been uploaded to the "Deep Sea" network ten thousand times, but the number of times it effectively got transmitted, might not even be once.

And the most terrifying thing was—

At either end of the information, one end thought they had truly sent it out while the other end believed they had truly received it.

Everyone was living in their own "ideal land."

Allen Turing’s original intention in creating the "Deep Sea" was to create a perfect "utopia," yet the "Deep Sea" was achieving its end in a different way...

If utopia didn’t exist.

And couldn’t be manufactured.

Then simply changing people’s perception of it... could also accomplish the goal.

"Sorry... I only found out about the ’equalization’ today as well," Chu Ling’s voice came to his mind.

There was apology in her voice.

"Why apologize to me?" Gu Shen smiled.

He stood in front of the massive floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at the unfamiliar Xiyin City, knowing that this scene was also being seen by Chu Ling at that moment.

The two of them were sharing "a pair of eyes."

"The operational logic of ’Deep Sea’ is very complex, and the ’source code’ is just one part of it... That’s why I can only use a portion of the privileges," Chu Ling said softly: "About the handling, transmission, and presentation of information, it wasn’t that complex at the beginning... It probably became so due to upgrades and evolution, which led to the so-called ’equalization.’

Equalization’s purpose is to protect the equivalence of the world’s information.

And the method of protection is fundamentally deception.

Just like... no one would expect that the real purpose of the "Deep Sea" was to perform a Spiritual Link on the Transcendents, to construct a purely spiritual world "deep water area."

"This choice might have a bad impact on the human world..." Chu Ling said slowly.

"It’s all the same," Gu Shen interrupted her.

He calmly said, "What Transcendents do... is also deception. Perhaps there has never been ’true’ or ’false’, what we see, what we believe, and the real... are three different things."

Chu Ling was stunned.

"To believe is to exist, to exist is to believe... or perhaps, it just doesn’t exist at all."

Gu Shen closed the curtains again.

He stopped looking at the outside world and whispered, "At least... equalization offers the world a possibility."

...

...

Finding an ordinary antique that didn’t contain Extraordinary Power in Xiyin City was not a simple task.

The Southern Continent consisted of seven territories, twenty-two states, and one central jurisdiction, with Xiyin ranked among the top three "trade cities." Hundreds of thousands of items circulated here daily.

Antiques... might not be that numerous, but still were countless.

Gu Shen knew that the item he was looking for might not appear in the bustling central district but could very likely be in the muddy slums on the other side of the Xiyin Rivery, most importantly, according to the experience from the last time in the Snowfield.

According to the guidance, arriving in Xiyin City at the first opportunity ensured that the "item" was still within the city.

But a little later... that could no longer be said for certain.

The "Anger Lamp" might indeed be carried away by someone.

Gu Shen had to start taking action immediately.

In such circumstances, searching for an "ancient item" inevitably involved the use of "money power," the quickest and most effective method, with no equals... Gu Shen paid a not-so-large down payment, hired twenty children and youths from the slums, instructed them to search carefully for information related to lamp-like items and promised them further rewards.

For the residents of the slum, Gu Shen’s "down payment" was already quite generous.

Clearly, he was a generous boss!

However, the conditions Gu Shen placed for paying the subsequent rewards were very strict; he demanded that the information not be leaked and that the search for the antique lamp had to be completed only by them, because in the end, he would only pay the reward to one person... Thereby eliminating the possibility of the information being massively transmitted.

These twenty people all thought they were the lucky ones, having received the down payment, and they searched desperately for news of the lamp.

Having arranged all this, Gu Shen arrived at an auction house in the central district of Xiyin City... According to the intelligence provided by Cui Zhongcheng, the Holy Image Auction House was the largest and most authoritative auction place in Xiyin City, also a favorite spot for many tycoons of Xiyin City to spend lavishly.

The second clue to finding the "lamp" was related to this auction house.

...

...

(PS: 1 This Chapter’s content was replaced before noon. Subscribers need not worry about the money; it was not wasted. 2, Let me explain again the reason for the repetition of Chapters’ titles; it was not because I was setting up piracy prevention. Due to the audit system at the starting point, the Chapter I sent out at ten o’clock had no response, something I hadn’t encountered before, so in a hurry, I sent it again, still receiving no response. Unexpectedly, both were released an hour later. I’m flustered by this incident, speechless, I will revise these two Chapters again tomorrow.)