Epoch of Twilight

In the dark expanse of the galaxy, a gigantic meteorite hovered in the middle without moving. Instead of a meteorite, it should be called a mass of land floating in the galaxy. The land’s radius was more than 10 kilometers and there were plants and water on it. Flowers bloomed across the land accompanied by the sweet singing of birds. There seemed to be a unique force enveloping the mass of land, allowing the air to remain without dispersing into space.

Suddenly, a person landed there. It was Luo Yuan! Before he even looked around, he already noticed that something was off. The immense strength that he used to possess disappeared. His body felt empty as if a part of him was taken away. He clenched his fists, feeling weak. He felt like he returned to his weak body when he was an ordinary person before the apocalypse.

Not only that, his senses slowed down as well. His developed sensitivity that once allowed him to detect the dust on his skin had disappeared. His skin felt numb and his ability to smell and hear were oddly diminished too. He felt like he was heavily hindered, as all his Sense, Will, and four-dimensional vision could not be used here. His weak body made him feel like he did not exist.

However, he did not panic at all as it was not the real world, but virtual reality. To turn a superhuman who could move mountains into a weak ordinary person, it was quite an unusual experience. His Physique was in the default setting of an ordinary person. Other than the appearance of his body being exactly the same, everything else was different.

Luo Yuan’s women followed suit and entered the virtual reality.

"Wow, this is so real. The air is so fresh, I could even feel the breeze against my skin, is this the virtual world? This is just like reality." Wang Shishi was being dramatic with the mutated woman as she entered the virtual reality. However, the mutated woman was incapable of speech and thus replied with incomprehensible noises.

Huang Jiahui, Zhao Yali, and the rest did not exclaim like Wang Shishi did, but they were all in disbelief. Even the quiet Chen Jiayi’s cheeks were flushed while she walked around with her eyes wide open. Everything here was not any different from the real world. They could smell the fragrance of grass, they could feel the wind. After being on the spaceship for too long, it was refreshing to be able to see greeneries again.

Huang Jiahui secretly pinched herself. She felt the pain and exclaimed, "This is too real, I could even feel pain here."

As compared to Luo Yuan’s virtual body, the difference in the women’s Physique in the real and virtual world was much less than what Luo Yuan was experienced.

Luo Yuan smiled, "That’s normal. This is highly simulated to look and feel like the real world. From the quantum technology on the helmet and the connection of nerve signals in the brain, it was similar to the brain being in a jar... You can treat this body like your real body as it has the biological reactions that normal humans have. The environment here is mutually affected by the real world..."

"There’s a field of fruit trees over there, shall we take a look?" Zhao Yali noticed that there’s a field filled with trees with green and red fruits. She exclaimed in excitement. The mutated woman ran ahead in a strange manner. She needed time to adapt to her default body here from the strong body that she used to possess. Soon, everybody had made their way to the field. Luo Yuan stood where he was and stopped talking. Apparently, the fruit trees were much more interesting than the dull theories that he was elaborating on.

As Luo Yuan made his first step, he realized that his adaptation was the worst among the rest. He had sent out the signal to move his legs but his legs were not moving. It felt like an agile, fast car had transformed into a rusty tractor which was heavy and slow. Luckily, although his Physique in the virtual reality was altered, it could not alter the speed of his mind. Within a second, he had mastered his slow body completely.

He sprinted and caught up with the rest. Most parts of the virtual reality were flatlands. There was a hill at the center and an orchard at the bottom of the hill. The sceneries were breathtaking, as they started walking slowly while enjoying the greeneries in chatters and laughter.

A river flowed down the road, the water was crystal clear. A school of fishes was swimming against the current.

"There are even fishes here!" Wang Xiaguang was stunned.

"Some of the researchers in the genetic lab made them with the generic data, it would be boring if there were only plants here." Luo Yuan explained.

"These are carp right?" Zhao Yali asked in excitement, "Are they edible?"

"Of course." Luo Yuan said with a smile. Although the genes of the fishes differed from real carp, their taste was basically the same as the real one. He proceeded, "Little girl, catch a few fishes for us, we will do barbecue later."

Little girl was a nickname that everyone gave the mutated woman. Now that she could understand the human language, she even comprehended words. She would read novels occasionally, and she could tell that calling her a ‘mutated woman’ was an insult. Thus, she refused to respond if anyone were to call her mutated woman.

The mutated woman nodded in excitement. She was like a cat, squatting by the river carefully with her hands extended slowly. She targeted the fishes that were not distant while planning her moves. 10 seconds later, her hand extended deep into the water and caught a carp. Next, her fangs were out, pressing down on the carp as she tore the carp’s head away. Her movement was fluid, and it seemed like she had the experience of catching fishes in the past.

Her wild side shocked all the girls. Ever since the world returned to normal, the mutated woman was hardly wild anymore. The mutated woman saw them staring at her in shock and fear, and she put her guard up once again. Her excitement faded away, and she proceeded to wash the blood away from her hands.

Luo Yuan walked up to her and patted her head, "Don’t worry. Who has never killed a fish here? They have killed even more fishes than you have, they’re just shocked at the way you did it."

They apologized to her. Fortunately, the mutated woman dropped matters quickly. Soon, she was smiling again. Under their encouragement, she caught more and more fishes. However, due to their reaction earlier, she suppressed her wild side and killed the fishes in a gentler way.

...

After 10 minutes of strolling, they made it to the orchard. It was filled with apple trees, its’ sweet smell lingering in the air. It was breathtaking. They started picking the apples with Luo Yuan. he took a bite and chewed slowly. The sweet and sour taste filled his mouth. The taste of the apple was similar to a real apple. However, to compare it to a real apple, there was still a slight difference. After all, humans had lost their memory of how apples tasted like. No matter how hard they tried, it was impossible for them to replicate the taste.

The degree of realism was high in this virtual world. It was not much different from the real one. Even the law of physics could not be distinguished with the naked eye. Every grass, every tree, and even the soil and rocks... Every inch of the matter was made of atoms. These were not even the finest structures. There were electrons as well as atomic nuclei within the aromas there and within these atomic nuclei, there were also protons and neutrons.

It was the best that they could create as the human’s computer could not simulate the irregular quantum motion of microscopic particles. Therefore, there was still a hint of artificialism in this virtual reality. However, the physical rule on the atomic layer was exactly the same as the real world. To create this virtual reality, Luo Yuan had specifically approved the manufacturing of 65 super quantum computers. The size alone occupied an entire megastructure. If it was used for accommodation, it could house 850,000 people.

Now that the spaceship lacked space, occupying such a huge area to place the computers was certainly not for the purpose of creating virtual reality games. Soon, it would be used for laboratories as well as technological identification factories. The limited space on the spaceship became an obstacle to the advancement of mankind. This problem was especially obvious in the factory area. It was initially empty but had since become congested. Every inch of space was equivalent to gold.

Most of the new factory applications were denied cruelly. Some of the risky experiments were prohibited, leading to many technologies that could not be identified and developed. As time went by, the situation worsened and greatly affected the development of technology.

This was why Luo Yuan had to invest everything in creating the virtual world. Although it could not be compared to the real world, other than the observation of microscopic particle motion, most of the processes in factories and labs were not affected. Even the nuclear fusion power stations and quantum communications were up and running.

The virtual reality was still in its preliminary stages, as some of the physical rules and material structures were being improved upon to look and feel identical to the real world. Inches of land and rivers were being added to the edges of the floating island as it grew larger. It was estimated that the virtual world would be 1,200 square kilometers wide when the construction was completed. The issue of the lack of space for human development, especially in the technological aspect would be relieved as soon as the virtual world was completed.

...

After finding a flatland, some of them started to dig a hole, while others built a stove or looked for sticks. They were excited. However, when they were ready to start a fire, they realized that there was no source of fire.

"What do we do, do we have to rub pieces of the wood together?" Looking at the fishes that were ready to be cooked, Wang Shishi was disappointed. It would take forever if they wanted to build a fire from friction.

Luo Yuan was helpless. If this was not virtual reality, things would be so much easier. With his Will, he could just rub his fingers to start a fire.

"Nevermind!" Luo Yuan said, "No.1!"

"How can I serve you, master?" A clear voice rang in Luo Yuan’s ear. He was the person who held the highest authority in this world’s artificial intelligence system! The core control programme of the virtual reality was crucial. When it was built, it was strictly controlled and reviewed. The person who held the highest authority in the artificial intelligence system would be none other than Luo Yuan.

"Get me a lighter." Luo Yuan paused and asked, "How many edible plants and animal models do we have now?"

"Up until now, there are nine types of models including the cow, pig, carp, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, apple, orange, and banana."

"So many already?" Luo Yuan mumbled to himself. It was not easy to make creature models as it took a certain technology to make the creature genes look real. As compared to minerals, the structures of creatures were 10,000 times harder.

It seemed like not long after, these foods would become available in real life! Luo Yuan thought and said, "We are planning a picnic, prepare all the ingredients and fruits for us."

"A moment please!" Within seconds, all the ingredients and fruits were presented before them. There was a lighter too. The amount of food that materialized could feed hundreds of people. Looking at the food that appeared out of thin air, none of them were surprised as it was virtual reality after all.

"Boss Luo, who were you talking to?" Wang Shishi asked curiously. The rest looked at him.

"The artificial intelligence system of this world!" Luo Yuan had nothing to hide.

"Its name is No.1?" Wang Shishi asked while blinking.

While Luo Yuan started the fire, he turned around and said while chuckling, "Don’t bother trying to understand! This virtual reality is not a game, you guys are lucky that you could come in. You don’t have the authority; the artificial intelligence system would not respond to you anyway. Only high-level researchers would have a certain level of authority. So, don’t fool around."