Chapter 346

The way home was shrouded in the warm-toned halo of dusk, and the light poles simulating natural light on both sides of the street lit up one after another.

Gao Jie Ming, while continuously performing that spiritual power mobilization as slow as a snail crawling in his mind, habitually observed this "familiar" yet strange world.

Just when waiting for the signal light at an intersection, his gaze swept across a figure buying a drink in front of an automatic vending machine on the opposite street corner, and his whole person froze abruptly.

That person—he knew!

Strictly speaking, not considered knowing.

Just had a brief encounter during the expedition assembly of this plane.

He remembered that slightly arrogant young face, a Tier 4 wizard, but knew nothing about other information, just saw the other party's appearance while passing through the teleportation gate.

Gao Jie Ming was sensitive to energy fluctuations; although it was just a hurried glance, he had some impression of the other party's soul aura and appearance.

"What's wrong?" Victor keenly noticed Gao Jie Ming's momentary stagnation, looked in the direction of his gaze, and then showed a look of realization, "Oh, it's him. Didn't expect to meet this guy after high school ended."

Gao Jie Ming blinked and quickly searched in the false memory.

Sure enough, a piece of relevant information emerged: the young man opposite was named "Kevin," his classmate in high school, and the relationship—quite unfriendly. The reason was none other than Gao Jie Ming taking away the ownership of that iron rod from the other party through some kind of "academic duel" in the last year of high school, becoming the former school bully.

"Mm, quite a coincidence." Gao Jie Ming responded vaguely, suppressing the waves in his heart.

After saying goodbye to Victor at the fork, he walked toward the direction of "home" alone, his mood even more complex.

Skillfully pushing open the door and greeting the "parents" watching the news in the living room, Gao Jie Ming drilled back into his bedroom almost immediately and locked the door backhanded.

He lay on the bed, closed his eyes, excluded all distracting thoughts, and sank all his mind into that deathly silent dantian qi sea again.

His will turned into an invisible pusher, continuing that boring and difficult pushing of the stagnant spiritual power, moving toward that trace of weak attraction.

Time passed in silence, until the sky outside was completely dark, and his mother's voice knocking on the door calling him to eat came, Gao Jie Ming then opened his eyes tiredly.

Checking his progress, a trace of imperceptible brightness flashed in the depths of Gao Jie Ming's pupils.

His luck was good, the effect was better than expected!

Although still difficult, he could clearly feel that with each attempt, the efficiency of mobilizing spiritual power was slowly and continuously improving.

It seemed that the "adaptive evolution" characteristic brought by the "Body Refining Method" was still exerting force, seemingly gradually adapting to this environment where power was suppressed, and beginning to instinctively find breakthroughs and optimization paths.

"At this speed, even if I can't perform spiritual power mobilization all day, I can connect to the body space in at most five days!" Gao Jie Ming felt certain, having a clear sense of expectation, and his anxiety lessened a lot.

At the dining table, looking at the fatigue Gao Jie Ming couldn't hide, his "parents" concernedly advised him not to be too tired, and that learning should be balanced.

Gao Jie Ming nodded in response, but his thoughts drifted to the "Kevin" he saw during the day.

This situation was too strange.

If he were very familiar with that wizard, then it would make sense for this plane to use the template in his memory to construct a corresponding false identity.

But the problem was, they were just a brief encounter, without even saying a word.

Even a novice in this field knows that one of the basic principles of constructing illusions or mind worlds is to minimize elements that might trigger "déjà vu" or logical conflict in the subject.

Usually, only two types of roles are used: extremely familiar, or completely strange.

Using someone who is "only a brief encounter, not familiar but has an impression" carries a high risk, easily causing the subject's subconscious vigilance due to sudden déjà vu.

Thinking again of the real knowledge learned in this world that completely exceeded his own knowledge base—

A bold conjecture that was shocking, like lightning flashing in the dark, suddenly appeared in Gao Jie Ming's mind!

"Could it be—this is not a 'completely false' world?" Gao Jie Ming shook his head and did not continue to think deeply.

Now was not the time to draw conclusions; after all, the collection of various information and clues was not enough.

"However, if this conjecture holds, then I need to find others to verify—"

He needed to find enough samples to observe their state, and even try to make contact.

After dinner, Gao Jie Ming returned to his room.

He did not immediately continue to mobilize spiritual power; the fatigue brought by high-intensity concentration was real, and this body suppressed into an ordinary person needed rest.

He decided to change his mind, and also to execute the plan of "supplementing common sense."

He opened the computer light screen in the room, connected to the network of this world, and began to search for high-level knowledge that interested him in class, especially content about physics, spacetime theory, and some basic energy models.

"Oh? This energy circuit concept—a bit interesting, a line of thought I've never thought of—"

"This formula—wonderful! Can actually simplify multi-dimensional calculations in this way?"

Soon, the nature of a wizard took the upper hand, and Gao Jie Ming was completely immersed in the ocean of knowledge, absorbing this strange yet logically rigorous information hungrily, temporarily forgetting the predicament of being in a cage.

On the way to school the next day, Gao Jie Ming walked on the road with Amy and Victor just like yesterday, only Amy seemed a bit preoccupied.

"What's wrong?" Gao Jie Ming didn't really want to care, but considering he had to maintain his persona, he asked.

She opened her mouth: "That—my aunt's birthday is coming up, I want to choose a gift for her, but don't know what to choose, do you have any suggestions?"

Gao Jie Ming asked back: "Does she have anything she particularly likes?"

Amy thought carefully, her expression becoming a bit subtle: "She—likes movies quite a bit."

Victor looked at Amy's expression, puzzled: "Looking at you, it doesn't seem to be entirely the case?"

Amy was silent for a moment, and lowered her voice a bit embarrassedly: "She—really likes watching movies—but I once asked her why she was so obsessed, she said—she just feels that those villains in the movies, having their beliefs destroyed by righteous partners and being thoroughly defeated, makes people feel particularly happy, particularly—comfortable."

Gao Jie Ming's eyelids jumped violently upon hearing this.

This kind of statement—no matter how you listen to it, it reveals a sense of wrongness.

No, strictly speaking, it should be revealing a sense of familiarity.

Victor didn't seem to think too much, directly suggesting: "That's simple, buy her a popular movie ticket, or a limited edition movie disc, poster, etc."

Amy seemed a bit hesitant about this suggestion, seeming to feel it wasn't thoughtful enough.

Gao Jie Ming's heart moved, and he suddenly suggested: "The day after tomorrow is a rest day, why don't we go to the commercial district together? Take a look on the spot, maybe we can run into a good gift that makes people's eyes shine."

"Good, good!" Amy immediately expressed agreement.

Victor also nodded indifferently.

Gao Jie Ming saw the two agreed and nodded secretly in his heart.

Actually, his real thought was to explore this false world on a larger scale, after all, his scope of action was too limited now.

Coincidentally, helping to buy a gift could be considered a good reason.