Chapter 353: Probing

After that exchange at the technical seminar, Jie Ming and Lei Ke exchanged a tacit look.

They didn't acknowledge each other immediately, just naturally exchanged personal contact codes like ordinary tech enthusiasts when the meeting dispersed.

A few days later, Jie Ming's communicator received a text message from Lei Ke, inviting him to his residence to "discuss technical issues in depth."

"This guy even called me a madman back then; he's crazier than me when it comes to gambling with his life."

Looking at the text on the communicator, Jie Ming took a deep breath, appearing a bit nervous.

Relieving his nervous emotions, Jie Ming looked up at the luxury villa in front of him.

This was Lei Ke's residence, located in a high-end community on the edge of the capital city of Anvil Star.

It was a luxury house with an independent courtyard, simple in appearance but full of design sense.

Jie Ming entered according to the instructions; the internal space was open, but the furnishings were unusually simple, even a bit cold and hard.

"Welcome, Jie Ming." Lei Ke stood in the center of the living room.

He had taken off his work clothes and changed into a set of comfortable casual clothes, with those glasses still perched on the bridge of his nose.

But something in his eyes was different; it was a suppressed excitement and sharpness.

"Lei Ke, long time no see." Jie Ming nodded, his gaze sweeping across the corners of the room, faintly sensing some weak energy field fluctuations.

That was not supernatural energy, but equipment based on the technology of this world, used to shield conventional monitoring and signal detection, in operation.

Clearly, this was a meticulously crafted safe house.

Without too much small talk, the two sat down in front of a table covered with metal panels and cut straight to the point.

"How did you wake up?" Jie Ming asked first.

Lei Ke pushed his glasses, a flash of relief in his eyes: "Thanks to it." He pointed to his temple, "The 'Weaver' nano-brain chip I implanted in myself. This thing—is not suppressed by this hellhole."

After his explanation, Jie Ming finally understood that the brain chip named "Weaver" was Lei Ke's masterpiece in mechanics.

The moment Lei Ke fell into this world, "Weaver" detected huge environmental parameter anomalies and memory logic conflicts, and began to continuously sound alarms deep in his consciousness, which was being blinded.

This alarm was like constant background noise, washing over him for several years.

Finally, five years ago, it broke through the dam of false memories like water dripping through stone, allowing him to regain clarity.

"Your supernatural power can still be used?!" Jie Ming was deeply shaken upon hearing this.

He subconsciously looked inward at his dantian; the Five-Cloud Rainbow Transformation Mirror and the Profound Gang Red Dust Barrier surrounding his body were still as dead as objects, without any reaction.

Why could Lei Ke's brain chip?

"I have been studying the 'rules' of this world all these years," Lei Ke seemed to see his confusion and continued to explain, "and discovered a key point: as long as a thing, its manufacturing process and final form, can be understood and reproduced by the existing technological level of this world—that is to say, in theory, given blueprints and materials, factories or laboratories in this world can build it—then it can operate normally here, unaffected by 'supernatural repulsion'."

He paused and emphasized: "My 'Weaver' chip, although it used the wizard's power for precision processing and binding, its core architecture, computational logic, and even the manufacturing principles of most nano-scale components can be understood and partially realized in the top laboratories of this world. So, it was 'recognized' by the rules."

"Recognized by the rules—"

Jie Ming was struck by lightning, instantly stunned in place.

He suddenly understood; this was being "under the lamp"!

Because he came from a purely technological world and experienced two supernatural systems, cultivation and wizardry, after crossing over.

So when Jie Ming encountered such things, he subconsciously opposed "technology" and "supernatural," thinking that the suppression of this world was aimed at all "supernatural powers."

But in fact, the foundation of wizard civilization is knowledge!

Countless wizardry, alchemy, and rune systems are based on a profound understanding and application of cosmic rules.

A large part of that knowledge can be reproduced through purely technical means in different forms!

Lei Ke's chip was exactly exploiting this loophole—it was essentially a condensation of "pure mechanical knowledge," and its form of existence conformed to the "physical rules" of this plane.

"I seem to—also because of the same blind spot in thinking, ignored something else—" Jie Ming suddenly fell into thought.

A vague intuition told him that this principle of "rule recognition" might point to a more critical,

yet one he had always ignored, truth.

But that inspiration flashed and vanished, and he couldn't grasp it for the time being.

However, Jie Ming didn't dwell on this for long, but quickly began to complement information with Lei Ke.

Both sides already knew some basic information, and Lei Ke added a point Jie Ming hadn't discovered: "After the intelligent creatures of this plane die accidentally, they will be reborn after their memories are wiped, but it seems that intelligent creatures who die naturally will not be resurrected—"

Lei Ke was an orphan here, came into contact with more people, and encountered more special situations: "However, the number of samples contacted is too small, and it is not certain for the time being whether this is widespread or a special case."

"So that's how it is—" Jie Ming really hadn't discovered this point.

At the same time, he also told Lei Ke about some of the problems he discovered, including confirming that the control method was not illusion or mind control, but some kind of more special power, as well as information about the world view of this world being abnormally huge and real.

After the exchange, both fell into a brief silence.

They had mastered more fragments than a single individual, but the puzzle was still incomplete, and the most critical core—the true face of the mastermind, the specific purpose, and how to break the cage—remained shrouded in fog.

After waiting for a moment, Jie Ming suddenly let out a long sigh, leaned back in his chair, and a self-deprecating smile appeared on his face: "It seems that the one behind the scenes—or that thing—doesn't care much about us two slightly active ants."

Lei Ke also nodded, the analytical light in his eyes behind his lenses flashing: "Since discovering that the intelligent creatures of this world can be reborn, I speculated that the mastermind of this plane should be relatively 'kind,' and now this idea can be considered verified."

That's right, in fact, both of them knew very well from the beginning that the risk of this meeting was very high.

Lei Ke's room could shield conventional monitoring, but both Jie Ming and Lei Ke knew in their hearts that this shielding was completely useless to that mastermind.

This meeting between the two sides could actually be considered a probe, probing the mastermind's attitude toward awakened ones like them.

That's why Jie Ming hesitated before the meeting.

However, although he hadn't observed that intelligent creatures could be reborn before, Jie Ming also made the same speculation as Lei Ke.

After all, it could be seen from his own fake parents and old friends that the mastermind's purpose was not to kill, so he decided to take a gamble today.

And judging from the results of the two's probing, they both bet correctly.

> ===== CHAPTER 354 =====