Chapter 395: Guesswork

"Yes, I really am from that place." After a moment's hesitation, Chen Boshi nodded, then made a single slash in the air before his chest and tapped a few times—his body vanished instantly from where he stood.

At that moment, Wang Yu's ear also received a beautiful female voice:

"This Reserve Mech Division player, your free time in Star River will end in one minute. Please complete all preparations for logout: 59, 58, 57…"

Wang Yu sighed, made a single hand gesture, opened the virtual screen, and logged out of the game.

The white game pod door swung open, and Wang Yu sat up inside.

Li Xiaodao had already been waiting beside the pod, chatting cheerfully with a young woman whose figure was curvaceous and alluring. Seeing Wang Yu exit, he immediately introduced him:

"Mr. Sai, you're done too? This is Miss Ouyang, a Chinese descendant who's lived in Pengjie City for years—she just reserved this pod of yours." In Wang Yu's eyes, Li Xiaodao was usually composed, but now, before the young woman, he had become unusually talkative.

"Hello, Mr. Sai. Brother Li helped me out a great deal just now. If you have time, please let me treat both of you to a meal." The young woman smiled at Wang Yu in British English.

Wang Yu saw that the woman had fair skin and delicate features—he naturally understood why Li Xiaodao had changed so much, and replied with a smile:

"A friend of Brother Li is my friend too, Miss Ouyang—please, go ahead."

Saying this, he stepped out of the pod and yielded it to her.

Miss Ouyang nodded, stepped into the pod, and closed the door.

"How did you help her just now? Heroic rescue? How did you make friends with a beauty so fast?" Wang Yu chuckled, seeing Li Xiaodao still staring longingly at the pod, and tapped his shoulder.

"Heh, nothing much—this Miss Ouyang was just being harassed by two thugs, and I chased them off. Mr. Sai, did you meet the person you wanted to see in the game?" Li Xiaodao scratched his head and grinned, then quickly returned to his usual tone.

"I met him. But I'll probably need to meet him again tomorrow." Wang Yu gave a brief reply, saying no more.

"Since you're entering Star River again tomorrow, let me reserve your pod in advance. There are plenty of Star River cafes in Pengjie City, but pods are scarce—without a reservation, you won't get in on time."

"Go ahead and arrange it," Wang Yu agreed without objection, nodding.

Li Xiaodao hurried downstairs.

Wang Yu watched the young man's departing figure, his smile fading slightly as he began to ponder.

Through his earlier conversation with Chen Boshi, he finally understood his current situation: his original body had been destroyed, so his consciousness had returned to a cloned body manufactured by Britain.

It seemed the condition for consciousness transfer must also include this: the main consciousness could only transfer into a healthy body; a destroyed body could not support it.

But one point still eluded him.

Britain had stolen his original body's cells to create a clone, presumably to extract specific information about the cultivation world.

If that's the case, Britain shouldn't have just replicated an identical body—they should have cloned his original thoughts and consciousness too.

Yet when he awoke, he felt no other consciousness within this body.

That was curious.

Though he didn't know the exact principles or conditions of consciousness replication, he guessed either the clone's consciousness, the moment his main consciousness returned, had been absorbed and fused with it.

The clone's memories and thoughts were originally his own, so the fusion occurred silently, without him noticing at all.

Or Britain had stolen his body's cells only after his second journey to the cultivation world—from the remains of his already destroyed body.

Because when his original body was destroyed, his consciousness had already left—it was merely an empty shell, devoid of thought or memory.

Britain, unaware of this, would have replicated an empty shell's consciousness, which would almost certainly yield another empty shell. When his main consciousness returned, it easily took over the cloned body.

He couldn't determine which scenario was true, but he vaguely felt the second was more likely.

After all, if he had truly fused a clone's consciousness, with his current spiritual sense strength, he should have sensed at least some subtle change in his mental energy.

But then again, who on Blue Star has ever experienced such a strange fusion of clone consciousness? The exact circumstances are truly hard to say.

Wang Yu sighed lightly at this thought.

As for Chen Boshi's mention of Blue Star's disaster and Star River's future setting—how nations would build mechs in the real world—though each was a world-shaking revelation, personally, they didn't move him as deeply as the cloning matter.

After all, according to Blue Star's timeline, he was still just an ordinary university student over a year ago. Matters of global consequence would naturally be handled by Blue Star's high-level authorities.

When the survival of all Blue Star's people was truly at stake, the most he could do was contribute his own share.

But judging from these clues, nations were now desperately researching and breaking through key technologies—including cloning and photonic neural systems—with help from some mysterious force.

And all these technologies seemed tied to the mechs in Star River, and building real mechs on Blue Star was linked to the coming cataclysm.

Add to that Chen Boshi's final remark—that Star River was a gift from the future—and the presence of nebula beasts in the game.

If one followed this logic, it clearly indicated that in the future, Blue Star would be attacked by these nebula beasts, and mechs would be the primary force to combat them.

Under this scenario, if he made a bolder deduction: Britain's cloning technology could rapidly produce large numbers of expendable soldiers, while China's base was promoting the Four Beasts Technique to enhance ordinary people—and even clones—turning them quickly into qualified mech pilots.

Based on his several experiences piloting mechs in Star River, a strong physical body was essential to become a qualified pilot—otherwise, mere vibrations inside the mech would make an ordinary person vomit and have diarrhea.

Elite and Star-class mech pilots needed not only physical strength but also some mental energy—otherwise, Star Mind Power wouldn't have emerged from Star River, and Star Mind Power levels were the mandatory requirement for piloting corresponding Star-class mechs.

Wang Yu thought of this and unconsciously glanced at his wrist.

Was this military conscription countdown the exact moment when Blue Star's disaster would erupt?

If so, that meant he had only about eight years left.

Could Blue Star's nations really build those devastating mechs from Star River—and stockpile enough of them—in such a short time?

Or was the conscription countdown on his wrist meant for something else?

Wang Yu's expression darkened slightly as he recalled Chen Boshi's identity.

Chen Boshi himself admitted he and many others came from a place that provided nations with vast amounts of groundbreaking technology data—and Star River was tied to the future. Could this place be Star River's official background?

But how did this mysterious force obtain these black-tech data? How did they know Blue Star would face a great disaster?

Did this force foresee the future? Did they receive information from the future? Or could they directly communicate with the future world?

Even more boldly: were Chen Boshi and his kind not from this era at all?

After all, during their conversation, he had repeatedly hinted at his unusual identity.

Wang Yu pondered deeply.

Besides this, one other thing had long troubled him:

In Star River, the old man who taught him the Star Mind Power incantation had mentioned that Star Mind Power was also called Heart Energy Art, developed by the Blue Star Alliance based on the Royal Mind Secret Technique of the "Kree Empire."

The Blue Star Alliance was easy to understand—it was likely a coalition government formed by Blue Star's nations to respond to the coming disaster, probably not yet officially established, or still in planning.

Otherwise, Britain wouldn't have sent psychics to break into China's base just to steal data from Sai Tan's world—Blue Star's nations were still mostly independent.

But what the hell was this Kree Empire? Blue Star had never heard of such a nation. From the tone of the old man who taught him Star Mind Power, it seemed to be a power on par with Blue Star—could it be an extraterrestrial force?

The more Wang Yu thought, the more his head ached.

The information he had was still too little. He'd have to wait and talk to Chen Boshi again tomorrow to make an accurate judgment.

In just over ten minutes, Wang Yu had summarized and analyzed every piece of information from Chen Boshi. He rubbed his temples, then decided not to think about it anymore.

At that moment, Li Xiaodao returned from the first floor, waved to him, and the two left the Star River cafe together.