Chapter 941: Virus

Jianna left the window and sat back on the sofa, temporarily setting aside the matter of Luo Shan.

Today, if the interview goes well, Lumian or Furanca will move in to live with her, and the team will operate in pairs—Ludwig is temporarily an afterthought.

Jianna sometimes hoped it would be Lumian, sometimes prayed it would be Furanca; during this time in the Dream City, she wanted to spend more time with Furanca, encourage her more, treat her better, show more clearly how much she valued her, so Furanca would truly feel needed, not alone.

On this matter, although Jianna had never explicitly discussed it with Lumian, she felt there was an unspoken understanding between them, their daily behaviors remarkably similar.

Amidst these swirling thoughts, Jianna suddenly let out a self-deprecating smile:

“Actually, the best choice would be for both Lumian and Furanca to live here.”

That way, Furanca wouldn’t lack the feeling of being needed, Lumian could do more things, and she herself would inevitably, as she had these past two days, find herself unable to stop wondering what Lumian and Furanca were talking about, what they were doing together, whether they were being intimate, whether their relationship was evolving emotionally.

This made her feel a little sour, a little uneasy, and caused her “Pain” elixir to digest a bit more.

In causing others pain, thanks to Ludwig’s presence, Jianna digested her elixir rapidly, and it wouldn’t take long to complete—but in causing herself pain, she still had a long road ahead.

She murmured softly:

“Imagination and suspicion cause more pain than reality, and corrode the soul more deeply.”

This was her concluded rule of performance, more refined than “cause others pain” and “cause yourself pain”; if she were an evil “Witch,” she could use this to choose a target, appear normal in their company, yet subtly instill jealousy in his wife or girlfriend, gradually making her suffer, “irrationally hysterical,” dragging both into the abyss of pain.

Of course, she also hoped the relationship between Lumian and Furanca would improve, that they might, to some extent, redeem each other.

She was glad to see it happen—she just didn’t want to be left out.

Jianna gradually quieted her thoughts, unlocked her phone, and opened the album.

She stared at the sketch self-portrait Luo Shan had sent yesterday, tapped to enlarge it, and selected the “Delete” button.

She felt it was risky to keep a “Painter’s” artwork stored on her phone.

She hadn’t deleted it yesterday because she wanted to see if anything else would change, but nothing happened afterward, and she couldn’t remain perpetually alert to the image on her phone—she still needed to use it to contact Lumian, Furanca, Anthony, and others!

After deleting the photo, Jianna played with her phone, scrolling from trending news to novel stories, funny videos, and shopping posts.

Time flew by quickly; Jianna straightened her back slightly and stretched her arms without moving her hands.

She felt ready to message Furanca and ask how things were going on their end, but before doing so, she carefully checked her phone for any strange apps or unusual statuses.

Suddenly, Jianna’s gaze froze.

She discovered that the sketch self-portrait of Luo Shan, which she hadn’t exited from earlier, still sat quietly in its original place, lifelike, smiling lips, eyes alive with motion!

In that instant, Jianna felt uncertainty:

Did I really delete it just now?

Have I been influenced? Am I hallucinating?

Jianna quickly calmed her emotions and coldly deleted the photo again.

For the following time, she stared at the album, watching to see if Luo Shan’s sketch self-portrait would suddenly reappear.

After a while, the phone screen dimmed naturally; Jianna immediately reached out and pressed the power button to turn it back on.

The photo with Luo Shan’s sketch self-portrait appeared again—in the exact same spot.

Jianna confirmed the problem, but had no idea how to solve it, and even dared not use her phone to search online for solutions.

Just then, she heard the ringing of the doorbell.

Jianna jumped, stepping silently to the door and peering through the peephole.

She saw Lumian and Furanca.

Jianna exhaled in relief and opened the door.

Throughout this process, she remained cautious until Lumian and Furanca appeared vividly before her, and her spiritual intuition gave no warning.

“I have something to tell you,” Jianna said in a low voice.

Furanca immediately showed concern, slipping the access card into the pocket of her loose pants as she stepped inside and asked in a low tone:

“What is it?”

—The elevator in Dechuang Garden required a card; the landlord had provided two, one kept by Jianna, the other given to Furanca and her group.

After Lumian closed the door and created the “Vessel of Fiction,” Jianna recounted everything about Luo Shan in full, detailed detail.

She concluded:

“I remember the ‘Purifier’ told me that one of their colleagues once encountered a painter undergoing psychiatric treatment; the painter always claimed that every night his spirit left his body, entering a space similar to the Spirit Realm but distinctly different, fighting monsters and enemies attempting to invade reality through that space, guarding the peace of his neighborhood.”

“That’s very similar to what my astral body saw when I slept.”

“So you mean Luo Shan’s protective actions might be just another side of the Blessing’s corruption?” Furanca understood what Jianna was implying.

Jianna nodded:

“That was my earlier guess, but after speaking with Luo Shan and hearing her describe those monsters beside my astral body, I believe she herself holds the belief and ideal of ‘protection’—it likely stems from the Fool’s subconscious perception and expectations of her.”

“So you think Luo Shan’s protective behavior isn’t merely a requirement of the Blessing’s sequence, but also an expression of her humanity and will—a result of the Fool’s subconscious constructing her inner self in opposition to the Xieshen of the Fantasy Society?” Lumian thought of himself, his gaze flickering.

Jianna nodded:

“What I’m worried about now is that if our investigation provokes Luo Shan, it might cause her to be fully corrupted, falling into the abyss—and this might also symbolize the Fool’s minor defeat in this localized event. It’s a tiny loss, but if such small defeats accumulate, the balance might tip irreversibly.”

Lumian agreed:

“Our first step now is to delete that photo.”

“Yes, leaving it on your phone is like keeping a bomb that could explode at any moment,” Furanca took Jianna’s phone and focused on operating it, but the sketch self-portrait of Luo Shan stubbornly reappeared.

This made Furanca frown:

“Do we really need to install those kill-all antivirus programs?”

Lumian glanced at the album on the phone screen, tapped the photo to open it, and prepared to enter the screen, entering the world within, to see if he could encounter Luo Shan’s sketch self-portrait and destroy it both physically and mystically.

At that moment, Furanca stopped him:

“Don’t rush—even if you can truly enter the phone’s memory world through the screen, it’s equivalent to confronting Luo Shan’s self-portrait face-to-face; you’ll easily be noticed by her, provoke her, and confirm we’re involved.”

Here, Furanca smiled:

“Didn’t you add that Stiano on WeChat? Since he’s the dream-image of a high-ranking member of the Steam Church, his WeChat nickname includes the keyword ‘Information Technology,’ and he’s studying at university—he might know how to delete this kind of mystical phone virus.”

“I’ll ask him,” Lumian nodded thoughtfully.

He dissolved the “Vessel of Fiction,” and Jianna sent the photo of Luo Shan’s self-portrait to his WeChat.

Then he sent a message to Stiano:

“Can you help? My phone has a strange virus.”

Within seconds, Stiano, whose nickname was “Electric Power, Energy, and Information Technology,” replied:

“Take a screenshot and send it to me.”

“He replied fast—does that mean he’s really interested in this kind of thing?” Furanca muttered.

Lumian opened the photo, had Furanca take a screenshot, and sent it to Stiano:

“It’s this photo—it won’t delete, and it reappears after deletion.”

After a while, “Electric Power, Energy, and Information Technology” sent a compressed file:

“There’s a small program inside—load the image with it and delete it, and the problem will be gone.”

There really was a solution? As Furanca and Jianna simultaneously thought this, Lumian followed the instructions, decompressing the file and releasing a program named “Information Shredder.”

He opened the program, loaded Luo Shan’s sketch self-portrait into it, and tapped the built-in “Delete” button.

Immediately after, Lumian exited the program, locked his phone for two seconds, then unlocked it again.

He immediately noticed the photo had vanished from the album and did not return.

After testing repeatedly, Lumian sent the compressed file to Jianna.

Jianna successfully deleted Luo Shan’s sketch self-portrait photo and never saw it sneak back into her album.

“He’s truly amazing...” Furanca gazed at the WeChat contact “Electric Power, Energy, and Information Technology,” sincerely awed.

Lumian then used voice input to thank Stiano.

“Electric Power, Energy, and Information Technology” replied:

“This kind of virus is worth studying—feel free to contact me if you encounter similar problems in the future.”

Only similar problems? Lumian thoughtfully sent a nodding emoji.

Only now did Jianna relax.

Suddenly, Furanca hissed:

“In modern society—in the Dream City—some sequences and extraordinary abilities have become more terrifying, harder to guard against...

“From Luo Shan’s case, we can see: if a ‘Painter’s’ artwork carries supernatural power, the photograph of that painting will also gain peculiar properties—and if this spreads online, seen and downloaded by tens of thousands, how terrifying would that be...

“The surveillance world we encountered before also belongs to something we’d never face in reality.”

Before Lumian or Jianna could respond, Furanca had a sudden thought:

“Computer viruses, phone viruses—they’re viruses too. Can a ‘Witch’ control them?”

“Probably not... but a high-sequence ‘Watcher’ path adept certainly could.”

PS: Recommend a book, Lin Hai’s new novel, “Reversal.”

Synopsis: “You can refuse to lose, but you must accept growing old!”

“Makes sense—but who says I’m old?”

This is the story of an old man completing a last-minute comeback in the injury time of his career.

(End of Chapter)