Chapter 2: Super Vision

Lei En steadied his mind and finally realized what this eight-petaled pattern was — the logo of that domestic phone company, though not exactly the same.

In the original logo, the petals were all arranged on the same side, forming only half a flower blooming upward in a semicircle; but the pattern before him was arranged in a full circle, a complete flower, with a mysterious golden core in the center that looked strikingly three-dimensional.

Perhaps it had mutated during the crossing, which was why he hadn't recognized it in his dream before.

Lei En was both shocked and frightened, scratching his head in puzzlement — how had this phone crossed over with him, and even ended up inside his brain?

"Did this phone become a spirit, or did I turn into a phone spirit?"

He watched the red flower logo in the interface slowly rotating, clearly still booting up.

"This slow to boot up?"

Lei En muttered, and soon noticed that as the startup proceeded, the phone seemed to be consuming his own stamina — he felt increasingly exhausted, his whole body weak.

He hurriedly found a dry spot to sit down. After several minutes, the phone finally started up successfully and entered the operating interface.

"This interface is different too."

Lei En was thoroughly amazed. The original operating interface had been rectangular like a screen, but the interface before him was circular, like a large dial. In the very center was that flower composed of eight petals, surrounded by dozens of icons arranged in rings extending outward, the whole thing resembling a deformed eye.

Some of these icons were very familiar, while others were completely strange.

"How do I operate it?"

Lei En was still wondering what to do if he couldn't tap with his fingers, when he discovered that whenever he focused his attention on a certain icon, that icon would enlarge slightly and become brighter, standing out prominently.

He didn't rush to open an icon right away, but first browsed through them roughly.

He didn't know whether the mutations were too random or for some other reason, but every icon was a bizarre pattern, resembling both pictures and characters, each more abstract than the last, and unlike normal phone apps they had no name labels, making them extremely hard to identify.

For instance, one icon looked like a camera — square-shaped like a camera, but in the center was not a lens but a eerie eye glowing with an inexplicable light.

Another icon was shaped like a microphone, but at the top of the microphone was a deformed pointed ear, surrounded by several curved wavy lines — he had no idea what it meant.

Lei En could only guess that each icon represented a function or an app.

Moreover, these functions and apps could all be used without internet.

All those that originally required internet — such as WeChat, the browser, email, and the news client — were completely gone.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed. He had been hoping to use this miraculous phone to contact Diqiu, but now that seemed like a mere fantasy.

What frustrated Lei En the most was that most of the icons were grayed out — focusing his mind on them produced no change at all, clearly unable to be activated.

"How are there ones that can't be used? Is it not enough battery?"

Lei En had a suspicion. Around the Little Red Flower in the very center — a name he had just coined — there was a circle, divided into evenly spaced small cells. He counted carefully: exactly one hundred cells.

At this moment, counting clockwise from the twelve o'clock position, only seven cells were lit up. Beside them was a battery-shaped icon displaying a glaring red number: 7%.

"This must be the phone's battery level — one small cell represents 1% of battery."

Looking at the mere seven cells of battery, Lei En suddenly felt very insecure.

For modern people, phone battery was their second life — below 20% could make one anxious, and below 10% was the brink of death.

And this mutated phone was in his brain, seemingly bound to him. Lei En didn't dare imagine what would happen if the battery dropped to zero!

Would it shut down when out of power? Or would I die too?

"Whatever, let me first test what this thing can actually do."

Currently, the only icons that could be activated were the camera, calculator, clock, and a few others. Lei En's mind settled on the camera icon, and he thought about opening it.

That camera with the eerie eye immediately enlarged before his eyes.

In the next instant, the world in Lei En's eyes underwent a tremendous change.

The entire world became much clearer, as if a layer of mist had been wiped from glass, or a thin layer of mosaic had been removed. Everything appeared in vivid detail, the colors more brilliant, as if come alive.

It was early morning, with sunlight streaming down from the sky. He could see countless fine wisps of moisture evaporating from the river's surface like dancing dust; beneath the water were many fish and shrimp swimming among swaying aquatic plants, every single scale on their bodies visible with perfect clarity.

Turning his gaze elsewhere, Lei En found he could see very far away.

On the opposite bank, a tree about two to three hundred meters away was magnified a hundredfold in his eyes, as if right before him — he could make out every single branch on that tree.

"My God!"

Lei En was startled by this exaggerated vision. He knew the original phone had used the world's most advanced camera, but he never expected that after mutation, the camera had replaced his own eyes, and the effect had improved countless times over.

Moreover, his eyes now had a distance-measuring function.

For instance, the exact distance to that tree was 267 meters, and could be precise to three decimal places. As his gaze moved, the numbers changed continuously.

Additionally, his eyes could zoom — when he concentrated and focused, he could even observe the veins and texture of the leaves on the tree across the bank!

And this didn't seem to be the limit either.

Lei En looked around full of wonder, and soon discovered another function: brightness adjustment. Even in some dark corners, he could see everything with perfect clarity, as if night-vision goggles had been activated — his field of view was sharply contrasted in black and white, clearly visible.

However, the X-ray vision he had fantasized about many times was not there, which he found quite regrettable.

He was still exploring when a "beep" suddenly sounded in his mind, snapping him back to attention — the battery had dropped one cell, down to 6%.

"It drains this fast? It hasn't even been that long!"

Lei En was about to look for a button to close the camera, when he realized that the moment he had the thought, he had already exited the super vision state.

He tried exploring a few other activatable functions, but after opening and testing them for a long time he noticed no changes — probably he hadn't found the right way to use them, or they required the right environment. The battery kept dropping, so he could only shut them off.

As the battery dropped, Lei En felt his body grow even more exhausted, so he didn't try any further.

When he shifted his attention away for a few seconds, the phone interface shrank into a Little Red Flower and moved to the upper-left corner, at the edge of his peripheral vision, not affecting his normal eyesight.

"So this is standby mode — pretty smart."

With this mutated phone, Lei En felt somewhat reassured, understanding that it was his greatest reliance for surviving in this world.

Sitting by the river and resting for over half an hour, his stamina recovered a little, but his stomach was growling with hunger. Lei En knew he couldn't stay here any longer.

He gazed at the distant city full of exotic style — it was Longshandecheng from his memories.

He adjusted his half-wet, half-dry clothes, took a deep breath, and strode away from the river, leaving behind a row of shallow footprints.