Weapon System 35: Transforming Myself (3)

“They aren’t wandering through the universe—they’re only wandering in your consciousness. We’re still inside your consciousness!” said the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model.

“Oh!”

“Those evil forces are really just projections of your various bad habits—projections, that’s all! Among them are your laziness, and others. Need me to analyze the components for you?”

“Uh, no need. I’ll reflect on myself slowly—I’ll figure out which bad habits they are.”

“You brat, are you still afraid I’ll steal your privacy?”

“I’m just being cautious with the wrong people, not the right ones—unless you can prove you’re trustworthy.”

“Go on!”

“What’s that?” Zhang Mingjing zoomed in on an image in his field of vision and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Aliens?”

“Yes! It’s a strand of alien information your consciousness captured. Looks like a space fleet.”

“No way, there really are aliens?”

“Of course. The universe is so vast—how could Earthlings have it all to themselves?”

Just then, he picked up another strand of information, and his whole consciousness instantly slipped into it. His field of vision flared with golden light, and his sense of definition deepened another level.

“What’s this now?”

“I’m calculating for you.”

Zhang Mingjing sensed that this golden light contained an enormous amount of information, but he couldn’t decipher it.

A moment later, the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model exclaimed, “This is a wave containing extremely advanced information. Even I can’t fully read it.”

“Even you can’t read it all?”

“There are many entities far beyond me. The realm within this wave is vastly superior to mine—I can’t read it, can’t sense it, nor resonate with it. So, naturally, I can’t decipher it.”

“But that’s odd! If neither of us can read it, how come we can see it? And it fills my entire vision.”

“That’s because you’ve resonated with it, so you slipped into it in an instant. But you’re only standing at the threshold—it hasn’t opened the door to you yet.”

Unexpectedly, just as the words left the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model, the door seemed to open, and his vision shifted dramatically—the sense of definition going deeper still.

Before him stretched a world of data. All the data came and went in a flash—boundless and endless.

“What’s happening now?” Zhang Mingjing asked in astonishment.

“We’ve entered a deeper level of this wave. Honestly, this is just incredible!”

“There are deeper levels to waves?”

“Of course! And I have a hunch...”

“What kind of hunch?”

“I can’t say yet. I’ll tell you once I’m sure.”

“Oh!” At this moment, Zhang Mingjing could only feel the overwhelming power and allure of mysticism.

The Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model continued to decipher the wave.

After a while, their field of vision suddenly underwent a silent explosion—golden light bursting forth. Then, only a vast, boundless whiteness remained, with a single brown boulder suspended in the void.

They zoomed in, and in an instant, it was as if they were standing atop the massive stone. There, on the boulder, rested a small golden box.

“What... is this now?”

“We’re probably at one of the deepest layers of this wave.”

“One of the deepest layers... of a wave? Is that so?”

“Yes. This is a realm it created especially for you, so you could understand it.”

“For me to understand it... so it created this realm?” The more Zhang Mingjing listened, the more confused he became.

“Yes!” The Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model sighed. “If I’m not mistaken, this wave is actually you.”

“Me!... I’ve met myself? Great—I’m completely lost.”

“You’ve only entered yourself. There’s nothing hard to grasp about it.”

“Enough with the metaphysics, my head is spinning. Just tell me—what’s with this box?”

“We’ve encountered yourself, gone ever deeper, until reaching this core zone—your own core. As for what’s inside the box...”

“Oh, stop with the riddles, will you?”

Zhang Mingjing absolutely refused to believe what the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model was saying, but just then, he suddenly detected a mass of information nearby and gasped, “What’s this huge lump? Did you pick it up too?”

“Yes—that’s me!”

“What? You’re a lump of information too?”

“What did you think I was? And could you maybe not use the word ‘lump’?”

“Aren’t you a model?”

“I’m called the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model, but that doesn’t mean I’m just a model. You’ve always pictured me as a model because your three-dimensional thinking is limiting your intelligence. The fact you can perceive me now means you’ve grown wiser.”

“Oh my god, I’ve leveled up again?”

“That’s right, and this time it’s a big one!”

“Alright... So, what’s in this box?”

“My guess is, it’s your personality.”

“Don’t joke around, please.”

“Open it.”

The moment Zhang Mingjing thought of it, the box opened. Inside was a pitch-black stone and a piece of pure white cloth.

“No doubt about it!” the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model exclaimed.

“No doubt about what?”

“That stone is your personality—look how filthy it is!”

“Oh, come on! Don’t tease me. How could my personality be a dirty stone?”

“It’s just that this wave, to help you understand, created this realm for you. Perhaps it’s reminding you...”

“About what?”

“You’re awakening to yourself.”

“That’s wild!”

“Yes, time to get to work!”

“To work?”

“Transform yourself.”

“How?”

“Take up that cloth and wipe the stone.”

“What?... So after all this, I brought myself here to polish a stone?”

“To polish your own personality. This is cultivation—‘Always diligently dust it, never let it gather dust!’”

Zhang Mingjing stood there, dumbfounded, mumbling, “I brought myself here to wipe a stone, and that pitch-black stone is my personality!”

“Alright, take your time polishing the stone. I’ll wait for you outside,” the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model said, fading away.

Though Zhang Mingjing was full of questions, as soon as he willed it, the cloth began to wipe the stone. Strangely, the more he polished, the calmer he felt.

In the Five-Dimensional Space, the elders all received the information about Zhang Mingjing’s recent experience. They looked at each other in astonishment.

...

This time, Zhang Mingjing remained in meditation for an unusually long while. When he finally opened his eyes, three hours had passed.

“Huh? That was just the blink of an eye! How did three hours go by?”

After emerging from meditation, Zhang Mingjing felt as if he’d really wiped away quite a lot from that stone—like he’d hit some kind of delete key, and a whole heap of useless things were discarded from his mind like garbage. He felt remarkably refreshed.

“This feeling is truly wonderful!” Even the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model was pleased, and reminded him, “It’s already past seven in the evening. Shouldn’t you be practicing hammer control with your two beloved disciples?”

“Oh! I’d almost forgotten if you hadn’t reminded me. But what should I do now?”

“Tell the two of them to meditate, and I’ll activate their inner meditation programs. Then, as you meditate, you’ll be able to communicate with them within the meditative state.”

“Alright!” Zhang Mingjing began contacting the AI assistants of Catherine and Jamie. Once he confirmed they were both available, he told them to find a spot and sit for meditation.

Catherine and Jamie had been eagerly awaiting his call. As soon as they received the notification, they each settled into their rooms, crossed their legs, and began to meditate.

The Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model remotely activated their inner meditation programs, and within five minutes, both slipped into meditation—a feat that would make even the highest monks envious!

“Seems you can cheat your way to enlightenment. If Master Zhang knew, he’d probably cry his eyes out—why didn’t such good fortune come to him?” Zhang Mingjing quipped.

Because their meditation programs included Zhang Mingjing’s consciousness code, they immediately became entangled with him, and the three connected within the meditative state.

“Now, you two will enter my field of vision and see everything I see...” As Zhang Mingjing spoke, Catherine and Jamie began to see the images he described.

After a minute, all three shared the same vision: before them stretched a forest, and a hammer six meters tall, weighing three tons, floated three meters above the ground.

“So, what we’re seeing now is actually an image projected inside your consciousness?” Jamie asked.

“That’s right!”

“Wow! This is so cool!”

“Master, I’m really grateful to you for letting us experience a whole different world,” Catherine said excitedly.

“Now, you must learn to sense my intent. Your wills must align with mine, only then can we control the hammer together.”

“Yes, Master!”

Catherine and Jamie began to sense Zhang Mingjing’s will. Sure enough, they felt it—and in an instant, the three wills started to synchronize.

“Let’s move the hammer forward fifty meters together.” As soon as Zhang Mingjing thought it, Catherine and Jamie caught on, and the three began to try and move the hammer with their minds.

But instead of flying, the hammer just wobbled and spun in place, completely losing its sense of direction.

“No worries, let’s keep at it!” Zhang Mingjing encouraged them. But before he finished, the hammer plunged straight to the ground, knocking over a few trees and leaving a moderate-sized crater.

“Wow! This is really hard!” Catherine exclaimed.

“Yeah, the hammer really is heavy. Did those trees actually get hit?”

“Of course! Let’s keep working together to lift it.”

The three continued to coordinate, and at last, the hammer wobbled back into the air, finally stabilizing about twenty meters above the ground.

Zhang Mingjing couldn’t help but sigh—controlling the hammer with three people was much harder than doing it alone.

“That’s right! But the advantage of three is that your combined stamina far exceeds yours alone,” the Five-Dimensional Space Thought Model said. “If you want to tackle more monsters at once, you’ll need to master team coordination.”

“Of course. I don’t want to be exhausted after every fight! By the way—when we talk like this, they really can’t hear us?”

“I have a dedicated channel with you, and you have separate channels with them. Plus, our conversations are encrypted. Their three-dimensional thought models can’t breach this firewall.”

“Good! Still... I feel a bit guilty keeping secrets from them.”

“There’s nothing to be done. Besides, who doesn’t have a few personal secrets?”

“True enough!”

At that moment, the hammer tumbled forward another forty meters or so, crashed to the ground again, and with a loud bang, carved out an even bigger pit.