CHAPTER 429: CHAPTER 429: INFERENCE STAR BODY

Looking at the message from Baili Qing, Yu Sheng was slightly stunned, then immediately raised his head to look around.

Level IV Cognitive Reshaping... Planetary-level Reality Reconstruction...

"Damn, this is getting intense..."

Yu Sheng muttered to himself, then without hesitation, quickly dialed Baili Qing’s number while he still had a phone signal.

The other side seemed to have been waiting for his call, and the phone was almost immediately connected as soon as it was dialed. Yu Sheng didn’t waste time and got straight to the point after hearing a hello: "The reality on Shuji Star has been reconstructed."

"...It was expected, but still the worst-case scenario," Baili Qing’s voice remained calm, as if it carried an aura that could calm everyone down, "However, judging by the fact that the signal can still connect, the reality reconstruction on that planet hasn’t fully ’closed’, and the Feather Transformation process of the Inference Star Body is not yet complete."

"First, tell me what’s really going on here," Yu Sheng spoke quickly, and in the corner of his eye, he saw the cold wind and rain once again sweeping through the ceiling into the hall. Yet it seemed to pass through another dimension without interacting with anything in the hall. Several colorful humanoid outlines with poor signals suddenly appeared in the rain, conversing as they walked past the curtain wall near the reception desk, "I need all the intel about the Inference Star Body."

"I’ve already sent the information from the Special Service Bureau over, and I’ll try to keep everything as brief as possible with some extra details," Baili Qing said calmly and quickly, "I just received a sample from Guard-3 and listened to the recovery team’s report. We can now basically confirm that the Dark Angel parasitizing within Shuji is the Inference Star Body, and the parasitic stage should be between the later phase of the Feather Transformation and the Ascension Body. Due to external stimuli, it’s highly likely to prematurely complete the Feather Transformation and forcibly ’Ascend’ from within the star, a process that will be completed within a few days...

"As for the Inference Star Body, it might be one of the oldest known Dark Angels. We even suspect it could have appeared in our reality universe before the Descent of the first Angel, the Tree Angel—though we currently lack conclusive evidence...

"Compared to other Dark Angels, the Inference Star Body has many peculiarities. The main two are: first, its activities seem to have a strong ’purpose’, which is to continuously find new planets to ’parasite’; second, it has a suspected ’life cycle’ transformation process...

"At the beginning of parasitism, it appears meteor-like and instantaneously teleports over the target planet, then performs a straightforward and brutal orbital descent—this phase is referred to as ’Sub-entity’;

"After landing on the target planet, the Inference Star Body quickly burrows underground and transforms into a crystal structure capable of rapid expansion within the star—this phase is called the ’Sublimation Period’. We do not know how long this process lasts, but we are certain that its internal expansion will geometrically accelerate late in the Sublimation Period;

"After the Sublimation Period, the Inference Star Body begins preparing for the next ’Transfer’. It ’consumes’ everything useful within the planet, including planetary veins and... high-energy minerals. At this stage, it no longer expands but reorganizes a new ’core’ within its constructed nest. We call this phase ’Feather Transformation’;

"The duration of the Feather Transformation is also unknown, and at the end of this phase, the ’essential’ part of the Inference Star Body contracts into a new core and breaks out of the planet, ascending towards the Universe—this ’Ascension’ process is extremely fast, and the part that leaves the star is referred to as the ’Ascension Body’;

"The Ascension Body possesses superluminal movement capabilities and may even perform ’Instant Movement’ through Subspace or other unknown means. During this process, its core enters hibernation, and upon reaching a new target planet, the Ascension Body reenters the ’Sub-entity’ state, beginning a new round of parasitism..."

Erin leaned on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, listening to Baili Qing’s voice from the phone speaker, and suddenly murmured, "Simply put, it’s just a cycle of eating, sleeping, and running."

Yu Sheng’s mouth twitched: "...That seems to be one way to understand it."

Then he quickly thought of something else.

"Engaging in such large-scale activities in the real world, and no one can discover it?"

"That’s exactly what I’m about to say," Baili Qing quickly responded, "The most bizarre and dangerous aspect of the Inference Star Body isn’t its ’parasitism’, but its ability to perform ’Cognitive Reshaping’ powerful enough to cover reality within a certain range.

"From the moment the ’Sublimation Period’ begins, the Inference Star Body releases extensive cognitive interference throughout its range. Within this interference radius, ordinary people cannot detect the presence of the Inference Star Body, including all the ’abnormalities’ it creates—people live next to the crystals formed by the Inference Star Body’s spread, even building homes and cities above it after it drills underground.

"Historically, factions have discovered the Inference Star Body’s parasitism—notably, detecting anomalies in the planetary parameters from very far distances using probes. But, as soon as they approach to investigate, the investigators conclude ’everything is normal’. Scholars from various factions spent a long time and put in a lot of effort, and thanks to some luck, they only managed to confirm the existence of the Inference Star Body and generally summarize its ’cycle changes’. Yet to this day, no one has successfully ’caught’ it during the Sublimation and Feather Transformation periods... you are the first ones."

A muffled thunder suddenly rolled across the sky, and in the wind and rain came a strange howl from afar. Yu Sheng looked up at the hall entrance, seeing the outside street seeming to lose gravity and drift away from the ground, various buildings disintegrating and floating in mid-air, while new roads ’grew’ from nearby buildings, winding to connect with several structures.

Yu Sheng approached the hall’s entrance, cautiously observing the changes outside while speaking quickly, "It seems now... the ’Cognitive Barrier’ created by it seems to have failed, the world in front of us has gone crazy, and continues to become more chaotic."

Baili Qing’s tone was grave, "What you are seeing should be the fault line at the ’boundary’ of the Cognitive Barrier—false reality and true reality are pressing and distorting each other. All observations have lost accuracy in this process, and what you’re seeing is neither the real Mo City nor is it a complete Illusion. This should have also led to the ’deep’ instability of your surrounding environment, and if I’m not wrong, this situation will continue to deteriorate.

"The cognitive interference of the Inference Star Body has a very dangerous trait, which is that it presents ’resonating superimposition’ as the influence on surrounding intelligent beings deepens... In simple terms, every Mind affected by the Inference Star Body becomes a part of the Cognitive Barrier, and the ’illusions’ they experience enhance the degree of reality reconstruction further.

"This is another important reason why the Inference Star Body’s parasitic nature is hard to detect—the deeper its parasitism goes, the more people will perceive everything around them as normal, and this ’perception’ can actually reverse-change the ’truth’ of the real world. In the later Sublimation Period, even if you possess ’True Vision’, you will see nothing unusual when you enter a planet parasitized by the Inference Star Body, because..."

Baili Qing’s voice suddenly started breaking up, seemingly due to another change in the "depth" of the surroundings on Yu Sheng’s side. Before the signal was completely lost, a faint sentence emerged from the phone—

"You are... inside a Dream Realm constructed by all the people on the entire planet..."

A burst of noise sounded, Baili Qing’s voice disappeared, and the phone screen once again popped up with notifications of depth changes and communication disruption.

Erin and Hu Li exchanged glances.

Luna cocked her head in their direction.

Yu Sheng looked at the phone with no signal, pondered silently for two seconds, then casually stuffed the phone into his pocket and raised his hand to open a small door beside him.

The door led directly to Baili Qing’s desk—she was placing the phone on the desk while sighing.

Yu Sheng leaned half his body out from the doorway, slumping on the desk in front of Baili Qing: "I didn’t catch what you said last."

Baili Qing jumped out of her chair.

It was the first time Yu Sheng realized that the usually composed woman director could actually jump, and even grimace from hitting her leg on the desk.

Then the two exchanged glances for two seconds.

Yu Sheng felt a bit awkward, while Baili Qing’s expression was complex—three parts awkwardness, two parts angry but resigned, five parts uncertain, and the remaining ninety percent was indiscernible. In any case, based on her usually expressionless demeanor, she might have used up a lifetime’s worth of expressions in these two seconds.

After a brief silence, Yu Sheng apologized and proposed to the other party: "...Should I go back and reopen the door?"

"No need."

Baili Qing sat back down in the chair, subtly rubbed her leg under the table, and said with a stern face.

Then a second later, she added: "I said you are inside a Dream Realm constructed by all the people on the entire planet—billions of people on Shuji Planet are using their ’cognition’ to assist the Inference Star Body in its final Ascension. You had better find a way to interrupt this process before its Ascension Body matures."

"Uh, okay."

Yu Sheng nodded and withdrew his body.

As he was about to close the door, Baili Qing suddenly raised her head, looking at him with a serious expression.

"Don’t underestimate the situation. Though you... Just be careful."

Yu Sheng paused for a moment, glanced at Mo City outside the hall, which was already spiraling out of control, and quietly turned his head.

"Don’t worry, I definitely won’t underestimate it—I’m scared half to death looking at this mess outside."

Did Baili Qing smile? Or maybe her leg hurt and caused her eye to twitch again? Yu Sheng couldn’t tell.

He closed the door, took a deep breath, and stepped out towards the surreal nightmare beyond the hall.