please don't believe me

Shixi District, Mr. D's studio.

This is a six-storey horizontal building with age and high artistic appreciation value, beautiful window ribs and carved pillars, like most buildings in this area.Its location determines its value, which in turn leads to a reasonably expensive rent.Dai Bowen's studio is on the top floor of this building, and he rented half of the sixth floor for his people.

This is not a big deal, but the land in the west of this city is one of the most expensive in the world.In this place where every inch of land is expensive, even if there is only one office, it can afford the word "luxury".

Even Shen Xiuyuan, who is used to overlooking the city from high-rises, can hardly turn a blind eye to this.

"how?"

Dai Bowen turned around and looked at the man who had stopped.The latter was standing in front of the white wall with the logo of the studio, looking at the simple name of the studio, a little dazed.

Shen Xiuyuan turned his head and smiled at him: "It's nothing."

Turn left from the door and enter, first there is an open office area for ordinary employees.There are posters and schedules of various programs and events on the walls, and there are high piles of documents on everyone's desks.Dai Bowen led Shen Xiuyuan through here, and nodded to several staff members.

Behind the open office area are several offices distributed on both sides of the corridor, and Dai Bowen's office is at the end of the corridor.When they turned in, a man was leaning on the edge of the assistant's desk, talking to the assistant; there was also a slightly fat man in his forties, lying facelessly on the waiting sofa.

When they saw Dai Bowen and Shen Xiuyuan behind, they raised their eyebrows in unison, and the one on the sofa whistled a frivolous whistle.

Dai Bowen pointed at the two of them in an inelegant way: "Shut up! Shut up!"

The man leaning against the table shrugged his shoulders, and the assistant who was not stopped quickly stood up and chased after Dai Bowen with a stack of documents: "Mr. Dai, these are the documents you asked for earlier. Besides, Channel [-] has basically Through the program planning, Mr. Luke called, reminding you to remember the time to reply to the meeting."

While Dai Bowen stood still, the one on the sofa stood up and greeted Shen Xiuyuan: "Good afternoon, Mr. Shen."

It was the first time Shen Xiuyuan heard him speak E language, nodded and said: "Good afternoon, Mortis."

After Dai Bowen answered the question about the assistant, he turned his head and introduced the man standing by the table to Shen Xiuyuan: "Richard Frye, my manager."

Shen Xiuyuan shook hands with him: "Shen Xiuyuan, nice to meet you."

"Richard." The man shook hands and smiled back, "I've known you for a long time."

Shen Xiuyuan raised his eyebrows.He knew that the other party must be talking about sponsorship, but he just smiled, neither admitting nor denying it.

Dai Bowen said, "Let's go."

Shen Xiuyuan said "lend him to me" to Richard, and followed Dai Bowen into the office.

Richard and Mortis stared meaningfully at the office door as it closed.Mortis suddenly said, "What do you mean, a new sponsor is really coming?"

Richard glanced at him, turned and walked out.

Mortis followed him: "Hey!"

Dai Bowen let Shen Xiuyuan sit down first, and went to fiddle with the coffee machine by himself.

"Maybe you can start your topic." Dai Bowen said behind his back, "Explain, what does it mean 'may or may not be out of the system', huh?"

What Shen Xiuyuan responded was not an answer: "Channel [-]? Are you going to start a new program?"

"Perhaps, it's still under discussion." Dai Bowen took out two cups from the cabinet, rinsed them with hot water from the water dispenser, and then turned his head to glance at the other party, "Audiences like... exciting, you know."

"Yeah, 'exciting'." Shen Xiuyuan looked at him, "So playing zombie siege, and pointing guns at yourself and others, huh?"

Dai Bowen didn't look back: "I now believe that you are indeed my fan."

Shen Xiuyuan leaned on the armrest with his elbows: "Your missions are similar to your show, so maybe one day it will be 'Russian Roulette'?"

"Don't curse me." Dai Bowen walked back with two cups of coffee, "I don't expect to escape the second time."

Shen Xiuyuan smiled, did not refute, took the coffee and sniffed it in front of his nose: "Instant... I thought that coffee machine would be more capable?"

"At times like this, don't bother me." Dai Bowen sat next to Shen Xiuyuan, and took a sip slowly, "Whether you like it or not."

Shen Xiuyuan just had a cup in the coffee shop, and now he really doesn't have much interest in instant coffee.He took two sips politely, put down his glass, and looked at the man next to him: "I thought you would sit across the desk?"

"Sitting on the same side means closeness and standing on the side." Dai Bowen leaned back on the chair, hooked his fingers around the coffee cup and raised his feet, looking very relaxed. "It's boring to speak too clearly."

"Really?" Shen Xiuyuan smiled, pulled the chair, and got closer to Dai Bowen, "Do you know when was the last time I saw this trick?"

"Let's think about it, four or five years ago, a blind date." Shen Xiuyuan supported the armrest near Dai Bowen's side, his eyes were full of teasing, "During the second date, I stood up from the opposite side while ordering food, and then sat down next to me."

"Oh..." Dai Bowen took a sip of coffee, tilted his head and said, "She wants to catch you."

"... I guess." Shen Xiuyuan looked Dai Bowen up and down, his ambiguous eyes seemed to say "you too".

Dai Bowen raised his eyebrows: "Then I can ask you, why did you take the initiative to get closer to me?"

Shen Xiuyuan looked at him with great interest: "I will think whatever you think."

"..." Dai Bowen squinted his eyes and was silent for a long while, before finally putting down his coffee cup and sitting up slightly, "Hey, let's get to the point."

"Have you ever wondered what the world is like?"

This was Shen Xiuyuan's first sentence when he formally described the system.

This is also a question that most people have considered, more or less.On the stage of history, laws, theories and even hypotheses have been emerging one after another.People pursue the origin of life and establish the argument of the Big Bang, all of which are exploring the origin of the world.On the road of pursuing the truth, some people have become masters, and their experiments, arguments, or even conjectures have now become "truths" that can withstand thousands of trials.And more people can only be forgotten behind the smoke and dust by the wheel of history.

And Shen Xiuyuan said that the world—or everything in it—"may" be under the monitoring and influence of the "system".

Dai Bowen raised his eyebrows: "'Maybe'?"

Shen Xiuyuan showed a slight wry smile: "I forced the word, because I also think it's too ridiculous."

After completing seven tasks, Shen Xiuyuan's system did not send him back as cleanly as before, but took him into a void space.The reason why it is called "nothingness" is because there is nothing in this space, there is no green above and no yellow spring below.It was rare that Shen Xiuyuan could still see himself in the darkness.

The sound of the system no longer rings in the ears, but comes from all directions.

"Now I can answer your questions."

It sounded like a man's voice, but Shen Xiuyuan didn't have the heart to explore whether this thing was male or female. He just asked the most fundamental question: "What exactly is the TOTM system?"

The system's response to this is that it is a system that "urges the host to complete the set tasks", and has been rooted in the "program" of "finding the host and doing the task" since its birth—or a kind of thought. "TOTM" is not the real name of the system, nor does the system have a name.This is just a positioning name chosen to fit the world.

Although this time I did not directly reject the question with "the relevant permissions are not enabled", but in fact, it is almost the same as not saying it.Shen Xiuyuan realized that such a general question would be easily evaded by this cunning system, so after choosing a route, he continued to ask: "Then, why does the system need the host to do the task?"

The system's answer is simpler, because completing tasks can be exchanged for points.

"Points?" Shen Xiuyuan asked, "Does it mean the points obtained by the host?"

The system replies: "No, it's the points of the system."

"What does the system want points for?"

"upgrade."

"Wait..." Shen Xiuyuan found himself thrown into a vicious circle by the system, he had to jump out, "Who will give you points?"

"Main system."

found it.Shen Xiuyuan's eyes sharpened: "What is the main system?"

"...Relevant permissions are not enabled, please host to explore by yourself."

"..." Even Shen Xiuyuan, who was calm and calm, was speechless to ask the sky.It has come to the end, and it is still doing this, it seems that the system is clearly trying to fool people.

But Shen Xiuyuan really didn't want to let go of the clue of "main system". He thought for a while and changed the subject: "Why does the main system ask you to find the host to do the task?"

The main system doesn't need points, does it?

Sure enough, the system's answer changed: "In order to monitor, test, and promote the world's operation."

Shen Xiuyuan was taken aback when he heard the words, only to feel that the topic suddenly became very grand.He thought about the content of the system's sentence for a while, and asked carefully: "Does the 'world' in your sentence refer to the world in which you are performing the mission?"

"Yes."

"So all the tasks I do are affecting that 'world'?"

"Not necessarily." The system's explanation was finally a little more detailed. "Some tasks only intercept the world information for a certain period of time. After the host's task is completed, the information data for this period of time may be directly destroyed."

Shen Xiuyuan understood for a while, and asked back: "You mean, the system will refer to the real data of that world, copy an environment according to the time and space dimensions, and use it exclusively for tasks, and then destroy this environment, right?"

"uncertain."

"Not necessarily" again, Shen Xiuyuan continued to ask: "Is it not necessarily destroyed, or not necessarily rebuilt the environment."

"Not necessarily."

In other words, the behavior of the host may still affect the mission world?Wait, if you do the math, then...

"The world I was originally in is actually no different from these task worlds in essence?"

The system replied: "For the system, it's all the same."

Shen Xiuyuan paused, and before he had time to taste the shocking meaning, he asked: "So, my world is also a mission world? There are also foreign hosts performing missions?"

"Relevant permissions are not enabled, please host to explore by yourself."

He played tricks on key issues. If this system was an individual, Shen Xiuyuan might have strangled him.

"and many more."

Dai Bowen suddenly interrupted Shen Xiuyuan's narration.Hearing it now, he kind of recalled the other party's question about "what's going on in the world" before, and where did the complex emotions come from.

"You mean... we are also in the mission world here? We live in someone else's mission world?"

Shen Xiuyuan looked at Dai Bowen, who was rarely wide-eyed, and said slowly: "It's not that we live in the mission world, but that all worlds are the same to the system, and they all exist 'real'."