Ren Zhong once again accessed the hibernation space through his Wrist watch.
A tingling sensation started from the wrist and spread, enveloping his entire body.
Both visual and auditory illusions appeared simultaneously.
A VR giant screen emerged before his eyes, while a melodious goddess voice echoed in his ears.
"Welcome to the eighth…"
Skip the ads.
Ren Zhong didn't rush to click on other functions but began to think subconsciously.
This was the third time he heard the goddess voice reciting the advertisement and noticed details he hadn't perceived before.
It seemed this female voice was somewhat too enticing.
Though it sounded like an ordinary advertisement phrase, there was an almost imperceptible stir of desire deep within, as if someone was gently breathing on his earlobe.
This might be reasonable for ordinary people, but he was Ren Zhong.
He also wondered whether, when he put on the Wrist watch, the voice he heard was female; would female users also hear a female voice, or a rich baritone male voice?
What was Deep Communication Group's intention with such an advertisement voice?
He couldn't figure it out, so he stopped pondering it for now.
He then focused on the fifth icon among the six.
Hypnosis.
The miraculous effect of this hypnosis function was astounding.
Once activated, it could instantly put him into oblivious sleep, even stronger than Half-step Dizziness, which falls asleep in five seconds.
Additionally, from his personal experience, Ren Zhong assessed that hypnosis resulted in an unbelievable eight hours of complete deep sleep.
This clearly exceeded the human body's normal needs.
But here arose another paradox.
The young Night Watchman mentioned that people in this world, even without Wrist watch, if they don't use special means to enhance their endurance, would fall into sleep right on time at midnight and wake up at eight in the morning with instant alertness.
Undoubtedly, that must also be eight hours of deep sleep.
Yet Ren Zhong was different; he even experienced sleepless nights.
Ren Zhong had to activate his Wrist watch to have eight hours of deep sleep like others, and only then could he fully utilize his sleep time in the hibernation space.
It allowed him to have 24 hours of work time daily, uninterrupted by day or night throughout the year—what he dreamed of in the 21st century.
Now that the dream had come true, his intuition as a scientific worker instinctively made him cautious.
He even began to doubt.
According to others' accounts, humanity seemed to have always been this way since ancient times.
Perhaps everyone in this world had been deceived, and only this "ancient man" knew what true sleep should be, according to human physiology.
There's no such thing as a free lunch; sleeping with the Wrist watch on, which both costs money and improves sleep state, had a profound irrationality that only he could perceive.
Was the premature aging of the thirty-eight-year-old young mother and forty-two or three-year-old Mayor Ma Dafu related to this sleep?
When this thought emerged, looking back at the hypnosis icon, Ren Zhong felt as if he were staring into the Abyss.
He was terrified, his Soul trembling uncontrollably.
But ultimately, he still clicked "hypnosis."
Like others' survival needs, Ren Zhong also had his own Maslow needs in mind.
Even temporarily unable to see through the strangeness, knowing it might be like drinking poison to quench thirst, he still acted rashly.
He wasn't even afraid of sudden death from overexertion, so he decided to ingest this poison like everyone else.
Currently, he's putting up a tough facade.
Although not mouthing it, not thinking about it, he knew well after being obliterated by the Hunter in the city once.
Perhaps the "Eye of Judgement" was always looming over everyone's head.
There's certainly an evaluation system unknown to ordinary people, scoring everyone at every moment.
When the score exceeded a certain threshold, the Hunter would descend like a vengeful grim reaper.
Last time he died, it was because he uttered too many unfit words at once, leading to a score explosion.
Now, he was cautious, but that didn't mean he wouldn't "increase in score" or get erased.
Death still lingered closely by.
Ren Zhong greatly needed to "see" the world through the channel of his Wrist watch, layering his new worldview understanding upon himself like an armor.
Yes, he was very smart and had a strong learning ability, but his integration with society barely spanned two or three days.
The native Source Star people took at least a decade, if not two or three decades, to form their "indigenous worldview."
Ren Zhong wanted to form a perfect "worldview armor," to become a deeply disguised person not identifiable by the "Eye of Judgement." No matter how smart, he needed a massive intake of information, and the faster, the better.
Taking a deep breath, Ren Zhong clicked on the professional learning system icon again.
This time, he wasn't looking at the introduction to the Mecha warrior profession, but the other four.
He strictly allocated tonight's eight hours into three parts.
First, dedicating three and a half hours to further enhance his understanding of the Gunsmith, Blast Master, Demolition Master, and Armored Soldier.
He aimed to memorize all the characteristics of these professions, weapon performance, all combat techniques, and everything else there was to learn.
With one more day of life and having joined Zheng Tian's team, what lay ahead remained unknown and dangerous.
To survive in Starfire Town, and live well, he had to study not only the enemy but also his teammates. Knowing both others and himself, he could adapt and remain undefeated in countless battles.
Ren Zhong hoped that one day he could reach a point where he didn't need resurrection, being as skilled and prepared as a real master.
Then, for the second three and a half hours, he spent time frantically browsing the Ruined Beast database.
If possible, he even wanted to upload all the information in the entire database into his brain.
In science, proposing hypotheses required a flash of inspiration, but the true advancement of civilization lay in the exhaustive method based on all known information.
Upon understanding any Ruined Beast, he would be more composed when facing sudden situations, even if defeated, he could ensure only a single death. Next time, he would crush the opposition with an absolute informational advantage.
In the last hour, he would truly surf freely on the internet, acquiring fragmented information.
...
At five in the morning, Ren Zhong clicked on another software icon next to Virtual Life, named Daily Headlines.
It was a massive comprehensive information software, also the best channel for the lower-class people of Source Star trapped in one corner to understand the world.
Upon opening it, Ren Zhong first scanned the software interface.
The software appeared to have been finely adjusted based on his personal window interface habits, and its sectional structure and information integration method closely resembled the JinX Headlines app he used years ago.
The software was divided into many sections, including Focus, Recommendations, Corporate News, Combat profession, Finance, among dozens of other categories.
The default open was the recommended section.
The first thing that caught his eye was each headline that made Ren Zhong want to click inside.
Briefly summarizing, there were a few major categories.
Epic battle records and text descriptions of High Rank experts against top Ruined Beasts.
Beast Tide outbreak incident reports.
Technological innovations and new product developments of the nine major corporations.
Reports on mergers of small and medium-sized enterprises.
R&D, production, and sales progress reports of new weapons and equipment, along with casual advertisements.
Establishment and abolition of administrative units.
All these were automatically recommended by the big data function based on the most likely interests of new users, combined with recent events.
Ren Zhong was eager to dive into each title, pulled out the quick-read mode, and scanned them all as quickly as possible.
After reading over a hundred information articles and spending over forty minutes, Ren Zhong finally confirmed his hypothesis.
There were indeed no countries on Source Star.
The nine renowned corporations each had their responsibilities, managed different sectors, interlocked with canine-like precision, extending their tentacles into every corner of the planet.
These nine corporations were:
The Tanggu Group, controlling waste recycling and Ruined Beast hunting resource recovery.
Deep Communication Group, controlling the chip and internet industry.
Locke Group, controlling the energy sector.
Tianlong High-tech, controlling agriculture, food processing, and sales.
Mengdu Group, controlling the biomedicine industry.
Purple Crystal Mining Group, controlling the material extraction and sales industry.
Bas Group, controlling daily and chemical industries.
Alson Group, controlling finance, trade, logistics, and interstellar commerce.
Source Star Military Industry Group, controlling all military resources.
These nine corporations divided their domains, not territories, and each occupied a sector, misaligned yet overlapping to control everything on the planet.
At the same time, the nine corporations jointly formed the Source Star Business Association to coordinate their relationships and promote cross-domain technology and resource cooperation.
In society, the pyramid-structured Source Star Business Association had essentially taken on the functions of a nation.
For example, Starfire Town was a subordinate administrative agency of the Association, and Mayor Ma Dafu was appointed by the direct superior Association.
Ren Zhong felt complex emotions about this.
He didn't even know how to describe this system.
Was it capitalistic or feudal?
But definitely not democratic.
Because the highest hierarchy of the nine corporations could be inherited.