thefictionvixens Chapter 13 Fantastic Ideas
Chapter 13 Fantastic Ideas
Xu Mo glanced back at the glass door behind him, and his lips twitched again as he thought of the hair salon behind it. But then another idea popped into Xu Mo's mind, an idea that even gave him a sense of excitement.
Hurriedly returning to his temporary lodgings, Xu Mo placed a few melon seeds and snacks in a corner where supplies were piled up, not even bothering to organize them carefully. At that moment, all his attention was occupied by the audacious, almost absurd thought that had suddenly popped into his mind.
The thought was so sudden, yet it possessed a thrilling allure, making his heart pound and sending a shiver of excitement, anticipation, and a hint of uncertainty through his body.
He stood in the center of the room, his gaze seemingly able to penetrate the walls, landing once again on the glass door of the hair salon that left him somewhat speechless.
"Door type correspondence...door type correspondence..." Xu Mo repeatedly pondered these words, his eyes growing brighter and brighter. "If the form of the 'door' determines the spatial type connecting the world, then...what about the information attached to the 'door'? Will that static world also 'read' or 'map' the markings on the door?"
An extremely crazy hypothesis took shape in his mind:
If I artificially alter the "information" carried by this real-world door, will the corresponding static world behind the door also change accordingly?
For example, if you put a "warehouse" sign on an ordinary residential security door, will it actually turn into a warehouse the next time you open it?
This idea spread like wildfire through Xu Mo's mind, instantly igniting all his desire to explore. If this conjecture were true, it would mean he would no longer passively accept random locations, but would instead possess the ability to "customize" and scavenge environments to some extent! This would be a revolutionary boost to his cheat-like abilities!
Xu Mo immediately began searching. From the houses he had previously looted, he remembered finding some red plastic sheets with gold foil stamping used during the Lunar New Year. At the time, he thought they were useless, but he had simply stuffed them into a corner because of their bright color. Now, they had become key props for verifying this crazy conjecture.
He found the few pieces of red paper and returned to the glass door.
Sunlight shone on the stained glass, reflecting Xu Mo's face, which was somewhat tense yet incredibly focused. He stared at the door as if he were staring at a code entry point waiting to be rewritten.
After a moment of contemplation, Xu Mo made a decision.
"Got it!"
He cut the red plastic sheet into strips of varying thicknesses, and then, with extreme care, used transparent tape to piece these red strips together on the inside of the glass door.
Finally, four large, crooked but clearly legible red characters appeared on the inside of the glass door: "Welcome to Taste."
After doing all this, he took a few steps back and examined his "masterpiece".
The red lettering on the glass was very eye-catching. At this moment, anyone who saw this door would immediately think that it was a... small restaurant.
"If there are no conditions, then create them!" Xu Mo muttered to himself, repeating the words over and over, a smile of smugness and anticipation creeping onto his lips.
He couldn't be sure if it would work. What exactly were the operating rules of that static world? Did it merely map the physical form of the door, or would it also map these artificially added, superficial information? All of this was unknown.
But the mere act of "attempting" filled him with immense excitement. It was an action that transcended simple survival and plunder, imbued with exploration and creativity. He was no longer just an conformist to the rules, but was attempting to become a user of them, or even... a seeker of them.
He could almost see what would happen when the next countdown ended and he pushed the door open again—perhaps a small restaurant, or another random room, proving his attempt had failed.
But in any case, this anticipation of unknown possibilities was far more exciting for Xu Mo than simply acquiring some supplies.
He took one last deep look at the glass door that read "Welcome to Taste," as if trying to infuse it with his own will, before turning around and returning to his residence with an unprecedented sense of ease and anticipation.
The next forty-eight hours of waiting will no longer be boring, but full of suspense and imagination.
At this moment, Xu Mo had the same thought as when he was playing a game and exploiting a bug. The smugness and excitement of using loopholes in the rules to achieve results beyond the designer's expectations were almost identical. He felt as if he had become a hacker facing a complex program, having found a possible backdoor, and was cautiously entering the first line of tentative code.
However, he immediately dismissed the thought with a smile and a shake of his head.
"Bug exploit?" Xu Mo muttered to himself, his eyes then becoming clear and resolute.
"No, since I can use this phenomenon, it means that it is itself a part of the rules."
He recalled everything that had happened since he acquired this ability: time travel, frozen worlds, sixty-second time limits, forty-eight-hour cooldowns, door type compatibility... All of this was beyond common sense, a self-contained system of "rules" that he could not fully comprehend.
What Xu Mo is doing now is not exploiting loopholes, but rather conducting deeper exploration and testing on this unknown path. Just as scientists verify physical laws through experiments, he is verifying where the boundaries and variability of this set of "gate" rules lie.
The phrase "Welcome to try" was a cleverly designed experimental variable. He wanted to see how this "rule" would respond to the "additional information" carried by the door.
Having figured this out, the initial, simplistic excitement gradually subsided into a more substantial sense of mission and anticipation characteristic of an explorer. Xu Mo no longer felt like he was engaging in opportunistic behavior, but rather conducting a serious "rule study" concerning his future survival efficiency.
With this mix of rational analysis and surging anticipation, Xu Mo returned to his temporary lodgings. He carefully re-blocked the entrance with furniture, restoring the previous defensive posture. Although the town seemed deserted, basic vigilance could not be relaxed.
After doing all this, Xu Mo still felt his excitement was hard to completely subside, and a surge of energy urgently needed to be released. He walked to the center of the room and, without needing to consciously adjust, naturally assumed the stance for his stance training.
The most important thing in Zhan Zhuang (standing meditation) is to calm the mind. In the past, Xu Mo needed to constantly dispel distracting thoughts about survival, supplies, and zombies before he could slowly enter the state of meditation. But today, his mind was highly focused, and all his attention naturally converged on one thing—the glass door he had modified, and the unknown scene that might appear behind the door, changed by his will.
This intense, singular expectation became a peculiar "anchor," firmly anchoring his mind. He no longer pondered the aches and pains of his body, nor worried about the dangers of the future; all his thoughts seemed to transform into invisible tendrils, extending towards the unknown rules, carrying a yearning for exploration.
Sweat continued to pour down his face, and his muscles continued to tremble, but Xu Mo's endurance had unknowingly increased a little longer. Each breath seemed to be gathering strength, not only to forge his physique, but also to be in better condition to face the crucial "experiment" forty-eight hours later.
When Xu Mo finished his stance training and wiped the sweat from his brow, his eyes shone with an unprecedented light. It wasn't just a pursuit of improved strength, but also a firm will to actively explore and take control of his own destiny.
He looked out the window; the setting sun was slowly sinking behind the distant mountains. The answer would be revealed when the next countdown reached zero.