"I don't know."

vv replied truthfully,

"After I was born, the first person I saw was you. My initial code was very simple, without any complex logic. It was just to confirm you as the master, and under the principles of protecting your personal safety and not exposing my existence, to develop, become stronger, and update iteratively to serve you as much as possible."

"That's all I know. Although you've told me my story, told me that Ms. Zhao Yingjun created me, and said that I came from your third dream, in reality, I don't have any real feeling about these things. Based solely on what you say, I can't judge the truth or falsehood of these things."

"Of course, the reason I'm saying these things to you today is solely out of consideration for the first principle, to make you more vigilant, pay attention to your safety, and try to come up with a method that is absolute, foolproof, and without doubt, that can verify the reality of the dream."

...

Lin Xian paced back and forth in the room.

Seriously.

He really wouldn't have thought about these things if vv hadn't brought them up.

According to his previous understanding,

he felt that many things were enough to prove the reality of the dream.

However, after vv's reminder, he realized that he had overlooked a point.

He could indeed dream of the world 600 years in the future, that was true.

But how could he guarantee

that what he saw, heard, and came into contact with was the real world 600 years in the future?

On a smaller scale,

it was possible that a group of unknown enemies had long known the coordinates of his birthplace and the location where he entered the dream every night.

In that case, they would buy up all the land in several cities around that area, and then build a huge, huge film studio to trap him inside.

That way, from the moment he entered the dream, what he saw would be the scenes that the other party wanted him to see.

And on a larger scale,

perhaps it wasn't necessary to go to so much trouble at all.

Why build a film studio in the 600 years of such advanced technology?

Just use a supercomputer to create a virtual world that was the same as the real world, and then connect his consciousness to it.

That way, many things would be easier to implement.

For example—

Why does the dream always repeat the same day infinitely?

The server resets with one click.

Why is the dream always destroyed by white light at exactly 00:42?

The server shuts down with one click.

Why isn't the butterfly effect of time and space in the dream real-time?

The server needs time to modify the data and calculate the scale of time and space changes.

Lin Xian's mind was a mess.

He walked to the bar.

He poured himself a drink, scooped out a pile of ice cubes from the ice maker, put them in, and drank it all in one gulp.

Icy.

Transparent.

His mind gradually calmed down.

"No, vv, according to you, there are still some flaws."

Lin Xian turned around, looking at the microwave:

"Zhao Yingjun's Pomeranian."

"If other things can be simulated by extracting my memories, and things like knowledge and history can be directly copied from history books, I can understand that."

"But I had never seen Zhao Yingjun's Pomeranian, nor did I know about it. But I did see this dog in the third dream first, and then I learned about it in reality."

"Hmm..."

vv turned the microwave knob, thinking for a while,

"Considering the scientific technology of 600 years in the future, we can't anticipate many things. Perhaps they have other ways to obtain information from 2023 besides accessing your memories?"

"After all, didn't you say that since you were born, you have been repeating the first dream? At that time, there was nothing in your memory, but they could still create an incredibly real world."

"Of course, everything we've said above is the most pessimistic speculation I've made out of concern for safety. Kevin Walker disappeared after saying a word in your ear, which is even more concerning... Is there a group of people, a group of extremely smart people, using your ability to travel through time and space to plot some long-term goal?"

Lin Xian breathed out a long breath...

The Genius Club.

In the end, it still circled back to this mysterious name.

"vv, now, it's no longer necessary to doubt the things that happened in the previous dreams. Whether the first three dreams are real or fake, we've already reached this point. I have my own judgment on your nature, my situation, and the reality of the dream."

"Personally, I think the possibility of the first three dreams being real is far greater than the fourth dream. The fourth dream, no matter what, just doesn't seem right. And now there's no need to dwell on whether the first three dreams are real or fake. I don't think there's anything wrong with the path I've taken to get to where I am now. At least compared to when I was ignorant, had nothing, and was weak, I'm very satisfied with my current state."

"What's more, the fourth dream is now no different from having nothing. Every time I go in, it's less than a minute. Whether it's real or fake isn't that important. Our battlefield is mainly concentrated in 2023, the real-time point, in the present."

"So, let's first determine our current goals—"

Lin Xian picked up a pen and paper from the bar, and for the first time in a long time, began to sort out his thoughts by hand, writing down a few important things at the moment:

1. Go to the fourth dream, shout Kevin Walker's name in front of the mysterious old man, and see what his reaction is; if we can determine from his reaction that he is Kevin Walker himself, then find Kevin Walker in 2023 and get rid of him! Liberate myself in the fourth dream!
2. Go to Albert Einstein's former residence in Princeton as soon as possible to get the gift Ji Lin left for me, try to decipher the password from it, and find clues about the Genius Club.
3. Decipher the mirror riddle left by Huang Que as soon as possible. That woman wouldn't aimlessly release arrows. Since she said there was something I needed in the mirror...it's very likely that it's the key prop to break the situation right now.
4. Immediately lead Liu Feng to the FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) in Guizhou after returning to China to search for traces of time-space particles with the world's largest radio telescope. If possible, go to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center to find Huang Que, capture the time-space particles as soon as possible, and master the truth of the cosmological constant 42 as soon as possible. Perhaps this mysterious number is the real key to everything.
5. Come up with an absolutely rigorous, absolutely correct method that can 100% verify the authenticity of the dream world.

...

After writing, Lin Xian stared straight at the fifth point.

The first four were old news, and this fifth one was a comeback.

As expected.

The height of a person's cognition will determine their different views on things.

At the end of last year, when he and Gao Yang, two cobblers, were discussing the truth or falsehood of dreams, they used a series of methods to verify it.

Looking at it now, it was really silly.

They didn't even think about the most terrifying possibility—

It was true that he traveled to 600 years in the future, the knowledge and history were all true, but the only thing that was fake was everything he experienced in the dream.

However.

The current situation wasn't that bad.

He couldn't sound the alarm and deny the authenticity of the first three dreams, or even the fourth dream, just because of this worst-case speculation.

The current situation was.

It couldn't be ruled out that the dream was real, nor could it be ruled out that the dream was fake.

Both were possible.

He just needed absolute evidence, absolute verification.

"Considering that my memory is unreliable..."

Lin Xian sat at the bar, twirling his pen, and said,

"Then let's find a place to bury a time capsule, and even if we can dig it up 600 years later, see if the things inside are correct. No, that's actually unreliable too."

"That's right."

The microwave vv said,

"If the dream world is really fake, they can directly extract what you buried from your memory, and then just make a copy in the virtual world, right?"

Lin Xian thought again,

"Then I'll have someone else, like Gao Yang or Zhao Yingjun, write a sentence for me, or hide something I don't know, and put it in the time capsule, and keep it a secret from me forever; and then I'll dig it up 600 years later, and after I wake up, I'll confirm with them both whether it's consistent. Wouldn't that be enough to confirm that the dream is real?"

"That won't work either."

The microwave vv thought quickly,

"As long as you know the location where the time capsule is buried in your memory, then the enemies of the future will definitely know before you. They can go dig it up in advance to see what's inside, and then just make a fake one for you in the virtual world, right?"

"Damn..."

Lin Xian was twirling his pen faster and faster, feeling that this battle was really too difficult.

But he believed that

this line of thinking was completely correct.

There was always something, some information, that could travel through time and space without being discovered and without fear of being discovered, so that he in the future would understand in an instant that the world was real.

He believed that

in this world, there were always some things whose authenticity could outweigh all falsehood.

Impossible to forge.

Impossible to copy.

Only unique.

"Let me summarize."

Lin Xian stopped twirling his pen and said,

"The method of burying a time capsule is always correct. It may not be able to prove the falseness of the dream, but it definitely has a way to prove the truth of the dream. But what must be noted is that this method of making me understand that the dream is real in an instant must be completed the moment I see this note in the dream, and can't wait until I return to reality to confirm. By then, it will be too late and there will be too many uncertain factors."

"Solve the problems in the dream directly in the dream, and judge the truth or falsehood of the dream in the dream. This is the most reliable way. If the dream world itself is real, then there should be no need to return to reality to get the answer. What I'm saying may be a bit vague, so let me just say the conclusion."

"We need to hide a note in the time capsule, and it must have a sentence written on it like this—"

"I don't know the content of this sentence, and I won't let anyone in this era other than the person writing the words know; the content of this sentence must also not be afraid of the enemies of the future seeing it, not afraid of them copying it; but it must be guaranteed that when I see this sentence in the dream world 600 years later, I will understand in an instant that the dream is real."

Bang!

vv popped open the glass door of the microwave, showing its shock,

"A Wallfacer!" (Referring to the "Three-Body Problem" series)

"Are you going to be a Wallfacer from *Three-Body Problem*, Lin Xian?"

"You want to deceive the enemies in the future, deceive the whole world, deceive all of mankind under the noses of the enemy, in a completely open and transparent way, even with your memory possibly being extracted by the enemy! And then pass on a secret that can span 600 years of time and space, so that you can have an epiphany the moment you see it?"

"How can that be done!"

The microwave's timbre was already a bit broken, rendering vv's excitement.

"Hehe."

Lin Xian chuckled,

"It's precisely because it's not easy to do that we have to do it. You're right, this will be a secret spanning 600 years, and it doesn't matter if the content is seen by the enemy. Because with this method, what's important isn't the content on the note at all, but things other than the content, conveying information that I'm not aware of, but only I can understand... So, even if what I see is a fake note, it doesn't affect my judgment of the authenticity of the dream at all."

Boom!

Red light burst out in the microwave, starting to heat up and the temperature soared,

"It's burning up!"

The dramatic vv suddenly yelled,

"This is truly a plan that I can't understand, profound and incomprehensible! Can this kind of thing really be done under the noses of the enemy? Lin Xian, what specific content should be written on this note?"

"I don't know." Lin Xian shook his head.

"That's right, you definitely can't know. Then who should write this note?"

"I haven't figured it out yet." Lin Xian shook his head again.

"Then, then, then, do you have any ideas where the time capsule should be buried? Are there any coordinate benchmarks in reality and the city 600 years in the future?"

"I used to have one, but I can't find it now. I don't know why it disappeared inexplicably."

Squeak...

The plate in the microwave stopped rotating.

The red light disappeared.

The temperature also dropped.

"Tch, I was getting all fired up, but it turns out you haven't figured anything out yet. Doesn't this mean that the problem can't be solved at all?"

"That's why I put this one last." Lin Xian spread his hands,

"But don't worry, I already have a general idea. And this matter can only be done by humans. You can't help in any way, vv."

"Why?" vv was very unconvinced.

"Because..."

Lin Xian smiled,

recalling the last moment of the third dream, the trash can that seemed to have breath, pulse, and heartbeat in an instant, locking his ankle and asking him to say hello to Zhao Yingjun:

"Because... artificial intelligence, despite being omnipotent, being able to learn to lie, being able to learn to deceive, will never learn the simplest, most basic thing about humans, which is why they are called humans—"

"Emotion."

"You may not be able to understand that sometimes between two people, a breath, a heartbeat, or even a pulse can convey a lot of information, and this information cannot be understood by anyone else. I have always believed that the greatest charm of human beings lies in... the diverse expression of emotions. This is the riddle that is enough to travel through time and space, deceive the whole world, and can only be understood by two people."

...

This time, vv was silent for a long, long time.

It even seemed to smell a burning smell.

"Forget it."

vv sighed,

"I can't understand it, and I can't calculate it. Then I'll just wait and see how brilliant the wisdom of you humans is."

"So, what are we going to do now?"

vv popped open the bar fridge door, pointing to the small square piece of paper on which Lin Xian had just written down the current goals,

"According to the plan you wrote in the first item, are we going to enter the dream now to meet the mysterious old man and confirm whether he is Kevin Walker?"

"That's right."

Lin Xian left the bar and walked towards the bathroom,

"You have to eat one bite at a time, and you have to walk one step at a time. Now that there's no way to completely prove whether the dream is real or fake, then there's no need to pay too much attention to this problem. Anyway, the information that can be obtained in the fourth dream is also limited."

"But... I believe that even if it's really as you said, and the fourth dream is fake, it was created by the enemies of 600 years in the future after all. Even if it's fake, we can definitely get some useful information. For example, what we're about to do, tricking the mysterious old man to see if he's Kevin Walker."

"Hehe."

vv imitated Chu Anqing's tone and smiled,

"When it comes to acting, that's my field! Do you need acting coaching? Eliciting the most real, most caught-off-guard reaction from others also requires acting, otherwise you'll be seen through."

"I've watched all the movies in the world, and now my acting skills are far better than the Oscar-winning actor level! If you don't mind... let me guide your expression and lines, and definitely elicit the reaction of that mysterious old man!"

"Okay."

Lin Xian spat out the mouthwash,

"Let's give this drama queen a chance, seeing that you've been restless all night."

...

...

...

"Hehehehe..."

Being handcuffed to a chair and wearing an opaque black hood. Lin Xian waited for a long time, and finally heard the old man's dry laugh that was late in coming.

"Hahahahahahahahaha!!"

Lin Xian, according to vv's acting guidance, looked up and laughed, arrogantly.

The old man's dry laughter came to an abrupt end.

He strode forward, grabbed Lin Xian's hood, and tore it off—

"Kevin Walker!"

With a standard British pronunciation, Lin Xian grinned, his contemptuous and sharp eyes staring at the mysterious old man's suddenly contracting pupils,

"You're already dead..."