Lin Xun looked back the way he came.
As expected, the dim aisle had been blocked, and a basement door like all the others had appeared suddenly.
Eight doors surrounded him, forming a smaller space within the entire space. A dim light bulb on the concrete ceiling flashed and then went out completely.
The flashlight of his phone turned on automatically, and Lin Xun illuminated the number on the doors. The basement within these communities all had six–digit numbers as markers. Although the numbers displayed at the moment were also six-digits, their format was obviously wrong.
101010, 111010, 110101…
The combination of 0s and 1s, this was the binary system.
The binary system, it’s a base-2 numerical system, there are eight doors, two to the eighth power, 256.
Lin Xun flicked through the information in his mind. He looked around and suddenly noticed that a black mist hung in the air, spreading across the entire space.
In this kind of situation, a black mist would always be full of malice.
Perhaps this was the devilish Qi that the elders mentioned. The out of order compass, and the malfunctioning signal reception, were an indication that the intruding devilish Qi had already affected the actual world at this very moment.
The underground parking network connected the whole basement system within Chaoyang community. If the devilish Qi originated from the basement system, they could indeed spread to the entire Chaoyang community…With this in mind, it was understandable that Xiao Xiao and her family, who are currently living in the basement, was seriously affected by the devilish Qi.
At the same time, he felt a trace of blood in his throat, he was under heavy pressure, and the interval between his breaths gradually became shorter.
Considering his current predicament, he decisively cut off his own net, and then he felt relax.
He walked to a door.
110101, when converted, it’s 53. Dong Jun’s birthday was 5.3; he thought this was a pleasant number.
He came to this door without much hesitation. A layer of ash fell from the rusted door handle, seeming as if it was left unattended all year round.
The same rusty door shaft turned, and the iron door opened with a creak, breaking the complete silence enveloping the space.
Lin Xun, “…”
White walls, gray concrete floors, dim lights, black air, and an extremely depressing atmosphere.
The door opened to a blank wall directly ahead, and two other doors occupied the walls on either side, one on the left and another on the right.
The binary code on the two doors had one more digit. One had 0 as the last digit, while the other had 1.
He pushed the door leading to room 1101011.
Thick black mist, accompanied by a chilly wind, swept toward him and felt as if a large cloud of ink splashed onto his face.
Lin Xun closed his eyes instinctively, the cold wind passed through his body, and then pounced on him again. After a few more times, the black mist seemed to give up on attacking him and drifted towards another direction.
——Was this a devil?
Lin Xun thought, without a doubt, that if an ordinary person were standing there, the black mist would have already possessed them.
However, he was now in a disconnected state and was immune to all attacks.
——As the black mist left, and his vision cleared, a space almost identical to the one earlier appeared in front of him, and the binary code marking the door increased by another digit.
Lin Xun took a deep breath but didn’t go inside.
There are three types of mathematical reasoning—inductive, abductive, and deductive.
If you use the simplest logic to assess the current situation, you can predict that there will be two doors behind any door. Each time you open a door and keep moving forward, and the binary code on the doors will extend by one digit in each instance.
It felt like…computer theory projected into reality.
Because the lowest level of mathematical operations and calculations are implemented by the computer using binary.
Assuming Lin Xun has unlimited time to shuttle through this computer system, and if these basement rooms are endless, then he can walk to any door and navigate all binary commands.
The basement was underground. If his movement below ground was equivalent to an equidistant displacement aboveground, then in theory, he could also come to any location in the world through these rooms.
So, how should he get out?
Lin Xun had very little knowledge when it came to bottom-layer computer languages. In fact, his expertise lies in designing and optimizing algorithms using structured programming languages.
He began to recall all the relevant knowledge he had mastered. After about ten minutes, he felt that his behavior was a bit ridiculous.
——You are actually trying to use your computer knowledge to escape from the cracks between the human and the demon world.
But after thinking about it, the cracks in the boundary between the two worlds can be represented in this way, and there is nothing wrong with using computer knowledge to solve his current predicament.
But he still had no clue.
The thirty percent remaining of his phone’s battery power might not last until he gets out of the basement.
Before his phone stopped receiving any signal, Luo Shen sent out his geographic location according to previous orders; the only problem was that the elders might not know that he was underground.
Moreover, he hadn’t had dinner yet, and now was vaguely hungry.
He originally thought that disconnecting the Internet would guarantee his absolute safety, but now, Lin Xun thought it was an epic mistake. It seemed that there was still a possibility of being trapped to death.
At this time, the mechanical voice suddenly sounded in his head.
“The environment is abnormal, and the skill ‘Sky Eye Technique’ has been passively activated. Please pay attention to safety.”
A stream of heat rose and drifted over his eyes; a faintly colorful flash appeared, and Lin Xun’s vision became foggy. After about five minutes, the mist and the heat dissipated, and his vision returned to normal.
——At first, Lin Xun didn’t notice any significant changes and seemed as if nothing had changed. However, when he focused his vision in the next moment, the world in front of him had been deconstructed. A layer of illusory code rose before his eyes; it was complicated and densely-packed with thousands of lines of code.
What exactly was written, Lin Xun couldn’t understand for a while, but he thought it was very similar to the Linux source code. Linux is an open source operating system with a high degree of freedom. Its kernel is written in C language and has a wide range of applications. Even mainstream supercomputers are equipped with Linux clusters.
“System.” Lin Xun said amidst the silence, “May I have a hint? I think I’ll die here.”
The system was silent.
Lin Xun tried to open a few more doors, and the code updated accordingly.
Lin Xun, “Or should I just delete the library and run away?”
He picked up the keyboard as he said, “It’s easy to destroy the Linux system. Do I have root privileges? No… Then I might also be affected.”
The system was still silent.
Lin Xun gave up talking to the system and looked at the code blankly.
At this moment, he thought of a plot that would appear in many martial arts novels.
The protagonist is trapped in a room full of books and must learn all the knowledge written in these books before he can come out. After he accomplishes this, he will become the number one in the world when he gets out.
Should he start learning code? After committing these to memory, will he become the best in the world among programmers?
If it was true, then he was willing.
However, it was unrealistic. He was a little hungry now and felt very cold.
Lin Xun cheered up and began to read the code carefully from the first line.
A roar sounded the next second, then the ground under his feet trembled violently!
Lin Xun leaned against the wall to stand steadily, silently feeling the movement of the room and the law of rearrangement and combination.
After a round of earthquakes, he did not know where the room had moved, and the door number also changed unnoticed. He felt that he had become completely lost in this basement maze.
Lin Xun took a few deep breaths, continued to lean against the wall, and told himself to calm down.
There was no problem in the world that Lin Suanfa cannot solve. If there was, it’s probably because there was not enough time.
This was exactly the case. He already had a vague idea in his mind, but he needed more evidence.
Lin Xun turned on the phone and started timing. If the earthquake interval was regular, the rearrangement of the room would provide him with a lot of information.
Lin Xun hoped he can find clues before the phone ran out of battery.
Ten minutes.
Twenty minutes.
Half an hour.
It seemed that the remaining battery power of his phone wouldn’t last until he figured out how to get out of his current predicament. So, in order to save energy, he first turned off the flashlight.
In the darkness, he felt a vague vibration again.
Dust fell from the ceiling, and Lin Xun stood firmly against the wall, preparing to face the gust of wind.
This time, however, the vibration was interrupted halfway – lightly vibrating a few times before ceasing abruptly.
Lin Xun’s thoughts were instantly messed up.
Suddenly a distant sound broke through the surrounding silence.
“Meow…”
Lin Xun was shocked.
The milky meow, why did it sound like his Pointer?
He suspected that he had heard it wrong, but a few seconds later, the same cat meow sounded again, and it was much clearer.
Lin Xun, “Pointer?”
“Meow.”
The meowing sound became much more distinct. Three minutes later, Lin Xun heard it clearly – the light, almost non-existent footsteps unique to cats.
He turned on the flashlight, and the next moment, a white figure rushed out from the nearest door.
It was a fluffy white cat with blue eyes; this was Pointer, no doubt.
——The Pointer without the programming interface.
Lin Xun, “Why are you here?”
Pointer meowed shortly and turned to the other direction.
Lin Xun followed.
Pointer barely stayed in the room before running to another door the next moment.
At first, Lin Xun still tried to remember the order of the door numbers, but Pointer ran faster and faster; he had no time to look at that numbers and could only follow quickly.
With the twists and turns in the maze, the devilish Qi became weaker and weaker, and Pointer also started to slow down a bit.
They arrived in front of door that was closed and only had one number—0.
Pointer flicked its tail.
Lin Xun stepped forward, twisted the door handle and went out.
His eyes flashed, and the scene in front of him suddenly turned into a normal basement corridor, and even the lights of Xiao Xiao’s home were not far away.
He looked behind him and saw that the door was gone, a dark passage with no lights was suddenly in its place.
The signal reception also returned to normal. His hands were shaking a little; just as he was about to make a call, he heard the ding of the elevator not far away. There was a clatter of footsteps, and a group of people hurried over. Huo Qingshan led a group of cultivators, with Master Wanchan walking next to him, along with Chang Ji and Xiaoyao Zi.
Huo Qing shan’s beard was shaking. “You…”
Master Wanchan chanted Amitabha Buddha, “Amitabha Buddha, there is no way to return from the abyss of ten thousand meters, fortunately, you have not entered the crack in the devil world.”
Pointer circled around his feet, Lin Xun knew what it meant and picked it up.
He sent the cat to Huo Qingshan. “Master, you are so knowledgeable, can you see what kind of mythical creature this is?”
Huo Qingshan frowned and looked at Pointer. “Just a cat.”
Lin Xun turned the cat around and let it face him.
Pointer blinked; its pupils turned into vertical slits under the light, and the color was a little cold, but because of its unusual beauty, it always looked innocent.
Lin Xun, “Are you a little liar?”
Several elders arrived and used their own powers to bridge the crack in the boundary between worlds.
Lin Xun’s cultivation was still insufficient and he was not yet at a level where he could use spiritual power, so he was asked to stay back and was not included among the group who came to repair the crack.
He stepped back and examined Pointer.
Finally, he picked up the phone and switched to the chat interface with Dong Jun. “Now I have to file a complaint.”
Pointer meowed, and lightly stepped on his arm a few times.
Lin Xun ignored it.
He edited a message and sent it to Dong Jun.
A happy pointer: Do you believe in things that science cannot explain?
Dong Jun’s reply came quickly.
Dong Jun: I am a materialist.
A happy pointer: Do you believe in cultivating immortality?
Dong Jun: Are you going to stay up late*?
*sometimes we use cultivation as a joke to refer to staying up late. That’s because the probability of a sudden death becomes higher if you always stay up late. And saying cultivating into immortals, in other aspects, is to die in the human world but step into the immortal world.
But if someone jokes like this, that proves that he/she is really a materialist.*
Lin Xun looked at the chat interface, and then at Pointer’s innocent eyes, feeling deeply confused.
Pointer seemed to know nothing, and even lay down on his chest.