Published at 8th of October 2024 3:02 am

Chapter 862: Warning, Warning, Must Watch!

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…If you were to look down from high above, what would the Orange Orchard look like? Would the forest, interspersed with round yellow spheres, resemble branches adorned with fruits?

If that were the case, then it must be a bountiful orchard. Walking together with Bohemia for about twenty to thirty minutes, Lin Sanjiu had already seen more than ten enormous oranges. The messages on the oranges varied, ranging from confusing, interesting, to eccentric, but she had yet to come across the words “Realm of Consciousness.”

“Trash is just trash,” Bohemia complained, her hand brushing aside a strand of brown, soft curls, revealing a pale neck. She wore an unhappy expression. “Those who can’t even enter the Realm of Consciousness dare to leave their experiences behind… They’re just occupying the space for no reason.”

Lin Sanjiu tightly pursed her lips and remained silent. Judging by that standard, she also belonged to the category of “trash.” Since Bohemia couldn’t find her target, she could only enter the Realm of Consciousness with Lin Sanjiu, a piece of “trash.” So, she wasn’t disappointed now; instead, she felt a little secretly pleased that her plan had succeeded.

“Why are you so quiet?” Bohemia spoke unhappily. If she didn’t speak, Bohemia seemed unhappy as well. “What are you scheming again?”

“…Not leaving behind the experience of the Realm of Consciousness doesn’t mean others can’t enter. Your logic is flawed.”

“Shut up!”

“I didn’t say anything just now. You forced me to speak. It’s really difficult to please you.”

As they bickered, the two of them walked deeper into the shade of the forest along another beaten path. It seemed there were no other posthumans in the other categorized zones. The only thing echoing in the woods was the angry scolding from Bohemia’s sharp voice. As they walked, she grew angrier, and a few times, if it weren’t for Lin Sanjiu’s reminders, she would have almost missed the oranges.

However, since Bohemia could focus all her thoughts on arguing, it seemed that the Orange Orchard was indeed not dangerous.

Watching her grumbling behind another orange, Lin Sanjiu stood in place and yawned. She had looked at so many oranges in a row that her eyes were tired. Moreover, she couldn’t tell from the message titles who had left them, so she had lost interest a long time ago.

“Are you watching?”

“Yes, yes,” she replied while studying the mask in her hand. Bohemia disliked it and didn’t allow her to wear it, making her feel uneasy with an empty face.

“Didn’t you see the Realm of Consciousness?”

“I can’t see clearly because of my nearsightedness.”

“You’re talking nonsense… Hey, what’s this?” The sudden change in tone from Bohemia caught Lin Sanjiu’s attention. She walked a few steps past the oranges and saw Bohemia staring upwards with her chin raised. The patterns on that piece of orange peel formed the words “Warning, warning, must watch!”

“It says ‘must watch’,” Lin Sanjiu pointed at it, “Don’t you want to go in and take a look?”

“You said you can’t see clearly!” Bohemia yelled at her, then turned and walked away, saying, “You can go if you want to watch, but I won’t!”

“Why?” Lin Sanjiu asked.

“Why would you go just because it says ‘must watch’? How can you be so easily deceived?”

… She really didn’t want to be called easily deceived.

“Wait,” Lin Sanjiu caught up with her and grabbed her sleeve—Bohemia always wore loose and flowing robes, making it easy to grab hold of her. “Are you mistaken?”

Bohemia shot her a disdainful glance, “What am I mistaken about?”

“You said these titles are generated by the orange peel based on their content, right? That means the duplicates think it’s necessary for us to watch this message, right?”

Bohemia opened her mouth, stunned for a moment.

“Of course I know that,” she forcefully shook off Lin Sanjiu’s hand and walked toward the other side of the orange, saying, “But I don’t have time. If you want to watch, you watch. Each message requires an exchange with another message. My experiences are not unlimited, so I don’t want to see everything I come across.”

Lin Sanjiu didn’t follow her. Instead, she turned her head and looked at that message again.

She was curious about the content of the message but was also worried that Bohemia might take the opportunity to run away. However, while she hesitated, Bohemia had already circled the orange and returned to her side, both of them looking up at the orange peel.

“Why don’t you go?” Bohemia seemed to be invested in it as well, unable to change her tune for the moment, urging Lin Sanjiu, “You haven’t left any messages in the orange garden, so you should have many experiences to exchange… What are you looking at? What does that smile mean?”

“It’s nothing,” Lin Sanjiu cleared her throat, “I just don’t quite understand what I should do.”

“Hey,” Bohemia suddenly perked up, hastily tying up her long hair and even gave Lin Sanjiu a rare smile. “I’ll go in and watch with you! But you’ll have to provide the exchange.”

So, two people can watch together… wait, go in?

“Let me explain clearly first. The orange can determine the value of the message. The higher the value of a message, the more times it can be viewed by people. The lower the value, the more likely it will disappear from the orange after one or two views. Every time you want to watch a message, you must provide a message of similar value.”

Bohemia took off her outer garment and rolled up her sleeves and pants, seemingly preparing herself for going “in.” Her slight movements made her numerous accessories jingle incessantly. It was hard to imagine how she managed to survive and fight with such a multitude of necklaces, bracelets, and anklets. “Of course, if the original owner of the message indicates that you can view the message, you don’t need to provide any message. Some people find a teacher, and that’s how they ‘attend classes.'”

Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help but think of Hei Zeji.

“Then… how do I give my message to it?”

“After we go in, the orange will collect it from you. At that time, you just need to go through the complete message you want to leave in your mind.” It was truly remarkable how natural and matter-of-fact such a strange thing sounded coming from Bohemia, who grew up in the Twelve Worlds. “Once the orange determines that the value of your message is sufficient, it will start the rehearsal for us.”

“I never thought I would ask this question,” Lin Sanjiu sighed, “Do we have to crawl inside the orange peel?”

“What else?” Bohemia glanced at her, her expression full of self-assuredness.

“…After you, please.”

Looking like an elf with golden-brown hair, the woman muttered something about a “narrow-minded person,” took a few steps back for a running start, and leaped onto the top of the orange.

Lin Sanjiu followed suit and landed beside her. It wasn’t clear when they were below, but only after climbing up did she notice that the top of the orange was different from a regular orange. There was a crack in the center of the peel, as thick as an arm. When she looked inside, she saw a swirling, molten golden-orange color, as if it had a life of its own.

Bohemia reached her hand into the crack, and the orange peel slowly expanded wider for the two of them. She turned around and called out, “Come on!” then grabbed Lin Sanjiu’s hand and pulled her in.

…No wonder this duplicate chose an orange as its representation.

As soon as Lin Sanjiu entered, she faintly understood something. The inside of the orange was divided into several spaces, just like orange segments, separated by the messages. Since they had chosen the same message, both of them had fallen into the same “segment” at this moment.

“Pay up,” Bohemia pointed to a yellowish-white core floating in front of them, about the size of a human head. “Just think about what you want to exchange in front of the core.”

Lin Sanjiu squeezed past her and turned her back, closing her eyes while facing the core.

She had confidence in the carefully selected experiences she had chosen for herself. She had been incredibly unlucky, so any random experience she picked would be a rare combat experience among the posthumans, let alone this one.

Sure enough, she passed the “exchange” almost immediately.

When Lin Sanjiu turned around, she found Bohemia staring at her.

“Did you hide something up your sleeve?” Bohemia muttered. “If I had just attacked your back, would my attack have been reflected?”

“Reflected?” Lin Sanjiu glanced at her. “How old are you? Don’t be silly. It seems like the rehearsal is about to begin.”

Before she could hear Bohemia’s retort, she suddenly felt a pull, and then she fell into a foggy environment. Immediately, she understood that she had been pulled into the scene of the rehearsal.

Before she could clearly see her surroundings, she “heard” a strange voice whispering beside her, “It’s been the seventeenth month, right?”

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