Chapter 362: The Secret of 3911 (Part 3)

Question marks appeared over the heads of Jiang Ran, Sang Biao, and Fatty, then simultaneously turned into exclamation points!

This…

Such a quirky train of thought.

Only Cheng Mengxue would think of something like this.

But she wasn’t wrong! Although there were no other witnesses to Mr. Pompey’s visit here before his suicide, the Rhine Cats in the amusement park were here day in and day out, waiting for visitors.

If Mr. Pompey had really come here three years ago, the Rhine Cats would definitely remember!

To put it bluntly, Jiang Ran and the others had missed this blind spot because they hadn’t really thought of the Rhine Cats as people. But Cheng Mengxue was different. In her heart and in her subconscious, the Rhine Cats were the cutest, most wonderful, and kindest friends in the world, so her first thought was to ask them.

Jiang Ran hurried forward and took one of the Rhine Cat’s soft, fluffy paws.

“Hello, excuse me, but did Mr. Pompey come here about three years ago, on September 16, 2042?”

“He did, meow!”

The big-headed Rhine Cat told them everything it knew.

“Mr. Pompey came to the amusement park, but he didn’t go on any of the rides. He walked straight to this silver gate, sat on that big mushroom, and stared into space for a long time. He even muttered to himself, facing the silver gate.”

‘Muttering to himself?’

“What did he say?”

Jiang Ran quickly pressed.

“Can you tell us what Mr. Pompey was muttering to himself back then?”

The big-headed Rhine Cat nodded, turned around, and cupped its paws around its mouth like a megaphone, shouting:

“Where’s Photographer Meow! Where’s Photographer Meow!”

The other Rhine Cats also turned and shouted toward the amusement park:

“Photographer Meow! Photographer Meow, come on out!”

“Where’s Photographer Meow?”

“MEOW MEOW MEOW!”

Suddenly, a Rhine Cat wearing a pair of huge sunglasses came sprinting over from the distance.

“Photographer Meow is here! Photographer Meow is here!”

After a brief, meowing negotiation, this Photographer Meow understood what Jiang Ran and his group wanted to see.

“No problem, meow! A dedicated Photographer Meow records every visitor’s fun moments! I don’t miss a single highlight, not for a second!”

With that, it waddled its plump, cat-like body and led the group outside the silver gate, pointing to a large, half-human-sized mushroom nearby.

“On September 16, 2042, Mr. Pompey sat right here. He hung his head and looked very sad, and he didn’t say anything for a long, long time.”

“It wasn’t until the very end, just before he left, that he finally lifted his head and started muttering to himself while looking at the silver gate… I recorded all of it. Do you want to see?”

Everyone nodded.

“Alrighty then!”

Photographer Meow gave a lopsided grin and took off the absurdly large sunglasses on its face.

“Then this highly-skilled Photographer Meow will play it for you right now!”

As it spoke, it tossed the sunglasses behind its head, then used a paw to pull back its right eyelid, fully exposing the pupil.

The next second…

A cone of light shot out from its right eye like a projector. The beam hit the area around the mushroom decoration, and a translucent human figure appeared there.

‘So that’s how it works.’

Jiang Ran watched with great interest.

‘Looks like this Photographer Meow’s left eye is a video camera and its right eye is a projector… and a very advanced holographic one at that. It’s like playing an immersive movie, projecting a one-to-one recreation of Mr. Pompey’s visit from three years ago onto the mushroom decoration.’

“So high-tech…”

Cheng Mengxue, still perched atop the big-headed Rhine Cat, couldn’t help but marvel.

At this point, Photographer Meow had gone into full projection mode. It fell silent, concentrating on replaying the footage it had recorded three years ago, perfectly intact, in its original location.

Jiang Ran moved a little closer to get a good look at Mr. Pompey’s appearance.

He was an elderly man, visibly frail and worn down. No wonder there were so few photos of Mr. Pompey in his later years at the library.

Because… his condition was truly terrible.

Under the effects of years of severe depression, his entire being exuded an age far beyond his years. His eyes were dim and lifeless, filled with despair.

Even though this was a recording from three years ago,

even though Mr. Pompey was just a translucent, spectral image,

Jiang Ran could still feel the sorrow and regret pouring out of him.

Finally, the world-weary old man slowly raised his head, stared at the silver gate before him, and began to speak.

“I am… a sinner against human civilization.”

His words were steeped in deep despair, frail and powerless.

He was muttering to himself in the empty amusement park, yet it was as if he were speaking to the slumbering Cheng Mengxue behind the gate, to the very foundation of the Virtual World.

“I tried to give people hope, tried to build a better future, but I never imagined… that I would be the one to destroy it all with my own hands.”

Jiang Ran narrowed his eyes, listening quietly.

“These words, these matters… I can never tell anyone. It would throw the entire world into chaos and collapse… Only here, only in this place, can I vent a little.”

Mr. Pompey lowered his head.

“The truth is, I hesitated for a long time about the Great Catastrophe of 2028. By the end, I no longer wanted to trigger it.”

“I wanted to try a gentler, more acceptable way to get humanity to choose Consciousness Upload and enter the Virtual Digital World.”

“But… I gradually discovered… ‘I can’t control my own thoughts.'”

“I couldn’t control it. The Great Catastrophe happened anyway. Everything went as I had predicted: the Earth became uninhabitable, and people abandoned their physical bodies to live in the Digital World.”

“The process was cruel, but the outcome was ultimately good. People were very satisfied with life in the Digital World. Not only did technology develop rapidly, but the form of civilization itself began to evolve into new realms.”

“At first, I was thrilled too. It was as if I could see the ultimate ascent of human civilization 30,000 years in the future—liberated from the shackles of flesh and blood, embarking on a cosmic journey in a new form.”