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Back to the Digital City...

Chen Qing returned to his room once more and fell into deep thought.

He had speculated about the various bargaining chips of the other party, but he never imagined they could actually allow him to return to his original world.

To go back...

When he heard the conditions offered by the other side, his heart nearly leapt out of his throat!

He had never thought since he was five years old... that one day he might be able to return...

But the trembling excitement didn’t last long, for Chen Qing was a calm person, and he quickly recovered from his emotional state.

Let alone whether the offer to send him back was a trap, even if he could return, was the world he yearned for still the same as before?

Would there be TikTok and Huabei?

Would there be fat otaku drinks and grilled kidney skewers?

Would there be the group of colleagues with whom he had once discussed game content in the office?

Would his close friends still be there, with whom he would mock each other while eating skewers and drinking?

No... that world... had nothing left.

So why return?

Did he own nothing in this world?

That wasn’t the case, right?

There was his dear mother, who truly cared for him, although he didn’t know which damn player she was.

There were friends who had been through life and death with him, though he didn’t know if Wang Ye might suddenly stab him in the back one day.

There were billions of people who adored him, although he didn’t know if they would riot and spit on him the moment his true identity was revealed. ..

But everything he worked for in this world was still here, whereas in that other world... everything he had once strived for was gone, turned to dust.

After calming down, Chen Qing suddenly didn’t want to go back, even fearing it, afraid to see that everything he had longed for had disappeared long ago.

However, he knew he had to return.

Just as Jiang Xiaoling had said, his arrival here was no coincidence, and it was highly likely, just as the other party had speculated, that some powerful figure had concealed the information about his data upload and had quietly included him in the Correctors Project from twenty years ago.

As for why he was born decades after everyone else, it’s feasible to infer from the time difference between this world and the real world. After all, as a Corrector, Ali had lived for hundreds of years already.

It’s even possible that he had died once when he first arrived and lost some of his memories. Otherwise, how to explain... he had no recollection of his previous life?

About this point, Chen Qing also felt puzzled, as he clearly remembered he was Pu YunChuan, even recalling all the details of the demons in this world, proving his memory wasn’t incomplete. But he could not recall anything after becoming a digital life form, not even his early death from cancer...

Wasn’t this memory cutoff a bit too clever?

But no matter what, removing the so-called disassembly program from his body, or to be precise, confirming whether it really existed, was of utmost importance...

Now that the Federation had decided to fully reboot this project, his kind of existence couldn’t remain hidden for long. Once the person who had secretly brought him here noticed the value he had created, they would surely try to control him immediately.

The key question was, how could he determine whether what they were saying was true or false?

And how could he ensure that after returning with them, they would remove the hidden program in his body instead of installing a new one?

The technology of Digital City was overwhelmingly superior to his own; how could he ensure all of this without knowing anything?

--------------------------------------

"Is this really feasible?"

In the operation room, Wu Xiaoli looked hesitantly at the technical expert.

"There is a certain feasibility..." The expert also seemed somewhat excited, clearly thrilled to be involved in a plan of this scale, and to be the one proactively scheming against such a critical data entity no less.

"If our intelligence is good, that Chen Qing should be completely unaware of us here. Of course, he also won’t know how powerful he will become after arriving in this world."

"As long as we manage to control him from the very beginning and install our disintegration program into him, then we can completely take control of this most valuable piece!"

"This..." Wu Xiaoli turned to Elder Zhang. While the plan sounded good, the risks were incredibly high. Don’t be fooled by Chen Qing’s dominance in the second version, any ancient player could easily suppress him, but estimating his data volume, if he were to emerge now, he could hold down all the big shots of Digital City.

It’s essentially like bringing a superhuman back from a parallel world!

"Don’t worry about that, technically speaking, we can bind him to the transmission channel of that world. If anything goes wrong, we can send him back at any time."

"Is that possible?" Wu Xiaoli’s eyes lit up.

"If we act quickly, it is feasible. However, the specific implementation still needs to be further experimented with." The expert rubbed his hands and said, "So we need to buy some time."

Upon hearing this, Wu Xiaoli looked at Elder Zhang.

After pondering for a moment, Elder Zhang looked up and said, "Let’s negotiate terms with him first. We need to get some capital out of him.

I believe he will have concerns and definitely will hesitate.

.." He turned his head to the expert, "Professor Zhu, time is of the essence.

Arrange the experiments immediately, please. "

"Certainly, certainly!"

Wu Xiaoli paused, seeing that Elder Zhang was intent on conquering this world, no matter how great the risk. It seemed nothing would deter his determination.

Hopefully, Heaven bless Huazhong.

"Regarding negotiations, what kind of leverage should we aim for?" Wu Xiaoli asked for advice.

"It should be something substantial, yet reasonable to demand," Elder Zhang thought for a moment and said, "The Divine Path System is very unique—at the same level as a main god, one could control all deities and armies. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense for our forces to join the reincarnation cycle of the Divine Path System, and become a part of the Warrior Army. "

"Because the power of faith is allocated by the main god, there’s no possibility of rebellion beneath that. Even if Chen Qing were controlled by us, we cannot allow our military might to be manipulated by him."

Wu Xiaoli nodded. Indeed, it was not feasible to give an outsider total control.

"But there’s a place that’s perfect for us to start infiltrating right now."

"Which place?" Wu Xiaoli was momentarily stunned.

"Jiangnan Academy!"

"Oh?" As the project leader, Wu Xiaoli nearly grasped the implication instantly, her eyes sparkling with realization.

Yes, Jiangnan Academy!

Although Jiang Xiaoling was young, over the past few years, she had uncovered a lot of information about Jiangnan for them.

Mainly because Jiangnan was too ostentatious and eye-catching.

The rise of Jiangnan nowadays could be attributed to two things: the almost perfect soldiers and officers under the Divine Path System and.

.. the Jiangnan Sorcerer Academy, which had inherited the ancient technology of Dragon Palace!

Those Academy Sorcerers held high positions in Jiangnan, and importantly, after inheriting the ancient legacy, their potential for growth was remarkable.

In the second version, the Dragon Palace was one of the top powers.

If they could fully master the techniques of the Dragon Palace, it meant they would control the key forces when the second version was fully launched!

Moreover, according to the data, the foundation of learning Dragon Palace’s legacy was engineering science. Considering this, could ancient people keep up with the million engineers they had trained?

Joking aside, these kids were highly driven these days, with general high school specializations dividing them, and any who didn’t want to be a dropout needed scores above six hundred, with no less than one hundred and twenty in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

Unless they scored that high, there was no chance for further studies.

The scientific talents rolled out from such an environment, once placed in ancient times, wouldn’t they dominate?

Thinking this, Wu Xiaoli looked toward him with a trace of reverence in her gaze. Although Elder Zhang was extremely self-interested, his strategic vision was indeed masterful. But of course, an elder who had controlled the Zhuxian World for so many years couldn’t possibly be mediocre.

"Will Chen Qing agree?" Jiang Xiaoling voiced the only hesitation.

Within the Jiangnan forces, the Jiangnan Academy played a pivotal role. It was Chen Qing’s best tool for inheriting ancient powers. Once the Federation’s people were inserted there, his power would no longer be pure...

Would he agree to it?