“How much do you know about love?” Miss F asked, “All your memories are fabricated. The person you love is fake too, and the feelings you have for them aren’t real. How can you really tell how it feels to love someone?”


  “This is basic human instinct. It has nothing to do with your memory,” Zhang Heng said.

  “This answer is too vague.” Miss F shook her head. “You don’t know Mr. G. I was left with no other options at that time, and he saved me. I told him that if he likes me, he can marry me, but he told me that there was no need to make a quick decision. He also mentioned that he did like me, but he didn’t want me to make this decision out of gratitude for him. And when I told him that I wanted to abandon the identity of Tang completely, he looked for a plastic surgeon to give me an ordinary face so I could live like a regular person. However, he still prefers my original face.

  “As the actual ruler of the first floor, he can get all kinds of women he wants. However, he chose to remain single all these years. I know he’s been waiting for me. I’m not sure if this could be considered love according to your definition, “Miss F asked rhetorically.

  “We talked about your love for him, not his love for you. Since you haven’t accepted his proposal all these years, why did you suddenly decide to engage him now?”


  “Because the war is coming. I don’t want to leave any regrets, whether mine or his.” Miss F pointed to a KTV not far away, “We have a common enemy. They are there right now. What I don’t understand is that you don’t look like a nosy person. Why are you so concerned about my love life?”


  “I might need your help on something important in the future. So, I need to figure out where you stand,” Zhang Heng said.

  “My stand? You want to know how obedient I am to Mr. G, right?”


  Zhang Heng did not deny it.

  “Once I give him the memory encoder, Mr. G will immediately perform the surgery on me as agreed and extract the tracking device under my cerebral cortex. I hope you will be there during the operation.”


  “You don’t trust Mr. G. Why?”


  “That’s not true. I just don’t trust politicians in general, no matter how righteous their slogans are,” Zhang Heng said.

  The drawback of the single-player game had finally shown itself in this quest.

  The operation of removing the tracking device required a craniotomy, which meant Zhang Heng would need to receive general anesthesia during the procedure. During that time, he would be unable to keep conscious. What was more troublesome was that this was a quest that allowed others to alter one’s memories. To make matters worse, Zhang Heng would be handing the memory encoder to Mr. G before his operation.

  If he played this quest with one more player, he could rely on his teammate to protect him while he was unconscious. But Zhang Heng’s problem was that he was alone now. In all the other previous dungeons, he could make up for the single-player mode’s caveats by his overwhelming strength and the extra time that he had every day. But this time, no matter how strong he was, once anesthetized, he would lose his consciousness. And that would make him no different from other ordinary people.

  Therefore, Zhang Heng needed to pick someone from this quest to protect himself. However, it was not easy to find someone that he could trust. First of all, the person had to be strong enough to protect him in the event of unexpected situations. Second, he had to make sure that Mr. G. could not buy over this person, which was the most important thing.

  For the second requirement, Zhang Heng had been searching for people he could rely on, and he discovered that very few fit the requirements he set. Mr. G’s fiancée, Miss F, was also a clone. And Zhang Heng realized that she sympathized with other clones. Hence, he considered her as someone that would stick to her principles.

  The only problem was that the identity of her fiancée, Mr. G. Zhang Heng wanted to know if Mr. G was capable of affecting her decision.

  “I can be by your side when you’re being operated on,” Miss F said. “I can understand your fears. There are many nights when I wake up suddenly and wonder if I’ve found my true self. Or, is this just another set of memories forced into my mind? So, you can count on me during your operation. I will make sure that no one will mess with your memory. I hope that you will stop commenting on my feelings. I have already made my choice.”


  “Sorry.” Zhang Heng apologized.

  Miss F accepted his apology.

  “Be prepared. I am not a lobbyist for Mr. G. For the thousands of our compatriots living in New Shanghai 0297, and for the people who were brought into this KTV, this transaction will determine if the clones could truly change their destiny.”


  “I’ll try my best.”
……

  Early the following day, Zhang Heng received an email from Old Man Geng, saying that he would arrange for him to have a meal with the supplier at noon. The latter could help Zhang Heng collect the shellac records after Old Man Geng left. So, Zhang Heng left the apartment after he finished his breakfast.

  Only Xu Qian was left in the apartment. She did not know what to do. Yesterday, she went to the first level with Zhang Heng. She thought she would never go back. Although Xu Qian had been saying that Zhang Heng’s speculation was nonsense, deep in her heart, she knew that Zhang Heng could be right. It was a terrifying feeling to find out that all traces of her life on the first level had been completely erased.

  In her final livestream that evening, Xu Qian did not announce her retirement to her fans as planned. Instead, she bit the bullet and did a regular stream. However, she seemed a little absent-minded. While she was chatting with her fans, she had been thinking about what Zhang Heng said to her. And she made a few jokes about him. One of the fans even said that she looked tennen-boke today.

  “You look so cute when you are not focused. That’s my girl,” someone said. And the atmosphere in the livestream became lively suddenly. After that, everyone started to talk about it.

  “She’s daydreaming. Let me use my pee to wake her up.”


  “Eat some peanuts too, don’t just drink.”


  In the past, Xu Qian would probably make a shy expression and ask for more gifts, but this time she just squeezed out a smile.

  The more well-known streamers needed to work hard to build and maintain their characters. It could help them increase the number of their fans and viewers. It was something that everyone would do in this line of work. In the past, Xu Qian never thought there was anything wrong with that. However, when she remembered Zhang Heng told her that she might be a clone, she stopped being her usual self. She could not help but think that other clones with different faces must also share the same personality.

  The more she thought about it, the more frightened she became. In the end, she ended the livestream one hour earlier. She still felt a little restless until the next morning. Then, she received an email.