第56章

They kept me under surveillance for a while, making sure I wouldn’t expose their secrets. But without the nexus, without their crippled systems, their power was diminished.

Eventually, they let me go. With a warning to never speak of what I experienced.

I am back at school now. Life has returned to a semblance of normalcy. Graduated, got a job in a regular tech company. The unsettling symptoms have mostly disappeared. The severe headaches and disorientation are gone. The symbols haven't appeared since that night in the cavern.

But I am not the same person.

I still feel a faint hum in my ears sometimes, especially in crowded, electronically dense environments. And occasionally, in the corner of my eye, I see a fleeting shimmer, a distortion in the air, like a memory of the vortex, a reminder of the blurred lines between realities.

I never told anyone else the full story, not even 神棍. It’s too unbelievable, too terrifying. They wouldn’t understand.

I keep the black card hidden away. Or what’s left of it in my memory. I still study complex systems, network architecture, and the theoretical aspects of consciousness and reality. Not just for my job, but out of a deep-seated need to understand, to find answers to the questions that still haunt me.