Chapter 151: The Substitute

The next morning, Fan Bei was visited by Lin Xiaolv and Lin Xiaohong, who brought him shocking news.

Lin Zhongshi had suddenly disappeared from his study just last night.

Indeed, the Wan Shi Business Association had a local network surveillance system, a standard precaution against apocalyptic events.

The entire process of Lin Zhongshi’s disappearance was faithfully recorded by the surveillance cameras.

However, due to manpower shortages, the monitoring room was not staffed around the clock. It was only this morning, when people couldn’t find Lin Zhongshi, that they reviewed the footage and discovered the bizarre scene.

Fan Bei understood the situation; manpower shortages were common everywhere.

Inwardly, he wondered: could the enemy have already arrived?

But why hadn’t they struck with overwhelming force? Why target Lin Zhongshi specifically?

Perhaps they wanted to probe Lin Zhongqing’s true abilities first before making their move. That seemed quite plausible. After all, Lin Zhongqing’s sudden rise was highly unusual. Any intelligent adversary would investigate the situation first.

He exhaled deeply; danger was approaching unnoticed.

Where exactly Lin Zhongshi had gone remained unknown. The only clue was that the circumstances of his departure were identical to when he entered the spiritual realm.

Earth corresponded to a spiritual island in that realm. To determine Lin Zhongshi’s destination, further investigation was necessary.

So, he reassured the two women, “Don’t worry. I will enter the spiritual realm to investigate and give you an answer.”

Lin Xiaolv immediately expressed concern, “Isn’t that too dangerous? Brother Shi has always been incredibly lucky and should be fine. It would be terrible if anything happened to Brother Fan because of this.”

Fan Bei felt a flicker of comfort. Indeed, anyone who could be friends with Dabai couldn’t be truly bad. Just like Xiaobai, though somewhat self-righteous, had never done anything truly evil.

“We should ask President Lin’s sister for help. After all, she’s entered the spiritual realm many times,” Lin Xiaohong adjusted her glasses and said seriously.

“All right, let’s tackle this from two angles. I’ll also think of other methods,” Fan Bei said, sending the two women away and sinking into thought.

He had to venture in and uncover the truth. This time it was Lin Zhongshi, but next time it could be him.

Nothing was impossible. When you feared something bad might happen, it was bound to happen.

Sitting in his study, Fan Bei pondered for a while before opening “The Father of Systems,” focusing on the last two systems.

But Lin Xiaolv was right; diving straight into the spiritual realm was far too dangerous.

Previously, his visits were rehearsals for escape routes. Now, entering that realm meant facing the mysterious entity that had taken Lin Zhongshi.

Clearly, this presence was far stronger than the exiles, who couldn’t achieve such feats.

The risks were entirely different. Before, he avoided dangerous areas; now, he had to approach them deliberately to scout.

Naturally, he wished to avoid confronting such an entity directly, as even a glance could mean sudden death.

At that moment, he thought of Dongfang Yitong and smiled faintly.

Three days later, his fifth system was completed.

“The Substitute System. A fully modular equipment system, centered on Lin Zhongqing’s avatar cultivation method. It consumes 30 million mental energy points to create an avatar for consciousness possession.”

The five major systems shared the same core module; their different names reflected the divergent developmental paths they guided their hosts along, each emphasizing distinct abilities.

For example, Dabai’s system primarily strengthened itself to protect its master; the Good Person System guided Lang Sheng to be virtuous; the Butler System led Lin Zhongqing to restore cosmic order; the Sword System aimed to keep the host’s heart pure and uphold justice—unlike the past, where hosts might misuse power.

Fan Bei couldn’t bind a system himself, but that didn’t prevent him from using them. Each system still followed his commands.

Binding was necessary to activate a system, but such a barrier was hardly insurmountable.

He retrieved a thread-bound book from the storage space of “The Father of Systems,” titled “Does God Play Dice?”

It was a book on quantum mechanics, his favorite blend of philosophy and physics in both his past and present lives, addressing the greatest shortcoming of atheism.

Atheists were pitiable, forced to believe that death was absolute, leaving nothing behind. The world might remember you, but that held no personal meaning.

Though no one had ever seen a god and all beliefs were intangible, believers outnumbered atheists by far.

This book offered a solution, or at least a theoretical hypothesis.

After death, you might not truly cease to exist; you could survive in multiple parallel worlds due to minuscule quantum probabilities allowing you to continue living.

Though widely regarded as improbable, no one had yet disproved the theory.

Fan Bei trusted it; it felt more reliable than believing in Buddha or God—at least psychologically.

He transformed the Substitute System into a bookmark and slipped it into the book.

“Quantum, originally called ‘energy quantum,’ was the first to reveal the microscopic nature of the world. The world is discontinuous: time, space, and energy alike. The universe is like a composition of zeros and ones. But who is the programmer of this world? And how does he program it?”

This was a passage Fan Bei had written in the book himself.

Rereading it stirred his thoughts, and he proceeded to activate the system.

“System binding to book successful. Activation in progress.”

Two more days passed.

Fan Bei was ready. Before him stood a substitute body—a male, about twenty years old, with an ordinary appearance.

This substitute was not cheap, costing a full 30 million points. If Lin Zhongqing hadn’t become the de facto ruler of Earth and reaped substantial rewards, Fan Bei would have hesitated to spend so much.

Still, it was far cheaper than Dongfang Yitong’s substitute, which cost 100 million points.

He hadn’t skimped on Lin Zhongqing; this was the price of experimentation.

Holding his breath, he projected his consciousness into the substitute.

...

Fan Bei walked through a grayish-white world, feeling the freshness of this new body. It was entirely made of spiritual substance; moving in this world felt natural, like a fish in water.

Previously, his body had been intangible, merely enveloped in spiritual substance like a diving suit or spacesuit protecting one in water or space.

Now, he was like a fish or a space meteorite, able to roam freely here.

His speed was swift. The gray-white world lacked clear landmarks, but he could locate himself by sensing coordinates in the real world.

Just as he did now, sensing his position.

He took that as a reference point for orientation in this gray-white realm.

He began heading north.