C44

"The sofa here is quite comfortable!" I thought. I was slumped on the sofa with a bright light on top of me and a club in my hand that I hadn't had time to wipe. On the table next to me were my personal effects and a glass of ice water.

I took a sip of ice water and moistened my mouth a little. It was probably not even 9 in the morning yet, but there were already a lot of players training with each other on the field. Although this was called a gentleman's sport, everyone liked to shout loudly during practice. Coupled with the sound of the balls hitting against each other, it made the entire stadium abnormally noisy.

I slept badly last night, and I don't know why I was so dazed, or if I slept at all, but I felt like a dead man lying upright in bed, unable to move. This should be a type of sleep paralysis! I've heard this saying before...

"Yes, sleep paralysis." I pressed my index finger against my ear, and the embedded headset immediately searched for the relevant information and was broadcasting it to me. As expected, my memory is correct. This experience is just like a natural phenomenon of the human body, nothing out of the ordinary.

I sat up, took a special rag from my bag, and began to wipe my cue from the bottom of the hill to the top and from the bottom of the upper island. It was almost as long as I was tall, made of fine maple, and naturally expensive in our day. Although there are a lot of synthetic materials to choose from, I still choose the natural ones. This should be a psychological hint, after all, when the genetically modified food was fully developed, wasn't everyone against it?

I'm not really cleaning the cue, it's pointless. I was just going through a personal ritual, as if the cleaning of the cue would give me better results.

The Alliances Chairman stood at the edge of the field, quietly watching. The venue for this time's match was rather large. It was able to accommodate ten billiards. The facilities for the match were pretty good too, but … I looked around and saw only the president and the players, but there were no spectators or live broadcasters.

After all, everyone liked watching the broadcast through the Eloi Access Chair. Who would still come to the scene? But there are no live broadcasters... Of course, there were some old-style cameras that could be broadcast live, but they couldn't move freely like the human body and could only be shot in one spot, which was not a good experience for the audience.

"Could it be …" My face couldn't help but reveal a contemptuous smile. "Could it be that our match has really reached a point where no one is watching?"

My seat was so far away from the chairman that I couldn't see the expression on his face. But I think his heart is also very sad at this moment, we all love this movement, we are enchanted by its grace, but perhaps it is also because of its inappropriate grace that it died itself.

"But why did they actually close the venue?" I still don't understand. Even though today is the finals of the season — we've played billiards for a year and this match is the most important — there's no need to lock us up here for a whole week. "Search for information about the ITU finals."

"Alright," my headset responded, "The information has been sent to your holographic sphere."

The holographic sphere that I brought along had an anti-spying function. I could see the information display that was facing me, but others couldn't see it from the back. On the screen, the chairman was calm as he answered the questions – but clearly, there were only a few reporters at the press conference before the competition.

"Snooker is an ancient sport. Although it doesn't require a lot of physical strength, it requires a great deal of brainpower from the contestants. "Therefore, the reason why the finals were arranged in a closed venue was to prevent competitors from using drugs to improve their brain's calculation ability …" Although I didn't like it, there was some truth in his words. In the black market, some drugs that could stimulate the activity of the brain's nerves in a short time could be bought. This was undoubtedly an intellectual 'stimulant'.

Of course, there was also the possibility that the participant's own team or sponsor would initiate the development of these drugs. So we all had a blood test yesterday, and even a brain scan. Before the scan, everyone was injected with a certain amount of contrast medium. I hadn't done such a meticulous investigation in years, let alone invade my body. That's probably why I didn't get enough sleep last night — even though my body was as immobile as a dead pig, I didn't get enough rest, which made me completely unlike someone who was practicing on the pitch. Anyway, the table wasn't big enough, so I had to give it to the people who needed it!

I took out a small Spiritual Space connection device from my bag and put it on my head. Through it, I could access my own Spiritual Space anytime I wanted. I am moving its camera to record the real time condition of the competition and to upload it to my Spiritual Space.

This was obviously an exclusive source of information! I was afraid of being discovered, so I forced myself deeper into the sofa — but to my sadness, my space for snooker was completely unattended, and no matter what inside information I uploaded or what I thought was a brilliant confrontation, no one seemed interested.

But this was not beyond my expectations. The sport was nothing to the outside world. What was the point of just swinging the club around and letting a few balls hit each other? I know what kind of programs everyone likes right now, such as those that are as thrilling as the Robot Theater, they can even let the audience actively participate, not to mention that they still have a beautiful host like Miss Moro Tomoko.

And as for the president of the Taiwan Federation... Due to the shortage of manpower and funds, the chairman had several responsibilities. Sometimes he had to be not only a judge of the competition, but also an commentator of the competition. After all, we can't expect every live broadcaster to understand what we're actually doing. In fact, every shot we make has a special meaning, sometimes not only for goals, but also for positioning, defense, and for the goal … But after getting used to the direct and crude stimulation of the Robotics Theatre, who would appreciate our "wisdom" in detail?

Hehe, from this point of view, the audience is probably the ones who need to take the intellectual stimulants the most! I wanted to make a giant banner with those words hanging inside my Spiritual Space, but after thinking about it, I decided to delete it. After all, if someone were to find out about the stimulants at this very moment, it would only increase my suspicions.

There were still more than two hours until the official competition, and to get through this boring time, I pulled out a flat screen reader. The reader is designed to be retro. It has a 2D plane and can display text and pictures on it. Even more retro, its pixels are all black and white, so you can't look at color pictures. I've downloaded hundreds of books on it, and I can read them at any time.

Compared to the pool Spiritual Space, my other 'Reading Spiritual Space' is much more popular." I share my reading experience on it almost every day, and I read very fast, at most a week, sometimes even a day, to finish a book. After I finished reading, I will display all of my thoughts in a three-dimensional form into the dimensional space — — Relying on Eloi's technology, I only need to imagine in my mind to complete this transformation.

My fans were hungry, and I could see every visitor's message. Some said they had learned a lot from me, which made their horizons more open. Some people even made a similar reading space for themselves, hoping that I would be able to visit it. Of course, I would go to their space and look at them and encourage each other. After all, there aren't many scholars like us in this fast and vulgar age!

But maybe it was because I was so tired last night that it was hard for me to concentrate, and with the constant thumping of the billiards, it made me even more upset. Of course, my earphones can emit reverse harmonics to get rid of the noise, but on second thought... I put down the reader and put the space device and the holographic sphere in my bag. I planned to go for a walk and take a breath of fresh air.

But just as I walked to the entrance of the competition arena, the Alliances Chairman suddenly heard the wind and rushed over: "Participant David, there are only two hours left until the start of the competition, aren't you going to practice your ball for a bit?"

I think he was afraid I was going to shoot myself in the corner of one of the toilets. "Oh no, I think I've practiced enough."

"So you're going?" He was a little nervous, and I saw that his black hair — the Chairman was seventy years old, of course — was oily, and had obviously not been washed for days. It looked as if he was really worried about the competition.

"Just to get some fresh air. There seems to be something wrong with the air circulation here, and my chest feels stuffy. " I said casually.

"Is that so?" He looked around. "I'll get someone to check." But Participant David, do not walk out of the library. "

"Chairman," I said impatiently, "I don't quite understand what you're doing. Of course, the descent of the Access Rate upset you … But why are you so demanding on us contestants? Should not reform be considered? "

"Like I said, this is to prevent an accident from happening."

"We were examined from the inside out yesterday. No problem."

"But once you leave the stadium, you won't be able to guarantee this."

"Really …" I wanted to say the word "joke," but I quickly swallowed it down. After all, the chairman was my parents, even though I had already wanted to find another way out … " "Alright, I'm just going to walk around. I won't go out of the library."

"In half an hour, Participant David, please come back on time. We will be holding the opening ceremony of the finals."

"Of course." But when I was ten meters away and looked back at the gym, I could still see the Chairman staring at me. I felt a chill run down my spine, and I really didn't understand what he was trying to do. Was he really crushed by the Access Rate's pressure?

Of course, I know that the Access Rate s in our competition have already reached the freezing point. This little bit of Access Rate really couldn't get enough funding, which forced us participants to participate in other programs to get extra subsidies.

But paradoxically, it takes a lot of effort to get to the snooker. Every contestant had been practicing since they were young. Now, it would be difficult for them to participate in any entertainment programs.

Everyone said we were freaks out of our time, that we just hit a hard white ball with a stick... I think these nasty words might really make the president lose his mind.

I went back to my room and tried to sleep for a while longer, but as soon as I lay down on the bed, I felt unsettled. I looked out the window. Outside, the sky was blue and cloudy. Huge buildings towered like clouds, and speeding vehicles filled the sky …

But, as the President had said, I couldn't get out, because all the windows couldn't be opened, and during the finals we were like birds trapped in cages.

Perhaps it was this feeling of being a prisoner that made me uneasy, and I began to wander around. Whether it was the corridor or the rooms, the dining room or the lounge, all the windows were nailed shut, and one could only see the scenery outside through the glass.

It gave me a feeling of suffocation, of course — the air in the whole stadium was being updated through the circulatory system, and I just had the illusion of suffocation.

But this was also very strange! Since the Access Rate had already fallen to the valley, why did the chairman spend so much money to build such a sealed competition room? Since it only takes a few billiards to play, why send us all here so far away?

What was even weirder … From the looks of it, the leagues no longer had the money to invite live broadcasters to do a live broadcast, so they had only installed a backward camera. That was true, but … But the station alliance spent money to hire so many security guards?

It was incredible. One must know that hiring a Blacky wasn't cheaper than hiring a live broadcast. Ever since I walked out of the competition area, Blacky had been following me non-stop. Every time I go to a different area, Blacky changes shifts. I don't know what the difference is between them, but I do know that the chairman is probably watching me closely through the monitoring of Blacky.

I've been in the finals for almost ten times, but the best result was only the ninth place. Furthermore, I have been focusing most of my energy on the construction of my own Spiritual Space. I hope that I can gradually stop relying on this outdated exercise to keep myself warm and full … If I can cultivate a large amount of fans in the Spiritual Space, maybe there will be a company willing to sign the contract with me. If it's Eloi or Moloch, it would be much easier than playing pool to earn money.

No, no, I don't really care about money. I just want to share what I read and think, and maybe a really good book is what people need in this high-speed world where people are buried in so much junk that they can't get out of it.

I wish I could take on such a mission.

So why should I inject that unsafe, stupid, even brain-damaged, mental stimulant?

I smiled contemptuously at the floating Little Black a meter away, and then I took out my holographic sphere — I was going to perform a magic trick for the Chairman to see.