Chapter 651: A Broken World

"Loren, where are you planning to work after graduation?"

The guy on the bed across from Loren was fiddling with his newly installed mechanical arm and casually asked Loren the question.

His name was Zhang Ming, an ordinary person.

This was a twenty-seven-person dormitory, each bunk bed had three tiers - upper, middle, and lower - arranged in three rows and three columns. Loren was on the top bunk, and the aisle couldn't even fit a washbasin.

"No idea. I'll probably go back to my hometown. I heard the last patch of nature is near where I'm from."

"Is that so? I thought you were thinking about joining Dragon City Corporation."

"Don't even dream about it. Even top-tier school graduates have to get sterilized to join. Guys like us from second-rate universities shouldn't even bother."

Loren let out a self-deprecating laugh. Dragon City Corporation was one of the most top-tier companies in this world - it wouldn't be an overstatement to call them the true power holders:

"Can't believe that old game from years ago actually predicted it right. Now everything's run by corporations..."

"Guys, hold off on the chat for a second. There's big news.

To promote environmental protection, all old mechanical arms are being phased out. Everyone has to switch to the eco-friendly prosthetics developed by Dragon City Corporation.

There will be unscheduled inspections from now on. If your prosthetic doesn't meet the standards, you'll be fined and it'll be confiscated."

The guy on the bunk below Loren suddenly sat up and read out the announcement he'd just received.

"Are you kidding me? I haven't even gotten used to this new arm yet, and now I have to replace it?"

Zhang Ming was instantly devastated when he heard the news. He'd spent his savings accumulated over a long time plus money from selling his second-hand stuff to get this arm.

With this new regulation coming out, the value of his arm would crash instantly.

"Not necessarily. I know a way to solve this."

The one who spoke was another guy named Chen Hao. He had quite a few connections, though whether they were reliable was another question.

"Whether the prosthetic is eco-friendly doesn't matter. What matters is whether it's a new Dragon City Corporation product.

So all we need is to find someone to put a Dragon City Corporation logo on your arm."

Zhang Ming wasn't exactly thrilled to hear this. Everyone knew that the most valuable part of a Dragon City product was the logo itself, and getting one stamped wouldn't come cheap.

"Forget it. Nothing else we can do. At least it's better than the new arm being a total loss."

Zhang Ming sighed and finally decided to accept reality.

Then he turned to Loren:

"I should've done what you did. Not install any prosthetics, not even a system."

"Come on. If they really didn't let you install one, you'd be the first to complain. I live like a disabled person, and I can easily get killed by anyone with a prosthetic in one punch."

"True enough. Forget it then. Better to have prosthetics. I'll just spend the extra money."

Zhang Ming grunted in agreement, not denying Loren's words.

"By the way, isn't there any prosthetic you want to install? Your whole body is still original parts - you could sell them for a decent amount, right? Whatever prosthetic you want would be within easy reach, wouldn't it?"

After mentally saying goodbye to his organs, Zhang Ming turned to Loren again.

"I want a laser eye. Glare at someone and they drop dead."

Loren shared what he wanted, and Zhang Ming just took it as Loren joking around:

"Come on. A laser eye? Install it today and you'll be locked up tomorrow. The corporations don't allow civilians to have combat prosthetics.

Besides, combat prosthetics can easily lead to cyberpsychosis. It's better this way - at least it keeps us safe."

"Keep lying to yourself if you want, but don't actually believe it. Wasn't there a cyberpsycho who killed a bunch of people near campus just a few days ago?

His prosthetics weren't even that strong, but it was still easy for him to slaughter ordinary people without combat prosthetics."

Zhang Ming didn't reply. He wasn't like Loren - he knew very well that the system in his head had surveillance capabilities, and some things couldn't be said out loud.

The stuff they'd just been discussing was all within Dragon City Corporation's acceptable range, since they were talking about ways to give Dragon City money.

That said, Dragon City's surveillance wasn't all that aggressive either. As long as you didn't touch their bottom line, discussion was still allowed.

"I actually know someone who can install combat prosthetics. Interested?"

Chen Hao had overheard Loren and Zhang Ming's conversation and seized the opportunity to plug his contact.

"Forget it. I'm not willing to gamble with my life. Didn't the guy in the next dorm go to see a black-market prosthetic doctor and end up getting his organs scooped out clean?

My organs are all original parts. Even if the doctor didn't have any ideas before, the moment he saw my organs, he'd start getting ideas."

"Alright then."

Chen Hao knew everything Loren said was true, so he didn't argue.

The dormitory fell quiet for a moment. Loren lay on his bunk, staring at the ceiling.

He hadn't been looking long when an advertisement suddenly played on the ceiling - a whale protection ad.

The ad was asking people to donate money to protect whales, while also promoting their own products, one of which happened to be whale meat sushi.

The company running this ad was from an island nation, and their main business was whaling.

Just a few days ago, their ads claimed whales had overpopulated and that they were maintaining ecological balance.

Loren thought they could stuff that "balance" talk. The creatures in the ocean were nearly driven to extinction by the nuclear wastewater they dumped, and only some whales survived a bit longer by relying on their size and toxin resistance.

And it was nuclear wastewater, not nuclear waste water.

"I'm thinking about something..."

Loren sat up. Turning off the ceiling ad required paying money, so he could only avoid watching it this way:

"I'm wondering if this world needs a reboot?"

"A reboot? The sooner the better. Take me out along with this godforsaken world."

Zhang Ming chimed in with his own sigh right after, having just finished saying goodbye to his organs.

Even if he switched to prosthetic organs, he couldn't get anything good anyway.

Even so, the fact that they could attend this university at all already put them ahead of ninety percent of people.

And attending this university wasn't exactly easy either - their families were nearly crushed under the weight of it all.

"I'd want a reboot too, but how could that possibly happen? Don't tell me gods actually exist in this world?"

Chen Hao laughed a few times. Everyone in the dorm knew that was impossible.

"Maybe..."

Loren muttered, but the others couldn't quite hear what he said after that:

"Maybe this world doesn't need a reboot just yet..."

...

"Dreamed about the old days again..."

Loren yawned as he woke up. Beside him, Anna was already fast asleep, and Loren wiped a bit of drool from her mouth as a courtesy.

This dream probably had nothing to do with the God of Dreams. After everything that had happened, the God of Dreams shouldn't dare mess with Loren anymore.

Besides, this dream didn't have any of the God of Dreams' characteristics. This dream wasn't deliberately constructed to blur the line between reality and illusion.

The more the God of Dreams tried to make things feel real, the faster the current Loren would notice something was off.

Loren shook his head, intending to forget the dream. Those memories from before weren't exactly pleasant ones - it was better to just let them go.