Henry Clark was indeed plunged into extreme shock upon seeing the male and female protagonists of the Skynet Catastrophe, but this shock came and went quickly. Unlike those around him—some bewildered and ignorant, some still arguing and speculating, and that woman with a slightly suspicious look—Henry Clark, in this brief moment of shock, already had another suspicion in his mind.

As everyone knows, all human senses—whether touch, smell, sight, hearing, or the taste in the mouth—are all information generated by the human brain. Simply put, human "sensation" is not actually true "sensation"; rather, the body first comes into contact with an object, then transmits the information of that contact back to the brain, which processes it and then transforms this information into human "sensation." It is an extremely complex biological information system.

This system, carried by humans themselves, is actually very susceptible to external influence. Thus, various fields such as psychology, deception, and hypnosis have emerged—all using different means to mislead or deceive the human brain, creating sensations completely different from reality. Although humans do receive the brain's "sensation," this "sensation" is not real!

If, before seeing the male and female protagonists of the Skynet Catastrophe, Henry Clark still harbored great doubts about his current situation, then after seeing this pair, aside from his shock, his first reaction was that he was inside a virtual reality.

Virtual reality is a major project that human society has been researching for a long time. The most straightforward example is those online games, only these are extremely realistic online games. For instance, the online game genre in web novels mostly describes this kind of virtual reality online game. In fact, the applications of virtual reality go far beyond games; it is practically a super-emerging project that encompasses almost every field of humanity.

For example, it could multiply the amount of time humans are active, allowing people to work, study, and play even while sleeping, thus indirectly increasing human lifespan by a third. It could also allow for extremely dangerous experiments, research, war simulations, and so on to be conducted in virtual reality. The ultimate goal of virtual reality is even to create a real divine kingdom!

What do humans fear most? Perhaps countless people have countless answers, but the thing most people fear the most is undoubtedly death! The terror between life and death—this saying follows a person from birth throughout their life. Death... means nothing remains!

But if there is mature virtual reality technology, along with matching scientific methods, then it would be possible to create the divine kingdoms described in novels, movies, myths, and religions...

After death, the soul does not perish, but enters this ultimate virtual reality and can live forever. Inside, resources are abundant, there is little (or no) oppression, and almost every wish can be fulfilled!

This... is the ultimate goal of virtual reality!

Of course, after saying so much, the basics are... humanity still does not have the ability to create a qualified virtual reality. The idea of consciousness entering virtual reality is simply impossible with twenty-first-century human technology, and it is unlikely to be achieved in the next one or two hundred years—it is just too difficult!

Not to mention the hardware and software required for virtual reality, the terrifying amount of information, the processing devices and computing systems that would make current human technology seem like stone tools from a cave—putting all that aside, just the simplest point: how can human consciousness enter a virtual reality program? Human consciousness is not a digital program of 0s and 1s, nor is it any kind of data that current human technology can analyze. It is far more complex, even involving the level of the soul. Just this point alone is enough to make people despair.

Precisely because of this, Henry Clark did not initially believe he was currently in a virtual reality. It's like when someone loses their wallet, their first reaction is to think they dropped it somewhere or it was stolen by a pickpocket—they would never consider whether their wallet had traveled to some martial arts or fantasy world. That would be ridiculous.

But when Henry Clark saw the male and female movie protagonists of the Skynet Catastrophe, a thought suddenly occurred to him... Could he actually be in a virtual reality? Otherwise, how could the plot and characters of Skynet Catastrophe appear? How could he suddenly go from early winter to early summer? When all impossibilities are eliminated, no matter how small the remaining possibility is... it is the only and correct answer.

"Virtual reality?"

Henry Clark murmured to himself in a voice only he could hear, his mind rapidly searching through the memories and data he was familiar with, all kinds of information flashing through his mind. Moments later, his expression grew slightly grim.

Henry Clark was one of the founders of an organization in the real world called the Rebels, a group so powerful it could overthrow the government of a small or even a medium-sized country—an international terrorist organization. For such an organization to be named the Rebels, who were they rebelling against? Naturally, it was against an even more powerful existence... that person, or that group of people, who possessed an extremely secretive organization... The Carter Organization.