BSI Chapter 175 Knowledge is power, or become a monster.
Chapter 175 Knowledge is power, or become a monster.
As night fell, Renxin Pharmacy unusually pulled its roller shutter all the way down on the first floor and hung up a sign that read "Inventory Inventory Check, Temporarily Closed".
In the very center of the shop, on the solid wood table that is usually used to write prescriptions (but actually mostly IOUs), a steaming copper pot is now placed.
The broth at the bottom of the pot is a spicy beef tallow soup with bubbling red oil, but the aroma that wafts out is not the smell of chili peppers, but a strange, earthy fragrance.
That was a broth Pierre made from the tubers that looked like potatoes from the well.
"Is this thing really edible?" Guan Shan picked up a slice of "potato" as thin as a cicada's wing with his chopsticks. Under the light, the slice was translucent and jade-like, and the patterns inside looked like a miniature neural network diagram.
"Don't worry, after Professor Yan's biological analysis, this stuff has extremely low starch content and is full of highly active neuropeptides." Wang Minyu was already on his second bite, dipping it in minced garlic and sesame oil, his mouth greasy. "Simply put, one piece is equivalent to three days of mental work, and it can even prevent Alzheimer's. Professor Yan almost got into a fight with the people from the Institute of Botany yesterday trying to name this stuff, and finally settled on the name 'Earth Dragon Brain'."
Su Qing pushed up her glasses and carefully took a bite.
The taste was crisp and refreshing, followed by a sweet aftertaste. Then, a cool sensation rushed straight to her head, instantly clearing her mind, which had been foggy from staying up all night doing accounts. She could even mentally calculate five-digit multiplication.
"Good stuff." Su Qing's eyes lit up. "If this were sold to those preparing for postgraduate entrance exams or civil service exams, it could fetch the price of gold per pound."
"You've narrowed your perspective." Wang Minyu tapped the rim of his bowl. "This is strategic material. Our current adversary isn't those middle-aged women trying to take advantage, but the one underground."
He pointed to the projection screen on the wall.
Zero projected the deciphered "Seven-Star Valve Diagram" onto the white wall.
Seven red dots are scattered throughout Changxiang City.
"The first spot is No. 1 Experimental High School." Wang Minyu pointed to the brightest red dot with his chopsticks. "I know this school. It's known as the 'Changxiang Exam King Concentration Camp.' Every year, its Tsinghua and Peking University admission rates are the highest in the city, but it's also said that every year some students contemplate life on the rooftop because of the immense pressure."
"Why is the valve at the school?" Pierre put a plate of mutton into the pot. "Does that monster also want to take the college entrance exam?"
"Because of emotions." Zero's voice suddenly interrupted, and a set of waveforms appeared on the screen. "That underground biological network relies on negative emotions as nourishment. Anxiety, repression, anger, despair... Schools, especially pressure cookers like these, gather a 'collective anxiety' that is its grand feast."
Wang Minyu nodded: "That's right. The so-called 'valve' is not necessarily a physical iron gate. It could be a person, a place, or a materialized emotional field. As long as the energy of this field reaches a critical value, the underground mycelium can break through the barrier of reality and turn that place into its colony."
Just then, a series of urgent knocks came from the shop door.
"Is anyone there? Doctor! Open the door!" The voice belonged to a middle-aged woman, trembling with sobs, sounding as if she was on the verge of collapse.
Guan Shan glanced at Wang Minyu, and Wang Minyu nodded.
The roller shutter door was halfway open, and a woman in a business suit with slightly disheveled hair rushed in.
She wasn't holding a child or helping an elderly person; instead, she was tightly clutching a stack of... exam papers?
"Doctor, please, save my son!" The woman knelt down as soon as she entered the room, scattering the test papers all over the floor.
Wang Minyu glanced at the test papers on the ground.
Full marks.
The handwriting is so neat it looks like printed text, but upon closer inspection, you'll find that the characters were carved into the paper with tremendous force, and they protrude from the back.
"Sister, please get up." Wang Minyu helped the woman to a chair. "Where is your son?"
"In the car... I won't let him get out. He's... he's acting strangely." The woman pointed tremblingly at a black sedan outside the door. "He used to be very well-behaved, never talked back, and did nothing but study. But starting last week, he... he started eating paper."
"Eat paper?" Su Qing was taken aback.
"Yes! He ate books, test papers, and workbooks!" Tears streamed down the woman's face. "At first, I thought he was under a lot of pressure and wanted to vent. But after he ate them... he didn't vomit. And he started memorizing formulas that didn't even exist, and... words started growing on his skin."
Wang Minyu's eyes narrowed.
The character "长"?
He walked quickly to the car. The windows were tinted with dark film, making it impossible to see inside.
But he could sense an extremely oppressive, cold atmosphere in the car, the same as the atmosphere he felt in the mine that day, but mixed with a kind of frantic restlessness.
"Thump."
A muffled thud came from inside the car, like someone hitting their head against the glass.
Wang Minyu opened the car door.
A boy of about fourteen or fifteen years old, wearing a baggy school uniform, was curled up in the back seat.
He was so thin he was skin and bones, with sunken eyes. He was clutching a thick book called "Five Years of College Entrance Examination and Three Years of Simulation" in his hand, tearing the pages like he was gnawing on bread, and mechanically stuffing them into his mouth.
His neck and the back of his hands were indeed covered with dense black lines.
That's not a tattoo; it's a pattern formed by bulging blood vessels.
Wang Minyu activated the [Aura Observation Technique].
Instead of the usual lesion-related bullet comments above the boy's head, there was a string of rapidly scrolling gibberish:
[Warning: Biological logic overwriting in progress... 89% complete.]
[Host's emotions: Extreme repression and a distorted thirst for knowledge.]
[Source of infection: First Valve Guardian (a type of gluttonous fungus).]
"Interesting." Wang Minyu looked at the boy's eyes, which only had whites and no pupils. What was reflected in those eyes was not the real world, but countless wildly spinning geometric shapes.
The boy suddenly turned his head, staring intently at Wang Minyu, and uttered a hoarse voice: "Square root... indescribable... equals... infinity..."
"Looks like the first valve is leaking," Wang Minyu said, turning to Guan Shan. "Bring out that pot of 'earthworm brain' soup! Don't add cilantro!"
"Huh?" Guan Shan was stunned. "Give him hot pot?"
"That's right." Wang Minyu's lips curled into a cold smile (a habitual gesture, not an AI-style expression), and he reached out to stop the boy's hand from reaching for another book. "Isn't this kid hungry? Since he likes to eat knowledge, then I'll let him taste what 'hardcore knowledge points from the ground' really mean."
This isn't an illness; it's just that he's been "overloaded" with knowledge. He needs to digest it.
And in this world, nothing brings one back to reality better than a hot pot with the aroma of earth.
An exorcism ritual called "Make-up Lessons" is about to begin.