READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 32: Chapter 32: Mutual Probing
After reading about the background information of the NeuroTech Center, Yang Qiu fell into deep contemplation.
He never imagined that the ones eyeing his game weren't some governmental organization, or even the police, but rather the top scientists in the field of neurology, neuroscience, and AI intelligence technology in China…
If it had been another governmental body, Yang Qiu could simply shut down the official website and stop publicly distributing "beta accounts."
Even though he hadn't obtained any licensing, he also had no intention to make a profit. This was just a LAN multiplayer game for his own amusement and not some private server for an existing game where there was a risk of being sued by the original game company.
No one could interfere with him, and if things didn't work out, he could simply pack up and move the "server" to Southeast Asia. After all, his server didn't require much bandwidth to begin with…
By incorporating the helmet as a prize of the game, he could continue to drive players to keep grinding. Without sufficient incentives, players wouldn't be willing to toil away and build in-game structures, even if their characters didn't get tired or hungry.
But now that it was a group of scientists that had set their sights on him, this revelation made Yang Qiu hesitant.
While he had transmigrated to the other world when he had just been a 16-year-old kid and had spent 80% of his life there, he still respected knowledge and the fundamental logic of sciences, even if his knowledge and sense of the other world's common sense were greater than Earth's.
After some thought, Yang Qiu opened the forum's backend management processes.
The player forum had no moderators, only one administrator with the ID "Developer Team." Since the forum's registration was opened, the administrator's backend had been flooded with all kinds of emails requesting accounts in various creative ways. Initially, Yang Qiu had glanced at a few but hadn't paid much attention to them.
This time, when Yang Qiu opened the backend, the emails weren't just about account requests. There were also various business emails, some of which seemed legitimate, while others dubious, requesting cooperation or partnerships.
Some boasted about how they could secure multiple rounds of investment and financing for the game "OtherWorld," while others explicitly or implicitly hinted at strong capital support that could take the game to new heights and even go public. There were even audacious proposals for acquiring and merging "OtherWorld."
Yang Qiu disregarded all such business emails, regardless of whether they were from legitimate companies or scammers.
It was true that he was penniless, but he didn't care about money in the first place. As long as his material needs were met, he had no interest in the fame and status that excessive wealth could bring. The satisfaction and vanity derived from exploiting, bullying, and manipulating others of his kind held no appeal to him. He had never pursued such primitive instincts; spellcasters who did were far beneath his level.
Even more so, he had no interest in indulging in pursuits that were beneath him, such as chasing after models. If he couldn't even transcend basic instincts like material desires and sexual urges, what kind of pathetic spellcaster would he be?
Let alone spellcasters; how many truly mentally powerful individuals on Earth chased after money or ran after the opposite sex?
More importantly… on Earth, having flaws in one's character didn't pose much of a problem. At most, one's moral standards would be criticized, but it wouldn't affect other aspects of life. Even if a renowned actor revealed a scandal about a love child, a simple statement of "men make mistakes" would win mainstream society's approval, and he would still thrive afterwards.
But in the magic plane, having flaws in one's character meant that the higher one climbed, there would be a greater possibility of being contaminated, going insane, losing control, crumbling to pieces, or turning into a walking corpse…
In short, Yang Qiu couldn't be swayed by so-called benefits. He wouldn't spare them a second glance regardless of whether it was genuine investment interest or fake scammers.
Yang Qiu skipped past these business emails and spent quite a while going through the many pages of account requests before he came across an email requesting cooperation sent by Director Lu Yiyun from the Center for Neuroscience and Intelligent Technology Innovation.
Compared to the flowery "business emails," Director Lu's email was much more practical and rigorous. She sincerely expressed a desire to communicate with the developers of the game "OtherWorld" and promised to keep the game's core technologies strictly confidential, including but not limited to elevating them to the level of national secrets.
On top of that, she also guaranteed that the core technologies of "OtherWorld" would have patent rights protected by Chinese law and so on.
Basically, what the email implied was that if the "OtherWorld" development team was willing to "exchange" technology with the NeuroTech Center, the scientific community of China would definitely respond with corresponding treatment.
Yang Qiu. "…"
For a moment, he imagined a scene of himself personally appearing before scientists to teach them the basics of magic, meditation, and spellcasting… He even nearly had to shout in his mind to stop imagining such things.
Yang Qiu couldn't accept this olive branch.
It was best if Earthlings couldn't transmigrate to the magic plane in person—if only to avoid the uncertainty of whether the elder god that dragged him to the parallel world would also target other Earthlings who crossed over.
While elder gods could only project mental influences onto the material plane, so far, these projections had only been at a "tentacle" level and not yet truly attracted the attention of an elder god. However, even for Yang Qiu, a high-level black mage who had spent three hundred years honing his skills in the other world, this "tentacle" posed quite a considerable risk to him. If it attacked the average mortal? Forget about it.
If the "core technology" of traversing over to the other world couldn't be presented for an "exchange," then all talk of cooperation would be nothing but drivel.
"There's no way of cooperating, but there's no need to completely sever ties. At the end of the day, I'm also Chinese after all."
After some thought, Yang Qiu drew a line for himself. A safety line for when dealing with these scientists.
He still rather respected scientists; after all, he grew up reading about names like Stephen Hawking, Sanqiang, Oppenheimer, Hua Luogeng, Einstein, Zhan Tianyou, Marie Curie and Yuan Longping, whom everyone worshiped…
Thus, Yang Qiu selected and added Director Lu's ID to "approved," then sent the rest of the emails in his inbox to "rejected."
After he was done with that, Yang Qiu then created a post and pinned it to the player forum: "Notice Regarding Release of Closed Beta Accounts."
"Dear players,
Due to technical limitations of server capacity and financial constraints, the development team is currently unable to release a large number of test accounts for this game.
However, in response to the players' enthusiasm, after careful consideration, we have decided to increase the number of closed beta accounts by 10.
The distribution method for these closed beta accounts will be announced soon. Please stay tuned.
Please refrain from repeatedly posting threads related to account requests on the forum. Once found, the posts will be deleted, and the user will be banned from posting for three days.
—OtherWorld Development Team."
After pinning the post, Yang Qiu changed into a fresh set of clothes and went out for a meal.
When he first rented this suburban house, besides the fact that it was a single-occupancy dwelling with a small courtyard, another reason for choosing the place was because there was a delicious braised noodle shop nearby. Yang Qiu felt that life lacked excitement if he didn't have a bowl of braised sweet potato noodles with various toppings every day.
When he returned after a satisfying meal, Yang Qiu was surprised to see that the supermarket delivery driver, who usually only brought expired goods in the late evening, had come in broad daylight. The small delivery truck was parked at the entrance of the yard, and the driver was fanning himself with his hat while looking around.
"Brother Zhang!" the driver actively greeted upon seeing Yang Qiu.
Zhang was the surname of the ID that Yang Qiu had purchased online. He also cast an illusion spell on himself whenever he went out, which was a slight alteration to his original appearance.
"Why are you so early today?" Yang Qiu gave the driver a casual smile and nodded as he took out the keys to unlock his gate.
"Um… I have some things to attend to in the afternoon, so I thought I'd deliver it to you earlier." The driver forced a smile, then motioned to his colleague. "Xiao Wang, help with unloading the goods."
"On it," the young man who came with the driver responded readily and quickly opened the back doors of the truck.
"You've got someone to help out this time, huh?" Yang Qiu remarked with a smile while glancing at the young man doing the unloading.
"Well, um, yeah. I have something to do later in the afternoon, so I asked a colleague to come and help," the driver smiled awkwardly. It seemed as if he was afraid that Yang Qiu would ask more questions, so he went to help with the unloading while asking, "Brother Zhang, should the stuff be put in the usual place?"
"Put them in the storeroom on the first floor, separate from the previous batch that hasn't been used up," Yang Qiu instructed casually, seemingly oblivious to the driver's nervousness.
After unloading a truckload of expired or discontinued products, the driver handed an invoice for Yang Qiu to sign. While Yang Qiu did a quick scan of the goods, he noticed that there were ten motorcycle helmets mixed in among the towels, toothpaste, and mosquito repellent.
"Are these helmets also discontinued?" Yang Qiu casually remarked.
"Y-yeah," replied the driver while wiping off his sweat. "They're from a small manufacturer and have been sitting on the shelves for half a year without being sold, so the manager decided to throw them in for free."
There was nothing wrong with this explanation. Domestic retailers didn't have that same grandeur as foreign supermarkets. A domestic retailer wasn't that much different from ordinary grocery stores where the cashier might throw in a few extra candies when returning the change.
For someone like Yang Qiu, who didn't mind taking the unwanted goods and paid promptly, ten motorcycle helmets as a complementary bonus for purchasing a truckload of expired goods wasn't at all excessive.
However, Yang Qiu announced the release of up to ten closed beta accounts just 40 minutes ago. In the time it took to have a bowl of braised noodles, ten ready-made motorcycle helmets had come into his possession. That issue was rather tricky…
Yang Qiu kept his cool and signed the invoice as per usual. After he sent the driver off and closed the gate behind him, Yang Qiu muttered to himself, "Isn't this being too impatient? Couldn't they have waited a couple of days… Aren't they afraid of scaring me off by being that obvious?"
Given the mobilization capability of China's grassroots, Yang Qiu had never believed that his disguise would be seamless enough that he would forever be undiscovered. In any case, his identity and the "assets" he possessed could be discarded at any time. If necessary, he could simply walk away without a trace.
Being unable to see his family would be the only regret he would have. While his mother and sister couldn't recognize him, Yang Qiu would still take a bus for a couple of stops to his old estate and watch them.
Now, at least, it seemed like things wouldn't reach that point. The ones who could find a suitable reason to deliver the helmets so promptly were relatively friendly, or at least not hostile. Otherwise, they would have found an excuse to detain him for questioning before anything else.
"While we can't cooperate, since there isn't any hostility, perhaps we can still have a tacit understanding," muttered Yang Qiu.
Yang Qiu entered the storeroom and first carried out the box containing the motorcycle helmets.
Adding a large number of nodes to the imprint matrix would be overwhelming, but dealing with ten units was still within his capacity.
He was just a mere game developer, and no matter how curious the scientists were, he could only provide them with a window into the game. This was Yang Qiu's bottom line.
What the scientists would discover by entering the game was no longer his concern.
While Yang Qiu began the process of transforming the ten helmets into "login devices," in another location in G Province, a "task force" composed of elite members from various "relevant departments" and led by the NeuroTech Center had arrived specifically to carry out their work. They were meticulously reviewing the first on-site contact video footage transmitted by the field operatives.
As for why personnel from the National Security Bureau and Public Security University were around and how they had the authority to access synchronized video footage from field operatives, it wouldn't be elaborated on here.
"…He really does look like Zhang Mou," a scholarly senior in uniform commented wryly after watching the video. "If it hadn't been confirmed that Zhang Mou is still serving his sentence, I would think that someone had unlawfully released him."
"There are still differences," another middle-aged man, also in uniform but with a more imposing demeanor, spoke up. "Zhang Mou is from X Province and has never been to G Province. The man in the video speaks Mandarin with a distinct G-province accent."
"Everyone, please." Lu Yiyun was unconcerned about the identity of the person in the video. She only cared about whether they could seize the opportunity to establish communication with this mysterious individual possessing advanced technology. And thus, she couldn't help but cut them off impatiently, "The target accepted the helmets without resistance, indicating a willingness to cooperate. Shouldn't we—"
"Don't be hasty, Xiao Lu," Professor Yin Zhengliang, from the Public Security University's Criminal Psychology Department, intervened to soothe Lu Yiyun's impatience. "Whether the target has the intention to cooperate with us depends on their subsequent actions. So far, the target hasn't given us any communication signals, which suggests he still has reservations. We need to be patient."
Lu Yiyun hesitated, but didn't say anything more.
Among the scientific researchers, Lu Yiyun was undoubtedly one with the highest emotional intelligence and was proficient in organizing work. The fact that she was chosen to lead this group of experts demonstrated the level of trust placed in her. However, not all researchers were equally "reasonable" in their approach. Academician Ke Jingguo of the Chinese Scientific Institute of Neuroscience, for example, would have brought all his students over to G Province already if it hadn't been for Lu Yiyun's daily phone calls providing updates.
All scientists and researchers in the field of neuroscience had to face a difficult question—does the brain of a patient in a vegetative state possess consciousness? And are they still aware?
Countless experts in the field had tirelessly pursued various methods to explore the mysteries of the brain, centered around this issue. However, to this day, there were still no significant results.
Nearly 100,000 patients fell into a comatose state in China each year due to traumatic brain injuries, strokes, hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, and other conditions, leading to long-term consciousness disorder, commonly known as being in a vegetative state. The efforts made by the NeuroTech Center in recent years could only combine relevant neural representations with machine learning methods, providing new reference points for clinical diagnosis and treatment of patients' consciousness states.
The emergence of the "helmet" that could transport one's consciousness to an "alternate server" in the game "OtherWorld" came like a roaring thunderclap to experts in the fields of neuroscience.
After the initial shock, experts from all relevant fields inevitably connected this incomprehensible black technology to the long-standing issue that had troubled scientists in this field: If it were possible to make one's consciousness "active" in the so-called "alternate server" through brain wave activity, did it mean that patients with consciousness disorders could regain wakefulness by using this "game login device"?
This speculation (whether these users that possessed these "game login devices" were truly playing a game or if their consciousness had indeed traveled to another existing alternate world) that drove countless experts and researchers crazy had to be temporarily set aside in their quest for validation of this experiment.
Professor Yin Zhengliang understood Lu Yiyun's dilemma and reassured her, "After reading your email, the target immediately released ten beta accounts and willingly accepted the helmets we arranged for. I believe we should quickly establish contact with this 'development team' to confirm where they intend to deploy these ten helmets. That way, we can determine the target's attitude toward us and whether they are strictly defensive or open to further cooperation."
Lu Yiyun nodded and immediately sat down to compose an email.
After calming the "scientific faction" within the group of experts, Professor Yin Zhengliang began discussing more in-depth topics with his colleagues.
So far, they had mobilized a considerable number of grassroots police forces to conduct various investigations around the target. Bafflingly, even with the full cooperation of the police department in G Province, they were still unable to trace the origins of the person.
Was the target truly a Chinese national?
And if he were one, why was there no trace of his existence?
The household registration police and internet police had searched through the records of missing men between the ages of 30-40 in the country, but they couldn't find any fingerprints or DNA matches with the target.
And if the target wasn't a Chinese national, then how had he entered the country?
It also had to be noted that G Province was not a border province, so there was no possibility for a foreigner to simply sneak in through a remote border.
Of course, the task force leaned more toward considering the target as a Chinese national. This was because during the investigation into the target's activities, they discovered unmistakable habits and behaviors that were typical of Chinese nationals: taking public transportation, renting residential houses, contacting local terminal retailers to purchase discounted products near expiration, visiting flea markets to make purchases, even buying handmade crafts from prisons, and so on. If a foreigner wanted to seamlessly integrate into the domestic environment, it would take more than a decade to learn and adopt these behaviors.
It was precisely because the target seemed to have appeared in G Province out of thin air, making it impossible to trace his origin, that this task force didn't consider direct contact. If they startled the person and the target disappeared silently, just like when they first appeared, the scientists who were already aware of the target's existence would undoubtedly cause a major uproar.
After Yang Qiu had finished with the ten new helmets, he opened up the forum's backend and wasn't at all surprised to see an earnest email from a certain Director Lu, requesting user accounts.
In the email, Director Lu, who seemed to be an academic, candidly expressed that they were a legitimate research institution in the field of neuroscience and hoped to utilize the game login helmets for an experiment regarding the brain wave activity of patients in vegetative states.
They wanted to investigate whether the connection to the game server could stimulate the brains of these patients and help them regain consciousness.
Yang Qiu's knowledge of Earth was limited to his time up till being a high school student, and he truly didn't understand the intricacies of this matter. Therefore, without hesitation, he called the courier station and promptly sent the ten helmets to the scientists as originally intended.