Psychics don't die from gunfire

Chapter 365 For the Gathering
"——The experimental site for this project is located in the southern part of Anning City, where there is a small mechanical processing factory."

In order to devote as much resources as possible to the advancement of theory, concepts and technologies, there are very few commercial facilities here at the Council of Knowledge.

As Song Shi and his group walked past, they could not find any retail convenience stores, bars, cafes, entertainment institutions, or even vending machines.

If foreign tourists have such needs, they must go to the designated areas in the city, where there are specially built corresponding service facilities.

So now.

Song Shi and Ai Lu squatted in an alley, discussing in front of a data tablet.

"This 'Thought Transmutation' project has adopted a fully closed environment, isolated from the outside world, and has been going on for fifteen days." Song Shi slid the tablet, and Lapis Lazuli was continuously delivering and integrating information: "There are thirty participants in the project, all of whom are employees of the mechanical processing factory."

"Then, the project leader is Xu He, a level 3 researcher and a second-ring [Consensus]."

Thanks to the transparency of the Council of Knowledge in scientific research, this information is openly displayed and can be easily collected.

"Thoughts evolve and consensus emerges."

When he heard these two words at the same time, Ai Lu's expression became serious.

"—No, look here."

But the next second, Song Shi denied his idea and pointed to the tablet: "The purpose of this project is to explore the plasticity and transmutation of human thought under non-psychic effects."

".Not under the influence of psychic energy?" Ai Lu was slightly stunned.

"Don't think too much." Song Shi shook his head and said calmly: "Tonight, I will take you to the scene to take a look, and you will understand what is going on. I can't give you accurate information, but I can roughly guess the content."

Ai Lu was silent for a moment, then asked solemnly, "But is it related to evil?"

"That depends on how you define 'evil'."

Song Shi put down the tablet and said, "Ai Lu, back when we were in the East Land Republic, you said that your next stop would be the Council of Knowledge to punish evildoers. How much did you know about the Council of Knowledge at that time?"

Ai Lu pondered for a moment and then spoke.

"The highest institution of the Council of Knowledge is the 'Nine Institutes', which include physics, mathematics, information technology, biology, and psychic energy. Each institute corresponds to a field. The 'Nine Institutes' is not only the highest governing body of the Council of Knowledge, but also the top research institution."

"The heads of the nine academies are called 'Holy Patriarchs'. The nine Holy Patriarchs are the leaders of the Council of Knowledge."

"The pursuit of technology here is so respected."

Ai Lu touched the corner of his clothes and said, "Under this kind of atmosphere, endless research will inevitably lead to tragedy. Just like the corporate alliance, I have seen many cases there, deceiving volunteers and using people as consumables in inhumane experiments and research."

"I want to save them. I want to save them."

Ai Lu sat upright and looked straight at Song Shi.

“That’s what I thought at the time.”

The environment became quiet for a moment.

Until a few seconds later, Lapis Lazuli asked a question: "So, why don't you go to the Corporate Alliance?"

".The lives of people in the Enterprise Alliance are no less valuable than those in the East Continent."

Ai Lu sat up straighter and answered, "But I am too weak, and the Enterprise Alliance is too far away. The environment is unfamiliar. The Council of Knowledge is closer, and I am more familiar with East Continent, so I have more room to play."

"I hope to hone my martial arts skills in the East Continent first, accumulate experience, and then go there after I have achieved some success."

"You're not wrong, but it's too scripted."

Song Shi still shook his head: "Well, 'knowledge and rationality', this is the concept of the Knowledge Council. You have never witnessed it with your own eyes, so your understanding of this concept is too shallow."

"Evil is evil." Ailu interrupted, "Any whitewashing is meaningless."

"Yes, that's as it should be."

Song Shi praised: "My creed is not swayed by external things, and has nothing to do with so-called right or wrong. It is only about myself, and I only need myself." "Let's go." He pressed the tablet against the lapis lazuli in the form of a bracelet and stuffed it into the latter's cabin storage space: "Let's go check it out first, and then sneak into the factory at night. The content of this [Thought Transmutation] experiment, hum, if it's not as I expected, it's likely to be--"

"I want to ask a question." Ai Lu also stood up and said suddenly.

"You said."

"What is your purpose?"

There was genuine doubt in Ai Lu's pupils.

"Mr. Lapis Lazuli hopes to rescue the trapped omnics here, and I want to eliminate the evil here." Ai Lu paused and said, "What about you? Are you just here to help Mr. Lapis Lazuli?"

"How can it be."

Song Shi laughed.

"I came to the Council of Learning because I have my own needs. But it's hard for me to explain it now. So, after tonight, you will understand what I want."

"Oh, of course, helping you is one of them. Don't you think it's interesting?"

"I understand." Ai Lu nodded and said nothing more.

"But if you really want to know the reason, the reason why I came here is very simple."

Song Shi nodded.

"--I think."

······
8:12 pm.

Anning City, Nancheng District.

——Tianshi Machinery Processing Plant.

This is the experimental site for the project “Experiment on the Transmutation of Thoughts Based on Plasticity Theory”.

According to the project introduction, this is a fully enclosed experiment, but when Song Shi arrived here, there were no armed patrol security around.

In fact, except for the factory building in the center of the factory where the lights were still on, the rest of the area was without power, dark and silent.

Completely unguarded.

But this is normal.

The host of this project, "Xu He", as a second-ring [Consensus], has enough awareness to cover the entire factory and monitor everyone's movements in real time. There is no need for any security forces to set up cordons to ensure a closed environment.

One person is enough.

Then Song Shi, Lapis Lazuli and Ai Lu climbed over the wall and broke into the machinery processing plant.

"——The essence of this warning network is to spread out consciousness and form a spider web. Any creature that touches this 'spider web' and has a strange smell will produce abnormal movements, which will be fed back to the psychic in real time."

Song Shi extinguished the flames and said casually, "So as long as we gather our spiritual energy to the extreme, burn our aura completely and treat it as a dead object, this spider web will not be able to detect us."

"But the main reason is that Xu He's level is a bit low. The structure of the scattered consciousness spider web is too clean and straight, without any complexity. Otherwise, it would not be so easy to deceive him."

Lapis Lazuli had been running optical cloaking equipment, sniffer decomposers and decibel adjusters, and had quietly hacked into and taken over the entire machine shop's intelligent control management network.

Now that they had avoided the "web of consciousness", the three of them could be said to be strolling leisurely in the factory.

A few minutes later, they had arrived at the factory building in the center, which was lit up.

As soon as I approached the factory, I heard a loud shout, and suddenly a whistle came towards me.

"——For the gathering!"

(End of this chapter)