Industry: Cthulhu

Chapter 1 I'm sick

"Patient No. 47, please."

"Go to the third clinic."

After hearing the broadcast, Fang Yan stood up, walked quickly into the psychiatric clinic No. 3, and closed the door casually.

The doctor was a man in his forties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses and an exceptionally neat white coat.

The doctor looked up at Fang Yan and said, "Why are you here again? Sit down first."

Fang Yan pulled a chair over and sat opposite the doctor, feeling a little nervous.

Staring at the various test results on the screen, the doctor said with a confused expression, "Including the brain cognitive function and nervous system, the test results are completely normal. You are obviously healthy, so why do you insist on saying you have a mental illness?"

Fang Yan hurriedly explained: "Doctor, please believe me, I am really sick!"

For over a month now, Fang Yan has been having the same dream. He dreams of himself in an incredibly distant, super-civilized galaxy, where technology is incredibly advanced and at the center of the galaxy is a blue giant star, emitting a dazzling light...

In fact, dreaming is not important. What is important is that every time Fang Yan wakes up from a dream, a large number of memories that do not belong to him will appear in his brain.

For example, energy divergence studies the logic of high-energy particles and dark energy behavior.

Or antimatter chemistry, which studies the interaction between antimatter and ordinary matter.

and dimensional engineering, which studies the structural properties of multidimensional space.

Even quantum consciousness is about exploring quantum origins and trying to understand how consciousness arises from the collapse of quantum wave functions.

Too much, really too much.

Fang Yan now had a feeling that some mysterious and powerful force was stuffing a super-giant library as vast as the galaxy into his small head, without caring at all whether he could bear it or not.

As time went by, this mysterious and powerful force seemed to not only enhance Fang Yan's memory, but also cause subtle changes in his brain structure.

His memory became clearer and his logical thinking speed became faster. Even though he received massive amounts of information every day, Fang Yan did not feel pain. Instead, he felt energetic. Every morning when he woke up from his dream, he felt refreshed.

Fang Yan described his bizarre dream in detail, but the doctor waved his hand gently, indicating that Fang Yan didn't need to continue, because he had already heard the same thing during the initial diagnosis.

The doctor looked out the window at the blue skyline and sighed softly.

"Remember Advent?" the doctor asked.

Fang Yan was stunned and recalled the thrilling scene many years ago.

It was a sunny afternoon when a giant alien spaceship slowly descended. Its huge size covered half of the sky. The surface of the spaceship shone with a cold metallic luster. Its complex propulsion structure and weapon system showed a power far beyond human cognition.

Traffic was instantly paralyzed, cars stopped in the middle of the road, and drivers got out, staring at this behemoth they had never seen before...

Pulling his thoughts back to reality, Fang Yan nodded, "Of course I remember. It has been nine years, ten months, and twenty-three days since the Advent Day."

"From that day on, we finally knew there were other civilizations in the Milky Way. Two years later, Earth joined the Galactic Alliance as a federation, ushering in a new interstellar era."

"A new interstellar era..."

The doctor rubbed his hands together. "It's been almost ten years since Advent Day. Has the life of us Earthlings changed at all?"

Fang Yan was slightly startled, and his mind quickly recalled every detail of the past ten years.

"Yes, but not much."

The doctor nodded. "You can remember the exact time of Advent, which shows that you are full of dreams. You long for Earth to join the Galactic Alliance and usher in a new era. You even fantasize about piloting a spaceship, traveling the starry sea, and adventuring into the unknown depths of the universe."

"It's normal for young people to crave adventure, and I understand that."

"But ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. Where are the stars? Where is the journey of exploring the universe?"

"As the lowest-level civilization, Earth's status in the Galactic Alliance is, to put it nicely, a member. To put it bluntly, we are a group of beggars, begging for handouts from other galaxies every day."

Fang Yan listened silently. In the eyes of the Pan-Galactic Advanced Civilization, the Earth Federation was so backward that it was no different from a group of primitive people. Its situation was indeed very embarrassing.

"Living in an era of such dramatic change, faced with countless new and unknown things, people inevitably fall into anxiety and self-doubt. It's normal to have some mental problems; not having any is a problem."

"Since Advent Day, I've seen countless cases like yours, and our hospital's psychiatric clinic has expanded from one to thirteen now."

"Listen to me and go back."

The doctor consoled Fang Yan, saying, "So what if they joined the Galactic Alliance? Back in the old Earth era, Papua New Guinea was a member of the United Nations. But who really understood or cared about them?"

"Our current situation is not much better than that of Papua New Guinea. We are eating the food of Earth while worrying about the whole galaxy. Facing the sudden arrival of the great cosmic era, all ordinary people can do is avoid anxiety and live well."

"Although I don't understand dimensional engineering, I understand people."

"Your thinking is clear and your logic is rigorous. After describing the cause and effect of the incident, you also include self-diagnosis and self-analysis."

“If you have a mental illness, it’s not you who’s going crazy, it’s the world.”

"Antimatter weapons? You read a lot of science fiction, don't you?"

"Go back, you're not sick, you just have unrealistic fantasies about the future."

"But doctor!" Fang Yan was a little anxious.

"No buts," the doctor said authoritatively, "Typical mental illness has five characteristics: emotional instability, disorganized thinking, social withdrawal, cognitive impairment, and self-awareness disorder." "If you have a mental illness, why don't I see these characteristics in you?"

"That's because..." Fang Yan hesitated to speak.

"Why?" the doctor asked.

Fang Yan thought for a moment, then said very seriously, "Because, ever since I became mentally ill, my spirit has improved a lot."

……

After walking out of the hospital gate, Fang Yan stood on the street and silently took out an e-cigarette.

Perhaps the smell of triple mint was too strong, the young lady who happened to pass by Fang Yan couldn't help but frown and then quickened her pace.

"Since I got mental illness, my spirit has improved a lot."

After Fang Yan said this absurd line, the doctor politely asked him to leave the clinic and told him not to go to the hospital often in the future. Doctors cannot cure this kind of disease of excessive thinking.

Fang Yan wanted to relax, so he didn't take the bus but walked towards home.

The streets were exceptionally quiet at dusk in the summer. After turning a few corners, Fang Yan finally returned to the old apartment left to him by his parents.

I took out the key and gently opened the door, and was greeted by a familiar, old smell.

The furnishings in the house have not changed in many years since my parents passed away in a car accident.

Even though the fabric sofa had two or three tears, revealing the yellowed high-density sponge inside, and the washing machine made a harsh noise when running, Fang Yan never thought about replacing these old furniture.

Perhaps what Fang Yan really wanted to keep was not the furniture, but something else.

After making a cup of coffee, Fang Yan sat on the sofa in a daze, bored.

Unlike others, others learn by hard work, studying hard every day.

Fang Yan also studies by working hard and sleeping hard.

As long as he sleeps long enough, when he wakes up the next day, his brain will naturally gain more knowledge and data.

When he wasn't sleeping, Fang Yan always felt that time passed very slowly.

In the past, he could kill time by playing games, but now with the increase of logic and rationality, he gradually lost interest in games.

Now Fang Yan prefers to browse some professional scientific research forums and compare the most cutting-edge scientific research results in the Milky Way with the memories in his brain.

After finishing a cup of coffee, Fang Yan got up and went into the bedroom, turned on his laptop, and successfully logged into the Star Network.

The Interstellar Internet, whose full name is the Pan-Galactic Interstellar Internet, is one of the benefits provided by the Galactic Alliance to the Earth. It enables the originally ignorant Earthlings to access various information and resources in the Milky Way.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of advanced terminals such as virtual helmets on Earth, it can only be simplified and processed by large servers and presented to users in two dimensions.

Fang Yan skillfully operated the mouse to browse news and information from various galaxies.

Although there was no virtual helmet and he couldn't be immersed in the scene, and the limitations of the two-dimensional plane made the experience seem a bit thin, it was enough to make Fang Yan feel satisfied and excited.

Through the Star Network, Fang Yan learned a lot of things.

For example, all life forms in the Milky Way originated from a huge explosion in the core area. The explosion caused a magical spore code-named Origin to spread throughout the galaxy and eventually gave birth to countless life forms, including the current ruler of the galaxy, humans.

Whether in the highly developed inner ring of the Milky Way, the edge of the Milky Way where the Earth is located, or even in the gray area full of violence and terror, there live countless humans. Although their skin color and facial features are slightly different, their genetic characteristics are exactly the same.

Many years ago, the three major powers in the Milky Way launched a large-scale investigation of the core area, trying to explore the secret of the origin spores.

But strangely, the exploration plan came to an abrupt end shortly after it began.

The three major powers even united to designate the core area of the galaxy as a restricted area, prohibiting anyone from approaching, otherwise they would suffer a devastating blow.

As a result, the core area has become the biggest secret in the entire galaxy.

No one knows what happened to the scientific expedition team when they entered there, which led them to make up their minds to completely isolate that huge star region.

Unknowingly, the night was already deep.

Fang Yan was immersed in the vast amount of information on the Star Network and didn't notice the passage of time at all.

Just as he was about to go to bed, he accidentally entered a forum called Space Power.

Many scientists and engineers from different galaxies are discussing how to reduce space disturbances during the operation of jump engines. These disturbances often cause position offsets and affect navigation accuracy.

Some have suggested using particle stabilizers to balance the disturbances, while others have suggested increasing the power of the jump drive.

"This is nonsense. The space disturbance engine forcibly opens a space rift, which will cause gravitational waves to spread rapidly and cause the distortion of time and space."

"Continuing to increase momentum under these circumstances will only make the disturbance more severe."

Fang Yan shook his head slightly. He felt that the engineers had good intentions, but their methods were questionable.

suddenly~

Fang Yan's eyes lit up and he thought of a good idea.

(End of this chapter)