Puzzle Madness

Chapter 135 Food Lightning and Report Card
DouDou thought that the aunt's line of thinking was quite right.

At least in these kinds of things: practice, experiment, learn and adapt; perhaps then you can understand more and discover more fun things.

The dead are still surrounding the observatory—if you scoop some of their brains out and stuff them into the back of their mouths, wouldn't you be able to get their memories and know what really happened?
"You'll only know once you try it! Anyway, the idea that watching a videotape makes your head grow a mouth is pretty amazing, isn't it?"

After a person dies, is the world they saw recorded in their decaying brain?
"Wow, I definitely have to see! Even if there's nothing there, I'll at least find out what strange things happened to them before."

Perhaps, we can glimpse the secrets of the afterlife while we are still alive—
After combing her wet hair, DouDou busied herself taking out a handkerchief and wiping the "mouth" at the back of her head; it was sticky and foamy there, making her hair all wet and tangled.

Then, press your palm against the opening of the occipital bone and push the soft, tender stuff that is gushing out deeper.

He couldn't afford to lose any more brainpower! He already struggled with math homework; he didn't even want to think about how badly his grades would drop if he lost any more brainpower.

boom!
A bolt of lightning struck through the skylight, its blazing light bursting into the narrow cubicle and illuminating the bizarre and wondrous world inside the planetarium.

The "mouth" is almost clean, now it's time to eat whose?
Perhaps we should choose carefully: depending on the individual, it might affect DouDou's intelligence.

But judging by appearance alone, it's difficult to determine which of these dozen or so people is the most intelligent.
"Hmph, let's just learn from the strengths of all schools of thought."

Finally, DouDou scooped up a handful of cold, trembling, soft flesh from each person's wound, gently rubbed and mixed it in her palm, and stuffed it into the "mouth" at the back of their head.

It's called a "mouth," but there's no tongue or oral mucosa in this opening; the teeth are just simple growths, and there's no sensation when pushing against the tooth surface, probably because they lack dental nerves.

It lacks a taste system—and also a nervous system, so it naturally lacks a sense of touch.

Only the edges of my scalp felt cool and slippery; it was as if shampoo had been applied before my hair was even wet. There was still a faint smell of pork from the market, but it was less meaty and less pungent than other stalls.

*Smack, smack*
DouDou gently pushed the soft foreign objects, trying to push them all into the cavity.
After waiting a while, nothing unusual happened.

He took a breath, closed his eyes, and plugged both ear canals with his index fingers, carefully searching his mind for any new memories.

Thump, thump, thump
In the darkness before me, only my own heartbeat pounded like a drum; the smell of rust in my nostrils grew stronger.

After a long while—DouDou finally opened her eyes:
Nothing special.

"Oh, it seems I was wrong."

boom!
Another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky.

DouDou lowered her hand from her eyes—only to see that the sleeves of her bright yellow raincoat were covered with a layer of fine, dense water droplets, which shimmered as they reflected the electric light from outside the window.

【Hmm?】

He shook off the rain as soon as he entered the planetarium; plus, he walked around repeatedly and watched videos on the plastic sheet. The surface should have been mostly dry by now.

He looked up—in the center of the circular dome, a dark stain of water stood out conspicuously.

It seemed that the ceiling could no longer withstand the onslaught of the downpour, and raindrops seeped in from the roof; but no raindrops fell.

I hadn't heard a single drop of water hitting my raincoat; that muffled, crisp sound was quite different from the chaotic rain outside the window.

Where did the water on my body come from?

DouDou thought for a while but couldn't figure it out, so she gently patted the water droplets off—they splashed on the ground and instantly disappeared into the darkness.
There's something strange about it that I can't quite put my finger on.
But after careful consideration, he still couldn't sense any memories from the dead.
-
"Well"

It is unclear whether these brain tissues have already become completely inactive and their memories cannot be "read".
Or is this "Secrets of Mankind" just a smokescreen, at most making people grow an extra mouth on their occipital bone; the stuff about inputting and inputting memories is complete nonsense.

DouDou even imitated the dead, lying face down next to the telescope for a while.

Of course, he was completely unharmed and got up perfectly fine; there was no sudden death, nor any divine intervention.

"No, no, we need to find a living person to test it on first."

In conclusion, the attempt to verify the deceased's memory theory failed.

Outside the planetarium, swirling air currents roared and howled, while torrential rain lashed against the air vents, pooling into small streams on the ground. "Should I dig out what I just threw in? Oh well, a little dirt won't hurt."

DouDou yawned—her thoughts drifted elsewhere:
"Oh, I almost forgot! That lady with the dyed white hair fooled me; Old Li and the PhD aren't even here. You really can't trust lunatics."

This place really did resemble a temporary outpost of the Asia-Europe Postal Service. However, there were no acquaintances of DouDou's there. But having taken this strange and magical videotape made the trip worthwhile.

[Could she actually just be trying to trick me into watching this video? We'd need to get some of her brainpower to find out.]

DouDou reached into her schoolbag and poked at the disc of "The Secrets of Humankind" with her fingertip:
What exactly is going on with this videotape?

This thing is really fun—it's a kind of "what you see is what you get" experience in another sense, reminding DouDou of those careful yet rewarding maneuvers in her model airplane class:
So, where can I find more?

I'll wait until the rain subsides a bit before going to the nearby bus stop to wait for the bus home. Hmm, I'll turn on the light first.

Everything in the darkness was clearly visible: only the lightning was still flashing back and forth; the sudden bursts of light were tiring to watch after a while.

Rainwater seeped into the seams of my shoes, and my socks are still wet; it's very uncomfortable.
Although you can't tell from her appearance, DouDou is actually quite good at repairing things, especially electrical appliances.

DouDou's neighborhood, Tianhu, is old and dilapidated: circuit breakers tripping and minor problems with the water pipes are common occurrences; and he has also broken many other things himself.

The property management company for the residential complex left a long time ago, leaving only the weathered security guard at the entrance who sleeps for eighteen hours a day; he's not much help in this regard.

Experience makes perfect, and DouDou can still do some minor repairs—as long as she doesn't use too much force, she can either tear the entire electrical box off or crush the remote control.

While yawning, he slowly walked along the wall looking for the ceiling light switch.
Buzz!
Suddenly:

Amidst the pounding of the rain, faint, discordant noises could be heard, growing louder as they approached.

It sounds like the noise of a vehicle engine? There's also a strange sound of tires slipping in the rain.

DouDou stopped what it was doing and pricked up its ears:

The wind was still howling, with a few scattered, crisp sounds mingling with the wind and rain—
It's like wearing hard heels and trying to move stealthily, but in the typhoon, you can't help but relax and make some noise.

boom!
Another bolt of lightning—
Boom!
A dark shadow slid through the air vent and flew into the exhibition hall, landing on the floor.

It was a cylindrical, dark object; it rolled around in the center of the exhibition hall and stopped not far from DouDou.

Forehead--
This scene looks familiar; it's similar to the time during a summer vacation when I was raided in a mathematician's apartment by a small team of Eurasian Postal Special Forces.

He scratched his head, a hint of doubt in his eyes, his confidence waning. He cautiously offered a guess:
"Uh, is that a smoke bomb?"

Last time I guessed it was a stun grenade, but it turned out to be a smoke grenade—
Ping!
A flash of light suddenly burst open, filling the entire exhibition hall; the intense light mixed with a loud bang, as if thunder had rushed in from outside the window.

Wow, you guessed wrong again! You're just going to do the opposite of what I'm doing!

The flash of light was fleeting, and DouDou clenched her fists; her mind was filled with a vague sense of déjà vu.

Is someone going to burst in again, shouting something about "[corporate enforcement]"?
throat!
The observatory's iron gate was kicked open, and several figures surged into the exhibition hall amidst the flashes of lightning overhead.

"Corporate law enforcement! Corporate law enforcement--"

The fully armed security guard at the forefront suddenly froze and stopped in his tracks; he almost slipped and abruptly cut off the halfway through his sentence.

He suddenly raised his voice and changed his words; it was high-pitched and trembling, as if a little girl were hiding inside the helmet:
"Execute the appeasement procedure. Execute the appeasement procedure!"

DouDou lowered her hand again, her face full of suspicion.
[Huh? What program?]

Thud! The security guard threw his rifle aside and slammed his knee, which was covered by a knee pad, onto the ground with a loud thud.

The security guard, his fingers gripping the slippery floor tiles, spoke in a muffled voice hidden behind his helmet. He roared at the ground, his voice booming like thunder, the content of which surprised DouDou:
"I graduated from a top-tier high school in Penang! My GPA was 3.5 in Mathematics, 3.4 in English, 3.8 in Chinese, and 3.5 in Physics."

(End of this chapter)