Abyssal Wanderer

"I can only say that in all my years of medical practice, I have never seen such a strange case... There are many changes in the patient's brain, but they can be roughly divided into two categories..."

After showing his ID, the attending physician who was treating the unconscious Duanmu Youxue in the hospital began to explain her condition to Jim.

"First, the anterior insula, prefrontal cortex, superior parietal lobule, and left angular gyrus all showed a significant decrease in glucose metabolism. The temperatures of these brain regions were lower than normal, and are still decreasing until now.

"On the other hand, the patient's iris brain region showed extremely abnormal proliferation. Not only did it extend additional nerves to deepen the entanglement with the brain-computer interface, but it also bypassed the anterior cingulate gyrus and other areas, connecting the fusiform gyrus, the primary motor nervous system, and the visual and auditory systems together..."

"Wait a moment..."

Jim interrupted the doctor by tapping his forehead with his index finger.

Even though Jiang Zhou was an expert in brain cognitive science a hundred years ago, considering that brain-computer interfaces and Hongqiao brain areas did not exist a hundred years ago, he was a little behind in keeping up.

"That is to say, the operating efficiency of many of the association areas in her brain that are responsible for maintaining logical thinking has been greatly reduced. On the other hand, the Rainbow Bridge brain area has pulled her motor and sensory nerve lines together, greatly reducing the signal delay when she moves...Is that what you mean?"

Jiang Zhou recalled his professional knowledge.

The attending physician nodded subconsciously at first, then realized something, and suddenly looked up at Jim, with his eyes subtly changing at the same time - the same subtle change as when he saw the buddy sitting next to him on the subway playing the same 2D mobile game as him.

"Yes, yes... You are also a brain surgeon?"

The doctor unconsciously stretched out his hand as if to shake hands with him politely, but Jim quickly waved his hand away:

"No, no, I just know a friend who has made some achievements in brain cognitive science..."

After saying this, he couldn't help but laugh at himself.

Seeing this, the doctor did not continue to ask questions, but continued with Jim's previous words:

"But anyway, your analysis was very professional... That's right, the changes in the patient are not the amplification of emotions, but the suppression of thinking ability related to the construction of self-awareness, while the ability to act has been enhanced. In this way, even if the inhibitory neurons are not destroyed or the amygdala is overactivated to stimulate strong emotions, even some very ordinary emotions will still be amplified at the patient's behavioral level, leading to serious consequences."

In other words, after this combination of punches, people infected with this mental illness will gradually become completely illogical but full of action psychopaths.

If you want something, go get it right away. If you hate someone, make him disappear right away. If you have a bold idea, try it right away...

From a socialization perspective alone, the intelligence level of the infected may be lower than that of monkeys.

"But she has shown considerable intelligence before."

Recalling the difficult arrest operation at the factory, Jim pointed at Duanmu Youxue who was tied up on the bed and said:

"As a hacker, she can easily defeat a Sandman-level master. After all, programming definitely requires logical thinking, right?"

The doctor frowned when he heard this, and after thinking for a while, he replied:

"In theory, it should be impossible for her to complete something like programming that requires logical thinking... But considering that she is a hacker and has an abnormally developed rainbow bridge brain area. If she can completely internalize the programming language into natural language, she may be able to do this...

"Of course, I'm not a computer expert, so I don't have much to say about this. But judging from the fact that her language system is still functioning normally... I can only say, even though it sounds ridiculous, that she may have programmed it instinctively."

Jim nodded, and couldn't help but recall Commissioner Bai's previous reminder.

If these infected beings, whose socialization level is not as high as that of monkeys, want to replace humans and reach a crisis high enough to trigger a scenario of human intellectual collapse, they must be stronger than humans in some aspects.

So, will this be their advantage?

A kind of programming ability that is almost instinctive.

Thinking of this, Jim asked the question that concerned him the most during this visit:

"So, how did her brain mutate? Is there a risk of infection?"

What is the true identity of that "parasite"?

In response to this question, the doctor spread his hands helplessly.

"To be honest, I don't know."

As he spoke, he pointed the electronic pen in his hand at the brain CT image beside him.

"We couldn't detect any parasites, viruses, fungi, or nanomachine invasions in her body, nor any signs of surgical implants or stimulation. We even checked the patient's DNA and found no signs of contamination or pruning. The data perfectly matched her past DNA fingerprints, if I must say..."

The doctor hesitated for a moment, then said in a joking tone:

“It’s a bit like cancer.”

Moreover, even the most advanced guidance technology today cannot extend nerves from the connection point of the brain-computer interface in the Hongqiao brain area to accurately connect to the fusiform gyrus and other locations.

However, even with so many things he didn't understand, Jim still roughly determined the direction.

The Hongqiao brain area is where benign tumors are most likely to grow due to stimulation when the nano-mesh invades the brain when a brain-computer interface is installed.

According to the information obtained from Ji Mu before, organizations like the New Tenrikyo have the technology to greatly increase the probability of the generation of the Rainbow Bridge Brain Area. In other words, it is not impossible to stimulate the continued growth of the Rainbow Bridge Brain Area through certain means.

Even if human technology cannot achieve such precision, considering the possibility of salvaging from the abyss dark web, who knows?

At this moment, he was at least 70% sure that the mutated Rainbow Bridge brain area was the body of this mental parasite.

Of course, if that were the case, it would mean that at least the parasite itself was not contagious—who’d ever heard of cancer being contagious, right?

But the method of stimulating the growth of the Hongqiao brain area may be...

Thinking of this, Jim couldn't help but look down at the memory in his hand.

That was something Commissioner Bai gave him before he left—the Ikaros promotional material that Huili had planned to upload to the data center not long ago.

The resettlement area government sent out the riot control squad precisely because of the dangerousness of this thing, and allowed them to open fire at will.

It includes videos, audios, pictures, slogans and...

Simulation. (End of this chapter)