Memory inheritor

Chapter 245 Exploring the Mystery (Part 2)

After watching Wei Hongsi finish his call, Shen Qing asked, "Shall we head over now?"

"Yes." Wei Hongsi nodded to her. "You need to familiarize yourself with the equipment beforehand and get used to the state of consciousness interaction."

"Okay, I'll go change my clothes." Shen Qing said, standing up and walking towards the bedroom.

Wei Hongsi advised, "Do not wear any jewelry."

Shen Qing turned around and smiled: "Okay."

A short while later, Shen Qing returned to the workshop and said to the two people inside, "Let's go!"

When Wei Hongsi and Liu Lu came out of the workroom, they saw that Shen Qing had changed into a neat sportswear outfit, her hair was tied in a ponytail with a hair tie, and she was not wearing any accessories.

The three went downstairs, got into the car, and headed to the Third Research Institute. On the way, Wei Hongsi explained the precautions for consciousness infiltration to Shen Qing, emphasizing the function and usage of the beacon.

The prerequisite for an investigator to establish conscious interaction with a target is that their own brainwave patterns match those of the target.

Therefore, during the preparation phase of consciousness infiltration, the investigator will enter an "induced REM sleep state" under the adjustment and guidance of the equipment, and both the physical condition and subjective feelings will be the same as when dreaming.

At this time, the activity of the scout's prefrontal cortex will significantly decrease, resulting in a loss of logical judgment and reality testing abilities.

They will quickly forget most or even all of the content observed during the interaction after it ends.

In this state, the scouts are clearly unable to carry out their mission.

The first function of the beacon is to activate the prefrontal cortex to a certain extent, enabling the scout to have the thinking ability of a conscious person and enter a "lucid dream" state, which is a basic condition for completing the reconnaissance mission.

After entering the consciousness interaction phase, the scout will be powerfully impacted by the target's consciousness anchor point "Trinity", and the dream scene will be completely dominated by the other party.

This is an extremely unequal confrontation at the level of consciousness, which can easily cause the scouts to suffer a mental breakdown, become lost in the target's dream, and then be eliminated by the opponent's consciousness anchor, interrupting the interaction process.

The second function of the beacon is to act as an anchor point for the scouts' consciousness, ensuring that their consciousness does not become lost and providing them with mental support.

In addition, when carrying out infiltration missions, reconnaissance personnel need to receive instructions and guidance from external observers and adjust their actions and strategies in a timely manner.

The third function of beacons is to serve as a communication channel between scouts and external observers.

While Wei Hongsi was explaining to Shen Qing, Liu Lu was listening attentively. Although she no longer needed to impersonate Shen Qing, she was still the best candidate to be the detective in the operation to infiltrate Chen Xuemin's mind.

After listening to Wei Hongsi's explanation, Shen Qing asked a few more questions. Once the two had finished their conversation, Liu Lu drove to their destination.

Identity verification is required to enter the Third Research Institute. Wei Hongsi had previously explained this to Zheng Han during a phone call, and Zheng Han had already registered Shen Qing.

Shen Qing had an invitation letter from the General Administration. Although it wasn't specifically for the SR project, the General Administration would investigate her personal circumstances, family background, and so on before sending the letter, and then include her in the list of collaborators. With this foundation, the review process was very fast.

The three arrived at the monitoring room, where Wei Hongsi introduced Shen Qing to Zheng Han and other experts.

Zheng Han said with a smile, "Hello Shen Qing, it's great to have you join our team!"

Shen Qing smiled and said, "Thank you, Teacher Zheng. I am very honored."

The other experts also greeted Shen Qing warmly. They were well aware of the risks involved in carrying out a consciousness infiltration mission, and Shen Qing's courage and sense of responsibility as a non-official member were particularly commendable.

After exchanging pleasantries, Wei Hongsi said, "Teacher Zheng, I plan to have Shen Qing do two rounds of testing first, so she can get familiar with the equipment and feel it."

Zheng Han said, "The equipment has been installed and debugged. We have loaded Shen Qing's exclusive neurosemantic package onto the new port, and we can start testing now."

Wei Hongsi said, "Okay, let's begin."

He led Shen Qing to the equipment control room. The new port equipment was installed in a location further inside, alongside the existing port equipment.

A gap was made between them so that they would not interfere with each other.

Wei Hongsi had Shen Qing lie down on the device and said to her, "This round of testing won't take too long, about ten minutes in total. After the test, don't get up immediately; pay attention to the prompts and guidance."

Shen Qing nodded: "Okay, I've got it."

Wei Hongsi stepped back a bit and watched as the staff came forward to help Shen Qing put on the adjusted equipment before going to the monitoring room.

Soon, Shen Qing's multimodal signals were displayed on the large screen. The brainwave signal feedback was very clear, indicating that her brainwave absolute power was very high, which is a typical characteristic of a young brain.

Wei Hongsi suddenly remembered that Shen Qing was about a year younger than him, and was actually still just a young girl.

Zheng Han asked, "Teacher Wei, shall we begin the initial guidance?"

Wei Hongsi nodded and said, "Okay."

After lying down, Shen Qing followed Wei Hongsi's instructions, relaxing her entire body and trying to clear her mind. However, it wasn't easy to completely stop thinking; thoughts kept popping into her head involuntarily.

This made Shen Qing feel a little annoyed, worried that she was too slow to get into the zone and that it would affect the test.

Not long after, white noise filled my ears, like the soft rustling of raindrops falling on leaves, or the gentle whisper of a breeze through a bamboo grove, with a unique rhythm in its sound.

She was very sensitive to music, and as she felt the rhythm, her heart quickly calmed down.

Shen Qing stuffed the seasoned minced meat into the fried tofu, filling it about seven or eight-tenths full, and then arranged it on a plate. Seeing the neatly arranged fried tofu on the plate, she couldn't help but feel very happy.

"Did he come alone, or did he bring someone with him?"

Shen Qing recognized the voice as her aunt's. She looked up and saw Tang Jinxia sitting opposite her. She said, "He mentioned that he has another colleague."

"Is his colleague male or female?" Tang Jinxia asked again.

Shen Qing said, "What's the difference? As long as he comes, that's fine."

Suddenly, two soft beeps rang in her mind, making her realize that she was lying on the equipment conducting tests, so why was she cooking at home again? She had already eaten dinner!

She then realized she was dreaming. This indicates that she was in an induced REM sleep state, entering the preparatory stage before conscious interaction.

Thankfully, he said that dreams at this stage cannot be monitored or interpreted.

Shen Qing patted her chest, trying to change her dream. She had never had a lucid dream, but Wei Hongsi had told her that she could control the scenes and direction of her dreams.

As her thoughts shifted, she found herself in a workspace, sitting on a sofa by the floor-to-ceiling windows with Wei Hongsi and Liu Lu.

Above is a scene of their conversation after dinner.

"Beep~ Beep~"

The voice in her mind rang twice more. Shen Qing knew that it was the beacon and could sense its presence.

A beacon is a module running within a device; it is not a physical entity in itself. However, in the virtual world, it functions like a special in-game item for a scout, which can be interacted with using consciousness.

Shen Qing tried touching the beacon three times in quick succession.

Soon, the beacon responded with a beep: "Beep~ Beep beep~"

This indicates that communication channels with the outside world are functioning normally.

In reality, beacons transmit simulated cognitive signals; sound, text, and even images can be transmitted. However, during conscious interaction, the brainwaves of the scout and the target are simultaneously affected, and these types of plaintext information transmissions can also be perceived by the other party, including internal language (inner monologue). In this state, "thinking" and "speaking" are almost equivalent.

Therefore, the scouts used a simple, custom-made code similar to Morse code to communicate with the outside world. The "beep" sound emitted by the beacon and the scouts touching the beacon would be very obvious in the real world, but the target in REM sleep would not notice these sounds.

"Beep~"

The beacon emitted another long beep, and then the workshop in front of Shen Qing disappeared, replaced by a field.

Under the azure sky, the stream flows gently across the meadow, and several birds fly past, chirping softly.

Shen Qing knew that this was no longer her dream. What she saw, heard, and touched was a virtual world composed of simulated cognitive signals sent to her by the device.

Soon the wilderness turned into a desert, and the desert turned into a forest. The scene changes were extremely sudden, simulating the sudden transformation of a dream scene.

A few minutes later, the beacon emitted three long beeps, the scene before her eyes disappeared, and white noise returned to her ears.

Following the prompts, Shen Qing lay quietly for a while, then gently raised her arms and legs one by one, and slowly opened her eyes. She saw that the instrument on her head had been removed, and Wei Hongsi was standing next to her.

"How are you feeling?" Wei Hongsi asked.

"Not bad, quite interesting," Shen Qing said, sitting up.

Wei Hongsi couldn't help but laugh: "The difficulty is about to increase, so you need to be mentally prepared."

Shen Qing asked, "Is it a simulated consciousness interaction?"

Wei Hongsi nodded and said, "Yes, you will see a part of Zhou Huai's dream. Let me give you a brief introduction first."

The main purpose of the second round of testing was to guide Shen Qing into the consciousness interaction stage and then import the brain signals generated by Zhou Huai during his independent dream last night, which was equivalent to letting Shen Qing watch a live recording of Zhou Huai's dream.

Receiving information unilaterally like this isn't truly interactive, but it can simulate the feeling of interaction on Shen Qing's end. Furthermore, immersing Shen Qing in the dream world will aid in the next step of the plan.

After explaining the situation to Shen Qing, Wei Hongsi let her rest for a while before starting the second round of testing.

The whole process was not much different from the first round of testing.

After entering induced REM sleep, Shen Qing dreamed of holding a fan meeting on a cruise ship and interacting with Wei Hongsi.

When she regained consciousness under the influence of the beacon, she discovered that most of the fans sitting below had blurry faces and looked very strange.

Shen Qing's own "lucid dream" did not last long before she was guided into the consciousness interaction stage, and then she entered Zhou Huai's dream reality.

She saw many faces, some of which she recognized, including Ran Tong, Meng Cai, Liu Dongni, and Mu Jie; most of the faces were unfamiliar, including several foreigners.

There were also many groups of people appearing, their faces very blurry, just like the fans sitting below in her dream.

Finally, she saw herself and heard Zhou Huai utter those words in a neurotic manner.

Zhou Huai's dream sequence only lasted about five minutes, so the second round of testing was also short.

Shen Qing opened her eyes and saw Wei Hongsi again.

"How did you feel this time?"

"Aside from the strange content of the dream, everything else was fine."

"Get up and move around a bit, relax a bit, then we'll officially begin."

"it is good."

Shen Qing got out of bed and started doing stretching exercises.

Seeing that her movements were very precise and her flexibility was quite good, Wei Hongsi asked, "Do you exercise often?"

Shen Qing said, "Yes, I often run and swim, which can improve my cardiopulmonary function and is very helpful for breathing when singing."

And you?"

Wei Hongsi said, "I also prefer swimming, and I run relatively less."

After chatting for a while, Zheng Han and Xiao Zhou went to the equipment control room. The four of them huddled together and checked the key steps of the upcoming formal infiltration operation.

When Zhou Huai's brainwave signals enter an active phase, Xiao Zhou, posing as Zhou Huai's virtual personality, first engages in conscious interaction, inducing Zhou Huai to produce continuous responsive brainwave fluctuations. After approximately three to four minutes, Xiao Zhou withdraws from the conscious interaction, and after another one to two minutes, Shen Qing takes over the conscious interaction.

If Liu Lu were to play Shen Qing, a virtual persona for Shen Qing would need to be created. Now that Shen Qing herself is playing the role, this step is naturally skipped, and there's no need for her to wear a disguise.

In the first two rounds of testing, Shen Qing's brainwave signals performed exceptionally well, even surpassing those of the carefully selected consciousness scouts. This has raised the experts' expectations for her performance in the upcoming formal consciousness interaction.

Not long after, the monitoring room issued a "ready" command, and Xiao Zhou and Shen Qing went to their respective equipment.

Before lying down, Shen Qing looked Wei Hongsi over and asked, "You seem a little nervous?"

Wei Hongsi said, "Maybe a little."

Shen Qing smiled and said, "Don't worry, I think I can do it."

Wei Hongsi smiled and said, "I have a lot of confidence in you."

After seeing that Shen Qing was ready, Wei Hongsi left for the monitoring room.

With Zheng Han's command, the consciousness infiltration operation officially began, and the system simultaneously guided Xiao Zhou and Shen Qing at their respective ports.

This time, after Shen Qing entered induced REM sleep, she dreamed of receiving the annual Best Song Award with Wei Hongsi. The winning song was "The Brave," which they co-wrote.

Shen Qing was quickly brought back to consciousness by the beacon, and she couldn't help but call out twice in annoyance. People often say that dreams are the opposite of reality.

So this is definitely not a good omen. So-called dreams are probably only realized in dreams.

But since she had this dream, why not indulge in some fantasies within it?

So Shen Qing continued to receive the award and gave her acceptance speech on stage.

This is a formal infiltration operation. The scouts need to wait for Zhou Huai's brainwave signals to become active. After that, Shen Qing will have to wait for Xiao Zhou to infiltrate and exit. Therefore, she has a relatively long time to have a lucid dream, enough to write a lengthy reflection.