Knowledge Acquisition

Knowledge Acquisition

While Huang Ji studied Electrical Power, he also kept up his research into medicine and biology.

The three complemented one another. Only by gaining a deeper understanding of the human body could Huang Ji tailor the strongest cultivation method for himself.

But as his level rose, his need for books and knowledge grew ever greater.

After all, he lacked systematic, comprehensive educational resources. All his knowledge came from books.

After spending thirteen days mastering every medical text in the bookstore, Huang Ji hit a bottleneck.

But just as he had considered before, if he hit a bottleneck, then he would find an expert and learn face-to-face.

He had been very well-behaved lately, so Zheng Xuan was quite at ease. Using going out to read as an excuse, Huang Ji headed alone to Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University.

Once he arrived at Zhongshan Hospital, Huang Ji quickly identified the two experts currently seeing outpatients.

"Li Wei... respiratory specialist, ranked over 170,000th worldwide in medical skill?"

"Jiang Wan... pathology specialist, ranked over 240,000th worldwide in medical skill?"

Huang Ji wandered outside the offices of the specialist clinics, examining the medical skill levels of the two experts.

Though their rankings were quite low, they were already fairly good experts at this hospital. Looking at the entire world, those rankings were not actually low.

Still, Huang Ji was somewhat disappointed, because he himself was already ranked around 500,000th worldwide... surpassing most of the physicians in this hospital...

Among those working today, aside from these two, quite a few outpatient physicians with the title of expert were inferior to Huang Ji after just thirteen days of self-study.

"As long as they're better than me." Huang Ji took out the appointment number he had booked online long ago. After completing the procedures, he went to the waiting room and waited to be called.

As expected, his turn came an hour later.

Yet as soon as he entered the room and sat down, Huang Ji discovered in surprise that Li Wei's ranking had dropped...

In just one hour, he's fallen more than eight hundred places! Huang Ji thought.

The information updated in real time. For professions with especially many practitioners, enormous changes could occur every second.

It was not that Li Wei's medical skill had declined drastically. Rather, more than eight hundred doctors worldwide had surpassed him during that one hour.

Moreover, they had not surpassed him by much. Their levels were actually incredibly close, and precisely because they were so close, the fluctuations were enormous.

"If he improves even slightly, or someone else declines even slightly, their rankings can instantly be separated by several hundred places."

"Also, I'm using comprehensive internal medicine standards. If only his specialty is counted, he can rank among the top ten thousand in respiratory medicine."

As Huang Ji figured this out, he searched through the other man's memories for knowledge related to respiratory medicine that he had yet to learn.

Before, he could not search so precisely. Since he knew almost nothing about medicine, he could only use the clumsy method of reading second by second.

At that rate, learning all of the other man's medical skills would take at least several years. By comparison, Huang Ji had spent only thirteen days reading and teaching himself to reach a level no worse than that of a graduate student, so he had chosen books.

But now things were different. Huang Ji had hit a bottleneck, and the face-to-face method of knowledge transfer finally came into play.

His foundation was solid, and he knew exactly what he lacked. Whatever he lacked, he searched for.

It was like looking up a song online. Before, he could only listen through countless songs one by one, slowly trying to distinguish them.

Now, it was as though he had a keyword from the lyrics and could immediately search out that song.

He only needed to look over the part he did not understand before moving on to the next song.

Each point of knowledge required only a dozen or so seconds. While his level continuously improved, the time required for perception was greatly reduced.

His efficiency soared.

"Breathe in..." Li Wei put on his stethoscope. As he listened, he had no idea that the young man before him was rapidly improving his knowledge of respiratory medicine.

Huang Ji slowly exhaled, then slowly inhaled. His cardiopulmonary function was extraordinarily strong.

At the same time, he continuously acquired new knowledge. Clinical test reports unavailable in books, along with excellent papers accessible only within Fudan University, were gradually read by Huang Ji.

Much of it was knowledge that even this expert himself no longer remembered!

Now, Huang Ji could package and compress information, absorbing this knowledge selectively at a rate of 1.25 times.

This was also why he had previously been willing to sacrifice lifespan to improve his physique and strengthen the "human engine."

He wanted to know whether a stronger physique truly meant a stronger capacity to bear information.

So that's how it is. Those thirty years of lifespan weren't lost for nothing...

Although he had not directly strengthened his brain, his cardiopulmonary function was like an engine, improving all aspects of his body's functions.

Huang Ji's cardiopulmonary capacity, twice that of an ordinary person, enhanced the blood and oxygen supply to his brain, raising its information-processing ability above that of ordinary people to 1.25 times normal.

"You're an athlete, right? Strong cardiac muscle, large lung capacity—there's nothing wrong... Where exactly do you feel unwell?" Li Wei asked.

Li Wei thought he was an athlete from a sports school who specialized in running.

Huang Ji's breathing was deep and steady, and there was absolutely nothing wrong with his respiratory tract. He was not ill at all.

At this point, he could only say, "I always feel like my breathing sounds too heavy, and I can always hear my heart going thump, thump. Whenever I think about it, my chest feels tight, like I might suddenly die..."

Li Wei's mouth twitched. He almost wanted to recommend that Huang Ji visit psychiatry instead.

But thinking that perhaps he had made a diagnostic error, he asked several more questions. Yet no matter how he considered it, Huang Ji was not sick. The only unusual thing was that his cardiopulmonary function was too good...

Li Wei shook his head, completely unable to make sense of Huang Ji's condition.

After thinking for a moment, he wrote out a form and said, "The issue isn't clear for now. Go get a chest X-ray first, then a complete blood count to rule out a respiratory infection."

With a serious expression, he handed the form to Huang Ji. "Go pay on the second floor. Bring the X-ray back up once it's done."

"..." Huang Ji slowly accepted it, somewhat speechless. In just those ten minutes, the other man's ranking had plummeted another thousand places...

"Mm, thank you, doctor." Huang Ji slowly stood. After absorbing the last bit of Li Wei's personal experience, he silently walked out of the room.

He finally understood why the man's ranking was dropping so quickly. He was muddling through. After muddling through outpatient clinics for too long, he would gradually lose the professionalism of a doctor. Long-term unprofessional judgments would cost him his decisiveness and confidence.

Furthermore, Li Wei had been half-"exiled" to the outpatient department, and his mindset had also developed problems, so his ranking fluctuated enormously.

Li Wei had once truly been an exceptional expert, ranked within the top fifty thousand worldwide.

That had been his peak. Everyone had their best period, but if they slacked off from then on and began merely coasting through their days...

Then, under the principle of use it or lose it, their objective ranking would rapidly decline.

Li Wei was now ranked beyond 180,000th, while Huang Ji had improved to 45,000th!

In the time it took to see a doctor, Huang Ji, the "patient," had utterly surpassed the expert and reached the man's technical level at his very peak.

"The data in the information is very objective. The whole world is constantly changing."

"Use it or lose it, along with factors like mindset and mood, can all affect rankings. This applies to most fields as well. Like athletes—one match, they might be in the global top ten; the next, they might fall beyond ten thousandth..."

"And Zheng Xuan. When I first met him, he was ranked 683rd among hackers worldwide. But after living in the countryside for a few days, he fell beyond one thousandth."

"For the past two weeks, he's been studying economics and busy with his apparent translation work, so he hasn't kept up with new technologies online at all. His ranking has already fallen beyond two thousandth..."

The times rolled relentlessly onward. Within society, if one did not advance, one fell behind.