Growth Trait

"I had to get this data. Even if it meant sacrificing the containment object born for it, so be it!"

Bai Ge made his decision instantly, because knowledge was extremely important to him.

The knowledge discovered in reality had far too many uses. Even merely enriching his imagination and bringing it ever closer to reality was something Bai Ge had to strive for.

He firmly believed that developing his imagination until it stood on equal footing with reality was theoretically possible.

"I have to materialize a permanent trait. After all, I won't just need it this once. I'll be using it often in the future."

There were over two hundred encrypted projects in the database. Using one-time traits for all of them would be insane.

And this was only the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's database. The United States alone had more than a dozen similar databases, and there were even more worldwide.

Setting a permanent trait was Bai Ge's inevitable choice.

It would solve the problem once and for all while producing only one containment object.

"The Chance Trait is useless against quantum encryption. I'll go with Universal Unlock!"

Before being measured through physical means, a quantum encryption system was essentially a superposition of all possible results.

In other words, quantum encryption actually had no password at all! It was linked to a quantum closed system somewhere in reality. Only when the closed system was disturbed from outside and a quantum state was determined would a password exist.

Chance Unlock could only unlock locks that had passwords.

No matter how coincidental or fortuitous it was, it could not crack this kind of encryption.

Bai Ge was in China. He could not run to the Americans' secret base just to unlock something, find the quantum encryption system, and secretly activate its measurement mechanism.

Therefore, the only way to crack quantum encryption from afar was the Absolute Trait.

"Bell, bring me my appendix!"

"No matter what kind of lock it is, as long as I can affect it, I'll be able to unlock it by silently reciting 'Universal Unlock.'"

Inside his imagination, Bai Ge set the trait onto his Earthling body, but after coming out, he found that no energy had been consumed.

"It failed... I have nine hundred thousand degrees of electricity right now. Isn't that enough...?"

Bai Ge thought for a moment and altered the setting.

"No matter what kind of lock it is, as long as I can see it, I'll be able to unlock it by silently reciting 'Universal Unlock.'"

The result was still failure.

"Hmm... As expected, it still won't work. The scope is too broad."

Bai Ge pondered. Clearly, permanently materializing this trait would cost far too much.

After all, this was a permanent Absolute Trait, and it forcibly unlocked things through supernatural means.

Whether it was a lock on Earth, a lock in any corner of the universe, or even a conceptual lock, it could crack them all.

"Right, it seems to include conceptual locks too!"

"Let's try excluding concepts and testing metaphysical locks..."

A few seconds later.

"Tsk. Still no good."

Bai Ge sighed. "There's no way around it. Then I can only..."

"No matter what kind of lock it is, as long as I can see it, understand its principles, and know how to unlock it normally, then by silently reciting 'Universal Unlock,' I can forcibly crack it without actually carrying out the specific steps!"

"Success!"

Bai Ge felt the electrical energy in his appendix vanish in an instant. Of the more than nine hundred thousand degrees of electricity, only a few thousand remained.

The prerequisite Bai Ge had set for Universal Unlock was understanding.

This drastically narrowed the range of locks it could crack.

If Bai Ge did not recognize, know, or understand a lock, he could not crack it.

However... Bai Ge had actually exploited a loophole here!

That was because this trait possessed growth potential!

In theory, the trait could still crack every visible lock!

The range it could crack depended on Bai Ge's observational ability, knowledge, and comprehension!

"A trait like this only cost nine hundred thousand degrees of electricity. After all, the locks I currently know are insignificant compared to all the locks in the vast universe—only a tiny fraction."

"But its future value will increase step by step along with my knowledge, far exceeding the traits that nine hundred thousand degrees of electricity could materialize."

Bai Ge's eyes lit up, and he immediately became excited.

"So traits can be set to grow too... A trait like this will never become obsolete in the future."

Growth Traits would become another major way to save energy.

They could grow not only with knowledge, but also with physical ability, resources...

They could even grow with the number of times something was trained or used!

"Often, when I add some consumption or cost to an anomalous trait, increasing its interaction with reality as much as possible, it becomes easier for reality to acknowledge it."

"The 'principle' behind an anomalous trait shouldn't be too isolated."

Shadow Person was an obvious example of an isolated trait.

Even adding the absorption of solar energy to the Shadow Person state, gradually offsetting the 'damage' absorbed by the bow tie, would have been better than its current state.

That was why such a massive amount of mysterious energy had only materialized this 'living target,' allowing Bai Ge to subdue it so easily.

If that energy had been given to Bai Ge to use, its applications would have been far greater.

"Universal Unlock!"

Bai Ge naturally understood the principles of quantum encryption, and he also knew how to unlock it.

Someone needed to personally enter the quantum encryption system's secret vault and activate the measurement mechanism.

In other words, it had to be unlocked from both ends: online and in reality.

However, the power of the Universal Unlock command lay in the fact that Bai Ge did not actually need to do this.

Knowing was enough. Understanding was equivalent to doing!

Bai Ge did not even use a computer. He glanced at the screen and silently recited the command.

The quantum encryption program that rejected all network cracking attempts, one that even the god of hackers would have been helpless against...

unlocked itself.

Even the quantum vault in reality had not been touched, and the non-interfered quantum state inside remained an uncertain, chaotic state.

As a result, the confidential files were opened without anyone knowing.

Only if someone was bored enough to compare the unlocking records with the operation records would they discover that someone had perfectly bypassed the quantum encryption.

Unlocking quantum encryption unilaterally was like...

Xiaoming climbing a tree outside to pick apples, eating too many to climb back down, then returning home for a ladder and using the ladder to climb down the tree...

It was a standard case of causal disorder—or, rather, a violation of Earthling linear logic.

"Gasp, that's a huge amount of data, and this is only one encrypted project!"

"As expected of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's database."

Bai Ge smiled as he downloaded the massive amount of data. He was accessing it normally, and the unlocking had also happened 'normally,' so it did not trigger any alarms.

As soon as one project finished downloading, he immediately moved on to the next.

Quantum encryption that outsiders could not crack obediently opened itself one project after another, revealing everything inside and allowing Bai Ge to retrieve it.

It was as if he were a Department of Defense bigwig, or perhaps even more convenient.

After all, even Department of Defense bigwigs needed to issue instructions through several layers before they could open a quantum lock.

"A quantum computer! Hmm... This technology is still immature."

"Laser anti-missile satellites... This technology is actually mature already."

"Non-lethal incapacitating weapons... They make it sound so mysterious, but aren't they just infrasound weapons?"

"Electromagnetic railguns have been researched for forty years, yet they still can't be deployed on the battlefield..."

Bai Ge continuously acquired the data and gained an ever-deeper understanding of America's current defense capabilities.

Overall, many technologies were still immature and needed several more years of work.

However, these research data remained extremely important to Bai Ge.

As for the technologies that had already matured, Bai Ge could begin mass-producing them in his imagination as soon as he had sufficient resources!

After spending several hours, Bai Ge had read ninety percent of the database.

Suddenly, a strange project appeared before Bai Ge.

"Memory Erasure Shredder? What the hell is this?"

Just looking at the name made it sound incredibly advanced. But after Bai Ge unlocked it and entered, he immediately froze.

Device description: The exterior is that of an ordinary paper shredder. It is 0.6 meters tall, 0.4 meters wide, and 0.3 meters long. Its brand is Vannuosi.

Device origin: The true origin is unknown. It was discovered in the office of the FBI's advanced hostage rescue team in Chicago. It had unified procurement receipts dating back three years.

Usage test—blank paper: Shredded normally.

Courier information sheet: Shredded normally. Afterwards, everyone within twenty-two meters of the shredder completely forgot the contents of the paper, as well as all letters and some numbers.

Paper containing only the number 5: Shredded normally. Afterwards, everyone within twenty-two meters of the shredder instantly forgot that the number 5 existed. When asked to write Arabic numerals, they directly skipped over 5. However, when faced with the word 'five,' they could read it normally and understood its meaning.

Portrait of Employee T: Shredded normally. Afterwards, everyone within twenty-two meters of the shredder completely forgot the appearance represented by the portrait. Employee T himself also forgot what he looked like. When looking in a mirror, he said, "I feel like I'm a stranger." Employee T's dog was also within the test range, but did not show any unfamiliarity toward its owner.

Paper bearing only a circular pattern: Shredded normally. Afterwards, every living thing within twenty-two meters of the shredder, including a gorilla, forgot that circles existed. They expressed surprise at all circular patterns around them, but remained completely familiar with spheres and did not lose their memory of the meaning of circular characters.

One bizarre test after another—there were far too many. The more Bai Ge read, the graver his expression became.

Until he reached the final paragraph.

Test summary: After paper bearing any words, numbers, symbols, or patterns is processed by this shredder, all living organisms within twenty-two meters of the shredder will forget the corresponding content, down to every individual symbol. No method of restoring the memories has been discovered so far.

"This is a containment object!"

Without even thinking, Bai Ge knew from the beginning that this was a containment object.

He had not expected one to appear in a place as distant as America.

"This is the third containment object I've discovered. It doesn't necessarily have to appear near me."

"No wonder I haven't found any strange local news after all these days..."

Bai Ge looked at the project's update records. It had first been uploaded the day before yesterday.

The subsequent experiment reports had all been updated yesterday.

"This containment object is quite harmless by itself, if no one uses it..."

"It can completely serve as a quiet little paper shredder."