Hangover and Choice

When Chen Chen was awakened by the reading room attendant, five hours had already passed.

"Student, it's late. The library is closing."

"Okay, auntie. I'll pack up and leave."

Chen Chen came back to his senses. Several books had already piled up in front of him, covering the entire table—from Reading True Scripture to Cambridge IELTS, from OFFCAL GUIDE to BLUE DELTA.

He picked up the books one by one and returned them to their places, then got up and left the library.

Chen Chen rarely saw the campus at night. Along the quiet paths, orange streetlamps flickered silently, like stars in the night sky.

A gust of wind swept by, making the little grove beside the road rustle.

With early winter approaching, the campus in December had already taken on a slight chill.

Chen Chen had gone five or six hours without food or water, yet he did not feel hungry or thirsty at all.

Not only that, he was still full of energy, with no trace of sleepiness, as if he had just gotten out of bed.

He knew it was all due to the effects of NZT-48.

"To fit my schedule, I should take NZT between around ten in the morning and noon from now on."

Chen Chen calculated silently. In the movie, NZT-48's effects could last twelve hours. If it was dissolved in glucose and administered intravenously, the duration could be extended to over thirteen hours.

But Chen Chen had better forget about injections.

They caused too much commotion and were too troublesome, making them unsuitable for staying hidden.

Whether it was buying and disposing of syringes or the needle marks on his arm, all of it could easily lead to misunderstandings.

If someone called the police because of such a misunderstanding, the secret of NZT-48 would be exposed. The Central Continent Region government would take notice, and eventually, even the secret of the USB Drive would be lost.

Chen Chen had once gone through a period of obsessively reading criminal psychology. He had long forgotten the original contents of those books, yet under NZT's effects, they had been retrieved from the dust-covered archives of his memory.

There was a passage in one of the books:

"When a person is interrogated, their will is like a tube of toothpaste. Once an opening is made, all that remains is to squeeze, and everything will come out."

That was why Chen Chen had no interest in using his own willpower to challenge the authorities' interrogation methods.

When he pushed open the dorm door, the smell of alcohol immediately hit him.

Inside the dorm, Zhou Jie was lying on dorm leader Wang Wei's bed, rolling around and howling like a ghost, while Wang Wei stood to the side with an expression on the verge of tears.

"What the hell did you guys eat to get this drunk?"

Chen Chen walked in, speechless.

"Brother Kong didn't even eat a single peanut."

Li Bo, who slept in the bunk above Chen Chen, sighed. "He got dumped."

Zhou Jie was called Brother Kong because his name was the same as that of a celebrity who had gone viral online thanks to a meme. The most prominent feature in that meme was his nostrils.

"Brother Kong was actually in a relationship?"

Chen Chen was somewhat surprised. "Which class had a girl that unlucky?"

"It's normal that you don't know, because it ended before it even began."

Wang Wei took off his glasses and mourned solemnly.

"Waaah, Xiao Mei, Xiao Mei! I want to drink more! Bring me booze!"

Apparently hearing Chen Chen's words, Zhou Jie once again unleashed his deadly rolling attack, kicking Wang Wei's bedding full of footprints.

"Forget it. Let him sleep in my bed tonight. I'll sleep up top."

Wang Wei said miserably, "Chen Zi, you're on the lower bunk. Keep an eye on him a little in the middle of the night."

"I'll thank the heavens as long as he doesn't puke."

Chen Chen looked helpless, then suddenly remembered the buns he had not eaten. They would probably go bad by tomorrow.

So, in the spirit of not wasting food, Chen Chen pulled out the buns and started eating them.

"Holy shit? Chen Zi, you're way too frugal. No wonder Bo Zai said you wouldn't go to the dinner gathering."

Wang Wei stared in disbelief.

"Can't help it. I only have two hundred left this month. I have no choice but to be frugal."

Chen Chen took a big gulp of cooled boiled water with his bun.

Perhaps because he had only been drinking without eating anything, Zhou Jie suddenly opened his eyes when he heard someone eating. Dazed, he asked, "Chen Zi, what are you eating?"

"Cephalosporin. Want some?"

Chen Chen took out a bun and handed it over.

Zhou Jie: "..."

"Fuck, if you're sober, get up already! Stop lying on my bed!"

One look at Zhou Jie's expression told Wang Wei that the bastard was mostly sober, and he hurriedly urged him on.

Zhou Jie stubbornly refused to get up. "I'm still dizzy. Let me lie here a little longer, just a little while!"

"Come on! Hurry up!"

Wang Wei shook the railing with all his might, making the entire floor creak and groan from the friction.

Just as the two were fooling around, the people downstairs had had enough. A stream of curses drifted in through the window. "Hey, keep it down upstairs! Are you idiots fighting or something?"

At first, Wang Wei did not hear it. It was only when the shouting downstairs grew fiercer that he finally realized what was happening.

"Are you going to let people sleep or not? What the hell are you shaking around upstairs?!"

Hearing the nonstop yelling from downstairs, Wang Wei hurriedly stopped, his face full of embarrassment.

But Li Bo, who had been playing games the whole time, was not having it. He yanked open the curtains and shouted down, "Why are you yelling so damn loud? Go complain to the dorm supervisor, then! Keep cursing!"

Wang Wei quickly tugged at his sleeve. "Alright, alright. Keep arguing and you'll bring the dorm supervisor here."

"Fuck, tomorrow I'm knocking on their dorm door. I want to see just how damn tough he thinks he is."

Li Bo grumbled and cursed, "Actually, I'm a very refined and easygoing person. I don't like swearing, but he started cursing the moment he opened his mouth. No class at all..."

After that little incident, Zhou Jie stopped messing around as well. He took the bun from Chen Chen, silently climbed onto his bed, and started chewing.

Since all three of them had drunk quite a bit, Wang Wei and Zhou Jie began snoring the moment their heads touched their pillows. Li Bo played games for a while longer before going to sleep.

Chen Chen was the last to turn off the lights. He lay in bed for a while, but could not fall asleep no matter what.

Chen Chen knew it was because of NZT-48.

NZT's effects lasted for twelve hours. He had taken the drug at two in the afternoon, so he would not be able to sleep until at least two in the morning.

So he got up again, switched on the computer in the dark, and logged into Jacount.

Before this, Chen Chen had naively wanted to study NZT's ingredients and solve the drug's side effects like the protagonist in the movie.

But now, drawing on the pharmaceutical knowledge in his mind, Chen Chen understood that he had been indulging in wishful thinking.

With current technology, replicating NZT-48 was impossible, let alone eliminating its side effects.

If Chen Chen wanted to start with research, he would need the backing of a giant corporation like Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson. After spending ten or twenty years and hundreds of billions, he might perhaps uncover a few clues about NZT-48.

But by then, Chen Chen would have long been dead.

So Chen Chen basically did not need to consider reality. His only way forward now was to use NZT's abilities to make a huge amount of money.

Then he could buy a factory, use AC380V industrial electricity to charge the USB Drive, and enter a virtuous cycle.

Of course, Chen Chen actually had another option: stop taking the drug.

That was indeed the safest route. He had only taken one NZT pill so far, so there was still plenty of time to quit completely.

He could first earn enough money to buy a factory, then charge the USB Drive and take the drug only after materializing the Permanent Immunity Serum.

But then came the question.

Could he, without taking the drug, really earn enough money?

Even if he could, how many years would that take?

Ten years?

Twenty years?

After taking the drug, Chen Chen was incomparably clear-headed.

Precisely because he was clear-headed, he understood that with his original abilities, a modestly comfortable life was enough, but making a fortune would be difficult.

What was more, this drug was like a devil. It was one thing before he had tried it, but now that he had experienced it and felt the thrill of having everything within his grasp, would he truly have the courage not to touch it again after waking up tomorrow morning?

Heh.

This drug's addictiveness came not only from physiology. It was even more addictive to the human psyche.

Besides, when comparing an ordinary, mediocre life with soaring to great heights at the risk of a more than fifty percent chance of suddenly dying a year later, could most people really make a rational choice?

He did not know about others, but Chen Chen knew himself. He could not do it.

So quitting was impossible. He would never quit in this lifetime.

As for other idiotic stunts like "selling some NZT for money" or "stealing high-voltage electricity to charge the USB Drive," there was no need to even mention them. That was not how one went looking for death.