Chapter 5

Everyone, don't get the wrong idea—NZT-48 was not one of those 48-member girl idol groups beloved by the useless Heisei generation. It came from a 2012 film.

It was a drug capable of unlocking the brain's potential.

What was brain potential?

In theory, the human brain could remember everything it had seen, heard, and sensed.

But in reality, human memory had always been the most unreliable thing in the world.

Take exams, for example. Those key concepts and complicated questions had all been learned and reviewed before, but because of memory and mental capacity issues, if you couldn't answer them, you simply couldn't answer them.

Research on brain neurons indicated that although we used 100% of our brains, from the perspective of the Theory of Evolution, the human brain still had potential waiting to be tapped.

The potential here did not mean, "Only part of the brain is being used, while another part sits idle." It meant, "Even when it is all being used, it can still become smarter."

And NZT-48 was precisely the kind of drug that made people smarter.

It allowed people to retrieve memories buried deep within their minds at any time, and automatically integrate that knowledge in their heads.

By taking this drug, users could achieve perfect recall, gain astonishing insight and logical thinking, and even reorganize details and information that were usually easy to overlook, swiftly reaching conclusions in their minds.

To put it another way, an ordinary person's thoughts and memories were like a cluttered, damp warehouse, filled with stacks of disorganized books of every kind of memory. Trying to look anything up was incredibly difficult.

After taking the drug, however, a person's thoughts and memories became rows upon rows of library bookshelves, with every memory categorized and placed in its proper spot, easy to find at a glance.

However, just like the drugs before it, NZT-48 had serious side effects.

In the original work, the drug was actually an allegory for narcotics, and the novel was a satire of contemporary North American society.

In the film, the drug was even like narcotics in that it caused dependence. Once users stopped taking it, they would suffer violent withdrawal symptoms.

Including headaches, dizziness, memory loss, and even...

Brain death.

But that was hardly enough to scare Chen Chen away.

Even the drugs in the film had side effects. How could Chen Chen not understand that there was no such thing as a free lunch?

What was more, Chen Chen himself had studied biology. Since it was his field, he could follow the film's protagonist and develop a corresponding antidote himself to eliminate the side effects.

With that thought, Chen Chen immediately turned on his computer and downloaded the entire film, Limitless.

"Ding!"

After more than ten minutes of waiting, the movie finished downloading. Without another word, Chen Chen copied it onto the USB Drive and clicked play—

As the long opening shot began, protagonist Eddie Mora's signature blue eyes appeared on the screen...

Chen Chen held down the progress bar and slowly dragged it forward, finally freezing the image on the large bag of NZT-48 that Eddie had found hidden inside the oven by his brother-in-law, Vern.

"This is it!"

Chen Chen muttered under his breath. As if possessed, he reached out and extended his hand toward the screen.

Then, something astonishing happened...

On the screen, that bag of NZT-48 sealed in a plastic pouch rose into the air from nowhere and slowly floated toward the camera.

At the same time, Chen Chen's hand seemed to pass through the screen, inching closer and closer to it...

With a faint sensation of touch, Chen Chen instinctively clenched his right hand!

When he came back to his senses, there was already a palm-sized sealed bag filled with unknown pills in his hand!

It worked!

Chen Chen shot to his feet with a bang, his eyes filling with wild elation.

He turned the plastic bag over and over in fascination, feeling as though he were dreaming!

"Relax. Calm down, Chen Chen. You still have a lot to do..."

Chen Chen forced himself to calm down. Then he deleted the USB Drive's drive letter, only daring to unplug it after the computer indicated that it was safe to remove.

The USB Drive...

Only when he saw what it looked like now did Chen Chen finally calm down completely.

After materializing an entire bag of NZT-48, the USB Drive had become incomparably dull, utterly devoid of luster, like a piece of trash abandoned to the wind and rain for decades.

I hope it can recharge...

Chen Chen silently prayed. He patted his pockets, but had no idea where he should put the USB Drive.

Put it in his pocket? The fabric was so flimsy—what if it fell out?

Put it in the wardrobe? What if someone picked the lock?

Hide it beneath the bed? That was even less secure...

At that moment, Chen Chen was like a farmer who had suddenly acquired a treasure. No matter where he hid it, he felt uneasy.

In the end, Chen Chen simply found some tape and bound the USB Drive tightly to his left arm, wrapping it around four or five times before finally stopping.

Next, Chen Chen launched his antivirus software, erased every record on the computer, and then shut it down.

"Right, and these too..."

Chen Chen took out the notes he had just written down, along with two Pikachu hats. He also found a lighter in the drawer, then got up and headed for the bathroom.

Once inside, he lit the notes and tossed them onto the floor, then threw the two hats into the fire as well.

Five minutes later, Chen Chen emerged from the bathroom. He swept all the ashes from the burned items into the toilet and flushed them down the drain. Once the exhaust fan had cleared out the smell of smoke, there would be no trace left.

Touching the bag of medicine in his inner pocket, Chen Chen did not return to the dormitory. Instead, he went downstairs and headed toward the Laboratory Animal Center.

As a student at the School of Life Sciences of Shangdu University of Communications in the Central Continent Region, although he had not yet chosen a specialization, he understood that any new drug had to undergo clinical trials.

After all, who knew what ingredients the NZT-48 extracted from the USB Drive actually contained? Chen Chen was not foolish enough to test the drug on himself.

There were no conditions for clinical trials at the moment, but he could still conduct a few animal experiments.

At the Laboratory Animal Center, Chen Chen bought eight Kunming mice, a pair of Model M1 experimental white mouse cages, and some equipment.

With all that in hand, Chen Chen neither returned to the dormitory nor went to the laboratory building. Instead, he left campus.

There were too many people in the dormitory, while the laboratories had surveillance records. Neither place was suitable for experiments.

In the end, Chen Chen carried the two cages of Kunming mice to a hotel near the school and booked a Standard Room.

After entering the room, Chen Chen locked the door, then took out a black marker and numbered the white mice in the two cages. Each cage contained mice numbered one through four, dividing them into two groups.

Next, he could begin the experiment.

Chen Chen needed to conduct a toxicity test of NZT-48 on the white mice.

The mice Chen Chen had bought were all medical-grade inbred white mice. Their organ structures and immune responses were similar to those of humans, and their genomes were highly similar as well. Many human diseases could produce comparable symptoms in white mice.

Simply put, if these white mice could consume NZT-48 without dying, then theoretically, Chen Chen would not die from taking it either.

First, he sterilized the experimental tools he had bought. Then he weighed an NZT-48 tablet, calculated the dosage for the mice based on his own body weight, dissolved it into a solution, and diluted it proportionally.

After completing the preliminary preparations, Chen Chen took Mouse No. 1 from its cage and used a gavage needle to administer an NZT-48 solution in proportion to his own body weight.

For Mouse No. 2, Chen Chen administered twice the dosage. Mouse No. 3 received three times the dosage, and Mouse No. 4 received four times the dosage.

The mice in the second cage received the same treatment.

After administering the drug, Chen Chen stored the remaining NZT-48 solution in a sealed bottle, then carefully observed the reactions of both groups of white mice.

To Chen Chen's slight relief, even Mouse No. 4, which had received four times the dosage, showed no apparent changes.

If there was any reaction at all, it seemed to be a little more energetic than before...

He waited until six in the evening, but the mice in both cages showed not the slightest abnormality.

Chen Chen let out a sigh of relief. At the very least, he could now confirm that the NZT-48 manifested by the mysterious USB Drive had no acute toxicity.

As for chronic toxicity, that would require observation over a longer period.

Seven days—this was the timeframe Chen Chen had set in his mind.

As long as nothing abnormal happened within seven days, Chen Chen would begin his journey of cheating his way through life.

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