Insufficient Energy

"Next step: materialize the 'Permanent Immunity Serum.'"

"If it succeeds, then no matter what I do afterward, I'll have plenty of leeway."

"But if it fails..."

On the subway, Chen Chen continuously worked out his future plans in his notebook.

Yet even after taking NZT, Chen Chen still did not dare make any predictions about the USB Drive.

After all, it was something beyond the existing scientific framework. All of humanity's cutting-edge science to date was utterly powerless before it.

"Anyway, I need to test it as soon as possible."

Chen Chen touched the USB Drive strapped to his arm and thought silently.

At around three thirty in the afternoon, Chen Chen returned to school, only to find the dormitory empty.

According to the schedule, Professor Deng Yun's biochemistry class was in the afternoon. If he had not taken the day off, he would not have dared skip Old Deng's class so casually.

Opportunity would not come twice. Chen Chen locked the door behind him and quickly turned on his computer to download the final episode of the TV adaptation of Limitless.

Ten minutes later, once the episode had finished downloading, Chen Chen removed the USB Drive from his arm.

Over the past few days, Chen Chen had often checked whether the USB Drive could regain its luster on its own. After all, when he had first obtained it, the USB Drive had contained enough energy.

That energy could not possibly have been deliberately left for him by the USB Drive's previous Master.

Therefore, Chen Chen had reason to believe that the USB Drive was capable of recharging itself.

But clearly, Chen Chen had guessed wrong.

Over the past seven days, the USB Drive had not changed at all. There was not even the slightest sign of its luster returning.

Perhaps its recovery time was measured in years.

He also had no idea how much energy remained in the USB Drive after several materializations, or whether it could materialize the Permanent Immunity Serum.

Chen Chen pondered silently as he inserted the USB Drive into the computer.

The USB Drive was quickly scanned, and a drive icon appeared on the computer.

Chen Chen opened the USB Drive's storage space, copied the video he had just downloaded, and pasted it inside.

Finally, Chen Chen double-clicked the video.

"Thud!"

A program error window popped up.

"Unable to play?"

Chen Chen frowned. The frustration that had just begun to rise within him was immediately suppressed by NZT's effects.

The most valuable thing about NZT seemed to be its ability to keep its user absolutely calm.

For ordinary people, calmness was merely an adjective. For anyone to truly and completely calm down was an extremely difficult thing.

But Chen Chen accomplished it effortlessly, as though it were instinct.

People were born knowing how to breathe and cry—those were human instincts. And for Chen Chen now, calmness was his instinct.

"No, perhaps there's another reason..."

In his state of absolute calm, Chen Chen suddenly thought of a possibility.

After thinking it over, he tried creating a folder on the USB Drive.

As he right-clicked the blank space—New—Folder, sure enough, something called "New Folder" appeared on the USB Drive.

There was hope!

Chen Chen quickly opened a webpage and began downloading the TV adaptation of Limitless episode by episode, from the first episode through the second-to-last, without missing a single one.

This time, the wait was a little longer.

Chen Chen suddenly realized that he could not stand having nothing to do.

In that case, he might as well test his learning ability after taking NZT-48.

While the downloads ran, Chen Chen casually opened a copy of College English for the 21st Century, Volume One on the desk.

English and mathematics had always been Chen Chen's weak subjects. Otherwise, he would not have chosen biological sciences as his major. The employment prospects for this field were abysmal; its only advantage was probably its high graduate-school recommendation rate.

Shaking his head, Chen Chen opened the book and began reading casually.

But once he started, he became completely immersed in it.

In an instant, the entire dormitory fell into utter silence. Only the hum of the computer's hard drive and the endless ticking of the clock remained...

"Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock..."

Beneath that tranquil surface, Chen Chen's brain raced at high speed. Starting from middle school, memories of every English class clearly surfaced in his mind.

With the textbook before him as reference, every point of knowledge he had not understood was rapidly comprehended and absorbed...

"Hm?"

When Chen Chen snapped out of his studies, he had already finished flipping through the entire textbook and reached the final page.

Staring blankly at the empty space on the back cover, Chen Chen finally recovered from his shock.

"Is this what it feels like to absorb knowledge?"

Chen Chen savored that miraculous state from earlier.

In that state, absorbing knowledge was no longer tedious. Instead, he could clearly feel himself becoming more fulfilled bit by bit.

Under NZT's effects, he had mastered every key point in the book after going through it only once.

Not only that, this round of studying had even allowed him to draw inferences and resolve knowledge points from high school that he had once failed to understand.

He checked the time. Only an hour had passed.

In that single hour, Chen Chen had learned an entire semester's worth of English.

"Phew!"

Chen Chen let out a breath and sighed in heartfelt amazement. For the first time, he felt that studying could be so enjoyable, so addictive.

Yet all of this was thanks to the effects of NZT-48.

"Ding!"

Just then, the computer sounded a notification that the download had finished.

Chen Chen closed the book and opened the computer. After confirming that every episode had finished downloading, he pressed [ctrl+c], opened a new folder on the USB Drive, and pressed [ctrl+v].

The progress bar flashed by in an instant.

More than ten seconds later, the files, totaling over a dozen gigabytes, had all been transferred to the USB Drive.

Chen Chen opened Episode 22 again, and the media player launched immediately. This time, no program error window popped up on the computer.

"Just as I thought!"

Chen Chen's eyes lit up.

His guess had been correct. For the USB Drive to materialize an object, besides requiring live-action footage, there was another hidden condition.

That was the completeness of the story.

Just now, he had downloaded only the final episode of the show, and as a result, he had been completely unable to open the video.

But once he downloaded every episode, it worked.

In other words, only a complete story could be materialized by the USB Drive?

Who knew how many more secrets this USB Drive was hiding...

Chen Chen silently marveled as he dragged the video to the scene featuring the Permanent Immunity Serum and paused it.

Then, Chen Chen began to imagine it—imagining the serum on the screen materializing in reality.

Gurgle...

The screen seemed to turn into a pool of clear water, while the Permanent Immunity Serum slowly bobbed within it, sending ripples outward.

Chen Chen raised his hand instinctively.

But just as Chen Chen was about to grasp the serum, the movie image suddenly came to an abrupt halt!

Thud!

In an instant, a jolt of electric numbness shot through his fingertips, as though some kind of insect had bitten him!

He quickly pulled back his hand, only to find blood pouring from his finger.

A small patch of flesh from his fingertip had vanished into thin air...

At that moment, another window popped up on the screen.

But the text on it no longer read "Program Error." Instead, it read—

"Insufficient energy."