Chapter 9

"Insufficient energy."

Looking at the newly popped-up window, Chen Chen fell into thought.

Clearly, the most troublesome situation had arisen.

Having manifested NZT-48, the USB Drive had exhausted all its energy and could no longer manifest anything else.

However, Chen Chen had also received some good news.

Since the words "Insufficient energy" could appear, that meant the USB Drive could be recharged.

As long as things had not reached the worst possible point, there was still a chance to remedy them.

The only question was, what kind of energy did this USB Drive require?

Chen Chen stared fixedly at the old, dim USB Drive before him, and suddenly had an idea.

He walked to the dorm door and looked up.

An IC card electricity meter was embedded in the wall.

Since the university was located near the coast and air conditioners were often needed, Shangdu University of Communications Dormitory did not restrict the use of high-power electrical appliances.

However, each dorm room had a circuit breaker, with the total power limited to around 10A.

At that moment, the meter showed that Dorm 404's electricity card still had 52.65 kilowatt-hours remaining.

Electricity?

Chen Chen turned around, found his laptop's manual, and checked that its output voltage was 19V and its output current was 7.8A.

In other words, the laptop's rated power was around 150W, consuming 0.15 kilowatt-hours per hour.

According to USB protocol standards, USB power supply voltage was around 5V, with a maximum current of 500mA. In other words, a single USB interface had a maximum output of 2.5W, consuming around 0.0025 kilowatt-hours per hour.

Thinking of this, Chen Chen frowned, pulled out the USB Drive, and looked toward the power strip on the desk.

The power strip had been bought collectively by the four dorm mates at the start of the semester. Placed on the desk, it was more than enough for all four of them's daily needs.

For convenience, they had specifically bought one with dedicated USB ports.

Chen Chen examined the power strip. Its USB ports were labeled 5V, 4A, meaning the USB interface's maximum power was 20W, consuming 0.02 kilowatt-hours per hour.

With that in mind, Chen Chen plugged the USB Drive into one of the power strip's USB ports.

"If my guess is correct, and the USB Drive can replenish its energy with electricity, then the meter should show it."

Chen Chen thought it over. At the moment, the computer was the only electricity-consuming device in the dorm. As long as he shut it down, then if the meter continued to run after an hour, it would prove that the USB Drive really could absorb electrical energy.

The reason he had not plugged it directly into the computer's USB interface before was that the computer's USB power was too low. The meter could only display two decimal places, so even if there was power consumption, it would be impossible to see.

After checking the time, Chen Chen took out his phone and set an alarm for one hour later.

Then he shut down the computer, opened a copy of Modern Molecular Biology, and began reading silently.

An hour passed in the blink of an eye.

When his phone alarm rang, Chen Chen had just finished the final page. However, he was not satisfied.

Modern Molecular Biology was decent enough as a textbook, but it was too crude and general for Chen Chen, unable to satisfy the depth he needed in his studies.

It seemed that once he was done with this, he would need to make a trip to the library.

Having made up his mind, Chen Chen walked over to the electricity meter and looked at the numbers displayed on it.

Available electricity: 52.63 kilowatt-hours.

It had consumed 0.02 kilowatt-hours in one hour. Just as expected!

Chen Chen's eyes lit up. He could now be certain that the USB Drive could indeed recharge itself with electricity.

This discovery was incredibly exciting, no less significant than manifesting NZT-48.

Just as Chen Chen was thrilled beyond measure, his ears twitched slightly. He quickly pulled out the USB Drive and slipped it into his pocket.

A series of footsteps approached from afar. Chen Chen looked toward the door, just as the dorm door was kicked open with a bang.

Li Bo strode in with the swaggering steps of a street dance.

"Chen Chen, you actually skipped class this afternoon!"

Seeing Chen Chen in the dorm, Li Bo immediately started shouting. "Old Deng even specifically asked about you during roll call!"

"I asked the counselor for leave."

Without even turning his head, Chen Chen said, "Bo Zai, we'd better stop walking around together from now on."

"Why?"

"I'm afraid I'll get beaten up the moment I go out with you."

Chen Chen packed up his book. Seeing that it was not yet five in the afternoon, he got up and headed out of the dorm.

"Where are you going? Want to go out for an AA meal later?"

"No money. Goodbye."

Chen Chen left without looking back.

His state was clearly different from before, something even Chen Chen himself could sense.

If he had once merely been a low-key, dull young man, then now he was a successful person radiating confidence and composure.

No fear, no shyness, no embarrassment...

All he had was calm, unhurried confidence.

That kind of presence was hard to conceal, so Chen Chen kept his distance from people he knew as much as possible, lest they notice anything off.

When he arrived at the cafeteria, Chen Chen spent two yuan on four buns. He ate two, then put the remaining two in a plastic bag and tucked them away for later, in case he got hungry that night.

The life of someone without money was simply plain and unadorned.

And boring.

As Chen Chen walked toward the library, he considered his next steps.

Although NZT-48 alone would have been enough to take him to the peak of life, human greed knew no bounds. How could he possibly be satisfied with just that?

His next step, of course, was to find a way to charge the USB Drive and squeeze out as much of its value as possible.

After all, the power supplied by the Ribbon Cable Board's USB interface definitely would not be enough.

He had no idea how much energy the USB Drive required to meet the conditions for materialization, but even his toes could tell him it would be an astronomical amount.

Therefore, Chen Chen needed a great deal of money.

Once he had money, whether he bought a factory in an industrial park or built a power plant himself, he would be able to handle it with ease.

Only then could Chen Chen supply the USB Drive with enough electricity without drawing outside attention.

So, in the end, the source of it all was still money.

And for now, Chen Chen had only one way to obtain money: relying on the power of NZT.

With that thought, Chen Chen stopped hesitating and stepped fully into the library building.

Looking at the crowds coming and going inside the library, Chen Chen silently sighed.

For the foreseeable future, he would be a regular here.

Libraries never lacked cases where the books were there but their owners were not. Several prime spots that were quiet and convenient to enter and leave had been claimed by piles of books. If no one cleared them away at night, some of those books might gather dust.

Chen Chen went to the foreign-language reading room, glanced around, picked out a copy of Modern College English, and found a fairly decent seat.

Back in middle and high school, Chen Chen had wondered why the great Central Continent treated the language of North America as a compulsory subject, and one that carried such weight.

Only just now did Chen Chen suddenly understand.

Though he did not want to admit it, the North American Zone was the true core region of the Federation, whether in terms of economics or technology.

And most truly advanced and authoritative academic papers were written in English.

Some specialized academic terms were difficult to explain in Chinese, and even when translated, they still lost a layer of meaning.

Yet that single layer often meant the difference between success and failure, creating many difficulties for Central Continent's scientific research.

Therefore, if Chen Chen wanted to enter the field of scientific research, mastering English was the most basic stepping stone.

That was the painstaking intention of the older generation in Central Continent's educational circles.

It was not worshipping foreign things, nor was it favoring outsiders.

It was simply to keep pace with them.

Nothing more.