After saying that, his father shut off the video and went back to work.
By then, he was already gravely ill, yet he still insisted on working. The Earth Era, that colossal spaceship that belonged to a new age, had been built bit by bit by this band of workaholics.
Zhang Yuan stared blankly at the metal box.
Even after being mocked, he still felt reluctant to part with it.
His memories of his father had grown somewhat hazy, but now they had become clear again, as if they had only said goodbye yesterday.
It was a deeply melancholy feeling...
Two seconds later, he remembered something and suddenly looked at the metal box.
A drug that could increase intelligence!
Was it real or fake?
Zhang Yuan swallowed, frowned, and opened the metal box.
Inside, he found a small blue glass vial filled with liquid, along with a disposable syringe.
Enhance intelligence? That was impossible, right? Could such incredible technology really exist?
Impossible. Absolutely impossible!
"If something like that really existed, the world would be crawling with geniuses, and PhDs would be a dime a dozen. No matter how expensive it was, that couldn't be right."
But since his father had said it, there was probably some truth to it.
He picked up the glass vial. Thanks to the dry ice, it was ice-cold, and there were no more than three milliliters of pale blue liquid inside.
Zhang Yuan hesitated. He wanted to find an institution to analyze the liquid, but he was also afraid it might be time-sensitive. Once its temperature rose, it might spoil and lose its effect.
So, should he use it or not?
He clenched his fist and thought hard for three seconds.
First, the odds of success were higher than the odds of failure.
Second, since his father had sent it, it probably wasn't harmful...
Third, he really couldn't accept living the rest of his life as an ordinary person.
Use it. Only an idiot wouldn't!
Having made up his mind, Zhang Yuan stopped hesitating. He took the disposable syringe and drew the blue liquid from the glass vial.
"An intravenous injection..."
"Calm down. Calm down."
He took a deep breath and aimed the needle at a vein in his arm.
A sharp sting.
As an astronaut, he had received some medical training, so this wasn't unfamiliar territory.
It was just a shot.
Zhang Yuan gritted his teeth, pressed his thumb against the syringe, and slowly pushed the blue liquid in.
Soon, his cheeks began to grow hot. A strange, drowsy sensation welled up in his head. He couldn't tell whether it was from his nerves or the drug taking effect.
Suddenly, the world spun around him!
His eyes went wide, and he collapsed to the floor.
When he woke up again, his mind felt foggy, as if a vortex were spinning rapidly inside it.
He lay on the floor for several more minutes before the intense pain in his head slowly eased.
"...I can think again."
Zhang Yuan struggled to his feet and looked around suspiciously. Then he packed up the syringe and glass vial from the floor and put them in the refrigerator.
If necessary, he could find somewhere to analyze the remaining liquid.
"Am I smarter now, or dumber?"
"I'll test it!" he thought excitedly.
The simplest test, of course, was a calculation.
Zhang Yuan gave himself a problem: "7,812,378 × 7,812,378 = ..."
???
??
?
It was like a machine rusting up and jamming. The answer didn't immediately spring into his mind.
Oh no!
A wave of anxiety washed over him.
His face flushed a deep red.
Damn it.
I'm not smarter. Did I get dumber?!
"Surely I can't be that unlucky... Ah, if I really am, I'll just have to accept it."
He got up from the floor and checked the time. It was already nine in the evening, and he was starving.
"Maybe my blood sugar's too low, and that's making my brain malfunction..."
He found an excuse, did his best to calm his jumbled thoughts, and went into the kitchen to make himself a bowl of noodles. He slurped them down.
People needed food to thrive. He'd eat first, then test his intelligence.
Zhang Yuan headed for the study and pulled out The Art of Anabelian Geometry and Tame Topology.
He still couldn't understand it.
"No, that's not it. I'm just too impatient. This book is too hard."
Being able to understand a book depended on more than intelligence; it also depended on accumulated knowledge. Anabelian geometry was a remote branch of algebraic geometry, and even PhDs in mathematics found it daunting. Without the relevant background knowledge, even if Zhang Yuan had an IQ of 250, he couldn't possibly understand its contents.
Then he'd try a different book. Something easier.
The Art of Computer Programming.
A classic!
By this era, programming had become a required subject in high school and college, even though many people hated it as much as they hated math and physics.
As they put it, "What's the point of learning this stuff? I don't have to work in this field later!"
Still, software engineering remained the major with the highest employment rate. Programming was used in everything, from artificial intelligence and information technology to all kinds of mechanical design.
Zhang Yuan had majored in "Space Mechanical Engineering" at college. It was a mishmash of a major that covered almost everything, so he knew a fair bit about programming.
He recalled what he knew and opened the book to the first page.
[Volume I, Chapter 1: Basic Algorithms.]
"I'll treat this as a review. It's a classic, but it gives elementary applications of simulation, numerical methods, symbolic computation, software, and system design. The hard parts are still pretty tough."
Gradually, he entered a state of intense concentration, and a wondrous feeling stirred in his mind.
As he thought through problems and solved them, it felt as though he were conquering one difficult level after another.
That powerful urge to triumph, along with the satisfaction it brought, drew him onward.
Time passed minute by minute. Zhang Yuan didn't stop until he had finished the book's more than two hundred pages. Then he nodded, still wanting more, as if he'd just enjoyed a sumptuous feast.
It was a pretty good book. Time well spent!
He set down his pen, rubbed his aching back, and went over what he had learned.
He looked up at the clock.
Wait, it was already three in the morning. He'd been reading for six hours!
Time had flown. It was time to sleep.
Hold on!
His... his intelligence!
Suddenly, he realized what had happened, and a rush of joy surged through him.
Before, Zhang Yuan had been a diligent and disciplined student, but he would never have been diligent enough to spend six straight hours poring over a dry book without getting distracted. He hadn't even noticed time passing.
But now, something seemed different. He had not only read the entire book in one go, he hadn't gotten stuck anywhere along the way. It had all come naturally.
Haha!
It was real!
He really had gotten smarter!
He excitedly rolled around on the bed several times...
Before you continue