The Feeling of Being a Genius

After saying this, his father closed the video and went back to work.

At that time, he was already suffering from a serious illness, yet he still insisted on working. The Earth Era, this epoch-making giant spaceship, was built bit by bit by these workaholics.

Zhang Yuan stared blankly at the iron box.

Even after being mocked, he still felt a lingering reluctance to let go.

The memories of his old man had become somewhat blurry, but now they were clear again, as if they had just parted yesterday.

That feeling was very sorrowful...

After two seconds, he remembered something else and looked sharply at the iron box.

A potion that could increase intelligence!

Is it real or fake?

Zhang Yuan swallowed a mouthful of saliva, frowned, and opened the iron box.

He discovered a small glass bottle filled with liquid inside, along with a disposable syringe.

Enhancing intelligence—that's impossible, right? Does such black technology really exist in the world?

Impossible, absolutely impossible!

"If it really existed, the world would have been crawling with geniuses, and PhDs would be as common as stray dogs. Even if the price were high, it wouldn't matter."

However, since it was something his father said, it surely wouldn't be baseless.

He picked up the glass bottle; affected by the dry ice, it was ice-cold, and the pale blue liquid inside did not exceed 3 milliliters.

Zhang Yuan hesitated, wanting to find an institution to analyze the composition of the liquid. But he was afraid that this thing might have a shelf life, and once the temperature rose, it might spoil and lose its effectiveness.

So, should he use it or not?

He clenched his fists and tried hard to think for three seconds.

First, the probability of success was greater than the probability of failure.

Second, since it was sent by his own father, it shouldn't be a harmful substance...

Third, he really wasn't willing to just be an ordinary person like this.

Use it. Only a fool wouldn't!

Having made up his mind, Zhang Yuan stopped dawdling, took out the disposable syringe, and drew the blue liquid from the glass bottle.

"Intravenous injection..."

"Calm down, calm down."

He took a deep breath, and the needle pierced the vein in his arm.

A sharp pain.

As an astronaut, he had received some medical training, so this was not unfamiliar to him.

It was just a needle.

Zhang Yuan gritted his teeth, pressed his thumb on the plunger, and slowly pushed the blue liquid in.

Soon, his cheeks began to burn, and a strange feeling of drowsiness came from his head, though he didn't know if it was because of nervousness or because the drug was taking effect.

Suddenly, the world spun!

His eyes widened, and he collapsed onto the floor.

When he woke up again, he felt his mind was a blur, as if a vortex were spinning rapidly inside.

He lay on the floor for a few more minutes until the intense pain in his brain slowly subsided.

"...I can think."

Zhang Yuan struggled to climb to his feet, looked around suspiciously, then packed up the syringe and glass bottle from the floor and put them into the refrigerator.

If necessary, perhaps he should find a place to analyze the composition of the residual liquid.

"Have I become smarter, or have I become dumber?"

Let's try it out! he thought excitedly.

The simplest test, of course, was calculation.

Zhang Yuan set himself a problem: "7812378 * 7812378 = ..."

???

??

?

It was as if a machine had rusted and jammed; the answer did not immediately jump out of his mind.

It's over!

A wave of irritation washed over him.

His entire face flushed a deep, liver-like purple.

Damn it all to hell.

I didn't get smarter, did I actually get dumber?!

"It shouldn't be that pathetic... sigh, if I really am that pathetic, I'll just have to accept it."

He climbed up from the floor and checked the time; it was already 9:00 PM, and he was starving.

"Maybe it's just low blood sugar causing my brain to malfunction..."

He found a random excuse to calm his chaotic mind, walked into the kitchen, cooked himself a bowl of noodles, and slurped them down.

Food is the fuel, and a full stomach is the goal; I'll test my IQ again after eating.

Zhang Yuan walked toward the study and pulled out that copy of Anabelian Geometry and Tame Topology.

He couldn't understand it; he still couldn't understand it.

"That's not right, maybe I'm just being too impatient, this book is too difficult."

Whether or not one can understand a book isn't just about intelligence; it also depends on the accumulation of knowledge. Anabelian Geometry is an obscure branch of algebraic geometry that even PhDs in mathematics find daunting. Without the necessary prerequisite knowledge, even if Zhang Yuan had an IQ of 250, it would be impossible for him to grasp the content.

Then let's switch to another one, something simpler.

The Art of Computer Programming.

A very classic book!

In this day and age, programming has become a required course in high schools and universities, even if many people hate this subject just as much as they hate math or physics.

As they would put it, "What's the use of learning this stuff? I'm not going to work in this field later anyway!"

But there is no denying that software engineering remains the major with the highest employment rate, whether in the field of artificial intelligence, information technology, or various types of mechanical design; everything requires programming.

Zhang Yuan's university major was "Space Mechanical Engineering," a lousy major that taught a bit of everything, so his programming skills were, of course, just passable.

Zhang Yuan recalled the knowledge in his mind and flipped to the first page.

[Volume 1, Chapter 1, Basic Algorithms.]

"I'll just treat this as a review. Although this book is a classic, it provides elementary applications for simulation, numerical methods, symbolic computation, and software and system design; it's still quite difficult where it needs to be."

Gradually, he entered a state of high concentration, and a strange emotion welled up in his mind.

When thinking about problems and solving them, it felt as if he were conquering one difficult level after another.

This intense desire for conquest and sense of satisfaction drew him to keep reading.

Time ticked away second by second until the two-hundred-plus-page book was completely finished. Zhang Yuan nodded, still feeling unsatisfied, as if he had just finished a magnificent feast.

A pretty good book; it wasn't a waste of time!

He put down his pen, pounded his sore back, and kept reviewing the knowledge he had learned in his mind.

He looked up at the time.

Wait, it's already 3:00 AM; I've been reading for six hours!

Time passed so quickly; it's time to sleep.

Wait a minute!

IQ... my IQ!

Suddenly, he thought of something, and a deep sense of joy surged into his heart.

In the past, although Zhang Yuan was a diligent and self-disciplined student, he could never have been diligent enough to grind through six hours of boring books in a row, especially without getting distracted... he hadn't even felt the passage of time.

But now, things seemed a bit different. Not only was the entire book read through in one sitting, but there hadn't been a single point where he got stuck; everything felt natural and intuitive.

Haha!

It's real!

I really have become smarter!

He rolled around on his bed in excitement...