A Distorted Life

A middle-aged researcher sat in his lab, reading through several students' research papers. He would be the corresponding author, and the papers would become his research achievements.

As he grew older, his thinking gradually grew rigid. He could only rely on his students' work to maintain his reputation and status.

Using his power to exchange for his students' innovative work—that was exactly what his own mentor had done to him when he was young. Back then, he could only watch helplessly as his achievements were taken from him.

Reputation, connections, status, years of accumulated influence—his mentor had held an absolute advantage over his students. And now, he had become just like him.

The middle-aged researcher had no memory of the past year. At this moment, he was still living his old, everyday life.

Quiet, ordinary, the same routine day after day.

He sifted through his students' papers, looking for work he could use. He attended banquets to maintain his connections. He called his wife and children, putting on the appearance of a good husband and father. Every now and then, he met with his mistress. Her youthful, energetic body could awaken desires he had long since forgotten.

Dreams and passion gradually died out. The wear and tear on the body made the mind rigid and sluggish, too. He simply followed the same path as before, repeating a similar life day after day, until he walked toward death without ever realizing it.

Without a doubt, a person like this could produce very little information. He was an unfit source.

But striving for status and fame did not hinder thought.

On the contrary, those who could attain high positions and enjoy fame and fortune often had greater self-control than ordinary people, as well as a stronger capacity to absorb and think about new knowledge. They could do what others could not, and their hunger and drive were stronger than most people's.

It was the numb repetition of daily life that gradually made people forget how to think.

In games, you could gain experience and level up by fighting monsters, and bosses you spent all night trying to beat could drop valuable gear. When effort brought a visible, equivalent reward, you could clearly feel that everything you did hadn't been in vain.

But in real life, hard work didn't always pay off, while not working hard was always easier. When effort brought no positive feedback, people naturally gave up little by little.

Waking from the dreams of youth, you realized you weren't one of the Children of Heaven's Mandate, and that reality didn't bend to your will. Gradually, you accepted that you were ordinary.

Your former edge was worn away. Repeating ordinary work made you forget to learn and think, and you simply moved forward in a daze.

"So, immediate rewards that can be seen firsthand give people positive feedback and encourage them to stay energized."

The middle-aged researcher was sorting through his students' papers in his office when an envelope suddenly appeared in the lower-left corner of the blue screen floating before him. It flashed repeatedly, accompanied by a series of beeps.

The researcher clicked to open it and saw that one of his previously published papers had caught the attention of an academician. The academician thought some of its ideas and conclusions were quite valuable and hoped to invite the researcher to discuss them in person.

The middle-aged man, who had seemed so lifeless, suddenly came alive.

His many years in research hadn't produced many valuable results. The clever mind he had once been proud of was only average here.

His dreams had been shattered, and he had gradually accepted his ordinariness. He had turned to seeking status and reputation instead, but even at that, he was outdone by those willing to set aside their dignity. His self-respect kept him from getting very far down that road, either.

In the end, as he grew older, he stopped hoping for too much. He simply maintained his position through his students' work, repeating much the same life every day.

Now, though, at nearly fifty, he had received a huge surprise. The paper had been coauthored with one of his students just a few days earlier. Even he hadn't thought much of its contents, so he'd never expected an academician to take such a keen interest in it.

He quickly read the paper from beginning to end, then asked the student in detail about his thought process. In no time, the researcher was brimming with enthusiasm. He had to prepare for his discussion with the academician. This might be an important step toward turning his fortunes around.

Feeling the brain's active thoughts and the intense electrical signals it was releasing, Li Heng noticed its energy consumption spike by several dozen percent in an instant. He couldn't help admiring the power of human agency.

A small influence had caused the brain to produce several times more information—enough to surpass even those brains with memories of youth.

The middle-aged researcher made all the necessary preparations, then had a very pleasant discussion with the academician that evening. The academician showed great interest in his theories and approach and invited him to join an important research project.

After dinner, on the way home, the middle-aged man rode in his smart electric car, bobbing his head and humming. In a few days, he would join that research project. He would no longer be an ordinary researcher whose presence or absence made no difference.

Time flew by, and soon he had joined the project. The experiments also went unexpectedly smoothly, producing many important research findings in a short time.

Within a few months, he had leaped up the ranks and become a newly appointed academician at the Academy of Sciences. Reputation, status, money—all the things he had once pursued were now within easy reach.

Lying in a newly purchased villa in the suburbs, the middle-aged man held his mistress and thought about the enormous changes of the past few months.

Ever since the academician had taken a liking to him, his life had reached a turning point and gone smoothly at every step. Nearly everything seemed to go his way. He had certainly put in a lot of effort, but he still felt that things had gone too smoothly. Whenever he quieted his mind, he couldn't help wondering if he was dreaming.

The middle-aged researcher's impression was undoubtedly correct. Although the electrical signals Li Heng sent into his brain were almost indistinguishable from the outside information he received through his own senses, those few months had actually amounted to only a few days in reality.

Human brain cells were constantly decreasing. By the age of eighty, roughly half of them would be gone.

Li Heng had modified the Hong Alliance's technology for stimulating biological cell division and applied it to these Brains in a Vat. This allowed them to develop dozens of times faster than ordinary people and absorb information at a tremendous rate.

But it also made their lives extremely short. This immature technology made the information they received feel faintly dreamlike and unreal.

Moreover, as a middle-aged researcher with extensive experience in the real world, he had gained the fame, fortune, and status he had once longed for too easily. Naturally, this gave him reason to doubt what was happening.

"When the process of effort and reward goes too smoothly, it actually raises a person's threshold for excitement. The sense of achievement is greater when something is accomplished after great effort. Achievements gained as if you were using a game cheat only leave you feeling bored."

If people could choose their lives in reality, of course they would prefer one that went smoothly all the way to the top.

But for Li Heng, an individual's joys and sorrows weren't the point. What mattered were the emotional swings and intense thoughts the individual experienced along the way. More intense brain activity consumed more energy and produced more orderly information.

This middle-aged researcher's brain had been most active when the academician first took a liking to him. It had been less active when he made discoveries during the research. By the time he had achieved success and fame, it had returned to its ordinary state.

As achievements piled up and material comforts increased, an individual needed greater stimulation to feel excitement and happiness—like the inflation of stats in an online game.

From this perspective, PvP naturally lasted longer than PvE. There was endless pleasure in struggling against other people; it was precisely the inability to get what you wanted that made things feel real.

"So, a fictional world must also return to its realistic nature, letting the individuals within it interact and clash freely. Too much interference is worse than letting things take their course."

The test of positive feedback was over.

As his threshold rose, the middle-aged researcher's brain activity grew less and less intense. A life that went smoothly from beginning to end wasn't suited to producing information.

The next moment, as Li Heng turned his thoughts, the world around the middle-aged researcher changed completely.

The once-luxurious villa became dilapidated and shabby. The floor had faded beyond recognition, and the faded window frames rattled as the window paper fluttered. The brightly lit bedroom grew dim and dark.

The middle-aged researcher felt something slick against his left hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the beautiful mistress in his arms had turned into a female corpse in an advanced state of decay. Several twisted maggots crawled around inside her hollow eye sockets.

His body reacted faster than his mind. He shoved the corpse away, not even stopping to get dressed. Wearing nothing but his underwear, he leaped out of bed and ran for the villa's exit.

Outside, the bright full moon in the sky turned red. A few twisted black clouds hung above, grinning like ghosts. The silver-white electric car outside had become rusted and battered, its door reflecting the eerie red moonlight.

The terrified man came to his senses and tried to use the smart watch on his wrist to contact the outside world. But none of his calls got through.

As the researcher stood there, bewildered, the old electric car nearby suddenly began to creak and groan. Then its dull, faded door was flung open by a tremendous force.

His mistress's corpse, which had been inside the house, charged out of the car. With swollen, rotting hands outstretched, it staggered toward him.

Terror, shock, confusion—then he turned and ran.

The man no longer had any time to wonder whether he was dreaming. The eerie, horrifying scene was countless times more real than any dream. The stench of decay and the sticky feeling on his hands that wouldn't go away both told him this wasn't a virtual reality movie.

He quickly took in his surroundings. A steady stream of strength seemed to surge through his body. Under the combined force of overwhelming fear and a desperate will to survive, his formerly bloated body had become astonishingly agile. He kept dodging the rotting hand the terrifying monster reached out to grab him with.

The researcher ran through the alleys, dodging again and again, while Li Heng carefully sensed the various electrical signals produced in his cerebral cortex, assessing the effects of a hostile environment.

Fear and a sense of danger left the man no time to think calmly. His brain took in information from his surroundings at high speed and kept sending out signals to control his body.

"A sense of danger, fear, and the will to survive can intensely stimulate an individual. The enormous contrast makes an ordinarily calm brain fluctuate violently. But individuals in danger can't think calmly and methodically, so they end up producing less orderly information. Excessive fear and danger are therefore unworkable."