Lester's reputation was indeed resounding, so much so that even a layman like Qingmu knew of him and that he had made tremendous contributions to the development of human science.
In a restless era, ordinary people can readily name the billionaires on the Forbes List, their biographies grace the bestseller shelves in bookstores year-round, and inspirational tales of their struggles abound on social media. Yet, very few know how many academicians the Chinese Academy of Sciences has, the names of Nobel Prize in Physics, or why they received this honor. Beyond the Nobel Prize, awards like the Fields Medal and the Lasker Award are even less known. The works of scientists and philosophers who have truly made indelible contributions to humanity often gather dust in the most inconspicuous corners of Tushu.
Even in such a turbulent era, Lester's name remains familiar to most people. He is like a true giant; simply by standing there, he commands respect and heartfelt admiration. Every step he takes shakes the earth and inspires cheers from humanity.
Qingmu took the large metal goggles and asked, "What's this?"
"The latest VR headset manufactured by Huawei," Mei Yiqiu said. "I originally ordered a product from the Japan SN Company, which was lighter and more refined than this, and its sound effects and scenes were impeccable. But that thing was more suitable for watching Japan action movies. They seem to have forgotten that the future of VR is not entertainment, but rather the ability to break through the limitations of biological vision and hearing through multi-dimensional presentation, thereby developing the brain's intuitive experience at a deeper level."
"In the end, I still chose HW Company's product. Although it has significant flaws and is a bit bulky, at least it possesses the potential to become a future leader. Japan products can achieve near perfection in details. For many years, despite their technological leadership, they have still failed to become a superpower. Besides limitations in land area and resources, the more important reason is that their nation lacks the wisdom and courage to look a thousand years ahead."
When Qingmu thought of Japan, he recalled his encounter in the caves of Southern Yunnan.
"Have you ever heard of Kitano Masatake?" he asked as he put on the VR headset, noticing how heavy it was.
" Kitano Masatake?" Mei Yiqiu pondered for a moment, pipe in mouth, then shook his head. "It sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it. It's a Japan name; they all sound similar." He noticed Qingmu had already put on the VR headset and pointed, "There's a red start button next to you; just press it."
Qingmu touched the metal casing of the eye mask for a long time, and finally Mei Ziqing helped him turn it on.
Just like what Mei Yiqiu had seen before, after a flash of blue light, a huge blue three-dimensional matrix appeared before their eyes, stretching to infinity. Green straight lines continuously descended from the top of the matrix, inserted from the left and right sides, or shot in from afar like arrows, carrying long strings of numbers composed of 0s and 1s. In the middle, there were also some serpentine sequences of numbers weaving through the gaps in the matrix, like twisted bullet screens.
Then, Qingmu saw a bald Westerner appear at the edge of the screen. He tapped a point in the matrix with his finger, and that point lit up like a star. Then, the disordered sequence of numbers, as if receiving some kind of command, rapidly converged towards a certain area and slowly transformed into a human face.
Although Qingmu didn't know what Lester Signature was, he felt a strange familiarity with the disordered sequence matrix. Before entering the dream, he often sensed the dreamer's conscious disturbances, perhaps best described as brainwaves. After entering the dream, he could also see similar traces of conscious activity at the dream's boundaries. However, they didn't appear as technologically advanced as they did in this VR, clearly indicating that the decoder of the Mind Matrix had manipulated them.
The face in the center of the screen became clearer and clearer, revealing the shape of bones and muscles. Once the facial features and fur were displayed, he looked like a real person. Qingmu recognized him as the famous scientist Evans Lester.
"Hello, I am Evans Lester, the real deal."
Qingmu confirmed once again that his English was perfectly fine, but he was soon deeply shocked by the question Lester posed.
The situation Lester described was exactly the same as Xia Wenyuan's. Qingmu had long known that the shadow was an invading consciousness, but he never thought it was an alien.
He began to deeply admire this scientific giant. Lester's Mental Power must be very strong, but he was clearly not a trained Awakened. It was truly remarkable that he could fight against an invading consciousness for so long at his age. And Qingmu had experienced the power of that shadow firsthand.
Of course, Xia Wenyuan persisted for a long time. But this is where the greatness of a scientist is revealed. Even in a state of near despair, Lester was still able to determine the source of this invading consciousness, deduce their racial characteristics, and at the last moment use the Thought Matrix Cipher he invented to issue a final warning to humanity.
Only now did Qingmu clearly realize that he had encountered an invading and Parasitic Consciousness the book.
He slowly removed the headset, his eyes looking a little dazed, probably because they hadn't yet adjusted to the indoor natural light from the VR environment. "This is truly a huge problem!"
Mei Yiqiu a mixture of admiration and confusion regarding Qingmu's performance. "Don't you have any doubts about the veracity of this matter?"
Qingmu smiled wryly, "I don't doubt it, and I can prove he's telling the truth."
Then, Qingmu explained Xia Wenyuan's condition to Mei Yiqiu in detail.
Mei Yiqiu was shocked to hear this. After listening, she suddenly pounded her chest and stamped her feet. "If only I had let you meet Evans sooner, he wouldn't have died. With his intelligence, plus your abilities, he would definitely have been able to come up with a way to deal with these parasites!"
Qingmu also marveled at how coincidental and yet unfortunate things are in the world.
Mei Ziqing, standing nearby, was completely dumbfounded. It took her a while to react. "Professor, Mr. Qingmu, are you saying that humanity is currently being invaded by aliens?"
Mei Yiqiu said, "That's one way to put it. The problem now is that these aliens don't have physical forms, only consciousness. They don't need advanced weapons to attack Earth; they just invade your brain, inherit your memories, and then take over your space, driving you out."
"What should we do then? Can we find those people?" Mei Ziqing asked.
Mei Yiqiu his head. "That's precisely the problem. We don't know who is still themselves now, and who has been invaded and turned into an alien."
Mei Ziqing said, "Didn't Mr. Qingmu just say that he could see the invading consciousness?"
Mei Yiqiu said, "We can't expect Qingmu to check everyone's dreams in the world, just like we can't expect everyone to pass the verification of Lester Signature."
"How many people have signed through Lester Signature now?" Qingmu asked.