Reality Programming Association

Chapter 76: Chapter 32: Source Memory Confusion

The best news today was that Line 4 was still stubbornly running.

Perhaps it was because Jiangcheng’s subway system had been designed with military preparedness in mind from the very beginning.

Catching the last train before service stopped for the night, Yu Xian squeezed into a car.

Water from umbrellas pooled on the floor, sloshing back and forth with the train’s acceleration and deceleration.

After exiting the subway station, the situation on the South Campus was even worse than he had imagined.

As it was an old campus, the terrain was low-lying, and the drainage system had been built decades ago.

Murky, yellow water already reached his calves. The plane trees lining the road swayed wildly in the wind, looking as if they might snap at any moment.

Yu Xian pulled his raincoat tighter and trudged with difficulty through the muddy water. By the time he reached South No.7 Dormitory, he was drenched in sweat underneath his raincoat.

Rainwater streamed down the brim of his hood, obscuring his vision. Fortunately, the power grid hadn’t collapsed yet; the pendant lights on their fixtures swung unsteadily.

He took out his phone. The screen was covered in water droplets, and the network had dropped to 2G, but at least he still had two bars of signal.

The touchscreen was unresponsive. After a few difficult swipes, he finally managed to call Yang Yiyi. After dozens of seconds of a busy tone, the call connected.

”Hello, Yu Xian?”

”Senior, it’s me. I’m downstairs from your building.”

”Downstairs?” A rustle came from Yang Yiyi’s end, as if she had just shot up in bed. ”Are you crazy? Why would you run out in this weather instead of staying in your dorm!”

”I have something urgent, about the MCH neurons.” Yu Xian wiped the rain from his face. ”It’s too complicated to explain over the phone. Can you come down? We can meet at the same boiler room.”

The other end of the line went silent for two seconds, followed only by the faint rustling of someone searching for something.

”Give me a few minutes.”

...

「Five minutes later, in the boiler room.」

The room was still thick with steam. In fact, because of the low atmospheric pressure outside, the white mist inside was even denser than last time.

The dim, yellow light diffused through the mist, enveloping the place like an isolated island, cut off from the rest of the world.

The low rumble of the boiler drowned out the sound of the rain outside, as well as the sound of their conversation. It really was a good place to discuss secrets.

Yang Yiyi closed the door. Her hair wasn’t completely dry, as if she had just gotten out of the shower not long ago. She was wrapped in that black windbreaker.

”How could you...” She looked at the soaking wet Yu Xian and frowned.

”The rain is so heavy, and there’s no signal. Don’t you know how dangerous it is out there? People in the group chat were just saying the water level in the school’s man-made lake has surged and could overflow at any moment.”

”Senior, I know, but there’s something more urgent. Our previous speculations were probably too conservative.”

Yu Xian wasted no time. He took out his carefully wrapped laptop, pulled up the MP3 file he had bought from the Black Market, and a screenshot of his chat with the seller.

”I bought a cracked version of TDI on a forum...” His voice was a little hoarse.

”This thing... it might have solved the ’forgetting mechanism’ you’ve been researching.”

Yang Yiyi’s hand, which was reaching for a tissue, suddenly froze. She looked up at Yu Xian.

”Solved it? You mean... it lets people remember their dreams?”

”Yes. You can remember them ’crystal clear, endlessly enjoyable.’ Those are the seller’s exact words.” Yu Xian handed her his phone.

”What’s more, this audio file only costs 100 yuan, and now it’s spreading like a virus.”

Yang Yiyi took the phone. As she looked at their chat history, her brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

”That’s impossible... Inhibiting the activity of MCH neurons is a precise chemical process. Normally, aside from sound wave frequencies, you’d also need transcranial electrical stimulation. How could a single audio file... possibly suppress forgetting completely?”

”I wish it were impossible, too, but as you can see, Senior, this thing is getting out of control.”

Yu Xian stared into Yang Yiyi’s eyes and asked the question that concerned him most.

”Senior, I know academic research is highly confidential before publication. If it leaks, someone could publish first, and years of hard work would be wasted.”

He paused, his tone sincere.

”But I really need to know right now—in the field of neuroscience, besides your team, is anyone else working in the area of ’dream memory retention’? Or, to put it another way, how far along is your research? Is it possible... that someone else has already beaten you to it?”

Yang Yiyi pressed her lips together, not answering immediately. She met Yu Xian’s gaze through the hazy veil of steam.

Yu Xian knew this was a huge challenge for her. Confidentiality was a principle ingrained in every researcher. Even when faced with an unforeseen emergency like this, it was hard to overcome that mental block.

’I can’t hold back anymore. I have to give her a reason for doing this.’

’If I want to get to the truth behind TDI, I have to be completely honest with her. I’ll need to share some information from the police to lend credibility to my story.’

”Senior.” Yu Xian took a deep breath.

”I learned from a criminal investigation source that a lot of people committed suicide recently. Before they died, all the deceased experienced severe hypersomnia, and when they died, they all had a strange ’smile’ on their faces.”

Yang Yiyi’s hand, still holding the phone, froze. She probably hadn’t expected Yu Xian to suddenly bring up something like this.

”...Suicide?”

The word echoed in the empty boiler room.

”Yes. I’ve always suspected they were trapped in TDI’s dreams, undergoing that smiling ’training’ in their sleep.”

Through the mist, Yang Yiyi’s mouth opened as if she wanted to say something, but she swallowed her words before they could escape.