Chapter 137: Imperfect (Part 1/2)
Translator: Strivon
The user interface of the external neuron opened before Luo Nan's eyes. Nothing about it changed, save for the icon of the visualization diagram. The change with the dark gray and the very long 'download and installation' state of the icon was revealed quite distinctly.
There was yet another streak of light. It formed a long and narrow glowing slice of a circle. The slice was about 1/10th of a full circle. This slice was much clearer than before. However, it displayed quite a mysterious and concrete number when he applied his senses to it.
9.99%.
This number appeared after the events at Frost River Reality. Before, the analysis progress was at 7%. It had jumped nearly three percentage points overnight. This progress was quite fast, but what was up with the two digits after the decimal place?
Luo Nan suspected that if he increased the precision of this number, the nine would be an infinitely repeating decimal.
There was a plateau with the analysis progress? Was it stuck at this level?
This was an unprecedented situation. Luo Nan had to carefully mull this over.
From Luo Nan's perspective, the programs and app icons of the external neuron's user interface were the projection of the external neuron's analysis and control capabilities over certain targets. This was reflected extremely sufficiently with the cases of Gear and the Human-Faced Arachnid.
The icon of the visualization diagram appeared from analyzing and controlling the Human-Faced Arachnid. His comprehension grew deeper, and he gained newfound understandings after the events at Frost River Reality. These factors allowed him to realize the following. Chaos and disorder were the essences of the Human-Faced Arachnid. What was there worth analyzing? One would not obtain any answers if they analyzed chaos and disorder.
What could truly be analyzed was what possessed value to be analyzed. It was the order frame that formed the Human-Faced Arachnid's outstanding instinct in the midst of chaos essence.
Therefore, the image of the Human-Faced Arachnid did not appear on the user interface. Instead, it was the visualization diagram... The composition consisted of a tetrahedron, an inscribed sphere, and an outerscribed sphere.
Alright, now why did the icon appear as the visualization diagram?
Luo Nan's heart always pounded hard each time he thought of this question. It pounded this hard for a week.
The corresponding relationship between the Human-Faced Arachnid and the order frame filled the crucial logical link between the display of the user interface and the displacement of the analysis target. What followed was just simple reasoning and Luo Nan could draw a conclusion.
The visualization diagram and the order frame matched together to a large degree. Could practical meaning be obtained from the fact that the two overlapped?
Every time the relevant train of thoughts floated in Luo Nan's mind; the dark chains would resonate with its vibrating cry from the boundless depths of the mental plane like on the night within the Logic World. It was as if the dark chains had reappeared next to his ear.
A vague linking trail emerged among all sorts of phenomena, among the various details. It shifted between darkness and brightness, between being hidden and being distinct. This lasted until it closed into a loop, and it made Luo Nan's heartstrings tremble.
Unfortunately, there was a sizable portion of detail that remained indistinct. It did not allow Luo Nan to make a breakthrough in his understandings toward the order frame, the visualization diagram, and the Human-Faced Arachnid.
The analysis progress remained at the bizarre value of 9.99%. The rapid growth of his soul strength continued to slowly flow over the containment limits of the Hollow Depository. The disease that was the imbalance between body and soul continued to worsen step by step.
However, Luo Nan reaped some gains when all was said and done.
First, he had obtained what could be considered a promising future. If the visualization diagram and the order frame really did overlap, the path ahead would be deep and magnificent beyond imagination. It represented the astonishing breadth and depth of Formatting Theory.
Second, talking from a more substantial level, there was now a vehicle to the once-elusive order frame, to the profound and abstract visualization diagram. The vehicle was the external neuron.
The marvelous creation known as the Dynamo Core gave a data classification toward the order frame that was accurate to two digits after the decimal point.
The creator of the external neuron undoubtedly possessed deep and penetrating understandings toward its corresponding elements. Its applications made heavy-lifting tasks look easy, so it was able to analyze the design of the order frame within. The external neuron was a grand piece of work.
The existence of this work itself was a cognitive platform toward the order frame. It took large quantities of intangible and incomprehensible elements and substantialized them.
Though Luo Nan current understanding toward the external neuron was extremely shallow, the device itself was rich in interfacing and universality. It provided seamless access to the human nervous system, to the artificial intelligence systems, and even to the Format Pyramid's social-format. The external neuron gave Luo Nan many entry points to these systems.
For instance, Luo Nan currently held extreme interest toward the Hollow Depository function. There was great value in researching and exploring this function that could control his soul strength. Doing this had substantial meaning. The matter with his soul strength was pressing.
Luo Nan was forced to admit that he would not even be able to utilize Bai Xinyan's happy-go-lucky treatment if it were not for the external neuron. He would have become a gigantic tragedy.
Formatting Theory theory was great and all, but what was up with this completely out-of-control growth? How did his grandfather avoid resolving this issue back when he was doing research this theory?
Luo Nan thought back to the writings in his grandfather's notebook. In the end, he reluctantly admitted that it was hard for the answer to exist in the results of early stage research.
It looked like pursuing other clues in his notebook had to be put on the agenda.
With this thought in mind, Luo Nan decided to get in contact with Octopus Bro, who was researching the molecular formulas from his grandfather's notebook. At the same time, Luo Nan could also ask about his grandfather's recent physical and mental state.
Oh?
As Luo Nan scrolled through his contact list to find Octopus Bro's avatar, his train of thought suddenly fixated on something.
Mental state?
This link, which he had neglected intentionally or otherwise, suddenly jumped into Luo Nan's train of thought. A devilish sound fluttered back and forth inside and outside his heart at this time.
What had caused his grandfather to become a schizophrenic lunatic?
Was it because of the psychological blow of having his own son betray him and steal the results of his work?
Luo Nan had believed that this was the reason all this time.
However, what if he looked at it from a different angle? From an angle he had once never imagined? Right now, there was a different and real angle placed before his eyes.
How could a creator not be a practitioner?
It was improbable for his grandfather not to use the results of Formatting Theory on himself.
If this was the case. No, it had to be the case. If this theory never ultimately resolved the issue with the uncontrolled growth of soul strength; if this theory never resolved the issue with the imbalance between body and soul. Then, this was not a perfect theory.
Luo Nan took an impartial stance to make this hypothesis. Then, what would his grandfather's state become? It must be known that there was a 99% chance that his grandfather did not possess an external neuron!
What would be the result?
These thoughts made Luo Nan suddenly burst with cold sweat down his back.
Then, Luo Nan recalled when he was visiting his grandfather at the medical treatment center. He recalled his grandfather's crazed words. He redeciphered and redetermined those words with his current understandings. It seemed that there was some extremely marvelous feeling of pertinence?
The angle of this train of thought was clear, and the thoughts came surging like an opened floodgate. They rushed up and advanced straightforward. They were hard to stop.
Luo Nan temporarily set aside the situation with his grandfather. There was something else. There was someone else!
The person who had delivered the external neuron into Luo Nan's hands in such an unfathomable way.
The person who one could not avoid, who one could not crack...
The way he did things. His objective. His considerations. What were they?
Luo Nan was lying down on his bed with his eyes wide open. He was completely awake.