150: The aftermath of the crisis and the opportunity for a "bridge"

The aftermath of the "Abyssal Resonance" attack was like a giant boulder thrown into a quiet lake, rippling out in visible and invisible constant ripples within "Homeland." Although the most critical moment had passed and the malicious external resonance field had dissipated, the impact of this direct assault on the consciousness was profound and would take time to heal.

The one most directly affected was undoubtedly Excellence himself. In the isolation ward of the medical center, he slept for a full day and night. This wasn't ordinary sleep, but rather a deep mental and physical dormancy—a self-protective shutdown of the brain after weathering a violent storm. When he finally woke up slowly, his eyes were initially vacant and hollow, as if his soul hadn't fully returned. It took a while for his focus to slowly sharpen, recognizing Su Mu, whose eyes were red from crying, and a concerned Evelyn waiting by his bedside.

"Class Monitor... Big Sister Evelyn..." His voice was weak and raspy, carrying the exhaustion of a survivor.

Physical examinations showed that his physiological indicators had returned to normal with no organic damage. However, the psychological trauma was clearly visible. He was still haunted by the "brainstorm" that occurred deep within his consciousness; though the memories were blurred, the terrifying sensation of being torn, submerged, and nearly dismantled by an invisible force remained branded in his subconscious.

In the following days, Excellence showed clear early symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He became exceptionally sensitive and clingy, relying heavily on the company of Su Mu and Evelyn as if they were his only safe islands in an unsettled world. If they were out of his sight for any period, he would become anxious and subconsciously look for them. At night, he was often jolted awake by nightmares filled with distorted lights, shadows, and oppressive roars, requiring Su Mu's gentle pats and comfort to fall back asleep.

He also became hyper-vigilant toward subtle changes in his environment. The sudden beep of a laboratory instrument, a slightly heavy door closing in the hallway, or even a sudden change in light outside as clouds passed would make his body tremble slightly, a flash of fear crossing his eyes—as if these ordinary stimuli might herald another unknown attack. He described sometimes "hearing a needle drop from far away." While this might be an exaggeration of his fluctuating Perception ability, it reflected the high state of tension in his nervous system.

What frustrated him even more was that his abilities, which had been steadily improving during training, had become extremely unstable. Sometimes, when he tried to use Perception on a simple object, his brain felt like a kite with a broken string—capturing nothing, a total blank—leaving him with a strong sense of powerlessness and self-doubt. At other times, without any preparation, overwhelming streams of overly minute and chaotic information would uncontrollably flood his consciousness: the whispered conversations of researchers in the next room, the faint flow of water in underground pipes, or even the rustling activities of animals in distant mountain forests. These "background noises" were amplified, making him feel dizzy and unable to concentrate, as if the "filter" function of his brain had temporarily failed.

"Homeland" as a whole also bore the "systemic scars" brought by the attack.

The base's electronic and network systems underwent a comprehensive and thorough overhaul. The technical team worked day and night, checking core servers, scientific instruments, environmental control units, and security sensors one by one. Although core facilities were protected by shielding systems and avoided catastrophic damage, many precision instruments and sensors experienced varying degrees of reading drift, calibration failure, or accelerated component aging under the sustained high-intensity interference of the abnormal field. Some cutting-edge equipment extremely sensitive to electromagnetic environments even required the replacement of expensive core modules, which undoubtedly represented a significant consumption of resources and loss of time. The air was filled with the scents of solder, cleaning agents, and the unique electronic component smell of debugging equipment, while the hurried footsteps of people pushing tool carts echoed through the hallways from time to time.

More importantly, this incident served as a high-intensity stress test, exposing the weaknesses and design limits of Homeland's existing defense system when facing non-traditional, non-physical, high-energy information field attacks. Traditional physical barriers and conventional electromagnetic shielding had significantly reduced effectiveness against this "resonance weapon," which was meticulously modulated with specific frequencies and highly concentrated energy.

The security department immediately held an emergency review meeting. Wang Jianguo presided over it personally, and the atmosphere was solemn. Participating experts analyzed the characteristics of the attack signal, its propagation path, and detailed impacts on various systems. The meeting concluded that the development of a new generation of targeted detection and active defense systems must begin immediately. This included:

A more sensitive abnormal field early warning network: Deploying more and more advanced distributed sensor arrays to identify and locate such specific frequency attack signals earlier and more accurately, gaining more warning time.

More powerful active cancellation technology: Drawing on the "anti-resonance wave" principle Evelyn used during the crisis to develop regional field neutralization devices with wider coverage and faster response times, moving from passive defense to active intervention.

System resilience reinforcement: Implementing redundant designs and hardening upgrades for critical facilities to enhance their continuous operation and rapid recovery capabilities in abnormal environments, ensuring core functions remain even if parts of the system are damaged.

A defense upgrade plan named "Barrier 2.0" was quickly put on the agenda and given the highest priority for resource allocation. Design blueprints, procurement lists, and research task descriptions circulated rapidly between departments; Homeland entered a state of intense yet orderly combat readiness and upgrade.

However, amidst the Chaos and restoration work brought by the crisis, Evelyn made an earth-shattering discovery within the vast sea of monitoring data. This discovery might change their understanding of the nature of Excellence's abilities and even open a brand-new door for future research directions.

While repeatedly playing back and analyzing the massive amounts of data recorded by various monitoring points during the attack, Evelyn's gaze was drawn to an extremely brief waveform where the signal strength suddenly spiked and then rapidly decayed. This signal came from an ultra-high sensitivity quantum interferometer deployed in the deepest part of the base, used for monitoring cosmic background radiation and potential "constant ripple" activities. This equipment was originally intended to capture faint signals on a cosmic scale, and its sensitivity far exceeded that of conventional equipment.

The signal lasted less than a hundredth of a second, like a fleeting flash of lightning in the night sky. But its unique frequency characteristics and complex modulation structure immediately made Evelyn's breath hitch! She utilized the most powerful data analysis algorithms for multi-dimensional spectral analysis, wavelet transforms, and pattern matching. After repeated verification through sleepless nights, she confirmed with shock: this signal was highly homologous with the core frequency parsed from the star map ore, yet its information density and structural complexity far exceeded anything previously obtained from static ore samples or historical data! It wasn't like a stable "background radiation" but more like a transient snapshot of a dynamic, living "constant ripple"—an extremely brief "excited state"!

More crucially, the timing of this signal, calibrated with millisecond-level timestamps, coincided perfectly with the critical moment when Excellence's consciousness was in a state of most Chaos, resisting most fiercely, and having its inner potential pushed to the absolute limit under the impact of the "Abyssal Resonance" field! Evelyn boldly speculated: it was highly likely that Excellence's consciousness, under extreme pressure, had produced some unprecedented, deeper level of interaction with that high-dimensional "constant ripple" field, and this signal was a faint "echo" of his consciousness activity, unintentionally "leaked" or "reflected" out!

This was like a fleeting glimpse through an accidentally opened crack, revealing the splendor and complexity beneath the tip of the iceberg of that mysterious information field. Although the signal was brief, the potential information it contained could be a priceless treasure! It provided unprecedented, dynamic empirical data for understanding the working mechanism of Excellence's abilities and even for directly studying the nature of the "constant ripple" itself!

This discovery made Evelyn's heart race with excitement, so much so that she could barely hold her data pad. It strongly suggested that the concept of the "bridge" project was not a fantasy; Excellence's consciousness could indeed, under specific conditions, become an extremely special "interface" or "converter" connecting the observable world with that mysterious primal information field.

Evelyn quickly compiled this discovery into a top-secret report and presented it directly to Wang Jianguo. The two held a long, private discussion in an encrypted meeting room.

Beyond the excitement was a deeper sense of caution and responsibility. Both clearly realized that while this discovery was tempting, the method of obtaining it—relying on Excellence falling into extreme pain and danger—was absolutely unacceptable and must never be repeated. They could never actively put Excellence in harm's way just to obtain data.

The two reached a strong consensus: future research must shift completely. The focus should no longer be on waiting for or creating extreme situations, but rather on exploring how to record and study similar faint signals that Excellence might naturally produce in positive states—such as deep relaxation, high focus, or creative bursts—through carefully designed, gentle, and controllable guided training, under the premises of absolute safety, non-invasiveness, and respect for Excellence's will.

This meant that the preliminary research of the "bridge" project would enter a more refined new stage with a greater focus on ethics. Evelyn needed to design training programs that were more like advanced meditation or guided deep thinking rather than stress tests. At the same time, the sensitivity of monitoring equipment and data analysis algorithms would need to be upgraded in tandem to capture "natural leaks" that might be thousands of times weaker than this signal.

Wang Jianguo emphasized that all related research must follow the supreme principle of "Excellence's physical and mental health taking absolute priority." Any experimental design that might bring risk or discomfort must undergo the strictest ethical review. They were protecting not just an "asset," but a child's future.

Warm Healing: Emotional Support

Meanwhile, Excellence's psychological healing proceeded steadily under the dedicated care of Su Mu and Evelyn. They understood that while technological discoveries were important, restoring Excellence's psychological health and his confidence in his abilities was the most urgent matter at hand.

Su Mu became Excellence's primary emotional pillar. She set aside almost all her other work to accompany him around the clock. She no longer rushed him back into training, but instead took him for more outdoor activities: jogging on the sunlit lawn, tending to the vibrant plants in the greenhouse, and watching the magnificent sunset together in the evening. Using light games and patient listening, she helped him gradually relax his tense nerves. When Excellence felt frustrated because his abilities were out of control, she would gently comfort him: "It's okay. Just like needing rest when you're sick, your 'little antenna' (referring to his Perception ability) just needs a little time to recover. It will get better."

Evelyn provided support from the perspective of rational cognition. As a scientist, she explained what might have happened in a way Excellence could understand: "Your brain is like a super-precise radio. Last time it encountered a very strong interference signal, so there's temporarily some garbled code. This is a normal stress response; we need to work together to help you recalibrate the frequency." She redefined the period of instability in Excellence's abilities as a necessary "debugging period" following a "system upgrade," easing his psychological burden.

Their joint efforts gradually bore fruit. The smiles on Excellence's face increased, the frequency of his nightmares decreased, and his hyper-vigilance toward the environment eased.

One warm afternoon, the three were walking by the creek at the edge of the base. Excellence suddenly stopped, crouched down, and pointed at a patch of moist soil by the creek, saying somewhat uncertainly, "Class Monitor, Big Sister Evelyn, here... in the soil below, it feels like a 'tiny blood vessel' of a water pipe is quietly... crying? It feels wet and uncomfortable."

Su Mu and Evelyn exchanged a glance and notified the logistics department, half-believing him. Maintenance personnel arrived and dug up that patch of soil, indeed finding an extremely tiny leak in an old underground water supply pipe. The amount of leakage was small and hadn't yet caused obvious wet spots on the surface, but it would have wasted water resources in the long run.

This minor episode, though seemingly insignificant, was of great importance to Excellence. He had successfully and controllably used his ability, and it had actually helped! This restored a huge amount of his confidence, and the light in his eyes brightened once more. He excitedly grabbed Su Mu's hand: "Class Monitor! My 'little antenna' seems to be working again! Even if it's still a bit glitchy!"

Seeing his excitement, both Su Mu and Evelyn smiled with relief. This small success made them happier than any data point could.

Growth After the Storm

The crisis of the "Abyssal Resonance" had finally passed. It left behind trauma that needed healing and spurred necessary defense upgrades. But more importantly, it unexpectedly revealed a potential path to deeper mysteries and made everyone more clearly realize the indispensability of emotional support and ethical boundaries.

The guardians of "Homeland," having been tempered by this storm, became more resilient, wiser, and more united. They knew that future challenges would not diminish, but they were ready to continue forward with new understanding and stronger bonds. And Excellence, the seedling that had once swayed violently in the storm, began to radiate new vitality under the nourishment of sunlight and dew.