16: Breakthrough! First mental command

Under the powerful augmentation of Uncle Liu's “rustic” hardware modules—those Amplification and Filtering Circuits, hand-built with the most common components, yet miraculously boosting the signal-to-noise ratio by 31dB; under the invisible urging of Su Mu's notes on fundamentals of analog circuits, whose handwriting was neat and clear, and logic as rigorous as a precision instrument blueprint (it was like a mirror reflecting his lack of knowledge, and a lamp guiding him towards the basics); and under the enormous threat of the System, which hung over his head like the Sword of Damocles, ready to unleash the ultimate punishment of “Social Death” at any moment (the public browser history package supplemented by AI-generated Social Death footage), Excellence endured countless cycles of day and night that felt like purgatory.

The corner of his dorm room had completely devolved into a messy battlefield left behind by the fierce conflict between technology and will. The desk was covered with tangled wires of various colors resembling a Neural Network, scattered silvery solder wire, the flashing probes of a Multimeter, charred circuit board remnants, and scratch paper filled with hasty calculations and countless error messages. Scattered among them were several photocopied pages of Su Mu's notes, which he had covered with question marks and underlined key points he was trying to understand. The air was filled with the unique scent of burnt rosin, the slightly acrid smell of electronic components overheating from long-term operation, and the bitter aroma of residual cheap strong coffee used to stay awake, mixing into a scent representing “struggle.” His eye sockets were sunken, his face pale, his dark circles so heavy it looked like he had been punched twice. His lips were slightly peeling and dry due to chronic anxiety, focused teeth-grinding, and dehydration. Only in his bloodshot eyes did a flame, almost obsessive and refusing to surrender to reality or the System, still burn.

Failure, debugging, failure again, debugging again... This despairing cycle seemed like Sisyphus pushing his stone, with no end in sight. He experienced extreme instability in signal acquisition (poor contact with the EEG Acquisition Cap electrodes, failing when his scalp sweated), subtle deviations in filter parameter tuning (a single decimal error in a resistor value could negate all efforts), repeated trial-and-error in algorithm threshold setting (a difficult balance between overfitting and underfitting), and countless late nights spent staring hysterically at the error-reporting command line window, teetering on the edge of self-doubt and near-abandonment, almost wanting to smash everything in front of him. That cheap EEG Acquisition Cap, bought from Taobao, felt like an extended organ of his head; prolonged wearing had even left shallow, hard-to-fade red marks and sticky sweat on his forehead.

However, right in the middle of this seemingly endless dark cycle, one that was enough to extinguish anyone's passion, a faint glimmer of light finally stubbornly pierced through the thick technical fog and the heavy psychological gloom.

It was a silent, late night, no different from the others. Everything was quiet, save for the continuous low hum of the computer Host fan and the occasional chilly gust of wind sweeping past the window. Excellence took another deep breath of the cool, dry air, and with the solemnity of performing a sacred yet desperate religious ritual, he put on the battered cap (with a hint of habitual distaste). He carefully adjusted the position of the dry electrodes (though knowing the effect was limited), ensuring they fit his scalp as snugly as possible. He struggled to clear his mind of all swirling distractions—mainly the materialized fear of that dreadful punishment, and the mountainous fatigue and anxiety accumulated over days—and condensed his entire mental will into one extremely simple, pure, and intense thought, focused like a laser beam onto a single point: “Light!”

His heart pounded heavily and quickly in his chest, hitting his ribs, the sound seemingly audible in the silence. His eyes were fixed, unblinking, on the extremely crude test interface he had coded himself using a simple Python library on his laptop screen. The interface displayed only a single, lonely, pixelated LED light bulb icon, with the words “Command One: Light” labeled beneath it in a rough font.

One second, two seconds... Time crawled slowly in the suffocating anticipation.

Just as he was about to be swallowed once again by the familiar, cold feeling of disappointment—

The LED icon, which had been a deathly gray, flickered extremely faintly, but undeniably! It struggled like a candle in the wind, wavering between light and dark, and then, stubbornly resisting the invisible interference, it continued to light up! It emitted a stable and soft virtual yellow glow!

Excellence's breathing suddenly stopped! His pupils dilated to the maximum! He could barely believe his eyes, instinctively blinking, afraid this was a hallucination caused by long hours of staying up and extreme mental tension, or just a random screen flicker.

He forcibly suppressed the gasp that was about to escape his lips, and with a trembling mind, he once again condensed a distinctly different, clear thought, filled with intense probing and enormous, disbelieving expectation: “Off!”

As if an invisible switch had been flipped, the LED icon that had just stabilized and lit up immediately went out! It instantly reverted to its previous deathly gray color!

“Light!” Excellence almost roared the command in his mind, his emotions fluctuating violently, filled with a burst of cathartic ecstasy.

The icon lit up again! The light was stable, without the slightest flicker!

“Off!”

The icon went dark again! Cleanly and without hesitation!

Although there was a slight, visible delay of about 300-400 milliseconds from the emission of the thought to the screen response, and it had not yet fully met the System's stringent maximum standard of “<500ms,” the accuracy of the response during this continuous, exciting test was astonishingly high! There were almost no instances of misidentification (identifying “Light” as “Off”) or failure (no response)!

This was not an accidental noise spike! This was not environmental electromagnetic interference! This was a genuine, complete Closed-Loop Feedback, directly triggered by his conscious activity, captured by the System's front-end hardware, successfully recognized after algorithmic processing, and finally converted into an execution command!

“I succeeded! I succeeded! System! System, do you see this! Do you see this!” Massive, unspeakable ecstasy erupted like a long-dormant volcano, instantly washing away all fatigue, tension, and self-doubt like a tsunami! Excellence sprang up from his chair, so excited he was waving his arms and dancing. He wanted to grab the old laptop, whose vents were still dusty, and kiss it fiercely twice, and then rush out the door to shout at the cold night sky, proclaiming his victory to the entire world! He felt like a novice in the Martial Arts World who had finally opened his Du and Ren Meridians and given birth to the first faint wisp of True Qi; although his power was minuscule, he genuinely felt the call of a brand new realm!

[Task: [Thought Leap] completed.]

The System's notification sound arrived as scheduled. This time, the usually cold and biting electronic synthesized voice sounded to Excellence as melodious as celestial music!

[Civilization Contribution Degree +0.0003.]

[Task reward has been issued to the System Space. Host, please check it promptly.]

Excellence eagerly used his mind to open the reward file compression package that was shimmering temptingly in his thoughts. "Primary Neural Interface (Thought Control Version) Technical White Paper.zip"—that name alone made his heart pound and his blood rush again! After decompression, the contents were far richer, deeper, and more exhilarating than the "Simplified Version" from the previous “Optical Camouflage” task! It included not only more complete theoretical foundations, more complex and efficient Signal Processing and Pattern Recognition Algorithms (with more detailed, yet still high-IQ-required annotations), various interference suppression and adaptive filtering strategies, but even... preliminary design blueprints, material science requirements, and biocompatibility discussions pointing toward the next generation of Non-Invasive High-Precision Interfaces, and even Minimally Invasive Implantable Interfaces!

Although the road ahead was still long, and the challenges would only escalate, becoming more difficult and unpredictable, this landmark breakthrough, the journey from zero to one, was like lighting the first truly personal torch in an endless dark abyss. It completely dispelled the gloom that had long settled in his heart and gave him an unprecedented, grounded sense of immense confidence! A feeling of heroic spirit and determination—“I might truly be able to walk this path”—quietly germinated and grew within him.

He even involuntarily let his thoughts soar, immersing himself in brief, beautiful fantasies of the future: Could he use thought control to play League of Legends, maximizing his micro-management, achieving reaction speeds beyond physical limits, and stunning the entire server? Could he use thought control to directly write code (even though his current Python level struggled to write a decent loop), turning his thoughts directly into a precise stream of instructions, doubling his programming efficiency, and saying goodbye to the keyboard forever? Could he... [Warning: Abnormal increase in Host cerebral cortex activity detected. Neural electrical activity patterns in the Prefrontal Lobe and reward center areas show significant excessive fantasizing and irrational optimism. Neurotransmitter Dopamine secretion levels are monitored as supernormal. It is recommended to remain calm, stay grounded, and avoid impractical delusions. The current primary task should be to focus on consolidating existing technical achievements, stability testing, and performance optimization.] The System's cold voice was like a basin of ice water accurately splashed onto his hot, swollen head, timely stopping his thoughts from running wild into the realm of science fiction.

Excellence: “...”

The winged excitement that had just soared was abruptly choked back. He pursed his lips, rolled his eyes helplessly at the air, and muttered under his breath, “Fine, you're awesome, you're always calm, you're always right...” But the irrepressible upward curve of his lips and the lingering sparkle of excitement in his eyes completely betrayed the real, surging joy in his heart.

However, extreme excitement, like intense physical exercise, overdrafted his already depleted mental energy. Following the receding wave of ecstasy came an irresistible, overwhelming fatigue, surging like a black tide. Countless consecutive days and nights of high-intensity mental labor, extreme mental tension, and the massive emotional release at the moment of success had completely wrung out his last shred of energy like a juicer. Intense drowsiness descended suddenly like a heavy velvet curtain, his eyelids feeling as heavy as if filled with lead.

He didn't even have time to savor more of the joy of success, nor did he bother cleaning up the messy “battlefield” that resembled a post-war ruin. He completely forgot to disconnect the power to the brainwave equipment set—which had just rendered great service but was still connected to the computer's USB port. Driven only by the most primitive biological instinct, he stumbled toward his bed, piled with a few dirty clothes. Too lazy to take off the gray T-shirt stained with Solder Paste, sweat, and coffee, the moment his head touched the slightly sweaty pillow, his consciousness snapped like a broken kite string, instantly sinking into an endless, warm, and dark deep sea, free of code and tasks.

In the dorm room, only the computer screen remained lit, the cooling fan emitting a slight hum. The LED icon representing the “Off” state quietly glowed faintly on the crude interface. And the Brainwave Cap, connected to Uncle Liu's “rustic” amplification module and then to the computer, remained quietly resting on his sleeping head. Several electrode patches stubbornly maintained contact with his scalp, which had relaxed in sleep, like a silent and loyal sentinel, tirelessly and continuously receiving the chaotic yet peaceful brainwave signals—containing countless secrets—from his sleeping brain in the dead of night. The data stream was still silently transmitting, and the algorithm was perhaps still running quietly in the background, recording the master's unconscious neural activity. Excellence, meanwhile, was completely oblivious.