19: An unexpected "home visit"

Excellence slept extremely soundly, as if his whole being had sunk into a dreamless, dark seabed, temporarily isolating him from the fatigue and anxiety of the past few days, as well as the brief yet immense ecstatic success of the previous night. It wasn't until the afternoon sunlight filtered through the not-so-clean glass of the dormitory window, casting bright and warm spots of light on the floor, and the air began to be filled with the faint, unique aroma of campus lunchtime, that he was reluctantly dragged from his deep sleep by the hunger in his stomach and the pressure in his bladder.

He opened his sore eyes in a daze, his consciousness slowly resuming rotation like rusted gears. The first thing that came into view was the familiar crack on the ceiling, followed by the wrinkled T-shirt on his body, still stained with solder and sweat. Fragments of last night's memories gradually pieced themselves back together—the ecstasy of success, the system's prompts, the rewarded white paper... and that device he forgot to disconnect.

He sat up abruptly and looked at the desk immediately. The computer screen had entered sleep mode due to inactivity, completely black. That cheap brainwave cap was still crookedly worn on his head, its connecting wires dragging like a ridiculous crown. He let out a sigh of relief, though still feeling a lingering fear, and hurriedly scrambled to take the cap off, as if it were some hot potato.

"Fortunately, nothing went wrong..." He muttered, rubbing his still throbbing temples, feeling that sleep hadn't completely washed away the fatigue. The hunger was more intense now. He was rubbing his sleepy eyes, struggling internally whether to go to the cafeteria first to appease his growling stomach, or to take advantage of his clear memory to continue studying the deeper content within the "Primary Neural Interface (Mind Control Version) Technical White Paper.zip" rewarded by the system.

Just as he was shuffling in his slippers, preparing to pour a glass of water, a clear, powerful, and very rhythmic knocking on the door sounded.

"Knock, knock, knock."

The knocking was unhurried, carrying a kind of official steadiness, completely different from the style of his roommates who always hammered the door so loudly.

Excellence's heart skipped a beat for no reason. At this time, who could it be? The counselor? The dorm manager doing checks? He subconsciously glanced at the mess in his dormitory, especially the "experimental remnants" in the corner that absolutely must not be seen by outsiders, and immediately felt a bit guilty.

"Who... who is it?" He tried to make his voice sound as normal as possible, asking while yawning, and slowly moved behind the door.

From outside the door came a gentle yet authoritative male voice: "Hello, student, please open the door."

Excellence hesitated for a moment, then turned the doorknob. The old wooden door of the dormitory made a "creak" sound and was pulled open a crack.

Outside the door stood two men.

Leading them was a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties. He wore a well-fitting dark jacket with crisp fabric, and straight-pressed trousers; his leather shoes were polished to a shine but didn't look flashy. He kept his figure well, without the common middle-aged paunch, and stood steadily, exuding an air of competence. He had a square face, thick black eyebrows, and a calm yet sharp gaze that seemed to see through people at a glance, but at this moment, his face wore a seemingly easy-going, even friendly smile. Yet, that smile seemed precisely calculated; a bit more would appear enthusiastic, a bit less would appear indifferent, maintaining exactly the right level of polite distance.

About half a step behind this middle-aged man stood another young man, around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, wearing a more casual sports jacket and dark trousers, but his posture was as upright as a pine, his shoulders broad, and his gaze as sharp as a hawk's. He was scanning the situation inside the door and the corridor without making a sound, his whole person like a taut bow, containing a sense of power ready to explode at any moment. His presence made the originally spacious corridor seem a bit cramped.

This pair together emitted an aura that was completely out of place in a university campus environment—a mix of institutional steadiness and an indescribable sharpness.

Excellence's heartbeat skipped a beat instantly, and a strong sense of foreboding poured down from his head like ice water, making him instantly more than half awake, even the remaining sleepiness was dispelled without a trace.

"Excuse... excuse me, are you student Excellence?" The leading middle-aged man spoke, his voice gentle and magnetic, his articulation clear, carrying a natural sense of authority that made people unconsciously want to obey.

"Ye... yes, it's me," Excellence felt his throat go dry, his voice unconsciously carrying a hint of nervousness, "Yo... you are...?" He subconsciously held onto the door frame with his hand, as if needing some support.

"Oh, we are from the Logistics and Equipment Division of the City Education Bureau," the middle-aged man's smile deepened, appearing more approachable. He smoothly took out a black ID folder with an embossed national emblem from his inner pocket, quickly flashed it in front of Excellence, and without even waiting for Excellence to see the name and the full name of the unit, he naturally put it away, his tone as relaxed as if chatting about daily life, "Routine work, spot-checking the electrical safety situation in various university dormitories and whether there are any violations of using high-power appliances or privately stringing electrical wires. The weather has been dry lately, and fire safety is of paramount importance. Is it convenient for us to go in and take a look?"

City Education Bureau? Logistics and Equipment Division? Checking electrical safety?

Excellence was completely confused, his brain spinning rapidly but unable to understand this sudden inspection. Would people from the City Education Bureau come directly to student dormitories to check electrical safety? Why does this sound so... awkward? And why his dormitory of all places? He subconsciously felt something was wrong, but that glance at the ID (even though he didn't see it clearly at all), and that naturally revealed, unquestionable official aura, left him temporarily at a loss as to how to refuse.

"Ah... oh... okay... okay then..." Excellence responded almost instinctively, stuttering, his body subconsciously moving aside to open the door, his mind in complete chaos.

The two walked into the dormitory one after the other. The young man came in last and, in one smooth motion, naturally pushed the slightly ajar dormitory door shut. He didn't deliberately stand behind the door, but seemingly casually moved to a position that happened to be able to observe the entire interior of the dormitory while also keeping an eye on the movement at the door, invisibly forming a gentle state of control.

After these two strangers entered, the cramped dormitory suddenly felt even more crowded and oppressive.

The middle-aged man's gaze was like the most precise scanner, seemingly casually and unobtrusively scanning every corner of the dormitory. His gaze swept over the messy desk piled with "fundamentals of analog circuits" textbooks and Su Mu's precious notebook, swept over several instant noodle cups that hadn't been thrown away yet, exuding the smell of overnight soup, and then, extremely naturally, landed on the corner at the innermost side of the dormitory, near Excellence's bed—

There, piled up were the "legacies" left by his few "hand-crafted" attempts, which could be called visual spectacles:

That "micro-fusion device" remnant (although it had no energy, its appearance was strange enough) composed of Pinduoduo beakers, oxygen-free copper wire pulled from home, Taobao diamonds, and Alibaba palladium powder, with a terrible appearance and some exposed wires connected;

That "optical camouflage demonstration device" demo, covered with unevenly sprayed palladium powder coating, connected to flexible circuits and capacitor arrays; although it had failed, those strange-looking parts and coatings were emitting an eerie light under the light;

And... the most fatal thing, thrown on Excellence's unmade bed, was that cheap brainwave collection cap with exposed electrode pads, and the tangled mass of amplification and filtering circuits it was connected to, including the module Uncle Liu had hand-crafted, with the other end still connected to his laptop in sleep mode!

These things, combined together, didn't look like any proper "electronic hobby" or "graduation project" at all; they looked more like horror props from some cult movie or an experimental site for wasteland technology!

The middle-aged man's gaze lingered on that brainwave cap and the other pieces of equipment exuding a strong "non-mainstream technology" aura for a few extra seconds. Although the expression on his face remained that gentle, routine, official look, Excellence keenly captured that in the depths of his calm eyes, there seemed to be a flash of an extremely subtle light—it wasn't surprise, but more like a kind of... confirmation? A kind of "as expected" realization.

Excellence's heart was instantly gripped tightly as if by a cold mechanical hand, rising to his throat! Cold sweat broke out on his back, soaking his thin T-shirt.

It's over! I'm done for! Completely finished!

These two people are definitely not from any Logistics Division of the City Education Bureau! They are here specifically for these "hand-crafted" things of his!

Immense fear instantly engulfed him like a tsunami. His mind went blank, with only the system's cold warning sound echoing crazily in the depths of his consciousness: 【Warning! Warning! High-level threat approaching! Information exposure risk is extremely high! Suggest immediately activating emergency camouflage plan!】

But where would he have any emergency plan? He couldn't even make up a decent excuse! He could only stand frozen in place, his face pale, watching helplessly as the middle-aged man, as if nothing had happened, casually picked up that book "Introduction to EEG Signal Algorithms" spread out on his desk, filled with question marks and circles, and asked with a smile in a chatting, slightly curious tone:

"Student, your... hobbies are quite extensive, aren't they?" He flipped through the pages casually, but his gaze seemed to be able to pierce through the paper, seeing the secrets hidden deep within Excellence, "These books, and these... um... 'devices', are they all things you made for fun yourself?"

The young man following behind him, although still expressionless, swept his gaze across Excellence's face like a physical force, as if capturing every subtle change in his expression. At the same time, his upright posture adjusted its angle imperceptibly, further subtly blocking any route for Excellence to suddenly rush toward the door.

The air in the dormitory seemed to have solidified, so heavy it was suffocating. Excellence felt like a frog pinned to a dissection table, with nowhere to hide.