234: A lighthearted interlude and the "hand-rubbed" air purifier

After successfully dispelling the bone-deep, parasitic pollution of "The Whisper" from "Entropy," the Ark seemed to have welcomed a long-awaited spring after experiencing a bone-chilling winter.

The tension, anxiety, and inexplicable hostility that had permeated the ship quietly faded away like morning mist dispelled by the sun.

Daily work resumed its orderly rhythm, greetings and occasional jokes echoed in the corridors again, and the mess hall returned to its usual bustle and conversation.

Furthermore, having shared that deep, spiritual-level Resonance and purification, the relationship between the crew seemed to have gained an indescribable layer of tacit understanding.

A sense of identity—that "we have faced the most bizarre dangers together and walked out hand-in-hand"—pushed the team's cohesion to new heights.

Collaboration became smoother, and interactions during breaks carried more sincerity.

However, as the core builder and leader of that large-scale Resonance ceremony, Excellence saw further and more clearly than others.

That Resonance field, which covered the entire ship and required high concentration and collective cooperation, was like a powerful collective psychotherapy and spiritual deep cleaning; the results were remarkable, but it could not, and should not, become the norm.

It consumed immense mental energy and was essentially dependent on his personal guidance and the collective's immediate participation.

During the long interstellar voyage, when facing potentially more hidden and intense "Entropy"-based mental pollution or other unknown psychological threats in the future, every individual must possess their own routine, sustainable means of mental protection.

"Just as we cannot always rely on central heating, everyone needs their own little padded jacket." During an informal meeting of core members, Excellence used a slightly plain but apt metaphor.

Thus, in the tense intervals as the Ark sailed along its predetermined course toward the next target, our ever-unsatisfied commander, who always loved to "hand-craft" miracles, quietly launched a new, uniquely personal project—he was going to manufacture portable "Personal Mental Purifiers" for every companion on the ship.

"What should we call it?" Su Mu asked with a smile, watching him enthusiastically spread out a pile of miscellaneous materials.

"Hmm..." Excellence scratched his head, looking at a shimmering Stardust crystal in his hand and a few strands of hair samples packed in sealed bags. A flash of inspiration struck him. "Let's call it the 'Positive Energy Portable Power Bank'! It replenishes Order energy for the soul at any time!"

The choice of materials was full of the "Excellence-style" blend of pragmatism and symbolism:

Discarded circuit board fragments: Sourced from old parts replaced during ship maintenance, they represented the "Order" and "Logic" of human technology and served as the foundation for building stable energy circuits.

Stardust crystals: These were special minerals cautiously collected from the edge of the "Silent Abyss" where beacon epsilon was located. They had long been soaked in the reverberations of Order energy emitted by beacon epsilon, containing weak but pure "Order" traits, serving as the core energy source and amplifier for the purifiers.

Superconducting energy transmission wires: Laboratory-grade materials provided by Evelyn, ensuring low loss and stability in energy flow.

Personal biological samples: This was the key. Excellence requested that every crew member volunteering for this project provide a small lock of hair or a small item long worn close to the body that carried their personal aura (such as an old button or a worn woven bracelet). The purpose was to use this as an "anchor," allowing the finished purifier to more precisely adapt to the wearer's unique mental frequency and avoid "crosstalk" or rejection reactions.

And, the indispensable soul: the slightly old but incredibly reliable hot glue gun that had followed him for many years, and his pair of hands that seemed blessed, always able to turn decay into magic (and occasionally into even more peculiar decay).

The design philosophy was his attempt to miniaturize the macroscopic principles of building a large-scale "Order Resonance field" to the extreme.

The core concept was: using Stardust crystals as a micro "Order energy pool" and Resonance core; using circuit boards etched with specific circuits to form a micro-generator that continuously produced a baseline frequency of "emotional stability" and "mental clarity"; establishing a mental link with the wearer through personal biological samples for initial frequency calibration; and finally, having Excellence personally perform "Energy Programming" to conduct the final energy infusion, structural solidification, and fine frequency tuning of these components, enabling them to form a small, personalized force field that could continuously emit gentle Order fluctuations and dispel common negative emotions and low-intensity mental pollution.

The ideal was always plump, but Excellence's path of practice was, as always, full of "features" and surprises that made people want to facepalm.

When the first batch of twenty prototypes was "freshly baked" in his cabin, which doubled as a meditation room and a small workshop, the sight was enough to make any rigorous engineer faint.

They had no unified appearance: some were crudely wrapped in hot glue into button-sized lumps, with Stardust crystals shimmering inside; some were painstakingly (or perhaps just self-importantly) embedded in the cases of disassembled old pocket watches, the hands long motionless, but with faint light flowing beneath the dial; even worse, some were simply transmission wires tangled haphazardly with crystals and circuit pieces, then wrapped in a layer of electrical tape, looking like an abstract metal bird's nest struck by lightning.

During the functional testing stage, a series of ludicrous "Emotional Blind Box" reality shows unfolded.

After a usually steady old engineer put on his "button lump," he froze for a moment, then beamed with joy, saying "refreshing" three times in a row, his work efficiency inexplicably improved, and everyone looked pleasant to him.

A clerical worker was assigned the "pocket watch style," and within half an hour of wearing it, she started yawning continuously, claiming to feel unprecedented relaxation and sleepiness, almost falling asleep while on duty.

And the most heart-wrenching yet laughable incident was when a young technician put on his "bird's nest," and suddenly, without warning, burst into tears, crouching in a corner of the corridor sobbing for a long time.

Under Su Mu's patient questioning, he choked out that after putting it on, he suddenly remembered with extreme clarity his grandmother who had passed away due to a disaster on his home planet years ago; that longing and sorrow came crashing down like a tidal wave, impossible to suppress.

Su Mu took the test feedback report and found Excellence, who was deep in thought over his failed products. She slapped the report down in front of him and sighed while holding her forehead: "Commander Excellence, our original intention was to create 'purifiers' to stabilize emotions, not to develop 'emotional blind boxes' that randomly trigger deep memories or strange states! This effect is just too... uncontrollable."

Evelyn, suppressing a smile, used precision instruments to scan and analyze every prototype.

"The basic principle is correct," she pointed to the spectral charts and data streams, "Stardust crystals are indeed emitting Order fluctuations, and the circuit frequencies also match theoretical values. The problem lies in the craftsmanship and precision.

The 'anchoring' process of the biological samples is too primitive, and the energy link is extremely unstable and prone to mutual interference, just like trying to precisely tune a precision radio with a rusty wire; the result is crosstalk, noise, or even receiving completely irrelevant 'signals'—like that technician's deeply hidden longing for his grandmother.

Your 'Energy Programming' infusion is also too... well, 'impressionistic,' lacking standardization."

Faced with the questioning and good-natured teasing, there was no trace of discouragement on Excellence's face; instead, his eyes lit up, as if he saw a clearer direction for improvement.

"Failure is the mother of success, and unexpected side effects are also precious data!" He enthusiastically pulled Evelyn over, "Come, come, Doctor, help me optimize these circuit designs; we need a more stable and precise micro-Resonance array."

He then turned to look at Su Mu, "Sister Su Mu, you know everyone's emotions and personalities the best; help me design a detailed 'User Experience Survey,' we need more and more detailed feedback to calibrate the frequencies!"

Thus, an iterative development plan for the "Excellence-brand Purifier," full of joy and the spirit of exploration, was launched in full swing on the Ark.

Excellence's "small workshop" became one of the most popular places to visit on the ship (though the number of people was often restricted by Evelyn for safety reasons).

He humbly listened to Evelyn's scientific advice, standardized the circuit designs, and introduced more precise micro-energy filtering and voltage regulation modules.

He also carefully studied the feedback collected by Su Mu, attempting to roughly classify emotional types and adjust the baseline frequency templates accordingly.

After the second improved generation came out, although the appearance was still indescribable, the functional stability had improved.

However, the testing process was still full of surprises (or should we say, scares):

That serious uncle from the engineering department, after putting on his new purifier, suddenly started dancing stiff, mechanical steps—as if his joints lacked oil—along with the soothing background music playing on the ship during a routine inspection, and said solemnly to his dumbfounded subordinates: "I feel a kind of... rhythm of life, energy flowing happily in the pipelines!"

And that botanist researcher who was usually so quiet she barely had any presence, after trying it, seemed to have flipped a switch, becoming exceptionally talkative.

She not only dragged every person passing by to discuss the growth of the hydroponic vegetables she was responsible for, but also enthusiastically wanted to analyze for her colleagues the influence of horoscope trends on plant growth, speaking eloquently for an entire afternoon.

These hilarious yet helpless "side effects" became a rare, relaxing diversion during the voyage and added a bit more legendary (and comedic) color to the reputation of Excellence's "hand-crafted sacred objects."

But Excellence, Evelyn, and Su Mu all understood that they were getting closer to their goal bit by bit.

Finally, after synthesizing countless failed data, absorbing massive amounts of "user experience," and undergoing strict physical verification by Evelyn and psychological adaptability adjustments by Su Mu, the third generation—the "Excellence-brand Mental Purifier (Stable Mass-Production Version)"—was announced to be born!

This generation of products finally had a decent appearance: unified as simple, smooth oval or rounded rectangular metal pendants, as well as flexible bracelet styles that fit the wrist.

The surface was matte-finished and imprinted with a small "ark" emblem.

Once activated (usually just by wearing it close to the body, triggered by body temperature or weak bioelectricity), it would emit an extremely soft, refreshing milky-white glow from its core.

At the same time, the wearer could feel an almost imperceptible but definitely existing warm fluctuation, as if gently wrapped by an invisible warm current, which could effectively soothe daily anxiety, improve concentration, and bring a deep sense of inner peace.

After strict testing, it could stably resist the aftershocks of non-targeted mental pollution of the same intensity as the low-level whispers of "Entropy."

Although it was not omnipotent, could not counter strong, directed mental attacks, and could not eradicate deep-seated psychological trauma, in the face of long-term lonely interstellar voyages, the pressure of a closed environment, and potential future mental threats, this was undoubtedly an extremely practical "psychological massager" and "mental pressure relief valve."

More importantly, every purifier was unique because it contained a small part of the wearer's own biological imprint inside, as well as the Order energy injected by Excellence himself, carrying care and blessings.

When Excellence distributed this batch of meticulously crafted purifiers to every crew member through Su Mu and department heads, he received countless looks of gratitude and appreciation.

Everyone jokingly called them "Excellence's Blessing," and many put them on immediately after receiving them, their faces beaming with relieved smiles.

This small object became a warm and concrete bond connecting the crew and the commander.

Of course, there were also two unpublished, specially customized versions.

Su Mu's was kept in Excellence's hands and quietly polished for a long time.

The final product was a small, lifelike rabbit-shaped pendant, with ears slightly drooping, looking adorable.

Excellence remembered that Su Mu once mentioned by chance that in her childhood at the "Homeland" Ecological Garden, the happiest thing was to go see those fluffy rabbits.

Inside, he poured more mental effort into frequency tuning, focusing on calming the mind, relieving stress, and carrying an extremely gentle sleep-aid effect.

When he handed this little rabbit to Su Mu, feeling a bit embarrassed and like he was offering a treasure, the usually strong and decisive female security officer's eyes instantly turned red.

She didn't speak, just stepped forward, hugged Excellence tightly, and buried her face in his shoulder for a long time.

Evelyn's special edition presented a completely different style—a precise, multi-layered nested hexagonal structure, with clean and sharp lines, full of geometric beauty, symbolizing the stability, logic, and wisdom she pursued.

The frequency tuning inside focused on enhancing mental clarity, calm judgment, and helping her maintain extremely high mental concentration when processing massive amounts of data.

When Excellence handed this exquisite "Hexagonal Star" to Evelyn, this science officer, who always prioritized rationality, was rarely stunned for a few seconds, and then a smile bloomed on her face, incomparably gentle, like the first thaw of an ice field.

She didn't ask anything, just solemnly, as if wearing the highest honor medal, put it around her neck, and gently stroked the cold metal surface with her fingertips.

Beneath the relaxed, warm, and even slightly humorous atmosphere was an increasingly profound emotional connection and silent trust between the crew and the core members.

In the vast, crisis-ridden deep space of the universe, the Ark was not just a giant metal ship carrying physical lives, but because of these small creations carrying body temperature and heart, it had become a truly warm spiritual Homeland.

And Excellence, in his own unique and clumsy way, had once again successfully extended the scope of protection from the magnificent starry sky to the most subtle heartstrings of every person.