37: The Invisible Net and the "Academic" Trap

Excellence's "Inspiration Surge" state was like entering a superconducting mode, operating at high intensity for over forty-eight hours. During this time, his dorm room transformed into an isolated technological cave, where time lost all meaning—only the data flowing on the screen and the sparks of inspiration in his mind felt real.

He had almost abandoned all physiological needs. Sleep was fragmented into naps of no more than twenty minutes each, often occurring during breaks while soldering components—collapsing onto the workbench, briefly losing consciousness, then jolting awake to continue working. His food mainly consisted of the rib soup Su Mu had brought, which he repeatedly reheated on a lab hot plate until the broth turned murky and the flavor began to change, along with the bland, wax-like energy bars and functional drinks that Xiao Zhang expressionlessly tossed over—their packaging was plain, but their nutritional content was precisely calculated.

The workbench was piled with draft papers, covered in attempts to translate ancient terminology into modern mathematical language: "Sincerity leads to success" was interpreted as "neural signal gain from focused attention," and "Perseverance opens all doors" was decoded as "the perturbative effect of specific frequency resonance on material structure." The fragmented technologies from the "Firefly" project, through his recombination and optimization, surprisingly produced astonishing synergistic effects with the concepts from ancient texts.

However, under this near-masochistic dedication, the results were significant and astonishing.

He successfully fused, iterated, and validated—in an almost brutal manner—the rough yet insightful bioelectric field Perception and pattern recognition algorithms from the "Firefly" project fragments, the foundational neural interface theories partially provided by the system, and the "consciousness-matter" interaction hypotheses abstracted from vague concepts like "Qi and Intent Resonate" and "Sincerity Moves Heaven" in the "myriad arts."

What ultimately emerged was a crude yet profoundly significant prototype of an "Environmental Interaction Prototype Machine," far surpassing any single technological field of the current era.

Its core was a commercial EEG cap, modified beyond recognition, with additional self-made high-sensitivity bioelectric sensors welded onto it, extending like strange tentacles. These sensors were connected via a bundle of wires of varying thicknesses and colors to a palm-sized, roughly-cased, self-made processor board covered in hand-soldered points and exposed components—this was his "Frankenstein Brain," fused with multiple bizarre algorithms.

The processor's output was connected, through a carefully designed impedance matching network, back to the transmitting coil of his previous wireless energy transmission device. The entire system looked chaotic and ugly, yet exuded a vitality of wild growth.

When Excellence put on the slightly ridiculous cap, cleared his mind, and focused all his mental energy on "imagining" the ordinary gel pen on his desk, the LED indicators on the processor board began flashing frantically, emitting faint "tick-tock" sounds, as if engaged in high-speed thinking.

Immediately after, the nearby wireless transmitting coil began emitting a high-frequency hum, almost inaudible to the human ear but causing a slight tingling sensation on the skin. The space around the coil seemed to distort in a subtle, wave-like manner, like heated air, barely visible to the naked eye.

Something marvelous happened.

Several meters away, the pen lying quietly vibrated ever so slightly—yet undeniably—without any physical contact! Simultaneously, Excellence's mind felt as if brushed by an extremely fine spider silk, receiving an incredibly faint, fleeting, and indescribable "tactile" feedback—a vague Perception of something cold, smooth, and cylindrical!

This was an extremely preliminary, crude, and unstable bidirectional "Perception-feedback" loop! It went beyond simple telekinesis (moving objects), touching the edge of more fundamental "interaction"—attempting to perceive the environment with consciousness and receive feedback from it!

[Warning: Host has successfully verified the preliminary feasibility of 'Low-Power Bio-Environmental Information Interaction.' Civilization contribution +0.0008. However, it must be emphasized: The current technology is extremely primitive, with very low signal-to-noise ratio in feedback signals and high uncertainty. Long-term or high-intensity use may lead to severe neural fatigue, perceptual disorders, or even irreversible neural damage.] The system provided a technical assessment, its tone unusually lacking in cold water, instead carrying a hint of complexity, as if marveling at the host's recklessness and creativity.

Excellence paid no heed to the warnings! The immense joy of success flooded his entire body like adrenaline, temporarily washing away his fatigue. Although the effect was pitifully weak, like a candle in the wind, this faint glow illuminated an unprecedented direction! It proved his crazy hypothesis was feasible! The vague wisdom of ancient sages and modern cutting-edge technology could indeed collide at some singularity to create miracles!

He was so excited he almost danced. His first thought was to grab his phone and share this ecstasy with Su Mu—even if he couldn't reveal the core secrets, he longed to tell her his research had made "significant progress." But his finger hovered over the dial button, and he ultimately restrained himself. He couldn't drag her in any deeper.

However, his joy from the technological breakthrough didn't last long before it was overshadowed by new news brought by Xiao Zhang.

Xiao Zhang's visit this time came with an even sterner expression than usual. Instead of inspecting equipment or bringing new components as he normally did, he directly conveyed Wang Jianguo's assessment: Morpheus Li and his daughter had likely sensed the rapid progress of Excellence's research through some unknown channel, and new probes or actions might arrive soon.

"We've monitored several delegations from the 'Prophet Foundation' entering the country recently under the guise of 'academic exchanges' and 'investment inspections,'" Xiao Zhang's voice was like cold metal. "A precise analysis of their activity patterns shows they have repeatedly, whether intentionally or not, approached the University Town area, with behavior characteristic of intelligence gathering."

He handed Excellence an encrypted briefing showing the itineraries of several Foundation delegations, indeed lingering around University Town. "Director Wang wants you to be highly vigilant recently, avoiding unnecessary trips outside the school and residential areas. Especially beware of any sudden 'academic invitations,' 'technical seminars,' or 'investment intent negotiations.'" Xiao Zhang's tone was colder and harder than usual, his eyes sharp as an eagle's. "Their methods will be packaged as extremely polished and legitimate, highly tempting."

Excellence's heart sank. The heart just filled with a sense of achievement was instantly gripped tight again. He had barely surfaced in the ocean of technology, and now the cold wind of reality, mixed with hail, came crashing down.

Sure enough, what he feared came to pass. Just two days later, a thick, exquisitely designed invitation letter, emitting a faint scent of ink, was formally and solemnly handed to Excellence by a teacher from the college Youth League Committee office.

The envelope was made of special matte material, with a delicate texture, embossed with the gilded logo of the "International Youth Technology Innovation Pioneer Foundation." Inside, the letter paper was of the same quality, printed in elegant serif font, with wording full of praise, addressing Excellence as an "outstanding student with immense innovative spirit and unique technological perspective."

The invitation sincerely invited Excellence to attend a small, high-level, closed-door seminar to be held over the weekend at a top-tier hotel in the city center, "aimed at discovering and supporting the world's most promising young technological talents." The accompanying agenda booklet was meticulously produced, detailing the meeting schedule.

The list of attendees was staggering: not only professors from renowned domestic and international universities and researchers from top laboratories, but also several famous venture capitalists and industry representatives from the Free Confederacy. And on the agenda list, the name "Dr. Aris, Chief Scientific Officer of the Prophet Foundation" was prominently printed—clearly a pseudonym for Evelyn.

The seminar topics made Excellence's heart race even faster: "The Boundary Between Bioelectric Fields and Artificial Intelligence," "Applications of Non-Traditional Materials in the Energy Sector," "Intersections of Information Theory and Eastern Philosophy"... Each topic was like a precise fishhook, firmly snagging his deepest desires for knowledge and curiosity.

Everything seemed flawless—a once-in-a-lifetime, heaven-sent opportunity to engage with the world's top minds and resources.

But as Excellence held this exquisitely crafted invitation, as beautiful as a wedding card, his fingertips felt a chill. These few thin sheets of paper felt as heavy as a thousand pounds to him, like a carefully decorated animal trap.

Go? This was clearly a trap meticulously set by the other party, who had figured out his psychology. The venue would surely be fraught with danger at every step; once he stepped in, who knew how he might be spied on, manipulated, or even controlled.

Not go? Would that make him seem guilty, provoking the other party and leading to more direct, aggressive actions? And, to be honest, he had an almost uncontrollable craving for the kind of cutting-edge intellectual collision that was hard to access through public academic channels.

He was once again thrown into immense contradiction and struggle. The spirits lifted by the technological breakthrough instantly sank to the bottom.

[Risk-Benefit Simulation Calculation: Risk of exposing core secrets by attending: 87.3%. Probability of targeted technology extraction: 65.8%. Probability of direct threat to personal safety: 22.1%. Probability of obtaining valuable technical intelligence: 14.5%. Comprehensive assessment: High risk, low return. Strongly recommend refusal.] The system provided cold, hard data, trying to pull him back to rationality.

But Excellence couldn't tear his eyes away from those tempting topics on the agenda. Morpheus Li's grasp of his research progress and interests was precise, fatal, and filled with demonic Temptation.

This was an invisible yet fatal web woven from knowledge and opportunity. He stood before it, both fearing being Devour and finding it hard to resist the glimmering light of wisdom within the web.