85: The test of trust and the gift of "Pandora".

Excellence was once again forcibly pulled back from the edge of the abyss of consciousness collapse, but this "victory" came at a far heavier cost than any before. His body felt as if all strength had been drained from it; even the simplest movement of raising a hand was exceptionally difficult and required the assistance of a medical team to complete. The mental exhaustion was even more shocking; he spent most of his time in a state of extreme fatigue and semi-slumber. When awake, his eyes were often vacant, as if a part of his soul had been permanently torn away and taken by that brutal war occurring in the deepest reaches of his consciousness. The doctors stated clearly that he needed a long period of absolute rest, as any form of mental stimulation could be the final straw that broke the camel's back.

This sudden and nearly successful "Neural Spasm" attack served as a loud alarm, sounding the highest level of alert within the "Torch Dragon" Base. The eeriness and destructive potential of the event far exceeded the scope of a typical medical accident or an external assault. Wang Jianguo personally led the formation of a top-secret investigation team composed of elite experts from the security, technical, and medical departments, swearing to uncover the truth and close all loopholes.

In this solemn and high-pressure atmosphere, Evelyn Li made a decisive choice. She proactively approached Wang Jianguo and, without reservation, laid out all her terrifying suspicions regarding the "Nightmare" Nano-swarm based on her knowledge of The Foundation's black technology. She disclosed some of the technical characteristic frequencies, possible activation mechanisms, and stealth methods of the project that she knew. Her presentation was clear and logical, with a well-defined chain of evidence, carrying a sense of desperate honesty and a deep urgency to make up for her past transgressions.

Her intelligence was like a searchlight lit in the fog, providing a clear direction for the investigation. The technical team immediately conducted a carpet-style, millimeter-wave precision scan of Excellence's recovery room and the surrounding areas based on the frequency characteristics she provided. Sure enough, in an extremely hidden corner of a ventilation duct in the recovery room, they discovered a small patch of swarm remains that had self-destructed due to energy depletion, turning into an inconspicuous pile of nano-scale metal oxide dust. Meanwhile, during a deep dissection of the Emotion-Visualization Device, technicians using high-powered electron microscopes and molecular probes successfully discovered abnormal changes in the resonance module parameters that had been cleverly modified and were undetectable by conventional testing.

All the evidence pointed coldly and conclusively to one fact: this was an insidious attempt to steal and sabotage Excellence's consciousness, meticulously planned and executed by a high-level spy (code-named "Deep Shadow") lurking within the base, utilizing their position! The mastermind behind it pointed directly to the "Prophet Foundation" and Morpheus Li!

Evelyn's honesty and critical contribution earned her deeper trust from the investigation team and Wang Jianguo himself. At the investigation summary meeting, Wang Jianguo walked up to her, his gaze sharp yet carrying a hint of appreciative warmth. He patted her shoulder firmly and said in a steady, powerful voice: "Comrade Evelyn, you made the right choice and provided crucial intelligence. The organization has seen your courage and determination. From now on, you are officially joining the core research group of the 'Torch Dragon' Project. You will have the corresponding clearance and participate in the subsequent research and development of the 'magpie bridge' quantum communication project, as well as the formulation of Excellence's recovery monitoring and auxiliary plans."

"Yes! Director Wang! I will definitely do my absolute best and live up to your trust!" Evelyn nodded heavily, her voice trembling slightly with emotion, her heart filled with a mixture of feelings. This address of "Comrade" and official acceptance meant, for her, a complete break from her past identity shrouded in the family's shadow, finally stepping onto the thorny but meaningful path of redemption she had chosen.

A silent but thorough purging storm subsequently unfolded within the base. "Deep Shadow" and their potential network of connections were uprooted by the security department with lightning-fast measures. All suspicious links were re-examined, security protocols were fully upgraded, and physical isolation and electronic shielding measures were reinforced to a point of near-paranoia. The entire base was like a giant slowly recovering from a major illness; though bearing wounds, it was more vigilant and resilient.

However, for Excellence at the eye of the storm, the profound impact of this event was only just beginning to reveal its eerie and unsettling tip of the iceberg.

Under the care of absolute rest and top-tier medical treatment, his bodily functions slowly recovered, but the changes at the level of consciousness took a direction that no one had anticipated. The previously slow and arduous process of memory recovery seemed to have had its fast-forward button pressed. A vast amount of once-lost knowledge fragments concerning advanced mathematics, theoretical physics, complex engineering, and even some extremely niche frontier technologies began to flood back into his mind with astonishing speed and clarity. They were even more systematic and profound than before his injury, as if they had been reorganized and optimized by some force. Sometimes he would suddenly stare at the ceiling, his eyes flashing with complex data streams like light, and then unconsciously trace fragments of complex equations on the bedsheets with his fingers—equations involving non-Euclidean geometry or quantum tunneling effects that even the base's top mathematicians would need hours to comprehend.

Even more striking was that he would occasionally fall into a brief, nearly out-of-body state of daze. In this state, his eyes would become extremely hollow and cold, like the terminal screens of two high-speed supercomputers, emitting a non-human, pure light of absolute rationality. He would mutter fragmented words in a flat tone, precise to several decimal places, such as "stability criteria for high-dimensional information topological structures" or "propagation models of consciousness tsunamis in chaotic systems," as if communicating with some unknown intelligence in a state of sleepwalking.

What made those around him most uncomfortable and worried was that he began to exhibit a nearly cold, absolute rational thinking mode that was completely inconsistent with his age, experience, and even basic humanity. Once, while Su Mu was feeding him water, her hand shook slightly due to days of exhaustion, accidentally spilling a few drops of water onto a sketch he was casually drawing. Su Mu panicked immediately, apologizing and hurriedly trying to wipe it away.

However, Excellence's first reaction was neither to accept the apology nor to express any dissatisfaction or comfort. Instead, his pupils focused instantly, and with a nearly mechanical precision of speech, he analyzed coldly: "The initial kinetic energy of the water droplet was 0.002 joules, with a contact angle of 68 degrees. Based on the capillary action and evaporation rate model of the paper's cellulose network structure, the wetting radius is expected to diffuse to 1.7 centimeters within 3.2 seconds, resulting in a decrease of approximately 40% in the tensile strength of that area. If you take moisture absorption intervention at a 45-degree angle to the horizontal plane within 0.5 seconds, the final loss area can theoretically be reduced by 72%."

His tone was as calm as if he were stating a physics experiment report, without any emotional fluctuations, as if the flustered Su Mu and the ruined sketch before him were just a set of variables needing optimization. After Su Mu finished listening, she froze completely. A chill ran from her spine to the top of her head, and her heart raced with unease; she felt that the Excellence before her was terrifyingly strange.

This change naturally raised high alerts from the medical team, Wang Jianguo, and Evelyn, who were closely monitoring him. After observing and analyzing Excellence's various behavioral data in detail, Evelyn approached Wang Jianguo with a solemn expression, her voice carrying a trace of undetectable trembling: "Director Wang, this... mutation in cognitive mode that Excellence is currently exhibiting is very similar to the sequelae... or rather, side effects... seen in some volunteers of The Foundation's early 'pandora' project after receiving high-intensity information perfusion."

She took a deep breath and continued explaining, "When an individual's consciousness is forcibly expanded, compelled to accept a massive amount of information far beyond their comprehension—especially information like 'pandora' that contains non-traditional logic and concepts of space-time—the brain's self-protection mechanism sometimes goes to an extreme. It actively suppresses the 'human' parts like emotions, empathy, and intuition that are unrelated to survival and deemed 'inefficient,' concentrating all cognitive resources on processing and understanding that vast, dangerous 'knowledge.' The result is... rational thinking is extremely enhanced, even reaching a transcendental, almost prophetic keenness. But at the same time, the core parts of 'humanity'—emotional responses, social instincts, and moral judgments—become dull, cold, or even... gradually stripped away. This is a... dangerous tendency toward dehumanization."

After hearing this, Wang Jianguo's brow furrowed deeply, his fingers unconsciously tapping the table with a dull thud. Although Morpheus Li's conspiracy had been thwarted, his malicious methods acted like a potent catalyst, inadvertently accelerating the deep fusion of the pandora fragments with Excellence's consciousness. While this brought about a 'miracle' of knowledge recovery in the short term, it might also be pushing him toward an unpredictable and dangerous direction where he could eventually lose his humanity and become a vessel of pure rationality. This was undoubtedly like drinking poison to quench thirst.

"Strengthen all-around observation and recording of him, especially the subtle changes in his neural activity and cognitive patterns," Wang Jianguo ordered in a heavy, unquestionable tone. "At the same time, we must enhance our guidance for him, particularly on the emotional and social levels. Su Mu is key," he emphasized specially. "She is currently the strongest and most effective anchor connecting Excellence's remaining 'human' parts. Every effort must be made to pull Excellence back to the 'human world' through her. We must not let him get completely lost in that cold ocean of pure rationality."

Su Mu also truly felt the unsettling change in Excellence. The boy who once had vivid emotions—whose eyes would light up because of the snacks she brought, who would scratch his head in frustration over a failed experiment, and who would stutter while arguing with her—seemed to be being replaced by a cold, precise, yet heartless 'thinking machine.' This filled her heart with immense worry and a faint sense of dread.

But she did not back down, let alone give up. On the contrary, she turned this worry into even greater patience and action. She stayed by his side almost constantly, but no longer limited herself to rehabilitation training and knowledge stimulation. She began to 'deliberately' chat with him about 'frivolous' campus gossip, complain about a certain professor's old-fashioned attire, and reminisce about the embarrassing time they secretly cooked hotpot in the lab and triggered the smoke alarm. She found some lighthearted, funny movies and cartoons and forced him to watch them with her, even though he initially looked cold, as if he 'couldn't understand the meaning of such inefficient entertainment.' She even dug out some childish board games and, despite his frowns and silent protests, insisted on playing with him, cheering triumphantly like a child after winning.

Faced with these 'inefficient and illogical' activities, Excellence initially showed obvious confusion and impatience, even trying to use his rational analysis to argue the 'unnecessity' of these behaviors. But Su Mu always used her stubborn, warm-smiling persistence to pull him out of his cold calculations time and again. Gradually, through her relentless efforts, people occasionally saw that when Su Mu told a particularly funny story, the frozen corners of Excellence's mouth would twitch ever so slightly. When he lost a game of skill-less board games, the pure light of rationality in his eyes would briefly melt, flashing a trace of human emotion—confusion, helplessness, or even... a bit of embarrassment. These subtle changes were like cracks carved into a layer of permafrost; though faint, they brought infinite hope.

One evening, the setting sun cast its golden afterglow over the Ecological Garden inside the base, which simulated a natural environment. Su Mu pushed the wheelchair, taking Excellence for a slow stroll on the soft lawn. The air was fresh, carrying the fragrance of earth and flowers. A colorful butterfly fluttered its wings and landed somewhat clumsily on a nearby wild flower, trembling slightly.

Excellence's gaze was drawn to the butterfly. He watched it quietly for a moment, then murmured in an almost research-oriented, analytical tone, "...Wing vibration frequency... visually estimated at about 18.5 Hertz-seconds... aerodynamic efficiency... significantly lower than the optimal model... flight trajectory contains a large amount of redundant oscillation... inefficient..."

Su Mu listened from the side, her heart tightening. She was just about to find a topic to divert him, lest he fall back into that cold rational speculation.

However, at that moment, Excellence suddenly turned his head to look at her. The golden light of the setting sun reflected in his pupils, seemingly dispelling some of the coldness within. In his eyes, there was a rare hint of confusion and... a soft, almost dependent quality. He spoke softly, as if asking an unfathomable, profound question he couldn't understand, "Class Monitor... why... don't they fly in a more optimized pattern? That would save a lot of energy... but..." He paused, raised his finger, and lightly tapped the position of his heart, his brow furrowing slightly. "...Watching it fly so clumsily like this... here... it feels a bit... warm... a very strange feeling..."

These words were like a ray of warm sunshine that instantly shone into the depths of Su Mu's heart, and her tears welled up without warning. She immediately knelt down to eye level with Excellence in his wheelchair, tightly holding his slightly cool hand, her voice choking with emotion. "Because then it wouldn't be a butterfly! Excellence, do you understand? Just like you—if you only think about optimization, efficiency, and logic, then you wouldn't be you! I like the Excellence who would stay up until dawn for a difficult problem, who would make a mess of hand-built equipment and then grin foolishly, who would jump in frustration because I dropped your precious resistor—the Excellence who is flesh and blood, who can cry and laugh! Not a perfect, cold computer! Do you understand? I want you, not the answer!"

Excellence stared at her blankly, seeing his own clear reflection in her eyes, the tears rolling down her face, and the unquestionable, sincere, and burning emotion in her gaze. He seemed to be struggling to understand a proposition more complex and profound than any mathematical conjecture or physical law. Time flowed quietly; in the Ecological Garden, there was only the rustling of the breeze through the grass. After a long, long time, he finally nodded slowly, extremely slowly, the movement so slight it was almost imperceptible.

"I... I'll try..." He clumsily and tentatively squeezed Su Mu's hand back, his voice very soft, yet carrying the weight of a solemn promise. "...To stay... imperfect."

The glimmer of humanity finally carved a crack in this wasteland washed by the tide of rationality, revealing a warm and precious hope. Su Mu broke into a smile through her tears and hugged him tightly, as if she were holding the whole world.

However, neither Su Mu, immersed in her emotions, nor Wang Jianguo and Evelyn, who were silently watching everything through the monitors from afar, noticed that deep in the palm of Excellence's left hand—the one hanging naturally on the wheelchair's armrest and not held by Su Mu—his fingernails were unconsciously and repeatedly scratching an extremely tiny, almost invisible, yet extraordinarily complex and precise strange symbol. That symbol did not belong to any known mathematical system or civilization totem; its structure faintly contained a terrifying energy fluctuation that seemed capable of distorting the laws of space-time around it. It was a dangerous, unknown gift that had unconsciously flowed out after the pandora fragments were deeply integrated into his consciousness... like a volcano buried deep beneath a glacier, quietly surging with unpredictable power.