95: Virtual storm and ripples in reality

Deep within the Free Confederacy building, which resembled a colossal black tower, Morpheus Li pressed the start button. The "mirror plunder" project, in absolute secrecy, quietly bared its fangs like a viper. The Foundation's most powerful computing cluster began to roar. Massive data streams were meticulously encoded, disguised as ordinary system maintenance information, and flowed through a deeply hidden one-way data synchronization link—carefully constructed by "Deep Shadow"—toward the "mirror sandbox" inside the "Zhulong" base, which was perfectly synchronized with Excellence's real system.

The first high-intensity stimulus data packet was designed to simulate one of the most primal fears of human consciousness—an extreme cognitive collapse scenario of "suddenly falling into an endless void where physical laws cease to exist." This data packet was not a simple rendering of horrific imagery but a virtual environment filled with logical paradoxes and sensory deprivation, constructed based on The Foundation's limited understanding of the consciousness tsunami triggered by "pandora" fragments. Inside the sandbox, the model representing Excellence's virtual consciousness, composed of countless data points, was instantly subjected to a violent shock. The originally orderly flow of data became wild and chaotic; indicator curves symbolizing fear, disorientation, and cognitive overload soared sharply, as if a massive boulder had been thrown into a calm lake, stirring up monstrous waves.

Almost at the same moment, in the real "Zhulong" base rehabilitation room, Excellence, who was quietly flipping through a picture book, stiffened almost imperceptibly for a split second. His breathing rhythm had a barely detectable pause, and immediately after, the heart rate monitor displayed a short, weak, yet definitely off-baseline acceleration spike; his skin conductivity also recorded a tiny peak simultaneously. Most notably, the real-time EEG showed that at his temporoparietal junction (an area closely related to self-awareness, spatial Perception, and abstract reasoning), the power spectra of theta waves and gamma waves experienced a momentary abnormal activation and synchronization. This pattern is usually associated with extreme confusion and cognitive conflict when facing incomprehensible information.

However, these physiological fluctuations were far too weak and transient. They were like a few small pebbles thrown into a vast ocean of physiological noise; the ripples they stirred were quickly drowned out by background signals generated by heartbeats, breathing, and unconscious micro-movements. The base's highly automated monitoring system, primarily set to detect significant vital sign abnormalities (such as arrhythmia or epileptic-like discharges), calmly classified this series of subtle fluctuations as "random physiological noise" or "transient interference of unknown origin" according to its preset algorithms, without triggering any level of alarm. Everything looked calm, and the crisis seemed not to have penetrated the barrier between the virtual and the real.

But there was one person in the base whose nerves were always like the most precise radar, constantly scanning for any trace of abnormality related to Excellence. That person was Evelyn Li. Driven by an instinct mixed with guilt, a sense of responsibility, and deepening concern, she had almost formed a habit of repeatedly and carefully reviewing all of Excellence's physiological data records every day, not letting any clue slip by. Just during a routine data review after that virtual attack, her gaze locked firmly onto that cluster of data points which, to an ordinary person, seemed insignificant and had been marked by the system as "meaningless fluctuations."

Evelyn's heart rate accelerated suddenly. She immediately retrieved the higher-frequency, more detailed raw data stream from around that precise time point, utilizing her deep background in neuroscience and her experience with cutting-edge consciousness research she had encountered at The Foundation to conduct a deep comparative analysis. She held her breath, and the more she analyzed, the paler her face became. This fluctuation pattern... it was by no means a normal physiological reaction! It was more like a... an instinctive, lightning-fast defensive neural stress response generated after consciousness was caught off guard and instantly struck by some highly specific external information "stray bullet" carrying strong negative emotional colors! The brevity of its latency and the specificity of its waveform bore an unsettling similarity to the characteristic EEG markers she remembered seeing in The Foundation's top-secret archives, produced by subjects during certain early "consciousness interface" virtual attack tests!

A bone-chilling thought struck her mind like lightning: Father... Morpheus... he hadn't given up at all! He had abandoned the past brute-force attacks and crude information feeding that might leave physical evidence, switching instead to a more insidious and elusive strategy—a remote, digital, simulated attack aimed directly at Excellence's consciousness! He was conducting a cruel "stress test" on a "digital twin" of Excellence in the virtual world, and the neural shock generated by this test could actually be weakly transmitted to the real Excellence's brain through some as-yet-unclear coupling mechanism!

Evelyn did not hesitate for a second. She immediately took the detailed data and analysis reports she had compiled and rushed to Wang Jianguo's office. Her voice trembled slightly from tension and anger, but her statement was clear and logical, and the chain of evidence was definitive. Listening to her report and looking at the magnified and annotated abnormal waveform comparison charts on the screen, Wang Jianguo's face quickly shifted from initial shock to ashen, finally turning into uncontrollable fury!

Inside the base, the highest level of security alert was instantly sounded! The piercing alarm echoed through the core area; all non-essential external network connections were forcibly cut off, and the internal network entered a state of high-level martial law. Wang Jianguo took personal command, and the entire technical security team was deployed to conduct a carpet-style search of the base's internal network system, especially all data interfaces, log records, and permission changes related to Excellence's rehabilitation room, as if combing through it. Guided by the precise time points and attack characteristics provided by Evelyn, the technical experts, after tireless efforts, finally managed to peel back the layers and find that deeply hidden "mirror sandbox" and that one-way, almost traceless data synchronization link.

Although the direct operator, "Deep Shadow," had not yet been immediately identified due to their superb anti-reconnaissance skills, their scope of activity permissions was quickly narrowed down to a very small technical maintenance team, and tight monitoring was immediately deployed. Beyond his fury, Wang Jianguo also broke out in a cold sweat. He realized that the enemy's infiltration capabilities and technical means had evolved to such a shocking degree that they could build a parallel digital laboratory for conducting consciousness attacks right under their noses!

"Immediately and thoroughly clear that damn sandbox and all associated data! Conduct a comprehensive check of system vulnerabilities; don't let a single one slip by! Initiate the highest level of counter-measures, mobilize all our resources, and reverse-trace the attack source—even if we have to dig three feet into the ground, find them!" Wang Jianguo said at the emergency meeting, his voice like ice, carrying unquestionable murderous intent. "Medical team, keep a close eye on Excellence! Strengthen monitoring 24 hours a day without interruption. Once any abnormality appears in his physiological or behavioral indicators, no matter how small, immediately take all necessary protective measures! Prioritize his safety above all else!"

However, the virtual world attacks did not stop due to the base's alertness; instead, they became even more rampant. After the initial probe, Morpheus did not receive any abnormal alerts from "Deep Shadow" ("Deep Shadow" remained in silence to avoid exposure) and mistakenly believed the attack was still hidden. He immediately ordered the launch of denser and more complex stimulus sequences. These new data packets slammed into the virtual Excellence model in the sandbox like a violent storm:

Simulating sudden loss after extreme joy: letting consciousness experience a sudden plunge from the peak into the abyss, testing the buffering and regulatory capabilities of emotions.

Facing a cognitive trap of unsolvable logical paradoxes: constructing self-referential loops or contradictory premises, attempting to force the logical reasoning module into an infinite loop or even collapse.

Simulating scenarios where Su Mu or Evelyn encounter danger: attacking Excellence's emotional vulnerabilities directly, triggering his protective instincts and the ensuing sense of helplessness and anxiety.

These attacks triggered an even more violent data storm within the virtual sandbox. And this time, the "ripple effect" they produced also began to stir increasingly obvious waves in the real Excellence—waves that could no longer be easily ignored.

The real Excellence began to show more worrying abnormalities. He would be sitting perfectly fine by the sun-drenched window, then suddenly shiver violently without warning, as if a chill were seeping out from his bone marrow; while listening to a piece of soothing music he used to love, his eyes would inexplicably turn red, revealing a profound sadness completely inconsistent with his current state of mind; more seriously, when performing simple cognitive tasks he could originally complete with ease, he would suddenly freeze, his eyes becoming hollow and confused, his fingers unconsciously tracing patterns on the desktop, muttering to himself: "No... this isn't right... the rules... they seem to have changed..."

Su Mu anxiously held his cool hand and asked softly: "Excellence, what's wrong? Are you not feeling well? Or did you think of something unhappy?"

Excellence turned his head, his eyes filled with childlike confusion and a trace of imperceptible fear. He shook his head, his voice weak: "Squad leader... I don't know... I just feel... flustered inside, empty... as if... as if I had many, many strange dreams, one after another, but when I woke up, I couldn't remember anything, leaving behind only a... very uncomfortable feeling..."

His Emotion-Visualization Device, which served as a window for externalizing emotions, now became a direct reflection of his inner chaos. The halo on the device's screen was no longer stable, beginning to flicker frequently and irregularly with dark red vortices representing "chaos," "anxiety," and "unknowability," as well as dark blue patches representing "sadness" and "loss." The projected patterns also became fragmented, sometimes like a starry sky torn apart by an invisible hand, and other times like chaotic, constantly twisting geometric shapes, no longer finding the warm tones that occasionally appeared in the past, which represented peace.

Evelyn watched these shocking data and behavioral changes, burning with anxiety, her heart filled with self-reproach and a sense of helplessness. She knew deeply that the source of all this was very likely the virtual attack launched by her father. She had to do something; she could not just sit by and watch Excellence's consciousness being eroded and disintegrated bit by bit. Relying on her deep understanding of The Foundation's technical roadmap, she took the initiative to join the security team's technical analysis group, assisting them in dissecting the patterns of the attack data, attempting to find weaknesses or regularities in its algorithmic logic.

During a heated brainstorming meeting, Evelyn proposed an extremely bold and risky counter-measure hypothesis: "Since the opponent is using a virtual channel to attack Excellence's consciousness model, can we also... use this channel in reverse? Since data synchronization is likely bidirectional (although the main channel is a one-way injection, any connection can have weak feedback), can we try to inject specially designed 'stability anchor' data streams—representing peace, stability, happiness, and a sense of security—into that sandbox, or a similar simulated environment we can control, to attempt to 'hedge' or 'dilute' those aggressive negative stimuli? Or even... going further, can we try to reverse-decode their attack protocol and inject specific 'interference signals' to disrupt their attack sequences, or... let that virtual model be 'infected' with a 'digital virus' that tends toward calmness and shutdown, thereby indirectly influencing the state of the real Excellence?"

This idea was full of uncertainty and even carried huge risks, as it might further disturb Excellence's already unstable consciousness connection. But in the current situation where passive defense seemed to have limited effect, Wang Jianguo weighed the options repeatedly and finally decided to approve a limited, highly controlled experimental counter-measure.

A perilous battle of offense and defense, unfolding deep within a digital dimension invisible to the naked eye, thus entered a white-hot stage. The technical team at the "Zhulong" base, under Evelyn's guidance, began to cautiously attempt their "digital therapy." They wrote data packets simulating serene natural scenes (such as a forest in a gentle breeze, a babbling brook) and warm interpersonal interactions (such as the sensation of a hug, the neural mapping of encouraging words); they also tried to construct some simple cognitive challenge questions that could bring a sense of achievement, attempting to stimulate the positive feedback mechanisms inherent in Excellence's consciousness.

Meanwhile, the elite forces of cybersecurity tracked backward along the attack path, engaging in fierce confrontations with the network defense systems on The Foundation's side, attempting to locate the source of the attack and even paralyze the opponent's computing cluster.

The storm in the virtual world, the fluctuating state of Excellence in the real world, and the tense figures of the guardians giving their all, intertwined into a thrilling picture. And "Deep Shadow," still deeply hidden and ghost-like, remained silently lurking in the shadows, waiting for the next command from Morpheus, or... an opportunity to take the initiative and completely change the course of the battle. This battle of offense and defense, centered around the deepest mysteries of human consciousness, had already escalated into an ultimate contest involving technology, will, and the future.