1: Chapter 1: Three Years in a Vegetative State, Opening My Eyes to See the Technology Tree
The scent of disinfectant.
This was the first sensation that flooded Lin Shen's mind as he regained consciousness.
Following that was a prickling soreness and numbness from every part of his body, as if this vessel had not been used for a very long time.
His eyelids were as heavy as lead, and he had to use all his strength to force them open just a sliver.
The blurred light and shadows gradually focused.
A white ceiling, a simple ceiling lamp, a translucent IV bag hanging by the bedside, with transparent liquid dripping, drop by drop, slowly flowing into the vein on the back of his hand.
The light outside the window was somewhat blinding, filtering through the half-drawn curtains to cast mottled patches of light and shadow on the floor.
A standard single-patient hospital room.
Fragments of memory began to piece themselves together.
The final scene was the blinding blue light in the laboratory, the sharp alarm of the instruments, and his mentor's terrified face...
The critical experiment on the miniaturization of controllable nuclear fusion; the magnetic field confinement suddenly went out of control, and he was caught in the high-energy particle stream...
And then, the long darkness.
Three years.
A vegetative state, for three whole years.
This information did not come from his own memories, but was gathered intermittently from the conversations of those, both familiar and strange, by his bedside.
His parents' low sobs, the doctor's routine checks and sighs, and... the discussions of certain people filled with pity or relief.
"What a pity, the youngest candidate for the fusion project back then..."
"An experimental accident; it's good enough that he even survived."
"I heard he became a vegetable; that's it for his life..."
These voices, like dull knives, repeatedly sliced through his remaining consciousness during the days when he could neither move nor respond.
But now, he was awake.
Lin Shen tried to move his fingers, and a sharp, intense soreness followed, but his fingertips did indeed curl slightly.
This tiny movement filled his heart with an indescribable ecstasy.
He was still alive; his body could still respond!
Just as he was trying his hardest to turn his neck to look at his surroundings, a sudden change occurred.
Right in the center of his vision, without any warning, a hazy light and shadow emerged.
It was not any object in the hospital room; it was more like an image projected directly onto his retina, or rather, branded into his consciousness.
The light and shadow quickly became clear and stable, eventually condensing into the outline of a... tree.
A "tree" that was massive, intricate, and whose magnificence and grandeur were difficult to describe with words.
It was not composed of branches and leaves, but was interwoven with countless shimmering lines, nodes, symbols, and constantly shifting three-dimensional geometric figures.
The trunk was thick, rooted from "below" in the endless void, extending upwards. The main trunk branched into several major boughs, each of which derived countless finer branches, layered and overlapping, spreading to the edge of his vision and submerging into a "sky" that seemed to be composed of data streams and nebulae.
The vast majority of the branches and leaves were shrouded under a dark gray, translucent "lock"-like phantom, dim and lusterless.
Only the very bottom, a tiny area near the "root system," emitted a soft, stable, white glow.
Beside those glowing nodes were text labels that Lin Shen could instantly understand: [Basic Physics], [Classical Mechanics], [Electromagnetism], [Basic Materials Science], [Elementary Computer Principles]...
And in those higher, "locked" and dim areas, he caught glimpses of terms whose very names made his heart race: [Curvature Engine Theory], [Strong Artificial Intelligence Architecture], [Antimatter Preparation], [Directed Genetic Evolution], [Dimensional Interference Technology]...
Every term represented an unreachable peak in human technological fantasy.
Beside this incredible "tree," there were a few lines of concise information flow:
[Host consciousness connection stable...]
[Civilization technology tree interface loading complete...]
[Current civilization technology level assessment: 0.72 (Planetary civilization, early stage)]
[Host personal permission: observer (can be unlocked)]
[Available resolution: Extremely low (increases with host cognition and the overall technological level of the civilization)]
Lin Shen was completely stunned, even forgetting the pain in his body.
Hallucination? Abnormal brain discharge after a near-death experience? Or... did that experimental accident not only injure his body?
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened them again.
That shimmering "tree" was still quietly suspended in the center of his vision, incomparably clear, eerily yet harmoniously overlapping with the reality of the hospital room.
Not a hallucination.
His heart began to beat violently, and his blood rushed through his long-inactive vessels, bringing a wave of dizziness, but also an unprecedented, burning hope.
Just then, the hospital room door was gently pushed open.
A middle-aged doctor in a white coat with a gentle expression walked in. Seeing Lin Shen's open eyes, he was first stunned, then an expression of unbelievable surprise appeared on his face.
"Lin Shen? Can... can you hear me? Can your eyes follow my finger?"
The doctor walked quickly to the bedside, his voice filled with irrepressible excitement.
Lin Shen tried hard to concentrate, temporarily "pushing" the image of that shocking "technology tree" to the edge of his vision, looking intently at the doctor, and nodded extremely slowly but with unusual firmness.
A hoarse, thread-thin voice came from his throat:
"...Water..."
The doctor's eyes instantly turned red, and he nodded repeatedly: "Good! Good! It's a miracle that you were able to wake up! I will notify your family and the hospital leadership immediately! Don't rush, take it slow; it's been three years, rehabilitation takes time..."
As the doctor spoke, he skillfully checked Lin Shen's pupils and basic reactions, the excitement in his tone growing stronger.
Lin Shen cooperated with the doctor's examination, but his consciousness drifted involuntarily toward the "tree" that only he could see.
His gaze swept past those dim, high-level branches and finally landed on a node lower down, which was also marked by a gray "lock," but seemed slightly lighter in color than the other locks.
The text beside the node was: [Photonic Chip Basic Architecture (can be parsed)].
And below the node, there was a line of small text: [Parsing requirement: Resolve current knowledge bottleneck; Parsing basis: Host possesses advanced cognition in relevant fields; Expected unlock will significantly improve civilization information processing capability assessment.]
Photonic Chip...
Information he had last encountered before falling into a coma instantly surfaced in Lin Shen's mind.
At that time, in the fields of high-performance computing and cutting-edge chips, the Dragon Kingdom was suffering from increasingly severe technological blockades and supply chain suppression.
The physical limits of traditional silicon-based chips were already faintly visible, and regarding the next-generation chip technology path, the West had tightly laid out its plans, leaving the Dragon Kingdom in a difficult position.
If... if this "tree" were real...
If he could "parse" out even a little bit of technology that surpassed the era...
A tremor like an electric current instantly spread through his newly awakened, yet incredibly weak body.
It was not fear.
It was an irrepressible, volcanic desire.
The sunlight outside the window seemed to be brighter, shining on his pale face, which was gradually regaining vitality.
The three years of dark slumber had ended.
An unimaginable future quietly unfurled its first leaf, following this mysterious technology tree rooted in his consciousness.