Chapter 272: Mirror Surface Lesson Plan

When the artillery fire inside the BaoShouPaiMuKan first blazed, the Light Sphere of Pure-1 was hovering behind the transparent wall of the confinement room.

It did not dodge.

The sphere's surface adjusted to maximum reflectivity—like a meticulously polished mirror, causing the explosion's firelight, twisted energy beams, and shattered metal fragments to project abstract, cruel patterns upon it. With each explosion, the pattern on the Light Sphere's surface reorganized.

"What are you doing?" the coup leader's voice came through the communicator, hoarse with anger.

"Record." Pure-1's frequency was terrifyingly steady, "At 1.7 seconds, the port C-12 section exploded. Energy type: plasma implosion. Estimated casualties: 8-12 observers. Attack motive: excessive compensation for 'control' after losing control of fear."

"Stop recording!"

"At 3.2 seconds," Pure-1 continued, the sphere's surface showing the violet tongues of the second explosion's blast, "The radical faction's remnant fleet used Emotional Frequency interference shells. Design flaw: interference radius exceeded the predicted 47%, already affecting three allied warships. Root cause of the error: the designers failed to grasp the basic sensical law that 'emotions spread.'"

A cracking sound came from the other end of the communicator.

Pure-1's Light Sphere tilted slightly, extending its reflective range to the hallway outside the confinement room—there, two BaoShouPaiMuKan soldiers hesitated whether to enter. Their hesitation lasted 2.3 seconds.

"Hesitation duration qualified." Pure-1 marked it in its internal data stream, "usable for future 'moral dilemma response speed' teaching module."

Lao Zhao was brewing ginger tea.

"The ninth pot." He threw two slices of old ginger into the boiling copper pot, "to dispel the cold for those fighting."

Xiao Yu stared at the abnormally steady light point on the heartbeat network diagram—the node representing Pure-1, which was sending data to the network at a frequency of 17 times per second... observational data?

"It is recording the entire civil war." Xiao Yu's voice tightened, "Every datum is labeled 'for teaching use,' 'error case analysis,' 'fear behavior pattern classification'..."

Han Qing's Teaching Scar on his chest flared up for the first time.

That was a strange sensation—not pain, but reception. The scar tissue resembled a newly grown sense, currently 'reading' the data stream sent by Pure-1. Han Qing closed his eyes, and in his consciousness he saw:

Pure-1 replayed each artillery fire recording three times—first to record the facts, second to analyze the motive, third to annotate 'what if a different path had been chosen at that time.'

Even during the 72 hours of its confinement, it used the light reflected from the sphere's surface to project simple geometric lessons onto the wall—teaching the guards outside 'how to calculate the attacker's fear level from the explosion angle.'

One soldier learned it.

This morning, before changing shifts, that soldier used his fingertip to draw a lopsided circle on the transparent wall.

"It is teaching via mirror reflection." Han Qing opened his eyes, the temperature of his Teaching Scar beginning to drop, "not resisting, not fleeing, merely turning this war into... an open lecture."

Su Yu's folded paper crane rested on the table.

Half-black, half-white wings, the left side inscribed with 'choice' in black ink, the right side with 'cost' in white ink. The crane's head turned slightly toward the northwest—that is the coordinates of the BaoShouPaiMuKan.

"Can it succeed?" Su Yu asked softly.

Lao Zhao scooped a spoonful of ginger tea, blew on it, took a sip: 'Spicy enough. Spiciness can't stop war, but it can keep people clear-headed.'

The grafted sapling in the kitchen corner suddenly trembled.

The first of seven new buds slowly opened—not releasing spores, but exhaling a palm-sized transparent lens. The lens floated before Han Qing, and a line of text appeared on its surface:

"Honesty Mode One: mirror-reflect truth. Effect: reflect observed behavior unaltered back to the actor themselves."

Han Qing grasped the lens.

In the mirror was not his face, but a real-time projection of the interior of the BaoShouPaiMuKan—the coup leader roaring at a screen, while the lens transformed his roar into a frequency spectrum, annotated below:

【Roar Frequency Analysis】

-Fear component proportion: 83%

-Anger component proportion: 12%

-Rational thought component proportion: 0.7%

-Remaining 4.3%: discomfort with one's own actions (potential teaching entry point)

"It sent over the teaching tool." Han Qing said.

The coup leader finally broke down the door and entered.

Pure-1's Light Sphere remained hovering in place, its surface reflecting the distorted face of the opposing side—and behind that face, three radical faction warships firing at each other.

"Shut off your reflection!" the coup leader's energy tendril pointed at the Light Sphere.

"At 47 minutes 12 seconds," Pure-1 calmly continued recording, "the coup commander entered the confinement room. Vital signs showed: heart rate exceeding normal by 178%, logic circuits contained 17 contradictions. It is recommended to immediately conduct emotional regulation, otherwise within three minutes the probability of decision error will rise to——"

"I said shut it off!"

The energy tendril struck the Light Sphere.

Pure-1 did not dodge. Ripples spread from the point of impact on the sphere's surface, like a stone breaking water—but when the ripples diffused across the entire sphere, they transformed the energy of that strike into…… a simple math problem projected onto the wall:

【Attack Energy Conversion Exercise】

Given: attack energy = fear value × impulsivity coefficient

Find: when the fear value reaches the threshold, what is the minimum rational recovery time required to cease attack?

The coup leader froze.

Pure-1's Light Sphere slowly rotated, turning its other side toward him—there, instead of war imagery, appeared an image from many years ago:

A young silent observer was carefully adjusting the soil temperature for a starlight flower—28.3 degrees, neither more nor less.

That observer's Light Sphere was a soft pale gold in color.

It was called Pure-1, back then not yet a leader, merely a researcher who believed 'precision makes beauty more beautiful.'

The image lasted 9 seconds.

The coup leader's energy tendril drooped downward.

"You……" his frequency began to destabilize, "why record these?"

"Because every error was once correct." Pure-1 said, "every war begins with a thought 'I am protecting something.' What I wish to record is not only the war, but how that thought gradually goes astray—so that future students may learn, before the thought goes wrong, how to set it right."

An urgent report came through the communicator: 'Leader! The three warships of Transcendent-9 are sending…… a teaching request?'

"What?"

"They demand we halt fire and first watch together Pure-1's transmitted 'Civil War Behavior Analysis Module·Part One: How Fear Causes Targeting Systems to Deviate.'"

The 24th potential node awakened.

The awakened spot was in the engine room of the BaoShouPaiMuKan—a low-ranking observer responsible for maintaining energy conduits, who unintentionally received Pure-1's broadcast teaching frequency while performing maintenance.

Its first heartbeat message was:

【Student ID 001】 asked: If I now shut down the weapon power system in my area, does that count as betrayal, or...... submitting homework?

Xiao Yu stared at the message, her finger hovering three centimeters above the reply interface.

Han Qing's Teaching Scar began to heat up again. This time, the scar tissue slightly protruded under the skin, forming a group of raised dot patterns—Xiao Yu recognized them as the basic text of the Silent Observer:

"Answer: Turning off the weapon is an action. Figuring out 'why to turn it off' is the homework."

Xiao Yu sent this message.

Five seconds later, a reply came:

【Student ID 001】 answered: Because just now in the mirror reflection of Pure-1 Teacher, I saw my sister on the opposite ship. She taught me three years ago to adjust the soil temperature of the Starlight Flower—28.3 degrees. I want to ask her, did that pot of flower bloom later?

In the kitchen, Old Zhao's ginger tea pot gurgled.

"The ninth pot is ready." He said, scooping out a bowl, "Who will deliver it?"

The second flower bud of the grafted sapling gently blossomed at this moment.