Chapter 266: Can

Professor Wang looked at the spiral ball, his heart sinking; he decisively turned off the power, and only sighed in relief once the electric sphere had completely vanished, then pressed his earlier question:

"Screening? What does that mean? Didn't you just say the Foundation Skill is the Movement-Stillness School?"

"Ah, that's just what players called it—they thought the original name lacked coolness." The science fanatic didn't dare admit he'd coined it himself, and immediately moved on:

"The four Foundation Skills are Movement, Transformation, Fixation, and Screening. By consciously performing these four manipulations, you can create different spells. When I built the Thirty-Three Rituals microcontroller, I chose Screening as the first ritual to easily locate nodes—just input the required command, and you find the ritual's starting point, then channel Qi from there."

"Sounds a bit like programming. So when I input current, it default-triggered the Screening module, causing it to screen energy in the environment? Then what's your second ritual?" Professor Wang pulled out a small notebook and began jotting notes. The science fanatic, though momentarily baffled, thought for a moment and replied:

"The second should be Transfer, the third Transformation, the fourth Fixation…"

"Fascinating. Literally speaking, it must have spontaneously screened out other electrical currents—maybe static, or something else—found electricity from elsewhere, used Transfer to concentrate it, transformed it into a unified form, then fixed it onto the circuit board? Sounds more plausible than those reverse-reading electricity meters claiming perpetual motion, but where does the 'force' pulling in the electricity come from?"

Professor Wang pulled out the structural design he'd previously made for the science fanatic, trying to find a rational explanation. The only energy input was low-voltage current—meaning this system was a snowball effect, capturing more current through current.

But this raised an even more troublesome problem—

How exactly did it achieve the snowball effect?

After all, circuits require design precisely because the system is "unidirectional"—current flows from input to output without reversing. But that's precisely where this system's problem lies.

If it truly operated as a snowball mechanism, then subsequent incoming power would have to continuously feed into the cycle, violating the unidirectional output principle.

Yet if it were caused by a later-stage mechanism, it couldn't explain the reverse-reading electricity meter phenomenon.

The science fanatic had clearly never considered this before, but upon hearing Professor Wang's question, he gradually realized the flaw in the process.

The old man and the young man stared blankly at the circuit diagram for a long while, until finally Professor Wang sighed: "We really need to see the original version to understand what's going on. Let me use your game account—I'll log in and study it."

"Ah, uh, that's not possible—this game is identity-bound, can't be shared!" The science fanatic said helplessly. Professor Wang thought for a moment, then shook his head:

"Then I'll just have to buy my own. Does leveling up in this game take a lot of time?"

"Definitely. But if you're just testing spells, just create an account—I'll take you straight to the Secluded Village. Though if your level's too low and stats don't meet requirements, cultivation will be painfully slow."

The science fanatic wasn't surprised the old professor wanted to play the game—in fact, his mind was now entirely consumed by that ball that had appeared in reality.

If the spell rituals were real, then was cultivation real too?

Could the cultivation techniques in the library also be practiced in reality?

Though the idea seemed absurd, the science fanatic had read novels about games invading reality, the Fourth Catastrophe, and the like. What if that game world was actually real? Could he, perhaps, learn true cultivation?

Thinking of this, the science fanatic couldn't wait to log in and screenshot every cultivation technique. Meanwhile, Professor Wang had already picked up the phone and told his graduate student to buy him a helmet.

"Alright, give me your game ID—I'll message you once I'm online." Professor Wang said, beginning to tidy up the lab. The science fanatic, slightly embarrassed, gave his ID. Professor Wang didn't comment, merely nodded, then added:

"This is complicated. I need to decide whether to report it first or produce a preliminary result first… By the way, how many players are there? How many know about this… uh, ritual?"

"There are definitely hundreds of thousands of players, with tens of thousands daily active. But Secluded Village players are few—maybe a hundred or so?" The science fanatic, too, now realized the complications, though his thoughts were mostly fixated on fantasies of cultivation.

Hearing this number, Professor Wang could only shake his head:

"With so many players and it being an online game, it's impossible to suppress the news. Official intervention would be a nightmare. Still, I'll draft a report first… Oh, remember to log in and take me to the Secluded Village!"

"Huh? Didn't you say you'd file a report?"

The science fanatic was confused. Professor Wang sighed:

"Filing a report has procedures. If I don't go see it myself, how do I know how serious the problem is? Should I just say I discovered a perpetual motion machine? Do you know how many letters from amateur scientists claiming to have found perpetual motion arrive at the Academy's mailbox every day?"

"Oh, right!" The science fanatic realized he'd clearly been driven mad by that "eating shrimp" spell. He immediately bid Professor Wang farewell and sprinted online…

…

"Maniac? You finally logged in? We thought you'd quit in disgust!" As soon as the science fanatic appeared, Dragon Warrior rushed over, but the science fanatic had no interest in him—he just waved him off:

"Uh, I just got a new inspiration—I'm heading to the library!"

"New inspiration?!" Dragon Warrior's eyes lit up instantly:

"Go go go! If you create a powerful spell, share it with us!"

"If I succeed." The science fanatic replied vaguely, then activated Instant Step and dashed into the library, heading straight for the corner bookshelf.

As the player who'd spent the most time in the Secluded Village library, he didn't remember every book's location, but he had a general sense of where different categories were kept.

He swiftly pulled out the "Introduction to Cultivation" textbook, scanned its summaries on breathing techniques, meditation, and stillness, then activated screenshot mode—click, click, click—he began snapping photos…

(End of Chapter)