Chapter 69 - 29: Man-made Rainstorm Conspiracy Theory

Chapter 69: Chapter 29: Man-made Rainstorm Conspiracy Theory

The bedroom door clicked shut.

It was followed by a few muffled coughs, and then the sound of something heavy falling onto a bed.

His cousin was completely exhausted. He must have collapsed into sleep without even changing his clothes.

The living room fell silent again.

The rain still raged outside the window. Yu Xian sat at the dining table, the bowl of egg noodles in front of him now a congealed lump.

His gaze was fixed on the film of oil on the broth as a storm raged in his mind.

His cousin’s words echoed in his head.

"For a whole month, there hasn’t been a single new report of a similar ’smiling suicide.’"

Yu Xian could understand. From the police’s perspective—with no motive, no leads, and no forensic evidence—dropping the case or putting it on hold was standard procedure, especially with manpower needed for flood control due to the recent downpours.

But from Yu Xian’s perspective, he had just crawled out of that white hell. He knew just how vast and intricate the project was.

He also believed that this project was perfectly capable of hiding itself behind audio waveforms, making it impossible for anyone to find.

If he followed the line of reasoning from his conversation with Wen Xiao yesterday...

If that audio was a piece of "code"...

If that dream was a program running on the "hardware" of the human brain...

Then what did that make the previous "smiling suicide" victims?

"A bug...?"

Yu Xian muttered the word to himself.

Just like immature software, when first released, it’s bound to encounter all sorts of crashes, errors, and even blue screens of death.

So, for a cutting-edge, state-of-the-art research project like TDI, with no predecessors to learn from, wasn’t it bound to have bugs?

Of course it was.

With a computer bug, a reboot can solve 90% of the problems. But what about the human brain?

Following this logic, could it be that the smiling suicides were all deaths caused by an "experimental accident"—a "bug"?

Yu Xian felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

If this hypothesis was true, then "no new cases for a month" had a much more terrifying explanation.

It wasn’t that TDI had stopped the experiment.

It was that they...

"They fixed the bug."

Yu Xian stared out at the chaotic curtain of rain, feeling as if he had just glimpsed the corner of a massive secret.

’Suppose the suicides were the previous batch of test subjects.’

’Because of a "program bug"—an instability in the dream—their brains experienced some kind of "error" or "crash," leading to the suicides.’

’This caught the attention of the developers behind TDI.’

’The TDI project team collected these "crash reports," analyzed the "error logs," and then...’

’...released a "patch."’

’They optimized the "code," adjusted the frequency at which it was written to the brain, or modified the dream’s logic, making the entire "program" more stable and compatible.’

’As a result, the "crashes" disappeared, and so did the suicides.’

’The new test subjects—the current batch of users—would no longer die from "program errors" or brain crashes.’

’They would dream more safely, be brainwashed more safely, and wake up more safely with that implanted instinct.’

’Just like me.’

’He remembered the contents of the dream and the torture, but he hadn’t gone mad or died. Could it be because he was using a "patched" version of the program?’

That was the most terrifying part.

Yu Xian reached for the melatonin bottle and looked at the moon icon on it.

He was reminded of what he had learned in high school biology about the evolution of viruses.

A virus with a high fatality rate, despite its high toxicity, also reduces its chances of transmission by killing its host too quickly, shortening the infection period.

A virus with a low to medium fatality rate allows the host to survive longer, making it easier to spread to others.

Therefore, many viruses evolve in a direction of decreasing fatality and increasing transmissibility.

If a virus with a 100% fatality rate were to break out, the entire world would immediately go on alert, implementing lockdowns and quarantines.

But what if, through mutation, the virus’s fatality rate dropped to 0%, but its transmissibility increased a hundredfold, and infected individuals appeared no different from normal people?

A chill ran down Yu Xian’s spine.

’If that were the case, couldn’t it silently infect all of human civilization?’

This wasn’t a case of the incidents disappearing.

’Isn’t this the beginning of the "flood"...?’

The TDI of today had already evolved from the crude, deadly "version 1.0" into the stable, stealthy, and efficient "version 2.0."

But the outside world, deceived by the elaborate illusion it had woven, had let down all its defenses.

"Brilliant... simply brilliant."

A profound sense of powerlessness washed over Yu Xian.

His opponent had not only fully leveraged modern technology but had also, in their psychological game, played with the rules of human society as if it were a toy in the palm of their hand.

Yu Xian walked to the window, watching the torrential downpour outside.

His cousin and that group of admirable people were working day and night to protect the city from being submerged by the flood.

But perhaps... another, invisible "flood" had already silently breached the levees.

And in this flood, there were no alarms, no evacuations, and... not even any casualties.

But right now, there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t even expose the truth about the TDI project.

Just as Wen Xiao had said yesterday, the moment the team behind TDI learned that a test subject hadn’t forgotten their memories, they would surely find a way to eliminate this liability.

For him to step forward now would be like setting off fireworks in a dark forest, voluntarily revealing his position to the enemy.