Chapter 87 - 36: Adventure in the Rain

Chapter 87: Chapter 36: Adventure in the Rain

"Quick, get in."

The voice was hushed and trembling noticeably.

Yu Xian didn’t hesitate. He was quickly pulled into the dim laboratory.

The door was swiftly shut and bolted.

The lab was dark. Only the indicator lights of a few instruments cast a faint, eerie green glow.

In the faint light, Yu Xian could make out Yang Yiyi huddled in a corner.

She was still in her black windbreaker, her hair plastered messily to her face.

"Senior Sister Yiyi, are you okay?"

Yu Xian didn’t have time for anything else and took a step forward.

As if all her strength had been drained, Yang Yiyi slid down the wall and slumped to the floor.

"Those people outside... are they here?" she asked, pointing toward the window. "I kept hearing someone pounding on a door up front. I thought they were about to break in."

"It’s okay. They’re all in the main hall. Don’t worry."

Yu Xian crouched down, trying to keep his voice steady.

"Senior Sister Yiyi, why did you run over here all by yourself? You didn’t get hurt by those people on your way, did you?"

Yang Yiyi looked up, her eyes meeting Yu Xian’s. He saw fear in them, but also something else.

"Yu Xian..." Yang Yiyi swallowed hard.

"I think I might have seen something... something my advisor didn’t want me to see."

"Senior Sister Yiyi, take your time and tell me."

"Yesterday, when you asked me about that industry fund and your theory about the audio file causing suicides... I went home and thought about it all night."

Yang Yiyi hugged her knees, her body still trembling slightly.

"At first, I thought maybe you were just overthinking it. But... after I got back to my dorm last night, I heard my roommates talking about that lucid dreaming audio file..."

"The Midnight Bus? It’s in the girls’ dorms too?" Yu Xian asked, surprised.

"Yeah. Someone must have copied it from the boys’ dorms. A lot of people are trying it out."

Yang Yiyi took a deep breath.

"That’s when I knew something was wrong. If it’s really connected to the suicides like you said, then at the rate it’s spreading... something terrible is going to happen."

She glanced at the computer tower beside her.

"On Monday, when they issued the red alert for the torrential rain, I went to back up the lab data after we split up, remember?"

Yu Xian nodded. He remembered. The three of them had just finished eating in the cafeteria that day when Senior Sister Yiyi said she had to go to the lab.

"My advisor messaged me that day, telling me to come to the lab and make a cold backup of the server data. He was afraid the server room might flood or lose power during the storm and the data would be lost."

"You have access?"

"I do. Normally I don’t, but he gave me temporary access to back up the data for the storm. I’m new to the team, so I usually get this kind of work. No one’s been back to the lab because of the rain, so my access hasn’t been revoked yet."

She raised her hand and pointed to a computer on the lab bench, its screen glowing.

"I remembered what you said last night, so I... I used my advisor’s account to check his emails."

Yang Yiyi started to get up, and Yu Xian quickly moved to help her. She typed in a password and opened a research management system.

It was filled with a dense array of folders, data documents, and log records.

"I saw this..." Yang Yiyi clicked open an archived email folder and pulled up a specific message.

Yu Xian leaned closer to the screen. The sender was an anonymous, encrypted email address that looked like gibberish, with no identifying information.

The email, dated a week ago, was titled: "Regarding Injection Request for Sample Key."

"Look at the body," she said, pointing with the mouse.

Yu Xian’s pupils contracted as he quickly scanned the email’s contents.

"Please inject your research group’s latest MCH neuron-inhibiting waveform into the blank frequency band of the audio file. This will enable the test subject to fully retain their dream memories."

The attached audio file was named: TDI_Session_Key.wav

"TDI..." Yu Xian’s heart skipped a beat.

’A login key for TDI?’

’Are people from the TDI project asking for his help implanting a waveform that counteracts the mechanism for forgetting dreams?’

’So, the people behind the TDI project... they’re the mysterious industry fund, the financial backers?’

"Your advisor... did he do it?"

"Yes. He replied."

Yang Yiyi’s fingers trembled as she found the reply to that email in the thread.

"My advisor said in his reply that the audio file they provided already deeply affects the prefrontal cortex through its sonic frequencies. He warned that if they were to then forcefully inject the MCH-inhibiting waveform on top of such an intense intervention, the consequences would be uncontrollable."

Yu Xian stared at the strictly worded academic warning on the screen, which read in clear, bold text:

"This procedure will render the test subject’s brain incapable of distinguishing between endogenous and exogenous signals. In other words, they will be unable to differentiate dreams from reality. Long-term exposure to this frequency will lead to severe cognitive dysfunction and cause source-memory confusion."

"So, your advisor knew the risks," Yu Xian said, looking at Yang Yiyi. "But he did it anyway."

"Yes." Yang Yiyi bit her lip. "Because they replied that it was just for extreme testing on animal models and wouldn’t be used on humans. And... they also offered him money."

"How much?" Yu Xian swallowed.

Yang Yiyi copied the transaction hash address from the email and pasted it into a blockchain explorer. It was a transfer of 5 million US Dollars.

Yu Xian stared at the long string of digits on the screen, his throat suddenly dry.

"So, the fund that’s been sponsoring your advisor all this time... is actually the people from TDI?"

"I never would have guessed... I always thought our work with TDI was purely an academic exchange."

Looking at his senior sister’s pale face, Yu Xian tried to comfort her: