Chapter 84: Hidden in the Void (Part 1/2)

Translation: Sarah

Luo Nan eyed his Dynamo Core. He was sure that it was nearly twice as long as the Deep Sea Type Four. On top of that, the ‘electro-light’ that flowed within the core was more intense than before.

This was probably because the models were different.

In Luo Nan’s opinion, Dynamo Cores were truly very strange – they had substance in the material plane, yet they constantly influenced the mental plane. With the mental and material planes interacting, its standing as an object blurred, as if its existence lied in the crack that separated the mental and material planes.

There were truly many things worth researching.

In his moment of thought, Luo Nan let the Dynamo Core merge into his brain. He wanted to see whether or not he could activate it, like Jack had.

“Since I need to activate it, I’ll need to give it a bit of stimulation.”

Unlike Jack, Luo Nan did not have specialized power transmission circuits. As such, he could not provide great electrical support. All Luo Nan had was the power of his soul. He also did not know what to do, so he simply let his soul power infiltrate into the core –This quickly became a kind of scientific study.

The range of his mental senses sharply declined in exchange for a rise in precision. But for now, no matter how much the range had reduced, it was locked into a range of ten meters. Additionally, no matter how much the accuracy had risen, it swayed within the millimeter range, far from his best record of 0.1 millimeters.

This obviously wouldn’t work.

If one were to go by the standards of top notch technology to determine the technological accuracy of the core, the core would at least be in the nanometer range. That was one millionth of a millimeter in accuracy, which was close to the atomic scale. Just the thought of it was devastating.

However, Luo Nan still knew that within the core, there was a bundle of ‘brain chips’. These brain chips were similar to the cell body’s in neurons and bore a huge amount of encoding conversions and was responsible for computing tasks.

He knew this because last week, the core had undergone a certain degree of enlargement thanks to the abundant energy support of the independent power plant in the laboratory of Gear. This provided an abundance of energy which was obviously a more direct and effective method.

Compared to the independent power station, Luo Nan’s power was negligible. So as expected, the core did not respond.

“As expected it’s not easy, if I could get Jack’s core application technology and use it on myself… That doesn’t count as being a cyborg, right?”

Harboring these thoughts, Luo Nan sank into a muddled sleep. However, only half an hour had passed before he suddenly opened his eyes and moaned:

This won’t do, it’s too terrible.

The idea that Mo Lun ‘provided’ was expedient, but it was not a complete approach.

In order to minimize the pressure on his body, Luo Nan made his body and soul semi-detached, allowing his soul to tilt more towards the mental plane. It was good at first, and the pressure on his body was reduced. There were no symptoms aside from lethargy, cough and an occasional tightness in his chest.

However, with time, as the soul delved deeper into the mental plane, side effects began to occur.

Chaos, utter chaos!

Regardless of how Luo Nan desensitized his soul, the ‘basic unit’1 was there. As long as ‘Soul Configuration’ —the concept that he had learned from Jack— was in play, the operation of energy and information would not stop. All kinds of signals from the surrounding environment would always have certain effects.

Especially because this was the inpatient department of the hospital. In here, almost all of the living souls carried a sort of ‘sickness’. One or two would have been fine, but with up to a few hundred together, a gloomy mess of psychic waves constantly covered the various floors.

For ordinary people, they would perhaps feel a little depressed. However, in the case of Luo Nan, he could hear the patients’ cries of despair.

Life was corrupted, energy and information collided and everything was painted a dark gray color.

Only half an hour had passed and Luo Nan already felt depressed.

This could not go on.

Luo Nan tried to find a better place for his soul to rest. This type of place did exist in the mental plane. However, they were all in deep, dark, and quiet areas of the mental plane that were far from the material plane. He would be unable to maintain the semi-detached state of body and soul in this case.

Wouldn’t that cause him to return to an out-of-body state then?

Luo Nan tossed and turned in the bed. He was intolerably sleepy but the interference just wouldn’t stop. This almost tortured him into contacting Mr. Bai, asking to be discharged.

“Isn’t there a way to withstand the soul power without needing to come out from the body… Huh?”

Luo Nan snapped his eyes open, turned around and grabbed the notebook from the bedhead. In a flash, the Dynamo Core with an unknown model seeped into his body from the palm of his hand and traveled all the way to his brain.

He referred to the example of Jack and allowed the core to stop in the position between his left and right thalamus. He poured the concentration of his soul within the core, entering the mysterious crack in which the mental and the material planes interact.

This could work!

Ah, such quietness. It was like he was at the end of a deep, empty void.

Luo Nan fell into a deep stable sleep.

When Luo Nan roused again, it was already four thirty into the afternoon. This happened to be the visiting hours so his aunt was in the ward, watching him as he woke.

“Aunt?”

Their eyes met. Luo Shuqing’s eyes were moist. Since yesterday night, she had lost it too many times. Not wanting to aggravate Luo Nan, she sucked in a breath and forced herself to speak calmly, “Do you know how you came in here?”

“I fell asleep… on the car?”

Luo Nan put on an innocent face. In fact, he really didn’t know how to alleviate his elders’ worries. In a situation like this, he couldn’t possibly puff out his chest and declare:

This type of thing won’t ever happen again!

On the contrary, these types of events would probably happen more and more often.

Luo Nan’s hesitation had, in turn, comforted Luo Shuqing. “Are you feeling better now? The doctor said you had a nervous breakdown. It’s not serious, so you don’t need to take medicine. Just take some supplements to stop the symptoms such as coughing and lethargy. Then you can go home.”

Luo Nan should ask about the situation, but at the moment he didn’t feel like it. He simply smiled at Luo Shuqing:

“It doesn’t feel like a big deal, it’s just like I skipped class for a day?”

“I already enrolled you in a video course, and it starts tomorrow.”

“……”

As the conversation between the two returned to normal, a soft electronic sound rang out and a familiar face appeared on the display panel: “Mr. Xie Junping has come to visit.”

Luo Nan was surprised. This person sure got his intel fast.

Luo Shuqing was slightly shocked: “Your friend?”

“Uh-huh.”

At this moment, Xie Junping opened the door and strode in with large steps. He then hollered, “Junior Nan, I heard that you fell sick and was admitted. What’s the situation?”

He spotted Luo Shuqing after he had spoken and froze. He looked through Luo Nan’s profile and quickly realized the relationship between the two and bowed immediately.

“Hello Mrs. Luo, I am Xie Junping and I am also from Acumen College like Luo Nan...”

It must be said that before one saw through Xie Junping’s facade, his sunny appearance really leaves a good impression. Luo Shuqing’s first impression of him was very positive.

Luo Shuqing was a very traditional woman. She wanted to speak more with her nephew but since he had a guest, she decided to be polite. After exchanging a few words with Xie Junping, she excused herself and allowed the two youngsters to socialize.

Xie Junping bowed as he saw Luo Shuqing to the door. When he returned, he boasted, “So it turns out that someone hasn’t been sleeping all this time; he’s just been hospitalized. Anyway, within these three days, all the information regarding the procedures of the Order Club… I’ve taken care of them!”

Basic Unit, introduced in chapter 82.2: "This was approximately one percent of the mental senses of his soul body. It was impossible to shrink it down any further. This preserved the current soul configuration and tempo to their lowest limits. This was a 'basic unit'. "

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