Chapter 62 - Mental Strength Index
A large monitoring room was suspended at the end of the underfield field. All of the teachers who led the high schools teams in Tiger Forest Region were gathered there, and they could see the commotion among the students clearly.
“The graduate students of Tiger Forest Region this year are pretty good. Their fighting spirit is really high!”
The monitoring camera followed Ning Xueshi and Yan Feirou and arrived at the square formation formed by Ninth High School. It was just in time to film the conflict between Meng Chao and Jin Zhanpeng.
Quite a number of top students in the key high school in the city had suffered in secret due to Construction High School earlier, which made their teachers feel horrible.
Now, when they saw the students from Construction High return in defeat after facing a key high school in the region, the teachers from the key high school could not help but smile.
“What’s that student’s name? Meng Chao? We’ll have to pay attention to him later,” they whispered… No. They actually discussed it very loudly.
The teacher who led Construction High had a face so dark that it looked as if rain was going to fall from it. He glared at Demon Yan.
Demon Yan had no expression on his face, but he did use his palm to cover his mouth. Only then did the corners of his lips curl up. No one saw it, of course.
“It’s time. The brain cell activation fluid should be effective now. In three minutes, they will begin their second test.”
The main invigilator arrived in front of the control panel.
“All examinees, please return to your spots. Pay attention to your feet. You will find your school name and student number there. Please choose one of the three sitting stances and sit down. Relax and breathe, and enter a deep meditation state,” a cold, mechanical voice said from above the students’ heads.
“One minute later, those who stand, move, or make any sound will be considered to have violated the exam rules. First, you will receive a warning, but if you do it a second time, you will be chased out of the exam hall immediately!”
The thousands of examinees in the wide underground field fell silent.
Meng Chao sat down with his legs crossed. He chose Withered Wood Stance, which was one of the Nine Great Stances. As his breathing became even, he gradually fell into a meditative state.
He imagined himself as a log that had been left behind after being cut. He withstood the sun shining on him and the rain pouring on him. In extreme pain, new life burst out of him, and from his wounds, new shoots grew.
The jokes and laughter from moments ago were now cast aside, and scattered bits of the nightmare rose in his mind once more.
But he no longer felt lost or afraid. He had a firm belief in himself and courage that allowed him to march forward without turning back.
The whirring sounds of a sophisticated machine came from above him.
Rows of metallic frames came down slowly.
The frames had helmets that were connected to flexible tubes. They were placed on each examinee’s head.
Meng Chao grabbed the helmet. It was soft and warm, like a crystalline gel. Carved on it were profound and complicated runic symbols. Spirit energy flowed slowly on the runes, and they gave of a mysterious, futuristic feeling.
The sunken part was covered with dense bumps. It looked like an echinoderm, but also like living metal. It looked quite disgusting.
‘So, this is a superbrain?’
Meng Chao looked at it carefully.
It had multiple nanochips in it so that the biochemical monster brain could be fused together with quantum algorithms. The newest superbrain model had unprecedented calculation abilities.
What was most important was that it could connect perfectly with the human brain through bionic nerves.
Genetic martial arts, spirit energy technology, and superbrains were the three great pillars of Dragon City used to fight in the Other World.
Meng Chao put the superbrain on his head.
The gel-like activated shell slowly made adjustments to ensure comfort for the wearer. It also made sure that it fit.
The dense bumps that resembled an echinoderm gently stuck to Meng Chao’s head and the acupressure point on his spine. It perfectly connected his human brain to the crystalline superbrain.
Meng Chao’s vision was blocked by the superbrain, and it started downloading information straight into his optic nerves.
A loose ball of light appeared in front of his eyes, and a small line of words appeared in the ball of light. [The second national college examination for Type One Universities in the Year 55 of the New Era will begin in one minute.]
His vision was not the only one affected. Even his senses of smell, hearing, and touch were affected.
Meng Chao knew that he was sitting cross-legged, but gradually, he started feeling that he was standing.
He smelled smoke and blood, and he heard wind howling, people crying, and animals roaring.
He seemed to have come to a new world from the safe and comfortable underground field. He felt like he had just walked into hell.
In the monitoring room, the teachers from various schools watched as the chief invigilator implanted the scenario into the main superbrain.
The terrifying scenes caused them to gasp in amazement.
“The difficulty for the mental strength test this year has increased so much? It might be a virtual test, but the realistic information implanted into the children through the superbrains will cause them to feel real fear and pain. How can they endure it?”
“No, it’s not 100%, but 120%. This year, the impact the examinees will endure in the virtual world will be much more terrifying than reality!”
“120%? This is the standard for the Red Dragon Army when they choose elite soldiers for special forces. Isn’t the national college exam this year a little too over the top? The fear and pain level last year was just 90%!”
“We have to make it over the top. You know what the Red Dragon Army discovered in their fog expedition, right? The war is about to turn even more serious. If these children can’t even get through the test in the virtual world, they should not enter the depths of the fog and turn into monster food.”
When the chief invigilator mentioned the discovery in the depths of the fog, all the teachers leading the teams fell silent.
They could only watch as he put savage monsters into the virtual world.
Very soon, the scene implantation was complete.
The mental strength test began.
Fog, ruins, a bloody moon, and monsters could be seen everywhere!
What the examinees saw changed swiftly. They arrived at an unfamiliar battlefield from the underground field.
The students, their teachers, and everything familiar had all disappeared.
They were alone, isolated, and had no help. They could only step on the rotting corpses, torn limbs, and broken limbs as they explored fearfully.
“ROAR!”
The fog was dyed a bloody color that was formed by evaporating blood. Monsters appeared in the bloody fog with monstrous grins.
The mental strength test did not test the examinees’ fighting skills. It just wanted to gauge their mental endurance.
Hence, the education department did not choose superbeasts with great fighting power or awe-inspiring or magnificent appearances. Instead, they chose the amalgamations of reptiles, ecdysozoa, echinoderms, and deep-sea fish. They were nightmarish creatures that would cause people to not be able to eat for three days straight after seeing them once.
“AH!”
“Save me!”
“Mommy!”
When many of the examinees, who came from normal high schools and never had the conditions to receive virtual reality training, saw the skinned mutated and disfigured frog-like monsters with organs about to gush out at any moment, they were instantly scared witless.
Those who had better survival reactions turned around and ran, while others stood in their place and shook like a leaf. They were shoved to the ground by the mutated monsters and could only watch as half their bodies ended up in the monsters’ gaping mouths.
While the monsters chewed on them, they glared at them with their murky, monstrous eyes.
The examinees were no longer able to endure this. Their eyes rolled back, and they fainted.
“Examinee No. 5501342 Ren Fei From Small River High School has a mental strength index that is lower than 40%… Now, it’s lower than 30%. Warning, the examinee’s mental strength index is still dropping. It has been lower than the warning line for more than sixty seconds. He has been judged to have failed his mental strength test. He will be forcibly removed from the virtual reality exam room.”
The huge monitor screen surrounding the chief invigilator showed each examinee’s mental state. Their indices continued jumping about. As long as they were lower than the warning line or above the warning line, the index turned red, and a unique warning sounded.
An examinee started foaming at the mouth in the examination hall. His body twitched.
He was forcibly removed from the virtual world. The superbrain started sending rather gentle bioelectricity into his brain and massaged his cerebral cortex to ensure the stability of his mind.
A few doctors rushed over and brought the examinee whose mind was about to shatter out of the exam hall so that he could be treated.
The teacher leading the team from Small River High School sighed, but he could do nothing about it.
Fifty years ago, the humans’ shackles were removed, and their maximum potential was released. The scientists and superhumans realized that the spirit energy in the Other World was one hundred times stronger on the mind compared to whatever medication they had on Earth.
If they put an excessive amount of spirit energy into the body to stimulate the brain cells, they could release an explosive amount of power and supernatural divine abilities, but most of the spirit energy would gather together to form a matter called superbrain endorphin.
There were two types of endorphins in the brain: methionine enkephalin and β-Neoendorphin. They were neurotransmitters in the central nervous system that were similar to morphine. They could increase a person’s pain threshold, maintain the balance of their minds, and were even connected to the human brain’s limbic system.
Superbrain endorphins were even more mysterious and complicated. The scientists had yet to completely understand their structure and mechanism of action. It was only known that they could control spirit energy to form bioelectricity and stimulate the deepest parts of human cells so that the energy supply efficiency in mitochondrias could increase by a hundredfold.
The large amount of superbrain endorphin secretion was the key to turning a normal person into a superhuman.
But they could not take care of everything. For example, how a person could get water intoxication from drinking too much water, a person who had too much superbrain endorphin secreted into their brain for a long period of time might also get superbrain endorphin intoxication.
The excessive amount of superbrain endorphin would turn around to feed on the human brain. It would corrupt the human mind and twist its willpower, so the human would end up disfigured, their spirits would fall, and they would mutate, turning into crazed a monster.
After decades of research, the Supernatural Tower proposed the concept of mental strength index, emphasising a need for people to control the superbrain endorphins regardless of whether they were training or fighting. They had to maintain a rational mind at all times.
The basic standard for the mental strength index was 100%. It meant that superbrain endorphins were being secreted in the person’s body at a normal amount.
When a person received a great stimulus from the outside world or when they saw incredibly terrifying, mysterious, strange, or unknown objects, the brain’s self-defense mechanism would start to secrete a large amount of superbrain endorphin.
At that moment, the person’s mental strength index would fluctuate between 90% to 110%.
If someone’s mental strength index was lower than one hundred, it meant that the person was feeling emotions of fear, anxiety, or other related negative emotions.
If a person’s mental strength index was higher than one hundred, the person was strong, fearless, and even bloodthirsty.
Regardless of whether people were terrified or courageous, as long as their emotions did not go overboard, they could all be used and were beneficial.
There was no need to mention the necessity of courage, but even fear could help a person. It would increase their wariness. It could allow them to instantly judge the difference between them and their enemies. If they needed to retreat, they would firmly choose to retreat.
However, when people felt extreme fear, their minds would often turn blank. It meant that the body automatically channeled most of its energy from the brain to the muscles. The person would then use their instincts to run to safety.
However, the terrifying creatures and strange phenomenon in the Other World far exceeded the limits of human knowledge.
And to exploit their potential, superhumans usually secreted too much superbrain endorphins.
It caused their mental strength to easily go past the safety zone, which was between 80% to 120%. It would either be too high or too low.
When a person’s mental strength index was lower than 80%, the negative effects of fear would gradually overcome the positive effects. The superbrain endorphins would then turn from good medicine that would stimulate a person’s potential into poison that invaded the brain. The person would end up ensnared by fear and fee like they had fallen into a swamp and could not get out.
The more fearful they became, the more superbrain endorphins would be secreted, and they would suffer from superbrain intoxication. Then, they would become even more scared, and the vicious cycle would continue.
When the mental strength index fell below 30%, it would practically be impossible for them to escape with their own strength. An excessive amount of superbrain endorphin would stir up a spirit energy wave that would completely devour the person’s mind.
When the mental strength index fell to zero, there were only two outcomes: either the person went mad or their brain died.