Chapter 122: Level Up (1) |
Wei Hongsi finished discussing matters with Director Liang and Director Shi and it was already lunchtime. Director Shi insisted he eat at the General Team before leaving. He accepted out of courtesy since he would have to find somewhere to eat anyway if he went back.
The General Team cafeteria had decent food. It could not compare to a company cafeteria, but it was definitely better than making do with fast food. Lately his detective brother had been so busy they hardly saw each other, and his sister-in-law had returned to her parents’ home to rest during early pregnancy, so he couldn’t rely on grabbing meals at their place.
After eating, Wei Hongsi politely declined Director Shi’s offer to send him by car and instead ordered a ride-sharing car back to his dormitory.
Sitting in the rear seat, he leaned against the backrest, closed his eyes, and summoned the System panel.
【Level: Tier One (Non-benefactor) (+)】
【Tip: Being self-sufficient is only the basic requirement. Strive to become someone who truly contributes to human society!】
【Current Contribution Points: 1170】
【Talents:
Age Recognition (Level II);
【Quest: Find the Mastermind Behind the Paradise Beverages Ad Trap (Completed)】
This time it didn’t disappoint him, the main quest was finally complete, and his contribution points had risen from the original 670 to 1170.
Actually, Wei Hongsi thought that once he confirmed Mu Jie belonged to the Guide Light Society and exposed the three Finch professors, the task should have counted as complete.
But the System clearly disagreed. The quest only counted as complete after he identified the Guide Light Society’s main members in Yuecheng and obtained a lead pointing to an overseas senior member, the Matriarch.
A plus sign had appeared after the level display. Wei Hongsi focused his thought on it, and a pop-up prompt floated above the panel.
【Promote level?】
【Yes】【No】
The corner of Wei Hongsi’s mouth twitched into a small smile. This really wasn’t new at all.
He selected the “Yes” option with his thought, the panel faded quickly, and lines of red text soon emerged.
【In the Paradise Beverages ad incident you played a crucial role, assisting authorities in successfully preventing the psychological virus from spreading on a large scale, avoiding spiritual contamination of tens of millions, and identifying the organization that orchestrated the event. This is a true contribution to human society.】
【Level Up: Tier One (Non-benefactor) → Tier Two (Instigator)】
【Unlocked Feature: Skill Exchange】
【Reward: Cognitive Restructuring (Level I)】
Cognitive Restructuring? Isn’t that one of the methods designed for the CDU project to treat spiritual contamination!
So my System is plagiarizing my research?
Before Wei Hongsi could finish his astonished thought, the level-up message vanished and a new panel appeared.
【Level: Tier Two (Instigator)】
【Tip: Individual power is limited. Only by using yourself as leverage to empower more people can you make a greater contribution to human society!】
【Current Contribution Points: 1170】
【Talents:
Age Recognition (Level II);
Risk Warning (Level II) (+);
Cognitive Restructuring (Level I) (+)】
【Exchangeable Skills:
Tin Whistle Performance (Lv.5) (1100 points);
Recorder Performance (Lv.5) (1150 points);
Electronic Keyboard Performance (Lv.4) (1400 points);
Guitar Performance (Lv.4) (1700 points)】
Seeing the new prompt, Wei Hongsi couldn’t help but grin again. This really was tailor-made for him.
Come to think of it, several of the new project group’s planned research topics, as long as they produced results, would definitely count as contributions to human society.
The plus signs after Risk Warning and Cognitive Restructuring meant they could be upgraded.
He tried focusing his thought on the plus after Risk Warning and an alert popped up.
【To reach Level III requires 10,500 contribution points】
【You do not have enough contribution points. Go make more contributions to human society!】
Over ten thousand points? What a joke! That would be like going through ten more major incidents like the Paradise Beverages case. Even if earning points became easier later, this wasn’t something achievable overnight.
He then focused on the plus after Cognitive Restructuring.
【To reach Level II requires 1000 contribution points】
【Upgrade】【Cancel】
There was no rush to decide now, so Wei Hongsi chose Cancel and continued to look over the newly available Tier Two skill options.
All four skills were musical performance related — a godsend for someone tone-deaf like him. But the only skills he could afford were Tin Whistle Performance and Recorder Performance.
Wei Hongsi wondered what someone else with his System would think when faced with these choices.
Would they happily pick one to fix the tone-deaf defect, or complain that the skills were garbage and useless?
To him, though, every skill option carried significant risk.
For an individual, mastering a piece of knowledge essentially forms a memory associated with it. In cognitive science, knowledge includes both skills and techniques.
As mentioned earlier, human memory is not isolated; it records an experience.
So acquiring a completely new skill means acquiring an entirely new set of memories.
Take driving as an example. Saying someone is a good driver — gear shifting, pressing the accelerator, steering — those basic operations can be learned in minutes. Real driving skill is the ability to handle complex road conditions and respond in emergencies, which requires abundant practical experience.
The formation of experience always accompanies a wealth of related memories; it is far more than a simple skill.
Musical performance is also an experience-based skill and from a cognitive perspective is no different from driving.
Therefore each skill option implied a chunk of unfamiliar memory.
Tin Whistle Performance was an obvious example. If he chose that skill, Wei Hongsi estimated he would gain memories of learning to play the whistle, and through those memories he might recall the previously blank impressions of Uncle Zhang.
By extension, the other three performance skills would also hide corresponding memories. But Wei Hongsi could not determine what those memories were connected to; he wasn’t even certain whether those memories belonged to him or to his alternate personality.
He was reluctant to think too deeply about that, because following that line of thought seemed to faintly reveal the shadow of the Guide Light Society.
Fortunately he could confirm he was not a member of the Guide Light Society and that there was no fuse-blown mechanism planted in his brain.
Understanding the risk behind choosing a skill made the new talent Cognitive Restructuring suddenly look extremely useful.
If the talent’s name matched the substance of his ongoing research, its function should be actively identifying and resisting subconscious influence. That would effectively help Wei Hongsi stabilize his core self and block infiltration by fragmented consciousness from unknown memories.
