Strange game designer.

Chapter 851, Plan 859
Looking out into the night, the gentle moonlight shines on the forest, turning the faces into fruits and the long, coiled hair into ever-growing rings of a tree.

Dr. Gao didn't actually say anything, but the team members in the meeting room felt something was wrong, and cold sweat began to break out on their backs.

Even the members of the oversight team, who hovered on the edge of moral standards, felt uncomfortable; they dared not think too deeply about the meaning behind Dr. Gao's words.

"Do you want to cut down all those trees?" a young team member in the corner of the meeting room asked, and a pair of eyes immediately fixed on him.

The old professor coughed and closed his book: "We've been discussing this for a long time. Getting bogged down in this and coming up with unrealistic ideas won't help solve the forest problem at all. Tonight, we'll go to the forest as planned."

"I just arrived, are you leaving already?"

"Otherwise what? Listen to you talking nonsense here?" Dr. Bu's assistant harbored great hostility towards Dr. Gao. Perhaps he felt that he was the most likely person to replace Dr. Bu after Dr. Bu's disappearance, and Dr. Gao's appearance shattered his beautiful illusions.

"We didn't mean anything by targeting you, it's just that the situation is really critical."

The instructors sitting at the front said they weren't targeting Dr. Gao, but their behavior completely excluded him. They got up in twos and threes and left the meeting room.

Dr. Gao didn't stop anyone until he and Banban were the only ones left in the room. Then Chen Bing came over and said, "It's a long and arduous journey. It will be quite difficult for you to gain a foothold."

The police have done all they can to help; now it's up to Dr. Gao to do it himself.

"The School of Ethics has the largest laboratory and drug storage room of the Moral Oversight Group. Dr. Bu and the key are both missing. The spare key is in the hands of that old professor. You should try to get the key first, and then consider the next step." Chen Bing's words contained a hint of greed: "It is said that there are all kinds of prohibited drugs in the warehouse, more than the police have, and they are even more precious."

Chen Bing had also led Dr. Gao to meet with the other members of the ethics supervision group. He safely delivered Dr. Gao, and the mission was over.

Before leaving, he leaned close to Dr. Gao, lowered his voice, and said earnestly, "You've been caught in the eye of the storm. Staying in the School of Ethics is the safest place. At least the ethics oversight group won't dare let you die here. That would give us a reason to investigate the school. But if you were somewhere else, you would likely become their target and it would also implicate your family."

After giving his instructions, Chen Bing smiled and put his arm around Banban's shoulder, praising him and encouraging him to learn from Dr. Gao. He then arranged for someone to deliver Dr. Gao's various personal belongings, as well as the backpack he used to carry to work, to the college. Only after arranging all of this did he leave.

"Officer Chen is different from other police officers I've met. He's very kind, like family." Banban had a very good impression of Chen Bing.

“He despises you deformed people from the bottom of his heart, but he doesn’t show it at all. Don’t you think such a person is terrifying?” Dr. Gao stood by the window, gazing at the forest.

"You can read minds? How do you know what Officer Chen is thinking?"

“He has a people-pleasing personality disorder. He will try to please everyone in the world, but he hates himself. How can you expect someone who hates himself to really like you?” Dr. Gao picked up the manuscript on the floor of the conference room. Before he arrived, the ethics supervision team had been discussing it for a long time, and the floor was full of their discarded proposals.

The ethics oversight group was also divided. Those advocating for humanism argued that forests maintain biodiversity, and that forest expansion doesn't mean engulfing the city, but rather allowing Shanghai to better integrate with nature. They believed that abandoning one's human identity to become a tree was a spiritual choice that shouldn't be prevented or interfered with.

They oppose forest destruction, demanding the establishment of protected areas to limit the impact of human activities on forests and develop ecotourism and sustainable forestry. They believe that monitoring forests using advanced technologies such as remote sensing and geographic information systems is sufficient. The rationalists, however, argue that uncontrolled forest expansion has seriously affected Xinhu and must be restricted. They propose various solutions, including the most direct physical control—topping, pinching back new shoots, pruning severely diseased branches and leaves, regular pruning, and demarcating forest boundaries.

Others are planning to use chemical methods to control it, such as injecting growth regulators, chlormequat chloride, defoliants, etc.

The moderates want to create giant nutrient chambers, like bonsai, to separate all the "plants" in the forest and have them treated and managed by professional doctors.

The radicals, on the other hand, wanted to spread the virus and let the plague spread in the forest.

"Banban, what do you think of their suggestions? Do you like any of them?" Dr. Gao placed the papers on the table.

"No." Banban didn't know what to do either. The forest had grown to this point and was already difficult to manage: "If we don't destroy the forest, Xinhu might be swallowed up; but if we destroy the forest, too many people will die. I've seen some homeless people in the residential area who turned into withered trees in the moonlight. They would rather become nutrients for the forest than continue living in the city. That forest is indeed a sanctuary for many people."

Shaking his head helplessly, Banban sighed deeply: "Whoever can solve the problems caused by the forest can probably become the deputy leader of the supervision team and a big shot like my father based on this achievement."

“I do have a perfect solution.” Dr. Gao stood in front of Banban, blocking the moonlight from the window: “The core of the forest is a patient with a serious infectious disease. The forest’s uncontrolled expansion is because of her. If someone can successfully share a brain with her and steal her thoughts, will, and memories, they might become the master of the forest. At that time, humans and the forest will achieve true harmonious coexistence.”

"But no one can enter the heart of the forest, and even my father only dares to pick wild vegetables in the outer areas." Banban suppressed her excitement and stopped her beautiful fantasies.

"That's why I haven't taken any action. I'm waiting for an opportunity when the will of the forest is trapped by something else," Dr. Gao said meaningfully. "As conflicts intensify, people's anger will burn ever brighter, and that opportunity is coming soon."

Banban shrank back. He was a proud gentleman, but his father had made him study under a terrible madman.

"The current brain-computer interface is too complex and cannot be moved. It needs some improvements. Let's go to the laboratory together."

"They're all investigating the forest, shouldn't we go over there?" Banban was a little scared. He followed Dr. Gao down the dark corridor. It was late at night, and he was worried that Dr. Gao might do something terrible to him.

He entered the laboratory without any trouble. After receiving a letter of recommendation from Mr. Ghoul, many managers had already tacitly accepted that Dr. Gao was the successor to Bu.

With no one watching over him, Dr. Gao was finally able to conduct his brain-sharing experiments openly and legitimately.

"Doctor, are you going to start the machine now? There's no one here who can share the brain."

Banban felt a chill run down her spine from Dr. Gao's gaze and unconsciously took a step back.

(End of this chapter)