The weapon refiner is not doing her job properly

Chapter 152 SAN Value Monitor
Zhou Yu's breath hitched, and he roared unhappily, "I have a day off today, why are you still in my house?"

The newcomer was composed. He stood there, his eyes seemingly able to see through Zhou Yu's fragile heart, and comforted him, "Don't be nervous. You should understand that I never force you to do anything."

The appearance of the guide calmed Zhou Yu down a bit.

Then Zhou Yu heard the guide say earnestly, "You made a bet with someone, and since you lost, you should be able to accept it. One failure is not terrible. Just remember the lesson in the future and don't easily place bets on games where you can't see the outcome."

These words were like sparks splashed into an oil drum, reigniting Zhou Yu's anger. "That idiot Charlie clearly has no talent to be a spirit master, he's hopelessly stupid. This was a gamble he was destined to win, why didn't he take it? He definitely cheated, it was Su Ninglong, she must have helped him cheat behind the scenes."

He spoke rapidly and aggressively, as if he were not only trying to persuade the person leading the way, but also desperately trying to convince himself to deny the embarrassing result.

"Whether he gets help from outside or not, you can't change one fact. He has successfully acquired a superpower that is extremely useful to hunters, so he will continue to stay in the Star Alliance," the guide stated calmly.

Among his peers, Zhou Yu's mind is already excellent, and his thinking is becoming more and more comprehensive.

However, many of Zhou Yu's decisions still carried the impulsiveness and rashness unique to children, and were full of childish stubbornness.

He is too prone to getting stuck in what he perceives as dead ends. He instinctively chooses to reject, suppress, or even be hostile towards people he doesn't like, rather than trying to understand or make good use of them.

“Zhou Yu.” The guide’s face was serious as he spoke slowly, “You will be leading a huge company, a complex conglomerate. It will be filled with countless outstanding talents, your brothers who will pave the way for you and solve your problems. You must understand that they will inevitably be stronger than you in their respective fields. Is it really because of this that you cannot tolerate such people?”

Zhou Yu scoffed, dismissively saying, "My subordinates are under my control and live off the salaries I pay them..."

When the soft approach failed, the mentor bluntly interrupted his naive fantasy: "You want to be a boss with no tolerance for others? Then they can choose to leave."

Zhou Yu seemed to have been pricked by a needle, his eyes burning with an almost obsessive flame, and he said fiercely, "People I hate should never appear in my sight again!"

He was resolute and left no room for negotiation: "A cheater doesn't deserve to be in the same school as me! If he stays, I'll leave!" Every word was like a poisoned nail.

The almost rogue declaration exhausted the guide's last bit of patience, and his gaze darkened.

He lowered his voice and pointed to the boy's heart. "Ask yourself honestly, didn't you cheat? Didn't you get your entrance exam score by relying on your dad's resources and practicing countless times beforehand? Tell me, isn't that cheating? Other kids don't get that kind of treatment."

He pressed on relentlessly, his words like cold, sharp blades: "Why have the rules for 'Smart Computing No. 1' changed now? Children who haven't enrolled in school are strictly prohibited from entering the simulator outside of testing time. Who do you think this rule was made for? How many unimaginable resources did your family pile on you so that you could secure this position? And what was the result? Did you awaken any superpowers?"

"In the end, you, Zhou Yu, shouldn't even be a student of the Star Alliance."

The guide's words, one after another, were like sharp arrows, precisely piercing Zhou Yu's fragile defenses and shattering his seemingly hard but actually laughable self-esteem into pieces.

"Wash your face, clear your head, and then go train. You have resources, and you should use that advantage to look towards a broader future, instead of clinging to someone you think is stupid and can never be your equal."

Zhou Yu gritted his teeth and asked unwillingly, "What about Su Ninglong? She can't be mediocre, can she? She's the one who made the bet with me."

The guide's eyes flickered almost imperceptibly, then he reassured her with a confident tone, "Her? Your father will handle her personally. Don't worry, no one can truly become a stumbling block on your path."

The guide felt uneasy when he said this.

Su Ninglong is a child who receives special attention from Principal Yan and Professor Yun Fei.

Recently, the Zhou family has used all available channels to conduct an in-depth investigation and discovered that there seems to be a mysterious "master" standing behind her.

But the existence of this "Master Su" is shrouded in mystery.

Despite the Zhou family's best efforts and the use of all available methods, both overt and covert, they were unable to uncover even the slightest clue about this person's origins.

This is an extremely frightening thing in itself. Even if the investigation reveals that it is fake news, it at least provides a direction.

But Master Su seemed to appear out of thin air, yet also as if he had never existed, leaving the Zhou family's vast intelligence network feeling helpless and lost for the first time.

No amount of energy can dig a person out of nothing when there are absolutely no clues.

When Zhou Yu heard the guide mention that his father would personally deal with Su Ninglong, his tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and a childlike joy even flashed across his face.

In his mind, his father was an omnipotent god, and any problem could be solved by him.

Having successfully persuaded Zhou Yu, the guide secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

He walked to the side and dialed a number.

Right now, he has another more specific and realistic task to handle: to inquire in detail about the performance parameters and specific prices of those latest animal-shaped mechanical mounts, and then submit a purchase application.

Zhou Yu cannot break his promise; he must maintain his reputation before inheriting the family business.

“Wei Yuan has an old one. I’ll go ask him for it and give his mount to Su Ninglong as a reward.” Zhou Yu smiled sinisterly, his calculating expression sending chills down the spine of the person leading the way.

The guide disagreed: "To be on the safe side, I'd like to apply to buy the mounts first." Just to be on the safe side, he applied for two, as Zhou Jiaxi wasn't short of money.

Three days passed in the blink of an eye, and the hustle and bustle on the Star Alliance campus gradually subsided as students packed their bags and embarked on their journeys home.

Meanwhile, the elites of both the inner and outer courtyards began intensive preparations for their upcoming missions.

On this somewhat deserted afternoon, Song Hu, Lian Xinyi, and Tong Zi appeared at the entrance of Su Ninglong's quiet little courtyard.

Lian Xinyi looked up and saw Tong Zi, then blurted out, "Teacher Tong, you've come to see Su Ninglong too?"

Tong Zi nodded slightly, "Find Master Su."

"Oh!" Lian Xinyi immediately looked at Song Hu beside her, her eyes clearly asking: Should we hide for a while and come back later?

Song Hu, seemingly oblivious to his winking and subtle hints, pushed open the courtyard gate and walked straight in. Inside, Su Ninglong was sitting in the shade of a tree, enjoying the cool air.

The weather suddenly turned hot again, and she held an exquisitely crafted fan in her hand.

The fan ribs are made of warm and smooth summer sandalwood, while the fan surface is inlaid with several extremely thin, almost transparent gemstones of various colors. Each gemstone is carefully engraved with intricate and mysterious runes, which refract a delicate and dazzling brilliance under the sunlight, making it both mysterious and exceptionally beautiful.

With a gentle flick of her wrist, a refreshing breeze caressed her face, softly lifting the strands of hair on her forehead and bringing a cool and pleasant sensation.

Tong Zi walked into the courtyard, her eyes instinctively searching around, but she didn't see the iconic robot with the fish-lipped shape.

She looked at Su Ninglong and asked bluntly, "Ninglong, where is Master Su?"

Su Ninglong, fanning herself without stopping, said matter-of-factly, "Her? She's gone out to play again!"

Tong Zi: "..." A moment of silence.

A subtle sense of being treated perfunctorily spread silently.

Su Ninglong understood the subtle tension between the three people in front of her, but she was too lazy to explain.

Let them use their imaginations and figure it out for themselves!

She simply ignored it and casually tapped the boxes on the stone table with her small fingertips.

“Your things are here. The largest one, and the small box next to it,” she paused, then clearly stated the conditions, “You need three sacred artifacts as collateral, plus a monthly rent of 30,000 star coins, and… a deposit of three million star coins.”

"Hiss!" Lian Xinyi gasped, her eyes widening. This amount far exceeded their budget, and her face showed the embarrassment of not having enough money.

"Don't think it's expensive." Su Ninglong raised her delicate eyebrows slightly. "Don't be ignorant. If it weren't for our friendship, it wouldn't be this price. This is a group artifact that combines offense and defense, especially suitable for someone like Lian Xinyi who has super physical recovery ability. If you put it at an auction house, the price would easily exceed fifty million."

Lian Xinyi quickly calculated in her mind that with a monthly rent of 30,000, how long would it take to raise enough money to cover the sale price? No wonder she asked for a deposit of 3 million; this "friendship price" was indeed "cheap".

“As for Teacher Tong’s,” Su Ninglong’s fingertip moved to another box, “it’s that rectangular wooden box.”

Upon hearing this, Tong Zi simply crossed her arms and remained standing in place, her demeanor calm, showing no intention of immediately stepping forward.

Song Hu and Lian Xinyi continued to play dumb, their eyes darting around, refusing to touch their respective boxes.

Both of them had their own agendas, each wanting the other to open the box and inspect the goods first, so they could take the opportunity to see what the other's rented sacred artifact actually looked like.

This delicate stalemate was broken by Lei Qingya, who had been sitting quietly beside her. She closed the core manual for piloting the warship and stood decisively in front of the box.

She had been curious about what was in the box for a long time. "How about I open it for you?"

The three thought it was a good idea, and even Xin Yi gestured for them to proceed.

Lei Qingya first opened the smallest box, and under everyone's watchful eyes, she lifted the lid.

The moment the lid was opened, Lei Qingya was slightly taken aback. She had originally thought that the box would contain jewelry-type sacred artifacts such as necklaces or bracelets.

What came into her view were round beads of a peculiar texture, neither gold nor jade, intertwined in black and white.

They lay quietly on the velvet cushions, exuding a peculiar sense of contradiction, possessing both the simplicity and mystery of ancient artifacts, and subtly revealing a sense of sophisticated technology.

"what is this?"

“A distortion detector,” Su Ninglong told them. “My mentor developed it inspired by a pollution detector. She believed that people entering contaminated areas would need this even more.”

She paused, then dropped an even more startling piece of information: "In traditional understanding, aberrations themselves cannot be directly detected. But my master used the aberration samples from Teacher Yang and Teacher Lena to conduct experiments and discovered a key phenomenon: the soul states of the small animals affected by the aberrations are the first to show abnormal fluctuations."

"It's very simple to use. Just stick it anywhere on your skin, and it will automatically blend in. When the pollution concentration in your surrounding environment reaches a high level, and your mental state begins to show abnormalities, it will display a value in real time, which is what you often call the 'SAN value,' or mental stability value. 100 represents the best state, completely normal."

Her tone suddenly turned serious. "Once this value drops below 20, it means your minds have begun to be eroded and are on the verge of distortion. At this point, you must immediately evacuate the contaminated area. At the same time, the detector will automatically activate a built-in protection mechanism that can barely protect your core consciousness for about five minutes."

"When the value reaches zero, it will automatically detach from your body, and at that time, your body will undergo significant and irreversible distortions."

His words were like a stone thrown into a deep pool, leaving everyone present stunned.

This theory was proposed a long time ago, but relying solely on physical measurements makes the testing inaccurate and can easily delay the diagnosis of malformations.

As for directly observing the state of the soul?
This is simply a fantasy; for humans who cannot perceive or analyze the essence of the soul, it is an almost unsolvable super problem.

One of the core design goals of Smart Computing One was to explore and monitor the essence of the human soul more deeply.

However, it was eventually discovered that Smart Computing One also had its insurmountable limitations.

Ultimately, it cannot truly separate from or directly intervene in the soul; it is more like a passive 'observer'.

It can only open an escape route for you in the simulator when the pollution is about to completely engulf you, that is, when you are on the verge of death.

Then they tell you, "You're going to die, run!" instead of warning you, "You're about to become distorted, do you want to leave?" just as your mind begins to slide into the abyss and distortion is about to occur.
The difference lies in proactively avoiding risks, rather than in making a last-ditch effort in a desperate situation.

The biological AI monitoring system also has a fatal inherent flaw: its core server and simulation terminal are simply unable to enter environments with high concentrations of pollution.

Once exposed to it, these sophisticated devices themselves will also be contaminated and corroded, leading to system crashes or data distortion, and complete failure.

This means that biological AI can only conduct remote analysis from a relatively safe "back" location, and cannot provide immediate protection on the front lines of pollution where signals are cut off.