Delta: Who are you saying has suffered a loss of strength?

In fact, the Phoenix Cry Club's medical department has been studying the players' psychological state all along.

They often provide psychological counseling to players who fail to evacuate.

There have been cases in the past where, after being resurrected, some people suffered mental breakdowns due to the extreme horrors they experienced before their deaths.

There have even been cases of people fainting from fright at the map boss.

However, as the difficulty of various maps has increased and the bosses in each map have become stronger in recent days, such cases have gradually become more frequent.

Recently, the number of players who have failed to evacuate from dangerous areas has been increasing, and the number of people experiencing mental instability is gradually rising.

The phenomenon began to occur frequently, with players dying in dangerous areas and then resurrecting as being delirious, experiencing drastic personality changes, memory lapses, and various emotional and psychological damage.

In more serious cases, the person completely changes, becoming taciturn and sometimes not responding even after being called several times, appearing mentally impaired.

Phoenix Club boasts a fully equipped medical laboratory and extensive experience in handling cases related to high-risk areas.

Some time ago, I was commissioned by the authorities to begin unified testing and data collection for such cases in China.

The laboratory's medical team initially approached the issue from a psychological perspective, but their conclusions were varied and inconclusive.

It wasn't until they gathered the players who were showing symptoms together and conducted several rounds of comprehensive brain scans that the results came out in a way that surprised everyone.

They discovered that failing to evacuate from a danger zone and respawning outside a portal was not entirely harmless.

Each failed evacuation leaves subtle traces in the player's brain.

These traces are very slight and almost imperceptible when viewed individually, but they begin to have an effect after accumulating a certain number of times.

The more times an evacuation fails, the more significant the damage will be.

Moreover, the extent of the damage is closely related to the specific circumstances at the time of the failed evacuation.

If a player is quickly killed with a single shot in a danger zone with almost no pain, then the impact of a failed evacuation on the brain is relatively minor.

However, if a player experiences prolonged fear and torment before death, such as lying on the ground for a long time after being severely injured and slowly bleeding to death, or struggling for a long time in a state of extreme pain before it ends, then the brain damage from this failed evacuation will be much more severe.

The more intense, longer-lasting, and more fearful the pain at the time of death, the greater the accumulated damage.

Moreover, this damage is irreversible, and there is currently no effective treatment.

This discovery is completely different from the common knowledge that all players had previously accepted.

Before this, everyone believed that as long as players did not get lost in the danger zone, they would eventually be able to return to the portal and resurrect.

The only difference between a successful evacuation and a failed evacuation is whether the supplies brought out will be lost.

Because the risks seem completely manageable, those dangerous areas are open to ordinary people worldwide, whether they are professional club members or casual players who occasionally try their luck. As long as they meet the basic requirements, they can enter.

This situation has not been made public anywhere in the world.

The problem now is that it's impossible to determine whether other countries haven't discovered this aftereffect at all, or whether they have discovered it but haven't made it public, selectively concealing the risk.

Both possibilities have their own reasons. If no one has discovered them yet, it can only be said that this research is just beginning and data accumulation takes time.

If some countries already know but deliberately suppress the news, then the underlying interests involved become even more complex.

Regardless of the situation in other countries, once this news is made public in China, it will have a huge impact on the entire gaming market.

The most severely affected will undoubtedly be solo players. Those who enter and exit dangerous areas alone without the support of a club already bear a higher risk than club members. Now, with the added consequence of long-term brain damage, it becomes uncertain whether the authorities will still allow ordinary people to freely enter those areas.

If entry requirements are tightened, the entire casual player market could shrink by more than half overnight, which would then affect a series of related industries such as the circulation of goods, equipment trading, and the intelligence market.

"Um?" After a moment, Xiaobai spoke, breaking the silence in the observation room, "Uncle Liu, if there's nothing else, I'll head back now? I have quite a few things to take care of..."

Liu Yan was taken aback at first, then he subconsciously glanced at Mai Qiyao.

They brought Xiaobai to the medical research center without telling her the real reason. They just told her that this physical examination was a routine requirement before the joint training in a few days and that she just needed to cooperate in collecting data.

Xiaobai thought it was just a routine physical examination, and she was unaware of the changes happening to her body.

Liu Yan opened his mouth as if to say something, but didn't know how to start. He looked at Mai Qiyao with a questioning look in his eyes.

"Let's go home first," Mai Qiyao finally said.

Liu Yan breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, "Okay, it's alright, it's alright. You guys go back first. Xiaobai, you and your dad go home. You'll be busy again soon, so spend some time with your dad."

"Huh?" Xiaobai was taken aback. "Going back home to live? Didn't you say it would be over once it was done? My club still has a lot of things to do, what if there's negative publicity..."

"Come home with me today," Mai Qiyao said firmly and coldly.

Xiao Bai was taken aback and turned to look at Mai Qiyao. His expression was serious, and she didn't understand what her father meant for a moment.

Liu Yan immediately chimed in to help Xiao Bai out of the predicament, "Don't worry, we guarantee we'll handle this properly and there won't be any negative consequences. You don't need to worry."

Seeing the two of them working together so well, Xiao Bai knew that no matter what she said, she would probably be taken home by Mai Qiyao today, so she could only nod.

Then Mai Qiyao turned around, took Xiaobai, and left the research room.

Liu Yan let out a long sigh of relief only after watching the two people disappear at the end of the corridor.

"Chairman Liu..." The man in the white coat stepped forward.

"Hey..." He glanced at the white coat, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "Director Zhou, you've been working hard these past few days."

Director Zhou shook his head. "It's my duty."

"Are there any treatment options for this situation? Could we explore research in this area?"

The doctor in the white coat looked troubled. "Chairman Liu, as you know, this kind of brain lesion is very difficult to treat." He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear.

Liu Yan sighed. He was also a medical student, so he naturally knew about this matter.

The biggest difference between the real world and the danger zone is that everything in the real world is real. If you die, you die; if you get sick, you get sick. There is no resurrection or reset.

Once brain damage resulting from repeated experiences of death and suffering in dangerous areas is formed, there are few medications or surgeries in the real world that can easily resolve it.

After all, it's easy to boil a raw egg, but turning a cooked egg back into a raw egg is nothing short of a pipe dream.

Liu Yan sighed and leaned back against the wall. "I know."

Director Zhou paused for a moment when he sighed, then suddenly changed the subject, "However..."

Liu Yan's eyes immediately lit up. He straightened up and looked at Director Zhou. "But what?"

Director Zhou stroked his chin and thought for a while before slowly speaking, "Although there is no way to cure it, we have indeed observed cases of improvement or even reversal of the condition."

"Can it not be cured, but can the condition be reversed?"

"That's right, it's using brain-computer interfaces!"