Arknights, but the sickly pretty girl starts

After one class, Ed stuffed a cup of handmade hot cocoa into Lu's hand. He had actually been paying attention to Lu for a long time.

Lu is a special child.

Many people in Eden actually think so. They have a strong learning ability, mastering most knowledge instantly and even retaining it almost instantly. With the maturity of human genetic optimization technology, artificial geniuses are not uncommon. But the strange thing is... these so-called artificial geniuses are often just biological computers with strong memories, calculations, and learning abilities—several times greater than those of normal humans. However, these artificial geniuses rarely lead the way forward.

Lu seemed to be a different kind of child... She was a naturally born child, without the intervention of artificial test tubes. Her birth came from her parents' love verification activity. Obviously, they forgot the safety facilities, so Lu was born.

At a time when the birth rate is extremely low and even various technologies are needed to make up for the number of newborns, a child born naturally is naturally special.

Ed knew all this. He had read everyone's files. When this cool middle-aged man saw Lu's file, he was surprised by its simplicity. There were no fancy awards listed, nor a lot of flowery words. It was clean and somewhat special... and there was also that fairly standard dynamic photo with a blue background format.

"Do you like watching movies?"

"…What is a movie?"

"That thing I was tinkering with yesterday, the film projector I borrowed from the museum at great pains. It's showing Lawrence of Arabia, a film about a nation in Earth's past that rises up in rebellion. I think it's one of the great films of the entire 1K era. I've seen it several times and even tried to play the character on occasion."

"Are you acting as...Lawrence right now?"

"No, no, no, this character is Arthur Morgan, a sharpshooter from the Western world, from one of the greatest video games of the 2K era."

"...Okay." Lu didn't understand why this man, arguably the greatest high-energy physicist in the entire human world, was chatting with her about a 1-era movie and a 2-era video game. As we all know, history is an upward spiral, and looking back isn't something to be commended. All teachers would teach them to look further, to have a broader perspective, but this teacher—he asked Lu to try looking back. "What does this have to do with my homework?"

"No, kid, no. It's just a movie. The most I ask you to do is write a review. Two thousand words will be enough. By the way, tell me which character you like best—" Ed shook his head. He pulled out a knife with a strange texture and shaved his stubble with it. This behavior was too strange in today's human society. Many people can decide whether to grow a beard or not when they are born. Even if they need to shave, there are more professional equipment, a thing that looks like a small flashlight. You only need to shine it, and the beard will fall off directly without hurting the skin.

Shaving with a knife that may have been considered an antique in the 1s is really a strange and risky thing.

"This is a Damascus knife, it's out of production... Even if you wanted it, I wouldn't give it to you."

"I don't want it either." Lu whispered, "A review, two thousand words. If that's all, I can watch the movie through the museum's official website - the movie should have been archived..."

"No, no, no, there's no point in watching movies with that thing. I can lend you...a DVD."

"…What's a DVD?"

"It's hard to explain, but just think of it as an old-fashioned player that plays these—we call them CDs."

So, Ed placed a square black box in front of her and called it a [CD].

"How do I use this...disc?"

"Open it, Lu, open it. This is a CD case, the packaging, and the disc is inside. I'll lend you a DVD. I made a few small modifications to it so it's compatible with your playback device. After all, this agreement is already a tear from the 1k era."

Lu held the light CD in his hand, at a loss.

It seemed as if she was holding an era in her hands.

Chapter 38: The Prophet

Lu stared at the ancient plastic disc known as a "DVD" in his hand, his fingertips tracing the fine concentric circular patterns on its surface. In an era of widespread quantum storage technology, this medium, which relies on physical pits to store data, has long been consigned to the corners of museums.

"Lawrence of Arabia..." She whispered the faded gold lettering on the cover and inserted the disc into the drive, following Ed's instructions. The player made a teeth-grinding grinding sound as the holographic projector struggled to project the image onto the wall. Instead of an image, the first thing that appeared was a series of snowy noises and pulsing blocks of color.

To start with...isn't that black screen a bit too long? Is this really the greatest movie in human history?

Lu frowned at the blurry image. The picture quality was so poor that it felt like looking at the world through frosted glass. When the black screen lasted for three minutes while the symphony continued, she even wondered if the player was malfunctioning.

In an age of readily available holographic images, this film, shot in the 20th century on Earth, feels like a crude artifact. There's no immersive experience, no neural interaction, not even the most basic 4K resolution. But strangely, when Lawrence's figure first appeared in the frame, Lu found himself unable to look away.

The movie's star, or rather, the protagonist Lawrence, has a pair of charming blue eyes.

The unique grain of film makes each shot feel like a flowing oil painting, and the real-life desert shots, shot on location, tremble and tremble, imbued with a striking texture. When Lawrence plucked a handful of sand between his fingers and let it drift away, Lu could vaguely smell the dry, hot air carrying the sand. This raw, evocative quality is something that contemporary holographic films can never replicate—just as a hand-forged sword always possesses a soul beyond that of an assembly-line product.

In fact, Lu has never seen any so-called movies. In this era, most movies tend to be art films. After all, people no longer make money from movies. People who make movies now basically do so for their own art. They are self-admiring and have no intention of begging the audience to watch them. Therefore, most movies don’t care about the poor box office. At most, they consider whether to give awards. After all, in an era of great material abundance, movies are a way of expressing ideas.

In this era, not many people go to the movies, and few directors are willing to cater to the audience. The idea that if you want to watch it, then forget it. has long been prevalent in society.

However, in the era when the film industry was not at its peak, that is, around 2k, human movies were completely different from what they are now - for example, the three-hour-long "Lawrence of Arabia" was shot with outdated film format, with almost no special effects. Most of the shots were real shots, but the desert, wind and sand, and the landscape of the Arab region shown in the shots can beat the large number of films in later generations that relied on special effects editing.

In fact, Lu could have found a film analysis, or read a paper by a film historian who specializes in archaeology, chewed up other people's understanding, and then reassembled it, and then she could have written a 2,000-word reading review. I believe most of her classmates did the same.

That was because she didn't want to. Lu was a stubborn person. Although she had some complaints about Ed, Ed was her teacher after all, and she didn't want to be perfunctory.

So she patiently watched the entire movie for three hours.

In this day and age, it's common for films to exceed five hours. Many directors' drive for expression is so strong that they disregard everything else. However, most directors' films often feature some overly tedious or excessive moments for the sake of plot development. Lu, however, didn't see that in this film. On the contrary, every shot, every character, every line of dialogue was useful.

In fact, the plot of the movie is not that complicated. Mr. Lawrence, who felt that his talent was not recognized, came to the Arab region that was at war with Turkey according to the order of the Arab Bureau. There were vast deserts and Arab tribes fighting each other. Even his guide was shot in the head for just drinking a sip of water from another tribe's well on the way. What's even funnier is that this guide and the other party are both Arabs, of the same nationality, but he looked at Lawrence, who also drank water, differently - because he was British.

Almost the entire film describes the story of Lawrence's journey from feeling that his talent was not appreciated, to being full of vigor and ambition, to claiming to be a god, to his final shattering of faith - and finally his journey back to the center of civilization, which was the British Empire at that time.

Lawrence, who claimed to be the savior, was quite naive in Lu's view. Yes, he had tactical vision and could win battles, but he did not understand politics, nor did he understand that his motherland did not come to the Middle East for the liberation of the Arab nation.

His naiveté destroyed everything he had, and his arrogance as a savior collapsed on a bad night. From that moment on, his back became hunched.

His faith was destroyed, he was thrown into the mud, and the people around him left one after another.

The film ends with a freeze-frame of him returning to England in a military jeep, with a truck carrying new recruits passing by him - seemingly symbolizing that nothing has changed in this area since Lawrence's arrival.

This is a tragedy...

Lawrence is a good man. Whether he argues for the guide or intends to work for the Arab uprising, we can see that he is a good man in the true sense.

He is also a person with self-destructive tendencies...as evidenced by his tendency to extinguish matches by pinching them with his hands from the beginning.

After all…the secret is simply not being afraid of pain.

He is a complicated person. He longs to be accepted and recognized. His identity as an illegitimate child makes him feel less belonging to Britain. He is polished and tanned in this desert, making him look more like a real Arab.

By the end of the movie, Lu no longer needed to force herself to focus on the movie. She even went back to watch some lines over and over again. Although she still couldn't agree with Ed's statement that this was the greatest movie in human history, no matter what... this was a movie that would go down in history.

-

The next day, when Lu boarded Ed's spaceship again, the man dressed like an old-time cowboy looked at her meaningfully, especially lingering on the tear marks at the corners of her eyes for a while. He smiled playfully and asked all the students to board the spaceship. He then slowly walked to Lu's side and spoke.

"You have to pass this test before you turn it in." He lowered his voice, the shadow of his cowboy hat obscuring his sly smile. "Now, tell me what you really think. Don't try to fool me with those fancy words you copied from the paper."

The cabin suddenly fell silent. The other students pretended to be busy, but in reality, they pricked up their ears—after all, opportunities for Lu to break his perfect overachiever persona were rare.

"Lawrence..." Lu's Adam's apple rolled, his voice as light as a feather, "He's a complete idiot."

Ed paused while wiping the barrel of his gun. He slowly took off his cowboy hat, a rare gesture of solemnity that made everyone's heart tighten.

"Go on." His blue eyes shone startlingly bright in the morning light.

"He thinks he's the savior?" Lu suddenly raised his voice, his fingers unconsciously twisting the corners of his clothes. "He doesn't even understand the rules of the colonial game! While those Arab tribes are using him as a pawn, this idiot is still gloating over his newly made Arab robe!"

Maybe it was because Lu Yue became more and more excited, even his face turned bright red, but Ed suddenly burst into laughter, and his laughter made the cabin wall buzz.

"Hahahaha, this might be the first time I've heard you express your own opinion. Yes, Lawrence was indeed an idiot. He didn't understand politics, he didn't understand Britain, and he didn't even understand Arabia! His stupidity created his tragedy. You're right! You're absolutely right. When I watched this movie, I had the same idea as you. If I were Lawrence at the time, what would I do? I even wrote a complete strategic plan to liberate the Arab nation!"

Ed was an arrogant man. Lu knew it from the beginning. He went his own way and didn't care about society's evaluation. He was just like those contemporary filmmakers who didn't care whether the audience liked it or not and just liked to violently express their own opinions. He was definitely a bad director who could cram a two-hour concert into his movie and play his favorite rock music. He called himself a true nostalgic and lived like a cowboy pioneering in modern society. He drank brandy and tequila that were harmful to his body, listened to CDs and vinyl records with extremely poor sound quality, and even danced disco on the dance floor of the spaceship when he was in the mood. His bohemian lifestyle was particularly glaring to Lu.

Lu hated everything about him. He hated the blues music that blared nonstop from his ship, his insistence on using an old-fashioned projector to play grainy black-and-white films, and even more so, his almost defiant composure in the face of doom. While other scholars would pull all-nighters in the lab, Ed would abruptly interrupt meetings and take his students to the deck for a barbecue—using real charcoal, a real grill, and even real beef he'd bought specially from the pastoral planet.

He should be the greatest high-energy physicist, he should be working for the future of mankind, but in this desperate era, he is still wasting his time!

His life shouldn't be so decadent! He has talent, he should work hard for humanity!

Lu hates Ed.

But she finally began to understand Ed...

In this age full of illusions...Ed may be the most real person alive.

"Professor Ed, will humanity be destroyed?" she asked. In this era, it seemed everyone had their own doubts, and for Lu, that was her own. She couldn't be sure of humanity's victory. She had read countless reports, countless records, even many professors' speeches. Humanity seemed almost helpless in its current predicament. So, she had unknowingly finally realized that a future in which humanity might truly be completely destroyed was indeed possible.

"I don't know." Ed flipped the steak with tongs. The fat melted by the flames and slowly flowed over the steak. Adding the cumin Ed had sprinkled on it, the aroma was fragrant. "Just like I don't know where the end of the universe is."

"Then, what is the future of mankind?" Lu asked again. She really wanted to know from the mouth of this perhaps the greatest high-energy physicist in the world where the future of mankind is going, but Ed still shook his head.

"I don't know," he continued, "I've had several students ask the same question as you, and I gave them the same answer. Then some of them committed suicide, some switched careers to study philosophy, and some ended up in a mental hospital. This is a dangerous question, and you're a dangerous child. As my student, you're excellent. I've read your research topics and the formulas you've derived. If you had been born a few hundred years earlier, you might have become a better scientist than me."

"I can do it now. I'm not that fragile." Lu frowned, unhappy that Ed had compared him to his students. "They don't have the awareness, let alone the courage to move forward. I'm different. I won't give up."

"Yes, you are both smart and stubborn. Coincidentally, I am both stubborn and smart, so that's why I think so highly of you. Come and try my cooking. This piece of meat is so thick that it seems a little burnt on the outside, but still pink on the inside."

"Then cut it thinner, or make a few cuts." Lu suggested, but she just said it casually, and Ed beside her smiled and revealed her secret.

A sly gleam flashed beneath the brim of Ed's cowboy hat as he slowly and methodically turned the spit, the grease dripping onto the charcoal making a sizzling sound. "Interesting."

He drawled out his voice, like an old cat finding its prey.

"Our theoretical physics genius actually secretly studied barbecue secrets?"

"...I just saw it by chance, it doesn't count as research." Lu's ears felt a little hot. She had indeed just glanced at it a few times. After all, she had been eating Ed's barbecue every day these days, so she was always curious. Now it was all over - Ed, the old fox, could always see through the mask of an excellent student that she carefully maintained.

"Ha!" Ed suddenly burst into laughter, shaking the steaks on the grill. As if by magic, he pulled a well-worn copy of "A Century of Texas Barbecue Secrets" from his vest pocket, its spine still stained with suspicious sauce. "Come on, come on, you're welcome. The new era needs people who can grill, too. If we ever go back to the Stone Age, being able to grill will make you a prophet of the tribe."

"I don't think being able to grill meat makes you a prophet, but it's true... we should think about what we would do if humans were to go back to the Stone Age."

Lu took a bite of the barbecue that Ed handed him. Sure enough, the outside was burnt and the inside was not cooked... but it tasted good, and the seasoning saved it.

-

In the second semester, Ed's class disappeared from the schedule, and Lu returned to her original life. She would occasionally think of the rock music resounding on the spaceship, and the half-cooked barbecue that occasionally gave her diarrhea. Although she couldn't say she missed it, it was strange... After taking Ed's class, her research became quite smooth, and she also developed the habit of watching movies occasionally. She watched old movies around the 2K era and would regularly write some reviews.

Although no one asked her to write, she always used this method to organize her thoughts.

The reason why Ed disappeared from the schedule was actually because the old cowboy seemed to have lost interest in teaching students and drove his modified little spaceship to do other important things.

Before leaving, Ed had given her an encrypted communication channel, but Lu never contacted him. It wasn't that she didn't want to, but every time she opened her terminal, the equations she needed to solve would consume her attention. It wasn't until graduation eve, when she was buried in the final calculations of her thesis, that the campus forum suddenly exploded with a message:

The "Prophet" will be visiting tomorrow! The Quantum Hall is open for a limited time!

Lu's fingers hovered over the keyboard, her breathing quickening unconsciously. In this age of rationality, scientists with exclusive titles are few and far between, and the term "prophet" is legendary. She immediately abandoned her half-written formula and spent a full three hours refreshing her work before securing a front-row seat—even more focused than when she was solving the equations in eleven-dimensional space. Compared to the uninhibited type like Ed, she was a standard model, the scientist Lu admired most. She was like a die-hard fan anticipating an idol's concert, unable to sleep due to her excitement.

Compared to Ed, the Prophet seemed to meet all her perceptions of a scientist: visionary and groundbreaking—she was at the forefront of her time and could be considered the best scientist in the world.

Lu unconsciously held her breath as she watched the lecture. This was the epitome of a scientist in her mind—rationality combined with poetry, rigor without sacrificing creativity. As the prophet demonstrated how to create microscopic wormholes in a vacuum using sonic resonance, the air in the quantum hall vibrated subtly with her tone. The equations that Lu had once dismissed as incomprehensible now took on the rhythmic beauty of a symphony under the prophet's interpretation.

"She makes math look like art..." Lu scribbled in his notebook, the ink smearing from his trembling fingers. He suddenly understood why Ed always spoke of the prophet in such a complicated tone—this woman could truly turn relativity into a love poem and quantum mechanics into a sonnet.

"She is an enviable woman. Her talent makes most of her colleagues so jealous that they want to transplant her brain." Ed's evaluation is still fresh in our minds. This is a person who can make an old guy like Ed jealous. She is truly a star hanging in the sky.

After the lecture, she immediately stood up from her seat. She had to get the prophet's autograph! She trotted all the way to a side door outside the Quantum Hall. Soon, the prophet walked out of the side door together with a black-haired female scientist she was unfamiliar with. The two seemed very close and had been discussing something. Lu approached them cautiously, holding a signature board. When she was truly facing her idol, she was like a young girl—no, she was the age of a young girl.

The black-haired woman seemed to have noticed her first. She nudged the prophet next to her with her elbow and said, "Your little fan might want an autograph."

"Oh?" The prophet seemed to have been immersed in some thoughts. After being reminded by the other party, she turned around and faced Lu. She showed a gentle smile, "How can I help you?"

"Um..." Lu felt like she must be stupid now, but she still handed over the signature board in her hand, "I want your autograph. Your speech really benefited me a lot."

"Is that so? You understand? I thought I went too far and was still reflecting on it." The prophet smiled awkwardly. "It's really inappropriate to talk about this in a university setting like that."

"I don't understand everything... but I've read your latest paper, so I understand a little bit." Lu immediately explained, "Your research is very interesting!"

"Pfft—you really know how to attract girls." The black-haired woman beside him chuckled, but this was already considered sarcasm. The prophet smiled awkwardly and signed on Lu's signature board before asking with interest, "What's your name?"

"Lu! My name is Lu!"

Chapter 39: Become a Person Who Will Not Be Remembered

Lu's heart was beating so hard she could almost hear the sound of blood hitting her eardrums. When her idol called out her name accurately, she felt her breathing pause for a moment.

"Hello, Lu."

The prophet's voice had a reassuring gentleness.

"You can call me Prophet, or Doctor." After saying this, she suddenly frowned slightly and turned to her companion. "Puresise, I always feel that... the name Lu sounds familiar?"

"You have such a bad memory!" Precious couldn't help but roll his eyes, tapping his temple lightly with his fingers. "Who was it yesterday who held up a paper and praised it, saying, 'This kid has a bright future'?"

She turned to Lu, who was standing there in a daze, and winked mischievously.

"See, there really is some kind of gravitational field between geniuses."

"My...my paper?" Lu's voice trembled unconsciously, and her hands twisted unconsciously. She was sure that she had not published any research results in any reputable journals recently. "But...I don't think I have recently..."

"It's not in a formal journal," the Prophet interrupted gently, her eyes gleaming with the enthusiasm of a scholar. "Ed brought it here—he said he'd discovered an interesting student. It's only a partial manuscript, but..." She and Precious exchanged a knowing glance. "We both think the argument is very novel, and the logical structure is quite beautiful."

The prophet leaned forward. "More importantly, you possess the most precious asset—" the corners of her mouth curved in encouragement. "Youth, like... in the words of ancient Earth, the sun at 12:00."

"It's not as impressive as you say..." Lu blushed deeply. She was truly flattered to be praised so highly by her idol. "Professor Ed... has taught me a lot. He's a very capable person. I just didn't expect... that he's actually so familiar with you."

The prophet snorted upon hearing this, and a mischievous glint flashed in his eyes.

"Ed? The old fogey? I don't know him very well."

She turned to look at Precious, a helpless smile on her lips.

"Do you remember what he did last time he came to the lab? He brought his damn antique revolver and tried to demonstrate his 'cowboy-style scientific spirit' to us—and he set off the Level 3 security alarm."

Precious's hand, which was adjusting the instrument, suddenly shook, and she nearly dropped the data tablet. "Don't even mention it! The security system labeled him a dangerous person and for months, they didn't let him go near the core area. And then he set up a camping tent in the hallway, cooking hot pot on a kerosene stove every day—" Her voice suddenly rose, "In the sterile lab! Using an open flame! I heard the security director let out several sharp explosions."