enjoyebooks Chapter 155 The Brain of Theseus
Chapter 155 The Brain of Theseus
Chapter 155 The Brain of Theseus (The End)
Bai Shuyuan reached out her hand towards the smallest monster.
However, even with its limbs locked in ice, its head still suddenly rose, opened its mouth, and began to bite at the air like a rabid dog.
"Xiao Liang," Bai Shuyuan called calmly, trying to communicate with it.
However, the only response was a more intense struggle; it did not react to the name at all.
"That's so rude. Looks like you got it from playing games. I'm going to take you to Uncle Yang for electrotherapy."
Bai Shuyuan spoke those terrifying words without any expression on her face.
However, the monster remained unmoved.
"It seems that once they feel they have been seen through, they completely shut down—no, they lose all humanity and start attacking."
Xiao Lü summarized the failed communication.
"Or rather, there was no humanity from the very beginning, and everything was just a disguise."
Bai Shuyuan made another conjecture.
"Helping these isopod-like aggregates reproduce" must be the highest priority program in their brains.
"really."
Thinking about it this way, both the earlier tricking of the two into eating the food and the current direct attack were to achieve this goal. Logically, it makes perfect sense.
"—Knee-jerk reflex is absent, pupillary light reflex is absent." Bai Shuyuan continued the examination.
After determining that it was not human, she took out the dagger again, seemingly preparing to execute the creature.
The blade pointed downwards, precisely piercing the heart.
The sound was off; it sounded like something piercing an insect's shell. The monster didn't react to the attack at all.
"In that case, stabbing the carotid artery would obviously be ineffective."
She raised the dagger again, this time aiming for her temple.
However, the result was no different from before, with no signs of weakening vital signs.
"It's much harder to kill than the survivors described," Little Green commented.
"It seems the parasitism has progressed further. This monster, resembling a shrunken fish louse, has taken over most of the host's life activities."
After she finished speaking, she stopped what she was doing, seemingly in a bit of a dilemma.
Xiao Lü thought for a moment and guessed what she was worried about.
"It's just a monster that looks like a human. Do as you see fit."
Bai Shuyuan nodded. Since Xiao Lü had already endorsed her actions, she had nothing more to say.
She used her magical girl powers to pry open the monster's skull.
"really."
Although it was expected, this scene still made Xiao Lü frown.
Inside the cranial cavity, there was no brain. Instead, there were countless gray-black worms.
They huddle together tightly, their segments interlocked, like a swarm of bees in a hive, forming the shape of a brain.
"It seems that the host's nervous system has been completely replaced."
When exposed to light, the swarm of worms inside the cranial cavity seemed to stir slightly.
However, after finding no further stimulus, it seemed to accept the status quo and returned to stability.
The monster, even with its head split open, showed no sign of diminishing its aggression.
Bai Shuyuan stared at the wriggling brain, thought for a moment, and prepared to put her hand inside.
"Hello!"
Without a second thought, Xiao Lü grabbed her wrist.
"What are you trying to do?" She looked at Bai Shuyuan speechlessly, feeling that her curiosity and drive were indeed a bit too strong.
"It's alright. They can't penetrate my defenses," Bai Shuyuan said, gently pulling her hand away from Xiao Lü's.
—Never mind, she knew what she was doing. Little Green didn't insist.
"I think—I'll try to remove the part of the prefrontal cortex that it simulates."
As Bai Shuyuan spoke, she probed her fingers into the wriggling swarm of insects.
Soon, Bai Shuyuan caught a small clump of insects in a certain area, casually found a cookie box, and tossed them inside.
A bizarre scene unfolded.
The moment those insects left its body, the monster beneath it abruptly ceased its rabid, aggressive behavior.
It no longer roared or struggled; it simply lay there quietly.
"Is this... a lobectomy?"
Xiao Lü remembered this infamous medical term.
"right."
"A controversial and banned destructive surgery, and one that doesn't really offer any practical benefits."
However, it works surprisingly well here.
The monster had completely calmed down, and its aggression had completely disappeared.
"What's your name?"
"Jin Xiaoliang".
"That child" spoke, his voice flat and emotionless, but his enunciation was clear.
"!"
""
Xiao Lü was somewhat surprised. Had she really calmed down and was even able to conduct normal question-and-answer sessions?
What is thirty-five plus twenty-seven?
Bai Shuyuan slowed down her speech and continued asking questions.
"Sixty-two."
The response was almost instantaneous.
"Please give a brief self-introduction."
Then, the thing began to tell its own story in a monotone devoid of emotion.
Her parents' jobs, home address, and school sounded no different from those of an ordinary student.
"I also have an older brother—"
It continued speaking. However, it was this sentence that instantly alerted Little Green.
"Its parents said they only had one child," Little Green immediately reminded White Kite.
Bai Shuyuan shook her head, signaling Xiao Lü to be quiet for now and let it continue talking.
"My brother has—Aww! A ...
Without warning, the thing's calm narration was interrupted by a shrill scream.
The blank expression disappeared, replaced by the previous aggressive madness.
The removed frontal lobe appears to have grown back?
"It seems the effect isn't permanent," Bai Shuyuan concluded, observing the scene.
"The previously missing parts will be supplemented and replaced by other parts of the skull."
"—So you were still thinking of saving them after all."
Little Green sighed as she looked at the scene before her.
"I have some ideas in this regard," Bai Shuyuan readily admitted.
"But more than anything, it was to satisfy my own curiosity."
She used the same method again to remove part of the prefrontal cortex, restoring the monster to a calm state that allowed it to be interrogated.
What kind of person is your brother?
Bai Shuyuan asked.
"My brother————"
The narrative began again, but the content was somewhat different.
"My brother doesn't like anyone touching his things, especially his clay figurines."
"All the little people have to line up in a row, facing the same direction. If I move, he will pounce on me and bite me hard, then scream all day until he falls asleep."
"He never speaks. He just stays in his room on the top floor every day, sculpting those clay figures over and over again."
"My parents said he liked quiet, so they covered the rooftop with thick foam. Every day, only my mother brings the food in and then leaves immediately."
"A guy who's completely absorbed in his own world." Bai Shuyuan immediately gave her diagnosis after listening.
Asperger's syndrome is a type of autism spectrum disorder.
Little Green understood.
It turns out that "only one hope" does not mean "only one child", but rather "only one child has hope".
However, what followed was not pity, but vigilance.
Another madman?
However, there seemed to be no familiar sense of distortion in the air, no mentally polluted atmosphere.
It seems that the child was not conceived with any deformed fetus?