Insufficient Energy

'Next step: instantiating the 'Permanent Immunity Shot'.

'If successful, no matter what I try in the future, at the very least, there'll be a safety net to fall back on.

'But if it's a failure…'

On the subway, Chen Chen continued scribbling his plans in a notebook.

Even after taking NZT, Chen Chen still did not dare to make any assumptions about the USB drive.

After all, it was an existence that had surpassed the realms of science. Even all of the cutting-edge scientific studies that mankind had accumulated so far stood no chance before it.

'Anyway, experiment on it as soon as possible.'

Chen Chen thought to himself as he touched the USB drive strapped on his arm.

Three o'clock in the afternoon, Chen Chen returned to the school. He noticed there was not a single person in the dorm.

According to the class schedule, this afternoon was Professor Deng Yun's biochemistry class. Unless he had taken a day off, he would not simply skip Old Deng's class.

There would not be another opportunity like this again. Chen Chen locked the door and quickly booted up the computer to download the final episode of the TV series, Limitless.

Chen Chen only took off the USB drive from his arm after ten minutes when the download was complete.

Over the past few days, Chen Chen had regularly inspected whether the USB drive could regain its glossiness on its own. After all, the USB drive had sufficient energy at the time he first got it.

It could be that all that energy was left behind for him by the previous owner of the USB drive.

Therefore, Chen Chen had reasons to believe that the USB drive could recharge itself.

It seemed apparent now that Chen Chen had made a wrong assumption.

Over the last seven days, the USB drive remained unchanged. It did not seem like it was going to regain even a bit of its glossiness.

Unless the recovery period took years, that might be it.

He also did not know how many times the USB drive had performed instantiation, how much energy was left in it, and whether it could instantiate the permanent immunity shot.

Chen Chen continued pondering while inserting the USB drive into the computer.

The USB drive was quickly validated as a disk-shaped symbol appeared on the computer screen.

Chen Chen opened the USB drive space. He copied the downloaded video into it.

Finally, Chen Chen double-clicked the video.

"Thump!"

An error message window popped out.

"Unable to play?"

Chen Chen frowned. He began to feel slightly defeated. Then, that feeling was immediately suppressed by NZT's drug effect.

One of the most valuable aspects of the NZT drug was that it could help the user remain composed.

For ordinary people, the term being calm was merely an adjective. It was not an easy task for someone to attain real, complete calmness.

Yet, Chen Chen did it effortlessly like it was just second nature to him.

Humans knew to breathe and cry from the moment they were born as these were instincts. Right now, calmness was Chen Chen's instinct. 

"No, there must be another reason…"

In Chen Chen's completely composed state, he suddenly thought of another possibility.

He considered for a moment and tried to create a new folder in the USB drive.

He right-clicked on a blank space – New – File. Sure enough, a new item called "New Folder" appeared in the USB drive.

There was hope!

Chen Chen immediately opened the web page and began downloading the TV series Limitless. From the first episode to the second last episode, not missing a single one.

This round, it took a longer time to download.

Chen Chen suddenly noticed he could not bear the idea of himself just doing nothing.

In that case, he could put his learning ability after taking NZT-48 to the test.

While Chen Chen was waiting for the download, he flipped open a book on the table titled "21st Century University Level English (Volume One)."

English and math had never been Chen Chen's strong suit, otherwise, he would not have taken a major in biological science. The prospects of this major he took were rather bleak. The only advantage was that the graduation rate was relatively high.

Chen Chen shook his head, then he flipped open the book and took a brief look.

However, just one brief look made him completely immersed in it.

In that instant, the entire dorm fell into a deep, extreme silence. The only sounds left were the buzzing from the computer hard drive spinning and the clock's never-ending tick tock…

"Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock…"

Under the still surface, Chen Chen's brain was operating at extreme speed. Starting from junior high school, memories of each English class began to surface vividly in his mind.

Using the current textbook as a reference, all the information he originally did not understand was quickly deciphered, digested…

…

"Hmm?"

By the time Ye Chen came back to his senses from studying, he had already flipped through the entire textbook and arrived at the final page.

Chen Chen blankly stared at the final blank page on the hardcover. He suddenly jolted and came back to his senses.

"Is this what it feels like to gain knowledge?"

Chen Chen tried to recall his previous enchanting state.

When he was in that state, the process of gaining knowledge did not feel dull. On the contrary, he could feel himself being rejuvenated bit by bit.

Under the effect of NZT, he was able to grasp all the knowledge in the book after only going through them once.

Not only that, over this learning session, he was even able to resolve information he did not understand back in junior high.

He checked the time. Only an hour had passed.

In just an hour, Chen Chen had successfully learned an entire semester's worth of English.

"Phew!"

Chen Chen breathed out a muddy breath, expressing the shock and awe he felt. This was the first time he had experienced how delightful and captivating learning was.

All of this was thanks to the effects of NZT-48.

"Ding!"

Right then, a notification came from the computer indicating that the download had been completed.

Chen Chen closed the book. He opened the computer and made sure all of the episodes had been downloaded. Then, he clicked ctrl + c, opened up the new folder in the USB drive, and clicked ctrl + v.

The progress bar flashed quickly.

About ten seconds later, nearly a dozen gigabytes worth of file was moved into the USB drive.

Once again, Chen Chen opened the twenty-second episode. The video software was promptly started. This time, there was no error message window popping out on the computer.

"I knew it!"

Chen Chen's eyes turned bright.

His hypothesis was correct. For the USB drive to instantiate an object, apart from it having to be a video featuring real people, there was another hidden condition.

The completeness of the story.

Considering what had happened earlier, he had only downloaded the final episode of the TV series and was not able to open the film.

However, after he had downloaded all of the episodes in the series, he was able to open it.

Did this mean that the USB drive could only perform instantiation after attaining the complete story?

It remained unknown how many hidden secrets the USB drive contained…

Chen Chen heaved a sigh of relief. He silently skipped the video to the part of the "permanent immunity shot" and paused it.

After that, Chen Chen began to imagine the immunity shot in the screen being manifested into reality.

"Bloop…"

The screen seemed to turn into a pane of clear water. The permanent immunity shot swayed up and down in the water, forming circles of ripples around it.

Chen Chen subconsciously raised his hand.

However, the very moment Chen Chen was about to grip the immunity shot, the footage suddenly stopped!

"Thump!"

In an instant, Chen Chen felt an electrocuting sensation on his fingertips as if he had been bitten by a bug!

He immediately withdrew his hand and noticed blood was pouring out of his finger.

On his fingertips, a tiny chunk of flesh had disappeared out of thin air…

At that moment, a window popped out from the screen again.

What was displayed on the window was not a software error. Instead—

"Insufficient Energy."