13. Flip you over

Energy was released in an instant, and it felt like a large firecracker had been stuffed into a metal pipe. Although it didn't burst the pipe, the vibration put the scientific research spacecraft into defense mode.

"The intensity of the energy release is equivalent to nine thousand tons of TNT," Gu Tao translated the data into a standard that Xin Chen could understand. "But that's a full release. You'll need about forty minutes to be recharged for a second time, which is a shortcoming."

Drenched in sweat, Xin Chen sat in a nearby chair to rest. After hearing Gu Tao's words, he gasped for breath and said, "Senior brother knows I wanted to find out exactly how much I could release, so I let it all out. Now if someone wants to kill me, I'm utterly defenseless."

"There's nothing on Earth capable of forcefully killing like that," Gu Tao said, smiling confidently. "Take a rest, I'll go analyze your data. There's food in the cabinet, it tastes awful, but it's amazing for replenishing energy. Don't exceed three grams, okay?"

"What happens if I do?"

Xin Chen's question made Gu Tao turn back to look at him with an unusually serious expression.

"What happens? Don't scare your senior brother."

"You'll get fat."

That was truly terrifying. Although Xin Chen was quite a homebody, he always paid close attention to his figure. So, he carefully took out three pills from the jar and popped them in his mouth. How should I put it... The taste... was really awful, like potato chips that had been sunbaked for half a year mixed with the flavor of half-rotted dead grasshoppers, melting instantly in the mouth so there was no chance to spit it out.

But just as Gu Tao had said, as soon as the stuff went down, the feeling of weakness disappeared, limbs and body feeling instantly replenished, and the fatigue was swept away. It really was an amazing energy booster.

"Junior brother, this stuff is a miracle for healing injuries! It's better than the Immortal Pills from our sect. Can I take some with me?" Xin Chen shouted toward the door, "Just a little bit."

"Take it all," Gu Tao's voice came from outside. "That stuff is not meant for human consumption."

Xin Chen pouted and muttered, "Amateur, this kind of treasure is worth its weight in gold, a sacred healing item. Come on, senior brother will pack it for you."

He was not at all polite, stuffing an entire jar into his backpack. Xin Chen, who would have needed forty to fifty minutes and a large amount of food to recover, was instantly re-energized by the three grams of that substance. He tried circulating his energy and found himself in peak condition, reinforcing his belief that this was a treasure.

"Junior brother, what is this?"

"Which one are you talking about?"

"This one, the green, long one."

"That's for repairing injuries. As long as it's an external injury and you're not dead, it can heal you, even if your heart has been pierced through," Gu Tao explained. "If you want it, take it."

"You're so generous, junior brother," Xin Chen felt moved. "Senior brother will help himself then!"

"Come here for a second."

Gu Tao took Xin Chen to the analysis room, then sat in front of a screen, chewing slowly on a stick of cigarette candy, his gaze fixed on the analysis report. "Your combat capabilities are truly strong. Is this the level of an Earth Immortal?"

"Hmm, but senior brother, I am a genius. Ordinary Earth Immortals are no match for me."

Gu Tao stroked his chin, pondering. "Are there others?"

"Of course! But very few, very rare, hard to come across."

"Okay," Gu Tao looked at the screen and thought for a moment. "Do you have a standardized measurement for power levels?"

"Not exactly. I only know that you get a title after reaching Earth Immortal. Below Earth Immortal, we're all just cultivators," Xin Chen tried to recall. "How do we set a standard for that?"

Gu Tao hummed in acknowledgment, pointing at the comparative data on the screen. "I plan to set up a measurement standard, and then use that standard to gauge a person's strength."

"Right, right," Xin Chen nodded fervently. "All this time, realms have been a vague concept. If you really can set a standard, it will be amazing, truly a boundless merit."

Standardization sounds simple, but in reality, it's one of the biggest challenges that must be overcome in any large-scale industry. It took humanity four hundred years to go from the appearance of standardization to its full implementation, and to this day, true standardization hasn't been achieved on Earth. Because standardization is not just about unifying measurements, it also involves extracting averages from massive data sets and defining these averages with appropriate standard units.

The real difficulty lies in determining these average values. Take combat power, for example. A single human's combat power can vary due to external and internal factors over different periods, like at the ages of five, fifteen, twenty-five, fifty-five, seventy-five—their combat power is not the same. Similarly, one's combat power differs when they are hungry, satiated, well-rested, or sleep-deprived, so simply using a single value for comparison would be inadequate.

The differences between individuals are even more pronounced. For instance, the twenty-five-year-old Tyson and the twenty-five-year-old Gu Tao have drastically different levels of physical combat power. Tyson could knock someone's brains out with one heavy punch, whereas Gu Tao couldn't even win against a wild dog.

Therefore, creating a measurement standard would require not only a long period but also a sufficient amount of data. Gu Tao did not have the luxury of time but he had a lot of horizontal data. After six years of uninterrupted work by mosquito drones, data on more than half of the global human population lay in his database. By taking this six-year dataset and calculating an average, it becomes possible to determine a basic human combat power standard.

As for the factors of combat strength, these include reaction speed, strength, body coordination, and resistance to being struck. How to transform these values into direct numbers requires standardized calculations and comparisons. This project is colossal and, even with the aid of supercomputers, it still takes a considerable amount of time to correct values and remove special cases. After all, the strongest human in the list can take on a brown bear single-handedly. Average values never take exceptions into account. Computers don't filter automatically; therefore, what Gu Tao has to do is exclude those who obviously don't fit the human norm.

Only after the standardization process is completed can the computer exclude these anomalies in subsequent entries, and that's a shortcoming of computer programs. Of course, this isn't to say that artificial intelligence can't accomplish this. The main issue is that the mother planet does not permit overly sophisticated artificial intelligences to emerge, which results in assistants always being mere assistants and scientific research personnel being strictly human...

"Junior brother, are you going to eat? I brought instant noodles." Xin Chen said, holding a bowl of noodles and walking up to Gu Tao, watching as he typed strange characters: "That looks really impressive, I don't understand it."

"Prepare a bowl for me." Gu Tao didn't look up: "It'll take another three to four hours to finish screening. We'll have to stay here tonight."

"Sure. That water dispenser of yours is awesome. Can we take it back?"

"Which one are you talking about?"

Xin Chen turned and pointed at an oval metal device: "That one there."

"That's a water quality analyzer... You used the water from it to make noodles? That's deep water containing a high temperature and a lot of heavy metals! The water dispenser is on the other side, pour it out quickly!"

Gu Tao really had no remedy for this guy. From what he is seeing now, this guy is certainly smart, but ignorance is limiting his imagination. Plus, his hyperactivity disorder made him almost touch everything in the spaceship. Now he's finally made a ridiculously stupid mistake; the water in that analyzer definitely shouldn't be drunk – it contains a large amount of radioactive substances and metal pollutants, which could lead to a treatment course even with his physique.

"What a pity... you could have said something sooner." Xin Chen pursed his lips and threw the noodles into the trash can: "Eh? Does the trash can eat up the garbage?"

"It doesn't eat it up, it goes into the decomposition chamber, otherwise, bacteria would grow in a closed space." Gu Tao still didn't look up: "Quickly go make noodles, and if you don't know what something is for, call Satania. Don't touch anything recklessly! I've unblocked some permissions for you. Go wander around but don't bother me."

"Oh... then, senior brother, I won't disturb you. You're working hard. When we get back, I'll introduce you to a younger apprentice sister."

Gu Tao paused for a moment, then slowly turned his head: "In theory, I'm not supposed to have too much contact with Earth creatures."

"But the junior sister is very pretty, has long legs and a good figure. Although she's a bit quirky, overall, she's great." Xin Chen was promoting his junior sister as if he were a clothing salesman: "And usually, when you say 'in theory,' it means there's no problem, right? Besides, you can't go back anymore."

"How do you know that?"

"I just had a chat with an uncle here."

Upon hearing this, Gu Tao instantly leaped up, turned around, and grabbed Xin Chen's sleeves with both hands: "Where is he!"

"He's here, with you. But you probably can't see him, neither can the instruments. He must be a sort of spirit entity. There's a beautiful girl with him. He told me to tell you that she left a bag of cookies at the very bottom of the cupboard, in case you're missing home, have one."

Without another word, Gu Tao dashed into the storage room and opened Mrs. Tifa's cupboard. Rummaging through her personal belongings, he indeed found an unopened box of cookies, which were over a hundred and twenty years past their expiration date. But because they were in a sterile environment, spoilage was not an issue. He tremulously tore open the vacuum-sealed packaging and placed a piece in his mouth...

It was truly the taste of home, the tart fruit flavor that only girls seemed to like...

After eating the cookie, he looked up and took a deep breath. Meanwhile, Xin Chen had appeared beside him out of the blue and patted his shoulder: "Junior brother, even though I know you look down on us, I believe we still have some strengths that you don't. If you keep learning, one day you'll be able to see the world that is now invisible to you. Are they your friends?"

"Family."

"Your family will wait for you here. One day, you will be reunited."

Gu Tao sighed deeply and clenched his teeth: "Stop talking nonsense. Work isn't finished yet. Tonight, I need to make the data meticulously standardized, then classify it. There's a lot to do, so hurry up and get me something to eat."

"Sure thing, junior brother. You keep busy."

Xin Chen watched as Gu Tao returned to his workstation and whispered to himself: "Has he always been like this?"

"Yeah... that confirms it, he's truly a genius. A genius is a genius wherever they are." Although no other voice could be heard, he seemed to be chatting with someone: "You guys like him a lot, right? You heard him, he called you family."

"Hahaha, alright. I will protect him as much as I can, although sooner or later, he'll be the one protecting me," Xin Chen nodded: "Okay, I'll bring him to visit often."

Gu Tao could hear his whisperings, though they were faint; the sensors directly linked to his ears picked up everything. He had tried before, and there wasn't a speck of energy reaction, not even the most advanced scanners could detect anything besides Xin Chen. But judging from the content of the conversation, Xin Chen definitely couldn't have known so much, so Gu Tao concluded that this guy must possess the ability to communicate with another world...

"Tell them something for me." Gu Tao suddenly appeared before Xin Chen like a ghost: "I miss them so much, I won't let them down."

Xin Chen nodded, then conveyed Gu Tao's message. After a brief wait: "They say they miss you too. That beautiful sister said that if you miss her, she left a backdoor for you at the bottom layer of the database, and you'll know what it does once you activate it."