Chapter 124: Extraterrestrial Civilization Arrives

Chapter 124: Extraterrestrial Civilization Arrives

“The effects of the Entropy Agent vary between individuals. Apart from the standard mentioned in the ‘Entropy’ paper for judging memory levels on a mechanism level, memory’s outward expression is also hard to measure.”

“However, based on the volunteers’ conditions after the first clinical trial, we can confirm that every volunteer who used Entropy Agent experienced at least a 30% improvement in memory compared to before.”

After the first clinical trial of Entropy Agent, Professor Teng from Research Institute 011 stood before Qin Yu, visibly excited as he explained the trial results.

A 30% boost in memory might not seem like much.

Like if something used to take ten seconds to remember, now it only takes about seven.

It might not seem like a big leap forward. But the significance of better memory couldn’t be calculated so simply.

The 30% improvement brought more than just faster memorization.

It also extended long-term memory retention, improved recall quality, and boosted the brain’s efficiency in pulling memories from deep storage.

Better memory was sure to have a big impact on human thought processes too.

Thinking itself requires constantly calling upon memory.

Two people with different memory abilities would likely think at very different speeds.

The ripple effects of improved memory touched many facets of human thinking.

This was a key reason Qin Yu believed better memory could also push up overall human intelligence.

“Further, besides some researchers who used Entropy Agent eating slightly more food than before, no clear side effects on humans were observed during these trials.”

The more he spoke, the more excited, even thrilled, Professor Teng became.

Researchers like him, with deep knowledge in the field, understood Entropy Agent’s value and the sheer difficulty of its creation.

To Professor Teng, after his long research career,

even putting aside what Entropy Agent did, its very existence seemed like a miracle.

Following finished theory papers and instructions was straightforward. But if Research Institute 011 tried making Entropy Agent and its memory-boosting tech from scratch,

he honestly wouldn’t know where to begin.

Getting Academician Qin Yu involved in life science research might be the way forward. He had faith Qin Yu could lead them to that level of achievement.

“Based on the ‘Memory Mechanism Theory,’ Entropy Agent perfectly meets its creator’s goal of boosting human memory.”

“Even if Research Institute 011 grasped the Memory Mechanism Theory, we’d struggle to find such a perfect method to apply it for memory enhancement.”

Professor Teng sighed with feeling.

“Maybe its creator tried and failed many times before finding Entropy Agent—just the right thing to make the memory theory work.”

Qin Yu smiled briefly, acknowledging Professor Teng’s words.

Professor Teng took a deep breath, nodded, calming down a little.

“Director Qin, what comes next…”

“Move on to the next phase of clinical trials. If larger-scale trials are passed, we can start wider distribution.”

“If we can raise civilization’s overall memory and indirectly boost average intelligence, it could help counter our current… sluggishness.”

Qin Yu simply stated.

“As for the other memory-boosting methods mentioned in this paper for the next generation—once safety is confirmed, we can try those too. The theory suggests methods based on human memory mechanisms are better suited for improving the memory of future generations.”

Professor Teng, head of Research Institute 011, listened to Qin Yu and nodded.

He sighed again with emotion.

“Maybe this mysterious researcher ‘Entropy’ chose to reveal this tech now specifically to tackle our civilization’s current stagnation… If memory improves, learning gets easier, research and creative work become less taxing… maybe people would feel more willing to do these things.”

You see, researchers in the Negentropy Research Institute weren’t fools.

Though everyone was kept in the dark about ‘Entropy’s’ identity by Qin Yu,

they’d mostly figured out the rest.

Qin Yu didn’t add anything more.

…

The 46th year of HUE

This year was incredibly busy.

Within the HCC, the Negentropy Research Institute kept pushing initiatives to motivate people to better themselves.

These past two years, influenced by the Institute’s will and civilization’s natural inertia,

the overall moral and ideological climate within the Human Coalition had grown rather charged.

The belief that one should be content without striving for more, living life their own way,

clashed fiercely with the idea that those unwilling to contribute to civilization were ‘rice worms,’ useless—that life must aim for more than basic survival and comfort, to achieve a ‘higher’ purpose.

The conflict was intense.

The tolerant folks, who felt letting people live simply on basic welfare was fine as long as they didn’t bother others,

were constantly at odds with those who looked down on such ‘rice worms,’ the ‘unambitious.’

Arguments were non-stop. The divide between the two groups was quite sharp.

Fortunately, this friction was mostly confined to online bickering.

The tension stayed manageable. No major troubles had erupted—yet.

Back at the Negentropy Research Institute,

research teams carried on their work.

Humanity kept building on Jupiter, Mercury, and other distant planets.

And after the first trial, Research Institute 011 proceeded with second and third clinical trials for Entropy Agent.

By the second round’s multi-batch tests,

most researchers at Negentropy Research Institute 011 Lab had used Entropy Agent.

Once the agent’s stability was further confirmed,

by the third trial phase, it had been distributed widely throughout the Negentropy Research Institute.

The memory boost from Entropy Agent,

for the Institute’s major ongoing projects,

didn’t show instant, dramatic results.

But on a longer timeline, its impact was likely already stirring.

Even if the intelligence gain stemming from better memory was just slight,

applied across humanity’s top tier of researchers,

the long-term effects promised to be huge.

Similarly,

at this stage,

Negentropy Research Institute 011 Lab announced Entropy Agent’s existence to the public.

…

“Huaxin News Agency reports.”

A serum that greatly improved human memory, made by some researchers and teams, called the Entropy Memory Serum, had recently finished Phase III clinical trials at the Negentropy Research Institute 011 Lab.

At present, the Entropy Memory Serum was confirmed to have passed the clinical trials. It was confirmed to clearly lift human memory and to be stable and safe.

This was another big step forward in the field of life sciences in human civilization’s history.

It was known that after use, the Entropy Memory Serum gave users at least a thirty percent overall boost in memory. Indirectly, it could also boost thinking and learning skills somewhat.

After the Entropy Memory Serum spread widely, it was hoped to lift human civilization’s total smarts and help its long-term growth a lot!

Also, according to the Negentropy Research Institute 011 Lab, the Entropy Memory Serum would go into mass production soon. Once done, everyone in the HCC could get one to use as needed.

After the Huaxin News Agency released this news with HCC approval,

on the internet, people who got this surprise out of nowhere naturally felt happy.

But people weren’t too amazed by it,

since with human civilization moving so fast now,

any time a new science thing came out wasn’t all that odd,

as long as it wasn’t something like suddenly saying memory upload was possible, people accepted it easily.

“HCC is awesome! Negentropy Research Institute is awesome!”

“I’m over a hundred years old. Since hitting 120, I could really feel my memory getting worse… Now, my brain might become young again – is that what this means?”

“At least memory can get better… But this is clearly the job of the Negentropy Research Institute 011 Lab, right? Why not name the research team or its leader?”

“Who cares? Maybe the team can’t show up… um… our HCC doesn’t have secrets to hide, probably they just don’t want to be seen.”

People didn’t sweat those small issues in the Entropy Agent news much.

The biggest thing was, Entropy Agent was truly born.

Even folks set on being lazy wouldn’t say no to making their brains work better.

With memory boosted, even when having fun or playing VR games, you’d feel more joy.

“… So when will the Entropy Memory Serum actually sell? I’m itching to try it out… Not to turn me into someone like Academician Qin Yu, just let me feel a tiny bit of what photographic memory is like!”

“Photographic memory… dude, are you awake? This Negentropy Research Institute win is great, but making everyone have photographic memory? That’s tough. Can life science or biology really pull that off?”

“Sure, I’m pumped for the Entropy Memory Serum too, lifting memory… Why not arrive sooner? Wish I had it back when I was in school.”

On the web, people chatted noisily about their big hopes for the Entropy Memory Serum.

If nothing else came up,

human civilization that year would likely end in talks and wishes about the Entropy Memory Serum.

But sadly,

right after, another event shifted everyone’s mood from hope to worry.

Late that year,

not long after the Entropy Memory Serum was announced,

another thing happened that made Qin Yu put aside his research and focus on it.

…

For human civilization and the HCC overall, there was good news.

The overall laziness of human civilization might finally ease.

But the way it came about wasn’t too cheerful.

For Qin Yu himself,

there was also good news.

He didn’t need to make up an Extraterrestrial Civilization to give humans outside pressure and drive growth anymore.

Because,

an Extraterrestrial Civilization really came.

Qin Yu half-wondered if he had a magic mouth,

as he just thought about cooking up an Extraterrestrial Civilization less than a year ago,

and one truly showed up.

Human civilization found signs of an Extraterrestrial Civilization existing,

more exactly,

an Extraterrestrial Civilization was heading straight toward the Solar System where human civilization is.

…

“Director Qin… Director Qin…”

At the Negentropy Research Institute in Lingchuan City.

All lab and research team heads were part of this meeting.

Even those not on Earth, at labs on the Lunar Surface or Mars colonies, who couldn’t make it back to Negentropy Research Institute HQ,

joined via holographic projection remotely.

Since the Negentropy Research Institute swelled to over a million or two, and the leader count got huge,

people rarely gathered this fully.

But that obviously wasn’t a good sign at this time.

Once Qin Yu sat, the whole meeting room went quiet.

Through holographic projection above, charts, data, and reports appeared so every head present could see them.

Though they knew the basics before coming,

they still studied the full report.

“Thirty-two minutes ago, big space tools in the Outlook Observation Array on the Lunar Surface and Mars spotted odd moves at the Oort Cloud’s outer edge.”

“The alert system kicked in at once, and the whole Outlook Observation Array turned to watch that spot closely.”

“Now we know for sure, a big mass of stuff is zooming at us.”

“From Outlook Array info, it shouldn’t be natural junk like meteors or asteroids.”

“Most likely, it’s ‘man-made stuff’.”

“After more tracking… what’s homing in is probably an Interstellar Fleet or huge ship squad of a civilization.”

“This is the guess by Strong Artificial Intelligence adding up all clues.”

Just then, the Doomsday Crisis Probability from the Information Denoising Institute leaped to fifty percent.