Chapter 1976: Brain Resection Surgery
Uncertain whether there might be a second East District player among the therapists, the tattooed man and two companions guarded the strategist's side. With the strategist's impatient remark, rebels immediately dragged someone out from the crowd, counted down ten seconds, and killed them, then went to drag out a second person.
The therapists huddled together, trembling. Only when another person fell before their eyes did someone crack under the pressure and shout loudly, "I'll talk! I'll talk!"
The strategist raised a hand to signal his men to stop.
That therapist remained relatively calm and spoke methodically: "You're investigating the East District players too, so you must know they all have some psychological issues. And the East District players' mental problems are more severe than other players in our district—you can see this by comparing them to the rebel players..."
"To be honest, we don't actually know about the surgery you mentioned. We're just ordinary psychotherapists, responsible only for helping players resolve their inner conflicts. We don't participate in other matters, nor do we have the authority to."
"But after prolonged contact, we do have some awareness." Before the strategist's expression could change, the therapist quickly added: "Indeed, many East District players have undergone craniotomies. However, implanting anti-interference devices also requires opening the skull, so that alone isn't conclusive evidence. But we therapists can see other colleagues' data, and we've found that players who've undergone multiple craniotomies have much more stable and richer emotions compared to those who've had only one or none at all."
"Richer?" The strategist repeated his wording.
"As you've seen, the high-level players from the East District excel in combat. To outsiders, it seems they've undergone special training to achieve such quick reflexes and efficient judgment. But in a therapist's eyes, they actually suffer from emotional deficits." The therapist continued, "Existing research in the game world has already proven that the brains of people with high intelligence but lacking human emotions are different from ordinary brains. They're somewhat similar to pathological brains. The difference is that pathological brains can be treated with medication, but congenital cases generally cannot—even with relevant drugs, the effects aren't good."
"Stop beating around the bush. What are you trying to say?" The tattooed man barked.
The therapist swallowed hard. "What I mean is, the East District players' brains may have been neutered—artificially removing parts of the brain that manage emotions. The seven emotions and six desires are actually quite disruptive to humans. Players are also human; they get scared too. But if they're no longer afraid of death, naturally they'll use any means available."
This left everyone present stunned. After a moment, the strategist asked, "Is that possible?"
"Theoretically, yes. But it requires extremely specialized talent, and only the person wielding the knife knows how to perform the resection without affecting normal life." Out of professional habit, the therapist added, "Logically speaking, even if such a surgery exists, it would still be in the experimental stage. The East District's high success rate is actually very abnormal."
Anyone hearing this would find it abnormal, because the human brain and the essence of this evolutionary world are the same—they may undergo unexpected changes during evolution. For example, ordinary evolvers initially experience faster information processing in the brain. Further evolution might bring special brain development, suddenly making people smarter, able to learn anything by analogy.
At this point, it's arguably the limit of what humans can imagine for the brain—wisdom, intelligence, and beyond that, genius. But the game has produced Super Evolvers. Setting aside Temporal and Spatial Evolvers, even Mental Super Evolution alone is very telling, because mental power can reach the point of controlling reality through the human brain. So no one at any time can claim to have fully researched the human brain. For Agor Corporation to be able to control human emotions by removing parts of the brain—isn't that abnormal enough?
Moreover, looking at those East District players, before losing control, they appear normal—just calmer and less prone to emotional reactions.
"If there really is a doctor this skilled, the dimensional rift should hire him as a chief surgeon," the tattooed man said, both amazed and sarcastic.
So what the therapist deduced from his data might not be the truth. However, these claims also suggest that Agor Corporation does perform craniotomies on high-level players. And according to what the rebels know, with Agor's current technology, implanting anti-interference devices no longer requires opening the skull—they can use smaller medical instruments to replace manual operation.
"Who do you think performs the surgery on these players?" The strategist's goal was still a specific name.
"Zheng... Zheng Yuci!" The therapist stammered out the name.
The tattooed man immediately placed a file in front of the strategist, containing the information they had gathered on Zheng Yuci. This information had also been sent to Xu Huo, but they hadn't placed much importance on Zheng Yuci. From his daily schedule and what some East District players said, he was just a psychotherapist. Even if he had exceptional abilities, that conflicted with his profession.
"You're lying?" The strategist looked at the therapist. "Your Agor psychotherapists hiring assassins to kill each other in the East District is nothing new. Are you trying to use the rebels' hands to eliminate a rival?"
The therapist quickly waved his hands. "Absolutely not! And I haven't hired anyone to kill Zheng Yuci. It's happened before, but several therapists I knew who tried to push Zheng Yuci out all died or disappeared mysteriously, and the company didn't even ask. That's when I realized he's someone the company protects!"
"To put it bluntly, we're all consumables to the company. Once we're gone, new people fill our places immediately. Only Zheng Yuci—the company gives him special treatment, he works in a separate area, we don't usually meet, and he's protected by A-class players when traveling. Doesn't that prove his specialness?"
All of this might prove Zheng Yuci's special treatment at Agor, but it doesn't directly prove he's the one performing the surgeries. The strategist wanted more concrete information.
"Give them the injections." The strategist stepped back two paces and turned into a small room next door.
Every captured therapist was given truth serum, then taken one by one into the small room for questioning.
The process was quick, because the rebels only needed to verify whether the first therapist who spoke was telling the truth.
Xu Huo entered after Zhang Xian. He imitated the others' dull demeanor, stated his identity briefly, and since he had only just arrived at Jade Spring City, the strategist didn't say much before having him escorted out. Just as he was leaving, the tattooed man came over to inform:
"Company players have found us." (Chapter End)