Chapter 2996: Brain Hibernation
With the instance's enhancement, the doppelganger's manipulation of spiritual power demonstrated to Xu Huo another dimension of the spiritual realm.
In his earlier conversation with Tang Guangbo, the latter had mentioned the concept of a "Mental Defense Line."
This was easy to understand. Whether player or ordinary person, as long as one's mind was still clear, this defense line existed. However, the "Mental Defense Line" Tang Guangbo referred to seemed more like an instinctive protective mechanism, not the conscious self-protection of an awake individual.
For most people, this "Mental Defense Line" was something they were unaware of. For example, after evolution, a player's spiritual power was significantly stronger than an ordinary person's, but that didn't mean they understood exactly what spiritual power was or what the defense line looked like. Therefore, it was an absolute defense line that existed regardless of whether one was aware of it or not.
Xu Huo tracked his doppelganger and happened to encounter it killing Sutton and the others. In the final stage, Sutton had almost no ability to resist. This wasn't absolute suppression of spiritual power, but rather the doppelganger breaking through his mental defense line. Perhaps even Sutton himself hadn't realized this—once the defense line was breached, the doppelganger could easily kill his spiritual body without relying on any physical means. If the spiritual body representing autonomous consciousness died, then Sutton would certainly die as well.
Although the doppelganger had taken advantage of the venue, it gave Xu Huo some inspiration.
Perhaps the use of the "Anchor" achieved its effect precisely by briefly breaking through another person's mental defense line.
The "Anchor" of spiritual power involved projecting a certain amount of spiritual power into another person, similar to lodging it in their spiritual world. Spiritual power itself was bound to the Evolver. For spiritual power to exist apart from the Evolver required evolution to a certain level. Once thrown, this "Anchor" was generally no longer under the Evolver's control. What effect the "Anchor" would have, and when it would take effect, were both unknown—of course, this was based on Xu Huo's current understanding, all the materials he had collected, and the conclusions he had drawn from every Mental Evolver he had seen. But the true master of mental evolution was Dr. Zhang. What he could achieve was hard to say.
For the "Anchor" to truly take effect, it might require reaching the level of breaking through the mental defense line. Otherwise, why would so few Mental Evolvers know about and be able to use the "Anchor"?
Perhaps A-level wormhole points had more systematic training in mental evolution, but for the vast game world, the "Anchor" was a concept not easily realized.
Breaking through the mental defense line could easily kill a person without even requiring highly concentrated spiritual power. This seemed to be a different evolutionary direction from materializing spiritual power.
Xu Huo watched Sutton, who was taking his medicine.
The sharp-sensed man immediately realized Xu Huo was probing him with spiritual power. His muscles tensed, and he warily looked at Xu Huo.
"Just trying something," Xu Huo said indifferently. "If I wanted to harm you, I wouldn't have saved you earlier."
Sutton understood his meaning and said, "Your spiritual power is so strong. Experimenting on me won't yield any results."
His implication was that Xu Huo should go find the doppelganger. A fight between strong and strong was the proper course. What could he gain from someone clearly inferior?
"That's not necessarily true," Xu Huo said meaningfully. "Heal your body first. We'll talk about this later."
Sutton looked at the medicine in his hand and hesitated whether to drink it.
At that moment, another female player who had been rescued walked over. Like Sutton, there was blood under her ears and nose. Her condition was even more severe than Sutton's. After being rescued, she had continued bleeding and couldn't immediately regain consciousness. Now that she was awake, Sutton could clearly see her movements were noticeably sluggish: had her brain been damaged?
There were only two ways to kill with spiritual power. One was to materialize spiritual power, directly causing physical damage. The other was to use spiritual power far exceeding another's to interfere, causing the interfered person's brain to collapse under the immense pressure. But the second method was more about acting on the blood vessels in the brain, not truly killing the spirit, and certainly not reaching the level of the Wisteria Instance.
However, the Doppelganger Instance seemed to be a fusion of both—possessing an absolute volume of spiritual power while also being able to kill another's autonomous consciousness by breaking through their mental defense line.
Like Sutton, the female player couldn't withstand the pressure of the spiritual power, had her mental defense line breached, and her autonomous consciousness was attacked.
Although human thought was inseparable from the physical carrier of the brain, Xu Huo was still somewhat interested in the subtle differences that might exist.
"Do you have an instrument?" Xu Huo asked Sutton. "Help her check her brain."
What else could Sutton say? He could only cooperate and take out an expensive instrument he carried with him.
Although the female player was a bit sluggish, she wasn't to the point of being unable to judge danger. She just didn't recognize the two strangers in front of her, feeling like she had seen them but hadn't.
Sutton explained to her and showed her the video he had taken earlier to deal with unexpected situations in the instance, finally convincing the female player to accept the examination.
The miniature instrument circled the female player's head several times before displaying the data.
After reading it, Sutton couldn't help frowning. "A very small part of her brain has entered hibernation."
"Hibernation?" Xu Huo pressed. "Not necrosis?"
"Not necrosis," Sutton said. "The game world has made considerable achievements in brain research. After evolution, a new type of cell named 'Mox PL-327' splits from the neurons in a player's brain. This is why players' brains are more developed than ordinary people's. Thanks to this cell, players can process information several times, even dozens of times faster than normal people. The highest recorded rate is ninety-two times, though that's an extremely rare case."
"Moreover, when this new cell dies, it can regenerate quickly. In other words, as long as the damage isn't absolutely irreversible, a player's brain can recover, and they won't suffer the various sequelae that ordinary people experience after severe head trauma."
"But cell increase and decrease both have limits. That's an individual's ceiling. It's like when food in the stomach hasn't been digested, it's hard to accept new things. Under normal circumstances, if this hibernating part of her brain had all necrotized, it would recover in time. But entering a hibernation state means these cells have only had their activity suppressed without dying, and no new cells can be produced."
"This situation is somewhat like being injected with a large amount of anesthetic. The brain's functions aren't damaged; they're just temporarily not working."
"What happens over time?" Xu Huo asked.
"Hard to say. It might suddenly recover at some point, or it might suddenly necrotize," Sutton shook his head. "No one can give a definitive answer about the complexity of the human brain."
Hibernation... Xu Huo looked at the female player. Hibernation probably wasn't the final outcome. It was more like boiling a frog in warm water, a very gentle and gradual way to kill her spiritual body.