Chapter 534 — Provision Against the Rain
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
The artificial neural cord was not a technology developed from scratch. Ever since the bioengineers of the Sect of the Final Death of All Things created it, that bio-mechanical construct had passed through decades of development and refinement in the hands of two cults, the Final Death and the Never-Sleepers. Piyun, once a devotee of both, possessed the relevant expertise himself, while Daniel had for over a decade been studying the neural cord within his own body and had already modeled a non-implant structure. Gaoyang thus had ready-made data, ready-made technicians, and a ready-made experimental workshop at his disposal; producing a usable finished product would not take long—the only real drain on time was testing the samples.
"As a matter of fact, we had a prototype a while ago," Piyun said with a rather smug laugh, then glanced awkwardly at Rebecca. "But while we were testing it, Miss Rebecca's laboratory blew up, and our side took some of the fallout… so the full round of testing and adjustment is not yet complete."
Rebecca shrank back at once, and Gaoyang recalled the circumstances—yes, that had indeed happened.
Not long before, the laboratory where Rebecca tested the power structure of the magic-energy train had exploded, and the accident had even caused serious casualties. Piyun and the druids and alchemist apprentices he led had been the first on the scene, and Piyun had mentioned then that he was testing the neural cord…
It was a regrettable and headache-inducing business, but the accident had happened, and Gaoyang could only accept the fact. "So what do the test results show at this stage?"
"The non-implant neural cord is indeed workable. It can establish a stable, reliable connection between the human brain and magical devices, and the damage and strain on the body have been reduced to an acceptable level—but it has no shortage of drawbacks," Piyun said. "First, its interference resistance is still too poor. Because there is no direct connection between the cord and the cranial nerves, the brain's subconscious cannot be effectively controlled, so after 'immersion' the subject is easily 'startled awake' by the external environment; this requires an environment that can effectively screen out outside interference. Second, there have been cases of short-term 'cognitive disruption'—some subjects kept hallucinating for several minutes after the connection ended. We suspect this is because the cord is not directly attached to the brain, so after a fairly long connection the brain cannot promptly register that the 'connection has been severed,' and goes on dwelling inside the illusion of inertia."
"I have a proposal for that," Camille put in as soon as Piyun finished. "We can design a scene with a strong signaling effect to precede the severing of the connection—let the brain know it is about to return to the real world. That may shorten the duration of the subsequent cognitive disruption."
"How do you guarantee that this 'interruption scene' corresponds one hundred percent with the neural cord's disconnect sequence?" Piyun raised the question against Camille's suggestion. "If the interruption scene plays but the cord fails to disconnect, or the cord disconnects but something goes wrong with the interruption scene, the connected brain may instead fall into an even more severe state of cognitive disruption…"