Chapter 46: We Bear the Flame, and the Song Endures Forever

First, just as Alpha Ji suggested, Ye Chao found that studying within the Imaginary Space yielded results identical to studying outside—if not better. At the very least, it was far more comfortable—the sofa and desk were custom-made; more economical—no need for pens, paper, or electricity; and more convenient—unrestricted by time or place.

Second, from this moment on, Ye Chao’s memory would be virtually limitless! The Imaginary Space could use his eyes as cameras and his ears as recorders, preserving everything he saw and heard, ready to be replayed whenever needed. What others considered grueling exams in the humanities would, for Ye Chao, be an open-book test from now on!

Of course, given his abilities, he never needed to cheat in the first place.

Third, Ye Chao would never again have to worry about where to store his books, whether physical or digital. For physical books, all he had to do was unwrap them and flip through from cover to cover. As for digital materials—those “files” that can’t fit on a packed hard drive—should he add a new drive or buy an external one? Store them in the cloud or set up a NAS? A new drive was reliable but inconvenient to move; externals were handy but less stable; cloud storage could be blocked, while NAS setups were a bit pricey...

All those worries and expenses were now a thing of the past!

Because Alpha Ji could imprint items!

Indeed!

After researching the technique and its results, both Ye Chao and Alpha Ji discovered almost simultaneously that Calculator Ji could imprint objects—and with astonishing, no, terrifying efficiency!

The first project, a military-grade tablet, took just three hours! The second, the F91, was completed overnight!

Yes, both the military tablet and the F91 had been imprinted. Calculator Ji was born with the ability to imprint.

It wasn’t that the F91, a product of a replica, could be stored directly; it was the imprinting that made it possible, especially in those moments when Ye Chao teetered between life and death.

Normally, imprinting was a process—wearing down and repairing, over and over, until the novice became an expert through countless cycles.

Ye Chao initially spent months on a single item; now, it still took him days to imprint a relatively simple USB drive.

That was already an extraordinary pace—most people would need years for a single imprint, months for a copy, with some never managing even one in a lifetime.

But for Alpha Ji, such limitations simply didn’t exist...

The simplest USB drive took only ten minutes; tablets and laptops didn’t even require an hour—and that was just the beginning. Once she got used to it, her speed increased even more!

The military tablet and the F91 took longer not because she was slow, but because Ye Chao’s ability was lacking.

Although they later discovered her imprinting was temporarily limited to high-tech digital products and ineffective on other items...

Still, it was overwhelmingly powerful!

When the loudspeakers outside announced seven o’clock, Gun Gun, who had been out all afternoon, returned home, and Alpha Ji finished imprinting all of Ye Chao’s USB drives, storing them within the space.

The Imaginary Space expanded accordingly, though the increase was limited.

They then realized that the size of the space wasn’t determined by Ye Chao’s ability, but rather by the capacity of the imprinted hard drives and the computational power of the CPUs.

In short, from now on, whether it was physical books, digital documents, or even the devices that held those documents, everything could be stored in the Imaginary Space—safe from theft, forever repairable, never expiring!

The former worry of what to do with a roomful of books when going off to college was, like the issue with A, completely meaningless.

Once he understood all this, Ye Chao felt an uncommon surge of excitement: “There are over three thousand books here, and thirty days until the college entrance exam. Scan a hundred books a day—piece of cake.”

This was truly wonderful—a library he could carry with him! His parents would never have to worry about his studies again.

He pounded his right fist into his left palm. “Alpha Ji, scanning will take some time, so teach me about Laplace transforms, will you? I’ve basically mastered Fourier transforms, but always run into trouble extending them to the complex frequency domain...”

눈_눈

That’s it? After all that excitement, you want to start a new class?

You really are the model student, always eager to learn...

Even as she grumbled, Alpha Ji couldn’t help but feel a pinch of guilt.

Why?

Because she’d heard of Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, Z transforms and the like, but... honestly had no idea what they meant.

She was an emotional intelligence assistant, not an intelligence quotient assistant!

As for how she could process signal transformations and eliminate noise without knowing these theories?

She was a program, not a person—why must she know the underlying principles? Eating and drinking just came naturally.

Back then, she was just humoring Ye Chao.

Who says intelligent programs can’t lie? Was that Asimov? Asimov never said that...

Besides, she hadn’t lied—she could teach, but since he wasn’t a program and lacked the talent, it wasn’t her fault he couldn’t learn.

Reassuring herself with such thoughts, she was saved by a sudden knock at the door.

“Whoosh—” Ye Chao barely had time to react before Gun Gun, excited as a flash of gray lightning, dashed to the door and flung it open.

Given their need to eat bamboo, pandas are one of the few creatures in nature to have evolved opposable thumbs—making them excellent at opening doors.

Outside stood Fang Ju, his left hand cradling a square aluminum lunchbox, his right shoulder bearing a steaming, fragrant cartoon ham. The moment Gun Gun pounced on him, his square head instantly took on an exaggerated, comic expression.

“Hey, easy, easy—there was another monster siege today, there’s plenty of meat. Come on, Gun Gun, did you play in the water again? I just changed my clothes!” Now he really looked like a comic character.

One round-headed cutie, one square-headed blockhead straight out of a sandbox game, tumbling and wrestling—a delightful pair.

The moment food appeared, Gun Gun forgot everything else; he grabbed the lunchbox, tossed it to Ye Chao, and stuffed the cartoon ham—thick as his own thigh—into his mouth, munching and nodding with satisfaction as he ate.

Alpha Ji, however, was on the verge of a breakdown.

She knew pandas ate meat, but seeing one devour it so heartily, just like in a comic, was a bit too much for her to process.

[Gun Gun’s Favorability +66]

[Ye Chao’s Favorability +33]

Even if she couldn’t accept it, their favorability still increased—what could she do...?

“But what’s this square head here for?”

“Tutoring.”

==========

Jiang City, Fifth Ring, a certain neighborhood.

Nine o’clock at night.

“The curse descends, mortals and ghosts alike weep.”

“We, the fire-bearers, sing on through the ages. You’re one of us!”

“Enough with the nonsense—satellite communication is expensive, get to the point.”

“You’ll never believe what I saw today...”

“Three seconds. Three, two...”

“Alright, alright! Today I saw someone with communication abilities.”

“That’s it? What are we doing now? Are you testing my patience?”

“Let me finish! This person seemed to master every known form of communication—cell phones, wireless, radio... I remember most connection abilities only specialize in one, right?”

“What?” The voice on the other end suddenly grew chaotic. After a few seconds, it returned, more urgent than before: “Which city are you in? What’s your code? Who’s the target...?”

“Knew you’d be interested. Yunzhou Alliance, Jiang City, a senior high school student...”