"Come on, come on, connect!"
"Connect to ours, our work already has over a hundred people!"
"What's a hundred people? We have over four hundred!"
"What difference does it make who connects to whom? It's all shared anyway."
One week after the rule took effect, with the information about the Mind work spreading, the academy's students began connecting with each other one after another.
Even though work devices couldn't be used, being able to join a brand new "Mind work" was both novel and exciting for young people who liked new things, and they all flocked to it.
The academy neither encouraged nor opposed these connection activities, merely posting notices in front of the teaching building and dormitory buildings, advising students to proceed with caution.
After all, whether this Mind work had any side effects, or whether haphazard connections might lead to some negative consequences, no one knew.
Some students who were naturally more cautious indeed did not rashly connect with others.
Others worried that once connected, if some of their own dirty thoughts became known, wouldn't that be utterly humiliating?
However, according to those who had already connected to the Mind work, inner thoughts were not directly transmitted to other connected individuals; only information one consciously intended to convey would be transmitted.
Tracing back to the source of the leaked information about the Mind work, it was naturally Guan Tong who had released it.
His method of releasing the information was very simple: he made some slips of paper with the information written on them and used Shadow to place them at gathering points frequented by ordinary people.
Ordinary people weren't restricted by the rules and could freely use the inter. As long as some of them posted the information online, it would definitely spread quickly.
Looking at the situation now, it was exactly as Guan Tong had anticipated. In just three or four days, the related information had spread across the entire country and even abroad. Within the academy, the Mind work activity had become a craze.
Since students generally studied the Mind Power Flow course, connecting with each other was somewhat easier. Consequently, several large-scale Mind works quickly appeared within the academy.
With so many people serving as "samples" providing data, Guan Tong also rapidly grasped the general operational mode of the Mind work.
First, it was both public and anonymous.
People connected to the Mind work could have their spoken words heard by everyone in the work; there was no way to "send a private message alone." Unless someone in the work was familiar with the speaker's voice, no one would know which specific person in the work had uttered that sentence.
This single characteristic alone made this Mind work a paradise for social outlaws, allowing them to recklessly publish some sensational and extreme opinions.
Moreover, if someone's remarks gained the approval of the majority within that work, that person likely possessed a kind of decentralized influence, capable of mobilizing multiple people simultaneously to do certain things.
Secondly, the Mind work had no upper limit on the number of connections, no distance restrictions, and members of two different works would cause their respective works to automatically merge upon coming into contact with each other.
This characteristic was somewhat eerie. It meant that if two people belonged to different Mind works, when they connected, the Mind works they belonged to would also merge into one.
Thus, if enough time passed, eventually all Ascendants in the world might find themselves within the same Mind work.
But the problem was, how much noise would there be in such a work?
Just think, in the same room, even if only a few people talk at the same time, it can be chaotic. In the Mind work, no one has the ability to "mute" others. With so many people, anyone can speak... How chaotic would that be?
Based on Guan Tong's understanding, the Mind works formed by student groups exhibited precisely this situation. Many people talking simultaneously led to a chaotic buzzing in the brain; severe cases even experienced vomiting and ultimately had no choice but to exit the Mind work.
That's right, after joining a Mind work, if one wanted to exit, they only needed to sever the connection between their own Mind Power and the initial Mind Power used to connect with others, and they could successfully leave.
However, from casual chats among some students, he learned that within the student population, there were individuals with a strong ability to distinguish between multiple people speaking simultaneously; their brains could process the meaning of multiple sentences at once.
This intrigued Guan Tong, but unfortunately, he was not connected to the students' works.
Not just him; none of the academy's teachers were.
Because these students had established a rule for their Mind works: members could only connect with other students; they could not pull academy teachers into the work.
It was probably the same principle as a class chat group not adding the teacher. One could imagine that many students would use it to complain about, or even viciously criticize, teachers they didn't like.
However, upon Dean Zhou Qinfeng's suggestion, the academy's Lecturers did connect to form a Mind work, with the purpose of facilitating notifications for various matters.
Around twenty people were connected to this Mind work. Unlike the students, the Lecturers certainly had no one idly chatting nonsense inside. Therefore, after Guan Tong connected and entered, the total number of voices he heard from within didn't exceed twenty.
While most people focused on the Mind work itself, what Guan Tong thought about more was the purpose behind this thing.
Why did the Fire Thief tell humans that Mind Power had such a usage? Was its goal to make humans use this method to do something?
If speculating with malice, Guan Tong felt the Fire Thief might be aiming to further divide humanity.
Because, on one hand, ordinary people couldn't access this work; only Ascendants could. On the other hand, its decentralized nature went even further than Guan Tong's "Ascendant Home" website.
The website had him, the Administrator, managing it, and it didn't allow the posting of anti-human content such as promoting the Fire Thief Worship Cult. But this Mind work had no "management" whatsoever, and no management was possible.
This conveniently allowed people with shared goals to establish connections and communication. If the goal was good, that was fine. But if it was bad, it undoubtedly became a black box cocoon nurturing evil.
If considered from a benevolent perspective...
(Attention, all Lecturers.)
Zhou Qinfeng's voice suddenly sounded in his mind. Sitting on his dormitory bed, Guan Tong snapped out of his thoughts. He knew the Dean was using the Mind work to speak.
(The academy's first-month discussion meeting for the new semester will be held in the conference room on the 5th floor of the faculty building in one hour. Please do not be late.)
After Zhou Qinfeng finished, another Lecturer's voice sounded from the Mind work: (With this work, it seems we could hold meetings without even leaving our rooms.)
Zhou Qinfeng: (Don't joke. This meeting also involves many non-Lecturer faculty and staff. They aren't in this work, and this isn't suitable for multi-person meetings anyway.)
(Received. I was just saying it casually; of course it can't be taken seriously.)
A few other Lecturers also said "Received" in the Mind work.
Guan Tong didn't speak. He simply waited until the time came and went to the conference room.
It was a large conference room with three long tables arranged inside. Quite a few people were seated on both sides. He casually found a seat and sat down. Lifting his gaze, he saw Fang Qian sitting at a corner of the adjacent long table, looking at him.
The moment their eyes met, Fang Qian immediately looked away somewhat guiltily, her expression very unnatural.
It seemed she, unlike Xiaotian, was a graduate who had stayed on at the academy.
Guan Tong had heard from Xu Xiaotian before that some of the first academy graduates would stay on as faculty or staff like counselors. Since Fang Qian was here, it meant she was one of them.
But this didn't matter much to him. The past was the past. He hadn't acted then, and he wouldn't bring up old grievances now. Even if they met again, there wouldn't be any further interaction.
After all the academy's faculty and staff had arrived, Dean Zhou Qinfeng began speaking.
He summarized various situations since the semester began, improvements compared to last year, current shortcomings... Perhaps it was a common ailment from his previous role as a university president, but he used a lot of formulaic language. Listening to it made Guan Tong drowsy, his thoughts already flying far away.
It wasn't until Zhou Qinfeng brought up matters related to the recent rule that Guan Tong snapped back to attention.
Zhou Qinfeng said, "Everyone knows the students have established Mind works that exclude us faculty and staff. This is definitely problematic."
"We must understand that these academy students are future pillars being cultivated with national priority. If they collude and cause trouble leading to problems, it becomes our responsibility, failing the trust placed in us by the official Higher-ups. Therefore, someone from our faculty and staff must also connect into the students' Mind works, to know what they are saying and thinking."
After Zhou Qinfeng finished speaking, many faculty and staff members expressed agreement.
"That's right, it should be done."
"These students are no easy bunch; we really need to keep an eye on them."
"But coercion might not be good. How about finding a top student who gets along well with teachers and having them pull a faculty member in?"
"Hmm, coercion is definitely inappropriate. It's best if someone can actively infiltrate." Zhou Qinfeng scanned the room, his gaze settling on last year's graduates who served as counselors.
"Is there anyone among you who can accomplish this task? You are last year's graduates. As senior students, it should be easy for you to blend in with this year's students. I think having you connect into the students' works would be the most convenient."
The counselors looked at each other, their eyes collectively turning to Fang Qian, as if she was the most capable among them. Although Fang Qian's expression showed some reluctance, she helplessly raised her hand: "Dean, I can do this."
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