Plague Doctor

Chapter 240: Rationality Assessment Stone

Translator: Lonelytree

A device that could monitor its wearer’s rationality status. Due to this one statement by Gu Jun, the whole Spell Department was sent into a frenzy early in the morning. Elder Tong practically screamed during the call; Prof Shen was so frazzled that he forgot his breakfast; Yao Sinian, who represented the headquarters to deal with this incident, rushed to the Parapsychology Building at first notice.

Other than that, there were a few Spell Department members present, they were requested to be part of the experiment. Currently they were waiting outside the experiment lab and had no idea what was happening. The lab was heavily guarded by members from the Action Department. Inside the spacious lab, all the higher-ups were there. Their eyes burned with interest as they studied the opaline in Gu Jun’s palm. Other than the Ancient Seal carved on its surface, there was nothing special about it. However, if this little trinket could really monitor one’s rationality, then it would be worth more than its weight in gold.

“Watch this.” Gu Jun handed the opaline to Elder Tong. It was quite funny seeing Elder Tong treat the stone so gingerly. Gu Jun smiled, “The gem won’t break so easily. The stone does not require any mental bond to use. It can detect the wearer’s state in real time, and in that manner, it is quite similar to a health tracker.” That brought on more excitement because it meant that one stone could be shared by many and it could also be used as a monitor device by the Review Department.

“Does this thing need to be charged?” Elder Tong asked, “Like a phone?”

“No, but it is exhaustible. After the water particle inside the stone is completely drained, it’ll turn back to a normal stone.”

“Must it be an opaline?” Prof Shen studied the gem, yet another example of super technology.

“Yes, but I don’t know why myself.” Gu Jun paused before adding, “But first, I believe an elaboration on the concept of ‘rationality’ is necessary. Being rational refers to a person’s self-mental state which is not corrupted by any abnormal power, and being irrational is its opposite.” He drew these observations from the Pnakotic Manuscripts, “But rationality will not be able to reflect the wearer’s actual thinking, in other words, a person can commit murder, crime and betrayal while being totally rational. Rationality cannot reflect a person’s thoughts and personality. For example, a person who is not mentally-corrupted at all will be shown to be perfectly rational even though they are the disciple of the King in Yellow, Cthulhu or some other supernatural forces.” Gu Jun knew this was a huge limitation but the stone was not a mind-reader, it was what it was.

“Humanity has always been complicated.” Yao Sinian sighed while Prof Shen added, “Ah Jun, to be able to monitor the changes to one’s rationality state is already good enough. Combine this with our current S value assessment system, it should be enough for detecting any traces of psychological abnormality.”

“Hmm, based on my experience...” Gu Jun frowned, “Once one comes into contact with supernatural power, their mind will be corrupted, so if a Spell Department member shows a state of mental corruption without any record of using spells, then they should be captured and interrogated.” Mental corruption did not occur that easily, Gu Jun had experienced so many illusions in the past but those only applied mental exhaustion. One would have to use spells or interact with supernatural forces through other methods to be corrupted. Therefore even though the stone could not read people’s hearts, it was able to act as an alarm, revealing the members’ secret activity if there was one.

“That should be enough for now.” Elder Tong nodded. “Should this thing work, we will test everyone today, including the aunties at the canteen.” Gu Jun smiled and then proceeded with a demonstration, “Pay close attention to the changes of its colors.” When he picked up the stone, it was glowing green; When Yao Sinian held it, the color was still green but the brightness faded.

“My mental corruption rate is currently at around 1 percent,” Gu Jun explained although according to the system, it was only 0.32 percent, “So the color shown was slightly deeper than Commander Yao.”

Elder Tong, Prof Shen both gave it a try, both times the stone glowed in a faded green light. Gu Jun explained, the light could be delineated into four grades, their corresponding color designating the level of mental corruption. Each color was further delineated into three levels, light, medium and dark, signifying the severity.

Green: Save, clean, or minor corruption, no effect on rationality.

Blue: Worrying corruption rate, rationality has been influenced.

Yellow: Severe corruption rate, grasp on rationality is wavering, close to madness threshold

Red: Rationality is lost, in a state of madness.

This stone provided a quantifiable assessment of one’s Aptitude Grading, Madness Threshold, and Realtime Corruption Rate.

This resolved the issue of people having different aptitude grading because the stone would assess the wearer’s madness threshold and realtime corruption rate by adjusting them to the wearer’s individual aptitude. After Gu Jun’s explanation, the higher-ups ushered in the Spell Department members waiting outside to give the stone a try.

Honestly, Elder Tong and the rest were quite worried. Once Wang Ruoxiang touched the stone, the color turned yellow. Gu Jun noted that it was a medium yellow; It turned faded blue for Gao Yi, which meant that he still needed more cleansing treatment; Cai Zixuan provided another stark contrast, the stone turned pale green in his hands, he was totally clean. Finally it was Peacock’s turn, the stone was medium green, meaning slight corruption.

Gu Jun had more experiments in mind. As per Gu Jun’s request, Peacock moved into an isolated room. She closed the steel door, and casted the summoning spell from the first chapter while holding the stone. Several nightgaunts appeared and her expression darkened immediately. Gu Jun and the others watched through the window and saw that the Ancient Seal on the stone started to glow, meaning that the user’s mental state was currently being corrupted. Peacock was halted immediately. With a wave of her hand, the several nightgaunts disappeared. The stone in her hand was now deep green in color.

“Wonderful, wonderful...” Elder Tong’s eyes were glowing. “Ah Jun, with this baby, our Spell Department will be saved.” Prof Shen nodded in concurrence. The stone not only solved the department’s biggest problem, it would also provide the country a leg up over the rest of the world. In spite of his excitement, Yao Sinian had already thought further ahead, could this stone be mass-produced? How were they going to utilize them? This kind of device should not be limited to the Spell Department, it would be great if every Special Mobile Forces or if possible, every Phecda member had access to one. This way, they could monitor the corruption closely.

“It can’t be mechanically mass-produced.” Gu Jun sighed. “Making one of these requires great exhaustion of mental power, and they have to be hand-crafted. The blueprint given to me is also just a mental projection, I will try to replicate it in real life but I am not even sure it will work. If not, I’ll try to figure out another solution.” But he still had good news for them, the bigger cleansing stone could also be manufactured and he too had the blueprint for it. He did not provide the other details because he had not studied fully the chapter about the Ancient Seal techniques in the manuscripts.

Bearing in mind the stone manufacturing’s many requirements, Yao Sinian came up with an idea. Phecda would recruit a new batch of members with high spirituality but they would not learn any spell or be involved in scientific research, their main purpose was mental power training and participation in the production line of the stones. They could be arranged under the review department, spell department... Or a new department, called the Ancient Seal Department could be constructed. This would be a new employment within Phecda, the Ancient Seal Carver.

“Ah Jun, you’ve outdone yourself again,” Yao Sinian praised, “This would qualify you for another Phecda Medal.” Gu Jun heard about this medal before and knew about the statue of himself at Eastern State’s Medical Department...

“One needs to go through so much red tape to apply for the medal, I’ll just commission a statue of Ah Jun to be built in front of the Spell Department.” Elder Tong waved his hands dismissively. “That will be so much faster.”

“Erm...” Gu Jun didn’t know how to respond, “I really don’t think that’s necessary...” he had seen a bit too much of his own similarity replicated in statues to last a lifetime. In fact, whenever he was around the land’s travellers, he felt like a moving statue. They joked about this. Just as they were about to leave the lab, Prof Shen brought up something serious. “Commander Yao, I hope you will be able to plead Ruoxiang’s case with the headquarters.” After 3 cleansing, while most had been pretty much cleaned, she was still at a medium yellow level, this would definitely cast her in a suspicious light.

“I will do my best.” Yao Sinian promised. “Ah Jun has also requested my help about this earlier but the best thing you can do now is to hurry up the cleansing process, that will make her case a lot more solid.”

Gu Jun heard that and added, “After this, I will go talk to her.” He had a solution in mind that he believed could work, it was related to the reward that he had obtained from completing his previous abyssal mission.