Chapter 190 A Potty Beginning

Everyone present was stunned for a good while. Hao Ren was completely baffled by what Nangong Wuyue meant.

"Dou Dou thinks she was born from that pot," Nangong Wuyue said with a serious expression. "That's right, it's the same pot that Lily used to boil eggs before. I don't know what went wrong, but after the little one confirmed that you weren't her mom, she started thinking that the pot was her mom. Now she's convinced that you found the pot, and then you and the pot invented her together..."

"What in the world is going on?!" Hao Ren jumped three feet high, startling the little mermaid. He quickly went over and poked Dou Dou's belly to calm her down, then looked at Nangong Wuyue with a look of exasperation. "What exactly did you tell her?"

"I've done my best," the siren girl said, her resentment no less than Hao Ren's. "Let me tell you, this little one's brain is completely messed up. My communication with her is basically on the verge of logic. You can't expect a little one who just hatched a day ago to understand too much. I'm already surprised that she can understand what 'daddy' and 'mommy' are."

Hao Ren wanted to cry but had no tears: "But you can't let her treat a pot as her own mother... Especially when I'm her dad. If this child's values are so skewed from such a young age, can they be corrected when she grows up?"

Nangong Wuyue sighed, turned her head, and looked at Lily: "Open your dog eyes wide."

Lily obediently opened her eyes wide: "Like this?"

Nangong Wuyue turned her head back and spread her hands: "You see, things like worldviews can't be explained..."

Hao Ren: "..."

Lily reacted for a long time but still didn't understand what was going on, so she packed her things and went out.

Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue tried their best for a long time, but finally gave up on correcting the little mermaid's values. Dou Dou still insisted that she was born from a pot, and showed extraordinary affection for that pot—just like she did for Hao Ren. Vivian realized one thing: she had to use a different pot for cooking from now on; this one had already been occupied by the little thing.

Nangong Wuyue went to fill the pot with water, and Hao Ren carefully put Dou Dou into it. The little one started swimming happily in it. She showed a very obvious sign of relaxation. The previous caution and unease had disappeared, as if the pot really gave her a familiar sense of security. Although the pot wasn't her mom, she was at least really hatched in the pot. This should be the source of her sense of security.

After swimming in the water for a while, the little one started to yell that she was hungry. It was easy to observe how she shouted that she was hungry: she made a series of strange gurgling sounds, and then violently slapped the water with her tail, making her body stand upright in the water. Hao Ren silently noted the fish baby's way of expressing her emotions, and also noted the current time, and then went to the kitchen to get a chopstick...

There was no way around it. Now the only thing that the little one could eat for sure was chopsticks. Other recipes had to be slowly verified.

Maybe he could try letting her eat vegetables? Since the little one ate plant fiber, maybe fiber-rich vegetables could also be eaten.

Hao Ren felt that this was a good idea, so he ran to the kitchen and took out some celery and diced carrots, chopped them into small pieces and threw them into the water. He felt that what he was doing wasn't raising a child, but feeding a fish. The little mermaid quickly expressed her disdain for these sundries with practical actions: after smelling the strange smell in the water, the little one quickly threw all the vegetables out, and also splashed Hao Ren in the face with water.

It seemed like she was another kid who didn't like to eat vegetables.

"These two are really having fun," the data terminal floated in the air and watched for a long time, then came down to poke Hao Ren's forehead. "After you've had enough fun with your daughter, let's get down to business. According to the schedule set by Raven 12345 for you, now is the time to learn basic navigation and starship control theory. If you want to experience the feeling of controlling the console with your own hands as soon as possible, you'd better start working hard now."

Hao Ren was enthusiastically admiring Dou Dou's cute eating scene when he heard this and was stunned: "Wait, when did we get such a schedule?"

"I told you last night," the data terminal floated in front of Hao Ren, opened a set of holographic projections, which were textbooks that made one's scalp tingle. "But you were fighting to the death with your half-foot-long daughter at the time, so you probably didn't hear it. Look, these are the new study materials. Raven 12345 had already given you some basic textbooks before. Adding these new materials, as long as you reach the passing line, you can barely control the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace. After reaching the second-level license, you can sail independently. Where do you want to start learning?"

Hao Ren looked at the rows of textbook directories on the holographic projection with dizzy eyes. Countless nouns were shaking in his sight, such as starship control theory, basic navigation, energy theory, star chart basics, and artillery overview. More than half of the things he couldn't even guess what they were for, and this was just the directory!

"I... have to learn all of these?" Hao Ren was dumbfounded. Although he had heard before that it would take a while to learn how to fly a spaceship, he didn't expect that there would be so many textbooks, covering such a wide range that was staggering. It turned out that mastering the technology to fly a spaceship in reality was not as simple and crude as in fantasy novels. "Can I understand this? I failed six subjects in college..."

"Of course you can understand. Your brain has been adjusted to a certain extent. Your memory is in a high-speed access state, and your subconscious has implanted auxiliary computing capabilities that can process these data. As long as you are not so stupid that you can't even sort out the logic of the text, it is not difficult to learn these textbooks. They have been adjusted according to your worldview and knowledge base, and will start to give you remedial lessons from the unified theory of information," the data terminal's voice was flat and rigid. When it came to business, it finally had a bit of the appearance of a high-level electronic assistant, "And to be honest, you don't need to understand the basic theory. You only need to know which command to enter in a specific situation, and why you enter this command. Between a primitive man who can press buttons and a technician who is proficient in the principles, this is a qualified starship captain - well, entry level."

Hao Ren thought for a while and asked a question full of hope: "Wait, don't you guys have high technology? Don't you have that kind of technology that directly inputs memories and knowledge into the brain, saving the learning steps - just like it says in the stories, with an XX system in the brain, that would be so convenient!"

The data terminal shook its body disdainfully: "There are indeed such learning devices, but they are not used in this occasion. This kind of infusion-style learning device is only limited to purely logical, data-based, and reflexive learning courses. It is very common in the new recruit camps of the thrall army, because part of their courses can be input in this way, and there will be no dangerous consequences, but the courses of starship captains cannot use this, it will reduce your learning ability and brain autonomy. This is not a sequela, but the essential purpose of this 'learning' method: it is to directly input code as if you are a machine. The effect is excellent, but if you input too much, you will be useless."

Hao Ren nodded as if he understood, and the data terminal slowly added: "In some autonomous universes with not-so-well-managed areas, you can often see this kind of implanted system in the black market of lower civilizations. Some organizations and individuals with ulterior motives use this system to cultivate cheap and easy-to-use 'electronic slave labor'. Their implanted systems even remove the safety locks, and use fully-enhanced system plug-ins to replace most of the user's thinking process. At first, it replaces your calculations and memories, then slowly replaces your thinking, and finally... replaces yourself."

Vivian had been curiously listening from the side, and asked curiously at this time: "Will it eventually turn people into idiots?"

"No, on the contrary, it will make people exceptionally smart as it claims. An implanted system will make the user intelligent, surprisingly responsive, never tired, and have unparalleled memory and machine-like precise thinking ability. It will really shape a superhuman - but that superhuman is not you. Severely assimilated users will not even realize that they have been replaced, they feel that all their thoughts come from their own hearts, and feel that they have not been affected in any way. This is the most perfect brainwashing - making the brainwashed believe that they are awake."

Hao Ren felt a chill down his spine!

"Directly implanting knowledge, skills, logic, and even ways of thinking and memories into yourself, and finally relying on conditioned reflexes and brain inserts to live. No one will notice that you have been replaced from the inside out by a set of data. This kind of thing happens anytime and anywhere, and sometimes even requires inspectors to clean up the mess," the data terminal touched Hao Ren's forehead. "So let's be safe, different skills have different learning methods, and different life forms can only accept different education models. Come on, let's start learning from the most primitive overview of warp engines..."

Hao Ren: "..."