Puzzle Madness

Chapter 54 Miracle
The small private room wasn't actually small, and the lighting was dim. A gray CRT screen, with rounded corners and a thick, silvery-gray casing, was embedded in the center of the wall. The screen took up a third of the wall, and the striped wallpaper surrounding it had peeled and fallen, the gaps covered by posters advertising alcoholic beverage packages and popular movies and TV series.

The TVs in the video halls are much larger than what ordinary people buy - most are 75 inches to 90 inches; they are between the screens of movie theaters and home TVs, but there are some scratches and stains on the screens.

There are six seats in the front and back, all of which are soft artificial leather sofas with backrests; they are arranged on the left and right, with a small coffee table in the middle, on which are placed wet towel rolls and tissues; the armrests of the sofas are full of holes scratched by passing customers, and the beverage holders installed next to them are polished to a shiny oily finish, giving people the illusion of gems in the dim light.

thump!
Without a word, Doudou leaped to the front row and half-lay down: the sofa's springs creaked and groaned; it had been marinated in tobacco and cheap perfume, leaving a pungent smell. The video hall didn't ban smoking, so Doudou didn't care.

The mathematician took small steps and huddled into the seat in the corner, placing the cardboard box that he never left behind at his feet and hugging his knees.
-
Richard had no intention of sitting down. He stood by the counter, picking and choosing the videotapes in the shopping basket: it was called a "console", but in fact it was just a VHS tape recorder stuck in the wall to prevent some customers from stealing it.

He finally picked up the 1993 Traffic Safety Warning, waved it above his head, and then inserted it into the cassette slot on the wall:
"The Jiaozhi Autonomous Prefecture, as well as some other regions and countries, are all produced by the manufacturers and subsidiaries of Asia-Europe Post."

"Given the low viewing rate and distributed nature of these tapes, they could also be used in other public safety areas, particularly where confidentiality is a high priority."

"So some batches of videotapes aren't just warning tapes; they also contain other information."

After finishing his serious commentary, Richard picked up the remote control and pressed the buttons carefully in his hand - first the number buttons and the volume button, and then switched the chapters of the videotape back and forth: if you didn't know, you would think he was practicing the cheats in "Contra".

beep!
The screen suddenly went dark, then lit up again—but instead of a message about [traffic safety], it showed a warning, with crude, blurry white text floating against a blue background:
[According to the relevant provisions of the Public Security Regulations, unauthorized viewing of this content will result in administrative detention for a period of no less than 15 days.]
Doudou raised his hand and pointed at the subtitle:
"Oh, no—does adding this warning page make it more tempting to read? I wouldn't even want to read it without it."

Richard held the remote control in one hand while adjusting the knob on the console. Video studios generally provide two sets of controllers for easy adjustment while watching:

"We use a complex screening process: complete viewing prevention is impossible, and unnecessary. The first layer of encryption protection is the keystroke sequence I just pressed; there are other methods behind it. This is enough to exclude some viewers - curious people cannot be dealt with by just a few warnings."

"Beware of gentlemen, not villains—Oh Doudou, I'm not saying you're a villain, I'm talking about me."

He turned around and pressed the play button on the console embedded in the wall.

Hearing what Richard said, Dou Dou raised his eyebrows - he didn't know if it was an illusion: Richard seemed to deliberately throw away all his previous restraints; but Dou Dou really didn't intend to interfere with his explanation of "Interesting Things".

Richard tapped the screen with his fingertips, signaling to the two audience members:

"Well, this videotape is part of our training materials. Sometimes we need to develop some downline personnel on a temporary basis, or urgently arrange for new colleagues to join the company, but we don't have time to deal with training matters, so we will use these resources."

"The teaching materials are designed, so they should be easier to understand than if I just kept repeating them."

There was no background music, only harsh white noise, blasting out from the speakers in the four corners of the box.

A broad line of black Song-style characters emerged from the warm yellow background, hovering in the center of the screen. As if someone was using a mobile phone next to the antenna and affecting the signal, the characters were blurred and distorted from time to time.

Doudou scratched his nose and read out the subtitles:
"'The Definition, Discovery, and Identification of Miracles'? That title is actually quite relevant."

Beneath the Chinese characters were several lines of other languages—DouDou could make out English and Russian, but the others were hard to discern. He frowned, his voice rising a notch:
"Hey? Wait, why is it a [miracle]?"

"So you call things like special abilities "miracles"? Why is that different from what you said before?"

Richard crossed his arms and leaned against the wall next to the screen—it seemed he had no intention of sitting on the sofa: “This is an old version, just take a look; [miracle] is a concept that the marketing department packaged in the last generation, but the response was lukewarm. The higher-ups thought the word didn’t sound fashionable enough and wouldn’t be easy to market; moreover, it was too religious and inappropriate.”

"After the concept was iterated, the marketing department gave me two mugs with ugly designs."

Doudou sat up straight, looking like he was listening attentively.

"So what is it called now? Is it the [symbol] you've been talking about?"

Richard shook his head slightly, stretched his neck forward, and looked at the contents on the screen at an angle:

"Doudou, didn't I tell you all this before? How come you forgot all of a sudden?"

"The marketing department is changing so quickly that we try to stick to the same title internally to avoid misunderstandings in communication—especially in the Special Package Handling Division where I work. These operations departments are very demanding on information accuracy."

"As for now. What is it called now?..."

“[A state of ecstasy caused by inspiration and revelation beyond sensory experience, resulting from the human yearning for truth and wisdom beyond the real world.]”

"That's the slogan we handed over; it's printed on mugs. I've memorized it after using it so many times. The marketing department plans to call these superpowers uniformly:"

"Crazy."
-
After saying this word, Richard fell silent.

Doudou suddenly realized he should show his support and quickly spoke up. He felt strangely uncomfortable with Richard's lecturing attitude, but he was also eager to hear what was going to happen next.

"First of all, you did say it's called [Frenzy] now, so there's no need to suddenly stop talking and create such drama. Secondly, that word doesn't seem that cool. But who came up with that slogan? That one sounds pretty good."

The mathematician had been silent since he found a seat at the back and shrunk into the sofa - but now he suddenly spoke:
"Plato—that's what Plato said. "[Ecstasy] is the Chinese translation, Theia Mania, which means divine madness. That's what Plato meant; to separate this state from ordinary mental disorder."

Richard lowered his head and continued sorting through the videotapes in the shopping basket. He didn't give the mathematician any praise, but he didn't respond to Doudou either:
"Who cares? If it sounds nice, it can get more funding and make project approval easier. [Miracle] has too much religious connotation, and the higher-ups don't like it."

But once the mathematician opened his mouth, he was determined to use up all his saliva:
"I feel like these layers of so-called [protection] measures are completely useless. Once the first person discovers it, won't anyone who wants to see it be able to see it? For example, if someone accidentally sees it by clicking the wrong button, it becomes an urban legend, and suddenly many people rush to see it."

Doudou raised his arms and shook his hands, signaling the scientists behind him not to dwell on this matter:

"Oh, no one would care. Even if someone stumbled upon something, well, they'd see it, and at most they'd tell their friends a few words, and maybe even think it was a TV prank or something. And it has to follow this fixed order. If it gets out of hand, the big companies will start playing the "all-powerful" game with you."

"Aren't you a victim of something like this, Doctor? Why are you still so stunned?"

Richard shrugged and spread his hands nonchalantly:
"Well, it's not very confidential; it's okay for someone to burn a copy."

Doudou fluttered to his feet, grabbed the remote control on the coffee table, pressed the play button, and interrupted the conversation between Richard and the mathematician:
"Okay, that's enough: shut up, everyone, I'm going to get on with the movie."

(End of this chapter)