Offside game

After encountering this situation, Su Yi finally managed to calm down from his initial nervousness and excitement. He habitually checked his watch and realized it was already past one o'clock, time for school.

He had originally intended for the Kosei to directly input all the data into his brain, just as it had done before. However, after scanning, the Kosei told Su Yi that his brain development was insufficient and he didn't have enough space to process all the data. When he realized what "all the data" meant, he was not only surprised but also greatly impressed by the Yuga people's technological level. Even the things he learned from the Kosei were enough for him to sit in the classroom and reflect on for an entire afternoon.

The plant-like form of the mother nest can only rely on light energy to store and replenish its energy, which on Earth would be equivalent to solar energy. As energy is replenished, the plant-like Kosei can evolve, and the evolved mother nest will have more functions and a faster energy absorption rate.

Thinking of the ultimate form of the mother nest evolution—a space base—Su Yi couldn't help but daydream. After all, the powerful space base in the animated series "Robotech" left a deep impression. Of course, the thought that Kosei's calculations indicated that, under current conditions, it would take at least 50 Earth years to evolve to the ultimate form dampened his spirits. However, he would still strive for his space base dream, even though the road would be winding.

In addition, Kosei told him that under normal circumstances, he would be able to store enough energy to evolve into the next stage of the mother nest—the root system stage—after six months, which gave Su Yi a lot of hope.

Of course, even in its most basic plant-like form, the Kosei could still help Su Yi in many ways. At noon, Su Yi had asked the Kosei if, given its supercomputer capabilities, it could connect to the internet. The answer was encouraging. After scanning their home's phone line, the Kosei was perfectly capable of simulating a broadband signal to access the network without needing to subscribe to a broadband service. However, because it had just been initialized into its plant form, the Kosei needed three hours of energy replenishment before it could grow the tentacles to connect to the phone line.

Therefore, his order to the Kosei before starting school was to store energy as quickly as possible. His need for energy was extremely urgent. Besides the expansion of many functions requiring energy, the plant-like mother nest had another ability that greatly appealed to him: preliminary modification of the brain and nervous system. Once completed, this modification could increase brain development by 20% and improve the strength and reaction speed of the nervous system by 100%. What does this mean? The average person's brain utilization rate is only 2%-5%, and even the most famous scientist, Einstein, only utilized about 10%, which is already considered photographic memory. The human motor system is mainly controlled by motor neurons and the cerebellum. Improving the brain and nervous system significantly enhances physical mobility. Of course, developing the brain and nervous system is not a singular activity. Simply developing the brain only accelerates death because the blood's oxygen supply doesn't increase accordingly. While the brain is engaged in high-speed activity, the heart's workload also increases exponentially, ultimately leading to heart failure and death. The same applies to the nervous system, as oxygen demand is high during exercise. Therefore, while it appears to be merely an enhancement of the brain and nervous system, it is in reality a complete transformation of the human body. The energy required for such a transformation is staggering; the Kosei is estimated to need at least 10 energy units. An energy unit is a Yuga method of energy counting, with one energy unit roughly equivalent to the energy released by the complete combustion of 100 kilograms of gasoline. This energy would require a week's worth of energy storage from the current Mother Nest.

Given the current situation, Su Yi revised his plan. His most pressing need now was to complete the initial transformation as soon as possible. Imagine if his brain development reached 20%—the courses that were currently causing him headaches wouldn't be a problem anymore. However, the energy required for the initial development alone would take a week to store, so he decided to spend that week roughly going through all the subjects to get an overall impression.

When Su Yi got home from school in the afternoon, he learned that the Kesei ship now had enough energy to connect to the internet.

Su Yi already knew that the Mother Nest's brainwave connection to the controller wasn't infinitely far; its sensing range in the plant state was only 100 meters, but that was enough to include his home. Su Yi's bedroom already had a telephone extension, and now that he had placed the Kosei on the balcony, he simply ran the extension's telephone line there. Then he saw a tentacle gradually emerge from the spherical body beneath the Kosei, reaching for the telephone line and enveloping the connector. The Kosei's consciousness told him: Signal analysis complete, simulation finished, network connection successful.

Thus, the Kosei had successfully connected to the network. This was crucial for the Kosei to quickly learn about Earth. After all, the Kosei's data came from the Yuga civilization, and now that the environment had changed, only by fully understanding Earth's culture and technology could the Kosei better serve Su Yi. The network was indeed an excellent school for learning these things. Su Yi also had some considerations: the existence of the Kosei must be kept as a top-secret matter. Although it wasn't difficult to hide the Kosei in its current plant-like state, once it evolved into a root-like state, a mother nest state, or even its final space base, it would be an enormous form that he couldn't conceal at present. Therefore, either he could limit the Kosei to its plant-like state, which contradicted his dream of a space base, or he could only strengthen himself to have the ability to hide such a secret. And the primary reliance for this was on the Kosei; therefore, only by making it familiar with Earth as quickly as possible could it better help him achieve his final dream.

After connecting to the network, Su Yi could theoretically browse online information through the Kosei. However, directly reading information in his mind didn't suit his habits. After all, human habits are stubborn things. Just like Microsoft's Windows system isn't the best operating system, but because everyone is used to its interface and operation, it has become the choice of most people in the world. That's the terrifying thing about habits. Another way is to browse and operate using a screen, like a computer. This way, he would at least need a monitor. Originally, Kosei could use his home television to achieve this effect, but using a television as a screen would be too much of a challenge to his eyesight. Therefore, after considering various factors, Su Yi decided to buy a laptop.

After the car accident, he received 200,000 yuan in compensation. Because of this money, several so-called relatives who had long lost contact with him wanted to become Su Yi's guardians. This exposed Su Yi to many ugly things, which was a major reason why he closed himself off. Fortunately, he had just turned eighteen at the time and didn't need a guardian at all. The compensation, plus the 50,000 yuan in savings his family already had, totaled 250,000 yuan. Even now, he still has more than 200,000 yuan left. After all, high school fees are quite high these days, and he spent a considerable amount of money during his period of moral decline.

The next day was the weekend, and Su Yi decided to go to the computer mall to look at laptops. Su Yi had long wanted his own computer; when he was obsessed with games, he had wanted to buy one many times. However, the price always made him hesitate. After all, he had only wanted to escape everything, not lose his mind. Although he had over 200,000 yuan, for him at that time, that money was gone forever. But now, with the Kosei, everything was different. He could confidently choose his favorite model. Of course, he already had some ideas about what kind of laptop to choose.

Standing inside the IBM store, he gazed eagerly at the T20 he had always wanted. From its appearance to its specifications, everything was exactly what he wanted. Because it was the weekend, the computer mall was bustling, but as a high-end brand, IBM didn't have as many customers as other stores. Therefore, when he entered the store, the saleswoman noticed him. Although Su Yi was clearly looking at the most prominently displayed T20, the pretty saleswoman simply saw it as a young man's yearning for something beautiful. After all, judging from Su Yi's age and clothing, he was probably just a high school student, and he had come alone. Therefore, she decided to practically introduce him to other more affordable models, perhaps that would increase his chances of making a purchase.

"Hello, please take a look at our IBM computers. Would you like to buy a desktop or a laptop? We have some models here that might suit you." The saleswoman's voice was pleasant and brought Su Yi back to reality from his thoughts.

"May I try this laptop?" He was pointing to the T20 in front of him.

The boy's words put the pretty saleswoman in a difficult position. Although the handsome young man in front of her was very likable, Dongdu was not a particularly prosperous city, and this store only had one T20 in stock at the moment. Generally speaking, customers were not allowed to touch this laptop casually.

Seeing the concern in the beautiful woman's eyes, Su Yi immediately understood her thoughts. After all, he was just a student at the moment.

"I really want to buy this laptop, so I just want to try it out first. How about this, I can pay a deposit first, and if I'm satisfied, I can pay the rest right away," Su Yi said patiently to the saleswoman. After all, the beautiful woman's hesitant look was quite endearing.

"This is our latest IBM laptop, priced at 25500 RMB. If you're interested, you can pay 30% as a deposit first." Although the laptop already had a price tag, the saleswoman still reminded Su Yi that the price was not affordable for ordinary people.

"Okay, but I think the price isn't unnecessarily low, right? Can we talk about the price first?" Although a laptop costing over 20,000 yuan is too extravagant for Su Yi right now, since he only needs a screen for display, he still plans to buy it after going to university. He's already a smart man, and with the Kosei, he no longer has any doubts about getting into university.

Finally, after some haggling, Su Yi bought the T20 for over 20,000 yuan and walked out of the computer mall amidst the somewhat bewildered gaze of the beautiful saleswoman.