【plant】

[Alchemy]

Rows of bookshelves with hanging plaques passed before their eyes, and finally they confirmed that every bookshelf here was filled with this kind of fruit.

are you crazy?

A huge sense of absurdity suddenly descended upon them, and the two of them were stunned for a long time.

These fruits…are books?

How to read such a book?

Eat up your stomach?

Hitzfeld couldn’t help it any longer, so she quickly walked into the gap between the “Secret History” bookshelves and looked at the fruits up close.

If you look closely, you will see words engraved on the plate in front of each fruit.

Like the one she was looking at now.

Allwater Memoirs: 1957

These characters are carved on the wooden board in front of it.

[27 years ago, the most prosperous city in the Northern Parish, the mine Allwater, suffered an unprecedented disaster. After the disaster, Allwater was half destroyed and the population was greatly reduced, but the Northern Parish chose to conceal the news of the disaster. So much so that today people still believe that the silence of Allwater was caused by the landslide caused by the mine disaster. This book will take you through the entire process of the accident from the perspective of a mine guard, ensuring that you are immersed in it and understand the truth hidden by the sun.]

[Contributor: George Lister.]

[Borrowing authority: Level 8.]

[Note: The fruit produced by the wisdom fruit tree after reconstructing the mind is natural and pollution-free, and is different from those disgusting defective products.]

Chapter 35: Forbidden Fruit 2

Hitzfeld could only say it was eye-opening.

Of course, even though the notes on this thing said it was natural and pollution-free, she would never eat it until she knew whether there were any side effects and what they were.

She didn’t even dare to touch it, let alone eat it.

“What do you think?” She turned to look at Xia Yibing.

“Eat the fruit and you will get the corresponding memory.” Xia Yibing said directly, “The memory contains the corresponding knowledge… The hint is obvious enough.”

“This place is amazing.” Hitzfeld shook his head with a sigh.

Her gaze extended upwards, staring through the gaps at row after row of bright red fruits, all the way into the darkness above, her face solemn.

Assuming that it is really as they guessed and as shown here… as long as you eat the corresponding fruit, you can obtain the complete memory provided by its author – that is, the contributor.

So many fruits…

What would happen if you eat it all?

Look at the assortment of those bookshelves.

From the history of literature to mathematical calculations. From classical alchemy to poisonology.

The classification here covers everything from astronomy to geography. Just think about this knowledge which usually costs a huge amount of money for everyone to learn… and now it is placed here in the form of fruits. If anyone wants to master them, they no longer need to spend energy reading, reciting, and familiarizing themselves with them. They just need to pick them up and eat them in one bite?

Hitzfeld felt that perhaps not many people could resist such temptation.

Glanced at Xia Yibing.

Although the woman was also frowning, one could guess from her expression that she did not take these fruits too seriously.

But Hitzfeld was different. She had received a complete modern education. And because of the convenience of the Internet, she had passively received a large amount of complicated and obscure knowledge that seemed useless at the time.

“Xia.” She decided to give him a good science lesson, “Have you heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?”

“No…what the hell is that?” Xia Yibing frowned.

“That is to say, human beings live in this world, and different levels of pursuits will arise according to the different environments and conditions they enjoy.”

“These needs… the five most basic ones are… physiological needs… safety needs… belongingness needs… esteem seeking and finally self-actualization needs.”

When talking about “physiological needs”, Hitzfeld looked a little unnatural.

Because according to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, she found that she could not determine which stage of needs she was in.

Physiological needs are simple. In order to survive, a person needs food, water, breathing, sleep… and sometimes sex. These are the instinctive needs of humans as animals.

She must have been satisfied with this.

Then there is the need for security. People at this level need to go further and get a place to live. It does not necessarily have to be a concrete house or territory, but can also be order, effective laws and moral atmosphere.

Although Sarah was plagued by evil spirits, she was safe because the major cities were protected by the Xieyang Stone Carvings. Therefore, she felt that she was satisfied with this requirement.

The need to belong…

If she remembered correctly, belongingness needs mainly described social and emotional needs. In a deeper sense, it also involved “love”.

She felt that she should be at the fourth level of respect needs, namely “self-esteem and the desire to be respected by others, and the urgent desire to prove her own value by doing something.”

But she was not completely sure… because Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a pyramid structure, which is accumulated layer by layer.

She didn’t seem to be…completely…satisfied with the social and emotional needs on the third level.

So is the fourth level of her self-awareness safe?

Wait…these are all excuses!

Shaking his head, Hitzfeld threw all those messy thoughts out of his head.

What on earth am I thinking of?

I actually wanted to use this bullshit theory to convince myself to do something terrible… I’m crazy!

“Hitzfeld?” Xia Yibing turned sideways and looked at her with concern, “You still have one last thing to explain…”

“Yes.” Hitzfeld nodded quickly. “Self-realization – the ultimate goal and the highest demand stage of most people’s lives. People who have reached this level have abandoned those low-level interests. They will not indulge in gambling, horse racing, games, novels… Instead, they will set some clear goals for the rest of their lives and do their best to achieve them!”

“I understand…” Xia Yibing nodded slowly, then smiled brightly: “Isn’t that who I am?”

She is even more shameless than me…

Hitzfeld’s eyelids twitched.

“That’s not the point.”

“The point is… just treat it like that.”

“What do you mean by ‘when’…”

“Just assume you’re that kind of person – like, your goal is to capture as many cultists as possible and rid the entire Sara of evil.”

“Yes.”

“But it is definitely a grand task that is carried out in stages. You can’t suddenly complete it all at once. It must be divided into countless small goals, and every case solved is progress.”

“That’s what happened.”

“So you feel happy?”

“What……?”

“Happiness, when you accomplish these goals.” Hitzfeld emphasized, “Have you ever experienced the happiness of realizing your dreams step by step, of not having your efforts wasted and of having been affirmed?”

“Of course… I think so.” Xia Yibing frowned slightly, “I have achieved my goal… Yes, of course I am very happy…”

In fact, it should be extremely happy.

Recalling those cases that she had successfully solved, those justices that had been upheld, those souls that had been saved… Xia Yibing felt refreshed all over, happier and more relieved than taking a hot spring bath.

but–

Hitzfeld had nothing better to do than ask her what this meant?

“So now let’s continue with the assumption.” Hitzfeld had switched to a whisper volume.

“Suppose these fruits – yes – the rows of fruits here, each fruit represents an evil spirit, a cultist, or even a possible crime in the future. And you can stop everything by eating them.”

“Hitzfeld…” Xia Yibing’s face looked a little solemn.

“It’s impossible…”

“Suppose! Just suppose!”

Hitzfeld emphasized.

“Suppose you can use this method to constantly…experience this kind of…happiness that comes from the fulfillment of the highest needs…which is at the top of the meaning of human life…”

“You know that you can continue to come here and repeat this behavior.”

“Will you still… handle cases in your original way?”

“…”

Xia Yibing’s expression became more and more solemn.

It can even be described as gloomy.

“I don’t think so.”

“The novelists in Nanxinze think so too.”

Hitzfeld took over immediately.

“I think I understand why Haytham is so obsessed with gain and loss.”

——–

Thanks to: Blood Saint Ellie and Hunter, Youmu… for the blades and rewards~!

Thanks for your support~

ps: If there are a lot of votes and comments, there will be a lot of updates (crazy hint)~

Chapter 36: Forbidden Fruit 3

Based on the information currently available, a complete chain of events can be deduced.

Simply put, these fruits are the crystallization of memory.

Each fruit represents a memory… The contributors may have used some method – that is, the “wisdom fruit tree” mentioned in the introduction? Use it to “reconstruct thinking”? … In short, they used this method to copy their own memories and turn them into fruits.

These memory fruits can contain anything, whether it is a detailed description of a story or an understanding of a subject. As long as people eat the fruit, they can quickly master this memory in a short period of time.

This is much more convenient than flipping through a book.

And this is exactly the scariest thing.

Because… Hitzfeld didn’t dare to speculate about other people, but for her, she always regarded “acquiring knowledge” as the supreme and ultimate achievement in life.

Of course, “gaining knowledge” is a bit too vague to describe this process. To be more specific and differentiated, it can also be… successfully solving a case or solving a puzzle.

She believes that the instantaneous happiness that is fed back to the body from the brain – or from the spirit – is the most intoxicating. To go deeper, it may also involve the secretion of dopamine and happiness hormones.

So, suppose that the happiness she gets every time she finishes reading and thoroughly understanding a book, or every time she solves a problem is 100.

She can only get this 100 points of happiness through hard study, diligent thinking, and perhaps a little bit of luck. No matter what else she does, she can never enjoy happiness that exceeds this score.

Based on this assumption, she is now faced with the situation where “she may be able to easily obtain the same level of happiness by eating a memory fruit.”

If she gets used to eating this, can she go back to her previous state of concentration and hard work?

It’s like gambling.

This thing itself doesn’t look that scary, but it changes people’s mentality.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars a day, a few hours, a few hands of cards and the money flows back and forth on the table.

After getting used to this kind of life, how can a person still be willing to go back to work? Just a few thousand yuan a month?

It’s impossible.

When Xia Yibing saw these fruits for the first time, even though she understood their effects, she didn’t think so deeply about them.

But Hitzfeld was a person with modern thinking. She immediately applied the consequences of taking these fruits to the novelists who participated in the “Newspaper War”, and continued to deduce using Haytham as an example, directly simulating the most hidden side effect – a change in mentality!

Changes in mentality may not seem like side effects and may not have any impact at first glance, but their consequences are the most serious.

She could imagine the overwhelming surprise that Haytham felt after eating the Memory Fruit for the first time.