Prodigal System in the Flourishing City

Chapter 1297: Chapter 1298: Fusion into Despair

On the road, Xiaozhi instinctively moved closer to Lu Xiaobu.

He couldn’t help it; although the people here seemed nice, he was still familiar with Lu Xiaobu and preferred to stay with him.

”Can you tell me? Why do you view the world through data?” Lu Xiaobu asked softly.

Judging from the current situation, he should have gained Xiaozhi’s trust, so he could ask this question.

Xiaozhi looked up at Lu Xiaobu, then lowered his head again.

Finally, he spoke.

This time, he rarely spoke without using data!

”Instructor Lu, do you still remember your memories before you were two years old?” As soon as Xiaozhi opened his mouth, he raised a difficult question.

”I don’t remember.” Lu Xiaobu shook his head.

Not only does he not remember, but he believes that most people don’t remember either.

”I remember.” Xiaozhi bit his lip and lowered his head further: ”I clearly remember every single thing from birth to now.”

”Super Memory Syndrome?” Lu Xiaobu frowned.

”Yes.” Xiaozhi nodded slightly, his head almost buried in his knees.

”So that’s how it is.” Lu Xiaobu sighed, reaching out to pat Xiaozhi’s head.

This ailment is something that some people might have never heard of.

Everyone wishes to have a better memory, right? After all, a good memory is beneficial for studying, work, and many aspects!

However, having too good a memory is not a good thing; it’s a kind of illness!

Super Memory Syndrome is such an illness.

People often say that time is a good healer of sorrow because time will make you forget.

However, for those with Super Memory Syndrome, time is helpless!

Because they cannot forget!

They can’t forget painful things!

They can’t forget joyful things!

Even the trivial things, like what clothes you wore when you met them today, what fabric it was, which foot entered the door first, what you said, and any change in your demeanor—they can’t forget any of that!

Imagine what kind of pain it is when such a vast amount of memory is flooding into your mind?!

It can really drive a person insane!

”I clearly remember that when I was young, my biological parents sold me to my later parents.” Xiaozhi continued with his head buried.

His voice was neither sad nor happy, just like when he talked about data.

”At first, my foster parents were very good to me and even thought I was a genius. I was also happy and tried to show off my memory as much as possible to please them.”

”However, when I overly demonstrated my abilities and even made every mistake I could.”

”They no longer called me a genius and even started to fear me, calling me a monster!”

At this point, Xiaozhi’s previously calm voice trembled slightly.

Lu Xiaobu reached out to touch Xiaozhi’s head to calm him down.

He understood!

Abilities beyond the ordinary are considered genius, but if they exceed people’s understanding, then it’s a monster!

Especially when this monster is not their real biological son, that kind of fear is almost an instinctive reaction!

Moreover, Xiaozhi said he did some wrong things.

What wrong things?

Although Xiaozhi didn’t say, Lu Xiaobu could imagine.

The world is full of malicious people, or rather, people with a sense of mischief!

A simple example, the night before, Xiaozhi’s parents were intimate, thinking Xiaozhi was just a kid and didn’t care.

The next day, when someone knew about Xiaozhi’s strong memory, they deliberately asked about this matter.

Then, imagine how the young Xiaozhi, with almost no sense of morality, would react?

Without a doubt!

He would spill everything!

And in great detail!

Imagine the problems that would arise from this!

Foster parents’ shame, the mischievous person’s joy, the arguments between both sides, and eventually, the fear and disgust towards Xiaozhi from his foster parents!

Maybe once wouldn’t lead to disgust and fear towards Xiaozhi.

But what if it happened multiple times?

For instance, family arguments, gossip, behind-the-back discussions—these are things everyone does, but doesn’t want to admit or let others know!

But the curious Xiaozhi would certainly observe and remember, and in his immature mind, he would readily be baited into revealing it!

Time and again until the foster parents truly became fearful and disgusted with Xiaozhi.

It might even come with corporal punishments.

For young Xiaozhi, these are unimaginable blows and shadows!

”Later, I slightly understood some things, and I wanted to figure out my problems, so I started learning intensively, voluntarily studying various knowledge.” Xiaozhi calmed down a bit under Lu Xiaobu’s touch, then continued.

”My memory allowed me to learn various knowledge quickly, even if I didn’t understand it, but remembering it was very easy.”

”Book after book, subject after subject, I don’t know how many books I’ve read or how much knowledge I’ve learned.”

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiaobu sighed once again.

The terrifying thing about strong memory is being at this level; even if Xiaozhi’s comprehension isn’t top-notch, once a large amount of knowledge pours in, understanding might just follow!

Like robots, do they think like humans?

Currently, robots don’t!

But!

They engage in deep learning!

That’s continuously adding relevant knowledge, constantly eliminating and comparing, finding the right choices from a pile of errors!

Xiaozhi is like this!

Moreover, since he’s human, he actually learns faster than robots!

”Until one day, my head started to hurt! An almost splitting pain! I tried many methods, but none could relieve the pain, and it kept getting worse!” Reflecting on those times, fear unavoidably flashed in Xiaozhi’s eyes!

”It’s okay, it’s okay.” Lu Xiaobu kept patting Xiaozhi.

The initial situation he described had occurred; the Super Memory Syndrome had struck, and the volume of memory was too much for the brain to handle!

Moreover, this condition is almost unsolvable!

As mentioned before, they can’t forget; everything seen, heard, smelled, and even felt is forcibly remembered.

It’s only going to hurt more and more!

The few Super Memory Syndrome patients in the world nearly all couldn’t endure and chose to end their lives!

”How did you solve it?” Lu Xiaobu asked.

”I learned from the way computers work.” Xiaozhi returned to normal once more.

This calm and normal response was very much like Lu Xiaobu’s Forced Calmness skill!

”I built a huge database in my mind, categorizing and storing all memories to prevent them from being chaotically piled together.” Xiaozhi said this with a faint, proud smile.

But Lu Xiaobu saw the difficulty and pain in having to organize all this amidst severe pain!

Most importantly, he had no one to accompany him, no one to help!

So, besides difficulty and pain, there was loneliness!

These three combined become—despair!