novelsite Chapter 54 City Qualifying Tournament
Chapter 54 City Qualifying Tournament
Seven days later, when the world went backward again, Chang Niankong immediately began to descend the mountain.
No one saw him off; it was as if he were descending the mountain for the first time.
He wore a neatly pressed, bluish-gray Taoist robe, his hair was styled in a meticulously tied bun, and a string of small peach wood pendants hung from his waist.
After riding for two hours through the winding mountains, he entered Lanhe Town.
I was stunned by the sight before me as soon as I entered the town.
The streets were packed with people, countless as far as the eye could see, men and women, young and old, red flags fluttering in the wind, whispers mingling, and several banners hanging in the street.
The sign reads something like, "Taoist wisdom enhances memory, and the sages of the immortal mountain display their talents," and "Welcome the Taoist priests of Longhu Mountain down the mountain to join us for a grand brainpower memory event."
The group at the head of the group was none other than Yang Hongliang, the owner of Moyu Internet Cafe, who was smugly talking to the people around him.
"Here they come, here they come, Taoist Chang has come down the mountain..."
Wei Xiaoshuai raised a colorful flag and waved it vigorously. As he waved it, it was as if he had given a signal, and the sound of gongs and drums immediately rang out from behind the crowd.
Chang Niankong smiled helplessly at this sight; he hadn't expected such a scene.
It was as if he could see again the same celebration banquet that the whole village held for him when he was admitted to Peking University.
All the villagers greeted him warmly, the younger generation kept congratulating him, and the older generation kept praising him. Even the village chief and the town mayor kept offering him toasts.
He was all too familiar with this feeling; it was a sense of pride and anticipation.
More accurately, it is the desire for one person to attain enlightenment, and for all their relatives and friends to benefit from it.
It has been said that Chinese people are the most pragmatic, never believing in gods or immortals, and only seeking help from Buddha when in trouble.
Chang Niankong deeply understood this idea before he began practicing Taoism, and it often troubled him.
He used to not understand why, even though he had done nothing wrong to the whole village and everyone was helping him out when he was in trouble, he couldn't rest when he felt tired.
After practicing Taoism, he looked at this argument again and felt that it made no sense.
It makes sense that most people are driven by self-interest and avoid harm, and only when they are in distress do they think of seeking divine guidance and praying for safety. In ordinary times, it is rare to see people who are truly devoted to the Tao.
What's illogical is that behind this pragmatism lies the most basic expectation: a yearning for stability and a longing for good fortune, not entirely utilitarianism.
I was just obsessed with the idea that I was too much of a moral perfectionist and that I could solve all problems by having a photographic memory.
Only after entering the Tao did I realize that the world is inherently imperfect, and people's hearts are always complicated. All kinds of troubles are not due to a lack of memory, but rather to having too deep an attachment.
Chang Niankong raised his hand to brush the peach wood talisman at his waist, regaining his composure. Suddenly, he remembered what his master, who loved to eat pig's head, had once said:
"The Way is in the human world, not in the deep mountains. People's obsessions and expectations are all experiences in the mortal world, and have nothing to do with right or wrong."
Then, he naturally pushed the electric scooter forward.
Yang Hongliang quickly stepped forward, cupped his hands, and said, "Master Chang, you've finally come down the mountain! Everyone is looking forward to your participation in the city qualifying competition today! Even our town's mayor, Yang, came specially to cheer you on after hearing the news..."
As Yang Hongliang spoke, he stepped aside, and a middle-aged man in an executive jacket quickly stepped forward and clasped his hands in greeting.
"Master Chang, thank you so much for representing the Taoist community at the 'Future Memory Bank' project held globally. This truly brings honor to Longhu Mountain on a global scale!"
"I dare not call myself a Dharma Master..."
Chang Niankong returned the greeting with a cupped hand: "I am a Taoist who entered the sect relatively late in life. I am just a person and dare not represent the Taoist sect. Besides, this memory competition is not a doctrinal exchange conference. I hope Mayor Yang will not involve the Taoist sect."
"I understand, I understand..."
Mayor Yang smiled awkwardly, inwardly surprised that this little-known Taoist priest was so clear-headed, and thought to himself that he couldn't possibly be a Taoist practitioner.
When the onlookers heard Chang Niankong say this, and saw his calm expression, unhurried tone, and the simple and honest demeanor he exuded, they couldn't help but feel a deep respect for him.
The crowd on the outside couldn't hear the conversation inside very clearly. They mostly stood on tiptoe and craned their necks, curiously observing Chang Niankong while whispering among themselves.
"Look, isn't that Master Chang? He looks very thin, and doesn't have the otherworldly air he's rumored to have!"
"What do you know? This is what real skill looks like. All those welcoming masters at Longhu Mountain Grand View are so ethereal and otherworldly, why don't they come to participate in the memory competition?"
"You guys say, cultivating Taoism really can produce an extraordinary memory? I heard from my son that this Taoist priest was really amazing last time!"
"Who knows? We'll find out when we watch the game..."
"..."
The welcoming ceremony didn't last long before everyone escorted Chang Niankong to the Moyu Internet Cafe.
It's still that same corner, still that A31 camera position.
The difference is that the large screen in the lounge has been moved to the street, and two more large screens have been erected on the north and south streets to show the full details of the competition.
"Master Chang, you can continue the competition here. I'll wait here. Just let me know if you need anything."
"Thank you for your trouble..."
Chang Niankong nodded, then ignored everyone else, put on his noise-canceling headphones, and stared at his computer.
The computer screen already had Yang Hongliang's pre-prepared live broadcast room for the competition. Just click to enter and you can participate directly.
Today is the second round of the memory competition, the city-level qualifying round.
The number of live broadcast rooms for the national competition is less than half that of the amateur preliminary rounds, with only about 2000.
Unlike the previous competition rules, this time each competition live stream room only has 500 people, and the top 50 will advance.
The live broadcast room that Chang Niankong and others were about to enter was the local city-level competition zone.
If the grassroots preliminary rounds are a carnival of public participation and everyone can try, then after seven days of selection, out of millions of people in Longhu City, only 500 people advanced and were assigned to just one live broadcast room.
This means that the organizers are starting to take the city qualifying rounds seriously.
Meanwhile, the rules for this round of the competition were also released a couple of days ago.
A new interference element has been added, where slight sound effects and screen flickering will occur during the answering process, testing the contestants' ability to resist interference.
The scoring rules incorporate speed weighting. When accuracy is the same, the faster the answering speed, the higher the score. The last player to finish is eliminated and will not be given another chance to advance.
However, the preparation work for the live broadcast of the city qualifying competition was very long. Chang Nian waited for ten minutes and found that it had not started yet, so he simply closed his eyes to rest.
Actually, there weren't any major technical difficulties in the preparation work!
The difficulty lies in the fact that we are now in a great era of regression. Text records are not saved, video files are not saved, and all smart devices only have one day's memory.
This requires staff to rely on their memory to verify the participants' information in order to avoid omissions or people sneaking in.
Who worked the hardest during this period?
They are undoubtedly there to serve as judges for various events in the Olympic Games.
These former top judges, as well as the staff involved in organizing the memory competition, were all assigned tasks.
They are responsible for recording the list of those who advance, their identity information, and then re-entering it into a system. Only after the entry is completed can each person who advances receive a unique verification code.
Only with this verification code can you enter the exclusive live broadcast room for the city qualifying competition.
"Oh dear, this is so tiring. Perhaps this is the greatest significance of launching the 'Future Memory Bank Project'."
During the competition preparation process, various live broadcast rooms responsible for commentary showed footage of these staff members carefully checking the players' information.
A commentator in the live broadcast room said earnestly:
"As everyone has seen, it's not that the game was delayed, but because every major setback in the world puts a strain on people's memory."
Things that used to be easy for us—just checking our phones or blogs to find yesterday's entries—are now impossible to save, let alone the massive amounts of information generated daily on the internet.
This information may seem useless before the Great Regression, but we only realize its great significance when we need it.
This may be our civilization, and our way of life, which may very well never be preserved again.
At this point, the commentator seemed to realize he had been pessimistic, and quickly chuckled self-deprecatingly, adding:
"As everyone can see, the progress of humankind to this point has never relied on luck, but on the spirit of solving problems that have arisen from generation to generation."
The implementation of this "Future Memory Bank" project is precisely to establish a "Spark Class" for all of humanity.
I believe that the Spark Class, like a spark, will ensure that human civilization will never be extinguished, as long as there are people willing to remember it.
As the commentator finished speaking, the screens in the various live broadcast rooms began to switch, and the city qualifying rounds officially began.