Shu was dead. Undoubtedly dead.
At least, he felt a little dead.
He had indeed prepared for it. He had held his breath, pulled back his tongue, and even closed his eyes, not looking at the gruesome food.
To be honest, it was really hard for him to believe that the extremely ugly thing was actually from Cecilia's hands. The thing that almost had "I'm poisonous" written on it and the Cecilia who was holding it formed a huge contrast.
Holding on to the thought of "it can't be worse than Kiana's cooking," Shu, under Siegfried's admiring gaze, reached out, scooped a spoonful of what looked like a stew but was actually a salad, and put it in his mouth.
Then he slumped onto the table and didn't move again.
Siegfried swallowed a mouthful of saliva and poked Shu with his finger.
"He's fainted," after confirming that Shu had no reaction, Siegfried looked up with a horrified expression and reported the situation to Cecilia.
He was afraid that Cecilia's next sentence would be a smiling "then let dear husband finish the rest."
Cecilia's cooking in the past was at least good-looking. What was with this horrifying food that didn't even pretend to be edible tonight?
What had triggered her?
After hearing Siegfried's report, Cecilia was silent for a moment, then walked to Shu's side and reached out to check his condition.
He had really fainted, as naturally as if he had suddenly woken up from a deep sleep and then fallen back into it after closing his eyes.
Cecilia sighed softly and waved at Siegfried. "Siegfried, can you help me get the Abyss Flower?"
Siegfried nodded hastily and fled from the wailing food as if his life depended on it.
Cecilia didn't say anything, but just moved the hand that was checking Shu's body and placed it gently on his head.
"It's really been..." she said softly, her eyes full of pity, "...hard on you..."
The diagnosis that Otto had requested was now complete. Shu's problem was very serious, visibly serious.
The psychological problems had already manifested in his body, forming various minor ailments that Shu himself was not aware of.
Before starting to treat Shu's psychological problems, Cecilia had to first fine-tune his physical condition, or rather... try to fine-tune it.
Although Otto hadn't told Cecilia everything about Shu, he had mentioned that "Shu's physical fitness would decline due to overuse of his power."
The Abyss Flower was Otto's last attempt at this problem. If even the Abyss Flower couldn't reverse it, then unless a Herrscher who specifically dealt with this problem was born, Shu's condition was incurable.
Perhaps even a Herrscher couldn't do it... the Key of Genesis was a failed attempt.
But Otto just wouldn't give up. Even though the Key of Genesis was the highest achievement in biology he had ever seen, Otto still comforted himself by saying that it was a different path. Future City's technology might be able to find a way to treat Shu from other places.
This thought had become a kind of self-comfort in Otto's mind, a self-comfort whose outcome he could almost predict. But he was not someone who could deceive himself forever.
Just like how he was unwilling to admit those unprovable "resurrections" in the "original story," Otto had always been a person who dared to face the most bleak reality.
Now, the opportunity for verification was in front of him. Otto couldn't possibly avoid this opportunity just to maintain that slim hope.
Siegfried quickly brought back the Abyss Flower, and Cecilia had also completed her full examination of Shu.
The data on paper was not much different from what Otto had provided, but the actual hands-on examination made Cecilia's heart sink.
Let's try to treat those problems caused by psychological feedback first...
"I am the white that creates all things..."
Calming her mind, Cecilia activated the Abyss Flower's healing mode. The quantum robots effortlessly entered Shu's body and began to wander around under Cecilia's guidance.
Shu's body began to appear in a different form in front of Cecilia. And contrary to her guess of it being "riddled with holes," Shu's body was unexpectedly... intact.
It was a healthy body. At least Cecilia didn't see any "hidden injuries," "lesions," or other abnormal things. At a glance, Shu's body, apart from his body fat percentage being a little too low, was healthy to the point of being standardized.
Such a body... why would there be a situation of "declining physical fitness"?
Cecilia frowned slightly. Siegfried, who was carefully cleaning up the "anesthetic" food, was stunned for a moment, and his attention was also focused on Shu.
The problems induced by the psychological diseases had been found by Cecilia. While treating those minor problems, Cecilia was also looking for the real reason for the decline in Shu's physical fitness.
Muscle density, bone density, nerve conduction... these were all normal. Each one of them, taken out individually, was a standard that would make a medical student scream with excitement.
But once these things started to combine, the result was extraordinary weakness.
Why... Cecilia had never encountered this situation before, but it didn't stop her from making the most basic deduction.
Shu's body must be missing something that others had, or it was possible that he had something extra. But what was this thing that was different from others?
[Hope]? The biggest difference between Shu and others was this. This answer also matched Otto's previous statement of "power overdraft"... so did the overuse of [Hope] take something away from Shu's body?
Or did using [Hope] cause something that she couldn't observe to accumulate in his body?
This was a question that needed to be verified by experiments. After all, for something like [Hope], Otto had not even established a basic model, so he couldn't use the quantum cluster computer to deduce and simulate experiments.
Either let Shu experiment on himself and let Cecilia witness the process of his physical fitness decline, or find another person with [Hope] to do a control experiment...
Hmm, another person with [Hope]...
Cecilia opened her eyes and looked at Shu, who was frowning even in his sleep, with a complicated expression.
This child could force himself into this state. Were there really others like him behind him?
...
"Ah... achoo!" In the next room, a muffled sneeze suddenly sounded, interrupting the card game that had just started among a group of girls.