From American Internet Celebrity to God Among Men

174: Chapter 174 The Parable of the Door and the Ripples Before its ReleaseSeven days after the official contract was signed, Alex received his first formal assignment as a ”Non-Resident Perception Consultant”: a small, multi-encrypted data packet containing five sanitized audio clips and a concise technical background note.

The note read: ”Sample origin: Records of ’non-standard electromagnetic disturbances’ from various historical periods and geographical environments, processed via frequency reduction and filtering. Please evaluate the tendency of each sample in terms of ’emotional/intentional color’ (e.g., calm/disturbed, ordered/chaotic, directional/diffuse, etc.) and provide an ’abnormal perception intensity’ score from 0-10. This is a routine perception calibration and data collection for this quarter.”

It lacked the earth-shattering impact of the Icefield Pulse; it was more like a standardized ”perception ability test.” Alex understood that K was establishing baseline data for him as a ”sensor,” while simultaneously testing the stability and consistency of his abilities.

He did not process them at the office, but brought them back to his Malibu home. In the evening, in his perfectly quiet studio, he listened to them one by one. Sample A sounded like the rhythmic ticking of an old radar scan, but with imperceptible, minute irregularities in the rhythm; Sample B was a continuous low-frequency hum, interspersed with extremely subtle, chirping-like frequency modulations; Sample C was a fragment that defied categorization, as if various noises were randomly superimposed and only occasionally synchronized...

He closed his eyes, combining his Energy Perception with the budding Information Texture Discrimination to ”touch” the energy contours and ”colors” behind these sounds. Sample A gave him a sense of ”weary vigilance,” with an abnormal intensity score of 6; Sample B felt like ”sleep-talking,” with an intensity of 4; while Sample C was purely ”chaotic noise,” with almost no structural color at all, and an intensity of 2...

He spent nearly two hours completing the assessment and sent the encrypted results back. The process was calm, even a bit tedious, but Alex was very serious. He knew that establishing a reliable data baseline was crucial for the long-term cooperation between himself and K. More importantly, during this process, he gained new insights into the fine-tuned control of his abilities.

On the platform, submissions for the ”Door” theme were pouring in. The operations team had already pre-selected some highly creative works: someone recorded dozens of real door-opening and closing sounds from different materials, eras, and locations, combining them into a ”Symphony of Doors”; someone used sound effects to simulate a fantastical soundscape of ”pushing open a door to another world”; and a psychologist even submitted a piece using slow heartbeats, gradually accelerating breathing, and a final sigh of relief to interpret the process of ”opening one’s heart.”

As Alex browsed these works, while admiring the users’ imagination, he also vaguely felt that this theme seemed to touch upon the universal human emotions regarding ”boundaries,” ”choices,” and ”transcendence.” He instructed the team to appropriately guide discussions on these insights during live reviews, so that the challenge would not just be a competition of sound techniques, but could also spark some beneficial reflection.

The soundtrack for ”city of instantaneity: Sound Travelogue” entered the final pre-release hype phase. Universal Music arranged for several core music media outlets to conduct listening sessions and exclusive interviews. Alex and Taylor jointly accepted a video interview with one of the authoritative magazines. They avoided the arcane discussions of film technology and instead shared more about the creative philosophy of how sound serves as an emotional carrier and narrative partner, as well as the thoughts on vulnerability and resilience behind the special track ”Nesting in the Shimmer.” After the interview article was published, the response was excellent, further boosting anticipation for the album.