[Novel: Venus Syndrome] [545] Reading a Book

Everyone thought that reading a book was the act of following printed characters on paper with one's eyes, understanding their meaning, and committing them to memory. At least, until this day.

"This is a major study that will fundamentally overturn the concept of reading a book!"

Naniwa University, Research Ethics Review Committee Secretariat.
Associate Professor Matsunae of the Department of Medical Engineering at the Graduate School of Medicine said this right off the bat. His gestures were excessively large.

"We turn the human eye into a camera and connect it to storage and the brain. Every time you blink, click, click, everything you see is digitized. You don't have to turn pages or read books; all information that enters your field of vision is saved. Infinite memory can be realized!"

Ran Yabuuchi, a secretariat staff member, and Koichi Katsuragi, the secretary-general, were speechless for a moment. The idea was just too far-fetched.

"T-that's... that's human experimentation..."

When Ran finally managed to squeeze that out, Matsunae nodded with a beaming smile.

"That's right. That's why it's a groundbreaking study."

Katsuragi cleared his throat once and returned to his voice as secretary-general.

"No, well, we are the secretariat, so while we don't have the authority to reject submitted research... in reality, who do you expect to agree to such human experimentation?"

Matsunae leaned forward as if he had been waiting for that.

"There are plenty of them in prison. Violent criminals, sex offenders, child abusers... we should just make effective use of those criminals who have no value in living."

"What do you mean, 'we should just...'"

Katsuragi's Kansai dialect unintentionally became more pronounced.

"That's impossible. They say that for human experimentation on inmates, consent itself cannot be established. It's an immediate failure due to human rights violations, the research ethics board will reject it instantly, and the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, and the media will all come at once. The university's name will appear in headlines with the trio of 'Nazis,' 'human experimentation,' and 'eugenics,' and it will be the university president who has to bow their head. Even before the content of the research, the moment you conceived of this, it was over. It's not just a problem for the associate professor; it will be considered that the university did it as an organization. There's nothing that can protect you."

The discussion did not go any further. Matsunae pursed his lips in dissatisfaction, left a formal bow, and walked out of the room.

After the door closed, silence returned to the secretariat.

"A intense mad scientist came in right at the start of the year..."

Katsuragi did not reply to Ran's mutter.
He just sighed softly, realizing he had imagined a future where the act of reading a book might one day truly become a task of "just blinking."

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