Weird Stories About Rules: Cognitive Pollution in Tiekeng Town

My name is Lin Jie, a doctor of science, a materialist, and my biggest belief in this life is Maxwell's equations. Today I was sent to investigate Tiekeng Town. The standard equipment for investigators is a military mobile phone, a satellite phone, and a high-precision compass. Three minutes into town: The mobile phone has become a Snake game console, the satellite phone has become a Xiaobawang learning machine, and the compass has become a mini electric fan. Welcome to Tiekeng Town. Here, high school is the absolute limit of human wisdom. PhD? That is a mythological setting made up in storytelling. Here, the aunt said that gravity is a magnet, and gravity is a magnet. Here, knowledge is not power—knowledge that is believed, is. The good news is: outsiders can override the rules with their own knowledge. The bad news is: every time you cover a rule, your knowledge degrades. My predecessor, Zhou Mingyuan, came in three months ago and is now drawing circles in the quarry. He taught three villagers "heliocentrism" and then forgot who he was. I don't want to be like him. So I'm going to take down the underlying code of this town before it swallows me whole.