Chapter 415: The ssage of the Previous Owner
A month later.
A group of three consisting of two n and a woman were gathered in a laboratory in the Spire Experintal Base.
Chen Chen took a USB drive from Brando’s hands.
The shell of the USB drive was a transparent almost crystal-like material. The intricate golden gears structure of the device could be seen through the shell. So of the gears were turning continuously like chanical watches.
Sothing as delicately crafted as this could very easily be mistaken as so sort of artifact or art piece instead of a USB drive.
“This thing nearly cost my life, Mr. Chen Chen.”
Brando cracked a smile, one of his eyes was wrapped with thick layers of bandages with tiny traces of blood still seeping out of them. He was in horrible shape.
“Head to the logistics departnt of the Spire Laboratory, they’ll patch you up.”
Chen Chen nodded and addressed him blankly. “It’s up to you whether you want a bionic eye or a cloned eye. Just note that our current organ cloning technology hasn’t reached the desired level yet. If you want to go with that option, you might need to wait another half a year, also for your clone to fully mature. You can replace your eye after that.”
“I’ll take the bionic eye.”
Brando nodded firmly. “I’ve heard that the bionic eye developed from the Xingtian Project is superior to the average organic eye. It’s also nearly impossible to tell that it’s bionic.”
“The only problem is you might have trouble getting past security.”
Chen Chen cracked a joke, sothing that he rarely did. He tapped Brando on the shoulder before approaching a computer with the USB drive.
With that, Brando returned with a subtle bow before leaving the laboratory.
Chen Chen inserted the quantum USB drive into the computer. After that, Little X took over the computer and started establishing a connection with the quantum computer located far away in Northern Arica.
“Connection established.”
Little X shut her eyes and inford, “I’m going through the files on the computer. So far what I’ve gathered is that the majority of these files were created in 1993, which is also the year that the Earth Federation was established.”
Chen Chen responded, “As expected, this quantum computer was created in the sa year as the Federation, what else?”
“Searching... Most of their contents are the code sequence of the quantum computer, there’s very little valuable information...”
Little X suddenly snapped her eyes wide open as she said this, “Sir Godfather, I found an encrypted file created in 2003. It’s... In video format?”
“Is it the only one?”
Chen Chen had a good feeling about this.
“I’ll keep looking...”
Within half a minute, Little X opened her eyes again. “There’s no mistaking it. The coding of the quantum computer had never been altered, not even once. This ans that the Earth Federation had never decoded the programming sequence of the quantum computer since day one. The only valuable information I found in the quantum computer is this video.”
“Excellent.”
Chen Chen ordered, “Bring a Delta-level research staff.”
Within five minutes after issuing the order, two Black Knights stepped inside, dragging a black research mber dressed in striped clothing behind them. They put him into the designated isolation room built into the laboratory.
“Hey, where are you taking ? D*mn, let go!”
The black man spat profanity with a heavy accent while he continued to struggle. He kept this up for the entire duration while the Black Knights locked him into the isolation room.
“You cursed b*stards, I’ll kill you... Ahh!!”
Before he was done cursing, he suddenly jerked violently before collapsing onto the floor and began to scream in agony.
This was the work of Little X manually triggering the tungsten collar strapped around his neck to release a voltage of three thousand volts to teach this unruly Delta-level research staff a lesson.
The collar continued emitting voltage for close to ten seconds before finally stopping. The black man whimpered on the floor, still refusing to get back up.
Chen Chen approached the observation window and selected a button. The basic information of this research staff was imdiately displayed on the control panel of the isolation room.
Code: D008624.
Na: Evan Glen, Male, 35 years old, Owanbo.
On 20 June 2022, sentenced to life imprisonnt for robbery and first-degree murder. On 21 April 2023, admitted to the Spire Experintal Base designated as a Delta-level research staff to maintain the operations of the base.
Health tric: Healthy.
Total experints participated: 0.
After noting this information, Chen Chen addressed the man using the speaker system installed in the isolation room, “Mr. Evan Glen.”
“Who, who’s that?”
Evan Glen who was initially pretending to be out cold on the floor suddenly shot up and looked around him when he heard the unfamiliar voice of another man echoing in his ears.
“You can call Professor Chen.”
Chen Chen said, “I’m sure you understand your current circumstances. Do you still rember the terms of the agreent? In clause 5 of article 3 of the terms signed between you and Blackwatch, you’re obligated to cooperate with all experints conducted by the company. If you provide cooperation to a certain threshold, you may receive a deducted sentence.”
“To hell with your cooperation, just tell what you want with ?”
Evan Glen spat and pulled himself back up. After this, he noticed there was a large panel of glass in front of him. “Hey, I know you’re out there brat. You better watch out!”
Evan Glen barked as he glared at the glass viciously.
Chen Chen darted a glance at Little X, to which Little X responded with a quick pout, implying that she just picked the first person she found on the list and that she had no way of knowing whether this person would turn out to be such a head case.
Chen Chen decided this argunt was not worth having. He looked for a certain button on the control button and upon pressing it, the observation window imdiately beca tinted. When he pressed another button next to the previous button, Even Glen’s stream of curses beca muted as well.
“Play it for him now.”
Chen Chen gave a lazy signal before lying back on the couch and got so shut-eye.
“Alright.”
Little X got to work imdiately after receiving Chen Chen’s orders. She found the video from the quantum computer and cast it into the isolation room.
One minute, two minutes, three minutes...
Five minutes later, Little X inford, “Sir Godfather, the video has ended. I scanned the video fra by fra and didn’t detect signs of any suspicious tic content or anomalies within it. Evan Glen didn’t display any notable symptoms upon watching it. His physical and ntal state are completely unaltered.”
“Excellent.”
Chen Chen got back up and approached the control panel again where he reactivated the observation window and unmuted the isolation room.
“Buddy, what the hell were you saying?’
The man inside the isolation room was having trouble making sense of what he just saw as he exclaid, “What successor, USB drive, what the hell was that video all about?”
Unfortunately, nobody was going to answer his questions. The previous two Black Knights stepped inside again and dragged him outside.
Chen Chen waited until the Delta-level research staff was escorted out of the laboratory before approaching the computer and playing the video for himself.
“Click click click...”
The display beca filled with white noise in the starting portion of the video. Judging by how blurry the video was, its resolution was probably 360p. It was sothing fild from a long ti ago.
There was a sudden blink following the white noise. The image of a man who looked to be in his thirties appeared on the screen. He was good-looking and had fierce, piercing eyes.
The man was dressed in a black suit. Only his upper torso was visible in the video. Although there was no reliable way to determine how tall he was, it was evident that he was well-built.
Most notably, this person was a Chinese man!
“If you’re watching this ssage, I’ll take it that you’ve either reached my present stage or at least drawing close already.”
The man fild the video inside a laboratory in which walls were built with tal. He revealed a fine row of white teeth and smiled like a madman. “Fascinating, isn’t it? I’m sure you’ve guessed it by now. That’s right, the magical USB drive you have there was left behind by .
“My na is Zhao Shanhe, the second person to hold the dinsion key... Well, I only found clues of one previous owner of the dinsion key, so I’m going to assu I’m the second. I also founded the Earth Federation. It was I who united humanity on the sa front for the very first ti!”
When the phrase “united humanity” was brought up, the man in the video smiled with great pride., “Hahaha, to think that soone like , little Zhao Shanhe could accomplish a feat as great as this, maybe this life was worth living after all!”
The man quickly switched his candid complexion with a solemn one within a second. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid the Earth Federation wouldn’t have much ti left after I leave here and head to the Event Horizon dinsion. Without my supervision, it’s only a matter of ti before the united organization of mankind falls apart.”
Chen Chen squinted his eyes in thought. Could this an that the anti that he ran into was this person as well?
Chen Chen juggled the theory in his mind and figured he should continue watching.
“I’m filming this video to inform you that humanity is in a potentially dangerous situation...”
Zhao Shanhe expressed solemnly, “I’m sure you’ve heard of the civilization theory called The Great Filter. If we treat a habitable planet as a singular collective similar to a regular human with an independent soul, then the unit of life for our planet Earth would be known as ‘Gaia’.
“What most people don’t know is that the ergence of civilization on ‘Gaia’ is more than re coincidence. The formation of civilizations can have comparisons drawn to the developnt of cancer cells. The developnt of civilization inevitably goes hand in hand with the destruction of the ecosystem around them. This is what’s known as the second law of thermodynamics. There’s no other way around this principle of entropy. The only way for civilization to continuously develop is to inevitably enter a cycle of destruction, slowly draining Gaia of its life force...
“Therefore, there’s an established ecosystem or cycle for each civilization where they must be able to survive this filter to extend their life cycle. This filtration process is an inherent part of Mother Gaia and is inevitable. As long as civilization remains standing, there’ll always be this opposing nature that has to be considered.
“This was how I ca to discover a certain truth...”
A wipe of horror appeared in Zhao Shanhe’s eyes as he said this, “Would you believe it? Human’s understanding has been wrong all this ti. There hasn’t been any further large-scale disaster ever since we, as a collective, survived the last two World Wars. This creates a false illusion that the world we reside in is supposed to be a safe place. However, history will tell you that this ‘safety’ is just a re circumstance. The foundation of human civilization has been cented in constant man-made disasters ever since its dawn!
“What I’m saying here is that this world is far more vicious than we ever expected. In the vast universe, the Earth is like a lone island in the vast ocean while human civilization is a feeble sandcastle built by a child. It’s as delicate as it’s fragile. This civilization that we humans put so much pride in can easily be washed away faster than you can blink when the tide rises...
“So, do you understand now?”
Zhao Shanhe took a deep breath. “This world is only growing more treacherous!
“I can’t precisely explain what these dangers will be or when they will co... But what I can tell you is that it is accumulative. By now, you should’ve figured out that the reason I united humans to establish the Earth Federation is to combat these dangers. ‘Adam’ is specifically designed to address these concerns as it continuously predicts whatever danger Earth may face and issues warnings to the Federation accordingly. This way, the Earth Federation at least has a window to react.”
Zhao Shanhe fell silent for a mont upon arriving at this point. He seed to have steeled his heart when he said this, “And now, I’ll be entering the movie Event Horizon to exact a plan of mine. If this plan works out... Then I suppose you won’t be watching this video in the first place and everything should’ve worked out. But if you’re watching this video now, that ans my plan has failed...
“Heh! Don’t even bother trying to figure out what my plan was or to dive into my identity or proof of my existence. There’s no longer any evidence of my existence in this world. It’s like I never existed because I was afflicted with so weird thing known as anti... There’s a chance you’ve dealt with this entity as well or maybe you haven’t. If you haven’t run into it, I’ll have to advise you to be careful. I’m afraid I can’t give you much advice since I can barely keep myself safe from harm!”
Zhao Shanhe expressed almost frustratingly, “I’m not afraid of death, I’m just afraid of being forgotten. I suppose that the more you fear sothing, the more important it is that you confront it head-on!”
After that, silence again.
Chen Chen looked at the video length, he was now approaching the end of the video.
“There’s also sothing else incredibly harsh that I need to tell you.”
Zhao Shanhe suddenly chuckled, revealing his row of pearly white teeth. “When you keep using the power of the dinsion key, the dangers that follow will continue to stalk you, this is entirely unavoidable. You can figure out the rest of the details yourselves. It doesn’t co imdiately, it’s like a butterfly effect.”
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