490: Chapter 490: Blazing Flas (Vote for monthly ticket) 490: Chapter 490: Blazing Flas (Vote for monthly ticket) As the morning sunlight stread through the clear glass windows, Nock opened his eyes in confusion, “Is this Heaven?”
“This is Hell.”
A can of concentrated coffee was handed to him.
Nock turned his head and saw the forehead shining in the sun; he paused for a mont and then exclaid with surprise, “Director?”
He looked around and realized that he was in the working hall of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, surrounded by colleagues who were slowly awakening.
One by one, the caretakers in dical attire were making their rounds among the crowd, checking the health of those waking up.
He lifted his head to glance at the sky outside the window.
The weather was nice today, the sunlight sowhat dazzling.
“We survived?”
Nock found it hard to believe.
“Yes.”
Thorin plopped down beside him, opened another can of concentrated coffee, and gazed at the sunlight outside the window, “We survived.”
As he spoke, he pointed to the cleaning robot that was already in hibernation mode, “You ought to thank it, it’s the one that dragged you out of my office.
Otherwise, I would be considering contacting your next of kin by now.”
“Huh?” Nock was baffled as he looked at the cleaning robot and said sowhat blankly, “Since when do cleaning robots have this function?
How did it determine the fog in your office was denser than anywhere else?”
“Of course, it couldn’t judge that,” Thorin chuckled and glanced at the foolish youth beside him, “but a person can.”
Nock was startled, then realized the Director was reminding him, “Pete!”
The other man had fabricated traces of a hacker and likely left behind so ans to control the cleaning robot to save him.
He pulled out his wrist device, wanting to call this ‘acquaintance’ who had had a profound impact on him but quickly realized he didn’t have Pete’s contact details.
So, he could only open his mailbox and send an email to that private address, asking about Pete’s current situation and whether he was affected by last night’s events.
Thorin sat quietly beside, sipping his coffee while he waited for Nock to finish sending the email.
At that mont, Nock suddenly realized another implication in the Director’s words.
If he was saved by a robot controlled by Pete, did that an Pete was still awake last night when everyone else was unconscious?
This, coupled with the fact that Pete had been investigating sothing privately all along.
Was there a connection between Pete and last night’s fog?
Could it even be that Pete was on the opposing side to the originators of the fog?
Was the fog dispelled by him?
He looked at Thorin and asked in a low voice, “Director, what was last night’s fog?
How did it disappear?”
“I don’t know,” Thorin looked at Nock and replied softly, “After hearing your alarm, the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters imdiately sent support, but by the ti they arrived, the fog had already dissipated.”
“When did the support from headquarters arrive?”
Nock asked cautiously.
“Around three in the morning.
They encountered traps set for exotic beasts on their way, which slowed them down,” Thorin answered.
“Three in the morning,” Nock calculated the timing; he had lost consciousness around twelve fifty, “It seems the fog had cleared away early.
Otherwise, by the ti they got here, we all would have been dead.”
He suddenly felt a sense of futility, leaning to one side, saying nothing.
He could understand why the headquarters’ support was delayed; anyone who started an anomaly of such scale across the whole city would have surely prepared for incoming reinforcents.
But it still upset him that if the alarm he had set off with all his might only succeeded in bringing a group to collect corpses, then the desperate efforts he had made at the ti seed futile.
“After you hit the ergency refuge button, the four gates of Lin City were locked down, cutting off the passageways for exotic beasts to enter the city, thus preventing the summoning of beasts from causing chaos.
“At the sa ti, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the city’s smart unmanned ergency rescue vehicles took to the streets, gathering those who had fainted on the streets and providing basic treatnt to those with chronic or sudden illnesses.
Without these treatnts, they wouldn’t have survived the night,”
Thorin glanced at Nock and said softly, “You saved a lot of people.”
“Ah?”
Nock was stunned when he heard this, then he scratched his head awkwardly and smiled shyly, “I only did what I should have,”
After thinking for a mont, he continued, “And since Pete was already controlling the robots here, if I hadn’t acted at that ti, he would have controlled the robot to press that button anyway…”
At that mont, Thorin quietly asked, “Has he replied to you?”
Nock was taken aback and looked at his wristband, “There is…”
He paused in his speech and opened his mailbox, “It’s an automatic reply, the content is…
a cloud drive link.”
He reached out and clicked on the link.
One by one, the files concerning the Fountain of Youth and the Mars Project appeared.
“Like this…”
Sitting beside him, Thorin glanced at the directory and fell into a kind of silence, then continued, “Senator Janos died last night, and the headquarters support discovered the Life Goddess’s Sacrificial Array in the middle of the Stars Pharma building.”
He slowly got up and extended his hand to Nock, “Let’s go.”
“Huh?”
Nock looked up at the chief in the sunlight.
“To complete the truth,” Thorin said calmly, “it’s our responsibility.”
——
Kaye City
With a docunt in hand, Roger was lost in brief contemplation.
These were the physiological data recorded by the instrunts before Vian regained consciousness.
Ding—
A phone call interrupted his musings.
He lifted his wristband and saw Ike’s avatar; his brow slightly furrowed as he answered the call, “Senior brother, I’m conducting an experint.”
Knowing his junior brother did not like to be disturbed while thinking, Ike spoke quickly, “Roger, the Oracle.”
…Half an hour later…
Roger had completely set aside the docunts in his hands, his brows even more tightly knit, “Why would the Goddess issue such an Oracle?”
“The ‘brother’ you brought in might not have a simple identity; he could have made so sort of deal with the Goddess,”
Ike said hesitantly, testing the waters.
“Can mortals make deals with Divine Beings?”
Roger pondered.
In a sense, sacrifices are also a form of deal, offering items or lives that Divine Beings favor in exchange for their Blessings or knowledge.
But rather than a deal, it’s more like a plea.
Because the initiative never lies with the sacrificer.
Divine Beings decide whether to accept the Sacrifice based on their own preferences.
And the contamination of Divine Beings is ubiquitous.
Many sacrificers beco the puppets of Divine Beings at the mont of Sacrifice, and obtaining so Blessings and Graces is already quite difficult.
Let alone asking Divine Beings to do sothing outside of a Sacrifice.
“No one has ever tried,”
said the Ike on the other end softly.
The pollution from the Life Goddess was strong, and most of her priests turned into fools who could only praise life at the very beginning of the sacrifice.
No one had ever communicated with the Life Goddess, and most priests rely received her ssages unilaterally.
“Your ‘friend’ may have so secrets that we all don’t know,”
added Ike.
“Hmm.”
Roger thought of ‘K’.
Mortals cannot trade with Divine Beings, but what about deals between Great Beings?
However, they could only ponder this here; it was impossible to seek out the Life Goddess for an answer.
To inquire of a Divine Being was, for the devout, an act of sacrilege—more importantly, such an act could easily result in being drained dry by the Life Goddess.
“Has the Church started to act?”
Roger put his thoughts aside and looked at Ike on the phone.
“Yes,” Ike nodded, “The Church has issued a call to arms, but if we gather like this, we will definitely be struck by the Federation.
It depends on whether your ‘friend’ has arranged other contingencies.”
“According to their usual modus operandi, they should have,”
Roger mused.
His gaze shifted to a hidden room in the corner of the laboratory.
There, another life support pod was situated.
——
September 19
The ordeal of Lin City and the phenonon that covered the entire city attracted the attention of the entire Federation.
While Lin City was small, it was a city under the direct jurisdiction of the Federal Central, and it was a stone’s throw away from the Federation’s capital, Ains City.
At the sa ti, the repeated occurrence of large-scale city-wide crises had caused panic among the Federation’s citizens, intensifying their distrust of the current Presidential Cabinet.
The headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that they would thoroughly investigate the case.
The Nolanka Group declared its withdrawal from the exercises at No.
146 Fortress City and expressed deep concern over the disaster in Lin City, stating that it would send disaster relief teams into Lin City.
Stars Pharma made no statent.
——
September 20
A tabloid in Dawn City published a news article about Stars Pharma using the guise of research institutes to conduct human organ experints.
The newspaper claid to have obtained a batch of internal whistleblower information and planned to continuously release this information over the next half month.
The news caused ripples across social dia, being widely shared.
Stars Pharma issued a statent claiming that all of the group’s actions were reasonable and legal, and that the research institutes across more than a dozen cities in the Federation were conducting legitimate biological experints that complied with local and federal laws.
At the sa ti, Stars Pharma announced it would file a case and sue the newspaper for alleged leaking of their trade secrets.
So ‘volunteer’ families imdiately stood up, stating they would initiate a class-action lawsuit against Stars Pharma on behalf of all victims.
On the sa day, Stars Pharma’s stock prices plumted at open, rose slightly afterward, and closed with a small decline.
——
September 30
“Director, Stars Pharma’s stock price has risen.”
Nock, with a hint of anger and confusion, placed the tablet on the desk, “These past couple of weeks, even with the data release, it didn’t fall much, so how did it suddenly rise by so much?”
As the information continued to be released, the heat was still present, but people’s attention had begun to shift to other matters.
“Don’t rush,” Thorin, lifting the steaming teapot, poured a cup of milk tea for Nock, “What do you think is ‘good news’ for the market?”
“The company making money?” Nock said, reflexively.
Then he paused, thought for a mont, “Stars Pharma has thoroughly researched the laws of the major cities.
Although so of the Research Institute’s behaviors skate on the fringes of legality, through Stars Pharma’s diation and delays, punishnt can be mitigated, or even avoided, and no politician would be willing to openly oppose such a huge financial group.”
His tone gradually lowered, “And their breakthrough in human organ cloning and transplantation is a groundbreaking technology with great growth potential, the market doesn’t care whether Stars Pharma has done anything appalling, only whether they can continue to make money.”
He looked up at Thorin, “But Chief, we still have so much data, and the incident in Lin City…”
“Take it easy, take it easy.
The cards in the hands of your friend have not yet been fully played, and isn’t that small newspaper in Dawn City having no problems right now?”
Thorin smiled and slowly poured milk tea into his own cup, “It’s not our ti to step in yet.”
A small and obscure newspaper, being able to consistently uncover such major issues without harm, suggested certain problems in itself.
“Pete…”
Nock raised his head, looking towards the Stars Pharma building that now had a large hole in its center.
—
October 5
The latest exposé on Stars Pharma’s human experintation once again exploded across Federation networks.
This batch of material included vast amounts of data on Stars Pharma’s regulatory violations.
Included were docunts and materials on offenses such as using large doses of anesthetics against regulations, and using addictive drugs without the permission of the Federal Food and Drug Administration.
More importantly, the news also released a multitude of photos from the scene of human experints, and data on the number of ‘Volunteers’ who died during the experints.
The news specifically ntioned that Stars Pharma concealed the mortality rate of the experints from ‘Volunteers,’ using ambiguous terms to mislead, making the ‘Volunteers’ believe this was a minor but highly compensated experint.
In fact, that generous compensation was ‘blood money’ for these Volunteers.
At the sa ti, the newspaper also revealed data on another ‘Mar Plan.’
Stars Pharma attempted to achieve partial immortality through organ transplants, and the first to enjoy this were the wealthy clients of Stars Pharma.
Detailed data showed that Stars Pharma sold organ cloning services to the wealthy at the price of millions of federal coins per cloned organ, while the ‘Volunteers’ providing organs for culture at the Research Institute received no more than five thousand federal coins.
They ‘bought lives’ at low prices from the poor, then sold them at high prices to the rich.
At the end of the news, the newspaper hinted that Stars Pharma’s thod of achieving organ cloning was related to an Evil God, and that Stars Pharma was connected to the fog that enshrouded the entire city of Lin.
The newspaper placed all the explosive points on the last day, and under half a month of heated speculation, these harsh newsworthy stories spread like fireworks throughout every corner of the Federation.
Stars Pharma imdiately convened a press conference to refute the newspaper’s allegations as ‘fake news’ for views and sales.
That day, the stock price of Stars Pharma plumted.
—
October 8
Major cities across the Federation erupted in protests against Stars Pharma, decrying its despicable human experintation as well as continuously rising healthcare costs over the years.
This was not only a rebellion against Stars Pharma but also against the healthcare conglorates.
The governnt of Dawn City remained silent regarding the event.
—
October 9
The Mayor of Dawn City, Christos, held a press conference.
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