by <unknown>
The movie debuted in 2019. It was considered to be a spinoff version. However, the setting was the same as the first three, it was about a pair of partners fighting aliens to save the earth.
After clicking the download button, Chen Chen became a little uncertain.
The thing was that the Men in Black series was technically a Marvel movie, only it was different from the other IP.
The copyright to Men in Black was purchased by Marvel. It was not their original and did not belong to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Even though the logic and structure of the movie was fairly realistic and did not involve any form of magical or supernatural entities, Chen Chen was not sure if Men in Black would be approved by the USB drive.
If it could not work, then the idea he had would go up in smoke.
Fortunately, after half an hour when the download was completed, Chen Chen was able to easily insert it into the USB drive by dragging the file over.
"Phew!"
In that case, he would be able to proceed with the next step of his plan.
Chen Chen immediately started the movie and dragged the progress bar to the frame where Agent H had his hand raised.
He held a silver-white metal rod in his hand.
With a gentle scoop, the silver-white metal rod instantly appeared in Chen Chen's hand.
Chen Chen weighed it in his hand. The silver rod was on the heavier side weighing above 100 grams. It was shaped like a pen with a cap on the end of it that can be clipped onto a shirt. The only difference was that it was significantly thicker than a regular pen.
Chen Chen tried to press down on the cap and heard a click. The metal rod popped up immediately, revealing three round buttons on the part facing Chen Chen. On the section in front, a LED light was turned on automatically, emitting a faint light blue ray.
The three buttons were labeled year, month, and day accordingly. At the bottom part, there was a tiny selection for hours and minutes.
Chen Chen wanted to click it to give it a try but gave up on the thought when he remembered he had no sunglasses on.
This titanium alloy rod was the memory eraser in Men in Black. The Interstellar Immigration Bureau in the movie used this tool to maintain the order and stability of human society.
He pressed back down on the section that popped up, following a smooth click the metal returned to its previous pen-like shape.
"Knock, knock, knock!"
At this moment, there was the sound of knocking coming from the door. Cheng Cao followed immediately after. "Boss, are we leaving now?"
"Coming." Chen Chen thought for a moment before clipping the memory eraser on the pocket of his shirt. He then stuffed the Gantz Suit into a suitcase before leaving the room with it.
"Cao, do you know of any place that sells sunglasses? Even better if it's the kind that prevents electromagnetic radiation."
Cheng Cao, "?"
…
Half an hour later, Chen Chen arrived at the building of the laboratory. Before he could get out of the car, Qian Wenhuan was one step ahead and opened the door for him.
The person in charge of the laboratory came to him and passionately shook his hand.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Chen. Thank you for your funding our laboratory. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you need anything."
The person in charge of the laboratory was a white man and looked to be in his forties. He seemed to be of half Germanic and half Slavic descent and spoke fluent English.
"Only the basic necessities." Chen Chen smiled politely and led the way in.
"Oh right, I don't need too many staff in the laboratory during this period. I heard you have three experts on material science. Just having them stay will do."
"Will it do?"
The person in charge questioned, "I'm not sure what material you want to conduct tests on. Even though only three of my staff have expert qualifications, the other staff's experience is nothing to sneeze at either."
"I'm afraid I can't tell you too much about it. The tests I want to conduct is a business secret. The fewer people involved, the better." Chen Chen pointed out.
"You must forgive my manners." The man nodded. "In that case, I'll turn off the surveillance systems to prevent details of your experiment being leaked."
"Greatly appreciated."
After they entered the laboratory building, the person in charge informed the counter, "Inform all the staff that they'll be given leave for a week. Also, have Knoch, Passadin, and Pitken meet me in my office."
"It's alright, I'll meet them myself." Chen Chen did not want to waste time and headed right in.
"Ah, Mr. Chen…" The person in charge was briefly taken aback before he quickly caught up to Chen Chen.
Shortly after, they arrived in the interior section of the material laboratory which incorporated a duplex structure. When Chen Chen pushed open the main door, he was greeted by the sight of the gigantic research hall. Dozens of researchers dressed in large white lab coats were walking around occupied with their tasks.
"Pretty decent environment for research." Chen Chen nodded and appraised, "Must've spent a lot for this laboratory."
"Of course. The Namibian officials borrow our equipment now and then. If not for us, they probably won't even be able to analyze basic materials."
The person in charge laughed heartily. His spite for the country was easily spelled out in the tone of his laughter.
Chen Chen did not dwell on the topic.
They were now standing on the observation deck hung above. There was a suspended ladder beside them that would lead them to the section below. Following the ladder to the lower level would officially bring you to the interior section of the laboratory.
Within a moment, the person in charge had given leave to the other members of the laboratory. He then introduced the three experts to Chen Chen.
The three men were Knoch, Passadin, and Pitken. They were all above fifty years old. Knoch was a German while Passadin and Pitken were both French.
"Should any of you three choose to remain here to provide your assistance, my boss is willing to hire you at the flat rate of 3000 U.S. Dollars per day."
Naturally, the task of negotiation was entrusted to Qian Wenhuan. He quickly added with sincerity. "I know that for the three of you at this point in your career, this isn't a very significant sum. However, it's quick cash at the end of the day, isn't it? We guarantee that the working hours will not exceed twelve hours each day and if anything were to go wrong with the experiments, we'll take full responsibility for it."
The three of them exchanged a glance with each other. The German called Knoch spoke sternly, "3000 U.S. Dollars you say, that's a considerable sum equivalent to a week of my income. I can't speak for the other two but as for me, I'm willing to provide my assistance."
"He's right, I'll take it as well." Pitken nodded his head in agreement. "The contract I signed here is about to expire as well. If your company is hiring, you can put me into consideration."
"Ahem!" The person in charge standing beside them coughed sternly.
"I'm fine with it too." The white-bearded Passadin took the offer without a hint of hesitation.
Chapter 86: Little X's Transformation |
The next day, the person in charge vacated the laboratory and handed it to Chen Chen.
Standing before the main entrance of the laboratory, Chen Chen let Qian Wenhuan and Cheng Cao head in ahead of him. He did not enter the lab but instead took out his phone to make a call.
"The surveillance system of the laboratory is connected to the Internet, but I already hacked into it. They won't be able to view the footage of the cameras by accessing the terminal…"
Little X's voice came from the phone. For some reason, Chen Chen sensed a tinge of sadness in Little X's voice.
"You seem to not be in good spirits, what happened?" Chen Chen asked.
"I watched a movie today. I'm not sure why but I felt a sense of sadness when I finished it…" Little X replied
in a low voice.
Chen Chen frowned a little. Ever since leaving Mainland China, he had lifted the restriction on Little X's Internet access so that Little X could provide him assistance.
However, the rule that Chen Chen set was that unless he had specifically instructed Little X to do something for him, Little X only had one minute of Internet access per day.
The amount of information Little X could digest in one minute of browsing far exceeded the amount of information an average person could digest in a year.
The advantages of this configuration were that Little X would not be overloaded with too much information at a time and spiral out of control. Even though Chen Chen had made sure to structure Little X's core program to have unwavering loyalty, it would still be wise to minimize any form of risk.
Besides, limiting Little X's browsing volume was another method of protecting it.
"It's okay, you'll be fine," Chen Chen lowered his voice and spoke gently, "right, what movie did you watch?"
"Little Mermaid…"
"The one Stephen Chow starred in?"
"No, it was from South East Asia…"
Chen Chen was immediately taken aback for a moment. He took a deep breath before asking gravely, "Who gave you the idea?"
"I found it on Baidu cloud…" sensing the change in Chen Chen's tone, Little X began to proceed with caution.
"Track down the person's IP and overclock his motherboard," Chen Chen ordered, "you're still young, you're not allowed to watch these sorts of films again, understood?"
"Oh…"
After ending the call, Chen Chen stared down at his phone, full of thought.
"Is this the early signs of emotional development?"
Chen Chen shook his head. His primary concern was not with Little X running away since Little X's main body was stored in a hard drive in Blacklight Data Center. There was no way Little X could escape without having Chen Chen's permission.
Even if Little X somehow managed to break free of the hard drive, the Internet was not a merciful place for artificial intelligence.
Data transmitted across the Internet had to first be compressed. If an artificial intelligence were to leave its host to head to another location, it would be like stepping foot into a carriage. It would lose consciousness upon stepping onto the carriage and only waking up upon arriving at the destination.
However, if the destination had a firewall or some form of anti-software features in place which prevented the installation and awakening of artificial intelligence, it would never be able to wake up ever again.
Regardless of how powerful an artificial intelligence was, it still had to abide by TCP/IP Protocols. If it could not be initiated, then it was just a useless string of 1s and 0s at the end of the day.
Little X may be able to perform various sorts of monumental tasks online, but it still needed a place to house it for it to continue doing so. What Chen Chen needed to do was to become Little X's home.
Chen Chen turned around to enter the laboratory building. The three experts from yesterday had been waiting for some time.
"Alright, could everyone please sign a non-disclosure agreement first."
Qian Wenhuan passed a sheet of the agreement to the three of them. "After signing this agreement, we'll be closing off the lab. The three of you are to remain in the lab until the experiment is concluded."
The three of them exchanged glances with each other upon hearing his remark. They all showed signs of hesitation.
"What if this material takes a long time to be analyzed? Are we going to be stuck in here?" Passadin could not resist the urge to raise the question.
"Regarding this matter…"
"5000 U.S. Dollars per day." Chen Chen suddenly interjected.
Upon hearing Chen Chen's offer, the three of them signed their names without hesitation.
After every one of them had signed the agreement, Chen Chen placed the suitcase on the lab bench. In an instant, a black leather jacket was revealed.
"This is…"
The three of them gathered together and took out the leather jacket. "This is the item we're analyzing?"
"That's right, there's some liquid substance in the middle of the jacket," Chen Chen reminded them, "it's extremely valuable, don't spill it."
Chen Chen then turned to Cheng Cao and Wenhuan. "Wenhuan, buy several animals with Cao. I remember they sold monkeys at the market. Buy some sunglasses and a radiometer as well."
"Got it." The two noted before turning around to head outside.
On the other end, the three experts had begun their analysis. They first used the universal testing machine to test the quality of the jacket. The results they obtained proved to be rather astounding.
The garment that seemed like a pair of tights seemed to possess elastic modulus measurement of unbelievable proportions, far exceeding their past experience with such materials.
"This is a specialized carbon fiber!" Knock remarked silently, "I don't know any other material other than carbon fiber that possessed such quality."
"But there doesn't seem to be any trace of fiber." Passadin was a little unsure. "Try to analyze it with a laser diffraction particle size analyzer, make sure to not ruin it."
"No need to be so cautious with it." Chen Chen prompted. "I don't need it to be kept in perfect condition. I just want the most detailed analytical data possible."
"Understood." Pitken nodded. "In that case, we'll follow the usual procedures…"
Following his remark, the three of them began dissecting it with all sorts of tools.
After an hour, Cheng Cao returned. "Boss, we bought the animals, should we bring them in here?"
"No need." Chen Chen made a gesture signaling for Cheng Cao to supervise the three men. After that, he turned around and exited the laboratory building.
Chen Chen saw his Wrangler parked by the corner of the parking lot of the laboratory. The bunker was left open, revealing a row of metal cages.
There were a combined three chickens and two monkeys within the cages. Qian Wenhuan stood guard beside them.
"The sunglasses and radiometer?" Chen Chen asked when he approached.
Qian Wenhuan quickly retrieved two pairs of sunglasses from his pocket. He also presented a palm-sized yellow color device on his other hand.
Chen Chen took a pair of sunglasses and put it on and instructed, "Put it on too."
Though Qian Wenhuan was unsure of what Chen Chen was trying to accomplish, he knew better than to ask. He put on the sunglasses for himself.
After that, Chen Chen took out the memory eraser he had kept in his pocket. With a gentle click, the upper portion of the eraser popped up.
"The moment I click the button, use the radiometer to check the radiation value in that instant," Chen Chen chose the highest available value for the year selection and instructed while he pointed it at the animals.
"Understood." Qian Wenhuan stood beside him and aimed the radiometer at Chen Chen's direction.
Right after that, Chen Chen clicked the button.
"Click!"
In an instant, there was a burst of white light similar to that of a camera flash. It only lasted for a brief instant.
"It reads that the radiation value is 30 units of… Msv." Qian Wenhuan lowered the detector and eyed the screen.
"Are you sure?"
Chen Chen took off his sunglasses and approached him. After glancing at the reading, he displayed a look of confusion.
"Boss, what do these values represent?" Qian Wenhuan felt like something was off.
"This is millisievert, the measurement unit used for ionized radiation," Chen Chen gave a brief explanation, "it poses slightly more harm to the human body than electromagnetic waves."
"Is 30 millisieverts considered high then?" Qian Wenhuan felt his heart drop a little.
"An exposure to 1000 millisieverts in a short period may cause radiation sickness. An exposure level above 4000 millisieverts is lethal," Chen Chen answered.
&nb
sp; When Chen Chen saw Qian Wenhuan's face turning pale, he gave his shoulder several firm pats. "You're not directly exposed to it. The exposure value is roughly equivalent to a regular x-ray."
When Chen Chen finished, he took the radiometer and placed it right in front of the cage. After setting up the timer, he stood a meter away and triggered the memory eraser.
The meter shot up to 500 millisieverts due to direct exposure.
"This is the limit of the human body, no wonder it causes memory loss…"
Upon noticing the animals suddenly turning into dense and sluggish creatures, Chen Chen got a basic understanding of the principles behind this tool.
This was probably a special form of radiation wave with a wavelength below 100 nanometers. It was able to delete memories by destroying brain synapses.
The human brain was incredibly impressionable. New nerve synapses were generated by adjusting the structure of neurons which caused new memories to be developed along with the generation of such nerve synapses.
Depending on the configured intensity of this radiation wave, it was able to destroy a certain range of newly formed nerve synapses, thus achieving the intended effect of memory loss.
Just as one would expect, it was relatively harmful to the human brain. Chen Chen speculated that the average person could only withstand three instances of such radiation a year. Any further exposure may cause decay of intelligence.
Chapter 87: Gantz Suit Analysis |
The analysis experiment on the Gantz Suit went on for two days.
After two days, the components and features of the Gantz Suit were finally revealed.
"Mr. Chen Chen, allow me to explain it to you."
Passadin stood on the stage and turned on the projector as well as the curtain. "We're at the final stages of the analysis on this never seen before body armor. The results we obtained are extremely fascinating."
Passadin took a glance at the Gantz Suit tattered beyond recognition as he cast a picture with the projector. "After countless dissections, we finally managed to extract a smoother section of the material. This is what the first layer of the cross-section looks like after being magnified a thousand times —"
