by <unknown>
This feeling did not arise from "Thuds", but rather, it was as if he was on a chessboard, observing a giant hand that controlled all of fate.
Why did the USB drive send him to these worlds of destroyed civilizations? Did it want to tell him something or was it all just a game of chess?
Chen Chen shook his head. This was not the first time he had thought about this issue and it would not be the last time. It was just that as Chen Chen continued to grow stronger, he was gradually approaching that truth.
This time, the mystery of a human dimension's destruction was successfully solved, which was further proof.
"And who knows if that Gantz server had cured me of that 'Thuds' mysterious phenomenon…"
Chen Chen murmured in a low voice. If the Gantz server had cured him, that would be the best, but if not, then it was hard to tell what would happen.
The reason Chen Chen did not believe that it could resolve the strange phenomenon for him was simply an issue of logic.
According to the data, the Gantz server had no ability to utilize the mysterious phenomena. In other words, its only power was to bewitch people.
Chen Chen did not know if this was a deliberate restriction put in place by Alien Civilization A or a flaw in its manufacturing. Regardless, since the Gantz server could not use this power, how could it erase this for Chen Chen?
After all, there was a saying that an ability would go both ways.
If the Gantz server did not erase the mysterious phenomenon of "Thuds" for Chen Chen, then he could only resort to other solutions.
This was also why Chen Chen was certain that the Gantz server had not absorbed X-112 because it did not know about the conversation Chen Chen had with X-112, nor did it know that Chen Chen still had one last loophole to rely on, and that was the USB drive.
The USB drive's portal might be able to wipe out this mysterious phenomenon for Chen Chen.
These thoughts flashed across his mind. At this time, the Bugatti Spaceship that Chen Chen was in had flown out of the atmosphere again, returning to its previous position using the flight path of a ballistic missile.
However, when Chen Chen inadvertently looked at the porthole at his side, something white suddenly darted past the window.
It seemed to be a thin, pale arm…
Chen Chen instinctively looked at the altitude gauge on the spacecraft.
At this time, the Bugatti Spaceship had entered the exosphere, with an altitude of more than 500 kilometers. The atmosphere here was extremely thin and the air density was only one hundred millionth that of sea level.
Not only that, but at this time the Bugatti Spaceship was also flying at a speed exceeding Mach 25. Chen Chen believed that no one in the world could have been lying across the spaceship to follow Chen Chen up until now.
Since it was not a human being, then the thing outside the window would soon be revealed…
Chen Chen turned gloomy. Sure enough, the Gantz server's words were not wrong. The mysterious phenomenon plaguing him was about to reach the outbreak phase. As the deadline drew closer, the mysterious phenomenon would only become more malicious and absurd…
Still, fortunately, it was just an arm flashing past and it did not do anything unpleasant to Chen Chen. After all, considering the environment outside the spacecraft at this time, if something really happened, even the protagonist of Chronicle would not survive, let alone Chen Chen.
After half an hour, the spacecraft reappeared in the sky above Tokyo and successfully found the passage that had been opened.
At this time, the black portal was still suspended in thin air atop a ruin. From the front, it looked like a black vortex, but the more one went closer, the more one would notice the peculiarity of this black vortex.
This was because this black vortex would not be illuminated by any light and at the same time, from a certain angle sideways, one would find that it had no thickness at all.
This was a phenomenon beyond the scope of science known to humankind.
The spaceship slowly landed beside the portal. Chen Chen deliberately glanced at the hull of the spaceship after getting off, but this glance caused his pupils to contract.
He saw that there were a few five-finger palm prints on the hull of the spaceship…
Yoru Kamidera who got off the spaceship also noticed this, but he just looked at Chen Chen without saying anything.
After that, Chen Chen turned his head and looked at the passage in front of him, but he did not return at once. Instead, he said, "X-112, compile all the information here and send it over."
As he spoke, Chen Chen took out a Rubik's Cube again, pressed a few buttons with familiar gestures, then spoke into the Rubik's Cube, "X, this is Chen Chen."
"By the time you're seeing this holographic recording, I'd already be caught up in something strange.
"I can't say what kind of thing it is, but you can understand it as a virus. However, unlike regular viruses, it's a virus that spreads using 'information' as a carrier."
As he talked, Chen Chen silently placed the Rubik's Cube on the ground. "This is something that doesn't exist in our dimension. No, it may also exist, but it has never appeared on Earth. At the same time, it spreads in so many different ways. X-112 will tell you all about this. I won't repeat those points. I'll only talk about two things now."
Here, Chen Chen turned completely serious. He raised an index finger. "First, close the passage and create a Faraday cage. This magnetic cage must not only cut off all information signals, but also all substances on the material plane.
"It must be completely sealed and extremely strong. At the very least, it must not be opened from the inside. There mustn't be a single crack and no sound must pass through from within. After it's built, put the computer and the USB drive in, then use a Black Knight to open the portal again in there.
"At last, I'll come back through the passage and seal myself inside.
"I'll keep myself there for seven days. During these seven days, no matter what happens in the Faraday cage, you shouldn't open it. If nothing happens in these seven days, then I'll give you the order to open the Faraday cage."
Having said that, Chen Chen paused for a while and then raised two fingers. "Secondly, if I die in the Faraday cage, destroy all the information I passed to you, then clone me and use that clone to donate everything under my name to the Mainland authorities. After that, build a rocket and cast the USB drive out of the Earth, the farther the better…"
"Lastly… Take care."
Having said all this, Chen Chen squatted again, pressed the end button on the silver Rubik's Cube, and gently tossed the Rubik's Cube into the black channel in front of him.
At this point, the message would be received by Little X on the other side of the portal.
Chapter 321: Yoru Kamidera's Analysis |
Ten minutes after Chen Chen threw the Rubik's Cube in, he watched as the black vortex in front of him began to shrink rapidly. In the blink of an eye, it had collapsed into a ball.
With a puff, just like an extinguished flame, the portal immediately vanished from Chen Chen's sight without a trace.
Chen Chen knew that this was Little X who had already responded to him.
Chen Chen did not allow these Black Knights or Yoru Kamidera to return to reality because he was not even sure whether these brainless clones would be infected with any mysterious phenomena. If they were infected, once they returned to reality, they would only unleash a special "infectious disease" that had no cure.
Once this kind of "infectious disease" broke out, it would only send the world down a path of annihilation, just like the world in Gantz.
Therefore, the only thing Chen Chen could do was to completely isolate himself and others from reality.
Of course, Chen Chen would not sit around waiting to die. Otherwise, he would not have asked Little X to prepare a Faraday cage.
He only hoped that Little X would hurry up.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen raised his hea
d. Currently, the sun had already begun to set in the west, dyeing red the boundless dusk over the horizon. At first glance, it looked like an endless cloud of fire, burning and bruising the entire sky.
At this moment, the deserted city, the fallen civilization, and the flaming clouds on the horizon seemed to mirror each other for an instant, producing a special kind of loneliness in Chen Chen's heart.
It felt like being abandoned by the world.
As the visibility of his surroundings decreased, Chen Chen's sense of unease began to weigh him down more heavily.
He could not describe what it felt like. It was like a death row prisoner facing their trial. Any sound of footsteps would trigger an intense burst of terror because they had realized that these footsteps belonged to Death itself.
At this moment, Chen Chen was feeling the same way.
"Yoru Kamidera."
At this point, Chen Chen suddenly spoke and posed a question to the youth beside him, "Have you heard about thudding noises that come from the next door?"
"Is that… A sort of mysterious phenomenon?"
Beside Chen Chen, Yoru Kamidera, who was feeling a little restless, looked up at once. He seemed to understand something. "Please go on."
"I went into a strange room yesterday during the daytime. There was a woman in the room, but she was dead, having hanged herself."
Chen Chen said quietly, "But the strange thing was that there were signs of impact from a baseball bat on the wall of her bedroom. It seemed that she had used the baseball bat to hit the wall back when she was alive."
"What's on the other side of the wall?"
When Chen Chen paused, Yoru Kamidera asked quickly.
A glint of approval shone in Chen Chen's eyes. As expected of a young man who could survive the doomsday until now. Chen Chen had only mentioned the beginning, yet Yoru Kamidera could already acutely pinpoint the crux of the matter?
With this in mind, Chen Chen immediately replied, "Across the bedroom wall is another residence. I went there as well, but it was filled with dust. It'd appear that it has been uninhabited ever since the doomsday, but…"
Chen Chen's voice softened. "But I saw a dent made by an impact on the wall of this residence. This dent had deepened into a part of the wall. In other words, something was incessantly hitting the wall as if it would only stop once it broke through."
"What if you change rooms?" Yoru Kamidera asked again.
"The woman did change bedrooms at that time, but the same still happened in the new bedroom. There was still the same never-ending thuds on the opposite side of the wall."
Chen Chen answered, "Not only that, but I also found some oil stains on the wall of that bedroom. It seems that the woman had frequently assumed the same position against the wall when she was alive, placing an ear on the wall to listen to the other side."
When Yoru Kamidera heard this, his expression flickered. "Got it. I think this was what happened.
"When she was alive, the woman had lived alone in that room, but one day, she suddenly heard faint thuds on the other side of the wall. At first, she thought there was someone in the opposite room, but because this was doomsday without any law or morality, she couldn't determine whether the other person was a friend or a foe. Therefore, she could only press her ears to the wall over and over, trying to hear the conversation on the other side.
"However, gradually, she realized something was wrong."
Yoru Kamidera paced slowly and said as he walked, "It may be that the thuds had something unique about them such as a particularly long duration or a particularly uniform rhythm. Gradually, the woman began to suspect the thuds on the other side of the wall — are they human? Or something else…
"As time passed, the thuds continued to the point where they kept ringing day and night, until finally, the woman snapped."
Yoru Kamidera continued. "The noise seriously affected her sleep and at the same time, horrified her. At this time, she had vaguely understood that the sound was not made by a human being but by the thing that was her deepest fear…
"So she finally snapped and she began to use a baseball bat to hit the wall there, continuously venting her inner terror. It was as if as long as she displayed an aggressive side, the other party would retreat. This is a common psychological response in times of fear.
"Later on, she tried countless possibilities but in the end, she couldn't find a solution or she already guessed what would happen after the wall was broken down."
At this point, Yoru Kamidera looked toward Chen Chen again. "I'm guessing that this is the logic behind the woman's actions as well as her mental journey. In the end, she thought, 'Instead of dying at the hands of a mysterious phenomenon or dying out of fear and torture, why don't I stop it myself?' Am I correct?"
After listening to Yoru Kamidera's analysis, Chen Chen immediately applauded. "Very good. It's exactly what I've guessed, but I can't guarantee whether it's right or not."
"I get it. You're infected with this kind of mysterious phenomenon."
Yoru Kamidera nodded. "I just don't know how you got infected with this mysterious phenomenon. If there were more clues, maybe we can find a countermeasure."
"I don't know myself, but I have some theories."
Chen Chen thought for a while and pointed to the three Black Knights. "Perhaps the whole room is cursed. As long as you enter, you'll be infected with this strange phenomenon of 'Thuds'. The reason I'm the only one infected is that those three aren't complete human beings."
"Not complete human beings?"
Upon hearing Chen Chen's words, Yoru Kamidera was instantly taken aback, then said, "I've long thought that these three people are a bit too rigid, but I don't understand what it means when you say they're not complete humans. Are they clones?"
"They aren't just clones, but because they have been specially processed since the embryonic stage, these people also don't have brains."
Chen Chen explained, "The reason they can behave so ordinarily is only because they are controlled by the X-112 artificial intelligence I've been talking to."
"But this still doesn't quite make sense. After all, the mysterious phenomena can't distinguish whether a person has a brain…"
When he was told of the Black Knights' identity, Yoru Kamidera displayed a surprised look. Still, after some thought, he shook his head again. "Thus, I think it's more likely that there is some other infection condition and only you triggered this condition, thus becoming infected with this mysterious phenomenon called 'Thuds'."
Chapter 322: The Mysterious Phenomenon's Outbreak |
After listening to Yoru Kamidera's analysis, Chen Chen could not help nodding.
Although Chen Chen was capable of meticulous thoughts after taking NZT-48, he was still relying on his own baseless theories. How could this be compared to inquiring a veteran who had survived in this world for more than five years?
Chen Chen would not feel embarrassed or anything just because the other guy was younger than him. He was too wise for that.
Presently, Chen Chen said thoughtfully, "I think I get what you mean. When I was reading the material before, I also noticed that the so-called mysterious phenomena may be very similar to the ghostly incidents and supernatural events that are common in folklore. But the mysterious phenomena always have their unique regularities. There aren't so many ghosts and monsters, but rather a special kind of phenomenon…"
"Yes, that's what I meant."
Yoru Kamidera nodded quickly. "Whether it's the Basilisk patterns or the strange phenomena, they have their unique regularities. These regularities are like wind, thunder or rain. They are no different from natural phenomena."
"I'm relieved to hear you say that."
Chen Chen heard this and laughed. "Whether it is wind, rain or thunder, the occurrence of these natural phenomena requires certain conditions such as an alternation of hot and cold air currents, an increase in the air's electric charge, and so on. This is to say, as long as these conditions are d
isrupted, we can stop a phenomenon?"
With that said, Chen Chen took out a wireless headset and tossed it to Yoru Kamidera. Then he boarded the spacecraft while saying, "In that case, Yoru-kun, please do me a favor. Please stand with the three Black Knights outside the spaceship and keep watch. If anything abnormal happens, you must alert me immediately."
"I understand…"
Yoru Kamidera's expression shifted. "You want to see if someone is observing from outside the spaceship, will the thuds still appear?"
"That's right. So far, when the thuds occurred, they happened without anyone else outside. Therefore, I want to try this — if I stay alone in an enclosed environment, yet there are others outside, will it be triggered again with this condition?"
As he spoke, Chen Chen shot a deep meaningful look at Yoru Kamidera. "Yoru-kun, you'll help me, right?"
Yoru Kamidera's face became somber and he said solemnly, "Rest assured, I'll keep watch outside for Your Excellency!"
Seeing this, Chen Chen nodded.
Both of them had a tacit understanding. Namely, what if the rules changed during the outbreak of this mysterious phenomenon? For instance, would the mysterious phenomenon to kill the infected in the enclosed space, first kill the observer outside?
If that happened, then not only would Chen Chen die, but even Yoru Kamidera was most likely a goner.
In other words, Yoru Kamidera, who was acting as a counter against the conditions of the mysterious phenomenon, was not necessarily free of danger.
Even so, Yoru Kamidera had no power to refuse.
Chen Chen glanced at the darkening sky for the last time, then pressed the closing button. Immediately, the gull-wing doors on both sides of him closed slowly, turning the spacecraft into a closed space again.
After doing this, Chen Chen exhaled in the dark and closed his eyes, entering a state of restive meditation.
The day slowly turned to night.
Soon, the last ray of twilight had disappeared into the boundless sky. Without humanity's industrial pollution, the sky had become clear again.
As the sun set, the sky changed from navy blue to indigo. Meanwhile, a silver-white ribbon emerged above everyone's heads.
