I Have A Super USB Drive

by <unknown>

  This was a meeting with the highest-level officials of the Central Continent branch!

  "How's this for satisfying your conditions?"

  The man seated at the side of the table turned to him and asked.

  Chen Chen inspected the people exchanging silent whispers among themselves who occasionally stole glances in his direction, he nodded. "Yes, if this is still not satisfactory, nothing else could cut it anymore. Judging by this, I take it that you guys already know about the USB drive?"

  "How did you know?" The man perched an eyebrow.

  "I doubt that the ongoing spiritual abnormality in Shangdu that hasn't even got to its worst stages is enough to demand an audience with the council."

  Chen Chen smiled. "I'd wager that what warranted you guys' attention has more to do with the USB drive I possess. I think it's rather clear that you guys got to Li Bo before this and found out about the USB drive used to instantiate objects from movies from him. This is the primary reason you guys invested this much effort."

  "You're a smart one. It'd be a waste to not become a detective."

  The man nodded when he heard Chen Chen's remark and expressed. "From the very beginning until now, you've been trying to stake your place in the driver seat of this negotiation. Apart from this being a sign of your intelligence, it's also a telltale sign of how nervous you've been feeling. There's no need for any of this, it's wiser to hand the USB drive to us because there's no way you can control it."

  The man pointed at the screen to his side. "Now that there are so many witnesses, I suppose you won't have to be worried about me killing you and taking it by force?"

  "You don't have to tell me that, I already know you weren't going to do that anyway."

  Chen Chen frowned. "Otherwise I wouldn't claim to know how to fix this abnormality in my notes."

  "Spiritual abnormality, so that's what you're naming this?"

  The man held up the notes Chen Chen referred to and nodded amiably. "Not bad, so where did you put the USB drive?"

  "From the back entrance of the Roman Holiday Hotel on Wuhe Street, take twenty-five steps to the left. On the bottom of the left wall, you should spot a crack in the wall. That's where the USB flash drive is hidden."

  Chen Chen answered without hesitation, "As for the shape of the USB drive, I'm sure Li Bo has told you about it."

  "Excellent, let's hope it's still there."

  The man was silently relieved at how Chen Chen revealed its location without much trouble. He originally thought that Chen Chen would raise more conditions but it turned out this young man had surprised him with how cooperative he was.

  At this moment, he could not help but take interest in this well-guarded while at the same time strangely calm young man.

  "Chen Chen, according to your notes, your method of fixing this crisis is to use the power of the USB drive. In that case, why didn't you do it yourself with the USB drive? Say, put an exorcist movie into the drive to instantiate the relevant tools for purging the ghost?"

  The girl called Shen Qi raised the question again. "Is it because of certain limitations of the USB drive?"

  "The problem is a lack of power."

  Chen Chen nodded amiably as a show of sincerity. He had to protect himself as well, which was why he gave away the location of the USB flash drive without any resistance. It would not make much sense now to be stubborn, so he laid everything on the table. "The USB drive needs to be powered to instantiate objects. After releasing the entities in four horror films, there's no longer any power left in the USB drive."

  "What's the energy source? How can we recharge it?"

  It was neither Shen Qi nor the branch director who raised this question, but one of the men on the screen opposite Chen Chen.

  Chen Chen let the silence linger for a moment. He considered for a bit and instead of telling them about the rules of the USB drive which he was well acquainted with, he pretended to be unsure. "I think it's electricity."

  "How much electricity?" the man on the screen asked.

  "A lot."

  Chen Chen smiled. "The specifics can be obtained by using Einstein's mass-energy equation."

  Everyone's faces turned when they heard this. Going by the energy conversion equation, for each gram of the item they planned to instantiate, at least an hour's worth of electricity used to power an international metropolis would be required.

  Chen Chen did not clarify that they did not need that much energy. The reason he did so was that he wanted to inject a sense of urgency into them. After all, he was still infected with the Kayako curse at the moment.

  An eerie silence quickly descended on the conference room.

  It was then when another man wearing a suit entered the interrogation room and came beside the branch director and whispered something into his ears. The branch director was immediately relieved upon receiving the message and sent the agent away with a nod before turning to Chen Chen. "We found the USB drive."

  With that, he immediately got up and bowed earnestly at Chen Chen. "I'd like to thank you on behalf of the Central Continent and the Earth Federation. If the USB drive's properties are just as you described, it must be an extremely high-tech object. This will be greatly beneficial to mankind!"

  "Don't get too excited just yet."

  "Leave all that aside and worry about how you guys are going to charge the USB drive first. The top priority now is to deal with the Ju-on curse, otherwise, you may find that by tomorrow, the disappearance is going to spread beyond Shangdu and expand across the entire Mainland."

  The branch director answered gravely, "We've considered the possibility of this as well and have already quarantined all of the people who left the school. Even the ones who returned home by taking the train or planes will be quarantined by the officials at their destinations upon their arrival. Even the public officers that have entered the dormitory have been quarantined as well. There's nothing to worry about."

  D*mn!

  When Chen Chen heard this, he realized that he had been worrying too much over nothing. The fully unleashed strength of the country was certainly not to be underestimated. To think that tens of thousands of people could be quarantined without the outside world even catching wind of it, he was thoroughly impressed.

  While Chen Chen silently marveled at this, the entrance to the interrogation room suddenly burst open. A man in black charged inside nervously while exclaiming, "This is bad, the USB drive broke when we tried to charge it just now!"

  "What!"

  The color on Chen Chen's face was immediately drained away.

  The USB drive already came with a set of rules on how it should be charged which clearly stated that it could not be damaged regardless of the voltage running through it. How did it manage to break?

  Perhaps the FBI was trying to deceive the council and the branch director was a foreign spy trying to snatch away the USB drive?

  Chen Chen debunked this theory as soon as he came up with it.

  It was true that the Earth Federation was just a shell of its former self and the FBI that was originally meant to be under the jurisdiction of the Earth Federation had now become the manpower of each continent. Still, he heavily doubted that the situation had become hectic enough that they would try to snatch the USB drive right under the prying eyes of the head council. Besides, would the FBI have not some insurance in place to prevent such a scenario?

  Unless there were other spies?

  Countless speculations flashed through Chen Chen's mind in an instant, but most of them were too much of a stretch to be believable.

  It was not only Chen Chen who showed such a drastic reaction as the same reaction could be observed on all the people present at the scene. Inside the screen, many of the men glared daggers at the branch director seated beside Chen Chen. The branch director was sweating endlessly.

  There was no question about it. They had also immediately suspected that this was the work of the branch director based on a logical assumption.


  Chapter 371: Narrow Escape from Death |

  "Hurry and take me there!"

  The branch director bellowed before quickly darting across the interrogation and leaving in a frenzy.

  Shen Qi and the other two men in black in charge of watching over Chen Chen did the same as well. Shen Qi shot one last glare at Chen Chen before chasing after her superior. Even the display in front of Chen Chen was shut off and reverted to an ordinary mirror.

  In an instant, Chen Chen became the only one left in the room.

  Even Chen Chen was at a loss for words. He had prepared himself for hundreds of thousands of scenarios, but this one had never crossed his mind.

  By the looks of the current situation, there were only three explanations for the destruction of the USB drive.

  One, somebody switched it out after Chen Chen hid it.

  This was not out of the realm of possibility. Even though Chen Chen had been extremely cautious and hid the USB drive in an extremely secluded place that had no surveillance, he was not exactly what one would call an expert. There was a chance that someone had been spying on him when he hid the USB drive and swapped it out stealthily.

  The second possibility, the USB drive was swapped out by a spy in the FBI with a fake.

  This possibility seemed to be more likely than the first one, but it was not any less tricky. After all, there was no way for Chen Chen to prove whether the broken USB drive was the real thing or not. He suspected he would have a difficult time convincing them that the broken USB drive was a substituted fake.

  The final possibility. Chen Chen had only told three people in his dorm about the existence of the USB drive. Now that both Wang Wei and Zhou Jie were dead, only Li Bo knew about the USB drive. He had known Li Bo for a very long time. Unless he had been hatching ideas about the USB drive…

  Chen Chen became speechless upon considering this possibility.

  If it was Li Bo who was the one behind this, then he certainly deserved the Oscars for the show he had put on. It would be a great waste of talent for him to not be an actor.

  Chen Chen figured there was no point considering any other possibilities. Without the USB drive, they were just sitting ducks.

  While Chen Chen was beginning to despair, the lights on the ceiling of the interrogation room began to rattle on and on.

  The interrogation room was designed with the idea of imposing a negative psychological effect on the interrogated in mind. Dozens of tubes of lights were installed on the ceiling that cast a blinding sheet of harsh and cold beams on the room.

  Seemingly due to the unstable voltage, they started to flicker without any signs of stopping anytime soon. The state of the room constantly swung between light and darkness.

  Initially, Chen Chen paid no mind to it. After this constant flickering persisted for more than ten seconds, he started sensing that something was off.

  Where was he again? This was not some sort of remote village or a unit in the borders of Africa. This was the FBI branch directly under the jurisdiction of the regional government. How could there possibly be electricity disturbance?

  Chen Chen immediately felt a chill coursing through him when he considered this. He raised his head and looked at the huge mirror opposite him. Between the disorientating flashes of light, he caught the glimpse of a little boy standing behind him...

  The little boy was not wearing any clothes. The color of his body was a terrible pale that looked like the skin of the deceased. The boy stood in the corner of the room and stared into Chen Chen's eyes with terrible dark eyes without a trace of white in them.

  It was Toshio, the son of Kayako.

  Chen Chen immediately felt a harsh chill penetrating through his body from behind him and made the hair stand up on the back of his neck.

  "Am I going to die?"

  This thought invaded and occupied Chen Chen's mind. He lost the strength to get up on his feet. All he could do was look into the innocent Toshio standing in the corner of the room.

  "Hnnghhhh…"

  He heard gurgling patrolling in his ears. Unlike the last time Chen Chen heard this voice, it came from behind him this time, almost inches away!

  Chen Chen felt as if his blood was about to freeze. He became petrified, unsure if it was because of the pulsing fear inside him or because of the power of Kayako. Chen Chen remained unmoving and stared into his reflection in the mirror. From his reflection, he could see two slender, delicate arms slowly creeping behind his back…

  The pairs of arms constantly bent at awkward angles as if they were performing some sort of ritualistic dance. Just like Toshio in the corner, they were the color of the dead. They slowly crept up from a short distance behind Chen Chen before latching themselves onto Chen Chen's neck!

  In an instant, an indescribable feeling assaulted his five senses. The harsh bite seemed to penetrate through his bones and sent across his body like an electric shock!

  Just with the arms placed on his shoulder, Chen Chen felt like he was going to fall apart then and there!

  "Hnnnghhhhh…."

  The hoarse gurgling sound screaming at him was just inches away now, but Chen Chen could hardly muster the strength to turn around. All he could do was stare into his reflection and saw a black object rising from behind his right shoulder in between the flickering lights.

  It was a head with disheveled hair!

  Chen Chen's expression twitched uncontrollably as he made a desperate effort to turn to his right. Suddenly, he saw his world turn dark. In a few seconds, the light was turned on again. When the light returned, he saw a pair of midnight black eyes only three centimeters away from his own, gazing right into him!

  Such eyes they were, completely devoid of senses and lacking any ounce of humanity. They were two bottomless abysses that screamed hatred for life!

  After that, the light in the room went out again!

  In this split instant, Chen Chen felt the arms behind him dragging him backward. His stream of thoughts became dull and muddy, as if just mere touch delivered great pain to him. Inside the darkness, he felt he was dragged out of the chair and into the depthless, unknown darkness…

  It was at this moment when Chen Chen suddenly heard the clicking sound of a door opening beside him…

  The sound sounded almost godsend. Chen Chen simultaneously felt a ray of light beaming from the door. When the light was cast on Chen Chen, he felt his body winding down and the feeling of being dragged away quickly dissipated.

  When Chen Chen came to his senses, he saw that the lights overhead had returned to a normal state. He was still seated in the chair in the same position as he previously did.

  "Chen Chen! You… Hm?"

  Shen Qi was furious when she stomped inside. For some reason, the light in the room was turned off when she walked in. Before she could respond accordingly, there was an abrupt flash followed by the lights turning back on again.

  On top of that, she felt an inexplicable chill the moment she stepped inside the room.

  It was not the sort of cold felt as a mere decrease of temperature but a kind of ringing cold that penetrated deep into the bones. The moment she sensed it, she felt goosebumps rising on her body like a pulse of electricity. Such a sensation could never be related by anyone who had not experienced it.

  She did not make any remark about it but instead, approached Chen Chen right away. "Chen Chen. Tell me, why did the USB drive break? Are you trying to deceive us with a fake? I'm talking to you! Chen Chen? Chen Chen!"

  Shen Qi threw question after question at him. She then noticed something was off. Although Chen Chen was looking at her, his expression was unbelievably pale. His green-ish veins faintly popped from under his skin as if he had been stricken with a horrible disease. It was slightly reminiscent of the color of a corpse.

  "What's going on?"

  When Shen Qi was still perplexed by this sight, the FBI branch director stepped into the room again. This time, he no longer carried his previous poise but was instead
ridden by anxiety and even a slight hint of anger. When he saw Chen Chen's face, he became shocked. "Did he commit suicide by ingesting poison? Hurry, get the doctor!"

  Fortunately, the FBI had designated doctors. Within five minutes, several doctors and nurses rushed inside with devices and first aid kits in tow. Just as Chen Chen was carried on the stretcher, he began to come back to his senses.

  "I, I'm alright!"

  Chen Chen struggled to get up while gasping for air.

  "Subdue him!"

  Shen Qi barked the order. When the other officers heard this and tried to step forward, Chen Chen suddenly grabbed at the collar of his shirt and yanked it.

  Two black marks were immediately revealed under his collar.

  "This is?"

  The doctors were astounded by the sight of it. From their point of view, the mark was even clearer and distinctly resembled the shape of two palms. The outline of each finger could not be any more vivid. The left and right hand could be clearly identified.

  "This is the curse of Ju-on…"

  Chen Chen brushed the mark on his shoulder but felt numbness on it. He could hardly sense anything there, not even pain.

  "This is a symptom of skin necrosis. It seems to have been this way for a long time, at least half a month."

  One of the doctors frowned. "But if it's been that long, it should've been inflamed by now, unlike its current state."

  The branch director became perplexed. As the highest executive officer here, he was well aware that this young man had a full-body examination conducted when they brought him in. CT scan was conducted thoroughly to search for the USB drive.

  There were no visible wounds on the young man back then.

  "Of course, that's because I was attacked by the spiritual abnormality."

  Chen Chen expressed with faint anger. "Where did the psychologists go? Shouldn't they be observing me from behind the mirror? How is it that they didn't notice me being attacked?"