by <unknown>
These kill switch devices were also housed in this suitcase. They consisted of just an LCD screen with the word MARS on it.
After thinking for a while, Chen Chen finally reached into the screen and tugged.
At once, an entire suitcase was taken out of the screen by Chen Chen.
At this point, Chen Chen heaved a sigh of relief. He locked the suitcase, then carried it in one hand and the little beggar in the other, and lifted off again, flying into the distance…
…
"Yes, yes, yes…
"Okay, I understand…
"I understand… I'll resign and give the higher-ups an explanation."
In front of Shen Qi's corpse, the middle-aged man seemed to have aged ten years. He was talking on the phone with a dull expression and replied in a low voice.
However, at this moment, there was a sudden boom in the sky as if someone had set off a firecracker. Only the sound was dozens of times louder than a firecracker.
The middle-aged man was shocked. He knew this sound. It was the sound of something breaking through the sound barrier. Whenever a supersonic plane flew overhead, people would hear this sound. Sometimes it was so loud it could even shatter glass.
Nonetheless, how could a plane possibly pass by here now?
The middle-aged man turned his head subconsciously, but he was astonished to find that the source of the sound was not an airplane at all but a person!
At this time, the person was standing at a high altitude and slowly descending. In one hand he was holding a silver-white suitcase.
"It's Chen Chen!"
There was a surprised exclamation from the soldiers beside him, following which came the sound of gun bolts being pulled. All the soldiers instinctively prepared for combat.
"Wait, don't shoot!"
The middle-aged man hurriedly stopped them. Although he knew Chen Chen was the murderer of Shen Qi, it did not matter whom Chen Chen had killed at this time. The key was that he was the owner of the USB flash drive. Without the owner, the USB drive could not be used. This had been verified before.
"Chen Chen, what's wrong with your eyes?"
However, when he saw Chen Chen's eyes clearly, he was shocked. He noticed that Chen Chen's cheeks were covered with blood scabs and both eyes were tightly shut. Chen Chen's eyelids were also red, swollen, and even a little caved in.
"Mr. Director, what happened to my eyes is a rather long story."
Chen Chen completely ignored the ruthless stares of the soldiers and walked straight toward the middle-aged man. "But I've finished my business here, so I'm going to leave."
"You're leaving?"
Hearing Chen Chen's words, the middle-aged man suddenly became anxious and moved forward in agitation. "Chen Chen, you can't leave. What will happen to this city if you leave?"
"This city is a goner."
Chen Chen shook his head. "I'm not your savior and there are no saviors in this world. Now what you have to consider isn't the question of whether Shangdu can be preserved, but whether human civilization will be destroyed due to the memetic effect."
"What do you mean?"
The middle-aged man was promptly taken aback. He looked down at the suitcase in Chen Chen's hand and seemed to understand something.
"Give it up. You can't cure the Ju-on meme by shooting your own movie."
Chen Chen tossed the suitcase to a soldier beside the middle-aged man. Once the soldier caught it, he took two steps back and then looked at the middle-aged man helplessly.
"Open it!"
The middle-aged man nodded and ordered.
Upon hearing this, the soldier clenched his jaw and opened the suitcase directly.
At once, everyone saw the three green warhead-like devices in the suitcase, and three palm-sized devices similar to remote controls.
"This is… A nanomite warhead?"
The middle-aged man said, astounded, "Did you extract this?"
"I did."
Chen Chen nodded. "Since you know what it is, it means you have considered using it before, so my advice to you is — just cut the Gordian knot. Before the memetic effect kills enough people and spreads fully, destroy everything with the nanomites first! This is the only way to stop the spread of memetic effects from the source."
The middle-aged man fell silent after hearing this.
"This is all I have to say. What you should do is up to you."
Chen Chen said that and turned to leave.
"Hold on!"
The middle-aged man looked more anxious, but he did not seem to want to use coercive means, so he quickly scampered forward and ran to Chen Chen's side. "Little Chen, where are you going?"
"Of course I'm going back to where I should be."
Chen Chen walked forward slowly step by step and said calmly, "I've been in the dream for a long time and it's time to wake up now. Plus, I've also found a way to wake up."
"Dream?" The middle-aged man was mystified.
"Mr. Director."
Chen Chen stopped and turned to look at the other man while a smile crept up the corners of his mouth. "Have you ever thought that the world in which you've spent a lifetime is actually just someone's dream?
"When that person dreams, the world is born and when he wakes up from the dream, the world disappears again. Along with the world, the countless lives in the dream disappear as well. Will they realize that their long human lives were just part of someone's dream?"
"Impossible!"
The middle-aged man narrowed his eyes. He thoroughly understood the implication of Chen Chen's words, but still said emphatically, "This world cannot be a dream of some other person because everything I've experienced and encountered is telling me that I am who I am.
"Even if I'll die and the world will be destroyed, nothing can erase the evidence of my existence, just like Descartes's famous philosophical saying — I think, therefore, I am. I don't need anyone to prove whether I'm true or false because I'm my own proof."
"Very good."
Chen Chen applauded reflexively. "I like your attitude, so please stick to it."
With that, Chen Chen lifted off suddenly and was about to fly into the heights.
"Wait!"
The middle-aged man was seized by panic. He raised his head and shouted, "Chen Chen, even if you want to leave, leave the USB drive behind. This kind of thing shouldn't be left in the hands of an individual. It will threaten the entire human race!"
"Even if I give it to you, you won't obtain it."
Chen Chen smiled contemptuously. "Don't believe me? Then take it!"
As he spoke, Chen Chen took out the USB drive and threw it at the middle-aged man, then rushed into the sky without looking back!
The middle-aged man reacted swiftly and reached for the USB flash drive. The moment he grabbed it, there was a flicker of ecstasy in his eyes, but then he thought of something, quickly held it to his mouth, and bit it.
The USB drive did not budge at all.
"It's real!"
The middle-aged man looked even more gleeful. He quickly called someone to put the USB drive away. It was placed in a thick solid safe, to be transported that very night.
At this time, Chen Chen had flown into the air again. He kept carrying the little beggar as he rushed to the sky and once again came to the top of the golden clouds.
Under the endless rays of the sun, Chen Chen suddenly looked powerless.
"I say, X, if you can hear me in reality, I suggest that if there's another time, let's change the anchor point."
As he spoke, he looked at the little beggar, and finally, reluctantly, kissed her on the lips.
At once, a miraculous scene took place — in the golden radiance, the two figures melted instantly as if melding into the golden sunlight. In just the blink of an eye, they had vanished…
It was as if Chen Chen had never existed in this world.
At the same moment that Chen Chen disappeared from this world, the USB flash drive that had been sealed
shut in the safe, and was being shipped to the capital city, also began to melt rapidly. The surveillance feed in the safe showed that it directly turned into a pool of black liquid, which squirmed ceaselessly. Then it began to dwindle as if by evaporation and finally melted into the air.
There was no trace left of it…
…
When Chen Chen opened his eyes again, he found that he was lying on a hard cramped bed. There was a dazzling light over his face and he could not help but squint.
Chen Chen subconsciously raised his hand to block his eyes, but immediately realized that he could see again.
"Have I returned?"
Chen Chen sat up thoughtfully but there seemed to be an unusual weight on his chest. Chen Chen subconsciously glanced down, only to find that the Black Knight clone of Little X was lying on his chest, deep in quiet sleep.
Still, after Chen Chen's movements, Little X was awakened. She yawned and then said in delighted surprise, "Sir Godfather, you're awake?"
Upon seeing Little X's deliberately anthropomorphic behavior, Chen Chen was a little speechless. After all, intelligent life did not need to sleep.
"I don't need to sleep, but this body wants it."
As if she understood Chen Chen's facial expression, Little X suddenly became angry. "Besides, I also have a hibernation mode. Of course I can sleep, it's just that it isn't necessary!"
Chen Chen burst into laughter when he heard Little X's sophistry. He sighed and everything in the dream flashed through his mind.
However, at this moment, Chen Chen suddenly felt something in his hand. He looked down, only to find that the star-speckled USB drive was resting quietly in his hand.
"What happened?"
Seeing this scene, Little X was completely dumbfounded. "I just saw the USB flash drive charging outside. How can it suddenly appear in the isolation room?"
With that, she directly pulled up the surveillance feed of the power distribution room. Indeed, the slot of the USB flash drive was empty and the USB flash drive that was inserted there had been gone for some time.
Fortunately, this instrument for charging the USB drive had been prepared for two things. A Galaxy pendant was also put into the charging system. Namely, if the USB drive was suddenly removed by someone, there was still the Galaxy pendant to absorb the majestic surge of electricity.
Nonetheless, the USB drive's teleportation through thin air prompted a pensive reaction from Chen Chen.
Chapter 382: The Plan of Four Sub-Eras |
"In other words, I've slept for a total of 68 hours, which is less than three days?"
Looking at the calendar displayed on the phone, Chen Chen wore a look of wonder. "I spent more than a month in another world but only three days have passed in reality?"
As if something had occurred to him, Chen Chen turned his head again and asked, "For the past three days, has everything been normal with the USB flash drive?"
"Yes, except for its sudden appearance here after you woke up, there has been no change in the USB flash drive at other times."
Little X nodded her little head and said with joy, "So, have you solved the hidden danger?"
"That's right. It was a close call, but I finally found the other party and killed him. It turns out that the antimeme was my predecessor…"
"Do you mean… The previous holder of the USB drive?" Little X asked in bewilderment.
When Chen Chen replied, he could not help sweating a little. The antimeme itself had the ability to swallow all relevant information, so it was almost impossible to comprehend. Nonetheless, even in this case, he found a way to ruin its plans.
He was able to do this not just because of the calm thinking he had developed in reality, but also because he had been very lucky…
"But even now, I still don't know who that person was, what his name was or what job he did."
Thinking of this, Chen Chen could not help frowning. "X, check the Internet to see if there's any information. The effect of the antimeme has been nullified, so the Earth Federation is very likely to have recalled 'his' existence. Maybe we can find out about his past on the Internet."
"Let me try."
Little X agreed, then she closed her eyes immediately, and began maniacally searching the entire Internet for any suspicious information.
These snippets of information were fished out one by one, after which they were quickly analyzed and calculated by Little X using extremely terrifying computing power. Then, any excess data was discarded. It was not until half an hour later that Little X had roughly scanned through certain websites.
"No, I still can't find any clues."
Little X shook his head. "Should I turn on the Prophet System to reconstruct our target's past?"
"There's no need for that."
Chen Chen waved one hand. "Two possibilities: First, my predecessor is not yet dead and the antimeme is still working, so no information can be found online; second, the movies on the USB flash drive were all released from 1998 to 2003, that is to say, the owner of the USB flash drive might have vanished more than 20 years ago, so there's nothing on the Internet either.
"If it's the first one, then it's useless to turn on the Prophet System. If it's the second one, it won't be necessary because the Internet may not remember his existence, but it's impossible that the high-level members of the Earth Federation wouldn't know. After all, the emergence of the Earth Federation was advocated by the previous owner himself. Now it has only been 20 years since then. I believe that many of the high-level members are still alive. If they suddenly remember everything, they will naturally start to investigate. Then, we'll be able to discover the traces of their activities."
"So we'll just see how things play out?"
Little X pouted and sat on one side, a little bored. She started to toy with a water glass.
Chen Chen laughed. "Well, since there's no threat now, let me go out."
"Okay," Little X agreed. The crane and the other equipment that had been waiting for a long time began to dismantle the outer layers and armor of the isolation room.
As this went on, Chen Chen's heart suddenly leaped. He stood up, then sat down in front of the laptop, and directly inserted the USB flash drive he was holding.
When Chen Chen opened the USB flash drive on the computer, he noticed that the four very familiar movies on the USB flash drive were now completely gone…
Those four movies were Ju-on, Final Destination, One Missed Call, and Ring.
In addition, there were many more movies on the USB flash drive. These movies were diverse, including science-fiction, historical dramas, and even modern romances.
These were all placed here by the FBI in the other dimension when Chen Chen was having his dream.
"Sure enough, the movies in the USB flash drive have changed…"
Chen Chen could not help feeling a little stupefied. When he first got the USB drive, a question had occurred to him: if the USB drive could only accommodate movies that were in line with reality, why were the four horror movies there?
Could it be that the four horror movies were not unrealistic?
This idea had occupied Chen Chen's mind for a long, long time, causing him constant apprehension, for fear that one day he would slip up and play the four horror films by mistake.
However, now, this worry was finally gone because these four films had been opened in another world, and then deleted by Chen Chen himself.
Still, now it seemed that Chen Chen's concerns and caution were not groundless. If he had carelessly opened Ju-on when he first got the USB flash drive, well, he only had to look at what happened in the dream world to know the outcome.
"But then again, what was the reason the previous owner would resort to fusing himself with the antimeme? And he also placed four horror films in the USB flash drive, waiting for someone to take the bait?"
Chen Chen had a vague theory, but if he wanted to verify it, he would have to head to the movie, Event Horizon…
Event
Horizon was jokingly called the prequel of Warhammer 40,000 by many netizens because the setting was somewhat similar to the backstory of the tabletop game Warhammer 40,000. In particular, the unknown space that the spaceship entered was just like the subspace in the Warhammer world. It was also meant to represent a certain kind of madness, chaos, despair, and so on.
Of course, currently, Chen Chen would not enter that movie just to die. Even if he were to go, he would have to wait until his own technology was sufficiently advanced. Now, he still had not even made it to space, let alone explore the antithesis of the human world — the subspace.
This was comparable to opening Ju-on without sufficient strength — barging rashly into Event Horizon might very well kill him too.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen understood the importance of having a steady foundation. Otherwise, he would end up like his predecessor. Even though the entire world had formed into a federation, that guy still ended up having to fuse himself with an antimeme, becoming something that was neither human nor spirit.
At this time, with a creaking sound from outside the isolation room, the door was finally opened fully.
"Sir Godfather, the armor has been disassembled. You can come out now."
Little X interrupted Chen Chen's pondering and notified him from behind.
"Coming."
Chen Chen plugged out the USB drive and walked out of the isolation room.
Nonetheless, this time, Little X's Black Knight clone was following Chen Chen closely. As Chen Chen was a rather fast walker, Little X had to hop and skip to keep up with Chen Chen's pace. It looked a little funny from a distance.
"SpaceX has signed a contract of intent with us during the three days of your absence. If everything goes smoothly, we'll be able to buy 10% of SpaceX's shares in just a few weeks."
Little X conscientiously reported as she walked. "However, if we want to invest in SpaceX, we must first report to the committee on foreign investment, CFIUS. Now CFIUS has actively contacted SpaceX to confirm this. We can only invest after obtaining their approval."
Chen Chen could not refrain from frowning when he heard this. As all this was related to the aerospace industry, it was indeed difficult to acquire a company like SpaceX. Moreover, the West itself was a bunch of rogues, especially North America, the first continent of the Earth Federation. What happened years ago was still vivid in everyone's mind and Chen Chen was reluctant to end up like that company.
