by <unknown>
"It's better than none."
Chen Chen rubbed his chin and noted casually. "It would be great if someone injected with this virus can transform at will."
"That's impossible!"
Little X shook her head side to side while pouting. "The reason the Black Knight exhibits these changes that increase its size and weight after being injected with G-358 is due to a unique organ produced along the skin of the host injected with the virus. This allows them to directly absorb water and microorganisms from the air around them. This results in a large number of high-energy covalent bonds generated in the blood of the host, which directly reacts with the nitrogen in the air to form an exoskeleton...
"Still, there's a price to pay for this exoskeleton generation, which is drastic consumption of the host's fat and energy. The reason that even the Black Knight could only sustain this form for slightly more than ten minutes is that its energy is rapidly consumed during this period!"
"I know."
Chen Chen chuckled. "But that doesn't mean it won't be achievable in the future."
"That's true…"
Little X nodded.
When Chen Chen exited the laboratory, a Black Knight suddenly stepped forward and handed an oddly designed metal rod that was around twenty centimeters long to Chen Chen.
Chen Chen accepted the item before realizing that this metal rod was just an oddly shaped syringe. In addition to two buttons of blue and green on it, he could also faintly see the stark red liquid inside it.
It was the G-358 virus contained within.
Chen Chen already knew how to operate this device back when he saw the research members injecting the Black Knight with it. When he gently tapped the blue button, a dark and slender needle popped out from one end with a swift "swoosh"!
"It's best to inject it into a heart. That's where its effects are most effective."
Little X noted.
Chen Chen nodded absentmindedly as he continued observing this needle. It was roughly fifteen centimeters, which was the optimal length to prod into the human heart. After that, he tapped the blue button again which caused the needle to swiftly retract back into the syringe.
Although Chen Chen already had Field in his arsenal to protect himself and probably did not need something like this, it still would not hurt to keep it with him as a fallback.
After tossing the syringe into his pocket, the two of them exited the Spire Experimental Base and returned to the surface.
Chen Chen did not enquire further into the subject of injecting the G-358 into the Tyrant as the team of experts would help him investigate further into its possibilities.
…
While the robust Eco Science City was proceeding with its speedy development, the story now moved to a city on another end of the world — the city of Los Angeles in Northern America, with its sky above signaling the approaching dusk.
It was the eastern suburbs of Los Angeles. In addition to being home to some of the wealthiest members of the region, there was also a gigantic warehouse in the region.
The name of the warehouse district was Herrank Warehouse District. The story behind it was that it was constructed during the 1950s by a wealthy capitalist that went by the name Herrank. The warehouse came to be named after their family as well.
The Herrank Warehouse District covered most of the daily basic logistics of the city of Los Angeles. As a central storage point, countless businesses and industries stored their goods in the warehouse. Observed from a higher altitude, one would spot countless giant warehouses erected in the area, spanning across thousands of miles until it stretched into the end of the horizon. The landscape was filled with the dome structure of the warehouses.
At the current moment inside one of the warehouses, a batch of special steel imported from abroad was being transported in separate batches by an array of trucks. They were promptly loaded into the warehouse using cranes. In the blink of an eye, the warehouse had reached maximum capacity.
The daily operation inside the warehouse area was completely inseparable from the workers employed in the vast amount of warehouses. Brewer Chester was one among the tens of thousands of workers working inside the warehouses.
Brewer Chester's build was impressively large, with what seemed like layers upon layers of fat. Just like other workers, he always kept a yellow safety helmet strapped to his head all the time. He wore a dirty uniform and a pair of jeans stained with sweat and whatever filth accumulated throughout the day. His favorite thing in the entire world was chomping down on hamburgers.
It was the height of the evening. Due to the season, the sky turned dark far later than usual. Although it was already near seven o'clock in the evening, the sky was still a vast ocean of blue. The sun was slanted toward the West as it made its slow crawl toward the horizon.
Chester was in charge of operating one of the heavy cranes. After he watched the final truck being unloaded and departed, he looked at the time and saw that he should have gotten off work half an hour ago. He shook his head faintly as he climbed down from the crane while whistling a tune.
"Chester!"
One of Chester's coworkers in the warehouse called out after him, "Are you getting ready to leave?"
"Yeah, my work here is done, I'll leave the rest to you."
Chester dropped a quick reply before he quickly paddled to the parking lot.
"Hold on, Chester, there's something I want to show you."
The way Chester's colleague lowered his voice into a low growl captured Chester's attention.
"Uh huh?"
Chester stopped suspiciously and motioned curiously. "Leon, what are you trying to show me?"
"Something pretty cool… Come with me and you'll find out."
The coworker Chester called Leon answered mysteriously. He proceeded to motion at Chester to follow him before turning around and entering the warehouse.
Chester stood by the warehouse entrance and hesitated for a few seconds. He thought about it and figured that there was no harm taking a look, so he shrugged and followed his coworker into the pitch-black warehouse.
Upon stepping into the warehouse, the overpowering scent of engine oil and steel beam came rushing toward him.
This warehouse was one of the warehouses Chester had unloaded the cargo into earlier. He knew what the contents of the cargo were. It was none other than a gigantic pillar of steel beam.
These steel beams were as thick as an average person's waist. They were commonly used for the foundation of skyscrapers. The correct architectural term for these things was steel columns.
Leon was still pacing in front excitedly. Chester proceeded to sprint several paces to catch up with him and asked, "Leon, what exactly are you planning to show me?"
"We're almost there."
Leon's face was painted with eagerness. Still, he refused to answer whatever questions Chester had since he wanted to keep it mysterious.
When the two arrived at the end of the hundred-meters-long warehouse, Leon stopped abruptly.
"We're here?"
Chester was starting to become irritated. He glanced at the window and saw that the contrast of the pale blue sky outside had grown darker than when they were just entering the warehouse. He glanced at where Leon was looking at while mouthing, "So what is it that you want me to look at, it's getting dark…"
Chester stopped speaking before he could finish his sentence.
He saw piles of steel beams stacked on top of one another positioned next to Leon. One of the steel beams had an intricate, life-like mural painted on top of it…
The contents of the mural were four angels with wings, each one of them made the same motion, their hands covering their eyes. The only trait that separated them was that they were in different positions. One was kneeling, one was standing, one was standing sideways, another was standing upright.
However, it would be inaccurate to refer to it as simple murals since they were closer to [span]relief sculptures[/span]. This was rather b
affling to Chester. Who in their right minds would put sculptures into steam beams used for construction?
"So, Leon…"
Chester broke the silence suddenly. "So the cool thing you were talking about is this? Where did they come from?"
Leon did not answer. He only looked at the four angels absently.
"Hey?"
Chester tried to get his attention, speaking louder this time.
"Ah!"
Leon came back to his senses. He continued admiring the four elegant, life-like angels while answering the previous question, "I think these are imported. It could be from the Central Continent or Indian Continent, who knows?"
Chester was at a loss for words. He shook his head and tapped Leon's shoulders gently. "I'll see you tomorrow, Leon."
With that, Chester turned around and left.
[ol][li data-annotation-id="f11a61a8-0aff-129f-c709-0eb0e6681b53"]A sculpting technique, a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane[/ol]
Chapter 466: Murder? |
The night passed by swiftly. Chester, as usual, ate a bunch of fast food and fell asleep under the influence of alcohol. When he opened his eyes again, it was already the next morning.
Looking at the time on the phone, Chester was so anxious that he did not even have time to wash his face. He grabbed his overalls and rushed toward the door of his house.
It was only ten minutes before work.
Riding in his tattered pickup, Chester rushed to the construction site in a hurry, only to find that the construction site was full of police cars, blocking the main traffic route.
Getting out of the car, Chester immediately walked toward his post, but when he reached the police cars, he was stopped. The policeman in charge of crowd control motioned for him to stop.
"Hey, buddy, don't you see that the police are working on a case here? If you want to go there, it looks like you have to take a detour."
The police officer stopped Chester and notified him.
"Man, what happened inside?"
Chester asked immediately, while constantly looking inside.
"This matter has nothing to do with you. Please take a detour."
The officer did not explain and only urged him on.
Chester grunted in assent. He still could not help poking his head in, only to see that not far away, the foreman who usually managed him was busy rushing about, following a man in a suit while explaining something. At the same time, there was an ingratiating look on his face.
Although it was the first time that Chester was seeing that man in the suit, he knew from the employee roster that this man was the person in charge of dozens of nearby warehouses.
The position of this person was probably that of a manager and his superior would be the general manager of the entire Los Angeles warehouse area. Nonetheless, these positions were unattainable to Chester.
However, these thoughts only flashed by in his mind because something more interesting happened before his eyes — three or four police cars had blocked the passage. Moreover, outside the door of the warehouse where Chester had personally unloaded the goods yesterday, was a web of yellow warning tapes. Only a few police officers who were in charge of inspecting the scene came in and out with their cameras.
Seeing this scene, Chester immediately understood something. He gloated at the sight of his sweating foreman, wondering maliciously what error was made by his superior.
However, just then, the foreman suddenly turned his head and saw Chester. Chester only saw the other man's eyes lit up and then he waved his hand quickly. "Hey, Chester, come here quickly. What are you doing gaping over there?"
Chester reluctantly gestured to the foreman as he looked at the policeman. At that, the policeman was willing to let him in.
Chester felt a little uncomfortable. He crossed the barrier of police cars and walked toward the foreman. When he reached the man, he was about to speak when the foreman said eagerly, "Chester, you seemed to be the last to leave yesterday night. Did you see Leon before you left?"
"Leon?"
Chester was stunned and a thought suddenly flashed in his mind. Could it be that this big hoo-hah was related to Leon?
Thinking of this, he did not know why he felt a pang of guilt, like a kid who did something wrong, so he quickly said half-heartedly, "I didn't see him. It was already 6:30 when I finished unloading the last batch of goods. Leon should be inside the warehouse at the time, and I didn't see him."
"Are you telling the truth?"
At this moment, the man in the suit and leather shoes suddenly spoke and asked in an inquiring tone, "Did you not see Leon before you left last night?"
Chester shook his head quickly and at the same time, looked at the man blankly.
"Oh, right, I forgot to make the introductions. This is Mr. Connor, the person in charge of our team."
The foreman quickly explained, "Chester, if you have any clues, you must share them, do you understand?"
"Got it."
Chester nodded and then asked a little awkwardly, "What happened to Leon? Could it be that he…"
"Leon is dead."
Before he could complete the question, the foreman said with some regret, "Joseph discovered him this morning. He found that the goods in Warehouse 9 weren't moved all night, so he ran in to look for Leon, only to find that Leon was dead…"
"How did he die?"
Chester's heart sank and he asked, downcast.
"You don't need to worry about that."
Before the foreman answered, Connor spoke first, cutting off the conversation between the two. He then looked at the foreman, "I'll leave things here to you. The police said that Warehouse 9 needs to be cordoned off temporarily. In that case, make sure everyone avoids this warehouse and goes to work in other warehouses. When Joseph comes back after giving his statement, let him start work immediately."
"Understood."
The foreman replied.
After that, Connor glanced at Chester again. Chester quickly lowered his head, then saw that the other man had immediately turned around and left the scene completely.
"Phew…"
When the person in charge had left, Chester saw the foreman secretly breathed a sigh of relief, after which the foreman waved his hand and said to Chester, "You also heard Mr. Connor's words. For now, don't move the goods in Warehouse 9. You can go to work in Warehouse 12."
"Okay."
Chester agreed and left without further questions.
When he climbed onto the crane in Warehouse 12, his mind was still dizzy. Maybe it was because he did not sleep well last night or the news of Leon's death in the morning. In short, Chester's work all day seemed to take place in a haze. He just mechanically unloaded the goods brought by the trucks.
A day's work was not leisurely at all. Chester only rested for an hour during lunch and then worked the rest of the entire day. When the last truck had cleared all the goods and left, it was evening again before he realized it.
Chester was accustomed to this kind of busyness. He kept his head empty of thoughts and finished his work. When he climbed down from the crane, he realized that there were no police officers in front of the road outside Warehouse 9. The warehouse door was locked, with just the remaining strips of yellow warning tape still surrounding the door.
After a day's investigation, the group of policemen had also got off work.
Chester shrugged. He walked toward where he had parked, but when he walked past the door of Warehouse 9, his heart suddenly leaped.
He had the key to Warehouse 9.
At this moment, Chester's breathing became a little short. He did not know why he was so excited. Maybe it was the instinct for risk that was suppressed in his bones for too long?
His life had been repetitive for too long. So long that he was even used to it, but when an opportunity for exploration and adventure was placed in front of him, he discovered how tempting and enthrallin
g this opportunity was to him…
Now that the police were off work and almost all the other workers were off work too, no one would know if he visited the crime scene. Besides, he would just go in and take a look to see what happened. What was the problem?
Chester took a deep breath. He only felt the blood in his body boiling. When was the last time he felt this way? It must be back when he was young, right? Time had worn down his mind and smoothed out everything. Now he was resurrected!
He struggled with this decision thousands of times in his heart. In short, when Chester came back to his senses, he was already standing dazedly and inexplicably in front of the door of Warehouse 9. Then he touched his pocket, he felt the key to Warehouse 9.
"Just take a look, one look will do…"
Chester reassured himself in a low voice. Then, he no longer hesitated as he stepped across the obstructing tapes. After that, he took out the key and inserted it into the employee door by the main gate of Warehouse 9.
"Click!"
With a crisp sound, the employee door suddenly opened, revealing the dark interior space.
A familiar smell of damp and musty humid greeted him.
Chester had long been acquainted with this smell. He looked at the sky but saw that the sun in the west had sunk halfway into the mountain. Obviously, it was getting late. In that case, Chester decided to just look inside and leave without delay.
Thinking of this, Chester walked into the already dim warehouse and looked down the rows of goods on either side.
In the gloom, the rows of goods were like ghostly shadows in the night, dreamlike and illusory. Only when the setting sun shone in through the few windows in the warehouse and landed upon the goods, a special light was formed.
The interlacing of light and darkness created a unique mysterious atmosphere, which further intensified the illusion of adventure for Chester.
