novelThe President's Visit
| ← Ch.516 | Ch.518 → |
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Name?"
"Danny Brolin..."
"Age."
"... I'm probably... Over fifty."
"Why do you say that, don't you know your own age?"
"Heh heh... I only remember that when the outbreak crisis occurred, I was twenty years old. Now at least thirty years have passed, but does time have any meaning for us survivors?"
"Where are you from?"
"I'm a Scot and my hometown is Linlithgow, Scotland..."
"What's your relationship with the other four people?"
"Jennifer and the others? They are my wives. We originally wanted a few children but after a previous wife of mine became pregnant, the baby was infected with the ubiquitous T-virus in the womb, and in the end, the baby tore apart her belly... From then on, we didn't plan to have children anymore. Even when anyone gets pregnant, it'll be quickly aborted..."
"I heard your wife Jennifer say that she used to have a husband, but you killed him?"
"Yes, all men were protecting themselves. To prevent him from killing me, I killed him first..."
"Then seize his wife?"
"She came willingly because without me, she wouldn't survive outside for three months."
"And the same happened with the other wives?"
"No, one of them is my original wife..."
"You mentioned the T-virus before, what is that?"
"It's the stuff that resulted in those who are neither dead nor alive in the outside world. We call them zombies. Human civilization was destroyed by them. The T-virus caused most humans to become that kind of zombies. Only a few people survived and were hunted by those zombies..."
"They don't seem to be in large numbers?"
"Hehe... After so many years, most of the wounded zombies have decayed but humans are about to disappear completely too, right?"
"Where did the T-virus that you mentioned come from?"
"Umbrella, of course, it came from Umbrella, that d*mn b*stard corporation. This news was reported on TV before the zombie virus spread, so everyone knows where the T-virus came from...."
...
One day later, Chen Chen was sitting in his office on the top floor of the Blacklight Building in the Eco Science City when he received the first-hand interrogation video from the Blacklight Foundation.
In the video, a researcher wearing a white lab coat was sitting at a desk in an empty and airtight interrogation room. Opposite him was a white man with a large bushy beard and an old face, whose eyes were still fierce.
Then there was a lengthy conversation between the two, over three hours in total, covering the man's past and present, and other trivial matters.
After that, it was the remaining four women. From the interrogation of these women, it was learned that this man named Brolin had killed at least eight survivors, all of whom were men. He seemed to have intentionally killed those of the same sex to prevent his opponents from competing with him for women.
Chen Chen just skimmed the video randomly and moved the progress bar to the end.
Now, the four continents had determined that the real identity of this dimension was the movie Resident Evil and the T-virus had also been acquired by them.
Chen Chen was not too concerned with this because the T-virus had long been something rudimentary to Chen Chen. It was most useful for making organic biological weapons because the T-virus could only be used on living embryos. If it was used on adult life forms, they would only have one outcome — to become a zombie.
If one wanted to customize the T-virus to fit one's genes like Chen Chen, one would need — first, a massive amount of funds, second, superb biotechnology, and third, a super artificial intelligence to analyze virus proteins.
These three conditions were like three insurmountable obstacles, eliminating the possibility of human development of the T-virus. At present, there was no biological laboratory in the world that had these three capabilities at the same time.
Therefore, for at least 30 years, Chen Chen would not be worried about the four major continents using the T-virus in any harebrained schemes. Moreover, 30 years later, Chen Chen would grow stronger and then he would not need to care about the T-virus being mastered by the Earth Federation.
Next, what the four continents had to do was develop the Resident Evil dimension. Although that world had been lost for more than 30 years and most of the fragments of human civilization had decayed, there were still many things that could be obtained.
In particular, the land and mineral resources of that world were like a large inheritance left by one's ancestors that was suddenly acquired by an ordinary person. After acquiring a parallel world, the four continents expressed joy at the prospect of profit, like old farmers in the autumn harvest.
Nonetheless, since this was under the Blacklight Foundation too, Chen Chen naturally had a share in this as well.
Chen Chen did not care much about this. He was not like the other polities that needed resources to feed the people and increase their GDP. If the four continents were like four huge families, then Blacklight Biotechnology was a solitary figure who could feed one whole family without going hungry.
What Chen Chen cared about was humanity in general and himself. This was not because Chen Chen was highly principled but because Blacklight Biotechnology existed based on human civilization in the first place. If human civilization was gone, then Blacklight Biotechnology would also lose the point of its existence.
Plus, Chen Chen's purpose had always been very clear, that was longevity, but longevity alone was meaningless. The reality was not like a novel. There were no so-called martial arts in this world, whereby one person could suppress an entire world, and so on. Humans themselves were social animals. Thus, Chen Chen hoped that his parents and relatives could accompany him for a long time.
They represented the point of Chen Chen's longevity.
After human beings had achieved a long lifespan, a series of changes in the moral cognition system was likely to occur, but this was also a manifestation of the diversity in human civilization.
Just like in ancient times, people often said that "there are three ways to be unfilial; having no sons is the worst." This was in line with the social and national conditions in ancient times because the ancients had a short life span. Only by increasing the fertility rate could the continuation of civilization be guaranteed.
However, in modern times, due to the changes in social civilization, humans were now beginning to see examples of DINK1, cohabitations, and even homosexual unions. Coupled with the civilianization of age-reversal treatment programs, human life expectancy had increased dramatically and future generations were no longer the most important thing to human beings. This was also in line with the conditions of modern societies and nations.
As another example, if Chen Chen developed a virtual world that was comparable to the real world, where humans could do everything they wanted to do, then once a large number of humans had joined, it would inevitably lead to the loss of real-world interests and also produce a group of opposing and resisting voices, criticizing this virtual world game, criticizing those who play the game for being distracted by trivial hedonism. Institutions similar to "Yuzhang Normal University" would even appear, and so on.
This was a normal phenomenon. However, if that virtual world was further refined and connected with real currency systems while at the same time, when one's consciousness joined in, one's real body would be better protected and one's lifespan would be prolonged, then gradually, the virtual world would transform from being something cursed by thousands of people, into one of the new social norms.
Even in the future, human beings might be divided into two camps by default. One was developing in reality and the other was developing in the virtual world. None was superior or inferior. Between the two, just like how some people chose humanities while others chose science; some people chose scientific research after graduation, and others chose to grow in the entertainment industry.
This was just another shift in the moral cognition system.
There was an old saying: a saint moves with the world and thus never becomes exhausted no matter the situation.
Long ago, Chen Chen proposed three major strategies for the development of Blacklight Biotechnology: biomedicine, the aerospace industry, and the Internet. Among them, biomedicine represented the continuation of human civilization and it was the path of human evolution. If he gained control of this field, he would gain control of humanity's present.
In addition, the aerospace industry represented humanity's future. This was not a future of a few decades, but a future of over a thousand years!
As for the Internet, it corresponded to reality and represented humanity's spirit. It could even become an indispensable way to transform real-world class conflicts, stabilize the social order, and create an alternate social system!
At this time, in the aerospace industry and in biomedicine, Blacklight Biotechnology had been at the forefront of the Earth Federation and had become the bellwether. Regarding the Internet, Chen Chen had proposed a plan of four sub-eras —
The first of these was the VR sub-era and this sub-era was led by the "V. 1 Haptic Shock Chair" released that year. In the following years, the haptic shock chair would reach the V. 2 generation and the accompanying brain-control technology and display technology would also be more developed and closer to reality.
The second era was the era when artificial intelligence had entered civilian use. Chen Chen's plan for this had just started this year and the bionic personal butler named "Little Ai" had entered thousands of households.
It could be said that since the release of "Little Ai", the babysitter market and some simple labor markets had suffered heavy losses and public opinion also had a mixed reception to the bionic personal butler. Some people thought that these androids created the phenomenon of the uncanny valley. Some people were worried about the intelligence explosion that might occur in a hundred years and others were concerned about their own interests, protesting all day, trying to force Blacklight Biotechnology to cancel the research and development of bionic technology.
Toward all this, Chen Chen was naturally dismissive. Human science and technology must always be improved and the advancement of science and technology would lead to the elimination of any old industry. This was an irreversible fact, just like the wheels of history rolling forward. These oppositions were like an ant trying to stop an elephant and they would inevitably end up being crushed.
According to an ancient saying, this was called the general trend.
As for the third and fourth stages of the four sub-eras plan, they would not be able to progress until after decades, when the second era was completely stabilized and widely accepted.
These thoughts were circling each other and they flashed through Chen Chen's mind, but when Chen Chen was secretly reflecting on his future plans, the elevator door opened again with a "ding". At the same time, Little X walked into Chen Chen's office.
"Sir Godfather, Zurama has secretly come to the lobby of the building and he wants to see you now."
"Zurama?"
Chen Chen raised his eyebrows, then smiled coldly."Bring him in."
With that, Chen Chen leaned back on the leather seat behind him, silently waiting for the other party's arrival.
Little X nodded and returned to the elevator again.
Two minutes later, a middle-aged black man with a radiant face who looked to be in his forties appeared in Chen Chen's office.
Zurama used to look a bit like Morgan Freeman, that was, the old man who finally got the USB drive in the movie Lucy. Now although he had become younger after recuperation, he looked all the more like Morgan Freeman.
Watching the other man's arrival, Chen Chen did not even stand up. He just asked lazily, "Mr. President, how come you have the time to grace us with your presence?"
"Alright, it's been so many years. You don't have to act politely with me anymore."
Zurama smiled helplessly. He sat directly in the chair opposite Chen Chen's desk as if he had done this a thousand times. Little X on the side immediately brought a set of teacups and poured a kind of brewed tea into it.
Smelling the refreshing fragrance of the tea, Zurama could not help but close his eyes, a little captivated. Naturally, any tea that could make its way into Chen Chen's office would not be some nameless common tea.
After many visits to Chen Chen's office, Zurama gradually fell in love with the tea culture in China.
Next, it was Zurama's tea-tasting time.
Chen Chen did not bother Zurama. He just drank his tea in silence and waited for Zurama to make his request.
That was right. With Chen Chen's support Zurama was elected as the fourth President of Namibia at the end of 2025 without any doubt.
The President of Namibia was the head of state, the head of government, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces in the Republic of Namibia. Each term of office was 5 years and each presidency could not exceed two terms. Now, it was only the first term for Zurama.
After Zurama, supported by Blacklight Biotechnology, was elected president, it could be said that the relationship between Namibia and Blacklight Biotechnology had become closer, practically ushering in the second honeymoon period.
Not only that, but Blacklight Biotechnology had also brought about unprecedented prosperity in Namibia. Both its economy and culture had surpassed the Rainbow Nation and reached the top of Africa. In particular, Blacklight Biotechnology's poverty alleviation activities had raised millions of Namibians from poverty to the level of being well-off.
The only problem was that the current Namibian regime had long been reduced to a figurehead by Blacklight Biotechnology...
However, Chen Chen had no political ambitions. Strictly speaking, he even looked down on Namibia. He controlled this country only to better develop Blacklight Biotechnology. Therefore, Chen Chen and Namibia were basically in a strange state of balance. No one wanted to break this balance.
About ten minutes later, Zurama sighed after finishing the tea in the cup and said, "Chen Chen, this time I'm here with a request from the Parliament. You know as well, with the development of Namibia over the years, our national strength has been increasing day by day. Both the general industry and the tourism industry have repeatedly set new bars and more people have chosen to join the Namibian nationality...
"We know that these are thanks to your Blacklight Biotechnology, but with the development of the country, our electric power system has gradually become unable to keep up, so..."
At this point, Zurama could not help but pause, then said brightly, "We want to ask Blacklight Biotechnology to invest in several nuclear power plants to help alleviate the problem of our country's aging electric power system..."
Hearing the other party's request, Chen Chen frowned because he naturally understood that the nuclear power plants in question were not the previous traditional nuclear fission power stations, but the recently announced CUERB Project, which was the nuclear fusion reactor project.
If it were not for the nuclear fusion reactor, the Namibian government would not have dropped in as if by coincidence and made a request for the establishment of nuclear power plants.
This old geezer was truly being bold in his requests...
| ← Ch. 516 | Ch. 518 → |