novelHidden Mastermind
| ← Ch.469 | Ch.471 → |
Blacklight Biotechnology currently owned 50% of Osmond's shares and now it had increased by 11%, bringing it to 66%. As the legal owner of Blacklight Biotechnology, Chen Chen also naturally became the big boss of Osmond in the eyes of the law.
In one night, the entire company had entered a new dynasty but the employees of the company had been kept in the dark. Only Parker, after being forced to agree to all this, was slumped in his seat, his expression clearly more aged and strained.
Although he got the money, he had lost the future. His belief that was once full of ambitions to make the company bigger and stronger collapsed instantly. At this moment, Parker only felt that his heart was empty and it seemed that he was missing something.
After persuading the other party, Chen Chen did not stay on. Although Parker was pretty good at his job and Chen Chen had considered roping him in as a manager of a Blacklight Biotechnology branch office, Chen Chen still discarded this idea after thinking about it.
If he roped in Parker, this man would gradually wonder where Blacklight Biotechnology's AD-001 came from and even discover that accursed movie. If he had a fertile imagination, he might even speculate that Chen Chen had some kind of method to foresee the future.
Moreover, Parker himself was not meant for the same path as Chen Chen.
Therefore, Chen Chen finally gave up on this notion.
After Chen Chen turned to leave the office and returned to the rooftop, he stood on the edge of the building and silently stared into the distance.
Everything was in place. Following this, he just had to wait for Keith to come into the story.
However, just when Chen Chen thought that everything was under control, Little X suddenly piped up in a somewhat anxious voice."Oh no, Sir Godfather, something had happened in the Earth Federation Quantum Deity Laboratory!"
Chen Chen raised his eyes when he heard the words."What's the matter?"
"After I sent a prediction request to the quantum computer 'Adam', it took only half an hour to automatically generate a video but after I watched this video, it felt both familiar and unfamiliar!"
Little X's voice was uncertain."I've only felt something like this when it comes to memes!"
Chen Chen was shocked when he heard these words. He stood up straight."You mean, 'Adam' created a meme by himself?"
"It's not that!"
However, Little X explained, "I analyzed the code of the video itself and didn't find anything related to memes. That is to say, the video isn't problematic. The real problem isn't the video itself but the content in the video!"
At this, Little X hesitated."I'm familiar with the coding of memes. From this video, I've got a feeling similar to 'This Man', which means that this video is likely to be highly infectious. But I'm not sure for the time being how many ways the content of this video can spread and what will be the means of transmission..."
Chen Chen immediately grasped that the transmission of memes was ever-changing and not necessarily limited to one type. Although it was a video, meaning that it was certain that the transmission mode was visual communication, it did not mean that transmission would not occur if language was used to describe its content.
Still, at this point, Chen Chen suddenly looked in a certain direction in Los Angeles, which was the direction of the Herrank Warehouse District that Little X had mentioned in her previous report.
If the quantum computer predicted that it was a meme, did it mean that there was a memetic effect happening in the Herrank Warehouse District and those who had died by having their necks twisted were all killed by the meme?
However, everything related to memes was deadlocked in the Spire, so how could it appear outside here and in the strongest continent, Northern America, at that?
"What's the content of the video, can you describe it?"
Chen Chen asked urgently.
"I dare not describe the specific content for the time being, but one thing I can say is that the main subject in the video is a statue, an... Angel statue covering its eyes..."
"An angel statue covering its eyes?"
Chen Chen muttered in puzzlement and then he seemed to have thought of something. He jerked up, showing a shocked expression."It's that angel pattern!"
At this moment, Chen Chen suddenly remembered that when he went to China's Jiao Tong University for an investigation, he had been ambushed with an iron bed that seemed to have originated from the dimension of Silent Hill, which had almost killed him.
Although that ambush was ultimately foiled by fate, as the iron bed's meme was unintentionally deciphered by a college student, an error still occurred after Chen Chen had transported the iron bed back to Namibia.
During the memetic detection experiment, Chen Chen not only failed to discern the iron bed's function but instead caused a mural to appear next to the iron bed.
That was a mural painted in blood — on it was a woman curled up with her eyes covered and on the woman's back, there was a pair of wings...
At that time, Chen Chen did not see the whole picture, only a part of it, but fortunately, that was the case. Once he saw the meme pattern completely, it was likely that he would be infected. Even if he died, he would not know what he died of.
At this time, following Little X's reminder, Chen Chen immediately thought of something and he quickly asked, "Didn't four Black Knights look directly at the meme before? How were they destroyed in the end?"
"I sent them to the steel mill."
Little X seemed to understand what he was driving at and she quickly said, "It can't be. After the chips were dug out of the four Black Knights, their bodies were all dissolved in the molten steel."
"Dissolved?"
Chen Chen could not help looking suspicious. If they had been destroyed, why did the meme appear in Los Angeles again? Was it just a coincidence?
Even so, in the next second, Chen Chen dismissed the idea and asked again, "Are you sure? Then what of the pot containing the molten steel that dissolved the bodies of the four Black Knights, where did it go?"
"I'll look it up now."
Little X replied, paused for a few seconds, and then said again, "Sir Godfather, your guess isn't wrong because I found that after the pot of molten steel had dissolved those four, it was cast as building materials and sold to Northern America. What's more, the buyer is a construction company in Los Angeles..."
Hearing this, Chen Chen and Little X understood everything in a flash.
"As I thought."
Chen Chen stared solemnly at the dark night ahead. In the suburbs of Los Angeles, there was an area full of warehouses, none other than the famous Herrank Warehouse District."This batch of building materials was mixed up with the memetic effect. It was transported to Los Angeles along with the rest of the building materials. Then, when the materials were temporarily stacked in the Herrank Warehouse District, it broke out because certain conditions were met..."
"What a tricky meme."
Little X's tone was a bit distressed."I didn't expect that even after the bodies that might be infected with the meme had been destroyed, it can still spread. This memetic effect is too terrifying. In this case, I'm afraid that the Quantum Deity Laboratory is a goner..."
"You mean, in the Quantum Deity Laboratory, this video has been leaked?"
Chen Chen took a deep breath and only felt his scalp turn numb. He could not imagine what would happen if this meme appeared in reality...
"Yes, after all, 'Adam' itself is over there with them. I can't prevent them from getting the answer. At most, I can only choose to encrypt the information, but..."
Little X's voice was a little helpless."Originally, 'Adam' had used encryption when predicting the Herrank Warehouse event. It stands to reason that the Earth Federation cannot get an effective answer. It's a pity that the meme is unreasonable. After the video was generated, not only did I receive this video but the Earth Federation also got a copy. I originally thought that these encryption methods couldn't be cracked by the Earth Federation, but they succeeded in decoding it. All the encryption methods became ineffective measures in the face of this meme!"
"In other words, at this time, everyone in the Quantum Deity Laboratory of the Earth Federation had seen that video?"
Chen Chen's face turned even darker. At this moment, Zhao Shanhe's face flashed in his mind and then Zhao Shanhe's face changed and became the image of Professor Wang Xi. Chen Chen could not help but laugh in anger."Great plan, what a truly great plan..."
"What do you mean..."
Little X sounded astonished.
"All this would be impossible if no one was planning it."
Chen Chen's expression became even colder and harsher."The other party would destroy the entire human civilization indiscriminately to get the USB flash drive or to kill me. Isn't this a great plan? What's more terrifying is that the other party is probably not on Earth or even the same space-time and timeline where I'm in. Rather, they're in another place that I can't reach or discover..."
"Then what shall we do now?"
X could not help asking.
"Call off most of the Black Knights who are chasing Keith."
Chen Chen said without thinking, "With Keith, just let everything happen as it will. These Black Knights are to go to the Herrank area, find out everything that's going on, and see what the h*ll is killing people!"
As he spoke, Chen Chen hesitated a bit and finally said, "By the way, contact the President of Northern America and the Mayor of Los Angeles and ask them to immediately seal off the Herrank area to prevent the spread of the meme!"
"But they won't listen to us..."
Little X hesitated.
"Then tell them what a meme is!"
Chen Chen said coldly, "Although the time isn't quite right, I can no longer care about that. We're just laying our cards on the table. We don't necessarily need to be afraid of Northern America now.
"X, I'm relying on you here. You've never let me down in the past and the present as well. I hope it will be so in the future!"
"Yes!"
Little X immediately perked up when she heard this and her voice was loud and clear."I understand, Sir Godfather, leave it to me!"
"Very good!"
Chen Chen smiled in relief and suddenly turned his head to look north. At this moment, the night breeze suddenly brushed by, causing Chen Chen to slightly narrow his eyes. There seemed to be an undercurrent churning in his gaze."As for the Federation's Quantum Deity Laboratory, I'll take care of it."
With that said, Chen Chen walked straight to the edge of the building but when he reached the edge, he did not stop and walked into thin air. However, the strange thing was that although there was a 100-meter-high void below his feet, he seemed to be walking on solid ground every step of the way!
At the same time, Chen Chen's body was leaning forward slightly and the Field energy in his mind exploded like a spark plug. In the next second, Chen Chen's body suddenly produced an extreme thrust, causing Chen Chen to race forward with unbelievable acceleration!
"Boom!"
A white mist formed behind Chen Chen but at this time, he had already appeared hundreds of meters away. After that, in another blink of an eye, Chen Chen disappeared completely!
After Chen Chen's figure had vanished, the panes of glass in the Osmond building under his feet shattered instantaneously. In a flash, half of the building's glass had exploded and the fragments scattered all over the place!
At this point, Chen Chen had flown away at an acceleration that exceeded human limits. This was no longer just thanks to the Field energy. Even Andrew in Chronicle would not dare to do this.
Andrew might have a stronger Field than Chen Chen's, but his body was still that of an ordinary mortal.
Many people would think that one's body would become stronger after being irradiated by the crystalline. The source of this rumor was a scene in the movie: Andrew had stabbed a fork into his cousin's hand when he was playing tricks on his cousin, but his cousin's hand was fine, yet the fork was bent, so those uninformed would think that their bodies became even tougher after being irradiated by the crystalline.
Nevertheless, this was a misunderstanding because at that point of the story, Andrew was testing out his Field. He later explained that the reason the fork would bend and his cousin's hand remained fine was because he used his Field to shield his cousin's hand. The reason he did this was just to show that one could have a higher degree of control over one's Field and it had nothing to do with physical durability.
Chen Chen was different. At this time, Chen Chen was like a mixture of Alice and Andrew. He had both Alice's physical fitness strengthened by the T-virus and Andrew's Field power, so only he could accelerate to supersonic speed in half a second without worrying about his body being unable to bear the strain.
In the aviation field, there was a technical term called "overload" and the unit was represented by "G".
It could also be called the gravitational acceleration experienced by an object on the surface of the earth, which could be expressed as: when standing on the ground and remaining motionless relative to the ground, the gravitational acceleration experienced by a person was 1G and what one would feel was one's body weight.
However, during flight, the aircraft would often accelerate and the pilot would likewise undergo acceleration at the same time, so an acceleration would be generated. The greater the acceleration, the greater the acceleration overload. For example, if the pilot had attained an overload unit of 2G during flight, this was equivalent to the pilot's weight doubling out of thin air.
Generally speaking, ordinary people could withstand an overload of 2-3G and those fighter pilots who were carefully selected for their physical fitness as well as having undergone professional training, could withstand overloads far beyond ordinary people, even reaching 5-7G. Some of the better ones could even withstand a 9G overload.
As for Chen Chen, accelerating from a standstill to the speed of sound, he had suffered several times the overload of a pilot and more than a hundred times that of an ordinary person. This would be impossible for Andrew in the movie. Even if he tried that, he would die of cerebral hemorrhage a few seconds later.
| ← Ch. 469 | Ch. 471 → |