Chapter 336: White Embers
Chapter 336: White Embers
At the same time that Samuel saw Chen Chen, Chen Chen was reclining lazily in a black seat in the Spire Experimental Base in Africa.
At this time, there was also a silver-white Rubik’s Cube in front of him and the figure displayed by the Rubik’s Cube was Samuel, who was thousands of miles away.
This silver Rubik’s Cube retrieved from the world of Prometheus turned out to be not only a holographic recording device but also a communication tool. As long as the two devices were connected by a communication signal, they could effectively function as a phone call.
At this moment, Chen Chen was holding his chin with one hand and chuckled. “Samuel, you are deteriorating as you live. When your daughter was still in a wheelchair, weren’t you very strong? Why are you now reduced to this mess?”
“Your Excellency Chen Chen, since you already know everything, please help me and rescue my daughter. As long as you rescue my daughter, I’m willing to do anything for you. I can even go to Africa for research!”
Samuel was crying bitterly and vowing loudly, not minding that his embarrassed pathetic side was exposed before Chen Chen.
“We can endure any suffering when we don’t harbor any hopes, but if we’re trapped in love and tenderness, tsk tsk...”
Chen Chen shook his head with an indifferent expression. “Samuel, there’s no shortage of talents in God’s Forbidden Zone now. Using yourself to trade with me? How much exactly do you think you’re worth?”
“I...”
Samuel opened his mouth but he did not say anything. He still remembered that as early as a year ago, he had declined Chen Chen’s invitation and actively chose to stay away from the core of God’s Forbidden Zone, becoming someone at the margins.
At that time, Chen Chen reminded him that if this is the case, Samuel would just enjoy the rest of his life over there.
“It’s not impossible for me to help you.”
After thinking about it, Chen Chen suddenly changed his tone and said temptingly, “I have a new experiment that needs manpower. If you’re willing to participate, as a reward, I can help you save your daughter...”
“I’m willing to participate!”
Without even thinking about it, Samuel agreed at once. “No matter what the experiment is, I’m willing to participate. Please can you...”
“Hold on a moment!”
Before Samuel was finished, Chen Chen interrupted his hasty promise. “I’ll make it clear first. I need a group of professional researchers for this experiment and these researchers will experience great risk during the experiment. In the worst case, you might even die. Are you sure you want to participate?”
Samuel was stunned for a moment. “What kind of experiment is it? Is it to study the Blacklight virus in the most advanced biosafety laboratory?”
“No, compared with this experiment, the danger of the Blacklight virus is only at the level of junior high school students.”
Chen Chen shook his head and said slowly, methodically, “The new experiment is an information hazard experiment. Researchers will be exposed to a kind of information that is extremely lethal to humans. The entire test site will be set up on an isolated island. Any sign of leakage and I’ll directly sink the island and destroy everything on it!”
After hearing this, Samuel was shocked immediately. He knew that although the man in front of him was young, he had never lied. Since Chen Chen had said this, it could only indicate that the experiment was really dangerous to the extreme!
Nonetheless, thinking of his daughter Annie’s sweet smile, Samuel gritted his teeth and said loudly, “Your Excellency Chen Chen, as long as I’m willing to participate in your experiment, will you save my daughter?”
“Of course, not only can I save her, but I can even guarantee that your daughter will be completely unharmed.”
Chen Chen nodded.
“In that case, I promise you!”
At this point, Samuel finally stopped hesitating. He said fiercely, “I’m willing to participate in this experiment. I only ask that you can rescue my daughter from those guys!”
Following that, Samuel explained everything about how they had kidnapped his daughter, then seized him and brought him to the Alps. From what he had said, the other party seemed to be a joint group of several environmental organizations, funded by the consortium behind them, forming as a group of resistance organizations dedicated to rebelling against Chen Chen’s Blacklight Biotechnology.
The name of this organization was White Embers.
“Black light and white embers...”
Chen Chen read it out in Chinese and then smiled. “It’s a very good name. So they kidnapped your daughter. What do they want you to do?”
“They want me to send an invitation letter, inviting you to come to Zurich.”
Samuel said bitterly, “According to them, they have tried to infiltrate your Eco Science City, but they haven’t been able to succeed, so they want you to come to Switzerland.
“After I invite you, they’ll set up an ambush to assassinate you, because this group of people understands that you’re the soul of Blackwatch. If the company loses you, Blackwatch will immediately fall apart, and at the same time, there’ll never be any medicinal products that will transcend eras. This will thus protect the earth and nature...”
Upon hearing this, Chen Chen could only chuckle involuntarily. This sort of dim-witted plan was truly something only an extreme organization of crooked nuts would do.
He still recalled that he once watched a movie called Transcendence. The protagonist in the film was a brilliantly talented scientist who was feared by a group of people because he had developed super artificial intelligence. These people all joined forces and formed an anti-science organization.
This organization took advantage of a speech given by the protagonist to successfully assassinate him, using a bullet smeared with radioactive material to shoot the protagonist.
Although the bullet missed his vital parts, the radioactive material destroyed the protagonist’s body, leaving him with only one month to live.
Before he died, the protagonist’s wife used the immature consciousness upload technology developed by the protagonist to successfully transform the protagonist’s consciousness into a program and transferred it to the computer so that the protagonist became a set of data, an existence between life and death.
Even so, the anti-science organization did not stop there. After learning of all this, it began to hunt down the protagonist and his wife and kidnapped the protagonist’s friends.
Thus, the protagonist took advantage of his talents and advantages to hide in an undeveloped remote area in the west and began to develop himself...
This was not the most outrageous part. The most outrageous thing was that in the end, not only the protagonist’s friends but also the protagonist’s wife were brainwashed by the anti-science organization and they too, went against the protagonist.
Ultimately, the protagonist’s wife and friends united with the anti-science organization and successfully killed the protagonist, destroying and ruining everything the protagonist had developed.
Now, Chen Chen was like the protagonist in the movie and this “White Embers” was the resistance organization in the movie that feared the protagonist’s technology and would destroy the protagonist at all costs.
However, would the fate that befell the protagonist happen to Chen Chen himself as well?
As he thought of this, there was an icy glint in Chen Chen’s eyes.
“Since they’ve asked you to invite me to Switzerland, we might as well do that...”
Chen Chen began to tell Samuel what to do next. After he had given the instructions, Chen Chen ignored the man’s pitiful gaze and ended the communication directly.
“Sir Godfather, in the conversation just now, Samuel didn’t hide anything from you.”
Little X’s voice rang out and she exclaimed, “It seems that this man is still relatively loyal to you. Perhaps he’s grateful to you for your help.”
“Does this count as loyalty?”
Chen Chen could not help but sneered when he heard these words. “It’s a pity he has such a weak brain. The fact that he’s being used by us goes without saying, but he’s also used by his daughter. How pitiful.”
“Perhaps he’s just unhinged by his own concern. He never imagined that the daughter he cared about is one of the masterminds behind this incident.”
Little X sounded a little sorry for him. “Then what do you plan to do with this girl named Annie? After all, you’ve made a promise to Samuel.”
“I only promised to save her, but what will happen after she’s rescued is beyond the scope of the promise.”
Chen Chen said with an aloof expression, “In fact, it depends on Samuel’s luck. If our subsequent experiments are successful, Samuel can become the first batch of core researchers to study memetic effects. Naturally, his daughter’s status would also rise in accordance. Out of goodwill to her father, I can give her an amnestic procedure to erase the memory of her being one of our enemies.”
“But what if these experiments fail?”
Little X asked.
“If it all fails, Samuel, as one of the researchers, will naturally not be able to survive, so there would be no need for us to keep his daughter around. Let’s deal with it as how it should be then.”
As he spoke, Chen Chen asked again, “By the way, what’s the situation with Wynn?”
“Based on the monitoring of the Black Knights, Mr. Wynn is still hesitating. He’s debating whether he should tell you all this.”
Little X said, “As for his son, I’ve searched through the Internet and couldn’t find him. It seems that he was kidnapped by the White Embers.”
“Then we’ll leave him alone for now, and let him choose.”
Chen Chen could not be bothered with all this and only said, “If he chooses to betray us, you know what to do.”
“I know.”
Little X replied and then reminded Chen Chen again, “By the way, just this morning, the first batch of metal germanium I bought has arrived. It’s now in the casting stage and the manufacturing of the Gantz server will probably be completed tonight.”
“So fast?”
Chen Chen was taken aback when he heard this. “Is the Gantz server so easy to make?”
“After all, it’s just making a mini Gantz server. Its mass is only one percent of its former size. The signal from this server can only cover the area of Switzerland.”
Little X explained, “As for the patterns upon its surface, as long as we have high-precision machines, they can be easily carved out. Coupled with the efficiency of my side, it’s not that absurd to build a Gantz server overnight.”
“Sure enough, I’ve always felt that this kind of thing is deliberately designed in a form that can be easily replicated by humans...”
Chen Chen frowned. “What about the E language? If you don’t control the E language, you can’t control the Gantz server.”
“I’ve already tried to convert the source code of my clone X-112 into E language. When the Gantz server is finished being set up, I can also complete that at the same time.”
Little X explained.
“Very good.”
Chen Chen breathed out after hearing this. “Then bring me for a look.”
With that said, he walked out of the room directly and walked in the direction of the elevator.
Ten minutes later, Chen Chen successfully returned to the surface and Cheng Cao had also been waiting in the vehicle for a long time.
At this time, Chen Chen’s vehicle was no longer the Wrangler — it had been replaced by an undistinguished Passat and it was still a bulletproof version. This would evade the detection of many professional spies in the Eco Science City. It could also ensure Chen Chen’s safety during this particular period.
After half an hour, Chen Chen came to the industrial park.
The industrial park at this time was even larger than it was a few months ago. More than a hundred large and small factories stood here and countless cooling towers stood against the horizon like pillars of the sky. At the same time, the billowing white fog was spouted right above them, directly causing the sky to become cloudy all year round.
At this time, in the depths of this industrial park, in one of the carving factories, several advanced carving equipment were modifying and operating upon a huge metal cylinder ten meters high and two meters wide.
By the side were hundreds of Black Knights controlling the operation of the machinery. Standing below this huge metal column, the entire group was like a bunch of mice, appearing to be tiny and insignificant.
With the continuous cutting and engraving of the machine tool, the metal cylinder soon revealed its overall outline. It was a spiral spire constructed out of two intertwining helixes, like the shape of a DNA nucleic acid strand.
When Chen Chen walked into the processing plant, this was what he saw.
This spire-shaped metal cylinder weighed at least ten tons. Its style was very peculiar. It looked as if it was divided into separate sections. When the carving of the shape was finished, there would be many small engraving machines making various patterns on its surface.
Even just a glance at these patterns gave Chen Chen an ominous feeling.
In Chen Chen’s view, these patterns were full of evil.
“This is the Gantz server we built with the first batch of germanium metal.”
Little X explained, “According to the structure diagram we got from the Dimension of Gantz, it’s made of thousands of germanium metal blocks. These metal blocks can be accumulated like building blocks, but because there was a discrepancy after they were put together, it needs to be polished now.”
“But if the Gantz server is made up of small pieces of metal, how can the blocks be put together as one?”
Chen Chen frowned. “I remember that the Gantz server I destroyed back then was not made up of individual blocks.”
“I don’t know about all that anymore.”
Little X shook her head. “Perhaps there are some secrets hidden in it that we don’t know or it’s a result of all these patterns. After all, this is a brand-new scientific system. We’re at a complete blank with these technologies. I can only make it according to the information given.”
Chen Chen nodded after hearing this.
Indeed, Little X was right. The technology of the Gantz series was beyond the imagination of human beings. Humans could only imitate blindly when it came to manufacturing these technologies, but they could not separate and research the technology within it, let alone apply it in other areas.