Little X was unable to access the machine’s system. It was not because the machine had certain security layers but that the wireless Internet protocol was simply incompatible.
It was similar to how a laptop was unable to connect to WIFI if its wireless network interface controller was damaged.
The fully automated medical platform was a terminal wireless Internet machine. Its protocol technology was not compatible with the IEEE 802.11 that existed in the real world. As a result, Little X was unable to gain access to its system.
“Upon verifying that there were no other connective ports, it’s deduced that the setting receives its input via wireless Internet signals.”
Little X analyzed and said, “However, since we still needed the machine to receive Internet signals, it must be compatible to receive signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. To solve this disconnection issue, there are probably two ways around –
“The first is to create a converter that’s capable of converting the IEEE 802.11 protocol that we have into an electromagnetic signal that’s compatible with the fully automated medical platform. By then, I’ll be able to access its system.
“The second is to physically replace the fully automated medical platform’s hardware into one that can connect to our wireless Internet signal.”
Chen Chen raised his eyebrows and said, “We can give it a try, but I doubt we’re able to open up this machine.”
He turned toward the Medpod 3000 and observed that the machine was seamless and fully integrated. It was difficult to spot any signs of manual assembly. It was evident that the craftsmanship of the dimension was remarkable.
“Besides, even if we were to forcefully pry the machine open, the complexity of its hardware is probably something that no modern technology can handle.”
It was not that Chen Chen was lacking confidence, but that the equipment was one that surpassed all modern scientific theories and understandings. After all, it was a machine with the precisive ability to manipulate the human body on a cellular level.
The machine’s abilities to prolong a human’s lifespan and restore bodily damage within a few seconds were indicative enough of its complexities.
This involved black technologies that could rival the existence of PK armor.
“We could shine an X-ray onto it and observe what the internal structures are made of.”
Chen Chen said, “Do you still remember that there was a scene in the movie – when the stowaway ship secretly landed on the Elysium, a woman and her daughter broke into one of the rich resident’s rooms. As she placed her heavily injured daughter onto the Medpod 3000, the Medpod 3000’s first course of action was not to attend to her injuries, but to scan the citizen mark on her wrist.”
Chen Chen raised his wrist and continued. “That’s to say that when the Medpod 3000 is treating a person, not only must it access their personal medical files, it also needs to access a central medical database and to rely on the support of a cloud server’s computational abilities.”
Chen Chen realized that this was trickier than he thought. He said, “If there are no other ways, I guess I’ll have to personally make a trip.”
“But it’s a dangerous move.”
Little X hastily tried to dissuade Chen Chen. “What’s wrong with sending the Black Knights over?”
“The Black Knights only possess simple intelligence. Perhaps it can surpass the average person when it comes to logical thinking and computational functions, but we’ve yet to test its ability to handle complex situations thoroughly.”
Chen Chen said, “And that’s only one of the reasons. If I enter the portal and encounter any danger, I could still return immediately and the risk would be manageable. The biggest risk is that the other party across the dimension would gain control over our portal, which is why I need to station guards and try to connect the portal to somewhere secluded on the other side.”
Then, Chen Chen gave it some deeper thought and said, “Hence, the best method is to first send two Black Knights over to test the water. If there’s danger, then they shall immediately return to safety. If not, they can throw an item over here.”
“Does that mean if there’s no item nor Black Knight coming from the other side, then it’ll imply that the Black Knights are in danger?”
Little X asked.
“That’s right.”
Chen Chen nodded and said, “If that’s the case, we’ll shut the tunnel down immediately. Otherwise, when we’re confident that the coast is clear, I’ll personally enter the portal and think of ways to solve the fully automated medical platform’s connectivity issues.”
“Are two Black Knights enough to keep you safe?”
Little X was still concerned. “Besides, one of them has to guard the portal, which means there’ll be lesser people to cover for you.”
“I’ll put on the PK armor this time.”
Chen Chen waved it off and said, “This equipment had been collecting dust ever since I acquired it. It’s time to put it into action. Judging from their combat abilities in the movies, this armor is enough to give me ample protections.”
“Understood.”
Little X said helplessly, “I’ve estimated the weight of Medpod 3000 to be approximately 1.5 tonnes, which means that you still have another 1.5 tonnes capacity left to travel through the portal. The combined weights of you and two Black Knights would only exhaust around 500 kilograms capacity. I’d still suggest bringing more manpower with you.”
Chen Chen nodded and said, “You’re right, now isn’t the time to conserve energy. Let’s do this instead – station five more fully equipped Black Knights to guard on this side of the portal. If reinforcement is needed, we’ll toss an item back as a signal.”
Chen Chen then looked around and proceeded to retrieve a couple of weights. “Let’s use these weights as our signals. A 50-gram weight would indicate that things are normal on the other side, a 100-gram weight means that we need reinforcement whereas a 200-gram weight means that you need to immediately seal the portal. How’s that?”
“But if we seal the portal…”
Little X’s tone was shaky. “After all, according to your hypothesis, the USB drive operates on principles that are based on the concept of parallel universes. If we seal and reopen the portal, will it still be the same portal? Will its position change to a different dimension?”
Chen Chen froze as what Little X said made sense. He had made multiple rounds of retrieving the NZT-48 drug from Limitless and STEM chips from Upgrade, and Chen Chen had acquired more than a hundred STEM chips. If each movie only corresponded to one parallel universe, where did all these STEM chips come from?
As quantum mechanics would dictate, there existed an infinite amount of parallel universes in this world.
If that was true, would that imply that the parallel universe the USB drive connected to was different each time?
If Chen Chen had crossed to the other side, it meant that once the portal was sealed, Chen Chen would be left stranded on another world, never to return…
“You’re right. We absolutely cannot shut the portal down.”
Chen Chen finally nodded and said, “If that’s the case, let’s just use the 50-gram and 100-gram weights. If there’s other information to be communicated, I’ll send a Black Knight over even if it means consuming more energies.”
After a prolonged discussion between a human and an AI, a consensus was finally reached. One of the Black Knights then returned to the Spire Experimental Base to retrieve Chen Chen’s PK armor while Chen Chen proceeded to download The Predator (2018) as he prepared to equip the other two Black Knights with PK armors too.
After all, it would be unwise for Chen Chen to neglect his safety just to conserve a little bit more energy. What more, one could never have enough of these tactical armors. It was a matter of time that they would come in handy.
An hour later, the Black Knight returned with his PK armor whereas Chen Chen had also acquired two sets of PK armors after downloading the movie.
As Chen Chen strapped one of the armor gear onto his arms, the sound of the gear interlocking was heard as the armguard shrunk to fit his arms nicely.
“Voom!”
An increasingly intense buzzing sound was heard as blue light flashed across the armor, spreading upward toward Chen Chen’s shoulders.
At the same time, Chen Chen frowned as he felt a burning pain radiating on his skin. Fortunately, the pain was still tolerable.
As the blue light gradually grew upward, the black armor soon covered Chen Chen’s body with the last being his face.
Then, as the armor was deployed over his face, Chen Chen’s vision first became pitch black before it was replaced by an infrared vision that was identical to what the Predators were seeing.
The other two Black Knights that were assigned to the mission had also put on their PK armors, bearing the same mecha resemblance as Chen Chen.
“Even if this armor is constructed by nanostructures, there’s probably an option to remove the helmet.”
The moment Chen Chen had that thought, the armor that was previously covering his head began splitting and revealing Chen Chen’s face.
“It’s true indeed.”
Now that his vision had resumed to normal, Chen Chen walked to his computer and played the Elysium movie.
However, he did not immediately jump into a portal. Instead, Chen Chen dragged the movie’s progress bar forward.
To land in a safe spot, Chen Chen had to station the portal in the Elysium instead of on Earth.
Whereas according to the USB drive’s characteristic, Chen Chen had to pause the movie exactly at a scene where the Elysium was featured to access the location.
It was similar to how Chen Chen must pause the frame where a piece of movie equipment was featured if he wished to acquire them.
When Chen Chen previously entered Resident Evil’s dimension, he immediately opened up the portal without pausing anywhere. Due to a lack of choice, the portal seemed to pick a random location to spawn at and it ended up in the train station.
After giving it some thought, Chen Chen then paused the movie three minutes and forty seconds in. The scene was filmed in a luxurious mansion where a blonde dressed in a red bikini was shown.
“Ok.”
Chen Chen flashed an OK gesture toward his back and clicked on the screen!
Then, Chen Chen saw a wave of darkness extended outward as it took after the shape of a dark whirlpool that was rotating in a clockwise direction.
A black tunnel had appeared.
Looking at the black hole, a realization hit Chen Chen. The tunnel was still a pitch-black in his vision.
It implied that despite his chromatography vision, the tunnel was still the same color.
While Chen Chen was immersed in his own thoughts, the two Black Knights armed in PK armors had vanished into the tunnel without any hesitation.
This time, Chen Chen needed to only wait for a minute.
After a minute had passed, a metal object suddenly emerged from the other side, creating a clunking sound as it landed on the floor.
It was the 50-gram weight that the Black Knights had brought with them.
Chen Chen then activated his face shield while three pairs of laser sights protruded from his back, putting him in an offensive preparation before leaping into the other side.
Chen Chen immediately felt his entire vision blanked out as he lost his sense of gravity. It felt like he was falling into an endless abyss.
However, just like his previous trip into Resident Evil’s dimension, the sensation was brief. Before Chen Chen could fully react, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
He landed in a dusty room that had French windows built all around its perimeter.
Meanwhile, two Black Knights were committed to guarding the entrance of the portal.
Chen Chen took a glance across his surroundings and observed that the room took after a minimalist design, which matched the interiors of the Elysium residence in the movie. Outside the room’s window, Chen Chen saw a hill that was a few hundred meters tall and had several mansions built on its valley.
In his room was also a Medpod 3000 platform that was covered in dust.
There could be no doubt. This was definitely the Elysium’s universe.
Chen Chen compared whatever he had seen to the movie’s imageries and concluded that they were almost identical, be it the scenery outside the window or the interior of the room. The USB drive had successfully transported him to the Elysium’s dimension and had even placed him at the exact location Chen Chen paused the movie in.
However, the timeline seemed to not be in sync with the movie…
Chen Chen kneeled and gently touched the floor’s surface.
The floor was covered and coated in dust that was half an inch thick. It indicated that no one had been here for at least a few years now.
Em…
Chen Chen paused for a moment before he attempted to switch on the Medpod 3000.
Unfortunately, no matter which button Chen Chen had pressed, the Medpod 3000 did not respond in any way.
Had the power supply been cut off?
Chen Chen pondered silently as he walked out of the room. He was greeted by an enormous and luxurious living room. Although the living room’s interiors were simple, it was evident that the design came from a highly technological society.
Chen Chen was standing in a bungalow mansion.
The only element that ruined the beauty was the thick layer of dust that had been coating every object of the mansion. It seemed like the mansion was abandoned a long time ago.
“It’s impossible that anyone would abandon their houses in the Elysium, unless this isn’t the right location…”
Chen Chen murmured. He walked carefully to the front door and gently opened the door.
Chen Chen now had a clear sight of the outside world.
The sun was still emitting its warm sunlight as usual. Far away, Chen Chen could see structures of gigantic pillars were erected as it extended all the way into the sky. Unlike Earth, the horizon was not the flat line that one typically observed on Earth. Instead, it extended upward.
That was to say that Chen Chen was now in an enormous ring structure.
Other than that, Chen Chen could also observe a blue planet suspended in the sky. It was none other than planet Earth itself.
All these observations could only point toward the fact that Chen Chen was indeed on the Elysium.
However, unlike the movie, the Elysium that Chen Chen was in looked dilapidated. Tall weeds grew everywhere while many mansions seemed to have fallen apart, leaving a wasteland in its place.
Could that mean that the Elysium had been abandoned?
Chen Chen activated his armor and began searching for any signs of lifeforms.
However, no matter where Chen Chen looked, the armor’s interface merely had “No Lifeforms Detected” written across its screen.
Suddenly, Chen Chen was struck by a horrifying thought. If what he thought was true…
Could it be a coincidence? Or was it fated?
Chen Chen took a deep breath and ordered the Black Knights to stay hidden and guard the portal entrance. He then turned to walk toward an enormous tower building.
That building was the Armadyne’s headquarter, which was also the central governance center of the Elysium.