Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
On the evening of 30 May, in a small biological laboratory on the outskirts of Kansas City, forgotten by the world, four experimenters were immersed in their data.
These four were an old man, a blonde beauty, a young black man, and a handsome young white man. The old man was a professor and the other three were his subordinates. Still, although the atmosphere in the laboratory was tense, there was none of the hostility found in other laboratories.
Not only that but from the excited expressions of the four people, it could be seen that the experiment had been fruitful and it had come to an end.
At this moment, the blonde beauty suddenly took out a blue fluorescent test tube from the incubator in front of her. She picked it up with a test tube clamp and placed it in front of the old man with excitement. At the same time, she said, “Professor Irwin, the sample compound has been separated…”
“Very good, prepare to drip it into the experimental model.”
The old man called Professor Irwin hurriedly spoke and then he called out to the other busy team members, “Keith, Kefir, come and see, Jennifer has separated the compound!”
The handsome young man and the black youth quickly huddled around. The four gathered in front of a petri dish and then watched the blonde beauty drip a drop of reagent into the petri dish…
“Let me!”
The handsome young man dutifully picked up the petri dish and placed it under the electron microscope to observe and then shouted, “Look, after dripping in the compound, the IL-1β in the petri dish is inhibited!”
Everyone looked at the screen next to them and as expected, the particles in the petri dish were being continuously dissolved by the drop of the compound, just like washing powder dissolving stains, at a swift rate…
“Not only that but the Aβ deposits are also continuously dissolving!”
The old professor on the side exclaimed, “Keith, we may have made a big discovery…”
Keith nodded and a glimmer of excitement appeared in his eyes. “Obviously, this is what you have been searching for, Professor Irwin… I never thought that a drug that hasn’t been developed by any pharmaceutical company in the world has been produced in our small workshop here…”
“This honor belongs to you, Professor Irwin…”
Seeing this scene, the blonde beauty burst into tears of joy. She stepped forward and hugged the old man and then said, “Even we’ll share in some of the glory because of you!”
The four of them wore expressions of excitement and deep emotion. Although they had already been mentally prepared for the success of the drug, when it came, everyone felt somewhat dazzled as it was almost surreal.
“This is not my accomplishment alone.”
The old man patted the three of them on the head and said with satisfaction, “Besides me, whether it is you, Keith or Kefir, you have all also made a great contribution to the production of this drug!”
“Professor Irwin, the most important thing now is to think of a name for this new drug.”
At this moment, the black youth suddenly said, “You’re the creator of the drug. You should name it!”
“That’s right!”
Everyone nodded as if this was by rights.
“This drug is likely to be the first drug in human history that can perfectly cure Alzheimer’s disease. In this case, I might as well call it…”
The old man thought for a while, then said, “It shall be called AD-001!”
“Yay!”
The three young people all cheered.
“Hold on!
Still, at this moment, the old man seemed to have thought of something. His face tightened and he quickly stopped everyone. “You three, this isn’t the time to celebrate. Now I need someone to help me with a task!”
“A task?”
The three of them all looked puzzled, wondering why Professor Irwin, who should have been celebrating, was so serious.
“I hope someone will make the trip instead of me, to send this vial of drug and its information to Los Angeles. Send it to a person named Parker on the company’s board of directors…”
The old man looked serious and he turned his head to look at Keith. “Keith, can you complete this task?”
“Wait, if it’s the board of directors, wouldn’t it be fine for you to send it in person? It’s even easier with the information. We can just send it over online directly.”
Keith was a little puzzled as he spread his hands. “Why send it in person?”
“Uh…”
Upon hearing this, Professor Irwin could not help sighing. “You and Jennifer are both transferred from other companies. It may not be clear that part of our company’s equity shares has been maliciously acquired by another company. Even the board of directors has been infiltrated… And that company is far stronger than us. Once data is transmitted over the network, it’s likely to be intercepted by the other party!”
“I know, could it be that famous…”
As soon as the black youth on the side was about to speak, Professor Irwin covered his mouth.
Seeing this scene, Keith and the blonde beauty looked at each other with a grave gleam in their eyes.
Professor Irwin continued to say, “The most important thing is that the other party has a similar Alzheimer’s disease response policy. We must not let this developed drug fall into their hands, understand?”
“Understood!”
Keith nodded when he heard these words. “If this is the case, then I’ll deliver it and for insurance, I’ll go to Los Angeles by car, so that even if they know about it, I won’t be caught at the airport.”
“Very good…”
Professor Irwin nodded, feeling gratified. After that, he took out a USB flash drive, put all the information on the drug in it, and then pressed the button in the laboratory to clear all information, fully deleting all the information on AD-001 from the laboratory.
Then, he poured all the liquid in the test tube into a finger-sized airtight bottle. At once, a glass bottle glowing with blue fluorescent light appeared in front of Professor Irwin and he solemnly handed the airtight bottle to Keith. With a warm kind smile, he said, “Go, boy! The sooner you leave, the better!”
Keith nodded somberly, then he put away the sealed bottle, bade everyone farewell, and quickly left the laboratory.
However, what everyone did not know was that the moment they produced AD-001, everything about this drug had been intercepted by a secret existence on the Internet.
Not only that but in a building far away in the suburbs of Los Angeles, there was also a room without any doors or windows. This room was located in the middle of the building, right in a crevice. Through the fallible eyesight of human beings, this room was thus carved out of this building.
The walls and floor of this room were all pure white. There was only one piece of furniture in the entire room, which was a black ball.
At this moment, in the silent and pure white room, the black ball in the center suddenly made a low humming noise. It seemed that some machinery inside had started to operate. In the next second, the black ball erupted with a beam of bluish light that spread in all directions!
“Whirr whirr whirr…”
As the black ball operated, the light scattered by the black ball seemed to function as a 3D printer. Nine figures emerged smoothly in the blue light. When the blue light had dissipated, there were nine additional people in the room.
Among the nine people, they were wearing all kinds of clothes and they did not look special. Nonetheless, if one looked closely, one would find that these people were all wearing uniform black gloves and a pair of black leather boots.
Moreover, the same black neckline could be seen near their collars. Under the outer clothes of this group of people, there was a uniform black costume.
Among the nine people, at their head was a young man with a grim expression who had a head of short black hair.
At this time, the young man stepped forward and he went straight to the wall in front of him. However, something even more peculiar happened. As the young man stepped forward, the wall in front of him opened in response, revealing an empty room behind the wall.
A floor-to-ceiling window was installed on the outside of the room. When one looked out from the window, one could even see the neon lights as bright as stars in the distance.
The time zone was different from Namibia. Namibia was located in the first zone in the east and Los Angeles was located in the eighth zone in the west. There was a ten-hour time difference between the two.
At this time, Namibia was still in the early morning and Los Angeles had entered nighttime.
As he led the other eight people behind him out of the secret room, the young man could not help looking around, his eyes faintly flickering. “Yes, this is Los Angeles. X, how is the situation in Kansas City?”
“In the Kansas City laboratory of Osmond Biotech, Professor Irwin has successfully developed AD-001, and everything is the same as in the movie. Professor Irwin has deleted all the original materials because he was concerned about us. Only one backup was kept and it was prepared to be sent to the company’s board of directors along with the AD-001.”
In the earphones, Little X’s birdlike voice rang out. As time went on, Little X no longer had that childlike voice that used to be cute but had acquired a girl’s sweet tinkling voice, which sounded very pleasing.
“Sure enough, the plot in the movie really happened.”
Chen Chen walked to the floor-to-ceiling window with no sadness or joy. “In this case, let’s not diverge from the plot for the time being. Just let the plot maintain its original trajectory.”
“Understood, the first group of Black Knights had gone to Kansas City yesterday. They have now arrived and captured Professor Irwin and his assistant, Kefir.”
Little X replied.
“Irwin is an elite in the field of biology, remember to bring him back to us.”
Chen Chen nodded but then changed his tone and said in a deep voice, “But you have to remember that you don’t have to hold back when you let the Black Knights chase down Keith. You must do your best to kill him. I want to see if I can kill the protagonist of the movie without violating the flow of the plot!”
“Got it!”
Little X agreed. “Then what about you now?”
“I’m going to the headquarters of Osmond Biotech and meet the man named Parker.”
Chen Chen casually said, “I’ll just wait there and let things play out.”
With that, he opened the window in front of him and suddenly, a gust of wind came in.
“Wait, Sir Godfather…”
Just when Chen Chen was about to fly out directly, Little X suddenly said haltingly.
Hearing Little X’s voice, Chen Chen immediately stopped. “What’s the matter?”
“I found out from the police network that a very strange serial homicide case has occurred in Los Angeles. The location was in the Herrank Warehouse District, which is only a few kilometers away…”
Little X said, “There’s something fishy about this.”
“In what way?”
Chen Chen’s expression sharpened. Little X was the fastest supercomputer in the world. If something made her suspicious, then there was a real problem.
“The location of the incident was the Herrank Warehouse District. There are countless items stored there from all over the world, both in the district and outside the district. Even the industrial park of our Eco Science City has a certain level of international trade contact with this place.”
Little X said softly, “But just yesterday night and the night before that, two murders suddenly occurred. The first was the night before yesterday when a worker in the warehouse area was killed by having his neck twisted by an unknown method.
“Initially it seemed that it was just a chance incident. The Los Angeles police withdrew after investigating and collecting evidence. However, just last night, the case suddenly escalated. Eight people were killed again in the same night and all eight people died in the same way. All their necks were twisted until they died and some of the deceased even had their spine pulled out.”
Hearing this, Chen Chen could not help looking solemn. “Their necks were twisted? X, do you suspect this is an abnormal murder case?”
“I’m not sure. I only feel that Los Angeles has usually been safe, but just as we arrived, this kind of thing happened suddenly.”
Little X explained, “So, I wonder if these changes are related to our present actions?”
“Maybe.”
Chen Chen did not deny that directly. He raised his head and felt the strong constant wind against his face. “Maybe this is just a coincidence or maybe all of this is related to the movie plot, but we can’t stop the plan because of this abnormality, otherwise, we’ll easily disrupt the plot.
“I’m not sure what will happen if we do so. Maybe nothing will happen or it might cause an even worse chain reaction, even resulting in a rejection by the laws of the world. Just like in Final Destination, we might be directly killed by some universal law. But this still requires a little bit of trial and error.”
As he spoke, Chen Chen sighed suddenly, then the corners of his mouth turned up slightly. “X, haven’t you noticed? Are we now the same as before, groping for the rules of the USB drive bit by bit?”
“Yes…”
Little X nodded nervously.
“With that magical USB flash drive, just when we think we’ve understood it sufficiently, it will always display more changes. Just like an iceberg floating on the surface of the sea — you’ll never know how much of this iceberg is hidden below sea level…”
Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and said quietly, “It’s the same thing now. If I want to control the USB flash drive, I must constantly test out more of its rules. Unless I’d rather stop without progressing, this is a path that we cannot avoid.”
“I understand, we will not run from all this.”
In the headset, Little X’s voice became solemn.
“Very good.”
Chen Chen smiled and said, “Contact the computer ‘Adam’ of the Earth Federation headquarters and ask him to make a prediction to see who the murderer is behind this case. This is what we can do now and everything else will proceed as usual.”
“Got it!”
After Little X’s promise, Chen Chen kicked off with one foot and completely stepped out of the building. As he stood amid the strong gale, his clothes fluttered furiously. After that, he fixed upon a direction, abruptly leaned his body forward, and then there was a loud “bang”!
Up ahead, there was only a trail of scattered mist but Chen Chen’s figure had vanished without a trace!