Chapter 615: Ominous Signs
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Wah... Wah...”
The sharp cry of a newborn pierced through Chen Chen’s ears. He stood at the entrance of the hospital and gazed at the hospital building. Moments later, the paint of the building began peeling off to reveal the dirty concrete underneath. The entire building began corroding.
In the blink of an eye, the hospital turned into a decrepit state that seemed like it had been abandoned for centuries.
In the midst of this transformation, the sky took on a pale yellow texture. An ominously dark shadow stirred over the hospital. A subtle breeze scratched Chen Chen’s face. It was uncomfortably hot and carried a sharp stench that reminded him of blood and fire.
Chen Chen immediately felt the razor-sharp sting of a thousand pairs of eyes fixed onto him.
An inexplicable feeling was roused from the deepest pit of his heart!
Riled by this uncomfortable feeling of someone spying on him, Chen Chen continued listening to the cries of the baby. He took a deep breath, then took slow, steady steps into the hospital, and at the same time, tapped a button on his wristband. He only managed several steps before he came to a startled stop.
The hospital reverted to its normal state. The sky was the same dark blue as it had always been. It would seem that what he saw was a mere illusion. There was never any dark shadow nor a breeze that carried the stink of blood. The suffocating feeling departed without a trace as well.
Chen Chen looked around himself in disbelief. The people nearby were minding their usual business. None of them seemed to be fazed by the stark transformation the hospital took earlier. Everything he saw just now was merely a figment of his imagination...
“Sir Commander?”
Nancy’s voice sounded through the earpiece. Earlier, Chen Chen triggered the distress signal on his wristband. Nancy was the clone of Little X that was charged with overseeing all of the ongoings in this district on Mars.
Chen Chen did not answer. He looked at the newborn again with his Field. It seemed like an ordinary newborn that was still loudly crying the way newborns usually do. The ominous feeling had left him as if it had never even been there in the first place.
“Delivery room 301...”
Chen Chen took a look at the sign outside the delivery room. He remained rooted to his spot by the entrance of the hospital.
“What’s this about 301?”
Nancy asked curiously.
“Tell me about delivery room 301.”
Chen Chen commanded, “Immediately.”
“Understood.”
Nancy replied dutifully.
Nancy did wonder what would prompt Chen Chen to request such an odd detail but she still did as she was told without asking unnecessary questions. She went over the enormous database on Mars and found what she needed immediately. “Delivery room 301 belongs to the obstetrics and gynecology wing of Ares Science City Central Hospital. It’s primarily used to accommodate patients in labor. The lady giving birth today is called Heather Shirley. She’s a spiritual psionicist and her husband is Wallace Ashburn, who is also a spiritual psionicist.
“The doctors and nurses in charge are...”
Nancy provided the information of the mentioned delivery room 301 and the members inside it. After that, Chen Chen seemed to be pondering these details.
It would appear that it stemmed from the newborn baby.
Logically speaking, it would trace further to the baby’s parents. Coincidentally, both of his parents were psionicists.
With this in mind, Chen Chen took a look at the newborn and immediately sensed a faint psionic presence. The newborn inherited his parent’s psionic qualities!
Chen Chen was astounded by this discovery.
Psionicists had been thriving in human society for more than a decade by now and the total population of psionicists had reached up to five hundred thousand. Although it was not a staggering amount when put in comparison to the scale of the total human population, it was still a significant size.
In the past decade, there had been several instances of pairs of psionicists copulating and birthing children. However, in all of these instances, the children were born as ordinary humans without psionic abilities. This was more so the case with relationships where only one of the parents was a psionicist.
In other words, for the last decade, psionicists were only produced artificially via L compound injection. Never had there been any natural-born psionicists.
This was something Chen Chen had been perplexed about for some time. He had already figured out the L compound achieved its effects by altering the human DNA and that these traits had a chance of passing to the next generation organically. However, up till this point, all of the children of psionicist parents were born as ordinary humans.
Either it was sheer bad luck or that the L compound was flawed.
Just as Chen Chen was about to lose hope, a psionicist was suddenly born in this hospital on Mars!
What was even more unexpected was that the newborn baby seemed to conjure an illusion in Chen Chen’s mind just as he passed by the hospital.
Not, it was something more than a mere illusion...
Chen Chen further dissected the matter. He was well aware of his mental psyche. If even the subspace was unable to impose its effects on him, how was it possible for a newborn to strike him with such a powerful illusion?
If it was not a mere illusion, then what did it imply?
“All of the existing psionicists so far have had their psionic abilities artificially injected, so this makes this child the first, and also the only psionicist with natural psionic abilities.”
Chen Chen muttered to himself. Was this the explanation for why he saw what he saw earlier?
Again, he recalled the images that he saw earlier, of the ancient hospital and the looming shadow. The entire imagery suddenly reminded him of something vaguely familiar.
He had an inkling suspicion that the presence he felt earlier was something he had experienced before. It was almost a decade ago but the sheer remembrance of it sent shivers down his spine.
There was no bout about it, what he sensed just now was the presence of the subspace.
“Why would I feel the subspace’s presence when the world’s first natural psionicist was born?”
Chen Chen could tell that he was very close to grasping the truth. Though he was still several pieces away from solving this puzzle, one thing that he could declare with complete confidence was that this was a bad omen of things to come.
“Sir Commander.”
While these puzzling thoughts were still swirling in Chen Chen’s mind, Nancy suddenly reported to him, “I just received news that just half an hour ago, the Blacklight had broken through the Mandeville Point and entered the subspace.”
Chen Chen’s furrowed brow took on an even more pronounced shape upon hearing of this news. If not for what he had just experienced, he would have regarded this piece of news with mild interest. However, the uncanny timing of the two events suggested it was more than a coincidence.
Could it be that the Blacklight entering the subspace had something to do with the birth of this child?
It proved difficult to grasp the connection between these two events. It would appear that apart from the uncanny timing, nothing else noticeable connected the two.
Eventually, he decided to take a harsh approach. “Nancy, send the Black Knights and take away the baby. I know there’s something major we can discover from the baby. I can’t let this opportunity pass.”
“Understood.”
Nancy answered dutifully. It was cruel to take a child away from a mother, but this was not the time to question the ethics behind it. The existence of this child could potentially be a gigantic threat. Chen Chen had to address it as soon as possible. If he allowed himself a moment of weakness because of concern for the mother, he might come to regret it later on.
Chen Chen had lost interest in touring the Ares Science City from thereon and headed back to the Spire 2 base. Within half an hour, a Black Knight came to him and presented a barely an hour old newborn baby to him.
Chen Chen slowly took the baby from the Black Knight with a grave look in his eyes. He saw that the baby boy’s body was flushed with red and wrinkled. He looked like a tiny old man.
This was nothing out of the ordinary. Newborns usually looked like this and in several days, the boy would look like a healthy little toddler.
Chen Chen took another look at the baby in his arms and proceeded to use Field to inspect the baby, but managed to find nothing worth noting. Then, he used his psionic energy instead to perform a similar inspection and this time, he sensed faint traces of psionic energy inside the baby.
It would appear that the baby’s psionic class was spiritual as well, which was not surprising since it was inherited to him from his parents. The psionic energy in the infantile body was extremely weak, even weaker than the initial psionic concentration of the individuals who received the L compound injection. However, there was also a vibrant liveliness brewing underneath...
A natural psionicist.
Chen Chen took a deep breath and had the Black Knight take the newborn baby from him. The constant movement seemed to have spooked the baby and he started crying again.
“Let’s not shelter this boy in the base. Take him somewhere safe in the Ares Science City.”
Chen Chen darted one final glance at the baby before noting, “Make sure he receives proper nutrition and create a convincing family background for him. The Black Knights can pose as his parents. I want to know every single thing there’s to know about him as he grows up such as his mental state, physical growth, everything.”
“Got it.”
Nancy answered, but seemed puzzled by Chen Chen’s motivations. “But why are you doing this...”
“All I can tell you is that this has something to do with the subspace.”
Chen Chen answered without providing much detail, then left promptly.
Everything that occurred today raised an alarm in Chen Chen.
Although delving into the subspace was highly beneficial for the progress of mankind’s galaxy colonization, it was not without its drastic drawbacks as well.
What happened today was the first of many dangers to come. The birth of this child seemed closely related to the existence of the subspace.
There was no telling what the consequences of this would be and even now, Chen Chen was only acting based on his instincts. What he knew as a certainty was that something was lurking inside the subspace that could wipe out mankind in a split second and he could sense something similarly ominous in the baby,
If his gut did not deceive him, this was something almost apocalyptic.
Chen Chen thought about this for some time and relayed his thoughts to Little X upon returning to Earth.
Although Little X was mature enough now to make a vast majority of decisions independently, it was still a long shot to expect her to understand something so profound and without established rules such as this. After all, she was a programmed AI, not a carbon life-form like humans.
“One way or another, we’ll have to approach this with extreme caution.”
Chen Chen added. “I also need you to keep your eyes peeled on other married psionicists couples out there. There’s a likelihood that their children will be natural-born psionicists as well. There’s no guarantee about this. Perhaps I’ll feel a similar suffocating aura if they give birth to more natural psionicists?”
The days went by in the blink of an eye. Shaw had spent more than half a year in the subspace by this point.
Shaw’s days filled with nerves and agitation slowly transitioned to unwavering confidence on the job. Unfortunately, this also meant that his initial fixed concentration was muddled with mild moments of complacency. Now that he was accustomed to his job, he would navigate the spaceship while making small talk with his assistants.
“Captain, there’s a bright ocean three hundred thousand kilometers ahead of us.”
Marcy’s voice sounded like fresh dew in the middle of a desert. She gazed at the distant glittering spots a great distance ahead of them. These strange white spots glittered constantly and rolled around the subspace like tiny little fireflies.
“We can pass straight through them, they can’t hurt us.”
Shaw gave the order. The spaceship cut straight through this so-called bright ocean without pause.
There was no telling what these strange glittering entities were, but what was evident was that they could not harm the Blacklight. They scattered into all directions when the spaceship passed through them without resistance. Some of them vanished into thin air but were quickly replaced by new glittering spots appearing almost instantly after.
Although this enchanting ocean stretched for a great distance, the spaceship coursed through it in a matter of seconds, leaving behind a torrent of subspace streams in its tracks.
“Have we documented these things into the database?”
After passing through the ocean, Shaw asked his assistants.
Gordon replied dutifully, “Yes Captain, there are already several entries of this phenomenon in the database already.”
Shaw smiled. He enjoyed being captain of a spaceship. “Alright, let’s keep pushing on.”