Chapter 170: Gradually Fermenting
Apart from the opening speech, Qian Wenhuan had spent the rest of the conference answering questions presented by the audience. With the constant burst of flashing lights to boot, he felt like he was close to being blinded.
After an hour and a half had pa.s.sed, Qian Wenhuan exchanged glances with the group of people beside him before finally standing up. “Alright, the press conference concludes here. Feel free to explore the Blackwatch from here on.”
After Qian Wenhuan had finished, he turned around and left.
The a.s.sistant beside him followed up to address the crowd. “Alright now, everyone please leave the venue in order. Everyone can either leave directly or head over to the main deck where we have wine, steak, and a buffet prepared. Please feel free to indulge yourselves.
“Still, I’d like to remind everyone to be mindful. Not only are there soldiers posted by the important hubs on the ship, but there’s surveillance everywhere as well. I believe everyone present is of the most cultured members of the Federation and won’t be inclined to do anything rash...
“Should it interest you, please stay with us for a few more days here. In seven days, the Blacklight Grand Hotel will be open to all fellow reporters for free. All you need to do is present your press verification at the reception. Everyone can take a tour around the newly opened city. I’m sure you’ll not be disappointed...”
With that, the press conference had concluded.
The original motive for hosting the press conference was to proclaim the official establishment of the Eco Science City. The combined influence of these media establishments naturally exceeded any amount of buzz Chen Chen could ever generate on his own.
Moreover, several districts built in Eco Science City had also been a.s.signed to employees. Commercial lots in the city were also starting to be rented out.
Various commercial shops, tobacco and alcohol parlors, daily necessities stores, and other stores were popping up, adding a fresh breath of life to the newly constructed city.
The villa section by the sea was a.s.signed to high-profile people like the professors. As for the Sandwich Bay which was positioned farthest, the hundreds of sanatoriums were stationed by large groups of medical professionals. This spot would soon become the most prosperous section of the Eco Science City.
Following the commencement of the conference and all of the present media outlets had published their respective articles, the topic of Eco Science City began trending and sparked a new wave of public opinion. Countless phrases such as “Age-reversal treatment” and “Blacklight Biotechnology” circulated across the Internet. Countless armchair scientists began sprouting up one after another, discussing the feasibility of the various technologies developed by Blacklight Biotechnology.
As for how these things often went, there was a crowd with opposing views. A bunch of experts and professors began coming out of the woods with claims that acts of prolonging the lifespan such as these were the equivalent of ripping souls out of the hands of the Reaper. This would sooner or later lead to chaos and destruction of mankind!
Furthermore, some believed that the use of cloned embryos to extend human life contradicted basic human ethics. They believed that this practice was utterly unacceptable and should be strictly banned.
As you may expect, these opposing forces did about as good as a c.o.c.kroach could at stopping a moving vehicle. Facing a historical movement, they barely were able to generate any noise against it. For the most part, most people observed silently at a distance to see if this newly established Eco Science City was all bark and no bite or the real deal.
It was the elderly cla.s.s of wealthy people who were especially intrigued by this development. In a mere few days, direct flights to Namibia became extremely difficult to attain. To get to Namibia, many people went through the effort of taking a flight to neighboring countries of Namibia and then driving to Namibia.
In just several days, tens of thousands of people had arrived at Eco Science City. Some of them stayed at the international hotels of the Eco Science City while others went straight for the Sandwich Bay area to enquire regarding the technology at the sanatorium.
Several thousands of people moved into the sanatorium over several days and began receiving the age-reversal treatment.
Regardless of the surrounding opinions and the stance taken in favor of or against it, Eco Science City gradually became known to more people. As the word-of-mouth effect continued to ferment, Eco Science City was bound to become more and more prosperous.
This time, n.o.body would be able to stop it.
...
At present, Cheng Cao drove Chen Chen to an office building nearby the Sun District.
After parking the car, the two of them entered an elevator in the office building. When the elevator door closed, they went down instead of up.
Any other outsiders who witnessed this scene would probably fall into a state of panic. After all, most buildings should only have one to two levels of bas.e.m.e.nts and yet, the elevator had gone down beyond ten levels.
When the elevator door opened again with a “Ding”, an underground s.p.a.ce of approximately 500 square meters came into the view of the two men.
The underground s.p.a.ce was completely vacant save for two tramcars which looked like miniature trains that were positioned by the platform. As Chen Chen and Cheng Cao stepped out of the elevator, the elevator doors shut on their own before returning to the surface.
The platform resembled a metro platform.
Instead of having subway trains, it was just these small tramcars. They were approximately 5 meters long, 3 meters wide, and 2 meters tall. Its body was an all-alloy structure, the front of the car utilized a triangular design with a marked Blacklight company logo at its head.
The track on which the tram traveled was a one-way loop track. Two parallel tracks ran their course down to the end of the platform.
These were the tunnel trams that led to the entrance of the underground laboratory.
Although the entrance to the underground laboratory was located right under an underground parking lot in a certain district, it had long been sealed up with concrete. Alternatively, several underground tunnel trams similar to this one were placed in the area surrounding the Sun District.
When Chen Chen and Cheng Cao boarded the basic tunnel tram, it activated on its own and began accelerating toward the other end of the tunnel.
The tunnel trams were extremely fast. They arrived at their destination within several minutes.
When Chen Chen got out, what appeared before him was a checkpoint station that was nearly identical to the previous platform.
Only then did Chen Chen technically arrive at the underground section of the Sun District.
This was where the entrance to the underground laboratory elevator was located. In the future, Chen Chen would begin posting cloned security guards in this section to tighten the security measures.
The tramcar automatically screeched to a stop upon approaching the end of the line. After the two of them hopped out of the tramcar, it circled and stopped itself on the opposite track. Any personnel exiting the underground laboratory could take this tramcar to return to the previous platform.
Upon the commencement of the underground laboratory construction, the previous lift platform was replaced with a properly enclosed elevator. There were two of them installed as well. It was done this way so that there was no time wasted entering and exiting the underground laboratory.
Upon entering the elevator, Chen Chen immediately noticed that the elevator was far more pleasing to the eye than the state it was in during construction. The interior was a full metallic gray. In addition, to help alleviate boredom, there was music constantly being played in the elevator with the option to choose the music to boot.
Chen Chen simply browsed the music library and discovered that the catalog pretty much consisted of all the artists in Earth Federation. Even songs from bottom tier artists could be found. It could be noted that the person who designed this feature was extremely attentive.
After five minutes, when the elevator was drowned in silence again, the doors suddenly opened.
What was behind the door was no longer the exposed underground s.p.a.ce as seen before. It was a gleaming gla.s.s corridor more than three meters wide.