Chapter 541: Drinking Poison to Quench Your Thirst
After obtaining this result, Chen Chen remained where he was, contemplating.
Taking NZT-48 made him temporarily enter a state of extreme calmness. He had not taken this drug for a few years, but today, he still downed a pill when faced with an alien enemy.
The endless clues in his mind gradually aligned neatly and the mist before his eyes dispersed little by little.
Little X also remained silent. No one knew Chen Chen better than her. At this time, Chen Chen’s expression showed that he was thinking deeply.
As if recalling something, Chen Chen suddenly rose again and flew in the direction of the Eco Science City. At the same time, he asked, “Can the Spire still operate?”
“Just about.”
Little X replied, “There are still some laboratories that haven’t been damaged. But if we’re starting repairs now, the Spire will have to be temporarily shut down for a month or two.”
“Then forget it. Send the Black Knights to remove the equipment from the level-5 biosafety laboratory. Experimenting in the Spire is too dangerous. I’ll just do an experiment in the dimension teleportation hall.”
The dimension teleportation hall Chen Chen mentioned was the underground hall in which he had isolated himself before. It could only be accessed through the black sphere’s teleportation.
“What are you going to do?”
Little X curiously said, “Even the cloning method has failed. It’s difficult for us to contain such a powerful monster.”
“No, you’re wrong.”
Chen Chen said without hesitation, “The purpose of the experiment is to get clues and we’ve already obtained a lot of clues, gaining a high level of understanding of this alien creature. Isn’t that enough?”
“You’re saying...”
Little X suddenly felt a little confused.
“Continue cloning.”
Chen Chen said, “I’ll continue to clone a Consciousness Stealer. I want to see if the second one will have the same power as the first. At the same time, you have to calculate the number of deaths around the world every day and compile their age, gender, and health status, until the conversion unit is found.”
“I get it.”
Only then did Little X understand. “The first Consciousness Stealer is dead, which means that the minds of the millions of humans it had absorbed have been lost. You want to find out if you clone a Consciousness Stealer again, will it inherit the power of the former?”
“Yes, that’s the idea.”
Chen Chen nodded and said, “I have experienced an inexplicable sense of relaxation just now. This sense of relaxation comes from the depths of my consciousness. That craving in my mind has also become very weak. Now it doesn’t feel as if I’ve been afflicted for one month. Rather, it’s as if I was only recently infected.
“So, I suspect that even if a Consciousness Stealer is cloned again, it can only absorb the second batch of fusion deaths and the consciousness of the millions of people who died before has already vanished along with the death of the first Consciousness Stealer...”
The craving that Chen Chen spoke of had come from the depths of his dream. According to the cases in each continent, those who were confirmed to be infected but whose freedom had been restricted to prevent fusion with other infected people, would also undergo mental problems in the long term. Many infected people would develop mania, loss of rationality, hysteria, and other emotions over time, and in the end, they even became unconscious patients in a vegetative state.
Although Chen Chen’s willpower was far superior to ordinary people, this situation had not happened for the time being. He also felt a strong pressure, which was not relieved until the death of the Consciousness Stealer.
“Understood.”
At this time, Little X suddenly realized.
“In other words, as long as we can suppress the rate of consciousness infection, the next cloned Consciousness Stealer will not have the immense power of the first or perhaps even...”
Chen Chen flew back to the Eco Science City again at this time. He came to a building in the city and then entered the hidden teleportation room. The next second, he appeared in the dimension teleportation hall again.
From beginning to end, Chen Chen did not have close contact with anyone and currently, no infection had been found in the Eco Science City.
“I’ll even advise the Earth Federation to send those infected to the dimension of Resident Evil.”
Chen Chen continued. “With this, I don’t believe that Consciousness Stealers can still transcend the dimension’s boundary and acquire the power of the dead in a different dimension!”
Little X’s eyes immediately lit up.
This trick could be described as a drastic measure. The reason that the Consciousness Stealer had infected human consciousness was that, after the infected person died, it would obtain the consciousness power of the deceased and gain power comparable to Field energy.
However, if those infected were sent to the other dimension before they died, then the Consciousness Stealer could only watch helplessly because he would lose that power for good.
All continents had taken severe measures against this infectious disease. Some small countries even had curfews across the country and had entered a state of preparing for war. If it were the ordinary viruses of the past, they would have been controlled long ago. It was only this invisible, formless, consciousness-infecting ent.i.ty that could keep spreading.
However, the number and frequency of infections during this period had also dropped significantly. Blacklight Biotechnology had even sent millions of androids to the world at cost. All these androids were used as quarantine personnel to prevent recurrent infections.
Following this, Chen Chen returned to the dimension teleportation hall to isolate himself. At the other end of the black sphere, various equipment was constantly being transported over. According to Chen Chen’s explicit order, Little X was going to build a level-5 biosafety laboratory here to continue conducting experiments with Consciousness Stealers.
The previous speculations derived by Chen Chen had already been pa.s.sed on to the four continents through the Blacklight Foundation, which it then pa.s.sed on to the Earth Federation, and it then pa.s.sed on to other continents and countries.
Sensing that a huge impact on human society was approaching, many continents had chosen to cut off their metaphorical rotting limbs and sent those who were clearly infected but had not died to the planes specially provided for them by the four continents. These planes would fly to the Indian Ocean, cross the Rosen bridge, and land in the dimension of Resident Evil.
The forces of the world were forced to be united once more.
However, just when the countries of the world began to challenge the limits, Chen Chen at this time had already calmed down. He began to take matters into his own hands and cloned the body of the second Consciousness Stealer.
Still, looking at the meat lump in the life incubator, Chen Chen gradually thought about another question. If humans did not create a clone of the Consciousness Stealer, would this kind of monster be unable to resurrect itself even after wiping out the earth?
After all, there would be no host body, so even if all human beings were wiped out and an incomparably huge force of consciousness was collected, what could it do?
In other words, it was very likely that when enough humans died, the Consciousness Stealer would manifest in the form of a physical body and inherit this formidable power... Nonetheless, how would it do this?
Thinking of this, Chen Chen’s expression suddenly flashed. He once again recalled the fused human corpses and gradually understood something.
The fusion of the bodies was not without its function. So far, except for those infected who were prevented from fusing, most of the infected had died in the form of fusion. Therefore, was there a possibility that when the power of consciousness was acc.u.mulated to a certain level, some human corpses would automatically transform into a Consciousness Stealer?
After all, the transformation was only a genetic level change. It was still carbon-based. Perhaps for Consciousness Stealers, transforming human DNA into their own DNA was a piece of cake.
If this was the case, then Chen Chen’s and the continents’ decision to clone the creature was, on the contrary, disrupting the Consciousness Stealer’s natural cycle. By cloning it in advance, which would only force its birth before its power reached its peak, was like induced ripening. Similarly, the power of this cloned Consciousness Stealer had not acc.u.mulated to a certain extent, so it could be easily wiped out by Chen Chen!
Thinking of this, Chen Chen was even more confident.
If this was true, then naturally he would have to keep on cloning. Otherwise, when it had acc.u.mulated enough human consciousness to be born from human corpses, it would likely have the power to destroy the world...
Chen Chen would never allow this to happen.
...
The Indian Ocean was close to Mauritius. There were more than dozens of cruisers stationed here all year round and even Northern America had stationed an aircraft carrier here. These vehicles wandered the waters all day to prevent any ships from approaching.
This sea area had gradually become a well-known secret and it had even begun to circulate on the Internet that there was a gate to another world in this sea area.
At this time, another military cargo plane flew in from the Indian Continent. As the continent most infected by the Consciousness Stealer, the Indian Continent was also the continent from which most planes were dispatched.
Due to the lack of local official capacity, the planes used to transport infected people in India were funded by the Earth Federation and rental for this service was pretty low too as it was used only to maintain fuel and cost prices. To face this epic level of disaster, schemes and greed had been put aside.
At this time, inside this cargo plane, the cabin had been transformed into a fixed seat model. An infected person was tied up in each seat. These infected people could still maintain their consciousness, but upon seeing those of the same kind, all of them showed symptoms of mania and irrationality. They struggled desperately, trying to break free from their seats, but they were still unable to do so.
These infected people who had lost their minds could not regain their minds even if they were separated again. Instead, they became walking corpses and their brains would slowly fail, resulting only in brain death.
A large military cargo plane could carry thousands of infected pa.s.sengers. As it approached its destination, the military cargo plane began to gradually reduce its speed while raising the landing gear, heading toward a lower alt.i.tude.
In the distance, a huge light spot had appeared in its field of vision...
“Whoosh...”
The military cargo plane flew into the spot. At the same time, the pilot only felt that his vision was changing. The endless ocean disappeared and turned into a vast airport.
However, the pilot had long been accustomed to all this. He lowered the lever again and continued to slow down the plane. Finally, the military cargo plane landed and stopped completely after cruising on the runway for three minutes.
Then, a team of heavily armed XTN robots came forward and transported the infected people out. Next to the airport was a research inst.i.tute where they would spend the rest of their short lives.
Many of them were medical staff, some were senior researchers from all over the world, and some were even soldiers and police. It was these people who maintained order who were often the most vulnerable to infection.
There was no other way. They could only be abandoned as long as the Earth Federation had not found a complete solution to the infection problem.
All this was done for the survival of mankind.
...
A week later.
In the dimension teleportation hall.
Chen Chen was half-lying on the recliner on one side, closing his eyes in rest. Not far from him, there was a fully transparent laboratory built from gla.s.s.
This laboratory was not in accordance with the international level-5 biosafety standards, but a very ordinary laboratory.
If it were not for those instruments in it, which would even surprise the biological researchers in other continents, the layout of this laboratory was indeed ordinary.
There were no airtight facilities, no disinfection measures or even a cleaning area. It was just a basic laboratory.
However, for Chen Chen, there was no difference in what kind of laboratory it was because he had uncovered most of the mystery of the Consciousness Stealer. A level-5 biosafety laboratory was meaningless to this kind of life form. Moreover, in the entire dimension teleportation hall, he was the only living person.
The rest were bionic a.s.sistants.
At this time, although Chen Chen had closed his eyes, he frowned slightly, and at the same time, a drop of sweat slipped off his forehead. In addition to his slightly pale cheeks, it was obvious that he was suffering some kind of ailment at this time.
After some time, Chen Chen slowly opened his eyes. By now, his eyeb.a.l.l.s were bloodshot. He was like a person who had stayed up for a few nights, whose spirit was weakened.
“Huff... The call of that dark yearning is becoming more intense.”
Chen Chen sat up from the recliner and the android serving by the side immediately stepped forward and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
It had to be said that ever since he was infected by the Consciousness Stealer, he had not slept well for a long time. Whenever he closed his eyes, the yearning would call out in his mind, bewitching him and commanding him to find those of the “same type”, then merge in liberation...
This call became much milder after he had killed the first Consciousness Stealer, but now, it had gradually become stronger.
Chen Chen had naturally figured out why a long time ago. It was because more dead people had turned up on Earth in the past week and the consciousness of those dead people had converged again.
Although there were not as many dead people as the first batch, Chen Chen’s will had also been worn down significantly by now, and he was becoming increasingly unable to resist the bewitching call.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen looked up with a pale face and turned to the laboratory not far away. The transparent gla.s.s wall of the laboratory could not block his sight. His eyes finally fell on the life incubator in the center of the laboratory.
Inside, a ball of meat with a diameter of half a meter was constantly getting nutrients and growing vigorously.
“Kill it.”
Chen Chen narrowed his eyes and suddenly ordered.