Chapter 555: Clues
Upon returning to the surface, Chen Chen felt deeply conflicted by his findings.
In the real world, he had successfully defeated the Consciousness Stealer and restored peace and balance to mankind. However, it seemed like he was defeated in this parallel world.
The cost of his defeat was the collapse of modern civilization and the deaths of billions of population. All these were not his primary concern. What he wanted to know was what happened to his parents in this parallel dimension.
For Chen Chen who had always been protective of his parents, this was a lot to stomach.
Since a staggering four centuries had pa.s.sed, chances were that all of the people from his generation had turned to ashes and dust. This was a completely new and foreign world for Chen Chen.
Knowing that the only thing resembling a connection between himself and this world had been severed, Chen Chen did not see a reason to remorse over this loss anymore. Right now, what he needed to do was to figure out how he was going to defeat the Consciousness Stealer in this world and to open a pa.s.sage between the two worlds so that he could invade from the other world.
Before accomplishing any of this, there was one more matter that he had to attend to, and that was to take a look at this Joint Resistance Army they spoke of. If possible, he would like to a.s.similate this faction for his purposes.
With this in mind, Chen Chen departed from the now ravaged Eco Science City and continued toward the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
...
Cyric was a high-ranking officer of the troops of the Joint Military Forces.
The high-ranking officer governed over a fleet of two destroyers and one cruiser. They patrolled the southern Atlantic all year round, curbing the smuggling and infiltration operations of followers of the Consciousness Stealer from the opposite sh.o.r.e.
The ships under his command were extremely old, some of them were built before any of the members of the crew had been born at all. It was these fleets that managed to hold off the infiltration of the Divine Fusion Empire. These ships were the lifeline of the tens of millions of survivors on the continent.
By this point, Cyric was already well into his retirement age. The reason he was graced with the role of the commander of this fleet in the first place was that his ancestors used to be fleet commanders in Northern America. The art of fleet and Battalion government had been pa.s.sed down in his family through the generations.
Cyric wore a washed-out uniform and looked over the ocean from the command room, occasionally picking up the binoculars to inspect the horizon.
During another one of his routine inspections, he spotted a tiny black dot rising across the horizon.
It was something that slowly crept up from beneath the horizon. It would not be observable at this distance under regular circ.u.mstances but since they were in the wide-open sea, they were able to spot enemies approaching from a greater distance.
It seemed like the black dot was rapidly approaching the fleet’s location.
At first, Cyric thought it was his old eyes deceiving him. After getting a closer look for several seconds longer, he began to frown. There was no mistaking it. This unknown black dot was slowly growing larger.
It was clear now that this black dot was advancing toward their location.
“Radar!”
Cyric quickly reminded himself of the radar system and turned to inspect the monitor, only to see a disappointing, pitch-black screen staring back at him. He forgot that the radar system had broken down more than a month ago.
This ship was simply too old and should have been decommissioned decades ago. The advanced technological systems invented by their predecessors were a lost craft now and the ship itself was a scrambled project comprised of dismantled parts of other ancient ships. The best they could do was to put these pieces together for there was no way to recreate these advanced machinations.
With the way things were now, there was simply no way to repair the high-precision radar system that had broken down since a month ago.
After evaluating the situation, Cyric immediately pressed a large red b.u.t.ton on the side of the control panel to put the entire fleet on alert and into a state of emergency. Meanwhile, he continued to observe the approaching black dot with his binoculars and was shocked by what he saw – was it a person?
It was someone soaring across the skies!
“A psionicist!”
Cyric felt his heart drop upon verifying this. The three ships of the fleet had prepared themselves for combat just in time as troops of gunners entered the artillery compartments and aimed the barrel at the dark figure!
“Hold!”
Cyric glared at the humanoid figure that was approaching at unprecedented speed. It had been no more than thirty seconds since his initial spotting of the target and it was already entering the borders of their attack range.
“Fire!”
Decades of training had honed Cyric’s senses to perfection. He had identified the perfect time to fire!
An array of ten Vulcan cannons unleashed a terrific roar that tore through the skies as it fired torrents of cannon sh.e.l.ls into the approaching figure to cut off its advance. There was not a single member in the Joint Resistance Army who was uninformed of a psionicist’s abilities. It was an occult source of power that came from the Consciousness Stealer. It was this power that helped the Divine Fusion Empire suppress the Joint Military Forces and drive them to the west coast of the Indian Ocean.
Bright flares illuminated the sky above and weaved large nets of cannon sh.e.l.ls within the firing range of the fleet. Despite all this, the approaching figure showed the slightest intention of stopping. Instead, it charged through the array of sh.e.l.ls and crashed into the deck of the flagship within moments!
“Bang!”
There was a deafening crash. The invader had arrived at the deck!
“Protect the general!”
A swarm of soldiers rushed toward the position of the intruder with rifles in hand. They saw a slender figure rising from the deck. His eyes were dark and lacked any sense of warmth. The moment they met his eyes, they became overwhelmed with an indescribable fear.
“Bring me to the highest-rank commanding officer of the fleet.”
The man spoke idly, completely disregarding the soulless barrels aimed at him.
“Get him!”
Someone among the soldiers who seemed to be their commanding officer gave the order. With orders given from their superiors, the soldiers that were arrested with fear clenched their teeth and executed the orders with fierce discipline.
The man only frowned the moment he saw the soldiers swarming on him. In an instant, an invisible force swept outward with this man at its center. Everybody within a fifty-meter radius was completely frozen in place!
As one may expect, this man who had just traveled across the Atlantic Ocean was Chen Chen.
Chen Chen immediately activated his Field and swept through the flagship. It did not take him long before he identified the highest-ranking officer, which was the general at the bridge of the ship. He slowly went toward the bridge and approached the general.
“Who are you?”
At the moment, Cyric may appear composed but deep down, he was awestruck by this mysterious invader’s magnificent display of power. He did have experience with psionicists users in the past. The only reason that the Divine Fusion Empire that had forsaken the advancement of technology was able to suppress the Joint Resistance Army in the first place was in no small part thanks to the psionicists.
If not for these psionicists, the Joint Resistance Army, even with their crippled technology, would have overwhelmed the Divine Fusion Empire a long time ago,
With that said, even advanced-level psionicists could nullify the firepower of regular cannons at most. This invader had managed to power through their concentrated bombardment. What sort of a human being was capable of such feats?
“I come in peace. I don’t belong to the Divine Fusion Empire.”
Chen Chen did not beat around the bush and addressed the heart of the matter directly. “I come here with a singular purpose and that is to meet the highest-ranked commanding officer in your resistance army. There’s something I need from your forces.”
“That’s impossible!”
Cyric refused this preposition without even considering it. “I won’t bring you to our commanding officer even if you threaten to kill all of us. It’s simply impossible!”
Chen Chen frowned. There was nothing else he could use to threaten them and there was no value in killing them since he was not here to exact any form of vengeance. He stomached his discontent with the situation and stated, “In that case, I won’t force your hand. I’m sure you have methods to contact your superior, in that case, tell them to inform the resistance general that there’s somebody who wants to meet him and that his name is Chen Chen.”
“Chen Chen?”
Cyric felt strangely familiar with this standard Chinese name but knew that this was no time to ask unnecessary questions. He hesitated for a moment before asking, “Could I ask why you want to speak with the general of our joint resistance army?”
“Just to form an alliance.”
Chen Chen remarked almost too casually, “I’m sure you people want to destroy the Divine Fusion Empire and the Consciousness Stealer as well. I can help you with that.”
Cyric once again fell into deep thought upon hearing this. He was debating whether he should do as Chen Chen instructed.
“I come in good faith.”
Chen Chen saw that Cyric was on the verge of making up his mind so he immediately struck when the metal was still hot. “All you need to do is to get in touch with him. Whether to join with me in an alliance or not is entirely up to your superiors to decide.”
“Alright, I can pa.s.s the message for you...”
Chen Chen’s persuasion seemed to have worked as Cyric returned with a firm nod and promised him, “But this place is some distance away from land. I’ll need to take the fleet back to land before I can get in touch with my superiors. If it doesn’t inconvenience you, you’re welcome to stay on the ship...”
“Excellent.”
Chen Chen smiled easily. Immediately after, the soldiers who were nailed to their spots suddenly felt the invisible tension lifted off them as they regained control of their bodies.
The rigid atmosphere on the ship was suddenly lifted off like a switch being flicked. They immediately bolted to the bridge and eyed Chen Chen cautiously.
“Prepare a room for the gentleman!”
Cyric immediately ordered.
The chief officer on deck immediately stepped up to the task. He approached Chen Chen, saluted, and informed, “Sir, this way please!”
Chen Chen nodded courteously and left the bridge with the chief officer.
After the strange invader had left, Cyric and the gathered soldiers finally heaved a sigh of relief. A deputy commander asked with a grave look on his face, “Boss, are you going to do as he asked?”
“Do we have any other choice?”
Cyric turned the question around on the vice general. “You and I both know that he can sink our fleet faster than you can say Mayday. Since he’s not doing that yet, we shouldn’t provoke him unnecessarily.”
With that, he shot a look at several other high-ranking officers in his fleet, signaling them to join him in another room.
“Chen Chen...”
After they entered the room and had some privacy, Cyric lit a cigarette, took a hungry drag, and asked, “Don’t you guys feel a strange sense of familiarity with this name?”
“From what I can tell, it’s a very standard Chinese name.”
One of the deputy commanders answered, “But I believe I’ve heard of the name somewhere else as well, I think... I think this name was once regularly mentioned in the earlier history of our Joint Resistance Army.”
The others did not seem to be too intrigued with this matter but Cyric, on the other hand, suddenly recalled something. A startled look suddenly came upon his face. “Could it be... Could it be him?”
...
Chen Chen would be a fool to take their word for it and believe that they did not have any long-distance communication facilities. Even if all other modern technology implementations had been decommissioned, they should at least have retained a common invention like radio communication.
Still, he decided it was more worthwhile to not call them out on it. What mattered at the end of the day was the end goal. The process of attaining it was not a major concern.
The chief officer took him to a lounge that seemed to have belonged to another officer just recently but was urgently made available again. When he entered, he could still smell the lingering smell of tobacco in the air.
The cruiser was not remarkably large, spanning only nearly a hundred meters and its displacement could not have exceeded 50,000 tons. With that said, it should suffice for combating the Divine Fusion Empire.
It seemed like the Joint Resistance Army still possessed a satisfactory level of technology after all.
With that said, it was nothing particularly outstanding either. From the previous engagement, Chen Chen already noticed that the cannons were manually operated and he did not notice a single artillery sh.e.l.l. It was evident that the industry system had regressed considerably.
It was still a mystery what had happened to the Northern American and South American Continents. In their heyday, the Divine Fusion Empire would crumble within half a month if they were confronted with modern weapons. Their medieval inventions could never hold up to modern mortars.
Based on what Chen Chen had gathered so far, it was the Divine Fusion Empire that currently had the upper hand. All the Joint Resistance Army could do was retaliate and hold its ground. If not for the vast ocean separating the two continents, there would be no Joint Resistance Army to speak of by now.
Now that Chen Chen was here, he may as well make the best of this situation. He sat on the bed and began formulating his plans.
Two days later.
When Cyric’s fleet returned to anchor by the port, there was already an armed force stationed at the port waiting for them.
From the deck, Chen Chen saw groups of soldiers in military uniforms holding rifles, standing in formation on the harbor. However, their weapons and equipment were rather crude, for lack of a better word. All they had were standard military uniforms while bulletproof vests and helmets were nowhere to be seen. Furthermore, the only weapons he saw were standard-issued AK weapons.
There was also a line of tanks behind these soldiers, but they were similarly old and beaten up. The entire troop combined to approximately three thousand soldiers.
Chen Chen glanced in the direction of the sky and immediately determined his approximate position. It should be somewhere along the coast of Brazil.
When Chen Chen finally announced his presence, several general-ranked elderly members stepped to the head of the troops.
“Sir.”
The general who seemed to be the prime authority of the army was the first to step forward. He sized Chen Chen up with his seasoned eye then extended his arm for a handshake. “I’m the general of the South American sector of the Joint Resistance Army, Anderson Tobias.”
“And I’m Chen Chen.”
Chen Chen shook the general’s hands.
“Forgive my manners.”
General Tobias suddenly remarked, “And correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that the name Chen Chen belongs to the president of Blacklight Biotechnology who once led mankind in a fight against the Consciousness Stealer 378 years ago or am I wrong?”
“You know who I am?”
Chen Chen looked at the general in utter disbelief. It was just as he expected, the Blacklight Biotechnology that he founded would not fold easily even in this alternate world.