Chapter 584: Accidental Discovery
With Earth Federation’s aeros.p.a.ce technology, it would take roughly fifty to sixty days to travel from Earth to Pluto. The current date was the first of March 2047. This meant that the rescue crew may have reached Pluto already by now...
The events of the movie were already transpiring.
Chen Chen was puzzled by these circ.u.mstances. The USB drive did not connect him to a time before the events of the movie happened nor after, but right as the events of the movie were happening?
With every extract queried by X-112, his expression became darker. Since everything was already set into motion, that meant that unbeknownst to this thriving civilization in this world, a catastrophic event that would threaten the fate of mankind was about to happen several billion kilometers away!
The devastation of this civilization was near-inevitable at this point.
There was another odd facet that Chen Chen had noticed. When he opened the portal to Event Horizon, he was certain that the image was fixed on the interior of the Event Horizon s.p.a.ceship. However, the pa.s.sage took him to Earth instead. Based on the behavior of the USB drive so far, the portal should lead to the exact location he had selected.
This was the case when accessing the Doom dimension. The reason he managed to flank the Ark base unaware was that the portal appeared in the middle of the base without any warning.
Similarly, the portal led directly to the Hive when accessing the Resident Evil world. The same pattern was noticed when accessing Elysium where the portal was opened in the exact appointed location.
The only other time something similar had happened was in the Prometheus dimension. Although he was certain he had paused the frame at the Prometheus s.p.a.cecraft, the portal led to Earth instead.
It seemed like the same thing had happened again.
Could this mean that the USB drive portal could not be established in a still-moving s.p.a.cecraft?
Chen Chen weighed the possibility of his findings.
It was very likely that the USB drive was unable to establish a portal in a constantly moving object, which meant a still-moving s.p.a.cecraft was not a viable medium. The explanation for how a portal could be successfully established in the s.p.a.ce base in Elysium may be due to the fact that the s.p.a.ce base itself was set up in the earth’s...o...b..t which was in perfect synchronization with the earth’s rotation.
This was a plausible explanation...
Chen Chen contemplated silently. Right then, the display suddenly turned into a blur as if it received some form of signal interruption. All of the extracted information vanished without warning.
Meanwhile, X-112 immediately informed, “Sir Commander, the Northern American Cyber Security department is retaliating. They have determined our coordinates. I can’t continue extracting from their database any longer! ”
“That’s alright, we can retreat now.”
Chen Chen immediately unplugged X-112 from the computer and then retreated from the city hall, disappearing into the darkness of the night.
Only several minutes after his departure, several heavily armed security guards barged into the office. One of the guards was a large, blonde-haired man with an intense temperament. He surveyed the office cautiously and looked at the computer that was left idle, then at the still-opened window. He raised a walkie-talkie and reported, “Seal the building, the suspect can’t have gotten too far yet, search the place immediately...”
The entire city hall was locked down almost immediately after that.
It was going to be a long night for the city hall security force.
However, their efforts would turn out to be in vain. While they were turning every stone in the compound, Chen Chen was already departing Miami. He was heading for the NASA headquarters by this point.
NASA stood for the Northern American s.p.a.ce Agency. The organization’s headquarters was located in Washington and from what Chen Chen gathered, most of the top-secret details were stored in offline storage. This meant that there was no way of obtaining them even with the help of X-112. To obtain the technical details of the s.p.a.ce warp engine, he would have to run an errand in person.
The night sky was black as ink and Chen Chen swept across the sky at supersonic speed. Within an hour, he had traveled across half of the continent and arrived at his destination, Washington.
Although it was 2047, the city still retained most of its original creations. There was an established pattern where the more advanced human civilization became, the more value they placed on traditional relics and creations for the sake of nostalgia. It was ironic how people of the past strived to make changes but their later generations strived to retain the relics of ancient times.
This was mostly seen with antiques and buildings constructed in older times.
Washington was no exception to this observation. The White House, with its two hundred and fifty years, still stood undisturbed. It was the symbol of Northern America and also doubled as the political center of the continent.
While Chen Chen was traversing across the NASA headquarters, he suddenly caught a bright column light emitted from the ground up, striking him mid-air!
This white column of light was essentially a laser beam. There was nothing Chen Chen could do about a projectile fired at light speed. He felt a burning sensation across his chest as the laser pierced through his body and he looked at his wound in horror.
A large hole formed in the center of his chest and penetrated it cleanly. The flesh edges of the wound were charred as well!
“Laser weaponry?”
Chen Chen was taken aback by this. He swooped to the surface without a second thought, making it seem like he was struck and immobilized by the laser!
“Thump!”
Chen Chen crashed into a street from several hundred meters in the sky and landed on a car parked by the roadside. The roof of the car caved inward immediately upon collision!
“I hit it!”
There was the sound of distant cheering from the NASA base. A man in a suit and sungla.s.ses ran to his comrades with a glittering silver spear that seemed to be a laser weapon in his hand and bragged, “Jenny, that guy was flying around up there! ”
“Don’t approach it yet, Carter!”
Another voice called out to the man who was eagerly celebrating. “We haven’t verified if it’s dead or alive yet. Since it’s able to fly, there’s a chance that it’s a very dangerous ent.i.ty. We have to be cautious around it!”
Shortly after that, five figures arrived down the road. Each one of them was in suits and wore a pair of dark sungla.s.ses and wielded a silver-colored high-tech weapon. Some were shaped like a gun while others were like a mere baton.
“Inform the superiors.”
The only woman among the group spoke, “Tell them we found humans possessing flight abilities. The rest of you remain on guard, make sure to erase the memory of the people who witnessed this scene to avoid raising an alarm!”
“Understood.”
The five of them approached Chen Chen. One of them produced a metal rod and turned to a small audience that was attracted by the commotion and yelled, “Look this way, ladies and gentlemen-”
“Click!”
The metal rod emitted a blinding flash that threw the onlookers into a state of daze.
The man who previously opened fire at Chen Chen and another four members slowly approached the downed target. When they noticed the scorching hole burnt into Chen Chen’s chest, they were placated. As far as they were concerned, anyone who sustained an injury of this degree was undoubtedly dead!
However, the surrounding atmosphere suddenly froze as an eerie silence took over the night...
They felt as if all the air in this s.p.a.ce was stripped away. It was an odd sensation that they had never experienced before. They exchanged confused glances with each other and all realized that they were suddenly unable to breathe!
It was as if the air in their surroundings had turned into a solid ma.s.s and would not flow anymore. Unable to draw oxygen in their lungs, they could only wait for their death to arrive...
“What, what’s going on?”
They stumbled backward with their arms around their throat and gaped at the corpse on top of the crumpled car. At that moment, the body of the supposed corpse suddenly jolted and rose!
“You dare to shoot me?”
A piercing glare appeared in Chen Chen’s eyes. With a subtle gesture, he lifted all five of them into the air and they were completely immobilized by an invisible chain wrapped around them tightly. The man who previously shot at Chen Chen had it the worst. Blood was spilling out of his nose and ears and his eyes rolled backward!
“Let me go!”
The only woman in the group howled like a caged beast. Chen Chen sensed a familiar energy swelling within each of them. Like bubbles breaking through still water’s surface, this energy threatened to repel his Field!
However, their power was too feeble to render themselves free. Only the woman managed to barely squeeze herself out of Chen Chen’s Field. She produced a metal rod from her waist and with a flick, a bolt of laser appeared from it and she charged at Chen Chen with the weapon ready.
“Lightsaber?”
Chen Chen was taken aback by this and seemed to have understood something. He only squinted at the approaching enemy’s direction and summoned a tremendous charge of Field and slammed it into her!
“Boom!”
The tremendous force flung her into a wall on the opposite end of the street!
“Stop!”
It was around this point when Chen Chen heard a slightly familiar voice that seemed to call out to him from a distance. He only spared a glance at the direction in which the voice came from and proceeded to ignore it and redirect his attention to the man who previously shot a hole in his chest.
“Poof!”
In an instant, the man’s head burst into a cloud of mist and his body sloped lifelessly!
“Carter!”
The others screamed upon witnessing the traumatizing sight of their comrade murdered. Meanwhile, the person who previously called out to Chen Chen had entered the range of his Field. Chen Chen could make out that this person was a Chinese man like himself!
“Let them go!”
The Chinese man who arrived was enraged upon seeing the sight of his subordinates butchered mercilessly. Instead of using conventional weapons, he only motioned subtly with his hand and summoned a black slate in the center of his palm that appeared out of thin air!
“Zoom!”
The moment this person produced the black slate, Chen Chen felt a pang of pain deep inside his mind. It felt like there was a tremor in the deepest corners of his mind that disoriented so greatly he could not maintain control of his Field for the first time ever. He hugged his head in pain and let out an agonizing roar like that of a beast.
When Chen Chen lost control of Field, the three remaining survivors suspended in the air were dropped onto the hard concrete. They caught their breath urgently and immediately lifted their weapons, aimed at Chen Chen, and fired!
Three bolts of lasers exited their guns and pierced through Chen Chen. However, they were appalled to see that the laser merely pierced through an afterimage of their target. Chen Chen’s supersonic maneuver produced a tremendous sonic explosion, then he reappeared several hundred meters away!
“What, how did he manage to dodge the Civilization Monolith?”
They looked at Chen Chen in exasperation and complete astonishment.
After creating some distance between himself and the opponent, Chen Chen noticed that he managed to wring himself of the effects of the black slate. He shot a cautious look at the mysterious man who appeared last, then he produced a large hourgla.s.s-like device from his bag.
“Thump!”
Chen Chen thrust the device into the ground and forcefully plunged it close to a hundred meters underground using Field. An invisible shockwave swept through a large radius around it. His opponents immediately sensed that the powers that they took pride in had somehow been suppressed completely!
“Impossible! Our Force was suppressed!”
The members who were just rescued by their ally cried out in vexation. They quickly aimed their weapons at Chen Chen again and fired. With a quick stomp on the ground, Chen Chen’s figure vanished again, this time disappearing completely from their line of sight!
“D*mn it, I can’t hit him, he’s too fast!”
They cursed out loud.
The recently-arrived member who seemed to be the leader announced, “Everyone retreat, we’ve caused a large enough commotion that the officials are going to notice soon. We can’t afford to stay here!”
With that, he quickly carried the heavily wounded woman lying on the ground and prepared to leave.
They halted as soon as they bolted into a nearby alleyway and looked ahead of them with fright.
Amid the darkness only a short distance away, they saw Chen Chen’s figure standing menacingly like a demon. It occurred to them that this man who possessed terrifying speed would not allow them to leave in peace!
“Just what do you want!”
The leader of the group raised his voice and summoned the black slate in the center of his palms again. “Don’t you dare get close to us, I’ll kill you for real this time!”
“It’s not what I want, it’s what you guys want.”
Although Chen Chen was beyond earshot, his voice somehow traveled into their ears. “You guys were the ones who attacked me first, I’m only retaliating.”
“...”
The man fell into an awkward silence. He considered for a moment then locked his teeth and answered, “I admit it’s our fault, but you’ve already killed the guy who attacked you, so we’re square now!”
“Oh?”
Chen Chen found himself chuckling at this bold suggestion and mocked condescendingly, “The great Zhao Shanhe, holder of the dimension key, the one who united mankind and established the Earth Federation is proposing such a whimsical compromise?”
They were petrified upon hearing Chen Chen’s words. The leader of the group was especially provoked by this and he looked at Chen Chen like he saw a ghost. “Who are you and how did you know who I am?”
“Who am I?”
The sharp question made Chen Chen’s laughter grow louder to a point where he was roaring with laughter. “Hahahaha, don’t you know how closely related we are! Oh my dear Zhao Shanhe, would you believe it? I was the one who gave you the dimension key you have in your hands now!
“Hahahahaha!”