Chapter 587: Black Fog
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At this moment, Frank’s movements became a little stiff. He slowly pulled up his pants, then woodenly turned and walked out of the bathroom.
“Patter, patter!”
Frank walked out of the bathroom step by step. He looked left and right, then chose the corridor on the right and walked in the direction of the elevator.
After entering the elevator, Frank did not press any b.u.t.ton but directly placed his palm on the platform under the b.u.t.tons.
“Beep!”
Suddenly, there was a notification sound and then a miniature camera popped out of a b.u.t.ton.
Frank bent down slightly and looked into the camera with his eyes.
“Ident.i.ty verified.”
An electronic sound instantly came from the elevator.
Then, the elevator shuddered slightly and descended directly downward, but strangely, although the elevator was going down, the floor displayed on the panel did not change, still indicating the first floor.
About thirty seconds after the elevator fell sharply, it finally slowed down, and then there was a “ding” again. The elevator doors opened on both sides with a “whoosh”.
What greeted Frank’s eyes was a long narrow pa.s.sage.
“This is it...”
In front of the screen, Chen Chen was slightly excited. The information previously found by X-112 naturally also contained information about this place. At the end of this channel lay NASA’s true secret zone.
This corridor was similar to the laser corridor at the entrance of the Spire Experimental Base. In addition to the defense system, anyone who entered this corridor would be X-ray scanned, examining all objects on their body and even within their body. Therefore, even if someone had stuffed a foreign object in their lower body or hid it in the sole of their shoe, they would not slip through.
Still, Chen Chen was not worried because the G.o.d chip was made of biological material after all, and it could be completely integrated with flesh and blood. In addition, it was embedded in the cervical spine, which made it even more difficult to distinguish.
Soon, Frank came straight to the end of the corridor.
“Beep beep beep...”
He had pa.s.sed the previous detections. At this time, the door at the end of the corridor sensed someone coming and it opened automatically.
“Swish!”
After the door was opened, a ray of light shone out suddenly, and Chen Chen in the distance looked through Frank’s eyes and saw a s.p.a.ce larger than the hall of NASA’s command hall.
This was the real secret base of NASA and almost all state secrets were stored here.
“Mr. Frank!”
A group of guards in military uniforms stood up immediately and saluted him.
Frank nodded, did not speak, and walked directly into the hall.
Along the way, Frank met many researchers wearing white lab coats, but fortunately, Frank was the director of NASA after all. Even here, he held one of the highest positions. Several older researchers smiled and said h.e.l.lo immediately when they saw Frank. It seemed that his daily relationships were not too bad but under the control of X-112, Frank still nodded and slipped past them.
Soon, under the control of X-112, Frank came to a tightly closed steel gate.
He verified his ident.i.ty again. Not only that, but Frank also took out an ident.i.ty authentication card, which opened the door, revealing the layout of a computer room.
Upon entering the computer room, Frank turned on a computer, entered the pa.s.sword somewhat stiffly, and then all the confidential information that could not be detected in the outside world was thoroughly revealed before his eyes.
“These are the real big secrets of NASA.”
Chen Chen looked at the data intently. These secrets contained the design drawings of various s.p.a.cecraft engines and included various secret missions in s.p.a.ce issued by the government. The oldest one could even be traced back to the evaluation report of the era of the Soviet-American power struggle, but all the information here could only be seen with one’s eyes. There was not even a USB port on the computer, let alone a way for anyone to steal the information.
Still, all this naturally posed no problems for Chen Chen. Frank only had to glance at each piece of data and the content would be automatically recorded by X-112, then processed and converted into a standard electronic file.
Even so, the information on the technology of the s.p.a.ce warp engine was as boundless as the ocean. Frank kept reading for two hours, but only a fifth of it had been copied.
“It’s about time.”
Chen Chen counted the time silently and suddenly said, “Let Frank leave. If he spends too much time here, it’ll inevitably rouse everyone’s suspicions.”
“Okay.”
X-112 agreed and then Frank in front of the computer immediately closed the file, turned, and walked out of the computer room.
Then, just like before, Frank returned to the surface and went to the director’s lounge.
Following that, X-112 controlled Frank to go to the bed and then withdrew its control over Frank.
“Huh?”
The next second, Frank opened his eyes slightly again. He looked around with some doubts and then sat up slowly.
“What’s the matter, did I just fall asleep?”
Frank showed a look of astonishment. His memory still lingered at the moment he went to the bathroom. Then, he had felt a wave of drowsiness but he did not expect that when he opened his eyes again, he would be waking up from bed in the lounge.
His mind felt like it was fragmented from being drunk. Frank was a little mystified. This situation had never happened before.
“Is it because I’m old?”
Frank murmured, his face pale for a while.
Nonetheless, after a period of resting in the lounge, Frank walked out of the room again. He did not suspect too much, only a.s.suming that he was old and had a bad memory, but these thoughts were quickly forgotten by him.
He still had more important things to do, things relating to his own politics.
Chen Chen in front of the screen heaved a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Frank did not have many doubts this time.
“We won’t do this next time.”
Chen Chen thought for a while and said, “In the following period, the NASA headquarters will be very busy because of the Event Horizon. Frank will not go home too many times. If this is the case, wait for him to fall asleep in the lounge before manipulating his body to read the information about the s.p.a.ce warp engine.”
“Understood, leave this to me.”
X-112 replied.
Indeed, once there were more instances of fragmentation, it would inevitably arouse Frank’s suspicion. If he checked the surveillance out of wariness, he would immediately see that something was wrong. It was safer to do this every time he was asleep.
Over the next twenty days or so, X-112 would take advantage of Frank’s rest time in the work unit to go to the underground secret base to look at the information. During this period, some alarming situations had occurred such as when he happened to enter the underground base and met Frank’s acquaintances who came forward to talk or someone contacted him through the communication device he carried while he was looking up the information, and so on. Still, in the end, disaster was averted and they got all the information about the s.p.a.ce warp engine.
At this time, it was only twenty days before the Event Horizon returned to Earth.
This was also the day when the second rescue ship docked with the survivors of the Event Horizon.
“I want to temporarily return to the other side of the portal.”
After lots of thinking, Chen Chen, who finally got the s.p.a.ce warp engine data, told X-112, “After this, you’ll continue to monitor NASA’s every move. When I return, I’ll bring the interstellar sweeper missile, understand?”
“Got it. I’ll pay close attention to NASA’s every move.”
X-112 replied.
Chen Chen nodded in satisfaction and temporarily returned to reality with the information about the s.p.a.ce warp engine.
Of course, Chen Chen’s goal had been achieved and he could also choose to leave the Event Horizon dimension for good. Nevertheless, Chen Chen was unwilling to do so. After all, this was the first time he had been this close to the secret of the USB flash drive since he had received it. In particular, the appearance of Zhao Shanhe was a great discovery. Chen Chen could dig out more secrets about the USB flash drive and Professor w.a.n.g Xi from Zhao Shanhe.
However, just a few hours later, in the NASA command hall, everyone watched the images being uploaded from the computer.
As the distance was still too great, what they saw also had a three-hour delay, but compared to the previous visual information that could only be refreshed once in six hours, the pictures now had reached the speed of 20 frames per minute. It was like watching a PowerPoint report.
“It’s docked, it’s docked!”
At this time, before the huge screen at the top of the command hall, everyone tilted their heads, silently watching the slowly updating pictures. The rescue team’s s.p.a.cecraft in the footage had successfully docked with the Event Horizon, and there were five members of the rescue team who had already opened the hydraulic chamber and were flying toward the nearby Event Horizon.
Everyone stared at the screen, watching the person who was wearing the camera slowly open the door of the Event Horizon onscreen, then walk in and come to the cryogenic chambers.
Immediately, one of them pressed the b.u.t.ton of the cryogenic chambers, awakening the sleeping people in the two cryogenic chambers.
The water level in the two cryogenic chambers dropped rapidly at once, revealing the personnel inside. One of them was a slender blonde woman. If Chen Chen were here at this time, he would find that this was one of the survivors in the movie’s plot, Lieutenant Starck and the other one was the black man, Cooper.
However, after the two were released, Lieutenant Starck suddenly looked at the camera as if she had seen some terrifying scene and screamed!
Of course, in the eyes of the many researchers in the command hall of NASA headquarters, they could only see a silent image that was refreshed every three seconds. As for the sound, they could forget about it.
In the command hall, many people began to discuss. They did not understand why Lieutenant Starck had screamed like she had seen a ghost, but at this moment, the picture sent back from the Event Horizon suddenly turned to static. The image became distorted and became blurry mosaic images.
“What’s the matter, why is the signal so weak?”
Frank turned his head and bellowed loudly to the technician in the signal reception area, “Quickly solve this problem, right now, immediately!”
“Yes, Mr. Director!”
The department in charge of signal reception immediately sweated profusely and kept tapping on the keyboard in front of their console, rustling constantly. However, no matter how hard they tried, the screen above everyone’s heads was refreshed to only display more noise.
Just when everyone was becoming rather anxious, suddenly, the picture was clear again, but at the moment when the clarity was restored, everyone was completely dumbfounded...
They saw that on the image that was sent back to them, there was a human face, one that was smiling maliciously at the camera, with only two black hollows left as the eyes...
...
Half a day later, when the sky dimmed again, Chen Chen came back through the USB drive’s portal again. This time, five figures appeared behind him and these five figures each carried a metal weapon on their backs that was half a human’s height. It was like a cannon with a square barrel and four launch holes.
These five human figures were the latest single-soldier combat humanoid robot soldiers developed by Chen Chen — XTN-032.
XTN-032 was an improved version of the original humanoid combat robot XTN-002. They were all humanoid robots but unlike other types of robots, the biggest advantage of XTN-032 was how balanced it was. It could use all weapons that human soldiers could use and be utilized to full strength in any kind of battlefield.
What they carried on their backs was Blacklight Biotechnology’s single-soldier strategic missile “interstellar sweeper”. Each launcher was equipped with four miniature surface-to-sky interstellar sweeper missiles. Five robots added up to twenty missiles, which must be more than enough to deal with the Event Horizon which did not have any s.p.a.ce weapons.
However, as Chen Chen returned through the pa.s.sage, he immediately received news from X-112. “Sir Commander, just five hours ago, NASA’s rescue team and the returning Event Horizon have successfully docked.”
“Oh, they’ve already docked?”
Chen Chen looked around the beach and as he released his Field energy, all the tourists near the beach dropped to the ground without warning in the dark, losing consciousness. “What’s the situation, have they found Dr. Weir?”
“No...”
X-112’s voice is a bit somber. “Frank has lost contact with me. Not only him, but the entire NASA headquarters has completely lost contact with the outside world. This incident has shocked the White House.”
Chen Chen’s heart sank after hearing these words. “Is it a meme? The video sent by the Event Horizon has a memetic effect?”
“I’m not sure.”
X-112 answered frankly, “I only found some clues using the Black Knights. What is currently known is that the entire NASA headquarters building is shrouded in a peculiar black fog.”
“Black fog?”
Chen Chen’s expression was uncertain. He stopped questioning and after arranging for the XTN robots to head to the Black Knights stationed nearby, he flew directly toward Washington.
More than an hour later, when Chen Chen hurriedly rushed to the sky above Washington, he suddenly saw a sea of ??people and cars at his feet. Thousands of vehicles continued to gush out from Washington and he observed, on both sides of the road, a large number of army soldiers stationed nearby. In the dark night, all this looked like a large swarm of migrating locusts.
Then, Chen Chen took the opportunity to look into the distance, but when he saw the distant scenery clearly, his pupils suddenly shrank!
Even though he was several kilometers away, he could still see the location of the city center. A thick black fog was willfully pervading the city center, constantly spreading in all directions.
The black fog looked very solid and it was very conspicuous even in the dark. What was even more bizarre was that once the black fog covered the buildings in the city, the lights of those buildings were instantly extinguished...
In the darkness, there was a strange, alarming aura. Just by looking at it, Chen Chen had the impression that he was facing the abyss.
Chen Chen’s heart sank. He knew that the catastrophe that occurred in Event Horizon’s dimension had arrived...