Chapter 133: Return to Africa
The three movies represented the three approaches Chen Chen was going to take.
The first movie Immortal based on Resident Evil: Retribution was his first step for determining if the USB drive could disrupt timelines.
Many forms of technologies were present in the movie as well so having it in the USB drive would be as good as having the future in his hands.
For the second movie Cancer Man, Chen Chen set it in a parallel universe. This way the events in the movie should not conflict with reality. If it proved to be valid in the USB drive, cancer would be the next disease of the century to go, following Alzheimer’s.
The third movie Chronicle 2 was one Chen Chen had specifically crafted for himself.
The setting that came from the author himself should be considered canonical, it also should not have any conflict with the first movie. Judging by these observations, it should not be rejected by the USB drive.
The third movie was the one Chen Chen was most certain that could be acknowledged by the USB drive.
Besides, cutting the crystalline into pieces as seen in the movie was the most cost-effective way for Chen Chen to dictate if the crystals were harmful to the human body.
On top of that, Chen Chen made sure to include the alien plant being killed in the story. This way, he was able to negate the threat the plant posed on the superpower users, effectively canceling out the risks.
Chen Chen also made sure to lay it out so that the effects of the crystal were additive. It did not pose a problem even if he started with obtaining tiny fragments of power. He could continue extracting them and eventually reach the levels of Andrew as seen in the movie.
Perhaps even above him.
He only wondered, what was it like to become the only person in the world with superpowers?
Since Chen Chen had little to do, he opened his phone to download Zhihu[1] and entered the question in the query. Unexpectedly, he found several such questions.
Chen Chen created an anonymous account and wrote in the reply section:
“Good thing you asked. I’m in Africa making millions per month, just got off the plane. If you know, you know. These comments are getting toxic, I’m out.[2]”
Chen Chen took his leave after having only spent several days in North America and Cheng Cao departed with him as well. There was little point to keeping a trump card like him who had been known to be able to kill in five hundred different ways in this place.
Chen Chen had prepared to relocate several staff in the company here to subst.i.tute Cheng Cao.
After that, both of them took a flight back to Namibia.
Qian Wenhuan worked with great efficiency. Barely four months had pa.s.sed since Chen Chen kicked off the Alzheimer’s drug project and the Eco Science City was already taking shape.
Chen Chen was met with a dazzling view upon stepping out of Walvis Bay International Airport.
The road leading to Eco Science City was still being paved when he left Africa one month ago. Now that he had returned, he could see the newly constructed main highway opened to the public already. The roads stretched onward endlessly like a dragon reaching into the horizon. Faraway, there were several high-rise buildings under construction, reminding him of the scenery back in the Mainland.
Chen Chen had invested a hefty sum back then to recruit several cityscape designers from the Mainland. Under the joint brainstorming effort of the fleet of designers, they pushed the design of a modern concept town within a week.
The design of the town was of a vibrant architectural style with wide roads, complete with urban greenery setting incorporated with modernist philosophy. There was no lack of public facilities such as a central commercial street, central park, hospital, and schools.
A large portion of the coastal area was sectioned out for constructing villas and health centers to be situated by the Sandwich Harbor.
This was only one of the phases of the construction. Many vacant lands were sectioned out for further construction as the town grew in population. There was enough land to expand the size of the town to more than 100,000 people.
When Chen Chen stepped out of the airport, he was met with the scenery of a thriving, bustling city.
“Boss!”
Qian Wenhuan had been waiting for a while outside the airport. He was aware that Chen Chen was not a fan of large receptions, so he made sure to only bring two members of the security department. He quickly stepped up to welcome Chen Chen upon seeing him emerging from the airport.
This was a man who had stepped into a foreign land far away from home and barely managed to climb up to the ranks of business management in a medium-sized company. Now, he had broken out of his sh.e.l.l and completed the metamorphosis into a successful upper-cla.s.s businessman.
Sure enough, n.o.body should be underestimated. Chen Chen had previously never held Qian Wenhuan to a high standard, he merely offered him a small chance.
n.o.body expected Qian Wenhuan to make such good use of the opportunity and step up to the task. He proficiently handled everything, it was a truly impressive feat.
Do not be fooled by Chen Chen who was always either occupied with the research progress or running different operations across the global federation and take that as a sign of him being an absent manager. With the help of Little X at his disposal, he was familiar with all of the inner workings of the company.
This was how he came to be aware that the current organized structure of the company was in no small part due to the concentrated efforts of Qian Wenhuan.
Chen Chen patted Qian Wenhuan on the shoulder with a sense of encouragement. He asked while walking to the car, “What’s the situation on my teacher’s side?”
“Professor w.a.n.g Xi has been situated in the research center and is receiving daily treatment following the model you created. I heard that things are going quite well.”
Despite his claims, Qian Wenhuan still broke out a bitter smile. “The only problem is that this old fellow keeps claiming that he can’t allow his brain too much rest due to his condition. He spends the entire day trying to discuss all sorts of projects with the members of the research team. Word is that he’s on great terms with most staff of the research center at this point.”
Chen Chen smiled at the notion. What Professor w.a.n.g Xi mentioned about exercising an injured brain was a reference to an article on Nature.
To put it in simple terms, a research team created stroke-induced damage in the brains of mice with the use of lasers. They then began making comparisons between two separate groups of mice.
The result was this: The mice that were put into work right after their stroke displayed a higher and faster rate of recovery compared to the group of mice which were allowed three days of rest before working.
This was to say that a great amount of rest was not the best way to help a wounded brain heal. Instead, it was allowing the brain to exercise that was more efficient.
Of course, these were all merely theories put to pen and had not been practiced on humans.
“If that’s what my teacher wants, then let him have it. Just make sure he doesn’t get to the true secrets of the research center.”
Chen Chen made a gesture and approached the car. Qian Wenhuan was one step ahead of him and opened the car door for Chen Chen to enter.
They only departed after Cheng Cao took over the place of the original driver. The original driver and the accompanying bodyguards went into the second car.
“Right, how’s the underground base coming along?”
Chen Chen asked when the engine was started, “Did the Namibian government notice anything?”
“No worries, Boss.”
Qian Wenhuan swiftly explained, “We had the construction workers of the underground base sign a confidentiality agreement in exchange for tripling their wages. The terms are that they would remain in the rig every 24 hours of their days, none of them are permitted to leave or make any form of contact with the outside world until the construction is done.
“In addition, we installed a large number of signal interceptors in the district along with building fences with mounted cameras ahead of time. These workers are monitored the entire day, there won’t be any issues.”
Chen Chen nodded. “Let’s check out the underground base.”
“Ok.”
[1] A search engine in China
[2] an internet gag poking fun at people faking their ident.i.ty online.