by <unknown>
"Who are you?"
The quantum computer was still asking. Adam, who used to be able to predict everything, now had no idea when faced with this Murphy.
"Murphy, what's going on in there? Why is 'Adam' overclocking?"
Just then, a woman's stern voice came over the broadcast. "Whatever you're doing, stop it right now!"
At this time, the real Murphy was also watching all this, his heart burning with anxiety. However, even if the outside world had already descended into utter chaos because of him, this "Murphy" still did not show any expression.
Not only that, but a strange smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, then he slowly raised his right hand and touched his right eye…
'Wait, stop, what are you doing?'
Murphy was suddenly gripped by an ominous premonition…
The next second, he only heard a splattering sound echoing in his ears. The index and middle fingers of "Murphy" were inserted directly into the gap between the eye socket and the eyeball!
'Agh agh agh agh! What are you doing, this is my body! Stop it, stop it right now!
'Don't gouge out my eye, stop it!!!'
With a sharp "snap", an eyeball dropped down across Murphy's cheek and rolled a few times on the smooth floor.
Deep in his heart, the real Murphy was still snarling and howling. The weird thing was, he did not feel any pain as if this body had nothing to do with him now.
Still, if one was looking at the surveillance monitor, one would see that Murphy's right eye had been completely plucked out. The broken optic nerve dangled on his cheek as blood gurgled out, giving this Murphy a peculiar, monstrous aura.
"Where is the anesthetic gas? Stop him!"
Seeing this, a panicked shriek finally rang out on the broadcast. Then, in the laboratory Murphy was in, dozens of small holes began to hiss and emit a large amount of white smoke. A pungent smell hit his nostrils and in the blink of an eye, the smoke had suffused through the entire laboratory…
Still, after all, the anesthetic gas would need half a minute to take effect. Before it took effect, they could only watch as "Murphy" dug into the depths of his eye socket with his index finger and thumb once again!
Then Murphy's hand pulled away and a translucent USB flash drive stained with blood and brain was extracted!
That USB flash drive was hidden behind Murphy's eye!
"It's a quantum USB flash drive! Is Murphy crazy? What on Earth is he trying to do!"
Everyone was losing it in front of the surveillance monitor. The middle-aged woman at their head yelled, "Where's the security guard? Why haven't the security guards gone in to stop him!"
"The quantum computer sealed the door on its own and no one can get in!"
Someone replied, "We're trying to crack it!"
"D*mn it!"
In such circumstances, everyone could only watch Murphy tug out the USB flash drive from behind his eye and plug it directly into the only socket of the quantum computer…
"Spark!"
In the next second, the quantum computer suddenly broke out into a violent tremor and then froze completely, paralyzed in place…
"No!"
The middle-aged woman before the surveillance monitor unleashed a desperate scream. After that, she saw Murphy turned his head on the screen. With his single eye, he shot a glance at the surveillance camera above his head, then raised both his hands and gripped his own head…
"Crack crack crack… Snap!"
As if he was twisting in a screw, Murphy broke his own neck with a blank expression and then he collapsed completely…
Even when he died, there was still an eerie smile on his lips.
By the next second, the door to the inner laboratory was finally opened. The security guards who had been ready for a long time rushed in wearing gas masks. They brought out Murphy's body in half a minute.
"Report: Murphy, suspected of sabotaging the quantum computer, has committed suicide to escape the punishment for his crime."
One of the security guards said to the surveillance camera, "We didn't find any other dangerous items on him."
"What about the quantum computer?"
The middle-aged woman asked quickly, "Is the quantum computer damaged?"
"Madam Molly, the quantum computer just restarted…"
The scientist responsible for implementing the data suddenly replied, "According to the data analysis of the curves and perturbations, the quantum computer, besides being restarted by a special program… Appears to be unaffected."
"Are you sure?"
Everyone looked glad.
"We're very certain."
A hint of relief appeared in the eyes of several scientists. "Murphy used a quantum USB flash drive to implant a quantum computer program. Except for causing the quantum computer to restart, it didn't cause any damage to the quantum computer."
The scientist nodded but to be safe, he added. "Of course, it's not impossible that there are other hidden dangers, but so far, I haven't found any differences from before…"
"Thank heavens…"
"That is great news!"
"I'll say! How can a quantum computer be damaged so easily? Even if there are traitors among us, it's difficult to do that…"
Everyone in the monitoring room sighed in relief when they heard this and some began to cross themselves.
"I hope that's the case."
However, the middle-aged woman's expression remained stern. She said to the person in charge of security, "Now isn't the time to rejoice. From now on, seal off the passage to the inside completely. Before the higher-ups have inspected the quantum computer, no one is allowed to approach it again. I don't want another Murphy on our hands, understand?"
"Yes, Madam!"
"As for why Murphy did this…"
The middle-aged woman raised her head with a somber look in her eyes. "Even though he's dead, don't forget that he still has a family. I believe that if the Federation investigates, the truth will soon come to light…"
"Re, report!"
However, before she finished speaking, one of the security guards suddenly ran in from outside the laboratory and said in agitation, "Just now, there was news from Chicago. All the core members of the Murphy family have died at the same time!"
"What did you say!"
At this moment, everyone's expression changed drastically.
Chapter 413: Bose-Einstein Condensate |
"It's done."
Inside the Spire Laboratory Base, Chen Chen had a strange helmet strapped to his head. He slowly opened his eyes, a cryptic smile surfaced on his lips as he did so.
If anyone was currently present in the Quantum Deity Laboratory, they would be appalled to see that Chen Chen's expression was the same as Murphy's before his passing.
Chen Chen took off the helmet and got up to stretch his sore back.
"Sir Godfather, the other informants of the Murphy family have been silenced as well."
Little X reported, "Currently, the only informants remaining of the Murphy family who tried to target Blacklight Biotechnology are the handful of high-ranking officials in Northern America."
"Don't mind those officials. Northern America will never admit to their wrongdoings anyway."
Chen Chen turned to look at the transparent figure inside the glass beaker beside him. He saw that the transparent figure had all but dissipated, turning into a puff of smoke inside the glass beaker.
When Little X saw this, she rubbed her chin like a grown adult, a quality of admiration showed in her eyes. "Although the 'Bose-Einstein Condensed Matter Warrior' is significantly flawed and can never be inducted into a proper combat troop, with certain modifications, it would become a great tool to manipulate humans. It may be more powerful than the God chip."
"That's right, once the quantum entanglement is established, it doesn't need to be further maintained with any energy. A medium isn't required to maintain this connection, which means nothing resembling an 'umbilical cord' that
's vulnerable to be intercepted is present. Even a lead Faraday barrier cannot stop it."
Chen Chen nodded expressively.
The reason all of this could be accomplished had to be attributed to the movie Spectral that Chen Chen had downloaded previously.
The plot of Spectral revolved around the battle between an elite force from Northern America and the mysterious "Apparition", set in a certain country in Eastern Europe.
The story appeared to be set in a parallel world, where a scientist from the Northern American National Department of Defense Advanced Optical Research Agency received a mission from the higher-ups. He was instructed to head to a military base set up by the government in Eastern Europe to help alleviate the ongoing issues.
The reason he was called for was because he was the one who had invented a class of hyperspectral imaging glasses that showed a mysterious, translucent, humanoid apparition that killed anyone almost instantaneously.
The victims died in unexplainable ways. Their skin seemed to be either scalded or corroded, but their internal organs would experience what seemed to be extreme frost. The Northern American government had suffered significant losses in its attempt to "protect" this city.
Not a single scientist in the National Department of Defense could come up with an explanation for this phenomenon.
To obtain field data at proximity, he led a team of carefully selected Delta Force soldiers by himself to enter the war-torn city for further investigation.
As he continued to make further contact with these "Apparitions", he started to discover many unique traits they possessed.
For example, they were extremely mobile, could move through walls, and freeze people to death. However, they could not pass through glass and ceramic materials. Iron shavings had an almost adhesive-like quality on the apparitions, they would stick to these apparitions, effectively immobilizing them.
Additionally, these "Apparitions" were invisible under regular conditions and only revealed their form when subject to short-wavelength irradiation.
In the end, the brilliant protagonist finally realized that these so-called "Apparitions" were never any form of extraterrestrial entity in the first place. They were merely a class of weapons made from Bose-Einstein condensate.
Bose-Einstein condensate, otherwise abbreviated as BEC, was a matter state which existence was predicted by Bose and Einstein back in 1920, quoted as "a matter typically formed when a gas of bosons at low densities is cooled to temperatures very close to absolute zero."
Under this state, the quantum state of all atoms were converged into a singular quantum state. In short, regardless of the original volume or weight of a substance, they could be quantified as a singular atom at the lowest density by entering this BEC state.
In 1938, three scientists discovered that when helium-4's temperature dropped below 2.2k, it became a new kind of fluid known as a superfluid. Superfluid helium had many unusual properties including sub-zero viscosity and the existence of quantized vortices inside its elements. They quickly realized that this bizarre state was none other than the Bose-Einstein condensate foresaw 18 years ago.
It was precisely because of these strange states that allowed it to be artificially quantum entangled. Scientists in this Eastern European country started to scan the human body with X-rays and use 3D printing technology to print the scanned human structure in an absolute zero temperature simulated environment. The product of this process was a "condensate human" directly resembling the person that was scanned.
The "condensate human" by itself was a lifeless entity. However, scientists were able to replicate a quantum entanglement relationship between the conscience of the scanned person and the associating "condensate human" using their quantum devices.
The "condensate human" itself was equivalent to a singular quantum that could also be understood as a wave function. Meanwhile, the self-awareness motor of human consciousness interacted with the wave function of the "condensate human", triggering a wave collapse to form a stabilized body that could be manipulated using the host's thoughts.
With this, the scanned target could lie idly somewhere faraway while controlling their respective "condensate humans" twenty to thirty kilometers away.
The wall phasing nature of the "condensate human" could be explained with the same principle as light being able to pass through glass. The high mobility was no surprise either since their structure was extremely light in density, only nearly ten times that of air. BEC also assumed a fluid state with viscosity, making it unobstructed by airflow when moving. This was how it managed to move across the air at high speed, even able to temporarily suspend itself mid-air.
Since ceramic and glass were non-conductive materials, the only material that could hinder these "condensate humans" were metal shavings since they were excellent electricity conductors. Metal shavings could release condensed energy and trigger a self-interference and short-circuit effect.
The explanation for "condensate humans" being lethal was due to the low temperature of BEC, bordering around absolute zero -273.15 degrees Celsius. Anyone who came in direct contact with these substances would find their body temperature dropping drastically. The internal liquid inside the victim's body solidified nearly instantly, all the heat built up in the body had to escape somewhere which created a burning effect on the outer skin while heat seeped outward. This explained the strange phenomenon wherein the victim's body was scalded on the outside but the organs inside were frozen.
These extremely low-temperature "condensate humans" could move freely in the outside world because when boson gas reached absolute zero temperature, the value of kinetic energy became almost negligible, therefore energy was never lost or evaporated.
In the final portion of the movie, they managed to locate a nuclear power plant. Since a tremendous sum of power was required to produce condensate matter and maintain them at sub-zero temperature, the nest of the "condensate humans" had to be at the center of the nuclear power plant. Once the protagonist cut off the device purposed to upkeep quantum entanglement, the "condensate humans" vanished entirely as they were unable to maintain their wave function state.
At the end of the movie, only human test subjects' brains and their peripheral nervous systems remained in the ice coffins. Chen Chen could not find any verifiable proof that it was essential to remove their peripheral nervous systems. He deduced that the scientists only did it this way because they did not want hosts that could run away.
This meant that removing the peripheral nervous system was not essential.
Chen Chen figured he might as well do it his way. He first instantiated the device from the movie and attempted to figure out how he could perform a molecular scan on Buckle Murphy's body to produce the appropriate "condensate human".
This way, Buckle Murphy who was tens of thousands of kilometers away would establish a quantum entanglement effect with his "condensate body". From here on, all Chen Chen had to do was to use his latest developed brain-computer interface technology to easily manipulate Buckle Murphy from tens of thousands of kilometers away…
It was only this form of quantum entanglement that could manage to bypass the lead Faraday barrier along with the quantum power system integrated into the quantum computer. After all, only quantum may rival quantum.
The quantum USB drive was the quantum trap that Buckle Murphy laid out by leveraging Samuel's daughter, Annie. However, Chen Chen saw through this setup and instead had Little X install a Trojan program specifically designed to infiltrate the quantum computer and take advantage of the situation.
However, it was not Chen Chen's intention to destroy the computer since the device was of great significance to all of mankind. What he did was merely provide himself a backup when he truly needed it.
Chapter 414: Voting Dispute |
Chen Chen immediately felt a huge weight off his shoulders at this moment.
Ever since learning of the trump card the Earth Federation had hidden up their sleeve, he
had to tread cautiously every step of the way out of fear of ousting himself. After all, he did not have what it took to oppose the Federation before amassing enough assets to take them on. He would be forced to escape this current dimension as there were no alternatives.
Meanwhile, the only thing the Federation had that could potentially expose him was none other than the quantum computer.
The quantum computer was the most confidential secret of them all. If it was not for him upgrading Little X to put her above the quantum computer in all aspects, Chen Chen may never even come close to discovering proof of the quantum computer's existence. He would have a rough idea that the Earth Federation equipped something that allowed them to predict the future, but he may never get a finer grasp on what it was.
To put it in terms of traditional cultivation, this computer would be akin to the divine treasure of all of mankind. The existence of the computer was a game-changer, capable of subverting whatever misfortune that dawned on mankind and presented at least a sliver of hope in even the most morbid situations.
This quantum computer was never something that the Earth Federation should possess in the first place. It was the creation of the previous owner of the USB drive. The intricate workings of the computer would never be comprehended by humans at this current moment. Should anything happen to it, the chances of restoring it to a functioning state was nil, which was why Chen Chen decided it was worthwhile to install an exploit.
The way this exploit operated was simple. It would essentially censor most of any information related to Chen Chen or Blacklight Biotechnology from any future predictions. This meant that should someone ever attempt to use the quantum machine to perform any predictions that may concern Chen Chen or Blacklight Biotechnology directly, the results obtained would be a very surface-level observation on these subjects.
Apart from that, another feature of this exploit was that the quantum computer would systematically issue a copy of its daily prediction to Chen Chen. Of course, the precedent being that Chen Chen had to have another quantum USB drive.