I Have A Super USB Drive

by <unknown>

  "Sir Godfather, there's one more thing I'd like to report."

  Little X added. "Currently, we have four Black Knights hunting down the man called Keith, but the situation isn't looking ideal..."

  "How so?"

  Chen Chen raised an eyebrow.

  "As an artificial intelligence entity, I understand that it's not appropriate for me to use an arbitrary unit such as 'luck' to describe this but the concrete fact is that this man called Keith has unbelievably good luck..."

  Little X sounded a little troubled as she said, "I've already raised the combat parameters of the Black Knights and split them into two groups. I had one team pursuing the target while the other group waited in front of the target to flank him but no matter what the Black Knights did, they could not capture the target, even with the use of our weapons.

  "In addition, two of the Black Knights sustained significant injuries during the chase. One of them was flung away from above the target's car and rammed by an oncoming truck that decapitated its body in half.

  "Meanwhile, while another Black Knight was chasing down the target in an alley, the target fired a shot that got its way into the back of the Black Knight's neck, instantly destroying the God chip. The remaining Black Knights had to suspend the pursuit so they can deal with the corpse of the Black Knight."

  Little X seemed to go on endlessly. "The target never had to stop at any point of the pursuit and was constantly aided by external forces. One time, when one of the Black Knights managed to grab the target by his neck, a chandelier on the ceiling that was loosened by a stray bullet fell on top of the Black Knight before it could kill the target...

  "Point is, it appears as if our Black Knights were cursed while the target almost seems destined to survive everything that came his way. He managed to emerge from every situation no matter how dire they were and continue his advance. The target might arrive in Los Angeles by tonight."

  Chen Chen was not surprised when he heard the stream of complaints voiced by Little X. After all, everything that Little X had described was in line with the events portrayed in the movie Deadly Crisis: A Shocking Scheme which was shot three years ago.

  From what Chen Chen could remember, everything Little X described was a mirror of what had happened in the movie as well. The part about the Black Knight being severed in half by an oncoming truck happened during one of the high-speed chase scenes in the movie.

  Furthermore, Chen Chen's original plan to dispatch dozens of Black Knights was hindered due to the incident with the unstable memetic effect in Los Angeles. In the end, Chen Chen had to settle with only dispatching four Black Knights.

  Even the number of the villains lined up perfectly as shown in the movie...

  "It's a shame that I'm a little preoccupied at the moment, I'd have liked to take a look for myself."

  Chen Chen expressed mildly before changing the topic, "This isn't the time to be occupied with this thought. Tell me, X, did you find the cause for the appearance of these angels?"

  "You mean..."

  Little X stuttered for a moment.

  "You mean why more than twenty angel statues appeared in the Quantum Deity Laboratory?"

  Chen Chen followed up with another question. "Did the statues appear after people watched the video created by 'Adam'?"

  "This speculation can pretty much be confirmed at this point!"

  Little X answered promptly, "There are a total of twenty-three representatives from each continent in the Quantum Deity Laboratory, also known as the 'shield bearers'. This also happens to match the number of statues that you discovered. Since the 'shield bearers' are the ones with the highest level of authorization in the Quantum Deity Laboratory, they should be the first ones with access to whatever information Adam compiles, therefore they must've watched the video."

  "I see, so it should be safe to say that whoever watches the video will be infected with the Angel meme and turn into angel statue, is that it?"

  Chen Chen was shaken by this revelation and further enquired, "Are the effects of the memetic pattern replicated when only looking at the statues themselves?"

  "So far, that doesn't seem to be the case."

  Little X responded, "So far, there haven't been any signs of the memetic infection in the police and military force members tasked with the containment operation who made direct eye contact with the angel statues. The same observation applies to the officers in the Quantum Deity Laboratory and the Herrank Warehouse District."

  "Excellent."

  Chen Chen nodded. He was under the impression that since the video created by Adam had an infectious quality, it should imply that the statues themselves possessed the same quality as well. This was why he avoided direct eye contact with them.

  It now appeared to him that these statues were not as dangerous as he originally had presumed.

  In that case, the situation should be resolved without further hiccups. Despite the major losses the Los Angeles police department had sustained, their higher-ups were still dedicating their efforts to posting officers to the Herrank Warehouse District and searching for the remaining statues.

  All that was left was to deal with the protagonist Keith. Then, Chen Chen should be able to expose his hand to the world after.

  Just as Chen Chen thought that the dust was settling, Little X's voice suddenly became frantic. She reported urgently, "Sir Godfather, I just received news of some unexpected development in the Los Angeles City Hall."

  Chen Chen frowned against his will the moment he heard this. He turned toward the direction of Downton Los Angeles and asked with concern in his voice, "Don't tell me that the memetic effects are reported in the city hall..."

  "Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened!"

  Little X replied promptly, "I've extracted the footage from the city hall network. The angel statues have appeared inside the city hall without warning. What's worse, there's more than one of them!"

  Chapter 476: Petrification |

  Chen Chen's first reaction to this piece of news was fright then it was immediately followed by anger. "Why are angel statues appearing over there? Was the prophecy in the Quantum Deity Laboratory leaked outside?"

  "It's probably not..."

  Little X sounded slightly hesitant. "After you left the Quantum Deity Laboratory, I continued to monitor the conversation between the rescue army and their superior and I can verify that the White House was doing as we instructed. Although I cannot confirm that they won't play the video in the future, I can at least confirm that they aren't planning to play it at the moment."

  Chen Chen nodded after hearing Little X's explanations.

  It was true. If the video was leaked in the White House, the angel statues should be appearing in the White House instead of the city hall of Los Angeles. Chen Chen's mistake was not destroying the footage of Adam's prophecy while he was leaving in a hurry.

  When he thought about it again, it was the right choice to leave in a hurry. If he spent any moments longer in the Quantum Deity Laboratory around the killer statues, he might have been killed before he had time to delete the footage.

  Chen Chen sighed when he thought of this as his expression grew heavy. "If it has nothing to do with the footage being leaked, then what is it that caused the angel statue to appear in the city hall that is half a city away from the Herrank Warehouse District?"

  Seeing that he was unable to come up with an answer no matter how much he juggled the problem, Chen Chen went ahead and opened the brass ring on his finger. He took a crystal pill hidden within the ring and promptly tossed it in his mouth.

  With the enhancement of the T-virus along with the gradual effects of the long-term consumption of the drug helping his brain develop, Chen Chen's mind had been honed to a supreme level that greatly triumphed his form in the past.

  This was also why the effects of the drug were slowly lessened as time went on. It was still helpful to take an NZT-48 pill during times such as this.

  Within thirty second
s after swallowing the pill, Chen Chen felt his mind being rejuvenated. His ability to compile thoughts was significantly enhanced as well.

  This amount of clarity was just enough to help Chen Chen break through and notice the clue that was just sitting inches away from him all this time and connected the dots!

  "I see!"

  Chen Chen let out a heavy sigh. His tense eyebrow eased into a natural shape when he asked Little X, "You haven't gone through the surveillance footage in the Herrank Warehouse District, is that right?"

  "Yes."

  Little X answered promptly, "The system in the Werrank Warehouse District is severely outdated, dating up to two decades ago so their devices aren't connected to the Internet. I was going to send the Black Knights to extract the footage manually but the Los Angeles police got to the scene and sealed up the area so I never managed to obtain reliable footage."

  "In that case, that explains everything."

  Chen Chen nodded. "X, we've made a mistake without even realizing it. It's about the prophecy video created by the quantum computer 'Adam'.

  "We were under the impression that the video was the source of a memetic entity and served as a warning to let us know of its memetic qualities. Looking at things now, that may not be the case..."

  Little X sounded slightly perturbed. "But it's a video that poses memetic qualities. It even killed the members in the Quantum Deity Laboratory..."

  "What you said is true but it's not completely true either."

  Chen Chen remarked, "What if I told you that the problem didn't lie with the video itself?"

  "But..."

  Little X was having trouble catching up.

  "Have you considered that perhaps the video itself wasn't the problem but lied with the angel statues inside the video?"

  Chen Chen went on. "Which means that the angel statues appearing in real life don't transmit its effects. It's only when it's shown in recorded footage or image when it transmits its effects to humans..."

  "Ah!"

  Chen Chen exclaimed in shock, "Could that be it?"

  "The great Sherlock Holmes once quoted that once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth..."

  Chen Chen reinstated his point with a firm nod as he noted. "This explains why despite making direct eye contact with the angel statues not causing its effects to be transmitted and the city hall still somehow reports appearances of new angel statues! It must be that someone in the city hall has played recorded footage of the angel statues. The video played by this person must possess the same quality as the Adam prophecy. It's capable of turning humans into angel statues!"

  After saying all this, Chen Chen went on the move immediately. He evoked Field and took to the skies above!

  Little X quickly asked when he saw Chen Chen departing, "Sir Godfather, are you heading to the city hall?"

  "That's right, I have to prevent more people from being infected by the meme!"

  Chen Chen answered as he glided across the skies, "X, your task is very important as well. Before the statues can continue to spread, I need you to take down all uploaded footage concerning the angel statues on the Internet and destroy all of this footage immediately!"

  "Understood!"

  Little X answered confidently and proceeded to attend to her given task.

  The reason Chen Chen went out in full force like this was that he was the only one who understood how dire the situation was.

  If the truth was just as he had suspected, that anyone who saw a video of an image of the angel statues would be also transformed into a new angel statue by the memetic force, mankind was potentially facing a crisis that would wipe it out!

  With the rising quality of life in the twenty-first century, recording devices and cameras were easily accessible to almost everyone. Was there even anyone who did not have access to a phone with basic camera functionalities at this point?

  To a certain extent, the angel statues were the natural enemies of mankind. If these pictures got to the Internet and ten people living thousands of miles saw them, that would result in ten additional angel statues. Once they began their killings, more people would spread the footage...

  It would soon spread like wildfire and within days, mankind would be facing an unprecedented, giant calamity. This was especially the case for large cities since the task of locating an untraceable killer statue was extremely daunting in a complex cityscape. The sheer work that would be required to do so was insurmountable.

  By the end of it, even if mankind had discovered some way to negate its effects and got rid of the transmission source, there would have been hundreds of thousands, even millions of these statues all over the world. These statues would continue their killing, causing endless chaos.

  As the situation worsened, mankind's civilization would face complete devastation sooner than later!

  This was complete genocide that directly affected the life of every living person. This was why Chen Chen treated this event with such urgency and had to step on the field himself. After all, nobody would be free from this calamity. Chen Chen did not want to have to resort to taking his family with him to escape to another dimension like a defeated dog.

  When such a drastic possibility surfaced in Chen Chen's mind, he accelerated to supersonic speed again and cut across the sky above the city district of Los Angeles. A booming sound echoed everywhere he went. People shrank, covered their ears, and looked up to the sky but could not see anything.

  Five minutes later, Chen Chen finally arrived at the Los Angeles City Hall and exited his supersonic state. When he looked down at the ground below him, he saw people screaming and crying as they ran out of the city hall. Right by the entrance of the city hall stood an angel statue!

  There was a lifeless body by the angel statue's feet with its neck mangled into pieces...

  Chen Chen froze for a split second upon witnessing this scene. When he squinted, an invisible force surged out of his eyes!

  It was like a bomb rippling across the air. In an instant, a bolt of shockwave shot outward in a radial shape. There were no visible flames or explosions, only pulsing airwaves that distorted its surroundings in a wave pattern!

  The very next second, the invisible force smashed ferociously into the statue and its surrounding terrain. In an instant, cracks formed on the statue and it was quickly obliterated into thousands of pieces!

  "Boom boom boom!"

  The sound of bellowing thunder rippled across the vicinity as pieces of gravel scattered across the sky and sprinkled over the ground. The handful of the survivors that emerged from the city hall acted as if they had seen a natural disaster. They cried and clambered onto their feet and tried to run as far away as their legs would take them!

  After the dust had settled, Chen Chen saw a deep pit formed on the ground as if a meteorite had just landed in this spot. There was hardly a trace of the angel statue. It seemed as if it had diffused itself into the dust!

  Chen Chen of all people knew that the statue would not be defeated this easily. As soon as he blinked, the statue appeared in his field of vision again. It sat in the middle of the newly-formed pit, completely unscathed as if it was never damaged in the first place!

  Everything went just as Chen Chen had planned. The next second, Chen Chen unleashed Field again and sent mounds of dirt surrounding the pit back into the pit, completely burying the statue.

  This time, Chen Chen made sure to take extra precautions. He made sure to fly another hundred meters into the air before he slowly closed his eyes and opened them again moments after.

  This time, the statue did not emerge from under the pile of dirt. It seemed that his solution of burying it to contain it worked out!

  Chen Chen finally took a breather when he saw this. What came after this was repeated stabs of pain in his mind and a burning sensation in his nose.

  Chen Chen rubbed his nose absentmindedly. As expected, his palm was covered in blood.

  He had
to hurry up...

  Chen Chen did not pay any mind to the angel statue buried underground. After landing, he immediately zoomed into the city hall. The inside of the city hall was a chaotic mess. Countless stacks of files and documents were scattered all over the floor along with the occasional dead bodies in different locations.

  Chen Chen looked up briefly to survey his surroundings. In an instant, all the surveillance cameras in the lobby burst into flames in a cloud of explosion. After getting this out of the way, Chen Chen advanced into one of the corridors in the city hall.

  Everywhere Chen Chen went, the surveillance cameras he saw exploded. He stopped when he arrived at the entrance of the office labeled as the city mayor's office.

  With his supreme sense of hearing, he detected the collective thumps of a person's heartbeat.

  This person's heartbeats sounded like gongs. It was as if they had been afflicted with a terrible disease...

  As soon as Chen Chen pushed the door open, he saw a brilliant flash appearing in front of him. A bullet was aimed at Chen Chen's chest but its trajectory was promptly cut short by an invisible wall of Field.

  Chen Chen put his hand out and picked up the bullet dangling mid-air and looked ahead at the room in front of him. He saw a silver-haired middle-aged man with his face contorted in horror staring right back at him.

  "Mr. Mayor."

  Chen Chen stepped into the office and shut the door with his backhand while he greeted nonchalantly, "Is this your way of greeting your guest?"

  "There, there are monsters outside!"

  Parsons looked at Chen Chen. His trembling right hand immediately gave way just how nervous he was. Smoke was still seeping out of the revolver he held in his hand as he asked, "Who are you, are you here to save me?"

  "No, I'm here to settle this matter."

  Chen Chen looked at the hands of Parsons, the only part of his body that was not covered by his clothes. Chen Chen took a lightning step forward, came in front of him, and proceeded to grab him by his wrist.