by <unknown>
Little X nodded, took the folders, and left.
Left by himself in his office, Chen Chen stared at the space in front of him and put his mind in a trance.
Chen Chen's current problems were resolved, but also not completely either. The threat of subspace still loomed over him like a mountain and the more he explored the dimension, the more threats he uncovered. These accumulated threats had reached a point where it had become very tricky for him to proceed.
Very tricky.
A dark cloud fogged over his eyes when he thought about it. The subspace navigation technology had opened broad highways for human civilization to expand, but it had set many pitfalls and dangers in its path as well. It would take tens of thousands of years to fully address these problems...
One minor slip up and mankind may find itself caught in a disastrous situation which it may never recover from.
"Professor Wang Xi, did you foresee any of this when you left the dimension key for me?"
Chen Chen slowly opened his left palm and a USB drive shining radiantly rested in the center of his palms. If humans were to avoid dealing with the subspace, the only alternative was to abandon space colonization entirely and take another approach, which was parallel universe expansion.
However, a parallel universe may prove to be even more problematic than subspace navigation so he found himself caught in a dilemma.
Then, he turned and looked out the window. He saw a lonely, dark cloud slowly approaching the city, bringing with it a storm that would envelop the entire city...
...
"Kaboom!"
A terrific thunder tore across the sky above the Eco Science City, jolting numerous of its inhabitants awake. At this hour, somewhere inside an international university in the Eco Science City was a dormitory room with its walls plastered with posters of female characters from various anime. A young man snapped awake on his bed.
"Woah!"
The young man jumped from his luxuriously designed, soft bed. He looked at his empty room with sweat pooling on his forehead...
"Huff, huff... Where am I?"
The young man gasped for air for some time before he calmed himself down. He looked around him fearfully.
This was a strange room he found himself in.
Four slender and transparent pillars could be seen installed in all four corners of the room. Their luminescent surface made them look like large columns of crystals. Posters were splattered across the wall. There was hardly a single spot that was left blank. The display on the wall in front of him drew most of his attention. It was a cabinet decorated with countless limited edition figurines. Any one of these could probably be auctioned online where a group of rabid fanbase would fight over them...
"Wait, didn't I die?"
The young man looked at his unfamiliar surroundings, countless past memories suddenly raced past his mind. A tinge of horror suddenly appeared on his face and his head began throbbing with pain!
"Ahh!"
The young man put his hands to his head and screamed in pain. Countless different memories stacked on top of one another in his mind and it felt like his head was about to explode!
"Master!"
Moments after he cried out, the vitals detector installed in the room immediately emitted a piercing alarm. At the same time, a gentle-looking female Android dressed in a maid costume barged through the entrance and pushed the young man on the bed. Then, a beam of light appeared from the Android's eyes which was promptly used to scan his body thoroughly!
"Vital signs: normal. Blood pressure slightly above average, no abnormalities with the blood lipids. Performing brain scan... No visible brain disease or infection. Performing body scan... No abnormal signals detected."
After the brief inspection, the Android rose on its feet and heaved a sigh of relief the way a regular human would. Meanwhile, the young man who was suddenly thrown back into the bed seemed to calm down as well and stopped screaming.
"Master, do you feel uncomfortable? Do you need me to arrange an appointment with a specialist?"
The maid Android asked.
"No, it's alright..."
The young man shook his head and turned down the offer, then he shushed the Android out of the room. "Get, get out! Stop bothering me!"
"Yes, Master."
The maid Android bowed obediently, then left the room at once, making sure to close the door as it left.
After the Android had left and the young man was alone, the pure astonishment and horror the young man felt rose to the surface and became clear in his expression. He looked at his trembling hands, then at the decorations of the room. His body grew so hot that even the glasses he wore began to fog up from his breath.
"I, I was reincarnated! I'm eighteen years old again!"
The young man fumbled out of the bed and tried to arrange the disarrayed memory swimming in his mind. A cold glare appeared in his eyes. "This, this dimension is on a different timeline from the world which I came from... This world hasn't been destroyed by the Consciousness Stealer and It's... It's because that man defeated the Consciousness Stealer and saved mankind from complete destruction.
"Heh, that's pretty impressive when you think about it, defeating the Consciousness Stealer."
When the young man remembered that person, that detestable figure, his eyes shone with hatred and his body started to tremble. The pure boiling hatred inside him made the previous agitation and fear he was feeling seem like a false memory at this point. "Wouldn't you know, something has given me a golden opportunity for revenge!
"Just you wait, this time, I'll kill you with my own hands and take away everything you hold dear!"
The young man's expression turned wretched when he made this proclamation. Then, he searched the room and found and put on some plain clothes made with very expensive fabric before stepping into the corridor.
The young man was startled the moment he stepped out of the corridor because right by the entrance were three young men who looked about the same age as himself. They seemed very concerned when they saw him. One of them stepped forward and placed a hand on his forehead, "Zeyu, how are you feeling? The Android maid told us that you're sick, is that true?"
"No, it's just a nightmare."
The young man shrugged and pushed off the hand on his forehead. Then, he looked back at them coldly. "DuPont, Edward, Herbert, I want you guys to keep this a secret. I don't want to cause my mom and dad any unnecessary worry, got it?"
"Alright!"
"Got it."
"If you say so."
Met with Zeyu's piercing glare, they could only keep their heads down and promise to keep it a secret.
With that, Zeyu took his eyes away from them and left the dormitory by himself.
"What's up with Zeyu today?"
After Zeyu left, one of them mentioned, "He wasn't like this before. Also, I've only ever seen such a sharp glare from my grandfather..."
"Probably some family problems, as usual. I'm sure you also know that he has some feud with his brother..."
Another one of them stared thoughtfully at Zeyu's departing figure and commented.
"Anyway, this has nothing to do with us, let's just mind our own business."
The tallest among them remarked, "Didn't our family go through all the hassle of sending us here so that we can stop depending on the Chen family for everything? Don't bring shame to your family's name alright..."
They left the matter aside.
These three young men were the heirs of several great plutocrats in the Earth Federation. If any of them showed up in public, it was sure to cause a large commotion and draw the attention of people all around them due to their immense reputation. Despite that, they had to tread very carefully around Zeyu because he came from a family that somehow even eclipsed the family of these plutocrat bloodlines...
The full name of Zeyu was Chen Zeyu. He was the second child of Chen Chen's parents.
Chapter 627: Chen Chen, Where’s Your Huma
nity? |
After leaving the school, Chen Zeyu slowly traveled down the wide road.
There was a lingering concern in his eyes that he just could not wipe off when he saw the streets filled with traffic.
Everywhere he looked, he saw skyscrapers, winding tunnels, and highways all paved with transparent tiles that made him feel like he was living in a sci-fi movie. The surrounding buildings were all speckless and from time to time, maglev trains would roar past the tracks that seemed to connect to every part of the city, from one edge to another.
"Based on the memory of this body, it should be the year 2043 which means I should be eighteen years old. I must say that I wasn't expecting Blacklight Biotechnology to develop to such levels..."
Chen Zeyu had the memories from both lifetimes combined in one body. The memory of his other life was drastically different from the current life he led. He remembered growing up in an era marked by destruction and chaos. In that life, "that person" had disappeared and left the people of that world to ruin, trapped in a losing battle with the Consciousness Stealer.
In that life, he managed to take advantage of the artificial intelligence left by "that person" to gain control over Blacklight Biotechnology. Countless people tried to assassinate him so they could seize control of Blacklight Biotechnology, but he was resilient and managed to outlast all of their wretched plots in his life.
When he turned eighteen years old, the AI decided that he was finally worthy, and handed over everything that was left of Blacklight Biotechnology to him.
As a result, a united resistance army powerful enough to put up a respectable fight against the Holy Fusion Empire was born.
With that, he stood at the peak of the world like an emperor of ancient times. He held endless power and was blessed with a limitless lifespan. At that time, he was very confident in his abilities and was deeply convinced that he was powerful enough to take back everything from the Consciousness Stealer. However, after several rounds of battle with the enemy, reality served him a wake-up call and stripped away his hope.
The difference between his empire and the enemy was too drastic. The difference in the size of the army, resources, and the threat of enemy psionicists drove him to a corner. To make matters worse, the Consciousness Stealer was the master behind the Holy Fusion Empire and it could destroy the world if it wanted to.
With all the odds stacked against him, he crumbled. He gave up on the idea of unifying the world and reshaping human civilization. Days and nights were spent indulging in pleasures such as alcohol and women. The management of the city and the ongoing war with the Holy Fusion Empire were left entirely in the hands of the AI since the AI could do a better job than he ever could in that state.
In the blink of an eye, he had wasted four centuries away.
Originally, he thought that he could continue wasting away like that for all of eternity. However, the story of his memory ended abruptly on the final day of that four centuries.
On that fateful night, the b*stard that had disappeared for four centuries suddenly made an appearance.
That person reappeared just as abruptly as when he disappeared.
Chen Zeyu was admittedly horrified when he received news of that person's return because he knew that person was going to reclaim everything that was once his. Chen Zeyu who had held onto and abused his position for the last four centuries was unwilling to bid farewell to his privileges because he was fearful of what would happen to him after. No matter what, he was not going to let anyone take away what he had!
Therefore, he decided to rebel. After all, the enemy was only one person against his gigantic army.
Needless to say, things ended disastrously for Chen Zeyu. The deceitful AI that had been serving him for four centuries betrayed him without any hesitation when it mattered most. Without barely any resistance, the entirety of Blacklight Biotechnology was yielded to that person's hands.
Chen Zeyu's final memory was of himself waiting for his death sentence on the platform, death by hanging. He still remembered how he felt when he stood on the platform, with a rope around his neck. All the hatred in his mind turned into strength, so much strength that he was hardly afraid of death. He spent every instant of the final seconds channeling his anger into spit as he cursed that person with every ounce of his being.
That was the last of his memories in that separate life.
Those four centuries he had led in the other world.
Standing in the middle of the city, the cumulative memory of those four centuries rushed over him and flooded over the eighteen years of memories in this body, this shell. He faced this world like it was a fever dream. Nothing in this world felt welcoming to him because his memory was still fixed at the moment of his execution. This world where he stood now was not one destroyed by the Consciousness Stealer. Taking a sharp contrast from that cursed world, this world sang a song of prosperity and peace for all of mankind!
"Surprise, surprise, Brother. I'm back..."
Chen Zeyu mumbled to himself while he tried to conceal the murderous look in his eyes. He decided that since his empire was overturned by that person in his past life, the story shall be relived the other way round in this world.
"Just you wait, I'll bide my time in this world. If not a year, then a decade. And if not a decade, then a century. When I have everything I need to take your throne, then I'll make sure you experience all the pain and suffering I had to endure... Hm? Hold on, what do you want from me?"
While Chen Zeyu was drafting his grand scheme for the next decades or centuries to come, a black car with tinted windows suddenly screeched to a stop in front of him. Immediately after that, four gentlemen wearing suits and sunglasses stepped out of the car and approached him.
Before he could put up any resistance, two of them had grabbed Zeyu by his arms and pressed them hard behind his back. Without a word exchanged between them, he was shoved into the car.
The car departed the scene immediately after.
"What are you guys doing, are you crazy? Do you have any idea who I am?"
The moment Chen Zeyu uttered this sentence, he realized that anything he said now would not have any effect. Now that he had time to take a closer look at these suspicious individuals, he realized that he knew them. They were the secret Black Knights of Blacklight Biotechnology. These mindless zombies did not even have a conscience and all they knew to do was to follow the orders given by the mastermind AI.
He was familiar with them in his past life, the life he led for four centuries.
Since there was no way for him to escape this current predicament, he began strategizing what he should do now.
"Wait, maybe this isn't what I think it is..."
Cold sweat pooled on his forehead without his noticing. Trapped in this situation with no way out, his mind began to race. "Calm down, calm down! I've already died once so how could I let something minor like this faze me? Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with me. Maybe the original Chen Zeyu caused some trouble and is just going to be reprimanded?"
Chen Zeyu rummaged through his mind for a reasonable explanation for what whoever was in charge could want with him. What in the world did he do? Why were the Black Knights here?
Chen Zeyu was brought to the Blacklight Central Building in this state of unrest. They passed through the long winding corridors and entered an elevator without stopping anywhere. Then, they headed for the top floor.
The doors of the elevator opened with a sharp beep and Chen Zeyu was greeted with the sight of an empty office.
The office looked more like a conference room, probably because it was so large since it was an entire floor of the building with all the walls torn down to be purposed as a gigantic office. The floors were surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows and Chen Zeyu immediately noticed a man seated on a chair directly on the opposite end of the room. The man on the chair was gazing at the bustling city several hundred meters below.
"Sir Godfather, your brother is here."
An elegant, well-dressed lady suddenly approached from Chen Zeyu's side. She announced to the man on the opposite end of the room before turning to look at Chen Zeyu, seemingly sizing her up with several glances. She formed a smile with her eyes and greeted politely, "Hello little Zeyu, it's been a while hasn't it?"
"Who are... You?"
Zeyu knew that it was Little X and was about to address her as Little X but quickly stopped himself from doing so. He remembered that this person whom he now resided in had never met Little X before. He could not expose himself carelessly.
The surrounding Black Knights had let go of him by this point. Meanwhile, the figure on the opposite end of the room turned to face the new visitor. Chen Zeyu immediately recognized the man.
Chen Zeyu's eyes turned into two tiny circles in the middle of sheets of pale irises. The person in front of him looked just like he would four centuries from now in this current timeline. How could the same person possibly not age a single day when he appeared in his past life set in the future...
"Calm down, Chen Zeyu. He won't know what will happen four centuries from now nor will he know that you've traveled from four centuries in the future!"
Chen Zeyu tried to compose himself. He swallowed hard and mustered a hardly convincing smile. "Brother?"
"Zeyu."
Chen Chen craned his neck to one side and eyed this young man with a scrutinizing look. It would seem that the Chen family genetics was quite strong. When he looked at this little brother of his, it felt like he was winding back the clock and looking at himself from more than twenty years ago. There was certainly a noticeable similarity in both their facial structures.
A well-toned body structure and well-defined facial features. Though it would be too generous to describe him as having a model appearance, he was more than pleasant to look at as is.
"Brother, is there anything you need from me?"
Chen Zeyu enquired again, his voice still quivered slightly.
"There's something I've been wondering for some time."