Chapter 556: Blacklight City
Chen Chen followed the other party and got into an off-road vehicle. The engine was started and they began to drive inland.
On their journey, Chen Chen saw a city.
Chen Chen called it a city but it was a ruined city site. It had been indeed a city back then but now, all that had crumbled. Buildings with more than five floors had long collapsed due to disrepair and the buildings that remained seemed to have been transformed into a residential area.
Around the city, fields had been developed.
The group did not invite Chen Chen into the city. After all, Chen Chen’s origin was still unknown. They could only take Chen Chen to a military base and used it as a place to receive Chen Chen.
Although this military base stationed in the wasteland seemed a bit complacent, a scan of Chen Chen’s Field revealed rows of snipers and hidden troops.
“It’s a bit crude, please don’t take offense.”
After they arrived at the military base, Anderson personally received Chen Chen and asked his lieutenant to leave the room.
Chen Chen glanced at the layout of the room, then sat down on the sofa on the side.
Anderson also sat on the other side. He went straight to the point. “Your Excellency Chen Chen, are you related to the Chen Chen of Blacklight Biotechnology?”
Chen Chen answered without hesitation, “Perhaps you won’t believe it, but I’m Chen Chen.”
Anderson was silent for a while when he heard these words, but he did not seem too surprised. “I don’t know if you have any evidence? Please understand, it’s not that I don’t believe you, but as far as we know, Chen Chen of Blacklight Biotechnology had died 378 years ago...”
“I’m quite puzzled myself.”
Chen Chen smiled. “If I remember correctly, when the catastrophe of the Consciousness Stealer occurred, I couldn’t have been that famous.”
Anderson was a little taken aback when he heard this. He did a double-take. “Didn’t you come from the Divine Fusion Empire? Don’t you know that the name Chen Chen has spread there widely long ago? Any worshipper of the Consciousness Stealer would know that the name Chen Chen is synonymous with the devil.”
At that, Anderson gave a holler. A guard came in and Anderson asked him to get some books.
More than ten minutes later, the book The Legendary Tales of the Divine Fusion Empire was delivered to Chen Chen.
“It’s all here.”
Anderson put on his gla.s.ses, turned to one of the pages, and then handed it to Chen Chen. “This is it.”
“The battle between G.o.d and the Devil?”
Chen Chen squinted his eyes when he heard this. He only saw that the page showed a picture with a style similar to an oil painting and there were two figures depicted in it. The figure closer to the viewer was not human and only one-fifth of its body was shown. On the opposite of this figure was the figure of a man.
Although the picture was a bit blurry, Chen Chen still made out at once that this figure seemed to be him...
Seeing this, Chen Chen could not help raising his eyebrows.
“Sure enough, your appearance is indeed very similar to this image.”
Anderson carefully observed Chen Chen a few times. “If only 30% of me believed in you before, I’m now 50% convinced. In the legend of the Divine Fusion Empire, Chen Chen was the first psionicist among humankind and the first human being to pledge loyalty to the Consciousness Stealer, but later he rebelled. To pursue a stronger power, he confronted the Consciousness Stealer in the sky and was eventually killed by the Consciousness Stealer...”
“Borrowing the story of Jesus and Judas from the Bible?”
Chen Chen asked with a grin.
“Yes...”
Anderson nodded. “Of course, few of us in the Joint Military Forces believe this legend, but the name Chen Chen has become a household name all over the world.”
Seeing that Chen Chen remained silent, Anderson suddenly tilted his head and said again, “If you’re Chen Chen, then Blacklight City should be able to verify your ident.i.ty.”
“Blacklight City?”
“Blacklight City is one of the five major forces of the Joint Resistance Army.”
Anderson seemed to understand why Chen Chen had no idea of anything. He just explained a.s.suredly, “The reason we’re called the Joint Resistance Army is that we’re composed of the four major continents and Blacklight Biotechnology of the previous era. Blacklight City is one of the human cities built by the Blacklight Biotechnology force.”
“That’s enough.”
Chen Chen took a deep breath when he heard this, then stood up decisively and said, “Give me the position of Blacklight City.”
Anderson’s eyes flickered and he once again asked the guard at the door to bring a map. Chen Chen pored over the map, only to find that the location of the so-called Blacklight City turned out to be in Greenland.
“Only the severe cold can resist the attack of the Consciousness Stealer.”
Anderson recounted softly, “Although all fusion deaths of the infection had disappeared 378 years ago after the Great Fusion, the Consciousness Stealer also became extremely powerful. The world, having lost more than 3 billion people, had to go up against a mature Consciousness Stealer...
“I heard from my grandfather that the war between humans and the Consciousness Stealer lasted three months. The most powerful weapon of humankind, the nuclear bomb, fell like rain on the ground at the feet of the Consciousness Stealer. Even so, all this could not hold back the enemy’s footsteps. It destroyed all human civilization and plowed the entire human world. Then it ceased moving near the Hawaiian Island in the Pacific Ocean, sank into the depths of the sea, and went into hiding...
“However, just when the remaining humans rose from the rubble and were celebrating having escaped, we discovered that among the first batch of infected people in Africa and Europe, there were some who did not die in the Great Fusion. The Consciousness Stealer had spared them and turned them into its worshippers...
“So, a force called the Divine Fusion Empire was established.”
Chen Chen listened silently. He stood up after listening to all this, then turned and walked outside.
However, when Chen Chen reached the door, he suddenly paused. “General Anderson, which force do you belong to?”
“I...”
Anderson opened his mouth but suddenly fell silent.
Seeing this, a murderous intent flashed in Chen Chen’s eyes and the atmosphere in the entire office suddenly became tense.
“Crack, crack...”
Anderson noticed that the cracks were growing in the gla.s.s of the window, the photo frame on the table, and the water cup. At the same time, he suddenly felt his heart pounding as if something terrifying was about to happen in the next second.
Seeing this, Anderson finally smiled bitterly. He hurriedly said, “I was born in Liberty City under the jurisdiction of Northern America. I was appointed by Speaker Morrison, one of the five speakers of the supreme council of the Joint Resistance Army...”
Hearing this sentence, Chen Chen did not speak again and walked out of the office directly.
As Chen Chen left, the atmosphere in the room immediately returned to normal. Anderson looked at the cracked water gla.s.s on the table in a bewildered panic. If he had not said anything just now, the other party would have killed him...
“Could he be the ancestor of the Chen family in Blacklight City?”
Anderson’s eyes flickered. “In that case, the legend of the Blacklight City is probably true. Chen Chen didn’t die back then. He just chose to freeze himself and waited for the day to make his comeback.
“And now, that day has arrived...”
...
Chen Chen ignored the stares of the many people in the military base. He just pondered silently while walking toward the outside world.
Through his superb understanding of psychology, Chen Chen could ascertain that the top commander of the Northern American division did not lie and everything he said was true.
However, some of his main points were rather fishy. He decisively exposed the location of Blacklight City, but he did not provide Chen Chen with the location of other cities.
Along with the flickering look in his eyes, Chen Chen could essentially surmise that infighting was probably involved.
Indeed, human sorrows and joys were not always interlinked. As long as there were people, there would be conflict. Even if they were under the same force, there were constant internal fights.
After confirming Chen Chen’s ident.i.ty, Anderson decisively exposed the location of Blacklight City, taking advantage of the situation to lead Chen Chen toward that city.
What Anderson had in mind could not be any clearer.
Therefore, Chen Chen asked which faction Anderson belonged to. Since Anderson was treating Chen Chen as a hazard, he had better be prepared for a backlash from Chen Chen. If he did not even tell Chen Chen his faction at that time, Chen Chen would indeed take action immediately and kill Anderson.
If Chen Chen was feeling up to it, he would even directly flatten the entire military base as a proclamation of his return.
Although doing so would be unreasonable, Chen Chen had not intended to reason with anyone because he had shown the other party enough courtesy beforehand.
“Blacklight City?”
Chen Chen murmured silently. His expression flashed twice and then he flew up directly before the shocked eyes of many soldiers, accelerated with a “bang” and disappeared at the end of the sky a few seconds later...
After one day.
Chen Chen came to Greenland, which was the largest island in the world, covering an area of 2.17 million square kilometers. However, the entire island was covered in snow all year round. It was the closest place in the world to the North Pole, even closer than the North Sea Continent.
The temperature in the coastal area could reach above zero in summer and the inland part was frozen all year round. More than 80% of the entire island was covered by ice. It was in the southernmost coastal zone of such a harsh environment that a city stood.
It was different from the cities that Chen Chen saw in the Divine Fusion Empire before. Although it was remote, it had a more civilized air. Whether it was the huge civilian port here or the tall buildings on the inner coast, it all appeared more civilized.
Chen Chen stood high in the sky, silently looking at the brightly lit city under his feet. He did not expect that electricity was still running here and at the same time, cars could be seen pa.s.sing through the city.
However, unlike reality, the cars here were very small, more like old people’s scooters.
Chen Chen did not yet disturb the city. Taking advantage of the darkness, he slowly descended from a high alt.i.tude, landed in a dark corner, and then looked around.
The streets here were also made of concrete, but the sides of the streets were lined with banks of snow and the pedestrians on both sides were also walking in a hurry. They wore baggy winter clothes and shuttled through the city. Many people’s faces reflected the color of wind and frost.
Although it still could not be compared to reality, it was much better than the world of the Divine Fusion Empire.
There was another very eye-catching aspect, that was, there was a large number of Asian people living here. At a casual glance, Chen Chen saw that most of them were Caucasian or Asian while there were few African people.
“Heh, interesting.”
Chen Chen whispered. He walked into the street and then followed the traffic toward the center of the city.
A few kilometers away from him, there was a huge building. According to the layout, that should be the city hall. Chen Chen could still see a familiar logo on the top of that building.
It was a black circle with faint yellow light radiating on the outside, all of which comprised the logo of Blacklight Biotechnology.
...
“Beep, beep, beep...”
At the moment Chen Chen appeared in the city, deep in the city hall, in a room full of thousands of screens, there was a sudden rush of notifications.
This room seemed to control the surveillance of the entire city. At this time, the surveillance feeds had disappeared and turned into a unified image. Chen Chen’s face appeared on the screen, which was quickly enlarged, and then a grid was overlaid, framing and separating Chen Chen’s face.
“Important personnel identified, X-112 beginning a.n.a.lysis.”
A female voice rang from the speaker. “Starting comparison with the database... Comparing...”
Then, another three-dimensional face of Chen Chen’s appeared on the side and was compared to the framed image. “Comparison similarity 95%... Target verified — chairman of Blacklight Biotechnology Ltd., the highest authority of Blacklight Biotechnology — Chen Chen.”
At this time, the people working in the surveillance center suddenly erupted in chaos. Everyone wore a look of shock and surprise. One of the older men immediately ordered, “The central control computer X-112 has detected an abnormality. Report it immediately. Little Zhang, go and notify the director, hurry up!”
Hearing this command, a young man on the side nodded immediately and ran out of the surveillance room.