Hu Bugui kicked the door open, nearly flattening Chang Dou’s nose. 

Chang Dou felt murderous energy hit him in the face. He blinked and foolishly watched Hu Bugui storm off, having no idea how he had offended this great Buddha.

I’ve cracked the cypher…, Chang Dou thought, feeling wronged. 

Then the slammed door once again opened from inside. This time it was the smiling Su Qing who came out. Chang Dou’s head had been hanging down dejectedly. He absent-mindedly said hi to him, then casually raised his head to look at Su Qing. Just one look, and Chang Dou’s eyes were glued to the spot. 

Two buttons had been torn off Su Qing’s shirt collar, revealing the flowing full moon-shaped grey seal under his collarbone…and a big bite mark on his neck that obviously hadn’t been left by a mosquito. 

As a qualified nerd, whose breeding grounds were text and 2D, what little boy going through porn looking for seeds hasn’t mixed in some calcium pills? 

So Chang Dou was shaken, feeling that he had been struck by lightning. Under Su Qing’s unfathomable gaze, his throat bobbed with difficulty, and he quiveringly said, “Did…did I…” 

He pointed at Su Qing, then pointed in the direction of Hu Bugui’s distant receding figure, suddenly feeling a bitterly cold desolation rising unbidden. He tearfully asked, “You two…well…well…did I…” 

Su Qing’s smile became brighter and brighter, its brightness index approaching Dr. Kou’s. 

Chang Dou quickly covered his mouth, his fingers squeezing out the bit of baby fat in his cheeks. His eyes nearly popped out from behind his glasses. It was as if he had seen a ghost. 

Hu Bugui’s thunderous roar suddenly came from up ahead: “Chang Dou! You’ve rounded everyone up like you were sending them off to reincarnate, so what are you still dawdling for?!” 

Chang Dou raised his foot as though sleepwalking, shaking three times with each step, walking out as though malnourished—in his head, all the cyphers, DNA, genetic databases, and theories of time and space had turned into paste. An invisible hand had scrawled the cruel and aggressive words “you’re dead meat” in the paste.  

Even Jiang Lan had been alerted. Everyone gathered around Zheng Wan, awaiting Chang Dou’s final unmasking of the secret. 

Chang Dou quickly gave a cough and adjusted his psychological state. Along with Cheng Weizhi, he put a bunch of symbols incomprehensible to others up on the slide projector. He tossed his head to clear it a little, then cleared his throat and did his best to speak in language that humans could understand: “Teacher Cheng and I have roughly deciphered what is contained in the black boxes. The majority of the contents must be databases of each country’s major political leaders.” 

Several photos appeared on the screen. Pointing at one of them, Fang Xiu said, “Hey, isn’t this old man with a face like a shoehorn the president of F Country?” 

“There’s also their Secretary of State and Minister of Public Health,” Cheng Weizhi added. “This black box is F Country’s.” 

“F Country was on the list of of the first wave to acknowledge Utopia’s legitimacy.” Hu Bugui flipped through the materials and frowned. “What’s going on with this genetic database? Are you telling me they’re worried about someone cloning their president?” 

“That’s one aspect of it.” As Chang Dou spoke, he opened a picture. Looking from far away, you could still just see the double helix structure of the DNA strands. He enlarged it again and again. After it had been enlarged over a hundred thousand times, everyone at last found that it was thickly marked with characters. In the end, it was impossible to tell what it had been originally. There was only a screen full of writing. 

“This is the genetic database in the black box,” Chang Dou said. “The information it contains isn’t only the sequences of purines and pyrimidines. Most importantly, it contains the ‘activating spatial coefficients.’”

“What’s that?” Su Qing asked. 

The specialist Cheng Weizhi picked up the subject. He looked at the dense rows of formulas on the screen almost with infatuation. Quietly, he said, “Each substance has its own activating spatial coefficient. It includes all the necessary energy, the energy linking method, the activating method, and so on—it’s extremely complex. As soon as you’ve succeeded in activating it, then another point in space in this world will be brought into synchronization, like the black box storage compartment under Zheng Wan.” 

“They…Utopia has made a program. If you input the coefficients into the program, a space can be activated at any point using emotional waves as a means,” Chang Dou said. “And the genetic database in the black box records the ‘activating spatial coefficients’ of the genes of these major political leaders. As long as the program is completely established, this thing, making use of any passerby around, can transmit emotional energy by means of an energy hub, and they can put anything into that space.” 

Lu Qingbai whispered, “In other words…they can implant anything into that person’s genes.” 

Maybe they would die, but the more frightening possibility was a life worse than death. 

“They can turn a person into a monster, make it so that you can’t even explain the truth. If you said you were some important personage, who would know? Given our current technological level, our technique for identifying a person is genetic identification. If a person’s DNA has changed, are they still the same person?” Lu Qingbai suddenly became agitated. “No wonder…no wonder…” 

“How many black boxes were there in all in Zheng Wan’s space?” Fang Xiu asked. 

“Judging from the quantity of the data in the genetic database, it’s likely that it wasn’t complete,” Chang Dou said. 

A horrifying silence. 

“Don’t start thinking about how to cure the symptoms but not the disease,” Ji Pengcheng opened after a long time. “A strand of hair, a vial of blood can let them get your genetic information. The most important thing now is that this is something Utopia has cooked up. It’s their own patent technique. Others can’t guard against it.” 

Kou Tong looked at him and picked up the subject. “Either we destroy their core technology, or we come up with a way to unravel it.” 

When the words “a way to unravel it” were spoken, Lu Qingbai, Chang Dou, and Cheng Weizhi all simultaneously took on fanatical expressions. Hu Bugui frowned. “There’s no time. That won’t work. Since the people in the highest positions have been threatened by this thing, they must know about the existence of the genetic database. They would be idiots not to get people in to research how to unravel it. We don’t need to get mixed in. Anyway, Utopia cooked this thing up, and they definitely aren’t going to make it easy on anyone to unravel it. We’ll think of another way.” 

Chang Dou hesitated. He raised his head and looked at the dense formulas on the slide. “Captain Hu…

“I have an idea. When this kind of space is activated, the data is so immense you can’t imagine it, and the program is so large you also can’t imagine it. But the amount of energy it needs is extremely precise, and once a result has been calculated, it’s comparatively easy to realize. It was already so hard for us to open Zheng Wan’s space, so never mind a tightly-knit space like in DNA.” 

“And so?” 

“So my guess is that they must have a super-grade core processor.” 

Another awkward silence… The problem was, where was this super core processor? 

Kou Tong paused, then candidly said, “We don’t have enough people.” He looked at Su Qing. 

Su Qing immediately understood. “Captain Hu, as an anti-government force, I believe that a group of wanted criminals like us needs capital and weaponry.” 

“You mean…” 

“Let’s go to the ST Training Camp.” 

Hu Bugui frowned. Zhong Shiliang hadn’t been included in the connections General Xiong had left him. He couldn’t resist looking at Kou Tong a little distrustfully. “What kind of a place is the ST Training Camp?” 

“It used to be a base.” Kou Tong smiled. “One of the secret bases that could be rapidly activated when our country was faced with a crisis. It has special contact mechanisms with several large military regions. There’s a weapons factory fifty kilometers from the training camp, focusing on heavy-duty weaponry.

“With this bargaining chip, I think that the time is ripe for us to go to the ST Training Camp,” Kou Tong finally summed up. 

“How will we get there?” Hu Bugui asked.

Kou Tong pointed at himself. “We have a mole.” 

The mole stood up to the test. Three days later, having undergone tense preparations, they quickly reached the ST Base by a route that probably only “internal personnel” would know. Su Qing and Fang Xiu, both itching to have a go, simultaneously asked Hu Bugui for permission: “Chief, can I hang my gun on that Zhong character’s head?” 

…Then these two people who, with wanted notices out for them, had really taken themselves for drug traffickers, were sorted out by Captain Hu. Kou Tong’s privileges within the ST Base were rather high. With him bringing them, they went to practically no effort and arrived at the training camp base where they had previously had an experience of life worse than death. 

Zhong Shiliang looked calmly at the crowd of gate crashers in his office, put down the enamel “Serve the People” mug in his hand, and, unmoved, looked at Kou Tong. “I figured you should be showing up around now.” 

Kou Tong raised his hands and affectedly said, “I was under duress.” 

Zhong Shiliang shook his head. “What poor vision these bandits have—everyone sit.” 

Chang Dou looked at him and suddenly thought that Zhong Shiliang seemed to be a little different from last time. He couldn’t resist lightly tugging at the person next to him without even getting a clear look at who this was. He asked, “Why does this person…” 

“Hm?” 

“Smell like a final boss?” 

Fang Xiu looked at him and coldly said, “You’ve caught a cold.” 

But Zhong Shiliang seemed to have heard. He smiled at Chang Dou, laced his fingers together, and leaned back in his chair. The feeling was that he was the bandit and would have the final word. “I hope that you came prepared, or else…military affairs are important and shouldn’t be casually disturbed.” 

His gaze suddenly turned sharp. All the doors and windows in the room close from outside. Small red lights lit up in the corners and along the walls. Su Qing tensed all over—he remembered these lights. He had seen these lights that night when he had been pulled into the dreamland.

Hu Bugui at last understood why Kou Tong had only now told them about the secret of the ST Base.

The ST Base was only a tool, and not a reliable one. If you touched it casually without being completely prepared, it would backfire.