Chapter 29: Return

Chapter 29: Return

The old man moved with startling agility. In moments he’d shredded the blanket, one hand knife-edged and driving toward my throat.

By then I was already behind him. I hooked my fingers like pincers and dug into the upper back of his neck—the key junction of the neural network.

The Sweeper files were clear: every AI micro-bio brain–computer interface connected through the human neural network. The microelectronic intelligent-brain module also relied on the human body’s neurons in order to command the whole body.

I drove my fingers in and hooked. Something like a black caterpillar surfaced. My other hand clamped his neck at an angle, and the device came free.

The old man collapsed almost instantly. Without the module, he was no threat.

I didn’t call attention to what I’d done. Instead I picked up the module and studied it.

I’d never seen anything so precise. Flexible integrated material, the outer layer crawling with minuscule cilia. I tried placing it into the back of my own neck and gently sensing it.

Instant tingling. Nanomaterials seeping toward my cervical nerve center. I pulled it away.

I had no intention of installing it. I only wanted to see what it felt like.

Still, that brief attempt gave me a different sense of my previous skill replication—more efficient, more direct. Faster.

I placed the module against my neck again. Once it connected, information and skills flooded my brain like a breaking tide.

At the base I’d only been copying in secret. This was direct transmission. I got a little drunk on the rush.

The martial techniques in my mind organized themselves into something systematic. More importantly, a new skill came through: penetrating-wave modulation.

I tested it. An ability to adjust micro-electrical wave bands. Different wavelengths—terahertz, infrared, microwave, radio—penetrate differently, reveal different images. The adjustable waves also carried communication functions.

I removed the module and tried adjusting with my own brainpower. It worked, noticeably weaker but functional. Things I couldn’t see before—someone on the other side of a wall—used to require same-frequency sensing. Now I could see an image directly.

With the module in place, the image would be sharper.

Even so, I wasn’t installing it. The thing definitely had tracking. If it could explode, I’d die even more stupidly.

I went to the window. Dawn lightening the sky, but I could see sentries moving inside the walls. I could even hear them whispering.

Not bad. It almost felt like someone had delivered me a gift.

Of course it had actually been dangerous. If I hadn’t sensed the abnormality in advance, I might already have been crippled here in prison.

Whoever could deploy an AI like this old man likely had deeper backing than the Sweepers. Min Long counted as one of their better fighters, but compared to this old man there was still a gap. This old man had almost no humanity left.

He wasn’t dead, just lying on the bed glaring with defiant, unconvinced eyes, like a rooster that had lost a fight.

He reminded me of the condemned I had seen in the incapacitated people’s district, with that unavoidable dejection and bodily pain. This old man was temporarily incapacitated, like a computer with its CPU pulled. Unless I plugged it back in.

Not happening.

Six days passed. Just when I thought I could relax, the third ordeal arrived.

Detention centers hold suspects whose guilt hasn’t been established. Without sufficient evidence or a filed prosecution, release is mandatory within fifteen days.

That’s the law.

The police aren’t Sweepers. They have to follow it.

I was sure the Du Group’s lawyers were working the case.

I’d counted the days. The deadline had arrived. Without new evidence, they had to release me. And I’d done nothing. So on that last day my mood lightened.

At noon, during the group meal, people lined up for food. I was in line too, so I didn’t expect anyone to attack me in front of everyone.

I’d activated same-frequency sensing, but there were too many people, the information too chaotic. I couldn’t identify the attacker.

Since gaining penetrating-wave modulation, I’d been practicing on the other suspects around me. Through adjustments to the penetrating waves, I could even see their internal organs.

Standing in line, smugly testing my new ability, I suddenly seemed to see a blurred figure lunging at me. Like a skeletal frame.

The skeleton swept past at brutal speed. Before I could react, a needle-prick of pain on my neck, instant vertigo.

As my brain dimmed, I glimpsed another shadow engaging the first.

Two shadows flipping and striking. In an instant, one disappeared. The inmates around us noticed nothing. Two saw me collapse and mocked me for fainting from hunger. Neither moved to help.

The remaining shadow walked straight to me and blew something cool into my nose.

My head cleared slightly. I murmured three words:

“Invisible person.”

When I said it, the shadow bent and flicked my ear.

It reminded me instantly of the invisible person from the Sweeper base.

Was it them?

Before I could work it out, the invisible person scattered like wind. Everything back to normal.

A guard pulled me up and asked what happened. I said, “Low blood sugar.”

Too lazy to explain more.

After lunch, just as afternoon rest began, a guard called me to the office. The lawyer and Du Xinlang had finished the release paperwork.

They took me back to Tansong Temple first.

I rested two days, talked temple business with Senior Brother Guanghuai and the others, retrieved my green jade token.

Two days later, Du Xinlang sent word she wanted me at a Du Group board meeting. I took the car she sent to headquarters.

Returning to the Du Group headquarters building, Xuanhong’s memories surged. Four years here. Programmer to core architect. The relationships and technical stories weren’t simple.

The IT Department—Xuanhong’s old department. Veteran employees rushed out and mobbed me, chattering praise. New hires drifted out to watch.

Zhang Qingyun, once Xuanhong’s deputy, grabbed my hand and stared hard at my face. “You really do look like a great immortal. How did I not see it before? No wonder the Chairman had such a sharp eye for talent. If I had a daughter, I’d chase you all the way to the temple too.”

Du Xinlang smacked the back of his head. He realized she was right there, apologized frantically, then tried to deflect: “Hey, someone—Great Dharma Master Xuan is here!”

Following his shout, I saw a strained smile behind the crowd. Lin Liangming. Xuanhong’s romantic confidante. If not for Du Xinlang, she would have been Xuanhong’s one and only choice.

Du Xinlang noticed her too, ran over, linked arms, and brought her forward.

Zhang Qingyun, are you missing part of your brain? You know how awkward you just made this?

Old friends and acquaintances surrounded me, laughing and talking. They wanted to know how I’d gone from IT expert to medical master. They’d heard I’d saved Chairman Du.

I said I was not only a medical master, but also a martial arts master. Did they all want to come up and test me?

Everyone laughed and joked.

Then suddenly the room went quiet.

Chairman Du had arrived.

Behind him: the board, the CEO, senior executives.

I hurried forward, greeted Chairman Du as a junior, shook hands with the leaders one by one. They were all warm.

After that I followed them to an upper-floor conference room.

Strictly speaking, I was not a member of the board, not even Du Group staff. I shouldn’t be at a board meeting. But per company bylaws, the chairman could invite me as a specially invited representative. The CEO and I had speaking rights, but no voting rights.

Three agenda items.

First: progress on the government-funded intelligent R&D project for flexible robot components.

Second: the state of the CWP-commissioned research into cracking integrated-component replication technology.

Third: discussion and approval of the Deep-Space Intelligence Detector proposal.

Each project: investment over ten billion Huaxia yuan.

My task was simple: listen to the group leadership’s analysis of these projects and figure out which major project had truly touched the powerful force behind the scenes.