Chapter 55: Follow Me, and You’ll Have Meat to Eat

Chapter 55: Follow Me, and You’ll Have Meat to Eat

Du Xiaoran clearly had no interest in continuing the discussion. He let my last words hang in the air unanswered. There was no point pressing it — our positions were too different.

After a moment of silence, he said, “That quantum research institute has quantum technology files and antimatter weapons inside. Think it over — do you want to run a job? You don’t have to decide now. Go back and talk it over with your friends. Once you’ve made up your mind, contact me.”

When he finished, Du Xiaoran scratched a row of digits into the ground with his pigeon claws. Contact information, clearly. Then he said, “This is my alt account. You can reach me through it — but if you try to sell me out, this is just a shell. You won’t be able to trace it back to me.”

“Don’t judge a gentleman by a petty man’s standards,” I said. “I don’t even know you. What would be the point of selling you out? But you’d better walk me through the plan first. I need to know if it’s something we can actually pull off.”

“Fair enough,” Du Xiaoran said. “The main laboratory of the quantum research institute is underground. We can’t get in — and even if we could, it would be too dangerous. That’s off the table. But I know they have a records room on the east side of the above-ground building. That secure records room holds a great deal of their quantum technology materials, including files on antimatter weapons. The problem is that the room’s electromagnetic emissions are shielded. Most people won’t be able to probe it at all. I’m different, though. I’ve developed an electronic information intelligence processor that can amplify the faint signals leaking from their secure records room by running them through multiple reflected waves. My own abilities aren’t sufficient, so I need someone with an exceptional sensitivity to micro-electromagnetic waves working alongside me. Since you managed to enter the Elite World, you must have connections with the resistance — they have people of every kind. My suggestion is to bring the matter to them. Once we have the materials, we share everything on the spot. After that, I take my share to the black market for some achievement points, and your side uses the technical files to replicate their work. Everyone comes out ahead.”

“You want me to find the resistance?” I said. “You’re not a Soul Hunter trying to use this as a chance to round them up, are you?”

Du Xiaoran made a dismissive sound. “That’s rich. I’m the one worried about you selling me out. That’s exactly why everyone here wears a mask — everyone conducts business through a parasitic host. Nobody knows who anyone else really is. That’s how it should be. We get the materials on site, split the take on site, and then we’re done. You can’t find me, and I have no desire to know who you are. I’ll be honest — there is a selfish reason I want the resistance involved. The moment leaked high-level technical materials surface on the black market, the Soul Hunters will come looking. But if the resistance is standing in front of me, I’m safe. That’s also why I struck up a conversation with you in the first place.”

It was a reasonable enough position.

But when he mentioned an “electronic information intelligence processor,” my thoughts jumped to Yellow Hair Zhang Yu in the incapacitated people’s settlement. Some time back, when I was moving against the Ziye Group, I had gone to Zhang Yu for help. Using the information intelligence processor and information nodes he provided, I had successfully stolen the Sweepers’ information core.

“Have you ever been to the incapacitated people’s settlement in the Mundane World?” I asked.

Du Xiaoran blinked. “I have. Why?”

“You said just now that you developed the electronic information intelligence processor. But I’ve seen something like it in the incapacitated people’s settlement.”

Du Xiaoran was quiet for a moment. “You mean Yellow Hair Zhang Yu? That kid saved my life once. I’d gotten hold of some smart products from the Sweepers and tried to sell them in the settlement, but I was discovered. Zhang Yu helped me fake my own death and fooled the inspection from above. Before I came back to the Elite World, I gave him the information intelligence processor I’d just finished building. That was only the first-generation prototype — crude by my current standards, but more than enough for the Mundane World. How do you know about any of this?”

“I know Zhang Yu,” I said. “I helped treat his younger sister. We’re friends, more or less.”

Du Xiaoran’s expression brightened visibly. “So we’re practically on the same side. Then we already have a foundation for working together. Don’t worry — follow me, and you’ll have meat to eat. All right, that’s enough for today. Go back and talk it over with your people. I’ll wait to hear from you.”

With that, he spread his wings and was gone.

I drifted around the city for a while longer, and when I felt I’d seen enough, I made my way back to the base.

In Engineer Lin’s laboratory, I slowly opened my eyes.

Uncle and Mother were both sitting nearby, watching me.

When Uncle saw me come around, he said, “Well? Is the Elite World a little different from what you imagined?”

“It’s beyond anything I expected,” I said. “That trip gave me a great deal to think about. But Uncle — I ran into someone this time. I need to report it to you.”

I told him everything: how I had met Du Xiaoran, and everything Du Xiaoran had said to me.

When I finished, Uncle’s expression was grave.

Engineer Lin stood off to one side, looking thoroughly intrigued. “I say we go for it. In the end, it’s mask against mask. Even if he’s a Soul Hunter, he can’t get to us. The worst case is we lose one bionic body. But if what he’s saying is true, the significance would be enormous.”

Uncle was quiet for a moment. “Engineer Lin has a point. Even if it is a Soul Hunter trap, all they’d catch is a bionic body — not much lost. What concerns me more is the possibility that the Shadow Pavilion is using this opportunity to feed us a set of fabricated materials, steering us in the wrong direction or into an accident. That we cannot afford to ignore.”

“Just let Beichen try,” Mother said from beside me. “He has an exceptional sensitivity to electromagnetic waves. If a bionic body can serve as a firewall, what do we have to fear? When Beichen went after the Ziye Group, he gained a superpower for detecting electromagnetic waves. Combined with the new device this person mentioned, the two should complement each other perfectly. As for the possibility of a Soul Hunter trap — at most they’d try to trace back through the parasitic host. We can transfer a bionic body from the No. 3 base warehouse. Engineer Lin, I’ll need you to work hard over the next few days and adapt it into a form Beichen can use. Let him give it a try.”

Engineer Lin nodded at once. “Understood.”

So through Engineer Lin, I contacted Du Xiaoran’s alt account and told him to meet at the old place on Thursday morning.

I had half expected Uncle and Mother to push back — Du Xiaoran’s appearance had been a shade too convenient, and his request had been very direct: get the resistance involved. The more I turned it over, the more it felt like a trap. Personally, though, I wanted to do it. I had always liked taking risks, and risk had nearly always turned into opportunity for me.

Uncle turned to me then. “Beichen. Do you know why we’re so interested in what you’ve brought us?”

I shook my head.

“Because quantum antimatter weapons were very likely developed with us specifically in mind.”

“How is that possible?” I said. “Aren’t we hidden inside underground bedrock? Even if they can locate us, they don’t know the frequency.”

“That was true before,” Uncle said. “But antimatter weapons are different. They’re built on the principle that matter-antimatter annihilation releases a tremendous amount of energy — weapons of extraordinary energy density and destructive power. One milligram of antimatter can annihilate the equivalent of four hundred and thirty tons of TNT. At that intensity, no bedrock holds.”

Mother added, “There are also quantum directed-energy weapons. Gravity-wave cannons, for instance, deliver damage through directionally emitted high-energy gravitational waves. They are highly effective in space and other medium-poor environments — and they’re among the most coveted weapons being pursued by every faction right now.”

“The quantum technology files may also include other information-warfare weapons,” Engineer Lin said, his excitement plain. “Quantum radar, quantum communication, quantum computing — and quantum teleportation weapons, which can instantaneously transmit the state of an object to a location thousands of miles away. Mount that on any platform and you have the capacity for catastrophic detonation. Even if our research base has people working in these areas, we don’t have the testing facilities or resources. This is a rare opening.”

Hearing all of that, I actually grew less certain, not more. How could an opportunity this significant fall into my hands the moment I stepped outside?

It sounded like bait.

Had someone designed this? There was no other way to account for it — a stranger, the very first meeting, and he’s handing over benefits. That wasn’t normal.

Sensing my hesitation, Engineer Lin said, “We’ve known about that quantum research institute for some time. We just haven’t been able to probe its secrets — it’s extremely tightly protected, and their researchers are shuttled in and out covertly. Infiltrating from the inside has proved impossible. As for Du Xiaoran — the name is clearly a cover, but we can look into him through his research. There aren’t many people working on electronic information intelligence processors.”

“Then I’ll leave that in your hands, Engineer Lin,” I said.

There was nothing I could contribute to that side of things.

There were still three days before the meeting. I spent them inside the base, familiarizing myself with the parasitic host.

This host had a documented identity — a legal bionic human, originally produced at the Shadow Pavilion’s core production base, later covertly captured by the resistance and subjected to a brain-content intelligence replacement.

Over those three days, Uncle filled me in on a great deal of Elite World common knowledge and answered my many questions. I didn’t fully trust what Du Xiaoran had told me, and I wanted a second opinion.

After Uncle’s confirmation, I found that most of what Du Xiaoran had said about the Elite World was accurate. He hadn’t lied.

That only made me more curious about him.

I had a persistent feeling that Du Xiaoran was not a simple man — that there were secrets behind him, waiting to be found.

On Thursday morning, I released the parasitic pigeon to the roof of the apartment building where we had parted last time, and set it to wait for him. Meanwhile, I controlled the parasitic bionic human and held position inside one of the building’s rooms.

The apartment building stood roughly five hundred meters from the quantum research institute — one of the closest structures available — and rose to thirty-three floors. From its roof, someone with my enhanced vision could take in the full layout of the research institute in a single sweep.

One thing I hadn’t anticipated: Uncle and the others maintained a safe house in that very building.

So I waited there, in the safe house, for Du Xiaoran to arrive.