Chapter 79 - Unruly Superpowers
In the city of Kolmanskop, Namibia.
Chen Chen locked the door of the luxury suite, leaned his head against his steepled fingers, and stared silently at the computer screen.
At present, three days had passed since the incident at the Eiffel Power Plant.
In the past three days, Chen Chen’s group had swiftly left the territory of the Rainbow Nation and returned to Namibia. Before the Namibian officials could catch on, they were already in this small mining city named Kolmanskop.
About ten kilometers to the north of this city was the famous Namibian city, Lüderitz.
After Chen Chen found out that Anthony and the Namibian officials still had not reached an agreement, he settled down temporarily in this town.
A few days ago, with Dlamini’s help, Chen Chen had plundered 120 million kWh of electricity in Cape Town. According to the proportions of the USB drive’s past instantiations, it should be able to instantiate about a hundred kilograms of matter.
No, it should not be called “instantiating” anymore.
Chen Chen pondered. He had figured out long ago that the USB drive did not convert energy into matter out of thin air. Rather, it employed the energy to create a channel connecting two different worlds.
Thus, the words “exchange” or “extract” would be more appropriate.
Um…
In that case, what should he “extract” next?
There was a faint dark glimmer in Chen Chen’s pupils.
At the moment, he would have no use for technological artifacts. Chen Chen had recently contacted the head office, asking Little X to send the design plan of the company’s second product, the “simultaneous translator”, to Xia Yin. Then, she was supposed to launch this product.
Ever since they signed an astronomical 4-billion contract with Facebook, the name, Blacklight Biotechnology, was known to countless people in the industry, exposing the company to the eye of the storm.
Moreover, once the simultaneous translator appeared on the market, it would immediately affect the interests of several industries, just like a shocking tsunami. In the death throes of the affected industries, few companies would be able to escape unscathed.
As for whether Xia Yin could keep this product going and whether this tsunami-like wave was going to happen, it depended on her ability.
If Xia Yin truly had extraordinary capabilities, Chen Chen was prepared to hand over full authority in managing all of the head office’s public dealings. In the future, her position as the CEO of a certain Blacklight Biotechnology Group in Mainland China would be assured.
However, if Xia Yin could not keep this product going, naturally, she would not have a future here. Chen Chen would disband the company and turn fully to the dark side. He would begin to truly hide in the shadows.
As for the profits that this product would bring, Chen Chen did not care much about all that.
Even so, as Chen Chen’s influence expanded and started encroaching upon the interests of others, the unseen risks of inadequate personal safety were brought to light.
One example was the assassination attempt by the Rainbow Nation.
He had no other option but to risk his own life at that point. After all, if Chen Chen had not used himself as bait to lure out the sniper, it would be difficult to find out who the traitor was.
If he did not sniff out the traitor, then even if he had escaped this time, there would be another attack.
After all, who could keep up a perfect defense forever?
Therefore, for the next item that he had acquired, the primary consideration should be his personal safety.
Of course, the German military strategist Clausewitz had a famous saying in On War which was known throughout the world: “The best defense is a good offense”. There was an ancient motto in China too: “A prolonged defense leads to defeat.”
In other words, pure defense was not desirable. The most important strategy was to take initiative.
Therefore, to Chen Chen, the best defense would be to enhance his strength. The best source of strength would naturally be superpowers.
Having thought of this, Chen Chen started downloading three movies on his computer.
Chronicle, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and Psychokinesis.
The latter two were movies that Chen Chen found after watching Chronicle, both of which had characters obtaining superpowers through an external force. After all, the Crystalline in Chronicle was too large. It would be better if he could settle on the next best thing.
However, as far as Chen Chen knew, My Super Ex-Girlfriend was not necessarily a science-fiction film but a romantic comedy.
The female lead in the film touched a meteor that fell from the sky when she was young, thus obtaining super abilities such as flight, super-strength, and supersonic speed, which were almost comparable to Superman.
The same applied to Psychokinesis as well. This was a new work by the director of the South Korean film, Train to Busan. The protagonist drank an extraterrestrial liquid at a mountain spring. After that, he gained superpowers similar to those in Chronicle.
Nonetheless, unlike Chronicle, his superpowers here did not strengthen progressively nor did he pay any sort of price. Even the logic of the plot was quite lacking.
Even Douban, a platform with a majority of foreigners, who liked to “balance the score” for domestic works, did not rate this “Oppa movie” favorably, giving it only a low score of 5.6.
Therefore, Chen Chen was not expecting too much.
Sure enough, when the three movies were downloaded, Chen Chen tried Psychokinesis first, but was greeted with that long-lost “ding”.
The USB drive felt that this movie suffered from a severe lack of logic and heartlessly denied Chen Chen’s request.
After that, Chen Chen tried My Super Ex-Girlfriend…
“Ding!”
Hmm, the world of the movie was too outrageous and the USB drive rejected it again.
Chen Chen swiftly deleted these two movies with [ctrl+d], then turned and looked at the remaining movie.
Chronicle.
A complicated look flashed in his eyes. This was the ability he had wanted to acquire but after he learned more about it, he had some reservations.
When Chronicle was released twelve years ago, it earned a hundred million at the box office with a budget of ten million. It was an unprecedented success and was widely known to many netizens.
However, as the release of the sequel was continually delayed, it incurred the wrath of many netizens.
Following that, the supposed plot of the sequel began circulating the internet.
One of the first theories surfaced in 2012, stating that there was an alien lifeform in the crystal. The three protagonists died that day and everything after that was just their clones.
Another theory appeared in 2016, claiming that Andrew (the protagonist) did not die. Although he was pierced by a stone spear, he was eventually rescued by the government who began studying his body.
However, after searching the Internet, Chen Chen discovered that the original screenwriter, Max Landis, said in an interview:
“I really like Andrew. I understand his behavior and how he felt, but the apocalyptic destruction he caused was also unforgivable. So, I let him die in the end but in Chronicle 2, I brought him back from hell.”
However, in July 2013, as the second script he wrote was too dark, the producer kicked him off the crew and he was no longer involved in Chronicle 2.
The first plot circulating online was in conflict with what Max Landis had said in his interview.
Not only that but Chen Chen also found it difficult to believe that the script of a movie could be leaked even before shooting began.
As for the online rumors that the sequel had already been filmed, Chen Chen had also verified that these were just rumors. The sequel had been shelved indefinitely by the production company.
Nevertheless, after he read all these rumors, Chen Chen still had some doubts.
What if the rumors were true?
Chen Chen was not afraid of being deceived because being the cautious person that he was, he would never extract the Crystalline and irradiate himself immediately. First, he must make preparations —
For instance, setting up a laboratory, using lead glass to block off the radiation, then slowly researching the composition and characteristics of the crystal.
Before ensuring that the crystal would not cause irreversible harm to the human body, Chen Chen would never expose himself to its radiation.
Furthermore, if the crystal contained an extraterrestrial lifeform as rumored, naturally, he would not be able to extract it from the USB drive.
What Chen Chen was afraid of was after going to such lengths to accumulate enough energy, the Crystalline that he subsequently extracted would be harmful to the human body and thus unusable. That would be f*cking embarrassing…
Chen Chen clicked on [Chronicle.mp4] on the screen and pressed [ctrl+c].
The energy in the USB drive at this time was still insufficient to extract the Crystalline. Chen Chen had downloaded it along with the rest because he wanted to see if the movie could be accommodated by the USB drive.
If Chronicle could not be accommodated, that would put a stop to all his considerations. Chen Chen would not consider superpowers again in the future.
With this in mind, Chen Chen opened the USB drive’s file and pressed [ctrl+v]…