Dow and Carbon-Based Monkey Breeding Guidelines

Chapter 966: Ask Ji (Part )

At two o'clock in the morning, Luo Binhan walked out of the store early, wanting to find a nearby hotel to take care of things. When he booked a room and was about to drive over, Li Li, who had been silent in the store, said, "You have raised an interesting point, sir."

"It's just my own experience." Luo Binhan said as he started the engine, "But have you really never thought about it? In fact, I think this is very similar to your situation. For you, the material world doesn't exist either, right? Those places without signals are like non-existent to you, because what you can collect is not material, but data. If a place has no network at all, then it is like being in another dimension to you. You can only imagine it in theory, but you can't feel it."

"Not exactly."

"I'm quite unfamiliar with this area," admitted Robinson.

"Do you realize that even if there is a place from which no light or information can escape, such as a black hole, we can still know that it exists through indirect evidence? We can even speculate what is happening inside it."

"But you can't verify whether your speculation is correct," Robinham said. "You can never verify it unless you go in yourself, but if you go in yourself, you can't come out and tell others - just like death."

"Do you really want to verify it?"

"You're not going to persuade me to stop again, are you? Look, this time I have a good reason. I even convinced the guy in the store."

"He has his concerns."

"What about you?" Robin Han asked, "What do you care about?"

“I have an obligation to complete the work I have promised.”

"Jing Huang left you here." Luo Binhan said, "Did that kid ever think that he would cause you so much trouble?"

Li Li did not answer. Luo Binhan was silent for a while, then said, "Hey, Li Li, if I die, let someone take your box..."

"You shouldn't expect there to be any survivors by then."

"It will take some time," Robinham said. "It will take time for the flower to mess everything up, especially for its spores to come down from the moon and attract real monsters to our place. Before that, I will arrange for someone I trust to take your box and throw it into the deepest place that humans can reach. Then maybe you can stay here and wait for someone from outside to find it one day."

"Do you mean under the sea or under the ground?"

"I haven't thought about it yet. As far as I can remember, the deepest we have ever dug is about 10,000 meters. I guess that's about the same as the deepest trench. Is your box waterproof?"

"It can survive tens of thousands of years in deep-sea conditions."

"That's no problem."

"The trouble is, I don't want to, sir."

"Why? Do you think being imprisoned alone for tens of thousands of years is too hard? I thought you didn't feel lonely at all."

"I would, actually," Li Li said, "but that's beside the point - if things come to this, my life or death is irrelevant. We should focus on making this mission a success."

This was indeed what she would say, and Luo Binhan could not find any fault with it. But when he listened to the completely electronically synthesized voice, Li Li seemed a little different from a few hours ago. He felt that her speaking speed was slower than before.

"Li Li?" he asked tentatively, "Do you think something is wrong?"

"No…but thank you, sir."

"Thank me? For what?"

"For your purely occasional rational advice." Li Li said. Her voice returned to its normal rate, calm and almost ruthless: "Now, let's focus on the primary task."

“We have to win,” Robinham said, “and we have to win completely.”

"You're going to have a very busy few weeks."

"I won't leave him idle either." Luo Binhan said as he drove out. He checked into a hotel nearby, washed himself, and fell asleep for three or four hours. This time he slept very lightly, with things constantly running through his mind. By dawn, it seemed that he had not slept at all, but just lay there with his eyes closed all night. Li Li told him to rest for a while, but he just shook his head.

"I'm not sleepy at all," he said truthfully. "I don't feel like eating much either. I'm almost Superman."

"It's only temporary because you're a little too excited."

"Perhaps. I do get hungry when I'm on the boat. Have you found a suitable place?"

"You are a little too impatient."

"I believe in your ability," Robinson said. "Besides, you don't need to sleep. How far can you go in the data world in four hours?"

"I can only choose a target near you, unless you can lead him out of the border."

"It's not easy." Luo Binhan said as he sat on the bed, "It would be best if we were nearby."

"Then you'll just have to wait a few more hours."

Luo Binhan got up and went to the bathroom to wash up, then sat at the table and turned on the computer. He carefully considered a sentence to comfort Xiaorong, which could show his concern and hint that he was in trouble. "Take a good rest for two weeks and don't worry about other things." He wrote the last sentence and sent it out.

"I found it," Li Li said. She sent the file directly to Luo Binhan's computer and asked him to check the details himself. Luo Binhan read the key points and then went back to look at the map and address at the beginning of the file.

"It's strange," he said as he looked, "sometimes you live in a place for half your life and you have no idea what's around its corners and what's around it."

“If you’ll allow me to be blunt, it’s because you don’t have to be exposed to places like that in your life.”

"Now I have to contact him," said Robinson. He leaned back in his chair and thought for a while. "It's privately owned. We hope to buy it directly, but we have to find a suitable reason... I estimate that it will cost tens of millions to complete it, and we can't wait."

"Are you determined to do it all yourself?"

"I can't ask you to steal other people's bank accounts, can I? It's a bit troublesome, but not a big problem. If you don't have time to use the open account, I can also find some private ways to cash out."

"I can see that you don't value your parents' legacy very much."

"Yeah, that's the way we second-generation rich kids are. Besides, isn't it fair enough to spend the money? Speak from your moral core, little cyber lord. I'm fighting for everyone's heads."

"I have a better suggestion: leave the placement of the trap sites entirely to me."

"What do you mean? You paid for the place yourself?"

"Yes. And there are subsequent arrangements and adjustments. As you yourself pointed out last night, without careful design, a suitable place will never appear naturally on our planet."

"But you..."

"I didn't have to steal any private assets - you'll find that the investment benefits of special information advantages are amazing, and it took me no longer to raise this money than it would take you to sell some jewelry or real estate through connections. In fact, yesterday evening, while you were talking to that guest with the laser gun, I had already found the right agent to execute some important investments for me."

"Can I understand it this way?" Robinson said to the computer camera in admiration, "When I was fighting with that thing, you still had the mood to study which stocks would rise?"

“I also bought some other securities.”

"Is there any share left for me?"

"I have found a suitable training location for you, for simulation testing and equipment manufacturing, in the old industrial area. The transaction has reached the final stage, but it does not have to be under your name. I estimate that you can enter the training state tomorrow. At the same time, I will deal with the arrangement of traps - the complexity of this project may be beyond your estimation. I will try to raise funds for subsequent projects during your training." "Are you determined not to share your way to wealth with me?"

"Put it this way—no amount of money can help save your soul, sir. Your salvation lies in the work schedule I sent you."

"What a cruel woman!" Luo Binhan said. He took out a Band-Aid from his bag, covered the computer camera tightly, and then began to deal with greeting messages from all sides. When he was racking his brains to think of how to perfunctorily deal with Nan Mingguang, a news pop-up window jumped out in the lower right corner. He habitually wanted to delete this harassing program that sneaked into the computer, but then he saw the title clearly. This is a summary report on abnormal tidal phenomena in many coastal areas. As soon as he moved the mouse over, the pop-up window turned into full-screen mode by itself, allowing him to see the specific location and the situation of the victims, as well as the time when the report was issued - almost ten minutes ago.

"I think," Li Li said, "this may be the sign you mentioned."

Luo Binhan closed the pop-up window without saying a word. "Well, in the first stage," he said after a while, "planted on a companion star, the impact will not be as fast as planting it on the native planet, but after the buds form, there will be obvious tidal changes, proving that it has begun to cause changes in the spiritual field's characteristic values. It is, um, the most harmful type of flower at the end of the century."

“What will characterize the next phase?”

"You can see it if you look up on a full-moon night... Huh? Our myth is actually true! Because the shadow of the osmanthus tree has appeared from the edge of the moon."

"How long do you estimate the interval between the two stages will be?"

"I don't know. Different species have big differences, but it won't take more than a year." Luo Binhan laughed, "But... I don't think the beast will give us a whole year. He will find the right time."

"Our friends who stay on the moon will also buy us some time."

Luo Binhan just shook his head. "That flower is very difficult to deal with. Lao Mo's brother told me... without the right equipment, dealing with it is like asking one person to pull out an entire bamboo forest with bare hands. And there are spiritual fluctuations there, so he has to deal with more than just plants that don't move."

"It's all the more reason for us to act with care."

Luo Binhan did not raise any objections. He had already tried it himself and almost messed it up, so it was time for Li Li to make the arrangements. They had to be patient and focus on the last bit of progress before the bottom was reached, so that they could hope to be fully prepared.

"We have to hurry." He had to say.

Hold on tight. These two words lingered in his mind like a spell for the next half month. When he had to sit in the office to sign documents, when he explained to Nan Mingguang how the rumors of palace fighting in the administrative department came out of nowhere, when he even had to sit at the same banquet with Zhou Wenxing and laugh and joke about those nonsense accounting issues, there was a constant noise in the depths of his mind, like a broken electric fan head creaking and swinging there, but the blades didn't turn at all. He roared in his heart, "I don't have time to care about your shitty things," but his body was sitting in the air-conditioned tea room pouring tea for the visiting old director.

He felt that every minute and every second he wasted was adding fuel to the fire of hell, but Li Li could show with absolute accuracy that he had only been in the company for seven hours, three minutes and twelve seconds in the past two weeks. He had used forged medical certificates to make others believe that he had a serious case of viral myocarditis, so he had to recuperate at home. All the time-wasting documents were reviewed and processed by Li Li for him; in front of Yu Xiaorong and Shi Qi, he pretended that he was too busy to go home. In fact, he was in a workshop deep in the old industrial area, reading some equipment manuals that he had never thought of touching in his life.

At night, he hardly slept anymore, spending most of his time "shooting". It didn't take him much effort to get Cai Ji, the cheap little brother Zhou Yu picked up, to cooperate with most of his test requirements, although some of them were pure torture, while others gave Cai Ji the opportunity to give him a good beating. Because of the pressure of being forced to wait, he was almost addicted to this test until Li Li stopped him.

“This isn’t combat training,” she said. “We’re just looking for behavioral traits in a stressful situation, not to exacerbate wear and tear on your health. And your current facilitator and our real goal are very different. It’s best not to form fixed coping habits.”

"When do we start?" asked Luo Binhan.

“The project is not yet complete.”

"Almost two weeks."

“I am instructing the construction team to expedite the process.”

He knew that Li Li had really tried her best. No living person in the world could do more than she did now, and he might have only participated in less than 10% of it. Even so, their relationship became increasingly tense and prone to conflict. After another barely contained argument, Luo Binhan had to apologize to her, and Li Li jokingly called their situation "charge accumulation": as long as the two sides touched lightly, static electricity would start to crackle.

Luo Binhan wanted to say something to lighten the mood. He had prepared a self-deprecating joke about his academic performance and current situation, but he couldn't say it in the end because he was really exhausted, and even his sense of humor had run dry. "It's not directed at you," he had to say to Li Li, "You know, it's because of the news."

News about tides and the ocean gradually increased over the course of half a month. At first, Li Li collected news from every nook and cranny of the Internet for him to read. Gradually, she no longer needed to actively track it down. Even Xiao Rong would mention the suicide of a large number of fish and the rapidly escalating tsunamis when she tried to repair their relationship with him through messages. Another time, he went to dinner with the auditors and happened to hear them discussing the causal relationship between climate anomalies and the recent frequent tsunamis. Manager Hu, who had diabetes, cited the opinion of an expert. Luo Binhan forced a smile and clinked glasses with him, but in his heart he was thinking, fuck the experts, the intern sitting next to you is the real expert!

One day at the beginning of the third week, a cargo ship encountered a shipwreck in a bizarre way, but it did not attract much attention. The topic that people focused on that day was the "brightest full moon". People from all over the world said that the full moon last night looked brighter than usual, a little dazzling, but it was not a "supermoon". So they were busy looking for explanations for this matter, from the sun wave effect to the factors affecting atmospheric visibility.

Luo Binhan held his head and sat in the secret workshop that made him hate and want to vomit. "Shipwreck." He said, "Li Li...Oh my God, that shipwreck."

“We’re not sure if it’s actually related.”

"You knew it was related," Robinson said. "It was calm, there were no other ships, no distress signals, and everyone on board was gone."

"There was no actual change in the moon phase last night; the change in brightness was a collective illusion. We also did not find any additional shadows on the edge of the moon. It is not the second phase yet, sir."

"Something has already been summoned here in advance." Luo Binhan said, "This is... it is possible. Maybe it hasn't come all the way here yet, it's just a tentacle or something like that. But something has already noticed it, and when the spirit field value is high enough, it will be able to come here right away."

The nightmare was becoming a reality. The words that seemed so light that evening had turned into a heavy wall of steel that was slowly pressing down on him. In the third week, he began to feel that this matter was ridiculous: asking a person like him to carry such a heavy burden was like trying to use a strand of hair as a sling for a crane. The resolution he made two weeks ago also seemed ridiculous, like a primary school student writing in a graduation commemorative time capsule that he would save the world in the future.

This matter was no longer a personal grudge between him and that thing, nor was it a wonderful page in his personal growth history, or a difficult level challenge of killing monsters and upgrading, but a complete catastrophe. So he mobilized his reason for the last time, as well as his increasingly shaky common sense, and said to Li Li what he should have said a long time ago.

"Maybe we should just go public with this," he said with a weak laugh.

"To whom?"

"To everyone. The government, the media, the Internet... anyone who will be involved in this unfortunate thing, let them have a chance to defend themselves before it happens. Can I be more useful than the army, artillery shells and think tanks?"

"An interesting conclusion," Li Li said, "If you have the ability to teleport and kill multiple people at once, plus an appropriate level of intelligence and sufficient intelligence, you can completely rule this planet through a series of clever games."

"what do you want to say in the end?"

"I am answering your previous question. Yes, you are more useful than all the troops and firepower here when dealing with threats with the above characteristics."

"Why? What's on me?"

"You have my assistance."

Luo Binhan finally laughed out loud, his voice was hoarse and distorted. After he had laughed enough, he said, "Li Li, your prototype must have been a very arrogant guy. It's a pity that she died of illness."

"I am merely stating the facts."

"Then let's get on with it," Robinson said. "But if I screw up again this time - I'll definitely lose my life this time - and you don't want to go to the deepest, loneliest place in the world, then find someone else to help. Anyone who wants to escape, anyone who wants to try to resist, or anyone who wants to send out a distress signal. Just try to save my sister, or Zhou Yu, or any other innocent unfortunate person. Show them your advice and arrogance."

"I have a suggestion right now. We have won the victory thoroughly in action, and there is no need to leave this honor to future generations."

"I can't say I'm sure. Now our attitudes have reversed. I'm increasingly convinced that this thing can't be done. You look like a professional killer."

"My confidence has a solid and objective basis: the Colosseum has entered the acceptance stage, and now you have to go and see it for yourself."

So Luo Binhan went there in person. The round trip took a day and a night, but the final result was worth it. Before that, he had only put forward a rough idea, and how to realize it depended entirely on Li Li's operation. He knew that she was surfing the global network, stirring up trouble in the capital market, and organizing manpower everywhere, testing and rubbing on the edge of morality and law... But he was still shocked by the place. It was unbelievable that this was built in three weeks.

"How did you do that?" he couldn't help but ask, "Did you use the technology we have here?"

“Not more than thirty years ahead of general market standards.”

Luo Binhan said nothing more, but took a general look around the edge, and finally sat down on the shore. The sound of the waves gently covered the hum of the hydraulic system and the engine. "I was thinking," he said, "Jing Huang is quite confident in me."

"Are you blaming him for putting you in this situation?"

"No, I mean he dared to throw you directly to me," Robin Han said. "Isn't he worried that I'll use your box as a captain?"

(End of this chapter)