Chapter 28: Neuron (Part ½)

The previous owner of the laboratory, Yan Hong, was the proposer of the Archetype Formatting Theory. The theory was all the rage during the year 80, but this fame was obtained by treading on Luo Nan’s grandfather’s shoulders.

Back in those years when Luo Yuandao had done the matter of live human experimentation, the media focused on mainly reporting the details pertaining to the vagrant victims of the wilderness and other explosive points. Attention was heavily focused on the people who were brought to light over this matter. In addition, those identified as key witnesses had protection from the so-called “Protective Witness” policy and had never entered the sight of the masses.

But Luo Nan was quite clear on who had brought this matter to light. It was none other than a man who had originally worked in the same laboratory as Luo Yuandao; it was Yang Hong.

Yang Hong proposed the Archetype Formatting Theory soon after the case with Luo Yuandao had entered judgement, receiving enormous academic reputation. Yet it was also because of this that Yan Hong fell so disastrously after the matter of his work being related to Luo Yuandao’s experimental data was exposed in the year 90.

Although the outer world wasn’t clear on it, the academic circle still had this matter remain fresh in its memory with quite a bit more detail. It was only because of the special characteristics of Luo Yuandao’s case, and the fact that Quantum Corporation had stepped in, that everyone kept this matter a complete secret. The information only circulated within the small and confined group, never to explode out in public.

An accident was deliberately caused while Yan Hong was being investigated by the Scientific Ethics Committee, destroying the gathered evidence. It was done in an utterly poor manner, and this one incident caused Yang Hong’s reputation to plummet into becoming repulsively bad within the academic community. His reputation was flipped over, and he ultimately vanished without a trace.

Indeed, it was only to be expected that this kind of person would set up a few killer traps in his own laboratory.

At the present, Luo Nan thought that things were quite fitting, then he felt inexplicably excited.

Yep, he was excited.

Ever since Luo Nan had understood the entire process of development of his grandfather’s case, Luo Nan had naturally regarded Yang Hong as the main culprit of the matter. Back in the day when Yang Hong was at his prime and when Luo Nan was still considered a kid, Luo Nan considered Yan Hong to be the final boss without any reservations. Yang Hong was the target that Luo Nan would eliminate in the future.

Unfortunately this boss had fallen in the year 90 before Luo Nan could become an adult. Yang Hong’s results then became Quantum Corporation’s after a purchase of a great amount of intellectual properties.

Even though Luo Nan had not completely lost the target he had always strove for, there was still a feeling of loss in his heart. But who would have imagined that Luo Nan would be within this discarded laboratory six years later and actually receive a chance to cross blades with this boss.

Even though Luo Nan faced an empty target of his imagination, the significance was completely the same from Luo Nan’s perspective.

Luo Nan’s thoughts were unprecedentedly lively and his guts and courage were unleashed to their limits. A few breaths made his mind tranquil. He stood in front of the control console, and then the heavily chained crow cut its way inside.

There were nothing but control consoles, a few screens, and more monitoring-related equipment installed here, since this was the central control area for the laboratory. One could see the interior layout of the building under normal operation; it included every nook and cranny of the surrounding area.

This console acted as the control panel for the power source of the life-support system’s core module. Right now the power was completely shut off, causing the console to be meaningless in reality.

Luo Nan’s thought process was to use the heavily chained crow’s and the wraith sign’s sensing capabilities to following various installed electrical connections from the central control room to find the location of the core module. Then he would think of a method to restart it.

He wanted to perform an experiment to see if he could meddle with reality from the mental plane.

The heavily chained crow was like a large python that slithered within the darkness. It followed the complicated electrical leads within the sealed area, traveling away. The wires of the laboratory were extremely clear. Their highly integrated layout saved Luo Nan quite a bit of time.

He only made one mistake before he found the location of the central control system. An independent power source station was connected to the laboratory here, and various internal core modules were connected here as well. Frankly speaking, Luo Nan was not really familiar with these systems. He was an electronics newbie after all.

Luo Nan hesitated a moment before selecting the power source station.

In the end the most life-threatening issue laid in the cut-off power. He would win half the battle if he was able to restore power.

But right when he was about to get the heavily chained crow to turn around and come back, the brain of his main body tingled slightly. Then a radiating lightning struck its way out.

It was that mystical and mysterious long-thread.

Of course the long-thread’s hair-like structure had no meaning in this enormous laboratory. But the lightning it manifested actually ran rapidly down the heavily chained crow’s path. This instantaneous ability surged out of the front end of the chain and faded away within the mass of cable wires.

Luo Nan covered his forehead; he was unable to understand what had happened for some time.

This long-thread was way too bizarre.

This long-thread had inexplicably activated the flexible e-ink screen’s interface back when it had entered his wristband, and it had also consumed most of the wristband’s battery life.

Luo Nan initially concluded that the long-thread was a special kind of electronic equipment capable of integrating the various capabilities of a processor, memory module, sensors, and other things.

But the long-thread had actually released an intense reaction when Luo Nan had the heavily chained crow scan it. The long-thread had broke into his brain through some inconceivable method.

Luo Nan had been absent minded for some time due to the long-thread seemingly fusing into some location in his brain. After which, Luo Nan could actually feel its existence intensely.

The brain did not have the ability to feel. The so-called feeling of existence was either a sort of abnormal electrical signal or a sort of response on the mental plane. Luo Nan was inclined to believe in the later. This was because there was clearly a subtle exchange of information between the long-thread and the heavily chained crow. Unfortunately that aspect was still something he did not comprehend.

Luo Nan had already given a relatively high assessment of this mysterious toy that had been hidden inside the flexible e-ink screen by that coward.

But right now this thing gave him new shock and delight.

Although the long-thread had broken away from the heavily chained crow, there still remained a distinct sensation of its existence. Luo Nan was able to feel its manifested lightning from this sensation. It propelled backwards down the electric line and entered Luo Nan's estimated location of the power station in a flash.

A short few seconds passed and that area suddenly lit up. From the aspect of Luo Nan's senses, Luo Nan would describe the surging lightning to be coming like a direct assault. The heavily chained crow received his influence and suddenly withdrew back. However it was relatively slower than the velocity of the conducting electric current.

It was due to the crow’s slow speed that an inconceivable marvel unfolded itself in front of Luo Nan's eyes.

He saw a tree within the eye-prickling lightning. It was a large tree that was rapidly growing.

Its roots grew out within the power station and its main trunk followed the flow of lightning to pound into the central control system. In addition, there were countless flourishing branches that penetrated every module of the system.

The deathly still laboratory had reactivated in an instant.

An innumerable quantity of electrical signals converged from each and every system module. They were then compressed and transmitted. The direction of transmission was clearly towards the heavily chained crow caught by the large tree and clearly over here towards Luo Nan.