Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
An underground laboratory.
Su Jian—a man in his thirties, tall and well-proportioned—was experimental subject number 1,856.
At the moment, he was conducting a series of tests on the computer system.
Green characters flickered across the screen in front of him—sometimes displaying the long-digit multiplication of a 13-digit and an 18-digit number, sometimes a ten-order Sudoku, polyhedral observation questions that would put his dimensional senses to the test, and active-recall tests involving charts, text, color, and more to test his memory.
Su Jian’s comprehensive brain abilities were examined from multiple aspects or dimensions.
The difficulty of many of the test questions was no less than that of variety shows related to brainpower… he would certainly have been able to compete on variety shows easily, as long as he nodded his head. Of all the brainpower-testing questions placed in front of him, he was able to answer every one!
It took him very little time, and he was 100% accurate.
With such an amazing performance, if he was willing to participate in variety shows, he could put awards like the Brain King Awards, Championship trophy, Oscar Statuette, into his pocket.
Moreover, he had outstanding looks, he was tall and slender, his eyes were deep and melodious, his behavior was seemly and elegant, and he could give people the feeling that he was a melancholic prince.
He would look great in front of the camera. He was a person who could bring about hot gossip.
However, he did not have any plans of going on a TV show.
Only one word was drilled into his heart: revenge.
In those years, he had been willing to endure tremendous pain and become a lab rat for testing medical technology with the sole purpose of obtaining his revenge.
Burning with hatred, he stood out among thousands of experimental subjects, persisted to the end, and, finally, attained success.
…
He achieved excellent results in the dozens of brain tests.
Su Jian’s face was suffused with red, his forehead was slightly sweaty, and he felt a little like he had an overdose from brain use… but it was all completely within normal ranges.
After plaguing their scientific research staff for more than ten years, the problem of excessive heat generation during the Bionic Chip’s operation had been completely solved in the project’s later stages. Besides, the performance indicators for the Bionic Chip had far exceeded the original design.
Its computing power had reached 1.5 trillion units per second, a 50% overstep. 80% of the more than two hundred pieces of bone, six hundred strands of muscles, and five internal organs in the human body could be controlled using Bionic Chips. It also had excellent graphical and logical reasoning capabilities. The storage space on its supporting memory chip was up to 150 terabytes, which was sufficient to hold the knowledge in the books of several libraries. Most unbelievably, its power consumption had been kept to under 50 watts.
It could harmonize with the human brain on a deep level, overcome various types of reactive rejections, and flexibly mobilize the immune system, which would greatly improve the body’s immunity. If employed in cultivation, it could flexibly control the meridian system and elixir field for the entire body, greatly improving the efficiency of cultivation.
An improvement—all in all, it was a comprehensive improvement.
For humans, in particular, it was enough to trigger earth-shaking changes.
The scientist who presided over the project said, “Compared to the Protoss, human beings lack talent and bloodline powers, and lag behind in average intelligence. Innately, we are at a serious disadvantage and are obviously the weaker race.
Given this new era of cultivation, in the long run, humans were likely to become dependent on the Protoss, and even… vanish like the Indians.
“But the bionic chip can completely alter the situation and remove those harsh disadvantages.
“Once the bionic chip is implanted, one’s mind immediately becomes five times or even ten times faster, and its operational capability increases by a factor in the tens of millions. In terms of cultivation, it will become possible for one to observe the changes in their meridian and energy center, conduct fine-tuning at any time, and always find the best solution with the highest efficiency… This will help one to avoid countless detours, allowing everyone’s cultivation to be highly efficient.
“In actual combat scenarios, the bionic chip can provide its user with a variety of suggestions and plans to increase their win rate, boost their confidence, and help them always make the correct decision.
“Combining the human brain with the bionic chip is equivalent to a super-evolution of the brain, allowing us humans to break free from our limitations.
“If the Body of a Sage plan is also successful, it and the bionic chip together—the dual evolution of the brain and body— will give humans the power to easily suppress anyone, even the various geniuses among the Protoss.”
Mere Protoss wouldn’t seem that terrifying any longer.
…
“Dad, Mom, Sis—I will avenge all of you!”
Su Jian, the first subject of the bionic chip’s total success, secretly swore this at that moment.
Su Jian used to live in the very outdated setting of a blissful and wealthy family. His parents established a company with a market value of over 10 billion and owned a very luxurious villa; he, meanwhile, lived like a prince in a novel, with BMWs, pretty belles around him, and an aristocratic friend circle. He was surrounded and fawned upon by groups of civilians, changed his girlfriend every two or three months, and abused countless players while in online games.
He also had an adorable younger sister at home who often acted like a child in front of him.
He had the perfect ultimate credit recharge.
Without putting in any hard work, he had come to possess a wonderful life that the poor could never comprehend.
Then, one day, several Protoss cultivators barged into his villa. They murdered his parents, humiliated his sister, killed her, took over the villa, and seized control of the company that belonged to his family. He starved in the attic for five days before he got an opportunity to sneak out. Since then, he had carried his mission of revenge within him and had burned with hatred every single day.
What made him even more infuriated was that a few of those Protoss cultivators who had slaughtered his family now lived a grand life in his family’s villas, and had not moved out even several years later. Powerless as he was, he could only clench his fists until his nails cut into his palm.
In this underground laboratory of the Chens, most of the experimental subjects that joined the Sage Plan were just like Su Jian, actively joining due to their deep-rooted hatred toward the Protoss. Although the process of the experiment was immensely excruciating, with a mortality rate exceeding 40%, many still persisted.
“One day, I will slaughter all the Protoss and win back our home!”
Su Jian, who still saw some hope, said this in secret while grinding his teeth.
…
Inside the villa.
The news of the major breakthrough in the Bionic Chip project made Chen Jin gleeful for quite a while.
But their previous problems had yet to be resolved. There was Tonghuang clan’s demand for high-precision rapid machining technology. And there was the intention of the Jinwu clan to “protect” the Chen family.
As neither one was to be trifled with, and it was inadvisable to offend powerful Protoss Clans, how could the Chens deal with this? As the family’s mainstay, what decision was Chen Jin to make?
He walked back and forth in the living room for a long time.
After some thought, Chen Jin said, “Tell the Tonghuang clan that it will be difficult for us to give them our high-precision rapid machining technology. The Protoss aren’t very proficient in science, and, even if we were to deploy our technical staff to personally instruct them, they would still need at least three years to master the technology… A core technology can’t be learned easily.
“But, as for our runes, magical weapons, treasures, and other highly intricate products, we can sell those to them at very favorable prices, prioritize them as a customer, and accept even unlimited orders… it will absolutely be cheaper than them building their own factory.
“If the Tonghuang clan is still not satisfied and continues to exert pressure on us, then tell them that we would prefer transferring the technology to the Jinwu clan to handing it over to them.
“I’ve heard that the Tonghuang and Jinwu clans have a rather hostile, competitive relationship. The Tonghuang clan certainly does not want the Jinwu clan to grow stronger. Similarly, the Jinwu clan will not agree for us to hand over the technology to them… to avoid offending any clans, the Chens have to take a neutral stance.”
As for their products, he went on to explain, both clans would receive offers and could purchase in unlimited quantities.
“This is a great idea!” Chen Junfeng’s eyes lit up. “As the two titans go at each other, we will position ourselves away from their skirmish and hamper each of them through the hands of the other. If we implement a balanced diplomacy, we might even get some benefits out of their competition.”
“Don’t expect too much. At this moment, our fate is still that of a chess piece—forget gaming the balance of power; any wrong move will land us in a bottomless pit.”
Chen Jin shook his head. At the very least, the Sage Plan would have to attain total success. Otherwise, his next play would only be a costly, en masse dissolution.
Their dirty development and secretive growth still had to continue.