As he walked through the nightmarish corridor, Musk felt a shiver creeping up his neck.
One had to admit that Resident Evil was truly a significant cornerstone of Hollywood as even someone like Musk was familiar with it. He followed Chen Chen every step along the way, a lingering fear whispered in the back of his mind, afraid that a laser would suddenly appear in front and slice him in half.
After passing through the laser corridor, Musk saw a triple-layer reinforced explosion-proof gate, something that looked like it belonged in a nuclear bunker. After the three layers of gate shuffled open after the other, the escalator leading to the Spire Experimental Base was revealed.
The escalator went upward. By the looks of it, the escalator traveled at least fifty meters.
In other words, even if someone were to invade, they would be stalled by the fifty-meter-deep underground structure and would have no choice but to find a way to break through the nuclear bunker-like fortification.
“Such a reinforced defensive mechanism…”
Musk felt every inch of muscle on his cheeks pulsing uncontrollably. “To install such intricate defensive mechanisms even several hundred meters underground, you don’t think this is a case of paranoia?”
“Better safe than sorry.”
Chen Chen waved his hands. “To be honest, I still don’t think it’s secure enough. If possible, I’d like to further improve the fortification system.”
“Are there any other exits?”
Musk stepped onto the escalator and asked with mild curiosity, “If the government army were to break in here, there’s no point to having all these fortifications if you don’t have an exit strategy.”
“Of course.”
Chen Chen shrugged. “Which is why I carve a kilometer-long tunnel in the underground base which passes through the Atlantic Ocean.”
“What an absurd idea.” Musk could only note Chen Chen’s statement with a gentle nod. He was completely astounded by this underground base he was seeing.
At this point, there was very little that Musk could do so he only followed the two of them obediently. As the escalator brought them closer to the entrance, a brightly lit underground building complex quickly entered Musk’s view.
The place was brightly lit with some sort of projection lamp shining overhead, creating an illusion of a blue sky and white clouds. Without paying close attention, it could easily fool its beholder.
There was an array of large buildings in the distance. The buildings were constructed of metal, giving off a strong impression of a futuristic utopian city.
Amid the arrays of buildings was an iconic building the shape of a Mayan pyramid acting as a landmark. It was nearly twenty stories tall and was a magnificent sight to behold in the underground space.
Plenty of fauna that did not require sunlight to grow was planted in the midst of these buildings, forming a vast and lush underground garden.
Everything Musk saw along the way was getting increasingly astonishing. Musk could feel his senses growing numb with every step he took. He felt like he just had to ask again, “You constructed all of these without discussing with the local government at all?”
Chen Chen did not answer his question but instead only continued showing him around the collection of buildings. They went to the dock with the gates shut tight, the military camp used for training the Black Knights as well as the soilless greenhouse. After that, they went to the power station of the underground base with Chen Chen leading the way.
Musk could no longer contain his disbelief when he saw a configurable nuclear fusion reactor in all its glory before him. “Are you kidding me? This is a branch of technology that nobody in the world can utilize and yet you’re properly incorporating it here? Are you kidding me!”
“Calm down. As you can see, this is the real deal.”
Chen Chen was not bothered by Musks’ reaction. He continued staring ahead at the spherical device in front of him and informed, “It’s also worth mentioning that what you’re seeing is just an inertial confinement reactor, its output can barely compare to the tokamak reactor. A better implementation would be to install it on a spaceship to serve as the nuclear engine of an interstellar spacecraft.”
Musk took in a deep breath when he heard this. He immediately thought of the brand-new spacecraft technology mentioned in the previous Letter of Intent for Cooperation.
As if sensing what Musk was thinking, Chen Chen promptly explained, “Our nuclear is currently in its research stages, it’s essentially a miniaturized version of the international confinement reactor. We expect a breakthrough within two years. However, the new spacecraft technology mentioned in the letter isn’t this…”
“You mean to say that you have other spacecraft technology?” Musk asked curiously.
“Yes.”
Chen Chen nodded. “And I can guarantee that you’ll be greatly inspired when you see it…”
Musk spent nearly an hour near this reactor. After all, this was the only usable nuclear fusion reactor in the entire world. There was no such thing as spending too long investigating it.
Chen Chen displayed great patience as well, not once did he urge Musk to hurry. After an hour had passed when Musk had finished observing the scientific marvel, Chen Chen brought him to the entrance of the central building of the Spire Experimental Base.
“This building is the Spire laboratory.”
Chen Chen brought his guest into the Mayan pyramid-shaped building. He suddenly turned around. “Mr. Musk, would you like to look at our brand-new treatment technology right away or would you like to take a look at the other bioscience technology first?”
“Is there a difference?”
Musk became immediately intrigued.
“Of course, there’s a difference.”
Chen Chen flashed a smile. “In fact, we’ve mastered a branch of amnestic technique. Should you decide to not join our God’s Forbidden Zone after you’ve finished touring the base, we won’t force you to do so as well. In that case, we’ll be erasing your memory to ensure you don’t leak our secrets to the outside world.
“However, if you choose to join us, we’ll grant you access to our newest treatment technology at first notice. I understand that you have lingering trauma related to high blood pressure and diabetes, right? To the outside world, these diseases are extremely pesky to manage and may very well directly affect one’s lifespan and life quality. However, such diseases are almost effortless for us to treat…”
“Is that true?”
Musk took a deep breath. A part of him was astounded by this memory-erasing technique mentioned, but he still managed to collect himself and asked rationally, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch in the world. What do I have to contribute to become a part of God’s Forbidden Zone?”
“If you decide to join, I’ll grant you tier two qualifications as a member of the Disciple Council.”
Chen Chen said, “The Disciples Council membership shifts every decade, I’m sure you’re aware of the benefits. Your contribution is very simple. We only expect the obligation of mutual aid between the association.”
“It’s that simple?”
“Yes, it truly is just that simple.”
Chen Chen’s expression was sincere.
“Alright, please do show me your company’s new treatment technology first.”
Musk took another deep breath and stated decisively.
“Please come with me.”
Chen Chen smiled quickly and brought Musk to the laboratory where the Medpod 3000 device was hosted.
The Medpod 3000 no longer looked like its previous form as Little X had added another layer of outer shell to it, reiterating its original appearance.
Now this Medpod 3000 device was no different from a regular NMR machine.
The reason this was done was that Chen Chen thought that as he instantiated more items from different movies, there was a larger chance of members of God’s Forbidden Zone speculating theories of their own that they should not have.
After all, having one or two items from movies may be brushed off as a mere coincidence, but what if there were three or four of them? What if he had five or six of them altogether?
Having more of these so-called coincidences may give rise to unexpected scenarios.
With that in mind, the Medpod 3000 was given a layer of disguise and converted to a common NMR machine.
“This machine is our latest developed machine used to repair the human body.”
Chen Chen made an inviting gesture. “Mr. Musk, would you like a demonstration?”
“Demonstration?”
Musk was mildly surprised. “What kind of demonstration?’
Instead of answering the question, Chen Chen snapped his fingers slightly. Immediately after that, the side entrance of the laboratory opened and revealed two Black Knights bringing in a white man.
The white man wore a gray jumpsuit decorated with horizontal white stripes across it. There was a large letter “D” stitched on the jumpsuit. He was incredibly restless and continuously tried to wring himself free.
No matter how hard he resisted, the two men holding him by his arm remained still like iron walls, barely budging at all.
“This…”
Musk was immediately taken aback when he saw this. What happened next would prompt a more drastic reaction from him as he would turn to Chen Chen in utter disbelief.
This was because one of the Black Knights suddenly produced a dagger the length of a finger and started to viciously stab the man’s chest!
One stab, two stabs, three stabs…
The poor man shrieked in anguish as an incomprehensible amount of blood splattered in front of Musk. This caused Musk to stumble backward with his legs quivering uncontrollably.
At first, the white man kept up his endless howling and struggling. After a dozen stabs, blood started seeping out of the corner of his mouth as all the strength was drained out of his body, he could hardly cry anymore.
When he saw a living person dying in front of him, the insides of Musk’s mouth twitched uncontrollably. As a proper entrepreneur, it was the first time that he witnessed something like this. What he witnessed impacted him greatly, but the fact that he could still hold himself firmly in place was a representation of his extremely strong psychological quality.
After that, the two Black Knights propped the man back up and took off his jumpsuit before carrying him to the NMR machine.
Blood was oozing out of the dozens of knife wounds on the man’s chest. The parts of flesh and skin where the dagger hit was turned inside out. The horrific sight further reinforced the reality of the situation.
“Initializing scanning.”
When the machine was activated, a mechanical voice came from within the machine. What followed after was an alert. “Detected critical injury, initializing automated physiological repair function…”
“Repairing…”
After the short alert from the machine, Musk saw the man being pushed into the interior section of the machine. What came after were waves of repeated buzzing. The wounds on the man’s chest were rapidly recovering at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Musk quickly rubbed his eyes only to confirm that what he was seeing was not his eyes playing tricks on him. The depthless marks left behind by the dagger were rapidly recovering until all that was left was a fully-repaired chest covered by the previous pool of blood. The wounds carved by the dagger had completely disappeared without a trace.
On top of that, the man’s chest that had become motionless started to move to the pace of his breathing again. This implied that not only had the wounds healed, but the functionality of his lungs and heart had recovered as well.
“Repair complete. Reinitializing scanning procedures…
“Scanning complete. The user is in a stable physiological state. Lungs functionalities are stable. Heart functionalities are stable. Liver functionalities are stable…”
Before the machine could finish reporting, the two Black Knights rudely pulled the man out from the machine and proceeded to splash cold water on his face.
The rudely awakened man immediately shrieked — he was resurrected.
“Resurrection?”
Musk felt a dryness stemming from his throat. What he was seeing was so ridiculous to a point he wanted to find the fault in it to rebuke it. It had to be a ruse!
However, there was no way for him to prove it…
“No, this isn’t resurrection.”
Chen Chen corrected him. “This fully-automated medical platform cannot bring someone back to life. It should not be feasible for mankind to attain the ability to resurrect someone within the next millennia. The only reason this subject can be brought back to life is that he hadn’t died yet. He had at least a tiny breath of life left in him just now.”
There was nothing Musk could do except to smile bitterly and shake his head.
After that, the man was once again dragged out of the laboratory by the two Black Knights, like livestock being taken away.
“Please don’t label us as some kind of evil corporation, Mr. Musk.”
Chen Chen tapped Musk on the shoulder and stated in what sounded like an attempt to provide comfort, “These subjects are all felons that we acquired via legal means by purchasing them from the Namibian government. I can assure you that it’s legal.”
“…”
There was a slim chance of Musk believing Chen Chen’s claims, but it did serve him well enough to distract him from his upset mood and initial disgust. His eagerness slowly came back to him as he stated, “This machine is truly wondrous. I’d like to give it a shot, provided that it can truly treat the disease lurking inside of me.”
“Don’t worry.”
Chen Chen nodded. “If it can heal drastic wounds, diabetes and high blood pressure won’t be an issue at all. However, I believe I’ve also stated the implications of using this machine.”
Musk fell silent for a moment as if he was contemplating. He negotiated, “I’m willing to pay 100 million dollars to use it just once.”
“Mr. Musk, I’m afraid I don’t have any need for the 100 million dollars.”
Chen Chen waved the offer away. “Even if you offer a billion dollars, the answer is still no.”
“Why?”
Musk objected. “Judging by your casual demonstration, I can conclude that it doesn’t cost a lot to use this fully-automated medical platform. Why would you stubbornly insist on not letting anyone use it then?”
“This branch of technology is as close as it can get to dark technology, is it not?”
Chen Chen smiled and proceeded to explain patiently, “I’m sure you’re well aware of its insurmountable value as what it offers is leaps and bounds above the age-reversal treatment. Not only can it be used to return its user’s body to prime condition, but it can also alleviate tricky diseases. Do you think some kind of technology like this is supposed to exist in real life?
“What happens if the existence of such machinery was exposed to the outside world?”
As Chen Chen said this, he wagged a finger and said, “I cannot let the word of the existence of this machine get out there. Or at the very least, I won’t do it until I have a sure way to protect myself. 100 million dollars isn’t worth the potential risk it entails!”
Musk immediately became quiet when he heard this. However, his vivid blue eyes rapidly expanded and contracted consecutively, clearly hinting that he was fiercely contemplating his next move.
After spending some time ruminating, Musk finally spoke again. He asked with a lowered voice, “So you’re saying that I can only receive this treatment by joining God’s Forbidden Zone?”
“Exactly.”
Chen Chen nodded and looked right into Musk’s eyes. “By joining us, all sorts of diseases, whether it’s cancer, Alzheimer’s disease or diabetes and other terminal illnesses will no longer be a factor in your life. Your body will always remain in its prime and your youth will last until you’re 200-years-old, 300-years-old… Your life will be continuously sustained with mankind’s anti-aging project…”
Chen Chen dragged his voice lower and said with great sincerity, “And the only thing you need to do is to join us, Mr. Musk. With life comes limitless possibilities, don’t you agree?”
