The campus of the University of Science and Technology of China.
After finishing enrollment, Wang Peng put his luggage in the dorm room. The instructor called him soon after.
“Someone is looking for you.”
“Looking for me?” Wang Peng asked casually. He looked at the instructor through the holographic interface and said, “Who?”
“Someone from the Security Bureau. Come to the administration building.”
“Okay, I’ll come right now.”
Although he didn’t know why people from the Security Bureau were looking for him, since it was a business matter, Wang Peng immediately went to the school’s administration building.
When he came to the conference room on the second floor according to the address given by the instructor, he saw a strange man wearing a gray coat standing at the conference table.
They made eye contact.
“Who are you?”
“Shi Jin.” The man in the gray coat reached out his right hand and handed out his holographic business card. “You can call me Mr. Shi, or by my name.”
An agent from the Pan-Asian Cooperation Security Bureau.
Except for the name and work unit, no other information was written on the business card.
Wang Peng put the holographic card away. He then looked at him and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“When we checked the relevant files for The Spirit of The Universe Foundation, we found that your name appeared on it.”
Wang Peng nodded and said, “I wrote the earliest reports.”
Shi Jin said with a serious expression while looking at Wang Peng, “For the stability of humanity, we hope you can cooperate!”
“But I probably won’t be able to help you.” Wang Peng said with a frown, “My knowledge and skills have been completely out of touch with the times. If the foundation is still developing over the past century, the information I have will probably be long outdated, maybe it will mislead your work.”
Shi Jin: “Because the foundation is still developing over the past century, it has penetrated our society to a very dangerous level. Hence, we need your strength even more.”
“Sorry, you should find someone else.” Wang Peng shook his head and said, “After completing my preparatory course, I will reconsider your invitation… If you still need me at that time, I will contribute my own power.”
“In fact… The difficulties we are facing are probably more severe than you think.”
With an embarrassed expression on his face, Shi Jin continued in a difficult tone, “At first, our task force was established to investigate the mastermind behind the assassination of Academician Lu. The resources we obtained from the Security Bureau are quite limited.
“Based on the information we currently have, the inference we can make is that this foundation has penetrated our society to a dangerous level. They may have a terrible virus; the kind of virus that can change the underlying logic of a robot’s memory chip, making civilian robots their crime tools.
“The robots have now become an inseparable part of our society. This is a fait accompli formed over the past half a century. If there is a virus that turns absolutely safe tools into unstable bombs, it won’t just be our economic prosperity that will be affected, it will change our society!”
After hearing what Shi Jin said, Wang Peng’s face gradually changed.
As a dormant from the 21st century, he still couldn’t fully feel the irreplaceable role of robots in modern society, but since they were targeting Academician Lu, this was no joke.
This was the first time he heard that Academician Lu was being assassinated.
“Assassin… Academician Lu? What happened? Why did they… Why would they target him?”
Why didn’t Lu Zhou tell me anything?!
Shi Jin shook his head and said, “We are also quite confused about this, but according to the informant’s information, the foundation’s judgment is that his presence may affect some of their plans.”
Wang Peng took a deep breath and said calmly, “In fact, if you think about it carefully, it makes sense that they will target Academician Lu.”
Shi Jin looked at him, waiting for him to continue.
After a pause, Wang Peng continued, “About a century ago, in the ILHCRC’s experiment on the verification of higher dimensions, a physics professor named Galette Miro once proposed the theory of cosmic animism. This is probably the foundation’s theoretical cornerstone.”
“Galette Miro?” Shi Jin’s eyebrows were raised slightly. He said in an unexpected tone, “This is a strange name, I haven’t seen it before in the files.”
“It is normal for him not to appear in the archives. After all, after our investigation, his identity was confirmed to be just an ordinary physicist. As for the theory of cosmic animism, it was just a strange academic paper.”
Shi Jin: “But how do you know that The Spirit of The Universe Foundation has nothing to do with Professor Garrett Miro?”
“Because that person is dead.” Wang Peng continued watching Shi Jin as he said, “Just after Lu Zhou’s report on extra-dimensional theory ended, he made certain changes to his paper and uploaded it to his personal blog. Then he committed suicide in his dormitory.”
“This sounds like an urban legend… A dead physicist and his papers became the starting point of a new age religion? But Professor Garrett Miro, I’ve never heard of this name before.”
“History cannot remember everyone’s name, especially since most people agree with another point of view.”
Shi Jin: “That seems to be true.”
“Through limited information, we can only make such inferences. If The Spirit of The Universe Foundation believes in Professor Garrett Miro’s theory, then Garrett Miro is undoubtedly their prophet. They would have a natural hostility towards Academician Lu, which is actually very understandable.”
“This is a very valuable piece of information. So my trip here is not useless.” Shi Jin wrote the information down seriously and reached out his right hand. “Although I regret not being able to convince you to join us, we thank you for the help.”
“Who said I don’t plan to join you guys?”
Shi Jin was slightly stunned.
“But didn’t you just say…”
“Although an old man persuaded me to leave the future business to the future people…”
After a pause, Wang Peng continued, “I thought about it carefully, I can’t just leave this matter to you guys and watch on the sidelines.”
After hearing these words, the shock on Shi Jin’s face instantly turned into joy. He said with a smile, “Welcome to the team!
“We will write an entry application for you. Your answers will be transferred to the Security Bureau agent database and kept there until you leave your job and start a new life.”
Although Shi Jin didn’t know why his attitude had changed 180 degrees, this was definitely something to celebrate for the task force, which was short of manpower.
“That probably won’t happen.” Wang Peng teased himself a little bit self-deprecatingly, “For someone who can’t stand doing nothing, I’ll probably never quit my job.”
To be honest, sometimes he envied his old friend Li Gaoliang.
Although that guy was a little crazy, because of this, he could blend well in any era.
“Haha, there’s nothing wrong with that, I like my current job too.” Shi Jin smiled and reached out his right hand as he said sincerely, “From now on, you are the special operations consultant of our task force!”
