Qing Chen asked in confusion, "What did you do before you joined Fireseed Company?"
The test subject recalled for a long time: "It was so long ago... I was a teacher who had incurable lung cancer and gradually fell into despair. One day, people from the Fire Seed Company found me. They said they could help me get treatment and would pay me 300,000 yuan in cash afterwards, so I went with them. But I never expected that this departure would last for endless years."
Yes, before becoming experimental subjects, these people were just pitiful people with cancer.
Qing Chen asked, "Since you have the ability to escape from the laboratory, why don't you leave this underground abyss?"
The test subject said hoarsely, "If I could get around those human-faced worms, I would have left long ago. I also want to ask you how you got down here."
“Hmm,” Qingchen suddenly found it interesting.
He had been wondering why, if it was such a hidden laboratory, they would bother to raise a bunch of human-faced insects. Wasn't the Fireseed Company just asking for trouble?
It was only at this moment that Qingchen suddenly understood that the human-faced insects' role was indeed to protect, but their responsibility was not to prevent outsiders from entering, but to prevent the experimental subjects inside from leaving!
Qing Chen asked, "I'm asking you, was it you who opened the inner door?"
He was referring to the door that he and Chen Jiazhang had just discovered.
The test subject shook his head: "After the six of us woke up, we were trapped there for a long time. Despair and anger made us lose our remaining sanity and we started killing each other. I killed the other five, ate them, and waited for death. However, one day when I was about to starve to death, the door suddenly clicked open. I ran out frantically, but I didn't see who opened the door."
Qingchen nodded: "It matches my guess, but I will find other things to verify whether what you said is true, and I also know how to verify it."
Just then, Da Yu returned with a stack of documents: "We can't understand them, but there are serial numbers and names on them, which should be what you're looking for. But the problem is, wasn't the nameplate on that glass container torn off? How are you going to find out his identity?"
Qing Chen said, "Bionics are clones. Since Fireseed Company clones them, it must have recorded their genetic origins and who the original owner was. He escaped the container, opened the gate for this experimental subject, and tore off his own nameplate. He thought he was very clever, thinking I couldn't find him, but the problem is, I just need to remember all the other nameplates and then use the process of elimination on the list."
There are a total of 10,023 android vessels on the abyss cliff, and the Fireseed Company also registered 10,023 on paper, but there are only 10,022 nameplates.
For Qingchen, this process of elimination was much simpler than reordering the data previously.
Soon, Qingchen found the missing nameplate on page 27: T50381, the gene fragment came from the Northwest Zong Clan, Zong Cheng.
Qing Chen suddenly looked up. It was clearly recorded in the Hu family's intelligence agency that Zong Cheng, like the great tyrant Liu Yue, possessed the rare ability to control puppets.
Everyone suspected that the forbidden marionette was created by him or Liu Yue!
At this moment, Qingchen felt that he had finally found a clue to the puppeteer who killed Ning Xiu's sister-in-law.
Chapter 751, Escape Room: Perform a Magic Trick for Chen Yu
Da Yu suddenly said, "Is this the puppeteer who's been targeting the Knights organization and the Parents' Association?"
“It should be,” Qing Chen nodded. “There are no so many coincidences in the world. A puppeteer born in such a dark place has not been known to the world after he left, which means that he has been hiding behind the scenes all along.”
“His records are from a long time ago, but there must be a photo of him on the Fireseed Company’s computer hard drive,” Zard said while pressing the test subject. “We can get the photo and then issue a warrant for his arrest.”
“It won’t work. He’s no longer the ‘Zongcheng’ he used to be,” Qingchen shook his head.
Countless years have passed, and the original form of the android Zong Cheng has long since died.
The opponent has used their abilities to revive the puppet.
Who knows how many identities, bodies, or what the other party has changed into? This is even more powerful than the possession methods used in the Age of Gods.
It can't be found.
Qing Chen asked the test subject in front of him, "When were you released?"
The test subject shook his head: "It's been too long. I can't even remember how many years. It's so dark here that there's no way to keep track of time. I only remember that one day the base lost power, and the door where we were imprisoned was forcibly locked. We heard gunshots outside, and the medicine used to suppress our physiological functions in the glass container gradually lost its effectiveness. After regaining our mobility, we broke the glass container and crawled out, but we were trapped in this room... until I was about to starve to death, the door opened."
Qing Chen thought for a moment, then suddenly said to the Grand Elder and Qin Yiyi, "Please have the two of you go and find the remaining resources in the laboratory. Zard, go and collect all the hard drives here; the data we need is all in them. Da Yu, summon your paintings and clean this place thoroughly."
Da Yu raised an eyebrow: "Why are you so bossy? And why are you cleaning this place? Are you planning to stay?"
Qing Chen shook his head: "The Chen Group Army will catch up to us sooner or later. I don't want them to observe our movements from the dusty footprints. Twenty painters stay behind to clean up, and four go outside to set up warnings. If anyone gets close, immediately sound a warning."
After giving all these instructions, Qing Chen looked at the test subject again and said with a smile, "Don't try to escape, don't try to bluff. Anyone here could knock your head out. Continue to answer my questions properly."
To be honest, when a superhuman reaches a certain level of strength, they have nothing to fear from ghosts and monsters.
When this six-person team got together to watch The Ring, Sadako would crawl out of the TV, and they'd have to do a split for her before they could crawl back into the TV...
All fear stems from insufficient firepower.
"How did you survive after you got out?" Qingchen asked.
“Go fishing in the river,” the test subject said.
"You know how to fish?" Qingchen asked in return.
“All I have to do is cut my own arm, and the fish will be attracted by the smell of blood. The fish in this underground river have long since mutated,” the test subject replied hoarsely. “I’ve even attracted a giant python, enough to feed me for a month. It’s pitch black here, and my eyes have gradually become blurry, but I’ve slowly adapted to the darkness, and I can even see you clearly in the dark.”
"Did you kill the guards in the lab?" Qing Chen asked.
The test subject shook his head: "I didn't kill them. They were already rotting when I came out."
Da Yu asked, "Why are you asking all this nonsense?"
Qing Chen replied, "I need to know how long this Zong Cheng has been gone, to assess the current scale of his power."
Zong Cheng may have left this place much earlier than we imagined, possibly several hundred years ago!
This answer even made Qingchen a little worried.
If we were to go even further and speculate, Qing Chen even suspects that Liu Yue from hundreds of years ago was a puppet created by the bionic Zong Cheng.
Based on the logic of human nature, it is speculated that after leaving here, 'Zongcheng' went into hiding for a period of time. When he realized that he could not compete with the conglomerate, he wanted to control the military, and thus the avatar Liu Yue was created.
The Federation Group's military missiles directly razed the army controlled by 'Liu Yue' to the ground, leading them to believe that 'Liu Yue' was dead. However, Zong Cheng, who was behind Liu Yue, was not dead; he was still alive.
The number of puppets killed by the missile did not exceed half of those controlled by Zong Cheng.
Later, Zong Cheng learned to keep a low profile, while the other party spent hundreds of years lying low, and their tentacles had spread to every corner of the Federation.
Now, the other side may have already created tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of puppets.
There's a question on Zhihu (a Chinese Q&A website): If you had 100,000 loyal soldiers, what would you have them do?
Someone answered, "Make them all work in electronics factories tightening screws."
Even if these workers only earn 2,000 a month, these 100,000 soldiers would still have a monthly salary of 200 million...
No matter how vulnerable a group may be, once their numbers reach a certain level, they can become extremely dangerous.
In particular, Qing Chen had already guessed that there were puppets of the other party in the core power of the Chen family, otherwise the other party would not have known the Reverse Breathing Technique so clearly.
At least one of them, either Qingyuan or Qingyuan's father, is a puppet.
Such a person, hiding behind the scenes and gradually coming into contact with the core of power, is truly terrifying.
No wonder the other party didn't hesitate to give up even an A-level puppet, and didn't feel any pain at losing two forbidden items. It's because these things are nothing compared to the wealth and strength that the other party has accumulated over a long period of time.
Da Yu shuddered upon hearing Qing Chen's analysis: "The Federation actually harbors such a behemoth? That's terrifying! Could it be that the entire Federation has been infiltrated by it?"
“I think you’ve overestimated him,” Qingchen said. “His puppets are indeed getting closer to core power, but he may not have that many puppets. His puppets don’t grow radially like the PTA, but rather increase and decrease.”
"How so?" Da Yu asked.
“Because, although his life is infinite, his puppets will not live forever,” Qing Chen said. “If he makes a puppet by hand, no matter what, the puppet will naturally grow old, get sick and die. So the number of puppets he controls will initially increase dramatically, but once it reaches a certain stage, the number of puppets will stabilize, because the aging puppets will be gradually replaced.”
Assuming Zongcheng can create one puppet per day, and 360 puppets per year, and further assuming that his puppets have an 80-year lifespan after being controlled, then 360 puppets multiplied by 80 years of lifespan means that the maximum number of puppets the opponent can control is 28,800.
Once this number is exceeded, when Zongcheng creates new puppets, old puppets will continue to die, and the number will not reach the exaggerated figure of hundreds of thousands.
Qingchen felt that Zongcheng was not yet capable of creating 10 puppets a day, otherwise he would have unified the Federation long ago.
Da Yu said, "I think this is also why he has to get close to the core of power. He can't turn the entire Federation into his puppets, so he needs higher-quality puppets. When he mistakenly killed Ning Xiu, he actually wanted to kill the Shadow. If we consider it from the perspective of interests: there might be his puppets among the Shadow candidates that year. The Shadow blocked his way and affected his process of quietly seizing power in the Qing family, so he had to eliminate his biggest competitor first and muddy the waters."
Qing Chen pondered. Da Yu's words made sense. If there was a puppet among the Shadow Candidates that year, then the other party would have a motive.
Da Yu continued, "Moreover, I roughly understand why he's targeting you. It's because the Parents' Association is expanding too fast, faster than he's creating puppets, and is slowly gaining the potential to overthrow the world. His plan is to take things slowly and gradually, using puppets to gain control of the Federation. But when you came, you directly overturned the foundation he's been building for hundreds of years. He definitely can't tolerate you."
By this time, everyone had finished searching. The elder reluctantly handed three crystal bottles to Qingchen, saying, "Here, the blood of the gods should be inside."
Qing Chen asked with a half-smile, "I thought you would keep it to yourself."
The elder waved his hand impatiently: "Can I be the same as you knights? Besides, you helped stop the Chen family from going to the fire pit this time. I will remember this favor."
Qing Chen shook the blood of the gods in the crystal bottle; it had been preserved for over a thousand years.
Moreover, he always felt that Ren Xiaosu's blood was different from that of ordinary people, and only after observing it up close did he realize that there seemed to be a faint glow in it.
He carefully collected the blood of the gods, as it would be crucial for City 10 to develop a Grade A gene drug.
Qing Chen looked at the test subject: "You said you ate five of your companions. Where are their bones? You couldn't possibly have chewed them up along with your own bones, could you?"
“I buried them outside. Go around to the back of the lab and you’ll see the graves in the open space. I built them up with stones I picked up from the river. Sometimes I sit there for a while,” the subject said.
Chen Jiazhang and the others fell silent. In fact, the test subject was also pitiful. In the end, the other party just wanted to cure his illness.
Da Yu asked coldly, "You don't want to kill it? You feel sorry for it now, but all the human-faced worms guarding this place are dead. If it gets out, it's the ordinary people who will suffer. If you don't want to kill it, I will."
Qing Chen shook his head: "I'm not that hypocritical. I can do this myself."
He then turned to the test subject and said, "I'm sorry, you can't leave here alive."
As soon as he finished speaking, the test subject bared its fangs and roared again, only to have its neck snapped cleanly by Qing Chen.
Life presents many choices, but this one is not the most difficult one in Qingchen's life, and it doesn't even rank among the most difficult.
“We’ve wasted too much time on this test subject. What’s the next step? Should we fight our way out?” Da Yu asked.
The First Elder curled his lip: "Are you crazy? The main force of the Chen Clan is outside, along with the demigod Chen Yu. Even if we had nine lives, we couldn't break through."
Qing Chen stood up and said, "Even with the human-faced insects blocking the way, Zong Cheng was able to leave silently, which means that there is still an escape route prepared for the researchers in this laboratory."
“No,” the elder shook his head. “I didn’t see any passage. If we really want to leave, we can only risk our lives by jumping into the underground river and going with the current. We might drift to the end and escape, or we might drown in the underground river. Nobody can say for sure.”
Qing Chen pondered, there must be an escape route, and Zong Cheng had left using this route.
But where is this escape route?
...
...
On the cliff edge of the cave, Chen Yu stood calmly, silently looking down into the black abyss.
A Chen officer said, "Sir, the elevator will be set up soon. Give us 20 minutes."
Chen Yu hummed in response, looking down at the ground, seemingly lost in thought.
At this moment, dozens of engineers came over with telescopic ladders, quickly calculated the distance below, and began to assemble the ladders.