At that point, being disgraced would be the least of his worries; he could very well become the most incompetent president in history, forever condemned by all.
In this way, the President has naturally formed an irreconcilable enmity with Zhou Ziwei. However, due to the fear of harming the innocent, the President does not dare to retaliate against Zhou Ziwei. He even has to try to erase any traces of his involvement in the previous kidnapping incident to avoid Zhou Ziwei using it as a pretext to cause him trouble.
But the president couldn't swallow this insult, so... he came up with this wicked idea to shift the blame elsewhere. He made more than a dozen copies of the precious video recording of the car's flight and then sent them to the desks of more than a dozen heads of state through a secret channel.
I believe that any head of state who isn't a fool or an idiot will naturally understand the significance of the symbol represented by the car in the image. If any country were to obtain this precious sample first, or even the complete production and research technology... then it could create a flying kingdom, and the entire nation could enter the flying age. What a magnificent and epoch-making achievement that would be!
This technology brings more than just a good reputation; it also comes with an enticing profit. It's easy to imagine that whoever exclusively controls this incredible flying car production technology can simply sit back and wait to die. They'll have more money than they could ever spend in their lifetime. Becoming the world's richest person wouldn't be surprising, and it might even lead to the development of the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation…
So, after the president's secret manipulation and encouragement, the heads of state of more than a dozen countries and the interest groups they represented went crazy. Such an incredible advanced technology should only be in the hands of people and groups with such immense power. How could it possibly fall into the hands of a small business family? Moreover, this business family was a small family that had only been in business for two generations and was not even a big name in the world.
To many, this is simply a case of "the common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime"...
After receiving the video footage and verifying its authenticity, the heads of state of those countries immediately reacted. They unanimously dispatched their strongest elites and the best agents and intelligence personnel that their countries had painstakingly trained. Their mission was singular: no matter what means they used, they had to seize one of the flying car prototypes owned by the Zhou family and acquire the complete flying car research technology.
After completing these two tasks... as for the remaining finished flying cars of the Zhou family, and the relevant personnel who know about flying car production technology... capture them all if you can, and kill them directly if you can't capture them. Don't leave any survivors, so as not to give other countries or forces an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
So, in just over ten days, the once quiet streets of Dangyang suddenly became filled with blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners. These people arrived in Dangyang under various pretexts, using legal identities as a cover. They then discovered just how difficult their mission was. Although they didn't think the Zhou family was anything special, they had quite a few competitors. Each faction faced at least a dozen rivals. With so many people surging in, it was hard to say who would ultimately break through and obtain the valuable technical data and the flying car.
Because of the mutual checks and balances, although these people arrived with covetous eyes and a look of determination to achieve their goal, after discovering how complicated the situation was, none of them dared to make any rash moves. They hurriedly monitored the movements of the other dozen or so families while sending urgent reports to their masters for help.
After all, the force they deployed when they first arrived was more than enough to deal with a small local business family, and they could easily capture them.
But now, facing so many opponents of the same level, it's clearly not up to par.
After this brief delay, Zhou Ziwei and his group returned from Country M.
Zhou Ziwei had such discerning eyes. Just by looking at the guys in Dangyang City, he knew that almost all of them were highly skilled special agents or something similar, and that their arrival in Dangyang at this time was definitely not for anything good.
In public, Zhou Ziwei couldn't directly do anything to those people. He simply sent out a few Kun pets to investigate where they lived, and then Zhou Ziwei naturally understood the whole story.
Zhou Ziwei sneered inwardly... They want to take advantage of our Zhou family, huh... It seems our Zhou family has been too low-key all along, making these foreign devils think that our Zhou family and I, Zhou Ziwei, are easy to bully.
Alright then! Let me start with you unlucky souls and let the whole world know that the Zhou family is a name that cannot be violated.
Before leaving, Zhou Ziwei created over a hundred Kun pets to guard every important member of the Zhou family. They also protected the Zhou family compound like an impregnable fortress. Otherwise, the president wouldn't have been able to send so many experts who were all silently defeated as soon as they entered the Zhou family compound, leaving not even a single messenger behind.
For so many Kun pets to continue to survive, the amount of soul power required is quite considerable.
Zhou Ziwei was far away in the United States, so where would he find the time to replenish the soul power of these Kun pets? Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei now had a substitute. Although the substitute's strength was still quite different from Zhou Ziwei's original body, it also had the ability to absorb the energy of external souls using the Six-Syllable Mantra, and could also replenish the soul power of the Kun pets created by Zhou Ziwei's original body.
Fortunately, Zhou Ziwei used liquid soul power to directly replenish the energy of these Kun pets, so that only one replenishment was needed to keep them alive for more than ten days.
Otherwise, if Zhou Ziwei's clone Dwight had to replenish the soul power of each of the more than one hundred Kun pets every day, then Zhou Ziwei's clone would not need to do anything else.
Despite this, Dwight was still incredibly busy every day. In addition to conducting normal research with Susanna in the laboratory, he also had to go to places like slaughterhouses every day to collect a large amount of soul power, store it, and then pass it on to the Kun pets created by Zhou Ziwei when needed.
Because Dwight and Zhou Ziwei's original bodies belong to the same origin, both being split off from a single soul entity, and the independent soul entities within those Kun Chong are ultimately formed from Zhou Ziwei's soul.
Therefore, Dwight also has a soul connection with these Kunlins, allowing him to command them using soul perception.
Although Dwight is Zhou Ziwei's alter ego, this is a top secret, and Dwight doesn't want anyone to know about it, so he doesn't usually go to the Zhou family compound.
Whenever he needed to replenish the soul power of those Kun pets, Dwight would use his soul perception to summon them one by one to his laboratory.
Susanna noticed Dwight's strange behavior but never asked him anything.
In her opinion, Dwight seemed to have become a completely different person ever since he woke up on the plane last time. Oh... of course, his wisdom, his talent, his humor, and his love for her were still there, but... it was as if some element had appeared in him, making him a bit mysterious.
Back at the biological research base in Country M, Susanna had never had much affection for her old classmate, Dwight, and was even quite disgusted by his affection for her. But now… perhaps it was because they were in the same boat, or perhaps it was because the various suspicious things about Dwight had caught Susanna's attention, but lately, Susanna found herself seeing Dwight all day long, and at night, she would often dream about him. Could it be… that she had actually fallen for him?
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 654: You Decide!
Susanna's mind was in turmoil. For the first time, she found herself interested in things outside of academics, and even thought about matters of the heart, which she found rather strange.
Has she been a spinster for too long and started to swoon over men? Please... even if I'm going to swoon, can't I swoon over a better man? Dwight might be considered excellent by ordinary people, but in the field of biology, he's not very famous... oh, or maybe he's been behaving quite well lately, so he seems to be someone with some real talent.
But... why did he always act so low-key before?
Susanna walked out of the archives with a stack of lab reports in her arms, lost in thought, and wandered into the lounge.
I put the lab report on the coffee table and was about to make myself a cup of coffee when I saw Dwight sneakily taking a small glass vial from a box in the toxic drug storage room across the way.
What is he doing here? Everything here is highly toxic biological agents and materials. Could he be planning something bad?
Susanna felt her heart start pounding wildly. Then, through the glass window, she silently counted the shelf number where Dwight had taken the small box and immediately concluded that the glass bottle Dwight had taken contained an extract of a highly toxic plant called Nine Star Grass.
This nine-star grass comes from the African jungle and is said to be a poisonous plant that only grows in graves that are over a hundred years old. Each plant has three to six leaves, and nine five-pointed stars naturally grow on each leaf, making it look extremely strange.
The toxicity of this Nine Star Grass is exceptionally high; a single drop of its extract, when diluted, is enough to kill more than a dozen adults.
However, although the extract of this nine-star grass is extremely toxic, it is also an essential catalyst in many important biological experiments, which is why there is such a small bottle in this biological laboratory.
This tiny bottle is said to be worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars, which is many times more expensive than gold...
Why would Dwight use this stuff for no reason...? It seems like he hasn't used any herb extract in his recent experiments...
Susanna grew increasingly alarmed. When she saw Dwight take the small bottle and put it in his pocket, then turn and walk away, she instinctively took two steps back, avoiding the transparent glass window.
After a while, when she heard the footsteps in the corridor gradually fade away, she breathed a sigh of relief. Then, after hesitating for a moment, she finally gritted her teeth, picked up the stack of lab reports, and quickly walked out of the lounge, heading in the direction where Dwight had just disappeared.
Soon, Susanna saw Dwight standing on the terrace, closing his eyes and taking a few deep breaths in the morning sun. Then... Susanna was surprised to see a swarm of mosquitoes fly over from the sunlight and start circling around Dwight.
As soon as Dwight gently opened his palm, the swarm of mosquitoes immediately landed on it.
What are they doing, Dwight...? How could he be so friendly with these mosquitoes? While it's true that people who study biology are generally fond of small animals, even if Dwight likes keeping pets, it's not like he'd treat mosquitoes like pets! Besides... mosquitoes aren't very intelligent creatures, are they? Even if you gave them your blood to drink every day, they wouldn't appreciate it, so how could you train them like pets...?
While Susanna was wondering what was going on, Dwight suddenly pulled out the glass bottle he had just stolen from his pocket, carefully opened the stopper, and poured the entire bottle of Nine Star Grass extract into a white porcelain plate.
With a "whoosh," right after Dwight poured out the bottle of venom, the swarm of mosquitoes that had been hovering above his head immediately swooped down like a group of hungry cats attracted by the smell of fish, landing in the white porcelain plate.
In an instant, the dark brown venom in the plate was devoured by a swarm of mosquitoes.
Then the swarm of mosquitoes seemed to be drunk, swaying and flying up, but they didn't fly far before they fell down one by one, landing all around the terrace.
You should know that just one drop of this Nine Star Grass extract can kill more than a dozen people, and this small bottle can hold at least a hundred drops of the venom, which is enough to poison one or two thousand people. How could this group of mosquitoes possibly withstand it?
Seeing this scene, Susanna suddenly felt her brain wasn't working properly. At first, when she saw Dwight secretly hiding such a highly toxic drug, she thought he was up to something bad. Then she saw him playing with a group of mosquitoes and thought he was an overly affectionate pet lover... But then she didn't expect Dwight to poison all the mosquitoes that were just playing with him to death... This development was too bizarre!
Susanna stared wide-eyed at the scene from afar, wondering if she had gone mad or if Dwight had gone mad. He... he actually stole a bottle of venom worth hundreds of thousands of dollars just to kill a swarm of mosquitoes... what on earth was going on...?
"Is it strange?" Dwight suddenly smiled faintly from a distance, turned around, and looked at Susanna, who was secretly watching him from afar. "You must be wondering if I'm crazy, right? Am I wrong?"
Susanna had always thought she was being very careful, and that Dwight, being so far away, shouldn't have noticed she was following him. But... seeing Dwight's nonchalant demeanor, Susanna suddenly felt like she'd been tricked. It turned out... he seemed to have noticed her all along, but... he... oh... could it be that he stole the bottle of Nine Star Grass extract not to poison these mosquitoes, but to do something else entirely? But... he inadvertently saw her watching him, knew his poison-stealing was despicable, and to avoid suspicion about his motives, he simply fed all that poison, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, to the mosquitoes. That way... even if she exposed him and revealed his theft, the company would only fine him a small pay cut, and he wouldn't face any other punishment... Yes, that must be it.
Susanna is indeed very clever; she managed to figure out something that seemed absurd so quickly, and even gave a reasonable explanation to something that couldn't be explained. It seems she has a real talent for directing...
The self-righteous Susanna thought she had seen through Dwight's scheme, but she didn't expose him. She just smiled faintly and said, "Yes... I'm curious why you would use such expensive poison to feed mosquitoes... If you wanted to kill those mosquitoes, you could have just swatted them with a light tap, and even if you were to use pesticide... a bottle of insecticide that costs a few dollars would be enough. But why... Hehe... If you feel that you have something to hide, that's fine too. Everyone has the right to privacy, so you don't need to be embarrassed."
Dwight's lips curled into a wrinkle that was hard to decipher, a mixture of laughter and tears. He shook his head slightly and said, "You still think I'm a madman, or... a conman hiding a grand conspiracy, right? Fine... I should have told you these things anyway. I'm about to do something big. I need to kill... kill a lot of people who deserve to die. But... my own abilities are still weak, so I have to find some good helpers. And these mosquitoes are... hehe... don't underestimate them just because they're small. Each one of them is capable of killing a top-tier expert."
"You said... these mosquitoes are your helpers, you... you want to use them to kill people for you?" Susanna asked casually with a calm smile, but in her heart she was already cursing: What a madman... He poisoned these little mosquitoes himself, and he still wants them to kill people for him... Damn Dwight, he must have read too many online novels and ruined his brain.
Upon seeing Susanna's eyes, Dwight could guess the meaning hidden beneath her facade. He couldn't help but smile slightly, then clapped his hands lightly and said, "Get up! My little ones, no more slacking off here, hmph... It's not like you've never taken this level of poison before, you're not that fragile! Oh... could it be... you think I'm having a rendezvous with a beautiful lady, so you're embarrassed to disturb us, right? You're all so adorable, but... it doesn't seem necessary!"
Upon hearing this, Susanna could only put her hand to her forehead, feeling a sudden wave of sorrow. She was now basically certain that Dwight was truly insane, rather than just pretending to be stupid.
But how could he have become like this? Could it be... because of that time on the plane when he saved me and those others whose minds had also been corrupted by the monster, absorbing its evil energy, that's why... he's like this now? Yes... that must be it, otherwise how could he have gone mad for no reason... And if that's the case... didn't he go mad because of me? If it weren't for saving me, why would he have risked his life... And if it weren't for saving me, why would he have been forced to save other people... Oh God... so it really is all because of me...
If Dwight could truly hear Susanna's inner thoughts, he would probably be overjoyed by now.
Before Susanna could continue her musings, the mosquitoes that had just fallen to the ground suddenly fluttered up again at Dwight's words and began to happily circle around him.
Susanna's eyes widened immediately. She could hardly believe her eyes. That was Nine-Star Grass extract... a whole small bottle of Nine-Star Grass extract, a poison capable of killing one or two thousand people, and it had been eaten by just a few dozen mosquitoes. But... it seemed that not a single one had died. How... how could this be possible...?
"Isn't that hard to believe?" Dwight opened his palm again, letting all the mosquitoes fall into it. Then, with a gentle wave of his hand, the swarm of mosquitoes immediately took flight, circled Dwight's head once more, and then flew away.
“Sit down!” Dwight gestured to the chair under the parasol on the terrace, pulled it aside to make room for Susanna, and then sat down on the next chair himself.
Then, pressing his temple with one hand, he sighed helplessly and said, "Originally, I didn't want to expose my true self to you, but I like you so much... The painful thing is that I've always been mediocre and haven't been favored by you, so I have no choice but to use this method to attract your attention. So... I have to let you know another side of me. Hmm... I hope it won't scare you."
Susanna sat down opposite Dwight, somewhat bewildered, then frowned slightly and said, "Dwight, what was that swarm of mosquitoes? How... how could they have such strong antibodies to toxic substances? So many highly poisonous drugs couldn't kill them—is it because their genes have mutated? Also... I noticed that those little mosquitoes seemed to possess some basic intelligence. How is that possible? Logically speaking... for such small creatures as mosquitoes, their brain capacity is far too limited. Even the most skilled animal trainer couldn't possibly tame a swarm of mosquitoes. So how did you manage it? Did you use biological reflexology?"
“My God…you…can’t you have a moment’s rest from talking about your biology, can’t you, dear Miss Susanna?”
Dwight had been casually massaging his temples with one finger, looking quite nonchalant, but after hearing Susanna's words, he nearly exploded with anger. He'd spent so much time putting on a profound act, thinking he'd successfully won her over... only to find that she was still looking at things from a biological perspective, every single word sticking to her old expertise...
"Never mind... I'm not feeling well today, can we talk again sometime... Hmm... Next time, I think I'll show you a more authentic side of myself."
After saying that, Dwight immediately stood up, hurriedly went downstairs, and left the biological research institute under the Zhou Group.
"I'm sorry... Dwight." After watching Dwight's figure disappear into the distance down the corridor, Susanna sighed softly and said to herself, "It's not that I don't understand your heart, it's just... I don't know if I should accept you, so... I don't want to know more about you yet... Please forgive me."
Susanna spoke in a low voice, so low that even someone standing close by might not hear her. But Dwight, who had already descended half a floor, seemed to have heard her. His hurried steps suddenly stopped, and a satisfied smile appeared on his lips. He thought to himself, "So she's not really a workaholic, a silly girl who knows nothing but biology... Hmm... That's good. Otherwise, if she insists on studying everything from a biological perspective before allowing me to do anything serious when we consummate our marriage, then... my little brother would probably just get so angry he'd wilted... Hmm... You haven't decided whether to accept me yet, have you? Then I'll show you my domineering side! Or perhaps, for a strong, beautiful woman like her, constant submission and indulgence will never win her heart."
Dwight sighed slightly before quickly going downstairs.
Standing in front of the research institute, after waiting for a few minutes, a beautifully decorated RV drove up from a distance and stopped next to Dwight. Dwight didn't even glance at the people inside the vehicle before immediately reaching out to open the back door and getting in.
The interior of the RV is spacious and bright, and the rooms are decorated in a very cozy way, just like the bedroom of a well-off family, making people feel at home.
On the left side of the room was a bed, and a little girl was lying there quietly, seemingly sleeping soundly. However, if you looked closely, you could see a faint red mark on the little girl's forehead.
On the sofa chair next to them sat a tall and slender young man.
After sensing that someone had boarded the car, the young man gently put down his glass of red wine, turned to Dwight, and smiled faintly, saying, "Looking at myself and finding that it feels completely different from looking in a mirror... it's quite a funny thing!"
Dwight's lips curled into a smile. Although the two looked nothing alike and belonged to different races and ethnicities, for some reason, their smiles were remarkably similar, almost like brothers.
Dwight's gaze then swept over Zhou Ziwei and turned to the little girl on the bed. He sighed softly and said, "What a pitiful little girl. I wonder if her soul has been devoured by that abyss demon. If it has been devoured... I'm afraid her life will come to an end after I swallow the abyss demon!"
Zhou Ziwei sighed softly and said, "If you swallow this Abyss Demon, the Blood Crystal Egg in your Sea of Souls will likely mutate, and its contents might hatch... I don't know if that's a blessing or a curse for you. Although... you are my avatar, and I can completely control your thoughts and actions, I still hope you will make the decision yourself. Whether to devour this Abyss Demon is your choice! And I hope you decide as Dwight, not as Zhou Ziwei's avatar, do you understand?"
Volume 3, King of the City, Chapter 655: The Mosquitoes Unleash Their Power
Hearing Zhou Ziwei's words, Dwight gave a bitter laugh and said, "Dwight is long dead. I am you now, well... although I have my own independent thoughts, I am still you. I simply cannot see myself as someone else. That cannot be changed..."
Dwight paused slightly, then his tone became serious, and he said resolutely, "And I don't want to hold you back, I don't want the gap between us to widen, so... I need to become stronger, very, very strong... Of course, doing so might also be somewhat dangerous. If... I mean, if, after I devour the soul of this abyss demon, if some kind of peerless ferocious spirit really breaks out of the blood crystal egg in my sea of souls, and even I can't control it, then... please just kill me! Although I want to become very strong, I don't want to become a mindless madman, or a pawn manipulated by some other evil spirit, do you understand?"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Ziwei's expression turned serious. After a long pause, he slowly nodded and said, "Alright! I agree, but... well, never mind. You can start now. I can only wish you good luck."
As Zhou Ziwei spoke, he turned around and gently tapped twice on the reflective glass of the driver's side. The luxurious RV immediately started moving slowly, heading towards a remote suburb. However, the car was not moving fast; it was smooth and gentle, and people sitting inside could hardly feel the car moving.
Dwight closed his eyes briefly to calm his thoughts, then sat down on the edge of the bed, leaned over and gazed at the poor little girl on the bed. After a soft sigh, he reached out a hand and slowly covered the little girl's forehead...
Just a few days later, the number of foreigners on the streets of this small city of Dangyang more than doubled. Moreover, the foreigners who suddenly appeared in Dangyang this time all looked like they were deadly, as if they had been pulled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. Ordinary people would feel a chill as if they had fallen into an ice cellar as soon as they met these guys. If they were glared at by these guys, they would be guaranteed to break out in a cold sweat from the inside out, and their clothes would be soaked through.
As these menacing figures continued to increase, there were fewer and fewer ordinary people on the streets of Dangyang. Faced with this group of inhuman creatures, the locals of Dangyang were almost all on edge, and no one dared to wander the streets unless absolutely necessary.
Those who opened their doors to do business had no reason to close their shops out of fear, so they could only grit their teeth and persevere. However, although these guys looked like demons crawling out of hell, they didn't even flinch when it came to spending money. They could just hand the shopkeeper a hundred dollars or a hundred euros for something like an ice cream and not even ask for change.