Chapter 60 The Book of Lord Shang

Chen Yu walked for an hour before returning. Failing to get any food at the hospital, he could only rummage through boxes and cabinets back at the dormitory, where he found a few packs of dry rations, filled a kettle with hot water, changed his clothes and shoes, and headed back to the hospital. He poured the boiling water into a cup, broke up the compressed biscuits, mixed them into a paste, and handed it to Shang Lu: "Here, oatmeal."

Shang Lu sniffed it and frowned: "What kind of oatmeal is this?"

"Yashili's." Chen Yu sat down on the bench opposite him and yawned. "Take it or leave it."

Shang Lu took a bite, spent a great deal of effort to swallow it, and after carefully savoring it, pondered that the taste was somewhat not quite right.

"Once your intravenous drip is done, go back and lie down for three days without getting up," Chen Yu said. "Little Chief Engineer, adults need to take responsibility for their own physical health, especially those without a father, a mother, or a wife."

"Whatever."

"Huh? What is it this time?" Chen Yu rolled his eyes. "Resolve your own eating, drinking, and bathroom needs. I'm not your father; I'm not going to wipe your ass or handle your chamber pot."

"If someone told you... that he knows when this world will end, would you believe it?"

Chen Yu paused. He opened one eye, swept a gaze over Shang Lu that clearly conveyed "has this kid burned out his brain?", and asked, "Which day will it end?"

"August 27, 2019."

Chen Yu leaned over to feel Shang Lu's forehead and pulled back his eyelids. "His brain isn't fried."

"I'm being serious, not joking." Shang Lu pushed him away. "On August 27, 2019, the Archangel will descend upon the 151 Nanshan Base. The garrison troops and the colossal mechs will be completely wiped out. From then on, humanity's defense plan will utterly bankrupt."

Seeing him speak so solemnly, Chen Yu became a bit unsure.

"Such profound heavenly secrets—which ancient immortal revealed them to you?"

"Someone from our House of Shang," Shang Lu replied. "Ever heard of *The Book of Lord Shang*?"

"Don't go bullying me for having little education. Wasn't Shang Yang also called Wei Yang or Gongsun Yang? Shang was someone's fief, what does that have to do with your House of Shang?" Chen Yu said. "A figure from the pre-Qin era over two thousand years ago came to you in a dream to say the world is ending? Logically speaking, it shouldn't be him anyway; Lord Laozi would be the appropriate one to handle this. He's the genuine immortal, Taishang Laojun. I wonder if Taishang Laojun can deal with angels..."

As he spoke, he began counting days on his fingers. Today was December 10, 2016. If the 151 Base was going to fall on August 27, 2019, calculating fully, there were still two years and nine months left.

"There are still over two years, no need to rush." Chen Yu sat cross-legged on the bench, looking completely unhurried and not panicking at all. "Rushing is useless anyway. The Archangel is the most unsolvable angel. If you told me it was coming in two years, I'd actually feel relieved."

Chen Yu lowered his head and took a small sip of hot water, indifferent as to whether he believed Shang Lu or not. What if he believed? What if he didn't?

If the sky fell, he wouldn't be the only one crushed to death. Everyone would be finished, which meant no one was finished.

"Stop letting your imagination run wild, Little Chief Engineer." Chen Yu's gaze toward Shang Lu suddenly carried a trace of pity. He didn't want to know what was going on inside this young man's head, nor was he interested. In this world, the more one knew, the heavier one lived, but someone as weighed down as Shang Lu was still rare. He felt that Shang Lu was far too cruel to himself, gripping his own throat tighter and tighter until he couldn't breathe. "When the cart reaches the mountain cliff, it will find a path to destruction; when the boat reaches the bridge pier, it will naturally sink. We'll deal with it when that day arrives. Before then, eat when you should eat, drink when you should drink, and do whatever you need to do. Your most important task right now is to rest. Without a sound body, how can you endure?"

Shang Lu raised his eyes to look at the infusion set. The transparent plastic drip tube hung down, the intravenous needle covered by white medical tape. His wrist felt somewhat numb, and he seemed to feel the levofloxacin anti-inflammatory medication piercing the outer wall of his blood vessel, the icy fluid merging into his burning blood.

He hated intravenous infusions.

·

At three in the morning, the Engineering Planning Office was brightly lit.

As the office director, 1047 had taken the lead by working overtime for a week. He had handpicked technical backbones from the Engineering Planning Office to form a core team, seizing every minute of overtime to advance the optimization work of the iEEG-BCI system. The Science City's Computer Institute and Neuroscience Institute had proposed two developmental paths: first, chips; second, pharmaceuticals. The chips served as power-enhancement chips for the iEEG-BCI system, while the pharmaceuticals acted as cerebral neuron activators. The two methods cooperated and complemented each other, theoretically capable of drastically increasing the combat effectiveness of the colossal mech pilots.

1047 had also caught wind of the research being conducted by the Operations Planning Office. During a break in training, he had asked Shen Jiang about it. When the latter spoke of "serving the a priori predictive algorithm by using AI to simulate human emotions to perceive pre-consciousness," 1047 had barely managed to keep from laughing—how foolish. How much fluid could one possibly have in one's brain to take such a convoluted detour, choosing a plan riddled with difficulties and lacking any clear advantages? Even if they actually managed to build this thing, its performance would still be trailing far behind the iEEG, eating its exhaust fumes.

As a technical expert, 1047 acutely sensed that the Operations Planning Office was taking a gigantic detour. Enhancing the performance of the BCI system should have been a simple and straightforward matter—reducing noise, amplifying signals, shortening reaction times, and stimulating brain activity. No matter how one tossed and turned, it wouldn't escape these four steps. But the Operations Planning Office started with MEG, then analyzed brain activity patterns, then had AI simulate emotional changes, and finally performed predictive calculations—this was far too complex, a circle far too wide. The so-called alternative paths always involved taking shortcuts; he had never seen anyone go the long way around—

Shang Lu, oh Shang Lu, what on earth was going on in the head of this high-achieving student who had allegedly volunteered from the 314 Plant and Chengdu Aircraft Design Institute of Science City to support the front lines?

Taking such a massive detour, what was he trying to bypass?

1047 occasionally pondered this, but he could hardly think of an answer. In 1047's eyes, nothing was more important than fighting the angels; no matter the means, the combat power of the colossal mechs had to be enhanced.

In mid-December, the Science City shipped over the chip, officially named the "iEEG-BCI System Optimization Program Control Integration Hub." It was used to reduce noise, amplify signals, and increase the iEEG's stimulation power on the brain. It was said to further boost the performance of the current BCI system by another 20%, once again the only one of its kind in the entire world, because it was handcrafted by the hardware department.

It was only the size of a thumb, compact and lightweight, and could be directly plugged into the expansion dock of the iEEG-BCI helmet. The hardware department had completed all the underlying architectures, and the subsequent debugging work was handed over to the Engineering Planning Office. The Science City had solemnly shipped a sturdy and heavy black aluminum alloy case, keeping the chip safely inside. The case featured an electronic lock without a key, requiring authorization to open.

This gave 1047 another chance to show off. He introduced the case to everyone else in the office, calling it high-tech, top-tier security, equipped with a built-in telemetry transmission system. As long as it wasn't thrown to the moon, it could be tracked no matter where it ran, and every single opening was logged—when it was opened, by whom it was opened, and whether the internal weight of the case had changed were all recorded with absolute clarity. As for the authorization to open it, it was held by the Science City.

Given the general environment, in principle, only two people in the 151 Base could open it. Aside from the Chief Engineer, it was he, GAASBCIG1047 Tang Di. The base commander and political commissar of the non-technical systems, as well as Shen Jiang, had no authorization. Facing the chorus of amazed subordinates in the office, 1047 personally pressed his fingerprint and popped open the case.

Lying side by side in the foam slots of the case were a single black chip and five slender, colorless medical ampoules sealed in transparent glass vials.

These were the cerebral neuron activators sent by the Neuroscience Institute, though they suggested not rushing to use them just yet, as the drugs themselves were still in phase three clinical trials.

1047 carefully lifted the chip and held it high for everyone to see:

"Comrades, whether our project can succeed comes down to this very last step... To put it grandly, the life and death of all humanity is right the fuck here!"