Su Chen was examining the bio-wafers received from the Lin Group server when the mass spectrometer in the forensic laboratory suddenly sounded an alarm. The alarm data exploded in the retinal projection—a known isotope was detected in the cerebrospinal fluid of the deceased "Cyber Li Bai", and the half-life curve completely overlapped with the residues of the laboratory explosion three years ago.
"This... this is a consciousness anchor." Qin Feng picked up the crystal fragments with tweezers, "to... to mark the ownership of consciousness at the quantum level."
Tang Ren suddenly pulled out a bronze wine jar from the evidence box: "Look at my treasure!" When he wiped off the rust, a QR code appeared on the bottom of the jar. The scan result showed that this was a link to purchase the urn in the Metaverse Mausoleum.
When the three tracked the data center in the suburbs, they found that the entire building had been transformed into a Tai Chi Bagua formation. The server cabinets were arranged in a Yin-Yang fish pattern, and the coolant pipes were distributed along the direction of the hexagram. When Tang Ren stepped on the "Zhen" floor tile, the holographic projection suddenly rained down torrential rain, and every drop of rain was a rolling digit code.
"Welcome... Welcome to the Digital Eternal Life Conference." Boss Lin's projection emerged from the thunderstorm, with the quantum folding fan in his hand pointing to the sky. "This rain is the brain nerve mapping data of tens of thousands of users."
Su Chen stabbed the scalpel into the ground cable trench, and the electromagnetic pulses from the blade stopped the rain. Each suspended drop of water reflected the brain wave pattern of the comatose test subject - they were building a mausoleum for themselves in the virtual world.
"This... This is a funeral system developed using the Minecraft framework." Qin Feng cracked the console's login interface. "Every... Every user is coding their own death program."
When the SWAT team broke into the main computer room, they found 300 computer machines automatically generating eulogies. Tang Ren's AR glasses suddenly displayed a countdown - his virtual image was buried in the metaverse, with the words "Maoshan Taoist died on 996" engraved on the tombstone.
Behind the secret door of the underground auction house of Jinyu Building, Qin Feng found a whole wall of low-temperature freezers. Each cabinet door was labeled with a "Honor of Kings" hero label, but inside were frozen brain slices of different ages. Su Chen's system prompted that these brain tissues all carried specific memory modules: the Diao Chan label cabinet stored dance muscle memory, and the Li Bai cabinet was a poetry creation neuron cluster.
"This... this is memory black!" Tang Ren used his body temperature to melt the frost on the freezer, "Look at this cabinet labeled Lu Bu, it's full of fighting techniques!"
Kuntai's sidearm suddenly hit the ice breaker, and the splashing brain tissue fluid triggered the alarm system. When the liquid nitrogen mist filled the air, all the refrigerators were automatically moved to the underground track. Su Chen chased the transport vehicle and jumped into the ventilation duct, and found a bronze plaque with the mentor's name engraved on it at the corner.
"Teacher...Teacher really participated in human experiments." Su Chen put the nameplate close to the scalpel, and the blade suddenly projected an encrypted log, "They used the card drawing mechanism of Onmyoji to sell memory modules."
Boss Lin's sneer came from deep in the pipe: "Forensic Doctor Su, your mentor's brain synapses are chanting poetry in the clouds." The holographic projection unfolded the star map, and a certain coordinate flashed a picture of Su Chen's childhood memory - it was the laboratory birthday party that Su Chen had long forgotten.
When Tang Ren used a fire axe to split the control box, the entire transport track suddenly reversed. The refrigerator crashed into the load-bearing column like a runaway train, and the scattered brain tissue formed a neural network model in mid-air. Qin Feng cut off the power supply at the last moment, but found that the cabinet's insulation system was connected to a Bitcoin mine.
"Using...using the heat energy of brain cells to mine..." The forensic doctor's tweezers trembled as he picked up the synapse specimen. "Each...each memory module is a unit of calculation."
---
The international police raid was launched on a rainstorm night. When everyone rushed into the Lin Group's offshore platform, they found that the entire building was a floating quantum computer. The deck was engraved with a huge mantra of rebirth, and each Sanskrit stroke was a fiber optic cable.
"This... this is a neural compiler disguised as the Amitabha Sutra." Qin Feng cracked the console password, and the Cyberpunk 2077 module on the screen was converting consciousness data into Buddhist scripture code.
When Su Chen dived into the underwater room, he found that the backup of his mentor's consciousness was stored in a deep-sea freezer. Brain specimens were floating in several glass jars, and the labels on the jars showed the names of different historical figures. When he touched the jar marked "Li Bai", the holographic projection suddenly recited "The Road to Shu" adapted by machine learning.
"Uploading is not immortality, it is advanced Gestalt." The Mentor's projection sighed in the data stream, "We just chop the soul into replicable code fragments."
The final battle unfolded in the core of the quantum server. Tang Ren inserted the peach wood sword into the coolant pipe, and the cinnabar mixed with liquid nitrogen formed an insulating barrier. Qin Feng used an electromagnetic pulse pistol to shatter Boss Lin's folding fan, and the consciousness transmitter hidden in the fan bone was exposed to the air.
"You...your consciousness has already been uploaded to the satellite!" Su Chen pointed the scalpel at the sky, "That body is just a stand-in!"
Boss Lin's body suddenly twitched and fell to the ground, and the Starlink satellites above the Arctic Circle flickered at the same time. When Interpol's laser weapons destroyed the target satellite, the global live broadcast station suddenly paralyzed - the brain-computer interfaces of 300,000 users simultaneously output the code of the Rebirth Mantra.
---
Three months after the case was closed, Su Chen discovered something unusual while sorting out the evidence. The residual data of Boss Lin's quantum folding fan concealed an activated neural virus. When he started the forensic system to scan, the lab mouse suddenly popped up a Morse code: "Be careful of the Cloud Rebirth Hall."
Tang Ren's new live broadcast debut encountered a strange accident - when he demonstrated the "cyber Maoshan technique", the AR spell suddenly materialized into real flames. When the fire brigade rushed to the scene, they found a biological crystal engraved with the mantra of rebirth in the ashes.
On the first day of Qin Feng's transfer to the Cyber Security Bureau, the smart coffee machine in the office suddenly played the laughter of Boss Lin. After disassembling it, it was found that the motherboard was engraved with nano-level neural networks, and the chip material was the same source as the laboratory explosion residue.
In the forensic laboratory on a rainy night, Su Chen's system suddenly popped up a red alarm. When he looked up at the surveillance screen, all the cameras turned to the refrigerator at the same time - the body storage compartment marked "Lin Fengsheng" slowly opened, and only an electronic lily remained in the empty body bag.