Chapter 145 Rebooter Base - 2 Tang Bufan has...
Tang Bufan stared blankly at Zero. If anyone else had said these words, he would have thought they were crazy, but it was Zero who said them... Tang Bufan turned his head and looked at the clones around him, his heart growing heavier.
***
"So he's trying to say that everything he did was for humanity?" Anderson sneered, sitting on the wooden bed.
Tang Bufan had already returned to his cell. After Zero finished speaking to him, he told him to come back and think it over carefully. He knew that he couldn't get Tang Bufan to accept it in a short time and to cooperate with him in the subsequent experiments.
"Hmm." Tang Bufan used a hook-shaped needle to stitch up Anderson's wound. Originally, Zero was unwilling to give Tang Bufan any medication, but Tang Bufan said that if Anderson got infected or sick, he would have to take care of him, so he was no longer willing to cooperate with Zero.
Zero deliberately brought Anderson back with him to use him as a check on Tang Bufan, so after thinking about it, he agreed to give Tang Bufan these things.
“My Weibo data was fortunately preserved, so only our group can transmit information to them a thousand years in the future by recording Weibo posts. What I need to do is send the children back, and then observe the world with my own eyes to verify whether the place I returned to is the original one or a parallel one.” Tang Bufan sighed softly and pierced Anderson’s flesh with the crooked needle in his hand: “Because only I know what the original world looks like. Once I find any difference, even if it’s just a tiny change in the color of a water glass, it will be enough to prove the existence of a parallel world.”
“In that case, even if you post it on Weibo, we in this world might not receive it, right?” Anderson said.
“The probability of a parallel world exists, but it’s relatively small.” The glass opposite the two suddenly became transparent, and the soldier monitoring them said with great interest, “We estimate that this world is unique, because Mr. Tang’s Weibo account stopped updating on the very day we summoned him here.”
His words caught Tang Bufan's attention: "When you unearthed those remaining data, my Weibo account stopped updating on that very day... Does that mean that before you even summoned me here, my being summoned was already a predetermined fact of the future?"
"You believe in fate, right?" The soldier looked at Tang Bufan with bright eyes and discussed with him through the glass: "We've thought about it, but it's also possible that you'll die in an accident the next day, like a car crash or something. In that case, we'd have saved your life."
"..." Tang Bufan fell silent, he really hadn't considered this possibility.
“After you go back, observe that world, write a report, and post it on Weibo so that only you can see it. If the world is unique and can be changed by the past, then we will be able to see the report you sent us here.” The soldier said excitedly, “This is ‘real-time communication’ across 1200 years.”
Tang Bufan, as the person involved, was not excited at all; he was only worried about whether he would be able to come back after being sent back.
"If parallel worlds exist, and I'm sent to another time and space, it's basically impossible for me to come back, right?" Tang Bufan asked the soldier.
“...Yes, but that’s the worst-case scenario,” the soldier said.
Tang Bufan then said quietly, "You're all so focused on your experiments that you completely disregard my thoughts..."
He turned and glanced at the soldier: "I'm the 'guinea pig' you've chosen."
They are observed, recorded, and controlled, without any human rights or freedom.
"..." The soldier fell silent, embarrassed, while Tang Bufan turned back and continued stitching Anderson.
Although he was annoyed, Tang Bufan gradually calmed down. He was also fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet with a tracking function. Zero did not restrict his movements; he could freely enter and leave the cell. However, Zero assigned him a mentor to supervise Tang Bufan and teach him how to cooperate with their time-travel experiment.
That mentor was an "old acquaintance" of Tang Bufan and Anderson, an artificial human who was passionate about Chinese martial arts whom they had met at the Daxinganling Tunnel Base.
Although he is not as powerful as he is in his android form, he is much better at fighting than the other researchers. Otherwise, with Tang Bufan's current strength, he could easily defeat the other researchers with one punch, while this person could still exchange a few blows with Tang Bufan.
He refused to tell Tang Bufan his name, asking Tang Bufan to call him Senior Brother Lin, so that if the Rebooters failed in the future and Tang Bufan came after him, he wouldn't even be able to use his real name after his escape.
"Don't you have confidence in Zero's plan?" Tang Bufan asked him as they ate in the research institute's cafeteria.
"There's no certainty about wars," said Mian Tuo, a nickname Anderson gave him because he wore a pair of slippers that made a lot of noise when he walked.
Not to be outdone, Cotton Slippers nicknamed Anderson "White-haired Devil".
“And now the three orc federations have united.” Cotton glanced to the side. It was past lunchtime, so there were few people in the cafeteria, which allowed him to gossip with Tang Bufan: “The East District Underground City hasn’t been cooperating with us much either.”
"Hasn't the Academy of Sciences always been under your control?" Tang Bufan asked curiously.
“There are two other organizations.” Mian Tuo lowered her voice and said, “The Yu family has fallen, but the new leader, Qin Feiniao, is Fang Yue’s man. That woman is very powerful. She says she doesn’t fight for power, but now she’s the one who calls the shots in the East District Underground City.”
Tang Bufan listened attentively and lowered his voice to continue asking, "So Fang Yue is really a neutral party?"
“After all, she comes from the Education Department. The Education Department’s philosophy is ‘humans and animals are of the same origin,’ blah blah blah, ‘education for all,’ blah blah blah… If the Yu family hadn’t kicked the Education Department out of the way back then, Guo Wen would definitely have supported the Education Department to grow bigger.” After Mian Tuo finished speaking, she looked around attentively and leaned her head closer to Tang Bufan: “Moreover, this woman also has entanglements with the Doctor.”
Tang Bufan's eyes flashed, and he was about to ask further when he saw the researcher sitting opposite him straighten up and start eating seriously with a spoon.
Tang Bufan turned around and saw that two researchers who had finished their experiments were walking in together.
The uncle who cleans the cafeteria also came over carrying a bucket and a burlap sack.
"Uncle Lin, I'm finished eating. Let me help you." Tang Bufan picked up the metal plate and put it on the recycling counter. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and came back to help the old man wipe the table.
"Oh, no need, no need!"
"It's alright, I don't have the habit of taking a midday nap, and I'd be idle back in my cell anyway." Tang Bufan smiled. In the few days since he came to the research institute, he had often helped the logistics staff with their work, so after the old man declined a few times, he happily joined Tang Bufan in cleaning the canteen.
So Anderson's belated lunch that day consisted of two decent steaks.
"This lousy research institute actually gave me meat," Anderson said in surprise, sitting cross-legged on the ground.
He was too big for a human-sized metal bunk bed, so Tang Bufan picked up several cardboard boxes from the research institute's garbage dump, spread them out on the damp floor, and gave them to Anderson to sleep in.
"Not many researchers came to the cafeteria for lunch today, so these are the leftovers." Tang Bufan lied, not telling him that his assistant had given them to him by the cafeteria staff.
He sat down at the table facing the glass window and opened a difficult-to-understand book to read.
Seeing him start studying as soon as he got back, Anderson chewed on a piece of meat with his fingers and sneered, "You've already joined Zero's spacetime research so quickly?"
"It's better to know than not to know," Tang Bufan said calmly. "It's just that I'm too slow-witted, and there are many parts I don't understand."
"If you were smart, we wouldn't be here now." Anderson muttered to himself, but out of boredom, he got up from the cardboard box, walked over to Tang Bufan, and looked down at it with him.
"Can you understand it?" Tang Bufan asked, thinking that Anderson might be able to teach him.
“Chinese, I can’t understand it,” Anderson said, chewing on his steak.
Tang Bufan was speechless. He raised his hand and told him to lie back down on the cardboard box: "You should rest."
Anderson didn't obediently go back. Instead, he gently placed his hand on the frosted glass and asked Tang Bufan, "Did you feel it?"
Tang Bufan, puzzled, looked down at his book and asked, "What?"
“We’re shaking,” Anderson said.
Tang Bufan frowned, looked up in confusion and around, but felt nothing: "Earthquake? No."
"Tsk, you're really useless." Anderson swallowed the last bite of his steak and gestured for Tang Bufan to reach out and touch the glass: "Feel it carefully, there's a very, very subtle tremor."
Tang Bufan tried to imitate Anderson by placing his hand on the solid tempered glass, but still felt nothing.
But Tang Bufan trusted Anderson. High-level orcs had very keen senses, so he looked down at the ground. "Could there be something down there?"
Then, a thought flashed through his mind, and he immediately guessed: "Is the tunneling lab beneath us?"
"No, the crossing lab is on the 47th basement level." The glass opposite the two became transparent, and the soldier monitoring them looked at Anderson with a hint of admiration: "You're really sensitive; you can even feel the island's tremors as it moves."
-47th floor. Tang Bufan silently memorized the floor number before speaking to the soldier through the glass in astonishment: "The island is moving...you mean...the island we're on now is floating at sea?"
"Otherwise, how do you think we evaded the orcs' search?" The soldier puffed out his chest proudly. Since Tang Bufan and Anderson were currently imprisoned and wearing tracking shackles, he directly told them, "After the 'Reboot' plan was finalized, in order to ensure the continuation and further development of humanity, the plan was divided into four parts: 1. Cutting off the islands. 2. Global drifting. 3. Environmental observation. 4. Civilization reboot."
After finishing his sentence, the soldier smiled and looked at the two men through the glass: "And now, we are carrying out the preliminary preparations for the fourth step: eliminating mutated species harmful to humans on the ground, including but not limited to mutated animals, plants, poisonous humans, and..."
The soldier's gaze fell on Anderson, who was over two meters tall: "Orc."
Tang Bufan and Anderson fell silent, then Anderson sneered: "How ruthless. We orcs were created by you humans."
“I know that. We Rebooters also participated in your orc research. Without research, your dungeons wouldn’t have been able to survive,” the soldier said. “We just didn’t expect the Academy of Sciences in Europe to rebel, mistakenly believing that orcs were the evolutionary direction of humanity, and that you should exist as tools, not have reproductive capabilities.”
"...As expected, when it comes to cruelty and wickedness, humans are still superior." Anderson laughed angrily.
“I didn’t say anything wrong. Your ancestors were criminals, and the consequence of your fertility is that your offspring have a very high rate of birth defects.” The soldier looked at Tang Bufan for approval: “Think about it, a beastman’s grandfather is a werewolf, his grandmother is a sub-beastman with mixed fish genes, his son is a hybrid of wolf and fish, and his wife has bird genes. What kind of child will they have? Nobody knows what they will have.”
Tang Bufan did not respond to the soldier, but instead rested his chin on his hand with a slightly heavy expression, while his other hand quietly touched his stomach.
He couldn't refute Xiaobing's words because ever since he found out he was pregnant, he had been extremely worried and immediately thought of Lu Yi's sick brother, fearing it was a family trait.
In terms of eugenics, orcs are indeed completely unsuitable, which explains why Lu Yi had given up on the idea of getting married and having children long ago.
"Is there really no way for humans and animals to coexist?" Tang Bufan asked the soldier through the glass.
The soldier picked up the ceramic water cup, took a sip, and didn't answer. Tang Bufan sighed silently and was looking down at his book again when he heard the soldier say, "Non-coded DNA."
Tang Bufan looked up again. The soldier, sitting in a chair across the glass from him, slowly said, "Only 2% of human genes are encoded proteins; 75% is useless 'junk.' This 'junk' is a remnant of human evolution over tens of thousands of years. I heard the European Academy of Sciences is researching this. If there's a breakthrough..."
The soldier put down his water glass and looked at Tang Bufan: "The orcs might be saved."
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