Chapter 78 The Man in Brown Clothes Possesses Jade (4)
Before we officially set off, there was one more question.
Shu Ningmiao's night vision is only considered normal; she may not be able to see clearly in completely dark environments.
So she memorized the map of the National Research Center and its locations in advance, preparing herself to navigate in the dark.
On the day she was to depart, Weston gave her an unexpected gift.
Inside the simple cardboard box was a pair of ordinary-looking black-rimmed glasses.
Weston shouldn't be that boring.
Shu Ningmiao raised the temple of her glasses and looked out through the lenses, but her field of vision remained unchanged.
Undeterred, she put on her glasses and turned on the car mirror. In the mirror, she saw her face covered by thick glasses, the lenses reflecting half of a white light, obscuring her eyes. Her appearance was utterly unappealing.
To make it easier to move around, Shu Ningmiao chose light and simple clothes, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt and sweatpants. With these non-prescription glasses covering most of her face, she really looked a bit... not very smart.
Shu Ningmiao took off her glasses and looked at Weston's gold-rimmed monocle on his nose, squinting unhappily.
“This is for night vision and timing.” Weston said without looking away. “Security will confiscate all electronic devices—including terminals. There’s a mechanical timer embedded in the frame that vibrates every five minutes. You have to be back in twenty minutes.”
Such an ugly design is hard to find on the market; it must have been made by him in the last few days.
Shu Ningmiao put her glasses back on with one hand and rested her elbow on the car window.
Although these glasses look thick and heavy, they are actually not heavy at all and are no different from ordinary glasses.
If it weren't for the fact that the glasses didn't actually have Pandora's radiance on them, she might have even thought they were supernatural gadgets.
Weston can't make superpowered gadgets, but the things he makes, whether it's the Heartstone Earrings or the glasses, are in no way inferior to superpowered gadgets.
Private vehicles are no longer allowed to enter within ten kilometers of the National Research Center.
People who come to the Ability Detection Center to have their abilities tested need to be searched on the outermost perimeter.
After their terminals and all electronic devices were confiscated, the research center arranged for special vehicles to pick them up and drop them off—windowless special vehicles.
Stepping into the ability testing center, Shu Ningmiao realized what overcrowding meant. She only roughly counted the surging crowd of people, and there were actually several hundred.
Those who don't understand their own abilities, those who don't believe their abilities are "so weak," and ordinary people who don't want to believe they can't awaken their abilities will all flock here.
Of course, the majority are still ordinary people who haven't awakened to this reality.
A pass to the Superpower Detection Center can fetch eight figures or more at auction.
The wealthier a person is, the less likely they are to awaken their special abilities, and the more willing they are to spend money on it.
They believed the National Research Center had a special way to awaken their superpowers, but in reality, they were just giving them funding.
The noisy environment makes it hard to believe that this is a place where you have to pay a high price to get an opportunity.
But it's a good thing for Shu Ningmiao.
The more people there are, the easier it is for her to hide among them; the more prominent the people around her are, the more difficult it will be for the police to interrogate them one by one—these people won't cooperate as obediently as young students.
The queuing process went about as she expected; even if a parliamentary representative came, they would have to wait for four or five hours.
While waiting in line, Shu Ningmiao observed her surroundings thoroughly and deliberately waited for two hours before saying, "I'm going to the restroom."
Although there were many people inside the ability testing center, it wasn't so crowded that their chests were touching each other's backs.
Each person's position in the queue is determined by an electronic wristband; there is no such thing as cutting in line. People constantly leave and return along the way, but she blends in without attracting anyone's attention.
Shu Ningmiao tossed the electronic wristband to Weston and went into the restroom with the others.
According to information provided by Weston, all facilities within the National Research Center that require a unified energy supply are connected to an internal network control system, including the restrooms.
Shu Ningmiao chose the restroom simply because it was the only place in the entire ability detection center without surveillance cameras.
Amidst the comings and goings of people, Shu Ningmiao headed straight for the last locked room. She activated her [Anger] ability, subtly crushed the lock, and walked in without changing her expression.
There wasn't even a toilet installed inside; it was just a storage room used by repairmen. Shu Ningmiao quickly locked the door after entering.
Remove the stacked cardboard boxes to reveal a control unit embedded in the wall.
The display clearly showed the humidity, temperature, and cleanliness of the bathroom, which could be directly adjusted from the main control room. This control unit was likely only used in case of a malfunction. Therefore, when Shu Ningmiao reached out, the glass was covered in damp, sticky dust.
There are places to swipe ID cards and use biometrics nearby; you need to verify your identity before you can operate.
Shu Ningmiao ignored the pop-up prompts and placed her hand directly on the biometric contact port, then closed her eyes.
She maintained her 'neural connection' ability, and as she probed into the port of the controller, a dense network of connections gradually appeared in her mind.
The National Research Center's encryption is clearly more stringent than anywhere else; every connection point requires authentication to access.
Shu Ningmiao didn't understand these encryption methods at all, but she didn't need to understand them now. All she had to do was cut off and destroy everything she could see.
She destroyed every line as quickly as possible, then cut off the connection without hesitation.
The overhead lights went out with a crackling sound.
When she opened her eyes again, it was completely dark around her, and she heard shouts coming from all around her.
Panic screams filled the air, sounding especially chaotic in the darkness.
The glasses Weston gave her finally showed their true effect. The field of vision within the frames seemed to have been specially processed, becoming much clearer. Although it wasn't as clear as daytime, it was more than enough to see the road clearly.
To maintain secrecy, the front of the supernatural ability detection center has almost no windows, relying entirely on an air circulation system for ventilation. This means that once the power goes out, not a single ray of sunlight can get in, making it like a terrifying black box.
The staff at the testing center had their devices confiscated, which made them even more uncertain.
Shu Ningmiao walked through the chaotic crowd, returned to her original position, and grabbed Weston's arm.
Weston was standing to one side in a daze when she suddenly grabbed him and shook him off expressionlessly.
She watched as a beam of light shone towards her—it was Weston's Pandora. She hadn't expected Weston to be so vigilant.
Shu Ningmiao quickly turned her head to avoid the light and whispered, "What are you doing? It's me."
The beam of light missed her face and struck the drone behind her, which had lost connection and was suspended in mid-air. The drone was knocked away and fell into the crowd, eliciting another round of screams and gasps.
Weston's expression relaxed a little when he heard her speak, but Shu Ningmiao pinched his arm and deliberately raised her voice: "I'm so scared!"
“So, do you want me to sing you a lullaby?” Weston made out her silhouette in the darkness and lowered his head slightly.
Shu Ningmiao ignored him, looked around, approached the anxious woman next to her, and pressed her shoulder: "Sister, what's wrong?"
"I don't know..." The woman groped around in confusion, but because she couldn't see, she stood still and didn't dare to move.
Shu Ningmiao comforted her softly, "Don't be afraid."
She slowly withdrew her hand, gestured to Weston, and handed the rest over to him.
She weaved through the crowd, and the people shoving around her didn't even notice where the girl she brushed past was going.
Like a silent shadow, she smoothly reached the deepest part of the supernatural ability detection center.
All security forces must be concentrated inside the research center now, with the ability detection center having the lowest priority.
She used a spiked ladder to climb up the ventilation duct, curled up inside, and leaned down, able to vaguely see some movement below through the gaps in the louvers.
The staff immediately blocked the passage between the ability detection center and the research center.
Patrols gradually began to arrive on both sides of the blockade line.
The ventilation duct at the top is often overlooked because of its hidden location and difficulty in accessing it.
The patrolmen were carrying guns.
Only personnel from the police department and the military are authorized to carry firearms.
Shu Ningmiao looked down through the crack and saw the dark blue muzzle of the gun pointing upwards, directly in her direction.
Ordinary gun muzzles don't glow, and she instinctively felt that this gun might not be an ordinary one. Holding her breath, she moved more and more quietly, almost silently crawling through the pipe and quickly crossing the passage.
Leaving the passage leads to the interior of the research center. Shu Ningmiao was able to tell that she had left the passage because of the faint light shining through the gaps.
According to the topographic map, the first house after leaving the passage is the Pandora House—as expected, they prioritized providing backup power to the Pandora House.
The further she went, the narrower the ventilation duct became, with more and more branches. The cramped space squeezed her shoulders, making it difficult to breathe in any fresh air.
Such a space is too small for even slightly large bones to fit into.
You can only reach the research center's lobby by continuing straight ahead.
The research center's lobby was also completely dark. Because it was located at the very back of the research center and there were no important research projects, there were no guards.
Shu Ningmiao found a suitable spot, removed a louvered cover from a ventilation duct, and jumped down from the top.
There was a huge sculpture at her feet.
The ventilation duct was about seven or eight meters above the ground, so she had to find a place where she wouldn't fall and die.
It wasn't very clear from above, but Shu Ningmiao climbed down from the sculpture to get a clear look at its details.
A massive, irregularly shaped human brain sculpture floats in the center of the hall, without any support, seemingly suspended from the base by magnetism, with even the brain grooves sculpted in lifelike detail.
Shu Ningmiao realized that she had just climbed down the winding ravines of the brain and couldn't help but feel a chill.
Even though there was no one around, she still dared not let her guard down. Shu Ningmiao looked around before taking out the spherical container.
The liquid in the container emitted a faint blue glow, and the fragments inside remained steadily in front of her, roughly pointing in the direction of the School of Life Sciences.
Strange, how come Jiang Gongshi is at the Academy of Life Sciences?
Isn't Crimson Palace Stone No. 02 still in the combat simulation system? It should be in Pandora Institute or Combat Development Institute.
Could it be that she was right when she was lying, and that the missing No. 03 Crimson Palace Stone really is still in the research center?
Just as she was about to put the container away, she noticed that the liquid in the spherical container illuminated the base, which she hadn't looked at closely before, making the uneven writing on it appear under the light.
But as soon as her gaze swept over the base, it was perfectly smooth and without any markings.
Is it just my imagination?
Shu Ningmiao hesitated for a moment before putting the container away.
Without the faint glow of the liquid, she looked at the sculpture base again, and sure enough, it was still smooth as before.
Take the container out and bring it close to the base. Under the soft, light blue light, the words on the base gradually appear.
What kind of organization is this? Shu Ningmiao was taken aback and curiously squatted down to see what was written on it.
At the very top is a line of beautiful Old Pinhian script, written in slender and elegant characters.
Philosophia
Translated into Pinhian, it roughly means "love of wisdom." When Shu Ningmiao touched the characters with her fingertips, she could indeed feel the subtle difference between the font and the surrounding text, but it was only a slightly rougher difference.
Exploring further down, three lines of ancient Pinhian script were written, roughly meaning:
Question the world, understand the world, and change the world.
At the very end of these three lines was a short word, but she had never seen this word before.
She didn't have much time to continue her curiosity. She memorized the unfamiliar word, put away the container, and headed in the direction the fragment had pointed.
Not all ceilings have ventilation ducts, so she could only try to hide her figure as much as possible.
Darkness is the best blind spot.
Before entering the School of Life Sciences, she glanced back and saw a long, piercing alarm whistle coming from the Pandora Institute not far away.
This is the general alarm sounding at the highest level of alert in Pinneapolis; they have probably discovered that all the systems in the research center have been completely destroyed.
The glasses Weston gave her would vibrate every five minutes.
She has fifteen minutes left.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
