The next night.
Chen Ming drove the Stardust-class vehicle to the target galaxy.
This is the local military base in a star district called Meteor-1.
There happen to be two relatively well-known laboratories in this galaxy, one of which is an electronic engineering laboratory that is quite authoritative in electronic data.
This laboratory is also the one that proposed the basic theory of simulation equipment. Although the subsequent research was not completed independently by this laboratory, the fact that it proposed the basic theory is obviously valuable enough.
The other laboratory is a large comprehensive laboratory, funded by the star region government and military to which the Meteor Star region belongs, and covers a very wide range of research.
This naturally includes the things that Chen Ming studied.
The EE lab can try to recover data that was corrupted in a simulation, while the general lab can help determine the value of damaged research data.
Of course, the simulated data had already been sent to the Electronic Engineering Laboratory, but the data has not yet been recovered.
Therefore, Chen Ming’s main purpose this time is to use this comprehensive large laboratory to judge the value of the experimental data.
When Chen Ming entered this galaxy.
The first thing he saw was the red volcanic planet that looked similar to the 14th Legion’s branch headquarters. Just when he thought he was going to the volcanic planet to see the ecological domes that looked the same as those of the 14th Legion’s branch.
Bai Quan suddenly made Chen Ming's spaceship turn a corner and headed for another habitable planet in the galaxy.
Although there is a star zone military base in this galaxy, civilians are not blocked from entering.
Because in this galaxy, there is a scientific research colony open to the outside world on the habitable planet that Chen Ming is about to arrive at.
A large number of research institutes are gathered here, and the two laboratories that Chen Ming is going to are located in this colony.
Although the Stardust class is a combat-type cruiser, with Baiquan's advance arrangements, it smoothly bypassed the transit space station in orbit and began to land on the surface of the planet.
While still in the air, Chen Ming could see the tall buildings and various buildings with scientific research characteristics interspersed in the city.
As the altitude decreased, more details of the colonial city appeared before his eyes.
For example, the wide variety of shops on the ground floor of the scientific research buildings, the commercial buildings that are integrated into the city, and the pedestrians coming and going.
Although this is a scientific research colony, it has all the supporting infrastructure.
The whole city is still full of vitality, without the overly cold atmosphere of the laboratory.
Chen Ming still likes this urban environment that combines different advantages.
However, as the spacecraft continued to descend, Chen Ming could no longer see more details in the city.
Because the Stardust class landed on a piece of land outside the city that belonged to the star zone military.
There is a military base near the landing point.
After the Stardust-class plane landed, a special person soon came to guide Chen Ming and Bai Quan to the interior of the military base.
After walking through a long series of twists and turns, they arrived at a meeting room.
When the guide pushed open the door of the conference room in front.
Chen Ming noticed that there were already people sitting at one side of the conference table in the meeting room, a total of six people, one of whom was Lou Wei.
The military rank hanging on Lou Wei's chest had indeed been reduced from major general to colonel.
Because of this, Lou Wei is not qualified to meet Bai Quan alone now.
Therefore, there was another general accompanying him, sitting next to Lou Wei, with the rank of major general hanging on his chest.
Lou Wei looked to be in his forties or fifties, but he was at least two years older than Lou Wei.
He was in his sixties or seventies, and looked like he was half buried in the ground.
The average human lifespan now seems to be 140 years, which is indeed half the lifespan.
Chen Ming had actually seen this person before, at a small-scale military meeting he had attended with Bai Quan.
I didn't expect that we would meet again in such a place and under such circumstances.
He should be one of the top leaders of Lou Wei's faction.
Lou Wei should also be considered a senior official, right? After all, he was a major general before, and he personally took action and ended up like this.
I don’t know if this person will have the same ending.
Chen Ming sat down opposite them, his eyes sweeping over the people in front of him. They all lowered their heads, and no one knew what they were thinking.
Bai Quan didn't rush to sit down. Instead, he greeted the major general opposite him, called him "Major General Song", and shook hands with him before sitting next to Chen Ming.
After all three people from Chen Ming's side sat down, Major General Song coughed lightly and said to Bai Quan: "We have contacted the laboratory here. They can help assess the damage based on the experimental data and keep the experimental data confidential. We are just waiting for your data."
“Did you bring your data?”
Bai Quan looked at Chen Ming, and Chen Ming picked up the briefcase he was carrying, opened it, took out a chip that stored a large amount of experimental data and placed it on the table.
Chen Ming thought about what Bai Quan had just said to him, and slowly pushed the chip towards Lou Wei and others who were sitting opposite him.
The chip slid on the table, but just after it slid a few dozen centimeters, Bai Quan next to it suddenly reached out and pressed the chip.
While others were surprised, Major General Song's face, which had been fine, gradually turned worse.
Baiquan knocked on the table to draw everyone's attention to him: "I think you all know what happened in the past two days."
"Before the leak is resolved, I will not agree to conduct verification, including verification of Chen Ming's research data and verification of whether Chen Ming has the ability to control the colony."
Major General Song also tapped the table lightly to draw everyone's attention to himself and said, "These are two different things."
Bai Quan immediately lowered his face and said, "Two different things? Not necessarily?"
"Only Chen Ming and I know about our movements, but you know best how many people know about this matter. You should know who leaked the information."
"You all know who it was that relaxed the control over Zuo Jing and allowed them to infiltrate the company we had a cooperative relationship with."
"Let Zuo Jing go first, reveal the location to Zuo Jing later, and target Chen Ming every time. These are two different things?"
"I now have reason to suspect that the same thing will happen to me when I get to the colony."
"I'm afraid it will become three different things in your mouth by then."
Major General Song obviously wanted to speak more, but Bai Quan interrupted him without giving him any face: "The supervisory department has already taken action, and the matter will have a result soon."
"Anyway, the research results were brought with us when we came out. There is no equipment here and no new content will be added. It won't matter if we make a day or two, right?"
"I hope I can see you again in two days when the results come out."
The disposable cup in Major General Song's hand was slightly deformed.
He could see that Bai Quan had been prepared for things to develop in this direction from the beginning, and there was no point in saying anything more to Bai Quan.
He turned his head slightly to look at Chen Ming, but Chen Ming was also leaning back in his chair, letting Bai Quan take full responsibility.
It seems that there is nothing much to say to Chen Ming.
The two had obviously discussed it in advance.
Major General Song simply said, "Okay, that's it, goodbye."
After saying that, he stood up and prepared to leave the meeting room with others.
But just as he left his seat and turned around, someone suddenly pushed open the door of the conference room and walked in.
This was also someone Chen Ming had seen before, the psychic researcher hired by Lou Wei who had appeared in the simulation before.
His eyes first turned to Chen Ming in the conference room, and then to everyone else.
Seeing that the atmosphere in the conference room was tense and Major General Song looked like he was ready to leave, he asked, "Am I here at the wrong time?"
Major General Song was quite respectful to the psychic researcher who came over and did not leave immediately.
Instead, he controlled his expression and greeted him, then asked, "Researcher He Gu, why are you here? Isn't the headquarters busy?"
He Gu nodded to him and said, "Occasionally on a business trip."
"Are you guys not going to chat anymore? I see you guys just went in for a while."
Major General Song looked back at Bai Quan, then turned back and said, "Bai Quan has no plans to continue the test because of what happened two days ago. We haven't reached a consensus, so we can only wait for the higher-ups to investigate and finish the matter before continuing with this matter."
"oh."
He Gu said with a look of understanding: "I have also heard about this recent incident. Anyway, I respect the ideas of both of you. However, as for me, I probably don't have the temper to talk about other things when someone is committing a crime. You can do whatever you want."
He Gu's words clearly favored Chen Ming. Major General Song's expression turned cold again, and he left the meeting room with the others.
After everyone else left, He Gu continued to look at Chen Ming.
And while he was observing Chen Ming, Chen Ming was also observing him.
There was no longer the uncertainty in He Gu's eyes that he had when he was simulating before. Even though Chen Ming had not verified his psychic powers today, he seemed to really believe that Chen Ming possessed such ability.
Chen Ming felt that the video released two days ago might be the reason for his change of heart.
The two looked at each other for a while, and He Gu suddenly said to Chen Ming: "Mr. Chen Ming, do you have time to chat?"
"What are you talking about?"
"About your psychic powers."
Chen Ming thought about it, but couldn't figure out what He Gu wanted to do, so he refused and said, "Forget it. I prefer to explore psychic energy on my own."
“That’s a shame.”
He Gu did not force it, but just said: "Then let me know when you conduct the colony ability test later. I really want to see it with my own eyes."
"no problem."
Bai Quan answered for Chen Ming before he even opened his mouth. Chen Ming did not move and agreed with Bai Quan's answer.
Seeing this, He Gu nodded, turned around and left the meeting room.
The conference room was empty, so Chen Mingquan and the secretary following Bai Quan naturally would not stay for long.
After leaving the conference room, I headed towards the Stardust level.
On the way, Bai Quan explained to Chen Ming the reason why he had just agreed to He Gu's request: "He Gu is a veteran psychic in the Psychic Research Institute of our Fourteenth Legion."
"He's a nice guy. At least when I need help with something, he's the one who connects me with him. He's easy to talk to. It won't hurt to get in touch with him."
"And I feel like he might have wanted to invite you to the Psionic Research Institute just now."
Chen Ming asked, "I have heard of the Psychic Research Institute several times, but what exactly does it do?"
"The Psychic Research Institute is definitely mainly responsible for studying psychic related things, such as medicines used by psychics, psychic weapons, and psychics themselves are all research objects."
"However, He Gu's research direction is quite special. It seems to be the civilian application of psychic technology."
“But I don’t understand this stuff.”
After hearing this, Bai Quan looked Chen Ming up and down and said, "What don't you understand? Isn't it the core of Purgatory?"
"It just so happens that I went to see him once before in order to find a suitable user for the Purgatory Core."
"He seemed to be more interested in the basic effects of the Inferno Core, that is, the controller of the Inferno Core you built for ordinary people."
"I feel like this is probably why he came to see you this time."
Chen Ming was a little surprised to hear this. The scene in the previous simulation when He Gu asked him those questions flashed through his mind: "This means that he was actually interested in me before, right? But I didn't see it in the simulation."
"He was called here by Lou Wei before, because you didn't recognize the formula he wrote for calculating the strength of psychics, so he came here to ask you a few questions based on that formula."
"You gave your reasons, and he had nothing to say. Didn't he just sit there and watch the show? The simulation had nothing to do with him."
"Besides, he is not the person in charge of verifying psychic technology at the Psychic Research Institute. Someone else is doing that job. He is not the one responsible for reviewing your Purgatory Core Technology. He probably didn't know you before."
"He only found out about this when I couldn't find anyone suitable to test the Purgatory Core and went to him for help."
"But by that time the simulation would have been over."
Bai Quan explained to Chen Ming, and suddenly changed his words 180 degrees and said: "Of course, we can't rule out the possibility that he knew about you in advance."
"?"
Baiquan immediately explained: "But you have to think about it. Even if he understands your skills, he definitely doesn't know the upper limit of your psychic power."
"Your progress is so fast that anyone can't help but doubt it."
"If I hadn't known you for a long time, I wouldn't believe that anyone could do what you do."
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Chen Ming accepted Bai Quan's words, which were probably a compliment to his psychic power, and said, "In that case, there shouldn't be any problem in getting in touch with him, but it will have to be later."
It just so happened that he also had the idea of trading the psychic power armor. This psychic research institute must be related to the website for exchanging psychics' contribution points. Maybe he could get some additional information through He Gu.
If there is a chance to meet, you can try to chat, if not, then forget it.
Ended He Gu's topic.
Chen Ming also reached the Stardust level.
But just as he was about to have dinner, he suddenly realized something and immediately turned to Bai Quan and said, "We just met with someone today and scolded them, but it seems that we didn't do anything else. So what should we do next?"
"We didn't really do anything, but we didn't need to do anything."
"Since we have already led the supervisory department to take action, this matter must have a result, and it must be a result that is beneficial to us."
"We just have to wait."
Chen Ming still felt a little weird and asked, "Is it really okay to do nothing?"
Baiquan said as a matter of course: "It's definitely okay. We have done everything we should do before. What else should we do now?"
"Why do you always think that you have to do something yourself? As long as we start these things, someone else will do the rest."
"Because it's a little different from what I'm used to."
Chen Ming said awkwardly: "I sometimes give out some tasks, but I usually explain all the tasks clearly. The purpose is clear, at least there will be no problems in the general direction."
"Now, I just do my own thing and let others decide what to do. This makes me a little...uncomfortable."
“It gives me a feeling that someone didn’t do it well. What should I do?”
Bai Quan still looked the same and said, "If it's not done well, let someone correct it. If it's the kind of thing that will cause all problems if one link goes wrong and there's no way to correct it, then we shouldn't have gone in this direction in the first place."
"Under normal arrangements, you only need to prepare a backup plan, and then just watch the rest. If someone makes a mistake and can't correct it, they will be fired. There are always many capable people watching those positions."
Chen Ming felt that what Bai Quan said was indeed correct, but he was still a little worried about a certain situation that might occur.
"Look at Lou Wei and his team. It was because one person didn't do a good job that the psychic from Zuo Jing came to assassinate us. If it was just a small fleet, they wouldn't have been investigated."
Bai Quan had nothing to refute about Chen Ming's example, and admitted: "What you said is indeed a problem, but this kind of thing is always unavoidable. Even Yu Hui and the mechanical race can't avoid making mistakes."
"At least take good care of the people you are close to and make sure they don't get into trouble. That way, if you encounter any problems, you can just deal with them and not get dragged into it."
"You will encounter this situation sooner or later. You can't do everything yourself, so you have to do this in the future."
Chen Ming frowned and thought for a while, then said, "I might need to get used to it."
"It's okay. We shouldn't have anything to do in the next two days anyway. You can slowly get used to it."
Bai Quan suddenly patted Chen Ming on the shoulder, and he and Chen Ming went to different rooms in the corridor of the spaceship.
Chen Ming waved to Bai Quan, and returned to his room thinking about what Bai Quan said.
Two days passed in a flash.
As usual, Chen Ming was lying on the sofa where he usually took classes, reading the daily report sent by Bai Quan.
He follows the report on the progress of the investigation into the incident every day.
The content of the daily reports was developing in a direction similar to what Bai Quan had guessed. Lou Wei's faction had indeed been cooperating with the regulatory authorities in the investigation.
Even though this matter really involved the highest level of the opposing faction, a lieutenant general of the same rank as Baiquan, they still cooperated with the regulatory authorities to complete the investigation.
The final result of the investigation was that the lieutenant general's deputy secretly and deliberately leaked the whereabouts of Chen Ming and Bai Quan.
Of course, the deputy was taken under control immediately.
The others did not go to jail with him.
Instead, there were other penalties, which were not listed specifically.
However, after Chen Ming received the daily report, Bai Quan gave Chen Ming a result that was not in the daily report.
The content was exactly the final punishment of other members of Lou Wei’s faction who were involved in the case and were not recorded in the daily reports.
Chen Ming ignored everyone else and immediately found the highest-ranking lieutenant general in Lou Wei’s faction.
Although he was not the mastermind of this incident, he failed to control his subordinates and ensure the cleanliness of the team, and he also needs to bear certain joint responsibilities.
The final decision was to make a solemn public apology to Bai Quan and Chen Ming and conduct self-examination within the 14th Corps.
And like all the other key persons in charge, he was demoted half a level.
There are also some minor punishments such as clearing of subsidies and confiscation of wages, which seem light.
However, Chen Ming did not draw a conclusion. He pointed to a line on the penalty and asked Bai Quan, "Is there a half-level rank?"
"This is nominally a half-level position. To put it bluntly, it's almost like a suspended sentence. As long as there are no problems in the next period of time, the position can be restored. But if there are problems during this period, all the problems will be counted together."
"At least they won't continue to cause us trouble for a certain period of time."
Chen Ming immediately felt the seriousness of this half-level demotion and said, "Does this mean that if you make a mistake during this period, you will be arrested? Then I feel like they are useless."
Baiquan said: "It is indeed useless, so I was actually a little surprised that they really did this."
"But this can be considered as retreating at the peak of one's powers. Otherwise, if they dare to continue to advance a little, they will be demoted half a level to save their face."
"I had a feeling when I first arrived here two days ago that their attitude was not right."
Chen Ming also recalled it immediately.
At that time, Major General Song's attitude towards Bai Quan seemed quite normal. There was no sense of tit-for-tat. He certainly didn't seem to want to continue the conflict with Bai Quan. He was just unhappy about being humiliated.
The other people at that time also lowered their heads, looking as if they didn't want to say anything more.
At that time, Chen Ming thought that it was because of the inspection by the supervisory department that made them all worry about their own problems. Unexpectedly, they should have understood at that time that they had no future in the political arena.
"Is this... the end?"
"It's just that they are done, not everyone. There is not only one faction in the legion that is targeting me, it's just that Lou Wei and his group are the most active."
Chen Ming put down the terminal in his hand, looked at Bai Quan and said, "It still feels a little unreal to me. They made so many moves before, but in the end, they just made a small move this time, and then it was over?"
"Because this involves the life of a general, things will naturally develop in this direction, just like last time."
"Think about the two lieutenant generals in the war zone. They are more deeply involved with Zuo Jing and can't even step down peacefully."
Bai Quan suddenly said with some emotion: "We are now within a set of established rules. If many things cross the line, we can only withdraw. As long as we don't continue to commit suicide, it will be fine to step down steadily."
"For us, we don't have to defeat or kill the opponent in many cases. We can find an opportunity to force the opponent into a situation like now, and the result will be the same."
"There's more to the legion than just fighting and killing. I only realized this not long ago."
"It's all over now. They can only barely maintain their dignity."
Chen Ming stared at the final penalty on the terminal on the table for a while, and also said with some emotion: "What a pity."
"What do you feel sorry for? Do you want to see the other side's family broken up and left alone?"
"That's about right." Chen Ming said, "I hope that everyone who has a grudge against me will die a miserable death."
But as he spoke, he suddenly thought of Cheng Xinghe, and immediately added: "At least that was the case before the reconciliation."
"Anyway, to be honest, I can't accept this situation now."
“Although they have no further political career, they should be able to spend their later years in peace, right?”
Baiquan had nothing to say about this: "Because this is the rule. This rule is also our guarantee in case we lose power in the future."
Chen Ming shook his head and said nothing.
Bai Quan could see that Chen Ming was a little unhappy, but as he had just said, this was the rule.
"Anyway, the two incidents in Zuojing have been settled."
"But our work is not over yet. There are still three things to do."
"To estimate the value of your research results, to verify your ability to control the colony, and... to add insult to injury."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
