Chapter 132: Dilemma: Reason and Conscience Pull Each Other
At the dinner table, Mellon, who was well fed and drunk, told the other insects why he came today.
Herbert Griffin moved, and moved very cautiously. If the bugs Mellon sent to monitor him were not the elite among the elite, they might have let him escape.
Herbert Griffin first pretended to send his son to the hospital. When the higher-ups came to question him, he used the excuse that the children might have been infected with a new infectious disease and that the killing had nothing to do with the collective coma of the male insects.
The top management had no choice but to threaten Herbert Griffin - if the children did not wake up, they would not mind fighting to the death with Herbert.
Herbert Griffin had an expression that said, "I'm sad too," "I'm also a victim," and "My son is also unconscious," and his eyes were full of viciousness.
Mellon spoke vividly, as if he had seen it all. "I figured he was going to target those high-ranking officials, so I made arrangements ahead of time. Sure enough, I caught a glimpse of what was going on."
Mellon's face was mysterious, and his voice was lowered accordingly. He looked at the insects listening to him with a gossipy look on his face: "Guess what clue I found?"
The insects: "..."
A slap landed on the back of Mellon's head. Pu Bo snorted, "Come on, tell me. I think you're getting more and more naughty. The teacher is still here, why are you keeping me in suspense? I think Bai has spoiled you too much. I'll let Bai give you a beating someday."
Mellon: "...I'm just adding to the atmosphere."
"To add to the atmosphere, how about I find you some horror movies to watch?" Pu Bo folded his arms and looked down at Mellon. "Then I'll find you a good place where you can't leave until you finish watching the whole movie, how about that?"
Mellon flinched. He knew Pu Bo, the research maniac, could really do what he said. It was best to avoid him. Thinking of the various ghosts and the insect-infiltrating music and atmosphere in those horror movies, he felt goosebumps all over his body.
"Okay, okay, what's wrong with that?" Mellon pouted, looking like he'd been bullied. "I noticed that the clothes of those bugs that came out of Herbert Griffin's house had something stuck to them, especially around their collars, that was hard to see with the naked eye."
"These things look like dust, but with Herbert Griffin's financial resources, it's unlikely he couldn't even clean his house. So our bug took the opportunity to get some 'dust' off those high-ranking officials and brought it back to the military headquarters."
Mellon paused, his tone becoming serious. "We need to test it to confirm what it is. I was thinking of giving it to Pu Bo for testing, but it just so happened that a female soldier had seen it."
"This thing is a kind of fungal spore. It has a very strong hallucinogenic effect. If you accidentally inhale it..."
Mellon didn't say anything else, but everyone present understood that Herbert Griffin wanted to use this spore to cause the "accidental death" of all the insects that opposed and threatened him.
What a vicious plan, what a deep thought.
Mellon took a sip of water and continued, "After discovering this, I increased my surveillance of Herbert Griffin. At first, everything was normal. He first went to the hospital to see his son, O'Connor Griffin, and then went directly to the company."
"Brave Fighting Game is a subsidiary of the Griffin Group. You need an ID card to enter the Griffin Group building. Our female soldiers can't enter and can only monitor from outside."
"If the military females hadn't been smart enough to rent a house across from the Griffin Building to monitor him, and if they hadn't hacked into the cleaning robot system a few nights ago and installed cameras in Herbert Griffin's office through the robot, he would have almost escaped." Mellon had a lingering fear on his face.
"Hey, I heard that the systems of all machines and equipment are derived from the main brain system. Is it easy to invade?" Nan Qi was a little curious.
As far as he knew, the Empire had very strict control over the internet, and it wasn't easy for female insects to gain access to this knowledge. Network and information technology majors at major universities were not allowed to recruit female insects.
Mellon explained: "It's not easy for other insects, but it's not difficult for us."
"Our military system is also derived from the main system and is a subsystem of the main brain. However, because it is independent of the main brain, the maintenance of the military system cannot be done by the bugs on the main brain. It can only be maintained by our military department itself. Therefore, we will train elites specifically for this purpose."
"Besides, modern warfare also requires information technology. Male insects are all delicate and effeminate. I'm not talking about you," Mellon said. "Even if you join the army, you'll be in the rear, not on the front lines. So we can only train female insects to understand this knowledge. There are courses in military academies, but not many students are accepted."
"Yes, and the knowledge we can learn is also limited." Lunke added, "Perhaps they are afraid that the female insects will know too much and it will be detrimental to management. So, although they will train us in this area, the master will only lead us in the doorway, and we have to practice on our own."
"We've been exploring on our own for years, and we've suffered a lot of losses, but we've finally achieved some results, so we can't be considered blind."
"Too treacherous." Nan Qi sighed. He was increasingly disdainful of the royal family's behavior. It was simply self-defeating.
The interstellar age is now the main arena for various information wars. The accuracy and timeliness of information in a battle is one of the keys to winning or losing. The royal family has restrictions in this regard, which can be regarded as short-sighted.
"Go on." Nan Qi changed the subject. "Herbert Griffin was discovered by you guys after he ran away. I guess he went to the place we all want to know."
"That's right, but there's no reward." Mellon said playfully, "I don't think you'll be able to guess the entrance to the underground laboratory we've been searching for."
Mellon had a smug look on his face, as if to say, "Come and ask me, come and ask me." Pu Bo felt itchy and wanted to slap Mellon on the back of the head again.
"It's in the sewer entrance near where the female soldier disappeared, right? If I'm not mistaken, the underground laboratory is probably in the sewer." Nan Qi looked at Mellon's eyes that widened instantly, turned his head and blinked at him.
"How did you know?!" Mellon's eyes widened, his voice cracked, "That's a stinking sewer, how could you guess it was there!"
Sewers are something that can be seen everywhere. When the manhole covers are opened, they emit a strong odor. It is something that no insects like but must exist.
Also because no insects like it and it affects the cityscape, the sewer manholes are hidden in secret places and monitored by cameras.
Who would have thought that a large laboratory with complete equipment is located in a complex sewer system? They are very down-to-earth and set the entrance at the mouth of the sewer manhole, not caring at all that they will be suffocated by the stench when entering and exiting.
Nan Qi looked at Mellon, who looked furious, and smiled without saying a word.
He would know, of course, because he had seen it in reality and in various works of art in his previous life, and he guessed it from Mellon's smug expression and the tone of his voice that he asserted that they would not be able to guess it even if they saw it.
The entrances and exits must be common and easily overlooked, and some of them are unbelievable, which made Mellon feel that they would not be able to find the entrance even if they saw it.
Combined with the inexplicable disappearance of the female soldier, we can almost determine where the entrance to the underground laboratory is.
Of course, there was another most important reason that made him understand it all at once.
The last time Nan Qi went to rescue Carter, he discovered that the sewers on the Central Star were not only well-connected and highly concealed, but also very wide and perfectly sturdy. If one ignored their smell and purpose, it would be a good choice to use them as shelters and for other purposes.
Nan Qi smiled but said nothing, making Melon scratch his head like a monkey. All the insects laughed. Pu Bo put his hand on Melon's shoulder and said with a smile: "You deserve it. I let you show off. This time you can go by yourself."
Mellon: ââĤâ He was as angry as a pufferfish.
"Okay, stop messing around." Ai You looked at the students laughing and joking, his voice tinged with laughter. "Now that we know where the entrance is, what are you going to do?"
"That's why I'm here." Mellon stopped playing tricks and said seriously, "Should we deploy armed forces directly to eradicate the laboratory, or should we hold off and play it safe?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the living room fell silent.
Knowing the existence of such a cruel organization, the bugs' first reaction was to immediately eradicate this place, but what would happen after the eradication?
There is more than one such place. After eradicating this one, there will be another one. The source of these cruel experiments is not the Imperial Research Institute, nor this underground laboratory, but the ambition of the superiors.
They could investigate and eliminate each one they found, but if the higher-ups didn't change, there would always be another, even more brutal, research institute or laboratory. Furthermore, even if they could eliminate the underground lab, they couldn't shake the Imperial Research Institute.
Such behavior will also arouse suspicion and dissatisfaction from those in power, and with their current strength they are unable to fight against them.
More importantly, if the superiors deny everything, they now have no evidence to prove that these live experiments that violate moral ethics and the rights of intelligent creatures themselves are related to the superiors.
They did not dare to be optimistic and think that they could find the evidence they wanted by searching the underground laboratory. If they could not find it, it would be more difficult for them to find evidence in the future.
The best approach is to hold back, continue investigating along this line, and make a decision after finding decisive evidence, but...
Are they really so rational and concerned about the overall situation that they turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to this and continue investigating at their own pace?
All the insects fell into deep thought, their reason and conscience pulling at each other at this moment, making them like steaks being fried on a hot iron plate, with skin, meat and bones attached, and it hurt every time the iron shovel scooped through it.
After an unknown amount of time, Ai You broke the extremely oppressive atmosphere and said, "I'll make the decision."
He couldn't let the children bear such a heavy burden. They were too young and still had the passion, justice, soft conscience and innocence of young insects, even though they had been through many battles and seen too much darkness.
But it is precisely because of this that they possess such beautiful qualities that they are even more valuable.
Ai You's gentle gaze swept across Melon, Pu Bo, Lunke, Bai, and finally fell on Nan Qi, then immediately turned back.
Keppel reached out and held Aiyou's hand. The strength of his palm represented his determination to support all of Aiyou's decisions. Aiyou felt this support and smiled gently at Keppel. Then he spoke more firmly:
"I've decided that we won'tâ"
"Teacher, perhaps we can have another option besides these two."
Before Ai Youdong could finish his words, Nan Qi suddenly spoke up, "Options don't have to be limited to A and B. We should think about whether there's a C option, or whether there's an external force we can use that hates this underground laboratory even more than we do."
"C? With the help of external forces, he hates us more than we do?" When Bai heard Nan Qi's words, his spirit, which had been weakened by the tug of war between reason and conscience, suddenly perked up. He remembered what Nan Qi had said when they first met in the game.
"If there are conditions to solve it, that's better. If not, we can create them. Can a live worm kill someone by holding their urine? There's always a solution."
"Even if you're stuck in a dead end and there's no way out, can't you just climb over the wall? If you can't get over the wall, just punch a hole in it. Sometimes collapse from the inside is faster than external force."
Nan Qi said this casually, but it was like a wake-up call to himself. How come it wasn't long before he fell into the trap of inertial thinking again?
As Bai understood this, his eyes brightened. Looking at the handsome Nan Qi, Bai pursed his lips and smiled: "I understand. Thank you, Nan Qi."
Nan Qi smiled brightly: "You're welcome."
"No, don't be polite. What are you two talking about?" Mellon was fed up and shouted, "That's enough, you two. Stop flirting with each other. It's driving me crazy!"
Bai and Nan Qi smiled at each other. Bai felt naughty and hooked his finger at Meilong: "Want to know?"
Mellon nodded quickly.
Bai: "I won't tell you!"
Mellon: "...I'm going to kill you!!!"
The insects said: "Serves you right! You kept us in suspense before, now you've done it for nothing!"
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