Chapter 739: Suspicion Cleared
The number on the elevator panel turned 11. The police dragged the superior to the 11th floor, accompanied by the two officers. The transparent elevator door opened. The workers stood inside the modern lobby. “Where is he?” Han Fei looked around, but no one dared to meet his eyes.
“I’m here.” The young man who ‘invited’ Han Fei over was seated inside the single room deep within the lobby. Outside his room was the giant screen. The news that was broadcasted here could be seen through the entire intelligent city. The young man didn’t even move to stand. There was an arrogance that radiated from within him like everyone had to bow to him. ‘So rude. I wish to tell him that even father has to be polite to me.’ Han Fei walked to the room. The virtual screen in the lobby was playing the image from Perfect Life. Huang Yin and the monster were still playing the heart-pounding chase scene. The battle didn’t even draw the young man’s attention. As the real insider at Immortal Pharma, they seemed to have found the true solution and were waiting for the perfect timing.
After entering the room, Han Fei said directly, “Isn’t it clear that I’m not the monster inside the path? So why are you still doing this to trap me here?”
“There’s no need to be so angry.” The young man sipped the drink in his hands. “At first, we really did think you’re the masked man inside the path. The higher-ups even selected you as the prime suspect. They think that you’re disrupting Perfect Life, and you’re being supported by a huge hidden organization?”
“Me? Supported by a huge organization?” Han Fei was not acting. He was really confused that these people would have that idea.
“You’ve solved so many cases and captured the murderers on Grade A wanted list. You’ve single-handedly challenged supercriminal Butterfly and turned the internet’s impression of you. You even won the best actor award during the Movie Festival. I refuse you believe there’s no one helping you.” “So, what have you found?”
“Other than the police, you rarely interact with others.” The young man frowned. This was the thing that confused him the most.
“So, are you saying Xin Lu Police are attempting to destroy Perfect Life?”
“I didn’t say that!” Even if the young man did think that he wouldn’t say it.
“Then, how do you plan to deal with this mess?”
“Since you’re not the culprit, the company will not waste any more time on you. We’ll use the backdoor left behind by grandfather to force the supercomputer to wipe out the bug.” The young man didn’t hide anything from Han Fei. Perhaps he thought soon everyone would know about this or this was another test for Han Fei.
“I thought the game had been handled by the computer since it entered OB.” Han Fei instantly had a bad premonition.
“That’s why it’s called a backdoor.” The young man watched Han Fei’s face. “You seem to care a lot about this… Are you worried about the monsters inside the path?” The young men stood in the room. Above them was the giant virtual screen. By then, Han Fei was sure that the young man was baiting him. He still hadn’t given up. Even though there was no visible camera in the room, with Deep Space Tech and Immortal Pharma’s power, they could have installed invisible cameras. Perhaps the surveillance on Han Fei hadn’t really stopped.
At that moment, screams came from the screen. The path inside the maze changed. The path near the surface world suddenly collapsed. The players near the edge fell into the abyss.
“Changing the terrain is your backdoor?” Han Fei desperately wanted to know these things. Fu Sheng had opened the front of the black box, and he wanted to destroy the cryptic world. Therefore, the surface world was his final shield. Fu Sheng had given that power to his younger brother, Fu Tian. Therefore, Han Fei was not surprised that Immortal Pharma could impact the cryptic world. He just wanted to know how powerful Immortal Pharma was after Fu Tian died.
“This bug is related to the black box grandfather left behind. The deleted world had a large impact. Therefore, the internal committee of the company reached a consensus to use the backdoor to directly influence Perfect Life.” The young man clicked the icon on the table and many codes Han Fei didn’t understand appeared. “There is a limited number of backdoors, and the photon computer will restore them once used. After all the backdoors are restored, the computer will really take over humans to be the core of Perfect Life.”
“I don’t get it. Why are you doing this? Isn’t it better for humans to remain in control?”
“As long as humanity is around, there will not be pure justice and a perfect world.” The young man smiled coldly, “The computer has been collecting the data from the players. Even if there’s not a player left, the computer can create endless NPC with happiness and joy. They will be left inside the game and have the perfect lives.”
“I still don’t get it.” Han Fei had grasped the main idea. Fu Tian wanted to use the photon computer to replicate human emotions to inject the cryptic world with happiness. This would balance out the despair there.
“Do you really don’t get it, or are you acting?” The young man’s smile disappeared. He swiped his palm across the table, and the screen changed. Endless info about Han Fei appeared. “Grandfather was the designer and creator of Perfect Life. He’s the god in the game, but he didn’t tell us all of his secrets, and the most important among them is the black box.”
“So you also don’t know where it is?” Han Fei played his role to perfection.
“Grandfather once said that Perfect Life only existed because of the black box. The black box is also the reason Deep Space Tech and Immortal Pharma can have such advancement in biological and AI science in the past decade.” The young man pressed the virtual image, and it stopped at a particular moment in Han Fei’s life. “Now, do you know how important the black box is to us?”
The moment stopped at the time Han Fei first went to buy the gaming helmet!
He entered the street alone, and he was captured by the camera. Soon, the whole street was consumed by fire. In the next image, Han Fei was already at home. At first, the police had also suspected Han Fei was the arsonist. However, they quickly eliminated that possibility. That was also the first time Han Fei interacted with the police. The police also experienced the giant change in Han Fei the most.
“Is there anything you want to say?” The young man walked to the projection. “Through our investigation, we can be sure that you’re the last person to leave this street, and this street is among grandfather’s will.” “What can that prove?”
“If you’re just a normal person, of course, we won’t suspect you, but don’t you think your life has changed too much?” The young man looked through the virtual projection of Han Fei’s life. “Your whole life is here, and the change can be traced down to that moment.”
Han Fei’s expression didn’t change. He looked at the young man like he was dumb. Han Fei was certain that the projected childhood was different from his real childhood. “Even such a large company can’t figure out what really happened to me. I’m quite disappointed.”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t tell us. The black box is hidden in the world on the other side of the path. We will discover your connection with it.” The young man glanced at his watch. “It’s time.”
He lifted his head to look at the large screen. Huang Yin carried Shen Luo and ran as fast as he could. All the players were staring at them. They didn’t notice that Merchant Union’s boss had already retreated, and many NPC had infiltrated the crowd. Different from normal NPC, these people had no soul. They were controlled by a voice. When the Pure Hatreds and masked man approached the entrance, the NPC fainted. The theme park map blurred. A lot of NPC went out of control, interrupting the supercomputer’s control of this area. At that moment, the pictures of the ghost tourists on the wall disintegrated. A mysterious power was healing the path on the surface world. This path was like a scar, and the force was closing it.
Han Fei thought he was summoned there to watch it, but to his surprise, when Immortal Pharma used the backdoor, an intense pain came from the back of Han Fei’s head. It felt like someone was hammering it with a nail. A normal person couldn’t stand this pain, but Han Fei had died 99 times in the game. He had experienced more deaths than a normal person could imagine. Han Fei smiled, scratched his nose, and continued to watch. The intense pain continued. The players on the screen screamed because Huang Yin and Shen Luo were still inside the path. When the path was about 90 percent closed, the blurry image turned clear again. A giant eye opened in the dark sky, and all the mist was blown away.
In real life, there was a loud boom underneath the building where Han Fei was. It sounded like something had exploded. At the same time, the pain at the back of his brain disappeared.
“It didn’t close fully?” The young man’s expression shifted. He couldn’t maintain his composure anymore. A creepy shout came from the tunnel as Huang Yin and Shen Luo made their narrow escape. The ghosts inside the hidden map didn’t chase after them. However, they had buried the seed of terror inside all the players. The whole player base now saw that masked man as the final big boss. The players inside the game cheered. They saw Huang Yin as the hero. He was the first player who managed to enter and leave the path alive. His existence was the player’s hope.
In real life, Immortal Pharma faced a huge problem. No one expected that the backdoor wouldn’t fully close the path.
“Is this your solution? You purposely left it a little bit open so that the players would always feel a sense of danger?” Han Fei sighed in relief when he saw that Huang Yin was safe. He was most worried that Huang Yin and Bai Xian would get hurt because of him. Now that Huang Yin was safe and the path was close, Bai Xian didn’t need to carry on anymore. This was a good ending for everyone. The young man clearly didn’t have time for Han Fei’s comments. He immediately called his people to discuss the next step of the repair.
“If there’s nothing else, I’m going home.” Han Fei walked to the table and scanned everything on the surface to memorize them. He patted the young man’s shoulder. “Remember to pay me for the loss I’ve suffered today. I was supposed to shoot a movie this morning, but because of you, I can’t work properly for the next month.”
The young man waved his arms impatiently. The worker beside him immediately led Han Fei out.
“There’s no need. I know how to walk out on my own.” The worker looked at the police. Finally, Han Fei left. After ensuring Han Fei had left, the young man pressed a switch on the table. The original wall rippled like water. The image outside the window disappeared to reveal the room’s true form. There were various cameras in the room. The room was more like a stage. Around the stage sat many higher-ups from Deep Space Tech and Immortal Pharma.
“Fu Shuang, you’ve done well.”
“He probably doesn’t have the black box. Based on Fu Tian’s will, when the power of the backdoor is activated, the people with the black box will suffer intense pain. However, he didn’t look like it.”
“But the problem is the path is not closed fully. What should we do now? Use the backdoor again?”
“We don’t have many opportunities left. We can’t waste them before we find the black box.”
“What shall we tell the police?” “What is there to tell? We haven’t broken the law. But the days after this will be more difficult.” The group discussed heatedly. Other than small fries, only an old lady sat there, not talking. She placed the id with the name, Du Jing, into her pocket and watched the direction where Han Fei had left.
