S.C.I Mystery Series Volume 5 Chapter 65

Misplaced of the Three Murderers 12 – Time

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Bai Ye and Zhao Jue found K's body, which had been frozen for years, in a hidden underground laboratory in the rainforest.

Not only that, but they also discovered the presence of other people in this underground chamber.

Bai Ye chased after the white figure.

Zhao Jue grabbed Zhang Rui's ear and followed behind Bai Ye.

Zhang Rui cried out for mercy, swearing to the heavens that he was just an errand boy and begging Zhao Jue to let him go.

Zhao Jue yanked him and ignored him. When he saw that Bai Ye had stopped ahead, he pushed Zhang Rui forward.

At this moment, Bai Ye was standing at the entrance of a room with an open glass door. He didn't enter, he just stood there looking at the situation inside.

Zhao Jue told the noisy Zhang Rui to shut up because he had already heard some strange sounds... which seemed to be the sound of children talking.

Zhao Jue glanced at Zhang Rui, who reached out to wipe his sweat.

Bai Ye turned back and when he saw Zhao Jue, he gestured for him to come over and look.

Zhao Jue walked to the door, pushed Zhang Rui to Bai Ye, and peered into the room himself.

The room was decorated like a kindergarten classroom. There were three children in the room who were drawing, who looked to be around three to five years old, and next to them were two foreign aunts wearing nurse uniforms, who looked like caregivers.

Zhao Jue walked in and reached out to pick up a drawing to look at.

Bai Ye also looked at the objects in the room. There were various educational toys and many paintings on the wall, but nothing special.

Putting the drawing down, Zhao Jue looked back at Zhang Rui.

Zhang Rui shrank straight towards the corner, trying not to attract Zhao Jue's attention.

Zhao Jue took out his satellite phone and dialled a number.

......

In the SCI interrogation room, Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang were interrogating Zhou Chen when suddenly, Zhan Zhao's cell phone rang.

Zhan Zhao picked it up and looked at the number before answering it.

"Kitten."

Unsurprisingly, Zhao Jue's voice came from the other end.

Zhan Zhao glanced at Zhou Chen across the room and asked Zhao Jue, "What did you find."

Zhao Jue replied, "Three little kids."

"Sure enough..." Zhan Zhao frowned, "How old?"

"None of them should be more than five years old." Zhao Jue saw a little kid looking up at him, so he reached out and touched his head.

"So they're normal?" Zhan Zhao asked.

"This batch is probably normal." With that, Zhao Jue asked the two caretaker aunts a few words in Portuguese.

The other party stretched out their hand and made a "three" gesture to Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue said to Zhan Zhao, "There were three more before that have already been taken away, they should have been experimented on."

Zhan Zhao frowned.

"You know what to do, right?" Zhao Jue asked Zhan Zhao.

"Mhmm." Zhan Zhao nodded.

"Bai Ye and I will return as soon as possible." After Zhao Jue finished speaking, he hung up and dialled the twins' number to have them run an errand.

......

After Zhan Zhao put down his phone, he looked up at Zhou Chen in front of him.

Bai Yutang didn't understand the conversation between Zhan Zhao and Zhao Jue, but he wasn't in a hurry, N was right in front of him, and deciphering it was just a matter of time.

Zhan Zhao leaned forward a bit, resting his chin on his hand as he looked at Zhou Chen and asked, "Are you afraid of Zhao Jue?"

Zhou Chen thought for a moment then shook his head, "I'm more afraid of him."

When he said this, Zhou Chen looked at Bai Yutang.

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang shrugged slightly.

Zhan Zhao seemed a bit surprised to hear this, and after thinking about it, he asked, "Do you mean... that you're afraid of Bai Ye?"

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao and seemed to have a bit of an opinion – You're speaking as if I'm not as intimidating as Bai Ye.

"You can ask whatever you want." Zhou Chen moved his shackled wrists.

"I do have a lot of questions I want to ask, but before I do, why don't you say something yourself." Zhan Zhao said, "Something like how you grew up?"

Zhou Chen nodded as he heard this. His state didn't seem to be like a prisoner being interrogated, instead, it was like he was being interviewed for something, very relaxed.

"The one who truly researched the 'misplaced person' was my father, Zhou Anming." Zhou Chen briefly introduced Zhou Anming's research project, "The laboratory underneath base number three belongs to my father, but the original main direction of his research was not the misplaced person. There are a lot of experimental materials in the special prison, and the main research direction is actually strengthening genes. You guys should have encountered a lot of reinforced test subjects, right? The main research direction has always been the enhancement of neurological and muscular abilities. But there are also quite a few wild paths, just as Project Blue Doll with the swords, the ghost project with endless consequences, the rather perfect tenth generation, the crippled first generation, the berserk fourth generation... and all kinds of derivatives. But no matter what changes are made, human beings cannot escape the laws of nature. While a certain function is enhanced, other aspects are bound to decay. No matter how many geniuses are involved, how experiments are done, and how feasible the theory is, the result is still failure. When you fantasise about being able to produce a perfect creature, you end up producing mostly monsters. My father wasn't really too keen on these studies. Although he majored in biology, he was more interested in human psychology."

Bai Yutang thought it sounded strange, "He was a biologist, yet was more passionate about psychology?"

"Because he found a new research idea." Zhou Chen explained, "My father was obsessed with some special 'patients'. He wasn't interested in King's quest at all, instead, he took advantage of the opportunity to conduct experiments on King and opened up his own project... I was the content of his project. He failed several times before, but he succeeded with me. That's basically the experience."

Bai Yutang glanced at Zhan Zhao – So that's the end of it?

All the SCI staff members at the door were wide-eyed – So simple?

"Actually, Zhou Anming's alternative approach did develop a workable plan, which in my opinion is more logical than King's original plan." Zhan Zhao knew that the SCI audience present, including Bai Yutang, should be in a state of 'confusion', so he simply explained.

"The witness was born because of a physical defect, which resulted in a special ability that is random and uncontrollable. The inheritors were affected by a genetic disease, which caused the so-called invisibility phenomenon, but it is just an illusion. The misplaced person seems to be the most advanced version, that is, they possess a strengthened body and have solved the problem of over-ageing, so they are a finished product. But in reality, the so-called misplaced person can be said to be a Schrödinger-esque result, a topic that no one knows the correct answer to until it reaches the end day."

"What topic?" The SCI crowd listening outside the interrogation room let their imaginations run wild. On the one hand, they had to become stronger, but on the other hand, they could still be eternally youthful... Could it be that they were turned into vampires?

"Memory implantation."

Unexpectedly, Zhan Zhao uttered an answer that everyone could hear and understand the meaning of.

"Memory!" Zhan Zhao reached out and pointed to his head, "Why has base number three been hidden in a special prison, because it is rich in resources. What does a special prison have? All sorts of psychopaths, heinous people... That's a treasure trove full of inspiration."

Zhou Chen looked at Zhan Zhao and revealed a slightly creepy smile.

"I felt before that your case was very suspicious. Looking at your abnormal behaviour throughout the case, two inferences emerged, one was a supernatural phenomenon, and the other was a clone... but in fact, neither was reliable. There is only one answer that can explain all your behaviour, and that is transplanted memories. You possess the memories of your father, your twin brother, and quite a few highly skilled serial killers. Possessing memories is the same as possessing abilities, and by possessing a person's complete memory, it's the same as you becoming that person! This is the so-called immortality theory of the misplaced person, and it's the same principle as artificial intelligence. The closest humans have come to an ageless state of existence so far is AI, which computerises everything. And why can AI get stronger and stronger? It's because of its superior learning ability. This so-called learning, in fact, is memory. When you have all the memories of Zhou Guang, after killing Zhou Guang, you are Zhou Guang. By the same token, when you have all of your father Zhou Anming's memories, he can die, because you are his youthful version! Fixing over-aging and strengthening all at once! It's that simple."

Zhan Zhao spoke clearly, and everyone understood without Bai Yutang's translation. It turned out that it wasn't a horror film, and in the end, it was still back to Zhan Zhao's area of expertise, psychology.

Zhou Chen gently raised his eyebrows and nodded as if to show his appreciation, "That's it."

Outside the interrogation room, Zhao Hu listened in awe and asked Ma Han, "Xiao Ma Ge, how do you transplant someone else's complete memories into your own brain? Won't it cause confusion?"

Ma Han silently reached out and shook the topographical map of base number three that he had drawn unconsciously in front of his eyes.

Zhao Hu suddenly felt that it was indeed a bit convincing.

Xiatian and Ma Xin held their teacups and asked Gongsun, "My Lord, from the perspective of genetics, is it feasible?"

"From the perspective of genetics?" Gongsun glanced at the two children and pointed at Zhou Chen behind the one-way glass glass, "Isn't he just crazy?"

"Even if I gave all my memories to someone, that person doesn't necessarily become me, right?" Luo Tian felt that this theory was unreasonable, "It's like saying that Zhou Chen and Zhou Anming both possess the memories of Zhou Anming who lived to the age of fifty. But the decisions Zhou Chen made at the age of fifty-one may not be the same as Zhou Anming's decisions, and if Zhou Anming died at the age of fifty, then the Zhou Chen who lived to the age of fifty-one would just be the Zhou Chen who possesses the memories of Zhou Anming for fifty years, not the fifty-one-year-old Zhou Anming."

Everyone pointed at him, which meant – that's right!

In fact, Bai Yutang in the interrogation room was also thinking the same thing. Possessing the past was not the same as possessing the future, even if the thinking pattern was the same, it was indeed a Schrödinger-type open-ended proposition. Would this even be considered a solution to the problem of over-ageing? When a person dies, the physical matter is wiped out, and others use their memories to continue living. What kind of immortality is that?

"Let's sort it out now." Zhan Zhao continued, "Since N has been to the rainforest, he should know that K is dead. Zhao Jue found a few young children in K's experimental base, indicating that the hopeless K used the theory of the misplaced person to 'continue' himself. Since he already has your technology, why would G go through the trouble of finding you?"

Zhou Chen sneered when he heard this, "K and G, those two losers."

Zhan Zhao seemed to feel quite at peace hearing this and continued, "You are modified and extremely aggressive, and the special prison is your territory. Although we entered by mistake, the director had already tipped you off long before, so why didn't you run away?"

Zhan Zhao pointed at him, "You were intentionally captured by SCI."

Zhou Chen seemed to find it a bit funny and sighed, "What a clever guy, is there anything you don't know?"

"What value does I have to you?" Zhan Zhao was quick to ask the doubt in his heart.

Zhou Chen did not answer, but instead asked back, "Do you think I has any value?"

"Is I valuable on his own, or does I have something valuable in his hands?" Zhan Zhao asked tentatively.

This sentence clearly caused Zhou Chen to be somewhat surprised, "Why do you think so?"

"Why don't you tell us first, what does I have that is the key to your fight?"

Zhou Chen smiled, and without replying, he raised his head and glanced at the clock on the wall.

Bai Yutang saw his gesture and was immediately a little alert.

The people outside the interrogation room subtly felt a subtle tension spreading. What was going on?

After a short period of unsettling silence, Zhan Zhao suddenly stood up and said one word to himself, "Time."

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: February 28, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 6, 2024 by Angel