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Chapter 2: 2

As Chen Chen had no other classes in the afternoon, he turned down the dorm leader’s invitation to basketball after the first class had ended and headed to his dorm alone .

As he walked, Professor Wang Xi’s words kept ringing in his ear .

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‘Oh immortality, what a beautiful dream . Still, since the beginning of time, was there anyone who was truly immortal?’

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Chen Chen lamented silently .

Professor Wang Xi, being a senior academic in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was excellent in both knowledge and pedagogy .

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Not only did he spark everyone’s enthusiasm toward biology, but he even showed them a clear path .

Perhaps some of them would be inspired to delve into the field of life sciences and make noble contributions to the Earth Federation .

Upon returning to Dorm 404, Chen Chen instinctively reached out to turn on his computer . However, before his right hand could do so, his left hand promptly held himself back .

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With a sigh, Chen Chen flipped open Modern Molecular Biology and compared it with his notes to consolidate his understanding of the class’ material .

In university, most of one’s learning was not obtained from lecturers . Self-study and practice was the only way forward .

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Many students started slacking off after entering university . They would pay no mind to their course credits . To them, skipping optional courses was compulsory and attending compulsory courses was optional . They thoroughly enjoyed their freedom from high school’s repression .

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Nonetheless, upon graduation, they learned what it meant to be beaten down by society…

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This was why Chen Chen was troubled . He had no choice but to practice some self-control for the sake of his own future .

After all, what was it that people always said – the hardships of youthful days are nothing compared to the hardships of later life!

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Just then, his phone’s screen flashed, indicating that there were more than 99 unread messages in the QQ group .

Chen Chen reached out by instinct but froze in mid-air .

‘Stop right there! This phone is a demon from hell . Don’t be tempted by it . They just talk sh*t in the group anyway, don’t…”

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404 Dorm Leader Wang Wei: [Lil Bo, Nostril, what are you guys doing? Why did you disappear after class? Come for basketball]

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404 Dorm Leader Wang Wei: [what is this moron trying to say . jpg]

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…

When Chen Chen opened up the group chat, he was greeted with this meaningless meme battle .

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404 Brainiac Chen Chen: [a group of guys with 99+ messages, yet there’s zero porn, f*ck y’all . jpg]

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After carelessly sending out an image to indicate what would interest him, Chen Chen put his phone away and propped his chin in his hand, deep in thought .

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He could forget about the previous owner of this USB drive . After all, that room was a multi-function classroom that hosted at least four or five classes each day .

This USB drive might have even been left behind by students who had graduated years ago .

The hiding place of the USB drive was well concealed too . If Chen Chen had not happened to turn at such an angle while picking up his pen, he would not have noticed it .

This meant that the heavens knew how long this USB drive had been hidden .

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‘The question is, who hid the USB drive there and why would they go to such lengths just to hide a USB drive?

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‘Maybe the USB drive contains some mysterious top-secret code?’

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These thoughts suddenly occurred to Chen Chen and he did not hesitate anymore . He lifted the lid of his laptop and plugged in the USB drive while the laptop was starting up .

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The SSD1 was fast booting up . In less than ten seconds, the sleek interface of Windows 10 displayed before Chen Chen .

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After a moment’s pause, Chen Chen pulled up [My Computer] . However, other than his own drive, there was no sign of any portable storage devices .

The drive letter which should have automatically recognized the USB drive had vanished .

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Was the USB drive corrupted?

Chen Chen did not believe this and plugged in it once more . Still, there was no response .

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‘Humph, I don’t buy this . ’

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Chen Chen’s lips curled up in a smirk as he smoothly restarted the laptop . While it rebooted, he deftly and confidently pressed down on [F2], entering the BIOS Setup interface .

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Next, in a well-practiced manner, Chen Chen pressed [F9] to select Default Settings/Configuration, and within the same instant, clicked on [Yes]!

Finally, he pressed [F10] firmly to save his data for the last time, then rebooted the laptop!

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All these happened in the blink of an eye . A non-veteran could not have done it .

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After the laptop had restarted, the icon for the portable storage device did pop up at the lower right corner .

Even so, Chen Chen did not access it from there . Instead, he clicked into [My Computer], moved his cursor to the USB drive’s icon, and right clicked to select its Properties .

‘Hmm?’

In its Properties, the storage space of the USB drive was listed as 0 .

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‘Is it corrupted after all?’

Chen Chen lost all hope at once . He had wasted so much effort .

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He shook his head and absent-mindedly double-clicked . However, the USB drive’s file opened up unexpectedly .

What he saw was a few files in the AVI format .

[Ju-on . avi], [Final Destination . avi . ], [One Missed Call . avi], [Ring . avi . ] .

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“Gasp…”

When Chen Chen saw what these files were, he drew in a sharp breath . He did not expect the previous owner of the USB drive to be a horror movie buff .

He did not know whether to feel disappointed or surprised . He was expecting something along the lines of a Mystery Code . avi .

Nonetheless, this proved that there was nothing wrong with the USB drive .

There was nothing much of interest to Chen Chen in the USB drive . These movies were nearly as old as Chen Chen and were very well known . Those which he wanted to watch, he had watched long ago . Those which he did not wish to watch, he would not watch even if they were played right before him .

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Therefore, he immediately selected all the files and pressed [ctrl+d] .

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“Ding!”

However, these six movies were not deleted . Conversely, a “Program Error” window popped out .

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Stubbornly Chen Chen tried a few times, even resorting to file shredding . Nevertheless, no matter what he did, he could not delete those movies .

“That’s peculiar…”

Chen Chen was gloomy . Perhaps the USB drive was corrupted after all?

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He hopelessly hovered his cursor over one of the video files, thinking that he should try playing it .

However, for some reason, just as he was about to double-click on [Ju-on . avi], he felt a sudden, indescribable throbbing in his heart .

He could not say what feeling it was . It was as if a pair of eyes were peering at him from some corner that light could not reach…

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These eyes were filled with a sense of death, like the icy kiss of a corpse…

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This flutter in his heart caused him to stop in his tracks .

“Cough! Since when did I become such a coward?”

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Chen Chen shook his head . Following his gut, he moved the cursor away, pulled up Local Disk D, and located a video file –

[Detective Pikachu . mp4] .

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Chen Chen selected this file and pressed [ctrl+c], then clicked on the USB drive and pressed [ctrl+v] .

A green progress bar flashed instantly . In less than two seconds, [Detective Pikachu . mp4] was copied into the USB drive .

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Everything seemed normal .

Chen Chen contemplated silently before opening the [Detective Pikachu . mp4] file in the USB drive .

The default video software started up automatically, beginning to screen this movie adaptation which was released in 2019 .

Chen Chen had already watched this movie when it came out, but because he loved the way Pikachu looked, he underwent the trouble of downloading this movie .

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As he watched the bright yellow rodent bouncing around on the screen, Chen Chen felt a faint pang of sorrow as this figure rather resembled Jerry from his home .

Jerry was the name of Chen Chen’s pet dog at home .

Chen Chen’s childhood was spent in the company of Jerry . The boy and the dog had grown up together and were inseparable .

Unfortunately, a dog’s lifespan was far too brief . Just last year, Jerry passed away due to old age .

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As he pictured that lovable figure, Chen Chen drifted in his thoughts .

However, there was a sudden movement that he noticed from the corner of his eyes .

Chen Chen reflexively turned to look and saw that a cap had appeared beside his laptop at an unknown time .

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“Ding!”

At the same time, the screen displayed the “Program Error” notice once again . The video that was playing shut down by itself…

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