Chapter 472: Eyes Closed

What surprised Chen Chen was that there was an inexplicably oppressive atmosphere in the laboratory.

As he stepped in, he did not feel it at first but as he gradually went in deeper, a cold aura slowly enveloped him. In front of him, there was a corridor with no end in sight. On both sides of the corridor were rows of doors. The curving shape of the corridor interrupted Chen Chen’s line of sight, leaving Chen Chen trapped in a semi-enclosed space.

This feeling…

Chen Chen frowned. This feeling was similar to what he felt, trapped in the “Otherworld” when he went to Jiao Tong University. There was an unnamable sense of being stifled but the only difference was that the oppressive air was now much stronger. Moreover, it was not the Otherworld meme that was enveloping the laboratory, otherwise, the group of scientists and politicians would not be able to escape from this place.

At this time, Chen Chen’s Field energy had encased him heavily as if he was wearing invisible armor. However, noticing the oppressive aura of the laboratory, Chen Chen was still highly vigilant and his mind was tightly strung.

Every four or five meters, there was a light above him to provide illumination but it seemed that due to insufficient voltage, the light was very dim, like narrow boundaries that could only illuminate each section of the corridor. In between two sections of lighting, there was a special dark area.

At this time, Chen Chen was walking in the quiet metal corridor. Every time he took a step, a hollow echo reverberated, highlighting the peculiar emptiness of the corridor. Moreover, there were various objects scattered messily on the ground. There were data sheets as well as various experimental equipment. It was as if a crisis had erupted in the laboratory during the previous emergency evacuation, so the people who had been evacuating in an orderly manner at first suddenly discarded the information in their hands, screaming as they ran for their lives.

Chen Chen continued to walk forward. This time, he walked about a hundred meters and crossed the many barriers as before. At this moment, a set of heavy double doors appeared in front of his eyes.

This door was completely transparent. Through the thick glass, he could see the dazzling light emitting from behind the door, which was much brighter than the lighting in the corridor.

Behind the door, there was a cliff-like drop and a completely suspended laboratory in the depths.

Chen Chen remembered that the shape of the Quantum Computer Laboratory was like a square within a square, with a completely enclosed space in the middle, where the air was drained to maintain a vacuum state. The laboratory where the quantum computer was stored was suspended in mid-air only by electromagnetic force.

The advantage of this was that it isolated all the electromagnetic radiation of the universe and it was as clean as when the universe had not yet been born.

At this time, as Chen Chen looked around, he could see an elevator suspended on the other side of the door emerging in the vacuum chamber. This elevator was the only channel leading to the quantum computer but this channel was not on Chen Chen’s side, but the side of the internal Quantum Deity Laboratory.

Chen Chen had used the quantum device from the movie Spectral to manipulate a person into entering the laboratory, so he understood that this situation meant that someone was already in the Quantum Deity Laboratory.

Sure enough, as Chen Chen continued to look, he immediately saw an old man standing on the other side of the laboratory. He and Chen Chen stared at each other through the glass wall and the old man seemed gripped by disbelief.

He did not understand how Chen Chen got in here.

Chen Chen tried to knock on the glass wall in front of him but found that there was only a slow, dull reverberation. No sound could pass through, so he immediately gave up on asking the old man about the matter.

Chen Chen did not know this old man but his suit and leather dress shoes indicated that he should be a new “shield bearer”. Based on his race, he was probably a representative of Northern America and Europe.

Still, after seeing Chen Chen, the old man began to bang on the glass door in front of him and at the same time, he kept yelling as if he wanted to tell Chen Chen something.

Chen Chen could not quite hear him, so he tried to read the man’s lips, but found that the man was just saying “hey” over and over without any valuable information at all. Thus, Chen Chen thought about it. He turned his head and looked at an unmarked door next to him, turned around, and cautiously walked in.

As Chen Chen pushed the door and entered, a room with a large number of surveillance monitors appeared before his eyes. The furnishings inside the door were all toppled and disordered papers were scattered all over the floor. At the very front, there was a huge electronic platform inlaid into the wall.

It could be seen from the furnishings here that this place must have been equivalent to a command room.

Chen Chen swept his Field across the room. After concluding that there was no unusual danger, he looked down and started searching. Soon, he found a few pages of A4 paper and a black pen.

Holding the paper and pen, Chen Chen walked out of the room again. Sure enough, the old man was still leaning against the door. Seeing this, Chen Chen smiled. He took out the pen and wrote “What happened here?” in English.

Seeing Chen Chen’s behavior, the old man wore an indescribable expression. He suddenly became extremely agitated. At the same time, he pointed at Chen Chen animatedly and shouted.

From his lips, Chen Chen could only read one word — danger!

Just when Chen Chen was a little bewildered, suddenly, there was a “bzz bzz” sound from the top of his head, coming from a short circuit. The lights began to flicker violently in the corridor where he stood.

What was going on?

Chen Chen’s heart clenched and he watched the light flickering continuously as it kept crackling loudly. In its feeble glimmering, it was as if something unseen was slowly making its attack!

At this moment, Chen Chen instinctively developed an indescribable sense of crisis and then a special numbness hit him from behind. He could not define what it was like. His Field was detecting nothing behind him but that feeling kept on approaching, causing Chen Chen’s hair to stand up on end!

This was a kind of instinctive fear for his own life!

At this second, Chen Chen suddenly realized that the old man might not be pointing at himself but behind him!

In the next second, Chen Chen whipped his head back like lightning!

“Swish!”

In Chen Chen’s swift glimpse, he unexpectedly saw that at the boundary between the two lights, a dark shadow had appeared vaguely!

This black shadow was only ten meters away from Chen Chen. It stood between the shadows of the two lights, so Chen Chen could not see it at all. However, as Chen Chen’s Field power stretched over, he found that the shadowy figure was none other than a humanoid statue with two wings…

This statue held up its hands as if it had been crying but its posture indicated that it had just finished crying. Its hands were just leaving its face, revealing a pair of enormous eyes and a very lifelike face.

“What the h*ll?”

Chen Chen could not help but narrow his eyes.

The light above his head was still flickering but because the Quantum Deity Laboratory behind him seemed to use another electrical system, so the same power failure did not occur. The light shone through the two transparent glass doors. Even if the hallway lights above his head were completely extinguished, Chen Chen would not be in complete darkness.

However, now was not the time to care about the overhead lights because, in Chen Chen’s memory, he could be sure that when he came over, this statue was completely non-existent…

Not only that but he could also be sure that when he had his back turned, there was no such statue in the Field energy’s detection as if this statue appeared the moment Chen Chen turned around.

What shocked Chen Chen even more was that the moment he turned around, the crisis instinct that originated from his body disappeared without any warning. When he looked at the statue in front of him, it was as if the other party was just a statue, nothing unusual at all.

Chen Chen subconsciously took a deep breath and recalled everything from before. As he had taken the initiative to come to the Quantum Deity Laboratory to face all this, Little X had still told him about the content predicted by the quantum computer. What Adam had predicted was a ten-second video file and in the file was an angel statue, the same as the statue in front of Chen Chen at this time…

Coupled with the mural of the crying woman that appeared out of thin air when he was doing memetic experiments on the Otherworld, Chen Chen could already be sure that he was dealing with the meme directly now, one with a completely unknown memetic effect.

In that case, how was this meme transmitted?

Chen Chen did not rush forward rashly. He just stood still and stared at the statue motionlessly. However, to be cautious, he only stared at the statue’s foot and not its entire body because the previous memetic patterns had similar properties, whereby if one saw the picture of the meme in full, even if unintentionally, one would get infected.

Thinking of this, Chen Chen’s heart jolted. He once again used his Field energy, trying to push the opponent back.

“Crunch…”

With a sound of stone rubbing against the metal tiles, the statue that was not too far from him was pushed back.

Chen Chen’s Field energy could extend as far as 25 meters and because the corridor was curved, Chen Chen’s line of sight only covered a distance of 20 meters. Therefore, Chen Chen tried to push the statue out of the corridor, out of his line of sight.

However, Chen Chen would not consider destroying this opponent first without clarifying what it was. After all, he did not know the nature of the meme. If by chance destroying the statue would trigger the meme’s infectious ability, then Chen Chen would have brought death upon himself.

He had to admit that Field energy was useful. As Chen Chen kept pushing the opponent away from the corridor, the opponent gradually disappeared in front of him. However, just when Chen Chen was wondering if this statue was so easily dealt with, his Field energy suddenly detected nothing but a vacuum!

After he had pushed the statue completely out of his line of sight, it disappeared into thin air even under the shroud of Field energy…

Chen Chen could not help but raise his eyebrows.

Why did the statue disappear even while within the Field at the same time when it was out of sight?

Chen Chen did not run up to check but stared at the end of the corridor with a pensive look.

By now, it was already a certain fact that the statue could move and kill people. Those whose necks were broken were likely to have died at its hands.

That being the case, why did it not step up and attack him when he saw it?

Not only that but he could also use his Field to push it out of the corridor without facing any resistance. It was only until it disappeared from his line of sight that it disappeared from the Field energy’s detection simultaneously?

At this moment, Chen Chen recalled the previous details again and then his pupils shrank as if he had thought of something!

Could that really be the case?

At the same time that a certain thought came into his mind, Chen Chen took a deep breath, and he slowly backed away until he was pressed tightly against the glass wall behind him while he closed his eyes.

In the instant he closed his eyes, Chen Chen opened them quickly and vigilantly, but as he looked ahead, nothing had happened in the corridor in front of him…

Could it be that the statue saw that he was a difficult target, so it left?

Chen Chen shook his head. He knew it was impossible. After all, memes were not alive. They had no thoughts or consciousness. They were like the wind, thunder, and rain, a phenomenon like any other, only memes were relatively rare.

Since it could not have left, then there must be another reason.

Thinking of this, Chen Chen looked behind him but saw that, on the other side of the glass door, the old man was staring at him in amazement. Seeing that Chen Chen had turned around, he knocked on the door with excitement.

Seeing this, Chen Chen made a reassuring and soothing gesture, indicating that someone would come to rescue him later. Then, Chen Chen walked deep into the corridor without looking back.

This time, Chen Chen had only walked less than ten meters before he once again saw the statue at the end of the corridor’s curve.

At this time, the statue had changed its posture. It used to have its hands raised but now it was standing upright with its arms hanging straight down while its eyes were fixed in the direction of Chen Chen’s arrival.

Chen Chen made this out in the dim residual light, so he could only see the statue’s general position. Still, Chen Chen found that when he could see the opponent, the opponent also showed up in his Field at the same time.

This was a very discomfiting feeling. In a special sense, Field energy was even sharper than Chen Chen’s vision. It could observe behind Chen Chen as well as the blind spots that Chen Chen’s vision could not cover.

However, faced with this peculiar statue, his Field energy seemed to be at a loss.

Thinking of this, Chen Chen had gradually realized something. He pushed the statue toward the depths of the corridor again using his Field, letting the opponent go out of his sight.

As expected, when the statue was out of sight again, his Field lost its sense of the statue at the same time.

It was as if the statue disappeared into thin air…

Seeing this, Chen Chen took a deep breath again. His heart was pounding wildly and unusual anxiety slowly gripped him. He could not tell what kind of feeling it was. It was as if he was an extreme sports enthusiast and now, he was preparing to carry out a life-and-death challenge.

In the next second, Chen Chen resisted the pressure and slowly closed his eyes.

The moment he closed his eyes, Chen Chen suddenly felt an acute sense of danger. Although his Field energy was still picking up nothing, the feeling of surging adrenaline made Chen Chen reluctant to keep his eyes closed for a second longer. At almost the same time he closed his eyes, Chen Chen opened them again!

The instant his eyes flew open, Chen Chen immediately saw that the angel statue had appeared in front of him and this time, it was one step closer, less than five meters away!

Not only that, the statue’s expression and position at this time had become very different from before. Its arms were extended forward like an evil spirit and a sinister grimace was stretched across its face. Its entire body was leaning forward as if it would pounce right in front of Chen Chen in the next second!