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Published at 2nd of December 2022 06:42:59 AM


Chapter 16

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Early the next morning, someone from the police department knocked on Xie Quan’s apartment door, which was not welcoming to guests. However, the morning was better than when Xie Quan was at work, and Xie Quan was only slightly confused when he was awakened and opened the door.

Seeing the uniformed officer at the door, Xie Quan’s first thought was that he should run away. But luckily, before he could act, the officer took the lead and made his intentions clear, “Hello Mr. Xie, were you on Center Street yesterday around 4:30 p.m.?”

Xie Quan nodded his head.

“There’s something I want to find out from you about what happened yesterday on Center Street, is it convenient to come to the police station now?”

Xie Quan nodded again.

When he arrived at the police station, the officer took Xie Quan into an interview room and after some routine questioning, he got to the point and asked, “Where was Mr. Xie going to at that time?”

“The mecha museum,” Xie Quan said with a bit of sadness, “but I didn’t make it.”

The officer could not empathize with him. “Did you do anything after you found someone down at that time?”

Xie Quan recalled for a moment and shook his head.

“Why didn’t you do anything?”

Xie Quan wondered, “Could I have done anything? Aren’t there patrolling robots?”

“…”

The reasoning was this, but the youth in front of him was clearly acting too cold on the surveillance video, not at all like the reaction of an ordinary person. However, they couldn’t just use this to say that there was something wrong with the other person.

The officer played the surveillance video and showed a scene of Xie Quan looking up at the sky and asked, “What are you looking at this time?”

Xie Quan glanced at it and replied calmly, “There’s a little bug, I felt a little curious.”

“Someone fell in front of you, and you went to look at the bug?”

Xie Quan said seriously and slowly, “That bug is not an ordinary bug.”

The officer thought Xie Quan was fooling him, but at that moment, an order came through his headset. “Ask him what kind of bug.”

So, the officer asked without changing his face, “What kind of bug?”

“A beetle,” Xie Quan replied.

The officer listened to the command in his headset and continued to ask, “What’s so special about the beetle?”

“This one.” Xie Quan said with a somewhat coy smile, “Because someone asked me about it when I was a kid, but I didn’t recognize it, so I got a lecture.”

This garbled answer did not set off the lying alarm.

Standing outside the one-way mirror, Ji Cheying looked at Xie Quan sitting in the cold white light as he spoke into his communicator and ordered again, “Ask him about the beta case.”

Inside the room, the officer received the command and he asked, “Do you know why we’re summoning you for information?”

Xie Quan shook his head.

The officer brought out the pre-prepared photo of yesterday’s victim and placed it in front of Xie Quan. “The person who fell yesterday was a beta.”

Xie Quan froze for a moment, with a few moments of surprise.

Beta? Why would a beta have an outbreak of alpha pheromone? However, that alpha pheromone did seem a little strange.

The officer continued, “There have been several similar cases in Noel City recently where betas’ glands were modified and then produced a pheromone storm.” The photos of the victims of the remaining cases were then placed in front of Xie Quan one by one.

Looking at those photos, Xie Quan remembered what Anna had told him before— “There have been many malicious crimes against betas in Noel City recently. For the sake of public stability, the government has not yet informed, but it is said that the nature is very bad, and the perpetrators have not been caught yet. Be careful not to get in the way, and do not go looking!”

It was about this thing?

The officer asked, “How much do you know about this incident?”

Xie Quan looked up, and he answered frankly, “I don’t know anything about it, Officer.” He said apologetically, “I don’t watch the news much.”

The officer said, “Currently, this case has not been made public in the news.”

Xie Quan smiled, slightly puzzled. “Then… Why do you ask me how much I know? Are you suspecting me?”

The lie detector did not show an alarm, and the observer did not find any trace of Xie Quan’s lie. The real surprise that came out when Xie Quan saw the photos and heard the case proved that what Xie Quan said was true.

The officer looked at Xie Quan and said, “No, it’s just a routine questioning. But if Mr. Xie finds anything, please be sure to contact our police to help us find the real killer faster.”

Xie Quan nodded. “Okay.” After a pause, he asked, “May I ask the lady from yesterday, what is her condition now?”

“She is currently in the hospital.”

“Can she recover?”

“The current situation is not ideal.”

Xie Quan nodded. “I hope she can recover soon.”

There were indeed many suspicions on Xie Quan, but as of now, Xie Quan did not know anything about the beta case.

Ji Cheying watched Xie Quan’s back as he left, and was unconsciously relieved. Since there was no connection to the case for the time being, the suspicion on Xie Quan was not a public matter. He could investigate privately.

Leaving the police station, Xie Quan walked down the street with no expression on his face.

The police officer was only responsible for picking up the person, not for sending him back.

And Xie Quan was happy to be free and easy.

If he was just curious about how there was a beetle robot with the same design as his own, now Xie Quan was even more curious about why the robot was there.

Is it a coincidence? Or was it related to the case?

Xie Quan recalled the situation. The beetle robot was between the victim’s hair, and only after it flew into the air did the pheromone erupt.

Was the brain activity controlled with microelectric waves?

In his design, the beetle robot, despite its small size, was able to use electric current to generate high-amplitude electromagnetic wave motion that could interfere with the surrounding electronic equipment. At the beginning, he used this to shield the signal of the monitor, directly making that time period the machine produced a delayed response, which would constantly record the last second as a real-time picture.

If the current was passed to the human brain, it was also true that the target brain area could be controlled through micro-electric waves.

Xie Quan thought about the homework he had done when he was working on the inhibitor. The location where he saw the beetle robot was close to the human cerebellum, and from there down, it was right in the Loon area, which was in charge of the glands and pheromone.

Who was doing bad things with his little baby?

=====

Ji Cheying, who was occupying the administrator’s office, received a contact from the Imperial City side.

Looking at the man in the white research uniform wearing glasses, Ji Cheying sat casually on the couch, “I didn’t find what I was looking for, so I’m busy.”

The corners of the man’s mouth twitched, this man was so shameless that he was used to it. He said indifferently, “Who do you expect to work for you like this?” No benefit, and no attitude of asking for help.

Ji Cheying raised his eyebrows, his tone lazy. “This is not for me, it’s for the Empire. Professor Yan, you are not aware enough.”

Yan Siyu’s face was expressionless. “I’m afraid anyone in the Empire except you wants to touch this thing.”

Since he had more research to do later, Yan Siyu said no more nonsense and sent an encrypted file over. Then, he spoke very fast, “At that time, the third prince, in order to obtain the support of the beta group at the time of the imperial election, took five first-class researchers and their research team to conduct secret research on the subject of beta re-differentiation. Later, His Majesty, who was still the fourth prince at that time, caught evidence of the third prince’s private human experiments and submitted it to the imperial court. The third prince and his research team were punished for conducting inhumane experiments, endangering beta human rights and shaking the stability of Empire society. The research team was all expelled from the Imperial Institute and denied the right to conduct experimental research for life. The main researchers were also sentenced to decades of exile, while the third prince himself was disqualified from the imperial election and died afterwards, along with the crown princess and the king’s grandson, due to an accident.

After this, all the information related to this was destroyed, saying that it was to prevent someone from going down the wrong path again, but everyone with a clear eye knows that this is His Majesty’s way to cover up the ugliness of the initial brotherly dispute. You have to touch this bad luck, so be careful when His Majesty really exiles you.”

Ji Cheying looked at the encrypted file that was supposed to be “destroyed” at the time about the research incident and asked, “Since it was destroyed, where did you get it?”

Yan Siyu said with a sneer, “Did you know that researchers are very much like a certain animal?”

“Which one?”

“Hamsters.” Yan Siyu said, “Because all are hoarders, all information is precious data, maybe one day will be lined up for use. The Imperial Institute is the least likely to completely destroy records.” It’s just hidden deeper.

If it’s hidden deep, you can always find it by digging more.

Ji Cheying knew that Yan Siyu must have taken a lot of risks for this information. Even if he was a childhood friend, it was not easy to do this. He thanked him, “Thanks a lot.”

Yan Siyu still had a cold expression and then asked another question, “How long are you going to stay there?”

Ji Cheying closed the file and didn’t reply to Yan Siyu, but asked, “By the way, is it possible for ordinary people to buy invisible gland patches?”

“…” Yan Siyu showed a contemptuous look. “Do you think invisible gland patches are the same as invisible band-aids?” 

The glandular patches were not an ordinary layer of cloth, they were to perfectly isolate pheromone, must fit perfectly with the skin, and have multiple layers of small molecule filters and sufficient pheromone absorbing substances. The invisible gland patch, as the name implied, had to be transparent and thin enough not to be seen, which raised the technical difficulty and cost by more than one dimension.

Plus, this thing did not have a vast demand. Price and technology were also destined to not popularize it at a large scale. Currently, it was only used by the military for special missions.

Yan Siyu thought about it, thinking their words could not be too absolute. After all, he was a strict scientist, so he added, “Of course, if that ordinary person can enter the black market and have sufficient funds, then certainly they can still buy it.”

On the black market, there was everything.

Xie Quan received a message from Anna. She said the Imperial Institute’s newly developed super S-grade armed protective paint was sent to Noel City’s city bank safe, and he needed to remember to pick it up.

Xie Quan looked at the message, showing a happy and satisfied smile as he left.

His new toy had arrived!




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