Technological practice: leading the human race to the stars

Chapter 45 The tip of the iceberg

the next day.

Inside the confidential archive room of S01 Mechanical City.

Yuanze stood alone in front of the densely packed information shelves. In this age of the Internet and electronics, there are still a lot of information in paper form.

His sharp eyes scanned every file.

At the same time, Astra quietly started up, and her intelligent program silently penetrated into the system of confidential files. In this digital ocean composed of complex algorithms and strict security protocols, Astra was like a shark swimming in the deep sea of ​​information, flexible and swift.

"Sun Wanwen, 19 years old, missing for 43 days. The last time she appeared was in a surveillance camera in the back hills of HKUST..."

"..."

Yuanze looked through a lot of information that could be searched in the confidential archives room, and the files of various registered "missing cases" were all very complete.

"Alas, most of this is useless information. Astra, make a detailed summary of what I just saw and the information you obtained, and mark the missing location on the map."

Yuanze didn't want to come here, but he came here anyway to make it easier for Astra to hack into this confidential archive that is not connected to the Internet.

"I've done it. I've stored all the information that might be useful. Let's go."

Astra's information flashed in Yuanze's mind, and he quickly left his current location without hesitation.

Yuanze's mind was unusually clear. He planned to go to Mr. Yang to discuss countermeasures first, and at the same time let Astra analyze the data alone and screen out valuable information.

Yuanze was thinking about his next move while hurrying on his way, when unexpectedly he bumped into a pedestrian who was hurrying in from the door.

"Ah, it hurts to death."

When Yuan Ze accidentally knocked her down, the girl staggered slightly, but soon regained her balance. She raised her head and noticed Yuan Ze, with a flash of surprise and disgust in her eyes, but she quickly regained her composure.

She was dressed in a white dress and pretended to tidy up her messy hair. Her brows were slightly furrowed as she picked up the documents on the ground while quickly assessing her surroundings.

Yuanze squatted down and wanted to help the girl pick up the documents, but he was slapped in the face when he stretched out his hand.

"It seems that this girl doesn't want to accept your advances." Astra never misses the opportunity to see Yuanze make a fool of himself.

Since he didn't accept it, Yuanze had no intention of staying and strode out.

Yuanze walked to a place where there were not many people walking around and stretched out his hand to block the sunlight.

The palm of the hand seemed to be burned by a tiny flame, with slight red spots. Against the red background, the texture of the palm seemed to become clearer, with a few small words on it:

"It's an emergency, lab."

He used his hands and feet to climb over the wall made of piles of rubble, and finally came to an invisible door that blended in with the surrounding rubble. After carefully confirming his identity, he walked in without hesitation.

"You're here."

As Yuanze's vision went from light to darkness, he saw a lonely figure leaning on a cane in the empty laboratory. It was an elderly man, his body hunched almost parallel to the ground, as if he was bearing an unspeakable burden. His skin was loose and deeply wrinkled, like a vine circling a dead branch.

His existence is like an isolated island in this empty laboratory, quietly waiting for the passage of time.

"Mr. Yang, what do you want to tell me?"

"I dare not tell Li Haisheng's apprentice to do anything. I just learned that you were investigating your mission in the confidential archives room. There are some things I have to tell you in advance."

"whats the matter?"

"Stop the investigation and leave it to me."

"Why?" Yuan Ze didn't understand. "Many people around me are missing. I want to find them."

"Do you have this strength?"

"I……"

Yuanze was speechless and didn't know what to say.

At this time, Astra finally completed the analysis and screening of massive amounts of data. The information was projected in the laboratory, helping Yuanze out of the predicament.

"This is the trajectory of all the missing students in the past two years and a heat map of the missing areas." Astra explained to the two through the laboratory's loudspeaker equipment.

Yuanze and Mr. Yang both frowned, because so many students disappeared in the blind spots of surveillance, and their final behaviors were very abnormal, as if they had no consciousness of their own.

"This was not done by the Li family. They would not take such a big risk in their own territory." Old Yang pointed at the red dots surrounding the Li family on the projection.

"From the time point of view, the disappearances of students are becoming more and more frequent, and it seems that the other party is a bit impatient. If it is a C virus experiment, there is no need to be so impatient." Yuanze added his thoughts.

"Do you find it strange?"

Yuan Ze slid his thumb and index finger towards each other, and the map was instantly magnified several times. "Look! There is no missing case around the martial arts school, even its own missing students, it seems to be trying to avoid something." Yuan Ze saw the enlarged hot spot map.

"In the eyes of others, they may think that the area around the martial arts gym is relatively safe and no one would cause trouble around it. But this is indeed a point worthy of suspicion." Old Yang thought for a while and expressed his thoughts.

"That's not true. I found out from the confidential file database that although the number of missing persons cases is not as high as it was a while ago, it is still on the rise. We just managed to suppress it."

"Moreover, the security is strengthened by martial artists organized by the martial arts school. This is also one of the secrets of Province S that is not disclosed to the public."

When the two heard Astra's analysis, they felt a chill down their spines. It seemed that there were spies in both S Province and the martial arts school, one inside and one outside, taking care of each other.

"Could it be Chairman Maohua's problem?" Yuanze recalled the time when Chairman Maohua helped Zhang Xiao out of trouble, "Could it be related to the Zhang family as well?"

“Yes, I also analyzed all the surveillance footage and did facial recognition on all the missing persons. Now I’m adding a heat map of the most recent missing persons to the map.” Astra helped with the analysis and updated the hot spots in green.

On the map, the martial arts gym was surrounded by more eye-catching green dots, densely filling the empty space.

"Haha, no wonder the direction of my recent investigation went astray. I always thought these guys didn't dare to move around near the martial arts gym. It seems like they are all a group of guys in collusion."

"Why did he release these people? Is there any record of that?"

"Yes, look at this. This is also information that the archives room does not disclose to the public."

Yuanze and Mr. Yang watched for a long time. Without exception, these missing and returning students had suffered varying degrees of mental trauma. The mildest ones had blurred memories, while the most serious ones suffered from dementia.

"Astra, do you have data on other missing persons?"

"Yes, but the number is extremely large. I have already screened out the missing cases that have no connection with each other. I have marked them on the map with yellow dots."

The scale of the map was reduced again, and a large number of yellow dots appeared on it, and the distribution of these yellow dots was almost irregular.

Mr. Yang clicked on a few of the yellow dots and relevant information popped up:
"Gu Cunrui, male, 43 years old, doctor of medicine..."

"Dong Xiaofang, female, 65 years old, retired attending physician..."

"..."

These two pieces of information gave Yuanze some inspiration.

"Astra, filter out all the yellow dots of missing persons that are not medically related, and then draw the path they took in the days before they disappeared."

As Astra carried out Yuan Ze's instructions, everything became clear, and a secret was revealed. These people who disappeared in the past few days all passed by the martial arts hall, almost without exception. They all pointed to the martial arts hall in S01.

Yuanze saw that Old Yang had turned off the projection. His hands were trembling slightly, and even the cane in his hand was shaking. Old Yang's lips were trembling, and he made a trembling sound:
"The Li family, the Zhang family, Province S, the martial arts school, how did the organization 'Ghost Plague' penetrate so deeply and so widely?"

Elder Yang looked at Yuanze with a complicated look. He experiencedly sensed the key to the problem. Everything that was happening was like a giant storm with "Yuanze" as the eye, which was gradually spreading at an unstoppable speed, and its influence and destructive power were spreading at an accelerated rate.

Mr. Yang felt that this storm would definitely bring unprecedented challenges and changes.

Elder Yang watched Yuanze, who was communicating and sorting data with Astra, and his heart was moved. He seemed immature, but his persistence and perseverance were like an invisible force, making Elder Yang feel insignificant. Thinking back to his past, this cowardice was nowhere to be hidden behind Yuanze's back.

I feel so ashamed of myself!

He recalled his past that he couldn't bear to look back on, the self who had betrayed his friends, the self who had abandoned his wife and children, the self who had lived a miserable life...

Old Yang couldn't understand why he was so easily shaken by him: "Li Haisheng is the same, so am I, and the friends around him..."

He withdrew his gaze from Yuanze, but the melancholy containing complex emotions still lingered in his heart.

"Yuan Ze, I will help you, but first, I need to tell you something."

"Mr. Yang, please speak."

Mr. Yang asked Yuanze and Harma to go to his pawn shop in the next few days, and specifically told them not to discuss these things anywhere else.

He also explained many things to Yuanze in detail, and finally gave him a letter of some importance and asked him to give it to someone.

"Mr. Yang, there's no need to do this. Why do you have to explain everything in such detail? I'll come back to you if I need anything in the future. There's no need to do this."

Old Yang walked to the door, was slightly stunned when he heard these words, and stood still.

Yuanze noticed that the old man's profile revealed a fearless spirit, as if proving that under his hunched body, he still hid an indomitable heart.

He turned his head, his squinting eyes opened, and he looked at Yuanze seriously. Then, the wrinkles on his face were pushed aside, and he showed Yuanze a warm and kind smile.

The look in Old Yang's eyes was like a grandfather looking at his grandson, imagining the day when he would achieve great things in the future on a comfortable afternoon.

"see you later."

(End of this chapter)