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You can't put all your eggs in one basket—every smart investor knows that. It cuts your risk and keeps you safe. But the truly sharp folks? They know where normal risk management stops and where things start getting sketchy. Mess it up, and you end up telling yourself, 'Hey, I'm just keeping my options open, nothing wrong with that!'—and next thing you know, you're one of those double-crossers.
Zhu Ming tagged along after Phyllis Zade. He told himself he was just checking things out, but whether he was secretly plotting to bail, only he knew for sure.
Phyllis Zade didn’t bother explaining. She just hopped in a car parked nearby, and Zhu Ming slid in after her. Thunk—the door shut, and the windows went pitch black, shutting out every bit of light. Plus, the car had some kind of special jamming tech—what they called 'black technology,' meaning bleeding-edge or mysterious tech—that made his locator and detector totally useless.
His nerves were jangling, but he forced himself to stay cool. When you’re dealing with the other side, never let them see you sweat—doesn’t matter if it’s business or a battlefield.
Honestly, he was just fronting—deep down, he was lost. His micro-gadgets were all top-secret, classified department stuff, a decade ahead of regular military gear—basically 'black technology' (think bleeding-edge, mysterious tech). Yet this little car blocked signals that thirty meters of concrete couldn’t stop. That made him seriously wary of Phyllis Zade’s tech game.
The car rolled out, zigzagging and stopping, left turns, right turns, but didn’t take long before it pulled up and stopped for good.
When he got out with Phyllis Zade, he realized they were in a wide underground cavern. Looking at the sleek, tough, sealed chamber, he suddenly thought everything Cobra ever gave him was a joke—this was real black technology on Earth.
"Where are we?" He listened hard to the sounds around him. "I hear water—is this under the city’s drainage system?"
Phyllis Zade ignored him and walked off. With a gesture, a man who looked like a researcher came over to greet Zhu Ming. Compared to Phyllis, this fifty-something white guy seemed way more approachable. He grinned, "It’s drainage, all right—but not the city’s. This is the national drainage system."
"National drainage system?" Zhu Ming was confused.
"Huangpu River." The foreign researcher’s Chinese was impressive: "We’re under the riverbed of the Huangpu River."
Zhu Ming’s eyes widened in disbelief as he looked around. He felt like an ordinary person who had stumbled into Batman’s Batcave, shocked by what he saw. He’d been to the worlds of 'Crysis' and 'Special Forces,' spent plenty of time in high-tech circles, and even had close encounters with aliens—so he shouldn’t be surprised. Yet he never imagined a foreign power could build such an extravagant base under Shanghai.
Digging a base under the Huangpu River? Holy Kentucky Fried Chicken, this isn’t a one- or two-year project, and it’s not something just anyone could pull off! The Zade Family really managed to do this?
"Heh, you can pick your jaw up now. Let me show you around." The researcher smiled and offered his hand. "By the way, I’m Dave, deputy director and chief researcher at Manchester Laboratory."
"Manchester Laboratory?" Zhu Ming asked as they shook hands. "Is it part of Manchester University?"
Dave laughed and shook his head. "No, it’s not connected to that university. It’s named after Turing—Manchester was where Turing died. He left his genius soul there, so we named it in his honor."
"Oh." Zhu Ming wasn’t interested in that at all. He looked off into the distance, where a mysterious black armored vehicle was parked, surrounded by lab coats bustling around it, plugging in data cables, tapping away at laptops.
"Come with me. The boss has authorized you to check out anything level four and below." Dave waved. "Come on, that car’s nothing special."
Zhu Ming followed Dave on a tour, trying hard not to show his amazement. He saw all kinds of things—just like something out of a sci-fi movie.
For example, he saw a mechanical arm, built exactly like a human arm bone. Under the researcher’s control, it twisted and waved, moving as naturally as a real arm. It looked familiar—just like something from an old movie, 'Terminator 1.'
He also saw a glass container holding two liters of silvery metal liquid. The researcher placed it on a mysterious-looking platform and did something to it—suddenly, the liquid vibrated and changed shape, morphing like Play-Doh into all sorts of forms. Thinking back to the mechanical arm, Zhu Ming felt a chill.
He saw lots of weird stuff—lights flashing out of nowhere, metal shards so sharp they looked like they could cut you just by looking, and some ball-shaped cameras that belonged in a robot’s eye socket. Zhu Ming felt like he’d stepped into the set of an old sci-fi movie, except this time, the props were real.
'Wait, this—this is!' Zhu Ming finally lost his cool when he spotted something in a freezer that looked like a giant coffin. Inside was a set of gear that made him break out in a sweat. The armor for limbs and torso, the signature bald helmet—Zhu Ming turned to Dave in disbelief: 'Is this the set from RoboCop?!'
With a Nano Core, he could instantly tell if it was the real deal or just a cosplay prop.
'I don’t know,' Dave shrugged, unfazed. 'It looks similar, but science is all about rigor. I have no idea where it really came from.'
'How could you not know?' Zhu Ming pointed at the gear, excited. 'It’s obviously taken off a Chosen One! Just ask the Chosen One, and you’ll know everything!'
'The thing is, when we found it, it had no owner, no user, no data records. It was so busted, the farmer at the site almost threw it out as trash.' Dave sounded a bit proud. 'It took us years, but we finally got it looking halfway decent.'
Zhu Ming froze. 'Wait, you said—years? But Chosen Ones only showed up this year. How could it be years?'
'Hey, it’s definitely been years. Guess when we found it?' Dave raised a finger, showing off a little. 'It was 1987—the year RoboCop hit theaters. You were only two, probably couldn’t even talk, but we already had this thing and started our wild research.'
'1987?' Zhu Ming was stunned, his mind nearly short-circuiting. 'How is that possible? The White Night only happened this April. 1987? This…'
What Dave said was so shocking that it rattled Zhu Ming to his core. Like every Chosen One, he’d always thought he was fate’s favorite, riding the wave of a once-in-a-lifetime miracle. But now, with the RoboCop unit right in front of him, he could only hear one message: Wake up, kid—you’re not as special as you think!
'Mr. Zhu Ming, all the materials we study—including this unit—share one thing: they’re unknowable, impossible to understand or replicate. Even if we figure out every part, we still don’t get how they work together. Try copying every detail and you just get junk—it never works like the original. We call this the Unknowable Phenomenon.' Dave patted Zhu Ming’s shoulder, grinning harmlessly. 'Our group has been researching the Unknowable Phenomenon for over thirty years. Thirty years, and we finally have some results.'
Unknowable Phenomenon? Thirty years? Zhu Ming’s worldview was getting turned upside down!
'That’s impossible!' Zhu Ming wasn’t stupid—he realized something. 'If there were Chosen Ones thirty years ago, the world would be totally different! It’s only been half a year since White Night in April, and rumors are everywhere. Thirty years? No way—even North Korea couldn’t keep that under wraps!'
'You’re right, but when did I ever say there were Chosen Ones thirty years ago?'
'Huh?' Zhu Ming was even more confused. 'What do you mean?'
Dave explained, 'Over the past thirty years, we’ve found a few Unknowable Phenomena and samples, but they were always scattered, ownerless, and we’d never heard of Chosen Ones. Long ago, a chief researcher at another lab guessed there might be Unknowable Humans, but it was never proven. Now it looks like he was right—you Chosen Ones are the real Unknowable Humans.'
Zhu Ming looked around, suddenly feeling a sense of dread. If Unknowable Phenomena have been around for thirty years, then the big powers must be hiding something. The authorities have been silent so far, but he was sure that when the time came, they’d strike like thunder.
—But for now, none of this really mattered to him; he was focused on something else.
'How can you help me?' Zhu Ming pointed around. 'All this stuff is just useless parts. Even the RoboCop unit might not be better than a NanoArmor suit. If this is what you call 'level four,' it’s probably meaningless to me.'
Dave stayed calm in the face of Zhu Ming’s doubts. 'You’re right—these are research materials, so they’re not fully functional. That RoboCop unit is 'level four,' but the standard for grading isn’t how powerful it is, but whether it can work independently. Even within level four, some stuff is way more useful than others. Come on, I’ll show you something cool.'
He led Zhu Ming into a room with four pure white walls, like an isolation observation chamber with a glass wall. There was a control console in front of the glass, and behind it, a strictly sealed chamber with several mechanical arms. It looked kind of like a high-security bio lab for deadly viruses. Dave pressed a few buttons, scanned his iris, and the mechanical arms grabbed a big metal cabinet from the back of the room.
Dave entered a password on the cabinet, then hovered his hand over a button, grinning mysteriously. 'This is the top of the line among level four products. Even with level four clearance, you can’t usually see it. So, Mr. Zhu, pay attention—keep your eyes peeled!'
Beep—he pressed the button.
Ssssss—compressed air hissed from the metal cabinet.
Whirr—the cabinet’s side panel popped open. Even though Zhu Ming had prepped himself mentally, telling himself not to overreact, he was still left speechless by what he saw.
Because inside the cabinet was a piece of machinery so cool it could kill.
If the RoboCop gear looked clunky and outdated, this new set was next-level—sleek, powerful, nearly black with a deep blue tint. It was so cool it was almost criminal. But it wasn’t just the looks; as soon as Zhu Ming’s eyes landed on it, his Nano Core started blaring warnings—
[Extremely high quality. Acquire immediately. Estimated combat boost: 1000%!]
'Th-this is…' As a regular in the cosplay scene, he instantly thought of something big. He stared at Dave, stammering, 'Is this…Metal Gear…?'
'That’s right.' Dave couldn’t hide his pride, nodding. 'Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance—Raiden. Yep, that’s the one. Well, technically, this is a product we made using Unknowable Phenomenon materials and our own research, but the look is spot-on, and the functions aren’t far off. So, what do you think—can this help you?' (If you don’t know, look it up—the design is really cool.)
Zhu Ming felt his forehead heat up, his vision darken, and his mouth go dry. His heart was pounding so hard it might explode.
Can it help me? The Metal Gear Rising armor and NanoArmor aren’t even in the same league! In the world of Crysis, NanoArmor lets a regular person survive against all odds. But with the Revengeance set, you’re basically Superman! Aliens, spaceships, enemy armies—a guy with a sword could wipe them all out. Slicing bullets is just daily business!
A thousand percent power boost isn’t an exaggeration. I have to get it—no matter what!
While Zhu Ming was still stunned, Dave pressed a button—beep—and the cabinet hissed shut, the mechanical arms returning it to storage. Dave smiled warmly but seriously: 'Mr. Zhu Ming, Miss Phyllis is our director. She personally invited you and gave a first-time visitor high-level clearance. I hope you can feel our sincerity. So, what do you think?'
Zhu Ming glanced at the cabinet behind the glass, then at Phyllis directing her team, finally giving Dave a complicated look: 'I’ll…think about it.'
Dave didn’t seem disappointed. He smiled warmly, soothingly: 'No problem—everyone has the right to think. Come on, let me show you more. Take your time, play with anything you’re curious about. You’re my VIP.'
Honestly, compared to Cobra, Dave made Zhu Ming feel way more comfortable.
After a relaxed half-hour tour, Zhu Ming left the secret base hidden under the national drainage system. Then Dave walked over to Phyllis and reported respectfully: 'Miss, I’ve finished collecting the final basic data.'
Turns out, while chatting with Zhu Ming, the old man had been secretly gathering data the whole time.
'After testing, he’s the most Manchester-standard Unknowable Human we’ve ever met. With him, most research will speed up.' Dave added, 'Miss, things look good now, but the city’s atmosphere is tense—I’m worried something might happen. Should we use special means to make him cooperate sooner?'
'No need.' Phyllis shook her head confidently. 'He’ll come to me soon—greed is the one thing he’s never short on.' (Promotional content for WeChat follows—skipped per guidelines.)