Bureau 749
Yang Xiao recounted their encounters over the past few days to Lu Xun.
Hearing that Chen Ling had led them to fight their way out of a tight encirclement, a hint of surprise flashed across Lu Xun's face. Then, he breathed a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden had been lifted.
"It seems I really didn't misjudge the person..." Lu Xun stood up again and solemnly extended his hand to Chen Ling.
"Director Chen, our meeting in Shennongjia previously was a bit rushed... Please allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Lu Xun, a PhD in Astrophysics, and also one of the initiators of the Red Star Exploration project."
Seeing this, Chen Ling also stood up and shook his hand.
"I am Chen Ling."
Chen Ling's self-introduction was extremely simple. He didn't explain where he came from, nor did he explain why he wanted to help Su Zhiwei and the others. His body seemed to be full of mysteries everywhere, just like that profound and mysterious starry sky of the universe...
Lu Xun didn't dislike mystery. He only needed to know that Chen Ling's attitude towards them was friendly, and that was enough.
"So, what exactly is going on? Who is tracking you?"
A hint of complexity flashed across Lu Xun's eyes. After a long silence, he still sighed heavily:
"... It's Bureau 749."
"Bureau 749?"
Chen Ling and Yang Xiao were both stunned.
"Bureau 749, full name is the Supernatural Events Investigation Bureau. It once belonged to the national defense department, and later became independent to be specifically responsible for the exploration and investigation of civilian supernatural phenomena... Because my work involves cosmic Observation, I occasionally deal with their people. My astronomical observation unit is under their supervision."
"There's actually such an organization?" Yang Xiao spoke in surprise. "I always thought Bureau 749 was just a rumor... Then are they an official organization, or an unofficial organization?"
"The situation of Bureau 749 is relatively complex... You can understand them as a semi-official organization. They have a certain official background, but none of the members have an official identity." Lu Xun paused for a moment and continued,
"The daily work of Bureau 749 is to search for and investigate some Divine Path Possessors, and register them on file, to prevent their abilities from affecting social stability. These registered personnel are called 'White Hand'. And personnel operating within our country's borders who haven't been registered yet are called 'Black Hand'."
After speaking, Lu Xun also glanced at Chen Ling.
Someone like Chen Ling, who possessed the Divine Pathways but hadn't had his background figured out by Bureau 749 yet, was naturally a member of the "Black Hand".
"So... the authorities have long known of the existence of the Divine Pathways, and already possess an entire management system aimed at Divine Path Possessors?"
To be honest, Chen Ling wasn't surprised by this. After all, the Divine Pathways had existed since ancient times, so it was impossible for the authorities not to know. Experts like Xiao Chunping in the country were definitely not just one either... That so-called intangible cultural heritage exchange forum was probably some kind of official 'White Hand' meeting.
Someone like Nie Yu goes without saying. As a Fifth-Tier [Hunter], he had considerable fame on the dark web. There were people both domestically and abroad who knew of the existence of the Divine Pathways, it was just kept secret and not announced.
"Yes." Lu Xun nodded slightly. "The impact of this Red Star descent event was too great, and there were massive casualties over in the Imperial Capital. Bureau 749 had long attached high importance to it... So they found me immediately, wanting me to lead a team to analyze the Red Star Fragment and understand what exactly this thing is."
"And then, you gathered us?" Yang Xiao suddenly understood. "I was wondering why this exploration was so rushed..."
"Because we didn't know what the Red Star actually was, so we needed experts from various fields to hold the fort. But no one expected that kind of unforeseen event to occur in Shennongjia..."
Lu Xun smiled bitterly.
"After the exploration ended, Bureau 749 felt incredibly surprised about our encounter. Who could have thought that a fragment from outer space would actually melt and disappear into our bodies... Thus, they proposed taking samples of my body to conduct experimental analysis."
Hearing this, Chen Ling's expression gradually became subtle. He seemed to have guessed the subsequent course of events.
"And then?" Yang Xiao asked closely.
"Later, they discovered some kind of unknown component in my blood. They were unable to analyze this thing, and my brainwaves had also completely broken away from the scope of humanity... This kind of discovery has never occurred in human history.
Thus, they proposed conducting a more detailed analysis on me. I agreed... After all, this is a major discovery for humanity. If something could be cracked from it, perhaps human technology could welcome another leap.
From my skin, to my blood, to organ slices, and finally they even took a portion of my bone marrow...
I cooperated with them in the laboratory to conduct all sorts of experiments, but failed to make any progress. Until one day, I suddenly discovered that I seemed to possess some kind of power, able to turn a portion of theoretical knowledge into reality... This made Bureau 749 increasingly shocked.
It was also from that time that I noticed the situation was somewhat wrong.
Although I had been staying in the laboratory and hadn't contacted the outside world, I could feel that differences of opinion seemed to start appearing within Bureau 749... The people coming to take samples from me became more and more numerous, and the daily experiments also became increasingly intensive. In the end, I even experienced symptoms of shock and coma due to frequent blood draws."
"Are they using you for Human Experimentation?" Yang Xiao immediately frowned and said, "Bureau 749 actually does this kind of thing??"
"No... This might not be the intent of Bureau 749, but the intent of certain individuals within it. Because later I was secretly transferred out of Bureau 749's laboratory to another location for secret experiments... I'm afraid, someone wants to deceive the heavens and cross the sea, and take the secrets on me as their own."
"... And then?"
"I noticed things were wrong, so I secretly borrowed a phone from Dr. Chu and started contacting other members who participated in the exploration... Because I felt that the changes on me weren't an isolated case, and if things went bad, you guys might also become targets of this group of people.
I first contacted Wu Tongyuan. At that time, his plane had just landed, arriving in the Imperial Capital. I told him to buy a ticket for the closest flight and fly straight to Las Vegas.
As for the others, Dr. Ji and Dr. Lou have been in a missing state ever since the exploration ended. Dr. Chu is right beside me. I didn't have Dr. Su's phone number, and no one answered when I called her workplace... I called your workplace, and they also said you were missing...
Time was tight at the time, and I had no way to contact more people. So I could only pretend to cooperate with the experiments on the surface, while secretly looking for a chance to leave and then contact you guys."
"I have a question!" Chen Ling suddenly spoke up.
"Go ahead."
"Dr. Chu, who is that?"