Chapter 630 - 13: Modification Plan_2
At first, the Soviet Union secretly conducted human experimentation on Japanese prisoners of war who were planting potatoes in Siberia. Later, as the Japanese prisoners were tortured to death, the subjects of human experimentation shifted to death row inmates in prisons and even to orphans in orphanages.
The deaths of many test subjects propelled the development of numerous projects.
According to Ivan, he was a test subject in a plan code-named "Bolievit."
In Slavic mythology, Bolievit is a god who controls forests and rivers, possessing absolute control over the sounds of all things and having extraordinary perception.
The ultimate goal of the Bolievit plan was to create a batch of superpower users capable of eavesdropping on military secrets from the United States mainland within the Soviet Union, to gain more military intelligence and even core data of advanced technology.
The initial stage of the project went very smoothly, gaining substantial funding and test subjects, but as the Cold War drew to a close and the Soviet Union dissolved, most of the top officials of the 10003 unit either died or disappeared, and many projects could not continue.
Of course, the fundamental reason the smooth operation of the plan couldn’t change the outcome of the Soviet Union’s dissolution was that these plans couldn’t create superpower users with "divine power." At most, they could only create a batch of ordinary people with exceptional hearing.
These individuals couldn’t even replace listening devices, and trying to turn the tide of the war was merely wishful thinking.
Ivan was one of the last batch of subjects for the "Bolievit" plan. At that time, the 10003 unit was already in decline. Seeing the plan was about to succeed but unable to acquire elite warriors for transformation, the upper leadership selected lower-level staff and their offspring.
Some subjects died in the final frenzy, while others successfully underwent transformation, and Ivan was one of the lucky ones who succeeded.
According to his description, the pain of the transformation process was unbearable for an ordinary person, and the abilities gained after transformation were far less valuable —
After transformation, his physical fitness improved only slightly, and although his hearing improved significantly, it was uncontrollable.
For several years after the transformation, he had to endure massive noise from the outside world every day, unable to sleep a complete night without thick earmuffs.
Moreover, the complex information brought by his hearing disturbed his thoughts, making it impossible for him to think normally and causing him to become extremely irritable.
After struggling in pain for a long time, Ivan came to Hua Xia on a friend’s recommendation. After learning some Eastern meditation techniques, he gradually managed to control his hearing and emotions, slowly returning to normal.
His hair did not wait until the age of sixty to turn white; it was already completely white at forty.
That was not due to aging but was tortured into such a state by his hearing.
However, as he aged, more drawbacks of the transformation plan began to manifest. In addition to increasingly uncontrollable hearing, Ivan’s physical functions showed signs of over-exertion, sometimes even weaker than his peers, with organ deterioration already occurring.
In recent years, those who once had contact with Ivan have all gone missing, severing any channels to find relief from his pain through information provided by similar individuals.
Ivan was despairing, but during a visit to Jingbei to discuss Buddhist philosophy with an old monk, he unexpectedly met Chen Zhou.
His uncontrollable hearing allowed him to keenly detect Chen Zhou’s uniqueness, which led him to focus on Chen Zhou.
Initially, Ivan thought Chen Zhou was Japanese, as many Japanese prisoners of war participated in the transformation plan back then, but with further understanding, he dismissed this suspicion.
Nonetheless, Ivan was still certain that Chen Zhou either had an unclear connection with the 10003 unit or was related to some secret plan in Hua Xia.
However, it was only after meeting Chen Zhou that he realized both of his guesses were wrong.
Chen Zhou seemed like a person who "popped out of a rock." Although he knew a little about the 10003 unit, he was unaware of the Bolievit plan and had no connection to the official institutions of Hua Xia.
So how did he acquire his extraordinary physical abilities?
Sitting opposite Chen Zhou, Ivan couldn’t figure it out.
...
Ivan hoped to find a way to relieve his pain by exchanging information with Chen Zhou, only to find out that Chen Zhou’s enhancement had no side effects at all.
In this respect, Chen Zhou could offer him no help.
Out of sympathy, however, Chen Zhou did provide some secrets Ivan didn’t know, including unique information extracted from that photograph —
Words painted on an abandoned, desolate factory and a six-pointed star drawn at the base of a chimney.
Chen Zhou originally intended to exchange this information fairly with Ivan. After all, Ivan had been candid with him, discussing matters involving national secrets, so it seemed excessive for him to withhold these otherwise irrelevant details.
Unexpectedly, the seemingly valueless information turned out to be useful to Ivan.
After obtaining this information, Ivan offered a price of one billion to buy that photograph.
Perhaps fearing that Chen Zhou would suspect the factory in the photo held some treasure, Ivan further explained the purpose of purchasing the photograph —
Actually, the transformation plans conducted by the 10003 unit simultaneously numbered more than just the "Bolievit."
Compared to extraordinary eavesdropping capabilities, the Soviet authorities more desperately sought "human tanks" that could change the tide of the war. It is said that if the researchers’ attempt to create super soldiers succeeded, their combat power would be no less than a Captain America from a sci-fi movie.
As a peripheral member of the transformation plan, Ivan only heard the code name of one "super plan" from his father.
"Aphasiac."
With the information Chen Zhou provided, Ivan was almost certain that the seemingly ordinary abandoned factory hid a massive transformation base underground.
And what was being conducted in the base were several super plans, with "Rusted Holy Body" and "Aphasiac" being the code names of the plans.
As for the "Slavic Tundra 13 Confessional" and the six-pointed star, they were related to a certain prophecy ability.
After carefully studying the hexagrams and mysterious symbols drawn by Chen Zhou, Ivan believed these symbols were closely related to the mystic monk from the Tsarist Russia period, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin.
Rasputin, full of mystery and demonized by later generations, had many unsolved mysteries.
Besides his extraordinary physical fitness and seemingly tireless sexual capacity, he also possessed predictive abilities and the power to control people’s minds.
Posterity often viewed Rasputin’s methods as trickery to deceive masses, but during the Cold War, with the Soviet Union willing to pursue any means to become the world’s only superpower, restarting research on Rasputin in hopes of finding a way to foresee world events wasn’t surprising.
...
The reason Ivan urgently wanted to obtain the photographs of the transformation base was that the Bolievit plan was lower in rank and not conducted in the same region as the Silence Plan and others.
His transformation had clearly succeeded, and the research on Aphasiac or Rusted Holy Body might also bear fruit.
Now, as he neared seventy, with most of his body already in the grave, he sought some rapid alleviation to the torment. He was attempting to find the lost research achievements to conduct a second transformation on himself, hoping to ease his pain and extend his life.
When discussing the extraordinary abilities he might acquire after locating the base, Ivan’s eyes gleamed with a fiery excitement, but Chen Zhou slightly shook his head.
He wasn’t optimistic about Ivan’s expectations for the future.
Let’s not even consider whether the plans like Aphasiac succeeded; even if they did, just by looking at the words "Aphasiac" and "Rusted," it was easy to guess that these transformation plans bore no semblance to perfect transformations.
Perhaps instead of prolonging life, they might bring more danger and pain.
Were it not so, a giant like the Soviet Union wouldn’t have disintegrated so easily, and transformed individuals would have surely left a significant mark in historical progress.
However, not having deep friendships with Ivan, and considering this issue was related to Ivan’s lifespan, seeing Ivan’s desperate demeanor filled with a willingness to do anything, Chen Zhou didn’t ultimately dissuade him. He reached an agreement with Ivan —
After all, he had no interest in the so-called transformation plans, and since someone was willing to pay a high price for that "scrap of paper," he might as well take advantage of the situation.
But Chen Zhou didn’t want cash, as he already had enough funds in hand.
He proposed that Ivan exchange one billion worth of gold instead. Surprisingly, Ivan didn’t hesitate and agreed directly, leaving Jingbei in a hurry, seemingly to prepare the gold for the photograph exchange —
For Ivan, nearing seventy, time evidently held more value than anything else.