Although he had no idea what the hell that sudden voice was, Shen Feng understood it was definitely up to no good.
Shen Feng had imdiately identified the two chemical formulas on the wall, along with their written explanations.
The first was one he knew well: the chemical formula for the Pangu Virus, which even included detailed instructions on how to create it.
The second one looked sowhat familiar, though he’d never seen it before. However, he had already reached a conclusion after running a cloud-based analysis.
It was a mutated version of the Stone Statue Virus!
The vaccines currently in use would be ineffective against this new type of Stone Statue Virus!
If those clueless research team mbers really brought this information to the surface, given the shortsighted and opportunistic nature of the world’s leaders, they would inevitably start researching both things.
Even knowing the dangers of these viruses, they would convince themselves that their so-called "maximum security" laboratories were enough to contain any potential infection.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what would happen next.
The ergence of the Pangu Virus would lead to the rise of a privileged class, likely followed by a great war that would tear the entire human race apart. It might even lead directly to a post-nuclear apocalypse.
The appearance of the new Stone Statue Virus would basically an another Stone Statue Apocalypse.
And if both viruses appeared at the sa ti... good grief. Shen Feng didn’t even dare to imagine that kind of chaos.
If you don’t court disaster, you won’t die. But for humanity, not courting disaster was just too difficult.
After all, for the past few hundred thousand years, ever since *Homo sapiens* first appeared, this was how they had always behaved.
Fortunately, Shen Feng was here watching over things. Otherwise, the problem would have beco truly serious.
Shen Feng mulled it over for a mont. ’Human society has had it too easy for too long,’ he thought. ’The nuclear wasteland apocalypse ga-mission needs to be moved up on the schedule.’
’But just what was that voice that had suddenly appeared?’
’The Whisperer?’
’But that was no whisper. It was a full-throated declamation...’
Shen Feng was deeply puzzled, but he had no leads.
His intuition told him that this sudden voice was probably unrelated to the Whisperer. It was more likely connected to these deep-sea stone statue ruins.
However, even if it was unrelated to the Whisperer, their goals were one and the sa: the destruction of the entire world!
Fortunately, while his opponent was in the shadows, he was in even deeper darkness.
’A contest of insidious plots? Then bring it on...’
As he thought, Shen Feng summoned one of the primary AI "child laborers" under his control in the digital world, Xiaomai Deskmate, and issued a command:
"The mont any information-carrying signals from the stone statue ruins—text, sound waves, video, images, anything—are intercepted by humans, cut their communications imdiately. Then, destroy all of that information."
As an AI program without self-awareness, Xiaomai Deskmate imdiately accepted Shen Feng’s command, embedding itself like a Ghost in the research base’s systems.
Although Shen Feng understood that the entity behind the voice seed to have limited power and was incapable of overly complex information transmissions, aning there likely wouldn’t be any more ssages, he still felt a little uneasy.
He then gave another order: "If they try to salvage any more stone statues or anything else, break all their robotic arms. If they still don’t get the hint, just fry their communications system."
He then sighed to himself. ’I’m really worrying myself sick over the fate of Earth and humanity...’
After making these arrangents, Shen Feng finally withdrew his Consciousness Antennae, returning to his Silicon-Based Brain through a series of relays: cables, the base’s antenna, a satellite, the Reykjavik ground station, and fiber optic lines.
It sounded complicated, but in reality, the entire process took only a second.
Besides his Consciousness Antennae, his main consciousness had never left his body.
By this ti, Shen Feng had already moved out of his old rented apartnt and was now living in the small courtyard house in the suburbs.
After a few days of work, the unfinished building in the courtyard had been fully roofed. With so simple renovations, it was now much more spacious than before.
As for the purchase contract, that had been signed long ago. The small courtyard now belonged entirely to him.
Even though he knew he would face all sorts of turmoil and that many mysteries lay ahead, sleeping above a nuclear missile launcher at night still brought him a great sense of security.
By observing the scientific expedition to the undersea stone statue ruins, even though he hadn’t solved the mystery of their origin, had witnessed their malevolence, and had even heard that strange voice, Shen Feng actually felt a sense of relief.
The things that had been troubling him were, one, the origin of the stone statue ruins, and two, whether the Stone Statue Apocalypse he had visited was a Parallel World or a past version of his own reality.
Now that he knew the entity behind it was full of malice, none of that seed to matter as much.
’I’ll just have to destroy it.’
"So? Did you find anything?" Shen Feng asked Jingwei.
The voice from before had been fully recorded, and Jingwei was currently analyzing the sound waves.
Although the four research team mbers had each heard a different language, the electronic recording had captured a version that was a mixture of hundreds of languages.
"Nothing new, but there sure are a lot of languages in here. It’s like a complete encyclopedia of human language..." Jingwei said, then played a chanting sound from the computer. "This is a language used by a tribe of only three hundred people in the Amazon Rainforest."
Then, the tone shifted, and another chant played. "Based on the phonological and linguistic data I have, this language should be the extinct Ancient Quechua Language."
"This is the language of deer hunters in the forests of Northeast Asia..."
"This is the language of a lowland tribe in the African Canyon Zone..."
"This is..."
Jingwei continued playing various tones. It turned out there weren’t just hundreds of languages, but thousands upon thousands, seemingly encompassing every language that had ever existed in human history!
Shen Feng couldn’t help but frown. He felt more and more that the stone statue ruins were unnervingly bizarre, and the entity behind them was truly unfathomable.
Thinking about it carefully, it seed the Whisperer also wanted to spread the Petrification Disease. Its thod was to directly open the undersea ruins and awaken the virus within the statues.
These ruins were like a malignant tumor on human civilization, ready at any mont to release terrifying, lethal substances and bring an end to humanity itself.
Furthermore, this thing had successfully piqued Shen Feng’s curiosity, making him faintly obsessed, even a little eager to see its next move.
Fortunately, the power behind it didn’t seem able to act directly upon the world. Instead, it operated by tempting the greed in human hearts, leading them to self-destruction.
Shen Feng was suddenly alard to realize that he, too, held a form of greed for these stone statue ruins in his own heart.
It wasn’t greed for new technology, civilization, or even power, but a greed for the truth behind the mystery.
He wanted to know the answer.
But that would an being led by the nose by the entity behind the scenes.
It was like a ga of cards; once you fall into your opponent’s trap, even a good hand can be played into a losing one.
After sitting in his chair and thinking for a mont, Shen Feng quickly cleared his head and said to Jingwei:
"We’re not waiting anymore. Cut all communication lines to the ten-nation research base now. While you’re at it, sabotage the power grid. Force them to pull out of there."
Jingwei asked, a little confused, "And then?"
It couldn’t figure out what this human boy was planning to do.
"And then... we get a nuclear submarine and send it over..."
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