Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Outside a towering Roman cathedral, a man drenched in blood with his throat mangled into chunks of flesh and blood levitated into the air like a transcendental being. The onlookers screamed and scrambled away from this monstrosity.

Upon witnessing this, the first phrase that would come to anyone's mind was not “miracle”, “G.o.d” or whatnot but devilish embodiments such as “Satan”, “devil”, “evil”…

While all this was happening, a bearded man holding a phone who stood approximately twenty meters away was trembling like a bundle of sticks. He watched as the Chinese man in the middle of the field levitated into the air. He saw the neck of this person twisting in unnatural angles before the person's bent neck reverted to a natural position.

He wanted to run when he saw this paranormal occurrence but his body refused to obey him. Every ounce of strength had been drained away from his body. Even lifting a finger was a tall task…

Something even eerier happened after that. As the Chinese man was twisting and turning his neck around, he suddenly snapped his neck in the bearded man's direction. The manner of his glare could not be put into words!

In an instant, the phone which he held in his frozen hand that was still recording suddenly burst without any warning!

“Oh my G.o.d!”

The sharp pang of pain the bearded man felt in his hand seemed to have triggered his survival instinct. Without so much as a second thought, he tossed the destroyed phone aside and proceeded to run in the other direction!

He cried out in horror as he ran until he vanished into one of the buildings on the opposite street.

After chasing away the onlookers that were recording, Chen Chen craned his neck at an angle and immediately heard the fervent screams of Little X coming through the earpiece. He tried to say something and was immediately struck with the realization that his vocal cord was also crushed by the angel statue. Chen Chen attempted to restore his vocal cords using Field and managed to emit a low grumble.

“X, I'm still alive…”

Little X tried her best to stifle her sobs and asked when she heard Chen Chen's voice, “Sir G.o.dfather, aren't you wounded? The Black Knights are on their way and will arrive at your position within twenty seconds. You have to hang in there!”

“Don't worry, I'm not dying anytime soon.”

Chen Chen's voice was hoa.r.s.e. He looked in the direction of the church entrance and saw that the two statues had appeared by the doorstep again. They both remained in idle positions.

This time, both statues were inside Chen Chen's field of vision.

Chen Chen did not try anything. His condition would not allow him to fight anymore. He only silently stared at the statues while he waited for the Black Knights to arrive.

After twenty seconds, a truck arrived at the plaza in front of the church with horns blaring. Four Black Knights immediately stepped out of the vehicle carrying a steel crate that looked like a coffin. They proceeded to put the statues into the steel crates in an orderly manner.

After that, the steel crates were sealed up with giant steel chains and were placed into the back of the truck again.

“Sir G.o.dfather, your neck…”

Little X managed to get a closer look by using the Black Knights as her eyes. Chen Chen's neck was completely ruptured at this point. Not only was his arteries and veins exposed to the air, but even his cervical spine was visibly shattered.

In regular circ.u.mstances, there should be no way of recovering from such injuries as this damage was completely irreversible.

“I've completely lost sensation in my body but that's alright, my spinal cord isn't damaged. My brain can control my heartbeat, it's just that I cannot breathe.”

Chen Chen levitated to the pa.s.senger seat inside the truck like a ghost and shut the door after himself. “I just need to simulate my lung functionalities using Field to let blood flow through my veins and arteries. I won't die.”

“I'll take you back to Eco Science City right this instant!”

Little X informed immediately.

“No need to rush.”

Chen Chen motioned calmly. “My life force is far stronger than the average human due to the T-virus enhancements. My wounds are already healing and should be completely recovered within several hours so there's no need to worry. What's important now is we get out of here quickly. I'm not sure how many people caught footage of the angel statues, we have to take care of that.”

“I already used Gantz to send another batch of Black Knights here. They'll take care of these people before they have time to transform into angel statues.”

Little X responded quickly, “I also have eyes on the Internet. It's all under control.”

“Excellent.”

Chen Chen nodded and proceeded to shut his eyes and get some rest.

Little X stayed quiet so as to not bother Chen Chen. She knew that Chen Chen had been fighting since last night and never had the chance to rest so he must be completely worn out and close to exhausting his Field reserve by now. She had the Black Knights drive to the suburbs of Los Angeles.

Chen Chen constantly s.h.i.+fted between a hazy state of dream and awakening. Each time the car b.u.mped along the road, he would feel waves of pain chirping along his neck as if thousands of ants were crawling across his skin.

He knew that this was a sign that his body was starting to recover. From an outside perspective, one would see tiny red strands of fiber starting to appear along the wounded region of Chen Chen's neck, like thousands of little worms squirming about. His neck was recovering at a rapid pace!

This was the recovery effect granted by the optimized T-virus that trumped even the genetics of the Tyrant. As long as he was not dead on the spot or did not sustain major damage to his brain, it was possible to recover from any injury, no matter how severe they may be…

Half an hour later, Chen Chen returned to the headquarters of Osmond Biotech at last. Instead of entering the headquarters, he went to a nearby hotel where he rented a room.

While on the way here, Chen Chen's neck had recovered to a certain degree where his lungs could perform basic physiological functionalities without the use of Field. Chen Chen finally released Field and gave himself several nutrient injections before falling into a deep slumber…

Chen Chen did not sleep well.

The entire night of combat made his cerebral cortex overactive, which led to streams of nightmares while he slept. He dreamt the angel statues going out of control and madly spreading across the world.

Countless people died overnight as the situation had spiraled entirely out of control. Chen Chen had to brace his loss and take his parents and family with him and escape to another dimension.

Except he was faced with something far more threatening than the angel statue meme in the other dimension…

The dream ended with Chen Chen standing in front of a pile of dead bodies with his parents and family members among them. Further in front of him was a looming shadow that towered over him…

Chen Chen snapped his eyes open amid the darkness.

Chen Chen investigated his surroundings in a state of daze before he realized he was in a well-furnished guest room. The sky outside the window was basked in darkness.

Chen Chen slowly got up. As soon as he did this, he felt a burning sensation in his stomach region. He was swarmed by overwhelming hunger and thirst.

He reached for the bottle of water by his bedside that Little X had prepared ahead of time and down the entire bottle in one go. After that, he proceeded to gobble mouthfuls of an energy bar. They were digested nearly instantly the moment they entered his stomach. After eating dozens of energy bars, he finally felt somewhat content.

After tossing the wrapping of the energy bars on the ground, Chen Chen pulled the bedsheet away and got to his feet. That was when he noticed that the bed was completely drenched. It would appear that his body had gone through a round of transfusion while he was asleep due to the severity of his injuries.

Chen Chen rubbed his neck and discovered that his neck had completely recovered. Not just his skin and flesh but even the severed spine was reattached. It was as if everything that happened in the daytime was nothing but a false memory.

Except for his Field reserve in his mind that still had not recovered much and was still nearly emptied out.

When Little X heard gentle ruffling coming from the room, she connected her voice to the computer in the room. “You're awake, Sir G.o.dfather, how do you feel?”

“Not bad, I'm almost completely recovered.”

Chen Chen twisted his neck, cracking it several times. After ensuring his neck was in good shape, he started to enquire, “What's the situation in Los Angeles?”

“We've taken in four statues today, there are three more statues that we're still searching for. We've also dealt with the Northern American citizens that are potentially infected by the meme. There are a hundred and thirty-four of them in total. The Northern American government caught wind of what's going on and dispatched their army for undercover operations to apprehend our Black Knight. There was even a confrontation with our Black Knights on one occasion but they ultimately failed to capture any of our members and prove our existence.”

Little X mentioned, “Their officials even contacted us at our headquarters to question if we were the ones who mobilized militarised units to infiltrate Los Angeles.”

Chen Chen did not find any of this surprising. When the angel statues first appeared, he had to get Little X to warn the Northern American government using Blacklight Biotechnology's name. This was how the Los Angeles department eventually mobilized their forces to lock down the Herrank Warehouse District.

The reason Chen Chen had to resort to this method was that the Northern American government would not have believed the warning if not for the credibility of Blacklight Biotechnology. They would not have locked down Herrank Warehouse District otherwise.

However, this also came with a certain drawback. With this one maneuver, Blacklight Biotechnology was forced to the center stage from backstage. At least on the part of the upper-level of the Earth Federation, part of the strength of Blacklight Biotechnology could no longer be concealed…

With all that said, this was not a large concern as Blacklight Biotechnology continued to grow. It was only a matter of time until Chen Chen had to lay his cards out. It was just that the timing of this matter forced Chen Chen to expose his cards sooner than he planned to.

Chen Chen's approach should have ended this memetic incident right at its root, in the Herrank Warehouse District. Unfortunately, the meme still ended up spiraling out of control and developed into what was happening now.

Chen Chen did not feel any particular regret or resentment about how things had turned out. He only nodded and stated, “In that case, just let the Northern American government harbor their suspicions. It doesn't matter as long as we don't admit to dispatching militarised units in Los Angeles.”

“Should we continue our search for the three remaining angel statues?”

Little X asked again, “But there's a chance that they could end up in the hands of the Northern American government.”

Chen Chen considered for a moment before arriving at a decision. “What we need to do now is to prevent any further spread of the angel statue meme. There's no helping it even if some of the angel statues end up in the hands of the Northern American government. Since we've already told them about the memetic characteristics of the statues, if they still allowed it to be spread freely then I suppose mankind was already fated for destruction in the first place.”

“Alright, understood.”

Little X noted.

“Oh yeah, what's the situation on Keith's side?”

Chen Chen suddenly remembered the ongoing situation on Osmond. He looked at his watch, it was eleven at night on the first of June. He was not sure if Keith had arrived in Los Angeles.

“Keith has arrived in Los Angeles and should be approximately half an hour from this location.”

Little X answered, “I was going to wake you up myself shortly before he arrived.”

“So, he's finally arriving?”

Chen Chen was immediately reenergized. He had been waiting for this moment for the last three years. The reason he had come to Los Angeles in the first place was not due to the angel statue meme but to welcome Keith.

The reason Chen Chen put so much emphasis on this was that this was directly related to the secrets of the USB drive. To a certain extent, the turnout of this event may directly affect Chen Chen and Blacklight Biotechnology's future!

Chen Chen originally planned to greet Keith audaciously, expecting everything to go his way. He had never expected to sustain such injury and losses shortly before meeting Keith. The way things had turned out gave Chen Chen an ominous feeling.

Could it be that Keith was the so-called “protagonist” or otherwise referred to as the “Dimension's Child?”

Chen Chen flung this thought out of his mind within the very next second. He slowly approached the bedside and gazed at the bright lights of the city of Los Angeles. A flash appeared in his eyes as he did so.

“Rowling Keith, so what if you're the Dimension's Child, the protagonist of the entire world?

“Between the luck of the Dimension's Child and the foundations of my Blacklight Biotechnology, I'd like to see which one is stronger!”

Chen Chen muttered to himself before he opened the window and zoomed outside. In a split instant, his figure melded into the darkness…