Neurons (Part 1)

Yan Hong, the laboratory's former owner, had proposed Prototype Format Theory. He had risen to prominence in the '80s, and that reputation had been built upon Grandfather's shoulders.

Back then, when Luo Yuandao's Human Live Experiment came to light, media coverage focused mainly on more explosive details—the wilderness, vagrants, victims, and so on. Yet they had been stingy with attention toward the person who exposed it. Combined with the so-called witness protection policy, the key witness's identity had never truly entered the public eye.

But Ronan knew very well that the person responsible was Yan Hong, who had worked at the same research institute as Luo Yuandao.

Not long after Luo Yuandao's case was concluded, Yan Hong proposed Prototype Format Theory and gained enormous academic prestige. Yet it was precisely because of that that he fell so spectacularly after it was revealed in '90 that he had plagiarized Luo Yuandao's experimental data.

Outsiders did not know, but the academic world still remembered the case clearly and knew many more details. It was only because of the special nature of Luo Yuandao's case, as well as Quantum Corporation's involvement, that everyone kept silent. The matter circulated only within closed circles and never broke into the public media.

During the investigation by the Scientific Research Ethics Committee, Yan Hong had deliberately caused an Experimental Accident to destroy the evidence. His actions were exceptionally vile. After that, his reputation in academia was utterly ruined, leaving him unable to recover. He eventually vanished from sight.

For someone like that to have set up some dead man's traps in his own laboratory was perfectly natural.

At that moment, Ronan found himself thinking, This is more like it. Then came an inexplicable surge of excitement.

Yes, excitement.

Ever since Ronan had learned the full story behind Grandfather's case, he had naturally regarded Yan Hong as the chief culprit. To Ronan, who had still been young at the time, Yan Hong—then at the height of his power—had been the unquestionable final boss, the opponent he would one day defeat.

Unfortunately, before Ronan could grow up, that boss had inexplicably fallen in '90, and his achievements had become part of the many intellectual properties acquired by Quantum Corporation.

Ronan had not completely lost his goal to strive for, but he had still felt a deep sense of loss. Who could have expected that, six years later, in an abandoned laboratory, he would gain the chance to cross swords with that boss from afar?

Even if it was only an imagined confrontation with an empty target, it held an entirely different meaning for Ronan.

Ronan's mind had never been more active, and his courage and resolve were unleashed to the fullest. After a few breaths to calm himself, he stood before the Central Control Console and sent the Dark Heavy Chains into it.

As the central control area of a laboratory, the equipment here consisted of little more than several consoles and screens. Its functions were more like those of a monitoring center; under normal operation, it could observe every corner of the building, including the surrounding area.

As for the Core Modules involving energy and life-support systems, this place merely served as a control panel. With the power completely cut off, it had no practical use.

Ronan's plan was to use the sensing abilities of the Dark Heavy Chains and the Demon Rune to trace the connections of the various devices in the Central Control Console, locate the Core Modules, and then find a way to restart them.

As for how to interfere with reality from the Mental Layer, he intended to give it a try.

Like a giant python moving through darkness, the Dark Heavy Chains followed the complex wiring in the sealed area downward. The laboratory's wiring was quite clear, and its highly integrated structure spared Ronan a great deal of trouble.

He made only one wrong turn before finding the true central control system. One end connected to the laboratory's independent Power Station, while the other linked to every system module, including the Core Supercomputer. Frankly, it was not very friendly to an electronics novice like Ronan.

After a brief hesitation, Ronan chose the Power Station.

After all, the most fatal problem right now was the power outage. If he could restart the power station, he would already have won half the battle.

But just as he turned the Dark Heavy Chains toward it, a faint numbness prickled deep within his brain, where his physical body was. Then a flash of brilliant lightning cleaved out.

It was that mysterious Long Line.

Of course, in this enormous laboratory, the Long Line did not amount to so much as a strand of hair. Yet the lightning it transformed into raced along the Dark Heavy Chains, shooting from their tip in the blink of an eye and vanishing into the dense cables.

Ronan clutched his forehead, unable for the moment to sort out what he was thinking.

This Long Line was far too uncanny.

Previously, the Long Line had seeped into the wristband and inexplicably opened an interface that should have been on the Imitation Paper Soft Screen, while also draining most of the wristband's power.

Ronan's initial judgment was that it was some kind of special electronic device, perhaps integrating multiple functions such as a processor, storage module, and sensors.

Yet when Ronan's Dark Heavy Chains swept over it, the Long Line reacted intensely and charged into his brain in an unimaginable manner.

Ronan's dazed state for some time afterward was because the Long Line seemed to have merged into some part of his brain, yet still possessed a powerful sense of presence.

The brain had no sense of pain. That so-called sense of presence was either an abnormal electrical signal or a sensation on the Mental Layer. Ronan leaned toward the latter, because the Long Line clearly had a subtle exchange of information with the Dark Heavy Chains, though it was on a level he still could not understand.

Ronan had already given this miraculous thing, hidden in the Imitation Paper Soft Screen by "Coward," a very high evaluation.

But now, this thing gave him another surprise.

Although the Long Line had separated from the Dark Heavy Chains, a clear connection still remained between them. Through it, Ronan sensed that the lightning it had become was advancing in reverse along the cables and instantly struck the power station location he had estimated.

Just one second later, that area suddenly blazed with light. To Ronan, at the level of his perception, the surging lightning seemed to rush straight at his face. Affected by it, the Dark Heavy Chains abruptly recoiled as well, but compared to electric current traveling at the speed of light, they were still too slow.

It was precisely because of that delay that an incredible sight unfolded before Ronan's "eyes."

Amid the blinding lightning, he saw a tree—a great tree that had suddenly grown.

Its Root System grew within the power station, while its trunk followed the flowing current into the central control system, then thrust countless lush branches into every system module.

In an instant, the laboratory, silent as death, was reactivated.

Countless electrical signals gathered from every system module and transmitted in dense streams. Their destination was clearly the Dark Heavy Chains already caught within that giant tree—and clearly Ronan himself!