Project Insight

"Could something like this really be achieved with human technology?" Nick Fury found it hard to imagine how terrifying it would be if human society were truly governed by the so-called Akashic Records.

Should humanity be held responsible for things it had yet to do?

Before leaving, the Coulson from a parallel world had left Nick Fury a file containing major events he had witnessed or learned about. Because of the differences between their worlds, it could only serve as a reference, but Nick Fury had still physically destroyed all the documents and related data, leaving only what he remembered.

The "Akashic Records" Wei Xiuming mentioned bore a striking resemblance to Hydra's "Project Insight." Most of S.H.I.E.L.D. was made up of Hydra agents, even Nick Fury's most trusted former superior, Pierce. Although Nick Fury had previously learned about Project Insight, deliberate misinformation had led him to believe it was merely a plan to remotely eliminate threats to all of humanity.

Even with Coulson's intelligence, Nick Fury had only thought of it as a Hydra plan to eliminate its enemies. But Wei Xiuming's exaggerated version of the Akashic Records startled him, and he immediately raised his assessment of Project Insight's threat by an order of magnitude.

Wei Xiuming said, "Don't underestimate humanity. We can even travel through time and observe and explore parallel universes. Compared to that, the Akashic Protocol is a trivial achievement."

Considering that cultural differences might leave Nick Fury unfamiliar with certain terms, Wei Xiuming adjusted his wording. "In that ancient country across the ocean, fifteen hundred years ago, a human sorcerer made a bet with a god who wielded dominion over rainfall. The sorcerer calculated where the next rain would fall, when it would begin and end, and how much rain there would be."

"The god who wielded dominion over rainfall thought he was sure to win. But after returning to his palace, he received an order from the God King, the personification of the universe's laws. The location, timing, and amount of rain the god was required to deliver matched the sorcerer's calculations exactly."

"Weather forecasts use the principles of conservation of mass, energy, and momentum in the atmosphere to predict the future by solving mathematical equations. As the forecast period increases, even the slightest change in any factor causes accuracy to decline sharply by an Nth power... That's what the so-called butterfly effect is."

"If there were an ultrafast parallel-processing computer that could simulate changes in the air at the molecular scale, predicting the weather by calculating the movements of every air particle on Earth, then the outcome of a bet with the Rain God would be a foregone conclusion."

"If even the unpredictable weather can be accurately forecast, how much easier would it be to predict humanity?"

Noticing that Nick Fury seemed a little unsettled, Wei Xiuming asked, "Do you know anything about something similar to the Akashic Records? If you do, please don't keep it from me. In my time, S.H.I.E.L.D. suffered a major blow, and some records were lost or deliberately altered. If you find any trace of it, you must tell me."

Even as Wei Xiuming raised the question, he remembered to patch up his backstory, in case he forgot that he was supposedly a "future man."

Nick Fury didn't reveal that he already knew about Project Insight. Instead, he turned and asked, "If you had time to develop a simplified version of the Akashic Records, how long would you need? Don't worry about the supercomputer. You'll have access to all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources."

Wei Xiuming spread his hands. "It wouldn't take long. A simplified version of the Akashic Records is already mature technology in my time. I'd only need to copy it. I've also built the supercomputer needed to run the Akashic Records program. To prevent a Terminator traveling back in time from bringing Skynet into existence, the hardware required to run the program is completely incompatible with the electronic devices used in this era. Only my computer can run it."

"But..." Wei Xiuming changed tack. "It seems the intelligence from my time was wrong. The infectiousness of the Amazon cells didn't come from their mutation. It's connected to the vampires themselves. For example, the one right here has Amazon cells in its body. The magic recorded in the Book of the Blood God caused them to mutate, granting it immense power."

"That doesn't sound like good news." Nick Fury couldn't sense human thoughts, but the psychological profile he had built gave him a thorough understanding of Wei Xiuming's way of speaking.

Wei Xiuming nodded and immediately started singing his own praises. "Exactly. It proves how advanced Doctor Death's biotechnology is. The Amazon cells are highly stable; nothing can make his creations mutate unless it's something supernatural and unscientific, like magic."

"Even the most advanced biological weapons produced by the U.S. military's laboratories inevitably mutate as they spread. A weapon originally meant to wipe out a specific ethnic group instead caused thirty-five million cases of infection in the U.S., with the death toll in the millions. And that was still a version from more than a decade in the future."

Realizing that he had "accidentally" revealed something momentous, Wei Xiuming hurriedly stopped and changed the subject. "S.H.I.E.L.D. can't take on the vampire purge all by itself. Get the five major powers involved and let them take the lead. After all, we're talking about the community of shared future for mankind and all that. We also need to get the message out to the public and loudly promote the vampire threat, so we can shut down the bleeding hearts in groups like animal rights organizations before they start."

"As for the Fang Vampires transformed by injecting Amazon cells, leave them to me. The KIVA System upgrade and its accompanying weapons are ready. Given Brooks's constitution, his injuries should have healed by now. After transforming once, he should be able to handle the upgraded system. And as someone born to be a warrior, it's time I did my part."

After learning that the U.S. was the greatest source of instability on Earth, Nick Fury felt an even greater headache coming on. Dealing with the World Security Council was one of the things he hated most. An afternoon of being all smiles and playing nice with those politicians was more exhausting than personally leading a team to wipe out unstable elements.

He'd put up with it before because the previous director, Pierce, had helped coordinate things. But now that he knew Pierce's true identity, Nick Fury thought it would be better to handle it himself.

"What should we do with him?" Setting aside the headache-inducing matters, Nick Fury asked Wei Xiuming how to deal with Pearl.

The Fang Vampire they had captured earlier had been completely destroyed because it was too aggressive. Pearl, who seemed less threatening, would make an excellent specimen, whether for dissection or something else.

Wei Xiuming knew more about Amazon cells than anyone else on their side, and he insisted that they be completely eradicated. His opinion mattered a great deal. It wouldn't do to act recklessly on their own and cause trouble.