002 - Strange USB Drive

With no other classes that afternoon, Chen Chen turned down the basketball invitation organized by the dorm leader after the first class and headed back to the dorm alone.

Professor Wang Xi's words kept echoing in his ears along the way.

Immortality, immortality—what a wonderful wish. Yet throughout history, who had ever truly achieved immortality?

Chen Chen sighed inwardly.

It had to be said that, as a senior academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Wang Xi was first-rate in both scholarship and teaching.

Not only had he ignited everyone's longing for biological science, but he had also given them a clear direction.

Who knew how many people would devote themselves to the field of life sciences because of this burning passion, contributing their light and heat to the Earth Federation?

Back in Dorm 404, Chen Chen instinctively reached to turn on his computer, but just as his right hand extended, his left hand quickly pressed it down.

With a sigh, Chen Chen opened a copy of Modern Molecular Biology and began reviewing the material from class against his notes.

During university, most knowledge could not be taught by teachers. Self-study and practice were the only way forward.

After entering university, many people began to let themselves go. They muddled through credits when they could, skipped every elective, chose to skip required courses too, and vented all the repression they had suffered in high school.

But by graduation, they would understand what it meant to get beaten up by society...

That was why Chen Chen had a headache. For the sake of his future, he could only restrain himself a little.

After all, there was a saying: What did it matter if young people suffered and tired themselves out a little now? There would be plenty more days of suffering and exhaustion ahead!

Just then, his phone screen flashed, and the QQ group notification showed over 99 unread messages.

Chen Chen instinctively reached for it, only to freeze halfway.

Stop! Phones were demons from hell! Don't let it tempt you, don't chat in the group, don't...

Dorm 404 Leader Wang Wei: [What are Bo Zai and Brother Kong doing? Why did they disappear as soon as class ended? Come play basketball.]

Dorm 404 Leader Wang Wei: [What the hell is this idiot trying to say.jpg]

By the time Chen Chen opened the group chat, he found this utterly pointless meme battle.

Dorm 404 Top Student Chen Chen: [Over 99 messages from a group of guys, and not one porn pic. Talk about your mom.jpg]

After casually tossing out an image to make his sexual orientation clear, Chen Chen put away his phone again and rested his chin on his hand as he thought for a while.

The original owner of this USB Drive could no longer be traced. After all, that classroom was a multifunctional lecture hall, with at least four or five classes held there every day.

It was even possible that the USB Drive had been left behind by students from previous years.

Moreover, it had been hidden in an extremely concealed spot. If Chen Chen had not happened to see it from that angle while picking up his pen, he likely would never have noticed it at all.

In other words, who knew how long that USB Drive had been hidden there?

So the question was: who had hidden the USB Drive there, and why had they gone to such lengths to conceal one?

Could there be some unspeakable, mysterious code inside it?

These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. Chen Chen stopped hesitating, turned on his laptop, and slipped the USB Drive in while the computer was busy booting up.

The solid-state drive booted extremely quickly. In just over ten seconds, the Windows 10 interface lay sprawled before Chen Chen's eyes.

After waiting a moment, Chen Chen opened [My Computer], only to find that aside from the optical drive, there was nothing listed under removable storage devices.

The drive letter that should have automatically identified the USB Drive was gone.

Was the USB Drive broken?

Chen Chen refused to believe it. He plugged it in again, but there was still no response.

Heh, I refuse to believe this.

A mocking smile curled across Chen Chen's lips. He skillfully restarted the computer and, during the reboot, swiftly and decisively pressed [F2], entering the BIOS Setup interface.

Then, Chen Chen expertly pressed [F9] to enter the default settings/configuration, selecting [Yes] in a split second!

Finally, Chen Chen heavily pressed [F10] to save the settings, then restarted the computer once more!

Everything had happened in a flash; only a veteran could pull it off.

Once the computer restarted, a removable device icon indeed appeared successfully in the lower-right corner of the system.

However, Chen Chen did not open it from there. Instead, he went into [My Computer], moved the cursor over the USB Drive icon, right-clicked it, and selected Properties.

Hm?

Under Properties, the USB Drive showed a storage capacity of 0.

Was it really broken?

Chen Chen completely gave up hope. All that effort had been for nothing.

He shook his head and double-clicked it out of habit, but to his surprise, the USB Drive actually opened.

Several AVI files came into view.

[Ju-On.avi] [Final Destination.avi] [One Missed Call.avi] [The Ring.avi].

"...Hiss."

When Chen Chen saw the files clearly, he sucked in a sharp breath. He hadn't expected the USB Drive's original owner to be a horror movie fan.

He couldn't tell whether he was disappointed or surprised. He had originally thought there would be some mysterious-code.avi files inside.

Still, this proved that there was nothing wrong with the USB Drive.

There was nothing in the USB Drive that interested him. These movies were about as old as Chen Chen himself, and they were all well-known films. Anyone who wanted to watch them had already done so, while anyone who didn't wouldn't watch them even if they were placed right in front of them.

So he selected all the files and pressed [ctrl+d].

"Thump!"

Yet the six movies were not deleted. Instead, a "Program Error" window popped up.

Unwilling to give up, Chen Chen tried several more times. He even used a file shredder, but no matter what method he used, he couldn't delete the six movies.

"That's strange..."

Chen Chen was puzzled. Could the USB Drive really be broken?

He simply moved the cursor over one of the files, intending to open it and see whether it could play.

But for some reason, just as he was about to double-click [Ju-On.avi], he suddenly felt an inexplicable palpitation.

He couldn't describe the feeling. It was as though, in some corner beyond the reach of light, a pair of eyes was staring fixedly at him...

Those eyes were filled with deathly stillness, like the cold kiss of a corpse...

The sudden dread made his hand pause.

"Ahem! Since when did I become such a coward?"

Chen Chen shook his head and "followed his heart" by moving the cursor away. Instead, he opened his local D drive and selected another video file—

[Detective Pikachu.mp4]

Chen Chen selected the file and pressed [ctrl+c], then opened the USB Drive again and pressed [ctrl+v].

At once, the green progress bar flashed. In less than two seconds, the file [Detective Pikachu.mp4] had been copied onto the USB Drive.

Everything was normal.

Chen Chen pondered for a while before opening [Detective Pikachu.mp4] from the USB Drive.

The default video player opened automatically and began playing the live-action adaptation released in 2019.

Chen Chen had watched this movie when it first came out. But because he liked Pikachu's image so much, he had specifically downloaded it.

Watching the yellow mouse hopping about on the screen, Chen Chen felt a faint pang of sadness, because the character reminded him of his own Jerry.

Jerry was the name of Chen Chen's dog.

Chen Chen had grown up with Jerry by his side. One boy and one dog had grown together, inseparable.

Unfortunately, a dog's lifespan was simply too short. Last year, Jerry had eventually died of old age.

Thinking of that adorable little figure, Chen Chen fell slightly into a daze.

But just then, something suddenly flickered in the corner of his eye.

Chen Chen instinctively turned his head, only to discover that at some point, a hat had appeared beside his laptop.

"Thump!"

At the same time, the "Program Error" prompt popped up on the screen again, and the video that had been playing shut down automatically...