That solved two potential crises for Chen Chen.
Of course, the real situation would only be more complicated, so Chen Chen would repeat the second method and hide another dose of NZT-48 in a foreign bank.
That was what the Swiss visa he'd asked Xia Yin to arrange earlier was for.
Depositing a dose of NZT-48 in a Swiss bank might one day give him a chance to survive.
That was his backup plan.
With these preparations taken care of, Chen Chen took out the USB Drive again and began considering what item to exchange for next.
Chen Chen wasn't short on money for the time being. Just one pair of VR glasses would be enough to live on for ten years, and could even let him build an electronic technology empire. As for his next item, if possible, he still thought it safer to increase his own strength.
If only I could get a superpower.
Chen Chen thought.
Almost everyone had dreamed as a child of having all kinds of superpowers, like flying or burrowing underground. In a lifeless reality, superpowers were more exciting than any other creation.
In fact, Hollywood had a great many movies about superpowers, such as The Butterfly Effect, Hancock, and Jumper, among many others.
But after searching and searching, Chen Chen found that the powers in these movies came either from genetic mutations, fortuitous circumstances, or being born with them.
As for movies like Marvel and DC, where superpowers were everywhere, they were too fantastical to be stored on the USB Drive.
In the end, Chen Chen could only return to his original choice.
Chronicle.
But that crystal in Chronicle seemed rather large.
Chen Chen suddenly thought of a problem.
What if the crystal was so big that it needed a huge amount of electricity?
He simply pulled a sheet of A3 paper from the bookshelf and quickly wrote down a few figures.
E=MC^2
1 joule (J) = 0.2388 calories (C) = 0.278×10^-6 (kW.h).
1 (KG) = 89,875,517,873,681,764 (J) = 24,965,421,632 (kW.h)
Although he didn't yet know how much energy it took to bring something from the USB Drive into reality, Chen Chen could estimate it using mathematical formulas.
After writing down the formula, Chen Chen thought for a moment, then suddenly crossed out "E=MC^2."
The mass-energy equivalence formula couldn't be applied to the USB Drive. Chen Chen had already deduced that the USB Drive didn't convert electricity into matter out of nothing; it only consumed energy to open a passage.
Chewing the end of his pen, Chen Chen absentmindedly picked up a dose of NZT-48 and was about to put it in his mouth.
But just before it reached his lips, he hesitated.
By the time the experiment had ended, the effects of NZT had already begun to wear off. However, since he was immune to NZT, he hadn't experienced any of the various side effects that followed the drug's effects fading.
His brain was only a little tired.
After thinking it over, Chen Chen simply put the pill back.
Chen Chen understood that although the Immunity Injection had helped him overcome his physical addiction, the psychological craving remained.
It wasn't that he couldn't use NZT-48. He simply felt that relying too much on drugs was a risk in itself.
What he needed to do now was try to overcome that craving and solve some problems using his natural intelligence.
After all, the problem he was considering wasn't difficult. It was only at a middle-school level...
First, I'll calculate the conversion ratio between the USB Drive and reality.
If the amount of energy in the USB Drive the first time was X, and the amount the second time was Y, then Y ≥ the mass of the Immunity Injection + the mass of the VR glasses.
At the same time, Y = 200 (KW.h) × 24 (h) × 90 × 0.85 (cosΦ).
This gave Y = 1.32192E12J.
In other words, taking one gram of matter out of the USB Drive consumed approximately 4,406,400,000 joules of energy, or 1224 kW.
Of course, the actual conversion ratio had to be greater than 1224 kW, but no more than 2000 kW.
Then Chen Chen plugged in X and found that X ≤ 2.16E12J.
So where had all that energy—2.16E12 joules—come from? Had it really been given to him by the previous Master?
If so, what was their purpose?
Chen Chen fell into deep thought.
After thinking for a long time, Chen Chen still had no answers, so he began calculating how much electricity it would take to bring the crystal from Chronicle into reality.
In the movie, the crystal looked like a starfish from the front, with a central body and eight conical projections radiating out around it.
Based on the relative sizes of the people and the crystal in the movie, the central body was an irregular mass about 1.2 to 1.3 meters in diameter, with nine crystal-like protrusions roughly 0.5 meters long on top.
The eight surrounding cones were about 1.5 to 2 meters long.
Converted into volume, the crystal was about 3.5 to 4 cubic meters.
Chen Chen did the math in silence and was instantly speechless.
Even using the density of ordinary quartz, 2.66 g/cm3, and assuming the USB Drive could be charged with 200,000 kilowatt-hours per day, he would need forty thousand days to save enough energy to bring the crystal into reality.
That was a span of more than a hundred years...
Chen Chen's mouth twitched.
It seemed that until he found a more efficient source of electricity, he'd have to settle for materializing small things.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen crumpled up the sheet of paper in his hand and threw it into the trash.
If that was the case, what should he materialize?
Chen Chen thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered that he'd made his fortune with NZT-48. There was actually another drug even more remarkable than NZT-48.
CPH4 from Lucy.
When making his first choice, Chen Chen had considered this drug too. But as the director of the movie himself had said, CPH4 was something he'd made up; it was a substance that didn't exist in reality.
What's more, the idea that the human brain only used ten percent of its capacity was wrong.
So Chen Chen had immediately dismissed this option the first time around.
But now, it might be worth a try.
A packet of CPH4 weighed about the same as NZT-48, so the electricity he'd accumulated over the past few days would be enough to materialize it.
Of course, Chen Chen wouldn't try the drug himself. If he could study its ingredients, perhaps he'd make a new discovery.
But all of this depended on whether the USB Drive could store the movie.
After all, the movie itself was based on a false premise. It might be impossible to store, just like a Marvel movie.
Thinking of this, Chen Chen returned to his bedroom and snapped his fingers. "X, turn on the computer and play Lucy for me."
"Okay, Dad."
Chen Chen hadn't actually watched the movie. He'd only seen a three-minute recap of it on Bilibili.
Movie recaps were a new kind of short video that had become popular around 2015. They condensed an original ninety-minute movie into three to five minutes, giving viewers a rough idea of the main plot and ending.
Chen Chen had originally wanted to watch it, but after seeing the recap, he'd lost interest.
It was like watching the first book of The Three-Body Problem in the dorm, while someone nearby kept telling you:
"Luo Ji's Wallfacer is himself!"
"The droplet wiped out the entire Earth fleet!"
"The ending is that the aliens flatten the Solar System!" And so on...
Of course, none of this was the recap maker's fault. Chen Chen had only himself to blame for being unable to resist clicking.
Now he had nothing to do, and he was in his normal, drug-free state. Taking a moment to enjoy a movie would not only help with the work ahead, but also let him relax his frayed nerves, right?
As he thought this, X turned off the bedroom lights. A screen descended, and the projector and speakers behind it slowly powered on...
"Ten billion years ago, we were given life..."
"What did we do with it?"
The screen was filled with an ocean-blue background. A cell slowly appeared and began to divide.
One became two, two became four, four became eight...
LUCY!
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