A Year and Three Months

In the blink of an eye, time flew by. Another six months passed, and by careful count, Ba Di had now gone a year and three months without seeing daylight.

Ba Di's life had changed greatly.

If an ordinary person's life underwent such major changes, whether good or bad, there would always be some degree of passivity, some forced acceptance involved.

Change was ultimately good. An eternity without change was the Despair of intelligent life.

Though all he did was leave the White Room, pass through a steel corridor, and enter a large room where they studied his battered spaceship, along with a few scattered workrooms, to Ba Di, this was a joyous change.

However, he could not show that happiness. The Pulse Radiofrequency Needle at the back of his neck was still embedded in his spinal marrow. It no longer severed the reflex signals of his limbs, but it could still detect lies, administer electric shocks, release toxins, and control him.

The neural reflex system of the limbs differed from the autonomic nervous system of the internal organs. Even without reactions from his limbs, they could still use the Pulse Radiofrequency Needle to test him for lies.

The autonomic nervous system governed life-critical physiological functions: heartbeat, breathing, digestion, blood pressure, metabolism, and more.

But how could that trouble Ba Di? The Meditation Technique he had learned from the Kryptonian Meditators Guild allowed him to remain calm at all times, control his heartbeat, and display the pulse and heartbeat fluctuations they expected from delight and excitement.

"Mr. Ba Di, Dean Bo Li requests your presence."

After knocking on the door of the White Room to show a measure of respect, the two soldiers opened it and entered directly.

There was not much respect in barging in with what was essentially a forced command, but it was better than nothing.

If Ba Di had not helped them make tremendous progress in Magnetic Flux Compression for the Electromagnetic Cannon, helped their Physics Center confirm that there were only three types of neutrinos, led them in building the world's first Optical Information Mathematical Processor, and contributed to several other projects, they likely would not even have addressed him as "Mister." They would simply have kept draining the knowledge from his mind.

From the fragmented remarks of other researchers, Ba Di had even learned that they had already made considerable profits from these advanced technologies. They had traded away some things they considered unimportant and won several Nobel Prizes with them.

Ba Di could only laugh to himself. He had never given them complete technological achievements, which also fit perfectly with the conduct expected of his false identity as a Kryptonian prince.

Once, Dean Bo Li's greed had flared up, and the old man had actually asked Ba Di to write down all the scientific knowledge in his head at once so they could study it themselves.

Ba Di had acted stunned on the spot. Greedy, but good.

As a prince, surely he could not possibly understand everything about science. That was the domain of scientists.

If they asked Ba Di to explain it, he truly could not provide much detailed knowledge. Even if he did, with their level of understanding, they would be utterly bewildered.

Had they detected photons?

Did they know what Super Light Speed transmission meant?

Did they know what it meant to upload consciousness into an Artificial Intelligence brain?

No? Then he would tell them. They could write it down and see whether it was correct after a few hundred years, once technology had advanced!

Anyway, all he could provide was a vague outline that sounded impressive. He was not a scientist, so how could he possibly remember actual formulas?

Therefore, what Ba Di gave them were only broad directions, answers concerning the correct future path of space travel, and a few insignificant scraps.

Afterward, they compiled a whole pile of problems that were difficult to overcome. It angered General Vick so much that he slapped Dean Bo Li across the face. Could they not take things slowly? Did he expect to leap into space and begin interstellar travel in a single step?

Dean Bo Li came to his senses as well. Faced with knowledge from the future, he had become too excited. Earthlings who could not even build a spaceship had no use for knowledge whose truth they could not verify.

From then on, whenever they had difficult scientific problems to overcome, they would seek Ba Di's answers. Ba Di had answered many of their scientific questions, providing them with highly accurate ideas and directions. He had effectively become the technological consultant guiding this place.

Ba Di smiled and nodded to the soldiers. "All right. Thank you for the trouble."

He maintained a gentle, harmless manner. The two soldiers were accustomed to it. With expressionless faces, they walked behind Ba Di and pushed his wheelchair.

At first, Slade had personally controlled Ba Di's wheelchair every day and escorted him wherever he went.

But after being subtly misled through several limited conversations, Slade seemed to realize that Ba Di had truly become a cripple, completely unable to move his limbs.

Although Slade could still sense the will hidden in Ba Di's gentle eyes, as well as the steady grandeur of a Kryptonian prince, in his view, Ba Di had no ability to act. His limbs could not move, and a needle was embedded in his spinal marrow, ready to take his life at any time with electric shocks or toxins. Escaping such control would be easier said than done.

His instincts still told him Ba Di was extraordinary, but he no longer felt threatened. No matter how strong Ba Di's body was, he was ultimately a useless cripple genuinely confined to a wheelchair.

Thus, aside from personally controlling Ba Di's wheelchair during the first few weeks, he later left that task to the soldiers. After that, he merely confirmed each day that Ba Di remained in the Underground Base and paid him little further attention.

That secretly relieved Ba Di. Throughout the entire Underground Base, Colonel Slade was the only one he found somewhat troublesome. Ba Di always felt that Colonel Slade was targeting him, as though he suspected everything Ba Di did was an act.

But Ba Di's performance truly had been flawless, gradually causing Slade to lower his assessment of Ba Di's danger level.

The soldiers brought him to the room where they studied the Kryptonian spacecraft he had arrived in. Ba Di did not come to this research room often. They seemed to be deliberately preventing him from coming into contact with his own spaceship.

Dean Bo Li had long been waiting. He came forward with a smiling, thin face and took control of the wheelchair from the soldiers.

"Mr. Ba Di, we asked you here this time because we would like you to provide us with knowledge regarding the virtual imaging technology on your spaceship," Dean Bo Li said politely. After several months of Ba Di's honest contributions, he no longer believed Ba Di harbored any ulterior motives.

In his mind, Ba Di could only obediently contribute his knowledge, eventually pair up with Jenny, and then live forever in this Underground Base.

"Do you want to use the interference and diffraction principles of virtual imaging for projection recording and three-dimensional radar-scanned scenes, or do you want to use interference principles to disrupt enemy satellites?"

Ba Di smiled. His relationship with Dean Bo Li had improved considerably. They could chat a little at times, unlike Slade, who remained cold and guarded.

Dean Bo Li had clearly had his thoughts guessed correctly and answered frankly, "Both. But your spaceship is too badly damaged, and we cannot obtain any information in that area."

"I'm afraid I can't help much with that. I have only used such things, so I can provide relatively little information. The technology involved is not something achievable with a small amount of data. At the very least, it requires Artificial Intelligence before it can truly be put to use," Ba Di explained.

Dean Bo Li nodded in agreement. Then he took a Kryptonian spaceship key from the pocket of his white lab coat.

It was the kind of long cylindrical key seen in Superman films, engraved with an S symbol and used to activate spaceship functions. Aside from lacking any marking on its back, it was identical in shape to the one from the Superman films. It was also the Artificial Intelligence of Ba Di's spaceship.

"May I ask, Mr. Ba Di, what is this?" Dean Bo Li's eyes gleamed.