I Am a Speaker

Prehistoric human stone statues!?

Shen Feng's sensitivity to the words "stone statue" had reached its peak. He instantly thought of the Stone Statue Virus from the Stone Statue Apocalypse—it had been found beneath the Arctic ice cap!

This was far too much of a coincidence!

Hopefully, it was just an ordinary prehistoric civilization ruin. Hopefully, he was wrong...

Shen Feng immediately pulled out the phone he had just bought and began checking the morning news.

He found the report on the Ice Dragon Expedition Team and opened the video. The announcer's voice immediately came through, accompanied by footage of the Ice Dragon Expedition Team's Arctic expedition.

On the boundless ice sheet stood a huge drilling rig and crane. A group of men and women in expedition protective gear were shouting excitedly.

Something was slowly being hoisted from a circular hole roughly one meter across.

As the camera zoomed in, the object being lifted became crystal clear.

It was a stone statue the same size as a real person, depicting an elderly man. Though countless years had clearly passed and the statue's surface had become somewhat weathered, the carving as a whole was lifelike.

The details were especially exquisite. Even the hair and wrinkles on the hands were rendered with perfect clarity.

The moment Shen Feng saw the statue, an overwhelming sense of familiarity surged within him.

There was no mistake!

This was a human stone statue after being infected with Stone Statue Disease!

The statue hung in midair and slowly turned, revealing its face.

The instant Shen Feng saw that face, his entire body shuddered. Every hair on his body stood on end, as though he were standing on the Arctic ice fields in temperatures dozens of degrees below zero.

That face looked familiar!

He had seen it before—but in the Stone Statue Apocalypse!

This was... the director of the research lab at Radiant City's Epidemic Prevention Center!

It looked too much alike!

What the hell was going on!?

Could this statue really belong to the world of the Stone Statue Apocalypse?

Why had it come to his world?

Or perhaps...

Shen Feng's body trembled as another utterly inconceivable possibility occurred to him. Could the Earth he lived on and the Stone Statue Apocalypse be the same Earth? Could there be no parallel universes at all, only different times?

Could the Stone Statue Apocalypse he had traveled to have actually been Earth from the previous era of civilization?

Then Shen Feng abruptly shook his head. No, that couldn't be right. If that were true, how could he explain those songs?

Many of the songs he had heard and things he had seen in the Stone Statue Apocalypse also existed in this world. It definitely could not be the same Earth at a different point in time...

Or could the Stone Statue Apocalypse he had traveled to be this world's future?

Had he seen the future apocalypse?

That wasn't right either... the names of the cities in the Stone Statue Apocalypse, along with many other details, were different from this world...

Shen Feng's thoughts were in complete turmoil when the news report continued:

"The stone statue beneath the Arctic ice sheet is roughly the size of a real person. Its craftsmanship is astonishingly lifelike, and it is currently impossible to determine what tools were used to carve it. Carbon-14 testing indicates that it is at least five hundred thousand years old."

"Meanwhile, according to Captain Sun of the Ice Dragon Expedition Team, there are more objects and even buildings beneath this thousand-meter ice field. This is very likely the ruins of a prehistoric civilization!"

"If all goes well, this discovery may even reveal the global landscape of ancient humans before Homo sapiens came to dominate the Earth, making it one of the century's most significant discoveries!"

"..."

Li Chang, who was kneeling nearby, watched the young man before him furrow his brow from time to time, even clutching his head and pounding his temples hard with an agitated expression. He could not help but worry.

They hadn't run into some lunatic with bipolar disorder, had they?

They said killing someone with that kind of illness wasn't even punishable by law. How could you argue with a sick person?

I'm never hanging around the streets again!

He cautiously put on a concerned expression and said, "Brother Feng, Brother Feng, are you feeling unwell? Should we take you to the university hospital? It's so hot out. It'll be troublesome if you get heatstroke. We're in the hottest stretch of summer now—you need to watch out for heatstroke..."

Shen Feng took a deep breath and rubbed his temples. He could not be bothered to deal with them, so he turned and headed toward the school.

No matter what was happening, the proper thing was to get his own affairs in order first. If Stone Statue Disease really broke out in this world, he at least needed to gain control over his own strength and spread the research materials on Stone Statue Disease.

Li Chang had been right. He did need to go to a hospital, just not the university hospital.

Seeing Shen Feng simply leave, Li Chang grew anxious and shouted after him, "Brother Feng, what about us? Can we leave now? Or do we keep kneeling..."

After going to his class to ask Old Li, his homeroom teacher, for leave, Shen Feng took a taxi to the Central City Hospital.

Because Shen Feng rarely asked for leave and looked pale, Old Li insisted on accompanying him. Shen Feng had to repeatedly refuse before Old Li finally gave up.

Still, it warmed Shen Feng's heart.

After arriving at the hospital, Shen Feng barely needed to explain anything. He merely said he had a headache, and the doctor immediately ordered a brain CT scan. Shen Feng then directly requested a full-body examination as well.

Fortunately, it was early and there were not many patients. After the examinations, Shen Feng waited only two or three hours before receiving the scans.

More accurately, his scans were sent directly into the hands of the chief neurosurgeon, who immediately invited him into the consultation room.

Shen Feng's scans lay before Liu Peihong, the director of neurosurgery at the Central City Hospital. When Liu Peihong saw Shen Feng, an expression of pity suddenly appeared on his face.

"You... are Shen Feng?"

Shen Feng nodded. "Hello, Doctor. I'm Shen Feng."

Liu Peihong continued, "Where is your family? Why didn't any family members come with you?"

Shen Feng smiled faintly. "I'm an orphan. You can just tell me whatever it is. I can take it."

This Director Liu was quite responsible.

Hearing Shen Feng's words, Liu Peihong felt even more regretful. He sighed and said, "Shen Feng, I've already reviewed your scans. To be honest, they're not good..."

He struggled to choose his words before continuing, "This is the first time I've ever seen a case like yours. It's really... really..."

Shen Feng's expression turned serious. "Director Liu, just tell me what it is. I can handle it."

Liu Peihong was startled by the determination in the young man's eyes. He felt a faint stir in his heart and understood that he could not treat Shen Feng like a child. He took a deep breath and spoke solemnly.

"There are numerous cavities and filament-like structures inside your brain. They are somewhat similar to the spongiform degeneration caused by Mad Cow Disease prions. Frankly, the fact that you can stand here and speak normally with me is already a miracle..."

"Also, your chest CT shows two tumors inside your thoracic cavity, in the area of your lungs... At the same time, your bones have developed lesions, with clear osteoporosis and internal cavities..."

Shen Feng asked, "Is that all?"

Liu Peihong froze. Wasn't that enough? Any one of these conditions would have completely finished off an ordinary person.

But he did not know whether the young man had suffered too great a shock and gone numb. He sighed and continued, "At this level of degeneration, modern medicine is honestly almost powerless... Even chemotherapy and major invasive surgery would only increase your suffering and waste money..."

The other party was far too young. Liu Peihong truly could not bear to say any more, so he lowered his voice.

"If there's anything you still want to do, do it as soon as possible. Go back, eat well, drink well, and don't overthink things. Being happy is what matters most. Don't leave yourself with regrets."

Shen Feng nodded. "Thank you, Director Liu. I'll take the scans back myself. Perhaps we'll meet again someday... By the way, may I ask how much time I have left?"

With an expression of pity, Liu Peihong held up two fingers. "Two months..."

After taking the CT scans home, Shen Feng began examining them carefully.

He naturally understood that the changes inside his body were not illnesses, but alterations caused by the various viruses and drugs.

He could understand the changes in his brain and bones, but what were the tumors in his chest?

Judging from the scans, there were two massive shadows in his chest, making it look as though he had grown four lungs.

But there was no way to examine them for the time being. It was not as if he could undergo open-chest surgery.

What he most wanted to test now was how exactly to use his silicon-based brain.

He opened his battered little laptop, held his breath, and focused, trying to connect his brain to the laptop and transmit information between them.

Taking a deep breath, Shen Feng imagined that he was a computer and began envisioning the process of data transmission.

This time, he wanted to transfer the information in the computer back into his brain.

But after waiting for a long time, it did not matter whether he imagined himself as a USB drive, a media player, or even a keyboard—nothing happened. He was practically beginning to suspect that he was suffering from delusions.

Rubbing his throbbing temples, Shen Feng sighed and opened the music player on his computer, intending to listen to a song and relax first.

The moment he pressed play, stirring music immediately began to ring out.

"...I know, I know I've let you down..."

Shen Feng jolted in fright and sprang to his feet, pressing both hands to his chest.

The vibrations of a subwoofer were coming from inside his chest. He had turned into a speaker!