"Then I'll have to ask you," said Saladin.
"Me?" Qingmu looked at him in confusion.
Saladin smiled, as if Qingmu's amnesia and dullness brought him pleasure.
"The idea of human chip design is not new; it was proposed decades ago. The US military has been conducting research in this area, but it has only been used for minor tricks like signal tracking, until I revealed some of your previous ideas to them."
Starlight swirled around Saladin's face, and the light of stars burned in his eye sockets.
"You've probably forgotten that the human chip was your idea, and I was the one who initially designed it. This proves once again that we are the best partners, but unfortunately..."
His expression shifted. "You said you wanted to use chips to build a mental channel to guide the return of consciousness. I didn't understand then, until later when I became a ghost on the computer network, I finally understood what your true thoughts were. Look how good I am! The things you couldn't finish, I'm still helping you with even when I'm half-dead, and doing them so well! Shouldn't you thank me?"
Qingmu recalled a laboratory with the LBNL19 sign on its door from a fragment of his memory.
But Laboratory No. 19 should be a product of his separation from Saladin, so how could it appear in his memory? Moreover, he entered it openly and honestly, which obviously indicates that he has some deeper connection with the lab.
Of course, another possibility is that he hypnotized the guards. With his abilities, this would be a simple matter. However, there is an access control system at the entrance of the laboratory. Fingerprints and irises cannot fool the machine unless the machine itself is also hypnotized, or the machine's owner deliberately let him go.
He looked at the ever-changing face of the virtual Saladin and said, "You still haven't explained why you're doing the human chip project."
Saladin burst into laughter and said, "You really like to pry. Okay, I'll tell you, there are two reasons."
First, I am very interested in the mental pathway you proposed. Although the world I occupy has grown larger with the development of the Internet, it is ultimately just a cold electronic world, and I cannot obtain more Mental Power. This makes my consciousness feel very empty in such a vast world, and I find it difficult to control all the network endpoints. I need people to help me, and these people must be completely under my control.
Of course, I've now mastered the methods of spiritual enhancement, and my clones are everywhere on the Internet, so I don't need to do that anymore. But a world where everyone has a chip installed, and everyone becomes a nerve ending of mine, is still very attractive. If conditions allowed, I wouldn't mind playing God for a moment.
Secondly, I'm very interested in your past. I've always wanted to figure out who you really are and where your strange ideas came from. I'm lonely and bored in the online world, and since I have nothing better to do, I thought I'd help you finish what you haven't done yet.
Besides the human microchip, I've done many other experiments, some of which would probably shock you if I told you. But it doesn't matter, they're not of much significance to me or you anyway.
I really want to know what changed your stance, from initially wanting to do something so much to later wanting to destroy it. Of all the projects in the Soul Laboratory, soul parasitism and building Mental Power Field were the most important, right? But just when it was about to succeed, you destroyed it with your own hands, even going so far as to kill me!
Qingmu sensed the decades-long hatred that Saladin and asked, "Do you know why now?"
Saladin said, "Ever since I was able to parasitize my consciousness into the brains of people with implanted chips through the internet, I understood what you were trying to do. But for a long time, I thought you just wanted to become like I am now, to disperse your consciousness, or rather your soul, through the chip project, to parasitize people all over the world, or to make more people have the same dream and influence those around them, thereby controlling the world."
What puzzles me is that you never tried to live Internet, and there was no Internet back then. How did you manage to do that?
But Lester's death and the sudden intrusion of Parasitic Consciousness made me realize instantly that your experiments weren't focused on chips and networks at all, but on the Mental Power Field. True consciousness parasitism doesn't require wires, radio waves, or information networks; it travels through the Mental Power Field. I remember you once mentioned those Dream Corridor that approached zero-dimensional space, which could directly connect to the mental dimension, and the networks they formed facilitated the free movement of consciousness. It's a pity I've never understood the mysteries of the mind."
"So you sent a clone disguised as Ghost within the local network to contact me, just to find out the mysteries of the mind?" Qingmu narrowed his eyes. "But how did you find me? I don't think I've ever left any personal information online, including photos."
"It's hard for someone living in modern society not to leave information online. No matter how careful you are, you can't avoid it. Especially someone like you who is destined to be extraordinary," said Saladin. "You've killed someone before, haven't you?"
"I've killed many people, but I don't know which one you're referring to," Qingmu said.
"Twice, once at a scrap metal yard, and once on the Garbage Street," Saladin said. "Although neither left any evidence, you probably don't know that a policeman named Shi Dazhuang has been watching you for a long time. He conducted a very detailed investigation into these two cases, and the case files are in the police system. They contain your detailed information and your movements captured by all the city's surveillance cameras within an hour before and after those two incidents."
Some cases don't necessarily require on-site surveillance; police solve cases through reasoning, not machines. I really admire that police officer surnamed Shi for that.
However, those two cases were not investigated further and were ultimately classified as deaths due to sudden illness. Shi Dazhuang let you go, and you even became friends later, right? The case files were sealed away and no one would look at them, but I can see them in the system; they contain your surveillance footage and ID photo.
In addition, you helped them with interrogations in the interrogation room of the Wuzhong City Criminal Investigation Detachment, and the interrogation records, including videos, are archived in their system.
Even though you changed your appearance, even though you disguised yourself so well, I still recognized you. And those methods were the same methods I knew you used to use, perfectly matching your abilities. Back in United States, you did plenty of things like this."
Qingmu suddenly found it amusing and said, "Are you trying to become Holmes, spending your free time going through police files around the world?"
Saladin laughed, "Of course not. But I do pay more attention to similar unnatural deaths, because that's exactly what you're good at. Although I thought you were dead at the time, I know that besides you, there are many people like you in this world."
"You thought I was dead?" Qingmu noticed the flickering light on Saladin's face, as if he was hesitating about something.
"I understand." Qingmu narrowed his eyes. " Liu Huaian's schizophrenia was intentional on your part. Your purpose was to lead him to set fire to the wool mill, and I was living in the wool mill's dormitory at the time."
"So that's why they chose someone as insignificant as Liu Huaian as a test subject for such an important project as human chip development. It turns out it was all arranged by you to kill me!"