King from scratch

"I think I should ask for leave today," He Xingwen muttered again after lunch, "I still have to go to work on this day, it's too inhuman."

Huang Heling rolled her eyes: "What day is it today? Chinese New Year or holiday? Why can't you go to work?"

He Jianwen took the stack of bowls in Huang Heling's hand, went into the kitchen, and said in distaste while washing: "Hurry up and go to work, we will go to the farmhouse to pick strawberries later, I won't be back at night, you can make it yourself after get off work." Order something to eat."

He Xingwen let out an "ah", and looked at He Tong who was helping He Jianwen wash the dishes: "Are you not coming back tonight?"

He Tong put the clean bowl on the dish rack, looked sideways at He Xingwen, and showed a small smile: "Uncle thought about it for a long time..."

"What uncle, called Dad," He Jianwen said without raising his head, "Don't talk to him."

He Tong changed his words: "Dad has been thinking about it for many days when he was traveling before, picking strawberries, fishing and barbecue..." Seeing the unbelievable expression on He Xingwen's face, He Tong explained a little more: "Aren't you busy with work? ?”

He Tong put down the bowl in his hand, pushed He Xingwen towards the door, and whispered in his ear: "You should work overtime tonight, so you should eat in the staff cafeteria to save you running back and forth."

This is the disadvantage of finding the system as a boyfriend. Nothing can be hidden from him, even things that He Xingwen doesn't know.

He Xingwen was pushed to the door. As soon as the door opened, the car parked at the door rang twice immediately, showing its presence.

He Xingwen ignored him, holding He Tong's hand tightly: "Do you really want to leave me to play?"

He Tong pursed his lips, Wu Xing poked his head out of the car window, and nodded his wrist to remind the other party that it was getting late.

He Tong: "Wu Xing is urging you."

He Xingwen sighed: "Then come here."

He Tong couldn't help smiling, and quickly kissed He Xingwen on the lips, and it fell apart instantly.

He Xingwen blinked at him, and the smile on He Tong's face widened, and he looked at He Xingwen without blinking.

"I don't see it," Wu Xing quickly started the car when they finally got bored, and said, "Going to work is like parting from life to death."

He Xingwen sat in the co-pilot and yawned: "If it wasn't for that Pippi shrimp yesterday, I would have asked for leave today."

"Don't even think about it, there are a bunch of people waiting for you, it's impossible to approve." Wu Xing glanced at the sleepiness on He Xingwen's face, and was a little puzzled: "It's already noon, and you haven't woken up yet? What did you do last night?" went?"

He Xingwen glanced at the Wannian single dog next to him, his Adam's apple moved slightly, and reminded him: "I'm different from you. I have a boyfriend, and I have things to do at night."

Wu Xing was silent for two seconds, and choked out a sentence: "Pretend I didn't ask."

The road was so rare and quiet that He Xingwen seized the time to catch up on sleep.

After entering the research institute, the familiar busy atmosphere instantly brought He Xingwen back to the state he had been in the management bureau a few months ago. He Xingwen started his daily life as a tool man again, rushing to the field in several scientific research groups.

Wu Xing parted ways with him early in the morning, of course they still met in the same laboratory in the end.

"Pipi Shrimp?" He Xingwen rushed to the research team that was established only yesterday, and immediately became energetic, turning his back on customers, and asked, "Any new discoveries?"

"All the Pippi shrimp in the supermarket have been brought back, and those that have been sold have all been recovered as much as possible. I traced back to the source and checked other seafood from the same origin. Among this batch of seafood, there are A lot of strange individuals."

He Xingwen stared at the seafood in the water tanks in front of him. Just looking at the appearance, they were all delicious.

"In fact, these strange individuals cannot be classified as mutated creatures. To be precise, they just have some small abnormalities..." The white coat said: "It's like some selective changes on the evolutionary path, from On the whole, it does not deviate from our original understanding of these creatures, and they are edible and delicious."

"I am more inclined that this is one of the impacts of the ether on the world. Everything in the world has started a new evolutionary frenzy to adapt to the new world."

"Don't you think this model looks familiar?" Wu Xing asked thoughtfully, "After humans were affected by the ether, a large number of humans with special abilities also emerged?"

He Xingwen reacted instantly: "You mean, the influence of ether on humans and animals is the same?"

"First mutated creatures appeared, and then some abnormalities appeared in ordinary animals..." Wu Xing: "First, people with special abilities, and then ordinary people mastered the use of ether..."

"The only difference between animals and humans is that humans are not affected as much as those animals. At least from the current point of view, no one has undergone limb mutations."

The busy white coat continued: "After all, humans have the ability to think, but animals only have instinct."

He Xingwen: "So, that Pippi shrimp?"

"It's edible and delicious... It's just that it's a bit troublesome to catch in the future."

He Xingwen regretted from the bottom of his heart: "That's really bad news."

"The worse news is that I estimate that in two months, there will be small changes in the food on the original table, making it more difficult to catch..." The white coat said regretfully: "This is the survival of the race in animal instinct." and the persistence of reproduction.”

After all, the world is fair, humans can master ether to become more powerful, and animals can also use ether to increase the probability of survival.

"It's a good thing that mutant biology is not hidden in ordinary creatures." He Xingwen breathed a sigh of relief: "Otherwise, the problem will be serious."

"We have considered this issue," Wu Xing said goodbye to the white coats, and took He Xingwen to another direction: "We are studying how to accurately distinguish between mutant creatures and ordinary species, but the progress is slow and there is no gain."

He Xingwen became interested: "How to accurately distinguish between the two?"

Wu Xing: "The most significant difference between mutant creatures and ordinary animals is the ether contained in their bodies, so the research direction of this project is how to accurately distinguish the ether content in creatures..."

He Xingwen realized the problem almost immediately. If they were to research something, his vest seemed a little dangerous...

This research idea is not wrong, and it can even be said to be inevitable. Whether it is to develop the theory of superconductivity or study the influence of ether on mutant creatures, people urgently need to have a deeper understanding of ether.

Wu Xing didn't notice He Xingwen's psychological fluctuations, and continued: "Before, we used ether observation to identify the ether fluctuations around creatures, which was too inaccurate and prone to misjudgments—for example, you were identified as ether before. Perception deficient, but now it seems that you are not completely unable to perceive the ether..."

"No, I really didn't perceive the ether," He Xingwen hurriedly clarified this point: "That underwater breathing is a sudden epiphany between life and death..."

"I know, but the emergence of the theory of superconductivity has compressed our need for ether perception to an extremely low level. Even ordinary people who are difficult to perceive ether can have power through the manipulation of the medium, so we need More precise data, if the research is successful, it can be used in multiple fields."

He Xingwen: "How is your research going?"

"It hasn't been going well before, but after cooperating with the mage, the situation is much better..."

He Xingwen choked on a mouthful of water and choked for a long time before recovering: "Cooperate with a mage?"

His movement made He Xingwen realize that He Xingwen didn't know that the holographic game was actually a different world, so he lowered his voice and said, "By the way, this is confidential. You will sign a non-disclosure agreement later."

In He Xingwen's staring eyes, he paused word by word: "Actually, the holographic game exists in another world."

He Xingwen opened his mouth, piled up his emotions, and gave Wu Xing an appropriate response: "Wow...that's really surprising."

"So, those NPCs are living people...living intelligent creatures," Wu Xing enthusiastically gave He Xingwen popular science: "Mages have a way to confirm the ether in intelligent creatures, but the situation on the earth is different from that in other worlds, so we Still figuring out how to implement these methods on Earth."

"It's really unbelievable," He Xingwen said in a perfunctory manner, and immediately changed the topic to the issue he was most concerned about: "Then have you found a solution?"

"Compared to the spells that mages are best at, magic creation is more reliable..." Wu Xing arrived at the destination, and swiped his card to enter another confidential area: "That's why the research institute moved here."

He Xingwen followed behind him, one door after another opened and closed in unison after they passed by, and said without hesitation: "I thought the institute changed its location because of me?"

"There are some considerations in this regard," Wu Xing: "but the most important thing is that there are mines here."

He Xingwen was stunned: "There are mines here? Impossible? This is province W, how could there be a large vein of mine?"

And if there is, it should have been known decades ago, how could it be found now?

Wu Xing turned his head to meet He Xingwen's eyes.

He Xingwen's eyes widened, a little in disbelief: "New energy?"

The last door opened in front of He Xingwen and the others, revealing the busy laboratories, production lines, and mines behind the door.

Only then did He Xingwen realize that part of the huge area of ​​the institute is underground.

"It can't be said that it is a brand new energy source. After all, everyone knows its existence right now," Wu Xing said, "It's just that the ether has changed to a storage method."

He Xingwen introduced those ores with faint light: "Ether stone, an ore with extremely rich ether content, is the most critical raw material in the magical creations we are currently studying."

Wu Xing glanced at He Xingwen's expression, and could understand the other's mood at the moment: "Now you know how amazing the changes in the world are?"

"This is far from a new era that can be explained by superpowers." Wu Xing led him towards the white coats beside the mine: "Why this kind of ore can store ether is also one of our current research topics. A lot of new discoveries have been made from it.”

Wu Xing greeted the white coats: "How is the progress?"

The ether stones are distributed in front of the white coats in various postures, some have been cut and smashed, some are soaked in water, and some are doing precise research. From time to time, you can feel the fluctuation of ether here.

Wu Xing's greeting received a very cold response, and no one paid any attention to Wu Xing.

Wu Xing continued: "I brought people here."

In an instant, the eyes of a group of white coats moved over and fell on He Xingwen one after another. They stepped forward and surrounded him into a ball, squeezing Wu Xing away from the side.

"He Xingwen, right? Those mutated creatures are very enthusiastic about you, so they still don't attack you?"

"I've said it earlier, those guys know nothing. They haven't researched anything for a long time. We should have taken over early in the morning."

"Come, come, take this stone..."

He Xingwen is very used to being a tool man, but this time the situation is different, so he cast a blank look at Wu Xing who was outside the crowd.

"It's okay, it's just some ether related cooperation." Before Wu Xing spoke, a white coat explained enthusiastically: "Why do you attract mutant creatures? Isn't there any progress? Coincidentally, we recently discovered that this ether Stone veins actually have a special attraction to mutated creatures."

The other party pointed to the mine behind him and said: "When this mine was first excavated, everything was normal. After all, it is close to the city and not so remote. The nearby mutant creatures have been cleaned up long ago, but continue to dig underground. At that time, I encountered a bunch of mutated creatures, wave after wave came..."

"This is very abnormal, so we pondered that mutant creatures may have a more sensitive perception of ether. Dr. Wang's research manual also mentioned this point. Animals' instincts are sometimes more reliable than humans, so we focused on this situation. Put forward a new guess, could your extraordinary attraction to mutant creatures be due to this reason?"

The white coat looked at He Xingwen with bright eyes and said, "There is something wrong with the ether in your body!"

He Xingwen was stunned for a while, then said dryly: "It does sound very likely..."

Wu Xing squeezed into the crowd and patted He Xingwen on the shoulder: "You are the real chosen one."

He Xingwen turned his head and showed Wu Xing a difficult smile: "It's a little sudden, I have to take it slow."

Wu Xing could understand his feelings. Who would have thought that after two years of being a person who lacked ether perception, he would now turn into the crux of the problem?

"Slowly, slow down while cooperating with the experiment."

He Xingwen has become a tool man again. If the only thing that can comfort He Xingwen in this series of bad news is that their research has not yet made a breakthrough, and it is impossible to find the real reason why He Xingwen attracts mutant creatures. Lift off He Xingwen's vest.

When He Xingwen instructed an action to cooperate with the experiment, there was a sudden violent sound in the mine.

He Xingwen subconsciously glanced at the mine.

I saw those "security personnel" who looked like background boards near the mine took up all kinds of weapons in their hands, and aimed at the mine one after another.

Amid more and more intense noises, a group of people rolled out of the mine.

In the next second, gunshots rang out, and the intense firepower intertwined into a dense net, covering the entire mine exit.

The excitement that was so close at hand didn't attract the slightest attention from the white coats, and they continued to direct He Xingwen: "Raise your hand."

He Xingwen raised his hand, his eyes still on the group of people.

The firepower net lasted for a while before it ended.

As for the group of people who rolled out of the mine... He Xingwen took a cursory look and found many acquaintances.

After Wu Xing briefly communicated with them, the group left in another direction.

When He Xingwen finished cooperating with the experiment and went to the staff cafeteria for dinner hungry, Wu Xing took the initiative to bring up the previous episode.

"The team that came to train the theory of superconductivity," Wu Xing buried his head in his meal, and said while eating, "Does it look familiar? We have traveled to sea with us before."

He Xingwen focused on cooking.

Wu Xing continued: "There are a lot of mutated creatures in these veins, so I will use them as refresh points to improve their combat effectiveness as soon as possible. The sea has been quiet for a few days, and new mutated creatures have appeared again."

The reason why the sea was quiet for a few days was because the wave of mutated creatures that He Xingwen led away was emptied by a devastating blow, but the tenacious vitality of the creatures was there. The old life died, and a new life was born.

He Xingwen continued to cook without any other distraction, his thoughts were all on another matter.

Wu Xing: "By the way, I have a meeting tonight. Do you want to sit in? Or should I send you back?"

He Xingwen put down his chopsticks: "What happened?"

"Concentrate on the relevant clues of His Majesty the King."

If He Xingwen had heard this content before today, He Xingwen would definitely not be interested, but today is different, He Xingwen, whose vest is in danger, has finally developed some sense of crisis.

So, after a while, He Xingwen entered the discussion as an observer.

Unexpectedly, the scale of the seminar was huge, including many foreigners, and it was a global discussion.

He Xingwen looked around at the number of people present and was stunned. This is not everyone who participated in the discussion, and many of them participated in the discussion through remote meetings.

The total number of people participating in the conference was as high as several thousand, but He Xingwen could understand why Wu Xing could easily bring him in.

A very simple truth, the more people involved, the lower the level of confidentiality.

After all, the more people there are, the higher the possibility of news leaking.

Seeing so many people, He Xingwen was not interested, but they all came...

The scene was chaotic for a while, and then slowly entered the topic. After a general introduction of the disappearance of His Majesty the King, the chatter immediately broke out.

"His Majesty still hasn't responded."

"No relevant information has been traced."

"Suspicious targets have been ruled out to No. 10444."

"The official website of the holographic game has not traced the traces of the administrator's access."

As He Xingwen expected, this large-scale discussion of related information collection did not contain much useful information. Instead, it just kept repeating bad news without any gains, mixed with suspicion and attacks on each other, It really serves no purpose other than wasting time.

The discussion didn't last long and ended quickly.

Seeing the screens of those teleconferences dim one by one, He Xingwen was shocked, and poked Wu Xing: "Can I go back?"

Wu Xing cleaned up the things on the table, and gave He Xingwen a look: "No, it's officially started."

When only one of us was left, the conversation became straightforward, and finally involved the term "different world".

"How's the situation over there?"

"It's still the same. There has been no news from His Majesty the King. Their emotions are very stable. They have always held blind loyalty to His Majesty. Even if His Majesty is not around, they are faithfully fulfilling His Majesty's previous orders."

"This is probably why His Majesty the King disappeared without hesitation. After all, he doesn't have to worry about accidents in the kingdom because of his absence."

"It is not yet determined whether His Majesty the King disappeared out of his own will, or an accident."

"I don't think anything will happen to His Majesty the King."

"There is no point in arguing about this. This meeting is held because we have made new progress."

"What progress?"

"The Undead Emperor has the latest news about His Majesty the King."

"Undead Emperor? Have we finally contacted the Undead Emperor?"

"what news?"

"The king went down to the world projection to meet the great scientist, for the 'key'."

"So, this means... His Majesty the King hasn't returned yet?"

"This is the most likely reason. After all, he disappeared so suddenly. I believe that based on our tacit understanding with His Majesty, even if he wants to let go, he will give corresponding hints and let us prepare."

Someone suddenly reacted: "Is there a list of missing persons for the past two years?"

"Already verified one by one."

He Xingwen sat in the crowd and scratched his head.

Although there was no one in the house, He Xingwen rushed home and lay down on the cold bed to talk to He Tong.

"You heard everything?"

"You don't have much time left," He Tong planned rationally: "Humanity's research on the ether is progressing very rapidly, and sooner or later we will discover your problems."

He Tong: "Actually, as far as I know, they have already helped you transport the holographic game pod from the rented house. Considering your particularity, if you play games with people from the Special Bureau, It will be an interesting scene then.”

He Xingwen sighed: "Yes, it must be very interesting."

"What are you going to do?"

"Look again..." He Xingwen turned over, "I haven't made up my mind yet."

"It's easy to fool them, if you want," He Tong said, as always, "they will never find His Majesty the King."

"Even if they find His Majesty the King, it's not a big problem, and it won't affect me." He Xingwen sat up, resting his hand on his chin, thoughtfully: "I'm just thinking about what is that vast world you are in? appearance."

"It's just a bigger world," He Tong said in a flat tone, "You're curious...do you want to see it with your own eyes?"

"Humanity's longing for the vast universe can never be erased, not to mention that it is so close," He Xingwen did not deny it, but said: "It is difficult for me to restrain my instinctive curiosity."

He Tong said objectively: "That is too far away and too dangerous for you."

He Xingwen: "So I am waiting for the moment when it becomes neither far away nor dangerous for me."

Huge data trembled, forming a new judgment, He Tong paused for a few seconds: "So, you let them look at the ambitious new world?"

He Xingwen thought for a moment, and said, "I prefer to call it an inevitable process of civilization evolution."

He Tong chuckled: "A more distant new world... a very ambitious plan, what do you plan to do next?"

He Xingwen blinked his eyes, as if he saw the surging stream of data in the dark, and it looked so unified.

"Wait patiently...then hand the 'key' to the person most likely to open that door."