Volume 11: Memetic Crisis Chapter 564: A Natural Result
"What the old man said makes sense."
As Ke Lan responded, she felt the smooth and delicate touch in her hand. She couldn't help but carefully look at this little foot that looked like a work of art, and then subconsciously pinched it.
The force was neither light nor heavy, but it still left a few faint red marks on the surface of the snow-white skin.
Suddenly, a cry came from above.
Sofia's face felt a little hot. She wanted to pull her feet out of Ke Lan's hands, but found that she couldn't do it.
"How come this person is so strong? He... doesn't mean he wants to..."
She struggled internally for a moment, then simply closed her eyes and stopped resisting.
Ke Lan observed the young lady's expression from the corner of his vision. He saw that her eyes were slightly closed, her long eyelashes fluttered from time to time, and her cheeks were slightly flushed.
She has a very fair complexion, so even if her face is just a little red, it still stands out.
Ke Lan suddenly felt that some of what Lao Gou said did not seem to be completely unreasonable.
After this series of events, Ke Lan suddenly felt an indescribable fatigue in his heart, and he suddenly wanted to relax completely.
There are many ways to relax: playing games, watching movies, working out, eating a big meal, and...
"Did it hurt you?" Ke Lan let go of his hand, stood up and asked.
"No." Although Ke Lan had stood up, Sofia's hands were still on his shoulders - considering her height, this action was not difficult and she didn't even need to stand on tiptoe.
Looking at the face so close to him, Ke Lan felt waves of warm breath on his face. The strange feeling was hard to describe in words... Two hundred doses of thunder beast medicine might not have any effect on him now, but this desire aroused by his own subjective consciousness was another matter.
The threat from the research institute has been lifted, and the attitude of the Undead Crew is relatively ambiguous - but no matter what, the "memetic contagion" incident has obviously sounded a wake-up call for them. Even if some individuals still have their own little calculations in mind, they should be more restrained in the days to come.
Ke Lan would never believe the statement that "if he failed, the undead crew would run away with the gene bank"... They definitely had other backup plans, but no matter how many backup plans they had, the losses of the research institute were real.
It is no exaggeration to say that this incident has damaged the foundation of the Ark and humanity. If the institute wants to return to the state before the incident, it will take at least a few years, or even longer.
As the saying goes, if you don't move forward, you will move backward... For the Ark, even a few years of stagnation is very dangerous... Especially since there is an unstable factor such as a heretical sect outside with a completely hostile stance.
Let the Undead Crew members worry about these things. Ke Lan closed his eyes tightly and temporarily put these messy thoughts behind him. Now, there was only one thought in his mind -
Eat. Drop. Her.
Ke Lan took a deep breath, picked up Sofia's body and carried her horizontally, then walked quickly towards the stairs.
Many things do not actually require a special opportunity, just like now, Zofia buried her head in Ke Lan's shoulder, with her arms around his neck, looking extremely submissive... Everything that follows will naturally fall into place.
But what made Ke Lan speechless was that just when he was carrying the beauty and preparing to go upstairs, he heard a burst of light footsteps behind him - at this moment, Ze Luo actually followed.
"..." In Ke Lan's heart, the most correct thing to do at this time was to let go of Zofia and find a way to divert Ze Luo's attention. As for that matter, he could just find another opportunity in the future... But for some reason, he didn't want to let go of this gentle body in his arms at all.
The girl followed him all the way to the bottom step of the stairs before stopping.
Ke Lan stared at her with eyes full of the four big words "No going upstairs". There was still no obvious expression on the face of the "three-no" girl, but a hint of grievance was revealed in her eyes.
"...Can I see it?" She thought for a moment and asked.
Obviously, she knew what Ke Lan and the others were going to do next.
Ze Luo has already understood this kind of knowledge very thoroughly through literature, but no matter how thorough she is, she has never seen it with her own eyes in reality.
Especially after Ke Lan's computer was hacked by the crew once, he deleted the resources stored in the hard drive. In this way, the girl had no chance to watch the actual combat scene.
"No." Ke Lan flatly refused.
"Then can I join?" Ze Luo asked an even more explosive question.
"This is even worse!" Ke Lan suddenly felt that there seemed to be something wrong with the way she educated Ze Luo.
"Oh." Ze Luo nodded and turned to walk towards the corridor on the right, which was connected to the villa's study, and was also the place where Ze Luo most often stayed in the eldest lady's house.
"She won't use her ability to spy on me, right?" Just as Ke Lan was thinking this, Sofia suddenly reached out and gently pinched his chest.
This action seemed to be urging him.
Ke Lan glanced at her and saw that the red on the young lady's face had spread down her neck...
Ke Lan bit her lips hard, and simply stopped thinking about Ze Luo. She used her knee to push open the half-closed door of the bedroom.
…
(I don’t know how many words are deleted here.)
…
At the same time, Fleet Zero.
"Why is my return application not approved?" Dr. Renee stared at the agent blocking the hangar door and asked aggressively. She looked like a lioness at the moment - so much so that the young agent kept glancing at the file box in her hand out of the corner of his eye. He always felt that this box made of aviation-grade aluminum alloy would be stuck to his face in the next second.
"This is a request from above." The young agent said with a bitter face, "I don't have the authority to let you return to the Ark... Not only you, but any member of the institute is forbidden to return to the headquarters."
"Above? Which above? The director of your Security Bureau or the Joint Parliamentary Group?" Dr. Renee continued to ask. Behind her, there were several researchers in white coats, and they formed a tense confrontation with a dozen Marines on the side.
"I'm just following orders. Please don't make things difficult for me, Doctor." said the young agent.
"But the problem is that I can't contact the institute's headquarters at all. Not even... Even the United Parliament Group rejected my request for communication. I have something urgent to do. Tell me, who should I contact?" Dr. Renee said very quickly. "I believe you also know that something happened at the institute's headquarters. I went back this time to rescue the precious experimental data. Every second you stop me is causing huge losses to the Ark. Can you bear this responsibility?!"
"I'm just following orders." The young agent repeated, "Only the team leader can contact the person who issued the order."
"Then where is your team leader?" Dr. Renee suppressed her anger, "Let him come out!"
"Team Leader...Team Leader has been missing for two days." The young agent was complaining in his heart. If Team Leader Cheng hadn't played missing, it wouldn't be his turn to deal with this situation now... The equipment clearly showed that Team Leader Cheng was still on the battleship, but the other agents in the team couldn't find him at all.
They had searched every possible place on the battleship, except for those areas where they did not have sufficient authority to enter. They had searched every corner at least three times, but they did not even see a shadow of Cheng Dongren.
Several agents finally came to the conclusion that Team Leader Cheng must have gone on a secret mission in which his whereabouts could not be revealed, and that this mission was most likely related to Officer Ke Lan - because not only was Cheng Dong missing, but that important figure had also disappeared.
For the Security Bureau, this kind of thing is not uncommon, so it is impossible for them to bypass the team leader and ask their superiors about this - even if they really did so, they would most likely not get a response.
"Since you are not allowed to know about this, it means that your authority level is not high enough to know about it." This was part of the instructor's lecture that they had memorized by heart on their first day on the job.
They are just the most basic field agents, and they are very aware of the extent of their authority.
Don't say what you shouldn't say, don't ask what you shouldn't ask... The disappearance of Team Leader Cheng Dong did not cause any waves in the 11th Field Team. After confirming that the team leader was following Ke Lan to perform a special mission, several agents of the 11th Field Team tacitly returned to their original posts.
Even if Team Leader Cheng really encountered something "unexpected", the people above would notify them without going through the team leader.
However, a day later, what they waited for was not the news from Team Leader Cheng, but an order issued by the Security Bureau headquarters over the head of the chain of command.
"All personnel affiliated with the research institute on Fleet Zero are prohibited from returning to the Ark. At the same time, all research projects are suspended and personnel are on standby and awaiting follow-up instructions."
That was all the content of the order, and the people above didn't even reveal the reason - but it didn't matter. As long as the source of the order had no mission, these agents would carry it out resolutely.
So much so that things have developed into the current situation.
"Missing?" Dr. Renee's voice rose a few degrees. "Is he hiding on purpose? In order to prevent us from returning, the Security Bureau really has no shame... They even resorted to such tricks!"
"He is really missing... My colleagues and I don't know where Team Leader Cheng is." The young agent replied. It was impossible to tell someone like Dr. Renee about carrying out a secret mission, so he could only insist that he was "missing."
"If I remember correctly, all of you field agents should have subcutaneous positioning systems provided by the Equipment Department, right? Bring me your positioning device!" Dr. Renee ordered.
"You have no right to give me orders." The young agent flatly refused. At this time, several other agents from the 11th Field Team also received the news and rushed to the hangar.
A total of eight security agents, along with a dozen marines on the warship, surrounded the group of white coats... Although they did not draw their guns, they had non-lethal equipment such as riot shields and electric batons in their hands. According to regulations, in this case, if a conflict broke out between the two sides, they were qualified to attack the people from the institute.
Of course, the prerequisite is that a conflict breaks out, and the other side has to take action first - if the Security Bureau and the Marines take action first, then when it comes time to hold them accountable, the situation will be very unfavorable for them.
The young agent who had previously negotiated with Dr. Renee signaled with his eyes to his colleagues who came to support him. Those agents immediately ran behind him, raised their riot shields, and together with the Marines, they blocked the entrance to the hangar tightly with a shield wall and a human wall.
"Fortunately, you provided timely support." The young agent breathed a sigh of relief, took a few steps back, and stood with his colleagues.
If the other party does not take action and just wants to force their way into the hangar, you can just use shields to block them - these researchers are at a disadvantage both in terms of numbers and personal physical fitness. If you were not afraid of their identities, you could just pick out a few Marines and beat down these people in white coats who have lacked exercise for years.
"Lao Bei, try to contact the team leader again and see if you can get through to him." The agent turned to his colleague next to him and said, "If they are unwilling to return, I'm afraid things will not end well."
The people in the research institute are not enemies. Not only that, from the perspective of Ark and all mankind, each of them can be considered a "very valuable asset." If possible, he still wants to avoid conflicts as much as possible.
But just when the agent named Lao Bei tried to contact Cheng Dong, a researcher standing behind Dr. Renee suddenly took out a metal can from his white coat and threw it towards the shield wall!
