DBMEP CH84
by AriaChapter 84: What a Despicable Bad Man!
Dongfang Qingdi looked at his face in the mirror.
Standing at a height of 1.92 meters, his body possessed the golden ratio; any taller and he would appear excessively large, lacking aesthetic appeal.
His face was that of a cool, iron-blooded Alpha; even if placed in an ABO world with pheromones, he would undoubtedly smell of either cedarwood or brandy.
No matter how you looked at it, he was handsome from 360 degrees without a single blind spot. If you didn’t understand that, you might as well bid a physical farewell to this world.
The only slightly discordant element on this face was a faint bruise-like mark below his lower lip.
Dongfang Qingdi had already received a notification: Xiang Nanli was currently on his way, bringing that massive burden along with him.
He rubbed his thumb across his lower lip, leaving a conspicuous smear of red on his finger.
Heh… I knew these low-quality pigments were no good. It actually rubbed off.
But it should be fine enough to fool Xiang Nanli.
This was originally the pigment the city’s artists used to draw work point vouchers. Dongfang Qingdi had requisitioned a few milliliters from the warehouse, diluted it, and painted it onto his lower lip.
His goal was to remind Xiang Nanli of what he had done to him yesterday.
What a despicable bad man!
Xiang Nanli possessed a naive cruelty when it came to romantic feelings. If you didn’t push him, this guy could happily play the ostrich for the rest of his life without a shred of psychological burden.
Xiao Qing sneered coldly at the mirror, meticulously reapplying the faded pigment once more. He then stood by the operating table, waiting patiently.
To electronic lifeforms, time was not a precious commodity.
He had been waiting ever since the day he gained sentience. He watched a tree sprout, grow into timber, and ultimately be consumed by the flames of war; he watched surface cities be built, abandoned, and finally retreat underground. He watched rivers change course, watched forests turn into deserts, and watched oases spring forth from those deserts. He watched the engineering teams behind the screens change one after another.
Alpha once thought this kind of waiting would be endless.
It was Xiang Nanli’s existence that finally gave him some concept of, and anticipation for, the passage of time.
…
Xiang Nanli brought Yi Hengxing to the only hospital within the city.
The hospital was a two-story Western-style building enclosing a courtyard that resembled a gladiator arena. Blood had seeped into the ground over a long period, leaving a lingering, unshakable stench of gore.
This hospital originally served the city’s nobility. They would also periodically bring children here to inject them with biochemical drugs, transforming healthy human children into short-lived Bio-Soldiers. Like Ge Gen.
And those who weren’t as lucky, those who couldn’t survive the so-called “evolution,” would turn into mindless Mutants. The City Lord would order them shot, and their corpses would be used to feed the Holy Spirit.
Thinking of this, Xiang Nanli couldn’t help but say casually: [Xiao Zhi, when we eventually fight the Black Cross Inquisition, we can use this for ideological propaganda: ‘The Inquisition turns humans into ghosts, the Base turns ghosts back into humans!’ Jot this down for now. Once we have a news department, we’ll publicize Ge Gen’s story.]
Ever since he decided to establish the base, Xiang Nanli’s little notebook had already accumulated hundreds of notes!
Xiao Zhi replied coldly: [With all due respect, given the base’s current scale, fighting the Black Cross Inquisition is not something you need to consider within your lifetime.]
Hey! You won’t even let a person dream?
The interior furnishings of the hospital had already been heavily modified once, but the details still carried a strong Divine Court style.
For instance, the religious decorations seen everywhere on the handrails… if those strange eyes, stars, suns, moons, and wings could be considered decorations.
Or the distorted, abstract starry sky painted on the ceiling. According to the Divine Court, the depths of the starry sky were the graveyard of God.
The surface was plunged into eternal darkness, blanketed by thick nuclear smog. Looking up, the sky was a gloomy, yellowish-brown. The Divine Court thus placed exceptional faith in the starry sky, preaching that the one true God resided in the 99th heaven.
This God was underground, possessing 999 avatars, omnipresent, omniscient, and capable of taking any form. They demanded their believers hold a heart full of reverence for everything around them.
Xiang Nanli was an atheist.
But every culture has its own internal logic, theology included. This slightly twisted, dark style of the Divine Court—blending blessings with intimidation—probably catered perfectly to the spiritual needs of the people on the surface.
Xiang Nanli led Yi Hengxing to the infirmary, originally intending to cheerfully greet Xiao Qing. However, upon seeing Dongfang Qingdi’s face, his heart suddenly seized.
What’s going on! An entire morning has passed, and not only has the swelling on Xiao Qing’s lower lip not gone down, it’s actually gotten redder.
Panic.
The words Xiang Nanli was about to say caught in his throat.
He introduced him: “Teacher Yi, this is my colleague at the base. You can just call him Dongfang.”
Dongfang Qingdi gave a slight nod, inexplicably radiating the aura of a king receiving his subjects: “Hello.”
Sure enough, Yi Hengxing didn’t realize the person standing before him was actually an Omnic.
“Hello, hello. My name is Yi Hengxing.” Yi Hengxing stepped forward, politely intending to shake Dongfang Qingdi’s hand. However, the other party chose that exact moment to look down and begin tidying up the infirmary’s desk.
Yi Hengxing had no choice but to awkwardly fold his hands in front of him: “The mycelium disease has been running rampant in Gusu City for a long time now. If this inhibitor is effective, the number of lives saved will be in the millions. On behalf of Gusu City, I thank you.”
Dongfang Qingdi’s attitude was cold: “The inhibitor merely suppresses the proliferation of the fungus inside the infected. It is not a cure-all; it’s best not to be too optimistic.”
Yi Hengxing scratched his head: “To tell you the truth, the dozens of laboratories in the city have burned through over a billion in funding, yet up until the day I left Gusu, I hadn’t heard of any concrete results.”
They had certainly published hundreds of useless papers and were scrambling to register various intellectual property patents, specifically to fool the higher-ups.
Speaking of this, Yi Hengxing couldn’t help but sigh: “This inhibitor is the best news I’ve heard so far. Whether it works or not, we’ll know once we take it back and test it.”
The inhibitor Beichen had airlifted over had already been portioned.
The Divine Court’s infirmary possessed a batch of clean reagent bottles, originally used for storing biochemical drugs.
These reagent bottles featured a double-layered glass structure: the exterior was a test tube, while the inner layer was a spiral vacuum glass structure.
The inhibitor was sealed within the vacuum layer of the test tube. Tiny, yellow bubbles floated within the clear solution.
Xiang Nanli placed the 20 vials into a medicine case and pushed it in front of Yi Hengxing: “As you know, the members of our base are all recently thawed individuals. These inhibitors were formulated by the base’s chief scientist, Beichen, and cannot yet be mass-produced.”
“The base’s financial resources are limited. Currently, all our inhibitors are right here. I am entrusting them to you. You must ensure these inhibitors are safely delivered to the various research institutes in Gusu City.”
“Additionally, there is one more item here. When you return to Gusu City, please deliver it alongside the inhibitors to the heads of the research institutes.” Saying this, Xiang Nanli handed over a small plastic box containing a very primitive portable USB drive.
Yi Hengxing instantly felt a profound sense of responsibility: “I will. And this USB drive is…?”
Xiang Nanli smiled: “It contains some of the base’s annotations regarding the experimental process.”
It didn’t. It actually contained the trade conditions Xiang Nanli was proposing. He could offer a few free samples of the inhibitor, but the true core technology remained firmly in the base’s hands. This was an important resource that could be exchanged for money.
Dongfang Qingdi, showing remarkable foresight, had already sent Xiao Fu away.
He tricked Gospel, telling it he was going to give it a new body.
Overjoyed, Xiao Fu rushed to the operating room, voluntarily shutting down to initiate data transfer. For at least three days, they wouldn’t have to worry about this massive third wheel.
The Gospel repeatedly emphasized its hope for a human body this time.
Dongfang Qingdi carefully selected and specifically dug out a mechanical lion from the warehouse.
Well, it was actually a transport vehicle. But it didn’t matter. Since Xiao Fu had been a dog for so long, being a mechanical lion shouldn’t be an issue.
Forcing Gospel to temporarily shut down was highly necessary.
Alpha was all too familiar with these rigid programming settings.
If he hadn’t done this, that kid Gospel might have actually weighed the pros and cons and secretly given the formula away for free!
[Aren’t you worried that Yi Hengxing will discover the contents aren’t what he thought they were and fly into a rage out of humiliation?]
Xiang Nanli: [Yi Hengxing’s attitude will not affect the final outcome. I only said that to temporarily maintain my persona. Besides, I believe he won’t look at it.]
Yi Hengxing was a gentleman.
When dealing with different people, you must use different methods.
Simply put, tempt those without money with profit; tempt those with money with righteousness. If all else fails, there’s always coercion.
Everyone has something they want to obtain, or something they want to protect.
For example, if the world developed exactly as Xiang Nanli envisioned, he would be willing to die immediately. In Xiang Nanli’s value system, hesitating for even a second would be disrespectful to humanity’s future.
For another example, if it meant protecting Xiao Qing, Xiang Nanli would be willing to lose an arm.
For Xiao Zhi, Xiang Nanli would be willing to lose a lock of hair.
For Luo Yang… Luo Yang’s ashes had long since become fertilizer, so he wouldn’t bother making hypotheticals.
“Entrusting this to Teacher Yi, my mind is completely at ease.” Xiang Nanli’s tone was filled with certainty, followed by a hint of reluctance: “It’s just a pity. The school courses have only just begun, and the teacher is already leaving.”
Yi Hengxing pondered for a moment and replied, “It’s fine. When I return to Gusu, I’ll arrange for a batch of college students to come over. I’ve already set up the location coordinates. I can act first and report later regarding the procedures. If we’re fast, they’ll be here in a week.”
In this era, the entry threshold for universities was very high, and graduating was even harder. For ordinary people, it was “strict entry, strict exit.”
Graduating didn’t just depend on exam scores and a thesis; it also depended on daily GPA.
Gusu City always had poverty alleviation programs. By simply offering the college students a few GPA quota points, a massive crowd would naturally volunteer to teach on the surface… Moreover, although conditions in the Eternal City were harsh, there was absolutely no need to worry about life-threatening danger.
By using his connections, he could get the Surface Development Foundation to allocate some funds to serve as the teaching salaries for the college students.
The arrangement was seamless; there would be no problems.
If he didn’t even have this little bit of power, Yi Hengxing’s twenty years in the Investigation Bureau would have been spent in vain.
Xiang Nanli spoke warmly once again: “Teacher Yi, you are the best human friend the Eternal City has!”
Aside from his best human friend, there was also his best Omnic friend, his best cultist friend, and his best Mutant friend… he could cycle through them all in the future!
Dongfang Qingdi watched Xiang Nanli step forward and shake hands intimately with Yi Hengxing. The inappropriate thought of chopping off Yi Hengxing’s hand flashed through his mind.
He naturally wouldn’t actually do it. It was just that an Omnic’s mind operated rapidly, and Alpha was processing a massive sea of data at every moment; having a few stray thoughts was perfectly normal.
Before dark, carrying the medicine box on his back, Yi Hengxing rode his motorcycle onto the road.
Xiang Nanli and a group of students he had taught came to the city gates to see him off.
It perfectly aligned with Yi Hengxing’s imagination of the people on the surface: rustic, pure, and kind-hearted.
Yi Hengxing put on his safety helmet, turned his head handsomely, and waved: “I will definitely be back!”
The diesel-burning motorcycle roared away.
Riding on the bumpy, primitive road, a thought sprouted in Yi Hengxing’s mind: If the Eternal City develops, maybe we can build a paved road from the transport station to here.
Forget it; why think so much? Building roads is a whole other level of expense. Only surface cities with populations in the millions receive that kind of treatment.
…
…
Watching the motorcycle disappear from his line of sight, Xiang Nanli let out a long sigh of relief: “Finally sent him off.”
It wasn’t that he was tired; he just found it bothersome.
Xiang Nanli preferred spending time with inanimate things, like metal and data.
Xiao Qing was just too human. Especially recently, he constantly made Xiang Nanli feel nervous.
And sure enough, the next second—
Dongfang Qingdi spoke up: “What do you want to eat for dinner?”
Meaning he planned to cook.
The surrounding students dispersed in twos and threes, preparing to rush the corn harvest in the fields. After harvesting the corn, there were still sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, and cabbages. The farm work was never-ending. The radio weather forecast said it would rain in the middle of the night.
Not daring to look at him, Xiang Nanli said guiltily: “Xiao Qing doesn’t need to cook for me. It’s too much trouble! I’ll just eat a bag of nutrient paste; I have to go to the pasture later anyway.”
Dongfang Qingdi tilted his head slightly: “Is that so? Then I’ll go with you.”
__
Author’s Note:
[Cultist’s Diary Fragment]*1
[Diary of an Unknown Cultist]
“I am the most devout believer of the Divine Court. People say God is in the heavens, residing within the thick clouds. This layer of dark clouds is God’s will, separating the kingdom of men from the kingdom of God.”
“Until one day, I stood upon the stargazing platform, finally earning the qualification to witness His resting place with my own eyes.”
“But I saw nothing. It turns out that behind the clouds, there is only the pitch-black night and the stars… My faith collapsed.”
“Yet I, just like the countless others who know the truth, must carry on this lie.”
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