Chapter 314: Which Wheeze and Cillin, Exactly? [Part 2]
Shi Tang and Sha Rou’s home was quite big. In fact, everyone who lived in this secluded ruins enjoyed huge living spaces because of one reason: most of the soil at this place contained radioactive elements, toxic substances or both, so anyone who wished to live here must possess the knowledge to neutralize both threats.
Shi Tang and Sha Rou’s home was shielded as a matter of course. Otherwise, they would be dead in less than half a year.
It was a short but wide building that occupied hundreds of square meters of land. At first glance it didn’t look like anything special, but a person of the trade would notice that the machines that were assembled from shoddy materials were pretty functional.
Sha Rou was just giving Shi Tang his medicines when Cillin entered the building. The young man holding a cup and downing the medicines was less than twenty years old, and yet he was as thin as bones, as pale as death, and almost completely bald. His eyes looked horribly sunken, and his nostrils had traces of unwiped blood because he suffered uncontrollable nosebleeds every time his illness worsens. His skin also darkened when his illness worsens, said Sha Rou.
Sha Rou talked to Shi Tang about Cillin, and the latter took his time to gather his thoughts. Although his complexion looked terrible, Cillin could sense a kind of obsession residing in his sunken eyes. If Cillin hadn’t promised that he would take them away from this planet, Shi Tang most likely would’ve rejected his offer.
He didn’t want Sha Rou to risk her life in the cities anymore.
Cillin didn’t press Shi Tan to answer immediately, taking his time to observe the interior of the building. There were plenty of old electrical equipment in the house, and most of them were probably discarded machines that Shi Tang took back home from the garbage yard to sell for money. Unlike Sha Rou, Shi Tang didn’t have the health to venture into the city and make a living.
Suddenly, Cillin’s gaze stopped at an old, modified microcomputer. It was probably wrong to call it a microcomputer because it was five or six times bigger than the standard microcomputer due to a tonne of modification.
In the past, repairing broken electrical equipment was Shi Tang’s only source of income. After Cillin’s “Return” forum appeared, he found a new source of income via answering some of the bounty questions posted in the forums. It also came with the benefit of being able to watch the debates of industrial experts and absorb knowledge from it.
There was also a drawing board with a lot of formulas written on it. Through them Cillin could see that Shi Tang possessed deep understanding in the topic and great computational skills.
It was at this moment Cillin’s wrist communicator vibrated once. He looked down, pressed a button and read the encoded message the robot he sent away on an investigation left him.
“I want to know why you picked me,” Shi Tang said. He wasn’t one of those stubborn and reclusive researchers; he was well accustomed to many worldly affairs.
“You possess the potential.” Cillin pointed at the second formula on the drawing board. “The fact that you are using this formula means that you’re halfway to success.”
Shi Tang paused. “Forgive me for being suspicious, but I just couldn’t believe that someone would offer us such fantastic conditions. We’ve lived here for over a decade, but no one has ever made us an offer like this until now, especially because I’ve never received a proper education in my life, not even primary level education. I don’t think that anyone will acknowledge someone like me.”
It was true that the current academia valued one’s educational credentials very much, so much that they overlooked countless young talent because of it. It was one of the issues Cillin had pointed out with greater criticism than normal during the presentation at San Calombo.
Cillin waited until Shi Tang was done speaking before grabbing a medicine bottle. “Do you know what this medicine is?”
Shi Tang looked at Sha Rou, but Sha Rou looked just as confused as he was. He answered, “I’m not familiar with medicine. Sha Rou’s the one who’s been buying my meds all this time.”
Every once in a while, Sha Rou would travel to the city to stock up on Shi Tang’s medicine, but that was just one of her objectives in the city. Shi Tang had no idea that she was secretly dealing with gangs like Myriad Sea City and Fox Wolf, just as he had no idea that his younger sister had killed over hundreds of people for the past decade.
Cillin knew this because Sha Rou told him to keep it secret earlier. Just when Sha Rou was wondering worriedly that Cillin might break his promise, he continued, “Do you know how much these medicines really worth?”
He pointed at the rest of the medicines on the table. “You can buy a good flying car with them.”
Clack!
Shi Tang’s metal cup hit the floor with a clang as he turned to stare at Sha Rou in shock. Since when were they rich enough to afford such expensive medicines?! However, he immediately realized that his sister was wearing the same expression as him.
“How can this be?” Sha Rou murmured in a daze.
“What I’m trying to say is that someone has been keeping taps on you all this time. These medicines are so-so in terms of effectiveness: not good enough to heal you, but good enough to keep you alive. I probably don’t need to tell you how dangerous the electromagnetic fields, radiations and other hazards you’re exposed to every time you conduct your experiments, not to mention that you barely have any safety measures in place at all.”
Sha Rou and Shi Tang abruptly recalled the day they bought these medicines three years ago. At the time they found the new medicines they bought surprisingly effective compared to the others, and they had stuck to the same medication since. This meant that this mysterious person had been keeping taps on them for three years at minimum, and they had no idea about it until Cillin told them!
Sha Rou jumped to her feet. “Who was it? Was it Fox Wolf? Or was it Myriad Sea City? What do they want with my brother’s research?!”
Even Shi Tang knew how powerful the people of Fox Wolf and Myriad Sea City were. The best way to break ties with them was to not get involved with them in the first place.
“No wonder… no wonder I was able to find those materials… hehehe… it was all a setup from the beginning.” Shi Tang clutched his pain in agony. The reason he literally risked his life to conduct his research was in hopes of escaping the environment and life they were stuck in, but now he was told that he had been living in the hands of those slavers since a long time ago! How could he possibly swallow his fury knowing this!?
The worst part was that their mysterious “backer” watched them, but didn’t provide them with the research conditions and environment he really needed to conduct his research. This meant that they didn’t really value him, and that the “help” was more like charity than anything. Oh, your research looks pretty interesting. I suppose I can toss you a bone or two.
The atmosphere in the house turned gloomy instantly. Shi Tang didn’t fully trust Cillin either. It was because he thought that he was the same as those slavers who discriminated against aliens.
Wheeze flicked its ears before yawning in boredom. Suddenly, it looked at the shabby microcomputer Shi Tang used and asked, “Hey Shi… Shi… well whatever. I’m bored, so let me play on your microcomputer for a bit, okay? Don’t worry about me and just enjoy your conversation.”
Shi Tang’s head was a mess right now, so he paid the gray cat no heed. Wheeze took his silence as affirmation and jumped off Cillin’s shoulder, climbing up the table and sitting in front of the shabby microcomputer. It then pressed a couple of keys and entered the login page to “Return”. It was an act; it could obviously manipulate the machine data without physical contact, but it didn’t want to show it off in front of outsiders.
Wheeze grew angry when it saw what was going on in its category.
“Meow dammit! I’m only gone for a couple of days, and these bastards are already threatening to overthrow me!?” Wheeze shook its tail in annoyance.
Shi Tang finally looked at Wheeze because it was worried that the cat would damage its one and only microcomputer. However, he was astonished when he saw the screen.
“You frequent ‘Return’ too?” Shi Tang stared at Wheeze curiously before walking over for a closer look. The second he saw the login ID and the blinking image on the screen, he froze like a statue.
“Whebeze?” Shi Tang almost stuttered out the syllables. He could hardly believe his own eyes.
If there could only be one famous person in the free style debate category, then Whebeze had to be it. There was no one hadn’t heard of “Whebeze” because they were the legendary figure who “argued” with a couple of legendary academicians until they fainted from sheer frustration since the foundation of the forum. A lot of people guessed that Whebeze was a member of the RAS, but no one in the RAS confirmed nor denied the suspicions. It was because they would be dragging their own reputation through the mud if they admitted that Whebeze wasn’t an affiliate of theirs, and contributing to the cases of civilian experts scoring one over a well known researcher. Therefore, a lot of people mistakenly thought silence as tacit admission.
But now, Shi Tang felt like someone had nailed a hammer to his head? Was this cat really the legendary “Whebeze”? The legendary figure who had hordes of fans cheering them from behind every time they entered a debate? Really?!
Shi Tang’s face scrunched together in disbelief again and again.
The person—or rather the cat in question itself paid Shi Tang’s reaction no heed because it was busy arguing with the “dissenters”. Its appearance caused the already lively free style debate area to explode in population in an instant, and countless people were still pouring in from other categories.
Shi Tang had no choice but to believe that Whebeze really was a cat after seeing this.
However, his attention was quickly pulled toward the ongoing debate. Every time he was engaged in a purely academic argument, he could literally feel the adrenaline in his body pumping into his vein. It was just such an exciting atmosphere! Severely underpriced medicine? Mysterious mastermind? None of it mattered to Shi Tang anymore as he immersed himself completely in the debate.
“Oh my meow, this old fool is still denying his mistake! His matrix equation is wrong, dammit! Cillin, we need to punish him severely! Senior professor my ass, more like incompetent con artist!” Wheeze complained while typing the correct matrix equation with its paws.
Cillin?
Cillin!!?
Out of all the names in Shi Tang’s dictionary, the name “Cillin” was absolutely among the top. It was to the point where his mind went boom the second he heard it from the gray cat.
“Wh… which Cillin?” Shi Tang’s contorted features loosened. His words were rapid and brimming with excitement.
No footage of the presentation at the twenty third star region had been transmitted, or more accurately no existing footage had survived the clean up. As a result, no one—not even in Return—had ever seen a photo or video of Cillin. It became a legendary name that many insiders heard of, but no one had ever seen before.
However, those who attended the San Calombo academic presentation in person and listened to the whole thing would sometimes speak of the content that was deleted from public eyes. To many people—especially those oppressed young researchers who were stuck at the bottom and dreaming impossible dreams—Cillin was a living myth of the academia.
Shi Tang’s breathing grew more and more rapid. Even before Return was founded, Shi Tang had already heard of Cillin. At the time, his name was only spread in localized areas and specific industries, especially those that dabbled in the research of virus. But after the latter half of the presentation was spread by mouth, more and more people started to hear about the man named Cillin. Then, Return entered the world and caused another storm in the academia and made Cillin into the idol of countless aspiring youngsters. Even Sha Rou, an outsider in regards to the academia had heard of Cillin from Shi Tang; a man who achieved many great things despite being only a couple of years older than them.
While Shi Tang was pumping with excitement, Cillin suddenly look to the entrance and asked, “Why are you skulking behind the dorr? Come in already.”
A round, mechanical head poked through the gap. Then, Moon walked in with a body language that oozed embarrassment.
“Hello, I heard that it’s customary to bring gifts when visiting someone’s home the first time, so, please accept this,” Moon said “politely”.
Cillin felt a muscle twitch in his face. He could have sworn that he had seen Moon’s “gift” from somewhere.