Chapter 16: Mothership

Seeing that Chu Cheng didn't speak, Chen Meiyue couldn't help but laugh. "Haha, don't worry about it. We have mature amnestic technology that can accurately erase relevant parts of memory based on keywords. Normally, we won't accidentally delete other necessary memories."

Chu Cheng noticed the limiting condition of "normal situations" and instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

"What about in unusual situations?"

"Uh... As I've said before, There are no absolutes in the world, and no matter how advance the technology is, it's inevitable that something might go wrong." Chen Meiyue tried to recall. "I remember once, seeing an unexpected situation. The boys who received the amnestics forgot that they were boys and developed gender identity disorder..."

"..."

" Harm, It's not a major issue." Chen Meiyue comforted him. "The chance of complications is low, and the procedure is generally successful. Also, there's nothing wrong with embracing femininity. These days, it's becoming more common for boys to be stylish and fashionable, and some can even outdo girls in that department..."

However, Chu Cheng's face showed a hint of disagreement, suggesting that he might not share my opinion.

Fortunately, he had already decided to join the gang, so the risk of this women's dress had to be left to other predestined people.

"So," Chu Cheng sized up the people who got out of the car, "Are you all strange people?"

"Yes." Chen Meiyue nodded.

"Then you... all have supernatural powers?"

"Ha, I hope It's as easy as you said?" Chen Meiyue said, "The spirit of the extraordinary will not be affected, and will not infect other people in any way. But relatively, the average infection coefficient of specific people is far lower than that of ordinary infected people. Specific individuals who can achieve an infection coefficient of more than 90% are rare. My coefficient is probably in the early 50s and Xiaotang's is 30%. Junpei is..."

When she said that, she got stuck and looked a little embarrassed at the driver who was watching the car.

"27%," the driver boy answered concisely.

"Ah yes, 27%, I remember."

This made Chu Cheng realize that he was not the only one who thought the driver was a little transparent.

"The highest among us is Detective Luo. He is 87%."

When Chen Meiyue introduced him, Chu Cheng peeked at the bald man in front of him. Luo Yajun was still humming a ditty, as if he didn't hear it.

He seemed to be humming the melody of the same song over and over all the way. Chu Cheng had never heard this melody, but he thought it sounded like an old song.

"This coefficient will reflect the depth of our influence. The deeper the degree, the more obvious the various special features. So generally speaking, the higher the coefficient, the more prominent the strength will be. Of course, this refers only to the quality of the hardware. Combat ability is all-round. Fighting skills, combat skills, use of weapons, combat awareness, and mindset will all determine the outcome."

Chu Cheng nodded to indicate that he understood. "So as long as they are well-trained, even a special person with a low infection coefficient can defeat an infected person with a higher coefficient than themselves," he repeated.

Isn't it just like leapfrogging to fight monsters? It's an old routine in novels, Chu Cheng thought. He simplified the leapfrog routine in the old novels, and it felt almost equivalent to challenging the second grade in the first grade of elementary school.

There is an insurmountable decisive gap between the second grade and the first grade; the second grade has mastered multiplication and division, while the first grade can only snap fingers. However, although the protagonist is only in the first grade, they are a top student. Their mental arithmetic ability is far superior to that of their peers, and they can instantly use numbers within fifteen to fight against the enemy.

In addition, the protagonist usually has a super plug-in calculator when they really can't do it, but it's too shocking and won't use it unless they have to.

The car stopped quickly in front of an inconspicuous two-story building surrounded by lush jungle. Chu Cheng got out of the car with a few people and walked through the gate.

"You seem a little disappointed?" Chen Meiyue looked at Chu Cheng with great interest. "Do you think our office building should be more grand?"

Chu Cheng didn't say anything, but he really thought so in his heart.

What they had said just now made their organization sound so powerful, like the ultimate line of defense to defend peace, but this two-story building looked like it was not as good as a village committee.

Chen Meiyue smiled and did not explain.

A group of people walked into the building. There was a duty room by the door, and the man on duty sat cross-legged in it, blowing a fan and reading the newspaper. He noticed that several people lazily raised their eyelids when they came in and then quickly resumed reading his newspaper.

Through the long corridor, there was an elevator at the end. Chu Cheng followed the three of them into the elevator and found that there were only two buttons, 1 and 2.

Chen Meiyue pressed a hidden mechanism, and the seemingly old metal plate separated, revealing a delicate dial with a nine-square grid code. With flying fingers, she entered a series of passwords, and then the elevator started operating by itself without counting the number of floors.

Chu Cheng felt the elevator going down and heading underground. He sensed that this was a common routine in film and television dramas. Awesome organizations often used inconspicuous buildings to cover up their real headquarters, such as the tailor shop in the movie "Kingsman". Their real bases were often hidden deep underground.

Just when he felt that he had seen through the truth, the elevator stopped its downward movement and started moving forward. Chu Cheng was confused and wondered if this was really an elevator that could drive forward underground.

When the elevator door opened along the sliding rails, Chu Cheng suddenly felt a change in his surroundings. In front of him was a long metal corridor with a pale metal luster reflected on the alloy walls. LED-like light strips spread along the corridor, giving it a sci-fi style that reminded him of bases buried deep in the ground in sci-fi movies.

The automatic door slid open, revealing a more sci-fi room. Futuristic technology-like floating screens floated in mid-air, and men and women in uniforms walked back and forth in the busy space.

Chu Cheng asked, "Is this your underground base?" Chen Meiyue smiled mysteriously and replied, "Not exactly."

"..."

A few minutes later, ripples appeared on the calm lake, and the birds on the shore spread their wings and flew away. The surface of the lake suddenly rose like a mountain peak, and 10,000 tons of water crashed back to the surface, resembling a giant black whale breaking through the water.

It was a giant beast made of steel and iron, shaped like an aircraft carrier.

But in a general sense, just as there are no cars in cherries and no wives in pancakes, aircraft carriers can't fly either. But this one was an exception.

The fan blades of the six turbine engines turned into afterimages at a speed invisible to the naked eye, and tons of water were evaporated into steam. The invisible propulsion flame lifted the big guy that covered the sky like an invisible palm, like a black cloud of steel.

Standing in a certain room of this behemoth, Chu Cheng watched tons of water fall against the porthole, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

"How about that?" Chen Meiyue asked, looking a little smug. "This is our mobile fortress, one of only five aircraft carriers in the world."

"..."

Chu Cheng couldn't help but think that this mothership looked like a sibling of the contraption from the S.H.I.E.L.D. studio.

To be honest, the sight of this mothership with several electric fans lifting it into the sky triggered some unpleasant associations for Chu Cheng. In the original work, Maria Hill, the deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D., lamented that the contraption was always on the brink of falling three times a week.

Strictly speaking, it's hard to blame them. Incomplete statistics from movies, TV shows, and fantasy works suggest that the only fate for such a powerful object flying in the sky is to inevitably crash, almost like a curse that cannot be avoided. It seems like a prevalent trope in popular media.

Perhaps because he has seen too many similar plots, Chu Cheng dislikes flashy things that fly in the sky. At this moment, the sci-fi-style contraption beneath him seems more like a flying coffin in his eyes. It's not surprising that such an object will meet its inevitable demise someday.

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HI guys! good day, Here's a chap before I go to school and If you are confused about the aircraft carrier suddenly appearing on the calm lake despite there being no mention of such lake earlier, it might help to imagine that the underground facility has a large pool in the middle that serves as an entrance to the sea. Think of it as an opening through which the carrier can submerge and emerge from.

Cuz I'm hella confused as well, That's all hope you guys have a good day!