Chapter 663: Extra 14

In the top-floor chairman's office at Fanghuan Group headquarters, the atmosphere was oppressively tense.
The secretary stood before the desk, reporting in a heavy voice:
"Chairman, something's happened.
We just received news that the Rebel Society, lurking in the shadows, launched an attack on our A-23 core development zone in Canada."
"What's the casualty situation?" Su Hao rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"Not optimistic. Preliminary statistics show over two hundred dead and injured on the spot..."
A deathly silence fell over the office.
Su Hao turned his swivel chair, looking at the bustling city outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, his heart filled with coldness.
Damn it, what kind of world is this?
Just because of so-called "different beliefs" and "incompatible ideologies," these lunatics can transform into the most ruthless beasts without any conscience, so casually robbing two hundred families of their happiness?
The longer he sat in this lonely, high position, the more Su Hao felt a deep inner turmoil tearing him apart.
Every time the blood of innocent people stained the earth, the heavy stench of blood seemed to remind him that all this sin stemmed from the grand reforms he had spearheaded.
"Pass the word: the compensation for the families of the victims will be double the highest level. Don't let the families feel disheartened.
Furthermore, send all the injured to our best hospitals. We must use the highest level of medical resources to fully cover their expenses."
Su Hao took a deep breath, his tone suddenly turning cold.
"And also, I spend so much money every year maintaining the 'Wildfire' security force—are they just sitting around doing nothing?"
"Is it really that difficult to clean up these rebellious individuals who haven't even had proper military training?"
"Chairman, please calm down. The 'Wildfire' unit and government forces from various countries have been working together to suppress them, but the problem is, these people are too cunning!
They employ decentralized, single-line communication and dispersed infiltration, communicating like rats in the sewers on the dark web, evading our surveillance system.
Moreover, they never stay in one place; they roam around, carrying out 'flash mob' terrorist attacks."
The secretary wiped the cold sweat from his brow.
"Often, we don't even see a shadow of them before they suddenly emerge from some hidden corner, drop their bombs, and run away.
This kind of guerrilla warfare, so difficult to defend against, puts us in an extremely passive position."
To avoid causing global panic and financial market turmoil, Fanghuan Group has been using its vast media resources to suppress the exposure of these terrorist attacks.
But the truth will eventually come out. In the unregulated abyss of the dark web, this storm of the Rebel Society is expanding its influence at an alarming rate.
The biggest weakness right now is that the enemy is in the shadows while we are in the open.
The enemy can always take a bite out of you from the most unexpected place, and even if you have world-destroying abilities, you can't find a target to lock onto.
Su Hao slammed his hand on the table:
"Send my order to the highest commander of 'Wildfire,' I don't care how much money he spends!
He must come up with a rapid-response defense system capable of [instant detection, absolute lock-on, and immediate annihilation]!
I cannot tolerate this continuing!"
"Yes, Chairman! I'll get on it right away!"
The secretary jumped in surprise and quickly pulled out another document.
"Oh, right, Chairman, here's another project list, encrypted and transmitted from the Gaia Research Center.
They said... they hope you can personally review it and select three projects as their next key research directions."
"Huh?" Su Hao's previous arrogance instantly deflated, his face filled with bewilderment. "What did you say was sent over?"
"This. And the sender is none other than Su Yun, the chief researcher at the Gaia Center."
'My precious genius son?'
Su Hao's eyes widened.
Since the establishment of the Gaia Research Center, those proud and arrogant scientific fanatics had never consulted him, the capitalist, on any strategic decisions regarding research direction.
But his own son had sent over a list of research projects?
And wanted him, an outsider, to decide the research direction?
Filled with suspicion, Su Hao turned his gaze to the summary of the list.
Sure enough.
The next second, he felt his retina being attacked.
"Research on the Effects of Unlimited Cell Proliferation and Entropy Reduction Based on Telomerase Reverse Transcription"
"Wide-area Atmospheric Ionization Induction and Planetary Climate Control Network"
"High-Energy Particle Beam Directed Transport and Space-Surface Energy Conversion Protocol"
...
What the hell is all this?!
The dense array of technical terms instantly gave him an extremely strong sense of temporal and spatial disorientation.
At this moment, it was as if time had reversed, and he was back to that morning when he first stepped into the Fanghuan Investment conference room, surrounded by elites wielding financial jargon he had never heard of before.
He recognized every single word, but put them together, he felt like it was a set of mystical black magic incantations used to summon Cthulhu.
"That brat, A-Yun... what the hell is he doing, sending me this incomprehensible book? Does he want his old man's hair to fall out fast enough?"
Just as Su Hao frowned and muttered this under his breath...
"Ding—!"
A sudden change occurred!
Without any warning, the previously static text on the list inexplicably burst into an extremely dazzling light in Su Hao's retina!
Not all the words were glowing, but three specific item names were flashing and jumping wildly as if they were alive!
As if they were frantically blinking at him, shouting:
Pick me! Pick me, sir!!
His intuition, the mysterious cheat code that had led him from the bottom to the top of the world, had finally demonstrated its miracle at this crucial moment!
Su Hao's lips twitched violently.
Fine, since the cheat code had already served him the food, why bother using his brain?
He picked up his pen, his eyes resolute, and with extremely elegant movements, drew three checkmarks on the three glowing items!
***
Gaia Research Center.
"What the hell?!"
Zhou Yi stared wide-eyed at the approval sent back from headquarters.
"Yes, Director, it's said to be a key strategic project approved by the Chairman himself, at the request of Team Leader Su Yun!"
In this research base, Su Yun's presence is like the light that tears through the long, dark night.
It was precisely because of this monstrous genius who single-handedly elevated the entire Earth's technological level that countless seemingly insurmountable obstacles to human technological progress were swiftly and decisively severed, like paper.
All the bottleneck projects that had stalled at the Gaia Center were also easily resolved.
Therefore, when Su Yun proposed leading a project independently, Zhou Yi not only wholeheartedly supported him but also granted him the privilege of mobilizing the entire Gaia Center's resources.
He even granted him special permission to skip the cumbersome approval process and directly request funding from headquarters.
"What did you just say?
Su Yun himself isn't even sure, yet he sent the list back to headquarters, wanting the chairman to personally approve what kind of research and development to undertake?"
Zhou Yi's expression became extremely interesting upon hearing the report.
“Absolutely true, Director.” The assistant swallowed hard.
“Moreover, of these 20 S-level candidate projects, the Chairman didn’t hesitate for even half a second. He precisely selected these three, and has already issued the highest directive to push them forward with all our might.”
Zhou Yi felt like he was about to have a meningitis attack.
The situation seemed to be heading in an extremely bizarre direction.
Because it concerned the life and death of humanity, the Gaia Center’s philosophy was always “professionalism determines everything.”
Even the wealthy Chairman only ever provided the funding, showing utmost respect for the experts’ opinions.
Normally, they were the ones who would prepare their research plans and then “beg” from headquarters. There was no reason for the busy, inexperienced Chairman to teach them how to do research.
Zhou Yi shook his head, thinking that this was probably some strange tacit understanding between the father and son.
“These are the three ‘handpicked’ projects?”
“Yes, Director.”
Zhou Yi frowned, carefully examining the contents of the three projects.
First: [Telomerase Reverse Transcription Reconstruction Engineering and Cell Immortality]
Second: [Artificial Atmosphere and Planetary Environment Reshaping]
Third: [Near-Earth Orbit Matrix High-Energy Beam Focusing and Targeted Energy Projection System]
"Wait a minute." Zhou Yi's gaze was fixed on the words in the third line.
"What the hell is this?"
Cell immortality? Understandable.
Although it has absolutely nothing to do with global warming, it's a technology pursuing immortality. Which tycoon doesn't want to live forever?
It can also solve human diseases incidentally, which fits the capitalist's cowardly nature.
An artificial atmosphere system? That's even better.
This is for the terraforming of Mars; the technology can be used to help Earth and combat the greenhouse effect.
This is a highly strategic plan.
But this third one…
Sending high-frequency energy beams from space to the ground?
What the hell is this?!