Chapter 323: A Murder?
Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
The explosion in the tent area had caused the camp to panic. A lot of people were yelling that they wanted to return to the fallout shelter and there were even signs that it would evolve into conflict with the patrolling soldiers.
But Wang Zhaowu was rather decisive as he led the camp soldiers to defend the elevator entrance. He fired machineguns into the air to suppressive the signs of unrest and controlled the situation with his forceful action.
As the director of the camp, Xu Lu didn’t sit around. She used her charisma and positive image among the fallout shelter residents to gradually stabilize the residents’ emotion.
At the same time, the investigation for the cause of the explosion was rapidly in progress.
Not long after, a report was placed on Jiang Chen’s table.
21 wounded, five died, 17 tents destroyed.
The center of the explosion was close to Academician Qin; only two to three meters away. Further away, the soldiers managed to find the wreckage of a drone. Based on the pieces of evidence, it could be concluded that someone controlled a drone with a bomb towards Academician Qin’s tent before remotely detonating it.
It was a blatant murder, and the murder came from outside the tent.
But why?
Jiang Chen’s eyes were closed shut as he went into deep thought.
He couldn’t understand what would make an elder, who was already half a step inside his coffin, so hateful. Especially an elder that just came out of the fallout shelter.
Suddenly, he seemed to have caught onto something as he took out the black metallic sphere Academician Qin gave to him.
“Is it because of this?”
With a bomb, the person obviously didn’t want this thing. Someone wanted to destroy the communication coordinate with Zhenghe Ship? Of course, that was only a possibility. Another possibility was based on the consideration of Academician Qin’s identity. Someone wanted to eliminate the experimenter at Fallout Shelter 027…
Jiang Chen raised his eyebrows.
Someone knocked gently on the office door.
After throwing the “golden apple” into the storage dimension, Jiang Chen said, “Come in.”
Xu Lu pushed open the door and walked inside.
“The residents’ emotions have all been stabilized. New tents and supplies were provided to the residents that suffered losses. To the residents that suffered more severe wounds, they are transported to the fallout shelter for medical aid.”
“Great, you did well.” Jiang Chen nodded, validating her work.
Xu Lu humbly smiled as she waited for further instruction from Jiang Chen.
“Where is Wang Zhaowu?”
“He is personally patrolling with the team. Do you need me to find him?”
Jiang Chen shook his head, “No need. Tell him there is no need to be so anxious. I won’t blame him on this since no one would have thought of using a drone to detonate a bomb. However, I hope the same thing won’t happen a second time.”
“Okay.” Xu Lu nodded and left the office, gently closing the door behind her.
Jiang Chen leaned on his chair again as he tilted his head to face the ceiling. Slowly closing his eyes, he tried to sort through the listless evidence inside his head.
To be honest, if it were just a few irrelevant fallout shelter residents who had died, he wouldn’t be bothered by it at all. What made Jiang Chen unsettled was the feeling of being in a bigger conspiracy.
Someone killed people in his territory and used an unexpected method. However, he had no clue about the motive behind the killing.
There were two possibilities. One was to destroy the golden apple, and another was to kill Academician Qin…
Wait!
Jiang Chen suddenly opened his eyes as he realized he entered into a logical error.
Regardless who the killer was, he must be sure of one thing, and that is the fallout shelter is already open, and Academician Qin has moved to the surface. It was not hard to know about this point as camp 27 was only recently constructed, and the camp was not well fortified like the Fishbone base. A drone hovered in the air would thoroughly detect everything in the base.
Who would have plotted against fallout shelter 027 from the start, and, as if he had the foresight, know that it has opened recently? The answer was obvious.
Lin Chaoen, and the people from the Crimson Chamber of Commerce.
Based on the mission details obtained in the EP, Jiang Chen could deduce that Crimson Chamber of Commerce could only be considered an accomplice. They were helping Lin Chaoen with the formula of “happy times.”
Therefore, it must be Lin Chaoen that plotted this explosion!
But what are his motives?
A word popped into his head.
Evolution!
Jiang Chen still remembered the words that Academician Qin had told him about the three directions of evolution for civilization, as well as the inevitability of ideology output from the new civilization to the old one. Jiang Chen didn’t think it was a big deal, but now something like this has happened.
Could it be that these two things are connected?
“Robots, digitalized human… representing Supreme?” Jiang Chen mustered.
Then, the signal light at the corner of the table began to flash.
Seeing that there was a phone call, Jiang Chen pressed on the corner. Before him, a holographic projection appeared and projected Cheng Weiguo’s portrait.
“Boss, we have already investigated the location you have requested.” When he saw Jiang Chen, Cheng Weiguo reported in an undertone.
“Oh? Did you find something.”
“We found a survivor gathering spot… but we are not certain. This is the aerial view.” As he said this, Cheng Weiguo transmitted a video in front of Jiang Chen.
It was a recording from one thousand meters above.
The target location was an office building. Because it was close to the city center, the building received higher impact from the high temperature of the shockwave. Just from the burnt surface, there was nothing to be made out. But from the sentry guns at the top of the building, it was not a no man land.
Immediately, the helicopter descended. The pilot wanted to move closer to observe if there were survivor activities but was quickly fired at by the anti-air machine guns hidden underneath. The picture shook violently and was immediately followed by the helicopter backing away.
Because he didn’t receive any attack instructions, the gunner didn’t fire back with the Type-50 electromagnetic pulse cannon.
“Is there someone there?” Jiang Chen asked with a frown.
“It is unclear.” Cheng Weiguo’s expression was helpless, “Any survivor gathering spot with some capability would be equipped with life signal detection absorber. From the outside, it was impossible to tell if there were people inside. But with the number of sentry guns, someone should be there.”
“Send a few drones to keep an eye on it, if there is anything immediately report to me. Also, send a few more men to camp 27… If there is nothing else, that’s it.”
“Yes!” Cheng Weiguo saluted and ended the communication.
Jiang Chen turned off the screen as he let out a sigh against the chair.
“Fu*k, why are there so many things to take care of.”
He cursed as he got up and left the office.
…
The next morning, Jiang Chen spoke with Wang Zhaowu and urged him to prioritize drone defense. Establishing a radar within the camp and an EMP trap were necessary.
After these things were finished, Jiang Chen returned to the Fishbone base.
It was almost mid-March. If there were no surprises, the events in the modern world should be progressing smoothly.
He has already left for a month. It would be better to solve the Pannu Islands’ problem as early as possible. Now that the modern world’s development was at a bottleneck, he could only bring out those insane technologies after he manages to secure a reliable location.
After telling Sun Jiao that he was leaving for a few days, Jiang Chen took a batch of firearms from the Sixth Street and traveled back to the modern world.