Traveler of the River of Time and Space

Chapter 626 2: Star Gate Project

Jack belongs to the Antarctic Group, a transnational conglomerate that has suddenly become active in recent years.

But these are just appearances. Behind the Antarctic Group is an extremely mysterious research institute, with headquarters established in Antarctica. Some say they are a secret refuge established by the United States of America before the catastrophe, while others claim they were once a branch of the Academy but eventually chose to part ways due to differing opinions. In the Wasteland Plane, there are many mysterious forces like these, because even today, hundreds of refuges openly established in the past have yet to be opened, let alone the secret refuges established by various countries.

People don't know where they are, or even whether the people inside are still alive, and almost every decade, a new refuge is opened.

Of course, these humans who survived before the catastrophe, if not cautious enough, are likely to be discovered by raiders in the wilderness, and then the entire refuge would be looted. Dozens of refuges have been destroyed in such a manner.

The Antarctic Group has gained prominence in the past two years because they claim they can treat mental illness.

Of course, their treatment method isn't conventional medication but involves implanting a chip called 'Anleisi,' which keeps the implanted person pleasantly disposed and, when necessary, helps control their emotions through the chip.

This treatment method has made various factions quite apprehensive because they worry the implanted chip might allow for thought control by others.

However, they remain the only company capable of treating mental illness, so the Antarctic Group has expanded its presence in many settlements over the years. Some people obviously tormented and infected by mental illness ultimately placed their hopes on the Antarctic Group's implant chips. Nevertheless, the Antarctic Group's business isn't limited to just this; they also possess advanced bionic technology and recently started offering a chip implantation service called 'Personal Assistance Terminal.'

The Personal Assistance Terminal is a powerful micro-biochip that, once implanted in the human brain, can connect to the retina. After a certain degree of bionic transformation, it can assist in learning, combat shooting, retrieving data, and monitoring body status, among other functions. The price of the Personal Assistance Terminal varies based on its auxiliary functions, with some being so expensive that ordinary people can't imagine. According to the Antarctic Group, their research institute began this research well before the catastrophe occurred.

The initial experiments were conducted on pigs, and it was only after the catastrophe that human implantation research began.

Polaris cooperates with the Antarctic Group, and their technology is quite advanced. Some assistance terminals can be loaded onto exoskeleton power armor, effectively enhancing the warriors' combat capabilities.

Jack is the person in charge of the Antarctic Group at Polaris.

When he saw Su Ying, he obviously wanted to come over and say hello, but before he could take two steps, he was blocked by a fully armed guard beside him.

"The meeting room is this way." The guard captain, a middle-aged man with a shallow knife scar on his jaw and a fierce expression and cold demeanor, stared a little displeased at Jack's handsome face and said unceremoniously, "The inner city prohibits unauthorized movements, or we will arrest you on charges of espionage."

A silver-white metal middle finger was almost poking Jack's handsome face. His appearance was naturally very handsome, but that was only to women; on the Wasteland Plane, the principles of survival wouldn't bow to personal allure. Survival was everyone's primary concern, so his excessively perfect face easily drew discontent from other men, especially when it was noticed that he only appeared after the small princess of Polaris showed up, making the guards in charge of the inner city rather unfriendly toward him.

The defense system of the Polaris inner city belongs to a different system. The team is not arranged by the city hall but is directly managed by the Brotherhood, who dispatch retired internal personnel for the task.

The Brotherhood internally retains a top-secret file that only top levels can access.

As for who this file is about, there's no need to guess.

As the only descendant of Su Ziyu, Su Ying received the Brotherhood's secret protection very early on.

"Take it easy."

"I just wanted to say hello." Jack's expression was a bit awkward as he raised his hands slightly, trying to maintain his dignity and then reluctantly took a step back.

The guard captain's expression remained unchanged, merely repeating, "The meeting room is this way."

"People at the city hall are already waiting for you."

Saying that, he raised his hand, and two armed guards came to escort Jack and the others toward the meeting room.

When Jack and the others had moved away, he spat, pressing a finger to his earpiece and speaking in a deep voice: "This guy has ulterior motives, always trying to approach the princess."

"Haven't Leon and the others figured out who the guy is yet?"

Since the Antarctic Group changed the head of the Polaris division, the Brotherhood has been exceptionally wary of them because this unbelievably handsome young man has attempted to approach Su Ying more than once. Of course, the Brotherhood members secretly protecting Su Ying didn't give him the chance, knowing that Su Ying's protection level at Polaris far exceeds that of Pasha.

Jack entered the meeting room under the welcome of officials from the city hall.

The Antarctic Group and Polaris had many collaborative projects, with some of their technological achievements proving very enticing to Polaris.

Once Jack entered the meeting room, the lean man who seemed to serve as his bodyguard stayed outside and, after a while, quietly made his way to the restroom. He then placed a finger on his temple, following which a covert mind communication was transmitted.

"The target is secretly protected by Brotherhood members, and I can't approach quietly to implant deep subconscious suggestions in the target."

"Jack's modified appearance didn't attract enough attention from the target."

"The target's mentality far exceeds that of peers."

"It is recommended to use other methods to approach the target."

The skinny man casually washed his hands and walked out of the restroom. He seemed to be alert, briefly turning his head to glance back. Then he saw a tall female officer hurrying by with some documents, and he puzzlingly withdrew his gaze, once again standing outside the meeting room door.

Meanwhile.

Su Ying returned to her residence. Her room was simply furnished; it was more like a straightforward military camp dormitory than a girl's boudoir.

After pinning her hair atop her head with a pink hair clip, she turned on the computer in front of her and used the Polaris internal network to contact an old friend of her mother's. Recently, she had encountered some perplexities and, after scouring Polaris's database, she still had no answers. So she reluctantly sought help from an aunt currently working at the academy.

"Aunt Zoe." The communication connected swiftly. Su Ying greeted politely before eagerly asking, "How are the documents I asked you to check?"

"Any results yet?"

On the computer screen appeared a mature woman whose beauty had not faded, around her mid-thirties. Her hair was pinned at the back; she wore rimless glasses on her nose and whenever she raised her hand to adjust the glasses frame, her silver-colored bionic right arm was visible.

"Yes, I've found something." Zoe, holding a crystalline computer board in her hand, flipped through some documents and, upon hearing Su Ying, looked up and curiously asked, "How did you suddenly become interested in the secret research projects before the catastrophe?"

"Very few people know about these things now."

"I had to browse through the early academy database to find something; a lot of information back then was preserved in paper form. What I've found is only a fraction."

"I'll send them over for you to see shortly."

Su Ying did not answer Zoe's question. She instead smiled sweetly and thanked her: "Thank you, Aunt Zoe."

"Please send them to me now."

Shortly afterward.

Some ancient documents were sent to Su Ying's computer. She impatiently opened them and started flipping through. Her delicate brow furrowed as she examined them with a serious expression.

——"Stargate Project."

Before the great catastrophe.

The ideological conflict between the two poles of the world, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States of America, erupted to an extreme level, which led to the catastrophe's outbreak. At that time, both the Soviet Union and the United States had extremely powerful nuclear forces, and neither dared to act recklessly. Thus, during this period known as the Cold War, they engaged in intense comprehensive competition.

The Stargate Project was a program initiated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency aimed at researching extraordinary human abilities.

Su Ying quickly browsed through some of the documents.

However, her expression soon turned disappointed because the pre-catastrophe research projects were quite low-grade, mainly focusing on Wall-Passing Technique, Invisibility Technique, Telekinesis, Mind Sensing, and so on. As a born Spiritualist, Su Ying realized their research back then was quite outdated, and some studies hadn't yielded any results.

At that time, both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted numerous secret studies on human supernatural powers, yet for some unknown reason, neither obtained constructive results.

"So that's what the Stargate Project was like." Su Ying murmured as she put down the documents.

Theoretically, the Stargate Project before the catastrophe had no achievements; but why did the skinny man give her such a terrifying feeling?

Soon, Su Ying opened the second set of documents.

This set of documents was even simpler.

It was merely a small part of the records from the Stargate Project. During the Stargate Project's research period, a secret department of the United States selected a promising Spiritual Soldier from the military and conducted a secret experiment with him.

They had this soldier kill a goat using Thought.

This secret experiment ultimately succeeded.

The goat was killed by the Spiritual Soldier using Thought, but this soldier was eventually seriously injured, thus the entire experiment plan was shelved.

——"The man who killed the goat."

The confusion in Su Ying's mind was not entirely resolved. Even when she faced a Legendary Level Death Claw, it only had one prefix. Meanwhile, the system showed two prefixes for the skinny man. There had to be a deeper meaning behind this.

Could it be possible that the skinny man was the Spiritual Soldier who killed the goat with Thought before the great catastrophe?

.........