One day later, Chen Chen was woken up in bed.

“Sir G.o.dfather, an anomaly has been found in North America.”

Little X's voice came from the speaker.

Chen Chen rubbed his eyes, looked at the phone, and found that it was three o'clock in the morning. Only then did he sigh and asked feebly, “What anomaly…”

“Since last night, police stations throughout North America and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have unanimously launched an investigation into the sculptures.”

Little X's voice was rather somber. “Not only that, but also none of the negotiating team, who was supposed to return to Walvis Bay International Airport in the early morning, have returned. I checked their mobile phones by satellite positioning and found that they are actually located within the FBI building in Los Angeles.”

“And?”

At first, Chen Chen was a little irritated but as Little X went on, his expression slowly turned calm. He asked, “Did you find anything on the Internet?”

“I've hacked into the network of the police station and the FBI, and learned that the Earth Federation United Front had sent a mandatory mission to search all of North America and seize all sculptures with any abnormalities.”

“United Front, sculptures…”

Chen Chen's pupils contracted as if he had realized something.

From what Chen Chen remembered, the Earth Federation United Front seemed to be a department more mysterious than the FBI. It was rare to hear about the deeds of this department. Ninety percent of people had never even heard of this department before.

Of those who had heard of this department, ninety percent did not know what the role of this department was.

Based on its name, it should be a battlefront that united the entire Earth Federation. Still, this was truly thought-provoking. Was the Earth Federation United Front meant to fight any particular existences?

No one knew the answer.

However, in the command given, Chen Chen could pick out two key phrases, namely, “United Front” and “sculptures”. After discarding the former, the latter was the one that left a deeper impression on Chen Chen.

The shadows of the three stone sculptures flashed across his mind at once.

“Coincidence? Or…”

Chen Chen sat up in bed, concentrating his thoughts in the dark. After a long while, he asked again, “Did you find out anything in the end?”

“No.”

Little X replied, “I've investigated deep into the Federation's official website, but couldn't find the network entrance of the Federation United Front. However, I found several encrypted letters. It's just that I'm afraid the Earth Federation will be immediately alerted once these letters are cracked.”

“Forget it then.”

Chen Chen stood up and turned toward the washroom. “The time in North America is UTC-8, whereas we're now in UTC+1, which means we're about eight hours[1] ahead of North America. North America should be going into nighttime now, right?”

“Yes, it's seven in the evening over there.”

Little X replied, “I've cracked the network of the FBI in North America and discovered that the entire North America has gathered more than 100,000 sculptures at this point, all of which are peculiarly shaped or had a strange past. Even priceless artworks such as The Thinker and Mona Lisa are being intensively guarded…

“At present, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the police have selected 1,300 suspected anomalous sculptures from these sculptures and issued over ten thousand letters requesting cooperation in the investigation. In the Los Angeles Federal Bureau of Investigation, one such letter for Anthony and Jennifer was also found…”

However, halfway through all this, Little X stopped abruptly, then said in surprise, “Sir G.o.dfather, I've suddenly made an important discovery…”

“Don't tell me that you've found the sculptures that were in Elysium.” Chen Chen's expression sharpened.

“I'm sorry to say it, but yes.”

Little X lowered its voice and said in a somewhat surprised tone, “Among the Los Angeles FBI's information, I've come across the photos and data of the three sculptures. Not only that, but I've also found information concerning Gross…”

Meanwhile, the monitor in the bedroom turned on automatically and a picture of the three sculptures appeared.

Sure enough, the three sculptures in the photo were the same as the ones Chen Chen had seen in Elysium's dimension. The eyes, ears, and mouth were highlighted respectively, just like the saying in the a.n.a.lects —”See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.

Seeing that the sculptures were identical to the ones he remembered, Chen Chen narrowed his eyes.

As for Gross, that was also the name of the family in Elysium and also the name of the first owner of the three catastrophic sculptures…

It was as if reality and film were overlapping at this instance…

Chen Chen walked into the bathroom, washed up quickly, then stared at himself in the mirror as he wiped his face with a towel. “In other words, those three sculptures are now in the FBI branch in Los Angeles?”

“At the moment, yes.”

Chen Chen walked out of the bathroom. With a gentle flick of his right hand, an NZT-48 pill flew into his mouth. Following that, Chen Chen closed his eyes softly as countless deductions and facts began to surge through his brain…

“The Gross family, the three sculptures, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federation United Front…”

Chen Chen mumbled. Endless theories and clues were automatically integrated and organized. Within a few seconds, Chen Chen had considered many things. “Now it seems that the Federation is looking for these three sculptures? However, they didn't directly single out the ones owned by Gross, but rather, initially selected more than a thousand out of hundreds of thousands of sculptures?”

“Yes,” Little X replied, “in the information from the Federation United Front, there's no clear objective, only two clear elements — North America and sculptures. I'm also sure that no other continent has received a similar mission.”

“In that case, the Earth Federation seems to have learned of something through some channel.”

Chen Chen wore a solemn look. “However, due to some reason, the information received by the Earth Federation isn't comprehensive, so the Federation could only expand their scope and conduct a large-scale investigation throughout North America… Therefore, the Earth Federation seems to have a certain channel through which they knew about the danger of the three sculptures and the fact that these sculptures are in North America?”

“For the moment, that's the case,” Little X responded.

Chen Chen suddenly sighed. “This is information that even we don't know. If I hadn't been to Elysium's world, I'd have never thought of the dangers posed by a few ordinary sculptures…”

With that said, Chen Chen walked to the computer and began to look through the information that Little X had retrieved from the FBI. As expected, the origins, appearance, and owner of these three sculptures were the same as in Elysium's dimension. They were all dug out of a gold mine by a person named Gross.

Moreover, precisely because these three sculptures were very special in appearance and origin, they were also collected by the Federation and selected as a candidate in the group of more than a thousand “suspected anomalies”.

After this, the sculptures with “suspected anomalies” would be transported to the Earth Federation headquarters in New York for subsequent processing.

After reading all this, Chen Chen finally displayed a woeful expression. “As I thought, it's not just once.”

“Ah, what's not just once?” Little X asked curiously.

“I mean that the unusual response of the Earth Federation has occurred more than once.”

Chen Chen sighed. “Didn't you realize? I've had doubts ever since the Blacklight virus. Why was it that, when the Blacklight virus spread in Africa, countries around the world responded perfectly, almost scoring full marks? I've always thought it was because of what happened three years ago that provided the relevant experience, but there are still many things that don't make sense.

“However, if you consider that along with the Earth Federation's behavior this time around, it can all be explained.”

Chen Chen uttered each word slowly, “I suspect that the Earth Federation has something that lets them predict crises…”

“Something that predicts crises?” Little X tried saying this out softly.

“I say that it's 'something' because I don't know if it's a person or an item or something like a scientific instrument.”

Chen Chen explained, “Still, according to my deductions, its existence can be ascertained. Even so, it appears to have a flaw — it's unable to accurately pinpoint what the crisis will be.

“In other words, there are generalities and errors in its communication with the Earth Federation, which resulted in the responsive plans of various countries when the Blacklight virus struck last time and now the large-scale search for sculptures…

“I've even thought of something terrifying.”

Chen Chen suddenly lowered his voice and said, “In 1991, the Soviet Union disintegrated and the Earth Federation was established less than a year later. In the beginning, only the five core members joined, along with dozens of their smaller allies but as the Earth Federation became stronger and stronger, eventually, the other countries couldn't withstand the pressure. They all joined this community of shared human fate…

“This was all only briefly mentioned in the textbooks. They only stated that, at that time, history was made, as that was the first great integration in human history. But now, in retrospect, there are fishy aspects to it that are truly unsettling…”

Chen Chen narrowed his eyes. “And one of the most fundamental questions is — why should humans be united in the absence of foreign enemies?”

“Huh?”

Little X seemed to realize something suddenly and exclaimed in a whisper.

“Sometimes, general knowledge is a horrifying thing.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Chen Chen's lips. “A question like this is ridiculous, right? It's like asking why one plus one equals two. Even a child can answer — because of humanity's shared communal fate, the Soviet Union was disintegrated and human governments were federalized, establis.h.i.+ng the Earth Federation.

“However, if you remove this 'general knowledge', you'll find the hidden darkness beneath. Such as, why did the Soviet Union suddenly collapse? Was it only because its economy couldn't support it? Why was the human federation established? In all this, are there external causes that ordinary people can't know about?”

Chen Chen continued. “History textbooks only tell us that the strong countries integrated the weak countries and the weak countries depended on the strong countries… The United States integrated Canada and Mexico and later became the North American Continent; India integrated the weak countries nearby such as the Philippines and Myanmar, forming the Indian Continent; Malaysia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea were integrated into the South China Sea Continent; j.a.pan, South Korea, and North Korea formed the East China Sea Continent, and the Middle East countries formed the Middle East Continent…

“Furthermore, in the early days of the establishment of the Earth Federation, it can be said that humankind truly shared one goal. The sharing of weapons and technology with each other had even begun. It seemed that we were ushering in the Great Unity[2] of humanity… It's just that after two years of this, we revealed our true selves again. The human nature of infighting caused the atmosphere of love and peace to dissipate, and things hadn't improved even until now…”

At this point, Chen Chen suddenly asked, “X, can you think of a reason?”

“According to your speculations, could it be because the Earth Federation foresaw a catastrophe affecting all of humanity, and to survive, all countries abandoned their prejudices as they had to unite? But after two or three years, they discovered that the catastrophe didn't occur immediately or perhaps the catastrophe was not as formidable as they imagined?”

Little X replied.

“That's a good guess.”

Chen Chen nodded in satisfaction and sighed. “That's what I guessed. I have to say that sometimes general knowledge is a scary thing. If it weren't for the Federation's big move this time, I wouldn't have thought about it. I'd also never have thought that the conspiracy behind the Earth Federation would run so deep…”

“Yeah, even though I've hacked into the Earth Federation many times, I didn't find the slightest clue at all.”

Little X echoed its a.s.sent.

“This may be the top secret of the Earth Federation.”

Chen Chen nodded. “But now that we're aware of it, it'll get much easier. X, try to pay more attention to similar news on the Internet in the future.”

As he spoke, Chen Chen suddenly smiled bitterly. “But now isn't the time to quibble over this. Presently it seems that the Earth Federation doesn't know which sculptures are their targets. It's also very likely that they don't know how powerful the three sculptures are. If the phenomenon in Elysium suddenly erupts here, that'd truly be something else…”

“So we…” Little X asked tentatively, “are we going to get the sculptures?”

“Yes.”

Chen Chen's eyes carried a dark glint. “The Earth Federation cannot even determine its goal, let alone properly handle the crisis. Once the potential crisis of the three sculptures befalls us, the fortress of human civilization will collapse at the speed of light. No one is immune, including me.”

With that, Chen Chen pulled out his phone and dialed Brando's number.

“Mr. Chen…”

Although it was late at night, the call was picked up after ringing twice. Brando's steady voice came through the line.

“Brando, the mission objective has changed.”

Chen Chen said in a low voice, “Notify the B.S.S. members you've dispatched — send them to the FBI branch in Los Angeles to get me three sculptures. This is your objective.”

“Understood,” Brando replied, “in that case, Mr. Chen, the appearance of the three sculptures…”

“I'll send it to you soon. Furthermore, this mission will be upgraded from a company mission to a mission of G.o.d's Forbidden Zone. Mission level: Alpha. Understand?”

At the other end of the phone, Brando, who was lounging on his bed, was taken aback. Then, his expression hardened. “I understand!”

After that, there was only a beeping sound from the phone. Brando hung up the phone in a daze as turbulent thoughts swelled within his heart!

An Alphlevel mission was also the highest level mission in G.o.d's Forbidden Zone. Brando still remembered the description he had read of this mission.

In G.o.d's Forbidden Zone handbook, the priority of an Alphlevel mission was —

To be carried out at all costs!

[1] technically, it should be nine hours, but perhaps time zones work differently in the Earth Federation ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[2] A Chinese philosophical concept of an ideal society. See: