Chapter 46
Xia Anran stared at the “Portal” option in the shop, which was now unlocked and available for purchase, her lips pressed together in a thin line.
The system, seeing her grave expression, didn’t dare to speak. Anyone who didn’t know better would think it had eaten all her earnings, seeing that look of deep-seated resentment on her face. But the truth was, it had opened a backdoor for her!
[What are you thinking about?]
The system couldn’t help but ask.
Looking at the dialog box that had suddenly popped up, Xia Anran stroked her chin and said, “How about we buy something else first?”
Even with a 70% discount, this Portal was ridiculously expensive. After the system’s “snacking,” her current earnings, converted into Activation Coins, were just a little over thirty-five thousand. The Portal alone cost thirty thousand, leaving her with only five thousand, which was only enough to buy a few items from the last row. Xia Anran was a firm believer in the classic theory of “you get what you pay for.” Cheap things were no good. If she bought those ridiculously cheap items, she would most likely end up losing more than she gained. Then she would have to start saving up all over again. The thought made her heart ache. She was starting to get stingy.
The system displayed a speechless emoji.
[Didn’t you already discuss this with your leaders?]
[Wait, you’re not planning to fleece me again, are you?]
[No more fleecing! 70% off is the absolute lowest!]
“…”
“How much have you been eavesdropping?!”
When the shop had first opened, the leaders had all been very interested in the Portal. A few days ago, after the system had woken up and given her the discount, she had mentioned it to the top leader, who had immediately given the order for her to get the Portal first.
The system started to play dead, not saying a word.
Xia Anran couldn’t even be bothered to be angry with it. After some thought, she still followed the original plan and spent the huge sum of thirty thousand to acquire the Portal.
[You’ve totally scored with this one, okay! Do you know how much resolve it took for me to give you this discount?]
Xia Anran: “Hmm? You’re alive again?”
System: “…” Pathetic! My life is so pathetic!
After confirming the payment, a familiar delivery box quickly appeared on the table in front of her.
“It’s so small?”
Xia Anran looked at the rectangular hard card she had taken out of the box. The pure black card had a solid texture and was about the size of a playing card.
[Press it against me.]
Xia Anran held the card with a bewildered expression. “How?” It was an electronic life form without a body. How was she supposed to “press it” against it?
The system was speechless.
[Press it against the phone!]
“…Oh.”
Realizing what it meant, she pressed the card against the back of her phone. The moment she did, the screen lit up.
[Intelligent Portal detected. Connecting, please wait.]
Then, a scene that challenged her entire worldview occurred. The black card slowly merged into the phone.
“Holy crap! What is that?!”
The system snorted.
[Stop making a fuss. Who still uses such low-level physical forms these days? Of course, encoding is safer and more convenient.]
But the scene was truly a bit terrifying. Although she knew there was a system that defied all logic living in her phone, this was just an ordinary phone she had bought. Had the system’s parasitism already modified the phone itself?
Xia Anran took a deep breath to calm herself and turned on the phone. Sure enough, a new app had appeared on the screen, bluntly named “Portal.”
When she opened it, there was a constantly rotating circle. A red dot in the top right corner prompted her to set the main portal here.
[You can change it anytime. Since you’re here now, you can only set it here.]
The system was finally fulfilling its function as an instruction manual.
Xia Anran tapped “Confirm,” and a round gate, rippling with light blue waves, appeared in front of her.
[Please select at least one child portal location.]
After setting the main portal, a world map appeared on her phone. She could freely choose a location to set the portal’s exit.
The system popped up again. “According to the local technological level, the current teleportation range is limited to Earth.”
That was more than enough.
The map was incredibly detailed. After fiddling with it for a while, she found the villa in the capital where the leaders often met. There were even real-time photos.
Xia Anran decisively set a portal exit there. For a rare change, she was a little mischievous and didn’t tell the leaders in advance. The thought of their surprised expressions already made her want to laugh.
…
At this moment, the leaders in the capital were indeed in a meeting. And the content of the meeting was rather peculiar.
This morning, the national treasure-level scientist from country F had already arrived at the Hua Nation Academy of Sciences and had undergone treatment with the body repair instrument. Half an hour later, he had successfully recovered. The next step was to safely send the old scientist back to country F, and the deal between the two countries would be successfully concluded. But the problem was the old scientist himself.
“Professor Gacy still insists on applying to conduct scientific research in the Hua nation. His attitude towards our body repair instrument can only be described as fanatical.”
Professor Gong had a headache just talking about it. This great master was still staying at their academy. No matter what they said, he wouldn’t leave, determined to stay in the Hua nation.
“What’s the meaning of him staying here?” Marshal Yue asked, taking a sip of tea. “Country F won’t agree to have the pillar of their scientific community stay in our country.”
“Country F has already spoken with Professor Gacy by phone,” the top leader said. “They couldn’t persuade him, so we’re at a stalemate now.”
Professor Gacy was acting like a stubborn old child. He wouldn’t listen to anyone. Later, he even stopped answering Florence’s calls, leaving the Hua nation at a loss for what to do. They really had no way to deal with him just playing rogue. They couldn’t very well tie him up and forcibly repatriate him, could they?
As a fellow researcher, Professor Gong could understand his feelings. No researcher in the world could resist the charm of the body repair instrument. The existence of this machine was a challenge to the very limits of medicine. One had to admit, true geniuses were talented in every field. Professor Gacy had become a doctor out of his long illness, and in recent years, he had also done a lot of research in the field of biomedicine. So, he knew better than anyone that his illness was incurable with the current level of medical technology.
When he had first been notified to go to the Hua nation for treatment, he had been very surprised. Their medical level was not the best in the world, and in some areas, it was even inferior to country F’s. Later, the head of state, Florence, had personally met with him.
The moment he saw Florence, he was stunned. He had just seen him a week ago. At that time, he had already had difficulty moving, and his body had been rapidly deteriorating at an unstoppable rate. He could feel the aura of death on him. Even someone who knew nothing about medicine could tell that Florence had been hovering on the brink of death. And after just two days in the Hua nation, he was like a different person, incredibly healthy. Even his eyes were much clearer and sharper, as if he had returned to his prime overnight.
Florence had told him that the Hua nation had a magical machine that could cure all diseases, and that the treatment was simple and non-invasive, with almost no recovery period. It could be said to completely rebuild the body.
Reason told him this was completely impossible. If it weren’t for the vibrant Florence standing right in front of him, he would have thought it was his fantasy. But when he really did come to the Hua nation, half-believing and half-doubting, and entered that magical machine, he was completely captivated by it. This was simply the pinnacle of technology in the world today! Its technological level was hundreds, even thousands of times ahead of the rest of the world! Having seen such a miracle, how could he just go back to country F?
Of course, the Hua nation wouldn’t tell him that the machine was alien technology, so he naturally assumed it was their secret research product. Now that the Hua nation had such a level of scientific research, Professor Gacy, who had never left country F for a long period in his entire life, for the first time proposed an overseas scientific exchange with the F nation government, and a long-term one at that.
And then, the high command of country F, upon receiving the news that the pillar of their scientific community was not planning to return, exploded. The illness was cured, but the person was gone!
Although overseas scientific exchanges were common, Professor Gacy’s status in country F was too special. Many of the country’s most important technologies were being developed under his leadership. This was also why country F was willing to pay a huge price in trade to cure him. Now that he wanted to stay in the Hua nation for a long period, security was the biggest problem. How could they be at ease with him not under their own watch? For as long as he stayed abroad, the high command of country F would probably suffer from insomnia. The thought of this man staying in a foreign country was enough to make Florence get up at three in the morning, sigh, and chug two bottles of vodka.
And the Hua nation couldn’t just do charity and let him access their cutting-edge technology. They would also have to provide some of their own advanced technological information in return, as a form of exchange and cooperation. Either of these was enough to cause a three-day-and-three-night-long meeting within country F.
And now, the Hua nation was also having a headache. If they really agreed to a scientific exchange between the two countries, they really didn’t understand the operating principles of the body repair instrument themselves! How would they explain it to Professor Gacy then? In front of a top scientist like him, many things were simply impossible to hide.
“This is what the Chief and I were worried about when Florence proposed sending him over,” the second-in-command said. “If he had returned to country F after the treatment, there would have been no problem. It’s normal for us not to tell him about our core technology. The fear was a situation exactly like this, where he gets fixated on it!”
The top leader rubbed his head and also gave a helpless laugh. “We took a gamble and lost, I suppose.”
“You can’t say that. We did sign the agreement. I think it was worth it!”
Just as they were discussing, a fluctuation suddenly appeared in the room, and then a round, blue water curtain suddenly appeared in front of them.
The leaders’ faces changed, and they shot up. A few seconds later, a visible, distorted ripple appeared in the air. Marshal Yue, as the only military man on site, was already in an attack stance.
And then they saw Xia Anran walk out of it with a curious expression.
“Little Xia?!”
Xia Anran hadn’t expected to be so lucky as to pinpoint the exact location of their meeting. Seeing their shocked expressions, she scratched her head and said with a smile, “Hello, Chiefs!”
The top leader was the first to react. “This is that Portal, isn’t it?”
Xia Anran nodded vigorously, presenting this great treasure she had just bought to the leaders like a prized possession, and eagerly invited everyone to experience this magical portal.
Stepping through the blue water curtain, in the blink of an eye, they were in her home in Yanshan Village.
For a rare change, the group of leaders were like children, each going back and forth several times before they had had enough fun.
Only after Xia Anran had taken a seat did the leaders tell her about the topic they had just been discussing: whether to agree to Professor Gacy’s exchange in the Hua nation.
She only half-understood. She could understand their worries, but since they were hesitating, it meant there were also benefits to this matter.
Professor Gong sighed. “Professor Gacy is a world leader in the field of atomic physics. If we can exchange and learn from his team, it would of course be very beneficial to our research.” The problem was, the advanced medical technology he wanted to learn about was something they didn’t understand themselves.
Xia Anran frowned. It did seem a bit troublesome.
The phone in her pocket moved.
[I thought it was something serious. Is something so small really worth you all worrying like this?]
[Quick, take this system to have a look. Interstellar technology is a piece of cake for me.]