"I knew it! These markings do mean something, they aren't just scribblings, they're made by someone!"
Andrej, who was looking at the AI deciphering something, exclaimed with joy. But he had a hint of madness in his eyes! A madness that craved for power.
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Year 2024. A few months after the Arizona man assassination incident.
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME, ANDREJ? YOU DARE PUT SPIES NEAR ME?!", from the phone came the screaming voice filled with rage and frustration.
Andrej stands infront of the floor to ceiling window in his office.
"Mark, I already told you politely before. But you had to force me to be like this. Sigh", Andrej truly sounded like he had been hurt.
People would probably believe him until they knew that Andrej had actually planted spies next to the hidden Director of the CIA, Mark Anthony.
Apparently, even the Director of the CIA that people know is just a figurehead to act a decoy.
Mark tried his best to suppress his raised voice, "Why have you suddenly become so crazy? Yes, there is something top secret hidden there, but it's an unsolvable phenomenon. You won't benefit from it."
Mark couldn't understand how Andrej, who was a powerful businessman would suddenly be hell bent on getting information about the "IODC". IODC stands for Indian Ocean Disturbance Case.
About 65 years ago in a certain part of the Indian Ocean there was a slight disturbance. Later, it was discovered that a region nearly 100 kilometers in area suddenly turned into a seemingly unending black hole.
Even more strange was the fact that the outer rim of the black hole where the sea bed still existed had weird markings and unintelligible hieroglyphs.
Researchers then kept testing the reaction of the black hole using different means and came to a few conclusions.
One, the black hole cannot be entered by living beings. Anything living would be instant pulverised. This was tested on both humans and animals.
Secondly, inanimate objects can enter, but they must be very very tiny. Otherwise it will also be destroyed.
Thirdly, the hieroglyphs seem to not follow the laws of energy conservation! Through a questionable test, a living man was "sent" to touch the hieroglyphs and upon touching it, the man was instantly mummified and then disappeared completely. This was different from when a man was pulverised through touching the inner black hole.
Mark knew that this was a weird place. But he didn't find anything wrong with the experiments using humans. Why of course, isn't it for the greater good of science?
But now, this weird place was the target of this insane trillionaire! He wouldn't have taken the risk of withholding the information and offending this madman but he had to as this information was labeled "T1" priority secret.
Andrej's voice sounded again, "What would happen if the Radisson Bank's president knew of the fact that he invested 500 billion dollars into a bogus project?"
"How did you know? Who is your spy? Tell me and I'll give you the information", now Mark knew his handle was tightly grasped by the other party and he needed to succumb this time.
"No one."
"What?"
"The beloved nephew of the president of Radisson Bank is my puppet. He was the who convinced his uncle that this project to control the newly found mine in Senegal was very profitable project. When I knew of this honeypot trap of your, I thought of being kind for once and lend you a hand, haha." Andrej said.
Mark now understood how Andrej knew of this. It wasn't that his subordinates were compromised but rather that from the beginning, the trap he thought he set was actually setup for himself by someone else.
"Sigh... You win. But I hope you keep your promise not to disclose this matter. You can't tell anyone that I gave you these files either."
"When have I ever been dishonest?", Andrej grinned while looking at the skyscrapers and the technological marvels created by human beings through the window.
Du... Du.... Du...
After the phone was cut came in an encrypted file containing the highly guarded secret of IODC.
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2 weeks later.
"Sir, please take some time off," Selina was getting very anxious.
Andrej hadn't stepped out of his office for this entire time. Ever since he got his hands of the IODC files, he kept analyzing the massive amount of information and test results by scientists over the past 65 years.
He went from skeptical, to astonished, to finally unable to contain his excitement.
"You don't understand, Selina! This is absolutely incredible. Perhaps the Arizona man was right. He wasn't insane. Maybe this black hole is really a portal to another world!" Andrej hadn't been so thrilled for a long time.
He was already at the top of the world. Nobody could touch and so he had no feeling of urgency, no drive before.
Now he comes across something so novel that it gives him goosebumps.
Andrej has always been a fan of fantasy novels. In particular, the number of cultivation novels where the main character levels up physically and spiritually and gains tremendous power to literally destroy planets always made him wonder, "How does it feel to wield power like this?"
He wanted supernatural powers. No, rather he was crazy for it. But he knew it was probably a fool's dream to want something so unrealistic.
But now, something so bizarre as the IODC gave him an idea, an equally bizzare idea. What if what the man from Arizona had said was true? What if?
"Hahahaha. There's a chance. And a chance is all I need!", Andrej was thrilled beyond words.
But in front of him, Selina had a worried look.
'Boss seems... out of touch lately'.
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Back to the present. Year 2064.
"Finally!", Andrej looked fervently at the sorted out information by the AI.
He has turned 72 this year. It has been 40 years since he found the mystery of the black hole. He has tried every method to find out what this really is.
And even though he is 72 he still looks very young thanks to the advanced in the healthcare technology brought about by the AI revolution. He can still easily live up to 140 years and always look young and strong.
'I see. So, these rearranged markings write out a few passages. These passages seem like a... technique! But where do I get this mental and spiritual energy?', Andrej was still pondering over the content deciphered by the AI.
From a few decades ago, Andrej has been constantly and very frequently doing experiments using humans and even went as far as to use humans as sacrifice to the hieroglyphs ever since he saw that there was some kind of reaction when a living being touched them.
He ordered the kidnapping of thousands of children in war-torn countries to use as the sacrifice. Why those countries? Because there is chaos and you can find an excuse and blame those child as being, "recruited by terrorists".
Anyways, his experiments were a success! And there was a mutation in the way the hieroglyphs were arranged.
These rearranged hieroglyphs then finally gave him the deciphered passages.
"These passages must be the technique of cultivating supernatural powers like in those novels!", Andrej was convinced. One reason was that some parts of the passage really did say things like 'using mental power to levitate objects' and 'using spiritual power to create fire, wind, and water'.
Another reason was because there was no way someone had the ability to pull a prank of this magnitude and make a literal black hole and carve those markings that took an super AI so many year to decipher.
"Hmm? The Earth Demon's Chronicles? Why is this line of the passage ending without any other words? Is this the name of this technique? But that's a pretty fucking amazing name, in my opinion."
Andrej then put forward his days of solitary confinement in hopes to cultivate this otherworldly technique.
But, one last question remains.
Where does that black hole lead to?
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