I handed over to another world

In the conference room, the holographically projected association emblem slowly rotated in the center of the long table, emitting a dark red light.

Chen Lin sat in the first seat, tapping the table rhythmically with his fingertips, and glanced at the vice presidents and heads of relevant departments who had taken their seats one after another.

He noticed that Zhou Ming was talking in a low voice with the head of the Resources Committee. When their eyes met his, they paused for a second before looking away.

"Everyone is here, let's get started."

Chen Lin's voice was calm without a trace of ripples, but the air in the conference room seemed to freeze in an instant.

The holographic projection switched to a chart showing the association's recent resource allocation. Just as Chen Lin was about to speak, Zhou Ming stood up first.

"President, before the formal agenda, the vice president and heads of relevant departments received an urgent motion."

Zhou Ming pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, and the light reflected from the lenses obscured his eyes. "On behalf of the 17 vice presidents and heads of relevant departments, I am proposing a vote of no confidence in the current leadership of the Red Dragon Association."

There was a sudden uproar in the meeting room. Chen Lin noticed that Vice President Li was quickly recording something on the tablet, and the recorder sitting behind him was looking at him nervously.

"reason."

Chen Lin only uttered two words, leaned forward slightly, and crossed his hands in front of his chin.

Zhou Ming called up a series of data projections: "In the past six months, 73% of the association's resources have been invested in the process of earth defense, and the so-called 'Earth Will' research is completely nonsense in my opinion!"

"During this period, our development of the solar system and even the planets outside the solar system has almost stagnated, and because a large amount of resources have been withdrawn, several of our planetary bases have collapsed due to lack of resources, causing more than 60,000 people to need to be evacuated urgently!"

The projection switched to an image of refugees from the colonial planet crowded in a temporary shelter. Several vice presidents and heads of relevant departments in the audience began to discuss in a low voice. Chen Lin on the stage just looked at Zhou Ming coldly without giving too much explanation.

"At the same time," Zhou Ming raised his voice, "the president refused to approve the Earth's core exploration plan and ignored the repeated requests from the scientific research department. We suspect that the leadership's decision has deviated from the association's fundamental purpose of 'human interstellar expansion'!"

Chen Lin noticed that Minister Zhang lowered his head and his fingers rubbed the edge of the teacup nervously.

It seems that this old scientist was used as a gun by Zhou Ming - but considering that things are actually not that simple, Chen Lin just thinks that he should also be involved.

"Finished?"

Chen Lin stood up slowly, and the projection automatically switched to him. "The accident investigation report on the ecological collapse of the planetary base you just mentioned shows that the ecological collapse was caused by the local supervisor's illegal use of unapproved resource control technology, which has nothing to do with the resource allocation provided by the association for them."

"I wonder if Vice President Zhou has investigated the specific reasons?"

Without waiting for Zhou Ming to speak, Chen Lin swiped his finger and opened a new window: "As for the exploration of the Earth's core, the Association's Safety Committee has every reason to believe that rash action may trigger unknown risks. The radiation pulse three days ago caused 12% of the world's population to be temporarily comatose. Isn't this warning obvious enough?"

“It’s just a guess!”

The Resource Committee slammed the table and said, "We demand transparent decision-making! If the president continues to act arbitrarily—"

"Autocratic?" Chen Lin sneered, "Vice President Zhou, you secretly met with military personnel last night and visited the Science and Technology Development Bureau this morning, just to get enough votes for a no-confidence motion, right?"

Zhou Ming's face changed slightly, but he quickly regained his composure: "It's just a normal work exchange. Is the president spying on the senior members of the association?"

"It is my duty to keep the association safe."

Chen Lin looked around the room, "According to Article 17 of the Charter, a motion of no confidence requires the consent of two-thirds of the vice presidents and heads of relevant departments present to take effect. I propose that the vote be started now."

Everyone looked at each other. They didn't know why there was such a big controversy when there were only a few people in the top leadership of the association. What's more important was that what Zhou Ming said before was inconsistent with what many of them said.

Zhou Ming now looks more like he is taking revenge on a personal level.

However, Chen Lin was still the president of the association at that time, so the vote he proposed was quickly executed, and the voting machines were distributed to each senior executive of the association one by one, and they could choose the next operation at will within the time limit.

Chen Lin noticed that Minister Zhang hesitated for a long time before pressing the button, and several vice presidents and heads of relevant departments who were originally wavering chose to abstain after seeing Vice President Li shake his head slightly.

"19 votes in favor, 22 votes against, and 7 abstentions."

Vice President Li announced the result of the vote, "Motion - not passed."

Zhou Ming's face turned pale in an instant. He stood up suddenly, causing the chair to make a harsh sound on the floor: "Chen Lin, you are leading human civilization to destruction! The core of the earth may contain breakthrough technology, but you just because of a dream-"

"enough!"

A loud voice came from the door of the conference room.

Everyone turned to look and saw the two former presidents, Zhang Shouren and Li Tianyun, standing side by side.

Zhang Shouren, who is nearly eighty years old, is leaning on a cane, but his back is straight; Li Tianyun is wearing a suit and tie and looks much younger than his actual age.

"Mr. Zhang! Mr. Li!"

Chen Lin stood up in surprise. These two former presidents of the association have rarely appeared in public together in recent years. Li Tianyun has been obsessed with studying the planetary network in recent years, and Zhang Shouren even wanted to follow the association's space exploration spacecraft to outer space in person...

However, due to the frequent encounters with various alien civilizations in recent years, it has been shelved indefinitely.

At this time, Zhou Ming's expression became even uglier: "The former president has no right to interfere in a meeting of this level..."

"Shut up, Zhou Ming."

Li Tianyun strode up to Zhou Ming. Although he was half a head shorter than him, his aura was completely overwhelming. "Do you really think we don't know what you've been doing recently? You can still speak here after you've revealed all those things?"

The conference room suddenly became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. Chen Lin keenly noticed that Zhou Ming's pupils shrank noticeably. It was obvious that Li Tianyun had caught something from him.

Zhang Shouren walked slowly to Chen Lin and patted him on the shoulder: "Well done, kid."

"No one who is not involved may leave now. The discussion that follows is top secret and can only be discussed by people at the president level."

The vice presidents and heads of relevant departments looked at each other, but under the gaze of the two former presidents, most of them got up and left.

Zhou Ming wanted to say something, but was stopped by Li Tianyun's eyes. He finally walked out of the meeting room with a gloomy face.

When the last vice president and the heads of relevant departments leave, the conference room door automatically locks and the shielding field is activated.

Zhang Shouren took out an antique metal device from his arms and placed it on the table. A blue light swept across the room.

"Anti-surveillance measures." Li Tianyun explained, "Now we can speak freely."

Chen Lin took a deep breath: "Two seniors, what happened? I am a little surprised that you came here so suddenly, and you came at the same time..." Zhang Shouren pressed his cane, and the holographic projection in the conference room turned into a solar system map, in which the earth was marked in red: "We have found that there may be some special substance in the core of the earth, which has led to alien civilizations looking for it."

The star map zoomed in to show the internal structure of the Earth - at the core of the Earth there was a strange crystal structure that was glowing faintly.

"This is?"

Chen Lin moved closer to observe.

"We call it the 'core crystal'," Li Tianyun said in a low voice. "Preliminary research shows that it is related to the origin of all life on Earth, and is also the target of repeated detection by those alien signals."

Chen Lin suddenly remembered the warning in the dream: "Don't touch it... the time has not come yet..."

"Did you get the message?"

Zhang Shouren keenly noticed Chen Lin's strangeness, "Did the Earth Will contact you?"

Chen Lin nodded cautiously. The Purple Gas Association had hidden it some time ago, but it was certainly not a secret to the previous president of the association. Therefore, Chen Lin briefly described his dream to the two old seniors.

The two former presidents exchanged a meaningful look.

"It seems the situation is more complicated than we thought."

Li Tianyun said softly.

Zhang Shouren nodded, and immediately manipulated the device to call out an encrypted file: "We suspect that there is an alien civilization group secretly operating in our human society. They control key figures through mental parasitism - just like what Wang Yan encountered, but this thing is more advanced and more hidden."

The projection showed several cases of famous scientists and politicians who suddenly changed their positions, and Chen Lin recognized several of them who had been strong supporters of core exploration.

"Zhou Ming was affected?"

Chen Lin felt a chill.

"Not completely." Li Tianyun shook his head. "Alien influence is often subtle - they use technical means, hints and so-called 'scientific discoveries' to guide their targets. Zhou Ming may have only been partially influenced and still retains his own consciousness."

Zhang Shouren called up another set of data: "The geomagnetic pulse three days ago was not a natural phenomenon. It was the Earth's core's response to alien detection signals. The purple gas may be the Earth's own defense mechanism to remove foreign parasites."

Chen Lin suddenly understood something: "So the reason why I don't approve the exploration of the Earth's core is..."

"Preventing alien civilizations from locating the exact location of the core crystal."

Li Tianyun nodded, "Your intuition is right."

The air in the conference room seemed to freeze for a moment. Chen Lin's eyes moved back and forth between the holographic projection of the earth and the two former presidents, and his fingers unconsciously stroked the edge of the teacup.

"So behind Zhou Ming..." Chen Lin's voice deepened, "Is there some alien force pushing for the exploration of the Earth's core?"

Zhang Shouren tapped his cane on the floor three times, and the holographic image switched to the organizational chart of the Red Dragon Association.

A dozen key positions were marked with flashing red dots.

"The Earth Core Research Institute of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Third Division of the Resource Allocation Committee, and the Special Project Team of the Planetary Development Bureau under the Development Agency..."

Every time he read a name, the corresponding light spot expanded and jumped. "The personnel changes in these departments have been unusually frequent in the past six months."

Li Tianyun took over the conversation: "We have found that the new persons in charge of these positions have one thing in common——"

He pulled up dozens of medical examination reports and projected them, "They all underwent deep brain scans at the same private medical institution within three months of joining the company."

Chen Lin's pupils shrank slightly. In the neural network imaging images in the report, the same spiral shadow appeared in the amygdala area of ​​each subject, exactly the same as the brain scan when Wang Yan was parasitized.

"It's like boiling a frog in warm water." Chen Lin sneered, and his finger slid across the projection to archive the information. "These 'physical examinations' are probably a cover for mental parasitism. But why are these positions targeted?"

“Because of authority.”

Zhang Shouren pointed his cane at the three-dimensional structure diagram of the Earth's Core Research Institute and said, "They need someone who can access mantle drilling data. Look at this—"

He called up the drilling records of the past three months and marked the abnormal waveform at a depth of 70,000 meters. "Every time the drill bit approaches this depth, it will record energy fluctuations with the same resonance frequency as the 'core crystal'."

Li Tianyun suddenly lowered his voice: "What's even more bizarre is that within 24 hours after each abnormal fluctuation, an unidentified neutrino burst will be detected in the geosynchronous orbit."

He pulled up the logs from the orbital monitoring station. "Looks like it's sending some kind of... locator beacon."

Cold sweat broke out on Chen Lin's back.

He remembered the voice in his dream repeatedly warning him that "the time has not come yet", and suddenly realized something: "Could it be that mantle drilling is helping alien forces calibrate coordinates?"

“That’s about the same idea.”

Zhang Shouren nodded on the side. The meeting room was silent for a while. Chen Lin stared at the flashing red dots in the holographic projection, and his fingers unconsciously tapped out a rapid rhythm on the table.

Zhang Shouren and Li Tianyun exchanged glances, and finally Zhang Shouren broke the silence.

"Chen Lin, now is not the time to hesitate." The old man said in a low voice, and slammed his cane on the ground. "The association must immediately initiate the global control procedure and cut off their network before those things completely control key departments."

Li Tianyun pulled out an encrypted file marked as a cleanup operation: "We have drawn up a preliminary plan - the first step is to suspend the positions of all the heads of the marked departments on the grounds of security review; the second step is to cut off the connection between the private medical institution and all the association's systems; the third step..."

"The third step will be carried out by me personally."

Chen Lin suddenly interrupted him, his eyes sharp, "I need the president's authority of the two seniors to temporarily lift the restrictions of Article 29 of the association's charter."

Zhang Shouren frowned: "You want to use the memory cleaning protocol? That technology is not mature yet..."

"Not a purge."

Chen Lin pulled up a surveillance video, in which Zhou Ming was talking to several officers in his private office. "Look at his pupil reflexes. Every time he talks about the Earth's core project, his irises show the same spiral patterns as those in the brain scans. This should not be ordinary mental parasitism, but some kind of neural symbiosis."

When the video was zoomed in, a close-up of Zhou Ming's eyeballs did show abnormal optical distortion.

Li Tianyun took a breath and said, "Have they evolved to the point where they can retain most of the host's autonomous consciousness?"

The two looked at each other, and immediately looked surprised: "It seems that we must take action." (End of this chapter)