Zhang Heng felt himself blacking out right there and then. He then found himself in a blank, white room at the very next second.
Calling this a room would be an understatement, as it was more like a white blank space instead. There was no end to the space he found himself in. Everything above, around, and below him, except for himself, was all white. There wasn't even a light source to be found around, or rather, light sources were simply everywhere.
Zhang Heng looked down and raised his hands slowly. He was able to see the lines and pores on his hands clearly, without any visible difference from how his hands looked back in reality. It was completely different from that illusion he saw back in the Dead Space plane. The simulation created by the highest access of the Marker had achieved the frightening feat of reaching infinitely near 100-percent.
One could wonder what being infinitely near 100-percent in this sense would be.
What that meant was that if someone was to have their consciousness pulled into that space without them realizing what happened, they wouldn't be able to tell if they were in a virtual space or reality, meaning that person would be forever lost in it, and that was just how powerful this space was.
Despite the equipment capable of creating a virtual space, there wasn't any equipment capable of detecting signals of consciousness being invented in real life at that moment, as human brainwaves were deemed too complex. The creation of virtual spaces was not anywhere within what modern technology could achieve, and human technology would need to advance for several hundred years more to reach such an extent.
Zhang Heng suppressed the shock he was feeling deep down and attempted to take a step. Ripples similar to those seen on water surfaces spread out on the white "flooring" under him, looking rather surreal.
"Corona, what's my current rate of thought?" Zhang Heng asked suddenly and looked around him.
"Currently, your thoughts are being accelerated at 5,000-percent, which is 50 times over. No abnormalities are detected from your brain. Acceleration continues," he heard a soft, crisp, and clear female voice behind him.
Zhang Heng turned around and saw that the image of Corona, which he molded after a Japanese idol, was standing right behind him. She had a lithe build and crescent-shaped eyes. She was smiling quietly with her arms crossed before her.
"Very well then, continue accelerating." Zhang Heng took a closer look at the image. Despite knowing full well that it was a manifestation of the Black Marker's ability, he was nonetheless feeling as if he couldn't tell what was virtual from real life when looking at something that looked completely like a real-life human.
"6,000-percent, 8,000-percent, 10,000-percent. Acceleration is heightened to 10,000-percent. The temperature of your brain is slightly raised right now, I'd advise against continuing the acceleration," Corona said again.
"My thoughts are accelerated at 100 times over?" Zhang Heng was pleased to find that his physique had been greatly enhanced after injecting himself with the T-Virus, so much so that the potential of his brain was rendered higher than that of regular people.
All thoughts zipped past in a flash and Zhang Heng suddenly realized something. He waved his hands lightly and the entire landscape changed altogether. The white around him was turned into a lush meadow in an instant, with a clear blue sky above and green grass below and around him.
Zhang Heng blinked again and sheep appeared in huge flocks on the grassland, he was even able to see collies around the flocks.
That was what Zhang Heng was able to do with his Commander access of Corona—anything that appeared in his mind could be created in the virtual space so long as he willed it.
The tests continued, as he waved again and the grassland immediately disappeared and he found a vast ocean right beneath his feet before he realized it.
The sky was grey and the waves of the ocean were ferocious, black-greyish waves came one after another from afar. He stood in the ocean like a measly boat that looked like it could be flipped over by the waves at any given moment. Despite knowing that everything around him was simulated, his heart nonetheless thumped hard at just how real that 100-percent simulated scene around him was.
Zhang Heng took a deep breath and stepped forward. The ocean beneath him disappeared all of a sudden and he found himself somewhere in deep space instead.
Rose-colored nebulae beneath his feet stretched far and wide, looking majestic and vibrant. A huge star that looked like a fireball was seen spewing jets of solar flares far away, but even he felt the heat sweep over him.
Some people who hold a fear of deep space would have most likely passed out when seeing such an unbelievably lifelike scene in front of them. However, Zhang Heng looked around in a very interested manner, feeling the mystical sensations of finding himself in a weightless environment before taking one step back.
It was as if he had done another space-time transformation, where he found himself back in the blank, white space yet again. Corona stood where she was like before and said softly, "Testing is completed."
"Return." Zhang Heng snapped his finger and he found himself back in his chair suddenly the very next second. He hadn't lowered his arm during the test, which was still bent and upwards just how it was when he was checking the time.
The second hand on his watch had only taken two steps forward.
Surprise and glee were seen in Zhang Heng's eyes before he gave his final order, "Corona, maintain Level One state from here on out and have all other humans who happen to approach you ignore your existence."
"Understood."
…
Zhang Heng participated in the ground-breaking ceremony of the Stellar Biotech building the next morning, giving a speech in front of hundreds of people.
Only a handful among the crowd was staff from Zhang Heng's company, while most of them were workers from the three teams that had taken up the job. Zhang Heng knew that those people before him were his first team from then on out.
As a foreign investment company that had invested over 100 million yuan, several heads from the municipal commercial department attended the event as well, and even Li Jianguo took his time to attend the event. Zhang Heng had no choice but to mingle with the officials.
Zhang Heng and several of the heads held scissors and cut the ribbon amidst the applause before countless excavators and tractors got to work in the construction site.
Zhang Heng had Fang Hao made reservations in a five-star hotel to hold a banquet for those officials before all of them went their separate ways. It was late afternoon by the time Zhang Heng sent them away. The foundations and a huge crater of about four to five meters deep were dug out by the time he went back to the site.
"Working fast indeed." Zhang Heng looked excitedly at the workers at the site before he gave some instructions to the foremen before returning to his warehouse.
"Welcome home, Commander." The huge LCD screen on the wall lit up right after he returned to his warehouse and the girl on the screen smiling as she greeted him.
"Get ready to execute a daily training plan. Initiate thought acceleration by 100-times over." Zhang Heng didn't even look at her when he walked straight to his chair.
"Understood. Daily training plan initiated immediately. Please strap yourself in. Counting down in three, two, one. Plan initiated."
Zhang Heng felt himself blacking out and he appeared in that blank, white virtual space again the very next second.
He had planned it out a long time ago. He had someone connect a CAT5 optic fiber cable outside the warehouse when the supercomputer, power generators, and the other parts and components were being hauled to the warehouse. He connected the network cable to the supercomputer after confirming that there was no risk of the Black Marker running out of control. That meant that the Black Marker was connected to the internet, which in turn meant that it was connected to the rest of the world.
He then gave Corona an order—to search all data regarding weaponry and combat found on the internet, which included texts, images, videos, and other forms of data, mashing them together and create a killing form unlike any other that belonged only to Zhang Heng.
It took a single night for Corona to compile, sort, and refine all that data. Corona's ability was to such an extent that even if all those top-notch fighters spent their entire lives doing research, they still wouldn't be able to reach what it was able to achieve.
But then again, learning the techniques alone was far from enough, as he deemed it imperative to make everything that he learned into second nature. The virtual space created by Corona would play a key role in enabling him to do so.
The fastest way for anyone to pick up a skill was to practice what they learn right away, especially when combat techniques were concerned. The more brutal the techniques were able to be put into practice, the quicker the skills got picked up.
While Zhang Heng possessed a physique that surpassed the limit of common human bodies, he sorely lacked combat experience and techniques due to having been a common person for most of his life. He was hardly able to fight off thugs, let alone do combat against serious threats.
However, at the moment, things were different for him. If he were to keep surviving missions issued by the Dimensional Star, there was no way that he would be able to afford to waste his time. He needed to learn survival techniques and pick up abilities to kill his enemies as well.