117: Schrödinger's lock pick

The bridge of the wanderer was as silent as death.

Chen Feng and Reno walked in without a word, projecting the intelligence from Butcher, worth one hundred thousand credit points, onto the holographic screen.

"An auction?" Lao Mo was the first to speak, his voice raspy. "Boss, this... isn't this just a blatant way of telling us to get lost if we don't have money?"

"How can outsiders like us compete with them?"

Reno scratched his hair irritably and growled, "We have to compete even if we can't! At worst..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but everyone understood his meaning.

On the other end of the screen, Su Li's holographic image appeared. Her expression was as calm as ever, but her tone carried a hint of chill.

"The success rate of a robbery is zero. Hecate's private fleet would blow us into cosmic dust within three minutes."

She paused, piercing everyone with a sharper reality: "Furthermore, we can't even meet the most basic entry threshold."

"Boss, I just calculated it. All the liquid assets in our accounts combined might not even cover the starting bid for the item Butcher mentioned."

That one sentence made the air on the bridge feel as though it had frozen into ice.

Money.

This most vulgar yet most lethal problem stood before everyone like an insurmountable high wall.

Reno's fists creaked as he clenched them; Lao Mo sighed deeply and lowered his head.

Even Su Li, who always believed everything could be calculated, remained silent now. In the face of an absolute capital gap, data models didn't even have the significance of a simulation.

"Contact Butcher."

Chen Feng's voice broke the dead silence.

"What?" Reno snapped his head up. "Boss, are you crazy? We're out of money!"

"You want to send him more? He's a bone-sucking bastard!"

"No." Chen Feng shook his head, his gaze sweeping over everyone before finally landing on Su Li's image. "We aren't sending money; we are buying our last chance."

"I want to buy detailed intelligence on that auction item and all our competitors."

Su Li's brow furrowed tightly. "Boss, this isn't rational. Even if we know everything, without money, it's all empty talk."

"Money can be earned again."

Chen Feng's voice wasn't loud, but it was like a needle, accurately piercing everyone's softest spot.

"There is only one Eve."

In an instant, Reno stopped growling, and Lao Mo stopped sighing.

On the screen, Su Li's eyes flickered violently. Her lips parted slightly, but in the end, she said nothing to object.

"I understand." Reno took a deep breath, his voice low but incredibly firm. "Boss, I support you."

"Me too," Lao Mo echoed.

Chen Feng didn't say another word; he simply transferred another "consultation fee" to Butcher's account—a sum large enough to make any scavenger's heart skip a beat.

This time, Butcher's invitation came quickly.

The location was no longer the gloomy steel graveyard, but a secret office with a terrifyingly high security level beneath the blood-scented grounds of the meatpacking plant.

"I like customers like you—straightforward enough, and crazy enough." Butcher sat behind a massive desk, personally pouring a glass of dark red liquid for Chen Feng. "Speak, what do you want to know?"

"That 'key,' what exactly is it?" Chen Feng got straight to the point.

"Good question." Butcher snapped his fingers, and the holographic projection in the center of the office lit up.

A strange object floated in the air.

It was a metallic Rubik's cube, its surface covered in incomprehensible, complex patterns. Most bizarrely, it seemed as if it didn't exist in a fixed time and space. It would sometimes be as solid as fine gold and other times as illusory as a shadow, flickering at high speed between physical and phantom forms with an irregular frequency.

"It has a very fitting name: [Schrödinger's Lockpick]."

There was a trace of awe in Butcher's voice.

"'Lockpick'?"

"Exactly," Butcher explained. "It cannot destroy any lock, nor can it crack any password. It has only one function—to perform a brief, uncontrollable causal interference on the concept of 'locked' within a very small range."

"What does that mean?" Reno asked, completely confused.

"It means that when you use it on a lock," Butcher used an analogy, "it doesn't care how complex the lock's structure is or how sturdy its material is. It acts directly on the state of being 'locked' itself, giving it a 50% chance to momentarily become 'open.'"

Chen Feng's pupils constricted sharply.

"Whether it's a physical lock, a digital lock, or..." Butcher's gaze became meaningful, "...a lock at the level of laws, or rather, the soul."

"This thing is the theoretical optimal solution for breaking that [Mental Shackle] on your friend."

"But," Butcher's tone shifted, "its consequences are completely random. It might succeed on the first try, or you might use it a hundred times and it will just flicker there, and nothing will happen. That's the meaning of 'Schrödinger'—until you observe the result, it is forever in a superposition of success and failure."

"I want it," Chen Feng said without the slightest hesitation.

"Of course you do." Butcher laughed. "You aren't the only one who wants it."

The holographic projection switched, showing the emblems and profiles of several organizations.

"Your primary competitors are them—the [Gene Purification Cult]."

On the screen, an image of a man in white monastic robes with a fanatical gaze was enlarged.

"These lunatics believe this curiosity can 'unlock' the so-called 'divine code' deep within their genes. For it, they are willing to pay any price."

"Besides them, there are several mysterious tycoons who frequent Free Port. Their financial power is unfathomable, and their motives are unknown. They are also potential threats."

Butcher turned off the projection, and the office went dark once more.

"The intelligence is yours."

Chen Feng nodded and turned to leave.

"Wait," Butcher called out to him.

"Something else?"

"I'll give you a free piece of bonus intelligence." Butcher leaned back in his chair and said leisurely, "By the way, the 'hound' the Alliance has in charge of 'Higher Academy' security goes by the code name [Shadow Chaser-J]."

"He's been very active in the port lately. This man is exceptionally good at finding 'abnormal targets' of interest from massive capital flows and behavioral logic."

Butcher grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"Good luck."

Returning to the wanderer, Chen Feng compiled all the intelligence.

The atmosphere on the bridge was suppressed to the extreme.

All the cards were on the table.

Funds were severely lacking.

A fanatical and wealthy cult, plus several mysterious tycoons as competitors.

And an invisible hound from the Omni-Dimensional Trade Alliance lurking in the shadows, peering at every suspicious transaction.

They had to create a miracle within three days that could solve these three major problems simultaneously.

Chen Feng looked at the bizarre star map outside the porthole. There was no hint of retreat in his eyes, only even colder, crazier calculations.