"Of course, the most important point is that you’ll be representing me."

"Representing you?" Zhou Chen smelled a conspiracy in that statement.

He suddenly recalled that Stone City possessed rich mineral resources and was known as the "City of Stone" of the Eastern Continent. Northern Mining, one of the world’s top five mining conglomerates, was headquartered there. It was a behemoth, one of the top fifty corporations in the world. If he remembered correctly, the president of the Stone City Star Association had close ties to Northern Mining.

’Could it be that Jiang Che is sending me there because she wants to cooperate with the president of the Stone City Star Association?’

’That’s probably it. Otherwise, there’s no way this would have landed on my plate.’

And Jiang Che’s next words confirmed his suspicion. "I want to make contact with the president of the Stone City Star Association and Northern Mining. Your involvement in the Resurrectionist case is the perfect pretext."

"I see..."

Zhou Chen scratched his head. "Looks like I have to go, then. When do I leave?"

"There’s a high-speed train to Stone City in half an hour."

·

·

After quickly packing his things and calling Li Xiye and Erin to tell them he’d be away on a business trip for a few days, Zhou Chen boarded the high-speed train to Stone City.

Stone City and Jinzhu were very close; the high-speed train only took a little over an hour. If he managed to crack the case today, he could even catch the last train back home for dinner. In that case, it wouldn’t even count as a business trip—just a day trip on the company’s dime.

Upon arriving in Stone City, Zhou Chen headed straight for the Star Association. Jiang Che had already called ahead, so he entered the Star Association building without a hitch. Led by a staff member, he soon arrived at the office of the head of the Stone City Special Operations Team.

Zhou Chen knocked on the door. A weak voice called from inside, "Come in."

He turned the handle, pushed the door open, and saw an exceptionally messy office, along with the head of the Stone City Special Operations Team sighing in his chair.

If he remembered correctly, the team leader’s name was Shen Mu.

His hairline was receding, with a few noticeable white hairs. His face was haggard and his dark circles were pronounced, as if he were an office drone who hadn’t slept in seven days and seven nights from working overtime.

’Dude, you’re both heads of a Special Operations Team. Why is Jiang Che so full of life, while you look like you’re about to drop dead from overwork? Is the job in Stone City really that busy?’

"You must be Zhou Chen. Please, have a seat." Shen Mu’s voice was listless and quiet.

Zhou Chen walked into the office, closed the door, and sat down in front of the desk. Shen Mu rummaged through a drawer, pulled out a file, and handed it to him. "This is the latest information on the Resurrectionists. Take a look. You can also go to the research department and speak with a Resurrectionist face-to-face."

As he spoke, he handed over an ID card. "This is a temporary identification card for the Stone City Star Association."

"Alright."

Zhou Chen nodded, took the items, and began flipping through the file.

The file he was reading had statistics on the number of Resurrectionists that were current as of six o’clock this morning. It was now eleven, and in the past five hours, the number of Resurrectionists had increased by another 14.

All of these people had died on February 17th. Today was the third day since their deaths.

Based on the current pattern, all Resurrectionists revived on the third day after their death. Furthermore, regardless of whether they were buried or cremated, their bodies and ashes would disappear, which led many family members to believe their loved ones had truly come back to life.

Of course, for the family members who had personally watched the deceased be cremated into ash, there was only terror.

After finishing the file and seeing no new developments, Zhou Chen decided to go to the research department and see a so-called Resurrectionist for himself.

"Oh, right. Take this and give it to Miss Jiang Che for me. Consider it a little welcome gift." Shen Mu pulled a small medicine bottle from his drawer, forced a smile, and explained, "This is an overtime pill jointly developed by the Star Association and the Life Church. One pill lets you pull through for three days and three nights without causing too much damage to your body. For us social creatures who are always staying up late and working overtime, it’s a miracle drug."

’No, she doesn’t work as much overtime as you...’ Zhou Chen’s mouth twitched. He took the bottle and placed it in his Storage Waist Bag. "I’ll give it to her."

Leaving Shen Mu’s office, Zhou Chen swiped his card, took the elevator, and descended to the subterranean research department.

"Mr. Zhou Chen? Please follow me, I’ll take you to see the Resurrectionists."

He had just stepped out of the elevator when a red-haired girl with a sprinkle of freckles on her face eagerly approached, enthusiastically acting as his guide.

Zhou Chen paused for a moment, then offered a warm, polite smile. "Thank you for your help."

"No trouble at all, no trouble at all!" The red-haired girl flashed an excited smile and led the way.

Zhou Chen followed the red-haired girl. Not far away, several other girls his age, dressed in white lab coats, watched from a distance. Judging by their expressions, they were probably grinding their molars to dust.

’I have this many fans? And I’m running into them here?’ Zhou Chen was surprised. He’d never imagined there would come a day when he’d be a hotshot celebrity, running into fans wherever he went.

The feeling was surreal. No wonder the Sword Forging Competition was so popular. As long as you performed well enough and put on a good show, even a nobody could instantly become a top internet sensation.

...

Soon, the red-haired girl led Zhou Chen to a research office, where he met the project leader.

"I’m Wang Miao, director of the research department and the person in charge of the Resurrectionist project. Feel free to ask me anything." The middle-aged scholar named Wang Miao stepped forward politely and shook Zhou Chen’s hand.

"Hello, Director Wang Miao. I’d like to learn more about the Resurrectionists in detail," Zhou Chen said.

"Well, if you’ve read the report, there’s not much more I can tell you. Everything worth writing has already been put in there. Right now, our research on the Resurrectionists has stalled."

Wang Miao sighed. "They’re bizarre. Utterly bizarre. They clearly have no Soul and are just ’empty shells,’ yet they possess self-awareness and can even use Extraordinary Abilities. They’re definitely not human, yet no instrument can detect any abnormality in them. It’s simply incredible."

"...So you’re saying that, on a genetic level, they are identical to their former selves? And they also possess all of their memories from before they died?" Zhou Chen mused.

"Yes. Their genes, appearance, and memories are all identical to their previous life. And it’s far more than just that."

Wang Miao said, "One of the Resurrectionists... well, very unfortunately, he was waiting at a red light when he was crushed by an overturned, fully loaded truck. On the spot, he was... pulped."

He’d had a steel plate surgically implanted in one of his bones. His manner of death happened to expose that very plate, which his family later took as a memento of the deceased.

But after that man was resurrected, our examination revealed that he still had the steel plate inside his body. We later obtained the original plate from his family and, upon comparison, found they were identical."

The sheer strangeness of it gave Zhou Chen pause. He mulled it over for a moment. "So it’s like... a perfect copy of the person as they were when they were alive? Including things that aren’t naturally part of the human body?"

"Exactly."

Wang Miao picked up a sealed bag and an X-ray film from his messy desk. Inside the bag was a surgical steel plate. The X-ray clearly showed the image of a steel plate identical in shape to the one in the bag.

"Have you ever heard of the Swamp People?" Wang Miao asked.

"I saw the name in the report you submitted, but I haven’t looked into it in depth," Zhou Chen answered truthfully.

Wang Miao began to explain. "The Swamp People thought experiment goes like this: a man is walking through a swamp when he’s struck by lightning and killed. But by sheer coincidence, another bolt of lightning strikes the swamp nearby. It rearranges all the organic molecules and creates an exact copy of the man who just died—a copy that is, on an atomic level, completely identical to the original person’s structure. His appearance is exactly the same, his brain state has been perfectly replicated, and his memories and knowledge are also completely identical."

The Swamp Person walks out of the swamp, thinking it’s the same man who just died. It strolls home, greets neighbors it passes on the street, stops to chat with acquaintances, plays with the family dog upon arriving home, calls its family on the phone, then eats dinner alone while watching TV. The next morning, it gets up and goes to work as usual."

"So, here’s the question: is this copy, which is identical to the original in every single way, still the same person?"