Chapter 118 - 106: Butterflies Never Retreat l
After a while, Carrie Thomas stretched herself and sat next to Harrison Clark, crossing her legs and picking up a piece of cake with a fork from her plate.
“I’ve heard that when Chinese musicians collaborate with European and American artists, they often lack power and struggle to gain respect. But it seems to me that you’re the one taking advantage of others?”
Harrison Clark looked away, his gaze resting on the strawberry cheesecake on her plate.
“Our kind of collaboration is a real partnership. The kind of weak cooperation you’re talking about is just riding on others’ coattails. People who lack real talent but still want to put on an appearance will grovel and bow down to others. We rely on our own abilities to make a living, so respect comes naturally. Do you like this cake?”
Carrie Thomas shook her head, “I don’t like it, it’s too sweet.”
“Then why eat it?”
“Throwing it away would be a waste.”
“It’s not costing you anything.”
Carrie Thomas finished the cake in one bite, “Still, it’s a waste.”
After that, she went back to writing lyrics, while Harrison Clark’s eyes returned to the movie, his mind wandering in daydreams.
He felt like making a movie, a science fiction movie.
He wanted to show the world everything he had seen and experienced in the form of a science fiction movie.
He didn’t expect others to believe it, but at least it could serve as a warning to humanity, which is always a good thing.
If the worst-case scenario of humanity failing in their struggle is shown, maybe a few hundred years later, when civilization is at a crossroads and needs to make a choice about the path forward, at least one wrong answer can be eliminated.
But as Carrie Thomas said,
Such a pessimistic and hopeless plot, lacking in the heroic individualism that attracts audiences, would probably not do well at the box office.
Moreover, to make a good science fiction movie requires a large investment, and with his current financial resources, influence, and industry connections, it’s not enough.
Writing the screenplay is also a challenging task.
He is not good at writing stories, but only he can write the screenplay for this story.
So this matter needs to be carefully considered, taking one step at a time.
Six days later, the two returned to Oxfordshire.
Several pieces of good news were waiting for Harrison Clark.
His other songs that were not sold yet have all found their destination, with two of them prepared for Lucy Haywood’s singles release.
He sold four more, and the prices were quite satisfactory.
Harrison Clark’s inventory was all cashed in this time.
In addition, Avril Green created a new song of high quality.
This was a truly new song, never appearing in the previous timeline.
Leah Clark, Jenny Hart, and many other serious musicians in China have all produced new songs like bamboo shoots after the rain during these two or three weeks.
The competition on platforms like No. 1 Fly has become unprecedentedly fierce.
Harrison Clark has basically listened to all of them, both surprised and relieved.
The overall quality of these new songs was high and low, but the previous monotony, self-repetition, laziness, and rampant borrowing and plagiarism were greatly reduced.
It seemed as if these musicians had suddenly awakened, striving for innovation and daring to explore.
The Butterfly Effect had intensified.
With his constant pushing, the entire Chinese music industry seemed like an awakened beast, breaking free from the shackles of thought.
A new Renaissance movement was sprouting like budding bean shoots.
The spark of this artistic revolution had been ignited.
This was the radiative effect of Harrison Clark releasing decades of accumulated classics from the core figures of this era, like a volcanic eruption in a very short period, just like the first fission when detonating a nuclear bomb.
Compared to the previous unconscious changes to the future, this time Harrison Clark actively changed the present through music.
This kind of change was visible to the naked eye.
He began to look forward with infinite anticipation to what kind of scene he would see when he entered the future again.
Under his excited mood, the night of February 25th, 2020, came.
But he found it difficult to fall asleep that night.
Because he received a text message that afternoon.
It was from his foster father, whom he hadn’t been in contact with for years.
The man asked why Harrison Clark hadn’t returned home for the New Year and if the famous musician named Harrison Clark on the internet was him.
A lot of complex thoughts crossed Harrison Clark’s mind.
But he didn’t call back.
He transferred two million dollars to the bank account that hadn’t received any living expenses since high school.
Once some things happen, they can never go back, because the butterfly can never fly backward.
Enter the dream!
Awakening.
“Private Harrison Clark! Step forward!”
Harrison Clark looked at the familiar square face in front of him, his lips slowly curving into a smile.He laughed.
It’s nice to see this familiar face again.
He then looked into the distance.
Above the sky, the sun hung high.
Thousands of spindle-shaped transport vehicles shuttled back and forth under the blue sky.
The speed of these vehicles was very fast, seemingly chaotic, yet their routes were strictly segregated, each moving along its stable, dedicated orbit.
Unlike the terrestrial vehicles of the past, today’s spindle-shaped vehicles no longer emit flares below when hovering or accelerating, making them look like they’re floating.
Harrison Clark’s smile became even brighter.
Large vehicles could float, indicating that human technology had advanced once more, and control over force fields had become more precise and perfect, finally enabling the force fields, formerly used only as shields for battleships, to be used as conventional propulsion for vehicles.
At that moment, a uniquely-shaped triangular fast vehicle took off from deep within the base, ascended directly into the sky, and headed straight for outer space.
As the triangular vehicle ascended, the paths of the other vehicles in the sky synchronized their adjustments, creating a straight passage for the triangular vehicle amidst the chaos, without interfering with each other, and without slowing down at all.
The central intelligence’s computing power had improved further.
Inside the base, the Big Ben Tower still existed.
But the training ground had become a bit more extensive than before.
The current training ground was strictly divided into several sections by a light blue barrier, and Harrison Clark’s rookie lineup was only in one corner.
On the other side, dozens of soldiers wearing black battle armor were practicing their techniques against one another.
These armored soldiers’ heights appeared to be between 1.8 and 2.2 meters.
This was their armored height.
The technology of individual soldier armor had advanced again, transforming into more form-fitting biological armor.
Biological armor possessed more characteristics; its shell appeared soft, but during collisions and firefights, the struck soft armor would instantly harden.
The weapons and skills used by these soldiers were much more complex than the simple guns, knives, and shields of the Azure Dragon Armor last time.
They could pull cords from their back armor and transform them into straight knives with a flick of the wrist, ranging from a few meters to 1.5 meters in length, or, when retreating, project dozens of pinpoint flashes from their thigh armor, which would swarm the opponent and trigger a chain explosion.
The aftermath of their clashes rippled on the light blue energy barrier like waves.
This scene told Harrison Clark that they were engaged in real combat, not data simulation.
As someone who had spent a long time in simulators, all he wanted to say was, “Oh my God.”
Is it so extravagant now?
Training with real combat without fearing equipment damage? Consuming energy so much during training without worrying about a shortage?
However, he was shocked, but he still had an advantage in his heart.
Those who had the privilege of wearing armor and training for battle were undoubtedly the elites in the base, but the most powerful among them had a mobility ability of no more than 35G.
There was still a noticeable gap between them and Harrison Clark, who currently had a 50G limit.
But he couldn’t understand the training content in another area.
There were only two people in the field, still wearing that form-fitting biological armor, but they were not in close combat or shooting at each other.
They were far apart, and each had a heavy truck behind them.
Both of them had their ten fingers spread out in front of them, with beams of light connecting their fingertips to screens in front of them.
From time to time, they shook their fingers, and swarms of tiny flying vehicles flew out of the trucks like locusts.
These flying vehicles fought in the air, deploying a wide range of combat modes, including cluster bombings, formation firing, and suicidal charges/explosions.
In contrast to the individual combat techniques practiced on the other side, this side was more like large-scale warfare.
The two soldiers connected by beams of light on their fingers were the commanders of this miniature scale battle.
With technological innovation, human combat concepts have changed again, giving birth to new types of troops.
Biological armor was equivalent to an improved version of the Azure Dragon Armor of the past, while this one-person army-style combat concept could maximize the talents of elite soldiers, allowing them to launch surgical strikes against enemy forces single-handedly.
If his guess was correct, those trucks should also have space battle adapted models for coordinated attacks with armored soldiers.
There were about three types of flying vehicles.
One was a soccer-ball-sized circular flying vehicle, the largest of the group, which released many more fly-sized micro-flyers that either flew forward to the firing zone or went behind the scenes to attack the flanks while hiding to attack enemy commanders.
There was also a bullet-shaped flying vehicle about one-tenth of a meter long and very fast.
The third type was the fly-sized flying vehicle.
Since the distance was too far, Harrison Clark couldn’t see the specific attack methods of these devices clearly, but based on the faint lights that lit up when they fired, he surmised that they used ultra-microscopic laser beams and possibly missile-like devices as thick as nails during close combat.
After observing for about ten more seconds, Harrison Clark mastered the concept of this command battle.
This was a single-person combat method that combined artificial intelligence and human judgment.
These flying vehicles were equipped with various combat plans; the commanders didn’t need to control specific vehicles or their targets precisely; they issued policy-like directives, and the vehicles would respond accordingly.
The commanders’ ten fingers linked by beams of light were likely the medium for issuing commands.
The reason why they didn’t use brainwave remote control was probably that this semi-physical connection had lower transmission latency.
“Harrison Clark, had enough onlooking? Pretty? You’ve been watching for almost five minutes, beautiful?”
Daniel Thompson’s face suddenly flashed in front of Harrison Clark, blocking his view..