Original subtitles

Unit Two calling 0508. 0508, do you copy?

We have a Code A3

500m south of Riverside Road.

Please attend to it right away.

0508 copy, heading over with 0634 now.

I picked up my kid from school today.

She said my ex had been practising steaming fish.

You think she's trying to get back with me?

Just because she's been steaming fish?

—How does that make any sense? —It does!

Steamed fish is the easiest dish to prepare

and it's my personal favourite.

All the screwed up things you've seen as a cop

have made you so jaded and cynical

you don't understand

basic human sentiments anymore.

Yeah well, I certainly didn't see

your divorce coming.

Which department are you from?

Northern District Criminal Investigation Bureau.

This is under Southern District's jurisdiction.

Yeah, we'll talk about jurisdiction later.

—Brief us on the case. —Yes, madam.

We have a drunk truck driver

who crashed into the car in front of him.

He slammed on the brakes

and his truck flipped, hitting...

The victim by the river is dead.

Get an IV going on this girl.

Is that injury from this accident?

No, it doesn't look like a fresh wound.

It's already scabbed over.

Her vital signs are stable.

—Send her to the hospital. —Wait!

It's OK. I'm a police officer.

You're safe now.

Save them.

Save them.

Save...

So why did you ask me to come in?

You were out cycling at this hour?

My doctor said I have fatty liver disease.

There was a truck accident on Riverside Road.

The victims are sisters who were reported missing.

Wang Yuxuan is in the hospital right now.

Wang Mengqi is dead.

We're waiting for the autopsy report.

I noticed something unusual.

These wounds weren't caused by the accident.

Hey, wait a minute. Riverside Road?

That's under Southern District's jurisdiction.

Not if it's on this side of the river.

Wang Yuxuan collapsed on Riverside Road

and Wang Mengqi died by the river.

Exactly! Since she died by the river

leave it to the Southern District.

We don't have the resources like they do.

Let them have the case.

Wang Yuxuan grabbed my hand

before she passed out.

"Save them." That was what she said.

I suspect there are other victims.

Just give me three days to look into it.

You have 48 hours.

Thanks, Captain.

Can I get back to my cycling now?

Take care of that fatty liver of yours.

Dr Qin, when will Wang Yuxuan come to?

She's a seven on the coma scale.

She might end up in a vegetative state.

Any explanation for the wound on her nape?

Beats me. But it will leave a permanent scar.

Is it so important to you

that she wakes up right now?

I have something very important to ask her.

I suspect there are other victims

besides her and her dead sister.

We had a spate of girls going missing

and it could be related.

Listen.

As a doctor, I shouldn't be telling you this

but I have a daughter myself.

Here's the thing.

Years ago, I attended a lecture by a professor

from Northern District University.

He invented a machine

that seemed to allow people

to communicate through the subconscious.

I think it might be helpful to you.

How do I contact him?

I don't know.

I remember seeing him in the news once.

There was an accident in his laboratory

and he was sent to jail, if I'm not wrong.

Do your own research.

Control Centre, open the door to Block 9 cell #4.

4894, you have a visitor.

Cheng Tianli, I'm Detective Li Xiao.

I agreed to this meeting

so I could say no to your face.

This is Wang Yuxuan and this is Wang Mengqi.

These girls were reported missing.

Not interested?

Does this pique your interest now?

I need your dream raiding technology

to communicate with Wang Yuxuan who's comatose

so I can save the other missing girls.

I'm never using that technology again.

People have been killed by it.

Sir, the visit's over.

Dr Cheng, I'm Detective Li Xiao.

Can you spare me five minutes of your time?

Did something happen to my dad?

No, he's fine.

I'm in the middle of a case

involving many missing girls.

The only lead I have right now

is a girl who's comatose.

What has that got to do with me?

You got your PhD in neural engineering

at the tender age of 24.

You're studying noetic science

in California now, right?

Since you did your homework

you should know I'm not a doctor of medicine.

I can't help you.

I might be able to communicate with

the girl who's comatose

using your father's dream raiding machine.

That was his research on the impact of

dendritic properties on synaptic integration.

It revolutionised the academia's

long-held understanding

of the human thought and consciousness.

But the machine itself was a disaster.

Those missing girls might be in grave danger.

I haven't seen him in ten years.

He wouldn't even let me visit once.

I can't help you.

Can you operate his dream raiding machine?

That wonderful invention of his

killed two people I loved.

And it ruined his life.

Dr Cheng.

Call me, if you change your mind.

Our thoughts produce

electrical impulses in the brain.

So, if my brain can receive

the electrical impulses from your brain

I'd be able to know what you're thinking

and how you're feeling.

What the dream raiding machine does

is read the electrical impulses from the brain.

Although it's not developed enough

to establish a direct two-way communication

it allows you to enter the subject's dreamscape

and experience what the subject is feeling.

This is a huge breakthrough

in the field of neural engineering.

When was the last time you operated the machine?

Last month. I came to warm up the machine.

I learnt to do it all by myself

using Professor Cheng's manual.

So you weren't present during his experiments?

Come on, that was ten years ago.

I was still in junior high school.

Thank you for agreeing to help me.

I'm doing it for the missing girls.

Can you operate the dream raiding machine?

I was around for most of his experiments.

I think I remember the steps.

He's Xie Xiaoyu, an assistant from

the Department of Neural Engineering.

She's Professor Cheng's daughter, Dr Cheng Anya.

I can't believe I'm shaking hands with

Professor Cheng's daughter.

It's great to see you!

Dr Cheng, I bet you'd want to see this.

I ran the calibration and simulation tests

before you got here.

According to the manual

the results indicate the machine is working fine.

So this is the disaster you were saying?

Li Xiao, Wang Yuxuan's family

has given their consent.

She's on her way to you.

Remember, safety first.

Don't do anything risky.

I don't want to be writing

another report to the brass.

My goodness!

Have you seen anything like this before?

No, but the wound looks bone-deep.

So how do we do this?

We'll plug this into her brain stem.

You're jamming that thing into her brain?

We're just puncturing the skin

not going through the skull.

The circle of pins you see

are electrodes to conduct electrical impulses.

When it comes into contact with the brain stem

it'll read the electrical impulses

produced in her brain.

So... do we proceed?

Yes.

So what happens after I'm plugged in?

Once you're successfully connected

you'll be in her mind.

You might feel like you woke up

but you're actually in her dreamscape.

Will I be able to question her?

You'll be in her dreamscape.

You will feel what she's feeling.

So... can I question her?

—Yes. —Good.

Although you're in her dreamscape

your brain will register it as the real world.

Whatever happens to you in there

your mind will react the same way

as it would in the real world.

I get it. I'll figure it out once I'm inside.

No, you don't get it.

—Where does it hurt? —My hand.

No, it's not your hand telling you you're hurt.

It's your mind.

An amputee can still feel pain

in the limb that was amputated.

Doctors call it the phantom limb syndrome.

If you get hurt in her dreamscape

your mind will send out pain signals

until you leave her dreamscape.

What if I die in her dreamscape?

That hasn't happened to anyone yet.

Are you getting cold feet?

No, I'm going to save those girls.

There's always a first for everything.

Come on, let's do it.

Ouch.

I'll be gentle.

Try it again.

You marked out the spot, didn't you?

Yes, I did.

Dream Raiding Programme initiated.

Five, four, three...

two, one.

You're up.

You passed out for a whole hour.

Where's Wang Yuxuan?

She's over there.

You didn't manage to enter her dreamscape.

What's Cheng Anya doing?

She's going in in your stead.

Dream Raiding Programme initiated.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Wang Yuxuan!

What's wrong?

Dr Cheng's gone.

She's lying right there.

She's trapped in Wang Yuxuan's dreamscape.

What are you waiting for? Turn it off!

No, the human brain isn't a computer.

You can't just reboot it.

—Fine, I'll go and wake her up. —Wait!

If you try to shake her awake

you might disrupt the main signal

and she'll be stuck in there for good.

Cheng Anya is in trouble.

Professor Cheng, you're my hero.

I just need you to man the power switch.

Pull us out once the electrical activity

in Anya's brain normalises.

Don't touch anything else.

I won't, Professor.

Out of my way!

What if you get trapped inside like she is?

I'm used to confinement.

Let's begin.

Machine Three reset complete. Get ready.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Anya.

Anya?

Anya?

—Anya! —Cheng Tianli.

Who are you?

I'm your hidden desire.

Who do you truly desire?

This isn't my dreamscape.

What are you doing here?

Who says I am?

Hey!

Anya.

Anya!

Anya?

Anya?

Anya!

Anya?

Anya?

Anya!

Anya!

Anya!

Anya, this is a dream! Wake up!

Shit! Something's wrong with Professor Cheng.

Hurry, pull him out.

I can't, he told me not to touch anything.

He said we could only pull them out

after Dr Cheng's brain activity normalises.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

How I wonder what you are

Up above the world so high

Dad?

Anya, you're finally awake.

You were so noisy.

Don't look down!

Thank you, Nurse. Please send her back.

What did you see in her dreamscape?

I went in there to save my daughter

not help you with your case.

So, what did you see in there?

Her brain is severely damaged.

It's just a bunch of random images

that won't be of any help to you.

Wang Yuxuan's dreamscape

could be a reflection of her emotions.

We can use psychoanalysis to uncover

the hidden meaning behind those images.

Using Freud's The Interpretation Of Dreams

from a century ago?

No, I mean Perls' Gestalt therapy.

She's in a coma.

How is she going to undergo therapy?

You saw her dreamscape.

I'm not her. What I saw is irrelevant.

Calm down.

Let's discuss this calmly.

This will only work if we can find the key

to interpreting the images in her dreamscape

or we'll just be shooting in the dark.

That place looked like a steel mill.

I saw a woman in red outside.

—Wang Yuxuan? —No.

That woman knew me.

She shouldn't be in Wang Yuxuan's dreamscape.

It's like she was planted there.

Could it just be noise?

It was too clear to be noise.

So what happened?

I saw dozens upon dozens of girls

lining up to enter the steel mill.

They walked up the stairs onto a platform

where they jumped into the smelter

and to their deaths one after another.

That's horrible!

I don't remember any of that.

You were in the queue too.

You were about to jump into the smelter

when I grabbed your hand to stop you.

Did you come across anything

about a steel mill in your investigation?

—No. —I'm not surprised.

Because that steel mill isn't real.

It exists only in her dreamscape.

Making forced connections to random incidents

is not science.

It's superstition and ignorance!

Who knew Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

would wake you up.

You used to sing it to me

when you put me to bed.

Before you got so busy

I hardly saw you anymore.

I remember giving you books to read.

Did you really think a six-year-old

would understand general relativity?

Why wouldn't you let me visit you?

I wanted you to have your own life.

Ten fricking years.

I had been worried about you

for the last ten years.

You didn't even write me a letter

or send me a message.

I had no idea if you were dead or alive.

I had to make sure my phone was always on

just in case the prison calls

to tell me you're dead.

Now you're telling me you did that

so I could live my own life?

Professor Cheng.

My life is just fine without you.

I'm sorry I haven't been of much help.

You've gone above and beyond.

It's not easy being his daughter.

We never did spend much time together.

What happened ten years ago?

I wasn't there that day.

The experiment went awry and a fire broke out.

My dad's partner, Mo Qifeng, died in that fire.

Uncle Mo's wife, Li'an

ended up in a vegetative state.

Show me the photos of

the wound on the victim's nape again.

P1.

PZ, P2, P0.

O1, OZ... O2.

What's that?

Electrocorticography.

It's a procedure where invasive electrodes

are implanted directly

onto the exposed surface of the brain

to record electrical impulses

from the cerebral cortex.

The F-shaped wound corresponds to

the common positioning of the electrodes.

It's on the nape, at the same spot where

I was plugged to the dream raiding machine.

The figure-eight arrangement of electrodes

is pretty similar to the shape of the wound.

That's not the figure eight.

It's the infinity symbol.

Why the use of invasive electrodes?

To obtain stronger electrical impulses

to connect the minds of all the test subjects.

Why did the kidnapper

want to connect their minds as one?

I can't remember what happened

in Wang Yuxuan's dreamscape

but I know I wasn't scared

when I was stuck in there.

This might sound strange

but I felt a sense of belonging in there.

This connection of minds is the key

to deciphering Yuxuan's dreamscape.

They entered the steel mill

and jumped into the smelter voluntarily.

A smelter is not like an incinerator

which is meant to burn and destroy.

A smelter melts individual pieces of ore

and meld them as one under high heat.

Like melding hearts and minds into one

by connecting the subjects' minds together.

What makes you so sure this is the place?

If you were the kidnapper

with that many test subjects

what would you need most?

Electricity.

You can't do anything without electricity.

My machine's electrical consumption

is equivalent to that of 50 air-conditioners.

Their setup would need even more juice.

This place is only 1km away

from the scene of the truck accident.

There are no other factories within a 10km radius

yet the power consumption of this building

is a whopping 30% of the total

residential energy consumption in the area.

The other tell-tale sign is every household's

energy consumption has gone up

—by the same amount. —No way.

They must have installed a backdoor program

in the power supply system.

It will take us forever to search every floor.

Let's head straight to the basement.

That's the only place big enough

to house the girls and all the equipment.

Hell, the lift's not working.

We'll go first.

Hey, it could be dangerous.

0508 calling Unit Two.

Requesting for immediate backup

in the basement at 129 Riverside Road.

I repeat, we require immediate backup.

Unauthorised personnel detected.

Self-destruct program initiated.

Enter the six-digit passcode to abort program.

You guys crack the code.

Che Na and I will save the girls.

100 seconds to self-destruction.

She's still alive.

A six-digit passcode?

There are a million possible permutations.

It costs a bomb

to build a laboratory of this scale.

The kidnapper wouldn't want this place

to self-destruct by accident.

Which means the passcode

should be something obvious.

Incorrect passcode.

You have two more attempts.

45 seconds to self-destruction.

—Hurry up! —Hey!

What's the most common passcode

people like you would use?

What do you mean, people like me?

I think he means us, non-geniuses.

123456!

I agree.

Incorrect passcode.

You have one last attempt.

Where have I heard this voice before?

35 seconds to self-destruction.

Cheng Tianli, you better crack that code

before this place goes up in flames.

How does she know your name?

Cheng Tianli, you'd better hurry.

25 seconds to self-destruction.

Who is she?

She's the woman in red from the dreamscape.

You know quite a bit about explosions, don't you?

Ten seconds to self-destruction.

Nine, eight, seven...

We're running out of time.

... six, five, four...

three, two, one.

Self-destruct program aborted.

What did you key in?

The date of the lab explosion from ten years ago.

I can't believe you took so long

to figure out the passcode.

How disappointing.

I'm so disappointed

I'm going to destroy all the evidence.

We'll meet again real soon.

—Captain. —Good job.

I knew it. This is the work

of a large criminal syndicate.

Paramedics.

Captain.

Good job.

You remind me of my younger self.

—We need to get the girls out. —OK, get to work.

In an operation led by yours truly

Northern District C.I.B Team One

found 103 missing underage females

98 of which are currently

hospitalised for treatment.

I regret to say

five of the girls were found dead.

We're running DNA tests to identify them

so we could contact their families.

Hi, Hank.

You happy to see your father?

Yeah, I was.

We actually got into quite a heated debate.

That's good.

How's your headache?

I've been taking my medicine on time.

Did you miss me?

Last night, I ordered your favourite

sweet and sour pork ribs at a restaurant.

By the way, I'm meeting Mr Watanabe

of Rhyzen Corporation tomorrow.

I'm glad my dad made me learn Japanese.

(Japanese) Nice to meet you, Mr Watanabe.

I've been in Taiwan for ten years.

You can speak to me in Mandarin.

I'm Watanabe Yasutaka, CEO of Rhyzen.

I'm Cheng Anya.

It's such a pleasure to meet you.

Dr Cheng Anya

Rhyzen is the future of mankind.

I hope you will join our big family.

Thank you for your offer.

This entire floor

can be your dedicated laboratory.

If you join us

Rhyzen will fulfil all your needs.

Dr Cheng, you'll have unlimited budget

for your research.

This is the best offer I've ever received.

We think very highly of your research

in neural science

and we could most certainly use your help

for our Super Mind project.

It's not quite what I imagined it to be.

I thought the Super Mind project

was about brain-to-brain communication

but this looks a lot more invasive.

That carries great risk.

All new technology comes with risks.

Your research in neural science

will help us shorten the development process.

Right now, I just want to focus on noetic science.

Well, you don't have to decide right away.

Why are you so focused on noetic science?

As far as I know

noetic science is closer to metaphysics.

Noetic science is more important to me right now.

Perhaps I can interest Rhyzen

in funding my research in noetic science?

I won't need an entire floor for my lab.

I'm sorry. It's presumptuous of me

to bring up such a request.

I shan't impose on you any further.

Dr Cheng.

I hope you can reconsider.

We could really use with your expertise

in neural science.

My offer stands for the next six months.

Rhyzen and I will wait for you.

I'm sorry.

Xiao...

The board of directors is furious.

We were ditching that place anyway.

I saved them the hassle of

carting all the equipment out.

They're worried whatever was left behind

could be traced back to us.

Whatever I left behind

I left behind on purpose.

I'm sending those cops

on a wild-goose chase around the world.

Their last stop will be Mauritania.

Is this all just a joke to you?

Do I look like I'm laughing?

Those two girls...

did you let them go on purpose?

So what if I did?