by <unknown>
Reality would later prove that Chen Chen's speculation was indeed true. On the final night of the twenty days, when he was training his "Field", he suddenly received an update from Little X.
"Sir Godfather, there has been a change in the nuclear power plant substation."
Little X's voice came from the speaker. "The flashing light of the USB drive has disappeared!"
When he heard this, Chen Chen quickly looked at the LCD monitor next to the laboratory. At this time, the monitor was showing the situation in the main control room. The USB drive, which had flashed its red light endlessly, was now not flashing any light. Instead, its initial tranquility was restored.
"Send a 'Black Knight' to go and check it."
Chen Chen immediately ordered. At the same time, he put on his shirt, turned around, and walked out of the laboratory. "Contact Cheng Cao. I want to head over right now."
He quickly walked to the elevator of the Spire's laboratory, then went up to the relay station. After that, he took the tram to one of the exits and summoned the elevator.
Ten minutes later, Chen Chen had returned to the ground floor and walked out the elevator of an office building.
By the appearance, it seemed as if Chen Chen was an employee of this company and he had just gotten off work at this time.
There were five entrances and exits hidden in the Eco Science City, all of which were far apart. Even so, they were located in buildings with busy crowds to achieve maximum concealment.
Cheng Cao had been waiting by the entrance for a long time.
After Chen Chen got into the car, Cheng Cao started the car at once. They swiftly drove out of the Eco Science City, speeding toward the nuclear power plant that was twenty kilometers away.
The Black Knight who went in to inspect the situation had already reported that the USB drive was not dangerous. Thus, when Chen Chen arrived, he immediately entered the main control room.
In an instant, Chen Chen noticed the USB flash drive.
When he saw the USB drive, Chen Chen could not help but raise his eyebrows. The red light that had flickered urgently was gone and the USB drive had become as pitch-black as the first time he found it.
No, something was different…
This was because Chen Chen had noticed that there were many pinpricks of light on the USB drive as if it had become a universe studded with countless stars that glimmered constantly.
Chen Chen did not approach rashly but turned to look at the surveillance camera. "Little X, is it still absorbing power now?"
"Yes, nothing has changed," Little X replied.
Chen Chen nodded and simply stepped forward to pull down the switch.
This switch did not cut off the power supply of the substation. It just cut off the power to the superconducting device. The electricity generated by the nuclear power plant would still pass through the substation but the electricity would then be delivered to the high-voltage transmission tower.
After the power switch was completely cut off, Chen Chen turned around and pulled out the USB drive, staring at it intently.
The surface of the USB flash drive had become extremely new and immaculate. Moreover, the brilliant dots of light that glittered endlessly upon the USB drive were like stars in the night sky. These light dots flared and faded astonishingly.
In any case, what did this change mean?
Chen Chen displayed a thoughtful look. Then, he simply plugged the USB drive into the computer again and opened it on the computer, after which he dragged the first and second Chronicle into the drive.
Following that, Chen Chen moved his pointer to the icon of the movie. When he was about to press it, he suddenly hesitated.
"Little X, send a Black Knight over."
Chen Chen released his mouse and watched a cloned soldier walk in. At the same time, the soldier said with a blank face, "Number A0012, reporting to Sir Commander."
Chen Chen handed the mouse to the cloned soldier, then retreated at once to the door of the main control room.
"Okay, A0012, play Chronicle."
After Chen Chen gave his order, the Black Knight played the movie without hesitation. In the next second, Chen Chen only saw the darkness before his eyes as if a black light had unfurled instantly, shielding the light on the ceiling and casting a black shade over the entire room!
Nonetheless, this strange vision only occurred in a flash. When Chen Chen recovered his senses, a round, black object had appeared on the computer screen!
It was like a hole that had appeared abruptly. It was pitch-black to the point where it reflected no light. Not a single photon of light could pass through that black cavity.
What was even stranger was that this black hole was obviously only the size of the computer screen but in Chen Chen's perception, it seemed to be two meters in diameter.
This visual paradox made Chen Chen inhale sharply.
Chen Chen walked to the side of the black circle but was shocked to see that when it was viewed from the side or the back, the black circle disappeared without a trace.
It was as if the circle was just a purely two-dimensional black sticker. However, the question was, was there such a thing as purely two-dimensional matter in this world?
"Sir Godfather, what is this?"
Little X sounded rather taken aback. "I can't understand this existence in front of me. Is that… A black ball?"
"I don't know either."
Chen Chen shook his head. "A0012, put your hand out and test it."
In accordance with Chen Chen's order, the cloned soldier immediately stretched out his right hand toward the black hole without any fear.
Suddenly, before Chen Chen's eyes, A0012's right hand went straight through the thin black circle and disappeared behind the screen!
The black thing was a hole…
Chapter 188: Passage to the Outside World |
Upon witnessing this phenomenon, not only did Chen Chen not allow himself to relax, he even took several steps backward.
He remembered several jokes from a science fiction novel, one of them went something like this:
A common plot in science fiction stories was of people in the future riding in spaceships encountering foreign planets of almost completely identical habitat as the Earth. For example, similar atmospheric pressure and similar air composition. The only discrepancy was the local flora and fauna.
Thus, the crew of the spaceship, dressed in common clothes, stepped into the planet without any defensive measures.
However, a study in Microbiology proved that this was a suicidal maneuver.
Despite the similarity in natural habitat, it was not at all a given that the microbial system was similar as well. After all, humans were born on the Earth and coexisted with countless microorganisms. The eons of evolution over time led to the development of the human immune system as we knew it today.
This meant that tens of thousands of years ago, humans had developed an immune system to adapt to nature. This immune system continued to evolve alongside the natural habitat. This was the true reason that humans were able to live on Earth.
Now, consider the scenario of rashly stepping foot onto another planet. Even if the planet's oxygen content and atmospheric composition were fit for human survival, the living microorganisms on the planet were another subject entirely. The human immune system had never been in contact with these new and foreign viruses and bacteria.
The viruses and bacteria on the planet may be largely harmless, however, even if just one percent of it was harmful, it was still a very substantial amount.
If there were only one or two harmful microorganisms, the human immune system may be able to withstand them. However, on a strange and foreign planet, what were the odds of there being just a handful of harmful microorganisms? What if there were tens of thousands of them?
Undoubtedly, these people were dead meat.
Previously, the USB drive was never able to deliver a living substance. Yet the passage had now turned int
o a hole meant for entry. It was very likely that the nature of USB drive had undergone some changes…
"Little X, have the Black Knights outside put on protective suits."
Chen Chen gave it some thought and quickly issued the order. He also instructed the cloned soldier again, "A0012, retract your hand and turn off the computer."
A0012 did as Chen Chen had instructed. As expected, the moment the computer was turned off, the black hole vanished instantly.
Chen Chen was able to rest his heart at last upon seeing this.
Chen Chen first had A0012 stay in place while he left the main control room and waited outside.
After some time, several Black Knights wearing positive pressure protective suits went inside and took A0012 into an isolation cabin and dragged the cabin outside.
After that, the main control room was completely locked down. A0012 was then taken to the Spire laboratory and was only allowed to go after running some tests.
A0012 was allowed to go because according to the laboratory report, there were no signs of microorganism contamination.
Still, Chen Chen did not let his guard down. He formed a USB drive inspection team consisting of three Black Knights and sent them into the main control room.
There was already a negative pressure isolation tent erected by the entrance of the main control room. Anyone coming in or out of the main control room had to be disinfected appropriately. After the Black Knights team entered, Chen Chen had them go through the previous procedures.
Upon selecting the Chronicle movie, the monitor turned pitch-black again. When the image was restored, an entrance engulfed in darkness appeared on the display.
One of the cloned soldiers had already put on a camera connected with a wire and began heading into the dark passage.
From the monitor, Chen Chen could see the cloned soldier entering the passage as if he was being compressed into it. The Black Knight entered bit by bit before vanishing in front of their very eyes.
With that, Chen Chen turned to the camera footage of the cloned warrior. He discovered that when the soldier entered the black passage, the feed turned into noise and the signal was lost.
Chen Chen glanced at the wire laying on the ground and suddenly instructed, "A0006, try pulling the wire."
Following Chen Chen's order, a cloned soldier knelt and picked up the wire connected to the camera. Upon picking it up, it was observed that the wire had been completely cut off…
The section of the cut was extremely clean. There was hardly a trace of the wire being severed as if this was the way it had always been.
"A person could enter but the wire was severed?"
Chen Chen's impression was taken by intrigue. He then further instructed, "Both of you, take the camera and enter the passage. If you see A0012 in there, take him back as well. Otherwise, come back within five minutes and make sure to record everything you see on the other end of the passage."
The two remaining cloned soldiers swapped out the wired cameras and used handheld cameras instead. Without any hesitation, they entered the passage.
The main control room instantly became eerily empty as the original cast of three had completely vanished. All that was left was the pitch-black passage which remained standing like a dark well.
"Sir, something is going on in the USB drive!" At that moment, came the voice of Little X.
Chen Chen had specifically installed a camera ahead of time which was pointed at the USB drive. Upon being prompted, he quickly turned to the feed and noticed that the glittering lights on the USB drive had faded considerably. The difference was noticeable to the naked eye.
Approximately one-third of its luster had faded.
"The total weight of a cloned soldier along with the carried equipment is 80 thousand grams, three of them makes for a total of 240 thousand grams. The USB drive had ten billion hours of accumulated electricity, enough to instantiate 833 thousand grams worth of substance, as expected…"
Chen Chen ran the brief calculation and instantly made out the changes in the USB drive. "Which is to say that keeping the passage up doesn't exhaust energy and it only consumes energy upon allowing substance to pass through?"
Midway through Chen Chen's speculations, a flash appeared in the dark passage. Similarly, there was a flash in the monitor display as if it was facing some form of interference. This observation only lasted for a split second as the image began to stabilize again over the following seconds.
It was then when Chen Chen saw that the three cloned soldiers had reappeared in the main control room.
Chen Chen loosened up a little upon seeing this. Whatever the deal with the passage was, at least this proved that it was not a one-way passage but one that granted passage from both ways across.
More than any other potential dangers, Chen Chen was only worried about the likelihood of not being able to return after entering the passage. That would prove to be most disheartening.
With this in mind, Chen Chen turned to the other display with the USB drive. He noticed that the luster density of the USB drive had decreased again. Only one-third of its original amount now.
It was pretty much confirmed that the luster was an indication of the energy level and energy was used upon entering and exiting.
The three cloned soldiers were disinfected before leaving the main control room. The camera equipment they had brought with them were package sealed before handed over to the Spire laboratory to conduct tests.
The laboratory report displayed similar results, there were no signs of abnormal microorganisms. There was a pitiful number of microorganisms on the cameras.
It was as if the passage had filtered out all microorganisms. It was only upon returning to reality when it caught the microorganism in the surrounding environment.
Still, this explanation might be a stretch since there were countless microorganisms in the human body. Even the trillions of body cells that made up human beings were all microorganisms. If the passage had filtered all living microorganisms, then theoretically, humans should not be able to enter.
This meant that only one explanation remained.
Which was that the world on the opposite end of the passage was a world without any microorganisms…
Chapter 189: New Rules |
Half an hour later.
Chen Chen inserted the SD card in the camera into the computer and viewed the footage in the SD card.
Following a flash on the screen, Chen Chen saw a still of the passage in the camera footage.
Inside the recorded footage, the camera began creeping closer toward the passage. It got closer and closer until eventually the display was filled with nothing but noise.
It would appear that upon passing through the passage, the camera was interrupted by some sort of unknown source of energy.
This interference only lasted a brief instant. In the very next second, the image on the display became clear again. Instead of a pitch-black passage, it was a vast plain.
It was a world that Chen Chen had never seen before. The section between the sky and the earth was painted with light. The blue sky above was almost transparent like a piece of glass, golden sand piled together to form a vast dune structure.
On the surface of the dune, numerous pieces of objects which looked like crystals were flashing. Under the reflection of the sun, they emitted rainbow-colored beams.
Something was off…
Chen Chen quickly replayed the footage and looked at the surface again. As expected, the surface was riddled with countless crystal shards of glass. The small ones were only the size of a piece of gravel but the large ones were as large as millstones.
In one particular frame, Chen Chen even noticed a piece of crystal the size of a gigantic mountain off in the distance.
???
Numerous gigantic question marks appeared in Chen Chen's head. One thing was certain, the movie he had the cloned soldier open was the Chronicle movie. Even if the USB drive opened a passage to another dim
ension, it only made sense that it would lead to the world in Chronicle.
What was the deal with the crystalline the size of a mountain?
Chen Chen resumed the footage and continued watching.
Inside the footage, he saw that the two cloned soldiers who had entered later found the very first cloned soldier who went in. The cloned soldier was looking at the ruins of a city in the distance. When their God chips made a brief connection, the original cloned soldier proceeded to return to the passage with the other two.
The footage flashed again and the three of them had returned to reality.
Chen Chen watched the thirty-seconds long footage several more times.
After he made sure he did not miss any details, he put his mind to work.
"X."
After brief consideration, Chen Chen suddenly dragged the progress bar and directed it to the frame where the city ruins were visible. "Match this with pictures online to see if the ruins of this city belong to a real city."
"Got it!"
Little X accepted the task and quickly began matching the cropped image of the city ruins with all the cities in reality.
While this was going on, Chen Chen shut his eyes and silently reflected on everything he saw earlier.
"Clear sky, golden desert, the ruins of a city, and land filled with crystalline fragments…"
Chen Chen mumbled to himself. These were all the clues obtained from the footage.
However, Chen Chen still had a gut feeling that something was amiss.
With this in mind, Chen Chen began to recollect the plot of Chronicle in his mind. He abruptly opened his eyes. "Plantation?"
There was no mistaking it. Chen Chen did not see any plantation in the world on the other end of the passage.
Upon taking note of this, Chen Chen suddenly had a speculation brewing in his mind. When he suddenly perked up, he heard Little X's voice. "I found it, the ruins of the city belong to the city of Washington in North America!"
"Are you sure?" Chen Chen asked in surprise.
"Hundred percent!"