by <unknown>
Little X was wholly confident. The image on the computer suddenly turned into an enhanced image. The image was then zoomed closer to highlight a specific building with the edges blurred out.
It was a rectangular building. Although it was largely destroyed at this point, the many white pillars surrounding it could still be discerned.
"The shape and proportions of this building hold a ninety percent similarity to the Lincoln Memorial."
Little X explained, "After matching the landscape, I found that the other buildings surrounding this building are an exact match with the real-life variant in terms of proportions and styles. This further proves that this city is indeed North America's Washington."
"This means that the city shouldn't be surrounded by desert."
Chen Chen pulled up the map to find similarities. The location the opened passage led to was none other than Washington located in North America. It was Washington in a separate world.
Only, it would appear that something had happened in that world as Washington, the capital of North America was turned into a wasteland.
Apart from that, for some unknown reason, the terrain had also turned into a desert. Also, there was a large amount of crystalline present, sprawled across the lands like large patches of cabbages.
What was the meaning of all this?
The only way to obtain more information is to conduct more research.
With this in mind, Chen Chen looked at the USB drive still plugged into the computer. He noticed that the USB drive had lost more than two-thirds of its original luster as it barely had one-third of its previous radiance.
Based on the previous observation, Chen Chen had deducted that the passage conjured by the USB drive consumed energy upon entry and exit but it did not consume energy while being idle. There was also the chance that it did consume energy but at such an insignificant rate that it was almost negligible.
It was telling that this was what it was like to have the USB drive charged with a billion-kilowatt hour of electricity.
What was unprecedented was that the USB drive which once only allowed the instantiation of objects could now open a passage for humans to enter upon activation.
If that was the case, Chen Chen should be able to enter the world of Chronicle using this method and absorb the required crystalline from within the world. This served as a good alternative to bringing the crystals into reality which was a waste of the USB drive's energy.
However, Chen Chen first needed to eliminate all possible risks this method could pose.
For example, if the USB drive only had enough remaining energy to grant entry but not exit, then would that mean he would be trapped in the world inside the USB drive?
There was also the factor of potential dangers in the world. After all, even Washington, the capital of North America was turned into a wasteland, what were the chances that the other countries of other continents did not share the same fate?
If the world had ended and humans no longer existed, what was it that led to the demise of human civilization?
Chen Chen was not going to light-heartedly step into the world before these questions were answered.
With this in mind, Chen Chen plugged the USB drive into the computer again. He opened the USB drive, selected Chronicle, and hit [ctrl+d], all done in a swift and familiar motion.
"Dong!"
A system error pop-up window appeared, catching Chen Chen off guard.
"It can't be deleted?"
There was little chance of Chen Chen ever forgetting the attributes of the USB drive. According to the USB drive settings, a movie that had an object instantiated from it would become deletable and could never be opened again. Any following attempts to open it would only result in a system error pop-up.
This time, however, the rule seemed to be overturned.
Chen Chen thought for a moment and decided to just put his cursor on the Chronicle movie folder and double-tapped the mouse.
"Dum!"
Chen Chen instantly saw his vision go black as if all the light in the world vanished in just for an instant before reverting to normal again.
It was quickly followed by the appearance of the black passage.
Not only did the movie not show a system error message, but it could also be opened again.
All signs suggested that when the USB drive had accumulated a total of a billion-kilowatt hour of electricity, the rules of the USB drive had undergone some unprecedented changes…
Chapter 190: Chen Chen's Speculations |
Chen Chen suddenly thought of another possibility upon seeing the black passage opening again.
What were the chances that the four horror films that came with the USB drive had also been opened in this manner by the USB drive? Perhaps in the process of constructing real "passage" from the movies, they also became undeletable?
This was just an idea that suddenly sprung to Chen Chen. Although he had no verifiable claim to back it up, he just had a strange hunch that this was it.
After having the previous experience, this time, Chen Chen got a cloned soldier to bring several disposable sealed sample bags and a camera, and entered the passage without any other preventative measures.
After all, having already determined that no microorganisms were present in the world on the other end, there was no need for extra measures like protective suits. Besides, entering and exiting the passage consumed a certain amount of energy. Losing the protective suit weighing up to ten kilograms was equivalent to saving millions of kilowatt-hour of electricity.
This time, Chen Chen did not have the soldier take a quick exit. Instead, he ordered him to inspect the ongoings on the other end of the passage.
The cloned soldier was to collect all sorts of samples in the movie world and also traversed a radius of ten kilometers while collecting footage of everything he saw.
The soldier was to remain in the passage world for an entire day before returning to reality.
One day later, the cloned soldier returned in one piece.
In addition, he came back with a backpack full of samples. There were soil samples, crystal samples, concrete samples of buildings, and such.
These samples were all taken away to be tested. The returning cloned soldier was also subsequently disinfected following standard protocol.
Meanwhile, Chen Chen took a look at the footage taken by the cloned soldier inside the passage after transferring it into the computer.
Under the control of the God chip, the cloned soldier walked around in a spiral shape, gradually expanding outward as he went on. He maintained this pattern until he had traversed a ten kilometers radius.
Over the entire day, Chen Chen barely caught even a glimpse of a plantation in the recorded footage. Also, there was no sign of water sources. It was as if the world was barren of water. Even the soil had lost all of its nutrients. All that remained was a world consisted of inorganic substances…
Simply put, all substances needed for sustaining life had simply vanished entirely.
In addition, the cloned soldier entered the ruins of Washington and did not spot any signs of life. On top of there being no signs of a living person, there were no dead bodies either, not even dried up remains.
It was also deduced that most of the buildings had collapsed a long time ago. There was no way to tell what caused them to collapse due to the amount of time that had passed. Some of them appeared to have collapsed on their own while others seemed to have been crushed by something enormous…
This only served to further solidify Chen Chen's speculation.
The laboratory report was produced very soon after that.
The results were the same as what Chen Chen had suspected. The soil samples did not contain any microorganisms and their moisture was also pitifully low. The land had lost almost all of its nutrients, leaving a sad desert behind.
The air in that world was extremely dry but its oxygen content was higher than that of Earth in real life. To be exact, app
roximately five percent higher.
A similar analysis was performed on the crystal fragments as well. As expected, their material composition was that of a spinel, only the radiation they contained had been released long ago. Thus, they were unable to grant human superpowers.
"There's almost no water in the air and soil, and the soil has lost its nutrients, making it impossible for even microorganisms to survive..."
Chen Chen deducted. "X, do you know what this means?"
"What does it mean?" Little X asked curiously.
Chen Chen answered with a serious tone, "Washington is located at 38°91' North latitude and 77°01' West longitude. It has a temperate continental climate, 10.16% of its terrain is occupied by water. Three rivers flow through the city, namely the Potomac River, the Anacostia River, and the Rock Creek River.
"Not only that. Just thirty kilometers to the East of Washington was the Atlantic Ocean. How was it possible that there's not even a trace of humidity in the surrounding air?"
Chen Chen thought for a while and finally suggested, "Unless, even the Atlantic Ocean had dried up.
"I think I get it."
Even Little X sounded a little surprised. "What Sir Godfather is trying to say is that all of the water and nutrients in the world connected to the passage has been sucked dry by some substance?"
"Yes, this is the only plausible explanation I can think of."
Chen Chen nodded. "The data extracted from the air reflects the same theory as well. The air in the passage world contains 5 percent higher oxygen content. Doesn't this align with the trait of plants that absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen?
"When you factor in the field of crystalline fragments, the answer is revealed – an alien plant that can produce crystalline has completely drained the Earth.
"According to the series plot, didn't the alien plant die in the sequel?"
Little X asked quizzingly, "If the world connected to the passage is the world of Chronicle, how can this sort of paradox exist?"
"This has to do with the theory of parallel universe."
Chen Chen thought for a moment before further explained, "In the experiment of 'Schrodinger's Cat', a cat that's both dead and alive remains in a quantum superposition state. It's only when you open the box that the wave function state of the cat collapses and it falls into a true fixed state.
"To put this in terms of a parallel universe, there's no such thing as a wave function state collapse. That's because when conducting this experiment, the universe is already split into two. In one of the universes, the cat is already dead while in the other universe, the cat is still alive…
"If the formula of the wave function system prior to opening the box is; (You don't know if the cat is alive ] x1/√2|Dead cat ] x |Atomic decay ] + |Living cat x |No atomic decay), then after opening the box, the system is thus influenced by your interaction with the box and becomes: 1/√2 You know the cat is dead ] x |Dead cat ] x |Atomic decay + |You know the cat is alive ] x |Living Cat ] x |No atomic decay ])
"This means that parallel universes represent unlimited possibilities."
Chen Chen explained, "One of the series of paradox – the 'Grandfather Paradox' which is spoken of in Multiverse Wheel refers to the so-called parallel universe —
"There are many dimensions to a universe. A multiverse is composed of countless parallel universes while a parallel universe refers to a divergence from the original universe. It's an alternate universe that closely resembles the original universe but has distinct similarities. It's just like how the universe of the movie I created and the universe the passage leads to share similar histories, but due to certain factors, there's a growing distinction between the two which leads to the formation of two completely separate worlds.
"This is only one of the many reasons."
Chen Chen further elaborated, "Of course, the movie already states that the plant was dead. However, does anyone have proof that other alien plants don't exist in the universe?
"Don't forget, the alien plants were able to communicate telepathically. Perhaps the arrival of the first plant into Earth attracted another plant that was able to consume planets…"
Chapter 191: Mechanical Processing Plant |
Looking at the newly obtained information in his hands, Chen Chen found himself engrossed in thought.
The recent changes in the USB drive gave way to an ominous guess in Chen Chen's mind.
The appearance of the black passage and the world it led to gave the impression that there was a deeper facet to everything so far.
It was as if the USB drive was intentionally designed this way, that the architect behind it was trying to convey some message to the user.
Before the user was able to attain sufficient energy, the USB form was only capped in its "first form", which granted the ability to instantiate objects from movies, but it was unable to open passages for entry.
Once the user of the USB drive had advanced past a certain point and had gathered enough energy, the USB drive systematically expanded into its "second form" which allowed the user to learn new things.
It may appear that its inability to instantiate living beings was a design specifically implemented to protect the user.
Take the world in Chronicle for example. If the USB drive was able to instantiate living beings, it was extremely likely that the alien plant would be brought into reality along with the crystalline.
As for the consequences of such an action, the scenario in the passage should suffice as an example.
Chen Chen only had one question on his mind now - was it possible for the USB drive in its second form to revert to its first form?
Chen Chen thought about it. Since the USB drive still had some energy remaining, he returned to the main control room and booted up the USB drive. He looked at the movies inside the USB drive and selected Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters.
The reason behind selecting this movie was because the technology in the movie nearly mirrored that of the real world. Even if they were not of any help, it was no skin off his back should something go wrong.
Besides, the USB drive did not have enough energy inside it for Godzilla to crawl its way out. If it were to force its way out, it should end up similar to how it went for Chen Chen's fingertips, the portion that crawled through would be cut off.
After Chen Chen double-clicked the movie, Godzilla 2: King of the Monsters began playing in the computer's video player.
Chen Chen was able to rest his worries upon witnessing this.
Fortunately, this movie did not also turn into a passage.
Chen Chen turned off the movie. At this point, it was pretty clear to him that the USB drive had obtained a new functionality. In the future, there were two choices when opening the USB drive, either instantiate an object or open up a passage.
In that case, Chen Chen decided to conclude his experiments. The total power generated by a 2 million kilowatt nuclear power plant over 20 days was only enough for four people to enter and exit the tunnel once. Chen Chen was rendered somewhat speechless.
There was hardly any power left in the USB drive as it needed to be recharged.
So, Chen Chen plugged the USB drive back into the charging device and gave it time to charge.
Concerning the constant prompt from the Namibian officials, Chen Chen decided he was going to drag his response out for another month.
There were a total of two nuclear reactors in the Blacklight Nuclear Power Plant. After a month, Chen Chen could use one to provide energy for Namibia and the other for charging the USB drive.
Even though at this rate Chen Chen was going to be operating at an enormous net loss, it was money that he could afford to lose.
After locking down the main control room, Chen Chen prepared to have Cheng Cao drive him back to the Spire laboratory.
However, when Chen Chen entered the car, he received a call. It was Qian Wenhuan.
"Boss, Professor Charles from the industrial zone just contact
ed me. They told me the thing you instructed them to design is completed and that they have produced a prototype. They hope you can head over to take a look."
Chen Chen nodded in response to Qian Wenhuan's report. "I got it. Tell them that I'll be there in an hour."
After hanging up, Chen Chen turned to Cheng Cao sitting in front. "Head over to the dock, I need to get something."
"Got it, Boss."
Chen Chen answered and proceeded to drive toward the dock in Walvis Bay.
Meanwhile, Chen Chen sent a message to Little X. When Chen Chen arrived at the dock twenty minutes later, there was already a cloned soldier standing ready by the Blacklight Cruise who then passed a pendant to Chen Chen.
After receiving the pendant, Chen Chen had Cheng Cao switch route again and headed for the industrial zone in the Eco Science City.
This pendant was the Galaxy in Men in Black.
While the USB drive was being charged in the nuclear power plant, the Blacklight Cruise was left running as well. Chen Chen had left the Galaxy pendant in the power control room for the ship's engines to charge it around the clock.
Although the power of the Blacklight Cruise's generator was only 240,000 kilowatts which were only one-eighth of that of the nuclear power plant, it was still a substantial amount of electricity.
The price he had to pay was that the Blacklight Cruise would be burning more than 20 million U.S. dollars in fuel and maintenance costs every month.
Chen Chen also found a proper way to release the accumulated electricity, which he had done using a specially constructed generator. Upon inserting the Galaxy pendant into the generator, the generator transmuted the electricity into an endless stream of thermal energy.
Chen Chen ordered three such generators from Germany. Although the efficiency may take a small hit, at least it served to accelerate the charging rate of the USB drive.
Apart from that, Chen Chen thought of a new application for the generated power.
Which was to manufacture weapons using the Galaxy pendant.
The earliest form of weaponry over the course of human civilization development was kinetic weapons. Even though energy weapons were available now, humans still largely depended on kinetic weapons since the technology for energy weapons had yet to reach a mature stage.