by <unknown>
"Joan, you're impatient as ever."
The white-bearded elderly man suddenly laughed merrily. When he gave a signal by clapping his hands together, several subordinates entered the conference room and handed a sheet of a report to everyone seated at the conference table.
"This is the complete log of the previous encounter."
After everyone had received a copy of the report, he continued. "As you all can see from the radio logs, the other party is asking us why we opened fire at them without issuing a warning. They're also continuously asking to speak to the person in charge of the military base."
"Are you not planning to respond?"
The colonel asked, "We still haven't figured out what faction they belong to. There's a chance they aren't part of the government, but this aircraft they used…"
The colonel further inspected the black and white image in the report and asked, "General Cary, are you sure the picture of the aircraft hasn't been mixed up with some picture of a car?"
Everyone inspected the subject referred to. Attached in the report was a not very high-quality picture. On top of that, it was in black and white so all that could be seen was a blurry image. Inside the picture was what appeared to be a vehicle hovering above the air. The only feature that set it apart from regular vehicles were what appeared to be two thrusters on its sides.
"If even a common car can glide across the sky at speed surpassing Mach 10, then surely I may have been mistaken."
The elderly man they called General Cary chuckled. "At first, I thought it was a remnant of the government army, but I realized that wasn't the case after they avoided the ballistic missile. Currently, their identities remain a mystery. After all, I haven't heard of any remaining states or countries since the calamity that has invented such advanced aircraft. Also, consider the following: what can we possibly gain out of negotiating with them?"
The elderly man chuckled again as he spoke, "I'm sure many of us here share the same suspicion, that they are coming for our specially designed underground shelter here. Are we going to share equal ownership of this underground shelter to these people? This is the shelter that keeps us away from the mysterious phenomena…"
There was a distinct change of expression among the members when they heard this. Those who originally had conflicting opinions began to settle down as well.
It was true, the underground shelter only had enough to accommodate a certain amount of people. Upon exceeding that number, the supply and demand of food and water would become greatly imbalanced. Once the delicate recycling process of resources was disrupted, they would have no choice but to raise the frequency of opening the underground shelter to resupply resources in the outside world.
God knew that the world was now infested with those d*mnable things. There were no guarantees that one of these times of them opening the shelter, those things would not sneak inside.
Once the mysterious phenomena found their way inside, the now safest shelter in the entire world would instantly turn into a horrific embodiment of hell on Earth…
Upon considering this, the members who were longing for some sort of contact with the outside world decided they were better off silencing these ideas.
"It seems to me that we all have a different opinion on this matter, so I say we do this the democratic way."
After the white-bearded general looked over the members, he quickly got an idea of the general ongoing sentiment. Again, he announced, "Here's what I think, nothing good can come out of taking unnecessary risk. To prevent having our shelter taken away from us, we shouldn't establish any form of contact with the outside world. If they still dare to storm us by force, we shall shoot them down with our missiles! Who agrees and which ones of you disagree?"
"… Agreed!"
The middle-aged man's expression quickly turned dark. After producing a long sigh, he was the first one to respond.
"Seconded."
The blonde-haired lady seated opposite nodded her approval as well.
"Seconded."
"Seconded."
…
Unbeknownst to them, while they were gathering their thoughts on the matter, four completely transparent drones had snuck into the military. They came unnoticed, gliding at low altitudes and approaching from a distance, going 80 kilometers per second.
Once the drones successfully infiltrated the base, they immediately dispersed their formation and scattered across the base to conduct a brief scan of the entire base.
"A-1 did not discover any signs of life…"
"A-2 did not discover any signs of life…"
"A-3 and A-4 did not discover any signs of life either…"
Half an hour later, Chen Chen received all the messages from the unmanned drones, "Sir Commander, we've swept through all of the warehouses and facilities of the military base and couldn't discover any signs of life. By the looks of it, the military base had been deserted for a very long time."
"Then surely there's no way for an abandoned military base to attack us?"
Chen Chen turned it around. "It's clear that the structures are just a facade. The real military base must be deep underground."
"I think so too."
X-112 answered.
"Has the Black Knight arrived?" Chen Chen enquired.
"Just arrived. But if even the unmanned drones cannot find any clues, I doubt the Black Knight would be able to find the underground entrance."
"It doesn't matter even if we can't find the entrance. We can locate them using the electric cables and the local network lines, there's no way they would go as far as to hide the circuitry as well."
Chen Chen pondered for a moment. "Besides, you can directly infiltrate them if we can find a cable, isn't it?"
"That's true."
Yoru Kamidera started to get a grasp on the current situation as he listened to the exchange between Chen Chen and the artificial intelligence. He became delightfully impressed by the level of artificial intelligence displayed by X-112 which surpassed the average person. He expressed his thoughts suddenly, "Your Excellency, I've also thought of another idea following the trajectory of your original idea. I wonder if you'd be interested in hearing me out."
Chen Chen flicked his eyebrow curiously and turned to him. "Let me hear it."
"From the information you collected, there's a Basilisk image called 'Filth'. We can take advantage of your artificial intelligence to inject the image into their main control systems. This way, we can eliminate them without sparing any effort, then the entire military base will be ours to claim!"
Chen Chen cracked a quick smile upon hearing this. "It's a good idea, but not so much if the underground base has a built-in self-destruct system."
Yoru Kamidera was slightly caught off guard by this. It was true that if the underground base was fitted with self-destruction capabilities, the people residing inside may choose to activate it as a final act of resistance once they had lost all hope. Should that happen, they would have succeeded in defeating their opponents but failed at getting what they were after.
"Sorry, that slipped through my mind."
Your Kamidera answered dejectedly.
"It's alright, it's not an entirely bad idea."
Chen Chen waved his hands. "Except I'm not only gunning for the underground base, but something else as well…"
Chapter 314: Secret of Gantz |
Within three hours, the Black Knight had successfully dug up a track of wire deep underground by tracing along the layout of the base's wiring. It was an optical cable with a diameter of a regular fist.
The Black Knight swiftly cut open the outer layer of the optical cable, giving way to a gap wide enough to fit three fingers inside. There were bundles of thin optical cables layered within the larger cable.
After that, the Black Knight produced a device resembling a black mechanical beetle. Upon being installed on the exposed section, hundreds of probes came out of the beetle and automatically plugged themselves into the optical fib
ers.
"I received the signal."
At the same time, X-112 that was positioned some twenty to thirty kilometers away suddenly informed, "The Black Knight successfully found the optical cable and installed the interceptor. I can begin infiltrating the internal server of the base using the interceptor signal."
"Try to crack their network barrier without raising an alarm."
Chen Chen reminded.
"Understood."
Following X-112's words, rows of massive data streams flashed automatically on the spaceship's holographic projection. At the same time, X-112 began providing the latest updates. "Currently intercepting all data, preparing to decode and analyze…
"Extracted the base logs, currently infiltrating the base's defense systems…
"The firewall has been breached…"
X-112's infiltration was extremely efficient, there was an endless stream of updates. After approximately five minutes, X-112 spoke again, "Sir Commander, the defense systems of the base have been compromised. We can now barge right in."
"Excellent work."
Chen Chen nodded. "Tell me about the base."
"This base is the North American Area 51 air force base. Somewhere around 1990, as the Gantz sphere technology began emerging, the North American, European, and Central Continents all obtained production rights of the Gantz sphere. This place is where the production of the Gantz sphere in North America was based."
X-112 began to provide a detailed background. "However, Area 51 was already an air force military operation base in the very first place. To deploy production lines while also concealing them from the public, the underground section of Area 51 military base was excavated. This was where the production line of the Gantz sphere was set up.
"But these aren't the primary focus. The true highlight is that to produce the Gantz sphere, an experimental environment known as 'Vantablack' was required."
"I've heard about it."
Chen Chen was intrigued. "'Vantablack' is a specially simulated environment wherein subsequent means of radiation reduction is applied to various sources of variation. This is done to negate as many sources of cosmic ray interference as possible."
"Yes."
X-112 replied affirmatively, "A 'Vantablack's environment is essential for conducting cutting-edge experiments such as dark matter detection, neutrinoless double beta decay experiments, and nuclear astrophysics. The current best method for constructing such an environment is by utilizing deep underground rock layers. Ideally, the laboratory should be built as deep underground as possible while also incorporating multiple layers of shielding to minimize the surrounding environmental radiation. The result is an almost completely pure dimension devoid of electromagnetic radiation…"
"Which is to say that the Gantz sphere can only be created under such specific conditions?"
Chen Chen nodded thoughtfully. "Excellent, I wonder if our Spire Experimental Base checks these boxes."
"That would be entirely impossible."
X-112 answered, "According to the information extracted, the Gantz sphere production line in the Mainland is set up in a laboratory in Sichuan Jinping. The laboratory is built 2,400 meters under a mountain. It's the world's deepest laboratory and they claimed it was for studying dark matter. Meanwhile, our Spire Laboratory is only 700 meters deep."
Chen Chen let out a sigh. "Then have you found the manufacturing technology of the Gantz sphere?"
"I've found it, it's being transmitted."
X-112 announced again, "Based on the looks of it now, your speculation is correct. The Gantz sphere is no more than a terminal, while the relay station is a Gantz satellite with extended wavelengths. In other words, the Gantz sphere being used in conjunction with the Gantz satellite allows it to transport people around the world.
"Additionally, there's something else called Gantz server inside the Gantz sphere system. The North American server is located right here. It's used to log the data of all the people transported with Gantz. This includes information on the transported person's cell layout, DNA structure, even the string perturbation frequency of the particles that make up DNA, and such. Without the server, the Gantz sphere is little more than scrap metal."
"Is it that complicated?"
"That's not even the end of it. What truly challenges the boundary of what we know as science is that each one of the Gantz Sphere, Gantz satellite, and the Gantz server are more than mechanical products."
X-112 explained, "For the Gantz sphere, mechanical parts only make up 50% of its structure while the Gantz satellite consists of 70% mechanical parts. Meanwhile, the Gantz server is purely crafted using high-purity germanium, it isn't made up of any other substance or contains mechanical structures. You might as well call it a statue carved from high-purity germanium… Needless to be said, this is a new aspect of scientific advancement that modern humans have not been able to achieve yet."
"It does seem that way."
Chen Chen flashed a curious look. "Any other discoveries?"
"The next part should be something that you're most interested in."
X-112 continued. "Based on the collected data, each country had foreseen the appearance of the Basilisk images and related mysterious phenomena upon their obtaining of the technology for the Gantz sphere. This is because the earliest form of Basilisk pattern is merely part of the pattern carved on the Gantz server machine…"
"What!"
If the other news Chen Chen had received so far could be described as being moderately acceptable or even predictable to a certain degree. This piece of information was completely left field and stunned Chen Chen. Even Yoru Kamidera was surprised by this revelation.
"Are you sure there hasn't been some kind of mistake?"
"There's no mistaking it."
X-112 doubled down. "The complete report is logged inside the base. This report is further encrypted and shelved away in the deepest corner. At one point, it was also reported to the North American president. However, before they could conduct further research on the subject, human civilization was crippled by the mysterious phenomena. Naturally, the research was halted as well."
As X-112 said this, a dense sheet of report written in English appeared before Chen Chen in the form of a holographic projection. X-112 went on. "What's even more surprising is that inside this report, a research staff called Professor Stanford states that the Gantz server exists in a vulnerable but extremely unique dimension.
"There's no way to analyze or detect this universe. Even the slightest trace of cosmic radiation would cause its complete destruction, but one certain thing is that it exists…
"One way to tell is that within the radius of the Gantz server, all mysterious phenomena are completely blocked and rendered useless."
Chapter 315: Harvest |
Yoru Kamidera was completely taken by shock upon hearing the words of X-112.
There was a good reason for his exaggerated reaction for he saw with his very own eyes how the world was ruined because of a picture. To a certain extent, the picture had even destroyed human civilization along with the hopes and dreams of countless people.
Now he was told that the doom of mankind, the Basilisk images along with the far more terrifying mysterious phenomena had all come from the previous savior of mankind, Gantz?
This revelation was a heavy punch to the gut for Yoru Kamidera. He was immediately consumed with a sense of absurdity and irony.
"Gantz server machine?"
This seemed to have drawn Chen Chen's interest. "Exactly, what's the Gantz server machine? Will it be dangerous to approach it directly?"
"This is the strange part."
X-112 quickly responded, "There are all sorts of patterns on the Gantz server machine but at the end of the day, it was an artificial product. However, the people building it didn't seem to have experienced any strange events. On top of that, after the Gantz server machine was put together, many leaders of many countries came to inspect it and nothing came out o
f it either. From this, we can conclude that the Gantz server machine itself is harmless."
"It only makes me more curious when you put it this way."
Chen Chen said, "Show me. I, for one, would like to see how this Gantz server machine looks like."
"If you insist."
Following Chen Chen's orders, the hologram projected by X-112 suddenly shifted. The streams of data and text instantly vanished and were substituted by a metallic gray structure. The structure was very peculiar. It was formed by two spiraling objects intertwining with each other as they climbed to the top to form a spiral-shaped tower with two points of the spiraling objects on its tip!
The sight of the spire was extremely peculiar to behold. It seemed to contain layers on top of layers, all of them with strange patterns that Chen Chen had never seen before, all densely packed across the surface of the spire. Upon closer inspection, they were completely identical to the Basilisk patterns!
"This is the Gantz server machine."
X-112 informed, "This Gantz server machine is made entirely of solid high-purity germanium. With my current database, I haven't been able to deduct why it is the core structure of Gantz."
"Me too."
Chen Chen nodded. "The workings of these things have exceeded the boundaries of human knowledge. What's even more absurd is that this is the work of humans as well. It doesn't look particularly difficult to construct either. Was high-purity germanium used because it's a metalloid semiconductor that is somewhere between being a metal and non-metal?"
Neither X-112 nor Yoru Kamidera had an answer for Chen Chen's question, for there was no way to find the answer.
Chen Chen was not fixated on obtaining a proper answer either, he only murmured, "Despite the evident risk, we have to get our hands on these scientific subjects never before seen by mankind. I also suspect that the three statues from Elysium share a similar principle with this Gantz server machine. Perhaps they may have identical attributes…"
"Didn't you decide to steer clear away from the three statues from Elysium back then?"