Chapter 551: Parallel Worlds
Chen Chen slowly opened his eyes.
When his mind registered what ca into his view, he relaxed his body that was uncomfortably tense and rigid.
Chen Chen found himself in a familiar room decorated with white walls on all sides. He could sll the faint scent of fresh flowers in the room and feel the soft fabric wrapping around his body. He glanced beside him and noted the speckless floor window.
Chen Chen got up from the bed. The gentle sun coated him with its warm embrace as he rose lazily from his slumber.
There was no mistaking it. He had returned to the Spire, to the world he belonged to.
Upon sensing Chen Chen’s awakening, the Android posted to the room entered with a dining cart arranged with plates of well-portioned, delicately prepared cuisine.
Chen Chen did not spare a glance at the food. He sat silently on his bed and stared off into the distance. He tried to jog the mory of what he had just experienced.
Just as he suspected, the mont he returned to the cryogenic chamber on the other world and fell asleep, he found himself awake in this current world.
“Holy Fusion Empire? Year 378?”
Chen Chen muttered to himself, “Could it be that my consciousness is simultaneously existing in both the present and the future?
“No, it’s not the future...”
Chen Chen shook his head at this thought. “That world is a world ruled by the Consciousness Stealer. Could this an that it’s a separate tiline wherein the Consciousness Stealer successfully defeated and enslaved mankind and found a new branch of civilization?
“In that case, how is it that I’m able to exist in two separate tilines?”
It suddenly occurred to Chen Chen that this may be a contingency plan that Little X had deployed in the Consciousness Battlefield.
Previously, when Chen Chen and the previous owner of the USB drive were dueling in his dreamscape, he managed to attain victory all thanks to the asures devised by Little X. It would not surprise him to know that Little X had set up further counterasures during the battle.
Perhaps Little X’s counterasure was in the event that Chen Chen succumbed to the Consciousness Stealer in the battle, he would not be completely devoured by the Consciousness Stealer. Although he may sustain significant damage on a taphysical level, his physical body would still be preserved in the cryogenic chamber and rest for centuries.
After he had recovered over ti, he could still challenge the enemy again...
However, even Little X would never foresee the turnout of the battle which resulted in a branched tiline. Just like the theory of Schrodinger’s cat, their battles created two completely separate worlds.
One was the present, the reality, which was the one where Chen Chen erged victoriously.
The other was the world with the so-called Holy Fusion Empire. It seed like both dinsions were not on the sa tiline since the otherworld was set several centuries in the future.
Chen Chen let out an exasperated sigh as he pondered the current circumstance he was faced with.
Although he was experiencing these schizophrenic symptoms, the good news was that he was still alive and had a trump card up his sleeve.
With this in mind, Chen Chen looked up and asked, “X, isn’t it ti you tell more about the Consciousness Battlefield?”
“Sir Godfather, the Consciousness Battlefield is the I specifically created to help you defeat the Consciousness Stealer.”
Little X’s voice was broadcasted through the speakers. “Using the collective consciousness of both you and the Consciousness Stealer as the foundation, a battlefield is forged to allow both parties to duel on an even battlefield. Since the battlefield is constructed from both of your conscience, the created terrain doesn’t favor either party. It’s the ideal battleground for a fair duel. However, in a way, this can be a double-edged sword.”
“What happens if I win?”
“If you win, you’ll be able to claim everything the Consciousness Stealer is made of and completely desecrate its conscience!”
Little X answered confidently.
“And what if the opponent wins?”
“This is where I mixed in a nifty bit of sleight of hand...”
Little X explained, “If the opponent defeats you, it can only absorb a part of your conscience and will cause you to fall into a deep and heavy slumber due to losing part of your conscience, but you will not die.”
“I see.”
Chen Chen nodded. “Since I was inside the cryogenic chamber, it automatically activates the mont it senses that I’ve fallen asleep to protect my body, is that it?”
“Exactly!”
Little X remarked loudly, “If we describe this process as a ga, then the will be the source code of the ga. The risk with this counterasure I’ve implented is that it may create a bug in the code and cause an internal collapse of the Consciousness Battlefield and from there on, what may happen is entirely unpredictable. However, I had to commit to this thod to protect you in case sothing went wrong. The good thing is it looks like nothing bad has resulted from it!”
“No, sothing bad has already happened.”
Chen Chen announced solemnly. He then began to describe the consciousness division symptom he was experiencing and what he saw in the otherworld. Little X was astounded by the tale she was told.
“If what you say is true, then that ans your consciousness currently lies in the middle point between two separate tilines. This must be caused by the fissure in the consciousness battlefield!”
Little X was surprised by the turn of events and imdiately beca distressed. “What should we do now? If sothing were to happen to you in the otherworld, will it cause a chain reaction over here as well?”
“There’s no helping it.”
Chen Chen shook his head and stated, “You win so, you lose so. Since I had to resort to cheating to defeat the opponent, I’ll have to bear the consequences. Besides, by the current looks of it, these consequences don’t seem to be sothing we can’t handle. It may even present a brand-new opportunity for us...”
After all, even Little X would not have predicted sothing like this happening.
After everything they had been through so far, the tic entities remained an incomprehensible, mystique force. It was an abstract entity that transmitted in the form of information but could still directly influence physical matter. Furthermore, the origin of its power was still largely unknown. The bare-bones theory was that it extracted energy from its subjects. However, what Chen Chen was currently experiencing could not possibly be solely the work of the tic force.
Would it be apt to say that this phenonon had sohow created a separate universe?
That was impossible. Chen Chen suspected that what was happening was a result of his consciousness being rged with his consciousness in another tiline, which caused his consciousness to traverse beyond the current plane.
It still had to be said that these tic powers were truly wondrous. Even Little X could not figure out the underlying principle of such powers. Till now, Little X’s understanding of them could still only be described as completely lackluster, though she was not to bla for it.
“Society has gradually recovered to its previous form over this period.”
Half an hour later, Little X ca beside Chen Chen who was having his breakfast and briefed him on the current state of affairs, “After ensuring that the Consciousness Stealer has perished, the Earth Federation finally announced the reason for the city lockdowns. However, they did not announce the true reason for what was happening. The people were only inford that the fusion death cases were the result of a new deadly virus and that they have eliminated the virus appropriately.
“As for the affairs on Mars, the Ares had taken off again and landed on Mars to construct a new research station. Our aerospace departnt has also collaborated with the four major continents and charted the brief details of a thirty-year plan.”
“Thirty-year plan?”
Chen Chen raised an eyebrow at such a ntion.
“In the first decade, we’ll build a Martian colony to house ten thousand people and transport the first batch of immigrants by the later period of this phase.”
Little X described, “The first of Martian citizens will also serve as trial subjects. We’ll provide them with suitable welfare and a generous salary and in exchange, they’ll entrust their livelihood and future to us. In the process of their stay on Mars, we’ll be able to accumulate sufficient data and experience to further improve our knowledge of building a hospitable ecosystem on Mars.
“In the second decade, we’ll be populating Mars with plants that can adapt to its unique environnt, one of which includes the tardigrade moss we previously researched. This will generate and supply oxygen content into the atmosphere on Mars and reshape the climate on the planet over ti.
“anwhile, the third phase will be the most challenging of them all. We need to find a way to restore the magnetic field of Mars. This isn’t a project that will take a re decade, but up to a century! The first prerequisite is to build powerful artificial magnetic field satellites. We’ll need tens of thousands of them to form a chained orbit surrounding Mars to alter its magnetic field and contain the naturally lapsing atmosphere of the planet.”
Little X went on. “Mars has its magnetic field, only it’s nowhere as strong as the magnetic field on Earth. Soti around 3.9 billion years ago, most of the magnetic field of Mars dissipated, leaving only so tiny residues of the original magnetic field. According to scientists, this was caused by an asteroid collision that also happened 3.9 billion years ago. It caused the surface temperature of Mars to rapidly rise above its core temperature, which in turn caused the liquid iron on its surface to fail to cool down below the surface temperature and unable to conduct appropriate levels of heat-transfer convection.
“The reason there’s a magnetic field present on Earth is due to the solid core of the planet. Earth’s solid core interacts with the outer layer of Earth which consists of large amounts of iron to generate what is known as the magnetic field. Its working principle is very similar to that of a DC generator. anwhile, the issue that the planet Mars faces is that the coil in the generator has malfunctioned and cannot rotate, which ans it cannot sever the natural magnetic induction line. This ans there’s no electric current, which results in an absence of magnetic field...
“Without the protection barrier which is the magnetic field, Mars is completely exposed to the solar radiation which slowly eats away its atmosphere over ti. This eventually causes the surface of Mars to be terraford into its current state.
“We ca up with a set of solutions to counteract this lack of magnetic field. The first step is to deploy a satellite chain to create an artificial magnetic field to stabilize its atmosphere.
“After that, we’ll deploy three giant boosters on Mars to fine-tune Mars’ orbital eccentricity.
“Although all planets in the solar system are assud to rotate on a fixed orbit, the truth is that each planet does still have fluctuating rates of orbital eccentricity. The orbital eccentricities of Venus, Earth, Mars, and rcury are 0.007, 0.017, 0.093, and 0.206 respectively, while the atmospheric concentration of these planets are labeled as dense, standard, thin, and extrely thin respectively. The reason for the inversely proportional ratio of these two attributes is that a larger value of orbital eccentricity causes the planet to lose a portion of the atmosphere, similar to what happens when a cot approaches closer to the sun. Therefore, fine-tuning the orbital eccentricity of Mars can help to reduce the atmospheric dissipation phenonon.
“According to our scientist’s findings, the magnetic field of Mars has been gradually recovering for so ti now, the sa applies to the planet’s core recovery. However, the rate of recovery is extrely lacking and it will take upwards of 700 million years before it could be restored to a point of managing to resist solar radiation. The good news is we can accelerate this process by up to a hundred thousand tis. The most straightforward thod to achieve this is by locating the dwarf planet Ceres located in the Kuiper Belt.
“The dwarf planet Ceres’ size is large enough to influence the gravitational force on Mars. We can install a nuclear fusion engine on the dwarf planet to shift it into the orbit of Mars, essentially designating it as Mars’ ‘Moon’ artificially. Ceres’ gravitational force will generate a substantial level of what is known as crowding effect on the structure under the Martian crust and this will accelerate the recovery of its magnetic field...
“Using these thods, we have full confidence that Mars will beco the next Earth within a century. This also makes it the first interstellar collaboration effort with the Earth Federation and the first phase of the investnt is projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars!”
“What benefit can we gain from this?”
After listening to Little X’s explanation, Chen Chen finally asked. At this point, a re century was not a far-fetched idea for mankind since the overall lifespan of humans was increasing exponentially with the gradual rollout of the mankind anti-aging project. In another three to four decades, the average lifespan of the average person should easily rise above a hundred years old. At this point, even Chen Chen was unsure how many hundred years he had remaining in his lifespan.
“The benefit we gain from this is that we’ll have a permanent colony on Mars that belongs entirely to us.”
Little X answered, “We’re the first and only space colonization company officially recognized by the Earth Federation. Although there will be other competing space colonization companies from other continents in the future, we’re currently the only company that has an established exclusive permanent colonial plot. This gives us a significant headstart on the others.”
“Not bad.”
Chen Chen nodded with delight. Although Little X did not stress the underlying details, he knew that there must have been a great deal of intervention that Little X had to pave through to arrive at this point. After all, it was in the four major continents’ best interest to thwart Blacklight Biotechnology’s rapid expansion. Currently, the raw capital of Blacklight Biotechnology was nowhere less than any of the four major continents. It might be even above them. Naturally, this would cause the four major continents to raise their caution.
With that said, the Earth Federation still had other alternatives to constrain Blacklight Biotechnology’s industry. They could limit Blacklight Biotechnology’s access to raw materials such as minerals and various high-precision materials to throw a wrench in the company’s production.
However, doing so would also in turn restrict their access to similar technologies such as the Androids, XTN robots, and various biodicine and aerospace technology. In this sense, both parties were at each other’s rcy.
Currently, Blacklight Biotechnology was clearly at the forefront of the aerospace industry. There was hardly any competition and even the Ares was independently developed by the Blacklight Biotechnology Space Departnt. This was the primary reason they were willing to get on good terms with Blacklight Biotechnology to colonize Mars together and go so far as to give the corporation the privilege of an exclusive independent colony.
Despite the clear upper hand, Blacklight Biotechnology was aware that it was not feasible to abandon the Earth Federation and move forward in the aerospace sector independently. Chen Chen knew that even if he utilized all the aerospace technology obtained from the USB drive, civilization developnt was still a group effort at the end of the day. His potential was greatly limited if he were to stray from the pack and he was more likely to face his demise sooner than later by doing so.
Therefore, what Chen Chen needed to do was to find a delicate balance between Blacklight Biotechnology and the Earth Federation. In the process of attaining this balance, he would try to negotiate the best terms possible that could benefit his side.
After Little X had explained everything to Chen Chen, he decided it was ti to test his Field to see what changes had occurred. It seed that the two masses of energy in his mind were yet to fuse completely.
After conducting several tests on his Field, he realized that the potency of Field had improved by roughly ten percent, but there was a significant drop in its precision. Once, he was able to observe the structure of matters by magnifying them a thousand tis but he was only able to achieve a magnification of roughly eight hundred tis now.
This seed to be the drawback of the fusion of Field energy and psionic energy.
Even after conducting a series of experints, Chen Chen was yet to discover the uses of psionic energy. It seed that he still needed so ti before he could fully take advantage of this newly-attained mysterious power.
Reviews
All reviews (0)