The first dozen or so pages of the lunar calendar are made of thick, colored paper, with exquisite and beautiful illustrations of various ani heroines along the edges, including but not limited to Asuka Langley Soryu, Lillian Drear, Asuna, Tifa, 2B, and others.
Upon closer observation, one can see brushstroke marks, all the illustrations are actually hand-drawn!
"Old in body, but young at heart."
Li Cheng couldn’t help but glance at the photo of Academician Chen on the table. He was dressed in a suit, with graying hair and a kind smile, surrounded by a group of disciples at the round table behind him, looking every bit the academic authority,
showing no hint of his true otaku nature.
"The confinents of the body cannot limit the freedom of the mind. Especially after the ergence of consciousness upload technology."
Su Nisheng pointed to the background of the photo, where there was a banner for the "2061 Brain-Machine Interface and Full Brain Digital Migration Scholars Forum."
Uh... Considering Academician Chen’s status as both an otaku and an academic authority, when he uploads his consciousness, he’ll likely choose a youthful and energetic image for himself, right?
"Anyway, look at the ti."
Li Cheng flipped to the back of the lunar calendar, and said solemnly: "From January 2070 to March 2071, all the calendar squares in these months were drawn by Academician Chen himself.
And the length of each square is different from the previous ones."
Indeed, each month, the squares subtly grow longer. In January 2070, there was almost no change.
February, 1.02 tis.
March, 1.05 tis.
April, 1.09 tis.
By March 2071, the length of the squares had reached 1.4 tis.
"What does this an?"
Hydra asked in confusion. Judging from the room’s decor and the photo’s depiction, Academician Chen was undoubtedly a ticulous and diligent person at work,
unlikely to do sothing as absurd as "deeply convinced that ’flies only bite eggs with cracks,’ Dr. Chen decided to grind away the seam line on his own egg with a file."
The change in the length of the calendar squares surely held significant aning.
A flash of inspiration struck Li Cheng’s mind, and he suddenly raised his head, speaking simultaneously with Su Nisheng, "Flight speed."
"Ti dilation."
"What?"
Hydra was still puzzled, so Li Cheng explained casually: "In the theory of special relativity, there is a thought experint called the ’Twin Paradox.’ It describes a pair of twin brothers, where one boards a spacecraft for a near-light-speed long-distance space trip,
while the other remains on Earth.
When the traveler returns to Earth, he finds that he is younger than his brother who stayed on Earth.
The calendar hand-drawn by Academician Chen doesn’t record the ti onboard the spacecraft but rather the ti relative to Earth for a spacecraft traveling at sub-light speed."
Hydra understood, "The spaceship’s crew ages more slowly compared to humans on Earth."
"Exactly."
Li Cheng nodded, "For this Academician Chen, who rose from a small town to beco a master’s, then a doctorate, and finally an academic authority, achieving fulfillnt on the Moon much like a blockbuster,
his life on Earth is already complete, and so he joins the interstellar migration program in his later years—since with consciousness upload technology,
even if his body dies, his consciousness can continue to shine in cyber space, teaching students and providing advice.
And this special hand-drawn lunar calendar is his way of reminiscing about Earth."
"I see," Hydra paused, then hesitated, "But does this help our situation in any way?"
"Hahaha, not at all,"
Li Cheng laughed heartily, "Strictly speaking, at least the consciousness upload technology does exist. That noisy kid wasn’t lying to us about that."
Hydra set down the photo. If the situation weren’t so serious, he would probably be making a sarcastic comnt, "Brother, there’s only an hour left until execution, aren’t you the least bit concerned?"
Priorities were important, so Hydra quietly took a few steps, following the guidance of the smart watch to begin repairs on the dical bay and body scanning equipnt.
It wasn’t truly maintenance—given what mories they had recovered, Hydra couldn’t understand the complex structures and precise components beneath the cover,
only following the cursor’s guidance, tightening here with a wrench, connecting a wire there.
The repairs were quickly completed, but then...
"This body scanning equipnt seems to be missing a piece," Hydra said.
The device was mainly composed of four parts: a high-energy ray emitter, an omni-directional six-axis chanical arm, imaging equipnt, and the main console.
The first three were intact, but sothing shaped like a square was clearly missing from the console cabinet slot.
"Spectroter core board..."
Relevant information automatically surfaced in Li Cheng’s mind. He tried pressing the power button; it turned on but couldn’t function normally.
At the sa ti, the smart watch displayed that all maintenance tasks in the dical room were complete, and they could move on to another location.
What did this an? The noisy kid was skimming over their work? Or perhaps...
Li Cheng had a faint guess in his heart, but his tone remained steady and unchanged, "Let’s go to the recreation room."
The recreation room was larger than both the dical bay and the armory combined, with multiple zones including a brain-machine ga room, a children’s toy room, a holographic cinema, and a bar.
Logically, since brain-machine interface technology existed, most human entertainnt could take place in the virtual world, being both freer and without wasting material resources like alcohol from drinking.
If one had to explain, perhaps not all personnel in the base had installed a brain-machine interface?
For growing children, it wouldn’t be suitable to install an interface that couldn’t be resized so early.
"Let see what gas and movies are available in 2070."
Li Cheng rubbed his hands together and just couldn’t hold it in when he clicked on the interface of the recreation room’s large screen.
"Fast and Furious 30? The cast hasn’t changed, still Van Diesel? Damn, he’s 80 years old and still riding bumper cars saying ’we are family.’
What about Half-Life 2 Open-World Brain-Machine Interface Ultra HD Enhanced Remake? You update so much but still don’t release Half-Life 3, right?
TGA Best Ongoing Ga, Genshin Im..."
Li Cheng quickly closed the interface, looking around guiltily.
Neither Hydra nor Su Nisheng paid him any mind, as one dutifully repaired circuits while the other flipped through a picture book left in the children’s toy room.
One of the pages caught Su Nisheng’s attention; it depicted a long, cigar-shaped spaceship with neatly structured segnts, shrouded in an oval energy shield on the outside,
with a large nautilus-shaped engine at the rear that emitted a blue glow instead of fire.
Perhaps the 2070 art education was particularly advanced, as this child’s drawing was as professionally done as one by a skilled artist, utilizing perspective techniques,
and judging by the small person (wearing the sa space suit as Li Cheng and others) in the cockpit at the ship’s bow, the entire ship was approximately 1000 ters long and 200 ters in diater.
Before Su Nisheng could think further, Dir’s sowhat frantic voice ca over the recreation room’s loudspeaker,
"Hello, this is Dir speaking. I’m talking to you now from the security room via broadcast.
Laughing God, has gone missing."
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