Chapter 131: I Might Not Be Around Anymore

Chapter 131: I Might Not Be Around Anymore

Life in space, under normal circumstances, was a dull and monotonous existence where years blurred together.

However, because the Spacecraft had a clear destination and people were constantly counting down to the date of October 27, 3020 AD, the days did not feel too difficult to endure.

Instead, everyone only wished time would slow down, as each passing day felt like one less day remaining.

Previously, the Escape Faction had decided to make an early sprint, aiming for the day of the sunspot eruption. Back then, the Escape Faction had a desperate, all-or-nothing attitude.

Now that Chen Feng had forcefully pushed the escape date back by a month, locking it firmly to October 27, it completely changed the mindset of the general populace within the Escape Faction, making people feel a bit more hesitant and anxious.

September 21, 3020.

The Spacecraft gradually approached the endpoint of humanity’s footsteps.

Chen Feng stood in the Command Cabin, his gaze piercing through the transparent ceiling as he looked out into the distant starry sky.

He stared for a long time but found nothing.

Logically, they were close enough to the so-called Barrier that they should have been able to see something with the naked eye.

Yet in the vast emptiness of the cosmos, there seemed to be absolutely nothing.

He really wanted to consult someone, to talk about it, but unfortunately, his own people like Tang Tianxin and Ou Qinglan were not around. They were presiding over an experiment in the laboratory in the midsection of the Spacecraft.

Asking people from the Escape Faction would easily expose his ignorance and undermine his authority, so Chen Feng had no one to ask.

Then Chen Feng turned and instructed the logistics department to retrieve various parameters, trying to analyze the differences from a data perspective.

He could vaguely see some clues.

Every moment, countless background radiation arrived in the Solar System from far away in the Universe.

The essence of cosmic background radiation was microwave radiation, originating from intense activities of celestial bodies or even the Universe itself.

Microwave radiation carried a vast amount of information.

Early humans could gradually glimpse the tip of the iceberg of the Universe’s nature by analyzing microwave radiation.

Normally, changes in cosmic background radiation should fluctuate within an extremely small range, very close to the black body radiation of the absolute temperature scale at 2.725K.

But this data underwent a tiny, sudden change five hundred years ago, weakening by a minuscule amount.

At first, people thought this meant the energy of the Universe was diminishing, just reaching a critical point at a certain moment.

It wasn’t until 2501, when humanity’s 327th unmanned scientific research spacecraft sent beyond the Solar System disappeared without cause, and every subsequent spacecraft attempted and also disappeared without exception upon leaving the edge of the Solar System’s Gravitational Field over the next decade or so, that scientists finally understood the situation.

The Universe hadn’t changed.

What changed was the Solar System.

The Solar System had been enveloped by an almost undetectable, yet objectively existing, thin film, which caused the cosmic background radiation received by the entire Solar System to be slightly weakened by a tiny bit.

After many more tests involving launching unmanned probes and spacecraft in different directions, scientists finally calculated the shape and size of the Barrier.

It was like a giant sugar-coated pill, with the Solar System being the bitter, effective part inside the pill.

“Fire a neutron fission missile over there. Let me see the situation.”

Chen Feng ordered.

Three hours later.

A multi-data modeling telescope established a three-dimensional model.

Chen Feng could see the moment the neutron fission missile struck the Barrier.

There was no explosion as he had expected.

The missile first traveled calmly through space, then began to disappear from its head.

This disappearance happened suddenly, without any warning.

It was like passing through a cross-sectional scan, with the other end of the scan being invisible.

Immediately after, some data changes appeared outside the invisible Barrier.

After data simulation, they formed a fog-like substance that rapidly dispersed.

A technician pointed at the dispersing fog and said, “Just like in our countless past attempts, the neutron fission bomb was quietly decomposed into fundamental particles, which then continuously underwent diffusion motion in the Universe until their concentration decreased to undetectable levels.”

Chen Feng tried rotating the view by ninety degrees, changing it to a simulated perspective parallel to the Barrier.

He pointed at the image and asked, “On this side is the material generated by the decomposition of the neutron missile. This other side is completely empty. Does that mean this Barrier is one-way? Matter can only be decomposed and sent out, but not brought in?”

The technician nodded, “Yes, so in a sense, our Solar System has been turned into an isolated island in the Universe by this Barrier.”

Chen Feng muttered to himself, “This thing is undoubtedly unnatural. It’s a means for the Invader to seal us off.”

“Of course, that is the consensus of all scientists.”

“Let’s leave it at that for now. Next, we will gradually approach, but remember, do not make direct contact. Strengthen the monitoring of all data. Prepare for the sunspot eruption six days from now, and strive to collect more information. Our ultimate goal is to understand the mechanism by which this Barrier decomposes matter. By the way, what exactly are the fundamental particles generated by the final decomposition?”

Several technicians shook their heads in unison.

“We don’t know. We can only confirm that their level is at least two orders of magnitude lower than Quarks, completely beyond our technological level.”

“Then we’ll do our best and leave the rest to fate.”

Chen Feng left the Command Cabin and went to the Medical Capsule.

His personal communication system had just received a message from Lin Bu, who was still in his “deep sleep.”

“What do you need to see me about?”

Chen Feng casually found a stool in the Medical Capsule, sat down, and crossed his legs.

Lin Bu had been in this state for quite some time.

As the person with the most abundant and intense emotions in this era, Chen Feng, after going through initial feelings of sorrow and distress, had finally adjusted his mindset and was now quite relaxed.

The reason why Lin Bu could still maintain consciousness was found.

His cells were vastly different from ordinary people’s, possessing extremely tenacious vitality, and each cell had a strong ability for self-replication.

This guy, as a whole, was a walking complex of cancer.

In the 21st Century, an ordinary person would die from cancer in a specific organ, but he was cancerous all over, which instead became another form of life.

After the life-sustaining fluid and nutrient tubes replaced the function of his neck, his brain could survive just like a normal person’s.

Chen Feng was special, and Lin Bu was no ordinary person either.

But Lin Bu did not represent the next stage of human evolution.

The reason he had such abilities was due to severe genetic mutation.

This mutation caused Lin Bu’s DNA to form a complete species barrier with ordinary humans, making any successful reproduction impossible.

Additionally, Tang Tianxin’s emotional recovery stemmed from Chen Feng making her pregnant. Lin Bu’s emotions had also recovered now, probably due to being reduced to just a head.

During the first few days when his emotions began to recover, his situation caused him immense torment, almost causing his will to collapse on the spot.

It wasn’t until the clone regeneration project led by Scott achieved preliminary success that he slowly calmed down.

Scott extracted a segment of muscle cells from Lin Bu’s neck area, performed reverse gene expression, and ultimately formed a new directionally cultivated Embryo.

In another glass jar in the corner of the Medical Capsule, a headless Embryo was forming.

“I’m just a head now.”

Lin Bu said.

Chen Feng waved his hand, popping another fish-skin peanut into his mouth, “I know. Half a month ago, when you were all desperate, you repeated that line no less than a hundred times. I’m not looking down on you, mind you. I believe no one in human history could have stayed calm when facing such a situation and suddenly regaining their emotions. You’ve already done quite well.”

Lin Bu grunted, “Then I have to thank Dr. Scott for giving me hope.”

“It’s because you covered our retreat that you ended up like this. We support each other.”

Lin Bu added, “Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time. I won’t live to see my body fully grown.”

Chen Feng fell silent.

That headless body would need to grow to at least the developmental age of twelve to possibly support Lin Bu’s head.

Even using various methods to accelerate its growth process, Scott’s preliminary estimate was at least three years. They truly couldn’t wait that long.

“It’s fine. When I come back next time, you’ll be a lively and vigorous hero again.”

“But as you said, I probably won’t know you then, right? What a pity.”

“What does it matter? We can just get to know each other again.”

“How do you know I will definitely still exist?”

“I just know, okay? Why do you care? What’s with all this melancholy?”

“My fault. I wasn’t such a sentimental person before.”