Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 196 Thomas Wade (Two Chapters Combined)

At the Antarctic hibernation base, while Luo Qing was searching for Ding Yi, a little girl suddenly jumped out and said to Luo Qing in a childish but pretentious voice:
"You who are facing the wall, I need to talk to you."

"you are?"

"I'm Little Moss, don't you recognize me?"

Luo Qing stopped and scanned the little girl with his divine sense several times, confirming that she was a pure-blooded human.

The little moss explained to Luo Qing the origin of its body.

This body was specially requested by MOSS from the Earth United Government.

The little moss developed from a naturally non-intelligent fertilized egg, born in the Crisis Era 190, and is now 10 years old.

Because cloning is a prohibited technology, MOSS went to great lengths to get the United Government to approve its application for cloning.

(Note: There is a fundamental difference between human cloning and artificial womb technology.)

When applying for the MOSS position, the reason given was: "Only by becoming human can I better serve humanity."

Because Shan Qing acted as guarantor, the coalition government made an exception and passed the resolution.

Since its birth, the little moss has also been regularly connected to the 550W quantum computer to synchronize its consciousness with MOSS, ensuring that it is always in a superposition state between humans and MOSS.

The little girl in front of me was less like MOSS and more like a real 'little moss'.

Little Moss is very popular in human society. Almost everyone knows this cute little girl who pretends to be serious and calm in media interviews through television programs and the Internet.

Little Moss explained things to Luo Qing at length, and Luo Qing, after confirming that his body did not have any so-called 'pre-human consciousness,' felt relieved: "What do you need me for?"

"Regarding the Trisolaran civilization, I have just received the latest information from the original body—a being called the [Prophet] has appeared in the Trisolaran world."

"A prophet?" Luo Qing asked in confusion. "Has the Trisolaran civilization developed a religion? Isn't their supreme leader the Führer?"

“I don’t know either, which is why I came to you. You can ask the Six-Dimensional Sophon, since you have a high reputation in the Trisolaran civilization. The Six-Dimensional Sophon usually only answers your questions; it ignores all other humans except you.”

Luo Qing thought for a moment and asked, "Where did you get this information?"

Little Moss counted on her fingers and said, "Yesterday, some trouble occurred in the Digital Republic on digital life form number 00001. Digital life form number 00001 was being chased and beaten by other digital life forms. Later, Sophon's projection appeared in the digital world and rescued 00001."

It is not surprising that sophons possess quantum properties in their microscopic state and can interfere with the digital world within a quantum computer.

"Zhi Zi saved a digital life? Why would he be so interested in a digital life?" Luo Qing asked in surprise.

Little Moss shook its head like a rattle: "This digital life is no ordinary one. 00001 is a famous novelist in the Digital Republic. All cultural and artistic works of the Digital Republic are publicly available on the Internet."

I think the Three-Body world must have consulted this part of the content and become a reader of work 00001, which is why they interfered with the digital world... I think this might also be a kind of idol worship by the Three-Body world?

The little moss tilted its head, seemingly quite pleased with its conclusion.

"A fangirl across four light-years? Let me see what he wrote."

A holographic light brain popped out from Little Moss's wrist—her body was implanted with many technological devices. Little Moss said:
"In the 600,000 iterations of the Digital Republic, 00001 has created approximately 1 trillion characters over the past 100 million years, with a data volume of up to 9400 TB. Even if you were a cultivator, it would be impossible for you to read through such a massive amount of information. I have selected some of 00001's early representative works for you."

The holographic computer displayed a large number of text works, with two million words scrolling by in just a few dozen seconds, but Luo Qing's reading speed could keep up.

“I froze this world,” “Red Alert: The End of the Mind,” “Two-Dimensional Artist”… What kind of nonsense is this? Do people even read these kinds of works?” Luo Qing frowned.

“Perhaps the Trisolaran civilization’s aesthetic sense of writing is different from ours?” Little Moss said tentatively. “After all, we don’t know what kind of novels the Trisolarans’ transparent minds like; we know nothing about them.”

Little Moss added: "In short, it's a fact that Sophon saved him. Sophon told Digital Life Number 00001 that their 'Prophet' really liked his book and told him not to stop updating... You see, Sophon mentioned the so-called 'Prophet,' and in her words, Sophon seemed to have great respect for the 'Prophet.' I think this is a threat. Do you think we should take this matter seriously?"

Luo Qing looked at the little moss, which looked up at him in return.

The two stared at each other.

Luo Qing gleaned a key piece of information from the innocent look in Xiao Taixian's eyes:
In MOSS/Little Moss's understanding, the Trisolaran civilization posed a greater threat than the Devouring Empire.

This aligns with Luo Qing's assessment.

"Alright, I'll go ask the Six-Dimensional Sophon where it is now?"

"It's also near Antarctica. I'll contact it." The little moss uploaded the information to its main body, and the nearest display screen to the six-dimensional sophon immediately showed a line of text: [The Wallfacer is looking for you. Surface coordinates X1066Y1089. Come quickly.]

Soon, the round, six-dimensional sophon flew over from the South Pole at a cruising speed of Mach 100.

Faced with the threat of the Wallbreakers, most of the other sophons have now fled to the depths of the solar system. Only this six-dimensional sophon, who is not afraid of boiling water, dares to stay on Earth.

It poses no threat to humanity, which is why it has the confidence to remain on Earth.

I'm trash, go ahead and hit me!
The six-dimensional sophon came to a steady stop in front of the Wallfacer.

“I’ll ask, you answer,” Luo Qing said.

【OK】

The six-dimensional sophon floated obediently in place. On its mirror-like sphere, besides the two Chinese characters, there was the vast Antarctic sky, plum blossoms fluttering on the snowfield, and the Wallfacer and the little moss, a large and a small human who looked like siblings.

Luo Qing asked, "What is the role of the 'Prophet' in the Trisolaran civilization?"

【prophet?】

The Six-Dimensional Sophon displayed this line of text in a daze, seemingly somewhat puzzled.

Immediately afterwards, another line of text appeared on its mirror sphere.

The Trisolaran civilization does not have prophets; the leader is its sole authority. While prophets did exist in the past, history has proven them to be charlatans, and those Trisolaran civilizations that believed in them perished in successive Trisolaran catastrophes. The Trisolaran civilization has no religion.

This time, Luo Qing and Little Moss looked puzzled.

"Is it deceiving us?" Luo Qing asked.

“It doesn’t seem like it.” Little Moss shook her head: “The Trisolarans must have learned to deceive, but they probably wouldn’t use it in this way.”

Luo Qing nodded and said to the six-dimensional sophon, "One of your sophons has connected to the 550W computer and entered the quantum network. It told a resident of the Digital Republic about the existence of the [Prophet]."

The sophon quickly displayed: [This is impossible. To avoid further losses of sophons, the remaining 16 sophons have all been withdrawn from Jupiter's orbit. There are no sophons near Earth.]

With a thought, Luo Qing suddenly saw a sophon flying near Mars appear. It was like a golden thread, intertwined in the Martian orbit. It was clearly the one that had connected to the quantum network through the internet of the Martian city.

Luo Qing used magic to manifest this scene and showed it to Zhi Zi.
"What, this sophon could be something humans created themselves?" Luo Qing teased.

This is impossible!!!

Three huge exclamation marks appeared on the six-dimensional sophon, a tone of astonishment that Luo Qing and Little Moss had never seen before.

'What's going on? It seems the Trisolaran world really doesn't know about the existence of this sophon?' Luo Qing wondered to himself.

About three minutes later, the sophon sent another line of information that was clearly carefully edited and contained clumsy lies.

[I see. We understand now. This sophon was an accidental product of an experiment. It operates autonomously solely through its internal micro-intelligence 2.0. We cannot recall it at present, and you are free to destroy it; the Trisolaran world has no complaints. Currently, the Führer is conducting accountability procedures regarding this out-of-control sophon, but we cannot disclose specific progress to you, as we remain enemies.]

“The operator behind this Zhizi is dishonest and is probably lying,” Little Moss said.

“Indeed,” Luo Qing said calmly. Zhi Zi’s built-in [Micro Wisdom 1.0 System] left it awkwardly standing there.

"So you still haven't explained who the prophet is," Luo Qing pressed.

The mirror stopped displaying words and hung silently in the air, like a dead mirror.

If a clumsy lie doesn't work, then remaining silent is the best course of action.

Luo Qing asked several more times, and after discovering that the Zhi Zi was still pretending to be dead, he simply waved his hand and swept it to the ground.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the six-dimensional sophon rolled rapidly on the ground, like a tumbleweed, and in the blink of an eye, it rolled to the horizon and then disappeared.

Looking in the direction the Sophon had left, Luo Qing said to Little Moss, "The Sophon was definitely created by the Trisolaran civilization. I don't think the Sophon on Mars was out of control. It was most likely controlled by someone. A Sophon that is not controlled by the Trisolaran civilization, and is even unknown to the Trisolaran civilization, has appeared in the solar system... This is interesting."

Little Moss added: "There are two possibilities: either the Trisolaran civilization has split into factions, or there are Trisolaran forces existing in places beyond the reach of the Trisolaran civilization."

Luo Qing nodded and gave the little girl an order: "Little Moss, go and find a way to contact this Sophon and see what his attitude is. The intelligence gathering work about the Trisolaran civilization is entrusted to you. I'm going to wake Ding Yi up."

“No problem!” the little moss exclaimed.

Just as Luo Qing was about to leave, he suddenly thought of something.

“I remember… back in the year 120 of the Crisis Era, didn’t humanity launch a probe capable of traveling at 10% of the speed of light toward the Trisolaran system and the Trisolaran fleet? Eighty years have passed, and there should be some results by now, but I’ve never heard of the probe.”

In recent years, human exploration has mainly focused on two directions: the three-body problem and the dinosaur problem.

In the current standoff between humans and dinosaurs, it has become commonplace for each other to send unmanned spaceships to harass one another. Humans have even developed a technology to fill unmanned spaceships with nuclear bombs and then crash them into the dinosaurs at 10% of the speed of light. Unfortunately, the gamma laser defense network on the Devourer mothership is very strong, and the self-destructing spaceships often cannot get close to the Devourer mothership before being melted by the dense laser.

Lasers are a very useful, versatile, and offensive/defensive means of light-speed attack. They are not technologically advanced, yet they are favored by both humans and dinosaurs.

Compared to the dinosaurs and humans who were throwing trash at each other, the direction of the Trisolaran world was quiet and still, without any movement.

The little moss replied truthfully, "It's normal that you haven't heard of this information, because humanity has launched unmanned probes or spacecraft to the Trisolaran system or the Trisolaran fleet without achieving any results."

"Over the years, the Solar System Fleet has launched a total of 43 probes in 12 rounds at the Trisolaran Fleet, including five small combat ships controlled by AI, but all of these probes were destroyed when they approached the Trisolaran Fleet..."

As for the probes heading towards the Trisolaran system, there were more, over 100 in total, but these probes also received no information. The closest unmanned probe, the Trisolaran, was only 0.42 light-years away from the Trisolaran system when it was instantly destroyed by unknown means.

"A probe spaceship traveling at 10% the speed of light? It was intercepted so easily? What kind of weapon did the other side use? Laser interception?" Luo Qing asked.

Little Moss shook her head: "I don't know. The detection systems on the probe ships and detectors did not detect anything unusual. One second they were flying normally, and the next second they exploded. There were even five probe ships that were arranged in a triangular formation, which also exploded one after another in a bizarre way. No radar system detected anything unusual."

"What you're saying sounds so far-fetched..."

Little Moss's face was full of struggle: "Compared to dinosaurs, the technological level of the Trisolaran civilization is indeed very mysterious."

Luo Qing couldn't help but become even more worried.

Two hundred years have passed, and the information about humanity and the Trisolarans remains unilaterally transparent, which makes him very uncomfortable.

That dinosaur mothership, the one that devoured the giant ring, could at least be seen through a telescope. You could even see the internal structure of the giant ring and the dinosaur city inside it.

The Trisolaran system is still just a tiny white dot in the eyes of astronomical telescopes.

"Alright, so the Trisolaran fleet won't arrive for another 200 years. They're not in a hurry. I'll work with the Solar System fleet to deal with the dinosaur threat as much as possible... Remember to keep a close eye on those 10 probes that flew from the Trisolaran First Fleet."

"Okay, don't worry about it, leave it to me!" Little Moss saluted Luo Qing with a Young Pioneer salute.

...

three days later.

The underground city of New York, a tree-like urban area.

Ding Yi's expression was solemn. He said to Luo Qing, "I sensed a power that doesn't belong to me."

After saying that, Ding Yi swung his hammer and smashed the abandoned car in front of him to pieces.

Luo Qing exclaimed, "A Xiantian expert is terrifying indeed!"

Ding Yi's face darkened: "Stop bragging, okay? I'm embarrassed for you."

"hey-hey."

After smashing the car with a hammer, Ding Yi squatted on the curb, looking at the flying cars flying around in the sky, the various dazzling aerial light rails, and the residential area in the distance that looked like a giant forest. He couldn't help but sigh when he thought about how he was 5 kilometers underground.

“Not counting hibernation, I’m already in my seventies or eighties. In the past, I would have been half buried in the ground. But in this new era, I’m actually an old man in my prime… This really makes me feel very uncomfortable.”

Luo Qing admired the underground city before him, as well as the small controlled nuclear fusion sun hanging in the city sky. Watching the citizens coming and going, he felt a sense of emotion.

"This era is not bad, we will gradually adapt."

Ding Yi then said, "What's my strength called again? Innate Realm, right? This retro-sounding name of the realm reminds me of Jin Yong's novels, and it reminds me of the Sweeping Monk."

"You only have brute strength and don't know martial arts. It wouldn't be a problem for the Sweeping Monk to easily beat 10 of you."

"I'm not fighting. I have plenty of energy to do research now. You've scared Sophon away too. As long as humans win this battle against dinosaurs, I believe I'll live a happy life for the next 100 years... Will humans win?"

"It will win."

"Let's not talk about dinosaurs anymore, they're bad luck. A bunch of stupid big lizards. By now, most of the hibernators should have woken up, right? Have Dr. Luo Ji and Dr. Hines woken up yet?"

"They haven't yet, but it's been a few years. It depends on what the United Government thinks. Now they're used to associating the Wallfacer with me, and they've probably almost forgotten about the other two."

"Your role is inherently the most important."

"Not so." Luo Qing shook his head: "Don't underestimate any Wallfacer. I believe they will be of great use in the future."

The two were squatting by the roadside chatting when suddenly a disheveled man with a dejected look walked by. He was clearly a man who had just woken up from his slump.

Ding Yi looked at him and suddenly felt that he looked familiar. He quickly remembered who the other person was.

Thomas Wade, head of Project Ladder and director of the Planetary Defense Authority (PIA)!
Ding Yi and Director Wade had met before. When the "Stairway Project" was first proposed, Wade personally visited Ding Yi and consulted him on the related propellant efficiency and the feasibility of a stair-step approach to nuclear bomb detonation.

It was through Ding Yi's calculations that Thomas Wade realized that the Staircase Project was not feasible for transporting a living person and could only transport a maximum of 1.5 kilograms of goods.

That led to the famous "Brain Only" program.

"Director Wade?" Ding Yi called out tentatively in English.

"Hmm?" The man raised his head, his gaze gradually focusing on Ding Yi's face. After comparing the aged face with the middle-aged physics PhD he remembered for a while, he hesitated before asking, "Dr. Ding Yi?"

"Oh my, I even ran into someone I know!" Ding Yi exclaimed excitedly.

Meeting an acquaintance from the same era is an exciting experience, much like meeting an old friend in a foreign land.

Wade soon spotted Luo Qing next to Ding Yi.

“Wallfacer Number Five… Luo Qing?” Thomas Wade’s eyes widened.

“It’s me.” Luo Qing stood up and smiled at him. “Long time no see, Director Wade.”

(End of this chapter)