Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 288 The Mystery of the Giant Object, The Origin of the Starship!
Liu Bi and Niu Fu left in a hurry.

They even requisitioned his SUV, leaving only the words that they would come back tomorrow and stay there to keep an eye on Yu Yong unless it was something important.

Cheng Ye wanted to say a few more words to explain, but looking at Liu Bi's determined expression, he swallowed his words back.

He suddenly realized that since the satellite city was already required to have two inspectors supervising each other, perhaps the inspectors in charge of the containment and research of infected individuals would also have to implement a system of two groups with checks and balances.

However, Cheng Ye could tell that Liu Bi clearly had other thoughts in mind.

But when he thought of the supernatural abilities that Liu Yi would occasionally unleash, he couldn't help but shake his head.

It probably won't be long before Brother B realizes that even if you want to live a peaceful life, unexpected events will always come knocking, forcing you to get involved in trouble.

To avoid these troubles, we must move forward and constantly plan ahead to remain invincible.

"Mr. Qian, Mr. Li, thank you for your help!"

After seeing Liu Bi off, Cheng Ye turned around and greeted the two structural engineers who had come from Wenlu County with a smile.

Of course, it wasn't just the engineers who were present; Lin Bao also brought along a 100-person engineering team.

With the transportation vehicles provided by Davidson, these were originally the foundation for the development of Wenlu County, but now they've all benefited him.

"Prosecutor Cheng, don't worry. We're not new to this kind of work."

Engineer Li patted his chest confidently, his tone full of enthusiasm, "After being idle for so long, everyone's itching to get back to work. Restarting and maintaining a hydroelectric power station is our job!"

Qian Gong quickly chimed in, "Don't worry, even if we have to stay up all night, we'll get the job done and make sure Inspector Cheng is satisfied."

Seeing the two men's firm stance, Cheng Ye's heart stirred, and he immediately realized that Lin Bao must have revealed something.

However, this suited him perfectly, so he immediately summoned Wu Rui's team and put them in charge of patrolling and guarding the surrounding area.

After the arrangements were made, the unloaded equipment and parts began to be transported to the hydropower station in an orderly manner.

After coordinating for a while and seeing that everything was on track, Cheng Ye hurriedly went to a factory at the very back of the industrial zone.

The factory was empty except for a small room of about 20 square meters that was partitioned off in a corner using special materials.

This is the room where Yu Yong rests every day, and it is also a shelter specially prepared for him.

Cheng Ye walked to the door and knocked. After hearing a "Come in" from inside, he pushed the door open and went in.

The room was simply furnished with a desk, a wooden chair, and a small bed in the corner.

The ceiling, floor, and four walls of the room were all covered with optical magnetic sheets.

These magnetic plates are connected to the power supply battery at the back of the house, and can release five minutes of Shadowless Light and Shadow Light, which is enough to suppress the fusion rate of the Ghost Spider in Yu Yong's body.

At this moment, Yu Yong was sitting cross-legged against the headboard, engrossed in reading an architecture book.

Cheng Ye closed the door behind him, pulled over a wooden chair and sat down in front of the bed. He first took out his defense device and glanced at Yu Yong's fusion level.

The value displayed on the screen had dropped back to 57%, which was a safe level, and his furrowed brows finally relaxed slightly.

"Cheng Ye, I apologize for my recklessness today." Yu Yong kept his eyes fixed on the pages of the book, but his voice carried a hint of barely perceptible unease.

"No need to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong."

Cheng Ye gently shook his head. "On the contrary, I think that perhaps humans and infected should explore a deeper way of getting along, so that both sides can try to understand each other."

“That’s impossible.” Yu Yong finally looked up from the book, his expression darkening. “In my situation, my life already has a clear end. I don’t even know when I will completely lose control and turn back into that C35, destroying the town of Dabo that you’ve painstakingly built.”

"Oh, what have you been feeling today?"

“Uncontrollable power.” Yu Yong finally raised his head, his eyes filled with thought. “If we can’t completely restrict the infected’s use of power, we’ll never be able to figure out the boundaries of uncontrolled power. Like me, although there’s a sealed lock on me, I still have part of the key in my own hands. I can unlock it at any time and call upon a portion of the power.”

This is not difficult to understand.

Cheng Ye immediately understood what Yu Yong was talking about. Just as Tan Ming had limited the giant lice from passively drawing life force from him, he had not been able to completely get rid of the giant lice, nor had he been able to isolate the use of the symbiotic state.

The elders sealed the Ghost Spider within Yu Yong's body, but Yu Yong can still draw upon some of its power.

If humanity could find a way to completely control the power of infected beings, it would be almost equivalent to having the ability to eliminate the threat of infected beings at its source.

For example, a liquid could be developed that would temporarily deprive anyone, whether they are an ordinary person or an infected person, of their powers after they come into contact with it.

If this can be achieved, the countless conflicts caused by the infected in the wasteland might be quickly quelled.

"What do you think?"

"The prosecutor I fought this afternoon has a very peculiar power that weakens my regenerative abilities. Do you know what that power is?" Yu Yong changed the subject, posing the core question.

"Do you mean?"

“It’s a literal weakening.” Yu Yong gave a vivid example: “If my normal energy level is 5, after being impacted by his power, it will be temporarily suppressed to 3. I think this kind of power might provide some new ideas for our research on methods to suppress infected beings.”

Due to the influence of the source of infection, Yu Yong's tone sounded calm, but Cheng Ye could still sense his inner turmoil.

Over the past two weeks, their relationship has evolved from initial awkwardness to familiarity, and they have gradually developed many common topics.

Although Cheng Ye initially took the initiative to chat with Yu Yong, it was more to cater to his interests and improve their cooperation.

As their conversations deepened, their topics moved beyond technical research and gradually extended to the core question of whether it was possible to completely eradicate the source of infection from infected individuals.

It was on this topic that Yu Yong gradually lowered his guard.

After all, although Cheng Ye was infected with a benign source of infection, he, like him, was deeply bound to the source of infection.

The two discussed this matter without any ulterior motives, not for achievements or other benefits, but purely for the sake of living well and even trying to change this world ravaged by the infected.

This was based on a degree of trust from the very beginning.

"He was my father's brother and the one who led me into the world of prosecutors."

Cheng Ye nodded in response, "His name is Liu Bi. He is a fourth-phase inspector in our Happiness City, a master of the first level of the Unity of Heaven and Man. He is neither an extraordinary person nor an infected person."

"Neither extraordinary nor infected, yet possessing such power?" Yu Yong immediately showed a look of surprise.

"The Celestial Martial Domain, do you know it?"

"Are you talking about the spiritual realm that can be formed after martial arts cultivation reaches its peak?"

Yu Yong frowned, his tone tinged with uncertainty. "The City of Fire Protection has conducted numerous experiments on this kind of field before. Martial artists who reach this level can indeed indirectly influence the physical world through their own beliefs. But the most crucial problem is that they themselves cannot explain how this ability is formed, making it impossible to conduct systematic research."

He paused, then added, "Moreover, the effects of such martial domains vary from person to person, and most are so weak that they can only be activated through physical contact. But Liu Bi's martial domain can actually affect a certain range and even directly weaken my abilities. This situation has never been recorded or heard of even in the database of the City of Torch Protection."

"Perhaps this could lead to a breakthrough in our research?"

"No, this path is impossible." Yu Yong sniffed. "Martial artists who reach the state of oneness with heaven and man can use their own beliefs to restrain their extraordinary power, and they won't lose control even when they step into the extraordinary realm. But how many infected individuals possess such unwavering beliefs?"

"To make an infected person gradually develop a belief like an ordinary person is no less difficult than to study it from a different direction, such as whether it is possible to brainwash infected people with mental pollution, forcibly plant a belief in them, and give them the ability to fight against the source of infection. Both are essentially extremely difficult."

“Difficult doesn’t mean impossible. Don’t you want to give it a try?” Cheng Ye raised an eyebrow.

Given Yu Yong's personality, the fact that he brought it up means that this path has become a viable option.

He's willing to try anything, as long as it's a path, not a dead end, rather than hesitating to move forward.

"I do want to give it a try, but I don't know if he'll be willing to cooperate with me." Yu Yong rubbed his chin, looking troubled.

"How to cooperate?"

"I wish he would beat me up every day?" Yu Yong's voice suddenly lowered a few decibels.

"Huh?" Cheng Ye was taken aback for a moment, then quickly realized, "You want to use your own body to sense the source of that martial domain power?"

“That’s right.” Yu Yong nodded. “We don’t have any equipment to capture the special power of the Celestial Martial Domain, but research cannot be separated from experimental data. In that case, why can’t I become that equipment? I can clearly feel the suppression of this power on me. As long as I monitor the changes in various data in my body throughout the process, I might be able to find a breakthrough in the research.”

"Are you sure the Ghost Spider inside you won't have a relapse if you beat it?"

Cheng Ye was taken aback. "You'd better think this through. Every suppression of an uprising will deplete your already limited freedom. If you live obediently, you might be able to get through the next six months peacefully."

"No, I told you, I have no control over whether I'll go insane when I reach the end!" Yu Yong immediately shook his head, his tone suddenly becoming more agitated. "The freedom I want isn't waiting for the source of infection to devour me, nor is it waiting for the people of the Torch to judge me. The only one who can judge me is myself!"

He took a deep breath. "If you're willing to let Liu Bi come and beat me up every day to cooperate with my research, I can tell you a secret right now. It's not what your Happiness City needs, it's what you need."

"Oh?"

Cheng Ye suddenly laughed. "I wonder if it has something to do with my grandfather, or with my father?"

"Heh, don't try to trick me." Yu Yong smirked. "It is indeed related to your grandfather, Cheng Wu."

“Then you can say it.” Cheng Ye nodded in agreement. “It’s just sparring every day. I can agree to this for Liu Bi, and he’ll most likely be happy to help.”

"Alright." Yu Yong's expression turned serious. He said in a deep voice, "Last week I told you that the Starship was on Mount Everest. Today I'll tell you what the Starship really is!"

"The term 'colossus' is actually a general term used by humans to refer to the extraterrestrial visitors who came to the planet back then. In reality, the colossus that appeared that day was not just a monster that brought infection, but also other products. You can understand it as a group of things that visited the planet."

"A group?" Cheng Ye's heart skipped a beat.

In the first week, Yu Yong revealed the research data that Happiness City urgently needed. In the second week, he told them the location of the Starship. Now, he is finally about to release the most crucial information.

Cheng Ye subconsciously sat up straight, his eyes fixed on Yu Yong, afraid of missing a single word.

“Of course not. In fact, all the major sanctuary cities have known this for a long time, but they have been collectively covering up this history. Otherwise, humanity would have long since fallen into endless panic and completely descended into chaos.” Yu Yong’s eyes finally showed emotion, but not surprise, but an overwhelming fear that he could not hide.

"As for why they came to Earth, no one can say for sure. Perhaps it was a chase and fight between different groups, perhaps it was a periodic migration like migratory birds, or perhaps it was a coordinate system disorder that made them mistake Earth for a transit station for folded space jumps. Even now, we have not been able to figure out what exactly happened back then. Moreover, the spatial disorder outside the planet has now reached an extremely serious level. The further away from the ground and the further into space we go, the more intense the spatial fluctuations and folding phenomena become."

"Let's not get bogged down in the nature of mega-objects for now. There are currently three mainstream theories about spatial disorder."

Yu Yong gradually slowed his voice, striving to pronounce each word clearly.

"The first type is gravitational superposition perturbation. If these giant objects are supermassive celestial visitors, when they appear in clusters, their individual gravitational fields will superimpose. This superimposed gravity is enough to warp the space around the Earth, causing the entire gravitational field to fall into a highly unstable dynamic change."

"The second type is damage to the spacetime structure. Wormholes, which connect different spacetimes, require a huge amount of energy to form and maintain, and this energy will forcibly distort the spacetime structure around the channel."

"The third possibility is that the energy devices of visitors from multiple civilizations interfere with each other, and more and more intelligence is pointing to this possibility. We have analyzed the relevant residual information and found that although these giant objects use the same script, they most likely belong to different civilizations. Therefore, the energy-driven devices, detection equipment, weapons, etc. they carry release energy waves with completely different frequencies when they are in operation. This is like throwing several stones into a calm water surface at the same time. The ripples collide and overlap, and in the end, the water surface will only be completely chaotic."

A group of colossal creatures, chasing and fighting, causing spatial disorder?
As Cheng Ye listened, he felt inexplicably heavy-hearted. He suddenly had the feeling that if a human were to pass by an anthill and accidentally knock over a bottle of Mixue Ice Cream, the splashed liquid would be a devastating flood to the ants.

Those colossal beings that visited Earth may not have even noticed the tiny life-bearing planet at their feet, but the energy fluctuations and traces they left behind were enough to cause terrifying, earth-shattering changes to the planet.

"That starship, is it something left behind by these giant creatures?"

"You guessed right. 'Starship' is our collective name for these relics."

Yu Yong plucked a stubble from his beard and rubbed it repeatedly between his fingertips. "Currently, three starships have been discovered in the City of Fire and Protection: the A1 Everest Ship, the D13 Rub' al Khali Sand Ship, and the M22 Challenger Abyss Ship."

"All three starships are located in the Dark Zone. One of the latter two is buried deep beneath the Rub' al Khali Desert, and the other is submerged in the deepest part of the Mariana Trench."

"Among them, the Everest Ship and the Rub' al Khali Sand Ship have completely lost their research value. Because the surrounding spatial disorder is becoming more and more serious, humans simply cannot get close. Only the Challenger Abyss Ship still retains the possibility of research. However, the depth there is more than 10,000 meters, and the water pressure is as high as 1100 times the standard atmospheric pressure. The difficulty of carrying out on-site research is unimaginable."

"So, the organization that took away our Happiness City prosecutors calls itself Starship? Could it be that they've acquired a Starship base and are conducting research? And have intercepted some of the technology?"

"I don't know, that's something you should find out."

Yu Yong stopped the conversation. "Of course, this could just be a smokescreen. They're deliberately drawing your attention to those alien behemoths, making you overlook the organization's true nature. But I can assure you, researching starship technology is absolutely the right path. Those technologies could save humanity from taking a detour of ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand years, and allow our civilization to iterate at a rapid pace. Once humanity reaches an advanced civilization, this current crisis of infected beings will be nothing more than a minor problem that can be solved with a thought."

Well, here he comes again.

If shortcuts were so easy to take, the planet wouldn't have become a wasteland.

"Did that disaster originate from these starships?"

Yu Yong kept his mouth shut and didn't say another word.

Clearly, all the information that needed to be revealed this week has been disclosed.

Even though the two are now close, he remains highly wary of the elders of Happiness City and will never reveal any information beyond what is agreed upon.

“Okay, let’s change the subject. What exactly is this thing you wanted to tell me about my grandfather?” Cheng Ye took the initiative to bring the topic back.

“Although you haven’t met your grandfather Cheng Wu, I have.” Yu Yong suddenly smiled, his tone carrying a rare ease. “After he defected from Happiness City, he came to Fire Protection City once and even visited our research institute.”

He paused, deliberately slowing his speech, "I even spoke to him."

"Are you showing off to me?" Cheng Ye was speechless. How did Cheng Wu's charm spread to the research circle? He just said a sentence, why did he have to emphasize it so much?

"Heh, don't think of your grandfather as a dictator or a stubborn madman."

Yu Yong's smile faded, and his tone became serious. "His ideas were far ahead of ours. He already believed this twenty years ago."

At the crucial point, he suddenly coughed and abruptly changed the subject, "He learned about the Starship from the Firestone. Knowing his personality, he will definitely go looking for the Starship. I dare say that if he were to reappear before the world one day, it would bring about earth-shattering changes and cause the entire wasteland to boil over."

"Alright, I've said everything I needed to say."

Yu Yong picked up the architecture book again, lowered his head and said, "I'm going to continue reading. Architecture is really interesting; it has given me a new understanding of many things. Maybe I can design a special building that integrates applied physics and electronic circulation technology before I die."

After he finished speaking, he fell silent.

In just a few seconds, his expression became incredibly focused, as if everything around him was irrelevant.

This ability to instantly enter a state of flow is a talent that others can only envy.

Cheng Ye couldn't help but open the collector panel and glance at Yu Yong's level of cooperation.

Indeed, after today's in-depth conversation and being beaten up by Liu Bi, it rose another 6%, reaching 31%.

"It'll be soon; we'll be able to search for Lv3 in a little while."

He secretly calculated that if he could find Yu Yong's learning ability, it would be like adding wings to a tiger.

This is practically a standard requirement for top students. Even with average intelligence, this focused state allows them to absorb knowledge rapidly.

Cheng Ye stood up, not forgetting to remind him, "If anything happens in the future, remember to call me first. I'll pretend today's increased integration level didn't happen."

Yu Yong suddenly looked up, "Then will you turn off the parental control mode?"

"No, that won't do. If you use the phone to send any information to the outside world, I'll be held responsible for the violation."

Cheng Ye grinned, "Giving you a Tetris game is already me being very generous."

Yu Yong scoffed lightly, then lowered his head, speechless.

Seeing his discomfiture, Cheng Ye smiled with satisfaction, turned around, and gently closed the door before leaving.

As soon as they left the room and closed the door, their expressions changed simultaneously, and they both became serious.

"The colossal beings that visited this planet back then weren't just one, but a group?"

Cheng Ye felt a heavy weight in his heart. He walked outside the warehouse and immediately dialed the research institute's number.

Shi Xu answered the phone again.

After he relayed all the latest information revealed by Yu Yong, Shi Xu's voice changed instantly, filled with shock: "I will immediately report this information to the elders. You must keep a close eye on Yu Yong and keep us updated on any new information."

"it is good!"

At the same time, inside the room.

Inside the containment room, Yu Yong was also secretly thinking: "Happiness City is truly a freak. Not only does it have elders who bind multiple malignant sources of infection within their bodies through their beliefs, using themselves as source containers, but it also has someone who, through their own beliefs, has achieved the Celestial Martial Domain Release that even Grand Martial Masters of the old era could not do."

The more he thought about it, the more terrified he became.

The path taken by Happiness City is indeed completely different from that of Fire's Shelter City.

But it was precisely because of this difference that he saw another side of the world and a new path.

"And Cheng Ye."

Yu Yong's gaze remained fixed on the pages, but his thoughts drifted elsewhere. "His character and abilities are growing at a visible pace. At this rate, his future achievements will likely not be inferior to Cheng Wu's."

(End of this chapter)