Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 429 Facing Fear in Space

A low-frequency, heavy boom echoed from the transmitter, like hundreds of thunderclaps exploding in your ears at the same time.

Those watching the launch live felt their bodies resonating with the earth at that moment.

Other professionals were not surprised and did not react much.

This was Zhang Minglu's first time witnessing a rocket launch up close. Overwhelmed with emotion, he temporarily set aside his concerns about the experiment and focused on experiencing the multi-sensory impact of the moment.

With a roar, the bottom of the rocket launch pad was engulfed by gushing flames and thick smoke, and the main body began to rise into the air.

Unlike the onlookers outside, Guan Tong, who was inside the rocket at this moment, was having many different experiences.

The thick bulkheads and spacesuit blocked out most of the deafening sound of ignition. What he heard was a low rumble, which reminded him of the sound of diesel trucks starting up in his hometown when he was a child.

This feeling was quickly replaced by another.

thrust.

Or, in the words of professionals, it represents "G-force," which signifies overload.

Guan Tong felt himself being pressed into the seat by this force, which continued to increase and become heavier. If it were an ordinary person, it would be extremely difficult to even move.

However, for someone like Guan Tong who has already entered the second stage of sublimation, this power is actually quite limited.

He even inexplicably recalled the time when Adam controlled the gravity field to kill Bishop Peter during the decapitation operation in Liloan; the gravity field that was fifty times stronger than his own at that moment was truly terrifying.

Not long after, Guan Tong felt her body begin to tremble again.

It wasn't just him shaking; the entire rocket was shaking.

It seems they have already flown into the denser part of the atmosphere.

Over the past few days, Guan Tong has been receiving mental energy input while also cramming on a lot of aerospace knowledge.

He knew that when the rocket passed through the densest part of the atmosphere, the capsule would shake violently due to air resistance, and the astronauts would feel as if they were sitting in a car driving through a rutted road full of potholes, with their teeth and bones vibrating.

Guan Tong slightly opened the face window and glanced out the porthole.

The once straight horizon had become a distinct arc, and the atmosphere, under the sunlight, resembled a thin eggshell enveloping the planet Mercury.

This feeling is undoubtedly very wonderful.

He could feel a familiar sense of strangeness emerging as his body moved further and further away from Tianshui.

Guan Tong thought to herself, "I've heard before that many astronauts have to undergo rigorous psychological screenings and receive psychological counseling after returning from space... It seems that this is really necessary."

He hasn't even left the atmosphere yet; he's only looking at Tianshui from a macroscopic perspective, and he's already experiencing a strange feeling. Once he's fully in space, this feeling will only intensify.

He remembered reading a science fiction novel before his time travel, in which there was a sentence that roughly said: "Life's transition from the ocean to land was an evolutionary milestone. But those fish that came ashore were no longer fish, just as those who truly entered space were no longer human."

Now that she has personally experienced leaving Tianshui Star, Guan Tong feels that this statement is very true.

If humanity truly enters space—not just by launching a rocket or set up a space station, but by actually migrating to other planets—will Mercury still be really important for these migrations?

In Guan Tong's view, there is no essential difference between immigrating to another planet and immigrating to a foreign country.

First-generation immigrants may still miss their motherland and have the idea of ​​"returning to their roots".

But what about second- and third-generation immigrants?
If humans can migrate to other planets, after two generations, will anyone still consider Tianshui, their home planet, to be important? To them, the planet they migrate to is the real home planet.

Will these immigrants then feel that it doesn't matter if it's destroyed by the Firebringers' apocalyptic rules...?

Guan Tong felt a slight melancholy upon thinking about this, yet she also felt that she was worrying unnecessarily.

In a few days, it will be exactly two years since the Firebringers arrived. Currently, nearly twenty of the forty-nine apocalyptic rules have been issued. In three or four years at most, all forty-nine rules will come to an end, provided that humanity can survive until then.

Whether humanity can truly establish a self-sufficient immigrant settlement on an alien planet in just three or four years remains to be seen, let alone talk about second- or third-generation space colonists, which is undoubtedly too far-fetched.

but……

Guan Tong felt that this kind of thing couldn't be thought of using conventional thinking.

Because while the fire-stealers brought disaster, they also accelerated human technological progress. In fact, it wasn't just accelerated; it reached the point of "forcing growth."

For example, the technology of "memory digitization" would take at least ten years to develop if humans were to research it on their own. Now, thanks to our exposure to the nano-cluster intelligence brought about by the rules, we expect to break through and master this technology within a year.

Who knows if this rule will still exist in the future?
Even if not, if humanity can fully digest this technology and find the "special substance that does not exist on Tianshui Star" mentioned by the nano-intelligent entity, and break through the material limitations, perhaps technology will enter a stage of explosive development.

Suddenly, just as Guan Tong's thoughts were wandering, the tremors in her body abruptly stopped.

The environment switched from noisy to quiet in an instant, and because it was so sudden, he experienced a ringing sound in his ears.

It seems like...

Guan Tong's gaze fell on a piece of paper affixed to the top of the cabin wall not far away. She saw the lower half of it float up silently. Not only the paper, but Guan Tong also noticed out of the corner of her eye that her slightly long hair was gently floating up as well.

Sure enough, he thought to himself that the rocket had broken through the atmosphere and entered a state of weightlessness.

He looked out the porthole; the dark blue sky and the curved horizon had vanished, replaced by complete darkness.

It was a pure, bottomless darkness, darker than any night, because there was no air in space to scatter light.

But besides darkness, there are also stars in the universe.

They are like eternal embellishments on this boundless black curtain, as if even time has frozen at this moment.

This is space.

Guan Tong took a deep breath, finally letting go of all the pressure and simply enjoying this moment of peace and tranquility that belonged only to him.

After completing a series of tasks such as booster separation and fairing separation, the Imperial Pioneer has successfully entered orbit around Tianshui.

Looking out the side window, he could see the blue sphere that was the planet Tianshui.

Covered by a pale white atmospheric layer, it floats quietly in the curtain of space, dazzling under the starlight.

Looking at it, Guan Tong felt a surge of emotions. It's hard to describe in words, but this visual impact and emotional fluctuation might just be what astronauts often refer to as the "overall effect."

After watching quietly for a while, Guan Tong knew it was time for her to "get to work".

North Star and Soroma spent a lot of resources to send him into space, not for him to sightsee and make comments.

According to the plan, after the rocket enters orbit, he will go to the specially set-up temporary chamber for observing Terra and conducting unknown exploration experiments there. The reason for the rush is that time is already very limited.

This rule expires in one day, so this is your last chance to explore anything.

"Please follow me, I will guide you to the experimental chamber."

Following the pre-programmed sequence, the space robot began performing its mission once the rocket had entered and stabilized in orbit.

Guan Tong took a few steps in the cabin—no, to be precise, she "floated" a few steps.

This weightless state takes time to adapt to. Although it's quite interesting, what he lacks right now is time.

He opened the storage box and selected a special tool prepared for him by the Countermeasures Research Lab for dealing with this situation.

The next moment, a pair of metal rings appeared on his ankles, and their built-in gravity-canceling effect allowed him to land immediately.

He walked into the experimental chamber under the robot's guidance.

There was almost nothing inside, except for a metal chair welded into the cabin. The porthole was firmly covered by an electric curtain, and he knew that once the curtain was opened, he would see the Crimson Terra.

At that moment, a voice from the ground came through the speakerphone in the room.

"Guan Tong, can you hear me?"

It was Zhang Minglu's voice. Through a space base station composed of several relay satellites, real-time communication between "space" and "ground" was ensured, with a delay of only seconds.

"I can hear you," Guan Tong replied.

“Great. We are now at the Soroma ground control center. Your audio and video will be transmitted here in low-latency mode.”

Then another voice rang out; it was the director of the Soma Space Agency: "Mr. Guan, once you open the curtains, you'll see Scarlet Terra. We suggest you prepare before you begin."

"I see."

Guan Tong walked to the metal chair and sat down.

This chair was specially prepared for him to observe, just like a meditation cushion is prepared for someone who meditates and seeks enlightenment.

Observing Scarlet Terra directly with the naked eye in space would be far more effective than on Tianshui, a fact already proven in Lu Ruiguo's experiments using a space telescope—while enduring more attacks from the power of Scarlet Terror, the source of the terror hidden within could be found more quickly.

Guan Tong looked at the curtains, her mind racing with various preparations.

During the three days of preparation, the Countermeasures Research Lab provided him with over ten million units of mental energy. After conversion at a 5:1 ratio, this amounted to over two million. Adding this to his original surplus, he now possesses three million units of reserve mental energy.

Based on Silver Fox's previous experience, she stared at the Crimson Terra photo for less than five seconds. In those five seconds, Wenren Yizhi's black chess piece was destroyed, and her mental stability anchor totem was mostly depleted.

Considering that Scarlet Fear takes effect 2-3 seconds after a human looks at Scarlet Terra, it means that the effect of Scarlet Fear only lasts for 2 seconds before consuming nearly a thousand points of mental energy to form mental defense.

If we roughly calculate based on 500 points consumed per second, Guan Tong's current three million reserve mental energy, plus some other items, can last for about 6000 seconds, or 100 minutes.

One hour and forty minutes—that was Guan Tong's maximum exploration time after giving it her all.

Regardless of whether they can discover the key, they must withdraw when the time limit approaches; this is the consensus of Guan Tong, Zhang Minglu, and others.

Guan Tong herself only gave herself about an hour.

He couldn't possibly push the limits; that was too dangerous. He didn't even know if the rate of erosion by the Crimson Fear would increase over time. If it wasn't increasing at a constant rate but rather accelerating exponentially, the time available for exploration would be greatly reduced!

After inspecting all the props, he felt it was about time and said, "Let's begin now."

“Don’t forget that if things don’t go well, you can decide for yourself whether to stop the experiment or not,” Zhang Minglu said. “That’s your right.”

Guan Tong said, "Dr. Zhang doesn't need to remind me of that."

"...Okay, let's begin. Press the button on the left armrest of the chair, and the electronic curtains will open. During the experiment, we will not speak unless you ask for help, so as not to disturb you."

Guan Tong pressed the button on the armrest of the chair, and with a soft "beep," the electronic curtain covering the porthole slowly rose.

On the black curtain of space, the crimson Terra, emitting an eerie red light, finally came into Guan Tong's view for the first time as the rules were about to end.

In an instant, Guan Tong heard many breaking sounds.

He knew those were the various mental protective devices he carried, items that were quite expensive on the market, but now they were breaking and being destroyed one after another.

Just over twenty seconds later, only one external aid remained.

That was Wenren Yizhi's black chess piece.

She destroyed all the other black pieces, leaving only this one, which she poured all her power into. It was now vibrating wildly in Guan Tong's pocket, using the power of the "boundary" to resist the erosion of the scarlet fear.

At this moment, Guan Tong's main consciousness was immersed in scarlet fear.

His eyes were fixed on the crimson Terra, his consciousness already entering some strange realm.

The entire level was a deep red, and he felt as if he were floating there like a spirit. He tried to look down, but could see nothing but red.

This indicates that at this level, he has no physical body and exists purely as consciousness. The surrounding "red" is not something he sees, but something he perceives.

This feeling was so strange and indescribable that Guan Tong felt deeply uncomfortable and just wanted to find the "source of fear" as soon as possible.

As he "advanced," images kept trying to emerge, but these images would only appear briefly before disappearing immediately.

It's like opening a webpage on a computer. If you're fast enough, you can close the webpage the instant it opens. This way, although the webpage pops up, the content inside hasn't been loaded—or it might have been loaded, but you can't see it at all.

Guan Tong is currently facing this situation.

The crimson fear continued to manifest, creating terrifying scenarios. However, it was immediately blocked by Guan Tong's mental defense artifact, preventing it from fully forming.

There were simply too many "web pages," causing red dots to constantly appear and disappear repeatedly. Guan Tong felt something was amiss, and also vaguely noticed that the speed at which these red dots were generated seemed to be increasing.

Zhang Minglu never mentioned this point, suggesting that the experiments conducted by the conjoined twins didn't even touch upon this level. If the experiments ended quickly, how could they know what would happen if there was prolonged exposure to scarlet phobia?
click!
At that moment, Guan Tong felt a violent jolt in his pocket. He was startled, knowing that Wenren Yizhi's chess piece must have broken.

At the same time, his palms began to heat up, as his own mental anchor began to take effect.

The warmth quickly turned scalding hot, which meant that an "anchor point" was almost immediately exhausted. Guan Tong immediately used the [Wordless Book] to inject flowing mental energy to maintain the anchor point from collapsing.

I didn't expect my premonition to come true. The corrosive power of the Crimson Fear really does get faster and stronger over time... Guan Tong thought to himself, the original exploration time of 1 hour and 40 minutes may now be greatly reduced to tens of minutes or even less. He must speed up!

(End of this chapter)