There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

But I became even more curious.

“That doesn’t make sense, Mr. Rhodes. Judging from Sparrow’s remarks just now, he didn’t seem to have any respect for this organization…”

Mr. Rhodes' expression instantly turned serious. "An organization is an organization, and a person is a person. Moreover, a super agent like her, who comes from the PF team, is probably someone they wouldn't dare to mess with in this world. As for Sparrow's arrogance, don't take it to heart—just as he said, the history of the establishment of this Federation is inseparable from the shadow of his family, so it's inevitable that he's a bit arrogant at his age."

After saying that, he looked at Kai meaningfully, "If you want to know more about his identity, Kai is probably the one who knows the most."

Upon hearing this, Gray and I immediately turned our gaze to Kai, who was wearing a purple headscarf, and met his expression of sudden realization.

"Just as I thought..."

"This Sparrow is indeed the biggest traitor from the Brotherhood of Navigators..."

Kay gritted his teeth and said, "The Sparrow family was originally a member of the Brotherhood of Navigators, just like our Kay family, and they possessed many historical documents. Their rebellion was the cause of the Brotherhood's biggest split, which ultimately led to the Brotherhood evolving into the loose alliance we have today..."

"So that's why he was able to recognize you immediately?!" I suddenly understood what Kai was thinking.

Kay nodded slowly: "They must be after the secret knowledge that Grandpa and Chairman Barbossa possess, which is why they investigated my information... Mr. Rhodes, I owe you a favor this time."

In a short time, Kai figured out the connections and immediately understood why Mr. Rhodes insisted that we participate in the plan—if we were expelled as Sparrow suggested, we would inevitably be targeted by this family in the next wave.

Even temporary safety is better than being plunged into crisis immediately.

But Mr. Rhodes didn't care and said in a low voice, "Kay, I know a little about your grandfather's conflict with them, but the Sparrow family has acquired a lot of knowledge that you can't imagine in recent years with the help of the Federation. Some of it is even beyond your reach. They should not be underestimated."

As Mr. Rhodes explained, I felt that he was indeed speaking too frankly with someone he didn't know well, revealing more information than we expected.

"This plan is very complex, and there are some things you might not be able to control..."

“Okay, Panzi,” I replied immediately.

"...What Pan Zi?"

Mr. Rhodes coughed lightly, looking bewildered, and said in the room where we were alone, "Do you know the reason why the Sparrow family advocated for the establishment of S·P·A·R·R·O·W·S?"

Uh... does the Sparrow Family need a catalyst to establish the Sparrow Organization?

"Because of General Morden's rebellion?" Kai, the most knowledgeable young man in the village, asked tentatively.

"Inaccurate."

Mr. Rhodes frowned. "Actually, this intelligence organization, different from military and police surveillance agencies, was established in the latter half of the war of rebellion. Besides searching for rebels, its more important function was to investigate and collect classified information. During those years, the Sparrow family displayed an extraordinary thirst for knowledge, practically scouring all the knowledge archives and information in the Federation, almost like..."

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence and looked directly at Kay.

Kay paused for a moment, then, like a student being questioned by a teacher, quickly continued speaking.

"Like... Grandpa and Chairman Barbossa?"

After a moment's thought, Kais changed his words, "No... like the Navigator Alliance... or rather, like our ancestors throughout history!"

Mr. Rhodes then brought up another matter, neither confirming nor denying it.

"The most important turning point was when the military found a down-on-his-luck professor named Craven. In the military's stalled search for the rebel nuclear missile, he calculated over 90% of the precise coordinates, salvaged the dangerous weapon left in the vast ocean, and thwarted Morden's Ptolemaic forces' 'Project Dome'..."

I raised my hand and said, "I know! This professor has incredible calculation skills; everything was part of his plan! And then what?"

Mr. Rhodes nodded slightly: "But Professor Craven did more than that. After calculating the K-shaped aircraft's crash trajectory, Craven disappeared..."

"Disappeared?"

I suddenly had a bad feeling. Images of the bizarre, black-hole-like library and the inexplicable strange man's eyes flashed through my mind.

"Yes, just like that, without any warning, under the surveillance and protection of numerous military police and special agents, they suddenly disappeared from that small cabin. Like a bubble bursting in the air, vanished without a trace. If you ever run into Marco from PF Squad about this, as someone directly involved, he'll definitely give you even more bizarre and outlandish clues that will send chills down your spine even in broad daylight..."

Mr. Rhodes let out a long breath, slightly easing the unpredictable atmosphere around him.

"Later, the Federation found enough draft paper in his room to fill an entire bookshelf, with a rough count of more than three thousand mysterious formulas on it."

"The meaning, purpose, and origin of these mysterious formulas are unknown. However, in the process of analyzing them, these formulas caused more than a dozen mathematicians from the University of Michigan to suffer from varying degrees of mental illness, exhibiting symptoms such as aversion to darkness, fear, and aphasia."

"The Sparrow family, who were the last to take over, ordered the sealing of this part of the data and advocated the establishment of this special intelligence unit in the intelligence department. Even if no one could delve into the details, everyone unanimously believed that they had secretly analyzed extremely important clues from these formulas."

I slowly stood up, pointed to the steel ceiling above me, and said thoughtfully, "You mean...it's related to this operation plan?"

“Mr. Rhodes, please tell me what you’re going to do!” Kay suddenly realized and chimed in, while Gray remained expressionless and bewildered.

Mr. Rhodes did not respond immediately, as he seemed to be considering whether he should disclose the matter to us.

"Actually, the more than three thousand formulas left by Professor Craven are currently being studied by the Federation using supercomputers. The numbers they produce don't have any special meaning. Perhaps I'm just overthinking it..."

Mr. Rhodes's statement did not convince me or Gray.

In the dream, Mr. Siennis was led down a path that completely changed the course of his life simply by receiving a coordinate. What harmless arithmetic result could the remaining numbers possibly be?

I don't believe it.

"Sir, others might be able to convince themselves of this. But you must have been here more than a decade ago, and even rescued Zack who was shipwrecked, right? Do you really think that the operation against Kuroshio Island would be some kind of conventional military operation?"

I'm gambling.

I bet Mr. Rhodes has an extraordinary understanding of this matter, harbors doubts about the execution of the mission, and that in this three-way power-sharing operation where the academy is clearly at a disadvantage, he needs more insiders to help him act.

All of this is because I know very well that Mr. Rhodes, no matter which world he is in, must deeply love his long-lost family members and would not allow them to suffer even the slightest harm.

"You're right..."

Mr. Rhodes pondered for a long time before finally speaking.

“Actually, I don’t know who to believe, so I’ve been hesitating. According to the information provided by Sparrow, Morden’s ‘Dome Project’ doesn’t just involve the doomsday nuclear bombs we salvaged, but rather tens of thousands of them, stored in an armory on Kuroshio Island…”

"The bombing ring plan of Ptolemy's scientific strategic forces was transformed into another mysterious plan before it was fully implemented, and all of it was transported to this mysterious island in the eye of the storm."

"But we searched the island several times and didn't find the expected weapons, but the Geiger counters here clearly indicate abnormal radiation..."

Mr. Rhodes spoke with the utmost sincerity, yet delivered an extremely unreliable message.

"This place is very strange. Whether it's my experience with Lilia back then, or our actual observations during our flight here, we've found that the physical phenomena in this storm are abnormal. Even several physical constants have deviated from what we understand, making it impossible to approach this mysterious ocean storm using conventional methods..."

"Therefore, I can only believe that, based on the Sparrow family's years of research, these doomsday nuclear bombs have been specially processed into a quantum state, transforming into a terrifying state that coexists with this world. The tide of annihilation may remain dormant forever, or it may detonate completely in the next second, blasting Earth into another moon in near-Earth orbit..."

Good heavens, a planetary explosion?! Is my Will of Fire finally about to unleash its power here?!

But where do I, as a successor to communism, get the will of fire?

Speaking of which, when I entered the aircraft and went through security, the machine kept beeping. The security personnel searched for a long time but couldn't find any metal. In the end, they realized that it was my steely will that was the problem.

I swallowed nervously. "Mr. Rhodes, what exactly do you want?"

A resolute look appeared in Rhodes' eyes. "In other words, these quantum ghost-like nuclear weapons are everywhere in this land, but they cannot be detonated or interfered with. The Academy Committee has also conducted simulations and believes that we must use particle accelerators to release high-energy particles for impact! And by utilizing the abnormal physical properties during the strongest phase of the storm, we might be able to completely detonate these doomsday nuclear bombs and resolve the crisis!"

I almost spat out the water I was drinking.

Is this fast-forwarding to "explosions are art"? Is the next step a declaration about how many floors you have to carry a bag of rice up? Like having that old man Morden jump out and announce that the world will experience pain in exchange for peace?

...Holy crap, who knows, General Morden, that old madman, might actually be planning to do just that!

“Mr. Rhodes, this is absolutely not appropriate. You have to trust me! Besides, how can you launch high-energy particles that are powerful enough to interfere with a doomsday nuclear bomb so easily?”

Mr. Krods ignored my protest, but instead sighed softly and asked in a deep tone.

"Marcus... why do you think this aircraft... is designed to create such a large ring shape?"

Kai and I were dumbfounded.

Chapter 631 Things Start to Get Out of Control

"hiss……"

Suddenly, a series of gasps filled the room, and I instantly felt a tickle in my teeth, as if I had walked into a dentist's office in a white coat and mask and was hearing the hissing sound of a dental drill.

Kai was calmer than me. He just stepped on his right foot with his left foot when he stood up. This didn't provoke Newton into taking off on the spot. He just grimaced in pain and hesitated whether to yell or curse.

Gray's expression was the most puzzling.

Because his small eyes were filled with great doubt, it was clear that his scientific literacy, which he could see right through at a glance and had maintained at a level consistent with prenatal education for many years, was not enough for him to figure out this riddle...

"Hiss... What are you all surprised about?"

Gray feigned ignorance for a moment before finally voicing his doubts.

I glanced at him, envying his composed mindset. Indeed, near the isolated islands perceived by humankind, the seabed is teeming with dangerous reefs and cunning sea creatures; only the vast ocean of ignorance can disguise a calm and peaceful scene.

If there are still some obstacles to understanding about ring particle accelerators, then the idea of ​​weaponizing this technology should provide a more intuitive demonstration of its power...

Particle beam weapon!

A particle beam weapon is a powerful weapon that uses a particle accelerator, similar to this spacecraft, to propel particles at high speeds to collide with a target. It consists of firing highly concentrated beams of atomic or subatomic particles at speeds of 0.6 to 0.8 times the speed of light to strike the target.

When particles are accelerated to the speed of light, the particle beam is emitted into space. The ultra-high temperature far surpasses that of lasers, and its penetrating power can melt or destroy any target it encounters from the inside. Moreover, after hitting the target, a secondary magnetic field will occur, which will completely destroy the target.

"Do you have a serious illness?"

After hesitating for a long time, I still couldn't help but ask Mr. Rhodes this question.

To fly to a suspected nuclear weapons depot in a giant ring-shaped particle accelerator and then tell us that we're going to bomb it is even more outrageous than Archduke Franz Ferdinand airdropping an entire regiment of troops into the Balkans in 1914.

If this act hadn't resulted in him being sent to a military tribunal for crimes against humanity, he would have undoubtedly been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize—a 1939 limited edition nomination, no less.

“Marcus, you are calmer than I expected.”

Mr. Rhodes pondered for a moment, and then surprisingly replied, "I thought you would vehemently oppose the plan, or even throw a tantrum and say you'd part ways on the spot."

I first casually rescued Kai, who was still struggling with his left and right feet, then pressed Gray, who had a (◎_◎) expression, back into a sitting position before letting out a sigh.

"As the saying goes, good advice is hard to persuade a damned fool... Since you've used such a dangerous plan, something must have gone wrong, right?"

Mr. Rhodes nodded, his gaze first falling on the brass ring on my hand.

“I met Juan Romero during the haunted house incident at Norton Mine. This ring, which the Vatican had lost for so long, was obtained from him. I feel that its original owner bears some resemblance to you.”

I never refuse such compliments. "What do you mean? Do you think he's as wise and composed as I am?"

Mr. Rhodes shook his head.

"No, Juan Romero is a complete madman. He deliberately caused the mine explosion, which brought about a bizarre storm, and then jumped into a lava-filled cave right in front of me."

I:"……"

Seeing my pale face, Mr. Rhodes quickly explained, "Don't misunderstand me—I mean, to remain calm in the face of something like this, your mental state may need to be assessed."

...Sir, I am quite certain that I have not misunderstood you, and I clearly feel that I have been slandered.

Suddenly, the steel wall of the central control room collapsed, revealing another glass curtain wall beyond. Numerous staff members dressed in lab coats and military uniforms were adjusting equipment, and countless data streams rapidly scrolled across the electronic screens, highlighting the extremely tense atmosphere throughout the room.

"Gentlemen, particle beam weapons can destroy targets tens of kilometers away in space, but their power diminishes in the atmosphere, and they can only attack targets a few kilometers away. As the chief engineer of this weapon, Mr. Sparrow estimates that we are ready for launch, and the first round of weapon test firing will begin soon."