Extra Chapter 5: The Chaos Sea Appears

Chapter 767 Extra Chapter 5: The Chaos Sea Appears

Before the depletion of oil resources in the Common Era.

Angus Gale, who works at the Academy of Sciences, was suddenly invited to the Kremlin to attend a very high-level meeting.

He initially thought it would be another meeting to discuss revitalizing the country's industrial chain, but to his surprise, he was invited to a small conference room as soon as he entered the Kremlin.

He was somewhat surprised to see the people sitting in the conference room; they were all top figures in the global scientific community, and their names were almost household names.

Another thing that puzzled Eggers was that, despite the lack of international scientific conferences in Moscow recently, the attendees included Chinese, Americans, and EU members.

It's not unusual for Chinese scientists to be present in the Kremlin, but it is rather strange that scientists from the United States and the European Union are there.

After all, the war is still ongoing, and the sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States are still in effect.

Eggersel greeted everyone briefly and then sat down in an empty seat. At that moment, a tall, angular colonel entered with a folder and walked to the podium: "Gentlemen, we have invited you here today because we have made a significant geological discovery that requires your knowledge for further research."

The colonel spoke in English, so no translation was needed.

He continued, "Especially foreigners, since you are here, you should be informed of the urgency of this matter, which also proves your country's concern and attention to this issue."

"Therefore, you must sign a confidentiality agreement before I can tell you the truth."

An American scientist joked, "Did you discover dinosaurs underground?"

The scholars around him chuckled in agreement, but only briefly, because the colonel's expression was grim, as if he had truly discovered a dinosaur.

The American scientist cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly and gestured for the scientist to continue.

The colonel continued, "If you don't intend to sign a confidentiality agreement, you can leave now."

He waited for more than ten seconds, and when no one left, he opened the folder and distributed the confidentiality agreement to everyone.

After everyone signed the agreement, the colonel began to recount: "Ten years ago, the nuclear radiation in Chernobyl suddenly disappeared. At that time, there was no war between us and Ukraine."

"At the invitation of Ukraine, we sent a research team to conduct an investigation."

At that time, Ukraine had already lost a large number of high-end talents, and after investigating for a long time, they still couldn't find out why the radiation had suddenly disappeared.

That's why we had to invite scientists from other countries to conduct the investigation. Inviting scientists from Moscow was also a last resort, because Europe and the United States did not take this matter seriously and treated it very perfunctorily.

In the ensuing investigations, Moscow gradually gained the upper hand, and the investigations remained Russian-led until the war.

After the war began, the Russian side took away a large amount of investigative data, so when the investigation was restarted recently, it was necessary to ask the Russian side to participate as well.

"We discovered a deep pit in Chernobyl," the colonel continued. "The pit seems to have appeared suddenly, and the reason for its formation has not yet been determined."

"Occasionally, a strange sound would come from below the pit. After listening for a period of time, we found that the sound was regular."

"At first we thought there might be some unknown geological activity underground, but we soon discovered that the voice seemed to possess a certain intelligence."

"So a research institute was gradually built there, and we conducted research for a long time. However, no matter what methods we used, we were unable to get to the bottom of the pit."

"To this day, it is still unclear what kind of geological activity is taking place there."

"Several scientists have claimed that they have been affected by something underground and that their bodies have undergone certain changes, but we have not detected any harmful substances such as radiation."

"What's strange is that their mental state did indeed undergo some changes."

"However, due to the outbreak of war, this investigation had to be forced to end."

At this point, the colonel turned on his computer and projector and continued, "Last year, a Ukrainian army brigade suddenly lost contact while passing through Pripyat."

"Subsequent search teams discovered them at the previously constructed research institute, and they are continuously sending soldiers into the deep pit."

"This is a video that was left behind at the time."

The colonel began playing a video. Judging from the shoulder insignia, the person in the video was a regimental commander. His eyes were blank, and his expression was somewhat unnatural.

Through his account, everyone understood that he was an officer from the missing unit, and he said that the entire brigade heard a voice from underground.

That voice made them suddenly realize that the current direction of technological development was wrong, that there was a substance, or rather a force, that had long been ignored by the scientific community, and that force was the key to the formation of this world and this universe.

Once you reach the very bottom of the pit, you can find this power and understand all the laws governing the universe.

So the soldiers rushed down using makeshift ropes to explore, but so far not a single soldier has returned.

After the video ended, the colonel continued, "Except for the exploration team who tied up some officers and soldiers, the rest of the entire brigade went underground."

"And those officers and soldiers who were tied up did the same thing over the next month after they were sent to the rear for recuperation: they returned to the research institute and continued to explore that deep pit."

"Therefore, research on deep boreholes was restarted..."

In fact, this research was restarted by Europe and the United States, but in order to obtain the previous research data from Russia, they brought in a major Eastern country to conduct the research together.

With the mediation of a major Eastern power, the war continued, but the secret research into that deep pit was restarted.

The colonel concluded, "What we can be certain of at present is that an unknown, mysterious force is hidden beneath the deep pit."

"Currently, the frequency and scope of this force's external influence are increasing. Experts predict that in the future, this force may very well affect all of humanity. Therefore, we urgently need to summarize the patterns of this force in order to avoid the destructive effects it may have in the future!"

"This will be your mission in the future."

Scientists raised their hands, wanting to ask some detailed questions, but the colonel replied that he didn't know either, and told them to rest for a while, and that a special plane would be arranged to take them to Chernobyl in an hour.

Angus Gale remained silent throughout, but he was very interested in everything that happened in Chernobyl.

While he was in the restroom, he ran into Academician Zhang Hongwen from Beijing. He was quite familiar with this bespectacled academician, who was around fifty years old. The two chatted for a few minutes with smiles and then went to wash their hands together.

Just as the tap was turned on, Academician Zhang Hongwen suddenly whispered in Mandarin, "This is your last chance to give up."

"I know more than you do; we came here after writing our wills."

After saying that, Zhang Hongwen turned off the tap and quickly left.

Angus Gale understands Chinese, though he doesn't speak it fluently. He hesitated for a few seconds, but ultimately didn't give up.

Firstly, it was driven by his curiosity, and secondly, it was out of necessity; he was one of the few remaining "young and promising" members of the Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Sciences is no longer as prosperous as it once was. Apart from the Institute of Mathematics, which is in a slightly better position, most of the other institutes are staffed by people in their seventies.

We can't just send these old men and women, can we?

More than half an hour later, Angus Gale boarded the plane to Chernobyl. Zhang Hongwen saw him but didn't say anything, as if he had never reminded him in the restroom.

They first landed at a military airport, and then took a helicopter to Chernobyl.

Upon arriving here, everyone was stunned, because the place looked extremely desolate and didn't resemble a research institute at all.

But led by the colonel, they arrived at an abandoned command room and opened a hidden door leading down a long staircase, seemingly descending into the ground.

Angus Gale glanced at the massive building constructed of layers of concrete, which was the No. 4 reactor where the accident had occurred years ago. They were not far from that reactor at the moment.

Angus Gale later learned that their workplace was actually almost right next to Reactor No. 4, with several similar small secret doors connecting to the outside world, as well as a larger secret door responsible for receiving supplies.

After walking underground for a few minutes, they came to a wide road. Several cars picked them up and took them to the research institute. Only then did they realize that this was no ordinary research institute.

It was clearly built as a secret research institute from the beginning, capable of accommodating the work and living needs of at least several hundred researchers, with an additional company of soldiers maintaining order.

There were already some scientists here, but they were not as prestigious or renowned as Angus Gell's group.

Upon entering the institute, the first requirement greatly surprised Angus Gale: he had to wear clerical robes and carry a cross or other appropriate religious implements.

At this point, Angus Gale was quite certain that Zhang Hongwen really knew more, because he and several other Chinese scientists had brought their own Taoist robes, peach wood swords, and Sanqing bells.

On the first day, they rested for a while, and the next day someone explained the research projects here and the research progress to them.

However, someone raised their hand first and asked, "Excuse me, why are we wearing clergy robes? Are we here to study the devil?"

"To be honest, our research subjects really do look a bit like demons." The guide suddenly smiled. "There's a mysterious power here, and we can clearly feel it expanding every ten days."

"Every expansion causes people to go crazy, but just a few months ago we discovered that the priests here were hardly affected. We conducted an experiment and found that as long as you wear clerical robes and the corresponding ritual implements, you are almost unaffected."

Everyone was stunned, and suddenly felt like they had entered the wrong place. Was this really a research institute?

The person who had just asked the question then realized, "You mean there's a pastor here?"

Besides theological research institutes, what other research institutes might have pastors?

"Because the discoveries here are so astonishing, many questions cannot be explained by science," the guide said. "Let's get to the point."

"But before that, I'd like to take you somewhere."

Led by them, the group of scientists walked through the corridor to a large glass viewing platform.

Outside the glass stands, it was pitch black, with only the stone walls on either side vaguely visible, as if the outside connected to the dark expanse of space.

The guide used a button on the wall to turn on the outside lights, and under the illumination of the giant searchlight, the huge pit was revealed to the audience.

This gives people the illusion that the deep pit leads to another world!

Below the pit, it was pitch black, causing the scientists to take a step back, as if some dangerous monster might crawl out from inside.

Elsewhere in the glass stands, there are many downward-facing installations, some with steel cables leading down, and others platforms for launching drones or exploring robots.

Amid everyone's astonishment, the commentator said, "So far, we don't have any instruments that can detect the existence of that mysterious force; we can only rely on our own bodies to sense it."

"But when that mysterious force expands, our bodily functions, or rather our metabolism, will accelerate, which we can detect with instruments."

"Furthermore, we've tried every method we could think of, but no matter what we do, we haven't been able to find the bottom of this deep pit."

A scientist asked, "Have you used the latest seismic exploration equipment?"

"It's been used, but the bottom wasn't detected."

Another scientist asked, "What about the latest electromagnetic exploration equipment?"

"I've tried it, but it didn't detect the bottom."

Scientists were speechless, which means that this pit is at least 10,000 meters deep!

The narrator continued, "So far, the only person who has seen the bottom of the pit is a devout Catholic, and he was also one of the earliest researchers."

"At that time, the top of this pit had not yet been covered by a steel frame. According to the description of those present, at noon, the devout believer held a cross and said: 'O all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good God, please let the sunlight shine into the pit so that I can see what is at the bottom!'"

"It is said that the sunlight suddenly became extremely dazzling, and the devout believer could actually see the earth beneath his eyes. He described it as a beautiful, illusory ocean!"

The crowd remained silent, unsure how to evaluate this event, which resembled a story from the Bible.

After a long pause, someone finally asked, "How is that devout believer doing now?"

The narrator said, "After he described what he saw, he turned into a monster."

"Turns into a monster?"

"Alright, we can go back now." The guide didn't answer everyone's questions immediately. Instead, he went back to the meeting room and projected a blurry photo onto the projector.

The figure in the photo, although still having human structure, does indeed resemble a monster from a movie: its entire body is blood red, as if its skin has been burst open, exposing its flesh and blood. On its stomach is a large mouth with sharp teeth, which is slightly open, revealing its internal organs.

Everyone gradually realized that this was the devout believer.

The narrator continued, "Later, we tried to recreate the scene several times, but we never saw the sunlight reaching the bottom of the pit again."

"However, we soon discovered that some researchers were prone to mental breakdowns when the sun was at its strongest or during thunderstorms."

"Occasionally, some pitch-black monsters will suddenly appear. Anyone who is scratched by these monsters will have rust-like spots appear on their skin and die in great pain as all their organs fail."

"Currently, we have not found any drugs that can treat or slow down this process."

"These monsters are not afraid of bullets, bombs, and even electromagnetic and ultrasonic weapons have little effect."

"The only thing we can do is wait until the sunlight stops shining directly into the pit, or until the lightning stops in the sky above the pit, and then the monsters will disappear on their own."

"This situation will not occur again until we completely cover the top of the crater with a steel frame structure."

After a long silence, someone finally asked, "So, what exactly are we here to study? I mean, I study quantum mechanics, how can I help?"

The commentator said, "What we can be sure of now is that there is an unknown force underground here, and we urgently need a theory to reasonably explain this force."

"However, we don't know where to start, so we can only invite experts from various disciplines to see if they can explain the current situation with their own theories."

"Perhaps through discussion, we can arrive at a clear explanation for this phenomenon."

Then he waved to the two soldiers at the door, and several soldiers outside each brought over a thick stack of documents: "These are all our research processes and results so far. You can take a look at them first."

"If you have any research needs, please design your own experiments, and we will do our best to cooperate with your efforts."

Although everyone had some complaints, they still carefully read the materials.

The first day was spent reading, and from the second day onwards, discussions gradually began.

Geologists believe this may be an unknown phenomenon of the Earth's magnetic field, where there are unknown and drastic changes in the magnetic field, which is why it affected the researchers' emotions.

However, this explanation doesn't hold water in many ways. For example, why would there be a deep pit? Why would monsters appear? And so on.

More importantly, changes in the magnetic field are relatively easy to detect. After several rounds of experiments, it was proven that there were no significant drastic changes in the nearby magnetic field.

Some biologists speculate that there may be an unknown microorganism underground, and people infected by this microorganism will experience drastic changes in their bodies.

However, after taking multiple samples from various angles on the rock walls of the deep pit, no unknown microorganisms were found.

Just as everyone continued to speculate, suddenly, they all looked in the direction of the deep pit and, as if they had received some kind of command, went to the glass viewing platform together.

By this time, the place had been filled with people, all looking at the deep pit, as if they all had a premonition that something was about to emerge from there.

Immediately afterwards, everyone seemed to feel extremely terrified and took a step back.

They could clearly feel a mysterious force surging from the ground to the surface, and the veins on their foreheads bulged, as if all the blood in their bodies was rushing to their heads.

Beep beep beep!

The instrument that was monitoring everyone's metabolism suddenly started beeping, but everyone entered a dreamlike state. They did not look at the bottom of the pit, but each of them seemed to see a picture: an illusory flow of water rising from the bottom of the pit.

Several minutes passed before everyone seemed to wake from a dream and heard the "beep beep" sound from the instrument.

After another ten seconds or so, the director announced: "This is the most intense surge of that mysterious power to date."

"Gentlemen, if it is a sealed demon, then it is not far from breaking the seal."

Angus Gale and the others returned to the conference room somewhat dejectedly. Only now did they truly feel the power of that mysterious force.

The speculations they were just discussing now seem utterly unfounded.

More than an hour later, astonishing news came from the outside world: at the same moment that force surged, all the world's oil reserves disappeared.

……

In the evening, after get off work.

Angus Gale, carrying two bottles of vodka, knocked on Zhang Hongwen's door.

After opening the door, Angus Gale said in broken Mandarin, "Old Zhang, I'd like to have a couple of drinks with you."

Zhang Hongwen smiled slightly, gestured for him to come in, and took out some spiced peanuts and dried meat from his suitcase.

The two chatted over drinks, starting with their previous collaborations and then moving on to their recent situations. By the time they got to their current research, they had already finished a bottle of wine.

Angus Gale chewed on a peanut and looked at Zhang Hongwen: "You must have some ideas, right? I remember you used to be like this; the more silent you were, the more opinions you had."

Zhang Hongwen adjusted his glasses and smiled somewhat helplessly: "I'm sorry to disappoint you this time, but I really don't have any decent ideas."

"But you do have some ideas, don't you? Lao Zhang, tell me. You felt that atmosphere today. We don't have much time left, and your thoughts might be key."

Zhang Hongwen glanced at Angus Gale for a second or two before saying, "My thoughts might confuse you even more."

"Then I'd like to hear it."

"Alright, alright." Zhang Hongwen took a sip of his drink, paused for a second or two, and then asked, "Do you believe in science?"

"believe."

"Do you believe in science?"

Angus Gale paused for a moment before saying, "You mean, everything that happened today really has something to do with theology?"

Zhang Hongwen did not answer the question, but said: "There is a huge gap between our core cultures. We believe that the appearance of many things cannot be explained by a single way of thinking."

"Because both the universe and human society are complex, it is easy to fail to provide a comprehensive explanation if we only use simplistic thinking to explain them."

Angus Gale seemed to have thought of something, but couldn't connect the fragments of his thoughts: "Old Zhang, could you elaborate a bit more?"

"In other words, we Easterners believe that many things are not simply black and white; perhaps they are both black and white, both right and wrong. Hmm, that sounds similar to Schrödinger's cat, but there are still some differences." Zhang Hongwen smiled at Angus Gale, who looked bewildered. "I told you, you'd be even more confused after hearing my thoughts."

"Okay, I'll just state my conclusion."

"I believe that the problems we are facing now cannot be solved by science or theology."

"Sometimes I have this thought: science, which is regarded as truth by modern people, must have a limit, right? There must be things it can't explain, right? So we can believe in science, but we can't be superstitious about it."

"Theology, on the other hand, is 'human theology.' These kinds of studies are all figments of human imagination. Rather than using theology to solve problems, it's more accurate to say that human imagination is being used to solve problems."

Angus Gale felt these ideas were entirely outside his own sphere of thought: "Then what kind of thinking should we use to solve this problem?"

"I don't know." Zhang Hongwen shrugged. "Perhaps this is a discipline that humanity has never explored before."

Angus Gell seemed to suddenly realize something: "The double-slit experiment! Wave-particle duality!"

The former is an experiment to observe light. Under the same preconditions, the observation results are completely different depending on whether there is an observer or not.

The latter means that microscopic particles sometimes exhibit "wave-like" properties and sometimes "particle-like" properties.

Zhang Hongwen said seriously, "I don't know if there's any connection between these two things. I'm just saying that we should break out of our old ways of thinking, and perhaps then we can make a breakthrough."

Angus Gale fell silent. Just as Zhang Hongwen had said before, he felt even more confused after learning about Zhang's thoughts.

At the same time, it was like opening a new door, bringing many new ideas.

For a while after the conversation, both of them remained silent. They were both well aware that they should think like ascetics and not reveal their thoughts to others until they were certain of their understanding, otherwise it would only complicate matters further.

About a week later, representatives from various countries sent representatives to Moscow, wanting to hear if scientists had any new ideas about Chernobyl's research.

So Angus Gael and the others returned to Moscow to attend a large symposium there.

It was at this time that Angus Gale received a call from his old classmate Augustin Fabti. The conversation with his old classmate gave Angus Gale some inspiration.

That evening, he excitedly brought two bottles of vodka and knocked on Zhang Hongwen's door.

Zhang Hongwen, on the other hand, had dried tofu and vacuum-packed braised pig's trotters, which were just sent to him from China by his family.

The two continued to eat and chat, but this time they quickly got down to business.

Angus Gale smiled and said, "Old Zhang, I have a very good idea today."

"First, let me talk about a discussion I had with a classmate when I was in college about humanity."

"At the time, we were very curious as to why humans, with such limited physical abilities, possess a brain with such a vast mental space."

"I initially studied biology, and I am very clear that although the human body is very precise, there are limits to it, but the upper limit of human imagination is very, very high."

"Of course, I mean when we have sufficient knowledge."

"Like Einstein, much of our current research is simply a series of proofs that Einstein's original theory was correct."

"This is a concrete expression of our idea. In the scientific community, for example, when a person has a very good idea, it is impossible to immediately verify the idea."

"It wasn't until decades later that we were able to prove some of the theories of top scientists."

"This is a manifestation of human action failing to keep up with thought."

Zhang Hongwen nodded repeatedly, indicating that he understood.

"So, does such a phenomenon exist?" Angus Gale asked, "Actually, our bodies were originally very strong? Or rather, could they be matched with our minds?"

"For example, if we want to go to the moon to take a look, we can jump to the moon."

"But for some reason, our physical abilities have been weakened, although some of the traits we had before the weakening are still hidden in our genes."

Angus Gale stared at Zhang Hongwen; his thoughts were already quite clear, so he didn't continue.

Zhang Hongwen paused for a full minute, holding his wine glass, before saying, "This is a very promising idea."

He took a sip of his drink before saying, "In other words, the illusory ocean at the bottom of the pit may be the key to the weakening of our bodies!"

"Now that illusory ocean is rising to the ground, it will make our bodies strong again."

Angus Gale nodded seriously.

Zhang Hongwen looked at his Russian friend for a second or two before finishing his drink and saying, "We can announce our thoughts now, and the sooner the better."

With the publication of their idea, research immediately began to focus on this hypothesis.

But at this point, people discovered a paradox: if that illusory ocean could make human bodies stronger, why did so many people go down to the bottom of the pit, yet none of them came back?

At this point, Zhang Hongwen offered an explanation: Humans have been weak for too long, and their bodies simply cannot withstand such power. It's like feeding someone who has been starving for several days a large amount of meat and fish; they would instead suffer from diarrhea and die.

The only thing that doesn't make sense now is why those illusory water flows would swallow up oil.

(End of this chapter)