Chapter 299: Qiao Saint

It's no wonder the players looked like they'd seen a ghost—the projection of Dr. Noah showed a man with slight balding, faintly white beard, a thin face and sharp eyes, wearing a black sweater under a white lab coat, strikingly similar to Steve Jobs—nine or even ten parts alike.

Dr. Noah seemed to sense the players' reactions through sensors and asked, puzzled: "Am I really that much like someone you know?"

"Yes, very much so."

Li Cheng couldn't help saying: if in the real world's internet some called Musk the "Open-Source Ma Saint," then Steve Jobs was the original "Qiao Saint."

Bestsellers like *The Steve Jobs Biography: A Divine Legend*, *Living to Change the World: The Biography of Steve Jobs*, and *Think Different: Steve Jobs' Inspirations on Innovation* had remained popular for years.

Li Cheng's classmate Evans even pasted a photo of Jobs on his desk and, before every major exam, used an Apple Pencil to play the "Pen Spirit" game, trying to summon Jobs to bless his test success.

Every time he saw this, Li Cheng wanted to remind him that Jobs died in 2011, and the Apple Pencil wasn't released until 2015—what he summoned by Pen Spirit could only be Cook or the Mother of Nature.

(The Mother of Nature was the character in Apple's 2023 environmental short film—a plus-size Black female environmentalist.)

Dorian Gray shook his head, shaking off his shock.

Though the development trend of this other world resembled the real world in broad strokes, some details could be jaw-droppingly different.

For example, a German art student who failed the entrance exam and took it again became Black; Earth lacked oil, so human civilization kept refining steam engine technology, inventing steam rockets and such.

Anything could happen.

"Where are the other players? What is the purpose of this Gao Ta? How will you help us complete our mission?"

Dorian Gray fired off questions like a machine gun.

Dr. Noah's projection smiled faintly and said calmly: "The full name of this Gao Ta is the 【Casimir Effect-Based Einstein-Rosen Bridge Generator】, otherwise known as a wormhole generator or space-jump engine.

A first group of players already found this place—I partnered with them, sending them into the tower to clear out several mutated monsters that had infiltrated.

In exchange, I will provide you shelter and, at the mission's end, grant you a portion of the technological data as payment."

Technological payment

The group's spirits lifted instantly, especially the players affiliated with state institutions—their eyes gleamed.

The technology Dr. Noah possessed was at least dozens, even hundreds of years ahead of real-world standards—even accounting for the tech surge brought by the Killing Ground, it was still immensely valuable.

Just the complete manufacturing process for a super-material capable of supporting a kilometer-high tower? Selling it for a billion dollars wouldn't be unreasonable.

The laser weapon components and power transmission tech from the Light Prism Tower? Twenty billion dollars would be perfectly reasonable.

As for the ultimate black tech—the wormhole generator, something that usually existed only in fantasy works—

Any major power would pay a tremendous price for even a fraction of this technology.

Wealth was the most heart-stirring thing; the players unconsciously deepened their breathing, their hearts pounding hard.

Even Li Cheng couldn't help being stirred—he picked up the speaker, pressed a button, and played music: "Come back, Steve Jobs, my proudest faith, the iMac vivid in memory, tears flow without reason, I still remember the iPod, and the powerful iPhone, driving Samsung and Huawei back, even staying up all night, never tired."

???

The others in the vehicle seemed to have question marks hovering above their heads. Bai Ji Xiong groaned: "Master Pi Fu, when did you record this audio? How did you predict this?"

"No precognition—the speaker is the latest flagship smart model from Prometheus, with AI composition."

Li Cheng casually showed the speaker's LCD screen: input text, and it auto-generated voice and music, with options for rock, Latin, blues, and other styles.

'I have every reason to suspect you spent a dozen game coins on this speaker just to mess around.'

Bai Ji Xiong muttered inwardly: 'Then you'll wrap a headscarf around it, hide the speaker inside, and cosplay as Qiao Feng.'

Zhao Zijing gathered her thoughts, picked up the radio, and asked Dr. Noah seriously: "We're willing to cooperate with you,

but before that, I'd like to ask: after the global catastrophe years ago, human civilization collapsed rapidly—no organization should have had the strength to build this building."

"Indeed, none did."

Dr. Noah's expression remained calm as he clapped his hands: "This building was gradually constructed by me using my invention: the von Neumann-type cellular automaton."

The floor beside the holographic projection slid open automatically, and a six-legged robot emerged—its body flat, crab-like, with four mechanical arms, each capable of mounting different functional modules.

The von Neumann-type cellular automaton, simply put, is a machine capable of self-replication and self-manufacturing using external materials.

One becomes two, two becomes four—given sufficient time and materials, a single automaton could "replicate" thousands or tens of thousands of units, completing any planned mega-engineering project on its own: interstellar colonization, planetary terraforming.

Dr. Noah said calmly: "Any other questions?"

"."

Zhao Zijing's gaze lingered on the automaton—it was also a priceless technological artifact. "I have two final questions.

What is the true nature of the Collapse—or the Catastrophe?

And how did the 'group transit' event from our world to here occur?"

Zhao Zijing's words slightly dampened the players' feverish excitement. Indeed, ultimately, players were here to complete missions and survive until the time limit ended—not to scavenge in this world. No matter how much money, you need life to spend it.

"Time is short—the second Collapse could arrive at any moment. But since you wish to know, I have no objection to repeating it."

Dr. Noah's projection said: "Four years ago, my space-jump device was first tested, sending a spacecraft to the edge of the solar system and back.

Everything proceeded normally—until, during the return transit, the space station was attacked by terrorists, causing an experimental deviation that triggered chaos in the spacetime gravitational field, ultimately leading to Earth's magnetic pole shift and frequent Catastrophes.

Tsunamis, wildfires, cosmic radiation—all compounding—destroyed the global ecosystem.

The still-functioning human government, ignoring my objections, released the still-testing planetary terraforming bacteria, hoping to restore the environment. The result? Completely ineffective—and it twisted surviving species into mutated monsters."

Dr. Noah briefly summarized the Catastrophe that killed seventy billion people, his face still expressionless: "As for the 'group transit' event—it was the work of the Whale Song Organization."