Chapter 592: Living Brain Cells (14)

When their feet left the ground, the virus shut down.

A whisper seemed to sound in his ear; Li Cheng acted instantly, firing his left-hand magnetic wheel, snapping it hard against the metal wall.

The floating Dir quickly grabbed his ankle, while Su Nisheng and Hydra grabbed Dir; the four of them linked together like a sugar-coated hawthorn skewer.

"WTF?!"

Hydra's voice cracked with shock, "Why is there zero gravity? Did the planet split open?!"

"Impossible—if this were an earthquake, the Xinxiang Base would've collapsed by now."

Li Cheng scanned the oxygen chamber; the room's designers had clearly anticipated zero gravity from the start—all equipment was securely anchored, even seemingly unsecured objects like drawers, cabinet doors, and coffee cups, each equipped with magnetic or damping features, none floating loose.

"Gravity control."

Dir's voice held a suppressed tremor as he spoke rapidly: "When I went with Laughing God to the control room, I saw documentation—the New Hope ship's sublight engine is fundamentally a vector control device capable of warping space and altering gravity vectors."

"You mean the New Hope ship is still in low-orbit around HD996A, Laughing God entered the central control hall, and used the rocket cargo bay to precisely launch himself onto the New Hope ship, planning to use the vector control engine to erase the entire base in one go?"

Li Cheng quickly realized—but quickly dismissed the theory: "No, the rocket cargo bay is linked to the emergency assembly button in the central control hall; without awakening the sentry robots, the cargo bay cannot launch."

Besides, the launch of the rocket cargo bay would be deafening—every corner of Xinxiang Base would hear it.

Two possibilities: one, the New Hope ship in low-orbit is updating its Windows system, accidentally crashed, and erroneously altered Xinxiang Base's gravity vector.

Two, somewhere in Xinxiang Base, a miniaturized vector control device is installed."

Su Nisheng remained calm, unflustered by the zero gravity. She surveyed the surroundings, speaking steadily: "All non-fixed items were designed with magnetic adhesion—this proves Xinxiang Base had long prepared for this."

Therefore, the second possibility is more likely.

Somewhere in Xinxiang Base, there is a miniaturized vector control device—possibly to complement the atmospheric modification system, or to guard against geological disasters on HD996A."

"Laughing God has found and is using the vector control engine."

Hydra also realized—the guy's mental state is extremely unstable, and his armed hand can violently break through doors, reaching places ordinary maintenance staff can't access.

If he controls Xinxiang Base's gravity… he doesn't even need to do anything else—just increase gravity by tenfold in all areas except his own.

That's all it would take.

"Just to ask, among us, there aren't any inheritors of superhuman bloodlines—like the Hulk, werewolf, Spider-Man, dragon, zombie king, demon, Shanhaijing beast, ZNF136 gene mutation-induced schizophrenia, or magnetic field powerhouse, right?"

Li Cheng propped himself against the metal wall, speaking lightly. Seeing the other three floating figures look up, he paused, then said: "If there are no transcendent beings, then tenfold gravity won't be survivable.

Li Cheng braced one hand against the metal wall, his tone light. Seeing the other three floating people all look up, he deliberated and said, "Since there are no Transcendents, no one can withstand ten times gravity.

"Why look for Edith?" Hydra blurted out. "And didn't you slip schizophrenia into your list of superhuman bloodlines?"

"Master Pi Fu means schizophrenia ≈ Stand User. Stand Users naturally gravitate toward each other; only other Stand Users can see each other's spiritual shadows—very similar to schizophrenia."

Su Nisheng spoke coldly: "As for finding Edith—she has an armed hand, capable of breaking…"

The moment the word "door" left her lips, an accident struck.

A gas line detached from a storage tank in the corner; the massive pressure made the hose thrash wildly like a venomous snake stepped on by a stork.

The visible, furious jet of gas erupted from the tank and slammed directly into Hydra, hurling him violently backward with a thud into the corridor.

In zero gravity, Hydra's clumsy and heavy spacesuit rolled and tumbled like a bowling ball, spinning wildly around his body axis; Su Nisheng couldn't grip him, forced to watch helplessly as he drifted through the entire vertical shaft—from the lower level, floating up to the ceiling of the upper level.

Li Cheng carefully leaned down, first closing the valve on the still-leaking gas tank, then called out from afar: "Hey, hey? Hydra, you okay?"

Li Cheng carefully bent down, first closing the valve of the gas tank that was still continuously venting, then raised his head and called out from a distance, "Hey, hey? Hydra, are you okay?"

After several seconds, Hydra gasped: "My right arm and left leg are numb, can't move—looks like fractures."

Li Cheng and Su Nisheng exchanged glances—Hydra wasn't wearing an armed hand; his mobility was crippled, and dragging him along would only cause further injury.

No time for hesitation—the 3D map on their smart watches showed red exclamation marks flashing over the reactor, machine room, and warehouse on the lower level.

After a brief, rapid exchange, they decided to let Hydra go alone to the medical room on the upper level—the room's scanners were unusable, but the automated mechanical arms inside the medical pod might—possibly, maybe, perhaps—be able to realign bones through the spacesuit?

If the medical pod failed, or if Hydra felt endangered, he was to head to the security room with broadcasting capability and keep talking nonstop to deter any potential space alien attacks.

If the medical bay can't be used, or if Hydra feels he's in danger, go to the security room with broadcast function and keep talking, to deter any space alien species that might launch an attack.

Li Cheng, seeing Dir and Su Nisheng fall silent, spoke to reassure them: "Good people have divine protection. I have a friend—he was fired by his company in middle age, his wife ran off with all their savings, his parents lost their entire pension to scammers, and at the hospital he was diagnosed with cancer. In utter despair, he suddenly received a text from a little sister he'd played games with years ago—turns out she's the only daughter of a trillion-dollar multinational conglomerate, she'd always liked him, and now she's funding his treatment at the world's most advanced Mayo Clinic, with a layover in northern Myanmar."

Li Cheng saw Dir and Su Nisheng fall silent, and offered words of comfort: "Fortune favors the good. I have a friend just like that—middle-aged, fired by his company, wife cheating on him and running off with the money, parents scammed out of their entire retirement fund, went to the hospital for a checkup and got diagnosed with cancer. Just when he was in utter despair and helplessness, he suddenly received a text from a little sister he'd gamed with long ago. Turns out she was the only daughter of the head of a hundred-billion-level multinational conglomerate, and had always had a soft spot for him. Now she wanted to pay to take him to the world's most advanced Mayo Clinic for treatment, with a transit stop in northern Myanmar along the way.

???

Bro, until you said "layover in northern Myanmar," I thought you were describing a hallucination from your friend inhaling too much coal smoke in winter.

Dir took a deep breath, gripping a protruding handhold on the metal wall, calling out: "Anyone there?"

He descended all the way to the lower level of Xinxiang Base.

"Is that you?"

As they neared the reactor, they heard clanging repair noises—Zhongli Mie Ming was bracing his feet against the control panel, straining to lever the control rod, replacing the reactor fuel.

(Nuclear fission reactors replenish fuel by swapping fuel rods in a cooling pool; this is a fusion reactor, lacking water pools and rods—instead, it uses a spherical vacuum chamber, pulsing tritium gas into a twisted magnetic confinement device.)

"It's just you here?" Dir didn't hesitate—he pushed off the wall, gliding over, and grabbed the control rod to help pry it, "Where are Edith and the others?"

"They're repairing the machine room and warehouse respectively."

Zhongli Mie Ming said: "I heard your broadcast—so Laughing God is a space alien?"

Zhongli Mieming said, "I heard your broadcast, so the Laughing God is a space alien species?"

Li Cheng gave no clear answer—he suspected the real space alien wouldn't expose itself so obviously; at the very least, it wouldn't leave a live witness like Dir to reach the broadcast room.

Li Cheng neither confirmed nor denied. He suspected the real space alien species wouldn't expose itself so obviously—at the very least, it shouldn't have let a survivor, namely Dir, make it to the broadcast room.

Just as they mentioned the broadcast, Hydra's weak voice crackled from the engine room's loudspeaker: "This is Hydra—I went to the medical room, and the medical pod is definitely unusable, so I came to the security room to use the loudspeaker…"

As he spoke, the background of the broadcast suddenly erupted with the sound of a blast door rotating open: "How is it you? Agh!"

Hydra's confused voice was cut off by a thunderous crash—and at almost the same instant, the entire Xinxiang Base shuddered, gravity restored to normal. Su Nisheng instantly raised her left arm—only to see that Hydra's and Edith's heart rates had both dropped to zero.

Over the broadcast, Hydra's puzzled voice was cut off by a tremendous roar. Almost at the same instant, the entire Xinxiang base shuddered, gravity returned to normal, and Su Nisheng abruptly raised her left arm—only to see that Hydra and Edith's heart rates had already flatlined.