Chapter 612: Living Brain Cells (14)

His feet left the ground, and the virus shut off.

A whisper seemed to sound in his ear; Li Cheng acted instantly, firing his left-hand magnetic pulley to snap firmly onto the metal wall.

The floating Dir quickly grabbed his ankle, while Su Nisheng and Hydra seized Dir’s limbs—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 builders had clearly anticipated zero gravity from the start—all equipment remained firmly anchored. Even seemingly unsecured objects—drawers, cabinet doors, coffee cups—had built-in magnetic or damping features and floated nowhere.

“Gravity control.”

Dir’s voice held suppressed fear 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 essentially 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 reacted swiftly but quickly dismissed the theory: “No—that rocket cargo bay is linked to the emergency assembly button. Without awakening the sentry robots, it can’t launch.”

Besides, the launch noise from the rocket cargo bay would’ve been audible across the entire Xinxiang Base.

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, a miniaturized vector control device is buried somewhere in Xinxiang Base.”

Su Nisheng remained calm, unflustered by the zero gravity. She scanned the surroundings and said steadily: “All non-fixed items were designed with magnetic adhesion—this proves Xinxiang Base had prepared for this.”

Therefore, the second possibility is more likely.

Somewhere in Xinxiang Base, there’s a miniaturized vector control device—possibly to assist 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 it—the guy’s mental state is extremely unstable, and his armed hand can violently break through doors, allowing him to reach places regular 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 everywhere except his own location.

“Just to ask—among us, there aren’t any bloodline inheritors of Hulk/werewolf/spider-man/dragon/zombie/demon/Shanhaijing monster/ZNF136 gene mutation-induced schizophrenia/magnetic field powerhouse, right?”

Li Cheng leaned against the metal wall, his tone light. Seeing the other three floating figures look up, he paused and said: “If there are no transcendent beings, no one can withstand tenfold gravity.

We need to find Laughing God—or Edith—quickly.”

“Why find Edith?” Hydra said instinctively. “And didn’t you just slip schizophrenia into your list of transcendent bloodlines?”

“Pifu means schizophrenia ≈ Stand User. Stand Users naturally gravitate toward each other; only other Stand Users can see each other’s spiritual backs—very similar to schizophrenia.”

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

The moment she uttered “door,” an accident struck.

A gas hose in the corner detached; the massive pressure made it thrash wildly like a venomous snake stepped on by a heron.

The visible, violent gas jet from the storage tank slammed directly into Hydra, hurling him backward with a thud into the corridor.

In zero gravity, Hydra’s bulky spacesuit rolled and spun like a bowling ball, tumbling end over end around his axis; Su Nisheng couldn’t grip him, helplessly watching him drift through the entire vertical shaft—from mid-level to the upper ceiling.

Li Cheng carefully bent down, first sealing the valve of the still-leaking gas tank, then called out from afar: “Hey, hey? Hydra, you okay?”

Li Cheng carefully bent down, first tightening the valve on the still hissing gas tank, then raising his voice from afar: “Hey, hey? Hydra, are you alright?”

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. Forcing him to move would only cause secondary injury.

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

After a brief exchange, they decided Hydra would go alone to the upper-level medical room—the room’s scanners were unusable, but the automated mechanical arms inside the medical pod might, possibly, realign bones through the spacesuit?

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

If the medical pod is unusable or Hydra feels endangered, go to the security room with broadcasting capability and keep talking to deter any potential space-born aberrations from launching an attack.

Li Cheng, seeing Dir and Su Nisheng fall silent, offered reassurance: “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 his hospital checkup revealed cancer. In utter despair, he suddenly received a text from a little sister he’d played games with years ago—she turned out to be the only daughter of a trillion-dollar multinational conglomerate, had secretly liked him all along, and now was funding his treatment at the world’s most advanced Mayo Clinic, with a layover in Mianbei.”

Li Cheng, seeing Dir and Su Nisheng fall silent, spoke to comfort them: “Good people have heavenly fortune. I have a friend who, in middle age, was fired by his company, had his wife run off with all their money, saw his parents swindled out of their entire pension, and upon a hospital checkup was diagnosed with cancer. In utter despair, he suddenly received a text from a little sister he’d played games with long ago—she turned out to be the only daughter of a trillion-dollar multinational conglomerate’s patriarch, who had always liked him, and now she was funding his treatment at the world’s most advanced Mayo Clinic, with a layover in northern Myanmar.”

???

Bro, until you said “layover in Mianbei,” I thought you were describing your friend’s hallucination from inhaling coal fumes 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—Zhong Li Mie Ming was bracing his feet against the control panel, straining to lever the control rod and replace the reactor fuel.

(Nuclear fission reactors replenish fuel by swapping fuel rods in a cooling pool. This is a fusion reactor—no pool or rods; instead, a spherical vacuum chamber pulses tritium gas into a twisted magnetic confinement device.)

“You’re alone here?” Dir didn’t hesitate—he pushed off the wall and drifted over, grabbing the control rod to help twist it. “Where are Edith and Shizhi?”

“They’re repairing the machine room and warehouse respectively.”

Zhong Li Mie Ming said: “I heard your broadcast—so the Laughing God is a space alien?”

Zhong Li Mie Ming said: “I heard your broadcast. So the Laughing God is a space-born aberration?”

Li Cheng gave no clear answer. He suspected the real space alien wouldn’t expose itself so obviously—least of all leave a live witness like Dir to reach the broadcast room.

Li Cheng said nothing; he suspected the true space-born aberrations wouldn’t reveal themselves so plainly—least of all by leaving a live witness, namely Dir, in the broadcasting room.

As if on cue, the engine room’s loudspeaker crackled with Hydra’s weak voice: “This is Hydra. I went to the medical room—the medical pod is unusable, so I came to the security room to use the loudspeaker…”

As he spoke, the background noise suddenly included the sound of a blast door rotating open: “How is it you? Agh!”

Hydra’s confused cry was cut off by a thunderous crash. Almost simultaneously, the entire Xinxiang Base shuddered—gravity returned to normal. Su Nisheng instantly raised her left arm—but saw that both Hydra’s and Edith’s heart rates had dropped to zero.

From the speaker, Hydral’s puzzled voice was cut off by a deafening roar; almost simultaneously, the entire Xinxiang Base shuddered, gravity returned to normal, Su Nisheng sharply raised her left arm, only to see that Hydral and Edith’s heart rates had dropped to zero.