Chapter 695 - 676: The Sound of Strings

However, even the spacecraft in good condition may need tens of minutes to reactivate the observation module and reach the observation point.

The United Mining and the Aerospace Development Committee were all patiently waiting when a shrill ringtone from a cellphone broke the atmosphere.

Lin Ju was first stunned, then, maintaining his composure, he took out his cell phone.

His phone was usually on vibrate mode, and there was only one situation in which it would ring: someone was contacting him through Meridian’s emergency contact channel, and it was something very urgent.

The call was already hung up by the time he looked at his phone screen, obviously signaling for him to find a moment to call back.

Embarrassed, Lin Ju gave a sheepish smile to Zhong Cheng:

"It’s Manman calling. She..."

"Go ahead, don’t keep her waiting."

Zhong Cheng didn’t think too much about it, considering there were no urgent matters at hand. So taking the cue, Lin Ju gracefully excused himself and headed straight to the empty rooftop via the elevator, switched his phone system, and returned the call.

The call was picked up instantly, and then he heard Ye Changsi’s voice, fraught with anxiety and fear:

"Something happened at Zero Plain, an alien signal was detected, an alien signal!

We’re handling it with all our might, making full preparations!"

Lin Ju felt as if his head had been hammered, his mind going blank and at a loss.

There were no alerts from the System, and he never imagined that Zero Plain and Titan would encounter any incidents without their prior contact, at least these events were unheard of in the original timeline.

The unexpected struck so abruptly, leaving everyone unprepared.

He was tempted to return to the base immediately, but his reasoning forced him to calm down; after taking several deep breaths, he realized that going back right now wouldn’t be of any help.

"Old Ye, what’s the specific situation?"

"Departing Fire detected gravitational waves! The wave’s power exceeded 100 kilowatts, emanating from Mars, very distinct, even its detectors could pick it up!

It activated the emergency procedure and transmitted the information out, and we’re currently analyzing it. It’s very likely to have originated from Zero Plain!"

"Okay, I will be back as soon as possible. Whatever you need to do, don’t wait for approval, be sure to get to the bottom of it!"

"We’ll be careful, boss. The gravitational waves are mid-range, they could possibly be caught by a few of America’s observatories. I’m applying to use ’Mountain and Sea’ to hack in and control the situation."

It took only a few seconds for Lin Ju to grasp the significance behind this move, and he decisively answered:

"No problem, use whatever methods are necessary, no repercussion is greater than the trouble this event could cause."

With that, the call with Ye Changsi ended. Lin Ju stood on the rooftop of a high building in the Capital, looked up in the direction of Mars, and naturally saw nothing.

He wanted to blink, but after closing his eyes for a few seconds and reopening them, he felt as though the entire world had donned a filter, everything seemed different from before.

He simply sat on the roof’s exposed pipes, using his groggy mind to try and process what had happened.

In all honesty, he had witnessed supernatural (alien) forces before—The System was such, with each intervention seeming beyond imagination.

But perhaps his subconscious had convinced him that the System would do no harm, and thus, his sensitivity to it was far less than that to two planets highly suspected of harboring aliens.

After all, if one were to consider an alien civilization rationally, it’s clear that the potential dangers far outweigh the benefits. Humanity both wants to know if alien civilizations exist and yet doesn’t truly wish to encounter them.

If an invasion by aliens were to actually occur, the chances of survival with the current level of technology in the world would be exceedingly slim, a consensus that had been reached a long time ago during discussions at the base.

And the best solution everyone could think of was to use the "System," a supernatural entity, like spending money to push the progress of research, where it seemed there was much to be written.

The money spent by the System didn’t enter the market circulation, which meant that this portion of the money was "swallowed" out of thin air, harmless to society, and, in fact, a perfect channel to alleviate inflation.

In the digital economy era, modern nation-states don’t need to issue currency on a one-to-one basis; they only need to adjust the numbers in the assets and liabilities.

So, according to the current theory, perhaps the central bank could go crazy "printing money," then hand it over to the System to "swallow," clean up the modified accounts or categorize them separately, affecting neither inflation nor pilfering endless advanced technologies for free.

However, this was just a speculation, and the act of blatantly exploiting a bug was indeed hard to imagine, its feasibility doubtful.

But in a real moment of crisis, probably only this method could quickly elevate the level of science to a certain height, at least to figure out how to create fusion-powered spaceships capable of escape.

Lin Ju didn’t know how much time had passed when, as his thoughts leaped to a decisive battle with an interstellar fleet, the sound of the rooftop’s iron door being pushed open startled him.

Zhong Cheng’s secretary, along with security, discovered Lin Ju sitting there alone and hurriedly approached to ask:

"Mr. Lin, why have you been out here for over an hour?"

Over an hour?

Lin Ju was momentarily disoriented, tried to stand but almost fell over, steadied by a timely support.

"Oh, I just made a call. I’ll be down immediately."

Back in the command center, before Zhong Cheng could ask, he hastily explained:

"Manman might (mumbling) be pregnant. I wasn’t paying attention and talked longer."

"Ah, that’s wonderful news."

Zhong Cheng and the rest of the people around immediately began to congratulate him. For them, this was doubly good news. Amidst the laughter, few noticed Lin Ju’s slightly off-kilter mood.

...

At the Pentagon, Office Thirteen.

David Ussnor had lost his mind—literally.

The rest of the staff only remembered their boss suddenly bursting out of his office, shouting something unintelligible before leaping onto a female employee’s desk, then stripping off his shirt and starting to dance wildly.

It wasn’t until people were about to think he was high and prepared to pull him down that they got close enough to hear what he was saying:

"Signals, signals! I was right, I was right!

No errors at all, received in just 8 minutes, haha... cough cough cough."

David, perhaps a little too proud, choked on his saliva and knelt on the table, coughing violently.

Meanwhile, those who had followed him out from the signal monitoring room lifted their heads to explain to everyone:

"Ladies and gentlemen, at 08:23, just 8 minutes after the nuclear blast, we received a signal from MRO and again detected an alien signal of identical bandwidth!

It’s out there, and as Mr. Ussnor predicted, it was triggered by a nuclear explosion.

The Energy Threat Theory—is correct; we’ve completely confirmed that aliens are monitoring humanity!"

Although the news wasn’t inherently good, the people of Office Thirteen couldn’t help but cheer together; it meant their work was meaningful.