338, January 1st.
Scientists discovered that over the past year, the number of asteroids in the asteroid belt has been rapidly decreasing, especially in the xxx direction, with about 30,000 asteroids disappearing. This has created a significant gap in the asteroid belt.
On this unremarkable New Year's Day, a news report trended and sparked heated public discussion.
Instantly, the public was in an uproar.
Meanwhile, at the m nation's space center, the images transmitted from the telescopes were even more shocking.
The footage showed an asteroid disappearing out of thin air approximately every 10 minutes, in a highly regular pattern.
However, no one knew how these asteroids were disappearing.
Not only that, but the m nation's space center had been observing for two weeks and found that the phenomenon of asteroids vanishing out of thin air paused for 10 hours every 24 hours, and after six consecutive hours of disappearance, it would pause for another two hours.
It was as if the disappearance of these asteroids was someone's job, complete with rest periods.
This thought was chilling.
At this moment, in the asteroid belt, Tang Li was flying towards the next target asteroid, holding two shield-like plates.
Do not underestimate these two plates; they were high-tech.
One plate could absorb light from space, while the other would emit the absorbed light exactly as it was received.
This applied not only to visible light but also to infrared and ultraviolet rays.
This way, between the two plates, Tang Li could achieve a form of invisibility.
Of course, it only worked on one side, and the side emitting light had to face Earth.
Tang Li was wearing a spacesuit specially designed by Song Pinxuan, equipped with a thruster that allowed her to navigate in space.
This was why she could continuously replicate fuel from her spatial ability.
For anyone else, flying like this in space would deplete the thruster's fuel in less than half an hour.
But for Tang Li, half an hour was enough to fly from one asteroid to another.
After flying for only a few minutes, Tang Li stopped on the far side of an asteroid.
With a thought, she retrieved it into her spatial ability.
Then, without pause, she headed for the next asteroid.
This was how she had been collecting asteroids for over a year. Twelve hours a day, with no rest.
Over such a long period, she had collected 30,000 asteroids of various sizes.
As Tang Li was heading towards the next asteroid, her quantum communication phone rang.
With a thought, a communication interface appeared in her mind via a brain-computer interface.
It turned out to be a call from Tang Guo.
As soon as Tang Li answered, she heard the voice from the other end say, "Lili, the anomaly in the asteroid belt has been discovered. The news broke just now and it's trending."
Upon hearing this, Tang Li replied, "Perfect timing. I've collected enough spatial energy. I'm heading back now."
"Okay, I've also collected a lot of scrap materials. I'm waiting for you to bring them into your space. Although it's nothing compared to asteroids, they can still be used to replicate supplies," Tang Guo said.
After hanging up, Tang Li headed for the next asteroid.
However, this time, upon reaching the far side, Tang Li did not collect the asteroid into her spatial ability. Instead, she stored the two plates for absorbing and emitting light.
Then, she replicated a small space city module and moved into it.
Apart from the absence of gravity, this space city module was much like Earth.
It was equipped with all sorts of facilities, similar to the underground city modules in the apocalypse.
Tang Li spent her year in space eating and sleeping in this space city module. She could also connect to the metaverse, so it wasn't boring at all.
Tang Li also had wireless brain-controlled robot clones on Earth.
Even though she had left Earth, it was as if she hadn't.
Tang Li opened a group chat of 10 people, consisting of 10 reincarnators excluding Elder Xue.
Xue Keyue: @Tang Li m nation has launched a probe to the asteroid belt. I'll send you the coordinates, be careful to avoid it.
Tang Li noted this message and replied.
Tang Li: Received, I'll be careful. I'm preparing for the return journey and need to plan the route and interfere with the signals of any probes along the way.
The information technology Song Pinxuan brought back from several hundred years in the future was naturally far more advanced than that of m nation at this time.
Therefore, she could both detect the launch of probes by the other party and interfere with their signals.
This was one of the reasons Tang Li was not worried about being discovered in space.
Of course, even if she were discovered, it wouldn't matter.
The reason she didn't want to be discovered was that her secret operation was to avoid causing trouble for herself and others.