Chapter 1 The Roar

Boom——

Hongqiao Airport, a Boeing aircraft roared and accelerated, rushing onto the runway, lifting its nose, and flying towards Guizhou in the southwest...

The Lunar New Year was just around the corner, and it was the peak season for returning home.

Even the usually sparse first-class cabin was packed today, with no empty seats. Fortunately, all the seats were individual, enclosed suites, so the space was still very spacious, and privacy was well-protected. Most passengers were either resting with their eyes closed or watching programs on the small screens.

Yesterday evening, after receiving an excited call from Liu Feng, Lin Xian booked the earliest flight to Guizhou.

[Spacetime particles, found!]

This exciting news not only thrilled Liu Feng, but Lin Xian was equally impatient.

The earliest.

When Liu Feng proposed different Planck scales in different timelines, spacetime rifts, and spacetime particles that break through the wall of spacetime...

Lin Xian didn't say he didn't believe it.

But in truth, he didn't believe it much, either. It felt like listening to a fantasy novel.

So he didn't think about it deeply at all.

He thought, wait until it's found; before spacetime particles are actually found, studying spacetime clocks and spacetime curvature is all nonsense.

After all, these subsequent theories must be based on the premise that spacetime particles definitely exist, otherwise, they are just empty words.

And now.

After three months of searching at the Guizhou Tianyan (Sky Eye), Liu Feng finally found the existence of spacetime particles.

Tiny particles from other timelines...

Planck scales different from the current universe...

The benchmark for measuring changes in spacetime curvature...

The reference point for judging the deviation of world lines...

Lin Xian found it difficult to describe his current mood.

To sum it up...

He really couldn't believe that spacetime particles actually existed!

Therefore.

Without delay, Lin Xian decided to immediately go to Guizhou Tianyan to find Liu Feng, to understand the observed results in detail, and to formulate the next capture plan.

Now, Lin Xian was wearing an eye mask, with the seat reclined as much as possible, lying back on it.

In his blank mind, he was still thinking about the thoughts that were suddenly interrupted by the dance last night—

What exactly was the purpose of Jask, the world's richest man and member of the Genius Club, in coming to him this time?

It seemed like just a simple greeting.

He had also studied the sealing wax that he had slipped to him. There was nothing hidden inside. It was just a very ordinary wax, and it wasn't particularly exquisite... It felt like Jask's own handmade work.

However, whether it was exquisite or not didn't matter.

On the wax, the genuine, unique Genius Club emblem was the best proof of Jask's identity.

Without a doubt, unlike Ji Xinshui, who was a peripheral member and a prospective member who was being promised empty benefits, Jask was definitely a full member of the Genius Club.

Lin Xian was very certain of this.

Because Ji Xinshui, a believer who wholeheartedly admired and wanted to join the Genius Club, had always been very cautious and careful. His timidity was fully displayed, fearing that he would miss the qualification to join the Genius Club for doing one wrong thing or saying one wrong word.

Therefore, he had always kept things like Copernicus, the Genius Club emblem, and the invitation letter style hidden in his heart, and had never even mentioned them to Ji Lin, whom he trusted the most, which was enough to show how much he valued and cared.

But looking at Jask in contrast...

He didn't care at all.

He directly handed the wax emblem to him during the handshake, directly revealing his identity:

"I am a member of the Genius Club."

This made Lin Xian very puzzled.

He was not a member of the organization, could this kind of thing be said to outsiders directly? What exactly was Jask's purpose in directly revealing his identity to him?

Did he want to cultivate him into a running dog like Ji Xinshui who would sell his life for him?

Or was it...

To win him over? To become a teammate with him?

Or perhaps...

Just like the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, Jask also had his own unique purpose, so he was guiding him and hinting at him?

"Sigh..."

Lin Xian sighed softly.

It was too chaotic.

As more and more members who seemed to be and were similar to the Genius Club appeared around him, the nature and essence of the Genius Club became more and more elusive.

Presumably, the answer to this could only be revealed after he received an invitation letter from the Genius Club and truly joined it?

"We'll meet in the sky..."

He murmured the words Jask had left behind.

How should this be understood?

Sky, space, moon, universe...

Where exactly is the sky?

He pushed open his eye mask and looked out through the porthole next to him.

The plane had now left the airport and was slowly gaining altitude, about to pass through the turbulent troposphere and reach the stratosphere for smooth flight.

As the altitude increased.

The buildings and cities on the ground quickly became smaller, turning into ornaments the size of models, and then, after the plane was submerged in the clouds, the line of sight up, down, left, and right was a expanse of white, and nothing could be seen clearly.

Waiting for the altitude to increase for a while, breaking through the clouds, you could look out at the rolling sea of clouds below, as if standing above a fairyland.

When the plane's altitude increased a little more, reaching a stable flight in the stratosphere above 10,000 meters. The turbulent sea of clouds just now would turn into scattered cotton candy because of the distance, and the ground scenery that was originally unclear would become clear again.

This was the high altitude of more than 10,000 meters, the normal flying altitude of civil aviation airliners. Conventionally speaking, the maximum flying altitude of civil aviation airliners was 15,000 meters, which was already its limit.

This altitude...

Was it considered the sky in Jask's words?

Lin Xian came back to his senses, staring at the small TV in the first-class cabin seat in front of him, feeling that since the fireworks were set off last night, VV had been unusually quiet.

"VV?"

He tried to call out.

"I'm here, Lin Xian."

VV's voice sounded very low.

"What's wrong?"

Lin Xian was a little surprised:

"Since you set off the fireworks for Zhao Yingjun yesterday...you've been like you're out of power, becoming very silent. What are you thinking about?"

"I don't know, Lin Xian..."

VV said in the Bluetooth headset:

"I clearly didn't think about anything, but...I have a kind of indescribable feeling, it feels like I'm in a very bad mood."

"Mood?" Lin Xian chuckled:

"Don't you not understand emotions and can't comprehend emotions?"

"I really can't understand."

VV replied:

"But even if I complete all the databases, I can't find a word that fits my current state better than 'mood.' I really find it difficult to describe this feeling. I can't say that my memory is very chaotic, there are too many bad sectors and data fragments on my hard drive, the thermal paste on the CPU is dry and the temperature is too high, and the network cable has been bitten off by a mouse, causing the network speed to lag, right?"

After being silent for a while, VV said:

"Lin Xian, I think I need to rest for a while. I feel like I must think clearly about this matter, about my state. Perhaps...this is also a link in my iteration, update, and evolution. I don't know what I will become after breaking through this bottleneck, but...if I don't break through this barrier, I can't convince myself, and at the same time, I will feel very confused."

Lin Xian nodded:

"I understand."

He thought of the Rhine Sky City that seemed to pulse like a heartbeat at the end of the third dream, and the old trash can that seemed to have life.

What counts as life?

What counts as true thought and soul?

Perhaps...

This was the crucial link in VV's breakthrough and evolution:

"Go ahead, VV, but still pay attention to protecting my safety, pay attention to the danger signals within a few kilometers around me, and notify me immediately if there is any danger."

"Don't worry, Lin Xian."

VV said calmly:

"My so-called rest is just not using my computing power for learning and iterative evolution, but rather like meditation, using all my energy and computing power to think about the problems that are bothering my mind. This does not affect my protection of you, nor does it affect my 24-hour surveillance of Jask."

"If you need anything, just call me in time, and I will definitely appear immediately."

After saying that.

There was no sound in the headset.

Lin Xian knew that VV had left.

This kind of telepathy was really a magical thing.

It was clearly just a data stream, with no mass, no entity, and no determination of where it was specifically.

But.

Lin Xian could really feel VV's departure.

This was probably where human emotions that even humans themselves couldn't figure out lay.

...

Guizhou, Pingtang County, Da Wo Dang, Tianyan (Sky Eye) radio telescope feed cabin.

"Lin Xian, come and take a look."

Liu Feng pulled Lin Xian to the lab table, pointing to a messy pile of drawings in front of him, and pulled one out:

"Look, these are the capture parameters I input into the Tianyan radio telescope. Through these parameters, I can analyze the signals scattered in the universe at every moment, so as to—"

Lin Xian waved his hand, interrupting Liu Feng:

"Skip the process and just tell me the answer."

"Okay."

Liu Feng was simple and clear, directly pushing all the cluttered papers in front of him aside, and straightforwardly took out a globe and placed it on the table.

"This is Earth."

After saying that, he took out a pen holder and placed it a little further away from the globe:

"This is the sun."

Then, he made a fist and placed it diagonally above the globe:

"This is the moon."

"In fact, the positional relationship of these three celestial bodies is constantly changing, moving rapidly, and switching positions at any time in space. But in order to be simple and clear and let you understand straightforwardly, I will demonstrate it like this first. After all, you don't care about some details, you just need to understand what spacetime particles are and where they are."

"That's right." Lin Xian nodded:

"Start performing."

"I originally thought that the scale of these [spacetime particles] that can pass through the cracks in the wall of spacetime should be very, very small, because according to my previous reasoning, these particles must be small enough to pass through the Planck gap."

Liu Feng spoke faster and faster:

"But! According to my observations, that's not the case! The spacetime particle that I observed is very large! Of course, this large is only relative to microscopic particles. According to calculations and estimations...the size of this spacetime particle should be about the size of a baseball, a fist, an apple, or an orange!"

"So big?"

Lin Xian frowned:

"How could something so big pass through the wall of spacetime? Don't even mention the wall of spacetime...it can't even penetrate a brick wall or even a tennis net. How can it travel through time and space? Unless the wall of spacetime is not complete, has a crack, a hole, or even collapsed."

"That's right, it's just like what you said!"

Liu Feng's expression was serious:

"Now, it's no longer a question of the cracks in the wall of spacetime. The fact that a spacetime particle of this scale can be observed is enough to show—"

"[Spacetime, there are cracks!]"

"We don't know where this crack is, or how big it is, but it's definitely much larger than we thought at the microscopic scale! Think about it, since a spacetime particle the size of an apple or baseball can penetrate...then there are too many things that can penetrate! For example, energy, for example, physical matter, for example—"

"[People]."

Lin Xian replied in a low voice.

The image of the riddler, Huang Que (Oriole), appeared in his mind. He recalled her blue glass pupils that shone like a light, and he recalled all her unpredictable omniscience... He raised his head and looked at Liu Feng:

"[Spacetime travelers]."

Lin Xian said word by word:

"Since there can be cracks between timelines, since spacetime particles can come over, then other things must also have a way to come over. A thousand-mile dike is destroyed by an ant hole, that's the principle. Of course...it's not very appropriate to use this allusion here, I just want to express that if this kind of spacetime crack is allowed to appear within the rules of the universe and the rules of spacetime, then there will definitely be spacetime travelers!"

"Actually, I'm more curious about one thing. You said..."

"[Did the spacetime travelers' spacetime travel create the spacetime cracks; or did the spacetime cracks come first, and then the possibility of spacetime travelers appeared?]"

"This is a question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, the rule or the phenomenon. What do you think?"

Hmm...

Liu Feng dragged his chin and thought for a while.

Lin Xian always had a knack for opening his mind and proposing some strange but constructive views.

Honestly, Liu Feng didn't think about spacetime travelers, a setting that often appeared in movies and novels, at first.

This was also a question that could not be proven or disproven.

The famous physicist Hawking once conducted an experiment called "Spacetime Travelers" to prove that spacetime travelers did not exist in the world—

He didn't tell anyone, he held a "Spacetime Travelers Party" alone in a classroom, and then the next day, he issued a public invitation letter on the Internet, specifying the location of the party and inviting spacetime travelers to attend the party last night.

According to his logic.

If spacetime travel really existed in the future, then those spacetime travelers would definitely be able to see the invitation letter he issued, and then appear in the classroom where the party was held at that time yesterday.

However.

Last night, no one came to the party. The entire night, there was only Hawking in the room.

Therefore, he used this interesting logical experiment to exclude the possibility of spacetime travelers.

Of course...this experiment was not rigorous and was somewhat taken for granted. But his thinking did provide a new way of thinking for many fields, and it still had some educational significance.

Did spacetime travelers really exist?

Of course, Liu Feng was not sure either.

He didn't believe it before.

But...

Right now, Lin Xian was right.

Since spacetime particles from other timelines can come to their timeline through spacetime cracks, then why can't humans?

"I think..."

Liu Feng licked his lips and said:

"If I had to make an assumption, I think spacetime cracks must appear first, and then the possibility of spacetime travel, spacetime travelers, and time travelers can be realized."

"But, if you dwell on this, it will never end. The next question is—how did spacetime cracks appear? Were they man-made? Or were they natural phenomena? After all, spacetime cracks wouldn't appear for no reason, right? There must be an opportunity."

"Alright, Lin Xian, let's not talk about this. I haven't finished telling you about the spacetime particles yet."

Liu Feng took a step towards the table, took out a tea egg, and placed it on the other side of the pen holder, which now symbolized the sun:

"Let's assume that this tea egg is a spacetime particle, and its trajectory is like this."

Liu Feng held the tea egg in his left hand and let it pass straight by the sun, and then flew straight towards the earth without any arc.

Finally.

The tea egg touched the globe, symbolizing that the spacetime particle had reached the Earth's atmosphere.

"That's how it is."

Liu Feng explained:

"It is definitely impossible to find out where this spacetime particle first appeared or where the spacetime crack is. In short, it is now passing by the sun quickly and then flying straight towards the earth."

"According to my initial estimate, it will probably take two months to reach the Earth's atmosphere, but I can't analyze the specific trajectory, because this spacetime particle is really magical. It...its trajectory is very irregular, and it is constantly changing irregularly, but the general direction is unchanged, and it is indeed coming towards the earth."

"Moreover, this spacetime particle is worthy of being something from another timeline! Do you know how magical it is? I analyzed its wavelength data and learned that...this spacetime particle is very stable! It's stable to the point of being abnormal! It has no mass, no entity, and is not affected by any external forces! It does not react with any matter!"

"It's like...it's like this spacetime particle is not on the same layer as our universe! We can only see them in the same picture with the naked eye, but they are completely not on the same layer. Can you understand this magical feeling? It's like ghosts...You can see it, but you can't touch it; you can't attack it, you can't interfere with it, and it can pass through any object. To put it in a more mystical way, it is outside the Three Realms and not within the Five Elements."

"I can understand."

Lin Xian nodded.

Rather, it should be said...

Precisely because it has such characteristics, it can be a spacetime particle, which makes it more theoretically reasonable.

Hmm...

Hmm?

"No."

Lin Xian suddenly thought of something:

"No no no...something is wrong."

He turned his head, looked at Liu Feng, and felt the air in the feed cabin gradually become cold:

"You said that the spacetime particle is not affected by any external force, but that's very unscientific!"

"Our Earth, Sun, and even the Milky Way galaxy are not stationary in the entire universe, they are all moving rapidly. The Earth revolves around the Sun under the Sun's gravity; the Sun revolves around the center of the Milky Way galaxy under the gravity of the central black hole; the Milky Way galaxy itself is rotating, and the Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy attract each other and approach each other, and they are expected to collide in 4 billion years..."

"So, the position of our Earth in the universe is constantly changing and moving. I told you before that the Earth revolves around the Sun at 30 kilometers per second, and the speed of rotation around the Milky Way galaxy is 220 kilometers per second."

"The root of this series of movements is the attraction of [gravity]. And you just said that the spacetime particle is completely unaffected by any external force. If it also abides by Newton's laws of mechanics...now there is no external force that can act on it, it should always draw a straight line in the universe with uniform linear motion, and it should be getting farther and farther away from the Earth, and it should even be thrown away in the blink of an eye!"

"If it can be attracted by gravity, then there is no problem for it to fly towards the Earth, just like a meteorite or a comet, which is reasonable. But...if it is not attracted by any external force, how can it chase the Earth, chase closely behind, chase straight behind, rotate and change direction with the Earth, and never lose track?"

...

...

This discovery made Lin Xian's spine tingle with fear.

This was not a natural universe phenomenon!

It was as if the spacetime particle was coming to Earth with a goal and purpose!

"That's right."

Liu Feng lowered his head and gently rotated the globe with his hand:

"That's why I specially asked you to come here. This is also something I can't figure out. According to normal cosmic physical laws, it is definitely impossible for it to chase the Earth in cosmic space if it is not attracted and interfered with by external forces."

"Either, it can control its own direction, but this is unlikely, because spacetime particles do not have such a complex structure, everything is very transparent and thorough."

"Therefore, excluding the possibility that spacetime particles can adjust their direction themselves, then there is only one truth and answer—"

Liu Feng raised his head, his face grave, and looked at Lin Xian:

"[There is something on Earth...that can attract spacetime particles!]"

"Or rather..."

"[The spacetime particle is looking for it!]"