Mystery: The New Dark Emperor Arrives

Chapter 767 Extra 5: Chaos Sea Appears
In the AD era, before oil resources were exhausted.

Angus Gale, who worked at the Academy of Sciences, was suddenly invited to the Kremlin to attend a very high-level meeting.

He originally thought it was another meeting to discuss the revitalization of the national industrial chain, but he did not expect that he would be invited to a small conference room as soon as he entered the Kremlin.

He was somewhat surprised by the people sitting in the conference room. They were all top figures in the world's scientific community, and their names were almost household names.

Another thing that surprised Eggersgaier was that although there had been no international scientific gatherings in Moscow recently, among the participants there were Chinese, Americans, and people from the European Union.

It is not uncommon for Chinese scientists to appear in the Kremlin, but it is a bit strange for scientists from the United States and the European Union to appear here.

After all, the war is still going on, and so are the sanctions from Europe and the United States.

Eggsgaer briefly greeted everyone and sat down in an empty seat. At this time, a tall, sharp-faced colonel came in with a folder and walked to the podium: "Everyone, we asked you to come here today because we have a major geological discovery and we need your knowledge for further research."

The colonel spoke English, so no translation was needed.

He continued: "Especially foreigners, since you are here, you should be informed of the urgency of this matter, and prove your country's concerns and concerns about this matter.

"So, you must sign a confidentiality agreement before I can describe the truth of the matter to you."

An American scientist quipped: "Did you find dinosaurs underground?"

Several scholars around him laughed in agreement, but it was only a short laugh because the colonel looked serious, as if he had really discovered a dinosaur.

The American scientist cleared his throat somewhat awkwardly and made a "please continue" gesture.

The colonel continued: "If you don't want to sign a confidentiality agreement, you can leave now."

He waited for more than ten seconds and saw that no one left before he opened the folder and distributed the confidentiality agreement to everyone.

After everyone signed the agreement, the colonel began to narrate: "Ten years ago, the nuclear radiation in Chernobyl suddenly disappeared, and at that time there was no war between us and Ukraine.

"At the invitation of Ukraine, we sent a scientific research team to conduct an investigation."

At that time, Ukraine had lost a large number of high-end talents. They investigated for a long time but could not find out the reason why the radiation suddenly disappeared.

That is why we had to invite scientists from other countries to conduct investigations. Inviting scientists from Moscow was also a helpless move because Europe and the United States did not take this matter seriously and were very perfunctory about it.

In the subsequent investigation, Moscow gradually took the initiative, and until before the war, the investigation was led by Russia.

After the war started, the Russian side took away a large amount of investigation data, so when we restarted the investigation recently, we had to ask the Russian side to participate.

"We found a deep pit in Chernobyl." The colonel continued, "The pit seemed to appear suddenly, and the cause of its formation has not been clearly investigated yet.

“From the bottom of the pit, a strange sound occasionally came. After monitoring for a period of time, we found that the sound was regular.

“At first we thought there might be some unknown geological activity underground, but we soon discovered that the voice seemed to have some intelligence.

“So we gradually built a research institute there and conducted a long period of research, but we tried many methods and were unable to get to the bottom of the pit.

"To this day, it is not clear what geological activity is going on down there.

“Several scientists have claimed that they were affected by something underground and that certain changes occurred in their bodies, but we have not detected any harmful substances such as radiation.

“What’s strange is that there are indeed some changes in their psychological activities.

"It's just that due to the coming of war, this round of investigation had to be ended."

At this point, the colonel turned on the computer and projector and continued: "Last year, a reorganized brigade of the Ukrainian Army suddenly lost contact when passing through Pripyat.

“The subsequent search team found them at the research institute that was built earlier, and they are continuously sending soldiers to the deep pit.

"There was a video like this left behind at that time."

The colonel began to play a video. Judging from the shoulder straps, the person in the video was a regimental commander. He had blank eyes and an unnatural expression.

Through his narration, everyone understood that he was an officer of the missing unit. He said that everyone in the brigade heard a voice coming from underground.

That voice suddenly made them realize that the current direction of technological development was wrong. There was a substance, or a force that had long been ignored by the scientific community, and that force was the key to the formation of this world and this universe.

As long as you reach the bottom of the pit, you can find this power and understand all the operating laws of the universe.

So the soldiers scrambled to explore down using crude ropes, but so far no soldier has returned.

The video ended, and the colonel continued: "Except for the exploration team who tied up some officers and soldiers, the rest of the brigade went underground.

"After being sent to the rear for recuperation, the officers and soldiers who were tied up did the same thing within the next month: they returned to the institute and continued to explore the deep pit.

"So the study of deep holes was restarted..."

In fact, this research was restarted by Europe and the United States, but in order to obtain Russia's previous research data, they brought in the Eastern superpower to conduct research together.

With the mediation of the Eastern power, the war continued, but the secret research on the deep pit began again.

The colonel finally said: "At present, we can be sure that there is an unknown mysterious force hidden underground in the deep pit.

"At present, the frequency of this force's external influence is increasing, and the scope is becoming wider and wider. Experts predict that in the future, this force is likely to have an impact on the entire human race, so now we urgently need to summarize the laws of this force in order to avoid the destructiveness of this force in the future!
“This will be your future mission.”

The scientists raised their hands and wanted to ask some detailed questions, but the colonel always answered that he didn't know either, and asked them to rest for a while. A special plane would be arranged to take them to Chernobyl in an hour.

Angus Gale remained silent throughout, but he was interested in what happened in Chernobyl.

Just when he was going to the toilet, he met Academician Zhang Hongwen from Beijing. He was very familiar with this academician, who was about 50 years old and wore glasses. The two of them smiled and chatted for a few words, then went to wash their hands together.

Just as he turned on the faucet, Academician Zhang Hongwen suddenly whispered in Mandarin: "This is your last chance to give up.

"I know more than you. We came here after writing our wills."

After saying that, Zhang Hongwen turned off the faucet and left quickly.

Angus Gale could understand Chinese, but he didn't speak it fluently. He was stunned for a few seconds, but ultimately chose not to give up.

Firstly, it was because of his curiosity, and secondly, it was out of helplessness as he was one of the few "young and strong" people in the Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Sciences has long lost its former prosperity. Except for the Institute of Mathematics, which is in a better situation, most of the people in other institutes are elderly people in their seventies.

We can't send these old men and old ladies, right?
More than half an hour later, Angus Gale boarded the plane to Chernobyl. When Zhang Hongwen saw him, he said nothing, as if he had never reminded him in the toilet.

They first landed at a military airport and then took a helicopter to Chernobyl.

After arriving here, everyone was stunned, because this place looked very desolate and didn't look like a research institute at all.

But under the leadership of the previous colonel, they came to a deserted command room and opened a secret door here. There was a long downward staircase, which seemed to lead to the underground.

Angus Gale took a look at the huge building made of layers of concrete. It was the No. 4 reactor where the accident occurred that year. At this time, they were not far from the reactor.

Later, Angus Gale learned that the place where they worked was actually almost right next to the No. 4 reactor. There were several similar small secret doors connecting to the outside world, as well as a larger secret door for receiving supplies.

After walking in the underground part for a few minutes, they came to a wide road. Several cars took them to the institute, and they realized that this was by no means an ordinary institute.

It was obviously built as a secret research institute in the beginning, and could accommodate at least several hundred researchers' work and living needs, with an additional company of soldiers to maintain order.

There were already some scientists here, but they were not as good as Angus Gale and his group in terms of standards and reputation.

After entering the institute, the first requirement was beyond Angus Gale's expectations: he had to wear clergy clothing and carry a cross or corresponding instrument.

At this time, Angus Gale was very sure that Zhang Hongwen really knew more, because he and several Chinese scientists all brought Taoist robes, peach wood swords and Sanqing Bells.

On the first day, they took a break, and on the next day someone explained to them the research projects and progress here.

But someone raised his hand and asked, "Excuse me, why do we have to wear clergy clothes? Are we going to study the devil here?"

"To be honest, our research object is really a bit like the devil." The guide suddenly smiled and said, "There is a mysterious force here, and now we can clearly feel it expanding every ten days.

"Every time there is an expansion, some people go crazy. But a few months ago, we found that the priests here were hardly affected. We have done experiments and found that as long as you wear clergy clothing and carry the corresponding instruments, you will hardly be affected."

Everyone was stunned and suddenly felt like they had entered the wrong door. Is this really a research institute?
Then the person who asked the question just now responded: "You said there is a pastor here?"

Apart from the theological institute, what other institute would have pastors?

"Because the discoveries here are so astonishing that many problems cannot be explained by science." The narrator said, "Let's get to the point.

"But before that, I want to take you to a place first."

So under their guidance, a group of scientists walked through the corridor to a large glass stand.

It was pitch black outside the glass stand, and only the stone walls on both sides could be vaguely seen, as if it was connected to the pitch-black space outside.

The tour guide used the button on the wall to turn on the lights outside. Under the illumination of the giant searchlight, the huge deep pit appeared before people.

This gives people the illusion that the deep pit leads to another world!
It was pitch black at the bottom of the pit, causing the scientists to take a step back, as they always felt that some dangerous monsters would crawl out.

In other places on the glass stand, there are many downward-pointing devices, some of which are steel cables leading downward, and some are platforms for launching drones or exploring robots.

The narrator said to everyone's surprise: "So far, we don't have any instruments that can detect the existence of that mysterious power. We can only rely on our human body to feel it.

“But when that mysterious force expands, our body’s functions or metabolism will speed up, and we can detect this through instruments.

"In addition, we have tried all the methods we could think of, but no matter what method we used, we still could not detect the bottom of this deep pit."

A scientist asked, "Have you used the latest seismic survey equipment?"

"It has been used, but the bottom has not been detected."

This prompted one scientist to ask: "Where is the latest electromagnetic exploration equipment?"

"I have used it before, but I couldn't detect the bottom."

The scientists were all silent, which meant that the pit was at least 10,000 meters deep!

The narrator continued: "So far, the only person who has seen the bottom of the pit clearly is a devout Catholic believer, and he is also one of the earliest researchers.

"At that time, the top of the deep pit had not yet been covered by a steel frame. According to the description of those present, at noon, the devout believer held the cross in his hand and said: Omniscient, omnipotent, and benevolent God, please shine the sun into the deep pit so that I can see clearly what is at the bottom of the pit!

"It is said that the sunlight suddenly became very dazzling, and a devout believer could really see the ground clearly. He described it as a beautiful and illusory ocean!"

Everyone remained silent because they didn't know how to comment on this event that seemed like a story from the Bible.

After a while, someone asked, "How is that devout believer now?"

The narrator said: "After he described what he saw, he turned into a monster."

"Turn into a monster?"

"Okay, we can go back now." The commentator did not answer everyone's questions immediately. He went back to the meeting room and played a blurry photo on the projector.

Although the person in the photo still had human structure, he really looked like a monster in a movie: his body was blood red, as if his skin had been burst, with flesh and blood exposed, and on his belly was a big mouth with sharp teeth. This big mouth was slightly open, and the internal organs could be seen inside. Everyone realized that this was the devout believer.

The narrator continued: “We later replicated the situation several times, but there was no sunlight that could see the bottom of the pit again.

“But we soon discovered that when the sun was at its hottest or when there was a thunderstorm, some researchers would easily become mentally ill.

“Some black monsters would suddenly appear from time to time. Anyone scratched by them would have rust-like spots on their body surface, and die in great pain as all their organs failed.

"We have not found any drug that can treat or slow this process.

“These monsters are not afraid of bullets, bombs, and even electromagnetic and ultrasonic weapons have little effect on them.

“We can only wait until the sunlight no longer directly hits the pit, or the lightning is no longer in the sky above the pit, and then the monsters will disappear on their own.

"It wasn't until we completely covered the top of the pit with a steel frame that this problem stopped happening again."

After a long silence, someone finally asked, "So, what exactly are we here to study? I mean, I study quantum mechanics, how can I help?"

The narrator said: "What is certain now is that there is an unknown force underground here, and we urgently need a theory to reasonably explain this force.

“However, we don’t know where to start, so we can only invite experts from various fields to see if they can use their own theories to explain the current situation.

"Perhaps during the discussion, we can come up with a clear explanation for this phenomenon."

Then he waved to the two soldiers at the door, and several soldiers outside the door each brought a thick stack of documents: "These are all our research processes and results so far, everyone can take a look first.

"If you have any research needs, please design your own experiments and we will try our best to cooperate with your actions."

Although everyone had some complaints, they still read the materials carefully.

The first day was spent reading, and from the second day onwards, everyone gradually started to have some discussions.

Geologists believe that this may be an unknown phenomenon of the Earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field here has unknown and drastic changes, which has affected the emotions of the researchers.

But this theory doesn't make sense in many places, such as why there is a deep pit? Why do monsters appear? And so on.

More importantly, changes in the magnetic field are relatively easy to detect, and after several rounds of experiments, it was proven that there were no obvious drastic changes in the magnetic field nearby.

Some biologists also speculate that there may be some unknown microorganisms underground, and people infected by these microorganisms will experience drastic changes in their bodies.

However, after multiple and multi-directional sampling on the stone walls of the deep pit, no unknown microorganisms were found.

Just as everyone continued to speculate, suddenly, they all looked in the direction of the deep pit, and as if they had received some kind of order, they all came to the glass stand.

At this time, the place was already full of people. Everyone looked towards the deep pit, and they all had a premonition that something was about to emerge from there.

Then, everyone seemed to be terrified and took a step back.

They could clearly feel that there was a mysterious force underground surging towards the surface. Veins on everyone's forehead bulged, as if all the blood in their bodies was rushing to their head.

Drop~drop~drop!
The instrument that detected everyone's metabolism suddenly sounded, but everyone entered a dreamlike state. None of them looked at the bottom of the pit, but a picture seemed to appear in front of everyone's eyes: an illusory stream of water was surging upward from the bottom of the deep pit.

After a few minutes, everyone woke up from their dream and heard the "beeping" sound of the instrument.

Ten or so seconds later, the director announced, "This is the most violent surge of the mysterious power so far.

"Everyone, if it is a sealed demon, then it is not far from being unsealed now."

Angus Gale and others returned to the conference room in a daze. It was not until this moment that they had a real feeling of the mysterious power.

All the speculations they were discussing just now became pale in comparison.

More than an hour later, an astonishing news came from the outside world. Just as the power surged just now, all the oil reserves in the world disappeared.

……

In the evening, after get off work.

Angus Gale knocked on Zhang Hongwen's door with two bottles of vodka.

After opening the door, Angus Gale said in unskilled Mandarin: "Lao Zhang, I want to have a drink with you."

Zhang Hongwen smiled slightly, made a "come in" gesture, and took out some spiced peanuts and dried meat from the suitcase.

The two chatted while drinking, first starting with their previous collaboration, then talking about their recent situations, and by the time they talked about their current research, they had already finished a bottle of wine.

Angus Gale chewed peanuts and looked at Zhang Hongwen: "You must have some ideas, right? I remember you were like this before. The more silent you were, the more you had your own opinions."

Zhang Hongwen stroked his glasses and smiled helplessly: "I'm sorry to disappoint you this time. I really don't have any decent ideas."

"But you do have some ideas, right? Lao Zhang, tell us about it. You've felt the atmosphere today, and we don't have much time. Your ideas may be the key."

Zhang Hongwen looked at Angus Gale for a second or two before saying, “My thoughts may make you more confused.”

"Then I want to listen to it."

"Okay, okay." Zhang Hongwen took a sip of wine and paused for a second or two before saying, "Do you believe in science?"

"Believe."

"Do you believe in science?"

Angus Gale was stunned for a moment before he said, “Are you saying that everything that happened today is really related to theology?”

Zhang Hongwen did not answer this question, but said: "There is a huge gap between our cultural cores. We believe that the appearance of many things cannot be explained by a single way of thinking.

"Because both the universe and human society are complex, if we only use individual thoughts to explain them, it is easy to explain them incompletely."

Angus Gale seemed to have thought of something, but he couldn't connect the fragments of his thoughts: "Lao Zhang, can you explain it in more detail?"

"That is to say, we Orientals believe that many things are not black and white. Maybe they are both black and white, right and wrong. Well, this sounds similar to Schrödinger's cat, but it is a little different." Zhang Hongwen looked at Angus Gale who looked confused and smiled, "Let me tell you, you will be more confused after hearing my thoughts.

"Okay, let me just state my conclusion.

“I think that the problems we are facing now cannot be solved by science or theology.

“Sometimes I have this thought: science, which is regarded as the truth by modern people, must have a limit, right? There must be something it cannot explain, right? So we can believe in science, but we cannot be superstitious.

"Theology is 'theology of mankind'. Those studies are all imagined by humans. Rather than using theology to solve problems, it is better to say that we are using human imagination to solve problems."

Angus Gale felt that these ideas were completely outside the realm of his own thinking: "Then what kind of thinking should be used to solve the problem?"

"I don't know." Zhang Hongwen spread his hands: "Maybe this is a subject that humans have never touched upon."

Angus Gale seemed to suddenly realize something: "Double-slit experiment! Wave-particle duality!"

The former is an experiment to observe light. The same preconditions will lead to completely different observation results under two different conditions: with or without an observer.

The latter means that microscopic particles sometimes have "wave properties" and sometimes have "particle properties".

Zhang Hongwen said seriously: "I don't know if there is any connection between them. I just said that we should jump out of our original way of thinking now, maybe there will be a breakthrough."

Angus Gale was silent. Just as Zhang Hongwen had said before, after knowing his thoughts, he became even more confused.

At the same time, it was like opening a new door and giving me many new ideas.

For a while after this conversation, both of them remained silent. They both knew very well that they should think like ascetics at this time and it would be best not to announce their ideas to others until they were sure, otherwise it would only complicate the problem.

About a week later, various countries sent representatives to Moscow to hear whether scientists had any new ideas about their research on Chernobyl.

So Angus Gale and others returned to Moscow to attend the large seminar held there.

It was also at this time that Angus Gale received a call from his old classmate Augustine Fabuti. The conversation with this old classmate suddenly gave Angus Gale some inspiration.

That night, he excitedly brought two bottles of vodka and knocked on Zhang Hongwen's door.

Zhang Hongwen has dried tofu and vacuum-packed pork trotters in sauce, which are packages his family just sent from China.

The two of them continued to eat and chat, but this time they quickly got to the point.

Angus Gale smiled and said, “Lao Zhang, I have a very good idea today.

"First, let me tell you about a discussion I had with a classmate about humans when I was in college.

“At that time, we were very curious about why the human body has very limited capabilities, but has a brain with a very vast thinking space?
“I originally studied biology, and I know very well that although the human body is very sophisticated, it has its limits, but the upper limit of human imagination is very high.

"Of course, I mean when I have enough knowledge.

“Like Einstein, many of our current research is just to prove that Einstein’s theory was correct.

"This is a concrete expression of our idea. Take the scientific community for example. When a person has a good idea, they cannot verify it immediately.

“It was even decades later that we were able to prove some of the theories of top scientists.

“It’s a human action that can’t keep up with the performance of ideas.”

Zhang Hongwen nodded repeatedly to show that he understood.

"So does this phenomenon exist?" Angus Gale asked, "Actually, our bodies are also very strong? Or, can they match our minds?

“For example, if we want to go to the moon and take a look, we can jump to the moon.

"But for some reason, our body's abilities have been weakened, but some of the traits we had before the weakening are still hidden in our genes."

Angus Gale stared at Zhang Hongwen. His thoughts had been expressed very clearly, so he did not continue.

Zhang Hongwen paused for a full minute while holding his glass before saying, "This is a very constructive idea."

He took a sip of wine before saying, “That is to say, the illusory ocean at the bottom of the pit may be the key to our body’s weakening!

"Now that illusory ocean is rising toward the ground, it will make our bodies strong again."

Angus Gale nodded seriously.

Zhang Hongwen looked at his Russian friend for a second or two before he finished the wine in his glass and said, "We can announce our ideas now, and the sooner the better."

As their idea was announced, research immediately began to move toward this hypothesis.

But at this time people discovered a paradox: if the illusory ocean could make human bodies stronger, why did so many people go down to the bottom of the pit, but no one came back.

At this time, Zhang Hongwen gave an explanation: Human beings have been weak for too long, and the current body cannot withstand such force at all. It is like a person who has been hungry for several days. If he is given a lot of fish and meat, he will die of diarrhea.

The only thing that cannot be explained now may be why those illusory water flows swallow up the oil?

(End of this chapter)