Beneath Deep Space

After the last failed experiment...

All scientific researchers collapsed in their positions and burst into tears. Thick depression formed an abyss-like substance, overwhelming their spiritual will.

The great sage Baxter wrote in his diary with trembling hands: "We have spent countless funds, countless efforts, and more than thirty years, but we have only proved... that magnetic confinement is not feasible! At least it’s completely unfeasible with our technology!”

"Our technology is not enough!"

"But... many technologies have stagnated for a long time, and it is difficult to make another leap... We need greater theoretical breakthroughs and more geniuses to join!"

"Nuclear fusion is not just a simple project, it is a comprehensive collection of many disciplines. As long as one of them is short, it will be difficult to realize. Maybe... our thinking is completely wrong!"

"...We wanted to make a plane, but it turned out to be a racing car. No matter how fast the racing car goes, it can't fly!"

"What's even more frightening is that the problem of nuclear fusion subconsciously makes you do racing and induces you to do racing..."

"Magnetic restraint must be the first method that every civilization thinks of...it's just bullshit!"

The more Baxter wrote, the more excited he became. Faced with the deception of nature, this 120-year-old sage shivered with anger and burst into tears.

Tears rolled down like soybeans, dripping drop by drop on the paper. It felt like it had lost all hope.

In 30 years, they spent all their money, but fell into this huge natural trap and could never climb out.

Every time the TV stations interview, they have to say there is progress, but... where is the progress?

As time goes by, no one believes in them anymore. The title of "Great Sage" has long been discredited, and even the government has become somewhat skeptical.

Some inspectors from the Integrity Department were waiting outside. Many people actually believe that the Great Sage has embezzled this huge amount of money, and it must accept this investigation!

Baxter simply didn't know how to answer, corruption? Just as it wanted to make money, it would not have sold the shares of the biological company in the first place...

However, they did not achieve any real results. They only spent a lot of effort and proved that the idea of ​​​​"magnetic confinement" is too difficult and almost unworkable!

It only proves that one solution will not work!

How to explain this to the people?

If we want to truly realize fusion, there are currently two options.

First, we need to spend a lot of effort to study basic science again. We must make greater breakthroughs elsewhere, and then come back to study nuclear fusion again.

But...how much does this cost?

The Large Hadron Collider made no more discoveries and was dismantled hundreds of years ago. Even if we build another one, we must build a bigger and stronger one to make new discoveries, and it is no longer possible for Congress to approve it.

Various other disciplines have also encountered a large number of bottlenecks, their progress is extremely slow, and they need a lot of financial support!

Every step requires money...it's impossible to approve it!

And each step requires a lot of time and genius!

We are only seventy years away from an existential energy crisis! Thinking of this, Baxter closed his eyes in pain.

Second, find a better way than "magnetic constraint" to bypass this huge technical threshold!

So... what is this solution?

Does it really exist?

At this moment, an idea vaguely appeared in Baxter's mind... A group of researchers began to study in whispers and loudly, and everyone seemed to have forgotten about the prosecutor outside.

"Dong dong dong", several prosecutors were impatient and opened the door directly and walked in.

Baxter was still calculating. Facing the astronomical numbers, he saw both hope and despair. It collapsed to the ground in pain.

Impossible, this project... the current Knicks civilization will never be able to complete such a vast and great project!

This project requires so much energy and resources that the entire planet cannot bear it!

It is hundreds or thousands of times the GDP of the entire civilization!

Impossible!

The Knicks civilization has been filtered out by the big filter...!

Long-term overwork, coupled with extreme sadness, finally caused the great sage to collapse completely...

It just went away.

I left with regret.

Coincidentally, another star passed away on the same day as the great sage.

She was a female star who had an affair, was caught raping, and then got into a car accident in a hurry...

Everyone in the Knicks focused their attention on the mysterious death of the female star, and the search index exploded. Everyone is partying for an entertainment star, and they are all criticizing him for his deserved behavior, moral corruption, etc.

Under the news of "Baxter's death", a group of trolls were also trolling, accusing it of being a prestige-seeking person who spent so much money but did nothing.

The last great sage left silently, bearing infamy.

No one noticed that the last light had slowly extinguished, and there were no more heroes to save the world...

Everything collapsed...

The outcome is already decided.

Silence, silence... After hearing the whole story, Yu Yifeng felt his heart was filled with panic.

The Great Filter killed the Nix civilization alive... The Nix civilization was once more powerful than humans.

There were heroes who tried, but they failed.

Yu Yifeng felt like a mountain, or even a planet, was pressing in his heart, and he couldn't breathe all over his body.

What happens next can already be predicted. As time goes by, energy becomes more and more scarce. Just like boiling a frog in warm water, the frog feels something is wrong.

It began to struggle, trying to jump out of the hot pot.

The exploitation of seabed resources does have certain feasibility and can significantly extend the time before the energy crisis arrives. But... the ice cap of Nix is ​​too thick, and the cost of extracting seabed resources is greatly increased, not as cheap as on the surface.

The liberalized market responded quickly, and the price of uranium ore gradually increased. Many countries with the foresight began to reserve uranium resources and stopped exporting them.

As a result, electricity became no longer cheap, and many cities that relied on nuclear power were gradually abandoned. A large number of Knicks heard certain rumors and flocked to the volcanic city, and the housing prices in the volcanic city increased significantly.

Many countries that lack uranium mines have become difficult to survive. The increase in electric energy will cause the cost of industrial production to be too high. The cost of products will naturally increase, and the selling price will also increase relatively, and prices will rise rapidly.

Soon, the currency depreciated sharply, hyperinflation began, and the fragile global economic system collapsed rapidly, and there was no solution.

"At this time, the uranium resources on the earth's surface have not been exhausted, and there are still about 20 to 30 years to go. But because many countries have begun to reserve energy and no longer trade externally, the Nix civilization has been in chaos."

Due to inflation and economic collapse, workers in some countries began to go on strike in large numbers, and order was lost, exacerbating the collapse of the industrial system.

Many people suddenly realized that the remaining energy cannot feed a large population, and the vast majority of people will starve to death. What should they do?

What else can be done?

They want to go abroad, they want to crowd into volcanic belt cities, they want... It's really a desperate eve of doomsday.

"After a few years of this, the war suddenly broke out... of course it was a nuclear war..." Professor Heigl said in a low tone, and she also deliberately omitted this part of the heavy war content.

"The nuclear war brought a large number of deformities, mutations, and deaths. Most of the cities were destroyed, and only a small population survived around the volcanic belt. They seemed to have returned to the miserable days before nuclear power..."

This is inevitable. Besides war, what better way is there?

"If that's the case, they can still survive. Geothermal energy is sustainable after all."

"The war reduced a large number of people and lost a large number of industries. At least these Nyx people can live and rely on the volcano to survive."

"But what they didn't expect was that... a large number of microorganisms also mutated in the radiation. A type of organism called blue-green bacteria was born in this world. They began to reproduce rapidly and changed the history of the entire planet."

"That's right... they can use heat and substances in the atmosphere to synthesize organic matter and produce oxygen in batches. The oxygen in the atmosphere today is produced by them on a large scale!"

Speaking of this, Professor Heigl lamented: "It's like God's joke, specifically to destroy the Nix civilization, and then... wait for the arrival of the new human civilization!"

"The birth of blue-green bacteria brought oxygen and changed the entire ecosystem. However, it killed most of the anaerobic species at that time and caused environmental damage worse than nuclear bombs! From the bottom of the ocean to the deep land, as long as there is In geothermal areas, this kind of blue-green bacteria exists on a large scale.”

"The remaining Knicks have lost a lot of industry and do not have enough ability to eliminate such widely distributed microorganisms... They can only watch the oxygen content in the atmosphere getting higher and higher day by day, and sink deeper day by day. In levels of despair..."

"They are anaerobic organisms and cannot adapt to an atmosphere with high oxygen content."

"This originally glorious civilization survived for thousands of years and then slowly perished."

"Most of the species at that time also perished in the birth of oxygen. The planet Nix ushered in a new batch of reincarnations, and aerobic organisms began to be born in large numbers."

"Nix civilization rises from wisdom and sorrow, and perishes from enjoyment and comfort. Perhaps there are deeper reasons waiting for us to explore..."

Professor Heigl finally said hoarsely.

"And now, the new human civilization has arrived on the planet Nix. And there is a lot of oxygen on the planet, and there is... enough fossil energy for us to use for hundreds of thousands of years!"

"This is so similar to the original Knicks civilization. Is this how a new reincarnation begins?"