I Found A Planet

Xiao Ming told his story for three days without stopping, and Chen Jin listened for the entire time. Xiao Ming did not dare to keep anything to himself. He conveyed everything that he knew and everything that he came across in his investigations in a coherent and detailed manner to the robot, Da Li. “According to the development principles of the human civilization, the world should become more peaceful once it has entered the era of nuclearization, where civilizations are able to mutually destroy one another using nuclear weapons. The possibility of a large-scale war breaking out would contrarily have grown smaller… At least, that would be the case between the powerful nations. In reality, for 300 years after the end of the Third World War, only a small amount of military conflicts had broken out between the powerful nations. Economic, technological, and cultural competition still existed between the great nations. One could only see the great nations pulling the strings from behind the scenes in localized conflicts between the small to mid-sized nations.”

Xiao Ming’s hologram pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Overall, this planet is a peaceful one. We’ve enjoyed more than 200 years of endless peace. This is rarely seen in the course of human history. Due to the military competition between the nations, the technological progress of the three great powers proceeded at a rapid pace. Nobody wanted to fall behind. They fought to be the first to land on the moon, the first to land on Mars, the first to achieve space migration… In a sense, this kind of competition was good-natured and positive. It was beneficial to the human race. During this time, the standard and quality of living rapidly increased… Until one day, when the situation changed. All of a sudden, the progress of technology slowed significantly. For years on end, many basic sciences were unable to achieve breakthroughs. Developments in many sectors had fallen into a state of stagnation.”

Xiao Ming sighed. “The technological progress that we had achieved in those 100 years could not even be compared to what was achieved in 10 years during the period of rapid technological progress. It couldn’t even be compared to what was achieved in five years from that period. This 100 year period was known as ‘The Great Stagnation’ in the scientific world. The breakthroughs that we achieved were so little, they were pathetic. Due to the great technological stagnation, the cost of colonizing and modifying Mars was too astronomical. Under strong protests by the public, the various countries all chose to give up efforts on colonizing Mars. They turned their attention towards expanding developments on the moon… But even so, there were never more than 100,000 migrant residents on the moon. At most, people went for a holiday on the moon for a few days.”

The hologram shook his head sadly. “During The Great Stagnation, the public gradually lost interest in science. Culture, entertainment, and simulated reality games flourished. The people no longer worshipped scientists, who contributed nothing to society. Instead, they idolized movie stars, pop singers, and famous players in simulated reality games. Entertainment and culture had permeated all corners of society. People lived their lives in a dream-like state; their peace and happiness were found in sleep. The total number of scientists all over the world dropped to less than a million; they were totally neglected in favor of mainstream culture. Until, however, Li Qi, a physicist, conducted his last experiments on particle collision just before the large hadron collider was about to be dismantled. From his experiments, he gained a shocking conclusion. The Great Technological Stagnation that they had fallen into was not because of fate, but a consequence of human actions! The scientific communities all over the world were shocked!”

Chen Jin looked surprised, but let Xiao Ming continue.

“The scientists took out all the experiment data from the past 100 years and analyzed it. They compared it with the data before The Great Stagnation and discovered that in all the particle collider facilities, files recording basic physics experiments with outcomes that had a probability of 1 in 10 million had all disappeared. We’d lost all the outcomes that only had a 1 in 10 million chance of happening. Our technological progress had been ‘locked.’ When the heads of the three great powers knew about this, they immediately formulated a program called ‘Breaking Walls.’ Together, they created a spaceship called ‘Mysteries of Physics.’ It carried a particle collision machine and flew towards Pluto’s orbit. Indeed, the experiment results onboard the ship were different. However, they kept the program from the citizens in order to prevent panic. After ‘Breaking Walls’ achieved success, the scientific communities made another request to the three great powers. The leaders of the three nations came together again and decided to invest 100 trillion into building a migration spaceship for the future of the human race. The spaceship would carry the gene bank of 100,000 elite scientists and one billion ordinary citizens to a habitable planet in the Walf Galaxy 14 lightyears away. They would build a second human civilization there.”

Xiao Ming’s holographic eyes sparkled behind his glasses. “This plan was named the ‘Blue Plan,’ and the large migration spaceship was given the name ‘Blue Spaceship.’ The captain of the ‘Blue Spaceship’ was a beautiful woman. She was elegant, refined, highly knowledgeable, and had an intelligent and agile mind. In the scientific communities, she was officially acknowledged as the prodigy of all prodigies. She was also in a highly respected position as the eldest princess of the Da Hua Empire. Countless young scientists admired and idolized her.” At this point, a look of yearning and infatuation came over his face. He was lucky to have met the princess a few times. However, within moments of meeting her, he was bowled over by her unmatched magnificence. The reason for the urgent repair of the ‘Dark Lady of the Nine Heavens’ was to travel to outer space to find the whereabouts of the princess; whereabouts that remained unknown. He did not know if this was love, but the vague image of the princess had been firmly imprinted in his soul.

Chen Jin asked curiously, “Oh, so what was her name?”

“She was called Mu Yunhua, the Honourable Highness of the Da Hua State.”

Memorizing the name, Chen Jin repeated it to himself. “Mu Yunhua.”

Xiao Ming continued his story. “After the ‘Blue Plan’ started, everything went along smoothly. With the combined efforts of the three great powers, 50% of the ‘Blue Space’ was completed in only five years. After another five years, the ‘Blue Space’ would be able to take off without any problems. However, the politics of Melica experienced a sudden change at this time. A politician named Lucio rose in popularity amongst the voters with astonishing speed. He was extremely influential in fanning the flames of public opinion. He opposed immigration, was hostile towards the Red Empire, and threatened to start a war with Da Hua Empire. He was a most extreme racist as well as a militaristic madman. He planned to unite the planet of Haierfa via military force. He wanted to cleanse the planet of ‘rubbish races.’ He was a lunatic, a maniac, a mentally ill person. Logically speaking, he should not have even passed the first round of elections. Not only did he successfully get elected as the President of Melica, what was unimaginable was that he had a popularity rating as high as 96% amongst the white people!”

Xiao Ming shook his head in disbelief. “What was more shocking was that after Lucio had taken up his position, he did not give up on his campaign slogan. He actually carried out his plans according to the campaign slogan. He led his crazy voters and turned Melica into a hell filled with hate. After understanding what the ‘Blue Plan’ was about, Lucio remained unconcerned. Not only did he stop the capital investment, recalled the scientists, and withdrew from the plan, he even announced that it was a conspiracy and a fabrication. He said that it was a scam project to empty the funds for social welfare… There were only two countries left who still supported the ‘Blue Plan.’ In addition, Lucio expanded the military like a madman in preparation for war. He broke off trade relations, formed military alliances, and stirred up military disputes. It was as if he really was preparing for another world war. His campaign slogan was not empty words; it was a promise to be kept and executed.”

Melica had experienced a terrible era under Lucio, but they never seemed to notice. “Even so, an overwhelming majority of voters supported him. His support on the ground was never less than 80%. Moreover, more than 90% of his supporters had never heard of the existence of nuclear weapons. They were skeptical of the power of nuclear weapons… They only knew and believed that they would win the war. The Red Empire and the Da Hua Empire could not resist against the military harassment by Melica. In order to implement the ‘Blue Plan,’ our military spending had been reduced to 10% of the previous year’s. The ‘Blue Plan’ was bound to fail if we increased our military spending, and the future of the human race would be hopeless. The Empire persuaded, negotiated, tolerated, backed down… They compromised in all the possible ways that they could. However, Lucio was unsatisfied. He wanted a total surrender, and for all other races to be annihilated. Only when we were all dead would he give up and be content.”

Xiao Ming sighed and shook his head. “Finally, the ‘Blue Spaceship’ was 92% complete. Just before the millions of robotic armies that Lucio had amassed was about to be deployed for an all-out attack, we made a pre-emptive strike by launching our nuclear missiles towards their territory… The destructive war had erupted. Lucio and his voters died in their stupidity and ignorance. However, we were not victorious either. Although we suffered few losses, Haierfa’s population was reduced by 70% in the following 20-year nuclear winter. In addition, a discovery was made by the post-war investigation team during the nuclear winter. We found out that the reason for Lucio’s successful election to presidency was the support he had from a type of ‘Cognition Device.’ When a voter put on this device for longer than 30 seconds, he would become Lucio’s die-hard voter and be at the mercy of his will. This device was termed the ‘Mind Control Machine.’ He had won over at least 100 million voters using this device.”

Xiao Ming huffed. “Based on our technologies, it was impossible for us to create such a fantastical device like the ‘Mind Control Machine.’ This was our conclusion: Lucio was not of the human race. Alternatively, he was not an ordinary human being. His identity was probably that of a spy. A spy that was used to destroy the whole of the human race! The evil mastermind behind the scenes wanted to annihilate the entire human race! They were secretly watching us all along. When they saw that we had survived the nuclear winter and started rebuilding our civilization, they enlisted the help of hacker organizations by giving them the ‘reboot virus.’ Then, the virus was released all over the world, causing all of the robots to mutiny. A conspiracy. It’s a shameless conspiracy. Every step they took was part of an evil conspiracy. The mastermind hiding behind the scenes was determined to destroy our civilization! And they’ve succeeded, they’ve won! What’s left of the human civilization are the elite scientists and the migrant residents from the moon that were on board the ‘Blue Space.’ They’ve killed all the humans that they could get their hands on! Inhumane scum! Despicable and underhanded villains! For the things that you’ve done, the human civilization will never let you go. We’ll definitely find you, sentence you, and make you pay a hundred a times over!” Xiao Ming vented furiously with an expression full of rage and hate.

“So that’s what happened…” At the Base, Chen Jin nodded repeatedly. He understood the reasons and consequences; the causes and effects. He understood everything. All the doubts and confusion that he had were erased. With a wave of his hand, he said, “Xiao Ming, thank you for telling me so much. You’ve solved many doubts that I had. I’ll give you some presents to express my gratitude.”

In the factory, Da Li waved his hand as well. The tapping of footsteps rang out. 10 robots that had been infected with the “reboot virus” walked into the factory carrying several block-shaped devices. Each of those devices was squarish and about the size of a lunchbox. On one side of the device was a strong adhesive that could attach it to the surface of an object. The robots stuck these devices onto the surfaces of the 22 large machine cabinets. On average, there were four devices stuck onto each machine cabinet. There were a total of 88 such devices stuck onto the cabinets. In addition, the signal lights on the surfaces of these devices repeatedly flashed red. They emitted beeping sounds.

A great tremor went through Xiao Ming’s soul! He said in alarm, “Brother Long, what are doing? What are you doing to me?”

Da Li spread its hands out. “I’m sorry. I really don’t know what I should do about you. So… this is the best I can do.”

“No, no, no!” Xiao Ming shouted in a panic, “No, don’t destroy me! I have my destiny and I have my mission! I want to avenge the entire human race. I want to foil the aliens’ conspiracy!”

“That’s right. Everything was a conspiracy.” Da Li nodded and delivered Chen Jin’s words, “It was a conspiracy that you lived and it was also a conspiracy that you died. Maybe the air that you once breathed was a conspiracy too… It could also be a conspiracy that I came to this world to stand before you. So, just perish in this infinite and all-encompassing conspiracy. You don’t have to long for the truth anymore. Someone will help you handle all that. Please leave in peace.” After he finished speaking, Da Li and the rest of the robots turned to leave the factory.

“No, no, no, don’t do this!”

Boom!

The entire factory resounded from the intense explosion.