Translator: _Min_ Editor: Rundi
Tents of various sizes were built around the outskirt of the camp. Although they were simple and crude, they were enough to weather the harsh external conditions. These tents were all hauled from the Fishbone base and will be used before Camp 27 apartments are built. Therefore, the residents forcefully moved to the surface must settle for them.
The tents formed a distinct contrast with the one hundred homes in the center of the camp as if it was the ghetto versus the rich.
The situation was rather comical. They had previously mocked the two groups of residents that first moved up to the surface stating that they would rather live in the harsh conditions of the surface than the comfort in the fallout shelter. But now the situation seemed to be reversed as the people they mocked now became someone they envied.
After passing through a few tents, Jiang Chen walked to a tent at the corner of the camp. He saw an elder with white hair who seemed to be waiting for him.
“You are Academician Qin?”
The elder kindly smiled at Jiang Chen who stood in front of him as he got up.
“Yes, and you must be Jiang Chen?”
Jiang Chen nodded.
“Your body condition doesn’t seem to be too well.”
The elder waved his hand as he said something that surprised Jiang Chen.
“Don’t worry, I am a digitalized human.”
Digitalized human? Digitalized humans can also age?
Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes but quickly returned back to normal.
“I heard you have something important to tell me, is it just this?”
“Of course not.” Academician Qin shook his head. “There is one thing I want to give you.”
As he said, he picked a baseball-sized black sphere out of his pocket.
Jiang Chen looked at the sphere as he frowned. It felt like he had seen this somewhere before.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted.
“The Golden Apple?” Jiang Chen whispered.
Academician Qin paused a moment before shaking his head. “Is that how you refer to this thing? But you’ll be disappointed. It is only a communication device based on Dr. Klein’s research on Klein particles, it is referred to as galactic cellphone. Of course, the energy for this has been completely consumed, it can only provide you with a coordinate.”
Jiang Chen took over the black sphere as he carefully examined it in his hands. The appearance was no different than the one he obtained in U-235, but this was clearly lighter.
Also, this must be the real “Golden Apple”, not the counterfeit “Golden Apple” the Third Reich mimicked. This thing was not meant to broadcast to other time dimensions, but rather to conduct communication across time.
“Can this thing… Speak to the past?”
Academician Qin smiled when he heard Jiang Chen’s question, “In theory, yes. However, just like the Shronginder’s cat, even if you spoke to the past, you can’t verify if someone heard it, and you can’t verify if they understood or not.”
“Is that so? I heard that this thing is made with brain extract-” Jiang Chen mustered to himself as he was deep in thought.
“That is false.” Academician Qin smiled. “That’s right, the brain extract can detect Klein particle activities, but how is it possible to use the brain to create this?”
In a parallel world, someone certainly did that… Jiang Chen said in his mind.
After a momentary pause, Academician Qin put on a stern face as he continued, “To be honest, this thing had lost its purpose already. The reason why I am telling you this is only because I’m trying to explain a fact to you.”
“What fact?” Jiang Chen observed the metallic ball in his hand.
“This is an experiment.”
Jiang Chen’s action stopped as he looked at Academician Qin.
“Experiment?”
“That’s right, the experiment is to research under the circumstance of extremely limited resources, how would the human society evolve,” Academician Qin calmly told a shocking truth.
Jiang Chen was in shock, or in disbelief.
But he quickly realized something was odd.
It was too much of a coincidence. The PAC government was that useless? The fallout shelter was a civil defense structure and built based on the international political situation deteriorating. Would it really be problematic to store more nuclear fusion cores? It was set for 50 years, but it had to open in 20 years. And that Han Junhua, she was clearly not meant to be a politician.
But he didn’t manage to think that the entire fallout shelter was just an experiment, every single person inside was a white rat.
“From the beginning, there was not enough energy. Even the choice of leaders, the kind Zhang Qiming as the first leader and the cold Han Junhua as the second leader, they were both not ideal choices for leadership, but can be researched as classic personalities.”
“The experiment’s result is sent to the Zhenghe Space Colonization Ship lightyears away using this device.”
The elimination of sources of error, and investigate into key subjects were typical of an experiment.
It was just that, the experiment to be conducted on a group of people was too cruel.
“Although it is just a small fallout shelter, don’t you think this is the reflection of society?”
“Why are you telling me this?” Jiang Chen stuffed the metallic ball into his pocket as he retorted.
He was not part of the PAC, nor did he have anything to do with the dissolved World Alliance Organization. He was not bored enough to think of the people lightyears away.
“I am only providing you with a thought process. If you happen to encounter such a choice, I believe you will learn something from it.”
[Thought process? That choice?]
“Thought process?” Jiang Chen didn’t understand.
“That’s right, as a researcher who lived in the fallout shelter for 20 years, other than being responsible for the experiment, I have been thinking about another question.”
“What question?”
“You should have heard of reproductive separation.”
It was not a complicated subject, even in the biology textbook from the 21st century it was mentioned. Jiang Chen only recalled briefly before he nodded.
“Because of geographical isolation and other factors, different groups of the same species reproduce in different habitats. Due to the inability to carry out gene exchange, to withstand the natural selection of different environments, it would eventually lead to the formation of two completely different species. ”
Academician Qin nodded in praise as he looked at Jiang Chen.
“Although there are still some flaws with the theory, that’s mostly the case. With geographical separation, after thousands of years’ of evolvement, the same species would evolve into two completely different species. Geographical separation is the pretense for reproductive separation. But have you considered another possibility? If for some reason humans were forced to create geographic separation, what kind of possibility would that create?”
“Reproductive separation?” Jiang Chen paused for a moment.
“No, it’s ideological separation.” Academician Qin shook his head as he threw out a concept that Jiang Chen never heard of before.
“How you noticed, in only 20 years, the people living underground and the people on the surface have been separated into two kinds of people. What would happen if 50 years passed? Or even longer time.”
Jiang Chen began to ponder on the idea as he waited for him to explain.
“Under different environment, the civilization making an adjustment to the environment is known as evolvement from a social science point of view. Just like how although reproductive separation didn’t exist between the ancient and modern people, there exists a huge gap between them ideology wise.”
“If we look at the deep space light years away, is there a gap created between the space colonization ship and us?”
“The instant when the space colonization ships accelerated to escape the solar system, they were no longer humans from earth. Or rather, the ship who have gathered the elites of the human civilization had already evolved into something higher.”
“So what? Whatever they evolve into, they are no longer on earth,” Jiang Chen said nonchalantly.
When he heard Jiang Chen’s words, Academician Qin only laughed.
“In the 16th century, what did the Europeans bring to UA?”
“Slaughter?”
“No, civilization.”
Was there a difference? Jiang Chen just wanted to ask, but he all of the sudden stopped.
That’s right because there was no difference…
“The rebirth of the civilization must be accompanied by bloody brutality,” Academician Qin said gently.
“You mean… They will be back?”
“Regardless if they will be back or not, they will do something. And to us as the “natives” the process must be accompanied by pain. Blood? Sacrifice? But what is truly terrifying is that these actions will be justified through their perspective.”
