While Lu Zhou was diving into the mystery of the warp drive, the various forces in Tiangong City were in a complete mess because of his disappearance.
Whether it was the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation, the Mars Colony City Alliance’s plot of achieving independence, or the intelligence department of the Pan-Asian Cooperation, everyone wanted to know where Lu Zhou had gone.
However, the chaotic situation did not seem to affect people’s daily lives.
Even though the disappearance of Academician Lu pushed the relationships between the various forces to a tense situation, what people were concerned about was still the corporate bonds issued by the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Fund, which had continuously set new highs, as well as the 100,000 tickets that had been sold.
At the headquarters building of the Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Foundation, broadcast vehicles from major news media and countless private cars filled the parking lot and even the nearby streets.
In order to avoid an accident, the company’s security guards pulled up a barrier at the door to maintain order and persuaded the people around to leave.
Those encircling the entrance of the building were reporters from news organizations, entrepreneurs who wanted to seek cooperation, and middlemen who wanted to buy more corporate bonds and resell ship tickets.
The Alpha Centauri Colonial Exploration Fund was in the perfect time period.
The problem of faster than light navigation was solved, and Mars intended to build the largest spaceport in the entire solar system and lead the development of Europa.
All of this indicated that mankind was ready to travel to more distant worlds and that people’s enthusiasm for the worlds outside the galaxy had never been higher.
Such a grand occasion had never happened since Tiangong City was established.
This was probably the first time for Martians, who were accustomed to being relaxed and lazy, to cheer and applaud for the same cause.
The top floor of the building.
In the general manager’s office.
Lawrence, standing in the holographic beam, was looking down at the streets of Tiangong City through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the office.
As the owner of this office, Gladstone, who was sitting in an office chair, was playing with a toy in his hands. It was a golden badge with a strange pattern on it. It was hard to tell which year this thing was from by looking at the craftsmanship alone, but judging from his cherished actions, this thing should have been with him for many years.
At this time, Lawrence, who was standing by the windows, suddenly spoke.
“To be honest, I have always been very curious about your tastes.”
“Oh, yeah?” Gladstone put the badge into his pocket and cast an interested glance at Lawrence. “I’m happy to answer your confusion.”
“Not quite a confusion.” Lawrence continued with a faint smile, “It’s just that, from the perspective of efficiency, your joys and sorrows are actually just a combination of nerve signals and hormone secretions. It can be satisfied by chemical and information technology. In that case, why bother building so many meaningless artifacts here and using them to produce some garbage that is ultimately destined to be wasted.”
“This is indeed an interesting question, and it’s very difficult to answer.” Gladstone thought for a while. He shrugged and said, “If I have to find a reason, it’s probably because it’s what everyone has done for thousands of years. Maybe there is something hidden in our genes that we don’t know.”
“Genes?” Looking at the face reflected on the window, Lawrence smiled and said, “Think about it, the person who created me seemed to be a contradictory guy. During the initial years, he yearned for the realization of his dream almost every day, but he hesitated at the last moment when the dream was about to be realized, so I had to let someone push him forward.”
Gladstone opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but after hesitating for a while, he did not speak.
Intuition told him that saying anything at this time would be superfluous.
Lawrence didn’t care what he was thinking.
Just like how he didn’t care what an artificial intelligence program thought of their seemingly meaningless artifacts.
The two sides only stood together temporarily because of their common interest.
That was it.
At this time, there was a knock on the door.
Gladstone glanced at Lawrence and saw that he had no objection, so he cleared his throat and said, “Come in.”
The door opened, and a man in a suit and leather shoes walked into the room quickly and said angrily, “It’s not good, Mr. Gladstone, something horrible has happened!”
Looking at the man in front of him, Gladstone frowned slightly.
Although he was a little dissatisfied with the attitude of his subordinate, it was obviously not the time to care about these trivial matters.
“Take a few breaths, then make it clear what is going on.”
“The news from Town Hall!” He took a quick glance at Lawrence standing by the window. The man gulped and continued while sweating profusely, “Lu Zhou is missing!”
Not only Gladstone, but even Lawrence, who was standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, was stunned.
“Missing?” His lips opened and closed slightly. Lawrence turned around in disbelief, looked at the man standing at the door, and said, “Are you sure he is missing?”
He glanced at Gladstone and saw that his boss seemed to respect the strange old man standing by the window, so he spoke honestly.
“Yes, Mayor Xiao sent someone to the hotel where Lu Zhou was staying, but he wasn’t there. Then we searched his room, but it was all useless personal clothes. The warp drive blueprint was nowhere to be seen!”
Gladstone’s heart trembled.
His worst nightmare came true.
“Leave.”
“Yes, sir…”
The man standing at the door quickly nodded, stepped out of the door respectfully, and closed the office door smoothly.
Without waiting for even a second, Gladstone looked at Lawrence standing by the window and asked for help, “What should we do?”
“This is quite a big problem. Without a warp drive, we can’t live outside the solar system.” Lawrence continued after looking at the busy street outside the window, “And more than that, our trouble may be bigger than expected.”
“Bigger than expected?” Gladstone frowned. “What does this mean?”
“You should have noticed that Mayor Xiao in Tiangong City wants to be independent of Earth.”
“Of course! The entire city hall officials know this.”
“So that’s why I said we might be in big trouble.” Lawrence glanced at Gladstone. He then turned to face the floor-to-ceiling windows and said with an intriguing tone, “Imagine that you are the overlord state and your colony has seized your most outstanding scholar. And the technology he has mastered can completely change the political balance between the two sides.”
Gladstone’s face finally changed.
“You… you mean…”
Without paying attention to Gladstone’s emotion, Lawrence continued blankly, “Whether he is missing or has been taken away secretly by the Pan-Asian Cooperation, a war seems to be inevitable.”
At the Pan-Asian Cooperation headquarters.
After reading the report of the Security Bureau, Li Guangya angrily slammed his hands down on the table.
“Those idiots, I should have recognized their intentions a long time ago.”
“Mr. Chairman, we are now probably facing the most severe threat of the Pan-Asian Cooperation since its establishment.” Looking at the chairman, Secretary Wei continued with a serious expression, “Academician Lu is very likely to have been captured by them. If they master warp speed technology and apply it to the battlefield, it will wipe out our advantages. You must make a decision immediately as this will affect the destiny of the entire Pan-Asian Cooperation!”
“What decision is there to make? It is the army’s job to suppress the rebels.” Li Guangya said, “Let the First Fleet fly over and bring the orbital airborne troops.
“If we encounter resistance, immediately fire back.
“Don’t hold back!”
