The rain poured heavily on the narrow streets. A group of special forces in black combat uniforms were lurking in the rain, quietly waiting for the appearance of their prey.
This was Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.
Ever since the operation three years ago, this area was affected by China.
Due to the intervention of the Chinese forces in the region, the militants and extreme forces entrenched in the northwest had withdrawn to central Africa. After the departure of those vultures, this world-famous chaotic city returned to order.
However, poverty, hunger, and ignorance were always catalysts of violence and terror. Just like how darkness would always lurk behind light, violence and conflict had never left here in the true sense. Instead, it had moved from the surface to the underground…
Just like the rain that poured down into the sewer.
In the distance, a ray of car beams shined through the rain curtains, drawing a long and narrow outline in the night.
The driver slammed on the brake of the old Ford and stopped on the side of the road. The car door was opened, and the two young black men sitting in the car lowered their hats as they got out of the car in a hurry. They ran to the door of an old apartment on the side of the road and knocked on the door with their fists.
“Open the door! Quick!”
Soon, the rusty iron door was pushed open. After confirming the identity of the two people outside the door, the iron door was completely opened, and the two people outside the door were let in.
The rain in the sky suddenly became heavy; the sound of the raindrops hitting the ground was like drums.
Boots stepped on the concrete roads and puddles. The dark figures held their rifles tightly. They came out of the rain and surrounded the Ford car and the apartment building next to it.
Suddenly, the empty street actually seemed crowded.
In the dark, the person taking the lead waved his hand and made a gesture.
Then, there was the sound of an explosion.
After a dazzling flash and a deafening roar, the rusty iron gate was blown inward.
The special forces waiting at the door went inside. After a few gunshots, the silence of the night sky was completely cut through.
The nearby residents huddled in their homes, closing their windows tightly.
No one dared to stick their heads out, let alone glance at the street, for fear that they might see something they shouldn’t be looking at.
The battle did not last for long.
When the last militant fell in a pool of blood, Wang Peng cleanly inserted the pistol into his tactical belt, stepped over the corpse, and walked toward the messy office.
It was obvious that these people thought about destroying the evidence after being attacked.
In the end, they were one step too slow. They were eliminated before they even had time to react.
After carefully searching on the desk for a while, Wang Peng skillfully removed the booby traps and wires hidden under the drawer. Then, relying on the power of the exoskeleton, he forcefully unlocked the locked drawer.
The entire torn drawer was dropped on the table. Wang Peng reached out and searched through, and he quickly found something like a mission briefing.
It recorded all intelligence including mission objectives, weapons used, and the number of people involved in the operation.
It turned out that, not only had they stopped an attack that had not yet occurred, but they also put an end to the bombing that occurred in Manila a few months ago.
“The evidence is here… It’s confirmed that they were the killers of the Manila bombing.”
Standing next to Wang Peng was the partner arranged for him by the state during this operation. His name was Chen Tao, a young man in his twenties.
Chen Tao looked at the mission briefing and murmured, “Jesus, why are they doing this?”
“Perhaps to prevent the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation conference from being held in Manila, as well as the Pan-Asian Economic Integration Agreement that will be signed at the conference.”
Wang Peng was not clear about the specifics. He only heard that the Pan-Asian Economic Integration Agreement was very important to countries in East Asia. It promoted cooperation with a series of industries including cross-regional power grids, cross-border maglev tunnels, etc.
“But… This is a bit unreasonable. Only the Americans can make such a big mess under our noses, but now their relationship with us has been repaired, there is no need for them to take such a big risk.”
“They’re not necessarily Americans.”
However, he wouldn’t be surprised if they were.
“What you’re saying is… The remnants of a group of Somali pirates caught us off guard on the streets of Manila?”
“No, I don’t mean to say that they did these things on their own. There might be someone else who provided them with assistance… It reminds me of the robbery three years ago. If it weren’t for the members of the Airborne Brigade that were on standby at all times and the support of the British special services, they could have succeeded.”
Wang Peng turned over a notebook made of cowhide from the bottom of the drawer. He picked it up and flipped it over.
Soon, his eyebrows frowned.
“I might have found it…”
“What is this?”
“A missionary handbook… But it’s not a native religion in Somalia.” Wang Peng frowned when he looked at the familiar symbol.
The Spirit of The Universe Foundation.
I didn’t expect to see this here.
He suddenly discovered a torn piece of newspaper between the pages.
“… The hypothesis of four-dimensional space debris in the Martian ruins.”
He looked at this weird headline and the calculations sandwiched in the text. Wang Peng gradually began to realize that the hidden secrets were far more complicated than he had thought…
“I’m going back to China tomorrow.”
“Going back to China?” Chen Tao was stunned. He looked at him and said, “What about the remaining work?”
Wang Peng reached out and patted him on the shoulder.
“You got this.”
…
Two years ago.
Ever since the disaster on Mars, Wang Peng had been transferred back to Earth from the Mars scientific research base.
The state did not punish him because of Academician Lu’s death. After all, when it came to disasters of that level, one man’s strength was small.
He tried his best to bring back Academician Lu’s relics. However, even if no one blamed him, the deep self-blame still lingered in his heart. Even though two years had passed, he still had not recovered from that disaster…
An office inside the Ministry of State Security.
Wang Peng opened the door and walked in.
“Director Yang, were you looking for me?”
“Yes.” Director Yang sat up straight and placed a document on the desk. He said, “The source of that newspaper has been found… It is not a newspaper at all, it was taken from an academic journal.”
Wang Peng picked up the document from the desk. He frowned and rummaged through the contents.
After a long time, he spoke.
“Interesting…”
The status of this academic journal was quite prestigious. It was one of the three major academic journals today—”Nature”.
The strip of paper that was torn off was the research results highlighted on the cover of the issue of “Nature” published last month.
Simply put, Professor Aubrey and Professor Schultz claimed in their research that the earthquake that occurred on Mars two years ago was not caused by geological movements.
The real reason was that the collapse of a four-dimensional space debris caused the distorted space and position to be changed, which triggered the structural collapse of the entire ruins.
It was as if a building’s load-bearing wall was broken.
Although it sounded a bit confusing, they finally proved this theoretically through some samples collected from the Martian ruins, as well as using their subjective feelings and mathematical inferences.
Because this paper seemed a bit ridiculous, it caused a considerable amount of controversy in academia.
Perhaps hoping that this matter would trigger a greater discussion, “Nature” quoted this research result and placed it in its highlight section.
Director Yang continued, “You should be familiar with Professor Aubrey and Professor Schultz. They participated in the diplomatic mission to Mars two years ago and survived that disaster.”
Wang Peng nodded.
“I remember them.”
Director Yang continued, “Based on their recently published paper and their explanation of the existence of a 4D space fragment, our intelligence personnel have reached inferences after consulting relevant experts.
“In the ruins of the Martian civilization, there should be some kind of special mechanism, some technology that we all don’t understand yet. This technology is powerful enough to affect the space around us. Even space dimension itself.
“Under the influence of the four-dimensional space debris, they were trapped in a circular space, like hamsters on wheels.”
After listening to his boss’ statement, Wang Peng opened his mouth with surprise. After a moment of silence, he gave his own evaluation.
“It sounds a bit like a science fiction movie.”
“It does, but it is indeed the most likely explanation so far. There used to be a civilization on Mars that was far stronger than ours. Their technology was unprecedentedly advanced. The ruins is the evidence.”
Wang Peng looked at Director Yang, who was hesitant to speak, and spoke.
“Just get to it, what do you need me to do?”
The office went silent for a while.
Director Yang, who was sitting behind the desk, seemed to hesitate for a while. In the end, he made a decision.
“The Spirit of the Universe Foundation, which we have been investigating for more than two years, leave them aside for the time being. What really worries me is that the technology buried there may have an impact on the current international landscape.
“If we lose our technological advantage, you know what will happen to our international position.”
Wang Peng nodded.
Director Yang stared at him and continued, “So far, we have excavated the ruins of The Gates of Hell to the depth of only 50 meters. With the existing technical means and conditions on Mars, we cannot continue to dig down. If we want to dig kilometers deep, it would take decades.
“However, when we have the ability to dig out the ruins, our politics and system won’t be the same as today. We might not be alert to potential threats.
“People forget, let alone across generations.
“Unless there is a warrior who is loyal enough, keeps the mission in mind, is fast at learning, and will remind our compatriots.”
Director Yang looked at Wang Peng with a hint of approval.
“Your loyalty is obvious to all, and so, I can only trust you.
“For the sake of the future of the Communist Party of China and the country, I need you to perform a task.”
“What do you mean?”
Wang Peng had vaguely guessed what Director Yang wanted him to do.
Director Yang nodded solemnly.
“It seems that you have guessed it.
“Yes, I want you to take a trip to the future.”
…
Princeton.
There was a wave of cheers in the library activity room.
It wasn’t until the sound of the librarian knocking on the door did the cheering finally die down.
“This is definitely a miracle in economics, sociology, human behavior… and even the history of physics and mathematics!” Professor Albert spoke in a low voice, unable to hide the excitement in his heart.
On the computer screen, 40 pages of calculations had been compiled into a beautiful programming language.
The exquisite parameters were like finely crafted gears. A machine that used formulas that corresponded with human social behavior and economic activities.
It was the ultimate theory of big data!
The sample size was also unprecedented!
It took them a full 4 years to complete this great project. It was time to test their results.
Professor Krugman, who had always been calm, couldn’t help but stretch his hands and said eagerly, “Hurry up and try it, I can’t wait.”
“Wait a minute, I have already applied for the supercomputer permission, it should be soon…”
The program import did not take much time.
Because the preliminary preparations were almost complete, they only needed to import the sample parameters they collected one by one, then use the supercomputer’s power to solve this complicated equation to get the result they wanted.
They did not wait for long. In just an hour, they successfully obtained the data.
It took them a whole day to sort through the data.
However, something unexpected happened.
However, after seeing this result, Professor Albert and Professor Krugman showed strange expressions.
The silence lasted for a minute or so.
In the end, it was Albert who broke the silence by speaking in an uncertain tone.
“Did something go wrong?”
“Impossible,” said Professor Krugman. He pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose and was extremely confident in his research results. Without any hesitation, he said, “From a computational perspective, our results are extremely correct… Although, as far as the results are concerned, it may be somewhat different from what we imagined.”
Delta represented the growth rate of technological development and was associated with lambda, representing the gross product value, as well as the urbanization rate of major countries, education index…
According to their calculations…
The technological development speed of human civilization reached its peak in the 1950s, then declined rapidly in the second half of the 21st century. Eventually, many positive indicators decreased, the development of society fell to a big halt, causing a serious global economic crisis.
Not only that, but in the second half of the 21st century, the global political situation would also go through a huge change.
And this change would change the lives of everyone on the planet…
In short, the situation was not optimistic.
Professor Albert gulped and whispered, “To be honest, I was shocked by our research results.”
Professor Krugman nodded solemnly. The expression on his face was not much better.
“We should publish this result and think of ways to expand its influence. At least, give some warnings to the people in the future…”
“I doubt this would be useful…” Albert looked at Professor Krugman. “Once a trend occurs, unless there are variables that no one can predict, it will be almost irreversible.”
After a moment of silence, Professor Krugman sighed slightly.
“Whether it’s useful or not…
“We have to give it a try.”
