Mystery: The arrival of the new Black Emperor

AD era, before the exhaustion of oil resources.

Angus Gale, who works at the Academy of Sciences, was suddenly invited to the Kremlin to attend a very high-level meeting.

Originally, he thought it was another meeting to discuss revitalizing the country's industrial chain, but he did not expect that as soon as he entered the Kremlin, he was invited to a small conference room.

He was a little surprised by the people sitting in the conference room. They were all top figures in the scientific community around the world, and their names were almost household names.

Another thing that makes Eggersgaier strange is that although there have been no international scientific gatherings in Moscow recently, there are Chinese, Americans, and people from the European Union among the participants.

It is not unusual for Chinese scientists to appear in the Kremlin, but it is a bit strange for scientists from the United States and the European Union to appear here.

After all, the war is still going on, and so are European and American sanctions.

Eggersgaier briefly greeted everyone and sat down in an empty seat. At this time, a tall colonel with an angular face came in with a folder and walked to the podium: "Everyone, I invite you to come today. , because we have made a major geological discovery and need your knowledge for further research.”

The colonel spoke English, so no translation was needed.

Just listen to him continue: "Especially foreigners, since you are here, you should be informed of the urgency of this matter, which also proves your country's concern and concern about this matter.

"So, you must sign a confidentiality agreement before I can describe the truth to you."

An American scientist joked: "Have you discovered dinosaurs underground?"

Several scholars around him laughed in agreement, but only for a moment, because the colonel's expression was serious, as if he had really discovered a dinosaur.

The American scientist cleared his throat awkwardly and made a "please continue talking" gesture.

The colonel continued: "If you don't plan to sign the confidentiality agreement, you can leave now."

He waited for more than ten seconds and saw no one left before opening the folder and handing out the confidentiality agreement to everyone.

After everyone signed the agreement, the colonel began to tell: "Ten years ago, the nuclear radiation in Chernobyl suddenly disappeared. At that time, there was no war between us and Ukraine.

"At the invitation of Ukraine, we sent a scientific research team to investigate."

At that time, Ukraine had lost a large number of high-end talents. They investigated for a long time, but they could not find out the reason why the radiation suddenly disappeared.

That's why we had to invite scientists from other countries to investigate. Inviting scientists from Moscow was a helpless move, because neither Europe nor the United States paid attention to this matter and were very perfunctory about it.

In the subsequent investigation, Moscow gradually took the initiative. Until the war, the investigation was dominated by Russia.

After the war started, the Russian side took away a large amount of investigation data, so when the investigation was restarted recently, the Russian side had to be invited to participate.

"We discovered a deep pit in Chernobyl." The colonel continued: "The deep pit seemed to appear suddenly, and the cause of its formation has not yet been investigated clearly.

"A strange sound occasionally comes from below the pit. After a period of monitoring, we found that the sound is regular.

"At first we thought there might be some unknown geological activity underground, but we soon discovered that the voice seemed to have some intelligence.

"So a research institute was gradually built there and research was conducted for a long time. However, we used many methods and failed to reach the bottom of the pit.

“To this day, we don’t know what geological activity there is underneath.

“Many scientists claimed that they were affected by something underground and had certain changes in their bodies, but we did not detect any harmful substances such as radiation.

"What's strange is that there are some changes in their mental activity.

"It's just that because of the advent of war, this round of investigation has to be ended."

Having said this, the colonel turned on the computer and projector and continued: "Last year, an integrated brigade of the Ukrainian army suddenly lost contact when passing through Pripyat.

“Follow-up search forces discovered them at the previously built research institute, and they are constantly sending soldiers towards the deep pit.

"There was a video like this left at that time."

The colonel began to play a video. The person in the video was a regiment leader judging from the epaulettes. His eyes were blank and his expression was a little unnatural.

Through his narration, everyone understood that this was an officer from the lost force. He said that the entire brigade heard a voice coming from underground.

That voice made them suddenly realize that the current direction of technological development was wrong. There was a kind of substance, or a kind of power that had been ignored by the scientific community for a long time, and that power was the key to this world and this universe.

As long as you enter the bottom of the pit, you can find this power and understand all the operating laws of this universe.

So the soldiers scrambled to explore down using crude ropes, but so far no soldiers have returned.

At the end of the video, the colonel continued: "Except for some officers and soldiers tied up by the exploration force, the rest of the entire brigade went underground.

"And after those tied up officers and soldiers were sent to the rear for recuperation, they did the same thing within the next month: they returned to the research institute and continued to explore the deep pit.

"So the research on deep holes was restarted..."

In fact, this research was restarted by Europe and the United States, but in order to obtain the previous research data from the Russian side, they pulled the Eastern powers to study together.

Under the matchmaking of the Eastern powers, the war continued, but the secret research on the deep pit began again.

The colonel finally said: "What we can be sure of now is that there is an unknown mysterious force hidden underground in the deep pit.

"At present, the frequency of this force's external influence is getting higher and higher, and the scope is getting wider and wider. Experts predict that in the future, that force is likely to have an impact on the entire human race, so now we urgently need to summarize the laws of this force to avoid the destructiveness of this force in the future!

"This will be your future task."

The scientists raised their hands and wanted to ask some detailed questions, but the colonel answered that he didn't know either, and asked them to rest for a while. An hour later, a special plane would be arranged to send them to Chernobyl.

Angus Gale remained silent from beginning to end, but he was very interested in everything that happened in Chernobyl.

Just when he was going to the toilet, he met Academician Zhang Hongwen from Beijing. He was very familiar with this academician who was about 50 years old and wore glasses. The two of them smiled and chatted for a few words, and then went to wash their hands together.

Just when he turned on the faucet, Academician Zhang Hongwen suddenly whispered in Mandarin: "This is your last chance to give up."

"I know more than you. Several of us came here after writing a suicide note."

After that, Zhang Hongwen turned off the faucet and left quickly.

Angus Gale could understand Chinese, but he didn't speak it fluently. He was stunned for a few seconds, but finally did not choose to give up.

Firstly, it was because of his curiosity, and secondly, it was also a kind of helplessness. He was one of the few "young and strong" in the Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Sciences has long lost its former prosperity. Except for the Institute of Mathematics, most of the other institutes are elderly people in their seventies.

You can't send these old men and women, right?

More than half an hour later, Angus Gale boarded the plane to Chernobyl. Zhang Hongwen saw him After that, nothing was said, as if he had never been reminded in the toilet.

They first landed at a military airport, and then took a helicopter to Chernobyl.

Everyone was stunned when they arrived here, because it looked very desolate, and it didn't look like there was a research institute at all.

But under the leadership of the previous colonel, they came to an abandoned command room and opened a secret door here. There was a long downward staircase, as if leading to the underground.

Angus Gale took a look at the huge building built of layers of concrete. There was the No. 4 reactor where the accident happened that year. At this time, their position was not far from the reactor.

Later, Angus Gale learned that in fact, the place where they worked was almost next to the No. 4 reactor, and there were several similar small secret doors connected to the outside world, as well as a larger secret door responsible for receiving supplies.

After walking in the underground part for a few minutes, they came to a wide road. Several cars took them to the research institute, and they realized that this was by no means an ordinary research institute.

Obviously, it was built as a secret research institute at the beginning, which could at least meet the work and living needs of hundreds of researchers, and there was also a company of soldiers to maintain order.

Originally, this place had been There are some scientists, but they are not as good as Angus Gale in terms of specifications and reputation.

After entering the institute, the first requirement was beyond Angus Gale's expectations: you must wear clergy clothing and wear a cross or corresponding magic tools.

At this time, Angus Gale was very sure that Zhang Hongwen really knew more, because he and several Chinese scientists brought their own Taoist robes, peach wood swords and Sanqing bells.

On the first day, they took a break first, and the next day someone explained the research projects and research progress here.

However, someone raised his hand and asked: "Excuse me, why do we have to wear clergy clothes? Are we going to study the devil here?"

"To be honest, our research object is really a bit like the devil." The tour guide suddenly smiled: "There is a mysterious power here, and now we can clearly feel it expanding every ten days.

"Every time it expands, someone will go crazy, but just a few months ago we found that the priests here were almost not affected. We have done experiments. As long as you wear clergy clothes and wear corresponding magic tools, you will hardly be affected. "

Everyone was stunned, and suddenly felt that they had entered the wrong door. Is this really a research institute?

Then the person who asked the question just now reacted: "You said there are pastors here?"

In addition to the Institute of Theology, what other institutes would have pastors?

"Because the discoveries here are too amazing, and many problems cannot be explained by science." The commentator said: "Let's get to the point.

"But before that, I want to take you to a place first."

So under their guidance, a group of scientists came to a large glass stand through the corridor.

It was pitch black outside the glass stand, and only the stone walls on both sides could be vaguely seen, as if the outside was connected to the dark space.

The commentator used the button on the wall to turn on the lights outside. Under the illumination of the giant searchlight, a huge deep pit appeared in front of people.

This gave people an illusion that the deep pit led to another world!

It was pitch black below the pit, and the scientists couldn't help but take a step back, thinking that some dangerous monsters would crawl out of it.

In other places on the glass stand, there were many downward devices, some of which were steel cables leading to the bottom, and some of which could launch drones or exploration robots.

The commentator said to everyone's surprise: "So far, we have not had any instruments to detect the existence of that mysterious power, and we can only rely on our human body to feel it.

"But when that mysterious power expands, our body's functions or metabolism will accelerate, which we can detect through instruments.

"In addition, all the methods we can think of have been used, but no matter what method, we have not detected the bottom of this deep pit."

A scientist asked: "Have you used the latest seismic exploration instrument?"

"I have used it, but I didn't detect the bottom."

Another scientist asked: "What about the latest electromagnetic exploration equipment?"

"I have used it, but I didn't detect the bottom."

The scientists were silent, which means that this deep pit is at least 10,000 meters deep!

The narrator continued: "So far, the only person who has seen the bottom of the pit clearly is a devout Catholic believer, um... he is also one of the earliest researchers.

"At that time, the top of the deep pit had not been covered by a steel frame. According to the description of those present, at noon, the devout believer held a cross and said: God, who is all-knowing, all-mighty and all-good, please shine the sun into the deep pit so that I can see clearly what is at the bottom of the pit!

"It is said that the sun suddenly became very dazzling at that time, and the devout believer really saw the bottom of the ground clearly. He described it as: It was a beautiful and illusory ocean!"

Everyone continued to be silent because they didn't know how to evaluate this event that seemed like a story in the Bible.

After a while, someone asked: "How is the devout believer now?"

The narrator said: "After he described the scene he saw, he turned into a monster."

"Turn into a monster?"

"Okay, we can go back." The narrator did not answer everyone's questions immediately, but returned to the conference room just now and played a blurry photo on the projector.

Although the person in the photo still has human structure, he really looks like a monster in the movie: his whole body is blood red, as if his skin has been burst, and his flesh and blood are exposed. There is also a big mouth with sharp teeth on his stomach. This big mouth is slightly open, and you can still see the internal organs inside.

Everyone understood that this was the devout believer.

The commentator continued: "Later, we replicated the situation at that time many times, but there was no sunlight that could see the bottom of the pit again.

"But soon we found that when the sun was the most toxic, or when there was a thunderstorm, some scientific researchers were very likely to become mentally ill.

"Occasionally, some black monsters would suddenly appear. Anyone who was scratched by those monsters would have some rust-like spots on their body surface, and die in great pain, with all organs failing.

"At present, we have not found any medicine that can treat or delay this process.

"These monsters are not afraid of bullets, bombs, and even electromagnetic and ultrasonic weapons have no effect.

"We can only wait for the sun to no longer shine directly on the deep pit, or the lightning is no longer in the sky above the deep pit, and then those monsters will disappear on their own.

"Until we completely covered the top of the giant pit with a steel frame structure, this situation will no longer occur."

After everyone was silent for a while, someone finally asked: "So, what exactly are we here to study? I mean, I study quantum mechanics, how can I help?"

The commentator said: "Now it is certain that there is an unknown force under the ground here, and now we urgently need a theory to reasonably explain this force.

"However, we don't know where to start, so we can only widely invite experts from various professions to see if everyone can use their own theories to explain the current situation.

"Maybe everyone can have a clear explanation for this phenomenon during the discussion."

Then he waved to the two soldiers at the door, and several soldiers outside the door each brought a thick stack of documents: "These are all our research processes and results so far, everyone can learn about them first.

"If there are any research needs, please design your own experiments, and we will try our best to cooperate with everyone's actions. "

Although everyone had some complaints, they still read the materials carefully.

The first day was spent reading, and from the second day on, everyone gradually had some discussions.

Geologists believe that this may be an unknown phenomenon of the earth's magnetic field. The magnetic field here has unknown and drastic changes, which has affected the mood of the researchers.

But this statement does not make sense in many places, such as why there is a deep pit? Why do monsters appear? And so on.

More importantly, the change of the magnetic field is relatively easy to detect. After several rounds of experiments, it was proved that the magnetic field nearby did not change significantly.

Some biologists also speculated that there may be an unknown microorganism underground, and people infected by microorganisms will undergo drastic changes in their bodies.

However, after multiple and multi-directional sampling on the stone wall of the deep pit, no unknown microorganisms were found.

Just as everyone continued to speculate, suddenly, they all looked in the direction of the deep pit, and as if they had received some kind of order, they came to the glass stand together.

At this time, the place was already full of people. Everyone looked towards the pit and had a premonition that something was about to emerge there.

Then, everyone seemed to feel very scared and took a step back.

They could clearly feel that there was a mysterious force coming from the ground toward the surface. The veins on everyone's foreheads popped out, as if the blood in their bodies had rushed to their heads.

Di~di~di!

The instrument that detects everyone's metabolism suddenly sounded, but everyone entered a dreamlike state. None of them looked at the bottom of the pit, but a picture seemed to appear in front of everyone's eyes: illusions were emerging from the bottom of the pit. of water flow.

After a few minutes, everyone heard the beep sound of the instrument as if they were waking up from a dream.

After another ten seconds, the director announced: "This is the most violent surge of that mysterious power so far.

"Everyone, if it is a sealed demon, then it is not far from being released from the seal at this time."

Angus Gale and others returned to the conference room in a state of despair. It was only then that they had a real feeling for the mysterious power.

The speculations they were discussing just now turned very pale.

More than an hour later, a shocking news came from the outside world. Just as the power was surging, all the oil deposits around the world had disappeared.

…

In the evening, after get off work.

Angus Gale knocked on Zhang Hongwen's door with two bottles of vodka.

After opening the door, Angus Gale said in unskilled Mandarin: "Lao Zhang, I want to have a drink with you."

Zhang Hongwen smiled slightly, made a "come in" gesture, and took out some spiced peanuts and dried meat from the suitcase.

The two of them chatted while drinking, first starting from their previous collaboration, and then talking about their respective recent situations. When they talked about their current research, they had already drank a bottle of wine.

Angus Gale chewed peanuts and looked at Zhang Hongwen: "You must have some ideas, right? I remember you were like this before. The more silent you were, the more you had your own opinions."

Zhang Hongwen stroked his glasses and smiled helplessly: "I'm going to disappoint you this time. I really don't have any decent ideas."

"But you do have some ideas, right? Lao Zhang, tell me. You also felt that atmosphere today. We don't have much time. Your ideas may be the key."

Zhang Hongwen looked at Angus Gale for a second or two before saying: "My thoughts may make you more confused."

"Then I want to hear it."

"Okay, okay." Zhang Hongwen took a sip of wine and paused for a second or two before saying, "Do you believe in science?"

"believe."

"Are you superstitious about science?"

Angus Gale was stunned for a while and then said: "You mean, everything that happened today is really related to theology?"

Zhang Hongwen did not answer this question, but said: "There is a huge gap between the cultural core of you and me. We believe that the appearance of many things cannot be explained by a single kind of thinking.

"Because both the universe and human society are complex, if we only use separate thinking to explain it, it is easy to not explain it comprehensively."

Angus Gale seemed to have thought of something, but he couldn't connect the fragments in his thinking: "Old Zhang, you can be more detailed."

"That is to say, we Easterners believe that many things are not black and white. Maybe they are both black and white, right and wrong. Well, this sounds similar to Schrödinger's cat, but there are some differences." Zhang Hongwen looked at the confused Angus Gale and smiled: "Let me tell you, you will be even more confused when you hear my thoughts.

"Okay, I'll just tell you my conclusion.

“I don’t think the problems we have right now can be solved by science or theology.

"Sometimes I have the idea that science, which is regarded as truth by modern people, always has a limit, right? There are always things it can't explain, right? So you can believe in science, but you can't be superstitious.

"And theology is 'human theology'. Those knowledges are all imagined by humans. Rather than using theology to solve problems, it is better to use human imagination to solve problems."

Angus Gale felt that these ideas were completely in areas that his own thinking had never touched upon: "Then what kind of thinking should be used to solve the problem?"

"I don't know." Zhang Hongwen spread his hands and said, "Maybe this is a subject that humans have never been involved in."

Angus Gale seemed to suddenly realize something: "Double-slit experiment! Wave-particle duality!"

The former is an experiment to observe light. The same preconditions have completely different observation results under two different conditions: with an observer and without an observer.

The latter means that microscopic particles sometimes have "wave properties" and sometimes have "particle properties".

Zhang Hongwen said seriously: "I don't know if there is any relationship between this. I just say that we should jump out of the original way of thinking now, and maybe we can make a breakthrough."

Angus Gale was silent. As Zhang Hongwen said before, after knowing his thoughts, he became more and more confused.

At the same time, it feels like a new door has been opened, with many new ideas.

After this conversation, both of them remained silent for a period of time. They both knew very well that they should think like ascetics at this time. It is best not to announce their thoughts to others before they are certain, otherwise it will only make the problem more complicated. .

About a week later, all countries sent representatives to Moscow, wanting to hear if scientists had any new ideas about Chernobyl research.

So Angus Gale and others returned to Moscow to participate in the large-scale seminar held there.

It was also at this time that Angus Gale received a call from his old classmate Augustin Fabuti. The conversation with this old classmate suddenly gave Angus Gale some inspiration.

That night, he happily knocked on Zhang Hongwen's door with two bottles of vodka.

Zhang Hongwen, on the other hand, has dried tofu and vacuumed sauced pig's trotters, which are packages his family just sent from China.

The two of them were still chatting while eating, but this time they quickly got to the point.

Angus Gale smiled and said: "Old Zhang, I had a very good idea today.

"First of all, let me tell you about a discussion about human beings I had with a classmate when I was in college.

“We were very surprised at the time, why do human beings have very limited physical abilities but have a brain with a very vast thinking space?

“I first studied biology, and I know very well that although the human body is very sophisticated, its limits are there, but the upper limit of human imagination is very high.

“Of course, I mean with enough knowledge.

“Just like Einstein, many of our current studies only gradually prove that Einstein’s theory was correct.

"This is a concrete expression of our idea. Take the scientific world as an example. When a person comes up with a very good idea, there is no way to verify it immediately.

“It was even decades before we were able to prove some of the theories of top scientists.

"It's a human action that doesn't keep up with the manifestation of ideas."

Zhang Hongwen nodded repeatedly to express his understanding.

"So is there such a phenomenon?" Angus Gale asked: "In fact, our body is also very strong originally? Or can it match our thinking?

“For example, if we want to go to the moon and have a look, we can jump to the moon.

"But I don't know why, our body's ability has been weakened, but some of the characteristics before it was weakened are still hidden in our genes."

Angus Gale stared at Zhang Hongwen. His thoughts had been expressed very clearly, so he did not continue.

Zhang Hongwen held the wine glass and paused for a full minute before saying: "This is a very fruitful idea."

He took a sip of wine before saying: "In other words, the illusory ocean at the bottom of the pit may be the key to weakening our bodies!

"Now that illusory ocean is emerging toward the ground, it will make our bodies stronger again."

Angus Gale nodded seriously.

Zhang Hongwen looked at the Russian friend in front of him for a second or two, then drank all the wine in the glass and said: "We can announce our ideas, and the sooner the better."

With the announcement of their idea, the direction of research immediately began to move towards this conjecture.

But at this time, people discovered a paradox: If the illusory ocean would make the human body stronger, why did so many people go to the bottom of the pit, but no one came back.

At this time, Zhang Hongwen gave an explanation: Human beings have been weak for too long. At this time, the body cannot withstand such power. It is like a person who has been hungry for several days. If you feed him big fish and meat, he will Death from diarrhea.

The only thing that remains unexplained may be why those illusory currents swallow oil?