Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Chen Chen slowly opened his eyes.

When his mind registered what came into his view, he relaxed his body that was uncomfortably tense and rigid.

Chen Chen found himself in a familiar room decorated with white walls on all sides. He could smell the faint scent of fresh flowers in the room and feel the soft fabric wrapping around his body. He glanced beside him and noted the speckless floor window.

Chen Chen got up from the bed. The gentle sun coated him with its warm embrace as he rose lazily from his slumber.

There was no mistaking it. He had returned to the Spire, to the world he belonged to.

Upon sensing Chen Chen's awakening, the Android posted to the room entered with a dining cart arranged with plates of well-portioned, delicately prepared cuisine.

Chen Chen did not spare a glance at the food. He sat silently on his bed and stared off into the distance. He tried to jog the memory of what he had just experienced.

Just as he suspected, the moment he returned to the cryogenic chamber on the other world and fell asleep, he found himself awake in this current world.

“Holy Fusion Empire? Year 378?”

Chen Chen muttered to himself, “Could it be that my consciousness is simultaneously existing in both the present and the future?

“No, it's not the future…”

Chen Chen shook his head at this thought. “That world is a world ruled by the Consciousness Stealer. Could this mean that it's a separate timeline wherein the Consciousness Stealer successfully defeated me and enslaved mankind and found a new branch of civilization?

“In that case, how is it that I'm able to exist in two separate timelines?”

It suddenly occurred to Chen Chen that this may be a contingency plan that Little X had deployed in the Consciousness Battlefield.

Previously, when Chen Chen and the previous owner of the USB drive were dueling in his dreamscape, he managed to attain victory all thanks to the measures devised by Little X. It would not surprise him to know that Little X had set up further countermeasures during the battle.

Perhaps Little X's countermeasure was in the event that Chen Chen succ.u.mbed to the Consciousness Stealer in the battle, he would not be completely devoured by the Consciousness Stealer. Although he may sustain significant damage on a metaphysical level, his physical body would still be preserved in the cryogenic chamber and rest for centuries.

After he had recovered over time, he could still challenge the enemy again…

However, even Little X would never foresee the turnout of the battle which resulted in a branched timeline. Just like the theory of Schrodinger's cat, their battles created two completely separate worlds.

One was the present, the reality, which was the one where Chen Chen emerged victoriously.

The other was the world with the so-called Holy Fusion Empire. It seemed like both dimensions were not on the same timeline since the otherworld was set several centuries in the future.

Chen Chen let out an exasperated sigh as he pondered the current circ.u.mstance he was faced with.

Although he was experiencing these schizophrenic symptoms, the good news was that he was still alive and had a trump card up his sleeve.

With this in mind, Chen Chen looked up and asked, “X, isn't it time you tell me more about the Consciousness Battlefield?”

“Sir G.o.dfather, the Consciousness Battlefield is the meme I specifically created to help you defeat the Consciousness Stealer.”

Little X's voice was broadcasted through the speakers. “Using the collective consciousness of both you and the Consciousness Stealer as the foundation, a battlefield is forged to allow both parties to duel on an even battlefield. Since the battlefield is constructed from both of your conscience, the created terrain doesn't favor either party. It's the ideal battleground for a fair duel. However, in a way, this can be a double-edged sword.”

“What happens if I win?”

“If you win, you'll be able to claim everything the Consciousness Stealer is made of and completely desecrate its conscience!”

Little X answered confidently.

“And what if the opponent wins?”

“This is where I mixed in a nifty bit of sleight of hand…”

Little X explained, “If the opponent defeats you, it can only absorb a part of your conscience and will cause you to fall into a deep and heavy slumber due to losing part of your conscience, but you will not die.”

“I see.”

Chen Chen nodded. “Since I was inside the cryogenic chamber, it automatically activates the moment it senses that I've fallen asleep to protect my body, is that it?”

“Exactly!”

Little X remarked loudly, “If we describe this process as a game, then the meme will be the source code of the game. The risk with this countermeasure I've implemented is that it may create a bug in the code and cause an internal collapse of the Consciousness Battlefield and from there on, what may happen is entirely unpredictable. However, I had to commit to this method to protect you in case something went wrong. The good thing is it looks like nothing bad has resulted from it!”

“No, something bad has already happened.”

Chen Chen announced solemnly. He then began to describe the consciousness division symptom he was experiencing and what he saw in the otherworld. Little X was astounded by the tale she was told.

“If what you say is true, then that means your consciousness currently lies in the middle point between two separate timelines. This must be caused by the fissure in the consciousness battlefield!”

Little X was surprised by the turn of events and immediately became distressed. “What should we do now? If something were to happen to you in the otherworld, will it cause a chain reaction over here as well?”

“There's no helping it.”

Chen Chen shook his head and stated, “You win some, you lose some. Since I had to resort to cheating to defeat the opponent, I'll have to bear the consequences. Besides, by the current looks of it, these consequences don't seem to be something we can't handle. It may even present a brand-new opportunity for us…”

After all, even Little X would not have predicted something like this happening.

After everything they had been through so far, the memetic ent.i.ties remained an incomprehensible, mystique force. It was an abstract ent.i.ty that transmitted in the form of information but could still directly influence physical matter. Furthermore, the origin of its power was still largely unknown. The bare-bones theory was that it extracted energy from its subjects. However, what Chen Chen was currently experiencing could not possibly be solely the work of the memetic force.

Would it be apt to say that this phenomenon had somehow created a separate universe?

That was impossible. Chen Chen suspected that what was happening was a result of his consciousness being merged with his consciousness in another timeline, which caused his consciousness to traverse beyond the current plane.

It still had to be said that these memetic powers were truly wondrous. Even Little X could not figure out the underlying principle of such powers. Till now, Little X's understanding of them could still only be described as completely lackl.u.s.ter, though she was not to blame for it.

“Society has gradually recovered to its previous form over this period.”

Half an hour later, Little X came beside Chen Chen who was having his breakfast and briefed him on the current state of affairs, “After ensuring that the Consciousness Stealer has perished, the Earth Federation finally announced the reason for the city lockdowns. However, they did not announce the true reason for what was happening. The people were only informed that the fusion death cases were the result of a new deadly virus and that they have eliminated the virus appropriately.

“As for the affairs on Mars, the Ares had taken off again and landed on Mars to construct a new research station. Our aeros.p.a.ce department has also collaborated with the four major continents and charted the brief details of a thirty-year plan.”

“Thirty-year plan?”

Chen Chen raised an eyebrow at such a mention.

“In the first decade, we'll build a Martian colony to house ten thousand people and transport the first batch of immigrants by the later period of this phase.”

Little X described, “The first of Martian citizens will also serve as trial subjects. We'll provide them with suitable welfare and a generous salary and in exchange, they'll entrust their livelihood and future to us. In the process of their stay on Mars, we'll be able to acc.u.mulate sufficient data and experience to further improve our knowledge of building a hospitable ecosystem on Mars.

“In the second decade, we'll be populating Mars with plants that can adapt to its unique environment, one of which includes the tardigrade moss we previously researched. This will generate and supply oxygen content into the atmosphere on Mars and reshape the climate on the planet over time.

“Meanwhile, the third phase will be the most challenging of them all. We need to find a way to restore the magnetic field of Mars. This isn't a project that will take a mere decade, but up to a century! The first prerequisite is to build powerful artificial magnetic field satellites. We'll need tens of thousands of them to form a chained orbit surrounding Mars to alter its magnetic field and contain the naturally lapsing atmosphere of the planet.”

Little X went on. “Mars has its magnetic field, only it's nowhere as strong as the magnetic field on Earth. Sometime around 3.9 billion years ago, most of the magnetic field of Mars dissipated, leaving only some tiny residues of the original magnetic field. According to scientists, this was caused by an asteroid collision that also happened 3.9 billion years ago. It caused the surface temperature of Mars to rapidly rise above its core temperature, which in turn caused the liquid iron on its surface to fail to cool down below the surface temperature and unable to conduct appropriate levels of heat-transfer convection.

“The reason there's a magnetic field present on Earth is due to the solid core of the planet. Earth's solid core interacts with the outer layer of Earth which consists of large amounts of iron to generate what is known as the magnetic field. Its working principle is very similar to that of a DC generator. Meanwhile, the issue that the planet Mars faces is that the coil in the generator has malfunctioned and cannot rotate, which means it cannot sever the natural magnetic induction line. This means there's no electric current, which results in an absence of magnetic field…

“Without the protection barrier which is the magnetic field, Mars is completely exposed to the solar radiation which slowly eats away its atmosphere over time. This eventually causes the surface of Mars to be terraformed into its current state.

“We came up with a set of solutions to counteract this lack of magnetic field. The first step is to deploy a satellite chain to create an artificial magnetic field to stabilize its atmosphere.

“After that, we'll deploy three giant boosters on Mars to fine-tune Mars' orbital eccentricity.

“Although all planets in the solar system are a.s.sumed to rotate on a fixed orbit, the truth is that each planet does still have fluctuating rates of orbital eccentricity. The orbital eccentricities of Venus, Earth, Mars, and Mercury are 0.007, 0.017, 0.093, and 0.206 respectively, while the atmospheric concentration of these planets are labeled as dense, standard, thin, and extremely thin respectively. The reason for the inversely proportional ratio of these two attributes is that a larger value of orbital eccentricity causes the planet to lose a portion of the atmosphere, similar to what happens when a comet approaches closer to the sun. Therefore, fine-tuning the orbital eccentricity of Mars can help to reduce the atmospheric dissipation phenomenon.

“According to our scientist's findings, the magnetic field of Mars has been gradually recovering for some time now, the same applies to the planet's core recovery. However, the rate of recovery is extremely lacking and it will take upwards of 700 million years before it could be restored to a point of managing to resist solar radiation. The good news is we can accelerate this process by up to a hundred thousand times. The most straightforward method to achieve this is by locating the dwarf planet Ceres located in the Kuiper Belt.

“The dwarf planet Ceres' size is large enough to influence the gravitational force on Mars. We can install a nuclear fusion engine on the dwarf planet to s.h.i.+ft it into the orbit of Mars, essentially designating it as Mars' ‘Moon' artificially. Ceres' gravitational force will generate a substantial level of what is known as crowding effect on the structure under the Martian crust and this will accelerate the recovery of its magnetic field…

“Using these methods, we have full confidence that Mars will become the next Earth within a century. This also makes it the first interstellar collaboration effort with the Earth Federation and the first phase of the investment is projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars!”

“What benefit can we gain from this?”

After listening to Little X's explanation, Chen Chen finally asked. At this point, a mere century was not a far-fetched idea for mankind since the overall lifespan of humans was increasing exponentially with the gradual rollout of the mankind anti-aging project. In another three to four decades, the average lifespan of the average person should easily rise above a hundred years old. At this point, even Chen Chen was unsure how many hundred years he had remaining in his lifespan.

“The benefit we gain from this is that we'll have a permanent colony on Mars that belongs entirely to us.”

Little X answered, “We're the first and only s.p.a.ce colonization company officially recognized by the Earth Federation. Although there will be other competing s.p.a.ce colonization companies from other continents in the future, we're currently the only company that has an established exclusive permanent colonial plot. This gives us a significant headstart on the others.”

“Not bad.”

Chen Chen nodded with delight. Although Little X did not stress the underlying details, he knew that there must have been a great deal of intervention that Little X had to pave through to arrive at this point. After all, it was in the four major continents' best interest to thwart Blacklight Biotechnology's rapid expansion. Currently, the raw capital of Blacklight Biotechnology was nowhere less than any of the four major continents. It might be even above them. Naturally, this would cause the four major continents to raise their caution.

With that said, the Earth Federation still had other alternatives to constrain Blacklight Biotechnology's industry. They could limit Blacklight Biotechnology's access to raw materials such as minerals and various high-precision materials to throw a wrench in the company's production.

However, doing so would also in turn restrict their access to similar technologies such as the Androids, XTN robots, and various biomedicine and aeros.p.a.ce technology. In this sense, both parties were at each other's mercy.

Currently, Blacklight Biotechnology was clearly at the forefront of the aeros.p.a.ce industry. There was hardly any compet.i.tion and even the Ares was independently developed by the Blacklight Biotechnology s.p.a.ce Department. This was the primary reason they were willing to get on good terms with Blacklight Biotechnology to colonize Mars together and go so far as to give the corporation the privilege of an exclusive independent colony.

Despite the clear upper hand, Blacklight Biotechnology was aware that it was not feasible to abandon the Earth Federation and move forward in the aeros.p.a.ce sector independently. Chen Chen knew that even if he utilized all the aeros.p.a.ce technology obtained from the USB drive, civilization development was still a group effort at the end of the day. His potential was greatly limited if he were to stray from the pack and he was more likely to face his demise sooner than later by doing so.

Therefore, what Chen Chen needed to do was to find a delicate balance between Blacklight Biotechnology and the Earth Federation. In the process of attaining this balance, he would try to negotiate the best terms possible that could benefit his side.

After Little X had explained everything to Chen Chen, he decided it was time to test his Field to see what changes had occurred. It seemed that the two ma.s.ses of energy in his mind were yet to fuse completely.

After conducting several tests on his Field, he realized that the potency of Field had improved by roughly ten percent, but there was a significant drop in its precision. Once, he was able to observe the structure of matters by magnifying them a thousand times but he was only able to achieve a magnification of roughly eight hundred times now.

This seemed to be the drawback of the fusion of Field energy and psionic energy.

Even after conducting a series of experiments, Chen Chen was yet to discover the uses of psionic energy. It seemed that he still needed some time before he could fully take advantage of this newly-attained mysterious power.