Chapter 250 Lin Sen Returns

Crisis Era Year 223.

Lin Sen's scientific team had been researching in four-dimensional space for five years and now had to consider returning.

There were several reasons:

First, the warship's resources were running low. In order to provide the scientists with enough resources, Lin Sen even dismantled 10 warships to supply the materials and carried resources for scientific research. Everyone would have to squeeze into the remaining ten warships.

Their resources had now reached the final warning line, and if they did not return, should they encounter unexpected situations, the entire fleet might be in danger.

Second, humanity had made significant breakthroughs in micro-level research. The Sophon's blockade on human foundational science had been completely shattered by humanity, who urgently needed to turn these theories into true human strength.

The research concerning four-dimensional space had also reached a bottleneck, and moreover, these were of little immediate use to humanity.

The one technology that could give humanity an advantage over the Trisolarans was likely the understanding of spatial dimensions.

Third, there had been no disturbances from Sophons so far, indicating that the Trisolarans had not discovered them yet. This might be due to the Sophon Blind Zone, which prevented them from searching indiscriminately with Sophons.

But if they did not return soon, there was still the possibility of being discovered by Trisolaran Sophons, and Lin Sen certainly didn't wish for the Trisolarans to discover this secret.

Regarding his long concealment, on the one hand, he could explain that he had encountered danger, with only 10 out of the 20 warships remaining, and even those ten were scarred by numerous meteorite strikes.

On the other hand, he could claim that it was part of his plan, staying hidden to make humans suspect that the Trisolarans had made their move.

It would force the Trisolarans to concede, to allow humans to capture that Trisolaran warship. Even if they could not capture it, at the very least they could negotiate some concessions.

Overall, it was to prevent the Trisolarans from deducing that humanity had made a significant breakthrough in foundational theory using four-dimensional space.

When the Trisolarans launched another attack on the Solar System, humanity's concealed strength could deliver a heavy counterblow to the Trisolarans.

So, if humanity truly wanted to defeat the Trisolarans, these technologies must be kept in absolute secrecy.

It was also unlikely for humanity to have another opportunity to research this four-dimensional space.

First, returning would reveal the secret of four-dimensional space;

Second, humanity's current technology was still primitive and couldn't properly decipher four-dimensional technology. Returning would be of little use, as most of what needed to be studied had been completed.

Now, the only thought everyone had was to quickly return to the Solar System and verify the theoretical achievements obtained during these five years.

The scientific research on the Solar System Accelerator could even be slowed down to misguide the Trisolarans about our technological progress.

Finally, the day for returning arrived, and everyone felt a bit reluctant to leave. According to the rate at which four-dimensional space was diminishing, perhaps in another 50 years, this four-dimensional space would completely reduce to three dimensions.

The ten battle-scarred warships began their journey home. Since there were no concerns about secrecy on the return journey, the warships were able to accelerate to 15% of the speed of light, with an estimated arrival time in the Solar System in 10 years.

After traveling for a while, Lin Sen used neutrino communication to send a message to the Solar System, reporting that he had encountered a large number of meteorites and had lost his way in a fog, but was now on his way back.

When the Solar System received the message, both the human world and the Trisolaran world simultaneously breathed a sigh of relief.

If there had been no more news from Lin Sen, who knew what Logic would do, and this also made humanity truly feel the fear of being dominated by a Wallfacer.

...

Crisis Era Year 233.

Lin Sen's battered fleet had finally returned to the Solar System, thereby officially concluding a voyage that spanned 30 years.

The Solar System held a warm welcome ceremony, as the human world had always believed that Lin Sen had deliberately remained hidden in order to force the Trisolarans to compromise on the issue of greeting the Trisolaran Warship.

But seeing the fleet in such a battered state, both the human world and the Trisolaran world started to doubt their previous assumptions. Was Lin Sen really hiding on purpose?

By the looks of it, it might be true that he had encountered a major crisis.

After all, half of the warships never made it back, and there were casualties numbering in the thousands; compared to the extensive damage sustained by the warships, however, such casualties could be considered relatively small.

Many could even surmise how excellent the fleet's commander must have been to preserve the majority of lives in such circumstances.

The loss of life aboard Lin Sen's fleet indeed had been substantial, primarily occurring during explorations and research into four-dimensional space where accidents were frequent.

Fortunately, the artifacts left behind by the higher civilizations in four-dimensional space did not target humanity; just as Ding Yi and others had analyzed, if they had really wanted to take action, they would have done so the first time humans entered that space.

They were merely unintentional intelligent programs left by the higher civilizations in four-dimensional space, now close to a state of death. They wouldn't fight amongst themselves, much less strike at those "drawing."

Despite all this, dangers were ubiquitous in four-dimensional space.

The asteroid density in that area was high, but asteroids were not the most dangerous threat. The problem was that it was four-dimensional space.

In that place, anything could happen; maybe the next moment an asteroid would appear inside your head;

or perhaps suddenly your body would be sliced in two. Three dimensions have no protective measures against four dimensions. In four-dimensional space, the only thing you can rely on is luck.

Humanity's five-year survey and research into four-dimensional space resulting in only thousands of casualties was, in fact, incredibly fortunate.

Before the fleet returned, everyone had unified their stories, with sociologists and scientists together carefully crafting a strange tale of the fleet's experiences.

The warships had entered a region of asteroids and mist. To cope with various asteroid threats, the warships had slowed down and continuously altered their trajectory, getting lost in the fog without direction.

Since we weren't certain of our own location and had lost the position of the Solar System, we dared not use gravitational wave or neutrino communication to contact the Solar System. That would expose us too easily. I just kept searching for a way out in that fog, and it took five years to finally get out.

This fabricated story of bizarre experiences included a script for each person. Upon their return to the Solar System, they still needed to roughly discuss their "perilous experiences."

The goal was to confuse the Trisolarans, to lead them to misjudge the rate of human scientific development, and to prevent them from sending Sophons to explore that area of four-dimensional space.

The important data from the research in four-dimensional space was all stored in the Sophon Shielding Room, and everyone understood how crucial this information was for all of humanity.

Ever since humanity had the Sophon Shielding Room, there was no longer a need to keep playing overt games with the Trisolarans, as open strategies were more difficult than covert ones.

Now, there was virtually no room to use overt strategies in the struggle against the Trisolarans, and scheming would constitute the main approach for the future.

After the welcome ceremony, Lin Sen led the remaining ten warships near the Jupiter Orbit.

There were three main reasons for this:

First, two years ago, Rey Diaz had returned to the Solar System with a fleet of 49, accompanied by Trisolaran escape pods containing over two hundred Trisolarans, who were now near the Jupiter Orbit.

Second, Lin Sen needed to understand the latest progress of the Solar System Accelerator. It had been completed 12 years ago and was now working at full capacity to break through the Sophon blockade.

Third, Lin Sen had a new plan to execute here, proposed by scientists such as Ding Yi during their time in four-dimensional space.