Chapter 70: Hypercube_1

A day had passed, and after confirming that there were no signs of Kupa and the others in space, Cao Ge maneuvered the Space Shuttle to the original position of the Space Station. After piloting the shuttle into the planet's synchronous orbit, he entered the hibernation pod, setting the hibernation duration for one year.

As Cao Ge shut down the spacecraft's engines and entered hibernation, the area fell into complete silence.

Days passed, one after another.

The Space Shuttle rotated along with the planet's rotation.

Cagantuya was still there, ceaselessly absorbing the light from the universe, as though it wanted to devour everything.

............

"Click~"

A year had passed, and Cao Ge woke up from the hibernation pod.

"Cough, cough, cough~"

A pair of large hands reached out of the hibernation pod, grabbed the edge, and then heaved himself up abruptly.

"Swish~"

Water splashed as he brought it out of the hibernation pod with him.

Due to zero gravity, the water didn't fall but clung to his body instead.

Cao Ge opened his eyes amidst the water, the sensation of suffocation making him hurriedly wipe the water off his face.

Cao Ge climbed out of the hibernation pod and then floated in the spacecraft.

There was a cover around the hibernation pod to isolate the water inside. Such a cover was installed around the pod to prevent the water from splashing and affecting the spacecraft's systems when someone woke up.

The reason Cao Ge chose to hibernate in space and not on the ground was that his spacecraft was running low on fuel; if he went down, he might not have been able to get back up.

Unzipping the cover, Cao Ge floated out of the transparent cover and into the spacecraft.

After waking up, the first thing Cao Ge did was to go to the living area to get a towel. He absorbed the water still clinging to his body, then threw the towel back into the cover before zipping it up again.

Having dried off, Cao Ge returned to the living area, opened the clothing cabinet, put on a set of dry, comfortable clothes, and then slowly floated over to the pilot's seat.

Cao Ge rubbed his head that was still experiencing some aftereffects, then seated himself in the pilot's seat and buckled himself in.

And he just sat there resting.

It was a long time before he began to feel somewhat more alert.

He unstrapped himself again and then made his way to the living area, where he took out all the food from the cupboard, selected a few items, and then put the rest back.

After a hearty meal, Cao Ge slowly began to restore the control systems of the Space Shuttle.

"Murphy, locate Cagantuya."

"Location complete."

Almost instantly, Murphy provided an answer because Cagantuya was incredibly close, so near that it was visible to the naked eye.

"Then start the Space Shuttle and head towards Cagantuya at full speed," said Cao Ge, sitting in the pilot's seat and looking at the massive celestial body in the distance.

"Boom~"

A strong sense of acceleration hit him as the engines of the Space Shuttle emitted a blue flame, pushing him toward Cagantuya.

"Engines have been activated, the spacecraft will arrive at the gravitational field of Cagantuya in seven days."

The reason it would only take seven days was because the closer one got to Cagantuya, the faster the Space Shuttle's speed would become.

The gigantic gravitational pull would directly drag the shuttle towards it.

That was a gravitational force huge enough to warp space and time, capable of accelerating the Space Shuttle to an extremely frightening speed in a short time.

The seven days flew by in a flash.

The Explorer had reached the dazzling halo around Cagantuya and was still closing in on that place which was so dark that nothing could be seen.

Through the Space Shuttle's front window, Cao Ge saw a sight he might never again witness in his life.

To observe a black hole from such a close distance, there would likely not be a second chance in his life, and he didn't wish for one, either.

Time ticked by, and Explorer had reached the vicinity of the event horizon.

Cao Ge felt the space shuttle shaking violently.

Almost in an instant, as the forefront of the spacecraft touched that dark veil, the whole ship was engulfed in darkness.

He piloted the space shuttle into the interior of the black hole.

He wasn't torn apart, unsure if it was the black hole's nature or the High-dimensional Humans that had modified it, but he remained intact.

His civilization had zero understanding of black holes, so he didn't know if the situation was normal, yet he kept falling further down.

Inside his spacesuit, Cao Ge was tense, sweat continuously flowing from his sweat glands.

As he kept descending, a vast stream of particles emerged ahead of the spaceship, assaulting it constantly.

The computer aboard the spaceship had long lost control and was paralyzed.

The immense gravity exerted an invisible pressure on Cao Ge; he gasped for air as the rattling of the spacecraft grew louder, signaling it was nearing disintegration, but there was nothing he could do.

Without completing his mission, he simply couldn't use the Traverse feature.

Cao Ge had never longed to learn as much as he did today.

He desired power, to wield the technological might of the cosmos.

If he could master the high-tech control the High-dimensional Humans had over black holes, he wouldn't be in such dire straits, his fate completely in the hands of others.

At this moment, Cao Ge thought that if he could survive this ordeal, he must advance technology, develop cosmic-level tech.

"Bang!"

With a "bang", the spaceship disintegrated, and suddenly it was silent around Cao Ge's ears, slowly leaving nothing but the sound of his own heavy breathing.

Still encased in his spacesuit, Cao Ge kept plummeting.

Unsure of how long he had been falling, just as he was about to pass out, a cube appeared below him, which rapidly enlarged as he descended towards it.

In just a moment's time, Cao Ge had fallen into it.

Then, a mysterious force tugged at him, slowing his fall, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself within a tesseract.

It was a space with no boundaries in any direction, endless to the eye.

There, Cao Ge saw the scene Kupa had witnessed in the original drama, that infinitely extending room.

"Murphy, are you there?" Cao Ge pressed the button on his helmet to call out.

"Dr. Miller, I'm here."

"Can you observe the part of the data that Dr. Brand mentioned?" Cao Ge asked quickly, gasping for air.

"I can."

"Convert it to Morse code and read it to me," Cao Ge said.

Without waiting for Murphy's reply, Cao Ge went to the back of that wall of books, looking for the right spot.

Soon, he found the watch that was placed on the edge of the bookshelf.

Then he transferred the data Murphy read to him, bit by bit, back to Earth.

It was about half an hour later.

"Ding! Exploration completed!"

"Tesseract essence: One contiguous five-dimensional space."

"Hidden reward: A personal microcosm."

Almost the moment the system deemed the mission complete, Cao Ge chose to return.

Because he was afraid that the High-dimensional Humans would treat him as a disposable tool, to be used up and then captured for study.

In any case, he had completed his mission, and whatever happened to humanity on Earth was not his concern.