502-505

Chapter 502: Investigate

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A Mark-1 drone circled in mid-air.

It flew thousands of kilometers into the distance and only returned when the battery was low. Everything it photographed along the way was automatically compiled by the computer to form a detailed map of the other world.

On the other side of the light spot — in reality, this sea region had been completely blocked off by warships from the four continents of the Earth Federation. Except for the ships of the foundation, any ships of any other parties were not allowed to approach within a radius of 100 miles of this area.

At this time, several survey ships transformed from freighters were parked side by side under the light spot. Countless materials, android, and drones were constantly being transported into the light spot, turning the previous outpost into a sturdier fortress.

The purpose for doing this was to prevent possible attacks from other world's creatures.

Currently, many researchers had also been transferred to one of the modified freighters and a large number of research institutes had been built on the flat deck. At this time, a group of researchers was in a hall, looking at the huge suspended screen with great surprise.

"What the h*ll is this..."

Everyone stared at the picture taken by one of the drones. In the picture, an endless jungle had blanketed the ground, but unlike ordinary jungles, this jungle was all made of flesh and blood. The endless flesh and blood had formed a sea and it was still spreading all the time. It seemed ready to devour the entire world at any time...

The jungles, mountains and rivers, and even the ruins of a city were all covered by that peculiar flesh and blood.

"The map has been charted within a radius of thousands of kilometers..."

One of the young researchers came to Professor Will and reported in a low voice, "Compared to reality, it has been determined that the location of the Rosen bridge in the other world is Oregon, Northern America, and its many landforms and towns seemed to correspond to the real world's. The only difference is that these towns have been occupied by that weird flesh and blood."

"Have you found a living person?"

Professor Will frowned and asked.

"No."

The researcher shook his head. "There are indeed many plants and animals in this world and they are the same as in reality, but there are no traces of human beings or you could say, the endless flesh and blood once used to be..."

At this point, the young researcher did not continue.

Professor Will suddenly understood.

After studying the earliest batch of flesh and blood, Professor Will discovered that the flesh was composed of human DNA and it was the DNA of many humans. It seemed that countless humans' flesh and blood had mixed to form what they encountered today.

"It's really scary..."

At this moment, a new professor-level researcher came in. He walked to Will and sighed. "Will, you should come and see what we've found. There are new discoveries in the living areas. "

"Oh?"

Will turned his head in surprise. "Eugene, what did you find?"

"You'll know soon enough."

The professor called Eugene turned around and walked out of the research hall without explaining.

Seeing this, Will followed him out. He and Professor Eugene came to a workshop by the side. This workshop was different from the hall earlier. It was specifically responsible for monitoring the outpost. At this time, this workshop's screen was showing footage from the four living areas.

"Living Area A has been completely sealed off and all members of the task force inside have died due to resistance"

Professor Eugene stated, "But before they died, I observed many unusual phenomena."

As he said, he tapped the thin air lightly, and suddenly, on the screen suspended above everyone's head, the video clip that was recorded before automatically played.

In a room full of red secretions, four weird-looking monsters with tentacles and flesh and blood all over their bodies were sitting on their beds like human beings. They were also wearing gray pajamas given by the task force. At this time, their pajamas had already been stained red by the secretions.

However, this red was not the dark red of blood but a light red like ketchup and it was more viscous than blood. These four monsters were in non-human form and their necks were stretched to over half a meter long. The faces that once had human features had also become a mass of flesh and blood and it was no longer possible to tell who was who.

However, they still seemed to maintain human behavior...

One of the monsters hit the wall with a tentacle, but the monster next to it stood up and pulled the monster back, seeming to be dissuading it.

Another monster placed its head against the wall and then spit out sticky bubbles as if to say something.

Then, the other three monsters also came to the wall one after another, copying the actions of the first monster and sticking their heads to the wall.

"Can you hear what they are saying?"

Seeing this, Professor Will could not help being a little curious.

"Their pitch is somewhat like a human pitch, but it's vague and indistinguishable."

Professor Eugene shook his head. "But the amazing thing is that they were communicating in this language and there was no barrier at all. This is incredible..."

"In other words, they are likely to still retain a human mind?"

Professor Will's eyes lit up.

"No, they don't have a human mind."

Professor Eugene sped up the video. Soon, one of the monsters suddenly stood up and slammed into the door with a horrifying roar!

"Boom!"

In the video, the door of the dormitory was only hit a few times before being knocked down by a huge impact. Then, the four monsters rushed to the XTN robot guarding the door.

Then, the XTN robot started shooting...

When the shooting ceased completely, all the monsters were pulverized.

"This is the last dormitory in the Living Area A and those in the rest of the dormitories also died because of the monster's loss of control."

Professor Eugene concluded. "The members of the task force who are infected and mutated will become very emotionally unstable and will even actively attack XTN robots, yet they show signs of communication similar to those of humans. I'm not very sure whether they still retain their consciousness after the mutation."

"I have some doubts too."

Professor Will nodded. "If they still keep their consciousness, why don't they cooperate with us but instead attack the robot with the gun? If they don't keep their consciousness, what are they doing when they seem to be communicating? These are all mysteries."

After this exchange between the two, the video fast-forwarded again and soon Professor Will discovered that a new and unusual situation had appeared...

The corpses of the task force that had been shredded into several pieces were fusing at a visible speed. In the end, a new mud-like creature with several monster heads and dozens of arms and tentacles, was formed on the ground!

"They fused..."

Seeing this scene, Professor Will's pupils shrank even more because no matter how he looked at this puddle of flesh and blood, it looked like the flesh and blood jungle he had seen before. The only difference was that this one was much smaller.

"The jungle formed by flesh and blood, as expected, was made from humans..."

Professor Eugene said in a deep voice, "Will, what do you think?"

"I just want to know how are things in the three living areas of B, C, and D, and are there any signs of infection?"

"None so far."

Eugene replied, "We've determined that this 'infectious disease' was brought back by Boris. He brought the 'infectious disease' back to the living area due to his injury, which caused the entire Team East Crow to be infected. Plus, this kind of 'infectious disease' cannot be detected by modern medicine. In addition to the dermatosis-like rash, there's only one other early symptom and that is... Hunger."

"Hunger?"

Will turned his head. "Will the infected person eat a lot?"

"Yes."

Professor Eugene nodded. "Perhaps it's to store energy for their future mutation. My team has summarized the corresponding patterns — in the early stages of infection, all task force members had ingested large amounts of food and the earliest infected patient, Boris, as he was outside, constantly injected himself with highly concentrated glucose. This is something that the other teams have seen, so the evidence is sufficient.

"Then, in the middle stage of infection, the infected person will experience extreme excitement and secrete a lot of adrenaline at the same time, which will cause them to become abnormally worked up. At the same time, their bodies will also grow many sarcomas close together. For this reason, in such an agitated state of mind, they may engage in self-harm behavior because their brains have received enough adrenaline to block out the pain."

Professor Eugene continued to say, "After that, in the late stage of infection, the skin of the infected person begins to decay and fall off, and the muscles and fat of the whole body are automatically transformed into this special flesh and blood structure. This flesh and blood will gradually cover the entire body of the infected person. Their necks will be elongated and their faces and limbs will be deformed, losing their human appearance. During this mutation, they will enter a state of suspended animation. When they wake up again, they will have completed the mutation and become a walking lump of flesh.

"From the early stage to the late stage, the infection time is about 48 hours, which means that once you're infected, you'll only have 48 hours to live."

Hearing Professor Eugene's analysis, Will nodded. "Well done. So what's the method of infection? Have you figured it out here?"

"Airborne."

There was a dark glint in Professor Eugene's eyes and then he smiled. "It's certain that many infected people had not come into contact with the 'first infected body', Boris. The only thing they have in common is that they are in the same living area as Boris... It's terrible to think of. Such a horrifying infectious disease is spread through the air...

"And we found many spore-like particles in Living Area A. These particles were suspended in the air and are invisible to the naked eye. If our guess isn't wrong, this is the culprit of this infectious disease."

"I see."

Will sighed. "Now, we can only pray that there will be no incubation period for this infectious disease. For at least three years, I don't want the remaining three task forces to return to reality."

"Of course, for the safety of the earth, I hope they are prepared to die in the other world."

Professor Eugene shrugged. "Let's move on. I need a new batch of experimental materials including mammals, cold-blooded animals, primates, and even fish. I want to experiment with all animals and plants, see if they are immune to this type of infectious disease. At the same time, I still need death row prisoners to carry out more complete experiments."

"Understood, these will be delivered."

Will replied. As the person in charge of this operation, only he had the right to apply to the foundation for all experimental supplies.

...

Next, experiments on this infectious disease continued.

In accordance with the importance of this infectious disease, most of the best biologists, physiologists, and various doctors had been dispatched from the four continents. These people would sign a confidentiality agreement to ensure that they would not divulge anything about this matter, otherwise, they would be severely punished.

In the outpost of the other world, at this time, a larger experimental center was being built. Hundreds of animal and plant samples were transported here and a group of death row prisoners from all over the world was also brought here.

The most precious ones here were these death penalty prisoners. Today in 2028, many countries in the world had abolished the death penalty. These death penalty prisoners were even purchased from foreign countries at the expense of the four continents. They would bear the heavy burden of the human experiments, providing enough clinical data for humans to find out the regularity of this meme.

At this time, in an open-air courtyard surrounded by a 30-meter-high steel wall, several monsters composed of flesh and blood were huddled together. These monsters kept spitting bubbles as if they were talking about something and during the conversation, they also did small movements similar to humans such as scratching their heads and touching their noses.

This was the third day that the death row prisoners were infected with this meme.

It was only at the end of the second day that these condemned prisoners had mutated one after another, gaining an appearance filled with flesh and blood and deformed limbs.

Chapter 503: Flower of Flesh

As time went on, they started to notice abnormal behavior inside these strange creatures.

It happened on the sixth day since the commencement of the experiment.

The researchers noticed that these creatures ate any and everything they could find. Any humans or animals that were not infected that came within a thirty-meter vicinity of these creatures were indiscriminately mowed down.

When the researchers held back on feeding the creatures, they would resort to eating the grass and various other plantations around them.

To determine if the creatures could starve to death, Professor Will decided to stop feeding them for three days. On the first day, the creatures did not display any abnormal symptoms. They remained in the yard and continued to loiter around aimlessly.

By the second day, the creatures were starting to become restless. They tried to search for sources of food but their efforts proved fruitless since they could not climb out of the yard.

By the third day, something unprecedented happened...

"Will, look.."

Eugene pointed at the display and called for Professor Will's attention, "Just as expected, these 'Xenophorbs' are exhibiting new behaviors."

Xenophorb was the name they had given to these products of memetic infection.

Will immediately turned to the display. Positioned in the center of the yard was a slab of what seemed to be a plant formed of flesh that appeared out of nowhere. The plant was about three meters in diameter and took on an irregular, circular form. It laid on the bare ground like a filthy rug coated in flesh.

The bare shape of what seemed to be arms and legs could be seen poking out of the rug. There was even the bare shape of a deformed head stretched to the length of half a meter...

Coincidentally, as soon as the researchers noticed this, one of the Xenophorbs approached this strange plant. It proceeded to kneel in front of the plant and tore out a chunk from the plant using its sharp claws before stuffing it in the holes on its body.

"Are they cannibalizing each other?"

Professor Will turned to Eugene with a baffled expression.

"No, this is more like 'sharing burden'."

Eugene chuckled. "Looks like it, doesn't it? They would sacrifice themselves and transform themselves into a plant-like form to extract nutrients from the ground and allow their peers to eat them. Isn't it a noble sight to behold? Just like Jesus."

Will had to do a double take upon hearing this remark. It was a good thing he was not a Christian, otherwise, he would kill Eugene with his bare hands for making such a statement.

"But..."

Will suddenly asked when a thought came to him, "After they root themselves into the ground and transform into a 'plant', do they grow as regular plants do?"

"Of course."

Eugene answered with a nod, "It rooted itself into the ground at early dawn and its total surface area has grown by approximately ten percent since then. This is after its peers have eaten some parts of it. If not for the other Xenophorbs eating it, this Xenophorb that rooted itself into the ground would've been far larger by this point."

"Out of our expectations, but it does make sense."

Will reflected on their findings. "Now, we have an explanation of how the valley covered in flesh came to formation."

Will turned to Eugene again. "Get yourself ready, the higher-ups just issued a new order. In a few days, the four major continents will dispatch robotic troops into the alternate dimension with napalm and incendiary bombs to take care of the mass of flesh in the mountains. After all, the only thing that fazes these things is fire."

"So, they are going to deal with the Xenophorbs in the area? That's a good idea."

Eugene chuckled dryly. "The only thing we should be concerned about now is whether or not these Xenophorbs will retaliate against us. It's a wise move to take the initiative and purge them.

"In addition to cleaning up the Xenophorbs with several thousand kilometers radius of the portal, they will also be fortifying the outpost."

Will added. "We'll make this place a fortress to protect the real world from a Xenophorb invasion. Speaking of which, it's good news that this meme cannot travel across water."

Will gazed at the endless ocean outside the window as he noted this. "Which gives our world a huge advantage."

"Of course..."

Eugene turned to look outside as well. "All we can do now is pray that this infectious disease doesn't make it to our world..."

...

The foundation was maintaining its efforts in exploring the dimension behind the Rosen bridge.

Fortunately, with the XTN robots bolstering the military force, mankind was able to dispatch enough resources to explore the alternate dimension. With the vast amount of observation conducted on these Xenophorbs, they managed to figure out certain sets of behavioral patterns.

For instance, in the initial stages of turning into Xenophorbs, the creatures still displayed human-like behavior. This included a range of behavior such as holding conversations, moving, and expressing as they once would while still living.

The most common sign was that the Xenophorbs would preserve their ability to interact socially. During Professor Eugene's observation, he often noted the Xenophorbs gathered in groups of three to five and conversed as regular humans would.

The foundation specifically hired dozens of well-known linguists all over the world and they managed to translate a portion of the Xenophorb language.

The results of this translation proved to be rather surprising. The language the Xenophorb spoke was largely identical to English. The only problem was that their pronunciation made it difficult for humans to understand them.

The dialogue between the Xenophorb sent chills down one's spine. The Xenophorbs had the impression that they were still alive. Additionally, due to their cognitive systems malfunctioning, they were unable to detect the drastic changes in themselves as well as their peers. On the contrary, when they met regular humans or the robots sent to their dimension, their reactions ranged from fear to panic, sometimes even anger or sheer madness.

This meant that in the eyes of these Xenophorbs, they saw humans and other organic life forms as monstrous beings instead...

In their fit of rage and delusion, they would massacre and tore this organic life form into pieces. After the work was done, their senses that were muddled at that point would see the torn chunks of flesh as great delicacies to be savored.

There was one occasion where an inmate given the death sentence was torn apart by a pack of Xenophorbs. According to the linguists, the Xenophorbs that saw the exposed brain of the inmate started exclaiming that there was a gigantic block of delicious jelly on the ground. The Xenophorbs proceeded to get in a row over who could devour the brain of the inmate...

However, these behaviors were only temporary. As the Xenophorbs started to become more twisted, the structure of their brain became altered as well. Around the sixth to the eighth day, whatever was left of their humanity was completely drained away until they turned into walking sacks of meat conditioned to kill any humans on sight.

Additionally, in situations of food shortages, some of the Xenophorbs had the natural instinct to root themselves into the ground and morphed themselves into a plant-based Xenophorb. There was no discernible pattern to determine which Xenophorb would do this. They did not specifically scour for the most fertile plot of land either. It was merely an act of instinct.

As long as the Xenophorb felt that the location was appropriate, it would root itself into the ground regardless of how fertile the land was. The Xenophorb would then proceed to grow by absorbing the nutrients in the ground...

Most of the underlying principles of this memetic entity had been unraveled.

With this, another item was added to the Blacklight Foundation's memetic entity database. This was the third entry, preceded by This Man and Weeping Angel. Its name was...

[Memetic effect: Flower of Flesh and Blood.]

[Origin: 6 August, 2028. Indian Ocean, Latitude 22.1°S Longitude 57.5°E. An Einstein-Rosen bridge that led to an alternate dimension was discovered at this location. The new memetic effect was discovered in the alternate dimension.]

[Description: "Flower of Flesh and Blood" is a memetic effect with an infectious quality that is effective on any organic life forms. Its method of infection is airborne. The "Flower of Flesh and Blood" exists in two different forms, categorized as 'Xenophorb' and 'plant-based' forms.]

[Symptoms: The initial symptoms of infection includes rash, itching, and mild bleeding, accompanied by extreme hunger. During this period, the food intake of the infected increases drastically, consuming up to three to five times as much food. The frequency of food consumption is also greatly increased.]

[After approximately ten hours, the infected will enter the middle stages of the infection process. Around this point, tissue proliferation will begin to occur on the surface of the body of the infected which will spread to the legs and back region. The infected's nerve center becomes over-stimulated which tends to lead to signs of agitation, self-harm, and such.]

[In the later stages of the infection, lumps of sarcoma will spread throughout the body and overtake the humanoid features of the infected. The body of the infected becomes completely deformed with tentacles protruding at various sections. Their aggression continues to increase at this point and their perception becomes distorted by the memetic effect. The infected becomes extremely hostile toward any organic life form which includes but is not restricted to humans and will indiscriminately attack any life forms that enter within a thirty-meter range. The infected now enters the 'Xenophorb' form.]

[Morphing: In such circumstances where there is a shortage of food, some of the infected will alter their forms by finding a suitable spot for them to root themselves into the ground. This process transforms them into what seems to be a carpet of fungus composed of a mesh of flesh and blood. This is the second form of the infected, the 'plant-based' form. In this state, the infected can absorb nutrients from the ground to survive and grow. Meanwhile, its infected peers that remain in the initial 'Xenophorb' form can cannibalize the infected in the second form to sustain themselves.]

[Weakness: Research shows that the Flower of Blood and Flesh is extremely susceptible to high temperature. Fire can be used to halt the spread of the infected in plant-based form. High-temperature environments also drastically lengthen the overall infection process. The Flower of Blood and Flesh is also unable to transmit itself across water sources or in a vacuum space.]

[Note: Once infected, the lifespan of the infected victim is immediately put on the countdown. Currently, there are no recorded cases of recovery from this condition.]

Chen Chen was in his office, reading the detailed written report on his computer. He wore a pensive look upon his face as he noted these findings.

"Sir Godfather, how would you rate the foundation's overall performance of this expedition?"

Little X asked.

"Overall, I'd say I'll give it a 60 out of 100, just enough to receive a passing grade."

Chen Chen answered dryly, "A few notable points is the slow response speed in the initial stages as well as the high-level officials bickering among themselves during the initial meeting. Things became better once the operation officially commenced. The foundation has had its moments of brilliance during the exploratory stages of this memetic effect. The only major concern is that they nearly brought it into the real world..."

"That's rather impressive already."

Little X noted, "After all, this is the first time this crew of researchers dealt with any memetic entities. Although the memetic effect we've released is considered a less lethal variant, it still posed a considerable amount of threat. The fact that it only took them twenty days to figure out how the meme operated is a testament to the quality of this research team."

"That's true."

Chen Chen smiled. "We've already achieved our primary objective, which is to beat a sense of urgency into the four major continents. This will give them the incentive to speed up the signing of the 'Blacklight Foundation Agreement' with other countries around the world.

"In addition, the four continents are preparing to establish official logistics networks to work in conjunction with the foundation. Once these organizations are properly established, the efficiency of communication and cooperation between the associated parties should see significant improvements. It seems that my efforts to expose the Flesh Carpet meme wasn't in vain..."

Chen Chen turned to look at his table upon mentioning this. There was a tightly sealed, completely transparent petri dish set on the table.

Inside the petri dish was a chunk of flesh only the size of a piece of fingernail. The chunk of flesh was the beet-red color of a tomato and it squirmed around in the petri dish as if it was sentient. Dense collections of tentacles could be seen sticking out of the chunk of flesh.

This chunk of flesh was what Chen Chen had placed into the Resident Evil dimension. It was the product of Chen Chen's first memetic experiment performed several years ago.

Several years ago, an organization opposing Blacklight Biotechnology known as "White Embers" was established in the European region. They constantly opposed Blacklight Biotechnology's operations and even conjured plots to assassinate significant members of Blacklight.

In a fit of rage, Chen Chen captured all of the members of the organization which totaled up to several hundred. He had them all thrown into a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean where he would conduct a gruesome experiment.

In the end, all three hundred plus members of White Embers met their demise on the island. The memetic experiment turned out to be a complete success and that was where the unique memetic entity was formed – the Flesh Carpet.

It was a unique memetic effect that was a hybrid plant-based meme with infectious qualities. Anyone who was infected by this meme would turn into a carpet of flesh. Since it was susceptible to fire and was unable to transmit across bodies of water, it was the perfect subject as the first trial of the foundation.

Just like how armies needed to conduct large-scale military training and exercises to gain combat experience, the foundation required appropriate training for its operations as well. This process of trial and experimentation was how they could detect certain flaws in their operation and improve upon them.

The need to train the members of the foundation was only a secondary objective. The primary objective which Chen Chen emphasized was to ensure the four major continents prioritized this matter.

Chapter 504: Ares Project

While the foundation as well as the four major continents directed their collective attention to the Resident Evil dimension, a new announcement was put up on the Blacklight Biotechnology official site.

The "Ares Project" which Blacklight Biotechnology had been preparing for three years and invested more than fifty billion U.S. dollars into was commencing soon.

The name Ares came from the name of the God of War in ancient Greek mythology. Ares was one of the twelve Olympian gods. He represented strength and war.

The "Ares Project" was also known as the "Mars Scientific Colonization Project". The details of the project was as follows:

To dispatch humans to Mars within two years and establish Mars research outpost, subsequently establishing human colonies on the surface of Mars within five years.

Why did Blacklight Biotechnology choose Mars?

Apart from the nine planets of the Solar System, there was also a vast collection of other planets. For instance, several planets orbiting around Jupiter and Saturn were far larger than any other planets of the Solar System.

The Kuiper Belt surrounding the solar system was also home to several dwarf planets looming in its darkness.

However, among all these planets, only Mars had an environment closest to Earth.

Due to its proximity to the sun, the temperature of Mercury during the day reached 427°C and as low as -173°C during the night. With such harsh temperature fluctuations, it was completely ruled out as a habitable planet for mankind.

Venus was the planet that was closest to Earth except for the moon, but the environment on Venus was as hellish as Mercury. Its atmospheric pressure was at least 90 times stronger than that of Earth and its surface temperature reached up to 470°C. There was no distinctive difference in seasons or representation of a daytime cycle either.

Meanwhile, Jupiter and Saturn were both gaseous planets. The temperature of Jupiter's Galilean moon, Europa, was also far too low to accommodate humans.

Of all the options, only Mars provided the most optimistic living conditions. Although its diameter was only half of the earth and its mass only 11 percent of the earth, its landmass was equivalent to the total landmass of Earth. Its surface gravity was two and a half times that of the moon and two-fifths of the earth.

The atmospheric density of Mars was only one percent of that of the earth, but it could still achieve the familiar greenhouse effect. The average temperature of Mars was about minus 55°C, but its temperature during daytime in the summer was close to identical to that of the earth.

Of all the challenging options, Mars stood out among the rest of them as the most ideal planet for colonization.

As soon as the announcement was put up, the people who were paying close attention to these developments were the first ones to notice it.

Blacklight Biotechnology was the definitive, most influential technology company of the earth that brought revolutionary changes to the world by ushering in the "Anti-aging Era" and "Bionic Prosthetic Era". Therefore, it had amassed a cult following of hundreds of millions of followers. This was the new generation equivalent of "Apple fans".

This was not any kind of feverish worship that was going to be short-lived. Blacklight Biotechnology had cemented its reputation with one technological innovation after another.

From a generation-defining advent like the age-reversal treatment that cured the curse of old age to the Blacklight vaccine that saved billions of people in the world. After that came hundreds of cancer-targeted drugs, then the cure to Alzheimer's disease... Blacklight Biotechnology had completely taken over the biomedicine sector in the Earth Federation!

This was why plenty of scientists regularly hung around the official website of Blacklight Biotechnology. This was the communication and discussion hub for thousands of scientists and researchers. Blacklight Biotechnology also made sure to invest its resources to manage the forum in an organized manner so that the scientists had an ideal spot for their discussions. The forum of Blacklight Biotechnology had at this point become a sacred hub of scientific knowledge exchange for scientists from all over the world.

There were six sections on the homepage of Blacklight Biotechnology's official website, namely:

Bio-pharmaceutical, bionic medical, service and security, electronic technology, mineral resources, and military and aerospace. The six major sectors were represented by six colors which were respectively green, white, gray, yellow, black, and blue. Everything was recognizable at one glance.

At this time, there was a large flashing exclamation mark icon on the military and aerospace sectors.

The giant exclamation mark drew the attention of countless people around the world and they immediately selected it.

A five-minute-video immediately popped up. The title of the video jumped at the screen in the form of an enlarged, bolded text:

Ares Project – Mars Scientific Colonization Expedition Officially Commences!

The first thing that appeared on screen when the video was played was a futuristic spaceship with two gigantic dual-jet engines installed on both sides of its hull. The spaceship sparkled and glowed with silvery rays. It seemed like a magnificent work of art framed on the display.

It was the designated spacecraft of the Ares Project. The spaceship that would send humans to Mars, it was the Ares.

The picture of Ares only appeared for several frames before it was cut out. The video continued with the slow, somber tone of a man speaking.

"Human beings have existed for millions of years since their first appearance on Earth. We have dreamt of great visions for millenniums.

"In ancient times, when humans gazed upon starry sky, they always imagined what the stars and moons were made of. Were they astral embodiments? Were there other lands out there? What kind of tales were there in the places above...

"We conjured stories and fables such as the story of The Goddess Chang's flight to the moon and The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl. We've written myths and stories of space travel..."

A profound montage of different folklores and mythologies started to play on-screen following the tempo of the narrator's narration...

"Mankind first embarked on their venture into the stars in the sixteenth century. It first started with simple observations using inventions such as telescopes. It was not until the 1960s that humans landed on the moon for the first time..."

Suddenly, a man dressed in a medieval robe appeared on the display. Under the moonlight, he polished the lens of a telescope using his robe and suddenly paused mid-motion. He then slowly raised his head and pointed the telescope at the moon outside the window. He had an expression that seemed like he was mesmerized by what he saw through the lens...

A deep and heavy accordion sound played through the speakers after that. It was a somber, grave tune that represented a significant starting point in history.

"Every time mankind takes another step forward in space discovery, it's marked as another significant milestone in the history of space travel..."

The video flashed and showed the scene of the first human rocket launch, then the first landing on the moon. The black and white pictures intertwined into one another and despite the poor resolution of these pictures due to the era in which they were produced, it was clear that history was being made at these points in time.

"But there has never been such a day as now when mankind has come this close to other extraterrestrial planets..."

The narrator suddenly altered his tone. The background tunes of the grand piano suddenly picked up momentum as well. Like a pebble dropped into a still pool, the ripples were starting to form and spread across.

The spaceship that appeared during the first segment of the video appeared on screen again. It was coated in a paint of bright silver and a string of texts detailing its statistics appeared on the screen.

"Ares. Length: 52.3 meters. Width: 21.1 meters. Height 15.5 meters. Weight: 780 tons. Fitted with four engines and powered by two nuclear engines.

"The spacecraft is divided into three floors including the bridge, medical bay, laboratory, and six living rooms. It can carry 16 passengers.

"The spacecraft can also carry about 200 tons of cargo and about 20 tons of fuel..."

The video started to show a clip of the Ares taking off. Columns of radiant blue lights burst out of the large reactor engines mounted along both sides of the spacecraft.

Propelled by this tremendous force, the spacecraft started to rise and accelerate gradually...

This clip was a digital render but it was extremely realistic to a point where one would easily confuse it with the real thing unless they were informed beforehand.

"We're entering a new era. Where you and I stand now is the footnote of one era. This moment that we're witnessing is the new exclamation point that will usher the new era. From today, mankind will officially enter the era of cosmic immigration..."

The trombone blared aggressively, mixed with the rowdy cheer of an excited crowd, the volume of the male narrator was slowly rising as well!

"From today, the status of mankind will officially leap from being what was once 'native planet dwellers' to 'interstellar travelers'!

"From today onward, the earth that we call home will no longer only be home, but be known as the origin of human civilization!

"From today on, we'll enter a new chapter of the book of mankind. Join us as Blacklight Biotechnology brings all of us into the new age and rewrites history as we know it!"

The background music picked up in momentum and volume, bringing the video to an exclamation point as it approached the end. After that, the music slowly died down and soon faded out.

In the end, the only music that lingered was a low, dragged-out hum that seemed to drain away all other sounds in the world.

The end of the video was marked with a giant black sentence stamped on top of a white display – registration for being a colonist of Project Ares begins on 1 July 2028!

Within an hour of the release of this video, the traffic of Blacklight Biotechnology's site skyrocketed from around a hundred thousand to tens of millions of times per hour. Even the website's server crashed momentarily due to the sheer amount of traffic that overloaded it!

The same video was also reposted across tons of major websites and media outlets, immediately spreading the news to the world.

[The new age of mankind? Blacklight Biotechnology has launched an extraterrestrial colonization program. Earth will no longer be the only home for mankind] – The Wall Street Journal.

[The only company in the Earth Federation that has what it takes to legitimize space colonization. Blacklight Biotechnology has sped out the development of technology by another fifty years] – BBC News.

[Movie or real life? Blacklight Biotechnology's "Ares Project" draws comparison to popular cult classics like "Alien" and "Prometheus Project". How far away are humans to space colonization? ]- Tencent News.

[Will Blacklight Biotechnology become the single most influential body in the history of mankind?] – Sina Express.

[Space travel, to infinity and beyond! We've waited decades for this, Buzz Lightyear's claims are no longer a pipedream!] – YouTube News.

The people were once again in a frenzy!

As early as two years ago, Blacklight Biotechnology had developed rocket technology and successfully sent a manned spacecraft to the moon. This also marked them as the third faction to send humans to the moon over the last century, trailing after Northern America and the North Sea Continent. Blacklight was the first private enterprise to send humans to the moon.

As a token of respect and support, the Earth Federation passed the application of Blacklight Biotechnology and allowed Blacklight to become the first company in the world to have space colonization qualifications.

However, Chen Chen was not content only with this. Over the next two years, Blacklight Biotechnology regularly flew rockets into space and to the moon where they would establish the first interplanetary research station on the moon for their crew of scientists. It was also open to scientists from all continents in the world to allow for further space research conducted outside of Earth.

By this point, there were nearly fifty researchers stationed on the moon all year round. Blacklight Biotechnology had designated spacecraft with charted routes to the interplanetary research station to transport supplies for the researchers bi-annually.

The reason why Blacklight Biotechnology could regularly transport between space and the earth was not merely due to their significant budget nor was it due to borrowed technology from SpaceX. It was due to the development of their "inertial confinement fusion reactor" technology.

It was a nuclear reactor that could convert fuel into energy only with the use of lasers. After the reactor was miniaturized, it was rendered into an engine with nuclear power thrust.

At one point, Chen Chen used the inertial confinement fusion reactor to charge the USB drive. However, the power generation of this was inferior to the later developed super tokamak reactor.

However, due to the incredibly intricate design process of the super tokamak reactor, Chen Chen decided to let out this technology to the four major continents. With the collaborative efforts of Blacklight Biotechnology and the major continents, they were able to achieve a breakthrough in this stem of technology and successfully put it into commercialized use.

Meanwhile, the inertial confinement fusion reactor remained the optimal choice for replacing thrust engines for spaceships. It allowed for spaceships to travel to other planets that were once considered unreachable at an extremely efficient fuel usage.

Just as Chen Chen had once declared – the day the inertial confinement fusion reactor was fully developed was the day that mankind's interstellar travel could commence properly.

Since the day Chen Chen made that declaration, Blacklight Biotechnology had secretly invested insurmountable amounts of time, effort, and research force into developing the inertial confinement fusion reactor. In the end, the engines for the Ares spaceship finally came to fruition.

The inertial confinement fusion engine was essentially a reduced version of the inertial confinement fusion reactor. Superconducting material was used to design a spherical shell where another tiny sphere formed with a mixture of deuterium and tritium was injected into the reaction chamber 2 million joules were ignited with a concentration of 192 electron beams onto a deuterium-tritium pellet with a measured diameter of less than few tenths of a millimeter. Each laser was activated at a regular interval of an average of three-billionths of a second. This triggered extreme high temperature and pressure that subsequently triggered a significant nuclear fusion reaction. This process generated enough thrust for the spacecraft to operate.

Based on data obtained from the experiment of the Ares spacecraft engine, the velocity generated could reach up to 7 percent the speed of light in vacuum conditions. With a total weight load of 500 tons, it could reach a maximum speed of 38.6 million meters per second, which was close to matt speed.

The engine would detonate what was two hundred and fifty 0.001 gram nuclear per second and maintain this continuously...

Since such innovation was too abrupt, Blacklight Biotechnology held off on disclosing the existence of the inertial confinement fusion engine to the outside world. He only claimed that the Ares used nuclear engine technology and was preparing to lead mankind's first landing on Mars to establish a scientific research station. This led to a hurricane of public reception.

Blacklight Biotechnology continued to remain a silent stance when countless people on the Internet raised questions regarding this mentioned "nuclear engine technology".

If Blacklight Biotechnology chose to maintain its silent disposition, not a single person in the world could force them to reveal their secrets...

Chapter 505: Mars Landing

As soon as Blacklight Biotechnology made the announcement of Ares' expedition, the ones who had been paying attention to this and concerned about the fate of mankind found reason to finally breathe a sigh of relief. Meanwhile, even the demographic who were not concerned with the latest science and technology developments also learned of the announcement from various media outlets. In an instant, Blacklight Biotechnology once again became one of the most trending topics online, even entering the top ten list of Sino Weibo's trending topics!

Sina Weibo trending topics:

. Xiao Zhan's finger cut – 100 million hits.

. Zheng Jie's toilet clog – 60 million hits.

. Chase the light, brother TV Show – 45 million hits.

. EXO announces new tour – 30 million hits.

...

It was right around this mark when he started to hear footsteps approaching him from somewhere in the house.

The man quickly hid the registration form and put the computer desktop on the display.

As soon as he completed this stealthy maneuver, the door was rudely flung open. A woman dressed in pajamas and wielded a sullen expression on her face appeared behind the door.

The moment the woman stepped into the room, her nose was invaded by the thick, musty smell of cigarettes. This only served to further sour her temper. "All you do is smoke and smoke. That's all you do every day, smoke and smoke, and smoke. When's the last time you got promoted? You bring home a measly several thousand each month. What can I do with this money? Bring your son with me to the corner store?"

The man slowly turned around and slurred his sentences as he spoke, "I know, I..."

Before he could finish, the sudden intruder stepped in front of the computer and took hold of the mouse. She promptly dragged it to the bottom bar on the desktop and selected the browser, which revealed the Blacklight Biotechnology official site.

"What are you doing?"

The man frowned unintentionally.

"Hehe, you're looking at this news again, what happened to overtime at work?"

She sneered. "God must've put a curse on me and made me end up with someone like you. You have as much money as you have ambition. I remember you bragging about staying in the same dormitory as the founder of Blacklight Biotechnology, that you two got along so well you were pretty much brothers. What happens now? He's got more money than some countries and can hardly remember someone like you ever existing. You have his number but you won't contact him. You could at least find some decent gig in Blacklight Biotechnology. At least your son and I would've something to show for, no?"

"Are you done?"

The man took a deep breath and did his best to suppress his boiling rage.

"What, too sour to admit that what I said is true?"

The woman pushed further with a heartless scoff. "You should be thankful that I'm sticking with you out of pity since your mother fell seriously ill last year and made you clean out your bank and fall into debt. You should be thankful I haven't asked for a divorce and here you are with the audacity to complain?"

The burning rage in the man's heart immediately died out as soon as he heard this. The sheer mention of this subject was his weakness.

"I even have to borrow money to buy money for powdered milk for our son!"

The woman continued. "We have no idea how we're going to pay for his kindergarten next year but that's alright because you still get to buy your precious cigarettes! All you do is smoke and smoke your worries away!"

After a barrage of verbal abuse, the woman finally had enough when she saw her husband had his head tapered to the ground at this point. She turned and left.

When the man heard the winding footsteps down the hall, he lost his mind and chuckled like a mad man. The final ounce of hesitation had left him as he once again pulled to the bottom section of the page and hammered the "Submit" button!

"Click!"

With the soft click of the mouse, a pop-up immediately appeared on the screen with the message: "Your submission is successful".

"Little Chen, I'm leaving my life in your capable hands from here on!"

A heavy gloom swept over his eyes as he mumbled the sentence softly.

...

Following the announcement issued by Blacklight Biotechnology, more than 10 million people had filled out the application form in just one day. Although the vast majority of them were regular office workers, there were a healthy number of high-value candidates as well. Even some well-known members of the scientific circles also filled out the registration forms and publicly declared their desire to become one among the first batch of colonists, and contribute to the progress of mankind while etching their mark in history.

Besides, Blacklight Biotechnology had never stated that one could never return to Earth after becoming a colonist on Mars. Blacklight Biotechnology kept promises that the colonists would still retain the citizenship of their respective continents on Earth. After the colony was properly established, a proper flight route would be established between the two planets so that sometime in the future, travel between Earth and Mars would become as commonplace as taking a flight and traveling to some countries on Earth. The colonists could submit their resignation letter and return to Earth at any time.

With the announcement of the Mars colonization project, the trading market of resources and land on Earth that had been getting increasingly tense for a while finally eased a little. Everything was slowly restoring to its natural state.

After all, the space had unlimited resources and space. With the prospect of space travel announced, the four major continents no longer saw it fit to scramble over the very limited resources on Earth. Instead, they shifted their focus to further developing their nuclear fusion reactors and to the galaxies above and beyond.

As the saying goes: Our goal is to the infinity and beyond!

With an eager crowd beholding the procession, the spacecraft Ares officially took off into space on the first of August 2028. The symbol of the hope of mankind soared into the atmosphere, powered by the ignited dreams of mankind as it bound for the distant Mars.

Each of the four major continents had three representatives each in the investigation team for the current expedition. The twelve of the representatives with another additional four members of Blacklight Biotechnology made up the crew of the investigation team.

The Ares spacecraft also carried with it 200 tons of building materials, common supplies, a hundred XTN engineering robots of various types, 50 cyborgs, and several special-purpose drones.

The air density on Mars was extremely low reaching up to one percent of that of Earth while its gravity was only two-fifths of Earth's. Based on scientists' calculations, a drone manufactured with modern material and powered with the latest battery technology should still manage to take flight.

To obtain detailed data, the scientists of Blacklight Biotechnology specifically put together a testing device which was essentially a space simulator.

To simulate an environment as close to the Martian environment as possible, scientists first created a vacuum space inside the device. After that, a small amount of carbon dioxide was injected to achieve the same air composition as the Martian atmosphere.

Meanwhile, the scientists used a cable to direct upward directional force to "reduce weight" and simulate the appropriate gravity conditions.

The Ares with nuclear fusion engines only took a week before they arrived in the proximity of Mars. By the seventh day, the outline of a giant amber-red colored planet appeared outside the cabin window. It was so large that it took up the entire view outside.

The crew of scientists inside the cabin started to feel a faint gravitational force pulling them in. All objects inside the cabin were similarly affected by this faint thrusting force.

As time went on, this gravitational pull started to grow stronger.

As the group of scientists took in the view of the enormous planet before them, their breathing started to become erratic. If there was someone logging statistics for the Guinness World Record, this group would have shattered the record for longest distance traversed since they were more than a hundred million kilometers away from Earth.

This was a completely foreign territory never before explored by humans...

"Everyone, there's no need to worry. With the AI system, we'll be able to land effortlessly just like how it went when we departed Earth."

The Captain of Ares who was also a scientist of Blacklight Biotechnology suddenly said jokingly, "Dear passengers, we'll now be landing in Ultimi Scopuli, the southern pole of Mars. The only difference is that it's much colder than the South Pole on Earth. The temperature hovers from negative 70 degrees to negative 139 degrees. Don't worry, nothing that several extra layers of clothing can't solve.

"Sorry, that's not what we're concerned about."

Another European scientist somewhere in his forties shrugged. "Are you sure there's enough water on the South Pole of Mars for each of us to shower? I can't tell you how dirty I have got over the last seven days..."

"Ha ha ha!"

They laughed merrily.

"Don't worry, the polar cap of Mars is composed of ice and solid carbon dioxide. Many previous observations have confirmed that there's a large amount of water under the ice cover. Even if there's no water, we can melt the ice for us to use."

Although he knew it was a joke, the captain still addressed this brought up concern. "So, you don't need to worry about not getting to take a hot bath."

As they mingled with one another, the voice of the spacecraft's artificial intelligence broadcast interrupted them. "All crew members are advised to begin preparations. Ares has entered the gravitational range of Mars and will be merging into Mars' low-Earth orbit over the next twelve hours. Our destination is the Ultimi Scopuli located in the South Pole.

"To prevent any unwanted accidents, all crew members are advised to put on their spacesuits and enter the ejection capsule following the end of this announcement. Thank you for your cooperation!"

After the Ares artificial intelligence broadcast ended, the crew bumped fists with each other one last time. "See you on Mars", they said as they left the main cabin and went to the ejection capsules.