Chapter 284: Back to the Beginning_1

The camera's background is an endless star curtain, profound and dark.

In one corner of the frame, the sun occupies the view, looking somewhat dazzling in space; The Waterdrop reflects the sun's light, making it seem extraordinarily holy.

Jiang Yu watched the live broadcast of this experiment, which, aside from the forty-minute signal delay of the camera footage, also featured Jiang Shiliu's commentary, equally delayed by forty minutes:

"The first challenge our project team resolved was how to make the control system resist intense electromagnetic interference.

"Fortunately, we didn't encounter any technical issues; it's just that the cost of the experimental equipment skyrocketed by over a dozen times!"

"Okay, the final adjustments for JY101 (the experiment equipment number) are complete, three two one, launch!"

Jiang Yu saw a small patch of space in front of the camera suddenly distort—a distortion that rapidly approached The Waterdrop.

Then, a background-like commentary emerged: "What you see as distortion is the gravitational force altering the trajectory of light particles, not an actual space-time distortion!"

"I need to clarify something here; many people think that only black holes can interfere with the movement of photons, but in fact, any celestial body with sufficient gravity can do the same, such as the sun…"

"Okay, look, the small gravity field is touching The Waterdrop now!"

Jiang Yu couldn't help but frown, unsure how to describe Jiang Shiliu's poor commentary.

Moreover, although Jiang Shiliu kept saying "everyone," globally, fewer than ten people were watching this live broadcast, half of whom were from the Solar System State.

In the frame, as the small gravity field neared The Waterdrop, its tail clearly shifted due to the stirring of the gravity field, while The Waterdrop's big head didn't move a bit.

Jiang Shiliu sighed, "Oh no! There is an effect, but it's too small! Let's try launching from a closer distance to see if that works."

Following that, the camera started moving towards The Waterdrop.

As it advanced, Jiang Shiliu explained: "Some might be concerned that randomly launching such a gravity field could affect celestial movements or pose a threat to humanity's spaceships.

"I need to explain that, as several explorations of Venus ended in failure, there are only two flight paths between the Earth's interior side and the sun, with just a few spacecraft ascending and descending from these paths each year.

"Now, these spacecraft ascents and descents have also been canceled, but I won't explain why.

"Additionally, this gravity field experiences a phenomenon of 'field dissipation'; once launched, the field disappears after about ten thousand kilometers, and the reason for this 'field dissipation' is…"

In his mind, Jiang Yu thought: Why not just say the field will dissipate quickly? What's the need to mention all this irrelevant stuff?

But Jiang Shiliu's voice continued to drill into Jiang Yu's ears: "…the reason is that the dark matter in the field is very unstable and volatile…"

"Uh, this word might not be quite accurate, but I couldn't find a better one.

"In short, the dark matter will rapidly dissipate uncontrolled, causing the field to vanish.

"That's why I say we should try launching it again from a closer distance to see if it's more effective, as the field is strongest right when it's formed."

As Jiang Shiliu rambled on, the camera finally came very close to The Waterdrop.

For Jiang Yu, this was the first time observing The Waterdrop from such proximity; its smooth surface seemed to epitomize the purity of the universe, tempting one to reach out and touch it.

As Jiang Shiliu once again shouted, "Launch!"

The phenomenon of distorted light appeared again, this time The Waterdrop's tail sharply jolted as the field swept past it.

But The Waterdrop's head remained unmoved still, leaving the small gravity field to "depart in resentment."

Suddenly, the tail of The Waterdrop lit up, blacking out the camera.

Quickly, the image reappeared, but from a different angle now.

The Waterdrop's tail emitted a quick flash of light, and not far from its rear, a clump of molten metal waste material appeared.

Jiang Shiliu sighed, "Now let's try JY201. The principle of this device is to disintegrate the strong interaction force of The Waterdrop at the molecular level.

"We all know that among the four fundamental forces, electromagnetic force, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force can easily cancel each other out, or repel each other under certain conditions.

"The strong interaction force is an application of the strong nuclear force, if we can disintegrate the production of the strong interaction force at the microscopic level, then The Waterdrop will collapse on its own."

JY201 stopped not far from The Waterdrop, and two slender mechanical arms extended from the inside of the device.

At the tip of the mechanical arms was a thick rectangular piece of metal with many wires attached to it.

Once the metal plate touched The Waterdrop, Jiang Shiliu shouted, "Start working!"

On the rectangular metal plate, bright lights flashed urgently one after another.

The Waterdrop showed no reaction; for some reason, Jiang Yu seemed to see mockery coming from The Waterdrop: "Haven't eaten? Put some muscle into it!"

It was like a customer in a massage parlour complaining that the masseuse wasn't applying enough strength.

Jiang Shiliu sighed again, "I suddenly really want to punch the Trisolarans."

At that moment, another flash of light passed over the tail of The Waterdrop. A few seconds later, JY201 met the same fate as JY101, instantly liquefied by high temperature, then immediately cooled by the cold of space, turning into a pile of waste.

Jiang Shiliu lamented, "There goes a billion just like that."

He paused, then added, "Let me show everyone... Wait!"

Suddenly, a photo of The Waterdrop taken from a distance appeared on the screen. Jiang Shiliu enlarged a section of The Waterdrop's rear and spotted a blurry area.

Jiang Shiliu hurriedly said, "Take a clear photo of the rear!"

The photo was quickly taken and appeared in front of Jiang Yu.

This time, without Jiang Shiliu saying anything, Jiang Yu also noticed three rough spots on the shiny tail part of The Waterdrop.

Seeing this, Jiang Yu stood up excitedly: Jiang Shiliu's device had worked!

Jiang Shiliu, however, was not as excited as Jiang Yu, "A false alarm, let's take a look at the power of these two devices just now."

The following video had a noticeably different background from the earlier shots of The Waterdrop—it was much dimmer, although the potato-shaped asteroid was still clearly visible.

On the screen, there was an introduction, stating that this was a small asteroid with a diameter over a hundred meters.

At first, it seemed to be moving leisurely, but as the gravitational field from JY101 passed close by, the asteroid was effortlessly redirected like a leaf blown by the wind.

Then the camera switched to an Earth-based laboratory.

On a metallic table in the lab, a piece of new nanomaterial was placed.

The metal plate from JY201 swept across the nanomaterial, and both the material and a part of the table rapidly collapsed into powder in just a few seconds.

Jiang Shiliu explained that this piece of nanomaterial had been pulverized to at least the molecular level.

And yet, even with such powerful devices used multiple times, they managed to leave only those small marks on the exterior shell of The Waterdrop.

After viewing the entire video, Jiang Yu immediately sent a communication video to Jiang Shiliu, "Can we increase the power of these two devices any further?"

Two hours later, Jiang Shiliu replied, "I was able to create JY101 and 201 thanks to the great fortune bestowed by Einstein and Hawking. If we want to go further, only a particle collider experiment might do."

Jiang Yu sighed, everything had come full circle again.