Chapter 61

New York.

New Yorker Hotel, Room 3327.

A slender elderly man sits on a chair by the window, gently tapping the armrest with his fingers, constantly murmuring to himself in a soft and fragmented voice. "Whenever I close my eyes, I can see what they can't. I can see the curves of every particle thrown in the magnetic field, and I can see the storms bursting out of the stars. I often see the darkness; they roam around me like ghosts, but I can also see the brightest light hidden in the heart of every silent person..."

At that moment, there's a knock on the door from the outside. "Mr. Tesla, housekeeping service."

"Come in," the old man replied without turning around.

A middle-aged woman in a cleaning uniform enters, pushing a cleaning cart. "Good morning, Mr. Tesla," she greeted before picking up the vacuum cleaner's plug and inserting it into the socket, filling the entire room with the buzzing noise.

While cleaning the floor, the woman approached the old man and whispered in his ear, "It's time to leave, Mr. Tesla."

The old man raised an eyebrow slightly, as if he was already prepared for this. He stood up from the chair, leaning on the table, and went to the coat rack to grab a coat. "Let's go, then."

"Wait a moment." The woman returned to the cleaning cart and removed a board from its side, pulling out an unconscious person who looked remarkably similar to him.

The old man looked at the woman in surprise as she placed the stranger on the bed. He couldn't help but wonder, "What is this?"

The woman didn't answer but pointed to the now empty space inside the cart, apologizing, "Mr. Tesla, I'm afraid we have to make you uncomfortable for a while."

Finally, the old man realized what she meant. "You want me to get in there?! Why don't we just walk out in broad daylight?"

"If we do that, we might not even leave New York. Please hurry; we're running out of time." Without further ado, she grabbed the old man's arm and forcefully squeezed him inside the cart. "Mr. Tesla, please don't make a sound." After a quick warning, she put the board back in place.

She took out a pack of cigarettes from her pocket, lit one up, flicked the cigarette with a spark onto the bed, then turned and pushed the cleaning cart out of the room, walking towards the elevator as if nothing had happened.

When the old man was helped out of the cleaning cart, he found himself in a cramped space. "Where is this place?"

"The delivery truck compartment of the hotel." As soon as the words were spoken, the engine roared to life, and the compartment started to vibrate slightly, indicating that the vehicle was moving forward.

"You..." Watching the woman take out a set of wigs, fake beards, and large glasses from her bag, the old man had a rather speechless expression on his face. "Is it necessary to go to such lengths?"

"Absolutely," the woman replied sternly. "You are His Highness's designated important figure NO1. We cannot afford the slightest mistake."

"What about His Highness..." The old man opened his mouth to say something but stopped, shaking his head slightly. He let the woman put the wig on his head and apply an exaggerated fake beard.

In this way, they roamed around almost half of New York City, changing vehicles three times on the way, until they finally arrived at the port and boarded a passenger ship bound for Europe.

A week later, the ship finally arrived at Wilhelmshaven, and the old man was taken onto a private plane, flying straight to Berlin, where he was warmly welcomed at the palace by Wilhelm. "Welcome, Mr. Tesla!" Over the years, he had secretly contacted the legendary figure through letters, and today he finally awaited his arrival.

After a few pleasantries, Wilhelm couldn't wait to ask, "Mr. Tesla, there's a question I've been wanting to ask you. Was the 'Tunguska Event' your doing?"

The Tunguska Event occurred in 1908, during the time of the First World War, when human technology was still at its industrial state. At that time, the technological capabilities of humanity were limited to causing environmental destruction and devastating land. It was far from the nuclear power capabilities we have today. Despite these conditions, there was a shocking explosion.

According to later investigations, a powerful light illuminated the entire sky in the northwestern region of Lake Baikal, and the shockwave from the explosion shattered all the windows within 650 kilometers. People across the entire Eurasian continent witnessed the white night sky and a huge mushroom cloud. The world witnessed this miracle. Scientists later estimated that the power of the Tunguska Event was equivalent to 20 million tons of TNT explosives, and at least 2,000 square kilometers of trees and land were flattened. The explosion's power was not inferior to later nuclear capabilities.

At that time, during the First World War, no one or technology had the ability to create such terrifying energy. The people of that time had just invented machine guns, and even slightly larger artillery shells hadn't been researched. Therefore, many people believed it was a supernatural phenomenon unrelated to humans.

However, some people attributed all of this to a mysterious figure - Nikola Tesla.

Legend has it that Tesla had developed something called "ball lightning," which was a very powerful weapon in a certain science fiction work of later years. It was based on macro-electron nuclear fusion and could instantly unleash power beyond nuclear capabilities. Many people believed that Tesla used alternating current to create the most powerful technological weapon in human history, and the Tunguska Event was caused by this ball lightning.

Indeed, Tesla was a great genius, and many people couldn't understand his extraordinary ideas. He did propose the concept of ball lightning back then, but with the technological level at the time, even if he had such a theory, it was impossible to put it into practice. The Tunguska Event, covering a range of 2,000 kilometers of damage, would mean that the power of the ball lightning, if it was indeed Tesla's creation, could have provided humanity with a new energy source.

Because ball lightning's macro-electrons exist everywhere in the universe, as long as we have the capability to capture them, we could harvest large amounts of energy resources every thunderstorm, surpassing nuclear power in terms of power and properties. The future of human technology could potentially advance much faster than it is now, and even nuclear energy might gradually become obsolete.

Although Wilhelm didn't believe in these claims, as he pondered, he couldn't help but ask out of curiosity.

As expected, Tesla firmly shook his head in denial. "Of course not."