Upon witnessing this phenomenon, not only did Chen Chen not allow himself to relax, he even took several steps backward.
He remembered several jokes from a science fiction novel, one of them went something like this:
A common plot in science fiction stories was of people in the future riding in spaceships encountering foreign planets of almost completely identical habitat as the Earth. For example, similar atmospheric pressure and similar air composition. The only discrepancy was the local flora and fauna.
Thus, the crew of the spaceship, dressed in common clothes, stepped into the planet without any defensive measures.
However, a study in Microbiology proved that this was a suicidal maneuver.
Despite the similarity in natural habitat, it was not at all a given that the microbial system was similar as well. After all, humans were born on the Earth and coexisted with countless microorganisms. The eons of evolution over time led to the development of the human immune system as we knew it today.
This meant that tens of thousands of years ago, humans had developed an immune system to adapt to nature. This immune system continued to evolve alongside the natural habitat. This was the true reason that humans were able to live on Earth.
Now, consider the scenario of rashly stepping foot onto another planet. Even if the planet’s oxygen content and atmospheric composition were fit for human survival, the living microorganisms on the planet were another subject entirely. The human immune system had never been in contact with these new and foreign viruses and bacteria.
The viruses and bacteria on the planet may be largely harmless, however, even if just one percent of it was harmful, it was still a very substantial amount.
If there were only one or two harmful microorganisms, the human immune system may be able to withstand them. However, on a strange and foreign planet, what were the odds of there being just a handful of harmful microorganisms? What if there were tens of thousands of them?
Undoubtedly, these people were dead meat.
Previously, the USB drive was never able to deliver a living substance. Yet the passage had now turned into a hole meant for entry. It was very likely that the nature of USB drive had undergone some changes…
“Little X, have the Black Knights outside put on protective suits.”
Chen Chen gave it some thought and quickly issued the order. He also instructed the cloned soldier again, “A0012, retract your hand and turn off the computer.”
A0012 did as Chen Chen had instructed. As expected, the moment the computer was turned off, the black hole vanished instantly.
Chen Chen was able to rest his heart at last upon seeing this.
Chen Chen first had A0012 stay in place while he left the main control room and waited outside.
After some time, several Black Knights wearing positive pressure protective suits went inside and took A0012 into an isolation cabin and dragged the cabin outside.
After that, the main control room was completely locked down. A0012 was then taken to the Spire laboratory and was only allowed to go after running some tests.
A0012 was allowed to go because according to the laboratory report, there were no signs of microorganism contamination.
Still, Chen Chen did not let his guard down. He formed a USB drive inspection team consisting of three Black Knights and sent them into the main control room.
There was already a negative pressure isolation tent erected by the entrance of the main control room. Anyone coming in or out of the main control room had to be disinfected appropriately. After the Black Knights team entered, Chen Chen had them go through the previous procedures.
Upon selecting the Chronicle movie, the monitor turned pitch-black again. When the image was restored, an entrance engulfed in darkness appeared on the display.
One of the cloned soldiers had already put on a camera connected with a wire and began heading into the dark passage.
From the monitor, Chen Chen could see the cloned soldier entering the passage as if he was being compressed into it. The Black Knight entered bit by bit before vanishing in front of their very eyes.
With that, Chen Chen turned to the camera footage of the cloned warrior. He discovered that when the soldier entered the black passage, the feed turned into noise and the signal was lost.
Chen Chen glanced at the wire laying on the ground and suddenly instructed, “A0006, try pulling the wire.”
Following Chen Chen’s order, a cloned soldier knelt and picked up the wire connected to the camera. Upon picking it up, it was observed that the wire had been completely cut off…
The section of the cut was extremely clean. There was hardly a trace of the wire being severed as if this was the way it had always been.
“A person could enter but the wire was severed?”
Chen Chen’s impression was taken by intrigue. He then further instructed, “Both of you, take the camera and enter the passage. If you see A0012 in there, take him back as well. Otherwise, come back within five minutes and make sure to record everything you see on the other end of the passage.”
The two remaining cloned soldiers swapped out the wired cameras and used handheld cameras instead. Without any hesitation, they entered the passage.
The main control room instantly became eerily empty as the original cast of three had completely vanished. All that was left was the pitch-black passage which remained standing like a dark well.
“Sir, something is going on in the USB drive!” At that moment, came the voice of Little X.
Chen Chen had specifically installed a camera ahead of time which was pointed at the USB drive. Upon being prompted, he quickly turned to the feed and noticed that the glittering lights on the USB drive had faded considerably. The difference was noticeable to the naked eye.
Approximately one-third of its luster had faded.
“The total weight of a cloned soldier along with the carried equipment is 80 thousand grams, three of them makes for a total of 240 thousand grams. The USB drive had ten billion hours of accumulated electricity, enough to instantiate 833 thousand grams worth of substance, as expected…”
Chen Chen ran the brief calculation and instantly made out the changes in the USB drive. “Which is to say that keeping the passage up doesn’t exhaust energy and it only consumes energy upon allowing substance to pass through?”
Midway through Chen Chen’s speculations, a flash appeared in the dark passage. Similarly, there was a flash in the monitor display as if it was facing some form of interference. This observation only lasted for a split second as the image began to stabilize again over the following seconds.
It was then when Chen Chen saw that the three cloned soldiers had reappeared in the main control room.
Chen Chen loosened up a little upon seeing this. Whatever the deal with the passage was, at least this proved that it was not a one-way passage but one that granted passage from both ways across.
More than any other potential dangers, Chen Chen was only worried about the likelihood of not being able to return after entering the passage. That would prove to be most disheartening.
With this in mind, Chen Chen turned to the other display with the USB drive. He noticed that the luster density of the USB drive had decreased again. Only one-third of its original amount now.
It was pretty much confirmed that the luster was an indication of the energy level and energy was used upon entering and exiting.
The three cloned soldiers were disinfected before leaving the main control room. The camera equipment they had brought with them were package sealed before handed over to the Spire laboratory to conduct tests.
The laboratory report displayed similar results, there were no signs of abnormal microorganisms. There was a pitiful number of microorganisms on the cameras.
It was as if the passage had filtered out all microorganisms. It was only upon returning to reality when it caught the microorganism in the surrounding environment.
Still, this explanation might be a stretch since there were countless microorganisms in the human body. Even the trillions of body cells that made up human beings were all microorganisms. If the passage had filtered all living microorganisms, then theoretically, humans should not be able to enter.
This meant that only one explanation remained.
Which was that the world on the opposite end of the passage was a world without any microorganisms…