Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
When they saw the blade that looked like it had been mauled into pieces by a vicious hound, they held their breaths. Even Professor Charles had cold sweat trickling down his forehead as he instructed, “Continue switching out to tougher cutter heads and chart down the strength, toughness, plasticity, and tensile strength of the metal while you’re doing that.”
After another lengthy round of experiments and plenty of experiment records being logged, the fingernail-sized metal was still completely unscathed.
After all the performance tests were completed, their collective gaze focused on the metal had only become more intense…
“If we’re measuring the hardness of this piece of metal using Mohs hardness standards, it would’ve exceeded 10M.”
Professor Charles took the sheet of a report from the research team and muttered to himself. He started to give an explanation for fear of Chen Chen not understanding the implications of it.
“Mohs hardness refers to the potential a substance has of scratching another substance. It was first established by a German mineralogist named Mohs and used to identify the hardness of minerals.”
The professor presented the report to Chen Chen. “On the Mohs hardness scale, most common metal is only measured at 1.5M while the hardness of human nails reaches 2 to 3M. The hardness of metal aluminum is 2M to 2.5M, 4 to 5M for iron, and 5.5M for glass… Diamonds which are on the highest end of the spectrum reach up to 10M!”
Chen Chen nodded upon receiving this explanation. Since even the diamond cutter heads were unable to leave any visible mark on the metal sample, that meant the Mohs hardness of the metal had exceeded the scope of measurement.
“That’s not all…”
Professor Charles explained further, “The isotope of this piece of aluminum boasts superior resistance against corrosion and tearing. The measured tensile strength at room temperature exceeds the measurement limit of the instrument which is 5000MPa. It can also withstand the extrusion test of a 1,200-ton hydraulic press. Its melting point exceeds all artificial materials, even surpassing the maximum melting point of hafnium alloy which is 4215℃, reaching an astonishing 12000℃! The reason for this is due to its highly imbalanced neutron content. Energy dispersion happens at a fluctuated rate which makes it so that heat cannot easily transfer between the atomic levels.”
Chen Chen nodded again as he heard this and flashed a smile. “Not bad, but more than anything else, I’m curious to know its market value and if it can be mass-produced.”
“One hundred thousand dollars per gram.”
After contemplating for a moment, Professor Charles declared nervously, “And this is only enough to cover the maintenance cost of the particle accelerator. The production capacity for this material is very low. Even if we continuously operate the particle accelerator for a month, it can only produce about one kilogram of aluminum isotope at most.”
Chen Chen did not have anything to add to this. This price was within the range of his expectations.
The reason this substance was named high-offset metal was that its metal atoms were overloaded with extra neutrons, which caused a shift in its elemental structure. The terminology high-offset metal referred to the neutron drift phenomenon occurring within the aluminum.
This was the deciding factor that drove the value of this isotope above that of gold. Although it was not as difficult to recreate these substances as certain artificial elements in the latter portion of the element table, it was more or less comparable.
Special production equipment may be required to properly manufacture this substance.
Chen Chen went over his options silently.
After that, Chen Chen let Professor Charles return to his work. After all, Professor Charle’s role was a high-energy physics expert, not an engineer overseeing mass production. Researching high off-set metal was his forte, but tasking him with mass-producing these substances would be a misuse of his talents.
Now that the isotope of aluminum had been developed, the next step was to create specially designated equipment for manufacturing the same substance to reduce operating costs and increase production. Little X shall oversee this project and assign the correct personnel for the task.
After leaving the high-energy physics department, Chen Chen decided to not head to the training grounds like he usually would. At this point, the development of his Field had passed what could be referred to as the growth spurt and was now in its mature stages. Chen Chen did notice that his Field potency could still improve by small magnitudes if he invested more time in training it.
Compared to three years ago, the explosiveness and precision of Chen Chen’s current Field had improved by several levels. The difference was almost day and night.
Today, Chen Chen was going to do something else.
Once again, Chen Chen stepped into the teleportation room located at the top of the Spire laboratory. As soon as he closed his eyes and opened them again, he was transported into another teleportation room with the Gantz sphere inside it. After he stepped out of the teleportation room, it was revealed that he was now in a gigantic black cruise ship.
This cruise ship was jet-black and measured more than 400 meters long and 80 meters wide. It would take even Usain Bolt eight seconds to sprint from one end of the cruise to the other. The displacement of this cruise ship greatly surpassed that of a regular aircraft carrier, reaching a staggering 400,000 tons.
This cruise ship was none other than the Blackwatch Cruise that Chen Chen had spent 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to custom built six years ago. It had been operating ever since then.
The Blackwatch Cruise was currently sailing across the open sea that seemed to stretch on endlessly. The only ones on board were a hundred Black Knights in charge of manning the cruise.
“We’re currently located in the waters of the Indian Ocean. No ships are passing by within a radius of 5,000 kilometers and no satellite surveillance overhead. You can commence your work without any worries.”
Little X’s voice came in through the earpiece. “Sir Godfather, are you sure you want to commence the test now?”
“Get ready to begin. I’ve been thinking about this for a week, we’re going to have to do this eventually anyway.”
After stepping out of the teleportation room, Chen Chen went to the elevator which took him to the deck on the first floor of the cruise ship. He then took out a shiny long strip object from his pocket.
This object was coated in a layer of white that was so pure that it dazzled underneath the sunlight. At the end of it, there was a metallic USB port.
It was a USB drive.
It was the very USB drive Chen Chen had since he had nothing to his name. Now, the wind and the rain beckoned at his call.
The only difference was that unlike the past form of the USB drive that took on an all-black texture, the current USB drive had countless sparkles along its surface. They shone radiantly like an array of stars that flooded the night sky.
Since the very beginning, Chen Chen had realized that upon receiving a certain threshold of charge, these bright spots would appear on the surface USB drive. The more energy the USB drive received, the more stars shone on its surface.
It had been three years since Chen Chen last used the USB drive. During this duration, the three high-power nuclear fusion reactors located in the Spire laboratory laboriously charged the USB drive day and night. After the energy accumulated reached a certain threshold, the USB drive stopped receiving energy for the very first time since Chen Chen acquired it.
The USB drive was fully charged…
Chen Chen was completely floored by this sudden occurrence.
This was the current display of the fully charged USB drive. What was once a sparse sprinkle of stars on its surface had been transformed into what was essentially a bar of LED light. One would even mistake this object as a glowstick. It was quite the odd sight to behold.
It had been a full week since the USB drive was fully charged. Over the last week, Chen Chen had endlessly pondered over how he should experiment with it. He still remembered how the USB drive went through a transformation.
It happened when the bright spots like stars appeared on the USB drive for the first time. That was when a new function was seemingly triggered. The USB drive was suddenly able to create a Schwarzschild vacuum that granted any living creature passage into other dimensions inside the movies.
Now, the USB drive had just gone through a second transformation. If the previous observation was any pattern to follow, could this mean that another new functionality in the USB drive was triggered?
“Triggered” would not be the correct definition in this situation. A more apt description should be “unlock”. It may appear that these functionalities were always present in the USB drive, only that a certain amount of energy had to be accumulated inside it before they could be accessed.
This was why Chen Chen decided to choose the empty open seas for him to experiment on the newly-transformed USB drive, all with the help of the reliable vessel that was his Blackwatch Cruise.
As these thoughts ran past Chen Chen’s mind, two Black Knights approached him and set a table with a laptop on top of it in front of him. This was all the preparation that was needed.
Chen Chen looked at the setup and thought over it again. In the end, he took a deep breath and inserted the glowing USB drive into the laptop in front…
“Ding!”
What came first was the swift, familiar alert of the Windows operating system. The USB drive was successfully authenticated. A window containing information of the removable disk appeared on the screen.
Chen Chen’s fingers slid across the trackpad as he selected the removable disk connected to the computer and tapped it open with a swift “click”.
In an instant, a series of movie titles that were so familiar yet so foreign at the same time appeared on the laptop.
Upon seeing these movie titles, Chen Chen did not open them right away. The first thing he did was to drag a download of Resident Evil into the computer into the USB drive.
The motivation behind Chen Chen’s action was he understood when facing the unknown, there was only one approach to minimize the potential dangers, and that was simply to abide by the “lesser of two evils” principle.
It had taken three whole years to completely charge the USB drive, therefore, Chen Chen may only have one shot at this experiment for some time to come. However, a factor to consider was that once the nuclear fusion reactor technology had reached a more mature stage, it may take a shorter time to charge the USB drive to full. Therefore, he decided to approach this by selecting Resident Evil, which despite being largely useless to his current cause, was relatively harmless as well. He would much rather select this than open a potentially useful movie with more unknown dangers lying within.
With this in mind, Chen Chen gently tapped Resident Evil after it was brought into the USB drive.
“Click!”
There was a gentle click, immediately followed by a gentle gust of wind that rushed at Chen Chen head-on.
The gentle breeze caressed Chen Chen’s hair. He immediately sensed something was off because he was currently at the deck and there was not so much as a mild breeze on the surface of the sea. Even if there were, it would have been obstructed by the sixty-meters tall cruise. This breeze seemed to originate from the display…
Chen Chen’s instincts called out to him. He immediately leaped backward and got as far away from the laptop display as he could.
“Blam!”
The Blackwatch Cruise suddenly quaked violently while at the same time, Chen Chen could hear what sounded like the wail of a dying beast. The cruise was slowly being ripped open!
The tearing stemmed from the accommodation deck of the cruise positioned above the deck. The Blackwatch Cruise was 75 meters tall and there was a fifteen-stories tall accommodation deck that towered over the rest of the cruise like a skyscraper. At this time, this structure was twisting and turning in the air at rapid speed. The parts that tore apart vanished without an explanation…
No, they did not vanish. Instead, they seemed to have entered another dimension!
Chen Chen’s pupils shrank slightly. He immediately flew above the Blackwatch Cruise and that was when he noticed a strange column of light appearing on the deck of the cruise!
The column of light took on an irregular circular form and spanned nearly a hundred meters. It hung above the height of the Blackwatch Cruise’s deck and remained idle while the ship slowly sailed into it. Each part of the ship that passed through it started to vanish bit by bit. The parts of the cruise that made contact with it were tearing away rapidly!
Even the steel beams of the cruise ship bent like feeble pieces of paper upon making contact with the strange light!
The column of light…
Chen Chen squinted. This column of light seemed like a fragile presence prone to burst at any given moment but it hung in the air defiantly. Meanwhile, the Blackwatch Cruise sailing into it was like a helpless paper boat. Each portion of the cruise that made contact with it was torn away!
This column of light appeared to be a wormhole!
Chen Chen instantly made the connection. Unlike the jet-black Schwarzschild passage merely the size of a display previously formed by the USB drive, this was a magnified version of a wormhole that was not restricted to the size of a display, could it be…
Chen Chen’s heart sank. His lingering suspicion was proven true as this was a permanent, solidified wormhole!
At this point, it was no longer appropriate to only describe it as a Schwarzschild throat or a wormhole. There was a specific scientific terminology for this gigantic beam of light – Rosen bridge!
Significant evidence that this was a permanent entity was that it did not bound itself to the computer display!
During Chen Chen’s many previous attempts at opening a passage through the USB drive, despite the passage granting entry for humans and moderately-sized machines, it was only restricted to the size of the computer display. The passage was destroyed upon the display being shut down and if the display were moved recklessly, the stability of the passage would be similarly affected. The passage could also be terminated by removing the USB drive.
This column of light Chen Chen was confronting was not only gigantic, but it also remained anchored in its spawn location although the computer had moved from its original spot. This was ridiculous…
When Chen Chen looked at the USB drive plugged into the laptop, he noticed that it had lost its luster and returned to its original jet-black form. This meant that the energy inside the USB drive was completely exhausted.
Despite that, the passage was still here…
The corner of Chen Chen’s lips twitched uncontrollably and his heart trembled as much as the Blackwatch Cruise did at this moment. He could only watch helplessly as the deck of the Blackwatch Cruise slowly crumbled into the light. What was once the top section of the cruise was now completely engulfed by the passage and brought into the opposite world.
“X, I think we’re done for…”
Chen Chen barely knew how to respond as he saw the gigantic column of light below his feet. The loss of the Blackwatch Cruise was the least of his concern. The problem now was that he had opened a never-before-seen bridge on Earth.
The Rosen bridge that led to an alternate dimension…