Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 152 We Failed

Those present belatedly realized that the Wallfacers already possessed the ability to destroy the Sophon.

Although the six-dimensional sophon can fly at Mach 120, humanity's existing hypersonic weapons can already catch up with it, meaning that humanity has the ability to destroy this six-dimensional sophon.

That plea for mercy was clearly not issued by Zhizi's operator, but rather was automatically edited by the Zhizi [Micro Wisdom 1.0] system.

The Trisolaran world seems to still retain control over this sophon, and the plea for mercy was quickly deleted.

The round, chubby Zhizi fell to the ground, like a mirror ball, having lost hope in life, and even somewhat deflated.

There were other Zhizi nearby, but they dared not proceed at all.

The Trisolaran civilization wanted to bypass humans and communicate with the Risk Takers, but Luo Qing clearly wouldn't allow them to do so.

"That's awesome." One of the young soldiers accidentally uttered what everyone was thinking.

The risk remover shook his head and said to the sophon that had fallen to the ground and could not be retrieved, "I am only responsible for risk removal and the compensation and follow-up work after the risk removal. The Three-Body problem has nothing to do with me."

Luo Qing was relieved to hear this and said, "That's good. I thought you would save people indiscriminately."

"I have no morals, no sense of right or wrong, and I will not support the growth of other civilizations, as that would violate the basic rules of the universe. I am simply doing my job, nothing more. Now, let's get back to the topic. Are you satisfied with the compensation I offered? If so, I will be leaving."

"First, on behalf of humanity, I express my gratitude to you." The UN Secretary-General understood the situation clearly; even the Wallfacer had expressed obvious apprehension towards the Risk Takers. He didn't rashly make further demands; instead, he cautiously asked:
"Instead of seeking more compensation, could you tell us why you're doing this?"

The UN Secretary-General then pointed with his cane to the empty accelerator tunnel.

The risk mitigater reiterated in a completely unremarkable voice: "I am a risk mitigater, I am eliminating risk."

It was only then that people realized the meaning of "risk remover" in the name "risk remover".

"What risks does the Einstein Tunnel pose that need to be eliminated? Its original purpose was simply to break the Trisolaran civilization's technological blockade against us." The UN Secretary-General walked shakily to the six-dimensional sophon, then angrily tapped it with his cane.

This marks the first time humanity has launched a macroscopic attack against sophons, utilizing potential energy.

The attack was successful.

The six-dimensional expansion was very soft on Zhizi. The fully mirror-reflecting sphere was dented by the cane, but like a water balloon that could not be smashed, Zhizi bounced back and returned to a standard mirror sphere.

But this was only visual; in reality, the UN Secretary-General did not feel any resistance while smashing the cane, which eventually landed on the grass.

The UN Secretary-General tried to strike a second time, but Zhizi dodged and displayed a line of text.

That's enough.

Luo Qing glanced at Zhi Zi indifferently.

The six-dimensional sophon jumped up instantly.

[Secretary-General Khalid, you may hit me a few more times, if that will vent your anger.]

The six-dimensional sophon flew to the side of the UN Secretary-General's cane, and a standard "smiling emoji" appeared on the mirror sphere.

However, the UN Secretary-General did not continue his attacks. He knew that such venting was meaningless. He could see that the current Risk Remover civilization had no intention of interfering with the war between Earth civilization and Trisolaran civilization. The fear shown by Sophon was only towards the Wall-Benders, and its attitude towards humanity had not changed in any substantial way.

Earth's civilization, after ninety years of development, is still composed of insects.

While this little farce was unfolding, Ding Yi squeezed in and walked up to the risk-taker.

Ding Yi asked, "What risks are you talking about? I was the one who pushed for the construction of Einstein's Equator; it embodies all my hopes. Why would you want to erase it?"

"Hello, physicist." The risk remover extended his hand to Ding Yi, the first time he had made such a gesture, which showed that his attitude towards Ding Yi was indeed quite different.

Ding Yi shook hands with him. Facing Ding Yi's burning gaze, the risk eliminater replied, "The reason for eliminating it is that, according to your experiment, if the Einstein equatorial accelerator were to operate at maximum power, high-energy particles would reach an energy of 10 to the power of GeV after being accelerated over 40,000 kilometers. This energy is close to the level of the Big Bang, which would bring profound disaster to the current low-energy universe. I must eliminate this hidden danger."

“I don’t understand,” Ding Yi asked calmly. “You can understand it. Ultra-high energy particle experiments can lead to vacuum decay, a concept that was proposed by humans in 1980.”

"Vacuum decay? That's just a scientific hypothesis."

"This assumption is true."

"Wait a minute, can someone explain to us what vacuum decay is?" the Pacific Front chairman asked.

Luo Qing frowned in thought, vaguely remembering the concept of vacuum decay.

But without the scientists' explanation, the US president in the corner said in her uniquely sweet voice: "According to quantum field theory, physical systems tend to fall to the lowest energy state. If the current vacuum state is not the absolute lowest energy state, but a metastable state, then there is a certain probability that vacuum decay will occur, thus jumping to a lower energy vacuum state. This chain reaction is called vacuum decay."

"It seems there are still politicians who understand physics, which is gratifying," Ding Yi smiled at the handsome, almost otherworldly-looking American president.

"OK, I'll go back and study physics," the Pacific Front chairman said, raising his hand in surrender.

After briefly explaining the concept of vacuum decay, Ding Yi continued to ask under everyone's gaze: "Do you mean that my experiment will cause vacuum decay, which will then lead to the destruction of the Earth?"

“This would lead to the destruction of the universe,” the risk mitigater corrected.

"Destroy the universe? That's a bit too outrageous," Ding Yi said.

The risk-taker shook his head: "It's not alarming at all. You know, when vacuum decay occurs, a true vacuum 'bubble' forms in space, and this 'bubble' expands at near the speed of light. Inside the 'bubble,' the laws of physics and the properties of elementary particles differ from the original metastable vacuum. The mass, charge, and other properties of elementary particles change, and the strength of their interactions also changes. Please note that the expansion of this vacuum bubble is irreversible. You should have just seen my true form—a black cube, which you call an ideal blackbody, and that's quite apt. In fact, a vacuum bubble expanding at the speed of light is similar to an ideal blackbody expanding at the speed of light. Once this vacuum bubble appears, it will destroy the Earth in 0.03 seconds, the solar system in five hours, and your neighboring Trisolaran civilization in four years. In 100,000 years, it will destroy the Milky Way... Nothing can stop vacuum decay. Over a long period of time, the universe will be destroyed."

Everyone gasped.

Upon hearing this, Luo Qing frowned.

"Wait!" Ding Yi interrupted the risk-taker's indifferent narration.

"If that's the case, then wouldn't vacuum decay happen at any time? Supernova explosions happen everywhere in the universe, aren't the energy levels of supernova explosions high enough?"

The risk mitigater shook his head: "This is a low-energy universe. Whether it's a supernova explosion or a massive celestial body falling into a black hole, the energy released is far from enough to support vacuum decay. At present, there is only one possibility for vacuum decay, and that is the ultra-high-energy particle experiment of an intelligent civilization. Therefore, I need to monitor various civilizations."

"Including the Trisolaran civilization?"

"include."

"Are there beings like you there?"

"No, I'm the only one responsible for the sensors in this area."

"This area, you mean?"

I'm sorry, I can't tell you that.

Ding Yi calmly said, "Your civilization has technology that we cannot even imagine, but I think monitoring the entire universe is probably a very difficult thing to do. The observable universe is hundreds of billions of light-years wide, and there are probably countless civilizations there."

The risk detector shook his head: "The vast majority of civilizations will never have the chance to evolve to the level of human civilization. In fact, we only need to detect a small portion of civilizations, such as human civilization. It's not as difficult as you think. After all, my employee number is 299792458, and I'm already one of the last batch of sensors."

"So that means you completely prevented all possible vacuum decay, and you saved the universe?"

"Do not."

The risk-taker's tone suddenly turned sorrowful: "We failed. We monitored enough civilizations, but there were always some we missed. In fact, the destruction of the universe is taking place in various forms, and vacuum decay is just one of them."

After saying this, the person who had helped remove the danger burst into tears.

Ding Yi was stunned.

(End of this chapter)