Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 95 Paper Cups
Jiang Yang originally thought that his side would continue to act collectively and retreat collectively, and observe the changes they encountered in the process to gather intelligence.

But to everyone's surprise, Tong Zheng made a different arrangement.

He pointed to astronaut number 2 and gestured with his arm.

The second astronaut is Zhao Jianguo.

At this moment, Tong Zheng's meaning was clear: he wanted Zhao Jianguo to retreat alone, to "test the waters" and ascertain the risks of the retreat, what he might encounter, and how he might die, in order to provide him with intelligence.

In his previous life, Tong Zheng died during a rocket launch, and Zhao Jianguo took over as the captain of the astronaut team.

Now, Tong Zheng has also arrived on the moon. Clearly, command has been transferred to him, who scored the highest in the comprehensive training subjects.

This was clearly a mission where certain death was inevitable. Although everyone knew in their hearts that even if they stayed still, they would still die, the instinct for survival made it easier to passively face death than to actively seek it out.

But Zhao Jianguo did not hesitate at all in response to Tong Zheng's order.

He left the ranks, prepared to retreat alone and face death.

only……

The arrangement of having one person voluntarily retreat to clear the minefield is not problematic. However, how will communication be resolved?

There was no lighting in the passage at this moment, and our side could only see things by relying entirely on chemical cold light, and radio communication was also unusable.

This means that as long as Zhao Jianguo moves a little further away from their side, their side can only see a faint cold light and cannot see or hear anything else.

So how can we know how he died?

Before Jiang Yang could come to a conclusion, he saw Tong Zheng quickly open another cover for his astronaut, inside which was a spindle-shaped object covered with fine threads.

He pulled out one end of the thin thread, and at the same time, Zhao Jianguo also pulled out his own thin thread and tied it together with the thin thread on Tong Zheng's body.

Zhao Jianguo immediately turned around and retreated at a moderate pace towards the back of the passage. As he walked, the thin threads around the waists of the two men were continuously pulled out, becoming taut and straight.

Jiang Yang was slightly taken aback, then instantly understood.

He remembered a toy he used to play with when he was a child.

Connect the bottoms of two disposable paper cups with a thin string, keep the string taut, and have one person speak into the cup. Even if the other person is quite far away and covers their ear with the other cup, they will still be able to hear the other person's voice.

The essence of sound is vibration. The reason why a person can hear another person speaking in a normal environment is that the vibration of the throat causes the air to vibrate, and the other person's eardrum senses these vibrations, thus hearing the other person speak.

Since there is no air in the lunar environment and radio waves cannot be used, this thin thread will be used to transmit these vibrations instead of air!

Although the thin thread and "paper cup" used by the astronauts at this moment must be much more sophisticated, complex and reliable than the toys they used as children, they are essentially based on the same principle.

In this way, even if Zhao Jianguo is quite far away from his side, he can still report the situation he encounters in real time.

Unfortunately, this method has many limitations and can only be used under these specific conditions. Otherwise, we wouldn't be troubled by the inability to communicate in real time.

Under their silent watch, Zhao Jianguo's figure gradually blurred in their eyes, leaving only a blurry, chemically cold light.

Tong Zheng stood there quietly, seemingly listening to Zhao Jianguo's report. At that moment, only he could hear these voices; everyone else could only wait silently.

Moments later, another astronaut began to emit white mist. The other astronaut immediately took action and sealed it off with tape.

While waiting silently, Jiang Yang noticed that the light emitted by Zhao Jianguo seemed to have dimmed slightly. It wasn't due to the increased distance; it seemed the light itself had become less bright.
Is there something in space that can block the propagation of light? Or has Zhao Jianguo's own brightness decreased?

Jiang Yang didn't know; he could only continue to wait.

A few moments later, when Zhao Jianguo had walked several hundred meters and his figure had shrunk to a faint dot, Jiang Yang saw that he seemed to have stopped moving forward.

He stopped.

what happened?
Jiang Yang suppressed his tension and doubts and continued to wait.

A moment later, the last bit of light disappeared, and the passage was completely dark again. He could no longer be seen.

At the same time, the thin line that stretched out into the endless darkness in front of Tong Zheng seemed to be cut off by some unknown entity, instantly losing its taut state.

Under the traction of its own roller, the thin line quickly retracted and wrapped around the roller again.

After cutting off the excess thread, Tong Zheng finally made a move.

He opened the arm cover, quickly wrote some words, and showed them to Jiang Yang.

"Number 2 has been sacrificed."

Although he had anticipated this outcome, Jiang Yang still couldn't help but feel a sense of heaviness in his heart.

Tong Zheng quickly erased the previous writing and wrote again quickly: "The corrosion is accelerating."

The spacesuit was damaged in multiple places and could not be repaired.

The total distance is 656 meters.

Such an outstanding and exceptional hero was sacrificed right before my eyes.

Without the slightest hesitation or doubt, he stepped into the darkness without looking back, sacrificing his own life to gain intelligence for himself, and for the country and civilization of the next life.

The key piece of information is that retreating will accelerate corrosion.

Then the cause of death of the astronauts in the previous life becomes clear.

During the retreat, all of their spacesuits were damaged beyond repair, and they all died. No one was able to leave the passage and send a message to their past selves who were waiting in the Earth base.

After erasing the writing again, Tong Zheng looked at astronaut number 3.

He stretched his arm forward again, clearly indicating that he would go out to explore alone again, just like Zhao Jianguo.

The difference is that last time Zhao Jianguo headed towards the exit of the passage. This time, the third astronaut is heading deeper into the passage.

Astronaut Feng Lijun, the third astronaut, stepped forward without hesitation, opened his own cover, pulled out a thin thread, and connected it with Tong Zheng's thread.

After that, he walked down to a deeper part of the passage, at the same pace and speed as Zhao Jianguo.

The thin thread was stretched taut once again.

Jiang Yang stood there watching him leave, silently watching the light on his body grow weaker and weaker, until he finally collapsed to the ground, and the light disappeared completely.

(End of this chapter)