Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Vostochny Cosmodrome, Russia

The summer nights in Siberia are short and chilly. Beside the rocket launch pad at the Vostok Cosmodrome, a Soyuz-V rocket, fueled and poised, stands steadily. This modern launch site, commissioned in 2016, now carries the weight of Russia's future.

"ignition!"

A raging fire instantly erupted at the base of the rocket, its roar echoing through the silent forests of the Far East.

The white plume of flame was particularly dazzling in the darkness as the rocket slowly ascended, accelerating steadily. On the large screen in the ground control center, the time display was normal, synchronized with the "normal spacetime" 1000 kilometers above.

This is because the communication satellites launched globally in the afternoon have already been timed. As long as there is no reversal today, these satellites will act as our eyes.

Kourou Space Centre, French Guiana, Europe

Near the equator, it is humid and hot, and the starry sky is clear and bright.

The European Space Agency's Ariane 10 rocket stands on the launch pad, its blue "ESA" logo prominently displayed.

This location, at the lowest latitude, is one of the most ideal launch sites on Earth, and at this moment it also becomes the starting point for Europe to escape the vortex of time.

"All systems go. Ignition."

The rocket ignited, and a huge flame erupted from the bottom, carrying white smoke as it shot straight into the sky.

Because of its proximity to the equator, the extra thrust from Earth's rotation made its ascent trajectory even lighter. The tropical rainforest surrounding the launch site rustled in the night breeze, and insects continued to chirp, while the rocket resolutely ascended, piercing through the membrane known as the "curse" that surrounds the Earth's surface 1000 kilometers above.

United States, Cape Canaveral Space Force Base, Florida

The sea breeze on the east coast carries a salty, damp scent.

Cape Canaveral, connected to the Kennedy Space Center, is one of the world's busiest spaceports, yet it was unusually solemn at this moment.

A heavy-lift manned rocket has been erected on the launch pad, its white body paired with black boosters, exuding a powerful presence.

"3...2...1...Liftoff!"

Flames erupted, and thunder roared.

The rocket roared into the sky, its exhaust flames painting the Atlantic Ocean red. A few seconds later, the program changed direction, and the rocket ascended along its predetermined trajectory, heading straight for its orbital altitude. On the ground, waves surged, birds soared—it was a peaceful night. Countless marine creatures probably didn't know that with the next low tide, they would return to their feeding grounds.

The rocket, however, had already firmly ascended to its normal altitude.

Sriharikota Space Centre, India.

On Sriharikota Island off the east coast of India, the PSLV launch vehicle stands ready for launch, the Indian flag on its body fluttering gently in the sea breeze. The launch pad, built over the bay, faces the vast Bay of Bengal, carrying the hopes of Indian astronauts as they ascend.

"Ignition."

Orange-red flames erupted from the bottom of the rocket as it soared into the sky with a deafening roar, leaving a white plume of smoke that stretched across the blue sea.

However, just as it was about to rapidly traverse the low-altitude, time-reversed chaotic layer and head towards distant space, the rocket suddenly disintegrated.

This scene was witnessed globally, by hundreds of millions of viewers, who reacted with shock, gasps, curses, and mockery...

Tanegashima Space Center, Japan.

South of Kyushu, on Tanegashima Island, the H3 launch vehicle stands silently on the launch pad, its body simple yet precise. A sea breeze blows, the night is deep, and only the launch site is brightly lit.

"ignition."

The rocket launched with a roar, flames tearing through the night sky and the sound echoing across the sea.

It trailed a bright contrail as it sped through the low-lying, reversed clouds toward the timeless depths of space.

"Wow, even a rocket can take off in this ordinary life..."

Countless netizens in China grimaced upon seeing this scene.

"Their rockets can only carry some supplies; they don't have astronauts going into space," a blogger replied loudly with a laugh during a live stream.

"Brothers, don't sleep tonight. We must stay up all night to try to make the world move forward as much as possible, which will help synchronize data between the sky and the ground."

"Don't worry, we Chinese have the Luoshu, which is already the number one super AI. As long as it's there, nothing will go wrong."

"Brothers, hurry up and upload the data you want to keep to yesterday's survival forum. Registration has just opened, and everyone has 1GB of storage space. All of this data will be uploaded to the Nantianmen Space Station..."

Globally synchronized, a thousand arrows fired simultaneously

At midnight, from the Gobi Desert to the rainforest, from the coast to the islands, hundreds of manned rockets ignited and launched into the sky at the same instant.

A series of roars rose and fell, merging into a deafening roar that swept across the globe. Flames simultaneously erupted in the night skies of every continent, like countless flowers of hope blooming amidst despair. White contrails crisscrossed, piercing through the chaotic flow of time, bravely climbing towards the "time boundary" at an altitude of 1000 kilometers.

On the ground, countless people watched with tears in their eyes; online, hundreds of millions of netizens kept spreading the news. Major servers crashed three times, but fortunately, Luo Shu intervened and coordinated the traffic, which stabilized the network nodes that were on the verge of collapse.

The super AI Apple from South America and the super AI NPC from Europe have now integrated their data interfaces into the Luoshu, allowing the Luoshu to learn and absorb them.

The Luoshu (Lo Shu Square) changes every day. If it weren't for the limitations of computing hardware on its evolution, scientists worldwide would seriously suspect that humanity might actually cultivate a "machine consciousness."

Correspondingly, the set of "quantum storage devices" originally prepared by Taiqing Mountain for Luoshu is no longer sufficient.

Once the situation in Europe and America was stabilized and the public had fully accepted the "Alliance of the Sober," they stopped hiding it and directly airlifted large quantities of new memory chips to China.

Among them, the 5D optical storage device is the most advanced.

This was developed by tens of thousands of scientists in 342 hours and seven reverse days, spearheaded by the University of Southampton in the UK and the China Academy of Sciences.

Also known as "eternal memory crystal".

It takes the form of a fused quartz disc with a diameter of 2-5 cm and a thickness of 1 mm, and its appearance is like colorless glass.

Core principle: Femtosecond lasers inscribe 5-dimensional data points (3D space + polarization + intensity) inside quartz, with a single disk capacity of up to 360TB.

Furthermore, the storage device that Jiangning jokingly referred to as the "Big Brother" has also been upgraded, becoming a metal box the size of a book, with a five-layer structure and six memory crystals embedded in each layer.

This metal box was officially named the "Tinder" box.

……

Jiang Ning did not go to Jiuquan to see them off, but stayed in the Beijing Aerospace City, accompanied by the other five members of the Return to Space team.

Sun Fumin carefully placed the tinderbox into Jiang Ning's backpack, then lifted the backpack and said with a smile, "Little Ning, with this memory crystal and other new instruments, the average weight of our backpacks has been reduced by five pounds."

When Lu Zheng, the head of the space agency, heard Sun Fumin's words, he smiled apologetically: "It has always been our responsibility to lighten your burden."

Next, major global research organizations, aside from some continuing to decipher the link between sleep and catastrophes, will all focus on developing DNA molecular storage devices. If this is successfully developed, the capacity per unit could exceed 100 PB, which would further reduce weight for everyone.

Jiang Ning put his backpack back on, adjusted to the weight, and found it much lighter. After hearing Commander Lu's words, he thanked him, saying, "Thank you for your trouble, Commander Lu, and also for the scientists around the world!"

"It's what we should do!" Lu Zheng waved his hand. "It's tough on you, though; you might never be able to take that backpack off again!"

Hearing this, Lu Xue asked in surprise, "Commander Lu, aren't all the thousands of rockets launched today carrying a large number of quantum storage devices? Aren't these storage devices enough to store human civilization?"