The girl with white hair and red eyes is serious about revenge

"...!"

Ashley turned her head sharply and pointed the gun at the corner, but she only saw a piglet jumping around.

It was an illusory little pig, apparently a member of the Phantom Herd, and was looking at Ashley in a friendly manner.

Before she could identify the piglet, lights came on in every corner of the room, and all kinds of small animals popped up one by one, looking at everyone in the room in a friendly manner.

Oops...it's a trap...!

Just as Ashley reacted, a lazy girl's voice came from the speakers in the room:

"Go quickly... or I'll blow you up."

It was Lian's voice. She was obviously still sleepy, and there was a hint of anger in her laziness.

"If you want to arrest me, go wait outside for an hour. I'll come out and chat with you guys after I finish washing up."

"What a joke!" Ashley yelled angrily, "We are here to arrest you, you think...!"

Before Ashley could finish her words, the imaginary pig came bounding towards her with a friendly smile on its face.

"Let's go, let's retreat," Ashley suddenly changed her tone and nodded to the [Silent One] beside her, "Just guard the surrounding area and don't let her escape..."

[Sigma Team] and its affiliated agents left Lian's room in an orderly manner, leaving her time to wash up.

At this moment, in the stratosphere above the jungle on the edge of Vizel, a shuttle was flying slowly.

In the cockpit, Lian yawned and gently rubbed the corners of her eyes that were dark from staying up late.

She had already fled in a shuttle.

"...Idiot, just wait for the air..."

Lian said this and gently patted the children's watch on her hand, and an illusory screen was projected.

It was an aerial photo taken by Hillster, which fully recorded the grand scene of a group of black fish landing on the shore.

Lian silently switched the screen to thermal imaging and immediately found the heat source that suddenly appeared in the urban area.

She had seen the parameters of this heat source countless times, and she would never forget it even if she turned into ashes.

"...I will take care of you, I will definitely take care of you..."

Lian wiped her eyes in grievance, then tearfully set the parameters for the short-distance jump, and fiercely pressed the confirmation button -

"boom--"

Pulled by a blue halo, the shuttle turned into a blue light and flew towards Hillster.

......

7) Stairway to the Stars (Part 6)

After gradually recovering, Carly learned what had happened from Aoi.

From Carly's perspective, the information and images in that language lasted for at least ten seconds. But in the eyes of the other three people, Carly only looked at the translated information for three seconds.

Within these two seconds, almost black blood gushed out of her eyes, mouth and nose, and then she slumped down on the table, her body shaking continuously.

"Uh..."

Carly felt a little dizzy, perhaps because of excessive blood loss, her vision gradually became blurred.

This kind of information... No wonder Perlis said not to try to decipher it... It could cost lives...

"..."

Seeing Carly's extremely weak appearance, Aoi sighed softly and patted Carly's back unhappily:

"...Why are you so reckless? Why don't you just let me take a look? Really...I'm not a skinny otaku who will vomit blood and faint..."

"Time is running out. What if your stupid brain can't remember it?" Carly also teased Aoi. "I felt it when I was lying on your lap just now. Have you gained weight?"

"How is that possible? I'm starving every day," Aoi shrugged with a smile, "You should eat more."

"Stop it," Carly took a deep breath and looked at Grissom, "Grissom, didn't you know this was Dad's diary?"

After learning about the director of the diary from Carly in the air, Grissom seemed to have lost his soul. Mei Xinghui kept patting his back beside him, but he didn't react at all.

After hearing Carly's words, he shook his head helplessly:

"I...can't be sure..."

"That's true..." Carly closed her eyes, "Who would believe it?"

When the hammer of fate strikes, everything seems so fragile.

Cecilia Fellowes died in the plane crash of the "Star Staircase Project", and Will Tran died on the trip to the Black Island. If these absurd things had not happened, Carly's family would have lived a happy life.

After all, it was knowledge that harmed them.

If you never look up in your life, you will never see the starry sky, let alone devote yourself to the starry sky.

The unknown is a boundless ocean, deep and dark, vast and huge, like a giant mouth that devours all living things.

As Will Tran wrote in his logbook, they should never have made the voyage.

Moths yearn for fire and fly into it, but they don't know that fire can turn them into ashes in an instant.

Is all this worth it?

"..."

Carly's heart ached as she recalled Will Tran's last words before he turned into a monster.

There is no particularly useful information... Dad must have been unconscious at that time...

Until his death, he was still calling out the names of his family members and my name...

...wait...family members' names...?

Faintly, Carly felt that some memories were gradually overlapping...

She thought of another father who also called out the names of his family members at that moment...

"...!"

Carly waved her hand gently, and dots of blue light lit up, forming a temporary screen in the air.

She quickly found the document about the "Star Staircase Project" obtained from Chadwick Smith and terminated the forced decryption program.

Then, she entered the key into the screen:

"Harry, Maria, Petunia."

It was the whispered word in Chadwick Smith's office, and Carly had assumed it was the name of his family.

My father did everything for his family, even if it meant dying.

"Verification passed, identification code: Chadwick Smith."

The moment the cold mechanical sound rang out, everyone in the room widened their eyes.

"How did you know the key?" Aoi looked at Carly in surprise, but found that she looked a little lost at that moment, "Carly?"

"Father's love," Carly sighed softly, "Father is always great."

With a wave of Carly's hand, the blue light screen was magnified several times, showing a complete set of records.

Everyone's eyes were on the pictures: the streamlined body of the rocket, Cecilia Fellowes's smile before she boarded the rocket, Will Tran's thumbs up, and the red light that burst out when the rocket was launched.

Photos, diary entries, and recordings were woven together and gradually gathered together to form the truth of that year.

At this point, the full picture of the Starry Sky Staircase Project was revealed to the group.

This is an aircraft testing program officially led by the [Academy]. It is highly confidential and has never been disclosed to the outside world.

The design of the rocket was completed by Will Tran and Cecilia Fellowes, two top scientists from E.T.L., while the provision of materials and the processing and design of precision parts were the responsibility of Chadwick Smith, the leader of the Hillster Gun Factory.

After several years of hard work by hundreds of people, the plan to conquer the stars officially began.

The commander-in-chief of ground control was Laplace von Valantia himself, and the astronaut was designated as Dr. Cecilia Filos, who wanted to see the vast starry sky and the end of the sky for herself.

As we all know, the density distribution of the destructive factor follows the law of "the higher the altitude, the denser the factor energy", which is a common sense known to everyone on the Ademir continent. As a manned spacecraft, [Starry Sky Ladder No. 2] has a powerful factor energy generator. In the high-altitude environment rich in factor energy, the strong factor shield of this spacecraft can be recharged almost infinitely, and it is very safe.

Just like that, with complete preparation, the [Starry Sky Ladder Project] began.

As the altitude increased, the factor energy concentration continued to increase as expected, continuously charging the factor energy engine of Step 2 while maintaining a strong factor shield around the rocket at all times.

The rocket passed through the layers of factor clouds and the thunderstorm layer with flashing red lightning. The light gradually dissipated and everything around slowly darkened.

However, as Cecilia Fellowes had said in her conversation with ground control, the concentration of the destructive factor continued to rise, rising above the threshold, rising above the meter.

So, at the moment when the starlight fell, [Starry Sky Ladder No. 2] was destroyed.

Before Cecilia Philos turned into ashes, she gave the answer that Laplace had always wanted to get -

——At the top of the sky is a barrier.

This is a red barrier that is at least thousands of kilometers thick. It blocks the top of [Starry Sky Staircase No. 2] in some indescribable way and is infinitely wide.

This leads to only one possibility: this is a barrier covering the entire starry sky, or in other words, it is a barrier that envelops the entire planet.

This barrier is just like the strong factor shield developed by humans using redstone. It wraps the entire planet tightly, making it impossible to enter from the outside and to get out from the inside.

In an instant, many things that have always been considered "laws" were suddenly overturned.

Why does the concentration of the destructive factor increase with increasing altitude? It is not because of the various properties of the destructive factor that are imagined and widely used by federal scientists, but because at the top of the sky, there is a barrier composed of a high concentration of destructive factor.

Why is the destruction factor almost inexhaustible? The "factor cycle theory" was completely overturned. This was simply because the barrier above the sky was constantly degrading, and the destruction factor was constantly falling from the sky like rain. Although the concentration of the destruction factor would gradually dilute as it fell, it still almost covered the entire space.

In other words, the Academy, which claims to be the wisdom of mankind, has completely wrong understanding of the "destruction factor", the basic substance that constructs the modern scientific system.

The fact that factors can become the basis of modern science is a coincidence, and a ridiculous coincidence at that.

When the day comes when the barrier above the sky is completely degraded, 90% of the contents in the Federation's factor energy technology tree will become completely useless waste, and the starry sky that drove Cecilia Filos completely crazy will appear clearly above everyone's head.

We grew up within the range of the Tower of Babel, but the starry sky is far wider than the range of the Tower of Babel.

Everyone grows up under the gaze of the stars.

No one knows when that moment will come, but invisibly, a sword hangs over everyone's head.

There is an anecdote that goes like this: a self-disciplined farmer went to the pig pen to feed his pigs at noon every day, rain or shine, and the time remained unchanged. A scientist among the pigs observed this phenomenon, and after observing it for a year without exception, he announced that he had discovered the great law of the universe:

Every day at noon, food will arrive on time. (Note 1)

The next day, when no food arrived, the farmers caught and killed them all.

There is no other reason, because the pigs need to be slaughtered.

Just as the moment this barrier that defied cognition appeared, the scientists of the Federation all became the pigs in the story.

For the first time, humans realized that they were no different from pigs in captivity.

And from the moment the barrier degrades and faces the starry sky, it is time for mankind to step out of the cage.

They will be like the apes of the Stone Age, facing the insane starry sky amidst the ruins of civilization.

"..."

At the end of the experimental record, Carly saw Laplace's dazed expression after learning the truth, and his silver eyes that rarely showed confusion.

She saw the old man who claimed to be a false god kneeling on the ground, holding his head and crying, his body twitching like a child.

For him, at that moment, the world he was used to collapsed.

At that moment, Laplace von Valantia saw the real universe.

......

Note 1: Adapted from the turkey theory in The Three-Body Problem.

7) Stairway to the Stars (Part 7)

If the top of the sky is an insurmountable barrier, then what exactly is the starry sky we see at night?

Is it a filtered illusion? Is it our imagination?

When something you have always been accustomed to is completely overturned, what expression will you show? How will you feel?

At this moment, Carly understood this better than anyone else.

Whatever Cecilia Fellowes saw when she faced that barrier, it was not meant to be seen by anyone.