pjbooks Chapter 422 The Third Path!
Chapter 422 The Third Path!
I woke up at noon.
Nie Qingcheng wasn't beside her, but there was a glass of warm water and a note on the bedside table.
"There's porridge in the kitchen. Stargazing is downstairs. Don't look at the data on an empty stomach."
Zhang Yan drank some water and went downstairs. The porridge was plain white with pickles, very light. He ate two bowls.
Guan Xing sat at a makeshift worktable in the living room, with several hand-drawn topological diagrams spread out in front of him.
"There's something in the data from the lamp that I previously overlooked." Guan Xing looked up, "The technological details of how that civilization opened the door 80,000 years ago."
"explain."
"They lacked the ingenuity to create something extraordinary. They used a more primitive method—directly and physically destroying the door. Once the door was broken, it naturally 'opened'."
"What happens after it breaks?"
"The civilization went extinct three thousand years later. But the fragments of the door reassembled themselves after the extinction, and the door closed again." Guan Xing pointed to a node on the topology map. "The door is self-healing. As long as the fragments are still there, it will grow back on its own."
Zhang Yan put down his chopsticks.
He didn't have this message. It wasn't in the system either.
The door will heal itself.
He noted this down and continued eating his porridge.
Nie Qingcheng returned from outside, carrying a file bag in her hand.
"Qin Changfeng has approved the expanded permissions for satellite monitoring." She tossed the file folder onto the table. "Real-time data streams from seven global gateways, refreshed every two minutes."
She sat down and glanced at Zhang Yan.
"Have you thought it through?"
"I've thought about it halfway."
"explain."
Zhang Yan laid out the situation.
Path A: Repair the gate, go to the seventh gate—the Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship has been reverse-intruded, and the gate network has collapsed. The swarm advances unimpeded.
Path B: Opening the door—Information leaks, civilization regresses to the Stone Age four hundred years later.
"Both paths lead to certain death."
Nie Qingcheng nodded, no surprise.
"Is it possible," she said, "to repair all the doors without going to the seventh door?"
Zhang Yan shook his head.
"Without the anchor point of the seventh gate, the network limit of the six gates is locked at 72%. 72% cannot withstand a full-force attack."
He ran the system no less than ten times. 72% was barely enough under the normal pressure of the swarm's 32% strength, but if the swarm got serious—based on the counterattack intensity recorded when the first gate was repaired—72% wouldn't last seven seconds.
Nie Qingcheng didn't say anything more.
There was a silence of about ten seconds.
Guan Xing flipped through the topological map in his hand, then suddenly stopped.
"The 1943 notebook says that the seventh door is the 'anchor point'."
Zhang Yan looked over.
"The purpose of anchor points is to provide a spatial positioning reference." The stargazer drew a circle on the topology map with his finger. "The six gates form a network, but this network needs an external reference point to lock its spatial topology. The seventh gate is that reference point."
Zhang Yan understood the subtext in her words.
"What do you want to say?"
“What if we don’t repair the seventh gate—” Guan Xing looked up at him, “but instead build a new anchor point?”
Zhang Yan stopped moving.
Nie Qingcheng looked at the stargazing, and the light in her eyes changed.
Zhang Yan retrieved the underlying architecture of the "Gate Maintenance Protocol" in the system. The technical parameters of the anchor point are: an energy source that can continuously output a specific frequency, placed in a position that forms a specific geometric relationship with the other six doors.
At a specific frequency—this can be achieved by the sub-core of the Heavenly Craftsmanship.
A specific geometric relationship—not necessarily on Proxima Centauri.
Zhang Yan began calculating.
He has the coordinates of all six gates. The geometric constraints of the topological structure are stored within the system. If the "seventh node" is moved from Proxima Centauri to a closer location, theoretically, as long as the topological constraints are satisfied—
The system-assisted calculation took twelve seconds.
The result came out.
The nearest feasible location: Earth-Moon Lagrange point L2, approximately 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
It's not 4.2 light-years.
It is 1.5 million kilometers.
It is achievable with current aerospace technology.
Zhang Yan's breath hitched for a moment.
Nie Qingcheng's gaze remained fixed on his face, unwavering.
"What's the energy source?" she asked, speaking faster than usual.
"A sub-core of the Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship," Zhang Yan said. "It is an independent energy core separated from the main body, activated after being mounted at the L2 point, and serves as a new anchor point."
"cost."
"5% of its integrity has been reduced. The Heart of Heavenly Craftsmanship has decreased from 99.2% to 94.2%. The sealing mode's capabilities will be weakened."
"What about the network limit?"
"From 72% to 96%."
Is 96% enough?
That's enough.
With a 96% shielding efficiency, it can withstand a full-scale attack from the swarm. Not for seven seconds. It can withstand it continuously.
Nie Qingcheng stood up.
She walked to the window and stood with her back to the two people for a few seconds.
Then he turned around, walked back, and sat down.
"I need to confirm something," she said, looking at Zhang Yan. "The new anchor point is at L2. The colony doesn't know this location. It always assumed you would go to Proxima Centauri."
"right."
"It set a trap for you at the seventh door. But you don't go to the seventh door. You build a new one. It can't predict that."
"right."
Nie Qingcheng tapped her finger lightly twice on the table.
"Who will send the sub-core to the L2 point?"
This is the key issue.
Zhang Yan looked at her.
"I need to go to space. Not Proxima Centauri. To the Lagrange L2 point. 1.5 million kilometers away."
Nie Qingcheng did not show any surprise.
She bent down and pulled a notebook from her bag next to the chair, opening it to Zhang Yan's eyes. He saw that a line of text had already been written on it.
"Qin Changfeng - Emergency Coordination for Manned Spaceflight"
Zhang Yan was stunned.
When did you write it?
Nie Qingcheng closed her notebook.
"While you were sleeping on the plane," she said casually, "if you weren't going to Proxima Centauri, the furthest you could go would be near a Lagrange point. I checked."
Guan Xing glanced at Nie Qingcheng but didn't say anything.
Zhang Yan stared at the line of text for two seconds, then smiled.
It wasn't a wry smile. I genuinely found it funny.
He had been battling with the smartest people in the world for almost a year, but the woman beside him was always one step ahead of everyone else.
"I called Qin Changfeng."
Nie Qingcheng nodded.
"While you're at it, ask him if he has any connections to get aerospace-grade thermal insulation materials." She turned to the next page, which listed a series of parts. "The Vermilion Bird's power reactor needs to be converted to a vacuum propulsion mode, and I've estimated what's required."
Zhang Yan took the notebook.
I looked at it for three seconds.
Each item on the list is accompanied by a label indicating the supplier, alternative options, and estimated delivery time.
"You're even letting this go?"
"I was thinking about this the day you modified the Vermilion Bird Power Reactor." Nie Qingcheng put away her notebook. "SSS-level energy output, three-ring nested structure, all that's missing is the propulsion system to make it a space engine."
She looked into his eyes.
"You think I just sit next to you all day doing nothing?"
Zhang Yan didn't reply. He placed his hand over hers, which was resting on the table, and squeezed it.
Nie Qingcheng didn't dodge, but rolled her eyes.
"Stop getting emotional. Make the call."