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Two months later, Chunming City, Dubhe Tower Headquarters.
The Mr. Ouyang Candle Dragon mentioned is fully named Ouyang Fu, who was once the second-in-command at the Federation Aerospace Technology Center. Later, he was seconded to the Dubhe Tower’s No. 5 Research Institute, where he stayed for twelve years and never returned to the Aerospace Technology Center.
The research projects at the No. 5 Research Institute also involve anomalies, but what they study are not anomalies, but various aerospace equipment, such as rockets, satellites, and spacecraft.
For example, those surveillance satellites in low Earth orbit used to monitor anomalies are basically all developed by the No. 5 Research Institute.
"To be honest, the biggest problem right now is that we completely don’t understand the specific situation at the landing site." Ouyang Fu looked at the screen filled with dense experimental data, resting one hand on his forehead and lightly tapping the desk beside the mouse with the other hand, he said to his colleague, "According to the intelligence before Egypt fell, the ground in that area might have completely become quicksand, making it very difficult to stand or walk on such ground, let alone find a stable point for the rocket launch pad."
"It’s hard... very hard." The colleague raised the cup beside him as if to drink, only to find that the coffee in the cup had unknowingly run out, leaving only a circle of varying shades of brown coffee stains on the cup wall.
"The top has given us three months to resolve this issue, I think, perhaps I should go talk to the people in the materials department." Ouyang Fu said thoughtfully.
...
Fourteen kilometers from the No. 5 Research Institute’s rocket laboratory is the main building complex of Dubhe Tower.
Inside a secret room where any detection equipment can’t probe, a vintage-style gramophone is playing a very old song.
"Mr. Pei’s taste isn’t too bad." Sun Hang muttered.
The gramophone is one of the "inheritances" left by Pei Zongjun to Sun Hang, and those vinyl records that are currently unavailable in the market are Pei Zongjun’s private collection.
Besides conducting research, Pei Zongjun’s biggest hobbies were painting and music. These two hobbies were his sole ways to relieve mental stress amidst his busy work.
Looking at the thick pile of files on the table, Sun Hang could not help but let out a long sigh, leaning back and resting on the soft chair back.
These files belong to the participants of the Sphinx Operation, eight "people" in total counting Sun Hang: Sun Hang, Candle Dragon, Wang Xiyi, Jin Hongyi, Xue Yue, Bai Lingqiu, Zhong Ling, and... Ye Jiu.
Ye Jiu and Jin Hongyi’s conditions remain unstable, so besides rockets and sky-drops, they need an additional container—the Eternal Freeze Coffin.
Initially, Sun Hang did not want Ye Jiu to participate in this operation, but Ye Jiu was firm in his stance—he told Sun Hang that even if he never touches "killing" again in his life, his remaining time would still be gradually eroded by the residual memetic power in his body.
Rather than living in a monitoring ward for decades only to end up a mad or monstrous being harmlessly disposed of, Ye Jiu said he would prefer to shine brightly in the brief life he has.
"Just like a damn Tsar Bomb." These were Ye Jiu’s original words.
Of course, the real reason Sun Hang decided to include Ye Jiu in the team was Ye Jiu’s other remark: "Anyway, I’m beyond saving now, maybe going to Egypt will unexpectedly bring some turnaround... That’s how protagonists in novels are, isn’t it?"
As for Zhong Ling, her joining the team was not only due to her strong desire but also for another purpose: when Jin Hongyi and Ye Jiu become completely anomalized, her ability could be used to guide them to transform into anomaly remains, which then becomes her "anomalous equipment"—Zhong Ling’s combat power depends on the strength of the anomaly remains she controls; the stronger the remains, the stronger she becomes.
Half a month ago, the anomalies wandering within the former Siberian Federation launched an attack on Lake Baikal City. Although the "hero spirits" of Lake Baikal City inflicted heavy damage on these anomalies, a large number of them bypassed the anomaly city and rushed towards the human army’s defense line.
The army stationed on the southern shore of Lake Baikal suffered heavy casualties, nearly one-third of the Federation’s elite Hunters were sent to the front lines, and strategic nuclear weapons were all prepared—just when everyone thought the second anomaly war was about to start, these anomalies retreated back to the land they had overrun, just like the tide going out as they had surged in.
But the Federation did not dare to relax their vigilance at all. A Great Wall-like line of defense began to be constructed around Lake Baikal Shore. Simultaneously, all cities along the Federation’s border—including Dragon City and Celestial City—entered Level II combat readiness.
However, these were not the matters Sun Hang needed to worry about; he redirected his gaze from the file to the computer screen beside him.
The screen displayed an email from Ouyang Fu, who explained the progress of the near-Earth orbit sky-drop plan—calling it progress, every line in the email was practically an attempt to persuade Sun Hang to abandon the plan.
His intent was clear: I will give my all in the research work, but with the current level of technology, even if the entire Federation’s resources are pooled together, this endeavor would be difficult to accomplish.
This meticulous scientist used very specific numbers to inform Sun Hang of the risks involved: His technical team has a 60% chance of getting Sun Hang and his crew to Egypt, but they have less than a 10% chance of successfully bringing them back from Egypt to Xiazhou.
Ouyang Fu nearly spelled out that this is a one-way ticket.
"Looks like I’ll have to visit the rocket laboratory tomorrow." Sun Hang thought, with his abilities, some small technical challenges can’t be called challenges at all—like the green-skinned from the Warhammer Universe can use "I reckon power" to assemble a pile of scrap metal into a spaceship capable of traveling through the Warp, he should be able to utilize the "willing things to happen" ability to ensure Ouyang Fu’s rockets successfully arrive in Egypt and return safely to Xiazhou.
Just as Sun Hang moved his mouse to close the email interface, a strange ad popup suddenly appeared at the bottom right of the screen.
Sun Hang instinctively wanted to click the cross to close the popup, but just as he moved the mouse over, he realized something was seriously off.
The security on this computer can be said to be the highest in Dubhe Tower, if it could be infiltrated by trojans and viruses, then not even the main brain in Primordial Palace could be considered safe... let alone, this computer is only connected to Dubhe Tower’s internal network, completely isolated from the outside network, so where did this ad popup come from?
Sun Hang glanced at the content of the popup, which featured AI dynamic graphics full of page-game style, showing a person in a black cloak walking slowly through a tunnel, next to it in conspicuous red letters it read "Chunming City’s Strange Urban Legends, click to read"...
"Main brain, can you trace the source of this popup?" Sun Hang asked in a serious tone.
"Trace is impossible."
"Can its safety be assured?" Sun Hang asked again, "If I click into it, will I be infected by a trojan?"
"Link has been fully checked, confirming that the popup link file content is pure text, only 187 bytes, unable to run as a trojan or virus program."
"Pure text? Can it be parsed?"
"... Parsing impossible." The main brain fell silent for two seconds, "Preliminarily determined, this popup may be a... ’phenomenon-class anomaly’."
"Parsing impossible... In other words, if I want to know the text content following the link, I can only click into it?"