How to Feed an Abyss!

Chapter 62.2 – ‘Overlook’

It was getting late, almost curfew time, and Shi Yuan had to go home.

Before leaving, Wu Zhengqing said to him: “The day after tomorrow or the day after that, Alice will be able to complete the final calculations and observations. The results will not be made public for the time being, but the data center will witness the moment we lift the veil of the planet. I asked someone to take me in, do you want to come along?”

“Okay,” Shi Yuan said, “That’s great.”

No one knew that he had contributed greatly to the “Overlook” project and was qualified to witness the final result.

He said goodbye to Wu Zhengqing.

Wu Zhengqing said the result would be available in two days, but in fact, it took half a month for the plan to reach its final stage.

That day, Shi Yuan followed Wu Zhengqing to the data center.

It was a huge white building, with busy staff everywhere, and a light blue holographic projection, with data flashing rapidly on the screen.

They went to the most central semicircular building and entered the largest room, where there were countless tables, chairs, and computers lined up, and an oversized holographic projection hung in the middle, which reminded Shi Yuan of the top floor of the Iron City Communication Tower.

Countless people were crowded in the huge room, overwhelmed and excited. Shi Yuan and Wu Zhengqing couldn’t squeeze into the middle, so they could only stay in the corner, Wu Zhengqing’s face flushed with excitement.

“Old Tan,” he murmured, “Old Tan, I saw this day for you.”

Images began to appear on the screen.

For years, the Alliance’s unmanned frigates sailed to the twin-spiral galaxy, while returning observations of the universe. It carried several detectors and arrived in the twin-spiral galaxy not long ago, but calculating the angle and velocity, understanding the environmental characteristics of each planet, and allowing the detectors to land safely on the planet was a tremendous amount of work – and most importantly, they had no chance of failing to start over.

Now, Alice had calculated the landing route of the detector. The frigate dropped detectors and landed on three potentially habitable planets.

The detector was sending back pictures from the first planet “Gemini 17b”.

All three planets had extremely thick clouds and mist, and the surface conditions couldn’t be directly observed in outer space, and it was the same with Gemini 17b.

But this meant that they all had water sources.

Liquid water was the source of life. What’s more, the temperature of Gemini 17b was suitable, making it a perfect second home.

The screen lit up.

This was the first time the Alliance had really seen the surface of Gemini 17b. Everyone couldn’t help but hold their breath—

They saw the vast sea, the vast ground, and the clouds in the sky were as thick as walls, blue and purple. The surface temperature was 1 degree Celsius, there were no harmful gases, and there was a small piece of moss-like vegetation not far away.

Just by the look of it, one could tell that it was a habitable planet.

There was a loud cheer, and everyone was screaming.

The detector moved forward and cautiously headed towards the vegetation, ready to scan. It kept a considerable distance from the vegetation to avoid accidents.

As it moved forward, people saw a new picture.

A very strange picture.

“…what is that?” one person murmured, “Is it a cliff? Why does it look so familiar?”

“It doesn’t look like a cliff.”

“It may be the fracture of the simple rock layer, bring the detector closer.”

“No, no, no, that’s not a cliff, it’s not a cliff!” one person screamed, “Look at the infection detector!”

The infection detector showed that the infection value was frighteningly high, almost exploding.

That touch of moss-like vegetation moved.

It slowly stretched out its tentacles and crawled away like a fish.

This little movement awakened the entire planet, the gravel gathered together, turned into a flock of birds, and flew away, little bits of grass floated from the sea, chasing and dancing with each other in the wind, shadows swept through the purple clouds, vapor draped around the huge mountain-like fish monster, which let out a roar that shook the earth.——

This scene was strange and familiar.

It was not a cliff.

That was the abyss.

It was an infected planet.

*

The Alliance never disclosed the progress of the “Overlook” project to the outside world.

Many people asked about “Overlook” every day, and the official answer of the Alliance was that Alice was still calculating and observing, and there were no results yet.

Everyone knew that the universe was too vast, and it might take a few lifetimes to explore.

Everyone expressed their understanding and expectations for the “Overlook” project.

The first person to talk to Shi Yuan about this was Lu Tinghan.

They went up to the abandoned energy tower and looked side by side at Fengyang City in the night.

Lu Tinghan said: “You saw it at the scene as well. The Gemini 17b is infected.”

Shi Yuan asked, “…yes, what about the other two planets?”

“Just the same, the abyss appeared on their surface and infected all living things.” Lu Tinghan leaned against the railing, the wind blowing through his black hair. “We always thought that the abyss suddenly appeared on this planet, but we didn’t expect that we were not a special case. Long before us, some planets had already been infected. Now the guess of the scientific research center is that the abyss is like… travelers in the universe. They are constantly spreading and expanding, and this is not their final stop.”

Lu Tinghan smiled and continued: “It’s incredible, human beings need spaceships to navigate the universe, research for a hundred years, and pour all their efforts to reach the speed of light. It never occurred to us that there might be such an existence that could ignore distances so vast as to be eternal and traverse the stars. The distant stars that we cannot touch in our lifetime are just stopping points along the way for them.”

He said: “This world is really… very strange.”

Shi Yuan didn’t speak.

He hugged Lu Tinghan’s waist.

Lu Tinghan: “Looking back, when the first frigate was built, people’s morale was high. The headlines in the newspapers were all ‘the journey has begun, the sea of stars is our new territory’ and ’Colonize alien planets and let the Alliance flag fly in the universe’. The biological instinct is to reproduce and expand, natural selection, and desire will never subside.”

“I don’t know if the abyss can be called a kind of creature, but they…should be the most idealized existence, polluting, proliferating infinitely, and heading to the next galaxy. If it were us, we would probably do the same thing.”

“…But,” he said again, “In this contest, mankind has lost too much. Even if the planet is really habitable, how to launch spacecraft, how to ensure the survival of astronauts, and how to ensure the establishment of a new civilization, each of these is almost impossible.”

“Besides, ‘Overlook’ can’t save the city, it’s just a thought for the future. As I said before, just treat it as if ‘Overlook’ never existed. The city is still there, and this battle will continue to be fought, and we have not yet reached the point of abandoning our armor and dragging our soldiers.”

“We have to fight until the last moment.” He pinched Shi Yuan’s face with a soft expression.

Shi Yuan nodded sullenly and didn’t speak.

After a long time, he looked up at Lu Tinghan: “I don’t understand… where does the abyss come from? It, it should have an original home, right?”

“I don’t know,” Lu Tinghan replied, “It’s just a guess.”

They got too close. Lu Tinghan lowered his head slightly, almost to Shi Yuan’s lips, looked at him, and whispered, “You…”

He didn’t go on.

He smiled a little: “It comes from beyond the sea of stars.”