Chapter 428: Guan Tong’s Fear |
Suroma Space Agency, Ground Control Center.
The feed from the Empire Pioneer experimental capsule was projected on the big screen. The camera angle was positioned above the porthole so it would not capture the outside view of Scarlet Terra.
On screen, Guan Tong sat motionless in a metal chair, expressionless. His eyes stared straight ahead, unfocused and unusually hollow; he looked like a puppet.
Zhang Minglu pursed his lips and frowned slightly as he watched the feed, glancing at the time from time to time.
As the initiator of this plan, success would bring credit, but failure would mean taking responsibility.
Even though Guan Tong did not belong to the Countermeasures Research Office, to the Beixing government he was still a “valuable asset.”
Long ago, when Guan Tong was operating alone overseas, the Beixing decision-makers had already discussed him; back then some had expressed admiration for him.
After several cooperative operations, the officials had a rough understanding of Guan Tong’s personality and “got a read” on him, which laid the foundation for deeper collaboration. Appointing him as team leader for Fahe’s decapitation mission was a sign of that trust.
Not to mention Guan Tong’s relationship network, though not large, was extremely high quality.
Beyond Beixing, Uenoshi, the former Sakura Prayer official-team Chosen Team leader, often acted with him, and Xisiya’s Administrator Yelanka had received his help and held him in high regard.
These few but extremely influential connections usually lay low, but in critical moments they could coalesce into a formidable force.
It was easy to imagine that if Guan Tong could not return from space, it would be a huge loss for Beixing and for humanity overall, and people within his network would likely take action.
Therefore, whether out of private interest or public duty, Zhang Minglu hoped Guan Tong would succeed. Failing that, he at least wanted the mission to be aborted smoothly so as to ensure Guan Tong’s safety.
“Doctor Zhang looks quite nervous.” The Suroma Space Agency director Weilan Ke said from the side.
“You should be nervous too, Director Weilan Ke,” Zhang Minglu replied. “If Guan Tong succeeds, those in your country affected by Scarlet Fear and trapped in stress responses might be rescued as well.”
“You’re right, Doctor Zhang.” Weilan Ke nodded. “Mr. Guan’s success or failure concerns many people.”
Just as he finished speaking, an employee ran in and shouted a report: “Director, emergency! The Dream Boat One we’ve been monitoring just moved!”
“What?”
A hint of alarm flashed in Weilan Ke’s gray-blue eyes.
Zhang Minglu was also startled: “Dream Boat One? That’s ours from Beixing… Hasn’t it been orbiting Terra?”
The employee said, “It was orbiting Terra to save fuel. But shortly after the Empire Pioneer entered space, it suddenly began to change orbit!”
“It’s Robert!” Weilan Ke said. “Robert sent a distress signal before. We replied that we’d rescue him after this rule ended, and he never responded afterward. Now Dream Boat One is changing orbit, and it doesn’t have enough fuel left to return to Tianshui Star… Could it be heading for the Empire Pioneer?”
Zhang Minglu’s face went pale: “Oh no! That means our theory about Robert could be correct — he may have become a Scarlet Fear vector like that woman from Luruiguo whose frontal lobe was removed! We must stop him, otherwise Guan Tong will be in danger!”
Weilan Ke gravely asked a member of the monitoring team, “How long until Dream Boat One reaches the Empire Pioneer?”
“At normal speed about fifty-nine hours, but if it disregards fuel consumption and goes full-thrust, it can cut that time to under forty hours.”
“According to the plan, the Empire Pioneer was scheduled to return in forty-eight hours. Now it looks like the return must be moved up.”
A plane that encounters a problem after takeoff can return or land at a nearby airport, but a launched rocket cannot simply turn around and come home at will.
Space operations are more complex by an order of magnitude, and there is also the issue of launch windows.
Sometimes if a launch misses its scheduled window, the next opportunity may be days, weeks, or even years later.
Guan Tong’s mission aboard the Empire Pioneer was already rushed, so to improve the chance of a safe return they scheduled the reentry for the forty-eight-hour window — two days later.
That meant even if the experiment succeeded, Guan Tong would have to remain in space for almost two days before returning.
Now Robert was accelerating Dream Boat One, and would arrive before that window.
Everyone in the ground center believed that if the two rockets collided, Guan Tong would have no chance of survival.
Weilan Ke immediately contacted the Beixing Space Agency, calling Director Chen Shi directly.
Once connected, Chen Shi raised the issue first: “Dream Boat One is changing orbit toward the Empire Pioneer. That’s a very dangerous signal!”
Beixing’s Space Agency had clearly been tracking both rockets as well.
“Director Chen, can’t you remotely take control of the rocket? Dream Boat is your vessel.” Weilan Ke said.
Although Robert, as the Suroma space-migration team leader, had extensive rocket piloting knowledge and could operate Dream Boat One, its ultimate control permissions should rest with Beixing Space Agency.
Weilan Ke’s pupils constricted: “Wei Xuan? He was the team leader you sent before, wasn’t he? If Robert has his permissions then…”
When the space migration team retreated earlier, Beixing leader Wei Xuan had gone alone to continue the Dream Boat One mission and never returned.
Both nations later received Robert’s distress signal, but no word from Wei Xuan… People suspected Wei Xuan had died, but how was unknown.
Now it seemed they had an answer.
Chen Shi said, “We suspect Robert killed Wei Xuan and used his leader permissions to obtain Dream Boat One’s highest-level control. That prevents Ground Control from remotely managing the rocket.”
A cold sweat formed on Weilan Ke’s forehead: “In that case we’ll prepare forced-return measures. We cannot allow the two rockets to collide. Otherwise not only would Guan Tong be in mortal danger, but fragments from two massive rockets would produce countless space debris, clogging the orbit and threatening numerous satellites.”
After the call, Weilan Ke immediately instructed staff to prepare for forced return. He also had a team call Robert around the clock to see if he could be contacted and to learn his intentions.
“As for Mr. Guan,” Weilan Ke looked at Zhang Minglu, who had gone pale, “Doctor Zhang, when do you plan to tell him this news?”
Zhang Minglu paced, clenching his fists: “Guan Tong is still exploring Scarlet Fear. Disturbing him now would be very dangerous. There’s still time; we can inform him after he finishes the exploration.”
…
In the red space.
Guan Tong had been “flying” around for over ten minutes, his Mind Power rapidly draining through the Mental Stability Anchor.
The red dots that had appeared earlier now clustered into a dense mass, nearly pushing him into a panic disorder.
All this while he kept thinking about aborting the exploration, because this red consciousness space was extremely strange. Even though the Mental Stability Anchor prevented terrifying images from manifesting, he still felt deeply uncomfortable.
As exploration time increased, he even felt dizzy and nauseous, like he had motion sickness.
He suspected it was related to not having a “body” in this space. Humans are almost unable to conduct clear, purely conscious activities detached from the body.
This was different from dreaming — dream selves usually have bodies and the dream content is quickly forgotten upon waking. But Guan Tong was fully conscious as he probed the environment, and that mismatch between consciousness and body was the root of his unease.
Where is it?
Guan Tong could not find the “halo,” the Source of Fear.
Yet according to what Zhang Minglu had said earlier, in previous experiments several subjects had discovered the halo shortly after entering.
A thought flashed suddenly in Guan Tong’s mind: could the Mental Stability Anchor’s suppression of terrifying scenes also be blocking the emergence of the Source of Fear?
He stopped his “body” and looked around the endless red world, forced to consider that conclusion.
If that weren’t the case, how could his consciousness have been in this space for more than ten minutes without finding anything?
Continuing like this until his Mind Power ran out would yield nothing.
Guan Tong took a deep breath and made a decision.
…He had to take a risk and try!
At a certain moment he paused the Mind Power supply to the Mental Stability Anchor for an instant.
In that instant the anchor lost effect, and terrifying images would inevitably form…
But he only stopped for a single moment, then immediately restored the anchor. The interruption would be brief — one pause then resume — enough to prevent him from losing himself in fear.
He also had several life-saving items: the Life-Saving Pendant that shatters to negate a fatal blow, the Hourglass of Time that can halt time flow for a second, and other backups.
After rapid calculation, Guan Tong executed the plan.
The instant the Mental Stability Anchor was interrupted, the red dots exploded in number and magnitude, becoming a terrifying panorama that enveloped him:
He saw a “self” wearing a grotesque expression, standing shoulder to shoulder with thousands upon thousands of people, raising arms and chanting: “All for spreading!”
A wave of terror swept through him; he knew it represented himself transformed into a spore-converted parasitized form. Even knowing it was an illusion, the Scarlet Fear’s scene was eerily vivid and struck a deep-rooted terror in him — the fear of losing free will.
Indeed, since the Doomsday Rules arrived, his core motivation had been to avoid being controlled by others or the Fire Thief, because he dreaded losing autonomy and becoming a numb puppet.
However, the fear did not destroy him or make him lose his senses. The Scarlet Fear seemed to “realize” this and, before the anchor reactivated, generated a different terrifying vision.
“Die.”
Guan Tong felt sharp pain and looked down to see an ice sword driven through his abdomen, the wielder a frost-faced Yelanka.
“Die.”
A heavy punch slammed into his chest, cracking his ribs and stealing his breath; the attacker was Shi Jingyi, in a white robe with a long braid.
“Die.”
A voice from the side and his body stiffened as if petrified; he turned his head to meet Uenoshi’s snake-like green pupils.
“Die.”
Chen Na, Wang Yan, Xu Xiaotian, Bai Xuewu, Silver Fox, Li Meng, Zhang Minglu, Gao Liangwei, Dragon Soul, Wenren Yizhi… Everyone Guan Tong knew had become executioners, delivering lethal blows.
The pain in his body was nothing compared to the agony of betrayal; even worse than being betrayed was an overwhelming sense of meaninglessness, as if everything you protected ultimately meant nothing.
“…You let me experience what despair feels like. But thanks to you, having seen how terrifying it is, I will spare no effort to ensure it never happens in the real world!”
After being attacked in dozens of ways, Guan Tong suddenly raised his head and fixed his gaze in one direction.
His passive Killing Intent Perception let him sense a powerful killing intent aimed at him and lock onto its source.
He took a step, and in the next moment all the phantoms vanished and the world returned to red. Where his sight focused, a drifting, diffused red halo floated — the Source of Fear Zhang Minglu had told him about!
The Mental Stability Anchor resumed its effect and the other terrifying scenes were immediately blocked.
Guan Tong rushed toward the Source of Fear, and as he closed in he reached out with his “hand” to grab it.
In an instant his entire vision was filled with red dots!
The dense red points left no gaps, pushing to generate tens of thousands of terrifying scenes!
The totem of the Mental Stability Anchor in his palm burned unbearably hot to the point he could not bear it; he felt his whole palm was being burnt through! His Mind Power, like a flood breaching a dam, drained at a maddening rate every second!
No — if I keep holding, it will completely corrupt me!
Guan Tong gritted his teeth and tried to let go.
At that moment, his Terminal Panel unexpectedly popped up automatically and opened to the Title interface.
Two huge, scarlet prompts appeared:
[Consume the currently held item “Wailing Furnace” to increase this title’s experience]
[The “Civilization Observer” title can level up after this experience boost]