Chapter 529: Chapter 435: The Prophesied Doomsday
The senior technician on the battleship is called Bella, the chief technology officer.
With a look of terror, he said, "In our understanding, apart from some special forms of life, such as the legendary iron-based life forms or other unique carbon-based or silicon-based life forms that can survive in the cosmos, most forms of life are impossible. The creature in the image doesn’t look like an iron-based life form. Judging from its ability to fly at the same speed as the probe, it shouldn’t belong to the special carbon-based or silicon-based life forms either. So, if it truly exists, it might very well be a ’god.’ Hmm, you should understand what I mean."
Commander Moras and the other technicians naturally understood what Bella meant.
When he said "if it truly exists," it sounded contradictory since the probe had already captured an image of it.
In fact, many bizarre phenomena exist in the cosmos that can make probes capture deceptive images.
For example, there is a phenomenon in the cosmos known as the "gravitational lensing effect."
When light passes near a massive celestial body, it gets bent and focused, forming multiple images, similar to a mirage on Earth.
This phenomenon is known as a "space mirage."
The Spiritual Race once had a highly advanced probe that captured images of a "space mirage."
It occurred approximately a thousand Earth years ago when the Spiritual Race captured an image of an iron-based life form in a certain star realm, a legend of the cosmos’s strongest life form.
Back then, it frightened the Spiritual Race immensely.
Because even the weakest of iron-based life forms possess a powerful body capable of easily destroying stellar systems.
They might have relatively low "intelligence" and no so-called superpowers, but their bodies are too strong. Supernova explosions or powerful cosmic rays like gamma-ray bursts have no effect on their formidable bodies.
Hence, if an iron-based life form appears in a star realm, it is not only a catastrophic blow to a stellar system but also threatens to obliterate an entire galaxy like the Milky Way Galaxy.
Fortunately, the image captured by the Spiritual Race back then was just a "space mirage."
This incident proved that though terrifyingly powerful iron-based life forms indeed exist in the cosmos, they have yet to threaten the Milky Way Galaxy.
These are valuable pieces of historical data gathered during the development of the Spiritual Race, with little current significance.
Commander Moras nodded slightly and said, "I feel it’s more likely to be a ’space mirage.’ I don’t believe that apart from iron-based life forms, there’s such a powerful being in the cosmos."
A young female technician timidly said, "What if he truly is a life form comparable to or even stronger than iron-based life forms? Or, perhaps, gods actually exist in our universe?"
Bella laughed dryly and said, "Our technological civilization is so advanced; we’ve ruled thousands of stellar systems without ever finding evidence of so-called ’gods.’ It shows that ’gods’ are merely concepts concocted by living beings to seek inner comfort. There are no real ’gods’ in the cosmos."
The young woman mumbled, "A remote possibility is scarier than certainty. If he indeed is a ’god,’ how should we respond?"
Bella, Commander Moras, and the other technicians, confident in their advanced technological civilization, did not believe in the existence of real gods.
Hence, they ignored the young woman’s muttering.
Commander Moras paused for a moment and said, "Direct the probe back to the previous location for analysis. If the mysterious creature appears again, we’ll retreat immediately. But if it doesn’t show up, we’ll proceed as planned and activate the gamma-ray burst weapons to obliterate all life within this star system!"
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
A group of technicians quickly got to work.
As the chief technology officer, Bella personally operated the probe to return, intending to see if the previous image was a "space mirage."
About two and a half hours later.
The probe reported back the results of the second analysis.
This time, it did not capture the startling cosmic creature from before.
Bella immediately let out a sigh of relief and smiled, saying, "I said earlier it was just a ’space mirage.’ How could such a powerful being exist in the cosmos?"
"Yes, indeed."
"Perhaps we overthought it."
"The creature might exist in some corner of the cosmos but was only presented through the gravitational lensing effect, leading us to mistakenly think it could physically traverse the stars, which wasn’t the case."
A group of technicians from the Spiritual Race displayed expressions of relief.
Why were they so relieved?
It’s quite simple.
If it were confirmed that the strange creature truly existed, their ten Earth-year endeavor to reach this uncharted star realm would have been in vain; returning to their home planet would take another ten years.
Not needing to return to their home planet and being able to exploit this star system’s resources presented a more favorable scenario.
They could install a "Dyson Sphere" around the sun to harness an abundance of energy.
Then, with this enormous energy, they could exploit the surrounding star systems.
Finally, by accumulating energy from ten star systems, they could construct a "Space Jump" base to directly jump back to their home planet using the "Space Jump Station."
Commander Moras, decisive as ever, declared, "Immediately set up the gamma-ray burst weapons to conduct a life-obliterating strike on this star system!"
"Yes, Commander."
"Setting up the gamma-ray bursts will take about five Spiritual Ability Times."
"Including the calibration time, we should be able to fire the devastating gamma-ray burst weapons in eight Spiritual Ability Times."
After responding, Bella and the other technicians donned their light space suits and went outside the battleship to set up the gamma-ray burst weapons.
For a time, the massive super cosmic battleship was surrounded by a flurry of technicians in white space suits, assisted by "auxiliary robots" to help assemble the weapons.
Even though the civilization of the Spiritual Race had reached the stellar civilization level, the gamma-ray burst weapon was too complex in its structure.
While the "auxiliary robots" could complete most of the installation, certain precise tasks required Bella and other technicians to do hands-on work.
The technicians of the Spiritual Race were busily assembling the gamma-ray burst weapons.
Anyone could imagine that once this weapon, capable of catastrophic destruction, was set up, all creatures on the planets within the solar system would be instantly obliterated!
...
Time ticked away second by second.
Gradually, a day finally passed.
Humanity on Earth finally met the day of Lu Li’s prophetic "end of the world."
At this moment, there was about an hour left until Lu Li’s prophecy.
About eight billion humans on Earth had reached the pinnacle of despair.
Yesterday, billions of them pleaded desperately online all day long.
But there was absolutely no response from Lu Li’s social media account.
This led every person on Earth to feel as if they were counting down to the grim reaper’s arrival.
With each passing second, the pressure on Earth’s inhabitants grew fiercer.
Some couldn’t withstand the strain, descending into madness at this life-and-death juncture.
Crying!
Howling!
There were all sorts of reactions.
Some were so deep in despair that they sat silently in a daze, gazing at the sky as though trying to see what the gamma-ray burst, predicted to bring about the end of the world and annihilate life on Earth, would look like.
Amid cries, howls, and others waiting in silent despair, time finally reached nine o’clock, the moment Lu Li’s doomsday prophecy was to be fulfilled.
At this instant, nearly eight billion people worldwide closed their eyes in despair, anticipating certain death.
But to everyone’s surprise, despite keeping their eyes shut for about ten minutes, the so-called end of the world didn’t arrive at all.
The sky remained unchanged.
The earth still echoed with life and verdancy.
The air was as fresh as ever.
There was nothing unusual, nothing signaling an apocalypse.
This left many of those waiting for death puzzled.
Why hadn’t the end of the world come? Did the prophecy turn out to be wrong?
