Chapter 508: DOOM

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Very interesting.”

Several days later, after Chen Chen went through the report received from the Mars expedition team, he became visibly intrigued by the findings.

At this point, many discoveries on Mars had been publicly disclosed. With the careful coordination of the Earth Federation, the entirety of mankind had their attention honed in on the current Mars expedition. The initial landing of Ares on Mars was met with fervent celebration. This would be encored by the latest groundbreaking news from the Mars research station –

There was life on Mars!

It was not any primitive eukaryotic life form nor was it single-cell structured life forms but multi-cell life structured life forms similar to the ones seen on Earth!

This revelation alone was enough to set off tremendous parties and celebrations in the biological sciences community on Earth.

The four major continents did not attempt to conceal any information. Everything was laid out to the public in the exact form received from Mars. This included the statistical data of the species of detected life form, geological structure, and whatnot. The approach they had taken had earned them many praises from communities all over the world.

There was a good reason for the four major continents in doing so. The first was the most essential component in establishing a strong foundation and that was to build a respectable reputation. It was vital to upkeep the image of the four major continents in the Earth Federation.

This was merely one of many reasons. The primary reason was directly related to the fact that Blacklight Biotechnology was the primary faction heading this expedition with Ares. Three years ago, Blacklight Biotechnology had granted the related aerospace technology to the four major continents. In terms of advancement, this stem of technology was at least several decades ahead of the rest of the Earth Federation...

Which meant that the published data on Mars was of little to no use to the other countries. This was because no other forces apart from Blacklight Biotechnology and the four major continents had the required technology to travel to Mars.

This was the true reason that Blacklight Biotechnology and the four major continents saw fit to disclose their findings.

It took Chen Chen more than ten minutes to go through the heavy stack of the report in his hand. He slowly raised his head after he had finished.

“Sir Godfather, did you notice that the life forms on Mars are quite similar to the marine life forms on Earth?”

Little X suddenly asked unprompted.

“Not just similar.”

Chen Chen agreed, tipping his head up and down. “The multicellular organisms found in the underground lake on Mars are almost completely homologous to the deep sea organisms on Earth. There are more than fifty percent similarities in their gene structures. Could some of the circulating theories be true, that Mars was once a planet with a bustling civilization that eventually collapsed, but not before branching out to Earth? Could Mars be the true origin of life on Earth?

“Or maybe it’s just a coincidence. After all, we have only found low-level species. We don’t know yet just how different they are from the potential high-level species.”

Little X commented, “But what you said is possible as well. Maybe Mars has something to do with the emergence of life forms on Earth. Maybe it’s also related to the Cambrian explosion...”

The Cambrian explosion was also dubbed as one of the biggest mysteries in the field of paleontology and geology. Approximately 540 to 530 million years ago was the period where geologists determined the start of the Cambrian period. In the span of 20 million years during the Cambrian period, a large number of invertebrate fossils appeared in the soil layer.

However, even among the fossils in the deepest layer which was also some of the earliest fossils formed during the period, there was no significant indication of the age of these fossils being too much older than the later fossils. It was as if all of the invertebrate fossils appeared at the same time out of nowhere...

This was a mystery that had plagued biological academia since Darwin’s time and nobody had found a reasonable explanation even until today. This was why it was simply referred to by geologists as “The Cambrian Explosion” for its sudden outburst of population.

Nevertheless, Blacklight Biotechnology was not concerned with finding an explanation for these matters. Little X raised the matter again. “We can further review these matters after we’ve performed a thorough study on the landscape of Mars. After all, we’ve merely chipped the tip of the iceberg. In roughly three to five years, we would’ve more comprehensive and accurate information of the structure on Mars.”

“No, that’s not what I’m concerned about.”

Chen Chen shook his head suddenly and said ruminatively, “I’m just thinking that needing two weeks to travel back and forth is still too lengthy, especially when considering that the construction of a spacecraft like Ares costs us tens of billions of dollars. To achieve greater efficiency, we need to find alternative methods of transportation to Mars.”

“Are you hinting at... Teleportation?”

Little X was surprised to hear this and quickly mentioned, “That will be difficult to achieve considering our most advanced form of teleportation comes from the black spheres in Gantz. Even with all the groundwork and effort we’ve put into maintaining the teleportation system, the black spheres are still hindered by technical limitations and can only allow for teleportation on Earth instead. At this point, I doubt interplanetary teleportation is possible unless we can create a teleporter the size of the Himalayas mountains. That way, the signal coverage may be able to reach Mars. However, that’s pretty much impossible...”

“Of course, I’m aware of that.”

Chen Chen chuckled. “Due to the energy limitations back then, we were unable to extract large devices from the USB drive so we had to compromise with devices like the Gantz sphere. Things are different now since we have the super tokamak reactor that multiplies our energy generation efficiency by several folds. Doesn’t this mean that the options that we have previously deemed impossible to instantiate are accessible again now?”

“Are you talking about the time machine in Terminator?”

Little X wagered a guess.

“It’s worth considering, but it’s not the best option available.”

Chen Chen considered briefly. “Apart from Terminator, there are many other movies that introduce teleportation systems. Our current Mars expedition reminds me of a very familiar title with a device tailored for our needs...”

“Could it be... DOOM?”

Little X asked.

“That’s right.”

Chen Chen snapped his thumbs. “From what we’ve observed so far, the time machine from Terminator appears to be a parallel dimension teleporter. I suspect it will be hard to fully utilize it. Meanwhile, teleporters in movies such as Doctor Who and Star Trek aren’t viable since they either cannot be accepted by the USB drive or pose trouble with the continuity of consciousness. I’m not willing to take the risk of using faulty teleportation devices. Of all the options we have, DOOM seems to meet my requirement.”

DOOM, also sometimes referred to as Duke Nukem, first started as a sci-fi-themed first-person shooting game. The story is about mankind discovering a gigantic portal on Mars that served as a gate and allowed countless terrible monsters to pass through. These monsters were a large variety of biblical devils.

Since it was a genre-defining game, it had amassed a cult following and in 2005, it was rewritten into a movie. However, the monsters inside the movie had been changed into monsters derived from failed human experiments instead of biblical devils from another world.

The plot of the movie was that in 2026, mankind discovered a special device left behind by an ancient civilization on the earth. This device was known as the “Ark”. It was a teleportation device which destination was set to a location on Mars.

To conduct further studies on the “Ark”, the state forces kept its existence secret and soon established a research station on Mars. It was there where they discovered signs of humanoid remains on Mars, suggesting that there were humanoid inhabitants on Mars.

Upon conducting further genetic research on the inhabitant on Mars, they discovered that humans shared the same genetics as the Martians. The humans and Martians both had twenty-three pairs of chromosomes, with the exception of a small portion of Martians having twenty-four pairs of chromosomes instead.

Upon further research, humans realized that this demographic with twenty-four pairs of chromosomes possessed inhumane strength. Their raw strength, reaction speed, vitality, and the rate at which they recovered from injuries were vastly superior to regular humans. They were essentially superhumans.

Later research also revealed that this was not without its drawbacks. As the humans started to artificially inject the twenty-fourth chromosome into regular humans, they discovered that most people would become mutated and lose their minds in the process. These unfortunate victims of the failed mutation became mindless monsters that were completely consumed by the urge to kill.

Only a tiny portion of the population was compatible with the twenty-fourth chromosome.

Even among this population that was fortunate enough to be compatible with the twenty-fourth chromosome, there was still the risk of them losing their minds. The reason for this was that humans were born with an inherent violent tendency sheltered in the deepest corners of their minds. Upon receiving the twenty-fourth chromosome, there was a significant chance of these violent urges becoming amplified which would cause the person to become an unhinged murderer while still managing to hold on to their sense of self.

This meant that there was a lesser amount of the population that had the full mental capacity to resist the side effects of the twenty-fourth chromosome and become superhumans.

In a way, the twenty-fourth chromosome was a fusion of the T-virus and the Captain America supersoldier serum. On one end of the spectrum, it might mutate ordinary people into senseless and mindless monsters while on the other end, it could amplify a person’s nature for better or for worse.

Inside the movie, upon realizing the vast enhancement the twenty-fourth chromosome could potentially impose on human genes, the country allowed for further research on the twenty-fourth chromosome in the Mars research station. This inevitably led to a string of disastrous events when the monsters broke out of the Mars research station.

At one point, Chen Chen did consider using the twenty-fourth chromosome enhancement from DOOM but he eventually gave up on the idea. He of all people knew that if he was injected with the serum, it was far more likely that he would turn into a maddened murderer than to become a fully-fledged superhuman.

Anyone should be able to figure out by this point that Chen Chen was no nobleman like Captain America.

Besides, the genetic amplification of the twenty-fourth chromosome was roughly on par with the T-virus. There was no need for Chen Chen to take the gamble.

After thoroughly weighing his options, Chen Chen spoke again, “I suppose this will do. Even though DOOM is a video game adaptation that has altered a majority of its stories in the video game counterpart, it’s still worth trying it out on the USB drive and see if it can be accepted.”

There was no harm in trying. Chen Chen proceeded to head to the charging room for the USB drive that was hidden behind layers of defensive installations. As soon as he stepped into the charging room, he saw coils of electricity surging out of the USB drive that had its energy reserve completely emptied a month ago. The coil of electricity lapped around in disrupted patterns and cast its faint red and purple glow over the room.

This was a common phenomenon known as the “corona discharge”.

Following Chen Chen’s arrival, the charge of electric current flowing into the USB drive ceased immediately. The reactor connected to the USB drive grinded to a halt.

The coil of electricity slowly flickered in the air and disappeared upon losing charge. The USB drive soon dimmed out and faded to black. Shortly after that, spots of flickering light began to appear on its surface again.

It seemed as if a miniature galaxy was trapped inside the USB drive...

Chen Chen was well versed with how the USB drive operated at this point and knew that this only occurred when the USB drive had received a significant amount of charge. The USB drive never looked anywhere like this when he first obtained it.

This was evidence of how far Chen Chen had come in terms of charging efficiency for the USB drive. Before the construction of the nuclear power plant, Chen Chen could go through months of charging only to attain a measly amount of charge. These days, he had an array of five high-power nuclear fusion reactors with tens of millions of kilowatts between them charging the USB drive around the clock. The daily electricity generated was the equivalent of the electricity consumption of a metropolis.

Even with this, it took at least three years to fully charge the USB drive. It was a testament to the terrifying capacity of the USB drive.

Chen Chen stepped forward and gently removed the USB drive and then said, “Although it’s only been a month of charging, this amount of charge is easily equivalent to several decades worth of charge with my previous setup. This should easily allow me to instantiate several hundred tons worth of items, more than enough for what I need...”

With that, Chen Chen took the USB drive and went to the teleportation room. The familiar beam of blue ray sent him to another location in a split instant.

Chen Chen arrived at a large room the size of a great hall. The space inside the room was empty. The walls were gigantic columns of steel beams that went to the roof. There was no sign of anything resembling an entrance or exit.

This place was a complete dead end.

This was the experiment grounds that Chen Chen had Little X build after the failed USB drive experiment last time.

The purpose of the experiment ground was rather straightforward. In three years when the USB drive was fully charged again, Chen Chen would once again open up an Einstein-Rosen bridge and put a portal to an alternate dimension in this space.

Before that, this great hall could be used for other purposes.

There was already a desk set in front of Chen Chen with a laptop set on top of it. The laptop was not connected to any external network. When Chen Chen sat in front of the desk and opened the laptop, he saw an AVI format movie file on its desktop.

DOOM.

Upon seeing the title of the movie, Chen Chen took the USB drive and slowly plugged it into the port on the side of the laptop.

After the laptop read the USB drive, Chen Chen proceeded to open the USB drive file and proceeded to drag the movie on the desktop into the drive.

“Click!”

What followed was a swift click. Another movie was successfully added to the USB drive!