Chapter 607: Subspace Contamination

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After resolving the matter with John, Chen Chen turned his attention to the subspace navigation experiment.

Yesterday’s subspace navigation experiment was still running, but the situation was not optimistic.

After sending the Delta-level experimenters to the Courage Voyager for the first time yesterday afternoon, the spacecraft had disappeared for three full hours after entering the subspace.

During these three hours, everybody tried every means but did not find a single trace of the spacecraft.

Just when they thought that the spacecraft was shipwrecked in the depths of subspace, the spacecraft appeared again.

However, the hull of the returning spacecraft had been corroded and was decayed. Not only that, nine of the ten experimenters on the spacecraft went mad and died while the ten Black Knights who were also on the spacecraft were unscathed.

It could be seen from the spacecraft’s surveillance feed that the spacecraft originally entered the subspace with no issues, but when it wanted to return to reality, it seemed to become stuck.

The spacecraft was parked in the subspace, unable to return to reality at all for some unknown reason.

Not only that, the experimenters on the spacecraft also began to go crazy as if they had lost their minds. One by one they desperately bashed themselves on the door that detained them, not ceasing even when their heads were bleeding and their brains were splattering everywhere. They only stopped when they were fully dead!

Earlier when John came in, Chen Chen was looking at the report in his hand. At this time, the only surviving experimenter had been sent to the Spire Experimental Base 2 hidden under the north pole of Mars.

After more than ten years of development, the Spire 2 was starting to take shape. The underground space it had was no less than the Spire Experimental Base. Between the two, there was the Watchman teleporter as a connecting channel.

At this time, as Chen Chen flicked his finger, a screen suddenly appeared in front of him. It showed the scene of the surviving experimenter in custody. His hands, legs, and even tongue were all bound to prevent him from going crazy and dying like the other personnel.

Nonetheless, though he was completely trussed up, his eyes revealed an endless source of madness. The pupils were gone, leaving only the whites of the eyes. His forehead was bursting with veins and his physical condition was also in a high-risk state.

“This is all we can do.”

Little X responded, “If we don’t restrain him, who knows what he might do?”

“Have you tried a tranquilizer?”

Chen Chen asked.

“I have.”

Little X pursed her mouth. “It’s useless. He’d fall into a coma after the injection, but he’d continue to descend into madness after he regained consciousness again.”

Hearing this, Chen Chen could not help feeling a jolt. He lowered his head and looked at the palm of his hand. Suddenly, a palm-sized black stone slab appeared in a whirl.

“Prepare the Watchman teleporter. I’m going to Spire 2 again,” Chen Chen suddenly said.

“Yes!”

Little X instantly understood and her eyes lit up. Indeed, the black slate could dispel the subspace countercurrent. If they used this black slate, it might have a miraculous effect.

Chen Chen did not tarry. He went directly to the Spire Experimental Base, then came to the Watchman teleporter and teleported himself away.

A few minutes later, when Chen Chen regained consciousness, he only felt that his whole body was light and floaty. At this time, he had arrived at Spire 2 on Mars.

The main control program of Spire 2 was one of the clones of Little X. It named itself “Nancy”, but Chen Chen still liked to call it X-113 out of convention.

“Sir Commander, we welcome your visit.”

X-113’s sisterly voice sounded by his ears. Chen Chen looked to his side and suddenly saw a beautiful middle-aged woman with blonde hair and dark eyes.

Just like Little X, this was an exclusive body cultivated under the Black Knight system.

X-113 had her own preferences. In addition to naming herself, she also liked to cultivate an aesthetically pleasing body for herself.

Chen Chen nodded and directly ordered, “Take me to see that crazy guy. I have something to ask him.”

“Yes.”

Faced with the highest authority of Blacklight Biotechnology, X-113 naturally had no reason to refuse. She gestured in invitation and led Chen Chen to the depths of Spire 2.

More than ten minutes later, Chen Chen passed through a long and narrow passage and then took the elevator down again for over a hundred meters before reaching the bottom of Spire 2.

A prison was built here.

Unlike ordinary prisons, this was more like a restricted living area. What one would see were two rows comprising more than a hundred rooms with tungsten alloy fences. The dark corridor extended all the way to the end, but in such a large-scale prison, there was only one guest.

The guest was detained in the first cell with his hands and feet tied up, and his body was also chocked full of life-saving equipment. Without such equipment, he would have lost control of his emotions and died of endocrine disorders.

Outside his door, there were two heavily armed Black Knights standing guard.

Seeing Chen Chen, the Black Knights saluted immediately, then opened the door of the cell without any second thoughts and invited Chen Chen in.

As Chen Chen stepped into the cell, he could not help raising his eyebrows when he saw the experimenter.

The eyes were rolled back and the veins were bursting at the temples. The aura of insanity was far more violent than seen in the video.

Not only that, Chen Chen clearly detected a familiar smell after entering the cell.

He could not tell what it was because this smell was not something his nose had picked up but a psionic sensation. If he must describe it physically, it was an odor similar to sulfur...

This was not an intense smell, but when Chen Chen “smelled” this, he was taken aback.

It was because he had detected this before only when he entered deep into the subspace.

“A being that enters the subspace will be contaminated with the presence of the subspace?”

Chen Chen tilted his head. He silently opened his right hand. Suddenly, a black slate appeared out of thin air on the palm of his hand. In the next second, an invisible wave rolled out in all directions. The wave was so subtle that even the fine sand would not be blown away. Nonetheless, it dispelled all the surrounding subspace energy in an instant.

At the same time, it also refreshed Chen Chen’s spirit.

“It works.”

Chen Chen’s eyes glimmered with glee. He looked at the experimenter again, only to find that the other person’s expression had eased up a little bit. At the same time, the other person’s heartbeat dropped from more than one hundred and fifty times to one hundred times per second and then continued to fall.

“His emotions have begun to stabilize.”

Nancy’s voice came from his side. “But his consciousness seems to be in a coma. Should we wake him up now?”

“That’s not needed.”

Chen Chen shook his head. He walked straight forward, took off the person’s gag, and then placed the black slate in his hand in front of the person.

The black stone slab was at once suspended in the air, spinning silently at an extremely slow speed, looking very mystical.

“Baruch.”

Chen Chen had read the man’s information. He naturally knew the man’s name. At this time, there was only the sound of Chen Chen gently saying, “Baruch, you’re very tired now.

“You’re sinking bit by bit, sinking into the deep sea of ??the subconscious, but you don’t have to be afraid because the ocean of your origin is there, where your consciousness will be free and liberated...”

Chen Chen’s voice seemed to come from a distant horizon and at the same time, it reverberated slowly in the small quiet room. Soon, the mind and body of this experimenter entered a state that was half asleep and half awake.

“Now please tell me, what did you see on the Courage Voyager spaceship?”

Chen Chen asked suddenly.

“I... I saw many people like me and they were all taken aboard the spaceship. I found out from others that the name of this spaceship is the Courage Voyager...”

Baruch’s voice was very hoarse. After all, he had not eaten food or drink water for a whole day, relying on drips to maintain his energy.

“Very good.”

Chen Chen nodded and said again, “After you’ve waited for a while, you can feel that the spacecraft has already set off and is sailing to the depths of the universe. You’re a little nervous because you don’t know what it is you have to face in the future...”

Suddenly, Chen Chen’s tone changed and asked, “But at this moment, you suddenly feel a tremor in the spacecraft. Do you know what has happened?”

“It’s... It’s the space warp.”

Baruch’s voice was low and hoarse. “I heard the broadcast, which told us that the spacecraft is going to make a space warp, so we should be prepared... I don’t know what a space warp is, so I just grabbed something next to me to prevent the accelerating spaceship from tossing me around...”

Chen Chen continued to inquire encouragingly, “Next, what did you see?”

“I saw that the spacecraft had sailed into a hazy world.”

Baruch continued. “It was a weird world. The windows were all red and blurry and a special kind of fog was permeating the outer space. I had never seen such a weird cosmic space and... I felt that, when I looked out the window, there seemed to be countless pairs of eyes, staring at me closely...”

“Staring at you?”

Chen Chen rubbed his chin. Indeed, it fitted the characteristics of the subspace very well. In the subspace, it was necessary to close one’s eyes but because these people were in the spacecraft, they were not attacked by the subspace even though they did not close their eyes.

However, if things were that simple, Chen Chen would not be standing here right now. At this time, he continued to ask, “What next? What happened next?”

“Next...”

Baruch’s voice suddenly slowed down and his body began to tremble gradually as if something was about to gush out of his body. Not only that, but Chen Chen also smelled the energy of the subspace again.

The energy this time radiated from Baruch’s body...

“What happened next?”

Chen Chen continued to ask as he looked at the man’s face that was turning ferocious again. There was a vague sense of urgency, so he accelerated the speed of his questioning.

“It’s the eyes!”

Suddenly, Baruch widened his eyes. He seemed to be looking at Chen Chen but his eyes were not focused at all. He just wailed mournfully. “The eyes, I saw countless eyes, they... They were watching me too!”

Chen Chen frowned when he heard these words. He was about to continue asking something, but a large gust of subspace energy began to emerge from Baruch’s body. At the same time, Baruch’s body began to decay at a speed visible to the naked eye!

First were his eyes, which changed from black and white to a blood-red mass, then to black again, before finally transforming directly into black juice that flowed down his face!

Then, his cheeks, body, and limbs began to rot rapidly, just like a piece of rotten meat that had been left out for hundreds of years. Still, in this decaying, an eerie vitality was revealed!

Before Chen Chen, Baruch was turning into an unknown life form!

Seeing this scene, Chen Chen quickly backed away. At the same time, with a single gesture, the black slate flew back to his palm through the air and then a more intense wave surged out on the black slate again!

“Boom!”

The fluctuations swept across the cell in an instant. At this moment, Baruch suddenly widened his mouth and erupted in a heart-piercing roar. Meanwhile, his body melted rapidly in the fluctuations as if he had encountered sulfuric acid. He turned into a pile of scattered ash in an instant, hovering thickly in the entire cell!

Baruch was dead.

After all this, Chen Chen’s expression became completely serious. He stretched out his other hand slightly and watched the ash land on his palm. Even so, Chen Chen’s face was very solemn.

“The subspace is indeed more terrifying than I thought...”

Chen Chen frowned. “The black slate can dissipate the presence of the subspace but it can’t save the lives of ordinary people? Also, what caused that zombie-like transformation? Why was his body filled with the subspace energy?”

Nancy beside him also wore a silent expression. She was just a larger clone of Little X after all. Although she was not inferior to humans in terms of intelligence, she was still significantly inferior to Little X. She was also at a loss when faced with these questions.

Chen Chen frowned and walked out of the cell. He looked back at the cell again and then a lightbulb suddenly flashed in his mind. “The spaceship will be corroded when it enters the subspace. The Black Knights can enter the subspace without any problems and ordinary people will end up like Baruch. What about psionicists?”

Psionic energy was a power that could come in touch with the subspace, unlike Field energy. Chen Chen’s Field energy could not be utilized in the subspace at all, but psionic energy could penetrate the fog of the subspace and be used as a way of exploring one’s surroundings instead of eyes.

In this case, if a psionicist entered the subspace, would there be a different outcome?

This thought quickly flashed through Chen Chen’s mind and he immediately gave an order, “Nancy, send a message to X and tell her to send ten psionicists immediately. The stronger the psionic power of these psionicists, the better.”

“Yes.”

Nancy nodded and agreed.

This matter was not complicated. Nancy only needed to transmit Chen Chen’s order to Earth and Little X would receive it within a few minutes. Then, the psionicists could be transported over by teleportation.

The only shortcoming might be that it could take a lot of time to find high-level psionicists.

After they were sent here, Nancy could use the launch vehicle to send these psionicists to Mars orbit and dock with the Courage Voyager there to continue the next subspace experiment.