<h4>Chapter 551: Parallel Worlds</h4>


    Chen Chen slowly opened his eyes.


    When his mind registered what came into his view, he rxed his body that was ufortably tense and rigid.


    Chen Chen found himself in a familiar room decorated with white walls on all sides. He could smell the faint scent of fresh flowers in the room and feel the soft fabric wrapping around his body. He nced beside him and noted the speckless floor window.


    Chen Chen got up from the bed. The gentle sun coated him with its warm embrace as he rosezily from his slumber.


    There was no mistaking it. He had returned to the Spire, to the world he belonged to.


    Upon sensing Chen Chen’s awakening, the Android posted to the room entered with a dining cart arranged with tes of well-portioned, delicately prepared cuisine.


    Chen Chen did not spare a nce at the food. He sat silently on his bed and stared off into the distance. He tried to jog the memory of what he had just experienced.


    Just as he suspected, the moment he returned to the cryogenic chamber on the other world and fell asleep, he found himself awake in this current world.


    “Holy Fusion Empire? Year 378?”


    Chen Chen muttered to himself, “Could it be that my consciousness is simultaneously existing in both the present and the future?


    “No, it’s not the future...”


    Chen Chen shook his head at this thought. “That world is a world ruled by the Consciousness Stealer. Could this mean that it’s a separate timeline wherein the Consciousness Stealer sessfully defeated me and enved mankind and found a new branch of civilization?


    “In that case, how is it that I’m able to exist in two separate timelines?”


    It suddenly urred to Chen Chen that this may be a contingency n that Little X had deployed in the Consciousness Battlefield.


    Previously, when Chen Chen and the previous owner of the USB drive were dueling in his dreamscape, he managed to attain victory all thanks to the measures devised by Little X. It would not surprise him to know that Little X had set up further countermeasures during the battle.


    Perhaps Little X’s countermeasure was in the event that Chen Chen sumbed to the Consciousness Stealer in the battle, he would not bepletely devoured by the Consciousness Stealer. Although he may sustain significant damage on a metaphysical level, his physical body would still be preserved in the cryogenic chamber and rest for centuries.


    After he had recovered over time, he could still challenge the enemy again...


    However, even Little X would never foresee the turnout of the battle which resulted in a branched timeline. Just like the theory of Schrodinger’s cat, their battles created twopletely separate worlds.


    One was the present, the reality, which was the one where Chen Chen emerged victoriously.


    The other was the world with the so-called Holy Fusion Empire. It seemed like both dimensions were not on the same timeline since the otherworld was set several centuries in the future.


    Chen Chen let out an exasperated sigh as he pondered the current circumstance he was faced with.


    Although he was experiencing these schizophrenic symptoms, the good news was that he was still alive and had a trump card up his sleeve.


    With this in mind, Chen Chen looked up and asked, “X, isn’t it time you tell me more about the Consciousness Battlefield?”


    “Sir Godfather, the Consciousness Battlefield is the meme I specifically created to help you defeat the Consciousness Stealer.”


    Little X’s voice was broadcasted through the speakers. “Using the collective consciousness of both you and the Consciousness Stealer as the foundation, a battlefield is forged to allow both parties to duel on an even battlefield. Since the battlefield is constructed from both of your conscience, the created terrain doesn’t favor either party. It’s the ideal battleground for a fair duel. However, in a way, this can be a double-edged sword.”


    “What happens if I win?”


    “If you win, you’ll be able to im everything the Consciousness Stealer is made of andpletely desecrate its conscience!”


    Little X answered confidently.


    “And what if the opponent wins?”


    “This is where I mixed in a nifty bit of sleight of hand...”


    Little X exined, “If the opponent defeats you, it can only absorb a part of your conscience and will cause you to fall into a deep and heavy slumber due to losing part of your conscience, but you will not die.”


    “I see.”


    Chen Chen nodded. “Since I was inside the cryogenic chamber, it automatically activates the moment it senses that I’ve fallen asleep to protect my body, is that it?”


    “Exactly!”


    Little X remarked loudly, “If we describe this process as a game, then the meme will be the source code of the game. The risk with this countermeasure I’ve implemented is that it may create a bug in the code and cause an internal copse of the Consciousness Battlefield and from there on, what may happen is entirely unpredictable. However, I had tomit to this method to protect you in case something went wrong. The good thing is it looks like nothing bad has resulted from it!”


    “No, something bad has already happened.”


    Chen Chen announced solemnly. He then began to describe the consciousness division symptom he was experiencing and what he saw in the otherworld. Little X was astounded by the tale she was told.


    “If what you say is true, then that means your consciousness currently lies in the middle point between two separate timelines. This must be caused by the fissure in the consciousness battlefield!”


    Little X was surprised by the turn of events and immediately became distressed. “What should we do now? If something were to happen to you in the otherworld, will it cause a chain reaction over here as well?”


    “There’s no helping it.”


    Chen Chen shook his head and stated, “You win some, you lose some. Since I had to resort to cheating to defeat the opponent, I’ll have to bear the consequences. Besides, by the current looks of it, these consequences don’t seem to be something we can’t handle. It may even present a brand-new opportunity for us...”


    After all, even Little X would not have predicted something like this happening.


    After everything they had been through so far, the memetic entities remained an iprehensible, mystique force. It was an abstract entity that transmitted in the form of information but could still directly influence physical matter. Furthermore, the origin of its power was stillrgely unknown. The bare-bones theory was that it extracted energy from its subjects. However, what Chen Chen was currently experiencing could not possibly be solely the work of the memetic force.


    Would it be apt to say that this phenomenon had somehow created a separate universe?


    That was impossible. Chen Chen suspected that what was happening was a result of his consciousness being merged with his consciousness in another timeline, which caused his consciousness to traverse beyond the current ne.


    It still had to be said that these memetic powers were truly wondrous. Even Little X could not figure out the underlying principle of such powers. Till now, Little X’s understanding of them could still only be described aspletelyckluster, though she was not to me for it.


    “Society has gradually recovered to its previous form over this period.”


    Half an hourter, Little X came beside Chen Chen who was having his breakfast and briefed him on the current state of affairs, “After ensuring that the Consciousness Stealer has perished, the Earth Federation finally announced the reason for the city lockdowns. However, they did not announce the true reason for what was happening. The people were only informed that the fusion death cases were the result of a new deadly virus and that they have eliminated the virus appropriately.


    “As for the affairs on Mars, the Ares had taken off again andnded on Mars to construct a new research station. Our aerospace department has also coborated with the four major continents and charted the brief details of a thirty-year n.”


    “Thirty-year n?”


    Chen Chen raised an eyebrow at such a mention.


    “In the first decade, we’ll build a Martian colony to house ten thousand people and transport the first batch of immigrants by theter period of this phase.”


    Little X described, “The first of Martian citizens will also serve as trial subjects. We’ll provide them with suitable welfare and a generous sry and in exchange, they’ll entrust their livelihood and future to us. In the process of their stay on Mars, we’ll be able to umte sufficient data and experience to further improve our knowledge of building a hospitable ecosystem on Mars.


    “In the second decade, we’ll be popting Mars with nts that can adapt to its unique environment, one of which includes the tardigrade moss we previously researched. This will generate and supply oxygen content into the atmosphere on Mars and reshape the climate on the over time.


    “Meanwhile, the third phase will be the most challenging of them all. We need to find a way to restore the maic field of Mars. This isn’t a project that will take a mere decade, but up to a century! The first prerequisite is to build powerful artificial maic field satellites. We’ll need tens of thousands of them to form a chained orbit surrounding Mars to alter its maic field and contain the naturallypsing atmosphere of the.”


    Little X went on. “Mars has its maic field, only it’s nowhere as strong as the maic field on Earth. Sometime around 3.9 billion years ago, most of the maic field of Mars dissipated, leaving only some tiny residues of the original maic field. ording to scientists, this was caused by an asteroid collision that also happened 3.9 billion years ago. It caused the surface temperature of Mars to rapidly rise above its core temperature, which in turn caused the liquid iron on its surface to fail to cool down below the surface temperature and unable to conduct appropriate levels of heat-transfer convection.


    “The reason there’s a maic field present on Earth is due to the solid core of the. Earth’s solid core interacts with the outeryer of Earth which consists ofrge amounts of iron to generate what is known as the maic field. Its working principle is very simr to that of a DC generator. Meanwhile, the issue that the Mars faces is that the coil in the generator has malfunctioned and cannot rotate, which means it cannot sever the natural maic induction line. This means there’s no electric current, which results in an absence of maic field...


    “Without the protection barrier which is the maic field, Mars ispletely exposed to the sr radiation which slowly eats away its atmosphere over time. This eventually causes the surface of Mars to be terraformed into its current state.


    “We came up with a set of solutions to counteract thisck of maic field. The first step is to deploy a satellite chain to create an artificial maic field to stabilize its atmosphere.


    “After that, we’ll deploy three giant boosters on Mars to fine-tune Mars’ orbital entricity.


    “Although alls in the sr system are assumed to rotate on a fixed orbit, the truth is that each does still have fluctuating rates of orbital entricity. The orbital entricities of Venus, Earth, Mars, and Mercury are 0.007, 0.017, 0.093, and 0.206 respectively, while the atmospheric concentration of theses arebeled as dense, standard, thin, and extremely thin respectively. The reason for the inversely proportional ratio of these two attributes is that arger value of orbital entricity causes the to lose a portion of the atmosphere, simr to what happens when aet approaches closer to the sun. Therefore, fine-tuning the orbital entricity of Mars can help to reduce the atmospheric dissipation phenomenon.


    “ording to our scientist’s findings, the maic field of Mars has been gradually recovering for some time now, the same applies to the’s core recovery. However, the rate of recovery is extremelycking and it will take upwards of 700 million years before it could be restored to a point of managing to resist sr radiation. The good news is we can elerate this process by up to a hundred thousand times. The most straightforward method to achieve this is by locating the dwarf Ceres located in the Kuiper Belt.


    “The dwarf Ceres’ size isrge enough to influence the gravitational force on Mars. We can install a nuclear fusion engine on the dwarf to shift it into the orbit of Mars, essentially designating it as Mars’ ‘Moon’ artificially. Ceres’ gravitational force will generate a substantial level of what is known as crowding effect on the structure under the Martian crust and this will elerate the recovery of its maic field...


    “Using these methods, we have full confidence that Mars will be the next Earth within a century. This also makes it the first interster coboration effort with the Earth Federation and the first phase of the investment is projected to reach hundreds of billions of dors!”


    “What benefit can we gain from this?”


    After listening to Little X’s exnation, Chen Chen finally asked. At this point, a mere century was not a far-fetched idea for mankind since the overall lifespan of humans was increasing exponentially with the gradual rollout of the mankind anti-aging project. In another three to four decades, the average lifespan of the average person should easily rise above a hundred years old. At this point, even Chen Chen was unsure how many hundred years he had remaining in his lifespan.


    “The benefit we gain from this is that we’ll have a permanent colony on Mars that belongs entirely to us.”


    Little X answered, “We’re the first and only space colonizationpany officially recognized by the Earth Federation. Although there will be otherpeting space colonizationpanies from other continents in the future, we’re currently the onlypany that has an established exclusive permanent colonial plot. This gives us a significant headstart on the others.”


    “Not bad.”


    Chen Chen nodded with delight. Although Little X did not stress the underlying details, he knew that there must have been a great deal of intervention that Little X had to pave through to arrive at this point. After all, it was in the four major continents’ best interest to thwart cklight Biotechnology’s rapid expansion. Currently, the raw capital of cklight Biotechnology was nowhere less than any of the four major continents. It might be even above them. Naturally, this would cause the four major continents to raise their caution.


    With that said, the Earth Federation still had other alternatives to constrain cklight Biotechnology’s industry. They could limit cklight Biotechnology’s ess to raw materials such as minerals and various high-precision materials to throw a wrench in thepany’s production.


    However, doing so would also in turn restrict their ess to simr technologies such as the Androids, XTN robots, and various biomedicine and aerospace technology. In this sense, both parties were at each other’s mercy.


    Currently, cklight Biotechnology was clearly at the forefront of the aerospace industry. There was hardly anypetition and even the Ares was independently developed by the cklight Biotechnology Space Department. This was the primary reason they were willing to get on good terms with cklight Biotechnology to colonize Mars together and go so far as to give the corporation the privilege of an exclusive independent colony.


    Despite the clear upper hand, cklight Biotechnology was aware that it was not feasible to abandon the Earth Federation and move forward in the aerospace sector independently. Chen Chen knew that even if he utilized all the aerospace technology obtained from the USB drive, civilization development was still a group effort at the end of the day. His potential was greatly limited if he were to stray from the pack and he was more likely to face his demise sooner thanter by doing so.


    Therefore, what Chen Chen needed to do was to find a delicate bnce between cklight Biotechnology and the Earth Federation. In the process of attaining this bnce, he would try to negotiate the best terms possible that could benefit his side.


    After Little X had exined everything to Chen Chen, he decided it was time to test his Field to see what changes had urred. It seemed that the two masses of energy in his mind were yet to fusepletely.


    After conducting several tests on his Field, he realized that the potency of Field had improved by roughly ten percent, but there was a significant drop in its precision. Once, he was able to observe the structure of matters by magnifying them a thousand times but he was only able to achieve a magnification of roughly eight hundred times now.


    This seemed to be the drawback of the fusion of Field energy and psionic energy.


    Even after conducting a series of experiments, Chen Chen was yet to discover the uses of psionic energy. It seemed that he still needed some time before he could fully take advantage of this newly-attained mysterious power.