Ding!
The sound of steel colliding awakened Lu Zhou from his trance.
That was the sound of iron striking.
When he came back to his senses, he was already standing in front of a primitive house made of wood, stones, and some white fluff. It was a strange-shaped forge next to him that woke him up. He raised his head and looked into the distance. A little further away, he could see the walls made of soil and wooden sticks, as well as the farmland that was growing happily.
As General Reinhardt said, these insects learned to walk upright, even learned to use tools, and developed the embryonic form of agricultural civilization.
Even though in his opinion, their walking posture was as funny as it could be.
Looking at the "pasture" surrounded by fences and the fat buckets of larvae, Lu Zhou had a thoughtful expression on his face.
At this time, General Reinhardt walked to his side and asked jokingly.
"What kind of experience is it to be distracted for tens of thousands of years?"
Lu Zhou heard the ridicule in the tone, but at this moment, he had no time to care about this.
"We … have been in this state for tens of thousands of years?"
General Reinhardt shrugged his shoulders.
"You can think of it as fast forward. After all, I can't really let you stay in my memory for tens of thousands of years."
F * ck!
That's scary!
Lu Zhou thought he had slept for tens of thousands of years!
"…"
Without immediately responding to General Reinhardt's words, Lu Zhou looked around and looked at the village at the foot of the mountain for a while before continuing to speak. "We are now in the Stone Age?"
"A little further than the Stone Age. They have learned to smelt metals … It is probably the Bronze Age."
"Did you teach them these?"
"No, their brain capacity may be a little small, but they are not stupid enough to need my help to build houses and domesticate beasts."
"But you told me that you 'enlightened' them."
"That's right. Whether it was intentional or not, it was the stone tablet that I left behind that taught them how to write. It was also because of the appearance of words that their knowledge was passed on. Isn't this cheat big enough?"
While they were talking, a mournful buzzing sound came from where they were, and the tranquility in the air was suddenly tainted with a hint of killing intent.
One by one, cockroaches with metal horns on their heads rushed out of the forest. Under the cover of the domesticated flying insects, they pounced toward the village at the foot of the mountain.
Screams rose and fell as the cockroaches in the village quickly armed themselves and began to fight.
The two groups of people quickly fought together. Looking at the cockroaches in front of him, or rather, the Martians, Lu Zhou felt a chill down his spine.
Fortunately, General Reinhardt, who was standing next to him, raised his hand and flew into the sky with him. Otherwise, he wasn't sure if he would vomit.
Looking down at the flames that soared into the sky, as well as the splattering of flesh and blood, Lu Zhou suddenly had an illusion that he, who was here, was like God.
And in fact, that was indeed the case. He was looking at the life of civilization from the perspective of God …
"Do you feel like an omnipotent god?"
"A little."
"It seems that you are gradually understanding how I feel." General Reinhardt smiled faintly. "In fact, any higher civilization will have similar thoughts when facing a lower civilization. Sometimes when I think about it, the mentality of those observers when they look at us is probably the same. "
While the two were chatting, the battle at the foot of the mountain had already ended.
The battle between the two groups of people finally ended with the victory of the invaders. The Martians, who were obviously larger in size, divided the captives into two groups. One group was killed, and the other group was tied with white velvet ropes at the junction of the carapace and the head.
The winners set up a fire in the center of the village, lit the flames, danced to please the gods, enjoyed the plundered materials, slaughtered the enemy's livestock, and even enjoyed the captives …
General Reinhardt continued blankly, looking at Lu Zhou, who was deep in thought.
"This is the first stage of evolution. Civilization and barbarism are making their final struggle. At first, the latter has the upper hand, but in the end, the former catches up. The war is like a catalyst. The Martians on this land began to merge and merge into a whole. In order to manage more people, they transitioned from a tribal system to a feudal system, and then through countless reforms and even revolutions, they achieved the liberation of productivity … "
Lu Zhou: "So what role did you play in it?"
"Me?" General Reinhardt smiled faintly and continued, "I didn't play any role. When they contacted me again and completely realized my existence, it was already the electronic age."
Just as General Reinhardt was talking about this, the ground under their feet changed again.
At some point in time, the low thatched hut had disappeared, replaced by a house made of red bricks and a well made of granite.
The bonfire also collapsed, replaced by chimneys that soared into the sky and factories that covered hundreds of acres.
Carts of steel products were transported out of the factory and loaded onto the train. With the roar of the whistle, the train drove into the distance.
Not far away, circles of houses rose from the ground, and the outline of the city began to appear and spread rapidly.
"Is it shocking?"
"Yes …" Lu Zhou was silent for a while as he looked at what was happening on the planet under his feet. He said, "There is one thing I don't quite understand."
"Don't understand what?"
"Since the Martian civilization is nearly three billion years ahead of us … Why didn't the Observer civilization choose them? Instead, they put their hopes on us, which is inferior to the Martian civilization in terms of resources and environmental conditions."
In Lu Zhou's opinion, the initial resources of these Martians could be described as a perfect start.
Different from the human civilization that had experienced countless Little Ice Ages in history, this group of insects living in a greenhouse had almost never encountered the baptism of natural disasters. Even if the crops were not harvested one year, they could still obtain enough food from the lush forests and the underground world.
"This question is actually very interesting. Using the earth as a reference, does the most fertile land give birth to the most powerful civilization?"
Looking at Lu Zhou who was lost in thought, General Reinhardt continued.
"In fact, although Gaia has an ecological environment that is the envy of all organic lifeforms, it is not the most suitable hotbed for the birth of civilization.
"A rich environment means that you can obtain the basic materials needed for survival without a lot of effort. Although the Martians have the same curious qualities as you, their culture does not know what hard work is, and they do not have the genes to explore. And the most fatal thing is that tens of thousands of years of evolution have made them fully adapt to the ecological environment of Gaia. This kind of picky and almost harsh living conditions makes it difficult for them to find an acceptable second home in space.
"Imagine, if the ecosystem on Earth can still accommodate 20 billion or even 30 billion people, and the rich resource reserves will not be exhausted one day, will you still want to give up the beautiful life you have now to explore the Moon, Mars, or even worlds beyond the solar system?"
"In contrast, those harsh and extreme environments are more likely to breed powerful and aggressive civilizations. You can remember this. Maybe it will come in handy one day. "
General Reinhardt looked at Lu Zhou, who nodded in understanding, and continued.
"As for time … Needless to say, a civilization that has a long history may be developed, but the reason for its development must not be because it has a long history. Many things that seemed to be inevitable could not be simply equated with each other. And I didn't know these things until I arrived at the center of the galaxy. "
In just a few minutes, the earth under his feet had changed.
The endless grassland was gone. The boundaries of the forest continued to shrink and shrink, and finally disappeared on the horizon. It was swallowed by high-rise buildings made of reinforced concrete. Steel covered almost every inch of the planet.
At this moment, Lu Zhou finally understood where the rust all over the surface of Mars came from.
And the hematite veins and silicate sedimentary rock formations with strange structures …
All of that turned out to be the "corpse" of the Martian civilization!
"Incredible, how did they finally get to … that step?"
Looking at the planet that had almost been completely changed by reinforced concrete, as well as the neon lights and endless prosperity on the streets, Lu Zhou couldn't help but have a complicated feeling in his eyes.
Although development did not change the ugly image of those Martians in his eyes, so far, he had not seen any signs of decline.
If he hadn't seen what Mars would look like billions of years later, he would never believe that this powerful civilization did not set foot on the starry sky, but eventually declined …
"There are many reasons, and even many coincidences.
"Putting that aside, let's make a hypothesis. If cancer cells know that they will one day die with the host if they continue to expand endlessly, do you think they will consider proliferating in a relatively gentle way? "
Lu Zhou asked subconsciously.
"Is that still cancer cells?"
Reinhardt seemed to be impressed by Lu Zhou's intuition. He nodded and said, "Yes, so it is fundamentally impossible to expect civilization to restrain itself and achieve common prosperity with nature. Just like people's desires will expand, so will the needs of civilization. Only by expanding to more distant worlds is the only way for civilization to survive, just like the first fish jumping onto land.
"However, because of the problem of habitability, the Martian civilization did not embark on this path in the end, but chose to continue to seek. Under normal circumstances, the Gaia planet's endurance is able to meet their needs, until … they finally do something stupid. "
Lu Zhou's Adam's apple moved.
"What stupid thing?"
"They built a geothermal well, dug from the bottom of the sea all the way to the mantle layer, extracted heat and minerals from it, and used them to build and support their city."
"They are crazy …" Lu Zhou was slightly taken aback. "Didn't they think of … other ways?"
"Other ways? For example, controllable nuclear fusion? " General Reinhardt smiled faintly. "Don't forget, Mars has only been formed for a few hundred million years. The entire solar system is still very young. It has not accumulated a large amount of deuterium and tritium in the ocean like the earth."
"The Martian civilization did invent controllable nuclear fusion technology, but for their situation, this was not the cheapest choice. In contrast, as arthropods, it was more attractive to explore downward. After all, digging holes was almost their survival instinct.
"A large amount of mantle material was pumped to the surface, and the energy in the core was released. In fact, this was a very slow process, including the cooling of the core and the weakening of the magnetic field. For Martians, who only had a lifespan of more than 20 years, most people might not feel the changes in their environment even if they spent their entire lives.
"When the local core temperature finally fell below a certain critical value, and the weak magnetic field could no longer resist the high-energy rays from the universe, everything was too late. They watched in despair as the atmosphere was blown away. Their compatriots died of cancer, and cities became ghost towns. They were forced to retreat from the surface to the underground world with everyone.
"However, even in the underground world, there was no place for them. At that time, Mars was like an old man with one foot in the grave. He was only one death certificate away from death. "
"Before the civilization was about to die, they made some efforts … such as the ignition plan and the seeding plan.
"Regarding the ignition plan, I've already told you about it. They asked me for help, hoping to send my engine to the Earth's core and detonate the zero-point energy in the energy module to return the heat borrowed from the Earth's core. They dormant some of their compatriots and took turns to wake up to complete this work, but in the end, they still failed.
"As for the seeding plan, it is more interesting."
Speaking of this, General Rhinehart smiled.
"Maybe it's because they were stimulated by the upheaval on Mars. They finally realized their weakness in adapting to the environment, so they used genetic modification to greatly tailor their genes."
"Unfortunately, genetic modification is a very sophisticated technology, and they were obviously immature in this aspect. They could only strengthen their habitability at the cost of weakening other parts. The new Martians created by this method not only had intellectual defects, but even they themselves couldn't accept that these short, imbecile people were their own kind.
"But no matter what, this is the only hope for survival. And think optimistically, after hundreds of millions of years of evolution, if one day these new Martians reawaken the genes of their ancestors, wouldn't it be equivalent to reviving their civilization?"
"With this idea in mind, some people turned their attention to Earth, which is your mother planet. Although Earth was still chaotic at that time, they tried to accelerate the evolution of the Earth's atmosphere by detonating nuclear weapons, releasing acid-resistant, nitrogen-fixing bacteria, and other artificial methods.
"I don't know if this was within the Observer's plan, or if it was an allowable error. In short, in a sense, they have made some progress. "
"The new Martians, who were genetically modified and frozen dormant, were sent to Earth by their compatriots. Those Martians hoped that those little guys, who were smaller than them, could rebuild the glory of the Martian civilization one day in the future."
General Reinhardt spoke softly with a regretful expression on his face as he looked at Lu Zhou, who was full of shock, and the neon lights on the ground that had been extinguished.
He said softly, "As for the result, you should already know.
"They've spent billions of years and crossed hundreds of millions of kilometers …"
"… I've finally succeeded in becoming the cockroach in your eyes."
…
Earth.
Oxford University, Bodleian Library.
An old man in his late sixties was crawling in front of a wooden table, carefully checking the printout in his hand.
His name was Vernal, and he was an archaeologist. Although his research direction had deviated slightly in recent decades, there was no difference in essence.
So far, 30 years had passed since the initial trip to Mars.
For the past 30 years, the international community had not given up on excavating The Gates of Hell. It was only recently that funding was cut again and again.
With his authoritative status in the field of Martian archaeology, he went to Mars several times in the past 30 years to investigate the ruins of The Gates of Hell. At the same time, he also investigated some newly unearthed clues about the Martian civilization.
He had also changed from a middle-aged man who looked older to an old man in the truest sense of the word.
By the way, although space travel was not as simple as it was 30 years ago, it was not as mysterious as 30 years ago. Many well-off newlyweds would choose to go to the Moon for their honeymoon and experience the wonderful experience of weightlessness.
In addition, there were not many scholars like him who insisted on writing by hand and completing papers on paper in this era of extremely advanced multimedia technology …
"Professor, I brought you your manuscript." Footsteps came from the door. A young man with freckles on his face pushed the door open and walked in with a stack of paper.
In the end, because the stack of papers was so tall that it blocked his view, he almost tripped over the chair at the door.
Professor Vernal was so angry that he almost fainted. He stood up angrily.
"Be careful! You stupid groundhog! This is a precious historical document. "
"But professor, they are just printed …" The young doctor continued with a helpless expression on his face, "If you need it, I can go to the printing room to get you another copy."
"Whether it's Newton or anyone else, the original manuscripts of any great person are brand new when they are first included in this library. By the way, electronic files have no soul. " Professor Vernal stacked the documents in his hand. He skillfully batched them and counted them one by one.
After confirming that there were no omissions, he nodded with satisfaction.
"Very good, it's all here."
The young doctor looked at his supervisor with a strange expression. He wanted to complain, but in the end, he didn't say anything.
His supervisor stood up and walked to the coat rack at the door. He picked up a khaki coat and put it on his body. He then stood in front of the mirror and adjusted his collar.
Looking at his old self in the mirror, a trace of nostalgia appeared in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by strong confidence.
Today!
Today!
My research will change history!
Professor Vernal took a deep breath and spoke with a hint of excitement.
As if he was reciting an old English epic, he opened his mouth and said.
"Go and get ready, Dr. Gilbert!"
"Take out the most expensive suit in your wardrobe and iron it. Wait until the afternoon report begins.
"The whole world will remember our names forever because of this amazing discovery!"
Gilbert was used to the old professor's nervousness. He curled his lips and muttered.
"Yes, professor."
He really wanted to write a thesis.
Would leaving Earth for a long time hurt his brain …
…
Compared to decades of time, a mere afternoon of waiting was just a blink of an eye.
Professor Vernal quietly waited for the clock on the wall to hit the right time. He approached the microphone and cleared his throat.
The lecture hall was quiet.
Pairs of eyes stopped moving left and right. They looked at the old professor on the podium, waiting for his opening remarks.
The report had already begun!
"Ladies and gentlemen."
"I'm glad you are participating in my academic report.
"I'm going to announce an important discovery to you right here —"
"The Martians have always been with us!"
The moment he finished speaking, everyone's faces revealed a surprised expression, and the sound of discussion spread in all directions.
Young people used "Are you a Martian?" "What a coincidence, me too," and the like joked with each other. There were also some people who took notes seriously or shook their heads with a sneer, expressing their disdain.
Professor Vernal smiled as he looked at the crowd in the lecture hall.
He was satisfied with the surprise on people's faces.
"Although it sounds a little unbelievable …" Lin Fan said.
"But according to the fossil specimens we found in the crater of Olympus and various signs from other relics, we have been able to preliminarily judge that they belong to the class Insecta, the order Blattella … Just like the American cockroach.
"Maybe the cockroaches we see today are actually the same species as the Martians from billions of years ago! They might even be from the same place!
"All of this is possible!"
The moment he finished speaking …
The entire lecture hall, whether it was the people or the air, was boiling in an instant …
(The next chapter is the second volume! Watch to see the story behind the genius ~ (?????)???)
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