Volume 3: Dance of the Aurora Chapter 5 The Ultimate Question
On the evening of May 8, Xu Xia was drawing on the computer in his dormitory as usual.
The dormitory was as crowded as usual. His windbreaker and schoolbag were piled together, next to which were a 2L water bottle, printing supplies bought online, a trekking pole and a bundle of ropes.
Not far from the colorful hill of miscellaneous items was the rack where he placed his fitness equipment and rolled up yoga mats.
Both of them in the dormitory had kicked the pile of iron lumps several times. After the most recent time his little finger was bleeding, Xu Xia finally remembered to buy a shelf to put them away.
At this moment, he was concentrating on outlining a geometric pattern bit by bit on 3Dmax. This was the model that would be printed out in the laboratory tomorrow, and it was also the task assigned to him by his tutor.
He has always felt that this is of no help in training scientific research capabilities, it is simply because the tutor does not want to do it himself and just throws it to the undergraduates.
At that time, he chose to enter this laboratory because he was very interested in new materials such as graphene, and he heard that the teacher was doing 3D printing using carbon fiber as raw material.
These concepts sound very impressive, and maybe you can make a lot of money if you learn them.
But since entering the laboratory, he has hardly done anything related to graphene and has been drawing in front of the computer all the time.
And it was only later that he found out that carbon fiber and the now-hyped graphene are not the same thing at all.
But it doesn't matter. He is also very interested in carbon fiber. After all, almost all high-end outdoor equipment is made of carbon fiber, or to be more precise, carbon fiber reinforced plastic.
Xu Xia wore a headset that was not too big compared to his head, and bent over to stare at the computer screen. The cooling fan of the laptop made a painful wail. Although this was the best gaming laptop at the time, it was already very old, and the old graphics card had long been overwhelmed.
Xu Xia didn't realize that the ground began to tremble slightly, and the toothbrush and toothbrush on the table rack collided with each other, making a crisp sound. The rope on the backpack was shaken and fell to Xu Xia's feet, followed by a 15 kg dumbbell.
"Ouch! It hurts, it hurts..."
He was knocked to his feet and the headphone wires on his head were roughly pulled off .
The next moment he clearly heard a rumbling sound in the distance.
What's that noise? Is it an earthquake? Is this city located in an earthquake zone?
After a while he felt that the vibration was more like a giant walking in the distance than an earthquake.
Driven by curiosity, Xu Xia walked towards the window with drawn curtains. As he stepped, he clearly felt the amplitude of the shaking gradually increasing.
If it were a timid person, he would have panicked and would not have approached like this.
Then Xu Xia saw a scene that he would never forget. His fatigue and dizziness from staring at the computer were swept away, and he felt his heartbeat speed up. As someone who often does outdoor sports, he has a strong ability to regulate his body and emotions, and he has never encountered such a situation before.
He turned around, closed the curtain, and walked back to his seat with trembling hands, his mind going blank at this moment.
Who am I? Where am I? Where am I going?
After being in a trance for a while, he finally confirmed that the current situation was not a dream or an illusion, but a real fact.
After all, an illusion that affects all five senses at the same time is no different from reality. Or is it possible that our senses have been blinded since birth, and everything we see and hear in our lives is an illusion?
The shaking of the earth became more and more severe, and the severe shaking brought Xu Xia back to reality from his distraction. He quickly put on his clothes and pants for going out, took out his jacket from the storage rack on the wall, and then took out the outdoor dagger from the deep of the box.
Before he left, he glanced at the storage rack again, wondering what else he should take out.
At this moment, the phone on the table suddenly rang. He didn't notice it at first, after all, the vibration of the phone was insignificant compared to the shaking of the ground.
"Hello? Hello? Son, are you still alive?"
If Xu Xia hadn't seen the caller ID on the screen before, he would have thought for a moment that it was a call from his father.
The person on the other side was silent for a few seconds after saying that, and Xu Xia didn't say anything either.
They all just realized that "Are you still alive" is no longer a joke from now on.
"Are you...safe now? Can you move?"
Fang Cheng spoke first.
"I'm in the dormitory... I guess it's safe. Where are you?"
"Now get over here to the south compound, right now! You'd better bring some equipment for spelunking. I'll explain it to you when you get here."
Based on her years of experience with him, Xu Xia realized that Fang Cheng had never been so excited before. And the other party's voice didn't sound like a joke at all.
Just as Fang Cheng chose to believe the voice claiming to be an alien, he also chose to believe Fang Cheng.
What equipment do you need for caving?
The most basic ones are ropes, flashlights, carabiners and helmets, and he has all of them except the helmet. More advanced ones should be ascenders and descenders, special caving suits and night vision goggles, which are impossible to get now.
Xu Xia quickly packed up the various odds and ends. He put the knife inside his jacket, hung the rope over his shoulder, stuffed all the remaining small items into his big pocket, and ran in the direction Fang Cheng indicated without stopping.
Fang Cheng and Xu Xia hung up the phone, and when they tried to call the alien back the call was no longer connected.
He stared at his phone and found that he had missed a call, and the other party was someone he had to call back.
"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? I'm Fang Cheng!"
"Hello?"
Before she finished her words, the clear female voice was suddenly replaced by a chaotic roar, and the phone screen went from being in a call state to a black screen.
"Hello? Hello!? Hello!"
Fang Cheng rubbed all the buttons on the phone hard, but the brick in his hand did not respond at all.
Reason stopped him from throwing the useless phone to the ground.
At this time, all the artificial light sources outside the window have been completely extinguished, with only a single moon hanging in the sky. The earth is still shaking slightly, and the electromagnetic waves floating in space are violently agitated. The summer night air, which should be relaxed and cool, now makes people extremely fearful and irritable.
He felt uncomfortable all over, as if someone had grabbed his neck, and his face and body were slightly itchy. He could only slowly squat against the wall and look at the messy yard through the broken glass window.
The yard was very quiet and he didn't want any noise from outside.
After all, the person who made the sound might not necessarily be Xu Xia.
After a while, Fang Cheng heard hurried footsteps and panting, which came from far away and floated to the edge of the courtyard wall. He unconsciously clenched the square box in his hand, but he didn't feel any pain in his palm.
"Fang Cheng? Fang Cheng, where are you? Are you in here?"
Great! Fang Cheng sat down on the stone bricks.
