pr: roki
After reading the content of the message, Chu Si pressed a few times on the screen, paused for a moment with his thumb on a certain place, then released his hand and looked up at the holographic screen.
In the time it took him to process the message, Sa’e Yang had pulled out that video.
First, there was a black screen for a few seconds, and only a few human voices could be heard mixed in with the noise of static. After a moment, the camera suddenly lit up, and the screen turned into a normal image.
The scene just now looked like someone had turned on the camera, swept away an obstruction of cloth, and finally succeeded in secretly capturing the next shot.
The scene in the video resembled both a conference room and a laboratory. There was an oval conference table, but instead of sitting around the table in an orderly fashion, people were seated on one side of the table in twos and threes, some atop the table, some leaning against the edge table, and some sitting in chairs, sandwiched in between everyone else.
At first glance, the atmosphere seemed more like that of a casual chat.
But where those people focused their attention, there was a huge instrument. It looked a little like the mechanical treatment device that Chu Si had laid in, but it had many more ports than the treatment device.
Watching the video, Chu Si furrowed his brow and knew what it was— it was what was depicted in the draft’s diagram, the experimental capsule that would be used in the time experiment.
The video showed the capsule with its hood raised, not yet activated, and a woman sitting on a bed-like metal platform.
Not sitting voluntarily, to be exact. Her legs were secured to the platform by several metal clasps, and her hands and wrists were similarly snapped in place. Although her upper body was sitting up straight, several of the same metal clasps were wrapped around her several times, with the topmost one at her neck.
Her long, dark brown, curly hair was a little messy, but it didn’t hinder her distinctive temperament. Her eyes were large and bright, and under the light, they seemed to be covered by a layer of glass, extremely transparent. It made her look so pure that when her gaze landed on someone, they would cower.
She looked around the room in silence, and it was noticeable that everyone she looked at would avoid her eyes.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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He smiled at the woman and said, “Miss Ester Cabell—”
The man’s tone was so courteous that, at first, it sounded as if they were in the midst of some dinner party. After he had finished this address, he turned to face the crowd, and added, “You all must know this Miss Esther Cabell, so there is no need for me to introduce her further.”
In the conference room of the command center, Zilder Feng and the others showed slight astonishment when they heard the name.
“Esther Cabell?!” Shao Heng repeated the name. “Isn’t that the legendary scientific research expert? She came from a military combat team and received several years of training in the special training camp. She was very skilled, and was later transferred to a research institute due to her outstanding abilities in intelligent machinery and dimensional technology. However, she died at a young age due to an experimental error that shattered all her organs… Some of the things she designed later became irreplaceable foundations and were used in many government organizations’ high-end intelligent systems, such as the upgraded system later added to the Space Prison, high-end teleportation pads, mechanical treatment equipment, and so on.”
As a fan of military mechanical weapons, he always had an infinite respect for experts in this field, and this Esther Cabell happened to be on the list of experts he admired.
Chu Si once heard him lament this expert’s early death.
However, even if they weren’t fans of mechanical weapons, everyone in the room, as high-ranking members of government organizations, still knew about such experts— it was clear that everyone had heard of Esther Cabell, and knew something about her deeds and eventual, regrettably untimely, death.
But the scene in the video didn’t look like what they’d heard.
“Miss Cabell was found to have played some tricks that were not quite loyal to the experiment, but fortunately they were undone in time and didn’t cause any substantial impact on existing results,” the gray-haired man continued. “I think Miss Cabell must understand that today’s results are the culmination of countless people spending countless years to obtain them, and the manpower and material resources investments are so large that they are incomparable. Any destructive actions towards the experiment should be a torture of the conscience.”
Esther Cabell, who was sitting on the metal platform, laughed. Her expression showed an unspeakable contempt and ridicule, and such an expression made her face suddenly become vividly and indescribably beautiful. But her laugh was exchanged for a surge of electricity that traveled abruptly through the metal ring over her neck.
Esther Cabell dropped her eyes and clenched her teeth, the sound in her throat disappearing all at once.
There was some indignation and scorn on the faces of the onlookers because of the man’s words, but there was also a slight hint of discomfort the moment they saw her in pain.
“What we are doing is a great endeavor, concerning the planet and even the galaxy. Being born is a matter of supreme honor, and mankind possesses all the virtues and acquired skills bestowed upon them by the heavens. Transforming the world into the prosperous state it is today… to say that it was a miracle would not be an exaggeration. The only drawback is that we have never been able to break through the constraints of time.” The gray-haired man paused for a moment and continued, “Imagine, when you accidentally make a mistake, by taking a step backward, you can correct everything. Then, everything in the world would be infinitely close to perfection. We could stop being so careful, fearing that a certain decision or development would trigger irreversible consequences or even lead the entire planet to its end. The lessons learned by the wanderers are still there. Who wants to follow in their footsteps? No one.
“If we had an eraser, everything would be easier and simpler. We could be bolder. All miraculous inventions originate from some daring idea. We could have more chances to try, more room for refinement. Brilliant men could live long, and ordinary citizens could enjoy endless delight without anxiously waiting for death that would come at some unknown date. That would be the most disruptive and yet tempting revolution, and would be the most magnificent of epics.
“Such a possibility is now in our hands. We are only a few steps away, so why not be a little firmer?” The man said, looking at Esther Cabell up and down with an incomprehensible gaze. He sighed, and in a voice that dripped with exhaustion, “We never thought that you would be among those who betrayed our ideals. Really… I never thought it would be you. You’ve been to the abandoned planet where the wanderers used to live. You’ve seen the irreversible abandonment of a large part of the southwestern part of the City of Silver due to excessive radiation, as well as the diminishing survivable area of the Wasteland Planet. This world is too vast, the sea of stars is too big, and there are so few habitable places. We walk so carefully, but still make some mistakes. Is that really so unforgivable? If we could do it all over again, why not? Tell me, what reason is there to say no?”
Esther Cabell subconsciously opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. So just halfway through her sentence, she froze and frowned again, dropping her eyes downward as if she wanted to look at her neck.
Then she smiled indifferently, shook her head, and closed her eyes, as if she didn’t care to say anything else.
“What did she just say?” Zilder Feng asked suddenly.
Several of the people in the room had special training and were extremely sensitive to lip-reading. Without even thinking, Chu Si replied, “She said, ‘If time ceases to have meaning.’”
After Chu Si spoke, the conference room was silent again. It was the same in the video. After a few seconds of silence, the man with gray hair took a breath and lowered his eyes. ‘’All destabilizing advances are accompanied by bloodshed and sacrifice. This is sadness, remorse and an unavoidable cornerstone. At this stage of the experiment, there must be someone who takes that step first. Miss Cabell, we choose to forgive you for what you have done before, and we hope you will forgive us for what we are about to do. Honestly, you are a very, very outstanding girl. As the leader of your former research group, I am truly proud of you. So… good luck to you.”
Esther Cabell kept her head down and seemed to have blocked out everyone and every sound.
The gray-haired man raised his hand and pressed the activation button for the experimental capsule. With a buzzing sound, the metal rings around Esther Cabell’s body were magnetically attracted to her, drawing her down onto the metal platform in its entirety. She lay there flat on her back, without any sound or movement, as the transparent cover descended and closed tightly with a clank, like a coffin prepared long ago that had finally sealed its lid.
Various ports automatically linked to her body, weaving a spider web inside the transparent cover.
The other two experimental assistants adjusted the parameters of the device nearby, and the onlookers became nervous, holding their breath as if in anticipation of the expected results of the experiment.
The capsule suddenly opened up its energy field as everyone stared. The entire device began to tremble slightly.
A few seconds later, the experimental capsule let out a strange malfunctioning sound, and the tremors came to an abrupt end as a large patch of blood suddenly splattered across the transparent cover.
The gray-haired man closed his eyes and whispered, “Experiment failed.”
The people in the command center conference room subconsciously closed their eyes as the blood splattered. Chu Si, propped up on the table, bowed his shoulders and lowered his head. After a moment, he raised his head and glanced at Sa’e Yang.
This was what Ester Cabell had experienced, and it was also what Sa’e Yang had experienced.
In the video, the secret recorder was discovered, and after the experiment failed, the video suddenly went black in the midst of noises and shaking. It seemed likely that someone had forcibly closed the recording.
“My… my goodness…” Shao Heng wiped his face and lowered his head to calm down for a moment. He moved his lips as if he wanted to say something, but nothing came out.
Instead, Sa’e Yang rewound the video back a little, to the moment before Esther Cabell was magnetically forced into a horizontal position and the gray-haired man pressed the activation button. “Here. Watch this, she’s talking.”
At his reminder, everyone suddenly raised their heads and stared at the screen.
The video was deliberately slowed down several times by Sa’e Yang, so they could all clearly see how the corners of Esther Cabell’s mouth quirked up slightly in what appeared to be a smile, and how her lips moved a few times, mouthing something.
But because she had her head down, the angle made it hard to read her words.
“Can you tell what she’s saying?” A deputy executive asked.
“I think this one sentence is most likely why the military retrieved this. If I’m not mistaken, the sender of that previous letter should’ve been her as well.” Sa’e Yang played those frames back and forth a dozen times.
Everyone was still at a loss. Chu Si, however, didn’t continue guessing that one sentence, but instead turned his head to look at Old Master Shao and asked, “Old Master Shao, after seeing this, what do you have to say? Are you sure you still want to wait a little longer?”
Holy shit what is with this cliff hanger, and poor sa’e 🥺
oh no! how did i accidently catch up when I only started this book yesterday 😭 Thanks for all your hard work translating!
thanks for the chapter!
That gray haired man is just.. UGH I hate snobby people like him who can just do these sorts of things without blinking an eye 🤬