Star Chart

"Vanished?"

Meng Chao was stunned for a long time before asking, "Blown to pieces?"

"Not exactly."

Wu Haibo slowly shook his head. "Though the explosion was extremely violent, it wasn't violent enough to vaporize Project 109 completely. In fact, several hundred meters from the blast's point of origin, we found the remains of three researchers. They had all been carbonized, leaving only fragments the size of fingernails, but that at least proved that not even human flesh and blood could be blasted away completely.

"Given the strength of the Crystal Corpse and the Metal Panel, even if they had melted entirely, there should at least have been scraps of metal left behind.

"But the rescue workers found neither of those objects, nor a great deal of research equipment and materials, including the remains of the other four researchers—not so much as a fingernail clipping or a strand of hair.

"It was as though, through that explosion, the Crystal Corpse, the Metal Panel, and perhaps several researchers had all transmigrated to a new time and space."

Meng Chao sank into deep thought.

According to the law of conservation of mass-energy, nothing could appear or disappear out of thin air.

If his rebirth had transmitted something from the apocalypse back to the eve of the National College Entrance Examination—whether memories, some form of energy, or information—

Then, to achieve balance, something must also have been transmitted from the eve of the National College Entrance Examination to the apocalypse.

Could that have been the cause of the explosion?

"Did Project 109 leave anything behind? Wreckage, photographs, copies of materials or data?" Meng Chao continued asking.

"Yes, but not much, and all of it has been sealed away."

Wu Haibo said, "The more mysterious an ancient relic is, the more irreplaceable and unique it