Ch. 781The Wallfacer Project
Plot points and events
- Chang Weisi introduces the Wallfacer Project: because Trisolarans can monitor human communication but cannot read human thoughts, a few individuals will devise secret strategies that remain known only to themselves. They will receive sweeping authority, and others must trust their actions without trying to interpret them.
- The Planetary Defense Council approves the project. Zhang Qi is selected as one of four Wallfacers. He accepts the mission to defeat the Trisolaran Fleet.
- Zhang Qi considers how to use resources and technology across multiple worlds. He hopes to combine research from the Wandering Earth and Gundam SEED worlds, especially the scientific capabilities of the Coordinators, to accelerate technological progress.
- In P.L.A.N.T.’s Mendel Gene Research Institute, Gilbert Durandal’s team completes verification of the “Destiny” gene sequence. It is designed to let future Coordinators choose partners and have children more reliably, while restoring their capacity to genetically evolve.
Character developments
- Chang Weisi presents himself as a forceful advocate of trust in hidden, individual strategy, framing the Wallfacers as humanity’s answer to an enemy that cannot understand private thought.
- Zhang Qi accepts an immense responsibility without hesitation, while privately planning across realities and considering how to mobilize their combined resources.
- Durandal celebrates a long-awaited scientific breakthrough. His work is driven not only by genetic research but by his ambition to address the conflict and hatred of his world.
Character interactions
- Chang Weisi persuades the Council by answering concerns that the project is dictatorial: Wallfacers will act alone, but humanity must supply resources and refrain from probing their plans.
- A Council official offers Zhang Qi the chance to refuse; Zhang accepts with only a brief exchange.
- At the institute, an excited young researcher announces the successful results to Durandal and the assembled scientists. Durandal responds with restrained emotion and acknowledges their achievement.
Significant themes
- Secrecy and trust: Human privacy of thought becomes a strategic advantage, but the Wallfacer Project demands faith in decisions others cannot understand.
- Individual responsibility: A Wallfacer carries the fate of humanity alone, while Durandal likewise pursues a goal through years of concentrated effort.
- Progress and its limits: Coordinators’ apparent genetic perfection has constrained fertility and further evolution; the Destiny sequence seeks to restore both continuity and change.
- Technology as a means to peace: The chapter links scientific advancement to the hope of defeating an external threat and ending conflict within Durandal’s world.