Upon hearing this familiar term, the delegates all paid close attention.
Back in the underground city, they had heard Wang Lei mention the Wandering Earth Project, but he didn't explain the specific details of the plan.
" The Wandering Earth Project..."
Wang Lei paused for a moment, then said in a deep voice, "In order to prolong the life of civilization, we spent nine years confirming this plan."
"The core concept of this plan is to treat Earth as our spaceship."
"You mean you're treating Earth like a spaceship?" For a moment, the delegates couldn't understand what he meant.
Wang Lei didn't express much interest, but simply gazed at the gray sky and said softly, "Yes, Earth is our best spaceship, and also our best home."
It seemed like he was stating his own beliefs, or perhaps answering the delegates' questions.
He turned around. "In your timeline, there should have been experiments with artificial biospheres."
Jack immediately nodded in affirmation of Wang Lei's statement; as a meteorologist, he was most familiar with this information.
They did indeed conduct biosphere experiments in their timeline.
"Yes," Wang Lei nodded, "Although I don't know the specifics, I know that the experiment must have failed, right?"
Although it was a question, there was not a trace of doubt in his words.
Jack opened his mouth, as if to say that they had gained a lot of valuable experience, but in the end he simply nodded. "That's right, the result was a failure."
Wang Lei showed no pride in his successful prediction. Instead, he said in a low voice, "This was an inevitable result. With the current level of technology, neither we nor you could create a truly ecologically sustainable closed space."
"But this failure is insignificant to you, but for us it is..."
Jack's heart sank as well. He looked up at the dim sky, where the clouds that had just been broken up by the plasma flow had dissipated with the wind, revealing a clear night sky.
He couldn't see the sun, which was supposedly malfunctioning.
But he knew very well that it was the sun that gave humanity almost everything it has now.
Leaving energy aside, food is undeniably entirely dependent on the sun. Without the photosynthesis provided by the sun, all living things on Earth, from humans to algae and bacteria, would go hungry.
It is because of the sun that we have the current food chain and ecological cycle; the sun is an indispensable link in this process.
However, for humans in this extraterrestrial spacetime, their sun can no longer be relied upon; their sun could engulf the Earth at any moment...
While Jack's thoughts drifted, Wang Lei continued:
"At that time, the only path we faced was to relocate from Earth and leave the Solar System. But unfortunately, just like you, our biosphere experiments also repeatedly failed..."
"For us, building a spaceship that can carry seven billion people is not impossible; the real challenge is building a spaceship that can sustain an internal ecological cycle for a long time."
"Ultimately, after a fierce struggle... we abandoned the idea of migrating away from Earth."
"Huh?" Upon hearing this unexpected result, Jack and the representatives froze on the spot. "The sun in that sky..."
Or is it Mutual Aid Society?
"We hadn't come into contact with Mutual Aid Society back then."
Wang Lei said calmly, "We only gave up on relocating from Earth, but we didn't say we gave up the idea of leaving the Solar System as well."
Jack suddenly recalled what Wang Lei had just said.
"Treat Earth as our spaceship!"
He suddenly realized something and tentatively asked, "Using Earth as a spaceship?"
Wang Lei glanced at him, surprised that this man could think so quickly. He nodded to Jack in affirmation. "Yes, so we've decided to treat Earth as our spaceship!"
Listening to the two seemingly repeating their rambling conversation, the surrounding representatives gradually realized what was going on and began to mutter along:
"Trying to use Earth as a spaceship?"
Suddenly, everyone turned around in unison, facing the enormous "creation" behind them, which was a full eleven thousand meters tall.
" Planetary Engine?"
Just then, five minutes had passed.
The BJ No. 3 Planetary Engine has been repaired and restarted.
The tremors and shockwaves came again from behind, cracking the ice and snow on the ground, which trembled like beans along with the shockwaves...
boom!
A stream of scorching blue plasma shot out from an array of hundreds of nozzles, soaring into the sky and piercing the dark night, once again turning the inky sky and the vast white snowfield into a dreamlike blue.
Looking at the shocking scene before him, Jack suddenly murmured to Liu Chunshi, "So, this really is an engine?"
Liu Chunshi, also looking up, calmly said, "Yes, Planetary Engine."
The delegates finally learned the purpose of this enormous "creation".
Planetary Engine!
That's the right name...
It actually is an engine that humans installed on Earth!!!
Wang Lei waited quietly until the Planetary Engine finished firing before continuing to speak to the crowd:
"After repeated failures in our biosphere experiments, we decided to use Earth as a spaceship, taking this mother planet that has nurtured us for countless years to a new home."
According to the plan, it is expected that it will take 2,500 years for Earth to travel through space to the Alpha Centauri System, 4.2 light-years away, and then dock in the triple star system there, becoming one of its planets.
"2500 years..."
This time span is so long that it's impossible to calculate.
A road that will take 2,500 years to traverse—who can guarantee that no other problems will arise along the way?
Jack wanted to ask this question.
He felt there were too many flaws in this absurd plan.
But just as he was about to ask the question, he saw the Planetary Engine in front of him.
After the jet propulsion Planetary Engine enters a cooling-off period. It's like a giant bonfire, with the air flowing from the center being scalding hot. The protective suits even issue overheat warnings.
Only then did he realize that the Wandering Earth Project had already begun...
His mind and mouth were trying to argue that the plan was too unreliable and would inevitably fail.
However, this grand and lengthy plan has now become a reality, or at least partially a reality, in the hands of humanity in this time and space.
The Planetary Engine stood right before him.
As if sensing everyone's thoughts, Wang Lei said, " The Wandering Earth Project sounds absurd, and the success rate is visibly small, but we still went ahead and did it without hesitation."
"Because there's no other way."
"This is the most likely plan to succeed before the chairman comes to our time and space and makes contact with us."
Everyone took several deep breaths, swallowing and digesting the information they had just heard.
They now fully understand the " Migration Faction " they just encountered in the dungeon.
Such a crazy plan...
This is such a desperate situation...
This bleak future...
Perhaps those people are just like me?
Someone as cowardly as myself?
"Didn't you ever think about stopping this insane plan? After contacting the Mutual Aid Society..."
Based on Wang Lei's words, Jack and the other representatives could deduce that the Mutual Aid Society seemed to have made contact with No. 3 Spacetime only after the Wandering Earth Project was implemented.
Why not change your plans after contacting the Mutual Aid Society?
Wang Lei found a place to sit down and gestured for everyone to sit as well. Then, with a sense of melancholy, he said, "If Earth stops the Wandering Earth, where will we the Wandering Earth to?"
Which of you would be willing to take us in?
Wang Lei looked at everyone.
Faced with his gaze, the representatives were initially taken aback, and then all chose to avoid it.
With a population of several billion, this is clearly a problem that their timeline cannot solve; in fact, it's not something that any particular timeline can solve.
Wang Lei sighed inwardly and tried to smooth things over for everyone, saying, "We haven't been in contact with the Mutual Aid Society for very long. Although there have been many positive changes—supplies are plentiful and fewer people are dying—we still need to continue on this path to find out which one is the real way out..."
"That's why we've persisted with the Wandering Earth Project and shelved the proposal for time travel."
It's actually pretty good now.
Wang Lei felt both regret and relief.
He had never asked people from other timelines about the issue of time travel before, and today was the first time he had asked such a question. The answer he received was exactly what he expected.
Given the current situation of the Mutual Aid Society, everyone in all time and space would be very willing to launch several large-scale aid or operations, and everyone would contribute manpower and effort without expecting anything in return.
However, merging spacetime is not so easy.
Alright.
After all, although people from different times and spaces can be considered to share the same language and culture, they don't really have any real feelings or interactions.
After all, it has only been a few years since the Mutual Aid Society was established, and there is almost no direct communication between people in different timelines. Most people still only know about parallel timelines from promotional videos.
In reality, they were just strangers who had seen each other on television.
Under these circumstances, it would be impossible to promote the merging of timelines unless all the people in other timelines were radical liberals and sanctimonious.
Of course, this doesn't mean they're going down a dead-end path; otherwise, Sun Deyi wouldn't be so proactive in building relationships with other timelines.
However, things like temporal and spatial merging or migration require the right timing, location, and people; all three conditions are indispensable.
For now, all that's left for the Wandering Spacetime is to do is make the best possible preparations and wait for the opportune moment...
"Let's go somewhere else."
Amidst a vague sense of melancholy, Wang Lei continued leading the group on their tour, while Liu Chunshi and the other meteorologists took Jack away to a rest stop that served as a meteorological observation point.
For the next few hours, the delegates traveled non-stop across the snow-covered plains by car; the terrible road conditions caused most of them to vomit up their dinner from the night before.
But the delegates' expressions grew increasingly delighted.
Because they discovered that this No. 3 Spacetime was even more powerful than the No. 4 Spacetime they had just encountered.
They've actually developed controlled nuclear fusion here.
And it's heavy nuclear fusion that directly burns rocks!
Although this type of fusion is not as convenient and environmentally friendly as the commonly mentioned deuterium-tritium nuclear fusion, it is still nuclear fusion after all!
Moreover, since heavy nuclear fusion, which has much stricter requirements for confinement conditions and fusion temperature, has been achieved, deuterium-tritium fusion may simply be a matter of changing the raw materials and modifying the fusion reactor design.
This technology has a greater potential to transform their society than large robots.
Especially during the upcoming ice age, if they could also possess nuclear fusion technology...
Many of the delegates began to get their heads started working.
In everyone's own thoughts, the tour of the Wandering Spacetime soon came to an end.
"Your next journey should take you to No. 1 Spacetime. They're probably quite busy there, dealing with relocation and evacuation, but you should be able to gain a lot of experience about emergency relocation from them."
"However, before leaving..."
Wang Lei stood in front of all the representatives, his expression cold. "Everyone, please hand over anything you shouldn't be taking out."
Upon hearing this, the delegates hesitated, knowing exactly what Wang Lei was referring to.
When we took the elevator from the underground city to the surface, the crowded elevator gave many people the opportunity to pass things to them.
Therefore, their protective suits always contained some propaganda materials from the Migration Faction in their pockets.
Before gaining a deeper understanding of this spacetime, the representatives might have easily handed it over.
But now they're less inclined to associate with them.
They would prefer to take these leaflets back and hand them over to professional diplomats for analysis, hoping to find some opportunities in them later.
After all, this is a spacetime with nuclear fusion!
After a while, only the representative sent by Zhong Ruijin chuckled and calmly handed over the leaflets from his pocket.
The others continued to drag their feet.
Wang Lei grew impatient and said bluntly, "Your bosses might be happy to take these things back, but I'm pretty sure they'll be very unhappy. So you'd better just hand them over honestly."
Upon hearing this, the hesitation on the delegates' faces finally melted away.
Many people looked at each other, exchanging glances.
Soon, the second person handed over the flyer from his pocket.
Then came the third, followed by the fourth...
After everyone handed over the leaflets, Wang Lei reported to Zhang Tianyuan via time-space communication, and then the Spacetime Tunnel opened in front of them.
"Everyone, please go through the tunnel." Wang Lei stepped aside to let everyone leave.
The delegates lowered their heads, not daring to look at Wang Lei even once, and quickly passed through the tunnel.
They then discovered that they had come to a wide, flat space, which seemed to be a long corridor with no end in sight, only walls and windows visible on the left and right sides.
Walking to the window and looking out, what came into their view was a series of straight, parallel railway lines...