Breaking the Fourth Wall!

The air inside the laboratory was bone-dry, entirely unlike the damp, chilly cave outside. Dr. Qiu Shiye had clearly taken ventilation into account, which brought a sigh of relief to Ye Shi, who had been worried about a leak from the reactor's fuel canister. Helium was notoriously permeative by nature, imposing rigorous requirements on its storage environment. Let alone visible cracks, it could seep through seemingly seamless glass and ceramics. Under normal circumstances, such nuclear fuel was kept at cryogenic temperatures inside high-density alloy containers. "It must've been a real pain for that guy to hide the reactor this deep..." Jiang Xuezhou couldn't resist murmuring over the comms. Sweeping his flashlight beam across the laboratory corridor, Ye Shi answered offhandedly, "Look at it from another angle: if this facility hadn't been here and the fuel canister was just abandoned out in the forest, we wouldn't even need to bother searching." "Are you picking a fight on purpose, you jerk...?" "Never." Already picturing her face flushing as red as a baboon's ass, Ye Shi let out a teasing whistle before turning his attention back to the subterranean research facility before him. From the marks of manual excavation, it was plain to see that Dr. Qiu Shiye had poured immense effort into this laboratory. That had likely taken place in the early Awakening Era, not long after the Second Judgment Day, when he had not yet written that poem on the bridge of the Gemini. Ye Shi tried putting himself in Dr. Qiu's shoes. Back then, the researcher's mindset had probably been like discovering his own "Tunnan"—a heart brimming with pleasant surprise, grand ambition, and even manic exhilaration. It wasn't hard to imagine. After all, standing on the shoulders of the Human Alliance, he had just uncovered a secret that the Alliance had poured everything into yet failed to grasp— An entity even closer than Gaia to the true nature of this planet's mystery: the Tree of Ein Sof! And the Precursors, whose history far predated humanity and who had seemingly glimpsed the very essence of the world! This laboratory was likely the start of his attempt to breach the fourth wall. And by the time he realized his insignificance and carved that poem into the wall, his life had already reached its end. "There are two radiation suits and an EVA exoskeleton in the locker by the lab entrance. They were probably salvaged from the Gemini." Inspecting the airlock chamber at the laboratory entrance, Ye Shi looked around and gave a concise report over the comm channel. "All signs indicate Dr. Qiu Shiye lived here for about fifteen years. Counting his time living with the natives beforehand, he lived to around sixty..." Reaching sixty with zero medical facilities—Ye Shi couldn't say whether that counted as a long life or not. An urging voice came over the comm channel. "Leave that aside for now. Let's find the reactor's fuel canister first." "Copy that. Looking right now." Ye Shi replied, then ventured deeper into the lab along the narrow corridor. It didn't take long. With the help of the drone piloted by Jiang Xuezhou, he followed the lab's wiring conduits and quickly located the reactor core. It was a cylindrical vessel roughly as thick as four or five people linking arms, densely wrapped in piping and cables that connected to electrical components stripped from the starship. The setup was as makeshift and crude as could be, completely shattering whatever mystique a fusion reactor had held in Ye Shi's mind. Still, now was clearly not the time to care about aesthetics. The instant the flashlight beam washed over the reactor, an excited voice burst through the channel. "Found it! That thing plugged into the cylinder!" "You mean this?" Following the pale blue beam projected by the drone, Ye Shi spotted a protruding handle in the middle of the massive cylindrical tank. The handle was attached to a domed, basketball-sized metal disc embedded right in the center of the reactor vessel, looking like a power-supply unit. Ye Shi grabbed the handle and tried pulling it free from the reactor, only to find that the power-supply unit's casing had rusted solid against the reactor's frame. "Let me help!" Even as she spoke, the drone steered by Jiang Xuezhou had already flown beside the reactor. Two switchblade-like mechanical arms snapped eagerly out from beneath its chassis. *Whirrr—* Pale blue plasma plumes spat from the tips of the mechanical arms like searing blades, slicing effortlessly into the rusted seam and carving a complete circle around the joint between the cylindrical reactor and the power-supply unit. With a crisp clack, Ye Shi felt the resistance in his hands vanish. Amid a teeth-grating screech of metal, he finally managed to draw the power-supply unit out of the vessel. Yet as Ye Shi got a clear look at the full unit, his initial excitement plummeted straight to rock bottom. Right in the center of the gas canister sat a hole the size of a fist! The sturdy canister looked as if it had taken an artillery shell, pierced clean through from one side to the other! No wonder it had been stuck! "Holy crap... it leaked?!" Staring at the hard-to-swallow reality, Ye Shi swallowed hard. At the same time, Little Jiang's despairing voice came over the channel. "How could this happen... wasn't it sitting right there in the reactor? What on earth punched through it?!" That had been their only hope of going home. Without the fuel to open a hyperspace conduit, they would be trapped spending the rest of their lives in this world five light-years away... "Don't lose hope just yet. There might still be spare fuel around... at least now I know what the canister looks like." Looking at the empty canister in his hands, Ye Shi was panicking just as hard, but he still took a moment to comfort Jiang Xuezhou before resuming his search nearby. Efforts paid off. After searching through the lab for a bit, he actually discovered an identical gas canister beneath a folding cot! "Here's another one!" Ye Shi cried out in pleasant surprise. He heaved the folding cot over with both hands and dragged out the canister trapped beneath it. God only knew what Dr. Qiu Shiye had been thinking, using such precious nuclear fuel as a bed prop. Was the guy hoping to awaken psionics that way? Then again, wouldn't helium-3 be a bit too stable to serve as a radiation source...? Seeing the canister in Ye Shi's hands, a flicker of hope rekindled in Jiang Xuezhou's eyes as she sat on the bridge in geostationary orbit. Piloting the drone over to Ye Shi, a pale blue scanning beam quickly lanced out from the emitter below its camera onto the canister. Reining in her turbulent emotions, Jiang Xuezhou took a deep breath. "Canister integrity... 100%." "Fuel remaining..." "Zero." "Damn it!" Hearing that final 'zero,' Ye Shi nearly choked on his own saliva. Refusing to give up, he pressed, "Could the scan be wrong?" Jiang Xuezhou: "Impossible... Liquid helium made of helium-3 is lighter than helium-4. If you don't believe me, weigh it yourself." Ye Shi fell silent. Mainly because he had no clue how to calculate that stuff anyway. A moment later, a soft, wistful sigh came through the comm channel. "...Actually, it makes sense, doesn't it? If there were any fuel left, how could Dr. Qiu Shiye have just tossed it under a bed like trash?" This time, her voice sounded far calmer than before. No sorrow was greater than a dead heart. Jiang Xuezhou had to admit she had felt a brief surge of excitement upon spotting the canister, but reality proved it was nothing more than wishful thinking. After a few seconds' pause, Jiang Xuezhou's tone shifted to one of resignation and ease. "Well, when you think about it... spending the rest of my days on this planet with you wouldn't be half bad." "What kind of nonsense is that? We just agreed to go check out the edge of the universe," Ye Shi couldn't help retorting. Why was this girl suddenly talking like it was the series finale? He hadn't thrown in the towel yet. "Haha... Yeah. Such a shame." Ye Shi could hear a touch of loneliness beneath her cheerful resignation. It was obvious she genuinely cared about the proposal he had made, rather than just playing along. At that thought, the corner of Ye Shi's mouth curled into a smile. "My intuition tells me our story doesn't end here." "Oh? Did your psionics tell you that?" Jiang Xuezhou teased. "You can think of it that way." Ye Shi offered an enigmatic smile and cast a confident gaze around his surroundings. It actually had nothing to do with psionics; it was purely his acute Perception nagging him with a strong sense of dissonance, pulling in his attention. The cramped laboratory was pitch-black, illuminated only by the flashlight in his hand and the drone beside him. Yet— Even in darkness where one couldn't see five fingers outstretched before them, everything in his mind was as vivid as broad daylight. He had cataloged everything he saw from the moment he entered the lab, sifting and dissecting every single clue. And those subtle details he had initially overlooked snapped into sharp focus at this very moment. "The locker by the door has two triangular hangers corresponding to the only two protective suits. Both suits are in the locker, which means he never left." "..." Silence hung over the comm channel, save for the faint hiss of static. Clearly, Jiang Xuezhou hadn't followed his train of thought. It took a long moment before she picked up the thread. "...Are you saying he's still in the lab?" Ye Shi analyzed calmly, "To be precise: Dr. Qiu Shiye's final moments in this world were spent in this laboratory." Jiang Xuezhou sighed. "I think jumping to that conclusion just because both hazmat suits are in the locker is a bit of a stretch. What if he just stepped out without wearing one?" No remains had been found at the Gemini's wreckage, but that didn't prove anything; he could still have died anywhere in this forest or valley. Besides— What difference did it make even if they knew where he died? The crux was the nuclear fuel. That was what they truly needed. Ye Shi chuckled softly and continued, "If he went outside, he definitely would have worn one... As for why, you'd know the moment you came down to the surface." All local indigenous records of the Progenitors seemed inextricably tied to "power armor." Thinking carefully, what the natives saw hadn't necessarily been actual power armor; it could well have been an exoskeleton combined with a protective suit. Yet one thing was beyond doubt: Almost none of the "Progenitors" ever showed their true faces. Whenever they traveled, they always wore full-body garments or armor. The reason was actually very simple... "This forest is crawling with venomous insects of all kinds. Didn't we see that when we first touched down?" Jiang Xuezhou was taken aback. "Ah... but wouldn't wearing such thick protective gear be sweltering?" Ye Shi smiled faintly. "The protective suits have built-in heat dissipation and ventilation modules. It's a hassle, sure, but beats getting bitten or poisoned to death by bugs." The natives might be immune or accustomed to the insects after generations of living here. But to the Gemini crew from Earth, those bugs were a dreadful nuisance even if not fatal. "...Even so, how does that clue help us?" Jiang Xuezhou muttered quietly. Ye Shi scanned the black surroundings and continued in a gentle tone, "How could it not help? It's a massive clue." "We have solid evidence that Dr. Qiu Shiye spent his final moments in this lab, yet his body isn't here." "So here's the question..." "Where did he go?" The air went dead silent. Only after a long stretch did the sound of someone swallowing come across the comm channel. "The way you put it... why do I feel a chill down my spine?" "You're up in space, what bloody spine chill could you feel?" Ye Shi groused dryly before walking over to a desk and whiteboard nearby. The whiteboard was covered in scribbled, half-erased mathematical formulas—likely Dr. Qiu Shiye's rough scratchings. Ye Shi couldn't decipher what the equations meant, so he merely snapped a photo with his combat recorder before shifting his gaze to a stack of papers on the desk. Weathered by time, the sheets had all yellowed. Even so, Ye Shi could still make out the notes left on the fragmented pages. He immersed his full concentration in those incomplete lines of clues. And right then, the power granted by his psionics worked a miracle once more. In the impenetrable void beyond sight, Dr. Qiu Shiye seemed to come alive, standing beside him, picking up the dust-covered pen... Pious reverence was written all over that face. Even across a gulf of over a century, Ye Shi saw it clearly. In the blink of an eye, the figure was seated at the desk, writing meticulously in the lab notebook: "They all say I'm mad... but I think they are the truly mad ones. We have never been so close to the gates of truth; someone has even found it for us!" "All we need to do is reopen the box that was opened once before... I've even found it—it's right beneath our feet!" His lips muttered incessantly. Standing behind him, Ye Shi repeated his whispers word for word. Watching from the other end, Jiang Xuezhou was completely baffled. Operating the drone, she couldn't see what Ye Shi saw. The scene in her view was altogether different: through the drone camera, Ye Shi looked like a madman, muttering non-stop at a few frayed sheets of paper. "What are you saying?" "Reading what he wrote in the notebook..." Ye Shi replied offhandedly and returned his full attention to the lab notes on the desk, while the phantom seated before him across time continued writing frantically. That was not the state of mind of a failure; it was that of a seeker who had reached the very end of the labyrinth. Completely different from what he had imagined! After discovering "It" and realizing he was nothing more than a mural painted on the wall, Dr. Qiu Shiye hadn't collapsed in despair. Instead, he had thrown himself even more selflessly into his unfinished endeavor! Even though by then he realized that what lay behind the fourth wall was nothing like he had imagined. Even though he had grasped that even meeting the Creator did not mean one could become the Creator... Ye Shi suddenly thought of Dora, the shrine maid of the Doma tribe. And in that very instant, he finally comprehended Dr. Qiu Shiye's state of mind to the core. To hear the Tao in the morning, one may die content in the evening! In the end, he had stepped out of the mural that trapped him and become a cloud in the heavens! "I succeeded! I found it! Hahaha..." The old man bent over the desk suddenly laughed out loud, then sprang up from the workbench, invigorated. Ecstatic like a child, humming an off-key tune, he made his way to the laboratory's reactor. It was a reactor cobbled together from materials salvaged from the starship—and yet, it was far more than just a reactor. Ye Shi mirrored his movements, down to every expression and that off-key tune. As if possessed himself, he returned to the reactor and jammed the depleted gas canister firmly onto the cylindrical metal tank. *Click—* With a faint snap, the canister locked seamlessly into the cobbled-together reactor. "What are you doing?" Watching Ye Shi behave like someone possessed, Jiang Xuezhou asked nervously. Ye Shi didn't answer. He simply reached out and worked the controls on the panel along the side of the metal tank, as though guided by an unseen hand. Finally toggling the last switch into place, he took a deep breath, disengaged his power armor, and stepped onto the cold stone floor. "We all got it wrong... Dr. Qiu Shiye's research didn't end here." "What are you talking about? I'm getting... more and more lost," Jiang Xuezhou's bewildered voice came over the comm. Ye Shi understood her confusion; it was the exact dilemma Dr. Qiu Shiye had faced in the early stages of his research, the confusion any ordinary person would experience. If she had awakened psionics, perhaps it wouldn't be so hard to understand. "...This reactor wasn't built to power the lab—or rather, not just for that." "Then what is it?!" Jiang Xuezhou asked in total incomprehension. Ye Shi spoke with absolute certainty. "A miracle." Jiang Xuezhou stared blankly at her screen. "A... a miracle?" Ye Shi nodded. "This is a... perforator. A miracle forged by a 'mortal' channeling the will of the 'divine,' crafted together with God. It can pierce the void, looking through the 'window of the event horizon'—or rather, the 'fourth wall.'" Jiang Xuezhou's mind went completely blank, frozen before the holographic display. "Breaking... the fourth wall?!" Ye Shi nodded gently, an enigmatic and complex expression on his face. "Its benevolence toward this world made It ultimately choose to take him away, just as we took Dora. Regardless of whether that was what she truly desired deep down, we had to give her the chance to choose... I imagine the echo It left behind in this universe felt the same way." The information that psionics could exchange had to be mutually recognized by both sides. And at this moment, he finally understood the true meaning of the words It had left behind: "It isn't as if you haven't succeeded before." As he spoke, Ye Shi detached the nuclear battery from his power armor, guiding the cell pinched between his fingertips to unleash a terrifying surge of electric current. Searing energy gathered into crackling arcs in midair, its blinding brilliance too intense to look upon directly. While this energy was a mere drop in the ocean compared to what was needed to open a hyperspace conduit, it was more than enough to drive this "miniature" perforator! All he needed was a puncture the width of a strand of hair; he had no desire to destroy the planet. Restless static electricity made every hair on his body stand on end. The hovering drone crashed uncontrollably to the ground, and Jiang Xuezhou's panicked cries broke intermittently through the comms. "What... are you... doing?!" Guiding the terrifying current in reverse into the reactor, Ye Shi said in a gentle tone: "Showing you..." "This perforator can not only fold the mass and energy of this universe into the light of another, but also unfold light from another universe into energy or mass... just like unfolding a folded paper airplane." He was not joking. Under his guidance, this perforator built a century ago successfully spun up, smoothly drilling a pinhole into the supposedly unbreakable fourth wall and letting light from another universe filter through. In that other universe, it was merely an insignificant speck of light, too faint to be caught by the naked eye, too weak to illuminate even a grain of dust. Yet as it tumbled into this universe, that dust-like speck swelled instantly into a titan, unleashing terrifying energy potent enough to set the entire planet ablaze! Fortunately, right where it fell, a suitable vessel waited quietly. The "battery" plugged into the reactor—one that should have been utterly impossible to recharge—was topped off in an instant... The dazzling light gradually faded. The drone that had crashed to the floor floated back up, wobbling as it drifted in front of the reactor. The pale blue scanning beam lanced once more against the gas canister's metal casing. And this time, Jiang Xuezhou was completely dumbfounded. "Helium-3... How... how is this possible?!" Helium-4 bonded with protons from God knew where, turning back into helium-3... How the hell was that possible?! Her head felt as if it had been struck by a club. She stood frozen like a wooden chicken, her mouth opening and closing without a sound. Entropy had reversed in the universe, moving from disorder to order; physics had vanished before her very eyes once more... Perhaps having a psionic diplomat on board wasn't enough; they would need to go back to Earth and kidnap a few physicists onto the ship. Listening to the dazed muttering on the other end of the comms, Ye Shi gently unplugged the fully charged canister from the "horizon perforator." "At any rate, we have our fuel to go home... and theoretically, as much as we could ever want. The only risk is that borrowing energy from another world too often might attract things stuck in the wall, so it's best used sparingly." How Dr. Qiu Shiye had managed to build this device remained a mystery. Even with Its assistance, pulling off such a feat was astonishing enough. Pausing briefly, Ye Shi added: "As for how this was actually achieved... I think that's a subject that might keep us busy researching for a century."