Chapter 754: Chapter 714 【Don’t Press!】
How to use the explosives had yet to be discussed by the group.
Mainly because they couldn’t even get close to the Molten Mountain Dragon with their current level of equipment.
The Molten Mountain Dragon and the Phase Willow, these two mythical creatures, were changing everything around them on a daily basis.
The environment was altering due to them, organisms were evolving because of them, the closer it got to their center, the harsher the environment, the stronger the creatures, the more difficult it was to break through.
This led to them being stuck with the explosives but nowhere to put them to good use.
But even so, they decided to hoard them for now.
At least they wouldn’t cost any money, and there was no reason to refuse something that was free.
Not until the captain was drained again did Super Tomato finally call it a day and take a break from his stream.
*
The next morning, the moment Lincoln woke up, it was quiet in the bedroom, and it was still dark outside.
In the north in winter, the daybreak came late, but he usually overslept, so he seldom saw the early morning darkness when he opened his eyes.
After spacing out for a bit, Lincoln didn’t fall back asleep or get up, instead, he fumbled for the headband by his pillow and put it on himself.
With a gentle press of the power button, a subtle transformation occurred in the dim bedroom—
The soft breathing, the furry little head, and the chubby little legs on her tummy…
As if his eyes had adjusted to the dimness, Lincoln could see the scene beside him— Mavis was sound asleep.
Logically, Lincoln knew that Mavis was just “hibernating” a small part of herself, the intricate sensations and the scene in front of him were calculated and transmitted to him in real-time by the big part of her that was awake.
But emotionally, he subconsciously ignored all that, and lightly poked her chubby baby face.
Seeing Mavis rubbing her face against the pillow without waking up, Lincoln couldn’t help but laugh in silence.
He reached out and lightly pressed her little nose. After seeing her rub her nose against her pillow, only then did Lincoln satisfiedly stop and dimmed the brightness on his phone, intending to see if anything happened while he was sleeping.
But as soon as he opened Spiritual Rhinoceros, he was met with a bombshell trending keyword—
[Massive Explosion in Xiajing!]
“What the hell?!” Lincoln instantly woke up.
I was sleeping soundly! I didn’t feel any explosion, did I?
Could it be that I was just dead to the world??
Just as he was about to click in for more details, a hand suddenly started tickling him on his waist; caught off guard, Lincoln shivered involuntarily, the phone slipped from his hand and he quickly grabbed the mischievous little hand on his waist.
He looked over and saw that Mavis had woken up, her eyes crinkled with amusement because her prank had worked.
“Alright, alright, I give up.” Lincoln rubbed her pink head. He gave up on checking his phone. “Mavis, what’s the deal with [Massive Explosion in Xiajing]?”
“It’s nothing.” Mavis immediately replied: “An Easter egg left by the master got triggered.”
“Easter egg?” Lincoln recalled for a moment and made an association: “Oh, the one at the High Energy Physics Institute?”
“Mmmhmm, Mavis recorded the whole thing! Master, do you want to watch it together?”
Mavis got excited and pepped up when they began to talk about something interesting.
Since Lincoln didn’t feel like getting up yet, he adjusted his pillow, pulled Mavis’ pillow to support his back, and got all comfy to watch the video.
Mavis huffed in dissatisfaction when she saw her pillow being snatched away.
But in no time, she was grinning while squeezing herself next to Lincoln to join him in rewatching the playful spectacle.
*
At half past midnight, right after Super Tomato logged off, the former members of the Cannon Cult acted collectively, visiting [Virtual Xiajing], which had been open for a full day.
They chose late night specifically to avoid Cloud Dream and staff surveillance and infiltrated the High Energy Physics Institute—which, of course, is a dramatic way to put it.
In reality, the gates of High Energy Physics Institute in [Virtual Xiajing] were wide open, anyone who wished to enter may enter. Not to mention that although it was late at night in reality, it was still a clear day in [Virtual Xiajing] when they entered the institute…
In any case, a full team of 12 players from their such team, along with over 60 players who followed to join the fun, “sneaked” into the High Energy Physics Institute—along with hundreds of tourists from all around the world.
Once inside, they dispersed and acted separately.
Their plan was not to cause random destruction but to activate the collider.
They initially thought it would be extremely difficult. After all, none of them had experience working in a high energy physics institute.
They had almost no understanding of the most spectacular, most powerful, and most expensive mega research device—the collider—in today’s scientific community.
They were prepared to spend the whole night searching and had even prepared for failure.
But as always, reality was full of surprises. Less than thirty minutes after stepping into the institute, “Cannon Soldier No.1” Xu Yong found the right place—
It was a hidden room full of computers and a lot of unfamiliar equipment.
They didn’t recognize the machines nor understood the green data streams flowing rapidly on the screens. A massive wall of glass showed two extremely complex yet exquisite circular metallic structures.
Just one glance was enough to involuntarily instill belief that this was the pinnacle of human industrial technology, the most grand and advanced basic research facility in the world, a beacon that assist humanity in venturing into the unknown.
Just seeing it filled them with pride and a sense of belonging.
Even without any system introduction, they were certain in their hearts: This is the collider!
No doubt about it!
In that room, there was something else that drew the eye—
In front of the glass, there was a makeshift control panel. Besides the various kinds of buttons and switches of unknown functionalities, there was one massive button.
It was a gigantic red button, right in the center of the control panel.
Underneath the huge red button, there was a striking warning sign with three large characters written bluntly:
[Do not press!]
Cannon Soldier No.1, Xu Yong, stood in front of the large red button and suddenly felt a tingling in his palm.
He glanced at his teammates and they communicated through eye contact.
More or less it meant——
‘Should we try?’
‘I also think we should try.’
‘Let’s do it! What’s there to be afraid of!’
…
“Then, fuck it!” Xu Yong slapped the large red button.
“Woo——woo——woo——”
The piercing sound of the whistle rang out immediately, and the red warning light flashed non-stop.
Then, the roar of the external equipment starting up followed.
Behind the glass curtain wall, amidst the silent brightness, a blinding brilliance appeared between the two enormous disc-shaped pieces of equipment.
Without a doubt——the collider was activated!
The brightness of the light gradually increased, until it reached a certain threshold, and an intense beam of light shot out, passing through the right center of the equipment at a high speed.
As the high-energy particles continued to accelerate, the energy intensity kept rising, and the light became more and more brilliant!
“Is it really this easy?” Xu Yong widened his eyes, watching the spectacle before him, while exchanging views with his teammates.
But one teammate said, “I feel like we have already lost.”
Another teammate nodded in agreement, “Yeah, it’s too easy, like a tourist attraction. Cloud Dream shouldn’t have left any loopholes.”
“Anyway, seeing this spectacle seems worth it.”
“Indeed, such a scene…”
“Wait!” Xu Yong abruptly interrupted his teammates’ conversation. Staring fixedly at the center of the beam, he asked, “Did any of you see any blackness?”
“What?” The teammates unanimously glanced in the alleged direction, but they saw nothing, “Did you just see things?”
Xu Yong felt a little uncertain. He seemed to have caught a fleeting glimpse of blackness within the blazing high-energy particle beam.
But how could that be possible?
Before he could suppress his self-doubt, he saw it again!
It was a black spot wavering in the high-energy particle beam. Perhaps because of the contrast with the high-energy particle beam, Xu Yong felt that he had never seen such a purely black color before!
The black spot, initially the size of a needle tip, rapidly expanded to the size of a steel ball within a few seconds, and then gradually inflated to the size of a ping-pong ball…
During this process, the team members gathered in the room had all noticed this strange thing.
The high-energy particle beam hit the black sphere, splattering light, but the splattered light was then pulled back by the black sphere, disappearing without a trace.
The high-energy particle beam, which had been continuously growing brighter and reaching higher and higher energy levels, did not continue to ascend after the black sphere exceeded the size of a ping-pong ball. Its brightness even seemed to be faintly decreasing.
It was as if—— all the energy had been swallowed by that black sphere!
“Is that…a black hole?” Xu Yong couldn’t believe it.
“That’s impossible. The collider should barely be able to produce a black hole!”
One teammate who seemed to know about these things took the initiative to enlighten everyone, “Even the world’s largest super collider can only produce a black hole the size of a needle tip at most, and it evaporates instantly because of its small mass.”
“It shouldn’t be getting bigger! Even if it drained the electricity of an entire city, it could still not supply the growth of a black hole! This is completely against the laws of physics!”
While they were talking, the black hole’s expansion speed once again sped up, growing to the size of a football, and even the magnetic containment field was affected. The high-energy particle beam restrained by it was about to go off course!
“Forget about what’s logical or not! How do we shut this thing off!”
“Don’t ask me, I don’t know! Ask the one who started it!”
“How the hell would I know!” Xu Yong was frantically exasperated, “There’s only a big red [Do not press] here, I don’t recognize anything else!”
As he said this, he desperately pressed everything in sight.
Of course, this did not have any effect——actually, the switch to turn off the equipment was not even in this room, according to Lincoln.
As the high-energy particle beam was on the verge of going off course, the sturdy glass curtain wall shattered due to gravitational disruption, and the black hole was already half a person high. Everyone in the room was being pulled and dragged by the gravity towards the black hole.
Just as disaster was about to strike, someone finally realized the problem——
“Weren’t we fooled?”
“What loopholes, what opportunities, this is just a trap prepared by Lincoln!”
“Fuck!”
Those became their last words.
The entire High Energy Physics Institute began to collapse.
A “cosmic spectacle” happening in the middle of the city, appeared before everyone’s eyes.