Chapter 94: Corrosion?
In the instant the incident occurred, within this mysterious passage already located deep in the lunar underground, the astronauts had swiftly initiated a series of actions.
Although complex, it showed no disorder at all, busy yet orderly.
They cooperated with each other, using tape, vacuum adhesive, and other emergency supplies prepared long in advance to quickly handle the damage to their companions’ spacesuits.
At the same time, the damage on their own bodies would also receive quick handling from their companions.
Just like on the battlefield, where every person can confidently entrust their back to their comrades.
Among them, Jiang Yang was undoubtedly the most core figure. The astronauts even disregarded themselves and their comrades, prioritizing the damage Jiang Yang had suffered, and only then was it their turn.
Moments later, no more white mist sprayed from the astronauts’ bodies, and no more parts fell off.
The situation stabilized.
But everyone knew clearly in their hearts that at this moment, they had merely temporarily addressed it. If they could not find the root cause of the incident and thoroughly resolve it, the situation might worsen further in not much time.
At this moment, everyone’s brain was operating at high speed.
Jiang Yang was also thinking quickly.
Damaged spacesuits, thinned steel plates, broken parts, spacesuits that seemed to have become lighter…
A somewhat shocking thought jumped out from Jiang Yang’s mind.
Corrosion?
Was there some kind of mechanism similar to corrosion existing in this cave? It was precisely because of this corrosion function that the originally thick steel plates gradually thinned, and the originally intact spacesuits developed damage?
Besides corrosion, there seemed to be no other possibility.
However, corrosion is a chemical process, and it also follows the law of conservation of mass-energy.
The total mass before the reaction is how much, and the total mass of the product after the reaction is also how much, with no change.
So now, where had the mass of those spacesuits that “corroded” and disappeared gone?
Turned into gas and dissipated?
Impossible, in a vacuum environment, these gases would be detected by them as soon as they appeared.
Turned into other compounds?
But along the way, this passage had always been clean and smooth, with nothing else besides their own material.
Radiation stripping? Just like high-energy charged particles in the solar wind adding energy to molecules in Earth’s upper atmosphere, giving them enough speed to break free from the Earth gravitational field?
Perhaps at this moment they were encountering some special radiation, which excited the material particles on the outer side of the spacesuits, causing them to “break free” from the material constraints and dissipate into the surrounding space?
This seemed the most likely. But after slight thought, relying merely on the relatively broad physics knowledge study from this period, Jiang Yang eliminated this possibility.
Particle radiation capable of acting on spacesuit material could not possibly not act on the radiometer. Yet the mechanical radiometer they carried showed no special radiation in the surrounding environment.
At the same time, radiation acting on substance would inevitably produce a series of subsequent reactions. Just like the high-energy neutrino in this apocalypse acting on the human body, exciting a series of secondary radiation within the human body.
At the current stage, they also failed to observe the existence of secondary radiation.
Or, setting aside for now where the product after the reaction went, then another problem: how did this “corrosion” act on their spacesuits?
Throughout this entire process, no object had contacted them!
Jiang Yang thought quickly, but gained nothing. He looked at the astronauts and saw that they showed no indication either, clearly they also did not know why this was.
Alright, now perhaps we can temporarily stop thinking about what they encountered and first consider what to do next.
As if spiritually connected with Jiang Yang, Astronaut No. 1 Tong Zheng seemed to have made the same decision at this moment.
He turned around, pointed his arm forward toward the direction from which they had come.
The command was very clear: temporary retreat.
This command was reasonable from any perspective.
Facing an unknown crisis that could not be eliminated, temporarily retreating to regroup, thinking of a response plan, and coming back to explore after probing more clues—wasn’t that only natural?
As long as one had basic tactical literacy and judgment ability, they would react this way in such a situation.
The astronauts were not surprised at all and immediately took action.
They once again surrounded Jiang Yang in the middle, planning to turn and retreat.
But…
This is wrong!
Precisely because this judgment was too reasonable, too taken for granted, that was why it was wrong!
Since we in this life encountered this incident and made this judgment, then what about the previous life?
The astronauts in the previous life very likely—no, almost certainly—made the same judgment. But what was their ending?
Jiang Yang clearly remembered that in the previous life, he waited in the control hall until two hours before the apocalypse arrived, and no astronauts came out from the passage!
Before, they had always been puzzled about what exactly they encountered. Now, Jiang Yang knew he had found the answer.
They must have chosen to retreat after encountering this unknown “corrosion,” and then all died on the road of retreat.
This was a judgment ability that only someone like himself, who had experienced the time loop through multiple apocalypses, could possess. Besides himself, even these excellent and outstanding astronauts could not think of this.
This was not a gap in wisdom, but a gap in experience.
Jiang Yang immediately pulled the astronaut beside him, then quickly waved both hands back.
That astronaut was stunned for a moment, then immediately notified the surrounding astronauts, gathering everyone by Jiang Yang’s side.
Jiang Yang opened the drawing board and wrote only three simple words.
Previous life.
The astronauts were instantly stunned, and the next moment, almost like an instinctive reaction, they moved even closer to Jiang Yang’s side and very decisively gave up the plan to retreat.
Retreat was not feasible. So what should they do next?
All Jiang Yang could do was raise the problem, but he had no ability to find the solution.
In quick thought, Astronaut No. 1 Tong Zheng stretched out his arm and quickly wrote on it.
“In the previous life, why did retreat lead to death?”
Jiang Yang shook his hand, indicating he did not know.
He only knew the result, but not the process.
Tong Zheng erased the previous writing and quickly wrote again.
“Our mission is not survival, but exploration.”
Jiang Yang was slightly stunned.
The one who made the judgment that “retreat is not feasible” was only himself, who possessed time loop experience.
In this moment of such immense pressure, such complex and urgent situation, yet still able to grasp the mission core without external interference—only the astronauts.
Indeed, their mission this time was exploration…
He had previously been influenced by this immense pressure and actually began instinctively thinking about how to escape from here…
Since the main mission was exploration, then even knowing retreat would lead to their death, they still had to attempt the retreat.
