Chapter 93: Gravity
In that life, nine astronauts entered this cave and never came out again.
Jiang Yang knew that in this life, their total of 13 astronauts would also repeat the fate of the previous life’s astronauts and would also perish in this cave.
The only difference was that the secrets of this cave would be brought to the next life through his time loop ability, providing guidance for the people of the next life.
Death was already destined, but this death would surely be valuable.
In the silence, the 13 people slowly advanced.
Although they knew that the first 4000 meters were probably not dangerous, the people still maintained considerable caution in their actions during this stage.
Jiang Yang was also taking this time to carefully observe the situation of this cave.
He saw that except for some moon dust piled up at the cave entrance, the inside of the cave was very smooth and flat. There were no protrusions on the cave walls, and no dust on the ground.
It was as if this cave was regularly maintained.
Of course, the facts were not necessarily so.
Cleanliness and tidiness did not mean someone had been there. Because this was the moon, a vacuum environment. Even landforms from hundreds of millions of years ago could be well preserved until now.
Following the slightly downward slope, the people slowly advanced.
500 meters, 1000 meters, 1500 meters…
Until the mechanical rangefinder showed the distance had reached 4000 meters.
The cave was still the same cave, whether at the entrance or at the current 4000-meter depth. It had no changes, still square and neat.
But every astronaut knew clearly that the nine comrades from that life had “disappeared” after crossing this distance.
If there was danger, after crossing this distance, they would also encounter it. And most likely perish here.
At this moment, even Jiang Yang, who had experienced multiple deaths, could not help but have cold sweat on his palms.
That was an instinctive fear of the unknown. No matter how many ten thousand times Jiang Yang experienced it, it would be impossible to completely eliminate.
And… even he himself could not help but feel fear, what about the astronauts?
Jiang Yang looked to his sides and saw Tong Zheng, marked with number 1 on his body, extend his arm straight forward.
That was the signal to continue advancing.
The team silently continued forward without any hesitation, just a bit slower in speed, and their spirits tense to the extreme.
Suppressing the unease in his heart, Jiang Yang also followed the team slowly, while trying his best to observe any possible abnormalities around or on himself.
In a daze, not knowing if it was an illusion or something, Jiang Yang suddenly felt that the heavy mechanical spacesuit on his body seemed a bit lighter.
Sensing carefully, he was shocked to confirm that this should not be his illusion, but really a bit lighter!
The astronauts were still silently advancing, seemingly unaware of it.
Perhaps their physical quality was too high, their load-bearing capacity too strong, so they had no perception of such a small weight change.
But he was different!
He was essentially just an ordinary person. Perhaps precisely because of this, he could perceive it.
He subconsciously shouted, “There’s a situation!”
But the astronauts were completely unmoved.
Pausing for a moment, Jiang Yang reacted, immediately pulled the astronaut standing beside him who was providing close protection, then raised both arms and made a quick waving gesture.
That astronaut immediately turned around and notified the other astronaut beside him. In this way, passed along, in less than half a minute, everyone stopped at the same time and gathered in front of Jiang Yang.
Opening the left arm cover plate, Jiang Yang quickly wrote some symbols and text.
“I feel the spacesuit has gotten lighter, you guys?”
Although he could not see the astronauts’ faces clearly, Jiang Yang could still feel the solemnity in their expressions.
They began to sense carefully. Moments later, some astronauts drew a checkmark on the drawing board, some shook their hands, indicating they felt nothing.
Of the total 12 people, 10 felt it after Jiang Yang’s reminder, only two did not!
Jiang Yang erased the previous writing and quickly wrote: “Gravity?”
He suspected that the moon gravity at this location had changed! Otherwise, why would the weight of a spacesuit with fixed mass change?
Pausing for a moment, astronaut number 1 Tong Zheng casually pulled a bullet from his waist, raised his arm, then let go.
That bullet fell downward at a noticeably slower speed than on Earth, hit the ground moments later, bounced a few times, and rolled deeper into the passage, disappearing in an instant.
Tong Zheng shook his hand.
Gravity could be measured by gravitational acceleration. Through the previous test, he had confirmed that the bullet’s descent acceleration was still about 1.6 meters per second squared. This meant the gravity in the current environment had not changed!
But since gravity had not changed, why…
Phew…
Jiang Yang let out a soft breath and firmly remembered this anomaly.
He would let Professor Lu Zhaoming analyze it in the next life.
Astronaut number 1 Tong Zheng extended his arm again, giving the instruction to continue advancing.
Discovering just this one anomaly was not enough; they must continue advancing to explore more secrets about this cave and underground chamber.
The people’s advancing speed became even slower, and their spirits even more tense.
Amid that feeling of the spacesuit getting lighter and lighter, Jiang Yang suddenly saw that at a certain spot on the back of Tong Zheng’s spacesuit ahead, a small object suddenly popped out.
Because it stayed in the air longer and its flight speed was not fast, Jiang Yang actually saw its appearance clearly.
That seemed to be a small spring?
Hmm?
The next moment, a stream of white mist jetted directly from the spot on Tong Zheng’s spacesuit back where the spring had popped out, drifting and scattering, turning into ice crystals in mid-air like snowflakes falling downward.
Gas leak!
Those ice crystals were sublimated water vapor from the gas!
It was not only Jiang Yang who saw this. At this moment, several astronauts acted simultaneously: one took out tape to quickly seal the leak point, one grabbed Tong Zheng, one quickly drew a circle on the drawing board, then drew a straight line piercing one side of the circle.
Moments later, he erased the image and only drew a circle.
This meant the leak point had been eliminated.
Tong Zheng gave an OK gesture, then extended his arm forward again.
But at this moment, Jiang Yang somewhat horrifiedly saw white mist appearing simultaneously on the other astronauts’ bodies, and on one astronaut, a steel plate on the back of his spacesuit directly fell off.
Steel plate?
Jiang Yang subconsciously bent down to pick it up, and saw that this steel plate was extremely thin, already only worthy of being called sheet metal rather than a steel plate.
But he clearly remembered that this part on the spacesuit back was clearly a steel plate, not sheet metal…
In an instant, a thought suddenly emerged in Jiang Yang’s mind.
Damn it, this spacesuit wouldn’t have gotten lighter because it thinned out, right?
