Chapter 97: Negative Energy
Jiang Yang knew that this was Tong Zheng making his final attempt, or rather testing.
If this hydrogen bomb’s explosion could resolve that underground chamber and end the apocalypse, that would of course be good. Even if it couldn’t, this hydrogen bomb’s explosion might still test some things, allowing Jiang Yang to bring them to the next life.
Obviously, the hydrogen bomb itself would also be subject to that corrosion, and it would most likely follow the same speed pattern discovered in their tests.
However, regarding this point, Tong Zheng should have his own judgment. The explosion time he set should allow the hydrogen bomb to travel the farthest distance, exploding just before it was completely destroyed.
All matters in this life had already been completed. Jiang Yang looked at the spacesuit on his body, which was clearly corroded with many holes and barely held together by tape, and prepared to welcome death.
In this vacuum environment, the previous conventional explosives’ explosion had little power, and even a hydrogen bomb’s power would be greatly weakened.
But that was still a hydrogen bomb, and in this explosion, he could not possibly survive.
Tong Zheng silently extended his arm to Jiang Yang again.
The drawing board read a few words: “Into the gap, we protect you.”
Jiang Yang did not refuse and entered the gap again, while Tong Zheng and the only remaining astronaut once again used their bodies as shields, blocking in front of Jiang Yang.
Even if all were wiped out, Jiang Yang had to be the last to die.
In the silent waiting, amid the cold world illuminated only by cold light, a indescribable brightness and warmth suddenly surged forth. Almost in an instant, Jiang Yang clearly felt the two astronauts behind him fall backward, and his own body uncontrollably fell down.
He vaguely saw that Tong Zheng and the other astronaut’s bodies were left with only half.
The parts of their bodies previously exposed outside the gap were like being instantly cut by the sharpest knife, completely vanished.
That should have been instantly vaporized by the hydrogen bomb’s light and heat. The part of the body located inside the gap was preserved.
At this moment, Jiang Yang’s mind instantly became chaotic, endless pain and discomfort swarming in, almost completely submerging his consciousness.
He saw endless light, endless heat, and saw what seemed like the entire world collapsing and melting.
He felt his entire body boiling, his entire body swelling like a balloon, growing a full size larger, feeling like his mouth was filled with a big mouthful of pop rocks constantly crackling, feeling like he had turned into a sponge, with the air in his lungs being the water in the sponge, being forcefully squeezed out continuously.
The next moment, Jiang Yang suddenly lost consciousness.
Awakening again, Jiang Yang abruptly sat up from the bed, his heart pounding bang bang bang, gasping for breath in big gulps.
“I’m back, damn it, I’m back…”
He grabbed his mobile phone and immediately dialed that number firmly etched in his heart.
After more than two hours of commotion and going through a standard process, Jiang Yang completed his account to all the attendees.
After a period of digestion and absorption, the attendees, just like in the previous cycle, finally truly accepted from a rational perspective the things Jiang Yang had recounted.
He impatiently asked Professor Lu Zhaoming the question he had pondered until his dying moment in the previous life, and which the astronauts had tested at the cost of their lives.
“What exactly is in that lunar underground passage?”
Facing this question, not only Lu Zhaoming, but all the relevant physicists fell into silence.
Everyone else also remained quiet, with no one disturbing them.
After a long time, Lu Zhaoming said with some difficulty: “We need some time for discussion.”
“Good.”
About half an hour later, Lu Zhaoming and the other experts came back online.
“First, it can be confirmed that this is absolutely not any chemical corrosion or the like, nor is it something like the stripping effect of solar wind on Earth’s upper atmosphere.
As for the latter, it can be eliminated through observation data from the mechanical radiometer.
The former can be eliminated through Comrade Jiang Yang’s observed hydrogen bomb explosion process.”
Hydrogen bomb explosion?
Jiang Yang was stunned for a moment.
He really hadn’t seen anything special from it.
Professor Lu Zhaoming said gravely: “Comrade Jiang Yang, under normal circumstances, even if you hid in the gap, even with two astronaut comrades protecting you behind, facing a hydrogen bomb with an equivalent of 8000 tons of TNT, do you think you would have time to see that light and heat, feel the spacesuit being destroyed, the saliva in your mouth boiling, and the air in your lungs being sucked away by vacuum?”
Jiang Yang was somewhat unclear: “I don’t know.”
Professor Lu Zhaoming continued: “Under normal circumstances, even if you hid in the gap, you would be vaporized by the hydrogen bomb explosion’s energy in an instant.
You wouldn’t even feel pain, no sensation at all, and in that instant, you would be completely gone.
But according to you, after the explosion you still saw many things, had many sensations, and it was delayed by at least one or two seconds before you died, so…”
Jiang Yang was startled: “The hydrogen bomb explosion’s energy was weakened!”
“Right, this is the only possibility.
So obviously, that ‘corrosion’ existing in the lunar underground passage can not only corrode substance, but also corrode energy.
This is something no chemical reaction could possibly do; we can completely rule it out.”
Jiang Yang’s spirit was tightly strung, a bit of cold sweat quietly emerging in his palms.
Not only able to corrode physical objects, but also energy… what kind of technology is this!
“Professor Lu, what is your judgment?”
He shook his head somewhat heavily: “I can responsibly say that our current physics theories do not cover this possibility at all; we don’t know what this thing is.
But we can make some guesses about it.
Comrade Jiang Yang, you should know that mass and energy are equivalent, their conversion follows the mass-energy equation, namely E=MC^2.
So in this incident, we can consider the ‘corrosion’ your spacesuit suffered and the weakening of the hydrogen bomb’s energy as the same type of event, influenced by the same factor, with no distinction between them.
Now, we need to make guesses about this ‘event’.
Within the existing physics framework, the only conjecture that fits this characteristic is one.
Negative matter field, or negative energy field.
A kind of field similar to the electromagnetic field and gravitational field we know.
The electromagnetic field transmits electromagnetic force, the gravitational field transmits gravity; they are both ‘positive’ energy, while the negative energy field transmits some energy that is ‘negative’.
When negative energy contacts positive matter with positive energy, the two annihilate each other, leaving nothing behind.
