CH 164 Resource Planet
Translated by The BL Muse (ko-fi)
The content of the email was quickly displayed. Mr. Zhang's words were concise, without unnecessary nonsense, and directly explained the key points.
Jiang Chen and He Yanya also saw the important point immediately: "...According to my inference, these items seem to have no pattern, but actually contain multiple ecosystems and most of the chemical elements discovered so far. I don't study chemistry, so I will only discuss the collection of plant parts. Most of the plants on this list are relatively rare and have high research value in our country..."
The two of them glanced at each other after reading the email, seeing solemnity on each other's faces.
Before Mr. Zhang’s email, they had many conjectures about this table of items, but because there were still some words that had not been deciphered and there were too few clues, most of them were overturned one by one.
However, in this email, Mr. Zhang even made a guess about the words that have not been translated and were only composed of unfamiliar characters: those may be the names of chemical elements that were relatively uncommon in everyday life.
Jiang Chen never guessed in the direction of chemical elements because the things recorded in this table did not directly indicate their true uses in words, such as balloons, bracelets, and bronze objects. At first glance, these things have nothing to do with each other, but connecting to what Mr. Zhang said in his email, it could be found that their production contains chemical elements.
Because of this, Jiang Chen and the others did not associate those untranslated symbols with chemical elements with complex names. After Mr. Zhang reminded him, Jiang Chen suddenly remembered that one time he heard He Qianjian talking to the System. During the conversation, he seemed to have heard a strange word. He was puzzled at the time, but then he remembered that it seemed to correspond to a certain one on the periodic table of elements.
In order to confirm his guess, Jiang Chen bid goodbye to He Yanya and hurried back to his laboratory. It was not even seven o'clock, but there were already people in the laboratory. When Jiang Chen came in, everyone started talking. After saying hello, everyone did their own thing.
Jiang Chen walked to Shi Fengyue's seat and sat down, opened his translation system, entered the words in his mind, then dragged the form into it and clicked Enter to match and identify.
A few seconds later, one unfamiliar character was indeed missing from the table, which also proved that the possibility of Mr. Zhang’s guess being confirmed was extremely high.
If this was really the case…
Then it proved that the System had been collecting data on the Earth's biosphere, and it was very likely that it had also collected samples. A system from a high-tech civilization appearing in a less civilized galaxy. What was it doing to collect data on a certain planet in this galaxy? Jiang Chen had the answer almost immediately.
In the interstellar era, with the support of powerful science and technology, interstellar flights were as common as high-speed trains and airplanes today. Most people have traveled between different planets, either for travel or business, or more likely to collect and develop new energy sources.
These planets were not initially livable, nor did they originally belong to a certain national organization, but were obtained through searches and campaigns organized by various national organizations. No matter in which era, the territory and technological level determine the strength of a country.
Under the premise that the inherent areas have already been divided, the discovery and exploration of new planets was particularly important.
Under the exploration of countries advocating peace, if a new planet or new civilization was discovered, most of them would use foreign policy to negotiate, but as the saying goes from ancient times, "weak countries have no diplomacy," the same was true in the interstellar age. Even if there were negotiations, most planets with low technological civilization would eventually serve as affiliated planets for the discoverers.
However, this was already a good result. In the interstellar age, even if a consensus had been reached for many races to coexist peacefully, some races were still particularly xenophobic and warlike. As far as Jiang Chen knows, there were many galactic races like this. If these races also possess powerful technology and weapons, most of the newly discovered planets would become slave planets, resource planets, or garbage planets.
Slave planets and garbage planets, as their names suggest, need no further explanation. Resource planets meant that some or more resources needed by the discoverer were found on this planet. After the discoverer collects enough information, they would "disinfect" the planet.
Disinfection referred to removing everything on the planet that may hinder the extraction, growth, and reproduction of resources, turning the entire planet into a planet that only served as a resource field and only produced resources. Even intelligent races with a certain degree of civilization, as long as they consumed the resources, or were useless towards the resources on the planet, would be listed as objects to be cleared.
According to the trajectory of He Qianjian's system, the possibility of the latter was much higher than the former. Jiang Chen's expression changed slightly. If it was really what he thought, He Qianjian's system may truly have had bad intentions from the start.
"What's wrong?"
While he was thinking, a familiar voice suddenly sounded from behind him. A hand was placed on his shoulder, and a familiar breath hit behind his ear. Jiang Chen did not look back, but raised his chin to signal Shi Fengyue to look at the computer, "I deciphered one more symbol."
Shi Fengyue's brows moved slightly, and his eyes moved away from Jiang Chen's profile and landed on the computer screen. He had a very good memory and quickly found the unfamiliar symbols on the lower right side of the form. After seeing clearly, a flicker of light flashed through his eyes. He asked with a hint of surprise: "Radioactive elements?"
Jiang Chen added: "On this list, except for a few elements that are difficult to collect, almost all the elements are collected."
Shi Fengyue knew that Jiang Chen had been studying this table during this period, and after hearing this, he said, "Do you have an idea?"
Jiang Chen nodded: "My aunt asked her teacher, Mr. Zhang Qizhang, to help her look into it, and he gave some clues."
Jiang Chen told Shi Fengyue the content of Mr. Zhang's email. Shi Fengyue was thoughtful and after a while said with interest: "So, the purpose of the system in He Qianjian's hands is not at all related to He Qianjian, but to the entire planet?”
"It's very possible." Jiang Chen recounted his guess and said, "If it's what I thought..."
Shi Fengyue interrupted him, with a rare flash of interest in his eyes: "It means there must be other civilizations in the universe, and their technological development level is higher than that of Earth, and they may even have found a way to get to Earth."
Jiang Chen paused. He was not surprised that Shi Fengyue could guess all his thoughts at once, but he was very surprised. He seemed to be very... familiar with alien civilization?
Most people have heard stories about UFOs and aliens, and many of them yearn for them. However, these stories have never been supported by evidence, so they were still just stories. Even for students in the astronomy department or those who specialize in such scientific research work, when first learning that there may be real alien civilizations appearing on the earth, they would also need a period of surprise before accepting and studying the matter.
But Shi Fengyue seemed to have skipped the stage of surprise, accepted the fact without any obstacles, and seemed to believe it deeply.
Jiang Chen couldn't help but ask: "Do you think this must be done by aliens?"
Shi Fengyue smiled and asked, "Do you think any modern country or research institute could develop the thing in He Qianjian's head?"
Jiang Chen frowned and voiced his doubts: "You don't seem surprised at all."
Shi Fengyue lowered his eyes, looked at him for a while, and suddenly said jokingly: "If I told you that I have been to an alien planet, or an alien planet many years later, would you believe it?"
Jiang Chen suddenly raised his eyes.
Shi Fengyue rubbed his head in amusement: "So surprised? I was joking."
Jiang Chen frowned slightly, not thinking he was joking, because he had actually been to the "alien planet many years later" that Shi Fengyue said, and Shi Fengyue's expression didn't look like he was joking.
Shi Fengyue mistakenly thought that Jiang Chen was angry that he was joking while discussing serious matters, so he straightened his expression and apologized: "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be joking at this time."
Jiang Chen came to his senses and shook his head. This was not a good time to ask Shi Fengyue about his "joke". He thought for a moment and said, "Since we captured the core files in He Qianjian's system, the System is no longer within the signal range of Changjiang. I suspect that it has not completely collapsed, but is quietly repairing itself. After the repair is successful, it is likely to go to He Qianjian again."
Shi Fengyue immediately understood what he meant: "Do you want to visit He Qianjian in prison?"
Jiang Chen: "After he went to prison, he kept sending messages through others to see me. My parents didn't want me to meet He Qianjian again, so the messages never reached me. I didn't know about it until some time ago when he changed his target to find my parents."
Shi Fengyue knew that Jiang Chen valued his adoptive parents, and that the System and He Qianjian could no longer pose a threat to Jiang Chen. He said without hesitation: "Since you want to go, let's go and have a look. I will accompany you."
After He Qianjian was imprisoned, Jiang Chen had always planned to meet with him to determine whether the System had really disappeared from his body. However, he was busy with work and study, so he could not spare the time.
"No need, I'll just go by myself." Jiang Chen didn't want to visit the prison with company, and there was a lot of work in the laboratory. If he wasn't there, Shi Fengyue could watch for him so that there wouldn't be any mistakes suddenly cropping up.
"That's right." Jiang Chen thought of something and became serious: "Should we not report this matter for now, or should we report it immediately?"
The purpose of the System was very likely to be a matter of the entire Earth, and it was of great importance. This must be reported. However, everything was just their guess at the moment. There was no evidence to prove the purpose of the System. Blindly reporting their guess may not be a good thing.
"Let's wait for a while." Shi Fengyue said calmly: "He Qianjian's system has only collected this amount of things after following him for so many years. It is still far from being able to build a complete Earth ecosystem. It proves that the System is not in a hurry. No matter what the reason, we still have a lot of time. It will be more appropriate to fully understand his system before reporting it."
Jiang Chen also had the same idea. The existence of the System was too bizarre, and they had no evidence in their hands. It would be difficult to get attention by reporting it to the country at this time. It might even alert the snake and let the System that was currently hidden somewhere get wind of it.
"Then I'll go visit He Qianjian first."