Chapter 113 Return
"What?!" Upon hearing the news, Lu Mingfei widened his eyes in shock, his mind went blank, as if something heavy had hit him in the chest.
He almost dared to believe what he heard. BJ's root server failed to restart? In all his plans and assumptions, Dulles and Japan were his biggest concerns. He never thought that BJ, the most reliable link, would have problems.
"Damn it!" He cursed in a low voice, suppressed anger revealed in his tone, his eyes staring at the deck as cold and sharp as ice. His inner anxiety made him clench his fists involuntarily, and his knuckles turned slightly white due to excessive force.
Then he quickly looked up at the crew and asked, "When will the support plane arrive?" They had called for support before, and it should be almost here by now. The J20C had crashed, and he wanted to use the support plane to rush to BJ immediately.
The crew also sensed the urgency in his tone and immediately reported: "General, the plane will arrive in two minutes!"
Lu Mingfei nodded and walked quickly to the deck of the destroyer. He looked up at the sky in the distance. The sea breeze mixed with damp and cold water vapor slapped on his face with a salty and fishy taste. In addition to the whistling wind, he could also hear the roar of the surging waves in the distance.
He took the communication equipment and continued to ask the operator: "Is the deployment of the nuclear bomb completed?"
This is a crucial step that determines the final life and death of mankind. If the nuclear bomb cannot be detonated in time to destroy the moon, even if the planetary engine is successfully started, the earth will not be able to escape the gravity of the moon and will eventually be destroyed.
The operator's voice came from the communicator, with obvious fatigue and anxiety: "The nuclear bomb has been deployed, but the code has not been cracked yet... We can't remotely detonate the nuclear bomb."
Hearing this, Lu Mingfei's heart suddenly tightened. The bad news came one after another, making him feel suffocated.
"But..." The communicator paused for a moment, his tone carrying a hint of solemnity, "They have come up with another method... Let the astronauts bring the detonator and detonate the nuclear bomb directly on the moon at close range."
Lu Mingfei fell silent after hearing the communicator's words. This meant that humans would remember them for using human lives as detonators, but now was not the time to be sad. In the face of the continuation of the human race, the sacrifice of a few hundred people was nothing. The sacrifice of thousands, tens of thousands, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of people was nothing. In times of crisis, the only thing left was responsibility.
"I understand. I will go to BJ immediately to restart the root server..." Lu Mingfei spoke slowly after a moment of silence. He could already see fighter jets flying in the sky, and he had more important things to do.
But just as his eyes caught sight of the fighter jets flying in the distance, his pupils suddenly shrank the next second. The flames in the sky fell as densely as raindrops, as if doomsday was coming. Those fighter jets seemed so small and powerless in front of these heavenly fires.
A moment later, the fighter plane was engulfed in flames and turned into ashes.
"General, the lunar debris has destroyed all the fighter planes! More debris is coming towards us, please take shelter in the cabin immediately!" The destroyer's crew shouted in panic from the cabin, their voices full of anxiety and uneasiness.
But Lu Mingfei stood on the deck like a statue, staring blankly at the disappearing fighter planes in the sky. With the destruction of these fighter planes, his plan to go to BJ was also shattered. He no longer had enough time to mobilize a new batch of fighter planes and rush to BJ.
There were more and more fireballs in the sky, and they were getting closer and closer. Huge fireballs fell on the sea with the power to destroy the world. The close-in defense guns on the destroyers started working again after the electromagnetic interference disappeared. Countless bullets fired at the fireballs like a rainstorm, shattering them.
However, after the shattered remains of the moon fell into the sea, they still caused huge waves. The waves roared like an angry beast, throwing the destroyer to the top of the waves and then throwing it down heavily.
The violent waves caused the entire destroyer to shake violently, and the water on the deck kept washing Lu Mingfei's feet, but he remained motionless, allowing the sea water to wet his entire body. His expression was disturbingly calm, without anger, without loss of control, and even without excessive sadness.
He silently looked at the sea level in the distance, feeling a deep fatigue slowly surging in his chest. He didn't know whether human society would really come to an end at this moment, and whether all his efforts and sacrifices would turn into powerless futility.
At this moment, Lu Mingze stood beside him silently, his black eyes reflecting the falling fire from the sky. "Brother, it's time to go..." he said softly, with a hint of helplessness and a sense of fate in his voice.
"Wait a little longer..." There was some struggle in Lu Mingfei's voice. He knew that he should leave, but at that moment, his feet seemed to be nailed to the deck and he could not take the step to leave.
Deep down in his heart, he still didn't want to believe that all his hopes would be shattered like this and all his efforts would be so powerless.
Lu Mingze sighed, his tone filled with helplessness and tenderness: "Brother, you are always so stubborn. Once you decide on something, you must see it to the end... no matter if it is good or bad." He looked up at the meteorite in the sky, a trace of sadness flashed in his golden eyes, but this time, he did not leave as usual, but stood quietly beside Lu Mingfei.
Lu Mingfei tilted his head slightly and looked at him in confusion. "Aren't you leaving?" he asked in a low voice, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.
Lu Mingze smiled and shook his head gently: "I promised my brother that I would always be by your side. Even facing the end of the world... we will not abandon each other, nor betray each other, until the end of death..." His voice seemed to carry some ancient oath, with a deep emotion flowing from the long river of time.
“Also, it’s because brother always looks like a dead child, with pitiful eyes like a little seal, making people unable to bear to abandon him…” Lu Mingze said with a smile, then reached out and held Lu Mingfei’s hand tightly with a steady and warm strength.
When Lu Mingze's hand came up to hold his, Lu Mingfei was stunned, and then slowly held his hand back in Lu Mingze's. For some reason, he suddenly didn't dislike this little guy who was always a riddler. It seemed like they had known each other for a very, very long time, and the two of them seemed to have always been together, even across the long river of history.
The moment Lu Mingze's hand tightly grasped Lu Mingfei's, he felt a strange emotion he had never felt before surging in his heart. It was not fear, nor despair, but a sense of loneliness buried deep in his heart that was touched.
The surrounding sea water was churning violently, and the destroyer was rising and falling in the waves like a floating leaf. Huge waves hit the hull, making a deafening roar, but the tranquility at this moment enveloped the two of them.
"It's so lonely, brother... It was like this a long, long time ago... It's still like this now..." Tears rolled down from the corners of Lu Mingze's eyes, and his light golden pupils were filled with sadness.
Lu Mingfei looked at Lu Mingze's profile and felt a little dazed. This little guy who always had a mysterious smile on his face appeared in his life again and again, always treating everything with a joking attitude, as if he had seen through everything and cared about nothing. However, at this moment, his eyes flashed with an unprecedented sadness, which continued to penetrate time and carried endless history and secrets.
Lu Mingfei suddenly felt as if he was standing on the edge of the long river of history, alone, always chasing something, yet always seeming to be avoiding something. Countless fragments of memory emerged in his mind. Those blurred images, those dusty pasts, those truths that had never been touched, seemed to be torn apart again at this moment, revealing the bloody reality.
He saw the burning port, the cold throne, the dragon that wanted to tear him to pieces, the mountains and plains of humans with golden pupils glaring at him with weapons in hand, and the World Tree that held up the heavens and the earth, but its branches were hung with dead bones. He saw endless battles and deaths, and saw himself falling into the abyss, as if he would never be able to break free of the shackles of his destined fate.
The scenes in these memories are filled with sadness, loneliness and death, but strangely, he does not have too much fear or resistance. These scenes have long become a part of him, and no matter how hard he tries to get rid of them, he cannot really cut off his connection with them. The pain and despair seem to have been deeply rooted in the depths of his soul, becoming an indelible mark in his life.
But for some reason he was always attached to such a miserable world. Even though he knew there might be an abyss or destruction ahead, he still wanted to reach the end and see what that end was.
"Brother...it's time for us to go." Lu Mingze's voice sounded in his ears again.
Lu Mingfei was silent for a moment. He raised his head and looked toward the sky, watching the moon gradually approaching and getting bigger and bigger, as if the entire sky was occupied by it.
As the moon gradually approached, the waves on the sea became more and more violent, and the air was filled with a depressing atmosphere before destruction. The destroyer was shaky in such waves and could be swallowed by the sea at any time. At this moment, a violent explosion occurred on the surface of the moon again. The scorching light cut through the night sky and illuminated the entire sea. It was the astronauts on the moon who detonated a nuclear bomb.
The moon began to collapse rapidly under the impact of the explosion. Huge fragments broke away from the moon's gravity and turned into countless meteorites, heading straight for the earth.
At this moment, Lu Mingfei suddenly heard Zhou Zhezhi's voice coming from the communicator, his voice full of determination: "After the countdown is over... ignite." His words were loud and clear, giving the final order.
"Are you crazy?!" another person in charge of the command center shouted angrily, "If we ignite now, the earth will be unevenly stressed! The entire planet will be torn apart! We can still wait--"
"I'll say it again, ignite when the countdown ends!" Zhou Zhezhi's voice did not waver at all, "Our people can definitely complete the mission!"
The communication channel was filled with quarrels. The person in charge of lighting the fire seemed to be in extreme anxiety and panic. He could not understand Zhou Zhezhi's obsession. In his opinion, there might be a glimmer of hope if he continued to wait, and hastily lighting the fire would only accelerate destruction.
"It's because of your people that the BJ root server has not been put back online! Why did we build the root server in BJ in the first place? Ignition now is suicide! General Lu, please persuade this crazy old man. Let us go home now so that we can see our families!" The person in charge of the planetary engine ignition continued to yell.
Lu Mingfei was silent for a moment, then said: "Do as he says."
He made the final decision: "We will light the fire when the countdown ends. We must put all our efforts into practice and cannot just wait here to die."
The person in charge's voice was filled with anger, and he cursed everyone loudly: "You are all crazy! Crazy! A bunch of crazy people!"
Lu Mingfei ignored him. His eyes were fixed on the meteorites and flames gradually approaching in the sky. Time passed by second by second, and every second was the final countdown. On the road to the end of the world, every breath seemed so heavy.
Countdown begins
10, 9, 8…3, 2, 1
"Ignite!" Zhou Zhezhi's voice came from the communicator like thunder, shocking everyone present.
"Ignite!" Lu Mingfei shouted this sentence almost at the same time.
"What are you doing!" The person in charge of the planetary engine ignition also shouted loudly. Just now, a member of the command center hurriedly pressed the button to start the global engine after hearing the shouts of Lu Mingfei and Zhou Zhezhi.
"Global engine network, BJ, Tokyo, Dulles restarted successfully, overwrite started, planetary engine ignition began."
Lu Mingfei heard the sound coming from the communication equipment and felt a vibration under his feet. This was not caused by the rolling sea surface, but the entire earth was shaking.
A huge roar spread throughout the world, accompanied by the violent shaking of the earth. The global planetary engine network began to start up. BJ, Tokyo, Dulles, all the root servers finally restarted successfully, the overwrite began, and the command to ignite the planetary engine was conveyed to every corner of the world.
At that moment, the entire earth was shaking, the ground was whimpering, the sea was rolling violently, and countless flames in the sky were falling with long tails of flames, as if the doomsday judgment had come.
"We succeeded!" A cheer that had been suppressed for a long time came from the command center. The voice transmitted by the communication equipment was full of incredible joy: "The Earth has been successfully ignited! We really succeeded! The debris of the moon will pass by the earth in forty minutes!"
Loud cheers came from the communication equipment. Not only Lu Mingfei heard it, but the crew members of the destroyer behind him also heard it. Everyone hugged each other and cried with joy.
Lu Mingfei stood on the deck, with the crew members hugging and cheering behind him, but he did not join their celebration.
He just stood there quietly, his hands in his pockets, looking indifferently at the boundless sea in the distance. Although the cheers coming from the communicator were getting louder and louder, there was still no ripple in his heart, and he even had an indescribable sense of emptiness.
"Would you like to hug to celebrate? You have to be sociable in occasions like this." Lu Mingze's voice came from the side, with the same frivolous and playful tone as always.
Lu Mingfei turned his head to look at him. Lu Mingze was still the naughty kid, with the same smile on his face as always, but his light golden eyes seemed to reveal a hint of complicated emotions. Lu Mingze opened his arms as if to welcome a hug, with a playful expression.
Lu Mingfei raised the corners of his mouth, and then he gently hugged her. Instead, Lu Mingze was suddenly stunned. He didn't expect Lu Mingfei to really hug him.
"Brother, you have really changed a lot... You seem not so lonely anymore..." Lu Mingze murmured to himself, with an unconcealable emotion in his voice.
Lu Mingfei did not respond, but just hugged him tightly, then let go of his hand and turned to look into the distance. The sea in the distance began to gradually calm down, and the meteorite shower in the sky gradually disappeared. The once despairing flames no longer cut through the sky. As the debris of the moon dissipated, the flames in the atmosphere gradually died down, and the world returned to the calm it deserved.
As time passed, the strange phenomenon in the sky gradually disappeared, the moon was no longer high in the sky, and the sea surface, which had lost the influence of gravity, was as calm as a mirror. A waveless silence enveloped the entire sea. Without the tides caused by the moon, there was no wind, and the sea water was like an endless mirror, reflecting the last ray of afterglow in the sky.
Lu Mingfei looked at the mirror-like sea surface. He took a deep breath and felt the tranquility in the air around him. This mirror-like sea seemed to symbolize an ultimate peace that had never been experienced before, but at the same time it also carried a hint of deep emptiness and breath of death. The sea without tides had lost the rhythm of life. It was like a huge cemetery, so quiet that it was chilling.
"Brother, it's time for us to go home." Lu Mingze's voice sounded in his ears again, with a gentle smile.
"Yeah." Lu Mingfei nodded. He knew that everything was over and it was time to go back to where he should go.
The moment he closed his eyes, the world began to spin, the sea breeze gently brushed his cheeks, and the noise in his ears gradually faded away.
When he opened his eyes again, he was back to the path that led him out of Kassel College, still holding the cigar in his hand, as if nothing had happened. The soil under his feet was still a little damp, and the air was filled with the fragrance of plants.
He took a bite of the cigar in the corner of his mouth, and the bitterness and light smell of smoke stimulated his taste buds. It seemed that nothing had changed, as if everything that had happened in these years was just a dream, but the memory of those fourteen years was so profound.
Those battles, those sacrifices, those past events, scene by scene replayed in his mind, and he knew clearly that all of this was real. Everything he had experienced was deeply engraved in his life and could not be erased.
"Where should we go next..."
(End of this chapter)
