Chapter 231: UFO Incident

To his utmost surprise, Gilt was not killed by the guards he had arranged but instead managed to escape.

The boss suddenly flew into a rage at him, demanding that he must bring Gilt back alive, or he would suffer the consequences.

Sambus was both jealous and helpless, so he had no choice but to personally request help from the GIA to track down Gilt. It was not easy, but they finally located the target and surrounded Gilt’s place of stay tonight.

What was thought to be an easy capture turned unpredictable when a sharpshooter suddenly appeared and took out over ten GIA agents in the blink of an eye, leaving them no choice but to call for military backup.

At this time, in the car fleeing ahead, a breathless Gilt said, “Qiu, we can’t escape on this barren plain. I didn’t expect to drag you into dying with me here.”

Qiu Mu drove the car with laser focus, calmly responding, “Our people will be arriving soon. You’ll be reunited with your sister.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than an armed helicopter already loomed ahead, its searchlight illuminating the car and causing Gilt to close his eyes reflexively.

Just as Gilt barely opened his eyes, he saw the helicopter explode into a fireball with a deafening roar!

What happened?

Sambus, trailing behind, saw clearly: the helicopter was hit by a sudden beam of light from the sky and exploded.

While he was still bewildered, the Humvee leading the charge was also struck by a beam of light descending from the sky and exploded with a bang.

Terrified, Sambus immediately ordered his driver: “Turn around—quick!”

With a loud boom, Sambus felt engulfed by a bright light and then knew nothing more.

Up front, Qiu Mu brought the car to a sideways halt.

Leaning against the back seat, Gilt gaped in shock as beams of light rained down from above, setting ablaze all the chasing vehicles behind them.

His gaze stretched to the night sky, thick with darkness; he saw nothing.

“Qiu, is this… the doing of your people? Where are they?”

Qiu Mu got out of the car, opened the rear door, and awkwardly carried Gilt out. The position made Gilt feel very uncomfortable.

This was the so-called princess carry!

“Qiu, can we change this position?” Gilt couldn’t help but ask.

Qiu Mu, expression unchanged, replied, “This position won’t aggravate your injuries.”

Not far from them, a hatch dropped from nowhere, emitting a soft white light onto the ground.

Gilt turned his head to look at this scene as his heart suddenly began to pound faster – this must be some kind of flying craft capable of optical invisibility.

My goodness, could Qiu Mu be an alien? Is this the legendary UFO?

No wonder Qiu Mu could punch holes through walls with his fist.

While Gilt was busy with his wild imaginings, he was already being carried by Qiu Mu through the lowered hatch.

Qiu Mu passed through multiple doors and entered a cabin.

He placed Gilt onto a bed, saying, “Don’t move around. A doctor will attend to you.”

“Qiu, you’re not an alien, are you?”

Qiu Mu shook his head and said, “I’m not. Just lie down; I’ll be right back.”

As soon as Qiu Mu walked out, Gilt attempted to struggle up.

Suddenly, several latches sprung from the bed, pinning him down firmly. Gilt was shocked, then the ceiling opened up unexpectedly.

A multi-tentacled mechanical arm descended, two of its hands skillfully rolling up the sleeve of Gilt’s right arm and wiping the crook where blood vessels were visible, as if a nurse were preparing to inject him.

In a second, one of the mechanical hands, holding a syringe, accurately plunged it down.

Gilt was panicked inside, wondering what was happening. Wasn’t a doctor supposed to come, not a mechanical arm?

As he fretted, the arm that administered the injection moved away.

His consciousness began to blur, and the outlines of his surroundings started to dim, vaguely hearing the sound of a door opening.

His final observation was of a humanoid figure in white approaching him.

In another cabin, Qiu Mu was sitting in a chair, facing a 3D holographic image of Dr. Du Qiu who was speaking.

“So, the core area of Area 51 is where that Eden artificial intelligence resides, which Radack and others refer to as the almighty Lord, that little guy, right?”

Qiu Mu nodded and said, “Yes, sir. The International Security Conference has already been convened, and Holmes is zealously accusing Dream Technology.

The current progress of carbon nanobots and metal nanobots might not be sufficient to infiltrate the core area before USS Marilan launches its attack.”

The high-fidelity android, perfectly emulating Dr. Du Qiu’s likeness under the control of Star Ocean, was powered by the integrated chips fitted within.

Currently, these chips in high-fidelity robots can only specialize in a single industry; perfect communication with humans is more challenging as interaction is not merely scripted Q&A.

After all, many human interactions can’t be handled with simple programmed responses.

Only a specialization in human interaction like Leng Yanran could effortlessly deal with and even argue with people.

Otherwise, Star Ocean would need to allocate precious computational resources for temporary control to perfect the high-fidelity robot’s performance.

This is a limitation led by inadequate hardware processing power. Dr. Du Qiu has already initiated a focused research group to tackle the development of quantum computing chips and quantum computers.

Fortunately, the alien civilizations seen in dreamscapes use quantum computing methods too, though it seemed too advanced for direct replication of that hardware by Du Qiu.

Faced with an inaccessible treasure, Du Qiu ultimately found a solution. He took advantage of the maintainers in their virtual world to conduct technology downgrading research and design.

At last, he came up with a few quantum chip and quantum computer designs suitable for the current production level. Dr. Du Qiu handed these designs over to three research groups for practical validation and study.

To maintain the research team’s independent innovation capability, Dr. Du Qiu did not give the complete designs directly but provided a direction to let researchers explore various validation studies in this area.

Dr. Du Qiu didn’t want simply to replicate alien technology; he aimed to cultivate a research team able to comprehend extraterrestrial scientific knowledge and establish a sustained R&D capability through comprehensive study.

Having listened to Qiu Mu, the 3D projection of Dr. Du Qiu pondered for a moment before speaking: “Since it’s confirmed that Eden in the core area is the so-called almighty Lord, we do not have to wait for the carbon nanobots to infiltrate. We can directly destroy the core area.

In a sense, I’m learning from their approach, which is the perfect application of turning their own methods against them.”

Qiu Mu inquired, “Do we launch the strike now? The core area of Area 51 is 200 meters underground, and the Wyvern fighters do not have suitable weapons to destroy a target at that depth.”

Dr. Du Qiu suggested, “Use the space-based weapons… wait, I have a new idea.”

He had just mentioned space-based weapons when he conjured up an alternative.

“Star Ocean, you’ve discovered a nuclear missile base near the core area, right?”

Qiu Mu nodded and confirmed, “Yes, sir. The carbon nanobots have mostly infiltrated the area, though I have just drawn some away.”

“Do you have a way to detonate the nuclear missiles in the base? I remember there are three intercontinental missiles, each armed with three separate warheads, and each warhead has the equivalent of 175,000 TNT, correct?”

“You are not mistaken, sir.”

“Considering the distance of the nuclear base to the core area, if all explode, it should be enough to destroy the core area, which is virtually next door, right?”

“Just give me a moment, sir. It’s best I run some simulations.”

A few minutes later, Star Ocean announced through Qiu Mu, “No problem. The explosion of nine warheads equals 1,575,000 TNT equivalent.

With the core area about 5 kilometers from the nuclear base, the blast wave will instantly vitrify the underground rock layers, causing the space within the core area to distort and collapse, which would surely destroy the supercomputer inside.”

Dr. Du Qiu considered and asked, “Area 51’s base should be able to withstand a nuclear strike, right? Are you sure this collapse will definitely occur?”

Star Ocean continued, “Our carbon nanobots have not completed infiltration, but they have helped me thoroughly understand the 51st base and the condition of the underground space around the core area.

The U.S. has mainly fortified the top layers of rock to prevent a nuclear strike from above—capable of withstanding a nuclear explosion on the surface.

However, the sides were not shielded like our underground bases, probably because they never imagined a high-yield nuclear blast happening next to them underground.”

Dr. Du Qiu nodded, “Very well, proceed with this plan. Can you ensure control over the nuclear missiles in the base before midnight?”

“No problem. I’ll begin mobilizing the carbon nanobots and Shadow II agents for action. By the way, does this Wyvern need to send Gilt back now?”

Dr. Du Qiu shook his head, stating, “This Wyvern will remain airborne near Area 51. After the nuclear explosion, it must confirm the core area’s destruction.

Use the super magnetic imager to detect any signs of survival, and if found, initiate continuous bombardment with the particle cannon.

If we still can’t breach the top, deploy combat robots for cleanup. We mustn’t allow Eden any chance of survival or escape.”

“Understood, sir. When shall we detonate the nuclear weapons?”

“Of course, after the nuclear missiles launched by USS Marilan are shot down by our space-based weapons. That way, we can launch a powerful counterattack with just cause.”

Dr. Du Qiu’s 3D image gradually faded. In truth, Star Ocean could directly converse with Dr. Du Qiu in the command center, but having not had its fill of controlling Qiu Mu, it initiated direct 3D projection dialogue.

At this time, a U.S. Military team arrived by helicopter at the barren, observing the destroyed vehicles. After a search, they unexpectedly found a survivor.

The man was a black soldier who had just awakened from unconsciousness. Seeing his comrades, he excitedly exclaimed, “We were attacked by a UFO! Beams of light rained down from the sky, and our vehicles were blown up.”

The team’s commanding officer frowned and asked, “What date is it today?”

The black soldier irritably replied, “I’m perfectly coherent. Today is July 22nd, 2022. I bet it was an attack by a UFO—I’m absolutely certain of what I saw!”