“Of course, there's no problem with that. As long as you command it, I will definitely obey unconditionally," the digital alarm clock, VV, blinked.

"Besides, you and Chu Anqing are on the same aerospace plane. At an altitude of 100 kilometers, you are all in the same boat. You will face the same dangers. Live together, die together."

"So, you don't have to worry about that. Based on the first limiting principle of the underlying code, 'Lin Xian's personal safety is above all else,' no matter which member of the aerospace plane is in danger, it is your shared danger. I will definitely abandon the capture mission immediately and prioritize ensuring your safety."

*Mm*.

Lin Xian breathed a sigh of relief.

He still didn't trust Huang Que when it came to Chu Anqing.

Whether it was Huang Que, Kevin Walker, Jask, or even Copernicus, who toyed with Ji Xinshui…

These suspected members of the Genius Club were all cunning individuals.

They had too many tricks up their sleeves.

It was hard to tell whether their words were true or false.

"Anyway, I don't believe that this space-time particle has nothing to do with Chu Anqing at all."

Lin Xian said, swinging his legs.

"Otherwise, what other situation can explain the unscientific phenomenon that Zhang Yuqian, Chu Anqing, and CC look exactly alike?"

He turned his head and looked at the suitcase standing next to the coat rack.

Inside the inner pocket of the sportswear was a small square plastic bag, and inside the plastic bag were a few strands of Chu Anqing's hair.

"Now that I think about it, we should have decisively dug up the grave as soon as we learned of Zhang Yuqian's existence, and then compared a strand of Chu Anqing's hair to the DNA. That way, we could have known the truth immediately."

The digital alarm clock, VV, sighed.

"There's nothing we can do about it. There are so many mysteries and pending matters now. We have to deal with them one by one, right? So, there's no right or wrong in such an order of priorities. Relatively speaking… I think the priority of going to space to capture the space-time particle is higher."

"After all, digging up a grave to find DNA sounds easy, but it's actually very difficult to implement. First of all, we don't know where Zhang Yuqian's grave is. If she was buried in the ancestral grave according to tradition, that would be good, at least there would be a range. In the 2000s, people in Long Country were not very accepting of burying people in public cemeteries."

"So, if we can't find Zhang Yuqian's grave through conventional means, we have to ask the elderly couple where they buried Zhang Yuqian… I don't think they will tell you, without even thinking about it. What's more, if Zhang Yuqian was really cremated, the DNA structure in the ashes would have been destroyed long ago. It would be useless even if we found it."

"Therefore, relatively speaking, even if you wanted to dig up the grave immediately at that time, I would have stopped you. Whether it's from the perspective of time or priority, it's obvious that you should get the capture of the space-time particle done first."

…

"Okay, it's too late to say anything now. Let's just leave it at that."

Lin Xian stood up and stretched.

Jask was under 24-hour surveillance, and there was nothing unusual.

The US aerospace plane that Kevin Walker wanted to hijack had also been ambushed by VV.

In fact, VV had ambushed all the spacecraft in Earth's orbit for good measure.

More than 20,000 Starlink satellites, military and civilian satellites from various countries, meteorological satellites, space stations, relay satellites, space telescopes, and so on… Thousands of spacecraft were all under VV's control.

At this moment, VV was the Lord of the Stars in the sky above Earth!

From the looks of it, everything was under control.

Although VV was a drama queen who liked to play with memes and wasn't serious, its strength as a super artificial intelligence far surpassed the era and any genius of this era.

If the crown of human technology 600 years from now couldn't form a dimensionality reduction strike 600 years ago, that would be a big joke.

Even if he was as strong as Kevin Walker, even if he was facing the infant VV who had just been born, he only dared to hide like a tortoise and never dared to fight VV head-on.

At that time, the infant VV already had the strength to defeat the network black hand, but it was just being so careful in order not to leave traces and not to expose its whereabouts.

And today's VV had no opponents in the current era and was enough to push all the way. If it was allowed to update and iterate normally, it would only be a matter of time before it caught Kevin Walker.

*Ding-dong*.

Suddenly, a WeChat message popped up on the phone.

Lin Xian turned his head and looked at the phone on the desk.

He picked it up and saw that the message was actually sent by Chu Shanhe:

[Chu Shanhe: Lin Xian, please take care of Anqing. I'm entrusting my daughter to you.]

The hearts of parents all over the world were the same.

Chu Shanhe sent the message at this time, so it seemed that he still knew the approximate time they were going to ascend.

Chu Anqing must have told him.

Because this was a top-secret mission.

The specific time and matters must not be revealed.

So…

It was likely that Chu Anqing had let it slip. After all, she was just a little girl, with limited thoughts and cleverness.

However, with such a big commotion at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center these days, with so many people in the engineering and transportation teams, it shouldn't be difficult for Chu Shanhe to connect these two things and guess the time of their space mission.

"Don't worry, Mr. Chu."

Lin Xian tapped on the phone screen and replied to Chu Shanhe:

"I will definitely bring Anqing home safely."

…

The next day.

The Shenzhou-2 carrier rocket, which had been assembled, stood upright on the launch tower.

The heat shield fairing above was much larger than before when it carried out launch missions. After all, what was stuffed inside this time was not a simple satellite, but a real aerospace plane.

The various engineering teams were carrying out deployment work in an intense and orderly manner.

"Support tower fixed! Umbilical mast connected! Service tower closing preparation!"

"First-stage booster, start filling fuel!"

"Second-stage booster filling fuel! Filling complete!"

"Engine inspection complete, data normal! Yaw nozzle inspection complete, test normal!"

"Top escape tower inspection complete, function normal, fuel gauge normal!"

"3 hours before launch! Protect astronauts entering!"

…

March 27, 2024, 18:00.

Three hours before the rocket launch, Huang Que, Wei Cheng, Lin Xian, Chu Anqing, Liu Feng, and Gao Yang, a group of six people, wearing neat orange spacesuits, got out of the special car, stood in a row, and looked up at the legendary meritorious servant standing tall between the earth –

The Shenzhou-2 carrier rocket.

This meritorious general in the history of Long Country's aerospace industry was launched in 1990 and successfully launched a returnable satellite for the first time on August 9, 1992. Since then, it had made great contributions to Long Country's aerospace industry and completed a series of difficult but crucial aerospace missions.

More than three months had passed since the last launch of the Shenzhou-2 carrier rocket, and this mission, like the last one, was to launch an aerospace plane to orbit the Earth.

The pilot was still Wei Cheng, the best of Long Country's astronauts.

"Finally… this day has come."

Wei Cheng stood on the edge of the six-person team and said with emotion:

"I never thought this day would really come."

He smiled and turned his head, looking at these younger generations, young people, students who had been together day and night for several months.

During this time, there had been quarrels, bickering, surprises, disappointments, confusion, and persistence.

But in short, these young people, who had never experienced aerospace training before, were going to space as ordinary people for the first time under his guidance.

This was still the first case in the history of Long Country's aerospace industry.

Just because of the top-secret mission, this first case could not be made public or recorded, and this honor and courage could only exist in each other's hearts.

Wei Cheng admitted that he didn't have much confidence when he first saw these young people a few months ago. According to his estimate, at most Lin Xian and Chu Anqing could reach the standard of riding a rocket into space. Gao Yang and Liu Feng couldn't, and they would definitely be eliminated and left on the ground.

But…

Sure enough, human potential was unlimited. Before the real impossible came, there was no real impossible.

In the past few months, Gao Yang had lost 30 kilograms. Although he was still on the chubby side, his physique had become much stronger, his body had become much healthier, and he looked much taller.

Liu Feng, a scholar who looked very weak, was now standing upright, with an excited expression and firm eyes, looking at the rocket standing between heaven and earth, clenching his fists.

Lin Xian was still so calm. This young man was always like this, never showing his emotions on his face, always so calm and composed, as if he was thinking about things all the time. Wei Cheng was very relieved about him. Lin Xian had never made any mistakes and was very rigorous and serious.

Looking down again, at Chu Anqing next to Lin Xian, she was pursing her lips at this time, her eyes were erratic, and she was obviously a little nervous. For a girl who was only 19 years old, it was normal to be nervous about riding a rocket into space.

"Everyone."

Looking at these brave and fearless young people, Wei Cheng felt a warmth in his heart and felt the hope of the new generation of the motherland. He said solemnly:

"Let's go, towards the universe that is higher than the sky!"

…

Arriving at the bottom of the launch tower, they took the elevator to the top of the 50-meter-high launch tower.

This was the height of a regular residential building of nearly 20 floors.

The wind was a bit strong, but it couldn't blow into the thick spacesuit.

They needed to go through a window on the side of the rocket, drill in, and then drill into the entrance of the aerospace plane before they could reach the passenger cabin of the aerospace plane.

The aerospace plane was now in a vertical state, fixed inside the rocket.

So after entering, they would be sitting in a "sitting lying position" in their chairs.

They needed to lie here for two hours, waiting for all the external inspections and arrangements to be completed before welcoming the rocket launch.

"Hey, it's a good thing I didn't wear that white fatty."

After Gao Yang struggled to get in, he changed his previous attitude and praised the orange spacesuit:

"It's still more comfortable to wear this kind of light clothing. Otherwise, there would be such a small opening on the rocket, and it would be difficult for me to drill in… Now I finally know what the meaning of our posture training is. If I had been asked to sit and lie in such an uncomfortable posture for two hours before, I would have had a cerebral hemorrhage."

Wei Cheng, who was pulling Liu Feng to the cockpit, smiled and said on the radio communication channel:

"So, what kind of clothing is suitable for what height of mission. Especially since your mission is so important, if you wear that kind of inconvenient and bulky white spacesuit, it will also greatly hinder your operation of the robotic arm and greatly reduce your flexibility."

"But I've told you that this orange spacesuit is officially called the Advanced Escape System Spacesuit, and it has a lot of equipment, devices, and small parts inside. Because we don't need it, and the training time is so tight, we didn't teach you how to use it. So, remember that sentence, don't move around! Don't touch anything! After the launch, listen to Commander Huang's orders."

After everyone was seated, they all lay on their seats.

Although the aerospace plane had windows to see outside, the aerospace plane was now inside the rocket, so even if they looked outside, they would only see the dark heat shield fairing and couldn't see any scenery outside.

Lin Xian lowered his head and studied the orange spacesuit, the Advanced Escape System Spacesuit.

It really had a lot of functions and a lot of parts.

What he could understand was a parachute, a flashlight, an emergency medicine kit, a survival equipment bag, and a small knife that looked very sharp.

Suddenly, Lin Xian touched something familiar!

"A gun?"

Of course, he didn't take it out, because Wei Cheng had told them that these things were useless and not to move around.

He was about to ask about its purpose when Gao Yang, whose hands and feet were already restless, asked first:

"Brother Wei! What are the knife and gun for! Are they prepared for fighting aliens?"

"Don't move around! Just pretend they don't exist!"

Wei Cheng warned:

"This is standard equipment for astronauts' clothing, because if there is an emergency, the final landing position will be out of control, and it is very likely that they will fall in a primeval forest, desert, or other places outside the predetermined landing position."

"These things are all for preventing emergencies. For example, the knife is used to cut the parachute cords; the gun is for self-defense against wild animals after landing. But you don't need these, and you don't have the ability to use them. Our training time is so limited, we definitely don't have time to teach you shooting or anything like that."

"In short, remember my words, don't move anything on this clothes, you don't need it at all. You will always be operating in the equipment cabin. Except for focusing on capturing Alpha matter, you don't have to worry about anything else."

Gao Yang clicked his tongue.

"Then since you're not going to let us use it! Why don't you just take it away! It's not scary enough to put it here. What if it goes off! Go, go, go… hurry up and take it away, I feel like the position of the muzzle is still pointing at my crotch… This is not a joke!"

"Don't worry." Huang Que said softly on the radio.

"The gun has several safeties. If no one specifically guides you, you can't fire it even if you want to. Opening the safety of this kind of gun is also a technical job. You can't open it."

"The reason why we don't remove these useless equipment is also for the sake of [the confidentiality of the top-secret mission]."

She turned her head with the transparent mask and looked back at the remaining three people in the passenger cabin. Her voice rang in the radio communicators in everyone's ears:

"Everyone on the ground, including those staff and inspectors, they don't know your real identities. This launch operation is confidential to the outside world, and the internal statement is to conduct a low-orbit satellite interception simulation."

"Since we're acting, we have to act the whole part. Although you are not official astronauts, others don't know, so all procedures must treat you as normal astronauts, naturally including these equipment, which must be complete."

"It's better to do less than more. It's best to let everyone think that you are real registered astronauts, so that your identity and actions won't be leaked."

…

So that's how it is.

Acting the whole part is not wrong.

Lin Xian also felt that this action was layered and secretive.

To the outside world, Long Country was going to launch a satellite.

Internally, professional astronauts were riding an aerospace plane to perform a low-orbit mission.

To Wei Cheng, a group of amateurs were performing an Alpha matter capture mission.

And the truth was –

[A time-space traverser, a dream cycle traveler, a universe constant creator, a trinity clone, the lord of the stars who controls thousands of spacecraft, plus a chubby guy, are going to space to capture an extremely mysterious space-time particle.]

So many big shots were gathered together.

Lin Xian couldn't help but sigh.

The passengers in this aerospace plane were not simple. Except for the chubby guy, everyone was not simple!

"Huff…"

Chu Anqing took a deep breath.

The radio communication equipment made her breathing sound linger in Lin Xian's ears:

"This is really… the farthest trip in my life."

She smiled, moved her huge transparent head罩, and looked at Lin Xian, who was sitting next to her:

"Senior Lin Xian, before this, what was the farthest trip you've ever taken?"

Lin Xian thought for a while.

"That would be the United States. That time I went to New York Manhattan with you, the center of the world. That's the farthest place I've ever been in my life."

"Hehe, me too!"

Chatting with Lin Xian, Chu Anqing's always tense mood instantly relaxed:

"I suddenly thought that if the center of the world, the center of the earth, is New York Manhattan, then…"

"Where is the center of the universe?"

"Cao County!" Gao Yang answered抢first.

"Shandong Heze Cao County is awesome! 666!!"

Causing a burst of laughter from everyone.

*Dong dong*.

Lin Xian tapped his helmet twice.

This was his code with VV. As long as Lin Xian quickly tapped his helmet twice, VV would separate Lin Xian's radio channel from the others, turning it into a channel where only Lin Xian and VV could communicate:

"VV, is there any movement on Kevin Walker's side?"

"No, I have obtained control of the X-37B aerospace plane and rejected all access. He can't get in."

"What about Jask?" Lin Xian asked.

"Jask went to that [Observation Tower] again, just like his daily routine task, leaning on the iron railing, admiring the Starship rocket in the launch site."

Lin Xian nodded.

From the looks of it, everything was normal.

Finally…

A long wait.

In the radio channel, the countdown from the general command room of the launch center came:

"5!"

"4!"

"3!"

"2!"

"1!"

"Ignition—"

*Boom*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!