Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 753 - 008

Chapter 753: 008

In 1953, a young man from the Federation in his twenties conducted an experiment with the help of his mentor.

He placed a large amount of methane, ammonia, and other substances in an encapsulated device and continuously heated the water storage part of the device. The water vapor generated from the heating entered a bottle containing a discharge device and a mixture of gases simulating the primitive Earth’s atmosphere. After that, the reacted water vapor would enter the condensation tube and recycle.

After this device operated a simple cycle for several times, proteins detectable by equipment appeared inside.

Thus, humanity declared with confidence that they had initially solved the problem of the origin of life.

This was the famous Miller-Urey experiment—"Miller" and "Urey" were the names of that young man and his mentor, respectively.

This experiment was both simple and elegant.

However, it wasn’t very convincing.

As the lunar exploration progressed, the theoretical foundation of this experiment was also shaken—humans suddenly discovered that the Moon could have once been part of the Earth. This was later confirmed.

The "primitive Earth environment" speculated by the Miller experiment did not consider such dramatic changes. The conditions set by that experiment were worth discussing.

The oxidizing nature of the primitive Earth’s atmosphere was sufficient to destroy the organic matter produced by natural movements as envisioned by Miller.

But humans did not fail to propose new ideas.

For example, underwater volcanoes.

The underwater hydrothermal vents continuously erupt hot springs at hundreds of degrees. These springs contain a large amount of metallic lithium compounds. The temperature and pH level of this hot spring were worlds apart from the surrounding high-pressure seawater. When they met, a strong neutralization reaction occurred.

The scorching ejecta, within the icy high-pressure seawater, would form a loose porous structure. The diameter of these voids was comparable to that of a cell.

Scientists speculated that perhaps it was these rocky pores that forced the disorderly water flow to follow a certain order, as the reaction between the hot spring and seawater was forcefully tamed. Underwater hydrothermal vents provided complex substances for the earliest life, as well as energy.

In the billions of years of meaningless chemical reactions, a molecule was accidentally born that could use the surrounding simple organic matter to assemble itself in an orderly manner.

This was the origin of life.

This molecule gradually expanded itself, incorporating more information within, and increasing the variety of reactions it could participate in...

Until at last, in conjunction with the lipids attached to the rock walls, the first cell was formed.

And the "Bifrost" of the Liberation Emperor was simulating this process. Artificial membrane panels divided the hexagonal prisms into two different areas, one side heated and the other side close to the cooling equipment buried inside the frame of the "Bifrost." Through clever design, water could circulate at a fixed rate on both sides of the foam board...

Ah, of course, not all hexagonal prisms were like that. On both sides of the foam of some prisms, there were positive and negative terminals of a power source. A weak electric field energy flowed through both sides of the foam board.

Some foam structures with a refractive index almost identical to the surrounding solution were directly irradiated by low-intensity lasers. These parallel beams of light would only shine on half the area of the foam board along with the hexagonal prism.

"The water collected from the Asteroid Belt, natural organics obtained from Jupiter and Saturn..." said Zhu Xinyu.

Yog asked, "How many hexagonal prisms are there?"

"A much more convenient number if expressed in scientific notation," replied Zhu Xinyu. "I haven’t seen the exact data, but it should be between ten to the power of thirteen and ten to the power of fifteen."

Yog did some mental calculations and realized that, if taking the higher estimate, the Earth’s water resources might not even match the Bifrost.

This order of magnitude was roughly on the same scale as the number of stars in the Milky Way.

Each hexagonal prism was akin to a tiny planet with just a liter of water and a foam board. These miniature planets were simulating the evolution of life at breakneck speed in an artificially created environment.

The birth of life was entirely a matter of betting on probabilities.

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It might appear the next day, or it might not appear for a billion years.

But "a billion" is also several orders of magnitude away from the "tiny asteroid" within the Bifrost.

Xiang Shan was using the brutal method of exhaustive enumeration to cross the bitter sea known as "probability."

[So many... How to... check... Ah...]

This gigantic construct was his conception. Xiang Shan would only make this device more perfect.

A beam of laser could check thousands or even tens of thousands of hexagonal prisms at once. If any one of these thousands or tens of thousands of hexagonal prisms underwent an interesting chemical reaction, it would be reflected in the monitoring data.

With several different laser detection paths, it was easy to pinpoint the coordinates where the life reaction occurred.

This process could be managed by drones and simple programs. Such repetitive mechanical labor was always entrusted to machines by Xiang Shan.

Clearly...

The original Argon had only brought back a single origin of life.

In the fictional history created by Xiang Shan, the "technological leap" could not explain this device, so the other seven origins of life that had been exhaustively enumerated over the years were all attributed to the fictional Argon.

Yawgmoth stared at the Bifrost for a long time without speaking.

At the end of the Bifrost, Zhu Xinyu said, "Alright, we can’t use the cameras for the next stretch. Bear with it, it might get a bit dark."

Yawgmoth lost his own vision.

After disconnecting from the machines, the brain would not feel anything. Yawgmoth felt as if a considerable amount of time had passed.

During this time, he must have undergone at least one transfer.

Finally, he heard Zhu Xinyu’s farewell.

[Goodbye, both of you. This is as far as I can help. I still don’t have any authority over the Zion region, and continuing to follow you would risk exposure. Safe travels.]

[Xinyu...] Ingrid said, [You must also take care!]

[Mhm.] Zhu Xinyu said calmly: [I will not die before the camera records the death of the Liberation Emperor.]

Yawgmoth said, [Goodbye.]

Then, he plunged into darkness once again.

Perhaps it was the darkness that bred fear. During this process, some doubts began to sprout in his mind.

When he awoke again, he was already in an unfamiliar cabin.

An unfamiliar Cybernetically Enhanced Person pressed a hand to his chest, greeting Yawgmoth in an ancient manner: "Welcome, ’Healer.’ Welcome back to the real world. I am the captain of this ship..."

Yawgmoth raised his arm. It was a pair of unfamiliar hands, gleaming with brilliant silver light.

Yawgmoth, who had just been in the 2077 illusion not long ago, was momentarily bewildered.

And the one who claimed to be the captain was excitedly talking about something.

Yawgmoth looked out the porthole. In the direction of the sun, a gigantic black structure cast a huge shadow.

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