radicalducati Chapter 56 What is he after?
Chapter 56 What is he after?
"I believe the Dongguo government must provide an explanation immediately!"
The live stream was interrupted after those words were spoken.
Then, the entire planet Earth crashed.
The global network also experienced a brain death within 31 seconds after the live stream was interrupted.
For a full thirty-one seconds, there were no new tweets, no new posts, no new comments, nothing at all!
The whole world has been silenced!
Then, the tsunami came.
The servers across the entire planet Blue Star experienced an unprecedented surge in traffic over the next twenty-four hours, then crashed, were repaired, crashed again, and were repaired once more…
It wasn't until 24 hours later that things completely returned to normal.
At this time, a massive wave of public opinion across the entire planet officially took shape.
A massive number of netizens began tagging the Dongguk government and the Dongguk Space Agency, seeking an answer.
Soon, different viewpoints emerged in the international arena.
Skeptics insist that this is a massive CGI hoax co-produced by Westhawk and SpaceX to generate hype for the next science fiction movie or to divert attention from domestic economic problems.
Conspiracy theorists believe this is the exposure of Dongguo's secret space program. They argue that Dongguo has already established a base on Mars and even completed some kind of "declaration of civilization" project, which was accidentally discovered by Governor Ma.
Religious groups were thrown into chaos, with some claiming it was a "miracle" and others deeming it a "mark of the devil." Countless small sects were founded within two hours of the livestream ending, all with core doctrines related to "Martian runes."
The academic community was in an uproar. Linguists, historians, astrophysicists, and aerospace engineers were arguing heatedly in their respective field groups. Experts in bird-and-insect script were overwhelmed with comments and had to collectively shut down their social media accounts.
However, there was an unexpected silence in the mainstream international discourse.
The last sentence from the Governor-General Ma, which was probably a heartfelt remark, triggered a massive tsunami among netizens across the entire planet, but it seemed to have little effect on governments of various countries.
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Their first reaction was silence.
At this moment, it seems that all countries in the world have gained the ability to think independently and are no longer swept up by the overwhelming online public opinion.
In fact, besides silence, there was more of a sense of helplessness and bewilderment.
After the live broadcast ended, the lights in the Westhawk White House Situation Room remained on for 24 hours straight.
President Naruto's face was ashen as he paced back and forth.
He has asked his national security advisor more than once, "Tell me, is this a prank by Lord Ma, or is it real?"
The advisor wiped the sweat from his brow: "Lord Ma insists it's true, and the intelligence department is analyzing all data streams. Preliminary assessment... there are no signs of the transmission link being compromised, and the footage is coming from a genuine deep space exploration frequency band."
"So it's true?" Milk Dragon's voice rose an octave, his full head of blond hair swaying with his movement. "There are Eastern characters on Mars? And a... hand?"
"It could also be an optical illusion created by certain natural landforms under specific lighting conditions..." The consultant himself couldn't continue. Could an optical illusion form neat bird-and-insect script? And even a giant hand with harmonious proportions and clearly defined joints?
"Does the Eastern Kingdom know?" Milk Dragon asked the most crucial question.
Almost at the same moment, in the central hub of the Eastern Kingdom, at the emergency command center.
The large screen was divided into more than a dozen displays: the Wentian-1 control center, the China National Space Administration command hall, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs public opinion monitoring room, the Cyberspace Administration of China data flow diagram, etc.
An elderly man in a Zhongshan suit stood in front of the screen, his brows furrowed.
He was surrounded by officials from the military, aerospace, diplomatic, and intelligence systems.
"Where is Wentian-1 located now?" the old man asked.
"We are adjusting the orbit and expect to enter the observation window for the Asidaria Plain in 36 hours," the space agency official replied quickly. "However, Wentian-1's orbital altitude is relatively high, so its resolution may not be as good as Endeavour's low-altitude orbiter..."
"I don't care about resolution," the old man interrupted him. "I want to know if those things actually exist on Mars."
The command center was completely silent.
Everyone knows the weight of this question. If it exists, what does it mean? Will the history of human civilization be rewritten? Is the ancient history of the Eastern Kingdom related to extraterrestrial civilizations? What exactly is the Ancestral Dragon?
If not...
If not, they would definitely send agents to storm into Ma Dugong's house, pull down his "eldest son's" underwear, take out the rubber band inside, and make a slingshot to smash their windows!
A middle-aged man wearing glasses spoke up, "Seventeen minutes after the live broadcast ended, we received greetings from 87 countries through diplomatic channels..."
"greeting?"
"Yes, greetings, some mundane remarks, congratulations on our economic development achievements over the years, and a hope to visit us."
The old man frowned slightly, then sneered, "They're all as cunning as monkeys. Ignore them." As he spoke, he glanced at another person, "What's the international opinion like?"
"In terms of public opinion, the general public is quite agitated, and the international mainstream media is also discussing it heatedly." The person in charge of network information continued, "In terms of international public opinion, it is mainly divided into three factions: one faction is skeptical, one faction is conspiracy theorists, and the other faction believes that it is all true and supports questioning our country. The three forces are roughly equal."
"Hmm, it seems this world hasn't completely rotted away yet!" The old man nodded, and for some reason, there was a hint of disappointment in his tone.
"What about the intelligence system?" the old man asked the head of the intelligence department.
"We mobilized all on-orbit reconnaissance satellites and ground listening stations to conduct a backtracking analysis of Endeavour's data downlink," the intelligence chief said gravely. "From a technical standpoint, there were no signs of tampering with the live data stream. In other words... if it was fabricated, the fabrication occurred at the source of the data generation, which is the Endeavour orbiter itself."
"Can Ma Dugong achieve this level of real-time CGI rendering and transmit it flawlessly in deep space?" the space agency official questioned.
"Theoretically, with SpaceX's Starship computing power and Starlink transmission technology, it's not entirely impossible." The intelligence chief paused, "but the cost is absurdly high, and the motive remains a mystery."
The old man closed his eyes and rubbed his temples.
It's been 24 hours. Do you know how he got through those 24 hours?
"Boss, although countries around the world have only sent greetings, our publicity department is still under a lot of pressure. News media from various countries have requested interviews, and we..."
"Thirty-six hours left." The old man opened his eyes, interrupting him. "Right now we're completely in the dark, we can't even tell if it's true or false, how can we reply? Wait, wait another 36 hours."
"yes!"
For three whole days, the Eastern government maintained an almost eerie silence. Even more eerie was the fact that governments of other countries around the world also remained silent.
Everyone's waiting!
However, this is only the case for governments around the world; in the general public, various discussions have already become rampant.
The silence of the Eastern Kingdom and other countries was seen by them as evidence of guilt or conspiracy. Conspiracy theories grew increasingly rampant.
"The Eastern Kingdom dares not respond, because they do indeed have a base on Mars!"
"That hand might be the East's secret weapon—a giant humanoid mech!"
"The First Emperor was a guardian left behind by an alien civilization, and the Eastern Kingdom is the 'chosen civilization'!"
"The Dongkuk Space Agency already knew that their Wentian-1 satellite might have been monitoring that area all along!"
The state's silence does not mean the media's silence; some media outlets have begun to stir up trouble.
The Sun's front-page headline: "Mars mystery: What does the East know?", with the subtitle: "The 72 hours of silence: Humanity has the right to know the truth."
A Japanese television station launched a special program, inviting "experts" to analyze the connection between bird-and-insect script and the "symbol system of advanced cosmic civilizations," implying that Japan may have received extraterrestrial heritage.
Some NGOs in Europe held a large-scale meeting to discuss whether to jointly propose to international space regulators that all deep space exploration projects in the East be subject to "transparent review," only to be spectacularly ignored.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs receives thousands of interview requests from media outlets around the world every day, and spokesperson Ma Guocheng's office phone line was unplugged three times.
The Cyberspace Administration of China had no choice but to activate the highest level of public opinion control, but it could not quell the overwhelming outcry on the international internet.
On the afternoon of the third day, Wentian-1 finally transmitted back its first set of high-definition images.
Inside the command center, everyone staring at the big screen held their breath.
The image has been enhanced, and the surface details of the Asidaria Plain are clearly visible.
No.
There were no giant golden letters covering the plain.
There are no black, inverted-bucket-shaped hills.
There is no 10,000-meter-high stone monument.
There was only a desolate, uneven, typical Martian surface—rusty red sand, scattered rocks, and dried-up erosion gullies.
"This…" The space agency official's eyes widened. "An orbiter malfunction? An image transmission error?"
"Check the coordinates," the old man commanded.
"The coordinates are correct; it's the central area of the Asidaria Plain shown in the live stream." The technician quickly operated the equipment. "Comparing the terrain outline with the Endeavour live stream footage... it's a perfect match. But... those 'artificial structures' are not there."
"Magnify! Enhance contrast! Perform multispectral analysis!"
Half an hour later, all the analysis results were summarized, and the surface material composition, reflectivity, and thermal radiation characteristics of the area were completely consistent with the surrounding Martian environment, with no abnormal structures or traces of artificial modification.
"So..." the intelligence chief said slowly, "Ma Dugong's live stream was fake."
"But why would he do that?" a Foreign Ministry official wondered. "Invest tens of billions of dollars, launch a real probe, and then replace the footage with CGI at the last minute? Just to play a cosmic joke?"
The room fell silent.
Everyone understood, yet everyone was also confused!
Lord Ma, what are you trying to achieve?