Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 140 - 141 The Death of the Foundation
Chapter 140: Chapter 141 The Death of the Foundation
In the visual archives, this great personage of the century said to the entire population of the Solar System, “Earth doesn’t care, Earth never cared about what humans have actually done.”
“If the history of Earth were condensed into a 24-hour period, then humans would have only existed for a mere two minutes.”
“Let’s take a look at what we have done in just those two minutes.”
“War, endless wars, with battles raging every millisecond.”
“Half of all wild species have gone extinct; petroleum, which took millions of years to form, has been completely depleted by us.”
“Plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean has formed the shocking ‘Seventh Continent’, which even after hundreds of years of efforts, has yet to fully disappear.”
“But!”
“Earth has never needed humans to save it.”
“Billions of years ago, a giant rock 10 kilometers in diameter descended from the sky. It was a small asteroid, the size of a medium-sized city, hurtling into the sea at 40 kilometers per second, creating a huge deep pit at the bottom of the ocean.”
“The water was rapidly vaporized, the steam skyrocketing tens of thousands of meters into the upper atmosphere, immediately generating tsunamis as high as 5 kilometers that spread extremely quickly, sweeping everything on land.”
“After sweeping across the Earth’s surface, the raging waves converged on the opposite side of the impact point, where the massive force of the water triggered violent volcanic eruptions on the Deccan Plateau, simultaneously altering the direction of movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates.”
“An era in the history of life—the Dinosaur Era—ended just like that.”
“And then, humans were born.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, what I want to say now is, can our most powerful weapons compare to this asteroid?”
“This meteorite, the Chicxulub Meteorite, equivalent to 120 trillion tons of TNT, is clearly much more powerful than our strongest weapons, antimatter weapons. We cannot harm even a single hair on Earth’s head.”
“Yet, even so, these weapons are already more than enough to exterminate the entire human species a hundred times over!”
“Let me predict what will happen on Earth after humans are completely extinct.”
“Within 3000 years, without human maintenance, Space Cities will collapse one by one, turning into brilliant shooting stars. Ten thousand years later, various plants will have taken over our cities.”
“Twenty thousand years later, all skyscrapers will have fallen.”
“The Solar System will continue its life span for another five billion years. This time is much too long, I believe that within ten million years, the entire atmosphere will slowly recover to become suitable for biological growth. In a world without humans, various surviving life forms will compete and evolve fully…”
“After a hundred million years, more complex life forms will have appeared, perhaps still mammals or perhaps other kinds of biological entities…”
“Two hundred million years later, intelligent life will have evolved. Yes, by then they will once again have petroleum and the chance to do it all over again. Then they will excavate the once-glorious relics, including fossils of us, discovering that bygone splendid yet stupid, self-destructive Ordinary Civilization…”
“My fellow beings, Earth never cared about us. Without us, Earth will only become better, and another civilization will replace us.”
“Likewise, Mercury, Venus, Mars… they don’t care about us either.”
“Do you wish to be replaced by another civilization due to your own actions?”
…
The long-lost peace finally arrived…
But…
With such great hatred having once occurred, between person and person, can we truly return to what once was?
We can never return to the past.
…
Zhang Yuan opened the last few reports and suddenly realized that these reports were actually outdated artifacts from two to three hundred years ago, with none of the most recent ones from decades past. He couldn’t help but have some very unpleasant suspicions.
“Greetings to all Earth Era colleagues on the Golden Sun, hello. I am Zhao Jun, the President of the Deep Space Foundation…”
The Deep Space Foundation’s reports had become decadal, and in order to save funds, the amount of information in them had also begun to diminish. It was no longer the behemoth it once was.
“…Various crises have indeed shuffled some interests around, but the vast majority are still being monopolized by the giants. How much can ordinary people really share?”
“Fundamentally, the core contradictions have not been resolved; they’re just hidden. Undercurrents are stirring, the older generation has passed on, and the new generation seems to have become accustomed to this chaotic way of thinking; they lack a strong sense of struggle.”
“Even I, the new President, have been swayed by such thought; the slightest bit of stability has become happiness. We can only know of once better times through historical documents.”
Vulgar forms of entertainment began to flourish, capturing the attention of the entire populace and exhausting their limited energy.
A sham prosperity maintained the stability and harmony of the whole world.
The ruling class did not bother to intervene, nor did they wish to.
The greatest contribution of the entertainment industry was to alleviate class conflicts. There were always new entertainment stars emerging; they were young and beautiful, and people could cheer for them heartily, as if they saw the selves they yearned for in these stars. The biggest advantage of electronic entertainment is its low cost; there is no cheaper form of entertainment than video games.
History’s tendency to repeat itself is always so unexpected, yet so inevitable…
The Deep Space Foundation’s final letter originated from the 31st century, two hundred years ago.
“Hello to all my friends of the Earth Era on the Golden Sun. As the last President of the Foundation, I am ashamed to mention my name.”
“Because tomorrow, the Deep Space Foundation, this organization that has stood for nine hundred years, will be completely dissolved…”
“I regret this is the last report.”
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“I’m sorry, truly sorry, that we couldn’t stop the tide of the times. Over the centuries, the Foundation’s assets have been completely depleted. This is a shortcoming on our part, and I deeply apologize to you, who are light-years away…”
“Our building will be seized tomorrow, and I will be thrown into prison. Sorry, my friends, in order to fund this last piece of intelligence, I resorted to some illegal methods, but I do not regret it…”
“Our Earth Civilization will never lack the wise who seek to explore the beyond.”
“However, the spirit of our entire civilization has determined that a third deep space mission is no longer possible…”
“Friends, I wish us luck, and I wish you luck as well.”
“May you bloom into a splendid civilization under the distant skies.”
With just a few words, one can imagine the difficulties encountered.
Having weathered all sorts of storms, the Deep Space Foundation, our most familiar companion, has ultimately perished on the shore.
It bore no complaints.
It died.
What followed were various detailed documents, including the latest scientific papers.
Zhang Yuan carefully read these papers, unable to suppress the bitterness in his heart.
The papers, collected and sent with so much effort and great expense by this President, turned out to be nothing but trash!
Centuries had passed, how could papers that even Zhang Yuan could understand and critique be of any quality?
These were the pinnacle of an entire civilization’s academic efforts!
This is… the times!
He sighed softly, at a loss for words.
This was the expected, ordinary ending, but when it truly arrived, it suddenly felt as heavy as Mount Tai.
…
