Epoch of Twilight

The next morning, Luo Yuan gently pushed the fair legs still wrapped around him away slowly. He got dressed and looked at the exhausted Chen Xinjie who was still lying naked on the bed. He sighed with a complicated expression. He was clearly not thinking with his head last night and he let lust overwhelmed his mind which caused him to be reckless.

Now that he was completely awake, he was trying to recall exactly what happened last night. He could feel that the whole thing was somehow just an act. However, he personally felt that Chen Xinjie was not a good actor so it was hard to tell which was the truth. Furthermore, the sorrow that Chen Xinjie occasionally revealed in her eyes, as well as the fact that the two of them shared a room, gave it away.

Luo Yuan’s suspicions were pretty close. The government of the Reconstruction Area could not trust him. Especially when he brought such shocking information to them. It would be strange if they did not do anything to confirm this info.

"Sugar-coated bomb! It was a sugar-coated bomb!" Luo Yuan said to himself.

Looking again at Chen Xinjie who had one of her boobs sticking out of the blanket, Luo Yuan was less agitated. The reason why the Reconstruction Area did this was to keep an eye on him so that they could feel more relieved. At the same time, the only bait for Luo Yuan to bite was the sugar-coated bomb that was Chen Xinjie. She was probably forced to accomplish the mission.

...

At noon, Luo Yuan and Chen Xinjie were sitting across each other at the hostel’s restaurant.

"Let’s forget about what happened last night. From now on, we are just colleagues. It won’t happen again." Chen Xinjie said with an expressionless face. She had lost her usual jovial smile.

Luo Yuan was unaffected by this and thought to himself, "Was she playing hard to get or was that what she really wanted?"

Soon, he gave up on that thought. Whether she meant what she said or not, he should not expose her real intention. All he could do now was to play along with her. At least she was someone that he knew. It is much better than having someone that he was not familiar with to watch over him.

Although she was harmless, there was now a discomfort in him towards her. He pondered for a while and said, "You’ve said the same thing last night. Don’t worry, I’m not clingy."

"That’s great." Chen Xinjie said as she put her chopsticks down, wiped her mouth with a towel and got ready to leave. Just when she stood up, she frowned and sighed.

"Do you need any help?" Luo Yuan said while chuckling awkwardly. The sex last night was obviously too intense for her and it was actually a torturous experience rather thana pleasurable one. At least for Chen Xinjie. That was the main reason she only managed to wake up close to noon.

"There’s no need." Chen Xinjie gave him a cold stare while rejecting him.

Suddenly, Luo Yuan stood up abruptly which shocked Chen Xinjie who was right next to him. She was about to scold him but then realized that he was not looking at her so she looked in the direction that Luo Yuan was looking. However, besides a white wall, there was nothing there. Just as she began to wonder, the ground started to shake! A mellow thud-like thunderous sound was heard.

Chen Xinjie’s body was shaking for a moment but she was soon able to stand straight. The trembling was nothing major. It was merely at a magnitude of three but it managed to cause an uproar in the restaurant which soon became chaotic. The horrifying earthquake that happened not long ago had traumatized the people here. The diners were contemplating whether they should stay or leave. Fortunately, no aftershock came after that.

"What happened? And what were you looking at?" Chen Xinjie was now relieved and asked Luo Yuan who just shook his head. He could not explain the intuition that he had. His body could feel the intangible waves in the air which included electromagnetic waves. A few seconds before the wave could reach him, he could already sense it. It was an explosion! It felt like a nuclear bomb but with a small coverage area.

"What! The fusion device exploded? That’s not possible! The fusion device would never explode." Luo Yuan heard someone saying that at the corner of the restaurant. Although the person’s voice was drowned out by the chaos in the restaurant, Luo Yuan could hear it clearly.

...

"No, it could not be. The fusion device went through a thorough examination. It’s completely safe with high levels of shock resistance. It could even run as usual even if it fell. Moreover, the next time it should start up was in a few days. How could an explosion happen today?"

"There must be someone trying to sabotage us!"

...

The fusion device’s explosion was upsetting for Luo Yuan. He recalled that there was much propaganda in the newspaper regarding the nuclear fusion power station. It was the hot topic of the town! They were told that there was a crucial breakthrough and it was almost up and running.

Whenever he was at the Firearms Bureau, Luo Yuan would frequently read the newspaper so he already had a rough idea about controllable nuclear fusion. As compared to the nuclear fusion power station, the controllable one had a higher density of energy which could basically produce boundless energy. All they needed was six of them to supply enough energy to the entire Reconstruction Area.

Besides the cosmic storm brought about by the apocalypse, the earth did not lack helium which meant that there was no need for them to source for it from the moon. If they were to store the energy produced via controllable nuclear fusion within the Reconstruction Area, it would be enough to supply energy to the entire place for few hundred years.

Luo Yuan was fully aware of what controllable fusion meant and what impacts it would have in the world. As soon as it was successful, it would lead to a revolutionary change in the Reconstruction Area which was a good thing for mankind. However, although he was not entirely familiar with the electrical weapon, he knew that electromagnetic guns required large amounts of energy. Not until the very last minute could those powerful and long electromagnetic guns ever be launched. Launching it required a massive amount of electricity which would mean that part of the factories in the industrial area would be forced to stop working. Boundless energy would mean the beginning of laser-related weapons. The coverage and lightning speed of lasers made them a guaranteed hit as long as the target was properly locked. Such technique was not plainly sci-fi as the theories concerning them were completed a long time ago. Few major countries including China had been testing the feasibility of it as a weapon even before the apocalypse began.

However, the disadvantages of such weapons were obvious. Since the Earth is affected by the ozone layer, the collisions between lasers and the air would cause ionization and diffraction. Besides that, it also consumes a large amount of energy and is affected by the weather.

If energy was boundless, such disadvantages were nothing to be concerned about anymore. With the aid of the anti-ballistic missile technology that was available before the apocalypse, there would no longer be any threats to the Reconstruction Area with these two powerful weapons in place. It is because of this that Luo Yuan could not believe that the explosion occurred! Was it an accident or a conspiracy?

...

The old man who was talking on the phone hung up and walked away looking shocked.

"You stay here. I’ll go take a look." Luo Yuan said to Chen Xinjie.

"Alright, make it quick." Chen Xinjie replied.

Luo Yuan nodded and walked out of the hostel. He Sensed for a little while then chose a direction and ran towards the location where the explosion happened.

New Capital City was the Reconstruction Area’s capital. In reality, it was not big. The canyons on both sides limited their activities. Excluding the layers on the ground, it was actually smaller than Hope City.

As it was during the day, there were not many people on the street. The empty streets allowed Luo Yuan to run freely and quickly. In less than four minutes, he arrived at the suburbs.

The location where the explosion happened was not difficult to find at all. It was easy to be spotted even for an ordinary person. The impact of the explosion had already subsided since it happened a while ago but there was still a group of peculiar white clouds that looked like an ice-cream hovering above it. It was similar to the mushroom cloud that was caused by the hydrogen bomb explosion. However, compared to the usual hydrogen bomb, its coverage was so much smaller. Though small, the high temperature did cause a lot of destruction. Luckily, the fusion device lab was some distance away, or else the explosion would have destroyed New Capital City. Luo Yuan did not get any closer but just analyzed the situation from afar. He was not afraid of the radiation from the high-energy particles. Instead, he did not want to cause any troubles.

Soon, there were massive amounts of armored tanks passing by. Soldiers wearing protective suits made their way to the explosion area. More than 10 large-scale excavators started digging the destroyed caves nearby before it could cool down. As time went by, there were more and more engineering vehicles and soldiers coming in with their devices while walking around in the caves. They seemed to be detecting something.

Luo Yuan stayed for a while but made his way back to the hostel since he did not discover anything. Right after he took a few steps, he paused. He turned around and looked at the soldiers again and gasped. Could this be done by those extraterrestrial civilizations in space?

In the meeting yesterday, a scientist forecasted that the civilization in space was 100 to 150 years ahead of them in terms of technology. For humans, that was a massive difference but in space, it was a short time. A space voyage would probably take more than 10 years.

Over the past few days, information regarding the controllable nuclear fusion device was leaked everywhere. To promote hope among the people, as soon as there were new technological breakthroughs, the topic would be widely publicized on the internet and news. The only enemy they had used to have were mutated beasts so there was no need to hide any information.

As for the civilization in space, language interpretation and obtaining information from the internet were nothing difficult as long as the data was sufficient. Although there were differences in technological developments, the advancement of technology in their civilization would allow them to crack the code in no time.

It was basically full transparency of information! Everything on Earth was no secret to the extraterrestrial civilization. As for the controllable fusion device, it was a crucial piece of technology that allowed humans to walk out of Earth and enter into space. It was like the transition between the different eras. If the civilization in space had been watching the humans, the consequences of such a breakthrough should not be underestimated.