Boundary Convention - Chapter 1 The Man Looking Up at the Starry Sky

Global Standard Technology Group Global Standard Technology Group, referred to as GST, is the world’s highest-level scientific research institution established by the coalition government, which gathers the world’s top scientific researchers. This time coincides with the group’s year-end summary meeting.

The meeting room is not big, because this is not a celebration party, and there is no need for a show to add to the fun. Everyone looks nervous. The meeting lasted from 8 am to the early morning, and the room was filled with smoke and a pungent smell.

Mo Hesheng does not smoke, his lungs are not good, and the retired old Chinese doctor downstairs said he has lung fever, so he has always tried to avoid developing bad habits that would irritate the lungs. He pulled the mask off his face a little… In this meeting room of less than 20 square meters, the sparks generated by the burning cigarette butts made it hard not to feel stuffy.

He vaguely remembered that not long ago, when Who was the boss, smoking was not allowed during meetings, and that old guy often said: “It’s business, how decent is it to be so talkative?”

Thinking, Mo Hesheng glanced at the guy dancing in front of the VR imager. From Mo Hesheng’s point of view, this tall man with a combed back looks like a clown, and his body movements are often as funny as a circus… Although this man thinks he is a serious guy.

“Like I said…”

The guy in the suit and ties waved his thick arms, trying to get the people present to focus on the letters floating on his head. Whenever he saw him like this, Lao Mo had the urge to slap him.

“The future of mankind is only this, and this is our only way out.”

With extraordinary words on his lips and an extraordinary pose on his body, the man on the stage is named Herman Joseph Dunkeld, the CEO of GST Group and the youngest among the previous executives .

Although when he waved his hand majesticly just now, the ash from the cigarette butt in his hand was thrown out, and it just hit Lao Mo’s face. But the guy didn’t notice it at all.

Old Mo obediently put the mask back on. In such a confined space, this thin piece of cotton and a small filter will not help at all. So this mask was originally designed to deal with the cigar ash that hit my face from time to time.

The tall man continued to speak selflessly in front of the podium, and an inadvertent suction from the edge of his mouth pulled him back from his thoughts. He looked at the empty cigarette butt in his hand with some doubts, shook his head, and threw the cigarette butt into the trash can at the other end of the meeting room. The cigar box, and then… shook his head again, and looked around with some embarrassment.

“He Shen, do you have eyes?” The tall man said in dry Chinese.

I said this to Lao Mo. Lao Mo really doesn’t like this guy who pronounces “He Sheng” as “He Shen”, but every time this guy talks to himself, he must use his crappy Chinese, as if to As if to show off that he knows such a language.

“Dear Professor Herman, have you ever asked for cigarettes from me?” Lao Mo responded with a blunt smile.

The big man scratched his head, looking a little at a loss. But no one expressed anything in the audience, they all looked at each other in blank dismay, waiting for others to bring out their cigarettes.

At this moment, a pack of cigarettes was handed over from below, and the person passing the cigarettes was none other than Lao Chen. Herman thanked him, took a whole pack of cigarettes from Lao Chen, shook out one very deftly, lit it, and smoked most of it in one breath, and then started his narration .

Lao Mo glared at Lao Chen fiercely, and murmured a ‘sycophant’ in a low voice.

“What are you doing?”

Mo Hesheng pretended to be casually attached to Lao Chen, and whispered.

“What for?”

“You know I don’t want to see this guy.”

“Then what should I do? Are you waiting for him to procrastinate? I have a fucking urgent business tonight.”

“What’s up?”

“Never mind your business.”

Unknowingly, the two started to compete again, their voices got a little louder, and even the person sitting next to Lao Chen had to squint at them a few more times.

“What’s up?”

“Never mind… hey, forget it, I’m going to have a candlelight dinner with honey.”

“Don’t be obsessed with academics, just do these things all day long”

“We are happy.”

“When you give birth to a cub, I will be your son’s godfather.”

“Anything…”

As they spoke, the two were startled by the coughing sound coming from ahead, and looked towards the podium, only to see Herman coughing profusely. At first, Lao Mo thought he was caught talking too loudly, but when he thought about it, he was really deceiving himself. This man never cared about the people in the audience when he performed, otherwise he wouldn’t have thrown soot on his face. nor will…

Thinking of this, Lao Mo felt an unknown fire in his heart.

Herman coughed for more than half a minute, almost coughing out his lungs. His unrestrained smoking addiction has seriously damaged his health. In the scientific research institutions of the Global Standard Technology Group, almost everyone is concerned about health. But Herman is an exception. Many bad habits make him not like a scientific researcher at all.

After Herman coughed, before he recovered his breath, he immediately took another one out of his pocket and lit it, as if it was some kind of stimulant. He took a deep breath, felt the thick nicotine pervading the entire meeting room, and finally regained his composure.

“I, continue to talk…”

“The significance of this research is actually to prevent problems before they happen…Maybe for everyone here, they will never use it in their lifetime. Of course, I also hope that the earth civilization will never need to use this system.”

He propped up a finger and made a small circle in the air.

“‘Thinking community’ is the result of our years of research,” Herman said confidently.

“As we all know, this year is 2039 AD, and we have made many breakthroughs in the field of virtual reality. Now we have reason to believe that this technology will bring a greater gospel to mankind. The ‘thinking community’ is this gospel, and the system will A mesh network is established between people’s brains, and all those who participate in the link can have deeper and more direct communication through our community.”

“So that’s the case, does he think the efficiency of language communication is too low? But this kind of thing…”

Listening to Herman’s narration, Lao Mo couldn’t help muttering.

“If this is the case, wouldn’t everyone know about my skipping work last night? What kind of bullshit is this? Didn’t this big smoker wake up?”

“So I don’t think this plan will be approved by the above… It’s outrageous.”

Old Chen echoed that they all had doubts about the feasibility of this plan. After all, practical science has never been so boastful.

While Herman was on stage, he still didn’t notice the whispers from the audience.

“In this way, people will be able to share inspiration, experience, and knowledge, and people will be able to communicate with each other at zero distance. This is the prediction made by people a long time ago for the ultimate development of society, and now we want to realize it .”

He continued, without stopping his flamboyant gestures.

“Of course, I know that you may find it ridiculous and think I’m a bunch of nonsense. However, I want to tell you that this plan has a deeper meaning, that is…”

Before Herman finished speaking, he jumped up from the carpet as if he had been stabbed by something suddenly. It turned out that the cigarette had burned his finger, and he hastily shook off the cigarette butt held between his two fingers.

This funny gesture drew laughter from the audience. But the first person who laughed out loud hadn’t spit out a few more onomatopoeia, and immediately felt the angry eyes from the stage, broke out in a cold sweat, and quickly closed his mouth. And the others who laughed along with them also panicked and fell silent.

The cheerful atmosphere only lasted for a moment in the cloud-shrouded meeting room, and then it was silent again.

Herman glanced around and nodded in satisfaction when everyone’s gazes were returning to him respectfully. He cleared his throat with a serious expression. This serious attitude gave Lao Mo a bad feeling.

“No matter what, risk and return always coexist, and the greater the risk, the greater the return.”

“So what’s the benefit?”

“Good question.”

Herman snapped his fingers, and then, as if describing a small matter, he took out a cigarette and said two words lightly from his mouth.

“Subsisting.”

This sentence caused another wave in the audience, but this time people only dared to whisper, and no one dared to speak out their own words.

“Subsisting……”

“That’s right, this is the ideal of every scientific research worker, and it is also the idea that the earth’s civilization most urgently needs. Now we need to put this idea into action.”

“Of course, what I mean by continuation is a broad definition. It not only refers to our civilization, but also includes our emotions and ways of thinking, etc. Store people’s thinking in such a space, so that human…here I It is necessary to use a metaphysical word – soul, so that the human soul can survive. Of course, as I have said before, this plan focuses on the future.”

Saying this, I saw Herman swipe the index finger of the projection, and the holographic projection rotated in mid-air and then slowly turned into a watery, slowly rotating sphere. No one in the room If you don’t know the sphere, you can tell at a glance that this is where we are, the earth.

“As we all know, the previous drastic climate change and various changes have compressed the living space of human beings to the limit. Eighty percent of the land has been submerged, and the living environment is becoming more and more harsh… But if it is just In this case, it may not be impossible for human beings to survive. Our ancestors survived the Great Ice Age in the most primitive way. The situation at that time was much more difficult than it is now. Our ancestors did not have any technology, no, maybe even fire. No. We were in a greenhouse compared to that. And that’s how I finally got the courage to bring this up.”

In Herman’s words, the slowly rotating sphere suddenly stopped, and the water ripples on it also slowly stopped moving from the two poles… as if it had been frozen.

“Big ice age, sorry, I invented a new word for what we are going to face next, because the climate we are going to face next is far more severe than the big ice age (Ice Age) age), I think that is the only way to show the extent of this disaster.”

This time, no one in the audience spoke. It was obviously such a sensational news, but no one in the audience made a sound. Because everyone is scared.

Here I have to mention the background of the man on stage. The Dunkeld family started out in the tobacco business and later became the largest scientific research organization on Earth. As the speaker of this family, he is an absolute authority in many aspects, and authority never jokes about his own field.

Even Lao Mo, who usually had a playful smile on his face, became serious now.

The room was suffocatingly quiet, no one made a sound.

“How much time do we have?”

Old Mo asked.

“At most…two centuries.”

Herman said.

His words did not ease the tense atmosphere in the room, on the contrary, everyone became more tense.

“From the perspective of a species, two centuries are just a short span of time. Moreover, in terms of the difficulty of this project, the time of two centuries is very urgent. During these two centuries, we need to provide for the rest of the world. The next billion people will create a suitable central network, design a durable super server, and conduct a series of social experiments to avoid possible human disasters… If we have enough time, we also need to create a highly automated instrument Maintenance system.”

Hermann added.

“We will use virtual reality technology to move human civilization to the thinking community and let it thrive there. This is the last evolution of human civilization and the greatest ‘migration’ in the history of the earth. We need scientists from various fields to Participate, so I need the help of everyone here.”

Saying this, Herman stood beside Lao Mo and patted Lao Mo on the shoulder.

“Together, we will be able to complete this project better.”

“What do you mean? You know I never go online, I’m busy with work!”

“I think you and Mr. Chen can come to work in our newly established department tomorrow. Although you are not experts in this field, you can learn.”

“Wait, what do you mean?”

Hearing what Herman meant, Mo He stood up abruptly.

“What about my astronomy department? A few days ago, I submitted a new discovery to the above…!”

“Is that comet that moves in an abnormal way? I know you’re not someone who cheats on your research, but the people above think you just…rewrote the order of the photos.”

“What?!”

“In addition, your astronomy department has not achieved decent results for a long time…”

Hermann looked at him with some sympathy and patted him on the shoulder.

“Although I haven’t had time to inform you, this is the decision of the council, sorry.”

“A team of hundreds of people, withdraw as soon as you say?!”

“Even if your research is true, we are facing such a dilemma now, and we don’t have extra time to explore the universe. After all, this will not improve or help our lives in any way, but you can also choose to go home and pray for the director I will continue to support you.”

After finishing speaking, Hermann walked away.

Mo Hesheng felt a little dizzy, he took two steps back and slumped on his seat.

What happened next, who said what, he didn’t hear clearly, his mind just repeated Herman’s words just now…

His astronomy department no longer exists.

This shocking information drove his thinking into a viscous and weightless space. He closed his eyes, feeling his body was very heavy, and his breathing became difficult, as if he was being pressed by a ghost. What pulled him back from this feeling was a series of crackling applause, and the project was passed. At this moment, Mo Hesheng felt his ears continuously buzzing, and along with that, there were faint laughter around him. He suddenly covered his ears, but the voices showed no sign of shrinking, instead they became harsher.

“Hello.”

Suddenly, everything is quiet.

“Wake up, the meeting is over.”

Lao Mo stroked his swollen and painful temples, looked up, and there was still that familiar and trustworthy face beside him.

“Thank you, Chen Yang…”

Lao Mo responded casually, while propping his hands on the handle of the chair, he wanted to stand up, but he felt weak all over his body, and his legs were even more numb, so he could only sit back on his seat and threw the mask away , panting heavily in the heavy nicotine.

“What’s the matter? The old problem happened again?”

Seeing that Lao Mo didn’t intend to stand up, Lao Chen also pulled a chair casually, and sat down beside Lao Mo as he did during the meeting.

Lao Mo rested for a while and felt his breathing calm down. Recalling the state he fell into just now, he felt that he might have fainted just now. Herman told him that the abolition of the astronomy department made him too emotional , a little cerebral ischemia, resulting in vasocompression syncope.

He silently glanced sideways at the electronic version on the podium, on which was drawn a logic map that criss-crossed like human nerves. Although the diagram was complicated but cumbersome, Lao Mo could still sort out what he wanted to express at a glance. Herman has carefully sorted out all the things in every step, and he can’t even find a single point where he can nitpick. It seems that Herman is determined to carry out that epic ridiculous plan.

“Virtual reality, the Internet, artificial intelligence, these fields still have great uncertainties, and there are many human relations issues involved, and there is still a lack of supervision. If the giant ice age really comes, why not use two centuries to explore The new residence, the outside world is so big, but he wants to lock us all in cages!” Mo Hesheng shouted at Chen Yang.

Old Chen was silent for a while and said.

“But you don’t know if there are any suitable planets in the universe for us to live in. After so many years of human exploration, we still haven’t found anything. Herman’s method may be the safest, and Lao Mo, I think you are right. Herman is a little…”

“Prejudice? You mean to say that I have a prejudice against their Dunkeld family, right?”

“The times are different. The Dunkeld family has brought a lot to the scientific community. Many unknown workers have received funding, not only these, including food supply, social security… You must admit that they not only brought The development of the scientific community has given ordinary people a lot of effective social security. Old Mo, I can understand your thoughts. Since they entered the GST, the Mo family has…”

Mo Hesheng gritted his teeth and fell silent. He knew it would be useless to talk too much, but out of the rigor of a scientist, he still rejected Chen Yang.

“I won’t join, let’s go first.”

“Old Mo…”

“Shixin has caught a cold. I will take her to see a doctor tomorrow, and I will hand over the work of the department to you. Trouble.”

After finishing speaking, Lao Mo left the meeting room without looking back.

It was late at night, and Mo Hesheng sat blankly in front of the computer with a dazed expression. Usually at this time, Mo Hesheng would pick up the astronomical telescope to observe, but today he was not interested. He looked at the photos on the wall , Those are the deceased father and grandfather. They were both world-renowned astronomers. In the coalition government, the name of the Mo family is equal to the authority of astronomy, and now all of this has been ruined by the Dunkeld family.

He opened the Earth Community, which is the world’s largest Internet social platform with more than 2 billion people. He flipped through aimlessly, the explosion of information did not bring much joy to this man, on the contrary, all this made him feel at a loss. Observations and experiments accounted for half of his life, leaving the remaining half to his young daughter. He kept flipping through and scrolling with the mouse, he just wanted a little…even if it was just a little, he hoped that he could also adapt to this era.

But unfortunately, in this vast ocean of information, he did not find a grain of sand he wanted.

At this time, a message push came into his eyes from the screen.

[Science benefits mankind. GST will create a safer, faster, and more open earth community, so that ordinary people can also participate in the cause of science. Science should never be monopolized. Support us as we accomplish all of our dreams together. ] There is also a picture of the Dunkeld family looking up at the starry sky, with Hermann standing at the front of the group.

For a moment, Mo Hesheng felt sad. Since the Dunkeld family entered the coalition government ten years ago, they have used various business models and marketing methods in team building. They frequently attended various business activities, Even some entertainment programs, now they are the most prestigious scientific organization on the earth, in the earth community they built, any action will attract at least seven-figure responses. He didn’t really want to admit it, but he was really jealous of Herman, who could have such a popular appeal and popularity.

Mo He moved his fingers vividly. It was the first time in his life to speak on the earth community.

[A few weeks ago, we discovered a very wonderful scene around a galaxy in the constellation Phoenix. The trajectory of a comet was incredible. Its trajectory changed by 180 degrees. A magical force changed its direction and fled in the opposite direction. This phenomenon cannot be explained according to the existing scientific theory. As a staunch supporter of atheism, I believe I can find out. 】

However, just as he expected, this message was ignored. He looked at the photo looking up at the starry sky expressionlessly and smiled wryly.

He’s the one looking up at the stars.

“Father…” A timid greeting came from behind Mo Hesheng, “Father, this is today’s homework, I…”

Mo Hesheng turned around and looked at the thin girl in front of him. This was his 6-year-old daughter Mo Shixin. She was about to face the entrance examination for a GST-affiliated college.

Mo Hesheng didn’t speak, he beckoned and called his daughter to his side. The scene when she was just born suddenly appeared in his mind, that night he would never forget, that night he lied to everyone, and now he is more determined to continue this lie.