Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 914 - 266: Obsession

Chen Ming soon returned to his ship, which he had previously set up with an automatic piloting system, heading towards the orbital layer of the planet’s atmosphere.

He had already locked onto the laboratory’s location and ensured that the ship maintained a constant position right above the lab once it entered orbit.

For now, there was no urgency to visit the pit of discarded bodies at a distance from the lab.

He had already left a part of the metal liquid there as a marker, and as of now, nothing significant had occurred near the pit.

His only need was to get to the laboratory.

The lab’s outer control and database systems were already under his control; he just needed to ensure the peripheral database remained intact.

However, Chen Ming was quite interested in the experimental data of the Spirit Beast Plan located at the deepest part of the laboratory.

A study capable of resisting dimensional contagion; it was impossible to say he wasn’t interested.

He just couldn’t determine yet whether the deepest part of the laboratory had suffered any incidents.

In fact, if something had indeed happened, it would be to his advantage because then he would only need to deal with the Spirit Beast, and the laboratory’s database would be beyond Zuo Jing’s capability to tamper with.

But if nothing had happened, he would need to enter the innermost part of the laboratory immediately.

Otherwise, his forthcoming invasion action might prompt Zuo Jing to delete the data in the database directly and physically destroy the data storage.

Even his spiritual energy might not be able to repair the deleted data.

Of course, this was not for sure, but it wasn’t impossible either.

Chen Ming had constantly been conducting peculiar studies on his spiritual energy.

This included storing data in a storage device, deleting it, and attempting to repair it.

Or, on top of that, attempting repairs after the equipment was destroyed post-deletion.

The final conclusion was that as long as the modules within the storage device recording the data were not overwritten by new data, he could repair them.

He could directly restore the deleted data.

But if the data was overwritten, it couldn’t be done.

Furthermore, if the device had lost its fundamental structure, such as being entirely melted into a block of iron or ground into powder, it would also make repairs impossible.

Chen Ming was uncertain if, in the event of data deletion, Zuo Jing’s side might casually dismantle the device as well.

It would be best to enter the deepest part of the laboratory immediately.

Don’t consider the possibility of whether Zuo Jing’s side would do such a thing; just assume they certainly will.

As it turned out, Chen Ming knew exactly the simplest way to enter the depths of the lab.

The spacecraft hovering above the planet’s atmosphere suddenly opened its hatch.

After a burst of turbulent airflow, the ship entered a vacuum state.

Chen Ming leaned halfway out of the hatch.

He’d always wanted to try solo atmospheric entry.

However, just before he actually jumped, he suddenly thought of something.

According to the current information he’d gathered from the Space Station and the underground lab’s database.

Zuo Jing had been creating clones on the Space Station, attempting to trigger dimensional infections and conducting subsequent experiments, and indeed, his findings on the Space Station corroborated this.

Meanwhile, in the underground laboratory on the planet’s surface, Zuo Jing was conducting an experiment dubbed the Spirit Beast Plan.

The two laboratories were independent yet interconnected, engaging in various exchanges requiring mutual verification.

For instance, sending bodies subjected to the Spirit Beast Plan to the Space Station to test whether the Spirit Beast could resist dimensional contagion.

Could the reverse situation exist?

For example, Zuo Jing might send troubles caused by dimensional contagion, like those aberrant monsters, to the underground lab for related experiments.

Since Zuo Jing had validated that utilizing Silent Alloy and some other materials could effectively isolate dimensional contagion, might there be remnants of dimensional infections underground too?

The probability was low, considering dimensional contagion wasn’t triggered merely by clones but occurred randomly.

Moreover, if there was only one source of dimensional contagion, once Chen Ming dealt with the source on the Space Station, the problem would be entirely resolved.

But the issue lay in the possibility of two sources existing here with Zuo Jing, which would pose some danger when Chen Ming headed down.

Of course, the danger wasn’t to himself, but to the Empire and the universe’s environment.

Chen Ming was more inclined to believe Zuo Jing indeed dared to instigate two dimensional contagions within the same star system.

After all, there had been precedents for such situations.

Just a few days ago, the president had provided him with a nearly impossible-to-read comprehensive set of information about the last dimensional contagion.

According to the data.

Only two recorded dimensional contagion events had ever truly erupted—one experienced by the president and one by Chen Ming.

Of course, there was another, unrecorded one presumed by Chen Ming to have occurred on Zuo Jing’s side.

Nonetheless, unrecorded events existed, having been snuffed out early, and their numbers were significant.

Chen Ming still remembered the president mentioning that after the Empire’s first dimensional contagion experience, there wasn’t an immediate blanket ban on cloning technology because the sequelae were not promptly identified.