Mars.
In God knew how many meters deep underground…
As Dr. Fan stood in an empty “hall”, he was completely muddled.
His common sense told him that there couldn’t be any signal here, let alone a voice.
Therefore, when the words of “Can you hear me?” echoed in his headset, he wondered whether he was hallucinating due to dehydration.
Seeing how Dr. Fan didn’t respond, the mysterious voice had a trace of hesitation as it appeared again.
“Strange… Is there something wrong with the translation device? It should be working.”
“… Translation device?”
What is that?
After recovering from the confusion, Fan Tong looked around with his torch for the source of the voice and replied, “I can hear you… Who are you?”
The terrain nearby was full of hematite, so the signal penetration was very poor. Considering that the voice was clear, the signal source should be nearby. However, when Fan Tong’s flashlight beam searched every corner of the hall, he didn’t find any electronic devices.
“Stop looking.” The voice in the communication channel suddenly became a bit playful. “You won’t find anything.”
Fan Tong realized that he was helpless; he took a deep breath and gave up his useless search.
He reached out his hand and touched the transparent wall again. He took a half step back nervously and repeated his previous question in a vigilant tone.
“Who are you? Are you…
“Are you?
“Are you… Martians?”
He spoke in a trembling tone.
Fan Tong waited nervously for the person’s answer, but there was suddenly no response from the communication channel.
The silence lasted for about a minute.
He gradually began to wonder if he had guessed correctly and the strange alien soldiers were about to capture him when suddenly a string of harsh laughter came from the communication channel without warning.
“Hahahahaha! Interesting, I haven’t heard such an outlandish joke for a long time… But, unfortunately, you don’t seem to be very clever.”
Fan Tong: “…”
“If by the so-called Martians, you are referring to those bugs that once lived on this planet, then I am sorry, I am not such a low-level creature.” The laughter gradually reduced, and the tone of the voice was then filled with sarcasm. “I was surprised to see a civilization composed of organic Mammalia primate life forms. I didn’t expect you to be from a primitive civilization that hasn’t even left their mother planet. No wonder you can’t find where I am.”
When Fan Tong walked back nervously, the voice smiled and continued, “Don’t be nervous… I won’t eat you. Come on, take off the mask and let me see what you look like.”
“Are you crazy?” Fan Tong stared forward and said, “There is no air here.”
If it wasn’t because it was impossible for electromagnetic signals to reach here, he would have believed that someone in the research station had opened a voice changer to prank him.
He was certain that there must be a camera or something similar nearby that was monitoring him, and maybe the person hiding in the monitoring room was laughing like crazy right now.
Who is this, why are they doing this…
He felt like his brain was messed up, like a piece of broken tofu.
“Oh, true, I almost forgot… This planet has been destroyed by its former owner.” The voice murmured, “What to do? Those stupid people didn’t tell me how to distinguish between…”
Fan Tong: “What are you talking about?”
The owner of this planet?
Meaning that there really was a civilization on this planet?
And the reason why Mars has become like this is that an ancient civilization once lived here?
It didn’t matter who this mysterious voice was anymore. As an expert in planetary geology, Fan Tong was only curious about one thing.
“… What did Mars look like before?”
“What was it like before? Even if I described it to you, your level of civilization won’t be able to understand it. After all, you have only seen your home planet. This was a gentle and enviable world, in a nitrogen and oxygen-rich atmosphere. An ecosystem with strong self-healing ability. A series of factors such as environment, temperature, and humidity at different latitudes met the survival needs of advanced organisms. You can think of it as an extremely rich ecosystem. All the organic lifeforms from the phylum to the genera family lived here.”
Advanced organisms?
Fan Tong didn’t particularly understand the concept of advanced organisms, but just by listening to this description, this was a better place than Earth.
After all, according to the extinction rate of species on Earth, it was hard to imagine that it was livable for all living organisms. If it continued to develop according to this trend, humans could become extinct within a thousand years…
“I suddenly thought of a wonderful idea.” The voice in the communication channel had a hint of excitement. “You can tell me first about how much your civilization has developed.”
Fan Tong’s face gradually became alert when he heard these words.
The voice seemed to notice the fluctuations in his mood. With a smile, the voice continued, “Don’t be nervous. We are not in the same universe. Even if we are, we’re not interested in a group of ugly monkeys living on a planet.”
“… Not in the same universe?” Fan Tong thought of the interpretations of Academician Lu’s papers and the concept of extra dimensions that he had read online before. He frowned and said, “Did you come from the Void?”
“Oh? The low-level civilization is that advanced now?” There was a hint of interest in the voice. “It seems that the Oracle has played a role…”
Fan Tong had no idea what was going on.
What is the Oracle?
Fan Tong looked at the empty hall. He clenched the multifunctional shovel in his hand and continued calmly.
“I can’t trust a person who doesn’t even want to show his face. I will not answer any of your questions about us until you explain your identity and purpose.”
“Then let us answer each other.” The voice replied in an indifferent tone, “If you think my question offends you or violates your privacy, you can choose to refuse to answer. Out of courtesy, I can allow you to ask questions first.”
“Done.”
Although there were still doubts in his heart, he was still satisfied with this sincerity.
Fan Tong organized the thoughts in his mind and continued to speak, “Then my question is… Who are you?”
“Who am I? This question is a bit abstract. I believe you are not asking for a philosophical answer from me, but my name is meaningless to you. If that is the case, then the term “Martian” will do. When they were still here, they called me the ‘Holy Relic’.”
“Holy Relic?”
“Yes, in their culture, it was probably similar to a special life form whose existence was much higher than theirs. Their understanding was indeed correct, I am indeed much more advanced than them. Well, this is all I will say. Although I don’t mind talking to you more, this involves a matter of sincerity.”
Fan Tong tried to argue, “But you didn’t explain anything clearly.”
“That’s because the question you asked is confusing.” The voice continued unceremoniously, “If you don’t want to continue wasting time, just answer my question, then our conversation can continue.”
“… Go ahead.”
“Does your communication module have a function to receive text messages? Although the problem is not very complicated, your brain may not have the capacity to remember this.”
“…”
Fan Tong pushed away the urge to get angry. He silently reached out and tapped twice on the wrist-mounted computer and soon switched the communication channel to the text input interface.
He didn’t know why this voice was so familiar with the communication technology and language he used.
After both sides showed enough sincerity, he received the answers he wanted.
Soon, a text message was sent over.
However, as soon as he opened the text message, his whole body froze.
[For any ε>0, there are only a finite number of triples (a, b, c), satisfying that a, b, and c are relatively prime positive integers, and a+b=c, with c>rad(abc)^ (1+ε).]
Fan Tong: “???”
Is this…
A mathematics problem?
What the hell?!
He originally thought this guy would ask questions like “how many planets do you control” or “how many starships do you own”. Or at least questions like “how many people are there”. He was even prepared to answer those questions.
However, he didn’t think that he would be thrown into a mathematics problem.
Fan Tong frowned and stared at the question carefully.
Although most of his knowledge of mathematics had disappeared since his graduation, he still remembered some.
I don’t know why…
This looks like an easy problem, but I have no idea where to begin.
Seeing how Fan Tong was unresponsive for a long time, the voice gradually felt disappointed.
“Looks like you’re not the chosen one.”
“… Chosen one?”
“Usually, it is the smartest one in your civilization, or at least there is a difference between them and the rest of you. Like facing a stone monument, some baboons will only pee on it, but some baboons can understand the true meaning of civilization from it and lead his tribe to get rid of ignorance and toward enlightenment… I don’t know if you can understand what I said. After all, your understanding of intelligent creatures is probably limited.”
There was a noticeable trace of distaste in the voice.
However, Fan Tong had no response.
He didn’t understand what the invisible “wall” in front of him was or where the mysterious voice came from, and how the voice knew what language he spoke…
Perhaps the person who was talking to him really came from a civilization that was powerful beyond his imagination.
At this moment, he was the baboon.
A light sigh came from the communication channel.
“Go back.
“Take my question back too.
“Find someone among your compatriots who can solve it, and let him come here to find me with the answer.
“That is, if you still want to do something good for your civilization.”
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