True Apocalypse Game

"Halt our advance. All-around thrusters, engage hover mode," Jiang Bing said.

Beside her, Kong Yan immediately used the control stick to bring the submersible to a halt before the ring of light on the seafloor, observing the aperture and its surroundings.

Ivan and Joe were rapidly operating their detection instruments, a torrent of data cascading down their screens. Simultaneously, the long cable trailing the submersible transmitted all real-time signals to the headquarters aboard the icebreaker.

Aboard the icebreaker serving as their at-sea headquarters, a group of researchers in white lab coats stared wide-eyed, scarcely believing what they were seeing.

"What is that thing!?"

"A starry sky! On the other side is a starry sky! God, am I hallucinating?"

"Energy fluctuations are rising again. The water temperature around the aperture is approaching one hundred degrees."

"What is this? A gate from Deep Sea Atlantis? A wormhole?"

"Bring the submersible back up! It could be dangerous!"

"..."

The headquarters erupted into a clamor, everyone on the verge of a frenzy.

They had never imagined they would witness such a fantastical scene!

The magnificent scene within the aperture was undoubtedly a starry sky, but how could it possibly appear at the bottom of the sea?

While chaos reigned in headquarters, inside the submersible on the seafloor, Kong Yan and his team were just as dumbfounded, staring at the aperture, roughly two meters in diameter. The submersible was completely silent.

"What... what the hell is this? Is it really a Space Wormhole?" Kong Yan muttered, looking at the wormhole before him. "Why do I have a bad feeling? Don’t tell me that popcorn flick *Pacific Rim* was actually prophetic?"

Joe, beside him, glanced at a temperature gauge and said:

"Bing, the water around us has reached one hundred degrees. The seawater here is literally boiling... The energy readings are still slowly climbing..."

Jiang Bing’s voice was grave.

"Hua Country’s Hidden Dragon deep-sea submersible was built to the standards of a spacecraft. Don’t worry. Even if we encountered a lava flow, it wouldn’t be a major issue... What are the energy readings now?"

"To be precise, it’s the radiation levels. They’re fine for now, still within the range the human body can tolerate..." Joe said, swallowing hard.

Ivan’s expression grew serious as he said:

"My friends, we are likely standing before the greatest discovery of this century. I used to be an astrophysicist, and I am one hundred percent certain of this: what we’re looking at is a perfect model of a Space Wormhole. It’s just... not very stable..."

Kong Yan’s eyes were glued to the wormhole outside, which glowed a faint, ethereal blue-violet in the deep sea. He said:

"So it’s true what they say about you Russians, all masters of physics and math... Can we win a Nobel for this?"

Ivan let out a dry laugh, his gaze fixed on the wormhole with an obsessed, almost proud expression.

"A Nobel Prize? Nobel himself isn’t worthy of presenting an award to a wormhole... The significance of a Space Wormhole is far too great. If we could master its principles and create our own, humanity would enter a true age of cosmic exploration! At that point, Earth would be nothing more than a small village to us. Humanity’s destiny lies in the sea of stars!"

Kong Yan turned to look at Ivan, whose eyes were gleaming with fanaticism. He clicked his tongue and said:

"You sound like an otaku who’s watched too much East Japan anime. A hardcore physicist Russian bear with the soul of an anime-obsessed shut-in. Nice. Very Siberian of you..."

Before Ivan could retort, Kong Yan continued, speaking to the other three:

"Speaking as a semi-oceanographer, what I want to know is this: what happens if this temperature keeps rising and spreads toward the Arctic? The heat source already seems to be ten times larger than it was a moment ago..."

He said, holding up the screen of his detector.

The words wiped the excitement from the faces of the other three, their expressions turning grave.

They’d been so caught up in the excitement they’d completely forgotten about that.

A wormhole that can traverse the cosmos is equivalent to poking a hole in the universe; the energy required must be staggering.

In early science fiction, it was even imagined that each transit through a wormhole would consume enough energy to extinguish a distant star. Once humanity mastered and frequently used space travel, they would be greeted by a dead, silent cosmos.

From the looks of it now, it might not require the energy of an entire star, but the energy consumed and the heat dissipated were still absolutely astonishing.

Allowing this heat to continue spreading would undoubtedly cause a severe ecological disaster.

After all, the marine life in this region certainly couldn’t survive in boiling water.

And the temperature within the Arctic Circle would also rise, triggering a chain reaction: the melting of the Arctic ice!

Vast amounts of sea ice would melt, raising the global sea level!

Jiang Bing made a quick mental calculation and said:

"It’s manageable. The energy dissipation is still within acceptable limits. It’s not an extinction-level event. On the contrary, it could be harnessed with energy conversion devices, providing a massive source of free, clean energy. As for the Arctic Region, even if it all melts, it would at most raise the sea level by a few meters and submerge some coastal areas. Nothing major."

Hearing this, Kong Yan looked at her, completely speechless for a moment, then said:

"Nothing major? Seriously? What exactly *do* you consider major? The extinction of the human race? Still, that energy conversion idea is brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that? Guess that’s why you’re the captain..."

"Alright, enough chatter. This situation is beyond our authority to decide... Director Ivan excepted, of course. I propose we conduct one last close-range observation, then surface immediately. We’ll bring all the detailed data up and let headquarters decide the next move." Jiang Bing looked outside, then suddenly wrapped her arms around herself as if chilled. "I don’t know why, but even with boiling water out there, I feel a chill down my spine. This thing is just... unsettling."

The other three, including Kong Yan, nodded in agreement.

The fact that it could give a captain like Jiang Bing—a woman tougher than ten-thousand-year-old glacial ice—a chill down her spine was proof enough that this thing was seriously uncanny.

The four of them quickly coordinated, recording various scientific data and video footage.

At the same time, Kong Yan maneuvered the deep-sea submersible forward, bit by bit.

Although he complained about going to sea, he secretly had a deep affection for the submersible; after all, he was the best pilot.

The submersible inched forward, soon arriving less than ten meters from the wormhole.

By now, the seawater outside was boiling furiously. The readings on the detectors for the wormhole’s dissipated energy had multiplied several times over, and the radiation it emitted was approaching the critical limit for human exposure.

The four of them recorded data while greedily watching the wormhole suspended in the sea outside, carefully observing its strange and mesmerizing beauty.

In the thousands of years of human civilization, perhaps they were the first to observe a wormhole so closely.

"That starry sky... I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before... It’s definitely an unfamiliar Star Realm... The closest thing to the wormhole seems to be a unique star system..." Ivan muttered.

Through the wormhole, they could see a starscape with a peculiar layout.

There were few stars in this patch of sky, making it look strangely empty. They could also see dark silhouettes reflecting starlight—planets, it seemed.

And "not far" from the wormhole was a star similar to Solar, except its light was clearly countless times dimmer.

From a distance, it looked like a red-hot coal briquette suspended in the dark of space, burning silently.

Joe muttered:

"It’s a red giant... God, why isn’t the seawater being sucked into the wormhole? I feel like it could suck all the water on Earth dry..."

When a star passes its long youth and adulthood—the main-sequence phase—and enters old age, it will first become a red giant.

This was a star that had exhausted most of its energy and was about to die.

"Come on, a wormhole isn’t a plug in a barrel. Even if I don’t understand astrophysics, I know that matter from both sides can’t just swap places so easily... right?" Kong Yan muttered, his eyes also fixed on the view.

"The data collection is almost complete. We should go," said Jiang Bing. She stared through the wormhole at the distant red giant, a sense of panic welling up inside her, so intense it made her feel sick.

"Do you guys feel it too? It’s like... something is watching us..." Ivan said to his three teammates, his forehead beaded with sweat.

Though they hadn’t discussed it, they could see the same unease reflected in each other.

As they stared into the wormhole, they felt as if they were being stared at in return—a deeply uncomfortable, prickling sensation on their backs.

"Let’s go. Ascend immediately," Jiang Bing said, pressing the comms button. "Headquarters, Headquarters, wormhole data collection complete. Requesting permission to return to base. I repeat, data collection complete, requesting permission to return. Over."

"Roger that, Hidden Dragon. Return to base immediately. I repeat, Hidden Dragon, return to base immediately. Over."

The hum of the motors starting up filled the cabin, and the crew let out a collective sigh of relief, ready to head back.

Kong Yan gave a wry smile, ready to lighten the mood with a crack about the Nobel Prize, maybe even a dirty joke or two.

Just then, the wormhole in front of them suddenly erupted in a light far more intense than before. Turbulence appeared from nowhere, and the entire submersible began to shake violently!

Kong Yan and the others went white as sheets, their heads snapping toward the wormhole.

The vast starry sky had suddenly vanished.

In its place was a massive, yellow, disc-shaped object with a black orb in the center, facing the submersible—and the four people inside.

In the next instant, the yellow, disc-like object twitched.

"An eye! It’s an eye!!! Headquarters! Headquarters! Requesting immediate return to base! IMMEDIATE RETURN!!!!!"