Chapter 1603: Spatial Overlap
Crunch~
Crunch~
Crunch~
Listening to that faint sound, it seems something is continuously pressing on the surroundings—
Chu Jiaojiao’s face was extremely serious, her gaze fixed on a spot on the wall of the forward channel, where space seemed to be constantly compressed, already starting to deform.
Chu Jiaojiao’s palm abruptly clenched!
"Open the Protective Shield!" After speaking, Chu Jiaojiao decisively commanded, "Open to the maximum! As large as it can be, open it as large as possible!"
In the next moment, everyone on X-N3848 felt the entire spaceship shudder fiercely!
At that precise moment, the Protective Shield expanded, the glow enveloping above the spaceship, just enough to block that slicing force.
However—
Not enough.
Completely not enough.
In the face of this destructive crisis, the resistance of the Protective Shield was utterly insufficient.
Soon—
A crunching sound, clearer and more distinct than before, resounded around.
Looking carefully, everyone noticed the layer of glimmering Protective Shield covering the spaceship was diminishing visibly.
This persistent force pressing on the spaceship and all surrounding spaces, unknown where it originated or where it hid, seemed to come from all directions, omnipresent like air—
Chu Jiaojiao’s mood sank to the bottom!
"Unlucky!" Chu Jiaojiao couldn’t help but furiously grab her hair, her face scrunched like a bun.
"We’ve encountered the most troublesome situation." Shen Changqing said softly, his voice clear, his appearance handsome, though a hint of worry between his brows made him seem less calm.
"It’s space folding." Shen Changqing’s hand gripping the spaceship’s controls trembled slightly.
"We’ve encountered 2 layers, even more than 3 layers of interlocking, overlapping spaces." Shen Changqing finished and turned to Chu Jiaojiao: "What do we do now?"
Chu Jiaojiao pursed her lips and said, "Don’t worry about anything else, focus all the ship’s energy on the Protective Shield."
Space overlapping is a terrifying force, comparable to annihilation. Because the environment they are in is inside the Space Rift channel, connecting various space layers, possibly the First Star System humans live in, possibly other star systems, or more likely unknown planes to humans... and the appearance of the Space Rift provides these distant planes the shortest connected bridge, so theoretically, if one could truly control the Space Rift, open and close it at will, humans could truly achieve long-distance travel.
But!
This is exceedingly difficult. With current scientific technology and human capability, it’s utterly unimaginable.
Humans don’t even have complete control over survival rights, let alone the capability and time to develop such inter-plane travel.
This can be skipped for now.
The problem Chu Jiaojiao and others face now is the appearance of overlapping space layers within the Space Rift channel, the most terrifying situation, and the hardest hurdle for Chu Jiaojiao and others to cross before entering the Space Rift, comparable to Hell Level.
Moreover, the occurrence probability of two space overlaps is exceedingly low, hundreds, thousands of years might pass without occurrence, let alone happening within the Space Rift channel... So, Chu Jiaojiao deeply suspects someone in the team didn’t wash hands after using the restroom, encountering such bad luck. Her suspicion isn’t unfounded but very logical and reasonable.
What terrible luck must one have to encounter such a miserable situation?
Furthermore, once space overlapping occurs, when two or even three dimensional planes overlap, all celestial bodies and living organisms in the part where the two spaces overlap will be crushed one by one.
At that moment, one has to consider whether one’s own strength is enough, if not, one could be crushed to dust with nothing left.
But no matter how sturdy a creature is, it’s still mere flesh and blood in the face of this force, so vulnerable.
Now, if the Protective Shield breaks, with the spaceship’s own rigidity and thickness, evidently it won’t stand against the force’s crushing power.
Therefore, a decisive decision is needed to ensure the Protective Shield remains intact.
But, how difficult is this?
Entering the Space Rift, Chu Jiaojiao and others did a lot of homework, envisioning encountering such a bad situation, yet when truly facing it, panic couldn’t be avoided in their hearts.
As Chu Jiaojiao and Shen Changqing conversed, sounds of crunching emerged again from the recently reinforced Protective Shield.
Chu Jiaojiao’s throat choked, gritting teeth, she made a difficult decision, "Use all our energy reserves."
What’s the use of keeping reserves?
If they can’t get past this hurdle, the preserved energy would be utterly useless.
The current strategy is ensuring everyone survives! Walk out of this channel alive.
Shen Changqing did not hesitate, immediately operating the spaceship, tilting all internally stored energy onto the Protective Shield, everyone saw the glow of the shield noticeably brighten, thickening a bit under the crushing force.
The atmosphere was extremely heavy.
Yue Qiyuan suddenly said, "If we encountered such a bad situation of space overlapping, what about the people on the other spaceships?"
Inside the spaceship’s chat channel, everyone’s expression changed upon hearing this sentence.
They’ve already utilized all reserve energy, yet still unsure if they can withstand this ordeal, what about other spaceships? Are they in the same situation?
After a brief silence, He Bi, who had just woken up in the treatment cabin, suddenly spoke, "Not necessarily, as the entrance to the Space Rift channel isn’t the same for all. It connects to countless space channels, they might be behind us, or went to other channels."
The channel they’re in is experiencing two overlapping spaces, but other channels might not.
Upon hearing this, everyone’s heavy mood eased slightly.
This could be considered the one good piece of information they received under the lousy circumstances.
Then—
Chu Jiaojiao instantly widened her eyes, "Senior He Bi, when did you wake up? Why didn’t you say something?"
He Bi heard this, couldn’t help but twitch his lips, thinking of the situation earlier, that monster looked extremely difficult to deal with, would he be an idiot to speak up at that moment? Anytime was fine, why choose that moment?
Cough cough...
Of course, you can’t say that too straightforwardly, otherwise, these annoying juniors would think he was timid and afraid to die.
He Bi pretended, coughed a few times forcefully, clutching his heart, said, "I just woke up and discovered we’re in big trouble. Without me watching, you lousy brothers and sisters really aren’t doing well."