Late in the evening, two young men were frantically solving questions.
Li Zhendong was very frustrated. He had no choice but to work hard and overtake Zhang Yuan every time he had been surpassed by him.
To him, working hard was a form of torture.
In particular when his friend was revealing a foolish smile while solving Math Olympiad questions. 'What the heck?'
'He's smiling so happily while doing Math Olympiad questions. Is he still human?'
Li Zhendong grabbed a handful of hair as he felt vexed. The words written in the book were like fleas jumping all around. He could not understand what the question was talking about even after a long time.
In the end, he decided to forgo the questions as he could not calm his mind.
He glimpsed at the question Zhang Yuan was attempting: Prove that 2 to the power of n is an irrational number (n is a positive integer greater or equal to 2).
"For example, if 2 to the power of n is a rational number, proof that p/q, p, q are coprime numbers."
"In that case, 2=(p^n)/(q^n), which is also 2(q^n)=(p^n)"
"After transposition, we arrive at p^n=q^n+ q^n"
"According to Fermat's law, the equation has no positive integer solution so the assumption is incorrect, which proves that 2 to the power of n are all irrational numbers."
Li Zhendong nearly vomited blood when he heard the answer. He said, "You can't teach my little sister like that! Moreover, you're just giving her the answers to her Math Olympiad questions instead of actually teaching her."
Zhang Yuan blanked out for a moment and realized that he had unconsciously become a helper that completed homework for others for free.
But it shouldn't matter, if she copied what he said exactly word for word… the teacher would most likely laugh like crazy.
"Oh well, I shall stop here. This is enough as a pastime." Zhang Yuan yawned and felt satisfied.
Li Zhendong finally breathed a sigh of relief. He could not wait to throw away the books in his hands as he rubbed his aching temples.
He picked up his telescope and walked out the balcony while looking towards the deep space.
Gliese 581, a red dwarf star situated 2 degrees north of the Beta Libra—their destination.
It had a mass of 0.31 compared to the sun and a radius of 0.38 solar radii. The surface temperature was around 3480K (3206.85 degree Celsius)
With a visual magnitude of 10.56, it meant that ordinary astronomical telescopes were unable to see the star, but Li Zhendong was still searching for it tirelessly.
For goodness sake, that was his future mother planet!
Li Zhendong had a sudden thought. "Say, why did the Deep Space Project even begin? Could it be because the government has found clues showing that aliens would attack Earth?"
"Impossible!" Zhang Yuan responded with a tone of indifference. "If that was the case, they absolutely would have gathered the power from all around the world to construct a large-scale spaceship. Moreover, do you think normal people like us would have the opportunity to escape? You should have watched all kinds of science fiction movies. When the end of the world approaches, how much did the ticket for Noah's Ark cost? Even if our parents are scientists, I doubt we matter that much."
"Even though movies are mostly fiction, it has some semblance of reality. Right now, none of the national leaders are panicking to run off to another planet. Even if it was for the goal of stabilizing the people, when has mankind ever been so noble?"
A moment of silence enveloped the atmosphere.
The half a million volunteers aren't the most outstanding talents on Earth. The recruitment was all dependent on the individual's wishes. There were many scientists with big dreams, but it was impossible for those politicians, who had truly rooted themselves in the political ladder, to give up everything they possess on Earth to travel to some bare mountains and dangerous rivers.
Li Zhendong chuckled and said, "You're right. No aliens are attacking Earth. Then why do you think they started it?"
Zhang Yuan pointed towards two directions in the starry night and furrowed his brows. "It might be that or that… Or perhaps both. It might also be some other even more important reasons that we are unaware of…"
There was a fixed star in one of the directions Zhang Yuan pointed to, the KIC-8462852, which was also known as Tabby's Star.
The other direction was the η Carinae.
Both of them looked towards the starry night.
With the bright moon and the glaring lights in large cities covering the bright starry skies above, it became harder to discover the stars above.
In 1977, it was recorded in history that North America experienced a power stoppage.
During that dark night, the boundless skies revealed its original appearance.
On that particular night, there was an incident that was hilarious and extremely embarrassing. The police stations that night had received numerous reports claiming that aliens were attacking Earth!
The reason behind their reports was because… those group of city dwellers had never seen a real Milky Way before in their lives. They were truly at their wits' end due to the majesty of prehistoric power.
That's right, Mother Earth had been too warm and gentle, to the extent that humans of that era were reluctant to leave their swaddling robes. They had gradually forgotten how vast the outside world was.
However…
It was not just humans who existed in this world.
The universe would not suddenly disappear just because of humans' concealment.
The first challenge originated from the η Carinae, also known as the Eta Carinae Star, a massive star. It was 100 times the mass of the sun. Scientists estimated that the fixed star might very possibly explode and result in a super-luminous supernova within a million years!
Attention, it was a 'super-luminous' supernova, with an additional 'super-luminous' term compared to other supernovae.
If the information that Eta Carinae Star was 7500 light-years away from the solar system was considered good news, then the other piece of news was deadly…
Through research, they obtained a finding that it was highly likely the star's rotation axis had aligned with the solar system, making it no different to a gamma-ray burst cannon that had set its aim.
Once the Eta Carinae Star exploded, a strong gamma-ray burst would sweep across their entire solar system.
"Unfortunately, the bright star is not visible in the northern hemisphere."
Of course, the disaster might be catastrophic or it might not be. First of all, estimations on when the explosion would happen were too vague. It could happen a million years later, tomorrow, or maybe it had already exploded a century ago.
Moreover, scientists were still arguing about the deviation of Eta Carina Star's rotational axis and disaster prevention methods…
As mankind did possess extensive knowledge about stars far away, it was hard to accurately predict what kind of disaster it would bring about to human civilization.
After traveling a long distance, the gamma-ray burst might possibly destroy the entire ecosystem, or it might also bring about no effects at all. In any case, they were unsure.
The second challenge comes from KIC-8462852 which was also known as Tabby's Star.
Humans had already discovered that strange star in the 21st century and its periodic light fluctuations had attracted widespread attention from astronomers.
At that time, many scientists speculated that the light fluctuations might be due to a nebula or other large celestial bodies obscuring a star.
However!
After hundreds of years of observation, they had proven one single fact. Its light shade had been increasing at the rate of 0.64% every decade.
In other words, if the maximum shade data from a decade ago was 22.112%, then it was currently at 22.176% and there was no exception to it.
So, what did that mean?
It meant that there existed a man-made building in the vicinity of Tabby's star and it was under construction at a constant rate.
In addition, it had been going on for hundreds of years!
A Dyson sphere was right there, and there was nothing they could do about it. It was not like there would be any changes based on their will.
That fact alone triggered a great deal of panic amongst the top brass of human civilization.
Even though it was 1400 light-years away and was considered extremely far away, that alone was insufficient to smoothen out the fear and panic.
Any knowledgeable person would know what a Dyson sphere meant.
When comparing human civilization to a civilization that could construct a Dyson sphere, they were like algae.
At that time, Professor Qi Yuanshan, the father of nuclear fusion, had written in his diary excitedly: "If there are no aliens, humans will eventually be destroyed by their laziness!"
"Similar to the olden days, the upcoming entertainment trend, the non-toxic and neurotoxic drugs are bound to destroy the majority of humans' strive for improvement. If a Dyson sphere is proven to be true, then humans might recover from the erosive consumerism and capitalism, similar to the effect of the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union!"
"I have to say, we, humans, certainly have a very good neighbor. Our civilization might perhaps still have hope and we are truly fortunate! Utterly so!