Chapter 54: Sophon Assassination_1

The Trisolaran Joint Ruling Hall was in chaos.

The comprehension of the Dark Forest Theory meant that the Trisolarans stood no chance of invading the Solar System; as long as Logic and Lin Sen reached a launch pad and entered the Trisolaris coordinates, the Trisolarans' efforts would be thwarted, and the First Fleet would be lost in the universe, becoming a cosmic fossil.

Supreme Leader: "They have finally grasped the Dark Forest Theory; the universe is filled with malice everywhere.

Science Governor, have you analyzed the probability of Logic and Lin Sen using the deterrence of the Dark Forest now?"

Science Governor: "At this moment, both sides are essentially gambling with our lives. According to earlier estimates, Logic, having understood the Dark Forest Theory, would not launch directly but would instead seek to verify it with a galaxy.

That was indeed his plan; the verification time is lengthy, so we still have hope. If The Waterdrop could reach Earth during this period, there would be a chance.

Now Logic, influenced by Lin Sen's words, has not proceeded with the verification of the Dark Forest.

But this significantly increases the probability of them launching the Trisolaran coordinates directly, as the burden on their conscience would be lighter. If there was a 60% chance they would press the button before, now it's 75%; if he stands by the launch pad, we lose."

Our biggest concern remains Lin Sen. It might have been possible to assassinate Lin Sen before, but now, with Logic's mindset, there's a 90% chance Logic would launch our coordinates upon Lin Sen's death;

the same would go for an assassination of Logic, as Lin Sen would one hundred percent launch our coordinates. According to the behavioral analysis of Lin Sen, he doesn't truly care about humanity, to him, reality is but a game.

If we were to assassinate them, we'd have to take out both at the same time and also destroy the contents of the safe containing the dialogue between Logic and Ye Wenjie. But that's even less likely; we're too passive."

Supreme Leader: "I still don't understand why they aren't using the deterrence of the Dark Forest against us now. At the very least, they should do some verification. Currently, we have virtually no countermeasures; this should be their optimal solution."

Strategy Governor: "They are also aware of the terror of using the deterrence of the Dark Forest, bringing in a new civilization is not something they can bear. Both of our civilizations have fallen into a different kind of 'prisoner's dilemma' (Prisoner's dilemma: It refers to a situation where it is more beneficial for two felons to cooperate, yet without communication, maintaining cooperation is very difficult.)

The reasons why he is reluctant to employ the Dark Forest may be as follows:

First, Lin Sen once said that the essence of deterrence is that it will be broken; he believes that deterrence can only be a last resort, not a regular measure; they cannot bear the consequences of deterrence.

Second, he is right; using the Dark Forest means retreat, choosing to flee, and after fleeing, one no longer has the courage to face the universe again—we are the same!

If Lin Sen were to use the deterrence of the Dark Forest now, although it would temporarily eliminate the Trisolaran crisis, it would also make humanity forever fear to look at the star-filled universe, and no one knows how long this deterrence could last.

Third, Lin Sen believes that if they cannot survive the Trisolaran crisis, it would simply mean they are not qualified to survive in the universe, and they are willing to accept their fate. This is what they have conveyed to us, and we cannot analyze whether this is a strategy or sincerity.

Fourth, we estimate there is a 90% chance that Lin Sen believes the Dark Forest is valid; his idea is to fight us first, and if defeated, to choose mutual destruction, holding the Dark Forest as a trump card would greatly increase their odds of winning."

Supreme Leader: "Your analysis makes a lot of sense.

Human history, while fraught with cruel slaughter, is also moving and heroic.

We too have our own glorious history, our own hard struggles. All of us have forsaken everything, even our emotions, for one purpose: survival.

Lin Sen and Logic are respectable; merely by choosing to use the Dark Forest could they achieve temporary victory, but he saw further, he saw the future of civilization, they are mentors to human civilization.

This is also the opportunity he has given us; how should we respond to Lin Sen and Logic?"

Science Governor: "The best way is to kill them. If we can't kill them and they have the chance to use the deterrence of the Dark Forest to threaten us during the Doomsday Battle, or to perish together with us, then we have lost the Doomsday Battle."

Supreme Leader: "This creates a vicious cycle then; our only hope for victory is to kill them, yet now we cannot kill him."

Military Governor: "Actually, this aligns with our response to the escape battle plan. We secretly deploy a Waterdrop camouflaged as a meteorite into the Solar System, abruptly blocking the sun and locating all universal broadcasters to block or destroy them.

On the surface, we can also use another Waterdrop to distract humanity, as cover for the one operating in secret."

Supreme Leader: "We have no other choice; for victory, we can only advance, keep advancing! They can no longer return, and we certainly can't go back!"

Strategy Governor: "Wallfacers need to hibernate, and when they do, we can infiltrate the ETO into the Wallfacers' Manor, able to trigger the safe; if the password is incorrect, the safe will destroy itself.

The ETO hardly has the conditions to assassinate the Wallfacers, even during hibernation they are in a secret base hundreds of meters underground, and censure bullets are nearly ineffective; the PDC protects them almost saturatively.

After they enter hibernation, if we can destroy the safe, we will carry out the assassination of Logic and Lin Sen.

The assassination of the Wallfacers is up to us; I apply to once again delay the construction of the Second Fleet and focus on building 20 more Sophons, 10 of which will be sent to Earth.

While Logic and Lin Sen are hibernating, after the ETO sabotages the safe, we'll use the 10 Sophons to continuously strike at full force and destroy Lin Sen and Logic's critical expression genes and key biological proteins.

Human DNA has a width of 2.2 to 2.4 nanometers, and the combined strike range of 10 Sophons lined up can reach 1 nanometer, sufficient to destroy human genes. While human key biological proteins cannot be completely destroyed, if we damage a crucial point, its properties will be entirely altered, even turning into a deadly poison for the human body.

It is estimated that it would only take 15 Earth days to kill them completely. The process cannot be stopped by hibernation, and their future technology will not save them. The most critical aspect is that humans won't detect it during hibernation; they will find they are already dead when they awake from hibernation.

In the past, we didn't use Sophons to assassinate Logic since Sophons had other more important tasks, and the assassination efficiency of a single Sophon was too low. Due to the body's cell repair function, it would be very difficult for a single Sophon to assassinate a person and would take a very long time.

Although we could also use a Sophon to repeatedly strike and induce some cancerous cells in their body, such a method would still require 6 to 8 Earth years to achieve results.

This would alert the human government and could even lead to Logic comprehending the Dark Forest prematurely, and in his dying moments, it may expose us."