Chapter 223: The Final Battle, Capturing Four Waterdrops

After The Waterdrop was cut, all human warships burst out from the inner layer of the thick fog and launched a fierce attack on the last water drop, preparing to drive it away.

Although the last water drop was capable of battle, it still fled like a startled deer, as if abandoning ETO 200 years ago.

As the last water drop fled, the human warships approached the remnants of those four water drops and deployed a large number of space shuttles and salvage boats, releasing capture nets. After ensnaring the water drops, they immediately retreated.

Though still maintaining their droplet shape, the surfaces of the water drops were no longer absolutely smooth mirrors but presented a dull brass color, as if eroded by the years, rust-streaked. They seemed to have lost their vitality, becoming lifelessly dull.

The Waterdrop had died!

Devoid of any divinity and without the mirror finish, The Waterdrop looked ordinary and old, seeming even older than a century-old antique space shuttle nearby, utterly lacking in spirit.

Humanity had finally captured the four water drops.

Two hundred years of planning and effort, all for this moment: Humanity's opportunity to break the technological blockade!

...

The Trisolaran world.

The leader seemed to age in an instant, ultimately failing the expectations of the entire civilization and personally dooming the future of the Trisolaran civilization.

The leader murmured, "Have we still not seen through humanity's ploy?"

This was also the last layer of the Element Exchange Plan, which the Trisolarans had always believed was about depleting Trisolaran resources to create Sophons.

In fact, Lin Sen's fundamental purpose was to build a super-large particle collider.

As previously mentioned, within the Sophon-Blocked Zone, the instability of microscopic space prevented scientists from using colliders for fundamental scientific research.

However, this did not mean they could not use the collider to accelerate protons, endowing them with super high energy, and with these high-energy particle beams bombard The Waterdrop's surface material.

Within the Sophon-Blocked Zone, scientists like Ding Yi had calculated that particle beams with energies of hundreds of quintillions of electron volts were fully capable of penetrating the strong interactive material of The Waterdrop's surface.

They also finalized the transformation of 120 Accelerator Spaceships into two super particle colliders, each extending up to 1200 kilometers in length.

In its initial design, the colliders were set to have an overload state, allowing it to accelerate protons to hundreds of quintillions of electron volts. This was also the limit of the collider; after this full-power operation, it might no longer be usable, as many components might have burned out.

Modifying the colliders was no easy task; ever since the Sophon-Blocked Zone was activated, the arduous task of modifying the colliders began.

Ding Yi was the designer of the colliders and the one who understood them the most. In these critical eight days, he nearly never rested, sleeping less than three hours each day, fully committed to the modification work of the colliders.

Even though the colliders were designed modularly from the start, allowing parts from each collider to be universally used and properly modified so they could be connected end-to-end, the workload of the modifications was unimaginable.

At the same time, thousands of scientists and senior engineers fought alongside him. The modification of the colliders involved highly complex physical principles and engineering technology, each link requiring precise calculations and rigorous experimental verification.

Moreover, it required the coordinated work of several hundred thousand technicians and robots to ensure the smooth progress of the modification project, which allowed this impressive feat to be completed in just eight days.

At the last Wallfacer hearing, it was all in preparation for this decisive battle.

Logic was in charge of the Snowfield Project, which aimed at the Starshine Project—as a safety net for Lin Sen's plan.

Rey Diaz's renovation of the old warships was naturally not just for those warships and the antimatter directional mines plan. It was to bring the Starport docks and several hundred thousand technicians to the Wallfacer Headquarters without arousing the suspicion of the Trisolarans.

Without these Starport docks and several hundred thousand technicians, it would have been impossible to complete such an astounding project in only eight days.

Hines's plan was the most crucial. Without the Sophon-Blocked Zone, this plan could not have succeeded, and Lin Sen could not have captured The Waterdrop.

All the Wallfacer Plans were interlinked; that's what made the plan potentially successful.

If The Waterdrop were not captured, this war would not have changed fundamentally from the original timeline.

If so, Lin Sen's crossing over would seem to have little significance. From the beginning of the crisis, Lin Sen knew the key to changing humanity's destiny lay with The Waterdrop.

Lin Sen's initial plan was just to build a kilometer-scale super particle collider, to destroy and capture a water drop. When Tyler discovered the principle of the Sophon shield, Lin Sen was incredibly excited.

It wasn't the printing of the battle of doom that got him excited, but the opportunity to change human destiny.

Perhaps, this universe could also be changed; it might just lack an opportunity.

However, the development of the war had been more successful than he expected, and even The Waterdrop stood together as one target, providing an unprecedented opportunity for the two super colliders.

This plan seemed simple, but sometimes, the simpler the plan, the more reliable it could be.

The key point was that the Trisolarans always believed Lin Sen did not know that The Waterdrop's surface was made of strong interactive material, while Lin Sen's plan was precisely about how to break through that material.

This was the real reason the Trisolarans did not see through Lin Sen's ploy.

This was also why Lin Sen believed the Sophon-Blocked Zone could boost the odds of victory by 30%. The plan for modifying the colliders—if not protected by the Sophon-Blocked Zone—would not pose any threat to the Trisolarans.

No. 7: "The truth turned out to be so simple!

"Perhaps I had thought of it before, and had doubts whether the Element Exchange Plan had deeper schemes, but we overlooked them.

"Since the war began, every word he exchanged with us cleverly led us into misunderstandings.

"Whenever I neared the revelation of his true intentions, he cleverly diverted my attention, making me ponder other directions. His words were so cunning that even when he spoke the truth, we found it hard to believe.

"He once claimed that those thousand warships had no special stratagems; thinking about it now, he really wasn't deceiving us. But he was intentionally misleading us, making us focus all our attention and thinking on those thousand warships.

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"We spent the most critical 26 hours pondering whether there was a plan behind those thousand warships."

"Thus, we ignored the numerous Starports and shipyards in the Thick Fog Zone, as well as the 120 large Particle Accelerator Spaceships."

"Every step was cautious and alarming, losing to Lin Sen is truly no injustice, as he could even grasp our way of thinking."

"In tactics and schemes, we really stood no chance against him."

Military Governor: "No... Have we truly failed? We cannot fail.

"Since they still have other ways to broadcast coordinates, blocking the sun is now unnecessary, and we still have three Waterdrops.

"Now they have the upper hand, it's unlikely that they would use the Dark Forest.

"They have no means left to deal with the Waterdrops, and the Sophon-Blocked Zone has been destroyed by us.

"We still have three Waterdrops; we can continue to attack them relentlessly, and we can still maintain a standoff.

"And in six months, I will have another ten Waterdrops arriving."

No. 7: "Do you really think we can still defeat Humanity now?

"Don't you find it odd? Why did Lin Sen link up the Particle Accelerator Spaceships and use High-Energy Particle Beams to pierce and slice through the Waterdrop?

"Because he knew from the start that the surface of the Waterdrop is made of strong interaction materials.

"The greatest secret of the Waterdrop might have been exposed long ago, we thought we concealed it well, but little did we know, they had seen through it.

"Lin Sen simply used what we thought was their ignorance of the Waterdrop's secret to set traps step by step, luring us in, and ultimately gaining the Waterdrop."

"Those who deduced this weren't just Lin Sen, but also Ye Chen.

"Their encounter with the Waterdrop's performance was also very successful, we thought we had shocked them with the Waterdrop, but they were probably relieved, as it wasn't much different from what they had expected.

"The key point is, they still have the Dark Forest, now that it can't be sealed off, we shouldn't push Humanity too hard, it's meaningless."

Military Governor: "Indeed, they have gained an advantage, so they should be even less willing to utilize Dark Forest Deterrence, this is our opportunity."

Sophon Governor: "We've just discovered a new situation, a life signal monitoring device has been installed in Logic's heart, which is connected to a Cradle System through a transmitter.

"The Cradle System is connected to the nuclear bombs deployed in Jupiter Orbit for the Snowfield Project, which can expose our coordinates."

No. 7: "It seems... Logic is prepared to negotiate with us using his own life."

He sighed and continued, "Compared to Lin Sen, I fear Logic's deterrence more.

"He has a strong sense of isolation from the world, yet also a strong sense of responsibility. According to his psychological model, if we continue to slaughter, he is truly likely to commit suicide.

"We must face the situation we least want to confront.

"We have essentially lost in this war.

"According to our original strategic plan, if we can't block their channel for sending out the 'Dark Forest' signals, we should choose to temporarily give up.

"That was supposed to be the worst outcome, yet our current situation is even worse."

The Science Governor said somewhat unwillingly, "Have we... really... lost?

"Is Humanity really that powerful?"

He paused, then continued, "I've been deeply studying Humanity for 200 years. From my observations, most people are ordinary and typical, their actions largely consistent with the human behavior models we've constructed over a long study.

"Shockingly, though, Humanity always manages to continuously produce so many extraordinary talents.

"Such individuals are rare in our society.

"Perhaps, this is the true foundation of a civilization!"

Since the Waterdrop was cut, the thoughts of the Leader have been very subdued, with no major fluctuations.

Possibly when one is struck to a certain extent, there aren't many dramatic thoughts, or maybe it's a case of deeper sorrow than death.

The Leader has now:

"We... have still failed, defeated by... the cunning of Humanity.

"God... has ultimately... abandoned the Trisolarians."

As the Leader spoke, he seemed to muster some spirit, "In this war, I've made irretrievable mistakes.

"After this war, I will resign as Leader and choose dehydration to become combustible material, this is the last thing I can do for the Trisolaran civilization.

"The new Leader... will be No. 7."

A flicker of sorrow and determination crossed the Leader's eyes:

"It is I who have pushed our civilization into the abyss, I am a sinner."

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