Chapter 254 Humanity Sophon Project

Crisis Era, Year 233.

After leaving the Trisolaran Escape Capsule Protection Base, Lin Sen's next destination was the Solar System Accelerator.

The Solar System Accelerator was completed and put into operation in the Crisis Era, Year 221.

Although the interference from Sophons had decreased, the exploration of the microscopic world was not so easy; in these 12 years, humanity indeed made some achievements in the research of microscopic particles, but it was still far from a true breakthrough.

The high-energy particles accelerated by the Solar System Accelerator could even produce miniature black holes under certain circumstances, but the current goal of humanity was to study the internal structure and properties of microscopic particles, so higher energy levels were not necessarily better.

High-energy particle collision experiments indeed reduced Sophon interference, but this required a sufficient number of tests, taking 4.5 hours for the particles to accelerate one round in the Solar System Accelerator. Human scientists were constantly researching, yet progress was still unsatisfactory.

With Sophon interference, the microscopic particle world was not easy to unlock. However, with the strong interaction force of The Waterdrop as a reference, humanity had a direction in microscopic research, and naturally, the speed was much faster.

Inside the Sophon Shielding Room.

Lin Sen, "Ding Yi, you are aware of the research progress of the Solar System Accelerator; surely you must have conducted all this research in four-dimensional space already.

"What do you think, based on their current progress, when might they achieve a breakthrough?"

Ding Yi, "Thanks to four-dimensional space, we have now thoroughly unlocked the microscopic world; at least The Waterdrop's strong interaction force holds no secrets for us any longer.

"The Solar System Accelerator is now entirely aimed at the Trisolarans' conspiracy. Based on their progress, I estimate it might take 50 years for them to achieve a breakthrough in the frontier theory, another 10 years to transform these theories into practical value tools, and an additional 10 years for their widespread application.

"In other words, based on the current progress, it would take at least until the Crisis 300 to reach a capability close to that of the Trisolarans' Waterdrop."

This speed was slower than Lin Sen expected, but it made sense considering that the Sophons were still causing experimental interference; managing a breakthrough in 50 years might already be humanity's limit. Previously, without Sophon interference, it had also taken them many years.

Lin Sen, "Right, the Trisolarans must have come to similar conclusions.

"I believe they might wage war against us again between Crisis 270 and 280 years; by then, we might not even have made a breakthrough in our frontier theories.

"The Solar System Accelerator is to mislead them, to make the Trisolarans misjudge our strength.

"Previous observations have shown that the Trisolarans are building warships on a large scale; I suspect they will hide their warships and circumvent potential detection sites by taking a roundabout route from another direction, ultimately launching a surprise attack on us. We must prepare for this well in advance."

Ding Yi, "According to your judgment, we only have about 40 years to prepare.

"Do we start with our originally planned strategy now?"

Lin Sen, "The codename for this plan will be 'Baogai'.

"The key to the plan is absolute secrecy; everyone involved in four-dimensional space research must join this plan. Whatever resources you need to request from the Permanent Defense Council, you decide; you are the lead for this plan.

"By the way, on which planet do you plan to carry out this project?"

The Baogai Plan was a strategy Lin Sen had tasked his scientific team to research while he was in four-dimensional space.

The plan was to choose a planet and first create a planet-level Sophon-Blocked Zone encompassing the entire planet and the surrounding space.

Then use tens of thousands of spacecraft to surround the planet and build multiple small Sophon-Blocked Zones outside of it; these zones would be interconnected, eventually covering the planet with a layer of Sophon protection.

In this outer Sophon-Blocked Zone, a layer of nanoparticle fog would be laid out. The nanoparticle fog didn't necessarily need to be formed by the detonation of nuclear bombs and could also be deployed by spacecraft.

The purpose of these two-layer structures was to conduct Sophon research there, naturally to prevent Sophon surveillance.

The outer Sophon protection ring would never be shut down, while the inner Sophon-Blocked Zone could be shut off at specific times.

Sophons in the Sophon-Blocked Zone could only exist in the 11-dimensional space and were not able to drop down to 6-dimensions and observe the outside world.

In this inner area, Sophons would not dare to enter, or rather, once inside, would not dare to lower their dimensions to unfold. Through research, Ding Yi and other scientists discovered that Sophons in a state above 6-dimensions could not know whether the Sophon-Blocked Zone was shut down or not.

That is, when the inner Sophon protection zone is deactivated, Sophons would not be aware, and thus would not dare to lower their dimensions. The Sophons on the outside, due to the obstruction by the outer Sophon protection layer and the fog, would also be unaware of the inner Sophon-Blocked Zone's status.

Thus, a special zone in the Solar System was formed, where high-energy particle accelerator research could be conducted without Sophons daring to intrude.

Whether the Trisolarans would risk losing Sophons to send them inside for reconnaissance was naturally possible, but the probability was very, very small.

If the inner Sophon protection was open, and the Sophons lowered their dimensions to monitor, it would be equivalent to suicide.

If the inner Sophon protection was shut, and the Sophons entered and lowered to 6-dimensions, then the Trisolarans would know what humanity was researching there.

Manufacturing Sophons was a planetary-scale project requiring a long time; if discovered, the Trisolarans would surely change their strategy, which would be highly detrimental to humanity's strategic planning.

This required psychological warfare with the Trisolarans—each time the Trisolarans detected incorrectly, they would lose a Sophon, a risk the Trisolarans were unwilling to take.

The Trisolarans were not clear about the value of the research humanity conducted in the area: at most, they assumed humans were using the particle accelerator to research microscopic particles and only needed to keep track of human progress, there wasn't such a need for them to take huge risks.

Of course, no plan can guarantee certain success, but the probability of success for this plan was enough to gamble on for humanity.

Ding Yi, "We had identified our target long ago, and it's Ganymede. There are several key reasons:

"One is that in the Solar System, Ganymede is the largest moon, even bigger than Mercury, able to provide enough gravity to offer a gravitational skeleton for Sophons.

"Two is that it's the only moon with a magnetic field, which is very necessary for our research on Sophons.

"Three is its abundant resources; although not a key point, it still brings some convenience to our research.

"Four, most of our resources are near Jupiter. Eris and Pluto are also suitable, but they are too far from us, too conspicuous, not conducive to hiding our plans.

"The downside is its proximity to Jupiter, whose gravity would affect Sophons unfolding, but this is something that can be overcome."

Lin Sen, "Let's start this plan now; I'll contact the Permanent Defense Council to present my plan."

A week later, the Permanent Defense Council approved the Baogai Plan, and humanity's secretive Sophon project began.