The Moon and Jupiter Collide!

This is Xiao Wu's plan. But this plan has a huge flaw, which is the fuel consumption issue before reaching Ceres 6.

With Earth's current science and technology, spacecraft launches use rockets to achieve momentum, reaching escape velocity, and escaping Earth's gravitational pull. After that, the spacecraft mainly relies on inertia to fly, with the onboard fuel only used to control the trajectory and increase/decrease speed as needed. Of course, Xiao Wu's spacecraft doesn't operate like that.

Xiao Wu's spacecraft was assembled in Earth's orbit, and then relied on its onboard fuel to escape Earth's gravitational pull and begin its journey into space. Although they tried to carry as much fuel as possible from the start, and Xiao Wu also optimized fuel efficiency, escaping Earth's gravity consumed 35% of the fuel, plus several accelerations, leaving only 60%.

Maintaining a hidden state behind Mars for a long time also consumed a significant amount of fuel. Furthermore, decelerating to reach Mars' orbit, accelerating to leave Mars' gravity, and decelerating again to reach Ceres 6 all consumed a considerable amount of fuel.

Initially, Xiao Wu planned to fly directly to Europa, as it has the highest potential for liquid water in the Solar System, except for Earth. With liquid water, Xiao Wu could harvest liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen using certain techniques. After fully mastering fusion engine technology and collecting enough fusion fuel from Jupiter, Xiao Wu would leave the Solar System and fly into space. But this beautiful plan was ruined by the event of the Moon colliding with Jupiter.

At his wit's end, Xiao Wu adjusted the engine nozzle direction, corrected the trajectory, and flew towards Mars.

Nearly ten days passed. During this time, the Moon passed Mars' orbit, like a giant, enraged monster, heading straight for Jupiter. Xiao Wu's screen continued to closely monitor the Moon.

Twenty days passed quickly. The red planet Mars appeared on schedule in Xiao Wu's sight.

After decelerating, the speed of Xiao Wu's spacecraft was reduced to 4,000 m/s. This deceleration consumed at least another 5% of the fuel, causing Xiao Wu distress.

However, these consumptions were necessary. Without rapid deceleration, when the spacecraft left Mars, only at around 4,000 m/s could it be captured by Mars' gravity and enter Mars' orbit.

At an altitude of 3,000 km above Mars, the spacecraft successfully entered Mars' operational orbit. Xiao Wu slowly orbited Mars, beginning to silently await the impending catastrophic collision.

This altitude was carefully calculated by Xiao Wu to achieve the optimal height. At this altitude, the spacecraft could completely hide behind Mars to avoid energy from the collision and minimize fuel consumption when escaping Mars' gravitational pull.

Currently, Xiao Wu's spaceship is orbiting Mars in a nearly circular orbit. At its current speed, the spaceship takes less than two hours to complete one orbit around Mars.

The Moon hasn't collided with Jupiter yet, but meteorites from Earth have begun to "visit" Mars. Recently, the frequency and severity of meteorite impacts on Mars have increased significantly. Seeing the flashes on the Martian surface, Xiao Wu couldn't help but feel worried.

Meteorites from Earth clearly bear traces of their previous existence. For example, this meteorite, 300 meters long and 50 meters wide, has an unusually smooth surface. Xiao Wu guesses that this might be a meteorite mainly composed of iron and steel.

Xiao Wu desperately wanted this meteorite and wished to put it in his pocket. After all, upgrading the spaceship would require a lot of materials later. But the harsh reality is that Xiao Wu doesn't have that ability. Let alone such a huge meteorite, Xiao Wu couldn't even catch a small stone. At such a high speed, even a small stone is equivalent to a grenade, and Xiao Wu currently cannot withstand such unexpected impacts.

This is the largest meteorite during this period. Previously, the large explosion on Earth was believed to be caused by a meteorite approximately 30 meters in diameter colliding with and disintegrating in the atmosphere, releasing energy equivalent to more than a thousand Hiroshima atomic bombs. This iron and steel meteorite is many times larger in mass and size than that one.

Fortunately, when the impact occurred, Xiao Wu's spaceship was on the other side of Mars. However, through the optical telescope, Xiao Wu still observed the enormous impact this meteorite had on Mars.

The extremely large shockwave increased Mars's imbalance by 0.2. A mountain as high as 10,000 meters suddenly rose on the side opposite the impact point. At the same time, countless dormant volcanoes on Mars began erupting again, thick dust covered almost the entire Martian surface, the permanent ice caps at the poles melted, and rain appeared on Mars after tens of thousands of years. In addition, many violent earthquakes almost completely changed the appearance of Mars.

Xiao Wu felt even more deeply the saying: "The entire Solar System is an exquisitely intricate structure; an incident in one place will affect the whole."

The Earth explosion is not just Earth's own affair. This explosion will undoubtedly affect the entire Solar System, and this impact is extremely large and cannot be ignored.

Witnessing all this, Xiao Wu couldn't help but feel heartache, having a feeling of "one rotten apple spoils the whole barrel": "So, even if Mars had life, it would all die."

Except for a few agile evasions of debris ejected from Mars after the impact, the collision did not affect Xiao Wu. If anything, it only made Xiao Wu think about the consequences of the Moon hitting Jupiter.

Thinking it over and over, Xiao Wu silently looked forward to this collision: "A collision of this scale, I dare not say it's rare in the entire Milky Way, but at least it's rare in this star region, right? I can witness such a grand event with my own eyes; my life won't be considered meaningless."

Twenty days passed. Ten days remained until the predicted collision.

Xiao Wu began to gradually reduce his speed. To avoid being pulled into Mars's gravitational pull, Xiao Wu had to increase the thrust of his engine towards Mars. Finally, one day before the collision, Xiao Wu fixed his spacecraft behind Mars.

At this time, Xiao Wu, the center of Mars, and the center of Jupiter were almost in a straight line. This could minimize the influence from Jupiter.

Out of curiosity, Xiao Wu was unwilling to miss the opportunity to witness this earth-shattering collision. Therefore, Xiao Wu had already placed a small satellite in orbit around Mars. Thanks to this, even though Xiao Wu was hiding behind Mars, he could still see some images of the collision through this satellite.

According to the current orbital calculations, Mars is about five hundred million kilometers from Jupiter. This means that the images and effects of the collision would reach here after about half an hour.

Based on the final observational data, Xiao Wu silently began the countdown.

In fact, the collision might have already happened. It's just that its images haven't yet traversed the five hundred million kilometers. Imagining that terrifying scene, Xiao Wu was filled with anticipation.

"Ten, nine, eight… two, one!"

Everything happened as expected.

Xiao Wu witnessed a terrifying scene.

In space, the light from the Sun was probably obscured by debris from the Earth's explosion. Therefore, the Solar System was plunged into darkness.

But, amidst the pitch black, on the distant horizon, a giant light source suddenly appeared. Its light intensity was almost more than ten times that of the Sun! This giant light source instantly illuminated the entire Solar System.

This image only appeared for a flash, then the signal was cut off. Xiao Wu understood that the small satellite had been dissolved by the strong radiation from Jupiter.

Before Xiao Wu could recover, he felt the terrifying impact from the collision between the Moon and Jupiter.

The intense light, heat, and high-energy radiation ravaged Mars.

Previously, the iron-steel meteor from Earth had caused dust to cover Mars's atmosphere, plunging it into darkness. Now, the enormous energy from Jupiter attacked, the high-energy radiation heating the already chaotic Martian atmosphere, compressing the atmosphere into a giant whirlwind, the strong winds blowing debris into orbit.

At the same time, the surface of Mars facing Jupiter was gradually being melted, molten rock and gravel were heated into a dark red torrent, devastating the land.

Faced with the destructive power of nature, Xiao Wu dared not move, only silently hiding behind Mars, observing everything.

Xiao Wu began to feel fortunate for his correct decision. Without Mars as a shield, he might have melted into a pool of steel.

High-energy radiation continues to travel, passing Mars' orbit and heading towards Earth's orbit at the speed of light.

Earth's orbit is currently a gathering place for countless comets, trailing long tails due to pressure, heat, and high energy. But the tremendous energy from Jupiter arrived, dissipating the comets, making the Sun seem to have just had its veil lifted, shining brightly. However, immediately afterwards, the energy from Jupiter seemed to overwhelm the Sun's energy, pushing the comets towards it.

Through the reflected brightness of the comets, Xiao Wu estimated Jupiter's current brightness.

At this moment, Jupiter's absolute brightness surpasses the Sun's by tens of times! This means that if Jupiter and the Sun were placed at the same distance, Jupiter's brightness would be more than ten times higher than the Sun's!

This is an immense power!