Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 64 - Setting Sail

Chapter 64: Chapter 64 Setting Sail

He was reading “Assembly Language (Third Edition).”

The lower the layer of hardware, the higher the difficulty factor. There weren’t any particularly appetizing books here, all of them merely having a referential value, and not immediately applicable.

Zhang Yuan suddenly felt that his annual salary of two million seemed a bit cheap.

Fortunately, there was no rush on time; he had at least a year to complete this task. And it wasn’t just him, but a large team—the United Government on Earth had many other people allocated for this.

Li Zhendong noticed his worried look and subconsciously glanced at the page Zhang Yuan had open.

“ADD2MACROOPTR1, OPTR2, RESULT”

...

“MOV AX, OPTR1”

“ADD AX, OPTR2”

“MOV RESULT, AX”

“ENDM”

“…”

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What’s the situation?

Was this guy already studying assembly language?

Times change, and programming languages are constantly being updated. But assembly, this most basic language, seems like it will never be outdated.

“Is it simple?”

“It’s alright, not hard to understand, just a lot to remember.”

Li Zhendong quickly adjusted his posture, striving to be more attentive. No matter what, he couldn’t be left too far behind.

…

And so, days passed one after another. Zhang Yuan’s small worry was soon overshadowed by even bigger headlines.

On August 23, 2264, the much-anticipated departure day of the Earth Era finally arrived.

“Zhang, what are you doing, cooped up all day! Today is an important day.”

Group Leader Wang Xin pushed open the door to find Zhang Yuan sitting seriously in front of the computer, with two large dark circles under his eyes, seemingly pondering a problem.

Wang Xin was puzzled. He found this guy to be getting more bizarre by the day.

The last time he came, Zhang Yuan was in this pose; the time before that, he was still in this pose!

And the time before that… was a week ago!

What are those on the table, exactly?

Pulled out hair?

“Could it be… baldness makes you stronger?”

Wang Xin couldn’t help pulling out a strand of hair himself.

Damn, so stupid!

“Can you stop studying all day? You’re going to…” he trailed off.

“Going to what?” Zhang Yuan asked, puzzled.

Wang Xin opened his mouth, “…you’ll become a weirdo, develop a psychological disorder.”

“Not at all, I’m quite happy, happy all day long.”

It seemed like Group Leader Wang considered it his duty to maintain the safety of the spaceship, “Actually, you know, your last newspaper article was nothing, no one’s continuously watching you. How about I introduce you to a girl? How does that sound? Hibernating together, waking up together… it’d be more interesting.”

Anyway, in his opinion, having someone to care about in your heart reduces the chances of psychological abnormalities.

Zhang Yuan had already been marked as a high-risk candidate for mental illness.

Zhang Yuan said awkwardly, “Group Leader Wang, what industry did you work in before?”

“Surveillance. Many of the surveillance systems on the spaceship were installed by me!”

No wonder…

A rational analysis suggested this was a man severely lacking in security, and it was a mystery as to why he would come on board the spaceship.

“My wife is a psychologist here on the spaceship, if you have any problems you can talk to her.”

He was also under the thumb of his wife.

“Hurry up, let’s go!”

“Oh.”

After tidying up his desk, Zhang Yuan leapt up from his seat and quickly ran outside.

Today was the day the spaceship was set to depart. Apart from some key project leaders who were stationed at their respective posts, all other astronauts were required to stay at designated locations and were not allowed to wander about.

There were also military personnel maintaining order at key transportation hubs.

Area C’s playing field had long been swarming with people, and in front of the field was a giant screen broadcasting the speech of the highest leader of Earth Civilization to the entire world.

“Hurry up; I saved you a spot!”

Their work group consisted of eight people, three men and five women. Because the girls were of high quality, Li Zhendong, the shameless fellow, would always come over, claiming he wanted to make more friends.

After spending some time together, everyone had come to know that Zhang Yuan was a workaholic. Top scholars were in demand in this new society, and the girls giggled as they made room for him to sit down.

Zhang Yuan took his seat, thanked them, and then closed his eyes, ready to take the chance to catch up on some sleep.

However, at this crucial moment, there’s always a bit of restlessness.

On the video, a middle-aged man, the leader of the United Government, was making a proclamation: “…I sincerely wish you well and believe that you will always maintain such vitality, to create a greater, more harmonious, and more perfect civilization. This is the value of your lives.”

“Be proud of yourselves; we are proud of you as well.”

“We hope that you can use your wisdom to solve the problem of ‘mediocrity’ that plagues human civilization and even the entire universe. We will use our history to light the way before you…”

“Earth will forever be your mother. The million-year history of humankind, with all its hardships, has fought to this point, taking a new step at last… We will bloom a magnificent flower of migration in the vast Milky Way.”

“Here, I declare, the Earth Era spaceship has officially embarked on its journey!”

Suddenly, the entire square fell silent.

All the noise and frolic came to a halt.

This was a solemn moment.

Very solemn.

Everyone stared at the big screen, which was broadcasting a live feed from the Moon Space Port.

Zhang Yuan felt something and opened his eyes.

Time ticked away, minute by minute, as the massive gantry crane moved slowly. All the fixed supports were being orderly dismantled.

The moment to inspect the final results had arrived; all the staff had worked hard for nearly 40 years for this day.

It had been over 100 years since Professor Qi Yuanshan proposed the “Deep Space Project.”

At this moment, the dream of a new civilization had truly been realized.

Suddenly, a bright white light flickered from the engine section in the center of the spaceship—this was the sign of the nuclear fusion engine starting up. More than twenty auxiliary engines also ejected bright plasma flames.

These engines would provide the spaceship with an acceleration of one two-thousandths of a meter per second squared.

This number was small but reliable over time.

“Shouldn’t there be any problems?”

“There won’t be any problems; all this technology is quite mature.”

Whispers began to rise in the hall.

Zhang Yuan activated his phone, connecting to the internal network, which displayed various real-time parameters.

The spaceship, powered by the nuclear fusion engine, slowly detached from the Space Port.

According to the plan, it would orbit the Moon fifteen times before gradually breaking free of the Moon’s gravity.

Satellite imagery revealed that in the boundless universe, a speck of dust was slowly leaving these two warm little rocks.

Zhang Yuan felt a deep sense of oppression in his heart.

The blue Earth, the vast Moon, the warm Sun—there may not be such a cozy haven elsewhere in the universe.

Despite its flaws, Earth Civilization had provided the maximum support and tolerance for this “infant.”

On social networks, almost everyone in the world was sending sincere wishes to the spaceship. People were astonished to discover a tiny star dot appearing around the Moon. It was clearly visible through astrological observation methods—it was the ion flame from the Earth Era spaceship.

“We will eventually become legends!” Li Zhendong, watching the spaceship drift away from the Space Port bit by bit, suddenly rubbed his eyes.