All the evils stem from the greed for life. Who wouldn't want to have a better physique, a smarter mind, and a longer lifespan? Especially with the successful example of Yu Yifeng, it has even more strongly ignited the greed of everyone...

However, the quantity of the perfect - element was limited after all. It could only be used by less than one - thousandth of the world's population. Once the secret was made public, it would surely cause turmoil in the entire society. More seriously, a third world war was not out of the question!

So, the United Government's strict keeping of the perfect - element's secret did make some sense. It wasn't completely wrong. Governments of various countries had secretly vied with each other over the perfect - element. Many inexplicable geopolitical conflicts now had a good explanation - the distribution of the perfect - element.

In the end, the five most powerful countries reached a consensus: "Set aside disputes and develop jointly!" Thus, the United Government was established, and most of the perfect - element was sealed and stored in the Moon base, guarded by nuclear bombs. Any experiment required the approval of the United Government.

No one could have imagined that the Earth would explode like this... All the intrigues vanished with the destruction of the Earth. It seemed meaningless to pursue the faults of the previous government, as most of those responsible had died, and the few who were still alive were only accomplices, just following orders...

A trial that started off with great fanfare ended hastily. The verdict on Calvin hadn't even been reached, and the court chose to adjourn, "to be judged another day."

People spontaneously chose to selectively forget this demoralizing incident. Everything could be dealt with later...

...

The work at the base was still proceeding in an orderly manner. One trial was just a minor matter for the entire base.

Thomson, male, 33 years old, a former Swiss physicist, had published over 60 articles in SCI, 7 of which were included in the most authoritative journal Nature.

At the same time, he was also a well - known astronomer and had his own laboratory at the Moon base. Thomson's daily work was to monitor the entire starry sky.

After the Earth exploded, a large number of rock fragments burst out. When these rock fragments approached the Moon, they might be captured by the Moon's gravity and turn into meteorites, hitting the Moon.

In astronomy, the gravitational equilibrium point between two planets is called the Lagrangian point. On the Lagrangian boundary, the gravitational forces between the Moon and the Earth exactly cancel each other out, and a meteorite can maintain a balanced state. However, a meteorite that exceeds this boundary may impact the Moon, bringing disaster to humanity.

On the first day of the Earth's explosion, more than three thousand meteorites from the Earth hit the Moon! These meteorites were not large in size. For humans far away at the South Pole of the Moon, they could only feel some minor earthquakes, which was nothing serious.

But for astronomers, it was a terrifying and despairing day. They monitored the sky all the time. Every time a meteorite hit, it was as if it hit them, and their hearts skipped a beat, for they were afraid of a sudden disaster.

An asteroid impact is a huge threat to life! 65 million years ago, a ten - kilometer - diameter meteorite hit the Earth, creating overwhelming dust. The polar ice melted, plants were destroyed, and volcanic ash filled the sky. All this led to the extinction of dinosaurs, and it was thanks to this that mammals were able to rise.

If a meteorite of the same magnitude fell on the Moon, the entire lunar crust would experience an earthquake of magnitude 13 or above! If this meteorite landed in the Mare Imbrium, there was no doubt that it would release energy equivalent to the detonation of 100 trillion tons of TNT, enough to wipe out the entire South Pole.

There were eight such threats in total, and the largest one had a diameter of over twenty kilometers... Now Thomson could only pray to God that these giant meteorites would not hit the Moon.

The nuclear weapons at the base posed no real threat to these meteorites. They could only slightly change their directions... This sense of helplessness of praying to God was very difficult for scientists to bear. But other than praying, there was no other way.

However, as time passed, Thomson gradually relaxed. The possibility of such a disaster occurring was getting smaller and smaller. Because the Earth was covered by a thick atmosphere, during their movement, the meteorites would continuously rub against the atmosphere, and their kinetic energy would gradually decrease.

When the kinetic energy of these asteroids decreased, they would be attracted back by the Earth's own gravity. Thus, the Moon became safer and safer.

The base was located at the South Pole of the Moon, in a relatively good position. Few asteroids could pass through the numerous obstacles and reach here. Therefore, humanity enjoyed a period of peaceful development.

"Professor, this is the latest satellite image." His student, Thomas, sent an email.

"Okay, received." Thomson clicked it open and saw the satellite image of the Earth.

From the image, the original blue planet no longer existed. Instead, there was a gray nebula - like envelope composed of sand, gravel, atmosphere, and water vapor. The internal structure could not be seen clearly at all.

These nebular substances were constantly moving and colliding. In the future, turbulent eddies would appear, triggering rotation. However, this process was extremely slow. Perhaps tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of years later, under the effect of gravity, a new Earth could form here.

Maybe, new life would be born again.

"Perhaps only some microorganisms could have survived... According to spectral analysis, the temperature inside is around 2000 degrees Celsius. All animals and plants have gone extinct." Thomson sighed.

The original super - large mushroom cloud had also dissipated. Two weeks later, this mushroom cloud gradually spread behind the Earth, reaching as far as five or six hundred thousand kilometers away. Under the sunlight, it formed a magnificent white light screen.

In fact, this light screen was very thin, even less than one - hundred - thousandth of the original Earth's atmosphere. But its advantage lay in its huge volume. Under the sunlight, it would show different colors, grand and magnificent.

Now, as the Moon orbited the Earth, it was about to enter this light screen.

Thomson had an inexplicable sense of foreboding. This feeling was mysterious and intangible, and he couldn't figure out exactly what it was. Thomson pondered for a long time but still didn't understand where this uneasy feeling came from.

"Maybe it's just the high work pressure."

He comforted himself. This light screen was actually composed of sand, gravel, atmosphere, and water vapor. There were no special components, and it couldn't possibly harm humans. Humans couldn't even sense it because it was so thin.

He casually opened the video of that super - explosion and watched it again. That super - explosion that destroyed humanity's home planet was a nightmare for all of humanity. Many scientists had studied it, trying to figure out why it happened.

Thomson was no exception. What kind of weapon could cause such an effect? An antimatter bomb? A neutron star? A black hole? Or something else?

In two weeks, he had watched the video countless times and calculated countless times. Finally, he came to a strange conclusion: It was a kinetic - energy weapon!

A one - hundred - ton vehicle approaching the speed of light could cause such an explosion effect! It was simply incredible. He had repeated the calculation many times on the supercomputer and simulated it many times, all getting the same result.

Could it be that an alien spaceship accidentally crashed into the Earth?

This calculation result had been reported to the Academy of Sciences and placed together with many other results. There was no conclusion yet.

If it was really a light - speed vehicle, what kind of technology would that be...

The speed of light. Those who understood its meaning knew that it was a speed that was both despairing and desirable. Only at this speed could humans, within their limited lifespan, break out of the solar system and search for a new "Earth."

The fastest spacecraft of humanity now was only 20 kilometers per second. Compared with the speed of light, which was 300,000 kilometers per second, it was just a drop in the ocean.

With the current progress of human technology, when would they be able to approach the speed of light? Up to now, humans were still struggling with the food crisis... The gap was too large!

The more he understood, the more he realized his own insignificance. A heavy sense of despair emerged in Thomson's heart. The ocean of truth might be far more vast than human imagination.

"Sigh," Thomson shook his head, trying to get rid of some negative emotions. Although he was only 33 years old, he felt as if he had aged.

"Professor, look, I've collected ice!" His student, Thomas, shouted outside the laboratory. A few days ago, he had designed a simple water - storage device using a plastic film. When water molecules encountered the film, they would condense and turn into ice.

It should be known that the Moon's surface has no atmosphere and is almost a vacuum. Under normal circumstances, this kind of experiment would hardly succeed.

Thomas said happily, "Our Moon is starting to pass through that light screen. There is a thin atmosphere near the ground. Although it's completely insufficient for breathing, we can obtain water from it!"

"Youth is really good!" Thomson thought. His talented student, Thomas, was only 16 years old but already at the doctoral level. However, sometimes, he still showed a naive side. After all, he was still a child.

Suddenly, Thomson seemed to think of something, and his heart skipped a beat. He finally grasped that sense of unease!