Chapter 295 Shocking Science Fiction Short Story
Compared with ordinary magazines, the font of "SF Magazine" is slightly smaller and the line spacing is narrower. As a result, as a bimonthly magazine, the same number of pages has more content.
Sato has always disliked this design. The captain of the research ship Ganghua asked Feng Fan why he never went ashore during holidays. It is a very logical guess that there is something on the shore that Feng Fan is afraid of.
The answer is no, there is something that the protagonist Feng Fan loves most on the shore.
Let me point out the topic at the beginning. What the protagonist likes is "mountains".
"Gu Sang's science fiction novels always condense the concise principles of life."
I don't know why Gu Lu has this ability at such a young age.
At the beginning of the article, there is a sentence that Sato thinks is very reasonable, "People who grew up in the mountains generally don't like mountains. They always feel that the mountains isolate them from the world."
He also used the example of a Nepali tour guide. This Nepali guide has led many people to climb Mount Everest, but he has never been interested in climbing to the top.
“It’s true, the charm of mountains can be felt from two directions: one is looking at the mountains from a distance on the plain, and the other is standing on the top of the mountain.” Sato thought of Mount Fuji.
Even though he knows that the top of Mount Fuji is private property, looking from a distance, he can still feel that the charm of Mount Fuji belongs to all Neon people.
There is no pretense. Next, the story clearly explains why we did not go ashore. Although doing this will cause the article to lose its hook, it can quickly show the character of the protagonist Feng Fan.
In college, the protagonist organized many mountaineering teams. The last time was to conquer Mount Everest, the highest mountain on the planet, and without any surprise there was an accident.
While ascending more than 7,000 meters, a storm was forecast. But judging from the cloud map, the storm was at least twenty hours away from them... It was not easy for college students to get sponsorship to climb Mount Everest, so Feng Fan didn't want to give up.
Sato thought for a moment. If it were him, he would not give up in this situation. As a result, a storm suddenly came and threw them off the cliff, with only the protagonist holding on to the rope.
["But my mountaineering pickaxe was just stuck in the ice crevice at that time. It was impossible to support the weight of five people. It was probably out of instinct that I cut the steel buckle on the mountaineering rope and let them fall... two of them The body has not yet been found.”
“Is it a question of whether five people died or four people died?”
…]
“It’s a trolley problem, and it’s still a problem. Lying on the railroad tracks," Sato sighed.
After the protagonist was rescued and returned to campus, he suffered tremendous pressure from public opinion. I was originally planning to commit suicide, but my mentor later enlightened me that "it would be too easy to die like this." Feng Fan studied geology because he was obsessed with mountains, so he chose to come to the "Ganghua" as punishment. The sea is the farthest place from the mountains on land.
When the captain was talking to Feng Fan, he inserted a lot of foreshadowing: "There shouldn't be stars there" "That star is getting brighter" "You are right, that star is not normal"...
Distant Strange stars appeared in the sky.
After a while, it became clearer that it was not a starry sky at all, but a blue luminous sphere.
The sphere soon expanded to the size of the moon, just like a synchronous satellite of Aquamarine, hovering motionless in the sky.
“The sci-fi color finally appeared, and the pace is quite fast.” After the character creation, we immediately got to the point. But Sato has not yet felt the charm of the work. Don't be in a hurry. Firstly, you believe in the name "Gu Lu". Secondly, "Sustaining Humanity" is a killer plot at the beginning, which is not good to watch, but it takes a turn for the worse in the later stages.
It can be said that it is preferential treatment for famous writers, and it is the expectation accumulated from historical works.
["It's the gravity of the spacecraft's mass! It's pulling up the sea water!" Feng Fan said.
He was surprised that he could still think effectively at this time. The mass of the spacecraft is equivalent to the moon, and its distance from the earth is only one-tenth of the moon! Fortunately, it is stationary in a synchronous orbit, and the water held up by gravity is also stationary, otherwise the huge tide will destroy the world. ]
As for the waves, Sato thinks that the neon people have too much say. And there should be no nation in the entire world that has a greater say than them!
The year before last, there was the 311 earthquake in 2011. The highest observed height of the tsunami caused by the earthquake was forty meters. It has had a very serious impact on the neon coastal areas. It is no exaggeration to say that the tide caused by a height of more than 9,000 meters can destroy the world...
The book seems like an invisible giant hand pulling out a "mountain" made of sea water.
9100-meter sea peak!
The captain quickly directed the crew to drive the "Steel Flower" to escape.
But it seems useless to escape now. The radio on the ship reported even worse news.
The gravity of the spacecraft will also poke a hole in the atmosphere, and the atmosphere will be gone within a week. The air pressure will become unsuitable for human life.
"To put it simply, the world will be destroyed in one week." Sato understood that people all over the world were going crazy.
Everyone has to do what they want to do.
Hiding away from the mountains, unexpectedly, a seamount higher than Mount Everest appeared in front of us. This is fate.
So the protagonist Feng Fan made a decision, he wanted to climb the mountain!
"Crazy idea." Sato said.
The book also says this: "Can you swim up a nine-kilometer-high water slope? The slope seems to be 45 degrees! That is different from mountain climbing. You have to keep swimming, and you will slide down as soon as you relax!"
But you only have a few days to live, and you can realize any crazy idea.
"Although the mountain made of water is a bit creative, the story is a bit cliché..." Sato commented. It is obvious that the protagonist Feng Fan climbed up and saved all mankind. By the way, I redeemed myself. Just by looking at the front, I can think of the plot behind it.
However, Sato still holds an exploratory eye, because he feels that the editor-in-chief of "SF Magazine" Kinoshita Kura's vision is not that bad.
Yes, Sato currently has no idea of the seriousness of the problem.
Because the core creativity and core plot of "Mountain" will be revealed next!
After hardships, the protagonist Feng Fan climbed to the sea and mountain.
We arrived at the center of the blue light group, and that was a display screen.
The protagonist begins to communicate with aliens through the display screen. The aliens have long used high technology to learn all human languages. Therefore, no matter which nationality the people climbing up are from, communication is unimpeded.
[Alien: We built a mountain, and you climbed up.
"I like mountain climbing." Feng Fan said.
Alien: This is not a question of whether we like it or not, we must climb the mountain.
"Why? Are there many mountains in your world?" Feng Fan asked.
Aliens: Mountains are everywhere, but the methods of climbing are different.
“Then you still have a lot of mountains there.”
Alien: For us, we are surrounded by mountains, which close us off. We have to dig holes to climb the mountain.
……]
The core idea emerged through the questions and answers between the protagonist and the alien.
The planet where aliens live is wrapped in very thick rock layers, has no gravity, and no liquids and gases.
As for why aliens can survive without water and air? Because aliens are silicon-based creatures, that is, robots.
"It's like a football? It's just that the skin is very thick, and the space they live in is also very vivid. The world called bubbles is also very vivid." Sato thought to himself, this is exactly the opposite of how we humans live.
There is a hole in the middle of our planet, but because of gravity, we live on the surface of the ball.
Because there is no gravity, the alien city floats in the sky, like clouds. The radioactive material on some rock walls will glow slightly, which is their sky.
"Imagination is a bit wild!" Sato continued to watch.
The alien continues to talk about the situation in the bubble world.
Their fantasy literature is full of yearning for the world outside the rock formations. But using excavators to explore outside is prohibited.
Because the space in the bubble world is limited, the rocks dug out by the excavator will take up space. Even if you put the rocks dug in front, put them behind. It would be okay if the spaceship can be excavated and returned, but if it cannot come back, rocks the size of the spaceship cannot be processed. Explorers are space thieves who take over the world.
It would be very interesting if it were made into an anime. The logic of this world seems to be self-consistent. This was Sato's first thought.
Until one day, a bubble boat called "Wanhu" advanced 200 kilometers through the rock formations and returned safely. There were twenty crew members on the "Wanhu" when it went out, but only one was left on the voyage back, the scientist Copernicus. The rest were eaten by the captain as nourishment.
“Aren’t they all robots? How can robots eat robots? But that’s right, the aliens that soak up the world have evolved independently. It’s normal for carbon-based organisms not to understand the evolution of silicon-based organisms.” Sato I convinced myself in my mind.
Gu Lu was a copywriter, occasionally mixing in his own personal work. For example, the name of the boat in Liu Cixin's original article is called "Needle Point". He thought that since he had figured out the meaning of Copernicus, it would make sense to figure out Wanhu!
"Copernicus? The heliocentric Copernicus, this person should represent some kind of meaning." Sato thought to himself.
Sure enough, scientists tested the rock specimens brought back by Copernicus along the way: the density of the rock formations. It actually decreases with the sailing distance!
Before this, people in the world thought that rock formations were infinite.
At first, scientists and the accident were just a coincidence of the rock layers in this area, but as more and more samples were brought back. It proves that it is not a coincidence, the density of rock formations is reduced.
After careful calculation, the thickness of the rock formations surrounding them is approximately 30,000 kilometers.
Since the weightless bubble world is suspended in space, space is the most precious thing in the bubble world. The entire history of civilization in the bubble world is a bloody history of space competition!
"Is space equivalent to the resources of our human world?" Sato seemed to see the history of Blue Star's planet, "Then the next step is the age of geographical discovery? Colonists sailed to search for resources."
Yes, it is the age of geographical discovery that soaked the world. Although 30,000 kilometers is a long way, as long as there is a very accurate distance, it means that it is possible to reach it. There is infinite space outside!
So the explorers in the world ran away like crazy.
The most direct consequence is that the space in the bubble world is tight, and even the floating city cannot move, otherwise it will hit the gravel. In order to protect the living environment, the people in power at the time organized a fleet to stop the explorers.
A protracted confrontation.
The winner is the League of Explorers. After a long time, they finally reached the edge of the rock formation, but...[There is nothing exciting, the "Spiral" reached the bottom of the sea. ]
A simple sentence made Sato suddenly get goosebumps all over the place, "So soaking in the world is not the opposite of Blue Star, soaking in the world's aliens is equivalent to "One Hundred Thousand Unsolved Mysteries" 》The underground people? ”
So after a hundred thousand years of development, the aliens just came to the surface? !
One hundred thousand years of hard work brought us to the starting point of mankind.
Shocking!
It was like an air hammer hitting Sato's brain.
It’s not that smooth yet. Because there are no liquids and gases in the bubble world, the expedition team was completely wiped out when they encountered sea water for the first time.
In the ancient legends of the bubble world, there may be magma. But as the rock formations stabilized, the magma solidified. So liquids only exist in the mythology of the bubble world and in the theoretical knowledge of scientists. When they saw the sea water for the first time, all the aliens were shocked. Name this liquid amorphous rock.
Breaked through the barrier of amorphous rock, and then the gas.
Step by step is very difficult.
The first alien to drive a spaceship out of the ocean was named Gagarin. He also received the final reward for his one hundred thousand years of exploration of the Earth's core civilization.
He saw the brilliant starry sky!
["What are you doing here?" Feng Fan asked.
The alien said: We were just passing by. When we saw the intelligent civilization here, we wanted to find someone to chat with. We will chat with whoever reaches the top of the mountain first.
"There will always be people climbing the mountain."
The alien said: Yes, climbing is a nature of intelligent creatures. They all want to stand higher and see. Going further, this is not a necessity for survival. For example, if you wanted to survive, you would have fled far away from this mountain, but you climbed up. There is a deeper reason why evolution has given intelligent civilization the desire to climb high. We don’t yet know what this reason is. Mountains are everywhere, and we are all still at the foot of them. ]
After the two chatted, the alien's spacecraft flew away, and the crisis for mankind was resolved.
But Sato was in an excited mood!
No wonder, he understood Kinoshita, no wonder he went to carry water after reading it.
"If there is anything to betray now to save his life, he will betray it. He must live because mountains are everywhere." Sato murmured what the protagonist was thinking at the end of the story.
What is a mountain?
Mountains are rock formations to those who soak in the world.
To humans, mountains are the starry sky above our heads.
Alien invasion or something like that is not the core of this story at all. Because Gu Lu is expressing the greatness of human exploration by soaking in the world!
The article almost makes it clear that Gagarin is Yuri Gagarin, the former Soviet astronaut. The first human being to enter space, the first human being to see the entire Blue Star.
Mountains are obstacles!
Human beings are born to climb mountains!
All joking aside, Sato, who was a little weak at first, instantly felt energetic.
“It turns out that it is not only a satire on the gap between rich and poor, but also points out that society is aging, human beings are always climbing upwards, and are always pursuing the romance of space. The description is vivid and vivid.”
The last time I felt this way, it was the same. Sato is reading "Heroes of the Galaxy" by Yoshiki Tanaka.
After reading this article, I don’t want to read anything else at all.
Sato got up and walked around the office, and then he didn't know what he thought of.
He said viciously, "How can a man be afraid of a woman! I will not lose tonight, we will win in the end!"
No wonder we put "Mountain" at the back of the magazine, because Sato was no longer in the mood to read other works and turned to the survey page.
This is the reader feedback coupon of "SF Magazine", a vote for your favorite work in this issue. Gu Lu's works led by a large margin in the first three votes, and there were even cases where he was both the champion and runner-up.
Gu Lu showed such exaggerated dominance that he was nicknamed "Son of the Sci-Fi Future" by readers. It’s really not that the level of neon science fiction is low. But Liu Cixin's science fiction level, whether long or short, is world-class. What Gu Lu drew was a selection. To be more specific, it is the best short story written by Liu Cixin.
Not only if you get Neon, even if you get Europe and the United States, you can still carry it and beat it.
He filled out the feedback form coupon.
Turn on your computer and log in to the official forum of SF Magazine. When I see something good, I want to read other people’s reviews.
"No wonder, I understand Kinoshita again." Sato clicked on the screen, thinking. With this kind of quality, it’s quite normal to ask Gu Lu to invite someone to write a manuscript.
SF forum, as expected, the first batch of readers to buy the magazine have already started a heated discussion.
[Why is there only one article today? Why? Is the translator lazy? Such sudden changes made me very uneasy. ]
[The mountain is there, and there are always people going to climb it. Just one sentence gives me goosebumps. I can always see praise for all mankind in Gu Lusang's works. ]
[Those who soak up the world, it took us a hundred thousand years to get to the starting point of our humanity. We humans are lucky, for them, there are mountains everywhere. ]
[My boyfriend is from China. He happened to see it and told me. Wan Hu is the world's first aerospace person. In the fourteenth century, people wanted to use homemade rockets to fly into the sky. I also checked online and found that the International Astronomical Union, as early as the 1970s, named a crater on the far side of the moon Wanhu. Copernicus and Wanhu, this is our humans’ eternal pursuit of the starry sky above our heads! ]
[It’s like seeing the history of human aviation. I never thought I could write about aliens like this. When the spacecraft came to the edge of the rock formation and reached the bottom of the sea, I was stunned. I am so envious of Teacher Gu Lu’s imagination. ]
[I learned a lot, Wanhu, Copernicus, Gagarin, they are all heroes of mankind. When Gagarin in history saw our Blue Star from space, was he as shocked as Gagarin in the article who came to the surface for the first time? ]
It's all about the content of the books.
But there are also crooked buildings later. Some Neon readers asked: Do we in Neon have such a hero?
The sensation caused by the work is really quite big.
Gu Lu’s reputation among the Neon Sci-Fi Future Sons is becoming more and more famous.
The person involved in this matter is not aware of it at all.
The client is on the phone -
"Uncle Jian, let me follow you." Gu Lu said, "The new president of the publishing house is really unreliable. He will only give me 10% if he kills him." 6. "
"They have called me twice in the past two days, and they all asked me to help them join the Federation of Literary and Art Circles. The greatest effect of books.”
“It’s really unreliable”
Gu Lu was speechless.
"Huh?" President Jian listened to Xiao Gu's complaints on the phone. He didn't expect that the new president would be so generous.
Thinking of this, President Jian suddenly said, "Xiao Gu, can you do me a favor?"
"Uncle Jian, tell me," Gu Ludao, "is this a new platform?" I have no problem with the royalty rate being too low. But the quality of "Flowers for Algernon" is still very high."
Go to a new publishing house, even if it's a top one. , in the case of airborne, it is normal that the conditions cannot be too good. Gu Lu thought so.
"Xiao Gu, if you are so honest with others, you will suffer a loss. This is not the problem." President Jian chuckled and said, "Have any other publishing houses contacted you?"
"Both Xinxing Publishing House and New Youth Publishing House have contacted me," Gu Lu said.
"What about the conditions?" President Jian asked again, "What conditions can these two publishing houses offer?"
"The conditions of New Youth Publishing House will be higher," Gu Lu said, "Let's take the royalty rate for the top best-selling writers."
For the top best-selling writers, that's seventeen or eighteen points.
"That's great. I'll take your new book, "Flowers for Algernon," and go to the New Youth Publishing House to get a high commission."
"?" Gu Lu was silent for a moment while holding the phone. He even suspected that he heard wrongly.
"If it's convenient, Xiao Gu, please do me this favor." President Jian said, "New Youth Publishing House's publicity strength and distribution channels are still very powerful, even better than Children's Publishing House in some aspects Be stronger. Although I am not familiar with President Cheng and President Wang, I have heard about them and they have pretty good personalities."
Gu Lu probably understood that if he followed President Jian to the New Publishing House, President Jian would also do it. He won't receive much reward because he is suspected of forming a clique. Even though there are cliques in the workplace, you can't make it so obvious.
In addition, the new president Yuan Mingjie, who lost best-selling authors as soon as he came to power, will not be too punished. Because Gu Lu is still in Century Publishing Company, he belongs to the rotten pot.
Ke Gu Lu was forced to go to another publishing house...
The adult workplace is really scary.
You must know that as an experienced professional, President Jian is not a man of faith. He abides by the rules and does not want to take away familiar authors, but this does not mean that he will not attack if there is an opportunity.
If the sales volume of "Flowers for Algernon" reaches 500,000 copies, or one million copies, it will cause direct losses to the head office.
It’s all like this. It’s okay to lose business, but it’s not good to see your peers making money, especially when the money was sent by yourself.
Enough for the new president to drink a pot!
"No problem, Uncle Jian." It had no impact at all on Gu Lu. He killed two birds with one stone.
"Sorry to trouble you, Xiao Gu." President Jian thanked him.
Originally, I wanted to say a few words, but Gu Lu heard other noises on the other side, so he must be busy with something.
"No trouble, I can get more for this matter if we work with another publishing house. Uncle Jian, then you should be busy first, and we will talk when you are free." After saying this, Gu Lu He hung up knowingly.
The city has a lot of traps, and Gu Lu wants to go back to the countryside.
Waiting for a while, Gu Lu packed the change of clothes for the West Lake trip and then dialed President Wang's number.
Vice President Wang once broke his son's heart with the collection of short stories "Yesterday's Park". A very sinister middle-aged man.
(End of this chapter)