When Luo Jinyong arrived, there were only Yang Fanglie, Yuan Dezhi and Wei Longzheng in the communication center.

"Professor, if you want something to drink, I'll get it ready for you."

"It's still black coffee, I'm sorry for you."

Wei Longzheng smiled and went to help Luo Jinyong make a cup of coffee.

Scientists like Luo Jinyong, who have worked for the Planetary Defense Council for two years, have either black coffee or bitter tea in addition to plain water.

"Professor, you've just arrived, Tissot has arrived."

"How much longer?"

"Five minutes at most." Yuan Dezhi answered this question.

When the Tissot Aerospace Aircraft arrives at its destination, it first reduces its altitude to 25 kilometers and its speed to Mach 6, the minimum standard for maintaining the continuous operation of the ramjet engine. Because the outside temperature is below minus 100 degrees, even if there is the protection of the Doomsday Warrior system, Liu Zhanbo has to wear a high-altitude pressurized suit similar to a spacesuit. When the altitude drops to 5,000 meters, the parachute in the supercharger suit is opened, and the supercharger suit and the parachute automatically fall off at a height of 500 meters, and then the main parachute is opened, allowing Liu Zhanbo to land smoothly.

Shortly after Wei Longzheng delivered the coffee, an aerial image of Amsterdam Island appeared on the screen. This was captured by a camera mounted on a pressurized suit, with a rapidly changing number in the lower left corner indicating the height and a slowly changing number representing the speed of the fall.

At a height of 5,000, the number representing speed decreases rapidly, indicating that the parachute is successfully deployed.

After a few minutes, the image disappears, indicating that the pressurized suit has fallen off.

Because the communication unit of the Doomsday Warrior system cannot be directly connected to the communication satellite, it is necessary to wait until Liu Zhanbo lands and sets up the satellite communication equipment before receiving the image.

After waiting for a few minutes, the image was restored, and it was the directed satellite communications station that appeared first.

"Colonel, is it going well?"

"All the best." Liu Zhanbo's voice was very loud, and Wei Longzheng immediately went to turn down the volume.

The image displayed on the screen now, taken by the visual enhancement unit of the Doomsday Warrior system, is also what Liu Zhanbo saw.

"There are still an hour and forty-five minutes."

"Understood!"

As everyone knows, in another hour and 45 minutes, a reconnaissance plane sent by the Planetary Defense Council will reach the skies over the island of Amsterdam. Liu Zhanbo must explore the sinkhole before this, find the traces left by the Y celestial body, and then find a place to hide.

Liu Zhanbo's skydiving skills are very good, and the landing point is a kilometer north of the sinkhole, just on the edge of the tree line.

Because reconnaissance satellites flew over Amsterdam Island at any time, Liu Zhanbo installed satellite communication equipment in the woods.

When he walked out of the woods, Liu Zhanbo activated the stealth function.

Compared with other Doomsday Warrior systems, because Luo Jinyong obtained the original code of the control program of each subsystem, modified the control program of the power reserve unit, and optimized the power management program of each subsystem, Liu Zhanbo's Doomsday Warrior system not only increased the power reserve by 50%, but also reduced the power consumption when using the stealth function by a quarter, doubling the use time of the stealth function.

Coming to the edge of the sinkhole, Liu Zhanbo stopped.

"Colonel, how deep is the sinkhole?" Luo Jinyong immediately asked.

Liu Zhanbo activates the Doomsday Warrior's ranging device. "Infinity."

"What?"

"More than fifty kilometers."

Luo Jinyong immediately tightened his brows. The Doomsday Warrior System Ranging Device has a maximum measurement distance of only fifty kilometers, and beyond fifty kilometers it will be realistic to infinity.

"Professor?" Yang Fanglie noticed the change in Luo Jinyong's expression.

"The depth of the sinkhole has exceeded the thickness of the earth's crust and entered the mantle layer." Luo Jinyong paused slightly, "Maybe it goes straight to the center of the earth." ”

"Wait, there's a change in the data."

Hearing Liu Zhanbo's words, Luo Jinyong and Yang Fanglie immediately turned their eyes to the big screen on the wall.

"Ten kilometers down, there's an object."

"Are you sure it's ten kilometers?"

"Yes, ten kilometers."

Luo Jinyong thought very quickly, and immediately realized that the object was related to the Y celestial body. "Can you see what it is?"

"It's not clear, but it's certain that its transverse dimensions don't exceed two meters...... Maybe it's a sphere. ”

A sphere no more than two meters in diameter? Luo Jinyong understood that the ranging equipment of the Doomsday Warrior system uses a far-infrared laser with strong penetrating ability, and the divergence at a distance of ten kilometers is exactly two meters. If the transverse dimensions of that object are more than two meters, it can be measured.

"Professor......

Luo Jinyong knew that Liu Zhanbo wanted to go down to find out, but he didn't have the right to make such a big decision, so he looked at Yang Fanglie.

Yang Fanglie nodded slightly, he also understood what Liu Zhanbo meant.

"Colonel, be extremely careful and keep in touch at all times."

"Understood!"

Liu Zhanbo entered the sinkhole and showed the altitude data.

The rock wall of the sinkhole was very smooth, there were no obstacles at all, and using the adsorption function of the Doomsday Warrior, Liu Zhanbo only took half an hour to descend to ten kilometers.

"Colonel, did you activate the lighting?"

"No, it's the light from that object."

As Liu Zhanbo turned his head, a bright red glow appeared on the screen, measuring a diameter of 1.95 meters.

"Can you measure the diameter in the opposite direction?"

"It's all 1.95 meters."

Luo Jinyong's brows jumped a few times. At a distance of 100 meters, the Doomsday Warrior system's ranging equipment measures the size of an object with an accuracy of one-tenth of a micron, or one ten-thousandth of a millimeter. Luo Jinyong has enough reason to believe that it is an absolute positive sphere.

"Professor, what now?"

"Let me think about it."

A distance of a hundred meters is not too much of an obstacle for the Doomsday Warrior. As long as Liu Zhanbo climbs a few hundred meters, he can jump onto the sphere.

The question is, is it too reckless to do so?

Luo Jin was taken aback and thought of a question that he had overlooked. "Colonel, what's the temperature?"

"Seven degrees Celsius, the same temperature outside."

"What about the temperature of the rock wall?"

"Twelve degrees Celsius, the same temperature as the earth's surface."

"Now, you raise and lower five hundred meters and re-measure the temperature."

As a result, the temperature was seven degrees Celsius and the rock face was twelve degrees Celsius. In other words, this bottomless sinkhole is a constant temperature space!

How can it be?

Ten kilometers above the ground, close to the bottom of the earth's crust, the temperature should be as high as thousands of degrees Celsius, and the pressure is enormous, enough for the rock to melt into magma.

Temperature is heat, heat is energy, where does that huge energy go?

Was it absorbed?

Liu Zhanbo had already turned around, and Luo Jinyong stared intently at the sphere on the screen. The only explanation is that the sphere absorbs the energy from the earth's crust!

"Professor ......" reminded Luo Jinyong of Yang Fanglie.

It only takes half an hour for Liu Zhanbo to slip down, but it takes at least an hour to climb up, and counting the time it takes to hide, he can only stay for ten minutes at most.

"Colonel, manage to get in touch with the orb."

"Contact?" Liu Zhanbo obviously didn't understand the meaning of Luo Jinyong's words.

"Use your communication devices, and all the devices that can be used to exchange information, to send a communication signal to the sphere."

"What signal?"

"Any signal, like your identity, or whatever signal you have in mind."

If the sphere is absorbing energy, it means that the sphere is either a device or an intelligent being, and therefore may respond to the signal. It's just that Luo Jinyong is not sure, after all, it is a thing of an extraterrestrial civilization, and it may not be able to receive the communication signal sent by human equipment. If extraterrestrial civilizations don't take humans seriously, they may not respond even if they receive a signal.

Liu Zhanbo first used radio communication equipment, and the sphere did not react at all, still hanging there motionless.

"Colonel, use the encoded transmission function of the ranging device to send your identity information in Morse code."

Liu Zhanbo did as Luo Jinyong said, but the sphere still did not react.

"Do you need me to throw a rock over?" Liu Zhanbo also looked a little disappointed.

"It's an act of aggression and it's likely to be misunderstood." Luo Jinyong shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Try again, if it doesn't work, you can only give up." ”

"How do you try?"

"The most basic way of human communication."

Liu Zhanbo was stunned for a moment, then understood what Luo Jinyong meant, then took off his mask and shouted loudly towards the sphere: "I'm Liu Zhanbo, do you hear that?" ”

Seeing this, Yang Fanglie and Yuan Dezhi both smiled bitterly.

Regardless of whether the sphere is a device or an intelligent body, it would be strange if it could understand human language, and Chinese is known for its complex tones.

The sphere remains unresponsive.

"Colonel, go up, time is running out." Yang Fanglie was very disappointed.

Liu Zhanbo turned around and began to crawl towards the stumbling block. "Mr. Yang, do you need me to try again?"

"How?"

"I can jump over it, and I'm sure I'll land on the orb."

"This ......" Yang Fanglie hesitated a little. While this is a very risky move, it is also the only way to make direct contact with extraterrestrial civilizations.

"Nope." Luo Jinyong immediately vetoed it. "The sphere is definitely a product of an extraterrestrial civilization, and doing so is highly aggressive and has unpredictable consequences."

"So what to do?"

"If you miss this opportunity, I'm afraid you will never have the opportunity to have direct contact with extraterrestrial civilizations again." Yuan Dezhi said next to him.

Obviously, Yang Fanglie is more inclined to Yuan Dezhi's view.

"Mr. Yang, I know that this is the only chance, and it was proposed by Colonel Liu Zhanbo himself, and I also believe that he will not care about personal life and death. The point is, we don't know what a sphere is. Is it energy or matter? Therefore, no one can predict what the consequences will be. ”

"But ......"

"Professor, there are some marks on the mask."