Chapter 295 Shocking Science Fiction Short Chapter
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, which means that as a bimonthly magazine, it has more content in the same number of pages.
Sato has always disliked this design. The captain of the Ganghua research vessel asked Feng Fan why he never went ashore during holidays. It is a logical guess that there is something on the shore that Feng Fan is afraid of.
The answer is no, on the shore are the things that the protagonist Feng Fan loves most.
The theme is stated at the very beginning: what the protagonist likes is "mountains".
"Gu Sang's science fiction novels always contain concise life lessons."
I don’t know why Gu Lu has this ability at such a young age.
At the beginning of the chapter, 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 Nepalese tour guide who had led many people to climb Mount Everest, but he had never been interested in climbing to the summit.
"That's right. The charm of mountains can be felt from two directions: one is to look at the mountains from afar from the plains, and the other is to stand on the top of the mountain." Sato thought of Mount Fuji.
Even though he knew that the peak of Mount Fuji was private property, from afar he could still feel that the charm of Mount Fuji belonged to all Japanese people.
Without any pretense, the story then explains why the man didn't go ashore. Although this may make the article less hooky, it quickly shows the character of the protagonist Feng Fan.
During college, the protagonist organized many mountaineering teams. The last one was to conquer Mount Everest, the highest mountain on the planet, and as expected, an accident occurred.
When they were at over 7,000 meters, a storm was forecasted. But according to the cloud map, the storm was at least 20 hours away from them... It was not easy for college students to get sponsorship to climb Mount Everest, so Feng Fan did not want to give up.
Sato thought for a moment and realized that 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 tightly.
[“But my mountaineering pick was stuck in the ice crack at the time and could not support the weight of five people. So, out of instinct, I cut the steel buckle on the climbing rope and let them fall... The bodies of two of them have not been found yet.”
"It's a question of five people dying or four people dying."
[…]
"It's the trolley problem, and the problem is that you are lying on the tracks yourself." Sato sighed.
After being rescued and returning to campus, the protagonist suffered tremendous pressure from public opinion. He was ready to commit suicide, but after being persuaded by his mentor, he said, "It would be too easy to die this way." Feng Fan studied geology because he was obsessed with mountains, so he chose to come to the "Ganghua" to punish himself. The sea is the farthest place from the mountains on land.
When the captain talked to Feng Fan, he inserted a lot of foreshadowing: "There shouldn't be stars there," "That star is getting brighter," "You're right, that star is not normal"...
Strange stars appeared in the distant sky.
After a while, it became clearer that it was not the starry sky at all, but a blue glowing sphere.
The sphere soon expanded to the size of the moon, just like a synchronous satellite of the blue water planet, hovering in the air motionlessly.
"The sci-fi color finally appears, and the pace is quite fast." After the characterization, we immediately get to the point. But Sato has not yet felt the charm of the work. There is no hurry. First, I believe in the name "Gu Lu", and second, "The Support of Humanity" starts with a killer plot, which is not good, and there are twists and turns in the later stage.
It can be said to be a preferential treatment for famous writers, and it is the accumulated expectations of historical works.
[“It’s the gravitational force 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 was equivalent to that of the moon, and its distance from the earth was only one-tenth of that of the moon! Fortunately, it was stationary in a synchronous orbit, and the sea water lifted by gravity was also stationary, otherwise the surging tide would destroy the world.]
Regarding the waves, Sato thinks that the Japanese have too much say. And there should be no nation in the world with more say than them!
The year before last, the 11 earthquake in 311. The highest observed height of the tsunami caused by the earthquake was meters. It had a very serious impact on the coastal areas of Japan. It is not an exaggeration to say that the tide caused by the height of more than meters can destroy the world...
The book seems like an invisible giant hand pulling out a "mountain" made up of sea water.
9100-meter peak!
The captain quickly commanded the crew to drive the "Steel Flower" to escape.
But there seemed to be no point in escaping now, as the ship's radio reported even worse news.
The gravity of the spacecraft will also poke a hole in the atmosphere, and within a week the atmosphere will be gone, and the air pressure will become unsuitable for human life.
"To put it simply, there's only one week left before the world is destroyed." Sato understood that everyone in the world was going crazy.
Everyone should do what they want to do.
I was avoiding the mountains, but unexpectedly, a sea mountain higher than Mount Everest appeared in front of me. This was fate.
So the protagonist Feng Fan made a decision, he wanted to climb the mountain!
"Crazy idea," Sato said.
The book also says: "Can you swim up a nine-kilometer-high water slope? That slope looks like it has a 45-degree angle! It's different from mountain climbing. You have to keep swimming. If you relax, you will slide down!"
But there are only a few days left to live, so even the craziest ideas can be realized.
"Although the mountain made of water is a bit creative, the story is a bit cliché..." Sato commented that it is obvious that the protagonist Feng Fan climbed up to save all mankind and redeemed himself. Just by watching the first part, you can imagine the plot later.
However, Sato still maintained an exploratory eye, because he felt that the editor-in-chief of "SF Magazine", Kinoshita Kurarasu, should not have such a bad vision.
Yes, Sato currently has no idea of the seriousness of the problem.
Because the core creativity and core plot of "The Mountain" will only be revealed later!
After many hardships, the protagonist Feng Fan climbed up the Haishan Mountain.
Came to the center of the blue light ball, and that was a display screen.
The protagonist began to communicate with the aliens through the display screen. The aliens had already used high technology to learn all human languages. Therefore, no matter which country the climbers were from, they could communicate without any obstacles.
[Alien: We built a mountain and you climbed it.
"I like mountain climbing," said Feng Fan.
Alien: It’s not a question of like it or not, we have to climb the mountain.
"Why? Are there many mountains in your world?" Feng Fan asked.
Alien: Mountains are everywhere, but the methods of climbing them are different.
"Then you still have a lot of mountains there."
Alien: For us, there are mountains all around us. These mountains isolate us and we have to dig holes to climb the mountains.
[…]
The core idea emerges through a question-and-answer session between the protagonist and the alien.
The planet where the aliens live is covered with very thick rock layers, has no gravity, and no liquid or gas.
As for why aliens can survive without water and air? Because aliens are silicon-based creatures, that is, robots.
"Like a football? Only the skin is very thick, and they live in the space inside. It's also very vivid to call it a bubble world." Sato thought, 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 aliens' cities float in the air like clouds. And the radioactive materials on some rock walls emit a faint glow, which is their sky.
"What a wild imagination!" Sato continued watching.
The alien continued to describe 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 the outside world is forbidden.
Because the space in the bubble world is limited, the rocks dug out by the excavator will take up space. Even if the rocks dug in the front are placed in the back. If the excavation spaceship can return, it is good, but if it cannot return, the rocks the size of the spaceship cannot be handled. Explorers are space thieves in the bubble world.
If it were made into an anime, it would be very interesting, the logic of this world seems to be self-consistent. This was Sato's first thought.
Until one day, a bubble ship called "Wan Hu" advanced 200 kilometers through the rock formation and returned safely. There were 20 crew members on the "Wan Hu" when it went out, but only one person was left when it returned, the scientist Copernicus, and the rest were eaten by the captain as food.
"Aren't they all robots? How can robots eat robots? But that's true, the aliens in the bubble world evolved autonomously. It's normal that carbon-based organisms cannot understand the evolution of silicon-based organisms." Sato convinced himself in his mind.
Gu Lu was a copycat, and occasionally mixed in his own personal work. For example, the name of the boat in Liu Cixin's original text was "Needle Point". He thought, since the allegory of Copernicus has been figured out, it is reasonable to bring out Wan Hu!
"Copernicus? Copernicus of the heliocentric theory, this person should represent some kind of meaning." Sato thought to himself.
Sure enough, when scientists examined the rock samples Copernicus brought back along the way, they found that the density of the rocks in the strata actually decreased with the distance traveled!
Before this, people in the world had always believed that rock formations were infinite.
At first, scientists thought it was just a coincidence of the rock layers in this area, but as more and more samples were brought back, it was proven that it was not a coincidence and the density of the rock layers was reduced.
After careful calculations, the thickness of the rock layer that surrounds them is about 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 bubble world civilization is a bloody history of the struggle for space!
"Is space equivalent to the resources of our human world?" Sato seemed to see the history of the Blue Planet. "Then is the next step the Age of Discovery? Colonists sailing to find resources."
Yes, it was the Age of Geographical Discovery. Although 30,000 kilometers is a long distance, as long as the distance is accurate, it means that it is possible to reach. There is infinite space outside!
Therefore, the explorers of the bubble world ran out like crazy.
The most direct consequence was that the space in the bubble world was tight, and even the floating cities could not move, otherwise they would hit the rubble. In order to protect the living environment, the rulers at that time organized a fleet to stop the explorers.
A protracted war of confrontation.
The winners were the League of Explorers. After a long time, they finally reached the edge of the rock formation, but... [There was nothing to be excited about. The Helix reached the bottom of the sea.]
This simple sentence gave Sato goosebumps all of a sudden. "So the bubble world is not the opposite of the blue planet, and the aliens in the bubble world are equivalent to the underground people in "100,000 Unsolved Mysteries"?!"
So after 100,000 years of development, the aliens have only just come to the surface? !
It took a hundred thousand years of hard work to get humanity its starting point.
Shocked!
It was like an air hammer hitting Sato's brain.
It wasn't that smooth. Because there were no liquids or gases in the bubble world, the expedition team was completely wiped out when they first encountered seawater.
In the ancient legends of the bubble world, there may be magma. But as the rock layers stabilize, the magma also solidifies. So liquid only exists in the myths of the bubble world and the theoretical knowledge of scientists. When all aliens saw seawater for the first time, they were shocked. They named this liquid invisible rock.
Breaking through the invisible rock barrier, and then the gas.
Each step is very difficult.
The first alien to drive a spaceship out of the ocean was called Gagarin. He also received the final reward for the 100,000 years of exploration of the earth's core civilization.
He saw the brilliant starry sky!
[“What are you doing here?” Feng Fan asked.
The aliens said: We are just passing by. When we saw an intelligent civilization here, we wanted to find someone to talk to. We will talk to whoever reaches the top of the mountain first.
"The mountain is there, and there will always be someone to climb it."
The alien said: Yes, climbing is the nature of intelligent creatures. They all want to stand higher and see farther. This is not a necessity for survival. For example, if you want to survive, you will run away from this mountain, but you climbed up. There is a deeper reason why evolution has given intelligent civilization the desire to climb high, and we don’t know what this reason is yet. Mountains are everywhere, and we are still at the foot of the mountain.]
After the two finished chatting, the alien spaceship flew away and the crisis for mankind was resolved.
But Sato was excited!
No wonder, he didn't understand, no wonder he went to fetch water after reading it.
"If there is something he can betray now to save his life, he will betray it. He must live because the mountain is everywhere." Sato murmured what the protagonist was thinking at the end of the story.
What is a mountain?
Mountains are rock formations to people who travel the world.
For humans, mountains are the starry sky above their heads.
Alien invasions and the like are not the core of this story at all. Because Gu Lu is using the bubble world to express the greatness of human exploration!
The article almost explicitly states that Gagarin is Yuri Gagarin, a former Soviet astronaut, the first human to enter space, the first human to see the entire blue planet.
Mountains are obstacles!
And humans are born to climb mountains!
Seriously, Sato, who had been feeling a little weak, instantly felt refreshed.
"It turns out that it is not only a satire on the gap between the rich and the poor, but also points out the aging of society. It also describes the romance of mankind's eternal upward climb and eternal pursuit of space. It is described vividly."
The last time Sato had this feeling was when he was watching "Legend of the Galactic Heroes" by Yoshiki Tanaka.
After reading this article, I don’t want to read anything else.
Sato stood up and paced 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 "Mountain" was placed at the back of the magazine, because Sato was no longer in the mood to read other works and turned to the survey page.
It is a reader feedback ticket of SF Magazine, which is used to vote for the most favorite works in this issue. Gu Lu's works were in the lead in the first three votes, and he even won the first and second place.
Gu Lu showed such exaggerated dominance that readers nicknamed him "Son of the Future of Science Fiction". It's not that Japanese science fiction is low. It's that Liu Cixin's science fiction level is world-class, whether it's long or short. And what Gu Lu got was a collection. To be more specific, it was the best short story written by Liu Cixin.
Not only in Japan, but even in Europe and the United States, it is still a strong presence.
He filled out the feedback form coupon.
I turned on my computer and logged into the official forum of SF Magazine. When I saw something good, I wanted to read other people's comments.
"No wonder, I understand Kinoshita again." Sato clicked the screen and thought. With this quality, it is normal to ask Gu Lu to invite him to contribute.
On the sf forum, the first batch of readers who bought the magazine have indeed started a heated discussion.
[Why is there only one article today? Why? Is the translator lazy? This sudden change makes me very uneasy.]
[The mountain is there, there are always people climbing it. Just one sentence gives me goosebumps. I can always see praise for all mankind in Gu Lusang’s works.]
[It took the people of the bubble world 100,000 years to get to the starting point of our human race. 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 was the first person in the world to fly into space. In the 14th century, he wanted to use a homemade rocket to fly into space. I also searched online and found that the International Astronomical Union named a crater on the back of the moon as Wan Hu as early as the 1970s. Copernicus and Wan Hu, this is our human pursuit of the starry sky above our heads forever!]
[It was 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 layer and reached the bottom of the sea, I was completely stunned. I envy Mr. Gu Lu's imagination so much.]
[I learned a lot. Wan Hu, Copernicus, Gagarin, they are all heroes of mankind. When Gagarin in history saw our blue planet from space, was he as shocked as Gagarin in the article who came to the surface for the first time?]
These are all discussions about the content of the book.
But there was a deviation later on, and a Japanese reader asked: Do we have such a hero in Japan?
The work caused quite a stir.
Gu Lu’s reputation among the future sons of Japanese sci-fi is becoming more and more famous.
The person involved is still unaware of this matter.
The person is on the phone——
"Uncle Jian, I'll follow you." Gu Lu said, "The new president of the publishing house is really unreliable. He insisted on only giving me 16%."
"I've received two phone calls in the past two days. All of them were empty promises, asking me to help you join the Federation of Literary and Art Circles. They also said that only the Children's Publishing House can bring out the best effect of books."
“It’s really unreliable.”
Gu Lu was speechless three times.
"Huh?" President Jian heard Xiao Gu's complaints on the other end of the phone. He didn't expect that the new president would be so stingy.
Thinking of this, President Jian suddenly said, "Xiao Gu, can you do me a favor?"
"Uncle Jian," Gu Lu said, "is the royalty rate of the new platform not too high? I have no problem with that. But it's not good to be too low either. Flowers for Algernon is still of very high quality."
When you first join a publishing house, even if you are the top executive, it is normal that you cannot offer very good conditions if you are parachuted in. This is what Gu Lu thought.
"Xiao Gu, you will suffer if you are so honest with others. This is not the question." President Jian chuckled and said, "Have any other publishing houses contacted you?"
"Both Xinxing Publishing House and New Youth Publishing House have contacted me," said Gu Lu.
"What are 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, "the royalty rate of top best-selling authors."
For a top bestselling author, that's seventeen or eighteen points.
"That's great. Xiao Gu, you can go to the New Youth Publishing House to get a high share of your new book Flowers for Algernon."
"?" Gu Lu held the phone in silence for a moment. He even suspected that he had heard it wrong.
"If it's convenient, Xiao Gu, please do me a favor." President Jian said, "The publicity strength and distribution channels of the New Youth Publishing House are still very strong, even stronger than the Children's Publishing House in some aspects. Although I am not familiar with President Cheng and President Wang, I have heard of them. They have good personalities."
Gu Lu probably understood that if he followed President Jian to the new publishing house, President Jian would not be rewarded too much because he would be suspected of forming cliques. Even if there are cliques in the workplace, you can't show it so obviously.
In addition, the new president Yuan Mingjie, who lost a best-selling author as soon as he took office, will not be punished too much because Gu Lu is still in Century Publishing Company and is in the rotten pot.
But Gu Lu was forced to go to another publishing house...
The adult workplace is terrifying.
You know, as a veteran in the workplace, President Jian is not a good man. He abides by the rules and does not intend to take away familiar authors, but that does not mean he will not attack if he has the chance.
If the sales of Flowers for Algernon reached 500,000 or 1 million copies, it would cause direct losses to the head office.
It's always like this. It's okay to suffer business losses, but it's very bad to see your competitors making money, especially when the money is given by you.
That’s enough for the new president to drink!
"No problem, Uncle Jian." It had no impact on Gu Lu at all, killing two birds with one stone.
"Thank you for your help, Xiao Gu." President Jian thanked him.
He originally wanted to exchange a few words of pleasantries, but Gu Lu heard other noises from the other side, so he must be busy with something.
"It's not a problem. I can get more for such a small matter if I cooperate with another publishing house. Uncle Jian, you just go ahead and do your work. We'll talk again when you're free." After saying that, Gu Lu tactfully hung up the phone.
The city is full of tricks, and Gu Lu wants to go back to the countryside.
There was no rush. Gu Lu packed his spare clothes for the trip to West Lake before calling President Wang.
Vice President Wang once broke his son's heart with his short story collection "Yesterday's Park". He is a very sinister middle-aged man.
(End of this chapter)