Did the world end today?

Chapter 37 The Bloodstained Zhurong
"so."

"So my top priority now is to find a device that can access the internet to search for information."

Before the skull could say another word, Lin Xu interrupted him.

The skull looked incredulous.

"What the hell?! Weren't you just talking about the end of the world and escaping in a rocket?"

"Your change of heart is too sudden! Do you have a split personality?"

"Are you suffering from some kind of mental illness?"

"You're the one who's mentally ill."

Lin Xu rolled his eyes.

"You'd believe me if I said it was the end of the world? Would you believe me if I said your wife was a slut?"

"I don't believe it."

The skull immediately shook its head.

"So you're kidding me??"

"Yeah, what else?"

As Lin Xu took off his equipment, he casually replied:

"Anyway, it's raining and I'm just killing the kids, I might as well do something else."

"The conditions are not right today, so the operation cannot continue."

"I need to go inside the park first. If you want to come along, then come with me. If not, just wait in the car."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Xu opened the car door.

As before, the skull quickly removed its equipment and followed closely behind him.

What are you going to do in the park?

"The skull asked."

"Didn't I tell you? Go online."

"I need a device to look up information, but we don't have one. So, we'll have to look for one in the park?"

"It makes a lot of sense, but it also seems illogical."

The skull was full of question marks. He had many questions, but he didn't know where to start, so he could only follow Lin Xu into the park.

With a clear goal in mind, Lin Xu checked his iris and identity before heading straight to the exhibition hall.

The holographic projection terminal in the exhibition hall is not just for display purposes. Like most large display screens in Lin Xu's era, it is essentially a computer.

Although company permissions restrict its use to things like playing games or watching videos, it's still perfectly fine for looking up information.

Watching his fluid and graceful movements, the skull couldn't help but ask:
"It seems like you've been planning this for a long time. So what exactly are you looking for?"

"Find information about the Zhurong Mars rover."

Lin Xu replied.

The skull beside him looked at him with a puzzled expression, frowned, and asked:

"A Mars rover? Why are you interested in that stuff?"

"Tsk, you even mentioned the apocalypse and stuff. You wouldn't happen to be a member of that 'Planetary Reincarnation' organization, would you?"

After he finished speaking, it was Lin Xu's turn to be stunned.

In fact, this was the first time he had ever heard the term "planetary cycle" from the skull's mouth.

This made him realize that he might have fallen into some kind of misconception.

That's right. In 2025, Planetary Reincarnation was still an extremely secretive organization, or perhaps it didn't even exist. No matter how hard you tried, you couldn't find any information about it.

But what about 2045?

This organization has already been in the news, and Xu Jin has been publicly identified as a wanted criminal.

The organization's influence is expanding, while its secrecy is decreasing.

If you want to find information about it, you can ask someone directly or even search online; that might also yield results.

Depend on!
What about all the things I went through all that trouble before?

Lin Xu wanted to slap himself twice. As he continued walking towards the exhibition hall, he asked:
"You know about planetary cycles? So what exactly is that organization?"

"A terrorist organization, what kind of organization? A terrorist organization that keeps shouting that the end of the world is coming."

The skull seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

"If you're asking this, it means you have no connection with that organization, right?"

"Of course it's okay, otherwise would I need to ask you?"

Lin Xu asked in return, as was the natural thing to do. The skull nodded and replied:

"It's best if it's okay; everyone in that organization is crazy."

"Have you heard of organizations like ISIS and the Taliban from before?"

“Planetary reincarnation is more extreme than them. In fact, it can be said that the extreme nature of planetary reincarnation is not even on the same level as the extreme nature of those religions that were previously controlled.”

"This is something that ordinary people may not be very familiar with."

"After all, the domestic environment is relatively stable and the counter-terrorism forces are relatively strong."

"But I've lived in the Middle East before, and you have no idea how much fear a red and green flag can instill in us."

“Those people are brainless; they have no concept of ‘casualties’ when they fight.”

"Even if they were holding fire sticks, they would still dare to charge forward despite being hit by 12.7mm bullets."

"Has that guy ever watched zombie movies? When they go crazy, they're just like the zombies in the movies."

"That's so exaggerated??"

Lin Xu looked at the skull with a hint of suspicion.

Judging from the other party's description, the so-called "planetary reincarnation" is indeed a completely extremist organization.

They are violent, cruel, fanatical, and can even be described as anti-human.

These traits are consistent with the description I heard from the interrogator in the Coast Guard office.

At the time, I thought that the other party had deliberately exaggerated the facts in order to achieve their goal of attacking me, or even made a certain degree of "slander".

But now it seems that this organization is not clean at all.

It wasn't just unclean; it was shockingly filthy. But how could that be?
This is an organization whose ultimate goal is to "go to Mars"!
Their entire organization is built on the foundation of "science".

And it is clear that this organization has also recruited a group of genuine scientific researchers, such as Xu Jin.

How could these people possibly tolerate such a thing happening?
Lin Xu frowned. At this moment, he had already walked to the holographic projection in the middle of the exhibition hall.

"Search for information about the 'Planetary Cycle' organization."

The result popped up instantly, but Lin Xu quickly realized that this was not what he was really looking for at all.

The results were largely "criminal descriptions" of planetary cycles, interspersed with introductions, debunking, and critical articles from official institutions.

From this information, Lin Xu couldn't find any crucial clues at all.

Is this really the organization in my own head?
Is this really the planetary cycle organization that is "determined to go to Mars no matter what" and is deeply tied to space exploration?
Or is this just a part of them?

Lin Xu vaguely sensed that at this point in time, the planetary reincarnation organization had already split.

The more radical parts of the organization have strayed from its original mission and are heading in an uncontrollable direction.

These peripheral and uncontrollable aspects also form a thick shell, confusing the public and diverting official attention, tightly enveloping the true core and making it impossible to investigate.

Is this a proactive choice, or a forced result of passive development?
Lin Xu didn't know.

But he knew that the path of finding clues through "internet searches" was completely blocked.

To this day, the official attention is still on the "surface" of the planetary reincarnation organization. It's not so easy for us to get to the core.

We must proceed step by step.

Lin Xu sighed deeply.

"Search for information related to the Mars rover 'Zhurong'."

He continued to issue commands to the AI, and the results quickly appeared.

Unlike the results he found in 2025, this time, most of the information records the life of the Mars rover in greater detail.

Launched in 2024, it will land on Mars at the end of 2024.

Semi-metallic hydrogen was discovered, suspected liquid water was found, numerous photos of the Martian landscape were taken, and some rock samples were sampled and analyzed.
In 2030, the probe experienced its first malfunction.

For the next three years, it operated intermittently until it was completely scrapped at the end of 2033.

Its history should have ended there.

However, a piece of information that left Lin Xu speechless appeared before his eyes.

In 2035, the first official scientific research vessel, the "Donghuang Taiyi" heavy-duty manned spacecraft, will land on Mars.

Then, in mid-2035, the Zhurong Mars probe will launch from Mars.

In January 2036, the return capsule carrying the Zhurong spacecraft will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

Due to a control system malfunction, the return capsule deviated from its planned trajectory and landed in the Nabq region, 62 kilometers northwest of Damascus, the Syrian capital.

The detector was eventually retrieved by the Chinese government.

It's really back!

Lin Xu recalled Xu Jin's words.

"We must bring the Zhurong ship back."

So, it was him who did it?
Lin Xu remained silent in thought, and just then, the skull beside him suddenly spoke:
"Nebk, ah, that's a familiar name."

"familiar?"

Lin Xu turned to the skull.

"Have you been to Naibuk?"

"of course."

The skull pointed to the text on the holographic projection and continued:

"Doesn't it say here? The Zhurong has landed in Naibuk."

"At the time, I was working at another PMC and happened to be involved in security work."

"I have a very strong impression of this matter."

"That was truly the bloodiest scene I've ever seen."

"bloody?!"

Lin Xu was dumbfounded.

"what's the situation?"

"Attack."

The skull clicked its tongue:

"You can't find this kind of information through public channels, so just consider it a bonus when you purchase our services."

"In short, the Planetary Cycle Organization has assembled a large number of armed personnel in an attempt to seize the Zhurong probe."

“In Naibuk, they lost at least a thousand lives.”

"And we also lost many people."

"I've heard—just heard—that our overseas personnel have suffered more than 50 casualties."

"Since then, the Coast Guard, in cooperation with overseas PMCs, spent three years almost completely eradicating all extremist organizations in the Middle East. ISIS, Sham and the like were completely wiped out during that period."

"However, such a big operation, in the end, is nothing more than an ordinary sentence to ordinary people: 'The joint peacekeeping mission of multiple countries in the Middle East has been successfully completed.'"

"Domestically, the commotion was a bit bigger—the National Security Bureau also cracked down on a number of people, some of whom even made the news."

"Who?"

Lin Xu's expression suddenly changed.

"Xu Jin? Has that name been on the news?"

"I do not remember."

The skull shrugged.

"But this name sounds familiar, right?"

It should exist, so it must exist.

Lin Xu breathed a long sigh of relief.

Now everything makes sense.
(End of this chapter)