Starting as a Wallfacer, his defection to the Three-Body Problem shocked the world.

Just as Lin Xuan was heading to the Three-Body Games to attend the ETO all-staff meeting, another meeting was also taking place simultaneously.

Inside the PIA building, Wade sat at the conference table, tapping the surface lightly with his fingers.

"Then, Cheng, could you please reiterate the entire process of the Ladder Project to everyone once again?"

Across the conference table, Cheng Xin felt uneasy under Wade's fierce gaze. Even though she had been working at PIA for so long, she was still not used to making eye contact with Wade, as it gave her the illusion that she was prey being watched by a lion.

Cheng Xin handed the photocopied plan to Vadim, who readily accepted it and distributed it to everyone.

"This is the final revised version of the plan from the PDC. They have approved the feasibility of this plan. Simply put, we want to launch a probe carrying humans to the Trisolaran fleet 4 light-years away. The speed of this probe must reach one percent of the speed of light. Therefore, in terms of mass, we can only reduce it again and again. The final design plan is that the probe can only hold the brain of one person."

"Then we will send this probe containing the human brain into space, and with the thrust of a nuclear bomb, we will propel the radiation sail on the probe to accelerate it layer by layer, eventually achieving a flight speed of one percent of the speed of light."

"Because the acceleration process of this plan is very similar to climbing stairs, we unanimously decided to name it the Ladder Project."

When the first few versions of the ladder plan were being developed, at least one-third of the people present were participants. But now that the plan has been fully approved by the PDC, it needs to be communicated and explained to all members of the PIA department.

Cheng Xin even worked through the night to prepare many PowerPoint presentations for this purpose, but they were all rejected by Weide.

In accordance with Wade's original words.

“We just need to inform them, not take into account other people’s opinions, so your job is just to explain it to them. Whether they understand it or not is irrelevant.”

Cheng Xin was already used to it. Her director had taken the phrase "any means necessary" to the extreme. Thomas Wade would ignore anything that didn't affect his overall plans.

Cheng Xin sometimes even felt that if the leader of PIA were changed to Deputy Director Yu Weimin, there might be more honest and kind people like Vadim within the entire PIA.

If Wade knew Cheng Xin's thoughts, he would definitely scoff at her pity.

PIA is the intelligence gathering and processing department of PDC. This is a war against the Trisolarans. If the entire PIA were composed of honest people like Vadim, they might as well just surrender to the Trisolarans.

"What we need to discuss now is who should carry out Project Ladder, because the ultimate goal of this project is to send a human brain into space, so we must kill the person who is involved in the project beforehand."

Wade spoke these words in the coldest tone, which made Cheng Xin feel goosebumps all over her body.

She felt that she could never make such a decision, since it seemed too unfair to let anyone die.

This was simply too cruel. Cheng Xin couldn't imagine that the brain that preserved a human's emotions and consciousness would wander alone for light-years in the frigid space at minus two hundred degrees Celsius. But this was not its final destination.

It will eventually be captured by the Trisolarans and then subjected to various studies.

After all, no one knows what kind of cruel torture a human brain would suffer if it were captured by the Trisolarans.

"Regarding the selection of candidates, I have submitted an application to the PDC to pass the Euthanasia Act, hoping that the PDC can intervene and promote this plan. Unfortunately, only three countries agreed to the proposal and began to implement the euthanasia clause in their countries. Therefore, we can only select candidates from these three countries."

Like a narrator in a game, after explaining to everyone, Wade kicked the table in front of him, distancing himself from the meeting.

He will not participate in any further discussion.

In the end, it was Yu Weimin, the deputy director of the PIA's China branch, who broke the silence first.

"We can first envision what kind of person would be selected to participate in this project. First, he must be a patient or someone who agrees to euthanasia. Second, he must have some knowledge of aerospace; we can't send an idiot up there. Third, he must be sufficiently loyal to human society."

"Fourth, he must be a reclusive person, preferably the kind who cannot integrate into human society."

This was added by Wade, who immediately drew everyone's attention to him.

"why?"

This is the question Cheng Xin asked.

She could understand the first three conditions, but Cheng Xin just couldn't understand why the fourth condition was wrong.

"The reason is simple."

Wade pulled himself back to the table.

“We need this person to enter a world full of aliens. If he is someone who can integrate well into human society, he will quickly have a mental breakdown after entering the Trisolaran world and losing the human world as an emotional support. Therefore, this person should ideally be a loner who does not often interact with others.”

At this point, a figure involuntarily came to mind for Cheng Xin.

Yun Tianming.

Cheng Xin met Yun Tianming in her freshman year. In Cheng Xin's eyes, Yun Tianming was always so aloof, and he seemed unable to integrate with the people around him.

Cheng Xin had met some people with withdrawn personalities before, but compared to Yun Tianming, they could even be called sunshine. Yun Tianming was like a cold tomb, and anyone who got close to him would be overwhelmed by his withdrawn personality.

Cheng Xin's feelings for Yun Tianming were mostly concern. During her undergraduate years, she offered Yun Tianming a bit of warmth, but to put it bluntly, this offering was more like a strong person giving charity to a weak person.

Cheng Xin likes the kind of boy who is sunny and cheerful, while Yun Tianming is the opposite of that kind of person. Therefore, when Cheng Xin interacts with Yun Tianming, she is always careful, afraid of hurting his fragile heart.

But Yun Tianming is a healthy person.

He could not possibly be a participant in the Ladder Project. No, Cheng Xin felt it was too cruel for anyone to participate in the project.

Hopefully, Wade won't ultimately give her the power to choose the person, otherwise she'll live with that guilt for years to come.

The meeting ultimately failed to decide who would participate in the plan.

However, this is not a big deal. After all, it will take a long time to complete the initial setup of Project Ladder, maybe half a year, maybe a few months. Their focus will be on Cape Calaveral Space Station from now on.

……

Yun Tianming woke up from the chair. Although Lin Xuan had optimized the ingredients of the sleeping pills, the long period of deep sleep still made him feel a little dizzy.

"How about it?"

While recording experimental data with instruments, Wang Miao handed over a box of prepared instant noodles.

"In the thirty-fifth attempt, humanity created a bacterial weapon, which was then used to kill each other and ended in failure a year later."

Yun Tianming took the instant noodles and ate them in big mouthfuls. After his brain had done a lot of calculations, his body was clearly showing signs of hunger.

Just as Lin Xuan had initially envisioned, he wanted to use this database to simulate the final results of humanity developing different technology trees under different circumstances.

However, due to Yun Tianming's limited computing power, the number of opponents he could simulate in the dream world was less than twenty.

On the computer screen, what he created looked more like an FPS shooting game to Wang Miao.

It simply doesn't depict a war between civilizations.

Fortunately, Lin Xuan's machine has a cleverly designed loading process. All processed data is stored in that huge database and can be retrieved directly when needed, saving the brain a lot of loading computational power.

Yun Tianming first expanded the map of the Super Dream World, spending about three days to expand the battlefield from Jinghang's playground to half of Kyoto. Then he spent about a day constructing human models to participate in the experiment.

"The process of creating a character's face is too complicated. You don't need to be so meticulous. This isn't a game. Just create a basic human-like figure. It's best to choose someone you know best."

After completing the preliminary design of the space elevator, Wang Miao was transferred by Lin Xuan to take charge of assisting Yun Tianming.

Sometimes, when he has nothing to do, he will enter the dream space and use his brainpower to provide some new data models for the database.

"it is good."

Yun Tianming agreed and began to create human models for the experiments.

After sitting in front of the computer for a while, Wang Miao suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"Dude, what the hell do you mean? I asked you to build a familiar human model, and you built me ​​into it? What are you trying to do?"

On the playground, twenty Wang Miao stood in neat rows, their expressions blank, looking like a group of emotionless robots.

Upon hearing this, Yun Tianming had no choice but to modify the character model construction. However, after working on it for a long time, the Mewtwo database kept showing errors.

"Um... I don't know many people."

Yun Tianming was a little embarrassed. He really wanted to create a familiar person, but after searching through his memories for a long time, he couldn't find a single acquaintance.

Don't you have any friends?

"No."

"Where are the parents?"

"They're divorced, and I haven't seen them much lately."

"You must have a girlfriend, right?"

"We broke up. We only dated twice, and I can't even remember what they looked like."

Yun Tianming's few words shocked Wang Miao for the entire day.

Damn it, this guy is really weird. The person he knows best in his life is actually himself, whom he's only known for less than half a month.

"Alright, alright, just use me to build it."

Wang Miao had no choice but to suppress the urge to vomit, and stared at the screens of himself typing away on the computer.

It's all Lin Xuan's fault. Damn it, after this is over, I'm going to make him compensate me with three times my salary as compensation for emotional distress.

"Shock level from Wang Miao +25."