Chapter 102: Self-Destruct Protocol

"At the same time, Mr. Huang, you may also want to evaluate whether there will be significant danger in carrying you to the sky in this manner..." Academician Ding said earnestly.

After more than a month of preparation and with the strong support of the Black Dragon's scales and jawbone, the Xia military had successfully prepared that 50-megaton yield "big mushroom." They were just waiting for the Black Dragon to scout the path ahead, after which it could be delivered at any time as an offering to the gods in the heavens.

As for the prospect of bombing the gods, the Black Dragon was undoubtedly looking forward to it and naturally agreed without hesitation. Truth be told, it really wanted to go up and take a look, to see what the sky thousands of kilometers above was like. Was it rich in magic elements? Was the air sweet? And what were the true conditions of the stars and divine kingdoms where the gods resided?

If the Black Dragon could also seize a star for itself, would that count as ascending to godhood?

...

63.8 kilometers per second!

Under the control of the command center, the hydrogen bomb buried at the bottom of the launch shaft was successfully detonated. Almost at the same instant, the metal well cover placed on top vanished without a trace. Ultimately, it was only through frame-by-frame analysis from high-speed cameras that its initial velocity could be calculated: a staggering 63.8 kilometers per second!

However, the high-speed cameras could only track it for a fraction of a second, because within that tiny span of time, the cover had already flown twenty or thirty kilometers away. Even the most advanced high-speed cameras found it difficult to capture any further footage.

Yet, the Black Dragon could.

During this period, our Black Dragon friend had not been idle. While cooperating with the "Naturalized Dragon" script, it never forgot to study and improve itself. Its brain's ability to control its body was becoming increasingly proficient and powerful. Furthermore, the "plug-in" that its heart had previously tried to force—or rather, the Eye of Truth it had attempted to fuse—had been dug out by the Black Dragon once again.

Initially, the Black Dragon had intended to uninstall it, but later it felt somewhat reluctant. It felt the quality of the Eye of Truth was actually quite good and highly compatible with its own body, so discarding it seemed a pity. Of course, the Black Dragon didn't dare replace its original dragon eyes with it; it simply had a sudden inspiration and took a different approach, imitating Erlang Shen by opening an eye on its forehead to house the Eye of Truth. It opened it when needed and closed it when not—it was, surprisingly, quite convenient.

And the name "Two-Dragon God" sounded pretty good, too.

The Black Dragon closed its eyes, activated the Eye of Truth on its forehead, and under its gaze, it easily tracked the entire process of the nuclear-powered well cover ascending to the sky. It wasn't that the Eye of Truth's performance was vastly superior to the high-speed cameras; rather, its observation of data and objects seemed to possess a certain magic, capable of seeing through the essence and straight into reality.

For instance, when the Black Dragon used it to track the nuclear-powered cover just now, it entered an ethereal, miraculous state. It was like the "bullet time" seen in movies: except for its own mind and the cover, the speed of everything else was severely slowed down. At first, when the Black Dragon realized this capability, it couldn't help but wonder if this thing had mastered some law of time, though it later realized it was overthinking it.

Although the Eye of Truth could produce an illusion of time dilation, its essence was actually a significant boost to processing power for pixels and data, allowing the brain to better absorb and digest the information. It was like watching a normal video at 1x speed, but being able to manually adjust it to 0.75x, 0.5x, or even 0.1x when encountering a segment that wasn't clear or was particularly exciting.

The Eye of Truth worked on a similar principle; it slowed down the flight of the nuclear-powered cover by about 2,000 times, naturally allowing the Black Dragon to track it clearly. Of course, using this ability came at a cost—it was mentally taxing. Every time it was used, the Black Dragon's brain would heat up, much like a computer with insufficient processing power running under an overload, causing the graphics card to overheat. This led the Black Dragon to wonder if it was time to upgrade and strengthen its brain.

"It took about 18 seconds to leave the atmosphere," the Black Dragon said after closing the Eye of Truth and resting for a dozen seconds. "When it exited the atmosphere, its speed dropped significantly. I'm not sure if the air resistance increased or if there were other factors."

"...Mr. Huang, what was the specific ratio of this drop?"

"About thirty percent. Its speed had already dropped quite a bit by the time it reached the atmosphere, and with that further decrease, it was probably around 30 kilometers per second."

"...It dropped that much?"

Academician Ding couldn't help but scratch his head. Although they had launched quite a few nuclear-powered well covers before, their observation methods were limited, so they truly hadn't known these data points.

"In that case... it seems unlikely we'll be able to deliver our 'big mushroom' right to the doorstep of those gods," Academician Ding remarked with regret. Xia's most advanced strategic nuclear missiles had a range exceeding 15,000 kilometers; calculating the apogee as half the range, this big mushroom could theoretically be delivered to an altitude of 7,500 kilometers.

"Now we can only hope that the space above 1,000 kilometers is primarily a vacuum. That way, our big mushroom can fly further and pose a greater threat to the gods."

A mushroom bomb actually requires a medium to propagate kinetic energy and cause damage. However, the gods in the heavens were likely more akin to energy-based entities, so detonating a mushroom bomb in a vacuum might actually be more lethal to them. In a vacuum, the energy released by the mushroom bomb would manifest primarily as gamma radiation—essentially a massive EMP bomb. For gods who enjoyed spreading pollution and mind control, this might be a rather large surprise.

Of course, Academician Ding also had to be thankful that the stars in the sky didn't seem too far from the material realm. If it were like Earth, where interplanetary distances were measured in hundreds of millions of kilometers and interstellar distances in light-years, Xia would truly have no way to threaten these beings.

"By the way, Mr. Huang, based on your intuition, do you think your physical constitution could withstand such a nuclear-powered well cover?" Academician Ding asked out of curiosity.

"This..." The Black Dragon pondered for a moment. "It should be fine."

"I think the danger of this thing lies in the immense impact force it endures and the rapid rise in temperature due to air friction during high-speed flight, which could potentially reach tens or even millions of degrees..."

"But based on my intuition, my physical strength should be able to withstand such dangers..."

"That's great. Mr. Huang, we will prepare a nuclear-powered shuttle for you shortly. Please help us scout the way to the heavens."

"...Very well."

The Black Dragon actually wanted to ask if this was a bit too hasty, but considering that the heavens had indeed been unsettled lately and there was a vague sense of conspiracy, it was understandable that the Academy of Sciences and the authorities were anxious.

...

"Mr. Huang, long time no see."

At an overseas frontier base, researcher Yu Xiaomin, having just regained his freedom, greeted the Black Dragon enthusiastically.

"Oh... you're back." The Black Dragon couldn't help but examine him for a moment, and inexplicably felt a sense of familiarity.

Previously, to save Yu Xiaomin, the Black Dragon had implanted a drop of golden dragon blood into his heart. Unexpectedly, even after so much time, that drop of blood still maintained a subtle connection with the Black Dragon's body.

*Didn't they say there wouldn't be any side effects? Didn't they say they weren't into god-worship?* The Black Dragon muttered to itself before asking, "How does it feel to be reborn? Have you had any strange dreams?"

"It's wonderful, of course. I feel like my body is more than three times stronger than before," Yu Xiaomin said with a smile. "As for dreams, I don't think I've had any strange ones. After the transformation of my life form and living in that magic-depleted environment within the country, my sleep hasn't been very deep lately, so I rarely dream..."

*That's good. I was really worried you'd be dreaming of me often. That would not only be awkward, but nine times out of ten, it wouldn't lead to anything good...* The Black Dragon thought, but replied aloud, "I heard from Academician Ding that you've been trying to charge your body like I do. How is it going? Did you succeed?"

"No." Yu Xiaomin gave a bitter smile. "Even with the drop of golden dragon blood provided by you, Mr. Huang, my body's affinity for electrical energy isn't very high. I nearly electrocuted myself to death a few times..."

"..."

The Black Dragon thought for a moment and said, "Could you tell me in detail about the specific changes to your body and mind after undergoing this life-form transformation?"

"Changes..." Yu Xiaomin became serious. For some reason, when facing the Black Dragon, he couldn't help but feel a sense of awe and submission, so he answered quickly. "There are quite a few specific changes. First, the microscopic field of my body has been locked; I can no longer see anything below the micrometer level. My height, weight, body temperature, respiratory rate, and heart rate have all shown significant changes."

"I'm not afraid of you laughing at me, Mr. Huang, but when my body fully recovered and stabilized, I even voluntarily donated sperm to our Academy of Sciences. After they conducted experiments, they discovered that my sperm seems to have completely lost its activity and cannot combine with normal egg cells."

"..."

The Black Dragon felt a bit ashamed. As expected, those scientific researchers had more of a scientific spirit; they had thought of donating sperm to the Academy of Sciences so quickly and even taken action. Unlike itself, which had been procrastinating for so long without any contribution.

"As for my mind..." Yu Xiaomin said, "Perhaps I've become more indifferent and extreme. My passion for science and the country is clearly not as high as it used to be. I also find it very easy to become agitated and feel as though I need to find some kind of sustenance to achieve peace..."

*...No way. Are they really going to start that "god" nonsense?* The Black Dragon felt panicked and asked, "...Have there been any obvious changes in your perception of me?"

"That's for certain." Yu Xiaomin said without hesitation. "After all, you saved me, Mr. Huang. No matter how much I admire or revere you, it wouldn't be an exaggeration."

"...I mean, setting aside this gratitude, have there been any significant changes?" the Black Dragon asked gravely.

"...It seems there is a little." Yu Xiaomin didn't dare to look into the Black Dragon's eyes, bowing his head. "I didn't feel it much before, but now when I see you, Mr. Huang, I can't help but feel a desire to prostrate myself in worship."

"...Researcher Yu, you used to be a scientist; you should know what this is about." The Black Dragon said solemnly. "This is likely what they call 'god worship,' which is nothing but superstition. I suggest you overcome this mentality as soon as possible, as it is better for you and better for me."

"You said you wanted to find spiritual sustenance. I recommend you read more Marxism-Leninism and the works of the Chairman. The ideas and philosophies there are much more suitable for you."

"..."

"I'm not being alarmist," the Black Dragon continued. "You should have heard that I brought back a hellhound not long ago."

"At the time, I successfully controlled its body using my black-gold dragon blood. But later, when I intended to communicate with it and learn more about this new employee, I was shocked to find that its intelligence had suffered a major problem."

"My heart later told me that as a hound raised by the Wolf King Grier, there was a soul imprint deep in the hellhound Paros's consciousness. We can view it as a self-destruct program. As soon as the situation turned bad, Grier would automatically wake it up, clearing the data in the hellhound's mind to prevent future trouble."

"So, upon discovering it might lose control of the hellhound's body, Grier quickly activated this program, clearing all of Paros's memories of Hell and the Wolf King, leaving only a mentally disabled hellhound."

"Therefore, if you also prostrate yourself in worship to me, our relationship might well evolve into something like that..."

"...A self-destruct program in the soul?" Yu Xiaomin was shocked. He understood what the Black Dragon meant. Its golden dragon blood was likely also a means of consciousness control. The Black Dragon might not use it now, but who knew if it would in the future?

*As expected, there is a price for every gift from a god...* Yu Xiaomin couldn't help but feel a sense of melancholy. Although the Black Dragon was not a god yet, it clearly already possessed certain characteristics of one.