Chapter 18:
Earth: Do you remember what color the clothes you were wearing four to five billion years ago?

Tang Song was stunned for a moment, subconsciously confirming, “Mom?”

The young couple Manman and Si Jiayang clearly focused on another thing. They both asked in unison, “Erosion area?”

Jing Qizhen raised his eyebrows and said without changing his expression, “Mother Earth or Mother Ball (Mother Planet).”

Tang Song: …???

Everyone else: …

They felt there must be many children with little question marks.

Even the young couple Manman and Si Jiayang were interrupted by the term ‘Mother Earth’ and did not bother to ask questions about the erosion area. They asked confusedly, “Mother Earth?”

The group of people were repeating the name ‘Mother Earth’ over and over again. Jing Qizhen was about to drive the Earth crazy. It cursed at Jing Qizhen more and more fiercely, “Jing Qizhen, I#￥&￥…”

Jing Qizhen turned a deaf ear to the full-screen garbled Earth language attack, and told the story of the first time he heard the voice of the Earth in the ‘erosion area’. As for the ‘erosion area’ and the bubble universe hypothesis, they naturally come from the voice in his head that claimed to be the Earth.

When Jing Qizhen finished explaining all the causes and effects of the whole matter clearly and straightforwardly manner, the conference room suddenly fell into silence.

Tang Song was the first to react and said bluntly, “The doctor has checked your brain CT and there is nothing wrong with your brain.”

Manman and Si Jiayang looked at each other. As game enthusiasts, plus reading many similar unlimited-flow novels, the young couple said, “This is more like NPC who gives out tasks in games.”

The Earth continued to dance in Jing Qizhen’s mind, “I’m not an NPC that sends out tasks!”

Jing Qizhen said without changing his expression, “The Earth said that it is not an NPC that sends out tasks.”

Si Jiayang: …

Manman took a breath and said decisively, “Have you asked the ball, what’s going on in the erosion area?”

Jing Qizhen said briefly, “I’ve already asked it.”

He then explained clearly everything the Earth had told him and how the Earth didn’t know anything about the situation in other disappearance areas.

Si Jiayang couldn’t resist complaining, “Isn’t this just like the novice guide NPC in many online games? It only has a few dialogues that go back and forth with questions. After the basic dialogue is finished, the NPC will only know to say clichés like ‘Welcome to XXX Novice Village, great adventurer’.”

The Earth was about to explode due to Si Jiayang’s comments. It didn’t even care about Jing Qizhen’s previous words of ‘mother ball’, but shouted angrily in Jing Qizhen’s mind, “I’m not a stupid NPC! I’m completely different from those bastard balls who lean on me because they are stupid! I have self-awareness, I am a thoughtful ball with the ability to reason and think!”

The noise the Earth was making gave him a headache. Jing Qizhen reminded it in a low voice, “Can you please lower your voice?”

After a pause, Jing Qizhen simply relayed the ball’s words to Si Jiayang, “The ball accuses you of making a personal attack on him.”

Si Jiayang: “…Um, sorry.”

Tang Song did not participate in the conversation but had already picked up the phone and started making a call.

“I’m Tang Song. Yes, help me contact some professors in astronomy and space physics. Yes, the research direction is mainly about space and the universe. No, it’s not convenient for me to go there. I’ll trouble those professors later to start a video conference. We can have a video conference here. I’ll tell them the details later. Okay, that’s it. Wait a minute. Let’s invite a few professors who study geology and earth science too!”

When Tang Song put down the phone and looked up, he found that everyone sitting at the conference table was looking at him.

Tang Song blinked, then smiled with his small tiger tooth, “Ah… is there any problem?”

Jing Qizhen spoke on behalf of everyone, “We had guessed that you’ll be well prepared, but we didn’t expect that you to be so fully…”

Tang Song smiled again, “What’s the difference between us? I’m already joining you in quarantine. Now, better prepare more and make everyone feel at ease. We must use our collective strength!”

It’s almost early morning now.

Young people like Jing Qizhen, Manman, Si Jiayang, and Wilcox who stayed up late from time to time were completely unaware of the time. Tang Song and Yan Hong often had to work overtime and had plenty of energy. However, Grandma Fang and Jin Guijuan, who had a relatively regular schedule, as well as the tired middle-aged working man Old Xiao, yawned in fatigue.

Tang Song looked at them and suggested with a smile, “If you are tired, why don’t you go rest first?”

After saying that, Tang Song looked at Jing Qizhen again and said apologetically, “I want you to wait a little longer. We have invited a few experts to come over. Can you please explain the situation of the Earth and the ‘erosion area’ to the professionals later?”

Jing Qizhen nodded, “Okay.”

Jing Qizhen was no longer intentionally making the Earth angry and now the ball was a little proud as it said, “Ha! An expert in earth science! I knew that you humans can’t live without me!”

Jing Qizhen agreed, “Yes, mankind cannot live without you. If one day you scream, ‘I am going to commit suicide, no one can stop me,’ I guarantee that except for a few cultists, people all over the world will run over to stop you and tell you, ‘Ball, you must live well!’”

The Earth: “Yes, that’s it. But why do I think your tone is weird?”

Jing Qizhen’s expression remained unchanged and his heartbeat did not change. “I think you’re mistaken.”

The Earth: =v= “Okay, I want to see the experts in earth science among you humans.”

Jing Qizhen took out his mobile phone and started searching on the Internet for universities related to earth science at home and abroad, and then made a list for the Earth, “Here.”

The Earth was moved, “Well, I will go over when I have time to listen to how you humans teach courses about earth science. You know, as the ball involved, the feeling is completely different from that of a mere listener.” =v=

Jing Qizhen understood deeply, “Yes!”

“Hey, let me see the time difference. Are there universities in any continent teaching now? Yes, a class is open!” The Earth was excited.

Jing Qizhen stopped it. “Wait, can you go after listening to the discussions of the professionals here?”

The Earth: 0.0 “Okay! Then I will reluctantly agree.”

Tang Song had already switched the screen wall to video conferencing mode. Soon, the images of several well-known experts and professors in the industry appeared on the screen wall that was divided into several small screens.

However, Tang Song did not turn on the video camera on their side. He just pushed a small desktop microphone in front of Jing Qizhen and gestured towards him.

Jing Qizhen adjusted the microphone and breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as he opened his mouth, he was keenly aware that the microphone actually had a voice changer…

Jing Qizhen calmly narrated the whole thing in a strange voice that even his own mother couldn’t recognize. He originally thought that the professionals would keep asking questions, but as soon as he stopped speaking, they instead stood up to have a heated discussion – their voice was as lively as a barrage of artillery fire.

If they weren’t speaking through the network cable, Jing Qizhen was sure that these experts would roll up their sleeves and start fighting.

However, despite the fierce quarrel – no, it should be called a debate – in general, they quickly reached a consensus on certain conclusions through this video conference.

Although they were suspicious of the existence of earth consciousness, after they reluctantly believed in this matter, the geology professor changed his skeptical attitude and actively tried to convince Jing Qizhen to call the Earth out to help answer some questions about the Earth’s chronology.

However, the Earth sneered at him and rejected the professor’s request without hesitation.

The Earth naturally said to Jing Qizhen, “Do you remember what color the clothes you were wearing four to five billion years ago?”

Jing Qizhen shook his head very cooperatively, “I didn’t even remember the color of the clothes I wore on my college entrance examination. All I remember was it was summer, so I wore short sleeves.”

The Earth exclaimed, “That’s right! I only remember that before the Cambrian period, I probably wore ice and snow skin! Later, during the Cambrian biological explosion, I changed into a flashy skin.”

Jing Qizhen nodded, “Yes, yes, you are right, babyball.”

The Earth: 0.0

But, the professor of geology who kept on asking Jing Qizhen about the Earth suddenly thought of another thing.

“A friend of mine who studies seismology said that they detected some strange energy fluctuations a few days ago. They originally thought they were different forms of seismic waves. However, after careful study, they found that these energies seemed to have nothing to do with the formation of earthquakes. There is a huge correlation, so they are still studying the issue of those energy waves! Now, I think that those strange energy fluctuations may be related to the formation of the ‘erosion area’ you just mentioned?”

His action was quick. Before the geology professor even finished speaking, he had already called someone to send him a copy of the data recently collected by the earthquake monitoring center.

Within a few minutes, Tang Song turned his laptop screen to Jing Qizhen and 　　gestured, “Can the ball help you compare the abnormal data recently collected by the earthquake monitoring center that is different from actual earthquakes?”

The professor could only hear their side of the conversation but couldn’t see anything. He immediately became anxious and hurriedly urged through the video conference, “You should share the image!”

Tang Song silently shared the images in the video conference.

Immediately, Jing Qizhen faced the screen of his laptop and marked three coordinate points in the country based on the longitude and latitude displayed by the abnormal data provided by the earthquake monitoring center. One of them with the largest energy fluctuation was the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store location!

The professors, regardless of their area of expertise, became interested after discovering that the coordinate points were matched. Two of them summed it up and simply said directly, “We will fly over together tomorrow to have a look at the location! Since there are special energy fluctuations in the erosion area, maybe we can find something in the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store you mentioned!”

Tang Song nodded, “That’s fine.”

Jing Qizhen: ..

Okay, it seems that the Yunhai Wancheng Department Store will be closed for a while. Fortunately, the people Tang Song will send an invite to Ms. Li Jiangli tomorrow during the day.

Immediately, Jing Qizhen discussed with the Earth again, and after confirming that it could mark the specific locations of other approaching balls, he simply expanded the map to a world map.

The locations of more than a dozen existing and upcoming erosion areas directly mentioned by the Earth are marked.

Jing Qizhen looked at the red dots on the map and raised his eyebrows slightly, “Yunhai Wancheng Department Store is the erosion area we have been to. It’s done here, right?”

The Earth nodded happily, “Yes, I have already driven that idiotic ball away!”

Jing Qizhen asked, “In other words, the erosion area where the campus party in Boston, Massachusetts is located is in progress?”

The Earth emphasized, “It is still spreading! If we can’t destroy the core of the erosion area, it will be difficult for me to kick the ball away. In addition to the traction of the core, there is gravity between the balls!”

Jing Qizhen inquired, “As for other erosion areas that no one has fallen into, are they in the formation period? Can you determine the specific time when they were formed?”

The Earth answered, “Of course I can’t! This is not my problem! It’s the other annoying ball’s full responsibility!”

Jing Qizhen: “…Okay, I understand.”

Immediately, Jing Qizhen turned to Tang Song, “The ball can only tell the position, but it cannot determine the specific travel time.”

Tang Song responded quickly, “I will check with other countries. Their monitoring center must also have data.”