Dead on Mars

Chapter 220 - Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Two, Letter
Chapter 220: Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Two, Letter

Tang Yue silently took the envelope and tore it open.

Inside was a folded piece of A4 paper. Tomcat was right. It was the most commonly seen and ordinary white paper. It was everywhere on Earth.

But now, it had appeared outside the Mars Kunlun Station. It was the most abnormal thing in the world.

Tang Yue unfolded the paper and used the LED lamp on the Radiant Armor to illuminate the letter. On it was neatly typed Chinese words. It was even in regular script.

“Dear Earthling Mr. Tang Yue,

“Hello there.

“First and foremost, we would like to convey our sincerest apologies. Due to an operating error by a rail transport operator, the released energy had a deviation of 10⁻¹⁷ arcseconds, causing 78,496,322 stars, as well as seven times the number of planets in the Laniakea Supercluster to be instantly destroyed. After verification, we have determined that Earth was one of the planets that suffered this disaster.

“After the accident, the operator in question immediately reported this for emergency handling. This letter was successfully sent out two Planck seconds after Earth was vaporized. Please remain calm.

“Due to the unclear situation in the Second Ring Road and how it happens to be peak hour, there will inevitably be traffic congestion. This letter you have received might be slightly delayed. We kindly ask for your understanding. The notice in this letter will be based on the time of receipt of this letter.

“Dear Mr. Tang Yue, you have automatically been made the legal inheritor and sole possessor of Earth and all its ancillary items. This includes (but are not limited to) all living creatures and all their derivatives, all man-made objects, and their derivatives. Towards your personal losses, you have the lawful right and interest to file a lawsuit through the Department of Justice to request for compensation.

“Upon receipt of this letter, you are to head to the designated location, within sixty sols, in person. We will aid you in filing the lawsuit against the operator in question and ensure that all relevant compensation according to the prevailing laws will be made to you.”

Written below was a string of numbers, clearly geographical coordinates.

“88.2°E, 17.6°N.”

It was finally signed off as:

“Yours sincerely,

“Pan-Three-Dimensional Industrial Composite Community.”

…

“Impossible.” Tang Yue shook his head.

“That’s the twelfth time you’ve said impossible.” Tomcat sat on a chair. “Don’t you have anything else to say?”

“Impossible,” Tang Yue said.

“Thirteenth time.”

Tang Yue raised the letter against the light and narrowed his eyes. It was really an ordinary and unremarkable piece of paper.

He originally imagined that he could accept anything after surviving all kinds of tribulations. Even if the one who had knocked on the door was a glowing little green man, he could calmly shake hands with it to express this historic and meaningful meeting. It was the grand beginning of two species and two civilizations entering a win-win cooperation.

However, there wasn’t a little green man or an Avatar outside. There was only a tiny envelope.

A most commonly-seen and most ordinary object had appeared in the most impossible place via the most incredulous and unimaginable manner. That letter was sitting at Kunlun Station’s doorstep as if it was only right. It appeared that openly without hiding away, almost to the brink of arrogance. All of this was to tell them that this was completely reasonable.

It was as though a mailman had really opened the airlock’s hatch, placed the envelope gently on the ground, patted its clothes, and left, vanishing into thin air as though it was just doing a routine job.

But this was Mars. Heavens! My Armstrong! This darn place is the Isidis Planitia on Mars!

Tang Yue was completely confused. He no longer knew if the appearance of the envelope was considered normal or not.

“Tomcat, slap me. I want to see if it hurts.”

Pa!

“Does it hurt?”

“Ouch—Can’t you hit me lighter?”

This oddness of this world still exceeded his imagination.

If this wasn’t Mars, Tang Yue would have imagined that this was some prank by some *sshole. However, when he rushed out, all he could see was a barren desert. Without the Radiant Armor’s protection, a normal person exposed to the external conditions couldn’t live for more than five minutes.

“Impossible.”

“Fourteenth time.”

Tang Yue and Tomcat sat in a daze for more than an hour, their eyes staring at that letter. Its appearance was stunning. The man and cat were at a loss for words, with too many questions on their minds. They were momentarily unsure of where to start.

“This isn’t something you cooked up, right?” Tang Yue asked softly.

“You tell me. How did I knock on the hatch while sitting in the Hab?” Tomcat asked.

Tang Yue and Tomcat continued their silence.

“If this letter is real—”

“I know you find it very difficult to believe this reality, but there’s no way you will find it more unbelievable than me…” Tomcat stared with big eyes that were filled with helplessness and perplexity. For the first time, it doubted what it knew. “But I can’t find any points of suspicion. I can’t find the proof needed to overturn the ridiculous explanation in this letter. It’s ridiculous! Just ridiculous! But I can’t disprove it.”

Tang Yue mused that it finally understood what those people who studied quantum mechanics were thinking about.

“Then what do we do?”

“Burn it!” Tomcat wore a fierce look. “Burn it. Pretend that nothing happened. The Universe is still that Universe. The world is still that world. Humanity is still that humanity.’

Tang Yue was taken aback. He grabbed the letter from the table. Having suffered a blow to its world view, it was hard to tell what kind of extreme actions Tomcat would carry out.

It could completely destroy the evidence.

Then, it would bury its head in the sand.

That way, the Universe would still be the same Universe it knew. Everything would still adhere to its understanding of logic.

“If what this letter says is real, we now know the reason for Earth’s sudden disappearance. A road roller accidentally squashed an ant’s nest while doing its job,” Tang Yue said. His acceptance of the reality was far faster than Tomcat. After all, he was now alone without any connections tethering him to the world. Even if the letter told him that the Universe was to be destroyed tomorrow, he could still face it in a composed manner.

Tomcat nodded.

The letter had said that due to the carelessness of an operator, a deviation of 10⁻¹⁷ arcseconds caused 78,496,322 stars and 500 million planets to vaporize instantly. The dismissive tone used was akin to saying “Oh, I’m sorry. I accidentally flattened a few ants.” Earth was one of the 500 million innocent planets that had been wiped out, just like the other 499,999,999 planets.

It was no wonder Tomcat’s world view had been turned on its head.

“The key point is…” Tang Yue enunciated each and every word in the letter. “Ensure that all relevant compensation according to the prevailing laws will be made to you. What does this mean?”

“What it literally means. They say you are the only legal owner of Earth. If an ant’s nest is squashed, and you are the last surviving ant, they will compensate you an ant’s nest. With Earth destroyed, they will compensate you the Earth,” Tomcat replied.

“Compensate me the Earth?”

“Not only will they compensate you Earth…” Tomcat took the letter from Tang Yue’s hand and frowned. “They will also compensate you seven billion people, the ecosphere, the millions of tons of trash from daily life, an Orion I spacecraft, as well as a Mars United Space Station.”