Chapter 8
The Landing Point They Announced Was Fake!
It had been a day since White Rabbit Nine landed on the moon.
The Internet was going crazy. More and more media outlets in Great Xia were starting to create content based on rumors heard in foreign countries.
“It’s been proven. White Rabbit Nine is filmed in a recording studio …”
“Truth: ‘Reporter from Meine broke in and found the three astronauts…”
At first, Great Xia’s netizens did not believe in any of the rumors from other countries. However, as time pa.s.sed, they became less and less confident as the officials still did not give an answer.
In the end, many people were disappointed. Although the official announcement had not been made, their hearts were already shaken. They were starting to feel that this White Rabbit Project No. 9 might really have been filmed at a film studio.
..
Great Xia s.p.a.ce Agency.
“Chief Engineer Yang, can we issue an announcement to clarify the truth?”
Seeing the disheartened reactions of the netizens, many of the staff members had mixed feelings. Grievance, pain, grief, all sorts of emotions surged into the hearts of these people. This was supposed to be an event worthy of national celebration, but because of the accidental disappearance of White Rabbit Nine, it became the biggest joke on the Internet.
“What truth?” Chief Engineer Yang asked calmly.
“The truth that our equipment might have malfunctioned!” a.s.sistant w.a.n.g said anxiously.
“Open our official website. Look at the news this time last night…” Chief Engineer Yang ordered calmly.
a.s.sistant Little w.a.n.g opened it and was stunned. On their official website, there was indeed an announcement that the signal was interrupted due to the influence of cosmic electromagnetic waves.
a.s.sistant Little w.a.n.g was speechless. She typed this announcement herself. It had been a short day, but it felt like a long time had pa.s.sed. She had even forgotten about the announcement that she made yesterday.
“But, Sir! There are a lot of people on the Internet who misunderstand us. There are less and less people that support us. Meanwhile, more and more began to talk negatively about us. If we don’t clarify it now, I’m afraid…”
“To clarify something, you need to know what’s actually happening!”
Chief Engineer Yang shook his head, “Let’s not worry about that for now. Let’s take a look at the long-orbit lunar satellite from the Commonwealth of Meine. How long will it take to detect the landing point?!”
a.s.sistant Xiao w.a.n.g could only sigh and investigate as instructed.
“Five minutes left!”
“If you think they will share it with us, then try it!”
After Chief Engineer Yang finished speaking, he turned around and walked into a quiet room. He then dialed a special number and spoke a few secret codes.
“In five minutes, help me get a set of images from the Miyue-14386 satellite…”
a.s.sistant w.a.n.g walked to the Foreign Affairs Department and tried to call the Meine s.p.a.ce Agency. She wanted to see if they would share the image of the Miyue-14386 satellite.
“Ah, just half an hour ago, our satellite seemed to have been affected by cosmic electromagnetic waves. The signal was cut off!”
a.s.sistant Little w.a.n.g was a little confused when she heard this. As it turned out, their satellite was also jammed. Was it a coincidence, by any chance?
..
“Great Xia, I think you should change your name to ***…”
“Hey, Tiger Oil! Weren’t you dancing before this? A day has pa.s.sed! Let’s see you dance now!”
Some people who couldn’t keep it to themselves made it all the way to Great Xia’s network to mock the supporters of the White Rabbit Project. Normally, the local netizens would only need to use 10% of their power to talk back to these people, but things were different now. The netizens were responding very weakly to this mockery. It wasn’t that no one was paying attention, no. The netizens had their hands on the keyboard. They wanted to say something to support the White Rabbit Project, like always, but they didn’t know what to say.
At the end of the day, a day had pa.s.sed, and White Rabbit Nine had not appeared again.
“There’s no way to fight this. Even if there’s really a leaked video of the whole landing being staged, I would still try my best to deny it. But now, there’s nothing…”
“Yeah, even if it was really shot in a film studio, shouldn’t they at least try to follow through with the lies? If they try to follow through, there would still be a lot of people who would be willing to believe it, right?”
“Now, we’ve been exposed when we’re still in the middle of creating this hoax. It’s too embarra.s.sing…”
“Me too. I don’t even want to go online now. We are the laughingstock of the whole world right now…”
These comments seemed to be coming from the netizens of Great Xia. Still, Ma Hai Bo was a little skeptical. After scrolling through them, he asked his friend to check the IP address.
“Not in the country, overseas…”
“Hey!! They are pretending to be from Xia to make a fool out of us!”
Ma Hai Bo had a helpless look on his face. The other a.s.sociation members were also extremely uncomfortable with the hate the s.p.a.ce Agency was receiving on the internet. They wanted to show their support for the White Rabbit Project, but their morale was low.
“Boss, can we make a comeback?”
“Stay patient. There’s still one minute before the Meine satellites can capture footage of White Rabbit Nine’s landing point. My friend will hack that satellite to get the image. After I receive the image, I’ll connect it to our group. Remember to record it…”
..
At the Meine s.p.a.ce Agency.
“Currently calibrating the position of Mi Yue-14386. Currently firing short-frequency pulse laser…”
“Once…Twice…Three times…”
“The adjustment is complete. The position error is 3.4 millimeters…”
“Please enter the coordinates of White Rabbit Nine’s landing point…”
“Entering complete. Adjusting Mi Yue-14386’s posture…”
“Position adjustment complete. Image will be received in 10 seconds…”
“Countdown: 10, 9, 8, 7…”
“3,2,1…”
“Synchronisation successful, adjusting satellite alt.i.tude. Estimated time for departure from the observation target is in 39 minutes and 44 seconds…”
Thomas’s eyes widened as he carefully looked at the image relayed by the satellite.
On the big screen, there was nothing unusual on the moon. It was a boundless wasteland with no signs of life. There was no sight of White Rabbit Nine.
“No?”
Thomas was a little confused. He turned his head, “White Rabbit Nine, is there any problem with the surveillance video?”
“No, sir. It did take off from Earth, but it eventually disappeared at the Beta point on the back of the moon…”
“What about their s.p.a.ceships?!”
Forget about White Rabbit Nine, there was not even any trace left behind by the s.p.a.cecraft when it landed. The staff members looked at each other in bewilderment. The internet was saying that White Rabbit Nine was filmed in a recording studio, but they knew for sure that White Rabbit Nine was launched and did reach the dark side of the moon.
However, they had to face the truth. There was nothing to be seen or found.
“Shrink the image and expand the range…”
Immediately, the satellite image was zoomed out, and the whole area within a few hundred meters of the landing point appeared. Although the image became a bit blurry, they should still be able to see any lander that was in the area.
That should be the case. However, no matter how they looked around, they did not find anything with the same white color as the lander. They did not even find anything that remotely looked suspicious.
“d.a.m.n it! The landing point Great Xia announced is wrong! That has to be it!”
Thomas thought that the Great Xia s.p.a.ce Agency had tricked them. If he had to guess, he would say that White Rabbit Nine had probably landed somewhere else on the dark side of the moon.
At this moment, the image went black and a Panda Burning Incense icon appeared.
“Boss, bad news. The system has been hacked…”