This Masked Man still hasn't explained the cause of the Dyson Sphere Plan's failure.

Lu Xi'an attempted to ask, "Then what specifically are those reasons? I've heard people say the world is like a giant makeshift stage, so can I guess that the original Dyson Sphere Plan had some errors in planning or execution mishaps?"

The Masked Man's explanation paused for a moment; he was slightly silent as if in deep thought.

This contemplation was probably analyzing Lu Xi'an's words, then accessing the relevant data.

"Yes."

After a moment, the Masked Man gave an answer.

Everyone couldn't help but look at Lu Xi'an, and Luo Ping exclaimed again, "Wow, bro, you're amazing, how do you know everything?!"

"Mm, mm!"

The little illiterate Chai Xin nodded repeatedly, feeling that Brother Luo was right, and admired Lu Xi'an immensely.

Shu also echoed Luo Ping, "Yeah, Junior Luo, you're right, this brother is impressive; back in our time, he'd be at a college level!"

"College student? What's that?"

Luo Ping was puzzled.

Shu explained, "It's someone very skilled, knowing a lot of things.

"Back then, getting through school was in many stages; first, there was kindergarten, where we understood nothing but played, then elementary school, understood little, recognized some words, counted to five."

"Then came junior high, moving up to high school, and finally college, where you knew extraordinary things from all around."

It sounded like it became a metaphor for strength levels. However, Luo Ping understood, "Hearing you say that, Shu, I'd barely count as an elementary student, while our brother is a college student, two levels above me. Our brother surpasses me greatly, truly impressive!"

Chai Xin said, "I'm just in kindergarten..."

Yao Wei's gaze, originally on Lu Xi'an, unconsciously swept over Shu, Chai Xin, and Luo Ping before looking back at Lu Xi'an, her mouth curling slightly upwards. She couldn't suppress it even if she wanted to.

But she didn't want to suppress it either. She just felt that the three of them were right; Lu Xi'an was indeed amazing, more impressive than any of them.

Lu Xi'an being so incredible made her very happy.

Lu Xi'an kept staring at the screen, waiting for the room's speakers to speak.

But after the Masked Man replied "Yes," he fell silent again as if analyzing how to structure the subsequent language, adjusting data information, and reorganizing the explanation.

As he stared at the screen, he listened to the others' conversation too, inexplicably recalling some joke web novels he read in his past life, where they used elementary, middle, and college students as strength levels.

Now listening to Shu dividing educational qualifications into strength levels, he felt a bit uncomfortable, yet strangely satisfied.

Hearing the trio's compliments, Lu Xi'an unconsciously clasped his hands behind his back, saying, "Actually, I'm not that great either. Many people are at their peak in high school.

"In college, if your level isn't stable, your strength can decline. Only those Celestial Venerates with unwavering will and extraordinary strength can stabilize their level and continue to climb, all the way to graduate students, PhD students, and postdocs."

Shu said, "Sigh... if we had a college student in our village, we'd be satisfied; as for graduate students or PhDs, we wouldn't dare dream about that!"

Luo Ping was surprised, "There's more beyond that?! What kind of amazing level is that?"

Lu Xi'an pointed at the Masked Man on the screen.

Luo Ping shuddered, shaking his head repeatedly, "Turn into that? Then forget it!"

Lu Xi'an was about to explain to Luo Ping, but the Masked Man on the screen seemed to have finally completed his analysis, and the speakers in the room started speaking again, so he closed his mouth and listened intently.

The voice from the speakers said, "The Dyson Sphere Plan was a joint construction by multiple countries globally, and the difficulties and obstacles were countless.

"Many predictions and contingency plans had been made regarding potential issues and failures at the time. Even the original Dyson Sphere Plan included compromises to achieve the intermediate goals of constructing a Dyson Ring and a Dyson Cloud to reduce the difficulty of constructing the Dyson Sphere.

"The potential impact of the plan's failure and project termination on human society had already been anticipated.

"The original proposers of the plan even considered that the Dyson Sphere Plan might be seen as a marker of civilization upgrading; thus, failure might undermine human confidence in technology, causing severe damage to civilization's confidence and breeding anti-scientific and anti-social ideologies.

"Therefore, the proposal was to keep the Dyson Sphere Plan strictly confidential, conducting the plan secretly unless necessary, and to publicly promote it as a 'new energy project' to lower public expectations..."

So that's how it is?

Lu Xi'an frowned slightly.

If that's the case, listing the Dyson Sphere Plan as confidential indeed has an explanation.

At that time, the countries involved probably even planned to keep this plan hidden from people throughout, right? But such a huge project couldn't be kept secret easily, so the new energy project ended up being known, even Shu knew about it.

The consequences of the plan's failure far exceeded the initial planners' expectations. When disaster struck after the plan's failure, humanity could no longer concern itself with the blow to civilization's confidence.

The entire civilization, the entire species of humanity, has suffered a blow. With civilization gone, what is there to discuss about confidence in civilization?

Lu Xi'an continued to listen to the Masked Man's explanation, as the speakers in the room continued to emit sound:

"The complete and high-coverage Dyson Sphere Plan was supposed to be further initiated only after the Dyson Cloud was completed and operational, and when the global demand for energy usage significantly increased.

"However, we did not anticipate that during the construction of the Dyson Cloud, problems and errors already reached an extremely severe and irreversible level.

"Humanity had to endure the severe disasters brought on by mistakes and errors.

"The global investment in building the Dyson Sphere and related facilities caused excessive resource consumption and energy wastage, which could not be recovered in space, leading to an already heavy global economic burden and resulting in severe social turmoil.

"The Dyson Sphere relied on high-energy microwave and laser beams to transmit energy. After the control system failed, the energy beams deviated from their targets, destroying countless spacecraft and satellites. Fires on the planetary surface and atmospheric damage frequently occurred.

"We had plans to send numerous teams to the Dyson Sphere for emergency repairs, but the damage to parts of the Dyson Sphere produced debris that formed a death ring around the star, making repairs infeasible.

"And with parts of the Dyson Sphere partially completed, damaged, and out of control, blocking and reflecting too much stellar radiation, the imbalance in stellar energy output has begun to have effects.

"Earth's climate faced drastic changes, triggering the onset of an extreme glacial period. At this point, all remedial plans had to be terminated.

"For humanity to survive and maintain the societal system, it had to quickly engage in responses to the catastrophe.

"Here, the explanation of the antecedent is finished. Please respond if you understand. Answer yes, and I will proceed to explain the next portion. Answer no, and I will revert to the antecedent portion and explain it in simpler, more basic terms."

Lu Xi'an looked back at everyone, seeing Shu, Yao Wei, Chai Xin, and Luo Ping all looking bewildered. He wanted the Masked Man to break it down further.

However, Yao Wei saw through his intention and stopped him: "Even if we hear it again, we still won't understand it. It's enough that you can. What's more important is what's next."

She remained as rational as always.

Lu Xi'an could tell that Yao Wei was quite interested in what the Masked Man was saying. But what she was more concerned about was what the 923 Institute was, what it contained, and what benefits it could bring to their survival and life.

Aside from that, everything else could be set aside.

That's why she stopped Lu Xi'an.

With Yao Wei saying this, the others nodded along.

Shu said, "Yes, yes, I've hardly been to school, only recognize a few words. How can I understand this stuff? Even if it speaks more, I won't understand it. Better not waste time."

Luo Ping said, "Right, right, I'm just an elementary school student. This should only be understood by college students, right?"

Chai Xin followed Luo Ping's words, "I'm just a kindergarten kid."

Lu Xi'an: "..."

Oh well, since they've all said so, let's go with the flow. These things, they should ask the Masked Man to explain them again later, or maybe find a way to explain them themselves, so these people could understand.

Let's just continue listening then.

He answered the Masked Man on the screen, "Yes."

"Feedback received, proceeding to the explanation of the next section."

The Masked Man immediately responded and began explaining the new content, "After the Dyson Sphere disaster struck, the global glacial period arrived, with the severity and extremity gradually increasing over time.

"Human society realized that short-term social organization could not withstand the disaster and began investing resources to propose various plans to tackle the impending extreme glacial period.

"These included but were not limited to the construction of shelters, planning for material reserves, and the human gene editing project, specifically the X strain plan.

"The most important of these was the X strain plan. It is now 2197, and if the disaster has not fully receded, it indicates that you standing before me are already a Neo-Human compiled under the human gene editing project.

"Please respond whether or not. This question does not affect the subsequent explanation, only satisfies my curiosity."

"Yes."

Lu Xi'an responded with a "yes," finding the Masked Man quite interesting.

This should have been a mask made by those in the 923 Research Institute to assist in explanations without needing a real person. Decades have now passed, and the real entity of this Masked Man is probably long dead, right?

Recording a video to ask this question, knowing full well that the real self cannot hear the answer, still, he asked... He must really have wanted to know about the future—namely, the current situation.

"Explanation continues."

The speakers in the room continued, "And our Institute 923 is, however, independent of these projects and plans, but not entirely..."

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