I'm Really Going to Become an Immortal
Chapter 487 - 304: Leap of Faith

Chapter 487: Chapter 304: Leap of Faith

The only lunar rover on the Moon that could still move was Hua Country’s Yutu-2.

Lighthouse Country, through optical observation, logical deduction, and espionage, managed to ascertain the rough location of Yutu-2 on the Moon.

Although not precise, it was certain that it was still far from the Apollo 17 lunar rover.

As a result, they finally reached a conclusion:

This message...

might indeed come from some unknown force!

After all, Yutu-2 was thousands of kilometers away from them.

If Yutu-2 really snuck over to cause trouble, what were they after?

Wasn’t that absurdly pointless?

Moreover, the information that their Apollo 17’s lunar rover was still operational was a secret unknown to the public.

In most people’s minds, the Apollo 17 lunar rover was already scrapped.

There was no need to seek out this piece of junk intentionally.

The loss incurred by the trip could send another lunar rover to space, so why bother?

Therefore, after much thought,

Jack and the other four felt that rather than Hua Country being the culprit, the possibility of it being some other unknown force seemed even higher!

The message was quickly reported up to the highest levels, spreading like wildfire.

Soon after, the top echelons of Lighthouse Country turned their attention to this small corner of the Houston command center.

The most topnotch engineers repeatedly checked all possible explanations and found no anomalies.

After all, these antiquities from decades ago were half useless, and no matter how capable the engineers were, there wasn’t much they could do.

The only information they could surmise through various means was that their lunar rover was approximately located at Leibniz Mountain, which is also the highest peak on the Moon near the South Pole.

The lunar rover was originally situated in Tauras-Litro Valley on the Moon Equator, with a distance of at least one or two thousand kilometers between them.

The distance that the lunar rover could move in the twenty-hour gap when the cameras were not operational was extraordinary.

On Earth,

this speed might not be considered too exaggerated.

But it was different on the Moon.

The Apollo lunar rovers were designed with a maximum speed of 10 to 12 kilometers per hour. Yutu-2’s design speed was very low, only 0.2 kilometers per hour. India’s "Intelligent" lunar rover had a traveling speed of about 0.036 kilometers per hour on the lunar surface.

All lunar rovers were designed with relatively low maximum speeds to ensure stability and safety because the lunar surface conditions are complex, including a low-gravity environment, lack of atmosphere, and the presence of abundant lunar dust and rugged terrain.

Even if some weren’t afraid of wasting money and designed a lunar rover that could accelerate recklessly to speeds of one or two hundred kilometers per hour,

Leibniz Mountain, where the Apollo 17 lunar rover was located, was not a place that could be ascended by speed alone.

Leibniz Mountain is an informal name used to refer to the highest point identified on the Moon.

The height of this mountain has been estimated to be about 9,000 meters, taller than Mount Everest on Earth.

The topography of the Moon is mainly formed by meteorite impacts, unlike the Earth, which is shaped by tectonic movements.

As such, the lunar mountains and highlands are usually formed after one or several large meteorite impacts, with the resulting shockwaves pushing the surrounding rocks to form ridges or mountain ranges.

Due to the lack of atmospheric and aqueous erosion on the lunar surface, terrain features are typically sharp and not smoothed by weathering processes.

The topography of Leibniz Mountain and its surrounding area is characterized by a series of steep slopes and rugged surfaces, all of which are the result of impact events.

In this kind of environment,

it would be difficult to reach the summit even if the entire twenty hours were spent climbing.

Let alone the time spent traversing several thousand kilometers during those twenty hours.

After pondering for a moment,

Lighthouse Country was convinced that some unknown force was interfering.

They did not think it was Hua Country’s gadget that had been launched into space not long before because once it reached space, it was essentially unmonitorable due to its exceptionally small size, and it was unknown if it had gone to the Moon.

They subconsciously did not believe, or rather, did not want to believe that Hua Country could integrate Moon-landing technology into something the size of a human.

The technological gap was simply a chasm.

For something that size to leave Earth’s atmosphere was already high technology, to say that it had gone to the Moon and was running their lunar rover around was far-fetched.

In any case, the higher-ups in Lighthouse Country felt it was highly probable to be aliens, and even if it turned out to be Hua Country, the technological level displayed warranted the use of their alien defense strategy.

So, in the face of a potential alien event, Lighthouse Country entered deep discussion.

For a time,

those in the know were frantically discussing the matter.

Some leaned toward military confrontation, believing nuclear weapons could defend them, and even if they couldn’t win, they might at least leave some wounds on the opponent.

Others leaned toward capitulation, feeling that if aliens could travel thousands of miles to get here, their technology must be overwhelming, making resistance futile.

And after much debate,

Lighthouse Country’s high echelon mostly concluded that,

whether to resist or not, they at least had to go up and see for themselves first.