Chapter 313 |
"By the way, Father, when are you planning to deal with that ruin in Sulawesi?" Mike asked Josh while sipping a cup of coffee.
"Hmm? Why are you asking about that? Or are you already thinking about my title?" Josh glanced at his eldest son as he spoke.
"Hehe, how could that be? I'm just really interested in that ruin!" Mike scratched his head and replied.
"...Why are you suddenly interested in that ruin?" Josh asked, a bit surprised.
"Sigh, it’s just that I’m a little bored! Finally got a summer vacation, but Carol is busy with state affairs every day, and Ben is always training in the arena—I’m about to die of boredom. So I thought of that ruin... Father, why don’t you take me on an adventure?" Mike leaned in next to Josh and said.
Although the vacation dates vary among European schools, they are generally divided into four: spring, summer, autumn, and winter—so there is indeed a summer break.
"It’s not impossible. When the ruin was first discovered, we weren’t too sure about it, so we just sealed it off. Now that we’re reopening it, there shouldn’t be any major issues... But before that, you’ll need to get your mother’s permission," Josh replied after thinking for a moment.
"So, if Mother doesn’t object, you’ll agree to take me?" Mike’s eyes lit up as he asked.
"Exactly!" Josh nodded.
????
Good kid, you were waiting to trap me, weren’t you?
Fine then, let’s go!
Even though it’s unknown what the other side of the interstellar teleportation array is like, with his current strength, it shouldn’t be a big problem.
Since he had decided to activate the interstellar teleportation array, the first thing to do was to determine who would go.
Josh initially thought of simply taking the whole family, but the first to refuse was Margot. Recently, she had become obsessed with jewelry crafting...Hmm, not the normal kind, but Azeroth's magical jewelry crafting. She had been plundering quite a bit of Josh’s magical materials and various magical gems.
However, Josh generally supported Margot’s hobbies—after all, with a strong enough family foundation, they could afford it.
The second to refuse was Carol. The girl said she was very busy recently.
Josh wasn’t surprised. The United Kingdom of Austria had been established for less than a year. Although Josh ensured the economic and military stability, it was still a new state formed by the restructuring of several nations. The internal affairs and conflicts weren’t easy to handle. If Carol wanted to become an excellent ruler, there was still a lot to learn and do.
But Josh couldn’t help wondering if it was his imagination—Carol seemed particularly excited upon hearing he was leaving Earth.
The youngest son, Ben, showed great enthusiasm for the ruin expedition. In his words, the combat in the training arena could no longer satisfy him. Going to an alien location would surely provide various actual combat experiences, which would be excellent training.
Josh also asked Xu Wenwu, but he refused too. His reason left Josh speechless—Jia Ying was pregnant, already five months along, and expecting dragon-phoenix twins just like Mike and Carol. With Silvermoon City's technology, determining the fetus's gender was easy. In this era, there were no laws forbidding gender detection—and even if there were, they wouldn’t apply to the moon!
However, Howard Duck, who had also settled in Silvermoon City, was very interested in the ruin.
Moreover, upon hearing Josh intended to explore the ruin, Governor Vereesa of Zhiyuan sent Yondu over, saying she wanted the kid to gain some experience.
With this, the exploration team for the interstellar teleportation array was essentially complete.
Josh would lead the team personally, joined by his eldest son Mike, youngest son Ben, Howard Duck, Yondu, and Josh’s assistant, Bursta.
Of course, even though Josh believed he was strong enough to ensure everyone’s safety, he didn’t charge ahead and activate the teleportation array without caution.
...
Inside the teleportation ruin, Josh held the Broken Steel Sword. Around him were several all-terrain military robots tethered with cables.
As Josh inserted the sword into the stone platform and gave it a slight turn, an invisible wave of energy spread from the rooftop of the teleportation plaza, forming a rippling portal.
Standing on the teleportation array, Josh could faintly feel the suction from above.
"Send the robots through first!" Josh ordered.
Several robots were then slowly pulled upward.
"Sir, we’ve confirmed the air on the other side is suitable for human survival. It’s another ruin similar to this one, but just like here, it’s uninhabited and in a sealed, abandoned state. There's also a possibility that the ruin is underground or under the sea. Should we proceed with further investigation?" After the robots returned through the portal about ten minutes later and transmitted images of the other side, the person in charge asked Josh.
"No need. As long as we know it’s safe, the rest are minor issues," Josh waved.
He had only been concerned the other side might be a star, a black hole, or some other cosmic hazard. Now that it was confirmed to be a regular planet, the rest didn’t matter.
Josh then called everyone to suit up in full-body combat protective gear and, leading the way, jumped through the floating portal.
With a brief dizzy spell, Josh arrived inside another teleportation array identical to the one in Sulawesi. The portal was also floating in mid-air.
However, unlike Earth’s array which used the Broken Steel Sword as a key, this side’s stone platform held a dazzling crystal.
This explained why Earth’s teleportation array could be activated without an energy source—the power source was actually on this side.
While Josh was observing the surroundings, the others began descending from the portal as well.
After everyone had arrived, hundreds of military robots followed, including a few massive Transformers.
Seeing that everyone was present, Josh picked up the crystal from the stone platform, and the portal closed immediately.
"Father, what’s this?" Mike asked in confusion.
"This crystal is clearly the power core of the teleportation portal. Since we’re going on an expedition, of course we need to take it with us. Otherwise, if we come back and someone or something takes it, we might not be able to return," Josh explained.
Additionally, the hundreds of military robots brought over were there to guard the ruin and ensure the teleportation array wasn’t damaged.
Everyone suddenly understood. Right, this thing was like a door key, and the portal was the lock. If they were "going out," and didn’t bring the key—or if the lock was destroyed—they’d be in trouble returning.
Under Josh’s command, the hundreds of robots deployed drones and began exploring the ruin.
After about ten minutes of exploration, Josh quickly gained a full grasp of the ruin and their current location.
Unlike the Earth-side ruin, which was buried beneath an island, this ruin was located underground in a desert.
The robots had to put in considerable effort to dig out the exit completely buried by desert sands.
“Ohh, I hate this kind of environment. Good thing I’m wearing a protective suit!” Standing at the entrance of the ruins, looking at the boundless desert, and feeling the cool breeze from the suit’s air-conditioning system, Howard the Duck couldn’t help but sigh.
“Two moons...Looks like we’re definitely not on Earth!” Bursta said, looking at the sky where two satellites could vaguely be seen even during the daytime.
“As for the atmosphere, it’s not much different from Earth’s. Even without protective suits, we could breathe here!” Mike said as he checked the atmospheric data detected by the suit.
“But I don’t think anyone would want to take off their suit in this heat, right?” Josh looked at the 43 degrees Celsius reading on his suit’s display and said.
“Uh… Josh, while I totally agree with you, your son doesn’t seem to think so!” Just as Josh finished speaking, Howard the Duck pointed behind him.
“Sh*t, Ben, what are you doing?” Josh turned around to see Ben taking off his protective suit and was slightly puzzled.
“This level of heat has no physiological effect on us, but it can temper my will!” Ben, now only in the inner layer of his combat uniform, said seriously.
Well, what could Josh do with such a “battle freak” of a child?
Although the protective suits were comfortable, if they encountered the natives of this planet next, wearing them might not be ideal.
So Josh simply took his off as well.
Seeing Josh do so, the others naturally couldn’t continue wearing theirs either. They all took them off and changed into lightweight casual clothes.
“Soundwave, it’s your turn now!” Josh said to the leader among the few Transformers who had come along.
Of course, this Soundwave wasn’t the original Soundwave—the original was now Starscream’s intelligence officer.
But that didn’t stop Josh from naming one of his own created Transformers Soundwave.
“Understood!” Hearing Josh’s command, Soundwave led a few Transformers and began transforming, flying into the upper atmosphere. Only two Transformers remained behind with Josh and the others.
Once in the atmosphere, the Transformers split up, taking satellite form to analyze the planet.
“The results are in. This planet is significantly larger than Earth, and it’s not recorded in our existing star charts. Even the surrounding constellations don’t match… which means, this time, we might be a lot farther from home than we expected!” Josh said, looking at the data comparison on his watch sent by Pangu, processed from the satellite-formed Transformers.
You see, the last time Josh ventured into space, he had already collected most of the star chart data for the Milky Way.
But now, based on the match results, neither this planet nor its star system could be found in those charts.
This indicated that this planet likely wasn’t even in the Milky Way!
“Oooh, sounds exciting!” Mike said with a bit of enthusiasm.
“There appears to be a town 300 kilometers from us! Let’s head there. Knockout, Smokescreen!” Josh called to the two remaining Transformers.
Upon receiving the order, the two Transformers immediately transformed into off-road vehicles.
Although Josh could fly, the others couldn’t, so vehicles were definitely necessary.
And the smartest vehicles, of course, were the Transformers.
Once everyone boarded, the two off-roaders sped off in the direction Josh pointed.
“Stop!” Halfway there, Josh—riding in Smokescreen—suddenly ordered.
Smokescreen stopped instantly, and the trailing Knockout halted as well.
Then, with a wave of Josh’s hand, a ripple of magical energy passed by, and the two off-road vehicles vanished on the spot.
Not even a minute after they “disappeared,” a massive starship over 200 meters long slowly emerged from the clouds in the sky.
“A warship flying inside a planet’s atmosphere? Looks like the civilization here isn’t primitive!” Howard the Duck remarked, looking up at the ship passing slowly overhead.
“But it probably isn’t that advanced either. Otherwise, they would’ve noticed when Soundwave and the others took off!” Josh narrowed his eyes, observing the ship. “And Soundwave didn’t detect any artificial satellites in orbit either.”
The ship had a very wasteland-punk aesthetic, covered in all kinds of giant cannons, reminiscent of early Earth-era battleships.
But Josh couldn’t figure out where the engines were. Anti-gravity tech, maybe?
“Really? That is a bit strange.” Hearing Josh say this, Howard the Duck was baffled too—it seemed this planet’s civilization had a pretty skewed tech tree.
“More importantly, while it was still in the clouds, Soundwave and the others didn’t even detect its approach!” Josh stroked his chin and said.
“Yes, my radar didn’t pick it up either. If it weren’t flying right above us, I’d think I was hallucinating!” Knockout spoke up at the right time.
“So it’s invisible?” Howard the Duck was even more surprised.
Mike and Ben, seated in the back, exchanged glances.
“…You all wait here. I’ll go check things out first!” Once the warship disappeared over the horizon, Josh thought for a moment and said.
Before anyone could respond, Josh had already vanished from the vehicle.
When he reappeared, he was inside the town up ahead.
It was a small city with a Middle Eastern architectural vibe, seemingly primitive from the outside.
But standing at the city gate, Josh clearly saw what looked like hover vehicles inside.
It instantly reminded him of Tatooine from the Star Wars universe!