Chapter 797: Trackless Space Elevator... Possible?

“Damn it, we got played!” After losing more than 20 men to one accident after another, Favri finally came to his senses.

The New Alliance might have tricked him!

The abandoned urban district really had been a Torch Church position, but apart from corpses they hadn’t had time to clear away and piles of broken bricks and rubble, there was nothing here at all!

No wonder those greedy blue moles had been so willing to spit out the meat they had already bitten into!

This wasn’t meat at all. It was a cold, hard bone!

The more Favri thought about it, the angrier he became. He ordered the mine-clearing units and search teams busy among the ruins to stop what they were doing, then personally headed toward the southern side of the abandoned city.

It was a relatively open area. Airdropped supplies had been piled in the middle of the clearing, while New Alliance soldiers wearing exoskeletons hurried back and forth nearby carrying out construction work. They were clearing construction debris toward the edge of the open space and leveling the uneven ground, apparently planning to build a temporary runway for aircraft takeoff and landing. Beyond that, rows of identical tents could be seen in the distance, along with survivors wrapped in blankets.

From the looks of things, these people intended to build a semi-permanent military base on the ruins of North Sea City and remain here for the long term.

Favri didn’t care how long they planned to stay. He only wanted to know what exactly was going on with the ruins now in his hands!

Fuming, he marched over, grabbed the attention of a patrolling soldier and yelled, “Where’s your commander?! Tell him to come out and see me!”

The patrolling player stopped and glanced at the loud, big-nosed man. “Who are you?”

Favri narrowed his eyes slightly and suppressed his temper. “I am the commander of the first battalion under the 37th Division! I need to speak with your commander regarding the boundaries of our respective areas of control!”

After hearing him identify himself and explain why he had come, the player didn’t make things difficult for him, though he wasn’t exactly enthusiastic either.

A commander? They had captured plenty of commanders in the desert.

“Wait here.” Leaving those words behind, the player turned and headed toward the camp.

Not long afterward, Peepo walked out.

Favri looked him up and down before asking, “You’re the commander here?”

Peepo replied casually, “Our commander has more important tasks. I’m the person in charge here. If you have something to discuss, you can talk to me.”

Favri stared at him, narrowed his eyes, and asked, “What exactly are you people trying to pull?”

Peepo looked at him calmly before replying, “Trying to pull? Sorry, I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Stop playing dumb!” Favri pressed aggressively, seeing the man pretending not to understand. “Those ruins! There’s nothing inside!”

Seeing his tone growing increasingly hostile, Peepo’s expression gradually cooled. “Mr. Favri, that was a position our soldiers took with their blood. You came over and asked us to hand it over. We could have refused, but instead we gave it to you without even frowning. That wasn’t because we were afraid of you. It was entirely because we’re supposed to be standing in the same trench. And now you’re accusing us of trickery and complaining that the help we gave you wasn’t enough. Don’t you think you’re pushing your luck a little too far?”

Favri froze in place. His face alternated between green and pale with anger, yet he couldn’t think of anything to say in rebuttal.

It was true. What he had done really wasn’t particularly honorable.

The abandoned district had originally been taken by the New Alliance. He had thought there was an easy prize to be claimed and reached out to take it, only to come away empty-handed and then blame the other side for tricking him.

At the end of the day, those facilities had been built by Torch Church, not by the New Alliance. Emotionally or logically, it was perfectly normal that their allies wouldn’t know what was hidden there...

Seeing Favri gradually calm down, Peepo softened his tone and continued, “I’ll give you a little more intelligence. The Church’s Holy Knights and the Flame Cave Tribe that previously withdrew from Ten Peaks Mountain were stationed in the district you currently occupy. When our drones spotted them from the air, they were reinforcing that concrete fortress. There’s no way there’s actually nothing there. If there really was nothing, why would they go to all the trouble of constructing so many fortifications on top of it? There must be something they didn’t want us to take from them.”

The more Favri thought about that, the more reasonable it seemed.

Indeed.

Looking at it rationally, if the place really were nothing but ruins, why would the Torch Church have built so many defensive works there?

Seeing that Favri appeared to be getting drawn into his line of reasoning, Peepo coughed lightly to suppress his laughter and shamelessly added, “A hidden map like that... Ahem, I mean a hidden research facility, definitely wouldn’t put its entrance somewhere obvious. Why don’t you go back and search more carefully?”

In fact, that final reminder was completely unnecessary.

Before he had even finished speaking, the Army’s commander was already eager to head back and start digging again.

“Fine! I’ll go search again.” Leaving those words behind in a hurry, Favri turned around impatiently and returned to his area of control, gathering the engineers and laborers who had been resting.

“Search every inch of it! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find the Torch Church’s research facility for me!”

Seeing that their commanding officer seemed to have obtained some new clue and was speaking with complete confidence, the soldiers whose morale had bottomed out after finding nothing immediately perked back up and let out an enthusiastic roar.

“OOOH!”

Watching the Wislanders regain their motivation and rush back into the depths of the ruins, a subtle expression appeared on Battlefield Cheerleader’s face.

Damn. What if they actually dug something up in the end? If that happened, it would be hard to say who the real sucker was.

...

While the Wislanders were working themselves into a frenzy among the ruins, the New Alliance’s players were also chatting heatedly on the forum in another world.

The hottest thread was still the one posted by Ample Time.

After withdrawing from the abandoned urban district, Ample Time logged off and returned to reality, where he shared the Burning Corps’ discoveries inside Shelter 20 on the official forum, along with his speculation regarding the whereabouts of Shelter 20’s residents and the upper echelon of the Torch Church.

Ample Time: Shelter 20 was opened in Year 51 of the Wasteland Era and remained operational until Year 72. After that, it remained abandoned. Because the administrator’s logs have been lost, and everyone connected to the shelter has already died, it’s difficult to determine why the shelter was abandoned or where its residents went afterward. However, judging from the facilities left behind and the directories remaining in the database, the shelter’s research was probably related to the development of outer space.

Yaya: Outer space development? 0.0

Ample Time: That’s right. The residents of this shelter weren’t experts in biology. Most of them were aerospace engineers and people working in related fields. During the shelter’s period of operation, they proposed a number of fairly novel technical concepts aimed at the unique conditions of outer space during the Wasteland Era.

- One example was a trackless space elevator based on graviton-related technology. This kind of space elevator primarily used technologies discovered in the late Prosperity Era. Its operating principles were similar to those of faster-than-light engines and anti-gravity devices. Not only were its energy consumption, maintenance costs, and construction costs lower, it also avoided the safety hazards associated with the classic space elevators built during the early Prosperity Era. Under the right circumstances, this system could help survivors return to outer space at a much lower cost.

- In addition to the trackless space elevator, the survivors of this shelter also proposed another concept called mind projection.

Escaping Mole: What’s that? (? • ? •)

Ample Time: Simply put, it means converting consciousness into information and then using high-powered transmission equipment to beam it toward spacecraft or space stations deployed in outer space during the Federation of People. That way, they could bypass the blockade created by massive amounts of orbital debris and automated weapons systems.

- This concept was intended for the most extreme possible scenario. Namely, if orbital debris made it completely impossible for survivors to return to space using spacecraft, while the remaining resources on Earth were insufficient for them to rebuild a sustainable new civilization, then they believed humanity would need to change its way of thinking. They were shifting from a self-rescue from the inside out model to one from the outside in.

Sisi: So if their physical bodies couldn’t leave Earth, they would send their minds out first, seize control of the outer space facilities left behind by the Federation, and then use the technological and resource advantages of outer space to gradually develop back toward Earth, ultimately rescuing the survivors trapped on the planet... Is that what you mean?

Ample Time: Smart.

Quit Smoking: I’m already dizzy!!

Tail: GIAO! So that means... Torch Church has already used this system to escape to another planet?! ∑(°Д°ノ)ノ

Ample Time: Probably not another planet... Only specialized equipment in space can receive this kind of information. After all, there’d be no point transmitting a signal toward a rock. According to what the Apostle revealed in his final words, they went somewhere 1.5 million kilometers away. Based on that distance, I suspect it’s probably a space station near the L1 or L2 Lagrange point, though I don’t know the exact location.

Roshan: 1.5 million?! That’s so far away!

Sesame Paste: Mm... But why would he reveal something that important to us? [?????] ?

Spring Water Commander: Maybe he was certain we’d never be able to reach them anyway. ( ?° ?? ?°)

Sisi: Hmm... Actually, from a psychological perspective, there’s another possible explanation. Compared to Arzu, who proposed establishing the Second Sanctuary, he was the only Pathfinder who, in the truest sense, never gave up his physical body. On the one hand, he firmly believed that humanity could only be saved once the Kingdom of Heaven was fully realized and mankind ascended into higher lifeforms. But at the same time, he did not trust the existing technology enough to believe that consciousness could truly move freely between different bodies. So under the fear of death and uncertainty about the future, he ended up doing things that seemed mutually contradictory.

Ample Time: According to normal game logic, when a BOSS reveals key information, it’s usually just there to advance the plot. I don’t think you need to overthink those minor details... And honestly, those details aren’t even the main point. The main point is that, based on what he said at the end, as well as the series of concepts he mentioned during the conversation, including the massive distance and the concept of ‘Celestials’, I think we can boldly speculate that the next expansion, or at least the next phase of the main storyline, will be related to outer space!

Tail: WOWIE! DO WE GET TO GO TO SPACE?!

Sideline Slacking: But the Wasteland Era on the planet hasn’t even ended yet. Is it really appropriate to launch an outer space expansion this early?

Ample Time: Stagnant and advanced development have always existed side by side on this planet. The Wasteland Era in outer space and the Wasteland Era on the ground can end together. The two could even drive each other forward, so there’s actually no real contradiction. And I think the trackless space elevator proposed by Shelter 20 may very well become an important clue that eventually takes us into outer space.

- Also, I suspect it wasn’t only Torch Church’s upper echelon. The residents who fled Shelter 117, and perhaps even the residents of Shelter 20 who disappeared more than a century ago may all have transferred their minds to some facility 1.5 million kilometers away using the same method!

Escaping Mole: So... the Celestials that Apostle mentioned are the people who used mind-upload technology to transfer themselves into spacecraft and space stations in outer space?

Ample Time: Maybe. But I’m more inclined to think that the Celestials took them in... for some reason we don’t yet understand.

Night Ten: So who exactly are the Celestials? ( ?°?°)?

Ample Time: Two possibilities. One is the Federation of Peoples’ expeditionary force returning from Alpha Centauri. The other is the rebel force from planet Gaia. If it’s the first possibility, then perhaps there’s still a chance we can resolve the issue through communication. But if it’s the second, then I’m afraid we’ll have to prepare for the worst...

...

Captain’s quarters on the Heart of Steel.

After reading through the forum post from beginning to end, Chu Guang leaned back in his office chair after a long while and couldn’t help sighing. “These guys really are fucking geniuses!”

He had probably said that more than a few times already, but that didn’t stop him from feeling the same way every single time. Embarrassingly enough... Even he, the supposed game developer, hadn’t thought that far ahead.

That didn’t stop his players to already fill in the entire theory for him!

Developing outer space, though... That idea was admittedly a little too ambitious. Putting aside the fact that the terrible situation in outer space was difficult enough to give even the Academy a headache, the New Alliance still had countless things to deal with on the ground! Where would they find the time to start some outer space expansion?!

Wait.

Chu Guang had been about to set the matter aside for the time being when he suddenly came back to his senses.

“Although the New Alliance doesn’t have the energy to handle something like this, nor the capability to pull it off alone, what if we did it in the name of the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee and combined the resources of the entire organization?!”

At that thought, Chu Guang’s eyes grew brighter and brighter as the world in front of him seemed to open up all at once.

Developing outer space was still too distant a goal for the New Alliance alone, but as a new agenda for the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee, the timing was perfect! The War for Paradise was about to end, and the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee needed a new common objective to keep all its participating members united. Developing their capabilities to tackle the challenges that lay in outer space was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity!

In the long term, if they wanted to raise productivity beyond the mid-Prosperity Era level, prerequisites such as restoring flights between the moon and Earth and resuming Helium-3 nuclear fuel production would be indispensable. And in the short term, the upper echelon of the Torch Church had fled into outer space. For the sake of bringing war criminals to justice, it would be perfectly reasonable for the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee to pursue them there, right?

It was more than reasonable!

And that wasn’t all. The Celestials, who had remained hidden in the shadows and manipulated the situation in the wasteland, were also a threat that could not be ignored. If they could not be eradicated once and for all, then while remaining hidden in the darkness, they would repeatedly exploit the shortsightedness and weakness of wasteland survivors, allowing threats similar to the Torch Church to rise again and again across the wasteland!

The problem absolutely had to be discussed properly at the Mutant Slime Mold Research Committee Assembly.

However, holding a summit could wait. The immediate priority was to figure out whether the trackless space elevator developed by Shelter 20 was actually something they could build feasibly.

Thinking about it, Chu Guang did not hesitate. He immediately looked toward Little Seven and ordered, “Little Seven, notify Yin Fang! Have him immediately organize personnel and retrieve the data stored in Shelter 20! I need the Scientific Expedition Team to give this material the highest possible priority, organize it as quickly as possible, and provide me with a technical feasibility report on the trackless space elevator!”

“I need to know exactly how much material and how much time it would take to build one of these!”

Looking at the highly motivated Chu Guang, Little Seven, sitting on his pen holder, playfully gave a salute and replied cheerfully, “Roger, roger!”

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