Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 555 - 252: Phase 3 Project

The extreme cold temperatures of this planet often damaged the machinery on the surface, even though humans had reached the peak of a Third-level Civilization, and the various machines still struggled to withstand such ultra-low temperatures, leading to a high rate of malfunctions.

Wang Haifeng checked the time, put on his Power Armor, and stepped out of the industrial elevator.

"The current atmospheric pressure outside is 0.0000092 standard atmospheres, and the temperature is minus two hundred forty-six degrees Celsius."

"Please be careful when you go out, and watch your step!"

With a light click, the elevator reached the surface.

One after another, hillocks piled up with snowflakes were, in fact, frozen air. Because different components of the air have different condensation temperatures, the frozen air here is layered—the first to condense is carbon dioxide, followed by Methane and nitrogen, and in this place, one can even find small amounts of solid oxygen.

Solid oxygen is a light blue crystal that kind of resembles the look of copper sulfate after it’s poured into water and solidifies.

Sometimes, these blue crystals can be found by the roadside. The small ones are as tiny as peanuts, while the largest are as big as a lake.

Boys and girls like to collect these beautiful blue crystals and carve them into jewelry—it’s a fun sort of creation from nothing, even though the jewelry would quickly vaporize and turn into gas at room temperature.

This Big Ice Ball had been thoroughly checked for any extraterrestrial microorganisms, so bringing these small pieces of jewelry into the Underground City was permitted.

"Senior Engineer, Wang Haifeng, driver’s license, Class A." He drove a car towards the Space Airport, and even though all cars were capable of driving themselves these days, sometimes he still liked to indulge in the pleasure of driving.

Upon arriving at his destination, a small Transport Ship was just descending from the sky towards the ground, its bright lights shining an arc through the haze.

Soon after, a group of young people approached.

"Uncle Wang!"

"Everybody’s here, right? Hold tight!"

The car raced over the icy surface.

"These huge cracks on the surface of the ice shells were created by the super-strong gravitational pull when we passed by the neutron star. I guess they will never heal."

Wang Haifeng said to the group of young people in the car, as it suddenly leaped into the air and soared over a crack with a "splash".

These young people had just arrived here via spaceship and needed to be arranged in a good place to stay.

One of the ambitious young men said, "Uncle Wang, we’ll be imposing on you these days. Due to the geological changes on the planet, we need to find a sturdy geographic location to construct about 500 steering engines."

Wang Haifeng laughed, "Hey, just 500? That’s nothing compared to the 30,000 we had to deal with in the past!"

"No way!"

The work on the Planet Engines above the "JS131" Planet Fortress was almost completed, and the entire project’s focus had shifted to the third phase, with more and more people moving here to build large-scale astronomical observation equipment and a few Planet Engines.

These Planet Engines would be used to counteract the planet’s rotation.

The group chatted and laughed warmly.

Through the observation equipment embedded in the Power Armor, one could see the "JS131" planet, also known as Planet Fortress, near a neutron star, roughly two astronomical units away.

One could not simply see the small neutron stars, but could faintly make out the colorful ion flames on the surface of the Planet Fortress.

"Our first Planet Fortress... so beautiful, it’s nearly complete."

"This can hardly be called a true Planet Fortress. It merely has basic propulsion. Weapons, ecology, it has none of those!"

More than thirty million people still lived above, striving to mine more minerals over the next hundred years, providing ample fuel reserves for the Planet Engine, and only then could everyone hand over everything to the fully automated system and leave...

A boy discussed behind them, "There’s this idea that we’ve made significant progress over the past thousand years. Long-term practice has matured us on the industrial level, and our ability to automate has greatly improved. In the future, the time to develop such a War Star could be reduced by one third. And there was that escape incident a hundred years ago..."

"Does the escape incident count as progress?"

"History can always bring some gains..."

As Wang Haifeng aged, he didn’t bother to judge these young people’s discussions. He walked into the Underground City, removed his Power Armor, and suddenly shivered, breathing on his rough palms.

He remembered those friends and family who had left, including his two sisters and a brother. His dry, old eyes couldn’t help but moisten again... They should have arrived at their destination and started their new lives by now, right?

Wang Haifeng turned back and watched some of the youngsters searching for the most suitable site for engine construction on the geographical information system.

Their voices chattered non-stop, full of vitality.

Despite these young people looking youthful, they were not...

A portion of the population were Transcendents selected from the Virtual World.

The New Civilization School had a much deeper foundation than one could imagine, with hundreds of millions of deceased, even selecting one-thousandth of the outstanding talent amounted to several hundred thousand...

These chosen Transcendents had stabilized society’s foundation during the most dangerous times, ensuring the entire plan didn’t truly fail.

The reason most of the young weren’t agitated was that the Transcendents had held onto the discourse of student societies and various student organizations.

There were some small differences between society and school. The division between school and society only showed its effects after a thousand years.

After setting the relevant parameters in the computer, Wang Haifeng said, "You guys will stay in these rooms, 1109-1122. Two people per room, the permissions are already set. If there are any couples or such, let me know to make adjustments."

"Sharing a room with another person isn’t too bad."

"Thank you, Uncle Wang!"

The boys and girls immediately dashed off to their quarters; these days had tired them out, and they needed proper rest to work well.

Only a captain dressed in a blue uniform remained, staring blankly at the elevator that led to the outside world.

"What do you think happened to those who left in the past when they reached their destination?" Wang Haifeng pointed at the ceiling and asked the man with the last name Fang, the most composed captain among the group.

"Nothing much... it’s just that... it could lead to societal regression," the man named Fang sat down, grabbed a handful of nuts to eat, and said, "To desire constant progress, a price must be paid, otherwise we can’t even maintain our position and will regress."

"We thank them and feel deep regret for those humans. Their future is unlikely to be as bright as imagined. Where could there be a perfect society?"

Wang Haifeng said noncommittally, "The future is of their own choosing, how could it not be bright?"

The man named Fang smiled and said, "What can they actually choose for themselves? The populace changes, and it changes quickly."

"Multi-party system? I don’t like the multi-party system... To chase grand goals and ideals, we have to stick to a single-party system. Without the will to continue even that, how can the Ruling Party pursue eternal progress with public opinion fluctuating?"