The director of the research operation walked in with high officials wearing Raylen’s military uniform. An older gentleman who looked like the leader said with a deep frown, “Any progress?”

“There’s literally no progress at all.” the director responded helplessly. “The alien spaceship technology is too much for us to comprehend. We can’t solve the mystery. The meters from measuring equipment are constantly jumping at the same time, which was completely illogical.

“Then copy just a small part. I only need something concrete.”

“Sorry, but most of the components are too weird in structure, and we don’t even know what they are used for. We tried to copy the engravings on the spaceship, but nothing happened, and we can’t even start the engine up…”

“After years of investment, you give me this kind of answer?” The old official stared at the director coldly.

The director was sweating. “But there is something that we have found out. Please follow me.”

The group then moved in front of the transparent test tube that contained the black liquid. The director said, “This seems to be motor oil that the spaceship uses for fuel. It is extremely dense and viscous. We found some special characteristic that resembles a microorganism after looking through the microscope. More importantly, its reaction can produce energy.

“From our understanding, the molecules in the liquid can separate by itself and reproduce while keeping the original mass. The extra molecules are then released as energy. The process is completely automatic, meaning that it can produce energy without any input. This is revolutionary. We think that this is a reusable energy source that is used by alien civilizations. If this object can keep on separating molecules and producing energy, in theory, it can produce an unlimited amount of energy. We are still trying to understand the mechanism behind the process.”

The black liquid slowly moved in the test tube, and the old official frowned.

“Why is it moving by itself? Is it a living creature?”

“This should be the reason it could produce molecules. It has characteristics of microorganisms, but it does not have a nervous system, which means that it does not have conscious, so the movement is probably a reaction from the molecule separation process. This liquid is basically the same as bacteria.”

Since it was an alien technology, all the researchers accepted all the unexplained phenomenon, and the director added, “We have already run the tests. The liquid is not radioactive, and it does not contain poisonous materials. We also used a death row prisoner to touch the liquid with his body, and nothing went wrong after the contact.”

The old official nodded, and the others all looked at the liquid.

“The progress is still too slow,” one of the officials said. “Our time is limited, and we can’t keep on hiding this operation from the Godoran Civilization. We need physical copies as soon as possible.”

“But the difference in technology is too much; it’s not easy to break through this barrier. Unless…” The director hesitated. “Unless there’s someone who understands the technology to help us.”

The higher officials quickly looked at each other and thought of the same person.

“The missing Godoran… He must understand this technology.”

“If we can find him, not only can we report this back to Godora, we can also use the excuse of repairing his spaceship to obtain part of their technology.”

The old official turned to the official of intelligence organization and asked, “How is it with the Dark Net? When will Han Xiao turn the man in?”

“He never responded,” the intelligence official replied coldly, “and the Dark Net keeps on postponing the request.”

“God damn it!” the old official shouted with anger. “He is crossing the line on this matter that can impact the future of this planet! A civilian organization dares to ignore us, do they want to die?”

“Should we send someone?”

“The Southern Continent is Stardragon and Hesla’s territory, so he thinks that we don’t want to leak any intel to them. Haha, he underestimated us,” the old official said in a deep voice. “The upper command gave us the order to retrieve the missing investigator. We will contact the other countries and work together to suppress the Dark Net.”

Originally, Raylen had thought about using violence to directly raid the base of Dark Net, but considering the safety of the Godoran Investigator and Han Xiao’s strength, there was no way it would work. The only way was to force the Dark Net to give up the hostage voluntarily, so they had to cooperate with other political powers and pressure the Dark Net.

Even though Raylen did not want the other nations to know that they had the spaceship, compared to the future of the planet, this concern was negligible. Of course, the negotiation condition would probably require the other nations to join the research. However, since they had no progress in the beginning, maybe working together could maximize the potential benefits under the condition that everyone would share the research knowledge to each other.

This was also a plan to deal with the individual strength of Han Xiao, and it was obvious that Raylen hated him.

Raylen could simply have helped the investigator return to his own planet and built close ties with Godora as if they were love birds, but Han Xiao had ruined this honeymoon dream and cut off the red string between Raylan and Godora.

“The top officials are contacting the leaders from the other countries. If the Dark Net ignores us, then let’s see if he can deal with the power from the Six Nations. More importantly, Han Xiao still thinks that he’s invincible and the strongest man on the planet. He keeps on using the sacrifice that he made as an excuse to do whatever he wants.”

“I hope this punishment will teach him that there are powers in this world that he cannot steal away.”

The old official laughed coldly.

…

The players in the sanctuary all accepted the mission [The Last Bastion]. The prize-pool mission that seemed to be a main storyline kept on attracting more and more players to join.

The prize-pool quickly reached an astronomical number and met Han Xiao’s requirement for the number of participants. As more and more people discussed the mission, the mysteriousness of Han Xiao thickened.

Counting the numbers of days left, the day of the arrival of the tourist group grew ever closer.

Di di!

The galactic communicator rang, and it was a new message from the Acute Galactic Travel agency. They would arrive at Planet Aquamarine the next day, and the agency reminded the passengers to pack the luggage. The position to aboard the spaceship could be controlled by the communicator, so Han Xiao could choose whichever place he wanted to enter.

It’s finally here.

Han Xiao suddenly got up, and his heart was pounding with excitement. The memories of battles in the galaxy boiled in his mind, and the scenes popped out in front of his eyes like bubbles.

In the universe without borders, one civilization after another, new powerful storyline characters, millions of new species, the battleship that sailed across the universe, life filled with danger and action… all the memories flashed before his eyes.

The galaxy was the future. To first explore the universe was to build a proper foundation for the future growth for later actions from updates of the version. The galaxy would be the spotlight.

Han Xiao calmed down and thought, I have all my equipment and have chosen dozens of team members. I have all the resources that I need for the journey. I don’t have to worry about experience points for quite some time, so I’ve dealt with all the small things.

His accumulation in Planet Aquamarine was the bottom line for exploration in the galaxy.

…

When dawn arrived, the thundering sound of engines break the silence of the sanctuary. A heavily armored convoy quickly responded and drove to the gate. The players and strangers on the street all looked toward the convey.

The logo on the cars represented the highest rank troops that were under the direct command of Han Xiao. Players suddenly realized what was happening and followed behind the convoy.

The messaged spread wide and far, and all the players in the sanctuary heard the news and headed toward where the convoy was heading. Waves of people all flooded through the security walls and reached the red flat plain.