Chapter 798: Feasibility Study of a 'Trackless Space Elevator'

Chapter 798: Feasibility Study of the "Trackless Space Elevator"

"Damn it, I've been tricked!"

After losing more than twenty of his men in a series of unexpected mishaps, Fafri finally came to his senses—he might have been played by the Alliance!

This abandoned urban area was indeed a stronghold of the Torch Church, but aside from uncollected corpses and scattered rubble, there was nothing on the entire site!

No wonder...

Those greedy Blue Rats had so readily spat out the meat they had bitten into!

This wasn't meat at all—it was clearly a cold, hard bone!

The more Fafri thought about it, the angrier he grew. He called off the mine-clearing unit and search teams busy working in the ruins, then personally walked to the southern part of the abandoned city.

It was a relatively open area. In the center of the clearing, airdropped supplies were piled up, and Alliance soldiers in exoskeletons were bustling about with construction work.

They were clearing construction debris to the edges of the clearing and leveling the rugged ground, apparently planning to build a makeshift runway for aircraft.

Beyond that, rows of uniform tents could be seen in the distance, along with some survivors wrapped in blankets.

It seemed these guys intended to set up a semi-permanent military base on the old site of Haibei City and stay for the long haul.

Fafri didn't care how long they planned to stay; he only wanted to know what was going on with the ruins under his control. So he stormed over, grabbed a patrolling soldier, and shouted.

"Where's your commander! Tell him to come out and see me!"

The patrolling player stopped and glanced at this blustering big-nosed man.

"Who are you?"

Fafri narrowed his eyes slightly, suppressing his temper as he spoke.

"I'm the centurion of the 1st Thousand-Man Unit of the 37th Ten-Thousand-Man Corps! I want to talk to your commander about the control zones between our sides!"

Hearing the man announce his rank and purpose, the player didn't give him a hard time, though he didn't show much enthusiasm either.

A centurion.

They had captured plenty of centurions in the desert.

"Wait here."

With that, the player turned and walked toward the camp. Before long, KillDagger emerged.

Fafri looked him up and down and said.

"You're the commander here?"

KillDagger replied succinctly.

"Our commander has more important tasks. I'm the person in charge here. If you have something to discuss, you can talk to me."

Fafri stared at him intently, his eyes narrowing.

"What trick are you playing?"

KillDagger looked back at him impassively.

"Trick? Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Stop playing dumb!" Seeing the man feign ignorance, Fafri pressed aggressively. "That ruin! There's nothing in it!"

As his tone grew worse, KillDagger's expression also turned cold.

"Mr. Fafri, that stronghold was taken by our soldiers with their blood. You came and demanded it from us. We could have refused, but we handed it over without a second thought. Not because we fear you, but because we stand in the same trench. And now you accuse us of playing tricks, complaining that our help wasn't enough. Don't you think you're pushing too far?"

Fafri froze on the spot, his face turning pale and red with anger, yet he couldn't find a word to refute.

Indeed.

His own actions were somewhat ungracious.

After all, that abandoned urban area was originally captured by the Alliance. He thought he could snatch an easy gain and asked for it, only to hit a wall and then blame the other side for setting him up.

In the end, those facilities were built by Torch, not the Alliance.

By all reason, it was perfectly normal for his allies not to know what was there...

Seeing Fafri gradually calm down, KillDagger softened his tone and continued.

"Let me share a bit more intel with you. The Church's Holy Light Knights and the Flame Cave Clan, which withdrew from Ten-Peak Mountain, are stationed in the area you now occupy. When our drones spotted them from above, they were reinforcing that concrete fortress."

"To say there's nothing there is impossible. If it were truly empty, why would they go to such lengths to build so many defenses? There must be something they don't want us to take from them."

Hearing this, Fafri pondered and found it somewhat reasonable.

Indeed.

Logically, if it were just a ruin, why would Torch build so many fortifications?

Seeing that Fafri seemed to be drawn in by his words, KillDagger cleared his throat, suppressed a smile, and shamelessly added another line.

"This hidden map... ahem, I mean hidden research facility, wouldn't have its entrance in an obvious place. Maybe you should go back and search more carefully?"

In fact, that final reminder wasn't even necessary.

This Legion centurion, before KillDagger could finish speaking, was already eager to return and resume work.

"Hmm! I'll go back and look again."

With that hasty remark, Fafri turned impatiently and headed back to his controlled area, gathering the resting engineers and laborers.

"Search thoroughly!"

"Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find me that Torch research institute!"

Seeing their commander apparently armed with new clues and speaking with such confidence, the soldiers, whose morale had hit rock bottom after finding nothing, perked up again and let out an inspiring shout.

"Ooh!!"

Watching the Valiante soldiers re-energized and rushing into the depths of the ruins, a faint, subtle smile flickered across the face of the battlefield morale booster.

Good grief.

What if they actually dug up something...

Then it would be hard to say who the fool was.

...

While the Valiantes were working feverishly on the ruins, the Alliance players were also buzzing with discussion on the forum of another world.

The hottest topic was still Brother Fang Chang's post.

After withdrawing from the abandoned urban area, Fang Chang had logged off and returned to reality, sharing on the official forum the discoveries of the Burning Legion in Vault 20, as well as his speculations about the whereabouts of the Vault 20 residents and the Torch Church high command.

"...Vault 20 was opened in Year 51 of the Wasteland Era and last operated in Year 72 of the Wasteland Era. It has been abandoned ever since."

"Due to the loss of the administrator's logs and the deaths of all relevant personnel, it's difficult to deduce the reason for the vault's abandonment or the whereabouts of its residents after the facility was decommissioned. However, based on the equipment left behind and the catalog of data remnants in the database, the research conducted in this vault was likely related to 'outer space development.'"

Yaya: "Outer space development? 0.0"

Fang Chang: "Correct. The residents of this vault were not biologists but primarily aerospace engineers and related professionals. During the vault's operational period, they proposed several novel technological concepts tailored to the unique outer space environment of the Wasteland Era."

"For example, one concept was a 'trackless elevator' based on graviton-related technology. This space elevator primarily utilized techniques discovered in the late Golden Age, similar in principle to FTL drives and anti-gravity devices. It had lower power consumption, maintenance, and construction costs, and avoided the safety hazards of the classic space elevators built in the early Golden Age. Under suitable conditions, this system could help survivors return to outer space at a lower cost."

"Additionally, besides the trackless elevator, the vault's survivors also proposed another concept called 'thought projection.'"

Canyon Escape Mole: "What's that? (dazed)"

Fang Chang: "Simply put, it's to informatize consciousness, then use high-power transmission equipment to send it toward spacecraft or space stations deployed in outer space during the Human Union era, thereby breaking through the blockade of massive space debris and automated weapon systems in outer space."

"This scenario considers the most extreme case. That is, due to the orbital debris blockade in outer space, survivors are completely cut off from any possibility of returning to space via spacecraft, and the remaining resources are insufficient for them to rebuild a sustainable new civilization. They believe that at that point, people need to change their thinking, shifting from an 'inside-out' self-rescue model to an 'outside-in' one."

Si Si: "In the situation where the body cannot leave, let the spirit go first, seize control of the outer space facilities left over from the Human Union era, then use the technological and resource advantages of outer space to gradually develop back toward Earth, ultimately rescuing the survivors trapped on Earth... Is that what you mean?"

Fang Chang: "Smart."

Jie Yan: "I'm already dizzy!!"

Wei Ba: "Giao! So... the Torch has already escaped to an alien planet using this equipment?! ∑(?Д?ノ)ノ"

Fang Chang: "Not quite an alien planet... Only special outer space equipment can receive this information; after all, sending signals to rocks is meaningless. According to the information revealed in the Saint's last words, they went to a place 1.5 million kilometers away. Based on that number, I speculate it should be a space station near the Lagrange L1 or L2 points, but I'm not sure about the specifics."

Rou Shan Da Mo Mo: "So far!!"

Ao Ao Zhi Ma Hu: "Hmm... but why would he reveal such important information to us? (puzzled)"

Quan Shui Zhi Hui Guan: "Probably because he's sure we can't get there anyway. (sidelong glance)"

Si Si: "Hmm... Actually, from a psychological analysis, there's another explanation. Compared to Alzu, who proposed establishing the Second Sanctuary, he is the only true pioneer who never abandoned the physical body. On one hand, he firmly believes that only when the Heavenly Kingdom is finally realized and humanity completes its ascension to higher beings can redemption be achieved, but at the same time, he does not trust that existing technology can truly realize the free migration of consciousness between different bodies. Therefore, driven by fear of death and the uncertainty of the future, he did some things that seem contradictory."

Fang Chang: "According to typical game settings, the boss reveals key information just to advance the plot. I think you don't need to overthink these trivial details... And these details aren't really the point. The point is, based on his final words and the series of concepts mentioned in the dialogue, including '1.5 million kilometers' and 'Celestial Beings,' I can boldly speculate that the next expansion or the next phase of the main storyline of 'Wasteland OL' will be related to outer space."

Wei Ba: "Oh! Are we going to space?! (?ω?)"

Bian Yuan Hua Shui: "By the way, the wasteland on the ground isn't over yet. Is it really appropriate to start an outer space expansion this early? (dumbfounded)"

Fang Chang: "Backwardness and advancement have always coexisted on this planet. The wasteland era of outer space and the wasteland era on the ground can end together; they can even drive each other forward. There's really no conflict. Moreover, the trackless elevator concept proposed by Vault 20 might become an important clue that takes us to outer space."

"Furthermore, I speculate that not only the high-ranking members of the Torch Church, but also the escaped residents of Vault 117, and even the residents of Vault 20 who disappeared over a century ago... they likely all transferred their minds to some facility 1.5 million kilometers away through the 'second method.'"

Canyon Escape Mole: "So... the 'Celestial Beings' mentioned by the Saint are those who transferred their minds to outer space spacecraft and space stations through mind-uploading technology?"

Fang Chang: "Perhaps, but I'm more inclined to think that the Celestial Beings took them in... for some reason we don't know."

Ye Shi: "So who exactly are the 'Celestial Beings'? (dumbfounded)"

Fang Chang: "Two possibilities. One is the Human Union expeditionary force returning from Proxima Centauri; the other is the rebels from the planet Gaia."

"If it's the former, we might still have the possibility of solving the problem through communication."

"But if it's the latter, I'm afraid we'll have to prepare for the worst..."

"..."

Steel Heart's Captain's Cabin.

After browsing through the post on the official website from beginning to end, after a long while, Chu Guang leaned back in his office chair and couldn't help but let out a sigh.

"These guys are really something!"

He must have said this many times, but that didn't stop him from feeling the same way every time.

To be honest, it was embarrassing.

He, the game designer, hadn't thought that far, yet his players had already filled in the gaps for him.

But developing toward outer space...

This brainwave was really a bit too big.

Not to mention that the dire reality of outer space was troublesome even for the Academy; the Alliance still had plenty to do on the ground. When would there be time to work on some outer space expansion—

Wait.

Chu Guang was about to put this matter aside for the moment, but then suddenly came to his senses.

"Although the Alliance doesn't have the energy for this, nor the ability to do it alone, if it's under the name of the Sticky Commonwealth, combining the resources of the entire Sticky Commonwealth..."

Thinking of this, Chu Guang's eyes grew brighter, feeling that his perspective and thinking had suddenly opened up.

Developing outer space was still too distant for the Alliance for now, but as a new agenda for the Sticky Commonwealth, it was just right!

Just as the War of Heaven was about to end, the Sticky Commonwealth also needed a new common goal to keep all member states united under one roof.

Developing outer space was undoubtedly a great opportunity!

In the long run, to develop productivity to a level above the mid-Prosperity Era, restoring "Earth-Moon flights" and the production of helium-3 nuclear fuel and other prerequisites were essential.

In the short term, the high-ranking members of the Torch Church had escaped to outer space. To bring the war criminals to justice, it was perfectly reasonable for the Sticky Commonwealth to pursue them, right?

That was absolutely reasonable!

Not only that.

The "Celestial Beings," who had been hiding in the shadows and manipulating the wasteland situation, were also a threat that could not be ignored.

If they could not be eradicated once and for all, they would repeatedly exploit the shortsightedness and weakness of the survivors on the wasteland, allowing a "threat similar to the Torch" to rise again on the wasteland!

This must be thoroughly discussed at the Sticky Commonwealth assembly.

However, holding the assembly was secondary for now; the urgent task was to figure out whether the "trackless space elevator" that Vault 20 had come up with could actually be built.

Thinking of this, Chu Guang did not hesitate and immediately looked at Xiao Qi to give instructions.

"Xiao Qi, notify Yin Fang! Tell him to immediately organize personnel and retrieve the data stored in Vault 20!"

"I need the scientific expedition team to complete the sorting of this data at the highest priority as soon as possible, and give me a technical feasibility analysis report on the 'trackless space elevator'!"

"I need to know the material cost and time cost required to build such an elevator!"

Looking at the energetic Chu Guang, Xiao Qi, sitting on the pen holder, playfully saluted and said in a cheerful voice.

"Received!"