The Chinese called the star connected to the Tibetan ruins “Taiping.”
They had named it “Taiping” in the hope that this star would bring about an age of peace and prosperity.
We and Secretary Li were not the only ones going to that star, Taiping.
A dozen or so sturdy young men had arrived at the ruins before us.
They were the people who would be departing with us.
The Chinese government had no intention of sending only us to Taiping.
To my eyes, it was nothing but a waste of black stones, but as an outsider, I couldn’t stop them from making that decision.
The candidates to become users were all wearing military uniforms.
It seemed they had either conducted the blood tests mainly on soldiers, or had brought the soldiers in first.
Korea had been so short on people that they’d brought in literally anyone, but China was different.
Such was the majesty of a nation with a population of 1.5 billion.
After I checked the altar, the technicians activated the equipment.
Wooooong.
A magic gate for spatial transfer formed above the altar.
Once the portal opened, the soldiers climbed onto the altar with bags in both hands.
They looked no different from the follow-up team I had seen at the Baekdu Mountain ruins.
Magreta and I stood behind them with Secretary Li.
Secretary Li also carried bags in both hands, but we were empty-handed.
The Chinese hadn’t been able to bring themselves to tell us to carry luggage.
In truth, I could carry far more than they could, but there was no reason to tell them that.
After the soldiers disappeared into the portal one by one, it was our turn.
Secretary Li entered the portal as well.
Only Magreta and I remained. Now it was our turn.
Before entering the portal, I looked around.
People were watching us with tense eyes.
After confirming how they looked, I took Magreta’s hand.
When I took her hand, Magreta looked at me in puzzlement.
[I need to use magic during the spatial transfer.]
I explained the reason through sound-transmission magic.
At the words that echoed in her head, Magreta nodded.
Holding hands, we entered the portal.
Fwaaaaaah!
The world was covered in white light, and within that light, two paths appeared.
The original path, and the path to TRAPPIST that I had just created.
Magreta was beside me.
It wasn’t that I could see her with my eyes, nor that she was next to me in terms of space or time.
However, just like a bag held in my hand being pulled along with me, she was conceptually beside me.
For the same reason, she could change paths with me.
Instead of Taiping, which China had found, we set foot toward TRAPPIST.
Fwaaaaaah!
A moment later, we were in the underground ruins.
The technicians had also withdrawn to the terraforming ruins, leaving the underground ruins empty.
Only Magreta and I had arrived in those underground ruins.
Magreta looked around in surprise.
“Isn’t this TRAPPIST?”
“Yes. These are the underground ruins beneath the lake.”
At my answer, Magreta looked even more confused.
She immediately began pelting me with questions.
“Why did we come here? No, more importantly, you could come to another star with someone else, not just by yourself?”
I lifted our joined hands and said to her,
“We came to this star to move the nuclear missiles before going to that star. This is also the first time I’ve deviated from the destination with someone else.”
Magreta quickly understood what I meant.
She tightened her grip on my hand.
“Then we’ll have to hold hands when we go back, too.”
Now that the coordinates had been made, from now on I could spatially transfer to that star without holding hands.
But there was no need to say that here.
Instead of that, I said something else.
“Magreta, you can stay here.”
There was no need for both of us to go to that star.
It could be more dangerous than expected.
I would do my best to protect her, but it was far safer for her to remain here.
At my words, she shook her head.
“How are you going to explain my disappearance? You’ll already need an excuse for arriving late.”
Magreta wasn’t wrong.
As we exchanged those words, we walked toward the passage.
It was a passage that had originally led to the surface, and now it had been severed midway.
I entered the passage and placed my hand on one wall.
Using my extrasensory perception, I examined the inside of the wall.
Water was not flowing through this wall.
I pushed energy into the wall and recited an incantation.
“Collapse.”
Earth magic was immediately cast.
Ruuuumble.
The wall collapsed, creating a long, narrow room.
It was the perfect room to store the nuclear missiles.
“Did you bring all the nuclear missiles?”
At Magreta’s question, I shook my head.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t all remained.
Of the four nuclear missiles the remnants of North Korea had possessed, I had placed three in the box.
The number of nuclear missiles remaining in the box now was two.
As expected, only two of the three had survived.
I took out all the nuclear missiles and put them into the room.
Two nuclear missiles lay side by side inside.
Looking at the nuclear missiles, Magreta shook her head.
“To think I’d see nuclear missiles with my own eyes… This is truly absurd.”
I could hardly believe it myself, but I had to finish what needed to be done.
After confirming that the nuclear missiles were intact, I moved the earth.
Once the magic was cast, the wall returned to its original state.
Now, Magreta and I were the only ones who knew there were nuclear missiles inside this wall.
When the wall was complete, Magreta took my hand.
“They’ll get suspicious if we’re late. Let’s go quickly.”
Holding my hand, she walked toward the altar.
I followed her to the altar.
The empty altar.
There were no technicians to operate the spatial transfer device, but we had Soph.
After stepping onto the altar, I said to Soph,
[Please.]
[The path may be rough, so hold hands tightly.]
Seeing me holding Magreta’s hand, Soph made a joke.
As I ignored him like usual, a magic circle appeared before my eyes.
It was a portal heading to the new star, Taiping.
There was no need to, but Magreta and I entered the portal hand in hand.
Fwaaaaaah!
The world sank into light, and after a short while, returned to normal again.
“Ah, the two of them have arrived!”
“I thought they’d run away, but I guess not.”
Before the new underground ruins came into view, I heard people speaking.
It was all Mandarin, but thanks to the translation relic, I could understand it.
When I looked toward the source of the voices, Secretary Li, who had rushed up onto the altar in a fluster, blocked my path.
“Everyone was worried because you didn’t arrive right away.”
What I had heard just now sounded like a slightly different sort of worry, but out of consideration for Secretary Li, I decided not to bring it up now.
In any case, I had already figured out who it was. There would be plenty of other opportunities to show them how long I could hold a grudge.
Instead of nitpicking his words, I explained why we were late.
“We came right away, but it seems there was a time lag.”
Naturally, my explanation was a lie.
“Such a thing can happen?”
At my words, Secretary Li tilted his head.
Of course, such a thing didn’t happen, but no one here knew that.
“Who knows? We’re using ruins we don’t understand anyway, aren’t we? There’s no telling what might happen.”
When I insisted so shamelessly, not only Secretary Li but the others had no choice but to accept my words.
Besides, now was not the time to doubt me.
Ruuuuumble!
Even while we were talking, the sound of something drilling a hole continued to echo.
It was the sound Secretary Li had spoken of, the scouts approaching while digging through.
The sound was extremely close.
Together with Magreta, I moved toward the tunnel where the sound was coming from.
“The monster sounds got too close, so everyone became frightened.”
At Secretary Li’s words, I looked around.
The ruins were similar to the underground ruins on TRAPPIST that I had just visited.
In these underground ruins, aside from the people who had crossed over with us this time, about twenty others had gathered.
Two women and twenty sturdy men.
They were the people who had fled into these underground ruins.
The people who had sent Secretary Li to Earth and held out in the underground ruins.
There were more survivors than I had expected, but their expressions did not look like those of the living.
They were half out of their minds, stricken with terror.
People had come from Earth to save them, but their expressions did not change.
“They’ve been down here for days without water or food, listening to the monsters getting closer the whole time. It must have been difficult to stay sane.”
Secretary Li didn’t need to explain.
I knew better than anyone how dreadful the scouts’ shrieks and energy were.
Even on TRAPPIST, only those who could use dark energy were allowed to participate in hunting the Akzar monsters.
If you couldn’t handle dark energy, it was difficult to protect your body and mind from the monsters.
Among the people who had fled here into the underground ruins, there was no one with dark energy like Secretary Li.
It was only natural.
They wouldn’t have had enough time to awaken energy, and anyone lucky enough to become an energy user would have joined the hunting team.
Secretary Li must have fled with the people who had remained at the base, so there was no way there would be any energy users among them.
Those people would undoubtedly suffer from severe PTSD in the future.
I clicked my tongue inwardly, then said to Magreta and Secretary Li,
“We’ll have to hurry. I’ll secure the passage first. I’ll go ahead, so follow slowly.”
Leaving those words behind, I shot forward.
Pat!
The scenery rapidly receded behind me.
The underground ruins were pushed back, and I entered the passage leading to the surface.
Like on TRAPPIST, it was a passage that sloped upward.
As if to explain why the monsters had not been able to enter, the passage was narrow enough for only two or three people to walk side by side.
Just as the sound had seemed close, it didn’t take long to encounter the monsters.
Before I had run far, I saw a scout using its black tentacles like drills to bore through the wall.
[Different star, but it looks exactly the same.]
As Soph said, the scout on this star looked identical to those on TRAPPIST.
A black body with multiple tentacles attached.
The monster that had been digging into the earth saw me charge and shot one tentacle toward me.
But that tentacle was cut off before it could even reach me.
The startled monster tried to mobilize all its tentacles to block the passage, but the spear in my hand was faster.
Puaaaak!
The spear flew and pierced through the monster’s body.
Beyond the gaping hole in the monster’s body, I saw another monster.
It was a monster waiting for its turn.
The spear that had skewered the first monster embedded itself in the body of the monster behind it, and Soph’s magic exploded into the monster’s body.
Craaaackle!
Lightning scorched the monster’s body.
After extracting the black stone from the nicely roasted monster, I continued sprinting down the passage.
Thanks to the monsters having widened the passage, I was able to reach the surface easily.
On the way up to the surface, scouts blocked my path several times, but they could not stop my steps.
And so, I reached the surface.
The sight of the star beyond the destroyed temporary base was, just as Secretary Li had described, extremely desolate.
A barren plain with no grass or trees in sight.
“It looks worse than TRAPPIST.”
At my words, Soph answered.
[It can’t be helped. This star is a dead star.]
Taiping (2)