Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
To be rewarded for a responsibility before one had fulfilled said responsibility.
This was a move that could not exactly be considered as a scheme, and was also the last resort of the Alliance of Humanity’s Future.
Su Mo did not refuse their intentions and gladly accepted it.
No human would sit and watch while their own race gradually disappeared from the face of the world and headed toward extinction.
Su Mo would not do so now, and he would not do so in the future either.
After all, he had already had the ultimate ace up his sleeve, which was the Civilization Upgrade option from the system’s new upgrade function.
In time, in the New World, he would be able to quickly develop science and technology to once again reach the heights of human technology during the civilized era.
All he needed to do was obtain more than 51% of the authority of the wasteland.
At that time, the large population of human beings would be able to completely shine a new light upon this land.
The exponential growth that humans had experienced on Earth would instantly unfold here as well!
The game would no longer be a restriction or constraint.
Even this Doomsday wasteland world would become a stepping stone that would allow him to reach greater heights.
As the final banquet between Su Mo and Lu Yongyi in this ocean region had ended, the past few days of fellowship between Su Mo and the survivors of the Tundra fleet came to an end as well.
By the time he got back aboard Hope One, it was already 10 pm at night.
Seeing that the survivors had fallen asleep on the raft ferries below him, Su Mo smiled and made his way back slowly to the captain’s quarters.
Early the next morning, the entire fleet would officially start their migration. They would be parting from Hope One at around 9 am tomorrow, bringing thousands of exotic materials obtained from the foreign races, and nearly tens of thousands of treasure chests, with them.
Even though Su Mo did not dare to predict how strong the Tundra fleet would be amongst the forces at the Deep Ocean, he was confident that they would be able to grow and develop.
When the time came, the Tundra fleet would be a seed that Su Mo had planted in the Deep Ocean.
Once it germinated, it would surely bloom uniquely and attractively!
“Brother, you’re back! Quick, look at this, your handkerchief is actually absorbing moonlight! How astonishing!”
Su Chan’s cheeky voice could be heard as Su Mo pushed open the door to the captain’s quarters.
Other than Su Chan, the captain’s quarters were off-limits to all the other crew members.
Su Mo glanced at the Magic Carpet, which was slowly absorbing moonlight, before striding forward and gently rapping Su Chan on the head.
“Are you curious about it? Want me to show you something more astonishing?”
Su Chan’s widened eyes blinked once, “What else is there to see? Come on, you haven’t even told me why this handkerchief can absorb moonlight!”
“Calm down, calm down. Follow me!”
After looking through the porthole for a while and making sure that no one was on the main deck, Su Mo snickered, grabbed the Magic Carpet, and pulled Su Chan out of the captain’s quarters with him.
They made their way up the stairs onto the floor above the captain’s quarters and stood beside the Defense Master.
From there, they could overlook Hope One entirely and could almost see the fleet below them in the dark.
Su Mo took out the miniaturized Magic Carpet and, as Su Chan curiously observed, Su Mo flung the Magic Carpet out as he willed it to float with his mind.
Then, a magical scene unfolded!
Under normal circumstances, the Magic Carpet would have fallen to the ground, but it was somehow floating in midair magically, and had a layer of golden light around it.
After a few seconds, the Magic Carpet that was once palm-sized transformed into a carpet that was 2 square meters in size. It looked phenomenal.
Su Chan looked at the floating Magic Carpet, and then at Su Mo’s smiling face. Her eyes widened in disbelief, “Brother, can this thing really take us on a flying adventure?!”
“Of course! If it can’t fly, why would I want it?”
With a smile, Su Mo pulled Su Chan onto the Magic Carpet after making sure no one else was around to see them.
After a light shudder, the Magic Carpet successfully accommodated both persons.
It also acted in accordance with Su Mo’s will, and its surface no longer gleamed golden, but took on its original, tattered look.
In the darkness of the night, this tattered look was the best form of camouflage. One would not notice that there was something like this floating in the air unless they were standing up close!
“You ready?”
“lm ready! Let’s fly!”
Su Chan was indeed the product of modern knowledge and education. She had only been stunned for a few seconds before coming to terms with the reality of fantasy magical items like this one.
Immediately, Su Mo’s hands tightened his grip and, as he grasped Su Chan’s shoulder, he willed the Magic Carpet to fly!
Vroom.
Vroom.
The sound of an engine ignition could be heard.
After three seconds, a beam of light flashed across the surface of the Magic Carpet and Su Mo was instantly pulled backward.
It was also at this time when a pillar of air began to form around the Magic Carpet that gradually transformed into a mysterious protective bubble.
Inside this bubble, the rushing wind could no longer be felt, and the recoil from the Magic Carpet’s acceleration disappeared as well.
‘As they lifted off, the sound of waves lapping on the surface gradually faded away.
It also felt like they had been anchored in place; the Magic Carpet may be flying up at a 70-degree angle, but Su Mo, who was enclosed inside the protective bubble, was surprised to find that he did not, at any moment, feel like he was about to fall off or tumble over. He felt like he was still sitting upright!
They were traveling at a speed of 20 meters per second. This speed was slower than a car traveling on the highway but, for humans that had never flown in the flesh before, this was already terrifyingly fast.
Su Mo discarded his initial fears and, as he watched Su Chan curiously looking at her surroundings, he did not repress his emotions any longer and looked around.
When he was 50 meters up, he could still see the horizon from a distance.
‘When he was 60 meters up, the waves on the surface of the ocean already started to look like noodles.
‘When he was 70 meters up, Hope One was the size of a matchbox.
‘When he was 80 meters up, it became very nearly impossible for him to make out the survivors down below.
‘When he was 100 meters up, Su Mo felt that the sky was the limit and that the horizon was endless. How precious this feeling of freedom felt!
This was something sitting in a helicopter could not give him. This was the kind of emotion and thrill that only could be felt when one was skydiving or bungee jumping.
At that moment, he was reminded of the time he leapt from the kobold castle and how liberating it felt.
It was at this current moment that Su Mo had an epiphany!
It turned out that there were still such astonishing things in the world waiting for me to seek out and discover.
‘What humans had seen and experienced was merely the tip of the iceberg.
In this wasteland, this universe, in the limitless dimensions, there were still a lot of mysterious things waiting for humans to explore!
‘When they reached maximum altitude, the angle of the Magic Carpet started to decrease until it floated horizontally in the air.
“Hah, this is too fun!”
“Is that so?”
Su Mo willed the Magic Carpet to move forward and, later on, change directions.
Looking at Su Chan, who was lying flat on the Magic Carpet peering over the edge, realizing that the magic carpet was really flying on its own, Su Mo burst into laughter.
5 minutes passed in the blink of an eye.
‘When there were 30 seconds remaining, with his heart palpitating, Su Mo willed the Magic Carpet to begin its descent.
Thankfully, the descent did not require the amount of preparation time it needed during take-off. Given the Magic Carpet’s speed of 20 meters per second, it only required 5 seconds to descend from such a great height.
‘When both Su Mo and Su Chan stepped off from the Magic Carpet onto the fourth floor of Hope One, the Magic Carpet lost its last ounce of power and turned lifeless. Su Mo quickly grabbed it.
Although they had only flown for a few minutes, both of them felt renewed and refreshed from the inside out.
“Okay, this Magic Carpet can only fly for five minutes every day, and it’s something I’m keeping as a life-saving measure in the future. Don’t let anyone else know about this.”
“Mmm, I understand!”
Seeing Su Chan’s obedient response, Su Mo put his mind at rest and both of them went down through the stairs.
As per the usual arrangement, Su Chan descended one more floor to sleep beside Shen Ke. Su Mo did one round of checks on the main deck before he went up to his captain’s quarters once again.
The few days of fellowship between Tundra One and Hope One had gotten Su Mo used to the chaos and the noise.
The moment Su Mo remembered that they were about to part ways, he felt a little sad.
Unfortunately, there were no parties and celebrations in the world that would last forever.
When he remembered that there were a few hundred people waiting for him back at Iron Rock Mountain, Su Mo hastily made his way to his desk and initiated the final “video call from the game panel”.
According to the current rate at which things were progressing, he would still need to factor in the time needed to locate the Sea God.
Even by Su Mo’s most conservative calculations, Hope One should arrive back at Iron Rock Mountain in at least half a month.
During this period, without the game panel acting as a communication intermediary, both sides would lose the ability to communicate with each other, and Iron Rock Mountain would be left to fend for themselves.
This was why, during the video call, Su Mo did not waste time engaging in pointless banter, but instead informed them of his estimated time of return, as well as issued various instructions to them.
Su Mo even canceled the portion of the Hope Village plan in which they were to gather survivors from around their area.
Stability was of the utmost priority!
Chen Shen nodded and agreed to all of these, and recorded everything that Su Mo said in a little booklet he had.
“Okay, work smart. It’s still an acceptable scenario if you meet those who are retreating to the Deep Ocean. However, if you meet those coming from the Deep Ocean and are heading toward the New World, you’ve gotta be more careful and keep your guard up!”
“Got it!”
“Right, where’s Zhong Qingshu? Why don’t I see her around?”
Sweeping his eyes over the leaders present in Hope Village’s meeting room, Su Mo asked this question.
“Sister Zhong? She took the boat and left two days ago, saying that she was gonna look for some relatives or something. She didn’t reply to the messages I sent her, but her avatar is still lit up, so she should be okay.”
Hmm?
Su Mo saw how lost Chen Shen was and felt like something was off. After giving him a few more reminders, Su Mo hung up.
Once he returned to the private message channel, Su Mo searched for Zhong Qingshu’s avatar and tapped on it quickly.
From the conversation history, he could see that their last interaction was on the night of the big war.
At that time, Zhong Qingshu brilliantly realized the loophole in the words of the Five Royal Clans True God Incarnations and issued a warning.
However, since then, even if it was about “looking for relatives or something” that Chen Shen had mentioned, Zhong Qingshu had not sent another message.
After some thinking, Su Mo typed out a greeting message and sent it over.
The result was the same as Chen Shen’s attempt. His message was not replied to.
It was like a rock thrown into the sea. There was no response whatsoever.
“Hmm? Did she enter a ruin, or is she trapped somewhere?”
Usually, when someone received a message, there would be a ‘ding dong!” notification as an indicator that the message had been successfully delivered.
However, in some special circumstances, like when the person was in combat or had entered a ruin, the current scenario would occur, where the message had been sent, but no ‘message was successfully delivered’ notification appeared.
It was now 11 pm late at night.
It was the final 13 hours before the game version update.
At this time, Su Mo took into consideration that Zhong Qingshu might not have enough time currency and massaged his aching temples. He dispersed his thoughts and turned off the game panel.
Somehow, he had a feeling that Zhong Qingshu was not in any danger.
This did not just come from the experience of having worked together many times, but more from his confidence in Zhong Qingshu’s intelligence and wisdom.
However, Su Mo considered the fact that his feelings were baseless and, after contemplating for a while, he opened the door, descended the stairs, and arrived at the main deck. There he found Oreo, who was lying near the bridge.
“Oreo, quick, help me check and see if Zhong Qingshu is in any danger!”
Human intuition could be wrong, but Oreo’s sixth sense was a divine skill that had never been wrong before this.
Standing up, Oreo sniffed around warily, her ears and nose twitching as she did so.
After 45 seconds, Oreo shook her head slowly, barked a few times and laid back down on the deck.
“No danger?”
“But you couldn’t find out where she was either?”
Oreo nodded her head.
This time, Su Mo did not hesitate any longer and took out the brand new Pointer he had obtained from the chest and started operating it.
He keyed in information about Zhong Qingshu, like her name, height, birthday, bust, waist, hip measurements, personality
Column by column, Su Mo tried to key in as much accurate information as he could, after which the purple information column of the Pointer rapidly filled up.
‘When it was finally full, Su Mo pressed the button on the top and the Pointer started spinning vigorously. As time passed, Su Mo looked at the gradually slowing needle head with hope.
However, the results were the same as Oreo’s sixth sense divination.
The needle continued spinning until the very last second, but the purple information column was abruptly emptied, resulting in the Pointer spinning around aimlessly. At that moment, a notification prompt rang out in Su Mo’s ears.
[Record]: Usage of the Pointer has failed.
[Record]: Reason for failure: Pointer range exceeded (This usage will not be deducted from the number of remaining uses)..
