Chapter 24: Star Gate

One in the morning.

Ji Xinghuo woke up in bed. He had gone to sleep at ten o’clock the previous night, and although he slept only for three hours, he still felt refresh.

He didn’t turn on the light. In the darkness, he ate a midnight snack which filled his stomach.

Then, wearing casual training attire and carrying a bow bag, he quietly left his apartment. Instead of taking the elevator, he took the stairs down to the parking lot.

Along the way, Ji Xinghuo avoided the cameras as much as possible.

These past few days, using magnetic field sensing, he knew the exact locations of the Sword Bureau swordsmen stationed in and around the building, including their shift changes.

The swordsmen weren’t there to watch him. They were there to protect him and to wait for unlikely suspicious individuals.

Such surveillance work is extremely boring.

Despite the excellent discipline and concentration of the Sword Bureau’s swordsmen, after three to four days of intense monitoring, their alertness inevitably weakened.

The later it got, the lower the concentration of the swordsmen.

Especially around dawn.

Ji Xinghuo got into a maglev car in the parking lot. The car belonged to a resident of the building, who knew Ji Xinghuo and had lent it to him for a day for much higher than usual price. It was parked here since last night as per Ji Xinghuo’s instructions, and he was given the unlock code.

He entered the destination into the navigation, and the maglev car quickly left the parking lot.

Ji Xinghuo sat in the back. Opaque windows hid his figure, but his magnetic field sensing locked onto a room on the third floor.

There, two swordsmen were responsible for monitoring the vehicles entering and leaving the building.

The car left smoothly, and the two men had no response.

A slight smile appeared on Ji Xinghuo’s face as he looked through the window. The maglev was now speeding south on the superconducting highway.

A moment later.

Ji Xinghuo arrived at “Chang’an West Station.” After getting off, he sent the maglev car back automatically.

The infrastructure of the Asia-Pacific Community is very comprehensive, making various modes of transport highly convenient. Citizens typically have three options for travel: urban commuting, intercity travel within 1000 kilometers is best served by maglev cars on superconducting highways.

For distances exceeding a thousand kilometers, “vacuum tube maglev trains” are preferred, commonly called vacuum trains.

For international travel or distances over five thousand kilometers, ultrasonic planes are the fastest.

“Chang’an West Station” is a vacuum station.

Since the 1980s, the Asia-Pacific Community has invested countless financial resources and manpower in building a domestic vacuum tube transport system with a total mileage of over one million kilometers.

The numbers of vacuum stations spread across the Asia-Pacific are extensive, from Hokkaido in the east to the Caspian Sea in the west, from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the equatorial Java Island in the south, every city of over half a million people has at least one vacuum station, and larger cities have more.

Ji Xinghuo entered the Chang’an West Station and bought a ticket on his phone.

Destination: Chaka Star Gate!

A few minutes later, he smoothly boarded the train.

Even at dawn, the train’s occupancy rate exceeded half. Most passengers had the same destination as Ji Xinghuo.

The seat next to Ji Xinghuo was empty. He quietly watched outside through the window.

The train had not yet started, but he could see the situation inside the station. He scanned every passenger entering through the ticket gate, trying to spot any possible swordsmen among them.

However, there were none.

Finally, the train doors closed, and the announcement sounded.

Ji Xinghuo breathed a sigh of relief and then felt a slight vibration under his seat. The train had started.

Outside the window, the scenery rapidly receded. The speed of the train increased, and in an instant, the train entered the enclosed vacuum tube underground. The window switched to a screen, blocking the outside view.

The screen displayed the current speed of the train.

The numbers rapidly changed, climbing from two digits to three and then quickly breaking into four!

Eventually, the speed stabilized around 1800 kilometers per hour!

Although the displayed speed still occasionally flickered, the range of speed change was very small, no more than 30 kilometers.

The entire acceleration process was quiet and smooth. The passengers felt the force of acceleration but it didn’t hinder movement.

Ji Xinghuo was not new to vacuum trains; he had ridden them many times.

But this time offered a completely new experience.

In his magnetic field sensing, the railway system underneath the train was a massive magnetic field, second only to the Earth’s magnetic field in “magnetic induction strength,” differing by about tenfold. Even so, the maglev system’s strength was five orders of magnitude stronger than the human body’s magnetic field!

The magnetic field mapped in his brain shone like the sun, even causing a “dazzling” sensation.

“If the Xiren could master such power…”

Ji Xinghuo couldn’t help but wonder.

Twenty minutes later, an announcement rang throughout the car: “Chaka Star Gate Station, we have arrived.”

Ji Xinghuo’s spirits lifted. Once the train stopped, he got up and walked out of the station, seeing a brightly lit metropolis.

Chaka City!

Located more than 800 kilometers west of Chang’an in the Chaka Basin. Two centuries ago, it used to be a desolate Gobi Desert area with a slightly famous salt lake tourist spot.

To the north of Chaka City lies Qinghai Lake, and to the south are the northern branches of the Kunlun Mountain Range.

In 2033, Earth suddenly opened thirteen stargates, one of which was located on a wilderness known as “Wolf Pit” in the Chaka Basin. Over the next century, the area went through countless wars and ultimately became a wasteland after nuclear bombings.

It wasn’t until 2147 that the Chaka Star Gate came under the full control of the Asia-Pacific Community.

The Asia-Pacific Community invested manpower, materials, and financial resources to clear the nuclear contamination and built massive defensive fortifications around the stargate, with a corps permanently stationed there, equipped with a nuclear weapons array.

Since then, the Chaka Star Gate has been one of the stable channels for the Asia-Pacific Community to enter the Star Realm.

The Asia-Pacific Community has a total of three stargates, with the other two being located inland at “Xianglian Star Gate” and in Sumatra at “Juhang Star Gate.”

Chaka Star Gate is the closest to Chang’an.

Therefore, Ji Xinghuo chose to enter the Star Realm from here.

He took a car and quickly drove through the city, heading straight for the location of the star gate.

The entire city of Chaka was built around the star gate. The urban area is roughly trapezoidal, covering an area of over 3000 square kilometers with a population of over ten million. The density is not high, but almost all aspects of the residents’ lives, including work, revolve around the star gate.

The star gate was right in the middle of the city. Ji Xinghuo saw a huge building standing under the night sky from afar in the car.

As he got closer, the building appeared larger and larger before his eyes.

When he got out of the car and stood before it, it felt like standing under a huge city wall. It was over three hundred meters tall and about five hundred meters long on each side. Its appearance was square, like a massive box placed on the earth. It was constructed of composite concrete and alloy, majestic and awe-inspiring.

“Star Gate Fortress!”

Ji Xinghuo had seen it in videos before, but seeing it with his own eyes allowed him to truly feel the fortress’s robustness and imposing presence.

The Star Gate Fortress, true to its name, was a real war fortress.

It could withstand nuclear attacks, and inside, it also housed a vast nuclear arsenal, prepared for enemies both on Earth and those emerging from the Star Realm.

A five-kilometer area around the Star Gate Fortress was cleared, providing an open view.

Even at night, Ji Xinghuo could see thousands of turrets built on this open land, scattered in various directions within military camps, hiding even stronger firepower.

There were many entrances and exits to the Star Gate Fortress.

These entrances and exits varied in size; the large ones were several tens of meters high, like city gates, but were usually closed; not all the smaller entrances and exits were open, and they were heavily guarded. Currently, only three were open.

After identity verification and security checks, Ji Xinghuo walked through the main gate of the fortress.

The interior of the fortress was not completely transparent but divided into many layers, like layers of nesting dolls, with each layer embedded into another. The thickness of each wall was over fifteen meters, and the spaces between the walls formed an indoor pedestrian street wide enough for seven to eight tanks and armored vehicles to drive side by side.

There were shops on both sides of the street, and it was bustling with people, all of them Xiren!

Ji Xinghuo had never seen so many Xiren in reality before. In his magnetic field sensing, individual human-shaped magnetic fields were moving, each much stronger than that of an ordinary person.

He stood on the street and observed for a while.

His eyes were opened to a whole new world.

“Super Giant!”

A giant, over two meters tall, wearing hundreds of kilograms of heavy armor, carried a giant axe on his back. Each step he took seemed to make the ground tremble.

A woman with a blurry figure followed beside the giant. She seemed to be shrouded in mosaic, making it difficult to see her face clearly.

“At least a high-level Illusionist.”

Ji Xinghuo sighed and turned his head to see a large warhorse.

This red warhorse, with horns on its head and scales covering its belly, carried a man on its back. A blue falcon stood on the man’s shoulder, and two different fierce beasts flanked the horse, one on either side, protecting the man on its back, giving him the air of a zoo director.

“Tamer!”

Ji Xinghuo watched the man leave with a bit of envy.

If there was one professional template that was both powerful and stylish, with not too high a barrier to entry, versatile and convenient, it would be the Tamer.

Tamers could communicate with creatures of the Star Realm and domesticate them as battle pets to fight for them.

The Tamer profession was highly sought after, with a professional representation of 10%.

The more common the profession, the greater the influence of its association.

The two largest professional associations in the Asia-Pacific Community were the “Martial Artists Association” and the “Tamer Association.”

The Tamer Association hosted the “Battle Pet Competition” annually, attracting audiences comparable to, and sometimes even surpassing, the Super League.

Countless games, movies, and books have sprung up around the Tamer profession, forming a globally popular Tamer culture over the years. Related industries, such as battle pet breeding, storage, grooming, taming specialists, veterinarians, breeding farms, pet food, pet beauty pageants, etc., represent a multi-trillion-dollar market.

Ji Xinghuo had also thought about becoming a Tamer, but since he wasn’t fond of keeping pets, he had to give up the idea.

As he delved deeper into the fortress, he continued to observe his surroundings.

One Xiren after another passed by him.

They were either battle-worn, carrying marks of combat, coming back from the Star Realm with trophies to sell in the shops along the street;

Or they were fresh and in groups of three or five, preparing to enter the Star Realm.

Along the way.

Ji Xinghuo saw over ninety percent of the more than forty professions known on Earth. The ones he didn’t see were the rarest professional templates.

He even saw a “Mass”!

To be precise, not one “individual” but a “group.”

Four men, identical in appearance, walked down the street. Although they were dressed in different clothes, equipped with different weapons, and had different hairstyles to disguise themselves, they maintained a certain distance from each other. In Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field sensing, the magnetic field characteristics of the four men were exactly the same.

These four men were actually the same person!

Ji Xinghuo couldn’t help but turn his head to look at one of them.

Mass is one of the rarest professions on Earth.

There are currently only 66 known Mass individuals worldwide, fewer than magnetic field maniacs, with only “Star Realm Travelers” and “Destiny Seers” being rarer.

The core ability of a Mass, “Clone Twinning,” allows the creation of a clone identical to the original, but it takes away half of the star power.

With each level up, the original and the clone can each create another clone.

Similarly, the new clone also takes away half of the star power.

The clones have all the special abilities of the original and think synchronously. Whether in one-on-one combat or in a brawl, they have a significant advantage.

This “Mass” individual, along with his clones, numbered four, indicating that his “Clone Twinning” was at level two.

Ji Xinghuo shifted his gaze before the other party noticed.

“Super Mass!”

Magnetic field sensing identified the other party’s rank. However, because the star power was divided into four parts, each clone’s strength was less than that of a super Xiren of the same level.

The greatest advantage of a Mass is still in a brawl.

Therefore, other Xiren humorously nicknamed Mass as a “Hooligan Gang!”

Ji Xinghuo mentally noted the appearance of this Mass and continued forward. After passing through seven layers of walls, he finally reached the deepest part of the fortress.

The scene before him suddenly opened up, revealing a wide, bright space.

“Star Gate!”

Ji Xinghuo immediately looked towards the hall’s “gate.” It wasn’t a gate as people might imagine.

The Star Gate is a sphere!

About thirty meters in diameter, it is a perfect sphere with no deviations. Its surface smooth, appearing black to the human eye, but actually colorless, reflecting no light, much like a black hole without gravitational pull.

There are multiple circular platforms built around this black sphere.

People enter and exit on each circular platform, stepping onto the platform and reaching out to touch the surface of the Star Gate. The moment they touch it, they disappear.

Similarly, people appear on the platform on the other side as if out of thin air.

Whether entering or exiting, there is no process.

It happens instantly.

Ji Xinghuo watched curiously for half a minute as various aliens came and went. The surrounding people were accustomed to it. He didn’t queue to enter the Star Gate; he had other things to do first.