Chapter 25: Olympia City

The Star Gate was in the center of the fortress hall, which also had rooms carved into the walls all around, spanning over fifty floors connected like multiple buildings.

Ji Xinghuo ascended to one of the floors and walked into a bank.

“Hello.”

The clerk behind the counter greeted politely, “What service do you need, sir?”

“I need to withdraw cash.”

After saying this, Ji Xinghuo entered his bank account information on the counter’s machine and successfully logged in with face and fingerprint verification.

In the Star Realm, electronic devices were unusable, so there was no online payment.

Yet the demand for transactions was strong.

Thus, cash, long obsolete on Earth, found a place again. People would withdraw cash before entering the Star Realm.

“Mr. Ji, how much would you like to withdraw?” asked the clerk after glancing at Ji Xinghuo’s account information.

Ji Xinghuo replied: “One million.”

“Please wait.”

The bank clerk wasn’t too surprised. Most who traveled between Earth and the Star Realm were wealthy, dealing in transactions worth hundreds of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions. A withdrawal of a mere million was nothing unusual, almost a daily occurrence.

Ji Xinghuo waited patiently.

His phone had already received bank notification of the withdrawal of one million.

Checking his balance brought a strange feeling.

That day, he had received ten million yuan from Xia Qingyu as a gift, the Leaves of Shooting Cup champion prize of over 180,000, a reward for defeating Ji Zongbang, plus his own savings, bringing his total to over 10.5 million.

A bona fide millionaire!

For an ordinary person, this was enough to live happily ever after.

But after purchasing life spirit seeds and transferring 700,000 to Lu Yunhai, and now withdrawing one million, his savings had quickly dropped to a six-figure sum.

“My millionaire status lasted only three days…” Ji Xinghuo sighed inwardly.

Soon, the bank clerk pushed a large stack of cash from behind the counter, “Mr. Ji, your cash is ready. Please count it.”

Ji Xinghuo quickly counted the money.

As requested, of the one million in cash, 800,000 had a denomination of 10,000 yuan, 100,000 had 1,000 yuan, 80,000 had 100 yuan, and the remaining 20,000 were in denominations of 50 and 10 yuan, all bundled up in bright red bills weighing several kilograms.

The bank thoughtfully provided a backpack, perfect for carrying the money.

Ji Xinghuo, carrying the backpack, returned to the Star Gate hall.

He walked towards an “entry channel,” took a number, and queued up, moving along with the line.

It was just past two in the morning, not a peak time for the Star Gate, so the line moved quickly. In five minutes, he was near the gate, with fewer than ten people ahead of him.

As Ji Xinghuo’s turn approached, he checked his email on his phone, setting up a scheduled send for an email and video he had prepared earlier.

In a few hours, when his siblings would wake up, they’d receive his message and know he had entered the Star Realm.

“It’s your turn.”

One by one, the people ahead disappeared, and soon it was Ji Xinghuo’s turn.

A Star Realm soldier guarding the channel sized up Ji Xinghuo, noting his casual attire, the bow bag on his back, and the hand-carried backpack, clearly not the gear of someone heading to battle – obviously a rookie entering the Star Realm alone.

The soldier frowned slightly and shook his head.

However, he didn’t stop Ji Xinghuo, checked his identity again, and waved him through.

Ji Xinghuo stepped onto the circular platform, with the Star Gate just a step away. With each step closer, the world around him twisted a bit more.

When he was just a step away from the Star Gate, looking ahead, the space around him had twisted to an extreme.

He couldn’t hear anything and couldn’t see others.

The whole world went quiet, as if he was alone, with nothing but darkness ahead.

Ji Xinghuo could only keep walking, feeling something in front, losing his footing momentarily as everything spun, his limbs instinctively reaching out, but before he could act, he felt solid ground again.

Suddenly, it all brightened.

Vision, hearing, and smell – all his senses returned.

Ji Xinghuo found himself standing in an open-air square, with the ground paved in flat stones, the dark Star Gate behind him.

This Star Gate was significantly larger, easily over fifty meters in diameter by his estimation.

It was daytime in the Star Realm.

Ji Xinghuo looked up to see a cloudless sky.

A golden sun, two to three times larger than Earth’s, hung in the western sky. Though not blazing, the sun’s surface spots were visible to the naked eye, emitting a warm glow constantly.

The square was surrounded by a massive city, but unlike Earth’s modern cities, most buildings were not high, rarely over ten stories.

The city’s tallest structure was its wall, towering over a hundred meters tall, stretching beyond sight.

“Olympia City!”

“I’ve finally reached Olympia.”

Since the Star Gate opened in 2033, after eighteen years of brutal warfare and tremendous losses, humanity had repelled alien invasions and regained control of the Star Gate.

In 2051, Earth’s nations collaborated to build this city around the Star Gate.

After a vote, the city was named “Olympia”!

It was the site of the first Olympic Games, and the then-dominant Star Defense Council adopted the motto “Faster, Higher, Stronger—More United!”

The phrase “More United” particularly resonated with the global vision of the time.

Hence, Olympia was also dubbed “The City of Unity.”

Although, more than a century later, the name seems ironic, countries still call it Olympia.

In the sky, several huge mountains hovered hundreds of meters high.

“Suspended Mountains!”

It was Ji Xinghuo’s first sight of the Suspended Mountains.

Each mountain was anchored to the ground by three to four thick chains, massive yet seemingly weightless as they swayed in the wind.

“Huff, huff, huff…”

Ji Xinghuo’s breathing suddenly became rapid, a strange sensation rushing to his brain with each breath, but he quickly adjusted.

“Is this the Spirit Air?” he wondered, intrigued.

The “air” in the Star Realm differed from Earth’s, and scientists had yet to identify its components.

More remarkably, not only humans but all species reliant on breathing, including Star Realm natives and galactic aliens, could sustain life through it.

Hence, it was called “Spirit Air.”

“Move ahead, don’t block others,” urged a nearby Star Realm soldier.

Ji Xinghuo hastily stepped forward, following the crowd out of the square.

Though Earth had thirteen Star Gates, each led to this city’s Star Gate square. Upon arrival from different gates, one would appear in a specific area.

These thirteen areas were shaped like sectors around the Star Gate.

The sectors belonging to the Asia-Pacific Community formed a continuous area.

Together, they covered nearly a quarter of the square, marked clearly with red lines on the ground. Citizens of the Asia-Pacific Community walked within this area.

Most of the city districts extending in this sector’s direction were under the Asia-Pacific Community’s influence.

Ji Xinghuo reached the edge of the Star Gate square and suddenly stopped.

He covered his right eye.

A sharp pain emerged from his brain, his right pupil’s light ring flickering rapidly. Fortunately, it was daytime, and he quickly covered his eye, preventing others from noticing.

The interface of the Wanjing Star Pupil automatically popped up, and the pain quickly subsided.

Three arrows appeared on the interface’s perimeter.

“What’s this?”

Ji Xinghuo, puzzled, examined the three arrows pointing in different directions and varying in size.

The largest arrow was several times bigger than the others, glaringly obvious.

He turned his body to align with the largest arrow, placing it directly ahead.

Suddenly, Ji Xinghuo heard a distant call.

He sensed an unknown object linked closely to him. Following this direction would surely lead him to it.

“Another part of the Wanjing Star Pupil?”

“No way!”

Ji Xinghuo was both shocked and delighted.

He hadn’t forgotten that the Wanjing Star Pupil was incomplete. He never thought he’d find a clue as soon as he entered the Star Realm.

Did the three arrows represent three broken parts?

He shifted his direction again, finding that the positions indicated by the other two arrows seemed extremely distant. Even heading in the right direction, he sensed nothing.

“Should I search for it?”

Looking at the largest arrow, Ji Xinghuo felt hesitant.

Passersby saw him standing motionlessly at the edge of the square, casting curious glances. Among them were some extremely powerful extrahumans.

“I’ll find a place to stay first.”

Habitually, Ji Xinghuo reached for his phone to check the time but found it had already turned off.

The shoes he wore had also lost power, now no different from ordinary shoes.

In the Star Realm, all electronic devices failed.

He shook his head, amused.

Based on the scenery alone, it didn’t feel much different from Earth – the air, the ground, the trees, the city, everything seemed normal, hardly suggesting another world.

On a macro level, the Star Realm resembled planets in the galaxy. Being a part of it, one hardly noticed the differences.

But its fundamental rules differed starkly from those of the real universe!

Ji Xinghuo swiftly left the Star Gate square, sensing great danger there.

His magnetic field sensor indicated that the buildings beyond the square, forming a continuous stretch, were all military barracks. The Asia-Pacific Community’s Star Realm army was stationed there.

Deep within the barracks, several very powerful extrahumans resided.

“Those human-shaped magnetic fields must be legendary extrahumans!” Ji Xinghuo dared not linger and walked through several streets of Olympia City before checking into an inn.

After closing the door, Ji Xinghuo looked around the simple, electronics-free room and finally breathed a sigh of relief.