Setting Foot Below

"Passengers, please return to your seats. The spacecraft will be taking off shortly. Please maintain the correct sitting posture, adjust your seatbacks, and fasten your safety belts."

The electronic synthesized voice of a woman rang through the spacecraft cabin.

"The spacecraft is about to enter rapid ascent mode. Please take care."

Wei He leaned back against his seat.

Buzz.

The entire cabin gave a slight shudder.

In an instant, the spacecraft tilted upward slightly, and the metal passageway outside the window began moving rapidly.

Whoosh!

In the blink of an eye, the silver-gray passageway outside vanished, replaced by a stretch of yellow windblown sand.

The sandstorm did not last long. After only a few seconds, the yellow outside the window turned into faintly white clouds.

Clouds swept past the window. Around five seconds later, the light outside rapidly dimmed.

Looking down through the window, Wei He saw the yellow sandy earth below shrinking at high speed, like a fake sand-table model.

The sand table grew smaller and smaller, until it was obscured by white clouds.

Then the white clouds, too, began to take on a faint layer of blue.

That was the color of the atmosphere mingled with the magnetic field.

Wei He withdrew his gaze and looked upward.

Above them, an enormous silvery-white metal band was slowly revolving around the entire planet.

The spacecraft was speeding toward this belt around the planet's waist.

"Is that the Silver Belt District?!" Sally stared in stunned awe beside him.

"So beautiful."

"Yeah. Truly a magnificent creation," Wei He praised.

The spacecraft's speed gradually slowed as it rapidly approached the ever-larger silver belt.

Behind the beautiful Silver Belt District stretched the boundless, profound starry sky of the universe.

The spacecraft burst out of the planet's pale-blue atmosphere, slowly approached the silver belt, then,