Gift

Human effort had its limits. Some things had been beyond calculation from the very beginning.

For instance, this planet was not the same size as Earth, and this world's atmosphere was not as high as Earth's. The Universe Elevator was much faster than expected, but even knowing all that, Lu PingAn could only make the exact same arrangements. He had already done everything he could.

At that moment, right before Lu PingAn's eyes, the "nuclear bomb" destined to bring destruction began accelerating downward.

"Did I fail?" Lu PingAn, unable to catch up, sighed.

The next second, Lu PingAn closed his eyes. The flames went out completely, yet his body, which had swiftly leveled out, continued to hang in the air.

His horizontal body happened to be right at the intersection of sunlight and the planet.

In that second, eyes closed, he seemed to have escaped the planet's gravity and was drifting naked through space.

Had he given up? Was this as far as he could go?

But the next moment, he opened his eyes.

Boom!

The flames ignited again, but this time, they blasted upward.

Lu PingAn began accelerating toward the ground.

His target was the place where he had taken off. This time, no longer feeling short of breath, Lu PingAn easily mobilized "everything."

The flames beneath his feet burned hotter than before. Behind him, the flame-colored wings extending from his outstretched arms suddenly spread wide. The tiny landing rocket transformed into a Fire Phoenix with magnificent feathered wings.

Accelerating, accelerating to the limit—Lu PingAn frantically increased his speed.

And even at his current speed, Lu PingAn could reliably smash himself to pieces. No—just falling halfway at this speed should have been enough to kill him.

"...I need to go faster if I want any chance of surviving." Yet