Olympia City

Olympia City

The Star Gate stood in the middle of the fortress hall. Rooms had been carved into the walls around the hall, more than fifty floors in total, like several connected high-rises.

Ji Xinghuo went up to one of the floors and entered a bank.

"Hello."

The clerk behind the counter greeted him politely. "What service do you need, sir?"

"I'd like to withdraw cash."

After speaking, Ji Xinghuo entered his bank account information into the machine at the counter. Facial recognition and fingerprint verification allowed him to log in successfully.

Electronic devices could not be used in the Star Realm, so naturally, there was no online payment.

Yet there was a strong demand for trade.

Thus, paper currency, which had been eliminated on Earth many years ago, had become useful again. Before entering the Star Realm, people would withdraw cash to carry with them.

"Mr. Ji, how much would you like to withdraw?" The clerk glanced at Ji Xinghuo's account information.

Ji Xinghuo replied, "One million."

"Please wait a moment."

The bank clerk was not particularly surprised. Most Aberrants traveling between Earth and the Star Realm were wealthy. Transactions often involved hundreds of thousands, millions, and sometimes even tens of millions. A mere million in cash was nothing unusual; they encountered it almost every day.

Ji Xinghuo waited patiently.

His phone soon received a bank notification confirming the withdrawal of one million.

He checked his balance and felt an indescribable emotion.

That day, he had collected the ten million Asia Yuan gifted by Xia Qingyu. The Shoot Leaf Cup championship prize was over 180,000, and he had also received a reward for killing Ji Zongbang. Including his original savings, his total deposits had reached more than 10.5 million.

A bona fide multimillionaire! For an ordinary person, that would have been enough to live happily for a lifetime.

But after buying the Life Spirit Seed, he had transferred another 700,000 to Lu Yunhai. Now that he had withdrawn one million in cash, his savings had dropped back to six figures in the blink of an eye.

I was only a multimillionaire for three days... Ji Xinghuo sighed inwardly.

Soon, the bank clerk pushed a thick stack of cash out from behind the counter. "Mr. Ji, your cash is ready. Please count it."

Ji Xinghuo quickly counted it once.

As requested, 800,000 of the million was in 10,000 Asia Yuan notes, 100,000 in 1,000 Asia Yuan notes, 80,000 in 100 Asia Yuan notes, and the remaining 20,000 was in 50 Asia Yuan and 10 Asia Yuan notes. The bright red bills were bundled together, weighing several kilograms in total.

The bank thoughtfully provided a backpack, which held all the money perfectly.

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

He entered an "admission passage," took a number, and lined up, moving forward with the queue.

It was past two in the morning, not a peak time for Star Gate traffic. The line moved quickly. Five minutes later, he was close to the Star Gate, with fewer than ten people left ahead of him.

When it was almost Ji Xinghuo's turn, he took out his phone and opened his email. He set the email and video he had prepared earlier to send on a timer.

A few hours later, when his siblings woke up, they would receive the email and learn that he had entered the Star Realm.

"Your turn."

The people ahead vanished one after another. Finally, it was Ji Xinghuo's turn.

The Astral Army soldier guarding the passage looked Ji Xinghuo over. He was dressed in casual clothes, and aside from the bow case on his back and the backpack in his hand, he did not look like someone going into battle at all. One glance was enough to tell he was a rookie entering the Star Realm for the first time, and he was alone.

The soldier frowned slightly and shook his head inwardly.

However, he did not stop Ji Xinghuo. After checking his identity once more, he waved him through.

Ji Xinghuo stepped onto the circular platform. The Star Gate was now right before him. With every step closer, the world around him became more distorted.

When he was only one step away from the Star Gate, the space around him had warped to the extreme.

He could hear nothing and see no one.

The entire world fell silent, as though he were the only person left. Before him was nothing but darkness.

Ji Xinghuo could only keep moving forward, feeling his way ahead. His hand seemed to touch something, and in that instant, the ground vanished beneath his feet. The world spun, and his limbs instinctively tried to grab at anything, but before he could react, he felt solid ground again.

Light flooded his vision.

Sight, hearing, smell—every sense returned.

Ji Xinghuo found himself standing in an open-air square paved with flat stone slabs. Behind him stood the pitch-black Star Gate.

However, this Star Gate was larger, its diameter clearly much greater than that of the Chaka Star Gate. It looked to be over fifty meters wide.

It was daytime in the Star Realm.

Ji Xinghuo looked up and saw a cloudless sky stretching for miles.

A golden sun hung in the western sky. It was two or three times larger than the sun above Earth, yet its light was not scorching. Sunspots on its surface were visible to the naked eye, giving it an oppressive presence as it constantly cast warm sunlight across the Star Realm.

A vast city surrounded the square. Unlike Earth's modern metropolises, its buildings were not tall, with few exceeding ten stories.

The largest structure in the city was the City Wall, over a hundred meters high and stretching beyond sight.

"Olympia City!"

"I've finally arrived in Olympia."

Since the Star Gates opened in 2033, Earth Humanity had endured eighteen years of bitter, bloody war. After paying a terrible price to repel the alien invasion and launch a counteroffensive into the Star Realm, they had finally regained control of the Star Gates.

In 2051, the nations of Earth cooperated to build this city around the Star Gates.

After a vote, the city was named "Olympia"! This was where the first Olympic Games in human history had been held. The Astral Defense Council, which still held authority at the time, adopted the slogan: "Faster, Higher, Stronger—Together!"

The words "Together!" in particular perfectly matched the shared hopes of all humanity at the time.

Thus, Olympia was also called the "City of Unity."

Although the name seemed rather ironic more than a century later, the nations still continued to call this city Olympia.

More than a dozen enormous mountain peaks floated hundreds of meters overhead.

"Hanging Mountain!"

It was Ji Xinghuo's first time seeing Hanging Mountains with his own eyes.

Each peak was anchored to the ground by three or four thick chains. Despite their immense size, they swayed back and forth in the wind as though weightless.

"Huff, huff, huff..."

Ji Xinghuo's breathing suddenly became a little hurried. A strange sensation rushed straight to his brain along with each breath, but he adapted after a few seconds.

"So this is Myriad Spirit Air?" He found it fascinating.

The "air" of the Star Realm had a different composition from Earth's atmosphere. To this day, scientists had yet to determine what it was made of.

Even more remarkable, not only could humans breathe this air, but every race that depended on breathing—whether natives of the Star Realm or aliens from the Milky Way—could survive on it.

That was why it was called Myriad Spirit Air.

"Keep moving. Don't block the way." An Astral Army soldier nearby urged him on.

Ji Xinghuo hurried forward, following the crowd out of the square.

Although there were thirteen Star Gates on Earth, every one of them led to the same place: the Star Gate Square of this city. Those entering the Star Realm through different Star Gates would arrive in relatively fixed areas.

The thirteen areas formed fan-shaped sections around the Star Gate, each corresponding to one of Earth's Star Gates.

The three Star Gates controlled by the Asia-Pacific Community had transport zones that connected into one continuous area.

Together, they occupied nearly a quarter of the square. Bright red lines had been painted on the ground, and everyone walking within that area was a citizen of the Asia-Pacific Community.

Most of the city districts extending outward from that area fell within the Asia-Pacific Community's sphere of influence.

When Ji Xinghuo reached the edge of Star Gate Square, he suddenly stopped.

He covered his right eye.

A stabbing pain arose in his mind. The ring of light in his right pupil flickered at high frequency. Fortunately, it was daytime, and he covered his eye in time, so no one noticed anything unusual.

The interface of the Myriad Stellar Eye appeared automatically, and the pain quickly faded.

Three arrows appeared around the edge of the interface.

"What is this?"

Ji Xinghuo was startled and uncertain. Looking closely, he saw that the three arrows pointed in different directions and were different sizes.

One arrow was the largest, more than ten times bigger than the other two, making it impossible to miss.

He turned his body toward the largest arrow, placing it directly in front of him.

At once, Ji Xinghuo heard a distant summons.

He vaguely sensed an unknown object with a close connection to him. As long as he moved in that direction, he would definitely find it.

"Another part of the Myriad Stellar Eye?"

"No way!"

Ji Xinghuo was both shocked and delighted.

He had not forgotten that the Myriad Stellar Eye was incomplete. He had assumed he would never encounter another fragment, yet he had found a clue the moment he entered the Star Realm.

Three arrows—did they represent three missing fragments? He turned again and found that the locations indicated by the other two arrows seemed unimaginably distant. Even when facing the correct direction, he could not sense anything.

"Should I go look for it?"

Ji Xinghuo looked at the largest arrow, feeling somewhat hesitant.

People passing by saw him standing motionless at the edge of the square and cast curious glances his way. Among them were quite a few extremely powerful Aberrants.

"I should find somewhere to settle down first."

Ji Xinghuo habitually took out his phone to check the time, only to discover that it had already shut down.

The Power Shoes on his feet had also lost their power and were no different from ordinary shoes.

Within the Star Realm, all electronic devices failed.

He could not help shaking his head.

Judging only by the scenery before him, it felt much the same as Earth. Air, land, trees, cities—everything was so normal that no one would imagine this was another world.

On a macroscopic level, the Star Realm resembled the planets of the Milky Way. From within a small part of it, it was difficult to notice the differences.

But its fundamental laws were completely different from those of the real universe!

Ji Xinghuo quickly left Star Gate Square. The place made him feel extremely unsafe.

Through Magnetic Field Induction, he sensed that the endless buildings outside the square were all military camps, where the Asia-Pacific Community's Astral Army was stationed.

Deep within the camps were several extremely powerful Aberrants.

"Those humanoid magnetic fields must be Legendary Espers!" Ji Xinghuo did not dare linger. After walking through several blocks in Olympia City, he chose an inn and checked in.

Only after closing the door and looking at the bare room without a single electrical appliance did Ji Xinghuo finally let out a breath of relief.