Companion Star S-1, an open-air testing ground on the outskirts of New Black Rock City.
Two crude circular stone platforms stood about fifty meters apart in the clearing. On the other side of the testing ground stood a thick Psychic Power testing wall. The platforms were covered in array patterns stripped from Darkling outposts, with several exposed energy lines connected to Mana Crystals piled nearby.
This was the first short-range teleportation prototype that the Scientific Research Team had painstakingly cobbled together over a month, using Gu Yuan's basic analysis as a reference and comparing it against captured physical samples.
"The crystal circuits are connected. The positions on both sides... barely match." [Data Maniac]'s eyes glowed with silvery-white Psychic Power light as he stared fixedly at the changes in the sending platform's array patterns. A few days earlier, after he and [Thunder King] had finished investigating the spinal cord, they had returned to the right lung through a Neuron Node, then traveled to S-1 through an existing Star Gate. The moment he got back, the Scientific Research Team had drafted him into forced labor.
"Activate it." [Ci Beili] pressed the rune on the console.
With a boom, an entire crate of Mana Crystals instantly turned to ash. The sending platform flared brightly, and the corpse of a small monster that had just been killed for use as a test subject vanished in the intense light.
Almost simultaneously, a flash of white light appeared at the receiving platform fifty meters away. The corpse fell out intact, without even a single scorched hair.
The surrounding research players, Star Spirit mages, and representatives from the major guilds immediately erupted in cheers.
"It worked! We made our own teleportation array!"
"This is a revolutionary breakthrough! We won't have to walk when we go trading anymore!"