The Mysterious Planet

"A wormhole?" Su Ke was suddenly startled.

He was no stranger to the term "wormhole," having heard of it since his previous life.

Wormholes are relatively common in the universe; each one connects two locations, allowing one to arrive directly at a distant end simply by stepping through.

More importantly, he remembered that in the early stages of the original plot, something like this appeared inexplicably in a region a few light-years from Earth, causing Earth's location to be discovered by cosmic forces prematurely and ruining the plan for the three heroes of Earth to develop in seclusion.

And now, he had encountered such a thing himself, the only difference being that he might be playing the role of that cosmic adventurer.

A deep sense of curiosity immediately welled up in Su Ke's heart. Where would this natural wormhole he had discovered lead, and should he take the risk to go in and see? Perhaps there would be some major gains.

"Master, it's actually a natural wormhole." Behind him, the Stellar Rank slave Khair wore an expression of astonishment.

Encountering such a thing while traveling in the Original Universe was rarer than winning the lottery; after all, everyone traveled through the Dark Universe to reach their destinations, and it was impossible to wander aimlessly through the starry sky.

Yet, Su Ke had clearly stumbled upon one this time.

"First, send out the spare robots from the cargo hold." Su Ke's eyes flashed with light. "Have the robots confirm whether the other side is safe."

He still wanted to give it a try.

At the edge of an asteroid belt in the starry sky, the cabin door of the gray spaceship near the wormhole opened, and three tall figures flew out. They were three metal robots, each cast entirely from black metal with eyes made of red crystals that glowed with a crimson light!

They were the ship's maintenance robots; their own strength was not high, but they were built entirely from Wuyi Metal. Each ton of Wuyi Metal was worth 3,000 Jialan Coins, which was considered very cheap. Even a Universe Rank powerhouse would need to expend a great deal of effort to destroy something made of Wuyi Metal.

Each robot was equipped with devices, and they turned into streaks of light, flying toward the wormhole and disappearing directly inside.

Su Ke stood in front of the console, watching the screen. The screen displayed the robots' perspective as they passed through the wormhole.

Suddenly.

"The robots have lost signal connection; they will proceed according to their pre-programmed instructions."

Time passed, and Su Ke waited patiently.

One robot returned, transmitting the previous information back to the ship.

"Hmm." Su Ke looked at the screen, his eyes brightening. "It passed through."

What appeared before Su Ke was a vast, silent starry sky that had existed since time immemorial. Yet, in the incredibly far distance, a star was shining quietly.

The robots automatically separated to scout the surrounding area and search for data.

"This appears to be a massive asteroid belt; rocks of various sizes are floating within a radius of several thousand kilometers, and the wormhole is hidden in the central region of the belt."

"No signs of any life activity have been discovered."

"The distance from our current location to the star is approximately 260 million kilometers."

"There are planets orbiting the star; according to data comparison, it is possible that life exists."

Su Ke looked at the transmitted data and muttered, "A planet where life might exist?"

He suddenly asked the beast-eared girl on the screen: "What is the robots' current location..."

"After passing through the wormhole, the robots are currently in the center of the desolate region of the Zhaiyu Star System." The Smart AI's answer confirmed Su Ke's guess.

The Zhaiyu Star System had a famous desolate region. Legend had it that in ancient times, this place suffered some kind of massive catastrophe, causing countless planets to vanish into thin air in a single day. To this day, there were very few life-bearing planets within tens of thousands of light-years, and not a single life-bearing planet had been discovered in the central void.

The central void was approximately 7,000 light-years in diameter.

This range was not small. Although one could travel quickly through the Dark Universe, it was impossible to explore the starry regions while in the Dark Universe. If one were to fly directly in the Original Universe to explore every spot, the time and energy cost would be terrifying. After all, it would take six or seven thousand years for an ordinary spaceship to fly along a straight line, let alone explore every area in detail. Finding an undiscovered primitive life-bearing planet was entirely a matter of luck!

Su Ke fell into thought. "The robots have already searched the vicinity of the wormhole and found nothing. Based on the current information, the most valuable thing here is likely that solar system."

"It has already been discovered that there are multiple planets around the sun. The closest planet is about 100 million kilometers from the wormhole. At the speed of a spaceship, starting from the wormhole and flying at sub-light speed, it would take about 10 minutes to reach the outermost planet." Su Ke felt as if his heart were being scratched by a cat; he was itching with impatience.

He vaguely felt that there might be some secret hidden in this place.

"Let's go take a look."

The spaceship headed toward the wormhole.

"Whoosh." Before long, a gray, disc-shaped spaceship appeared within the asteroid belt, and the two robots waiting in place returned to the ship one after another.

Subsequently, the spaceship began to accelerate, turning into a dazzling streak of light as it flew rapidly toward the star.

A moment later, in the control room, Su Ke looked at the blue-purple planet displayed on the external virtual view.

According to the data analysis transmitted back from the ship, this planet was nearly spherical with a diameter of nearly 48,000 kilometers. It was a "big guy" among planets, several times larger in diameter than an average life-bearing planet, which was extremely rare.

It could already be confirmed that this life-bearing planet contained a vast amount of life.

What Su Ke was more concerned about was whether there were any powerhouses on this planet.

Capsizing in the gutter was not unheard of. Some cosmic adventurer squads had accidentally discovered an indigenous planet, only to be killed by the planet's powerhouses due to carelessness!

Su Ke thought to himself, "This is an ownerless planet discovered within the territory of the Jialan Empire. When a cosmic adventurer discovers a new planet, or finds a planet that legally has no lord, there are three choices."

"The first choice is to inform the Empire and receive an imperial reward. The Jialan Empire will reward between 10 billion and 100 billion Jialan Coins depending on the planet."

The coordinates of the wormhole had already been recorded, and through the star map, it could be confirmed that at the very least, the Jialan Empire had not discovered the existence of this planet.

"The second choice is to buy the planet directly. Because it was discovered by an adventurer, one only needs to spend a small amount of money to buy it. Depending on the planet's level, purchasing it requires a payment of between 300 billion and 3 trillion Jialan Coins."

"The third choice is to cooperate with the Empire to manage the planet. In this cooperative management, the Jialan Empire will not interfere with the internal management of the planet; they will only collect tariffs on imports and exports. They won't care about anything else! One only needs to pay between 100 billion and 1 trillion Jialan Coins."

Su Ke looked at the content of the <Universal Human Cosmic Nation Adventurer Star Exploration Regulations> (Jialan Empire Edition) on the screen and took a deep breath.

Although he cared a lot about money, he was not in a hurry. The most important thing right now was to explore this planet first. What if he could obtain even greater benefits from it?

A mysterious planet located in a "void" that had never been discovered by anyone—he was truly curious about what might be there.