From then on, An Li made her home on Death Island.
She lived in a room on the third floor of the Grand Cathedral, by the window. Outside lay a gray-white sky and the black sea in the distance.
Every morning, she helped Gregor organize his instruments. In the afternoons, she watched the Skeleton Soldiers patrolling the island. At night, she returned to her room to read.
As the days passed slowly, she felt no need to hurry.
She was gradually unveiling the mysteries of this world.
Meanwhile, the construction of the spacecraft in Goblin World had entered a critical stage.
The entire Goblin World had been mobilized. Factories worked together, each specializing in its own tasks. One by one, precision components were manufactured and shipped to the Military Base outside the Imperial City for assembly.
The engineers worked day and night to fine-tune the equipment, while the astronauts trained in the Simulation Pods every day.
The Goblin Emperor, Halu, stood atop the Stargazing Tower, looking at the spacecraft in the distance as he calculated how much longer it would be before they could set sail.
Meanwhile, a Research Ship had lost its way in the Sea of Death.
The ship wasn't large, measuring about forty meters long and ten meters wide. Its hull was painted deep blue.
There were more than thirty Goblins aboard, half researchers and half naval personnel.
Their mission was to find the missing location of the Grand Cathedral. They had been adrift on the Sea of Death for eight days.
The instruments had failed, the compass spun wildly, and the communications equipment could only emit a crackling hiss.
The fog here was growing thicker. Gray-white mist clung to the hull and kept seeping inside.
The Research Ship's engines were running at full power, but