The return of the Auspicious Cloud was not the only event drawing attention on Gold Island that day. For most people, the official launch of lunar migration and Earth-Moon travel mattered even more.
The ten thousand immigration slots had long since been allocated, representing ten thousand families.
Every single person who had secured a slot was wealthy.
Under normal circumstances, anyone wanting to meet one of these people would have had to make an appointment in advance.
Yet today, all ten thousand of them had arrived on Gold Island on schedule, some even bringing their entire families along.
Then they saw a "compact" spaceship. It was compact compared with the Hope and the Auspicious Cloud, but next to an ordinary airplane, it was still a behemoth.
Big! That made sense.
After all, it had to transport tens of thousands of people to the moon in a single trip. Even if each person needed only a seat, that still required an enormous amount of space.
Major media outlets from every region provided ongoing coverage of this momentous event for humanity.
Almost everyone who was not playing Firmament sat in front of a television, watching the live broadcast and experiencing the impact technological progress had on humanity.
On-screen, groups of excited people boarded the spaceship. Even through their screens, viewers could almost feel that excitement.
Boarding was naturally swift, since everyone was eager to reach humanity's brand-new home.
Half an hour later, more than twenty thousand people had finished boarding.
The hatch closed, and the spaceship slowly lifted into the air.
People were already very familiar with this process, and no one found it surprising. Anti-Gravity Technology—even the women sweeping litter off the streets knew about it now.
Immediately afterward, the enormous spaceship began shrinking before their eyes...
Of course, the spaceship