The sealed gates of Tianshu Underground City's Number Three combat readiness camp slowly opened.
The 120 selected soldiers followed the general into the underground air base.
Chen Yuan walked in the middle of the group, looking straight ahead and wondering about the mission's specifics.
He was twenty-six that year and had served for eight years. He was a special forces soldier who had later undergone rotational training with the Terra Expeditionary Force and passed the Pangu Mecha piloting assessment.
Yet no road in all his past training had felt as long as this one today.
He knew that at the end of this road lay sacrifice, death, and his final resting place.
The base's vaulted ceiling was astonishingly high. Aircraft stood at the ends of the runways, cold white maintenance lights shining beneath their fuselages.
The air smelled of metal, fuel, and disinfectant mingled together.
Chen Yuan looked up and saw ten six-meter-tall Pangu Mechas standing in an open area like silent steel giants.
The general stopped in front of a long table.
Ten black metal boxes sat on it, each only the size of a palm.
Everyone instinctively looked at the boxes, waiting for what came next.
The general opened the first box.
Inside was not the top-secret USB drive everyone had imagined, but a dark silver ring.
Fine patterns were engraved on its surface, somewhat like circuitry and somewhat like Dwarf forging runes.
"This is a Spatial Ring."
The general picked up the ring, his voice carrying throughout the hangar.
"Over the past six months, Great Xia has spent an enormous amount commissioning the Dwarf Clan to make a special batch. There are currently ten finished rings in total."
Chen Yuan's gaze shifted slightly.
A Spatial Ring?
He had only ever seen such things in fantasy novels before.