A Perfect Space

Waves of heat radiated from the opening.

Cheng Qi had no idea what effects the ultrahigh-temperature combustion produced by Muon Technology had created inside.

After a full twenty minutes of waiting, Foolish Boy volunteered to go in, carrying a large supply of expired coolant.

"Holy crap!"

"Oh my God!"

Foolish Boy's astonished cries came from inside the opening. "Cheng Qi, just be patient and wait a little longer. You're in for a surprise!"

Foolish Boy bustled around like a spinning top, apparently finishing the cooling process inside.

Then Foolish Boy hauled over two enormous starship steel plates.

The plates were a full fifty centimeters thick, like metal walls.

After a flurry of cutting and welding, Foolish Boy installed an enormous sliding door over the opening.

Next, Foolish Boy gathered plenty of scrap for camouflage and welded it onto the door, making it look like a garbage heap.

Once the door closed, the cave entrance vanished seamlessly into its surroundings.

All this work took Foolish Boy nearly forty minutes.

Cheng Qi watched Foolish Boy bustling back and forth.

He knew the results inside probably wouldn't disappoint.

But to indulge Foolish Boy's desire to prepare a little surprise, Cheng Qi kept his anticipation in check.

"Ta-da!"

"Cheng Qi, most of the heat inside has dissipated!"

Foolish Boy extended a mechanical arm. "Time to open your mystery box!"

Cheng Qi stood up and rubbed his palms together.

Rumble.

The little mountain of garbage before him split down the middle, revealing an entrance slanting down into the ground.

Cheng Qi stepped inside. His first impression was that the surface beneath his feet was extremely slick.

His footing slipped, and he pitched forward!

Was Foolish Boy leaking oil again?!

Whirr-!

His jet-powered shoes activated, first stopping his uncontrolled fall, then making tiny adjustments to his steps. Only then did Cheng Qi regain his balance and walk normally.

As he ventured deeper,

Cheng Qi touched the wall. Its surface was smooth and fine, with a glasslike feel.

Foolish Boy switched on the shoulder-mounted lamp.

The tunnel ahead came into clear view.

"What is this?!"

Cheng Qi's eyes suddenly widened.

The shallow surface layer had been filled with sand, soil, and metal waste.

The sand consisted primarily of silicon dioxide, whose crystalline structure had been destroyed by the muon beam's intense heat.

As it became liquid, the connections between the silicon-oxygen tetrahedra changed, producing a relatively disordered structure with no long-range order-a defining characteristic of the glassy state.

After the cooling process, the tunnel before him had become a dazzling glass corridor.

Trapped within that glass were pieces of technological scrap with comparatively high melting points.

Cheng Qi let out a breath of wonder.

The tunnel before him was like a kind of... technological amber!

The glass served as the resin.

And the technological scrap was like insects sealed within it, preserved through the ages.

Under Foolish Boy's lamp, countless dazzling glints reflected through the tunnel.

These discarded technological products would never be used again, but at this moment, they finally shone with an everlasting light.

As he walked,

Cheng Qi's gaze passed over the technological waste inside the walls, piece by piece, and a sense of reverence arose within him.

"An NVIDA RTX 4070 graphics card..."

"A Mate 70 phone..."

"An Interstellar Positioning Compass..."

"And what's this...?"

Some items were charred and warped, barely recognizable.

Once, these had all been cutting-edge technological products people coveted. Now they were antiques, as well as worthless garbage.

Cheng Qi continued down the tunnel, silently estimating that he had reached roughly a hundred meters underground.

The space ahead suddenly opened up.

Once again, Cheng Qi was left nearly speechless with shock.

It was an enormous spherical space, approximately two thousand meters in diameter!

At this depth lay the accumulated metal layer the Earth Dragon King had encountered earlier.

The garbage here had vaporized instantly when the muon energy erupted, leaving a smooth inner wall.

Cheng Qi tilted his head back to look at the rounded dome overhead.

"This... is beautiful!"

There had been little sand or silt at this depth. Instead, vast quantities of metal had melted and then cooled.

Rippling patterns now spread across the dome, with different alloys producing varying shades of color.

Tiny crystals formed from unidentified substances were scattered among them, sparkling like stars across the dark silver, richly patterned sky.

Cheng Qi turned in place.

The interior of this spherical space was as magnificent as the vast starry heavens.

"This feeling..."

"It's like I'm standing inside a little universe that belongs only to me."

He remained immersed in the beautiful sight for a long time.

Only then did Cheng Qi come back to his senses. "Why is there so much oxygen here, and why is the temperature just right?!"

At that very moment, he spotted the Earth Dragon King Underground Expansion Dock in the distance.

It had already entered and stood at the center of the spherical space.

It had also fully expanded, transforming from its previous heavy-truck form into a metal house covering roughly a hundred and twenty square meters.

The Earth Dragon King had deployed numerous environmental control devices as well.

They continuously generated oxygen while regulating the temperature inside.

Cheng Qi nodded as though he had discovered a treasure. "It really is the ultimate tool for underground survival!"

Just then, a hovering lamp slowly rose from the top of the Earth Dragon King.

It looked like a sky lantern from the old days.

It emitted a pure white glow, and the pool of light on the ground steadily widened.

The outline of the lamp was reflected in Cheng Qi's eyes.

It seemed like the first star in his little universe, and the first sun to cast its light upon the land.

"This place is perfect."

Cheng Qi's eyes shone as he lightly clenched his fists.

"Woo-hoo!"

Without turbine-powered shoes, Xiao Qiong simply treated the tunnel as an enormous slide, sliding all the way down from the entrance in one go.

The slide was long, and she had built up plenty of momentum. After entering the spherical space, Xiao Qiong glided back and forth across its bottom like a curling stone, finally coming to a slow stop at Cheng Qi's feet, her eyes full of wonder and excitement.

Cheng Qi looked at Xiao Qiong. "Your father died at the bottom of a garbage heap. At first, I was a little worried you'd be uncomfortable with this underground shelter."

"You adults worry about everything."

"Anyone thinking clearly would know those are two separate things."

Xiao Qiong stood up, trying to look mature. But a moment later, the beautiful sight overhead stunned her. Her little mouth fell open, and she clasped her hands together in astonishment.

Cheng Qi smiled. "The Gray Storm will be here in less than two hours. Next, we start moving!"

"This is a job that requires a lot of care."

Xiao Qiong raised a finger. "Cheng Qi, could you carry me back up? I need to oversee things for you and check that nothing gets missed. You adults usually overthink things, so don't assume I just want another ride down the slide. Speaking of that big slide, I think it needs improvement. It scraped my bottom a little sore."

Up on the surface,

The distant sky was already a solid mass of darkness, blacker than any ordinary night.

Cheng Qi looked at his scattered belongings. "Whether it's moving house or transporting things later, it'd be best to have a convenient hauling tool."

His gaze settled on the merchant Mo's "free gifts," those four biological-material transport boxes.

Though Mo probably wouldn't have agreed with the term "free gifts."

[Identical technological creations detected]

[Synthesize?]

Cheng Qi nodded. These boxes were too small.

After two rounds of synthesis, their performance would surely improve significantly.

Perhaps the upgraded boxes could help him handle the move.

[Breaking down into raw matter]

[Synthesis successful]

[Biomass Material Transport Container] ×2

[Internal capacity: 33 cubic meters. Equipped with a biomass engine and autonomous travel capability. Maximum travel range: 450 kilometers. Built-in microbial suppression system and molecular activity reduction system. When used to transport fresh food, extends freshness retention by 150-230 times.]

Cheng Qi nodded. "The features lean toward food transport, but this still isn't enough. Keep synthesizing!"

[K443 Integrated Transport Platform]

[Exterior capable of mechanical transformation. Variable size. Internal capacity: 10-210 cubic meters. Equipped with a biomass engine and autonomous travel capability. Maximum travel range: 2,050 kilometers. Extends fresh-food freshness retention by 230-500 times. Built-in mechanical lifting arm and handling arms. Exterior equipped with a visual reflection system, enabling optical invisibility. Nickname: Iron Mom.]

"It can change size, load and unload automatically, and even turn invisible?!"

Cheng Qi was pleasantly surprised. "This is practically the ultimate transport tool! But... what does the nickname Iron Mom mean?"

Once he finished setting its instructions,

The doors of the enormous black container before him slowly opened, and precision mechanical arms unfolded. Then its biomass engine started, and it floated silently toward the shack like a ghost.

The mechanical arms began sorting Cheng Qi's belongings one by one, their movements precise and gentle.

Although his possessions were all junk and scrap, those mechanical arms worked like professional movers, treating every item as though it were an expensive antique.

Before long, everything had been neatly organized.

The items were then loaded into the container one by one. Partitions and securing locks unfolded inside, keeping each object straight, level, firmly secured, and neatly arranged.

Rumble-!

The Quantum Repair Cluster, weighing several tons, was lifted by the lifting arm as well.

It was then placed precisely into a space reserved inside the cargo container, fitting like a puzzle piece. There was less than a centimeter between its edges and the other items-an almost seamless fit.

Through its precise algorithms, the transport platform had taken space efficiency to the absolute limit.

Cheng Qi was awestruck.

He finally understood the meaning of that nickname.

A child with a mom was a cherished treasure!

Even a neat freak would approve!