Chapter 44

Chapter 44: C-Class Extinction Domain

When Han returned to the South Pole base, he received unprecedented amount of welcome.

“Yo, Han! You are finally back!”

“I missed you brother! Good as long as you are back!”

“Thank you! It was all because of you that we got to keep this precious extinction domain!”

Han smiled as he greeted everyone. Although he didn’t know most of them since he didn’t stay for too long at that base and he focused on training, and those people that saw Han as their close brothers only met him probably once or twice.

But that didn’t affect how much everyone love Han, the Tough Bones Han. There’s no one on Earth that’s not familiar with that nickname. In everyone’s eyes, Han may not be the strongest, but he’s absolutely the most fearless existence!

One against ten and twenty times the enemies and still charged bravely without hesitation, fighting till the last moment and almost sacrificing his life, Han’s story is like a legend to everyone!

Ever since the last incident, the security level at base significantly improved. Now there are two special force squads guarding the entrance to the extinction domain, that’s about 22 people.

Han looked at that silver alloy gate and sighed, that’s where he saw the death of Charlie and Fo Liman with his own eyes. Now revisiting this site, how could he not feel down?

Stepping past that mysterious gate, Han finally arrived at the legendary extinction domain that he heard so much about. A bit different from what Han imagined, there’s no fancy decorations nor artistic statues, it’s more like a metal fortress, the grand lobby connecting countless passages.

Most of the passages have rails installed, and electric transporting trains dragged out carts and carts of black minerals, sending everything to the gigantic machine at the lobby for refinery and sorting. The black coating of the minerals were scraped, leaving behind light yellow crystals.

The crystals are pretty small, like grinded transparent sand and the workers are in the middle of boxing them up. The extraction rate isn’t too much, harvesting only a few pounds from a cart of mineral rocks.

Han curiously watched everything, the steel reinforced walls, roof, passage, and there are murals on the wall and roof, depicting the vast Milky Way, as if the pre-historic civilization were very fond of the starry space.

Li Yu let out a sigh of relief, “Now this is a C-class extinction site that belongs to Earth. It was a pre-historic ore yard that carries pretty good quality Sun Fire Crystals, which is that little yellow rock. It’s used to manufacture high level alloys, and each ton can be sold for 50,000 GC.”

“The ore yard’s current production rate is 1 ton every day, and we can take these minerals to the Milky Way public market for sale. That way, United Government will have an income of about 15 million GC every month. As productivity picks up, the harvesting rate will increase as well. When it can reach to around 3 tons per day, that’s 45 million GC.”

“You must know, the United Government’s income last year was only 50 million GC.”

Han was a bit confused, “But I don’t really get it, it’s just exploring a mine, how did so many brothers die in battle?”

Li Yu looked at those dark passages and said, “Because there were dark beasts.”

Han was slightly shocked for a bit, he doesn’t really understand what Li Yu meant by dark beasts.

“Follow me”

Li Yu took Han through one of the pathways. The people working here are all ordinary people without power, seeing how sweaty and hardworking they are, they probably know how important this mine is to Earth so they are really trying their best to finish their mission.

A predicted monthly income of 45 million is still not enough for a populated place like Earth. All the espers will need equipment and medicine and that’s already very costly, not to mention if they want to form a space fleet.

Right now, Earth only has one Air Fortress Class frigate, and it was a prize won by Ka Lake for scoring 9th place during last Galactic Meet.

But regardless of size, Earth is still a country. For a country to have only one space frigate, it’s really a joke. But to obtain more ships and train more personnel, it’s a huge expense.

In addition, United Government has to import some advanced energy sources, machines, training systems, and it also needs to travel for diplomatic reasons, and these all cost GC. So right now, for Earth, it’s not a problem about being poor, but a problem being REALLY poor.

Han followed Li Yu and arrived at the depth of the passage, and marks left behind battles began to appear. The claw marks on walls were at least 15 cm deep, if those marks were left on soldiers, it would be an instant death.

Li Yu recollected his memory as he spoke, “Before the pre-historic left, they locked down many mines, research facilities, bases, and left large quantities of dark beast.”

“Normally, the higher the class of the extinction domain, the stronger are the dark beasts that were left in them, and they also left traps inside extinction domains class B and up. So, for us to retrieve the treasure left behind by the pre-historic civilization, it wasn’t an easy task.”

“Like this ore yard, it’s actually fairly easy to capture among all the other classes, but it still caused the Assault Army to suffer heavily. With Earth’s current strength, if we would to explore higher class domains, it would probably bring extinction upon the whole army and possibly Earth.”

Han slightly nodded, thought for a bit and asked in curiosity, “But how do people determine which class an Extinction Site is ranked as? Also, I don’t get it. If the pre-historic civilization left Milky Way, then why did they seal way everything and make it that troublesome for other people to access it? If they don’t want to other people to access it, why didn’t they just blow them up?”

“The extinction sites are ranked based on their value and difficulty. The lowest one is D-class, it has no threat. C-class is a bit more dangerous, but still manageable. B-class means a significant amount of risk, and only the developed countries in Milky Way has the ability to explore a B-class, and lower level countries will either ask those developed countries for help or form an alliance with other countries, and then they would barely manage to explore it.”

“As for A class, it’s difficult beyond imagination. Even if the most developed countries of Milky Way form an alliance, it’s still impossible to completely capture an A-class extinction domain. That’s like the ultimate forbidden domain for humans, with countless of traps, hidden passages, and dark beast.”

“Galactic Meet of Milky Way’s primary objective is actually to gather all the talented young espers in Milky Way to form an alliance to explore those special A-class domains, which are A-7 domain, A-19 domain, and A-23.”

“These three A-class domains are very unique, there’s a restriction placed at the gate, allowing only people under the age of 30 to enter. That year, Ke Lake successfully explored A7 and his overall score was ranked 9th in the entire Milky Way, displaying an enormous amount of potential!”

“With powerful young warrior with such potential here on Earth, although after the Galactic Meet ended some country still suggested to colonize Earth, it was quickly declined by the Milky Way Alliance. After all, in their eyes, a top talent like Ke Lake might be really helpful to the Milky Way Alliance in the future.”

“But sadly, after the Galactic Meet ended, he sent his Air Fortress class frigate back to Earth, but he never returned home and no one knew where he went. Until this day we still haven’t heard anything about him.”

After talking about Ke Lake, Li Yu could hardly hide his emotion. Ke Lake was a student of Li Yu and two others, and they all shared a deep bond.

It has been almost a decade. If Ke Lake was still home, then Earth wouldn’t be in such a difficult situation, with even the raiders dare to push it around.

After a brief hesitation, Li Yu continued, “As to why the domains are heavily defended, it’s because the pre-historic civilization believed that one day they will ultimately return to Milky Way, so that’s why they carefully sealed everything away.”

“They still want to come back? Then I’m more confused. Moving as an entire race is not a joke and it’s really costly. If they are going to come back then why did they move away as an entire civilization?”

“I guess they have their reasons. That’s why it has been the biggest mystery of Milky Way. Normally, an entire race moving is usually due to a threat. But from the materials and technologies harvested from the domains, it’s clear that before humans there was a very intelligent race with high degree of civilization. Humans only learned a fraction of the technology results of the pre-historic civilization and it has already been so useful. Battleships capable of crossing Milky Way, fusion electric energy technology that’s like a free source of energy to the entire world, those are all technologies left over by the pre-historic civilization.”

“In fact, no one knows the type of threat that the powerful pre-historic civilization was facing that caused them to feel so determined to move towards the unknown distant. But there’s one thing certain, the existence that forced the pre-historic civilization to completely leave Milky Way, must be a very dangerous enemy, and that dangerous existence is still here somewhere in Milky Way. It’s still in a dormant state, and we just don’t know more about it that’s all.”

“Regardless, Milky Way is a chaotic and dangerous place. As a member of this galaxy, Earth is way too weak. The only way is for us to get stronger, and then it will be possible to fight off all external threats.”

“The most I can do, is to put in all my effort to develop extinction domains. As long as Earth has a stable financial income, we can slowly accumulate strength. And you just need to find a way to make it to the Galactic Meet, I believe that you have the potential!”

Han nodded, “Don’t worry, I will try my best. To my knowledge, headquarter also has a team of professionally trained young espers, they should be going for the advancement match to the Galactic Meet right?”

Li Yu looked dignified, “Tough to say. Now they are like you, shut away from the world to train. Oh right, you will meet those guys soon. Also, Cheng Zhong and Monk, they are all coming to attend 1st Legion.”

Han was so happy to hear that. Although they haven’t known each other for a long time, but they’ve fought side by side like brothers sharing the same life, and that’s the best kind of relation.

Soon Han and Li Yu came to the end of the pathway, the rails are still being installed, and the mineral pit is going to be explored soon, to provide valuable financial support to Earth.

Li Yu stared at the blood left on the wall, said in a deep voice, “If we can’t secure a good spot at the Galactic Meet, to avoid becoming a colony of other countries, our only chance would be to forcefully activate the B-class extinction domain here, and let our brother espers on Earth fight for the last hope.”

Han was shocked and asked in surprise, “Earth still has a B-class Extinction Domain?”