101: Chapter 101 "The Seagull"
Wang Pingan strode out of his "palace" with a mood more relaxed than ever before.
The immense confidence brought by his skyrocketing strength made him feel that the sky looked a few shades bluer than usual.
He summoned a campus unmanned hovercar again and set the destination directly to "Star Port 7".
It was a non-public, secret port within Xuanyuan University, specially used for parking and maintaining various special-purpose aircraft.
According to the information Mentor Murphy had given him earlier, the "seagull" that carried their "dream of getting rich" was hidden there.
The hovercar traveled silently through the campus, which was filled with a sense of futuristic technology.
Wang Pingan leaned back into the comfortable seat to rest his eyes, but his mind was calculating rapidly.
After this spending spree, his "body imbalance" problem was finally solved.
He was now a Fourth Rank Peak martial artist.
Coupled with his terrifying spirit that had already crossed the threshold of the Fifth Rank, as well as his trump card, the "Eye of Truth".
His overall strength had now reached a level that even he couldn't quite fathom.
"However, I still can't get cocky."
Wang Pingan silently warned himself in his heart.
The Subspace Storm was a cosmic disaster that even Seventh or Eighth Rank powerhouses would pale at the mere mention of.
With his current strength, if he were thrown into it, he probably wouldn't even cause a splash.
The key to the success of this operation did not lie in how well he could fight, but in whether he could accurately and perfectly pilot the "seagull" to the core of the storm within that ten-minute "safety window".
This tested pure piloting skills and spirit control.
"I hope that old man Murphy doesn't pull any funny business with the spaceship."
Wang Pingan was actually feeling a bit nervous about the so-called "seagull".
An old man who could make the arrays in his own laboratory explode—was the spaceship he built... really reliable?
Just as Wang Pingan was lost in his wild thoughts, the hovercar arrived smoothly at its destination.
"Star Port 7, we have arrived."
Wang Pingan got out of the car and looked up.
Before him was an incomparably huge hangar hidden inside the mountain.
The heavy alloy gate was tightly closed, and two rows of heavily armed, fierce-looking armored guards stood at the entrance.
The level of security here was several grades higher than that of the Central Archives.
"Halt! Restricted area ahead, show your access permit!"
As soon as Wang Pingan approached, he was stopped by a guard captain.
Wang Pingan didn't speak; he just swiped a special electronic pass that Mentor Murphy had sent him in advance against the other party's scanner.
Beep.
"Identity confirmed, Mentor Murphy's Special Assistant, Wang Pingan. Access Level: Alpha. Entry granted."
A trace of surprise flashed across the guard captain's face.
He clearly hadn't expected that the seemingly young freshman before him would possess such a high level of access.
The look in his eyes as he gazed at Wang Pingan instantly gained a hint of awe.
"Assistant Wang, please proceed."
The guard captain gave Wang Pingan a standard military salute, then stepped aside to clear the path.
"Assistant?"
Wang Pingan muttered to himself, "That old man Murphy, he really knows how to play games."
He didn't think too much about it and walked straight through the massive gate that was slowly opening.
The space inside the hangar was unimaginably large.
Various special aircraft with peculiar shapes and a sense of science fiction were neatly parked in their respective berths.
There were scientific research ships for deep space exploration, armed shuttles for rapid assault, and even a few menacing-looking interstellar fighters that clearly looked like they were meant for war.
Wang Pingan walked along, taking it all in, and his horizons were broadened.
Soon, he found his target in the deepest, most secluded corner of the hangar.
It was a huge, isolated maintenance platform.
Mentor Murphy was wearing a blue jumpsuit covered in oil stains, climbing up and down like a diligent ant beside a... well, a spaceship that looked a bit indescribable, busy and happy.
The reason it was indescribable was that the appearance of this spaceship was simply too... plain.
It had no sleek lines, no menacing gun barrels, and no fancy paint job.
It looked like a flattened, grey, giant lump of metal.
The only thing that could be related to the name "seagull" might be its two short and funny "wings" that tilted slightly upwards.
"This... is the seagull?"
Wang Pingan's mouth couldn't help but twitch.
He felt like his "dream of getting rich" was about to shatter before it had even begun.
"Yo, kid, you're here!"
Mentor Murphy seemed to have sensed his arrival and crawled out from under the chassis of the spaceship.
He wiped the oil stains off his face and revealed an excited smile.
"How is it? Look at this baby of mine! Isn't it beautiful?"
He patted the rough, and even somewhat uneven, metal shell of the "seagull", his tone filled with pride and boastfulness.
Wang Pingan: "..."
He really didn't know how to go against his conscience and praise it as "beautiful".
"Mentor... it... it looks, kind of... retro?" Wang Pingan weighed his words and said cautiously.
"Retro? Hahaha! You kid don't know shit!" Mentor Murphy, upon hearing this, not only didn't get angry but instead burst into laughter.
"This is called 'the Great Way is simple, returning to the basics'!"
He beckoned to Wang Pingan with a mysterious look on his face.
"Come on, come up and take a look, let me show you what real black technology is!"