113: Chapter 113: A Journey Through Jupiter

The Tianyuan Mothership rapidly approached Jupiter. As they drew nearer, Jupiter grew larger and larger in the eyes of Su Fan and the others.

“Daddy, what a huge storm!” Su Mingxia exclaimed.

“This is just the beginning; the ones inside are even bigger!” As Su Fan spoke, the Tianyuan Mothership plunged headlong into Jupiter's atmosphere.

Rumble!

Colossal bolts of lightning raged within Jupiter's atmosphere!

Massive amounts of dense gas rubbed against each other, and countless cyclones and storms slammed into the tianyuan.

To prevent any accidents, Su Fan had the Red Queen activate the tianyuan's energy shield, even though these storms couldn't even shake the ship's armor.

The tianyuan continued its descent. The surrounding gas density grew higher and visibility dropped lower, already obscuring their sight.

Most of these gases were hydrogen and helium, along with some ammonia, methane, and water vapor.

In fact, although Jupiter is called a planet, it is actually more like a star.

Stars are gaseous bodies, and Jupiter is also a gaseous body.

A star's composition is mainly hydrogen and helium, and Jupiter's primary components are also hydrogen and helium.

However, stars are larger, and the pressure generated by their own gravity is enough for hydrogen and helium to undergo nuclear fusion.

As for Jupiter, because its volume and mass are relatively small, its own gravity cannot trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen and helium, so it can only drift in space as a gas giant.

The tianyuan continued its free fall. The surrounding storms and cyclones grew larger, with vortices spanning thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of kilometers visible everywhere, while temperature and pressure rose sharply.

Continuing the descent...

Suddenly, Zhou Xiaoxiao cried out, “Water! It's water! There's water below!”

“That's not water. According to the ship's instruments, that is liquid hydrogen—a whole planet full of hydrogen!” Su Fan explained.

“The closer we get to Jupiter's core, the greater the pressure becomes. This immense pressure turns hydrogen gas into a liquid. If we keep going down, we'll even see a surface formed of metallic hydrogen.”

“Red Queen, enter the ocean of liquid hydrogen and continue diving. Let my son see the metallic hydrogen.”

“Yes, Commander-in-Chief Su!” the Red Queen said sweetly in a playful tone.

Since upgrading to an advanced AI, the Red Queen had become increasingly human-like. Although she had no real emotions, she could already mimic human feelings to the point where they were almost indistinguishable.

The Tianyuan Mothership dove headfirst into the ocean of liquid hydrogen, descending rapidly.

This time, they didn't just free-fall; they engaged the ship's engines to generate thrust, allowing them to dive even faster.

“Daddy, are there little fish in here?” Su Mingxia asked, his big, innocent eyes wide.

“There are no little fish here! If you want to see fish, you have to look in water. This is just a liquid that looks like water,” Su Fan explained patiently.

“Oh, oh. Then let's go find little fish in a bit!” Su Mingxia said expectantly.

“Alright, in a while Daddy will take you to Jupiter's other moons to see if there are any little fish.” Su Fan patted his son's head dotingly.

“Daddy is the best!”

Hearing this, Su Fan's face broke into a wide, crinkly smile.

“Commander-in-Chief Su, we have reached the metallic hydrogen surface,” the Red Queen's voice announced.

Su Fan looked down. The silver-white metallic hydrogen ground glittered under the tianyuan's floodlights, looking incredibly beautiful.

“Wow! So pretty!” Zhou Xiaoxiao marveled.

“It really is beautiful!” Su Fan agreed.

“Cosmic rarity detected. Host, please take note!” The system's voice suddenly rang out in Su Fan's mind!

Su Fan's eyes lit up. The system almost never spoke of its own accord, yet it had suddenly issued a prompt.

Though he didn't know what a cosmic rarity was, the name alone sounded very high-end.

“What is a cosmic rarity?” Su Fan communicated silently with the system, though his expression remained calm.

“cosmic rarities are a type of special, precious material,” the system replied.

“How precious?” Su Fan pressed.

“Essential materials for Level 4 civilizations.” The system's answer was concise.

Su Fan's eyes brightened further. He usually communicated with the system whenever he could, and from fragmented bits of information, he guessed that Level 4 civilizations would completely surpass Level 1, 2, and 3 civilizations, possessing mysterious and unpredictable abilities.

“System, where is the cosmic rarity? Give me a hint.”

“Ten thousand influence points,” the system said flatly.

“Deduct it! Deduct it and tell me quickly!” Su Fan was somewhat impatient.

“Deduction of ten thousand influence points complete. The cosmic rarity is located 1,000 meters underground.”

“1,000 meters underground...” Su Fan was inwardly delighted. This was simple; the tianyuan's cargo bay held a large number of engineering machines and robots with various functions.

Digging 1,000 meters was far too easy.

metallic hydrogen wasn't hard; it could be cut with an ordinary knife, so the difficulty of excavation wasn't high.

In that case, let's get to work!

“Red Queen, release some earth-boring engineering vehicles and robots from the cargo bay. Dig down 1,000 meters directly beneath the tianyuan. Make the pit a bit larger,” Su Fan ordered.

“Understood! Commander-in-Chief Su.” The Red Queen replied seriously and immediately controlled the ship to open the cargo bay, releasing the relevant mechanical equipment and robots.

Under the Red Queen's control, these machines reached the designated spot and immediately began digging.

The excavation speed was very fast. A large pit grew wider and deeper at a visible rate.

Su Fan and his family weren't the only ones on the ship. Over twenty thousand people were actually using the panoramic simulation, seeing the scenes outside the ship with perfect clarity.

The Great Elder knocked on the door of the captain's quarters.

“Enter!”

“Su Fan, what are you planning to dig up?” the Great Elder asked the moment he entered, voicing the question in his heart.

“Digging for treasure!” Su Fan gave a mysterious smile.

“What kind of treasure!” The Great Elder's curiosity was piqued.

“Good treasure!” Su Fan played it close to the vest.

“You... fine, sigh—” The Great Elder sighed helplessly and sat down next to Su Mingxia.

“Come here! Little Mingxia! Let Grandpa give you a hug!”

“Hello, Grandpa!” Su Mingxia called out sweetly.

He knew the Great Elder because the Great Elder often visited Su Fan's home.

“Just wait. We'll see it once it's dug up,” Su Fan said, but his mind was quickly communicating with the system. “System, what exactly is the cosmic rarity underground?”

“It hasn't been unearthed yet, so it's uncertain,” the system said evasively.

Su Fan was helpless; he knew this was just the system's excuse.

On the metallic hydrogen surface, the engineering machines were digging frantically. The 1,000-meter deep pit was soon completed.

“New material detected. There is no information on this material in the database,” the Red Queen's voice suddenly rang out.

Su Fan looked into the large pit. Amidst the countless silver-white metallic hydrogen, another kind of material slowly began to reveal itself.

This material was also silver-white in color, but its surface patterns were like clouds.

“System, a new material has been dug up. Is it the cosmic rarity you mentioned?” Su Fan asked silently.

“Yes!”

“Then can you tell me the specific details of this material now!” Su Fan pressed.

“I can!” the system replied flatly.

...