30: Chapter 30 Sealight Galaxy, Dungeon Base

Shangguan Yunshu brought Lu Yang, Shen Qingci, and Rebecca to the Professionals Association.

The building of the Linglan City Professionals Association shimmered with a cold gray metallic luster in the morning light. Unlike the bustling, sea-of-people scene on the first day of the welfare dungeon yesterday, the number of Professionals entering and leaving the plaza in front of the building today was noticeably much smaller.

Feng Lide had long been waiting inside the association lobby. Today, he had changed into a dark gray formal suit with the silver badge of the Professionals Association pinned at his collar. Standing beside the front desk, his waist and back were held straight.

When Lu Yang came out of the dungeon yesterday, Feng Lide happened to be sent by Shangguan Yunshu to handle the matter of sealing off the association, so the two had not met face-to-face.

Therefore, Lu Yang did not know this vice president.

On the other hand, as children of aristocratic Professional families from Yunmeng Star, Rebecca and Shen Qingci had met Feng Lide quite a few times and were fairly familiar with each other.

After the two sides greeted each other, Feng Lide looked at Lu Yang with a rather enthusiastic smile, his eye corners creasing into two fine lines: "Lu Yang, congratulations on clearing the novice welfare dungeon for the first time. Your talent is too outstanding, keep working hard in the future!"

Lu Yang smiled, a youthful confidence carrying between his brows, and his tone was calm and resolute: "Thank you for your encouragement, President Feng, I will work hard."

With his talent, if he still couldn't become a powerhouse, it would truly be a waste.

Afterwards, Feng Lide spoke no more, turned slightly to make an inviting gesture, and led Shangguan Yunshu and the others through the lobby, all the way down along the cold white-lit corridor to the underground teleportation hall.

Shangguan Yunshu had already notified Feng Lide yesterday that she wanted to borrow the teleportation array to go to the galaxy where the newly appeared novice dungeon was located.

Therefore, Feng Lide had been waiting here since early morning and had made preparations.

This was Lu Yang's first time seeing a teleportation array; previously he had only seen them in the holographic illustrations of textbooks and on the internet.

In the center of the rather huge hall before his eyes, on the half-meter-high metal platform, dense and complex rune lines were intricately engraved. Under the illumination of the dim blue indicator lights, the patterns glowed with a dark silver luster, densely extending in all directions like some circuit totem that had been running silently for an unknown number of years.

Shangguan Yunshu led the three of them onto the teleportation platform.

Afterwards, Feng Lide walked to the control console, pressed his palm onto the authorization recognition panel, and a light blue beam of light swept across the back of his hand.

He took a deep breath and pressed the start button.

Silver light beams gradually lit up one after another along the rune lines, quickly forming a dazzling silver radiance that enveloped the teleportation platform within.

Lu Yang only felt that the four of them were enveloped by a ball of silver light.

The next instant, his body sank abruptly, as if an invisible hand was pressing down on his shoulders, and then it felt as if his entire body was floating up, flipping in the air, losing all sense of direction of up, down, left, and right.

This sensation was quite strange, causing a bit of instinctive panic.

Fortunately, this feeling quickly disappeared.

In just a second or two, Lu Yang's body sank once more, and beneath his feet returned the solid sensation of standing on firm ground.

The silver light enveloping his body gradually faded, dissipating layer by layer like a receding tide.

Lu Yang saw the outside scenery once again.

Although it was still a hall, and beneath his feet was still a metal platform engraved with complex patterns, the air was filled with a faint residual smell of ozone after teleportation.

However, the scale of this hall was much smaller than the one in Linglan City, and the surrounding walls were made of dark gray alloy plates.

Below the teleportation platform, it was no longer Feng Lide, but two middle-aged men and women.

The man was not tall, with a somewhat sturdy build, regular facial features, and a calm aura unique to those in high positions between his brows.

He wore the association uniform, with a silver badge similarly pinned to his chest.

The woman stood beside him, about the same height as him, with ear-length brownish-black short hair, thin lips, and small eyes that exuded shrewdness and capability, wearing the same style of dark brown uniform.

Upon seeing Shangguan Yunshu, these two immediately stood straight, gave an Alliance salute, and wore very respectful expressions.

"Greetings, Lady Shangguan! I am Qi Dongyang, President of the Lifeng City Professionals Association, and this is Vice President Bunasi!"

Shangguan Yunshu nodded, her cold gaze sweeping across the two faces, and she said calmly: "Hello."

Hearing that Shangguan Yunshu actually greeted them, Qi Dongyang and Bunasi immediately showed flattered smiles, looking a bit nervous.

Shangguan Yunshu did not care about their reactions, and she said calmly: "We still have matters to attend to, so we will be leaving first."

Qi Dongyang hurriedly nodded and said: "Alright, alright, your matters are important!"

Shangguan Yunshu nodded slightly.

The next moment, the space around Lu Yang and the others distorted silently, and silver-gray ripples spread out, swallowing the teleportation hall along with the respectful expressions of Qi Dongyang and Bunasi.

When they could see their surroundings clearly again, they were already mid-air.

Lu Yang instinctively looked around.

Unlike Yunmeng Star, this planet had only one sun hanging lonely in the distant horizon.

The sun seemed somewhat far from the planet, so it looked a circle smaller than the sun of Yunmeng Star, with a light golden color, and the light it scattered was not as scorching as Yunmeng Star's, shining on the body with a lukewarm and cool feeling, like the sunlight of a late autumn afternoon.

There was a hint of chill in the air, and as the wind swept across from high altitude and poured into the collar, it made one instinctively shrink their neck.

Standing high up, Lu Yang could clearly see that below was a small island shaped like an irregular seashell, floating in the center of a boundless dark blue ocean.

As far as the eye could see, all directions were seawater, and the sea surface rippled with fine waves pushed by the breeze, sparkling into fragments under the light golden sunlight.

He didn't know whether it was because this Professionals Association itself was built on a small island, or because the ocean area of this planet was much larger than the land area.

Lu Yang looked around, his eyes full of curiosity; this was his first time traveling to other planets.

For the past eighteen years, he had always lived on Yunmeng Star.

Although he had seen image data of various planets in textbooks, seeing another world's completely different sunlight, ocean, and sky with his own eyes provided a freshness that images could never give.

While Lu Yang was looking around with curiosity, Rebecca and Shen Qingci were quite calm.

They merely glanced briefly at the surrounding scenery and withdrew their gazes.

After all, their family conditions were top-notch even on Yunmeng Star. Since childhood, they had traveled across stars with their family elders, and they had seen far more planets than Lu Yang.

Although neither of them had been to this planet, they had been to planets with similar environments, so there was nothing unusual about it.

As for Shangguan Yunshu, her gaze swept across the surroundings, and silver-gray brilliance flowed within her cold eyes.

After looking around a circle, she opened her personal terminal again, brought up a three-dimensional spatial coordinate, tapped her fingers lightly on the projection light screen, and confirmed the position.

She spoke: "Let's go."

Lu Yang immediately felt space swallow them once again.

This time, the time Lu Yang spent traversing space was much longer than before.

When his vision recovered once again, he found himself appearing on a small metal plaza.

The plaza was not large, and the ground was covered with entire pieces of dark gray alloy plates.

Surrounding it were low buildings also crafted from metal, with concise and neat exteriors and no extra decorations. Occasionally, the sides of a few buildings were affixed with holographic signposts, marking the directions of supply stations, repair shops, and temporary residences with light blue glowing characters.

Overhead was a layer of light blue translucent light shield, like a very thin water film, shrouding the entire plaza and surrounding buildings within.

Outside the light shield was endless, profound darkness.

There was not a trace of light in the vacuum, only a few starlight points occasionally flashing in the extreme distance, falling coldly on the ink-colored canopy of heaven.

In the sky inside the light shield, many aircraft shuttled back and forth, dragging trails of light tails behind them, looking quite busy.

Lu Yang looked around, a hint of surprise showing on his face: "This place doesn't seem to be that planet from just now, right?"

Shangguan Yunshu nodded slightly and explained: "Mhm, that novice dungeon is located on the second planet of the Haiguang Galaxy. It is relatively close to the star, making it less suitable for human habitation. The resources required to transform the environment are not small, and the cost-performance ratio is not high, so it is not a residential planet, unlike Haiguang Star."

Shen Qingci stood nearby, also sizing up the surroundings, and chimed in to ask: "Is this the dungeon outpost?"

Shangguan Yunshu nodded: "Correct."

Lu Yang immediately showed a look of sudden realization.

Dungeon outposts were something Lu Yang had also learned about in the school's Professional General Knowledge class.

Dungeons could appear in any region of the Universe, not just on residential planets.

If the location where a dungeon appeared was a vacuum, an asteroid, or other celestial bodies unsuitable for human habitation, the Alliance would take the dungeon as the core and build a dungeon outpost right on the spot.

The role of the outpost was to provide a place for rest and resupply to combat Professionals coming to raid the dungeon.

After all, every dungeon would attract a large number of Professionals to pour in. Without a rest area, once the supply chain was cut off, the raiding efficiency would be greatly discounted.

Walking toward the edge of the plaza, Shangguan Yunshu spoke: "Let's go, this is a five-person small dungeon. The other two teammates I found for you are already waiting outside the dungeon."

Hearing this, the three of Lu Yang looked at each other, feeling a bit curious about the new teammates.

Those who could be favored by Shangguan Yunshu and chosen into the Dawn Pioneering Team definitely wouldn't have poor talent.

Following Shangguan Yunshu, they found a hover flying car at the docking point by the edge of the plaza.

The exterior of the flying car was the most common streamlined passenger cabin of this era, with the number and logo of the dungeon outpost printed on its silver-gray shell.

The cabin door slid open. After the four sat inside, the flying car hovered silently and flew toward the dungeon area along the established aerial track.

This dungeon outpost was not large, and the overall estimate was around a radius of ten-odd kilometers.

Looking down from the porthole of the flying car, one could see the orderly layout inside the outpost.

The supply area, accommodation area, and repair area were neatly divided into several blocks, interspersed with a few green walking paths between the metal buildings, and occasionally one could see groups of two or three Professionals walking on the ground.

The flying car only flew for a few minutes before slowing down and landing beside another plaza.

This plaza was more than a circle larger than the small plaza just now.

Several rows of hover flying cars were parked around the plaza, and a not-too-long, not-too-short queue was lined up at the entrance of the supply station on the side.

A large number of Professionals gathered in the plaza, standing in groups of threes and fives. Some were lowering their heads to check guides on their personal terminals, some were discussing tactics with teammates, and others were holding up projection signs written with their own Rank, attributes, and skills, looking to form a team.

Most of these Professionals were young, looking like newcomers who had only awakened for a few years.

Occasionally, one or two older-looking Professionals mixed among them, usually alone. Although their equipment was somewhat old, it was kept fairly clean.

This was also normal; after all, novice dungeons were entered by Professionals who had not yet reached Tier 1.

For high-tier Professionals, the monsters in novice dungeons gave no experience and no drops, so naturally they wouldn't enter them.

Generally speaking, novice Professionals who had not yet reached Tier 1 were basically newcomers who had just awakened or within a year or two of Awakening.

Only a small fraction of Professionals who couldn't even pass the Tier 1 advancement quest were stuck in the novice stage and unable to continue improving, and could only hang around in the novice area.

Although such veteran veterans were experienced, their combat power was actually not very strong.

After all, as long as one didn't choose high difficulty, wanting to pass the Tier 1 advancement quest was quite simple.

They couldn't even complete the Tier 1 advancement quest, so one could imagine how weak their strength was.

In the center of the plaza, a white vortex floated quietly in mid-air, slowly revolving, with a few wisps of silver-white light particles occasionally drifting from its edge, dissolving into the air like tiny snowflakes.

It was identical to the vortex of yesterday's welfare dungeon.

This was the dungeon entrance.

Outside the dungeon entrance, a towering record stele similarly stood.

This was a stele present outside every dungeon, used to record dungeon achievements.

Shangguan Yunshu led the three of them into the plaza.

She was still wearing that form-fitting black short-sleeved top and straight black cargo pants, her black hair like a waterfall hanging behind her shoulders, making her appear exceptionally pure and plain among the crowd of Professionals wearing colorful equipment.

The Professionals nearby who had originally been lowering their heads to look at terminals or discussing tactics with teammates occasionally caught sight of Shangguan Yunshu, all freezing for a moment before widening their eyes and opening their mouths slightly with looks of disbelief.

Almost no one within the entire Blue Star Alliance did not recognize Shangguan Yunshu's face.

The Professionals present were naturally no exception.

For a moment, quite a few people began to whisper to their companions.

The discussions were not loud, but with more and more people, the buzzing waves of sound rapidly spread across the plaza.

"Holy shit?! Look at that..."

"Hiss... Is that Lady Shangguan?! Why is she here??"

"Those three behind Lady Shangguan must be newcomers, right? Could they be newcomers from the Dawn Pioneering Team, and Lady Shangguan personally brought them here to pioneer the dungeon!?"

"What kind of talent do these three people actually have?! To actually be personally led by Lady Shangguan?!"

"I don't know! But if they are newcomers from the Dawn Pioneering Team, then this dungeon should be able to be cleared, right?"

"Yeah, this new dungeon has appeared for several months now, and no one has been able to clear it until now. The difficulty is indeed not low, but for the Geniuses of the Dawn Pioneering Team, this difficulty is definitely not a problem!"