Chapter 1 The Establishment's Foresight

The space floating island built by the Aerym Elves had been planned for the very long term from the beginning of its establishment. Therefore, all its urban areas were clearly divided into blocks, and the roads were straight and clear. There were no dark alleys where people could get lost. After getting directions from the locals, Hao Ren easily approached the scene of the accident. The reason he was sure he hadn't gone wrong was because he found fewer and fewer people around him. Even the occasional elf he saw was running in the opposite direction with a look of fear. Obviously, not far ahead was the place where the explosion occurred.

"Speaking of which, what can we do to help?" Lily followed Hao Ren, running happily. Only then did she finally react. Hao Ren shouted back without turning his head, "You're strong, Vivian knows magic, and Izas and I should be able to help with disaster relief. Whether we can help or not, at least we can go and see."

After running for a while, there were no figures on either side of the road. On both sides of the wide avenue, only dim streetlights illuminated the surroundings with a dim yellow halo. Not only was there no one on the road, but even the buildings on both sides were lifeless. Vivian felt that there was no sign of life in many houses here. Obviously, the residents here had been evacuated. The Aerym Elves didn't seem to be encountering this situation for the first time. Their response to disasters was very swift and skilled. Lily frowned and sniffed. She smelled a ionized odor in the air.

A faint noise and whistling sound came from a distance. At the same time, several rays of light flashed across the sky: it seemed to be the airships of the city guard, which should be going to support the scene of the accident.

"It's ahead!" Lily ran quickly to the front of the team to scout the way, and then greeted them happily at the next street corner. Hao Ren quickly led Vivian and Izas to follow. He also saw the firelight behind several buildings in the distance.

As soon as they rushed past the street corner, everyone felt light on their feet. A wonderful feeling of weightlessness suddenly struck. Before Hao Ren could react, he found himself bouncing several meters high, and then slowly falling back to the ground. "What's going on?"

"The artificial gravity in this area seems to have stopped," the data terminal popped out of Hao Ren's pocket. "But compared to this, this unit thinks that these elves are in greater danger: you look up at the sky!"

Everyone quickly looked up. Since this place was close to the edge of the floating island, the protective shield in the sky was very low. Almost within reach above the nearby towers was that shield. Now, the side of the shield facing the "ring hoop" was emitting an abnormal glow. In the glow, there were a large number of noises like snowflakes when an old-fashioned cathode ray tube television had a bad signal, which were rapidly spreading on the shield, like coating a layer of deathly white frost on this shield of life.

"Energy vortex. This crude shield is supported by a large number of shield generators working together. The sudden offline of some of the shield generators will cause a vortex to appear. Soon this 'pollution' will tear the entire dome open," the data terminal quickly floated forward. "Keep up, maybe this unit can help."

Hao Ren and Lily were bouncing lightly forward, "That's easy for you to say! The gravity here is almost zero!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a tightness in his back. Vivian grabbed them and flew forward rapidly. The microgravity environment was still acceptable to the vampire girl. Although it required adaptation, it didn't affect her flight. As for Izas... this sturdy demon never lacked methods. He confirmed the firmness of the ground, and then directly placed a flame burst spell behind his butt, making him fly faster than Vivian...

They finally arrived at the place where the explosion occurred. It was brightly lit, with a boiling scene that was completely opposite to the cleared urban area before.

There was about one kilometer of open space between the ring hoop on the edge of the floating island and the urban area. This area was dotted with various passages and operating rooms for overhauling the island's equipment. The place where the explosion occurred was one of the maintenance points. When Hao Ren and the others arrived, a large group of workers had gathered here, appearing to be city guards and magic scholars. The scene of the explosion was shocking and particularly eye-catching: it was located at the junction of the floating island's "ring hoop" and the foundation. The part torn by the explosion was 100 meters wide and dozens of meters high. The gray-white ground and walls were torn apart by the shock wave of the explosion, exposing a terrifying hole. Bright energy sparks were still jumping on the jagged edges of the hole, obviously damaging some vital pipelines.

Near this crack, a dozen elves wearing white robes could be seen trying to block the leak. They were suspended in the air, holding strangely shaped disc-shaped magic devices in their hands. Powerful energy surged beneath their skin. These lights that penetrated their bodies almost made these elves look like terrifying humanoid torches. These elf spellcasters jointly maintained a milky white, almost transparent shield that enveloped the crack, barely preventing the floating island's air from leaking.

But obviously, they couldn't stop the equipment damaged by the explosion from continuing to deteriorate.

This was just the scene of the explosion crack. In fact, the surrounding facilities were also affected: some huge pipes extending from the ring hoop were emitting thick smoke, some small buildings that looked like control rooms hadn't been extinguished yet, and even some cracks of varying degrees had appeared on the walls near the crack. Although these cracks hadn't yet led to space, an elf magician was closely guarding each crack, ready to block it with a magic shield at any time.

Hao Ren and the others made a lot of noise when they arrived—in fact, it was Izas who made a lot of noise. This tough guy who blasted himself all the way here with continuous flame burst spells was very conspicuous wherever he went. Therefore, the elves at the scene of the accident immediately noticed these uninvited guests. An elf wearing a short robe "ran" towards Izas with great difficulty in the microgravity environment: "You are wha..."

Hao Ren interrupted him before he could finish speaking, "How's the situation?! We're here to help!"

The elf looked at Hao Ren in surprise, and at the same time, several other guards nearby showed vigilant expressions. Obviously, not every Aerym citizen knew what the guests brought back by their Queen looked like—some of them probably didn't even know about this group of guests. After all, Hilda had only been back for half a day.

Hao Ren didn't have time to explain this. He noticed that there were still many injured people lying on another open space nearby. They had suffered severe shocks in the explosion, and some people had severe burns. Vivian frowned when she saw this, "If only Nangong Wuyue was here, she's good at treating burns."

At this time, an elf who looked like a mage suddenly flew out of the guards and asked loudly, "Is there one among you named Hao Ren?"

"Me, me, that's me."

"Her Majesty the Queen has notified us to cooperate with you," the elf mage was a little puzzled, but still followed the Queen's order, "If you can help, please act quickly, the situation here can't be delayed any longer."

"You have to let me know what the situation is here first," Hao Ren pinched the data terminal in one hand and pointed to the broken wall in the other, "And by the way, the structure of this thing. First, I'll find a way to restore your shield."

Those elf mages had already blocked the fatal cracks on the wall with manpower, but the more deadly thing was the collapsing dome above everyone's heads. Once this thing disappeared, the entire city would be finished in an instant—no one could save it!

At this time, the white noise on the dome had spread to several kilometers, and was still rapidly extending to other places. The elf mage also glanced at the sky with a terrified look, and then quickly said, "This crack leads directly to space. Below the crack is the propulsion unit—the equipment has been blown away, I'm afraid it can't be repaired. The upper part of the crack has cut off a main line of the shield generator. We are trying to connect it to the backup energy pool, but the backup energy pool has insufficient energy storage and can't be started. In addition, the crack has also cut off several airflow pipelines buried underground, and the city's air is leaking..."

"The pipeline has been blocked!" A gray-faced elf suddenly ran out of the crowd, or rather, floated out, "All the gates in Zone 22 have been closed. The gate of one ventilation pipe is out of order. Master Mabuno used a hot ray to melt the nearby foundation and seal it."

"The leakage problem is not a concern for the time being," the elf mage breathed a sigh of relief, "Now only the cut-off energy..."

Hao Ren shook the data terminal hard, "Why are you silent at a critical moment?"

The data terminal suddenly shone brightly, "Bring your socket! This unit will supply it with energy! This unit was just downloading the energy conversion plug-in."