Chapter 181: Supergravity Zone

Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales

Xia Fei was quiet for a long time. Old Porter was probably doing something very dangerous and did not have much confidence that he could make it out alive, or else he would not have informed Windchime to tell him not to come anymore, though she still ended up contacting Xia Fei due to her worry for Old Porter’s safety.

“Do you know where Uncle Porter has gone to?” Xia Fei asked. “I’ll only be able to search for him if I know where he went; finding someone in the vast expanse of space is akin to fishing for a needle in the ocean.”

Windchime nodded. “I wouldn’t have so urgently sought you if I didn’t know where he went. When Porter left me the method of contacting you, I thought that you’re one of his former colleagues or an old friend. I didn’t expect you to be so young… If I knew this, I would’ve listened to Porter and wouldn’t have dragged you into this.”

Windchime did not seem to regard the young Xia Fei as any sort of help, which was why her words were teeming with trepidation and doubt.

Xia Fei smiled. “Since I’m already here, why don’t you tell me Uncle Porter’s destination; perhaps I can be of some help.”

Windchime hesitated for a bit before furrowing her brows and saying, “When I was helping clean his room, I sneaked a peek at Porter’s personal computer once and saw a large star map, which has plenty of red and green dots on; I had it copied into my own device.”

With that, Windchime took out an old-fashioned tablet. Xia Fei recalled that Old Porter enjoyed using the same model of computer.

After tapping on it a few times, Windchime pulled out a star map and sent it over to Xia Fei.

This was a three-dimensional star chart of Black Abyss. There was a white circle drawn on it, pointing to the outskirts of the star region, near the vast expanse beyond, in the unknown region.

Evidently, the circled area was Old Porter’s destination. Just that, the surroundings of the said area appeared to be very strange as most of it were marked as supergravity zones.

The universe was ever-changing. There was something called supergravity stardust matter scattered in some places of the universe; they were like dust particles suspended that could neither be seen nor touched, suspended in space. Any ship that got caught in this dust would be pulled by its supergravity. The dust would act like high-viscosity glue, pulling on the ship until its speed became unbearably slow while unleashing a gravity field far beyond that of most areas. The force from this super-strong gravity could cause the average humans to turn into paste, and there was simply no way for those who did not possess combat special ability to survive it.

Anyone heading into a supergravity zone would first be required to have a strong and healthy physique in order to avoid the strong gravity from damaging the body and a sturdy, explosively powerful warship which was capable of making it through the gravitational pull.

‘No wonder Old Porter retrofitted his warship with a twin-engine system… So he came prepared,’ Xia Fei thought to himself.

A twin-engine system was extremely limited in increasing the speed of a warship by itself, but it could vastly improve a warship’s torque.

Take a vehicle on Earth as an example; a race car was no doubt able to reach very high speeds, but if five tons of steel were placed in the driver’s seat, then its speed would not be much faster than a truck carrying five tons of goods. Because it did not have enough torque, the engine could very well be burned out over time.

Old Porter fitted his warship with twin engines so as to share the load when compensating for the supergravity in this zone. Not only could doing so ensure that the ship would be able to move forward, it could also prevent the engine overheating from overexertion, thereby damaging the ship.

According to Old Porter’s apprentice Boateng, his master spent most of his time retrofitting a Gaian Tristan-class frigate after Xia Fei left. He did all the work, including the other modifications aside from the installation of a twin-engine system, making it suitable to make the trip through supergravity zones.

The Tristan-class frigate’s nickname was Lil Fatty, for it had a stocky exterior and sturdy internal structure. Coupled with the twin-engine system, it was indeed capable of coping with the super-strong gravity present in those zones.

Even after Old Porter’s careful modifications, it was still highly dangerous for a frigate to enter a supergravity zone because the supergravity dust would make it seem like one was wading through a swamp-like quagmire; even communication signals, radar, and navigational systems would suffer from interference. The closer a ship to the heart of a supergravity zone was, the more severe the interference would be, essentially turning an advanced warship blind and deaf.

Unless there was a great temptation there, Old Porter could not possibly be taking such insane risks entering a supergravity zone, not to mention the fact that only one-third of the zone was part of the Black Abyss Star Region, while the other two-thirds belonged to the undiscovered region. The degree of danger and complexity of this foray was simply unimaginable.

“Just what could it be that enticed Old Porter to search so recklessly until such a degree?” Xia Fei simply could not make sense of it all.

Gritting his teeth, Xia Fei expanded the star map and examined it closely once again.

The area that Porter had circled out had plenty of green dots, indicating where the gravity effect was not too heavy, which most ships could attempt making through.

Xia Fei speculated that the green dots were the parts Porter had already searched, and his goal this time around should really be those red dots.

Most of the red dots were located near the heart of the supergravity zone or near the unknown region. Old Porter must be doing a perilous expedition into the deep recesses of the supergravity zone this time, which was why he had left Windchime such a message.

Furthermore, there were still three more illuminating purple dots. Two of which were right in the core of the supergravity zone, while the other was deep in the unknown region. If he was not mistaken, these three special locations should be the focus of Old Porter’s investigations, which also made them the places he could most likely find the old man, though the three locations were the most dangerous out of the lot as well.

Lighting a cigarette, Xia Fei silently contemplated this for almost half an hour. Windchime was left standing at the side, uneasily staring at the young man. From Windchime’s eyes, she was obviously feeling a greater sense of urgency deep down than Xia Fei did but was merely not showing it.

While Porter and Xia Fei were not master and apprentice in name, the relationship they shared was a step deeper than that. The fact that Old Porter had left his priceless notebook to Xia Fei rather than his most loyal apprentice Boateng was evidence how much he valued this young man.

It was just that Xia Fei had no confidence that he could safely get out of the supergravity zone once inside; after all, that particular part of space was fraught with danger.

Xia Fei was a complicated person, and his intuition and sensibility would always clash at such a time.

His sensible and logical side was telling him not to go into the supergravity zone. There was no reason for him to join Old Porter after the latter had already staked his life on this trip.

Conversely, his intuition kept insisting on him going. Old Porter was acting too strangely, so the man must be hiding a huge secret from everyone. If he wished to reach for greater heights that were unattainable to average human beings, he needed to brave risks that others would be unwilling to, becoming the bravest madman in order to succeed.

“How much supplies and equipment did Uncle Porter bring with him?” Xia Fei asked. He had already come to a decision, so his eyes were looking resolute and firm.

Windchime thought about this for a moment. “I entered Porter’s warship twice before, and his food reserves are enough to last him for several years. He also has plenty of equipment, though all are unrecognizable to me.”

Xia Fei nodded; it seemed that Old Porter’s supplies were sufficient, so even if he met a major complication, his supplies should last him for quite some time in the supergravity zone.

Getting up to his feet, Xia Fei said, “I’ll be bringing this computer along, as well as Old Porter’s communication host.”

“You’re going to look for him?” Windchime was surprised. Anyone could tell Old Porter had gone to an extremely dangerous place. She could not help but feel somewhat touched yet also guilty with Xia Fei showing readiness to search for Porter.

Windchime still had not gone off to search for Porter after mulling it many times over, yet Xia Fei, this man who was much younger than she was, did not even spend too long in considering everything before he made his decision. Windchime could not help but feel a bit ashamed.

“I’ll join you too,” Windchime said.

Xia Fei smiled. “There’s no need for the two of us to take this risk. Besides, you’ll just be a burden if you tag along.”

Xia Fei did not even give her proposal a moment’s thought before he rejected it, inadvertently not leaving her a bit of face. This was not because Xia Fei did not care for Porter’s old flame but because this matter was indeed quite dangerous, so he needed to sever this idea of hers as soon as possible.

…

After some time, Xia Fei returned to his Tomahawk and tossed that loess dirtied blanket onto the ground before striding off to the command deck

“Supergravity zones are no joke. Even if your Tomahawk is able to survive in such condition, it’s hard to guarantee that you can make it back unscathed,” cautioned Phantom somewhat worriedly.

“I understand that. Actually, I don’t intend to recklessly charge in either. Didn’t old man Qin Mang give us the address of his disciple? Let’s go look for him first; make off with some of the required equipment from his hands before we set off on this search. Besides, we’ve yet to resolve the problem pertaining to Harris,” said Xia Fei even as he activated the warship’s autopilot system and set a flight path.

…

*Whoosh!*

The Tomahawk rapidly ascended and flew off toward its next destination.

Harris had been very quiet these last two days, staying in his cabin all by himself, his face buried in his computer, doing god knows what. Occasionally, he would ask Xia Fei many very baffling questions, such as what was Xia Fei’s resting heart rate, his heart rate during battle, his hemoglobin concentration, et cetera.

Xia Fei spoke to him a few times, and Harris told him the next step of his research was data collection. Crazy be as crazy do, Xia Fei had completely let him off the hook, yet Harris had already started on his research, completely unfazed by Xia Fei’s threat. Nothing else really mattered as long as he could advance his research.

Xia Fei needed to bear with everything since he had already decided to keep this mad scientist for himself, so he had no choice but to answer all his questions, though he was wondering just how he could send him back to Earth and save himself from having this fly buzzing all around him incessantly.

On the evening of the second day, the Tomahawk finally arrived at the Scarlet Volcano Mountain Military Base.

Xia Fei was very surprised to learn through the other party from the military base that Qin Mang’s disciple Yawei was actually the base commander. It must be stated that the base serviced the combined fleet that included a Caldarian Chimera-class carrier and a Mittal Naglfar-class dreadnought. This base was without a doubt one of the major forces here in the Death Trio Star Region.

“Even Qin Mang’s disciple is a commander?” Phantom expressed in disbelief. “That means Qin Mang must be even more powerful then.”