Chapter 41: The Spine

As Youxing called out, it was as if something long dormant had been startled awake.

A deep rumbling echoed through the ground.

Youxing felt a sharp pain in his eardrums, but this was the change he had hoped for, so he paid no mind to covering his ears. Instead, he looked up at the sky—

Indigo light gathered from every direction, converging on the remaining stone tablets, illuminating each inscription carved upon their surfaces one by one.

Blue, spectral giants emerged from the stone tablets in succession. Rising from their crouched positions, they stood encircling the sunken plaza, then in perfect unison, spread their arms to rest upon the shoulders of the giants beside them.

They bent slightly, forming a vaulted dome with their backs, sheltering the plaza and Taiga within.

The spreading embers sketched an abrupt arc upon the “canvas” ahead, as though the flames had reached a point, only to be halted by a semicircular shield.

Youxing did not recognize any of these spectral giants, but he knew they were the warriors of the Land of Light from ages past.

For a moment, he could not be certain whether what he saw was reality or illusion.

He had always felt that everything before him was a mere illusion, a fabrication. The reason for this vision, he believed, was that the dark force had sensed his concern and devotion toward Taiga, and, worried that his own weakness as a human might hinder Taiga, the giant of light, it had ceased its assault on him and turned its attention to Taiga instead.

But if that were true, how could this scene be explained?

If this were an illusion meant to corrode his will, why would it show him such a hopeful transformation?

There was only one possibility left.

There truly was some force intervening—or rather, protecting him.

Once he realized this, the vision before his eyes faded into darkness.

“…!!”

Where was this…? Before Youxing could recover, pain, suffocation, and all manner of discomfort crashed over him, making him almost wish to escape back into that dreamlike illusion.

At least in that vision, his whole body did not ache, nor did he struggle to breathe.

Suddenly, he understood why the captain had advised him to resolve matters on the ground, rather than delay until he entered the rocket.

For this rocket was originally a cargo carrier, never intended for human transport. It had no shock absorbers, no seats to secure the body, no safety belts, and certainly no life-support systems.

Youxing could only grab a nearby metal handle to steady himself, searching in the pitch-black rocket compartment for the control terminal.

At that moment, a signal arrived from the ground control center, transmitted wirelessly into the rocket, issuing a command—“First stage separation.”

He could actually see the specific contents of the command?

Youxing was momentarily stunned, then guessed it might be an upgrade of the Gateway skill, perhaps due to his frequent use…

The luminous command guided Youxing to the control center. He saw the blue light swirl inside a machine encased in iron, then extend to a nearby mechanical structure. A series of clicking sounds followed as a connector disengaged, the restraining force vanished, and the telescopic rod instantly retracted into the cabin wall.

The vibration intensified.

Youxing had crammed some knowledge about rocket launches on his way to police headquarters, so he understood: now that the first stage had shut down, the booster separation had been completed. The rocket was now flying about 100 kilometers above the surface, at an altitude where the atmosphere was too thin to sustain life.

Though the interior lacked proper sealing, “air leakage” would still take time. The internal gases would slowly dissipate upon entering the vacuum of space, so the cabin pressure had not yet fallen to life-threatening levels. For now, Youxing only felt difficulty breathing, not outright suffocation.

Next, a second command arrived—“Second stage ignition.”

The first stage shutdown had already revealed the pathway. Youxing quickly crawled toward several similar metal components, found the wiring channel, and as the second signal appeared, he decisively drew the metal stun baton from his belt, triggered a high-voltage current near the safe limit for the human body, and jabbed it fiercely into the metal shell!

The signal stream jolted violently, then proceeded along its designed route into the control core.

Though there was no physical display, Youxing could see the control panel visually manifesting the activation of the next command.

“Second stage separation.”

Meanwhile, every staff member in the ground control center was stunned!

They saw on the monitoring screens that the second stage rocket, just as it began to spew flames, detached from the first stage. Normally, separation happened after the second stage exhausted its fuel, but now, it broke away, trailing fiery jets, climbing sharply and banging a dent into the rocket body, then shooting sideways thanks to the impact’s initial force.

What now??

This unexpected situation left everyone at a loss. Without the second stage’s propulsion, the rocket would not have enough speed to reach its intended orbit!

Yet, after a moment of dazed silence, the chief commander calmly instructed:

“Immediately ignite the third stage.”

The staff, trusting his direction, hurried back to their stations and began entering commands. With a launch mishap imminent, they were anxious yet hopeful that the chief could guide them.

As the staff resumed their tasks, unease and doubt brewed in the chief commander’s eyes…

He could only guess that some creature had sneaked inside the rocket before launch—perhaps a small wild animal, a rodent or bird—and, startled by the ascent, had struggled and caused damage in the cabin, coincidentally affecting the second stage.

If that were the case…

His expression gradually eased.

The third stage rocket lay adjacent to the control center’s section, meaning that igniting the third stage ahead of schedule would undoubtedly blast that “foreign object” out into space with the exhaust!

Of course, if the “foreign object” got stuck somewhere and wasn’t expelled, it would be roasted to a crisp by the intense heat generated by the third stage’s operation…