Chapter Ninety-Four: Ascending to the Heavens

Hiring a wolfman as a security guard—hmm...

It had to be said, the idea sounded ridiculous at first glance. But on second thought, it did not seem entirely impossible.

After all, nowhere was it written that wolfmen could not be security guards.

In fact, judging by the conditions on every front, wolfmen were rather well suited to security work. If they devoted themselves to the trade and truly dug in for the long haul, they might even spark ruthless competition, putting every police dog out of a job...

So that wolf tribe still had considerable value and necessity as a training ground.

...

The hellhounds refused to serve our Summer Nation people properly as dogs, and now they were even hunting the people’s faithful hounds!

This was intolerable beyond endurance.

Black Dragon was filled with righteous indignation. After confirming the location, it did not rush out at once, because hellhounds liked to roam at night and were hard to find in daylight.

Besides, Academician Ding had another matter he wanted to discuss with Black Dragon.

The request was actually quite simple: he wanted Black Dragon to scout the skies, gather some information and data, and make some preparations for what would come after the mushroom-cloud operation.

“As far as I’m concerned, there’s no problem. I’m just worried I won’t be able to fly that high... after all, that’s a thousand kilometers!”

Black Dragon said with some difficulty.

To scout the heavens, it would naturally have to reach an altitude of over a thousand kilometers. Black Dragon estimated that, with its own flight capabilities, getting up there would be rather difficult.

After all, flight had always been its weak point. Though in recent days it had learned quite a lot from its phoenix classmate, and had finally pushed its top speed past the one-hundred mark.

But that speed was still obviously not enough to match its stature. Chasing dogs and herding chickens might be fine, but as for conquering the skies a thousand kilometers high, it was probably beyond its reach.

“That is indeed a problem...”

Academician Ding scratched his head. Sending Black Dragon to scout the sky would naturally mean the sky within their own borders. Even after activating the charging ability, the laws within the country were much more forgiving toward Black Dragon, but there was still considerable suppression and weakening; at most it could probably bring out a third of its strength.

So it was indeed unrealistic to expect Black Dragon to reach an altitude of over a thousand kilometers by its own power.

“How about this? I’ll go back and consult with the aerospace department to see whether there’s any way to send you up there.”

Academician Ding considered it for a moment, then gave Black Dragon that answer.

“Send me up there?”

Black Dragon froze, then could not help asking in curiosity, “Academician Ding, when did our aerospace department become so powerful that it can actually deliver something as heavy as me, over a hundred tons, to an altitude of thousands of kilometers... What kind of rocket would that take?”

“Not a rocket...”

Academician Ding seemed a little hesitant. After wavering for a while, he said, “I wonder if Mr. Huang... has ever heard of a nuclear-powered manhole cover?”

“A nuclear-powered manhole cover?”

Black Dragon blinked in confusion. “A manhole cover can actually be made nuclear-powered?”

“In fact, it was an unintended byproduct from when the Americans were conducting underground nuclear tests.”

Academician Ding explained, “The principle is to dig a deep shaft in the ground, bury a nuclear device inside, pour in water, and then seal it with a several-ton iron manhole cover.”

“Then, when the underground nuclear device is detonated, the immense energy, having nowhere else to go, creates a tremendous upward impact, giving the manhole cover an extremely high initial velocity.”

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“That initial velocity can even reach fifty or sixty kilometers per second. Many people regard it as one of the great weapons for fighting extraterrestrials.”

“We once used this method against those evil gods in the sky. And honestly, aside from the fact that the hit rate is uncontrollable and that once it is launched it is almost impossible to find again, the power is truly astonishing!”

“There was a period when, from time to time, unknown creatures would try to blot out our sky and keep sunlight and moonlight from reaching us. Only after we fired a few rounds at them did they finally behave themselves and never dare make any more little moves.”

“That sounds... genuinely impressive.”

Black Dragon was deeply startled. It had never imagined that, besides laser weapons, the nation could also use such a method to deal with gods in the heavens.

And a nuclear-powered manhole cover was nothing more than pure kinetic motion; the cover itself involved no profound technology, so once it was fired beyond the border, its energy might not even diminish all that much!

But Black Dragon quickly caught on and widened its eyes at Academician Ding. “Wait, Academician Ding... you’re not thinking of using that method to send me into the sky, are you?”

“No, no, absolutely not... that’s far too hardcore. What you’re suggesting isn’t sending me into the sky at all; it’s basically trying to send me off with delight!”

“I’d rather be strapped to a missile and launched than ride a manhole cover into the heavens.”

“If we had a missile big enough to shoot you into the sky, I wouldn’t have thought of this method,” Academician Ding said hurriedly. “Besides, you have to trust the technology of our Summer Nation Academy of Sciences. We’ve already carried out more than ten launches like this and accumulated a wealth of data and experience!”

“As long as the yield of the nuclear device is properly controlled, with Mr. Huang’s physical toughness, riding a nuclear-powered manhole cover would definitely not be dangerous.”

“...Academician Ding, please stop talking. My heart is not in good shape, and I can’t take this kind of stimulation.”

Black Dragon hurriedly cut him off. Though that was what it said out loud, for some reason it actually felt a strange sense of anticipation in its heart.

After all, simply thinking about riding a nuclear-powered manhole cover was thrilling enough. If it really could be done, it would absolutely count as one of the great achievements of dragon life, the sort of thing one could brag about for centuries.

“Academician Ding, do we really have to use a technological method?” Black Dragon did not dare think any further and quickly changed the subject. “Can’t we use some magical means, like teleportation spells? Our academy should have collected some teleportation scrolls by now, shouldn’t it?”

“Teleportation scrolls...”

Academician Ding pondered for a moment. “We do have some, but that thing is a little sinister. Not only us, even the intelligent races outside the country would not dare use it casually.”

“Why is that?” Black Dragon asked curiously.

Although it had not awakened any inherited memories, it had still learned quite a bit about teleportation spells and teleportation scrolls.

After all, this stuff was among the most miraculous and most outrageous technologies in any fantasy world. With nothing more than a simple teleportation array or a teleportation scroll, one could achieve spatial displacement. It was simply absurd.

If the Summer Nation Academy of Sciences was merely curious about the world’s other magical technologies and principles, then teleportation spells were something it was absolutely obsessed with.

Because once the technical principles of this thing were understood, there would be a chance to unlock the mysteries of space itself. The transportation industry would undergo a historic revolution; there would be no need to build so many kilometers of railway, because one could simply set up teleportation arrays and be done with it. It was obviously much more convenient and far less troublesome.

And if space could truly be comprehended in full, perhaps they would even be able to discover how the Summer Nation had crossed into this world in the first place, and whether there might be any way to cross back.