Super Mothership
A blonde girl with an angelic face looked down at the steel metropolis beneath the floor-to-ceiling window of the space elevator, her little mouth open as she exclaimed excitedly.
Seen from the rapidly descending space elevator, Third Crescent City lay within an enormous crater, like a blazing phoenix radiating light. Countless lights illuminated it as brightly as day; steel buildings with smooth, flowing lines shimmered brilliantly, forming a breathtaking sight.
“Mm! This is exactly where our Ghost Brigade will focus its future operations—a next-generation immigrant city!”
Beside the girl, a black-haired man pointed at the city below with high spirits and said with a grin.
Click!
The sound of a camera shutter rang out as a chubby man next to them flashed a V-sign and took a photo with Third Crescent City.
The remaining skinny man sat calmly in his seat, fingers flying across his terminal, fully focused and absorbed in his work.
The three men and one woman in the private cabin were Chris and Alice’s group, who had already formed a small team.
The Ghost Brigade was a four-person group that had recently become active within the Solar System and had gained a certain level of fame. Its members included the intelligence specialist “Alice,” the combatant “Fat Master,” the technical support “Spare Ribs,” and the mysterious team leader known as “The Hermit.”
This group had not only formed an adventurers’ guild in the virtual network, but also possessed considerable financial resources. They had purchased a small transport spacecraft from Atlantis Corporation at a high price and, after modifying it and equipping it with an engineering mech and engineering robots, gained a certain degree of space-exploration capability.
The Ghost Brigade was also one of the few small groups to own a private spacecraft, making it part of the first wave of civilian organizations with the nature of an adventuring team.
According to Chris’s development plan, although the brigade could currently only take on small orders such as interstellar cargo transport or mineral prospecting to earn development funds, its future business would expand into space exploration, moving toward becoming a full-fledged interstellar adventuring group.
With the arrival of the great age of space navigation and the expansion of humanity’s sphere of activity, demand for such services was steadily increasing. Coupled with the employment missions offered by the Ghost Captain, the market potential was enormous.
Chris knew that with his meager starting capital, it was impossible to compete with major powers and organizations. So he took a step back and set his sights on the interstellar service industry, which had a lower barrier to entry.
Numerous small nations and organizations eager to participate in space development, yet lacking the funds to purchase spacecraft, were all potential clients of the Ghost Brigade.
This time, the four of them had accepted a cargo transport mission. While their ship was unloading at the spaceport, they took the opportunity to visit and inspect the lunar city.
The skinny man scrolled through his personal terminal while beginning to explain things to the others.
“According to information released by the media, this space immigrant city was expanded and developed from the Ghost Captain’s Third Lunar Base. It covers an area of over 150 square kilometers and can ultimately accommodate a population of more than one million.
More than eighty million engineering robots of various types were mobilized. The architectural style was jointly designed by the top three architect guilds in the virtual world. Over three hundred million tons of steel were consumed, and the total construction time was less than half a year. It has been hailed as yet another ‘incredible Ghost event.’”
Chris nodded, then frowned. “But the screening for the first batch of immigrant qualifications is extremely strict. Apart from senior research scholars registered in the virtual technology tree and certain special talents, the rest are immigration quotas allocated to various countries according to population ratios.
We only have tourist visas at the moment. Gaining permanent residency here in a short time won’t be easy.”
“Hehe! Of course it’s not easy to immigrate to Third Crescent City—but I’ve got inside information!”
Alice turned around with a sly smile.
“Not only is the next round of large-scale immigration about to begin, with the requirements being somewhat relaxed, but ever since Atlantis Corporation moved its headquarters here, we—as an employee—have internal recommendation privileges!
As long as we obtain citizen status, we’ll be able to invite a company to settle here in our personal capacity.”
“It’s said that in order to prevent major powers and financial conglomerates from excessively monopolizing space resources and to stimulate market competition, private civilian groups like ours can even enjoy Atlantis Corporation’s small and micro-enterprise support policies, including preferential special-purpose loans.”
Chris’s eyes lit up. “Oh? That’s actually a pretty good approach. This immigrant city has enormous potential—it’s bound to become a forward base for humanity’s advance into the cosmos. The earlier we move in, the greater our advantages will be later on!”
“However…” Chris paused and looked at Alice. “Once we immigrate, we’ll probably need to develop here long-term.
The three of us are fine—I’m on my own, and those two grew up in orphanages—but if I remember correctly, Alice, you seem to have an older brother?”
“My brother?” Alice pursed her lips dismissively. “That guy joined the Earth Defense Force not long ago, saying he wanted to follow his former comrades and conquer the sea of stars. He’s long since forgotten his little sister!”
Alice’s brother was none other than Mattia, a former crew member of the Florida.
This group of early internal testers of virtual technology were clearly suffering from a kind of Stockholm syndrome. After being released by the Ghost Captain, every one of them was utterly conquered by the Captain’s technology and resolutely chose to side with the pro-Ghost faction, the armed organization known as the Earth Defense Force.
It was said that after completing space-environment adaptation training, they would soon be deployed to garrison the Earth Defense Chain.
“Good! Then there’s no problem. Our Ghost Brigade will start from Third Crescent City—our goal is to become the number-one adventuring group in the universe!”
“Oh!” “Yeah!” “Roar!”
The three responded enthusiastically, raising their arms.
After envisioning their bright future, the trio launched into an animated discussion about the lunar city.
“All of Third Crescent City’s facilities are crystallizations of the most advanced technology available today. It has achieved fully intelligent public administration and completely unmanned public facilities. Its central control core is the super artificial intelligence that governs the virtual world under the Ghost Captain’s command—the ‘Goddess of Wisdom.’
If we want to develop here, the old trick of wining and dining people won’t work anymore. We’ll have to complete contribution missions as much as possible to raise our citizen permission levels.”
The skinny man said, pushing up his glasses.
“The Goddess of Wisdom, huh? I heard that the weapon systems of Third Crescent City and the surrounding unmanned bases are entirely under her control. I really want to see what Ghost-series weapons look like when they’re firing at full power…”
The chubby man said dreamily.
The “Goddess of Wisdom” was an ultra-intelligent artificial intelligence within the Ghost organization. Active across various virtual worlds, she commanded billions of robots and possessed countless avatars. She was the most frequently appearing member of the Ghost organization and was affectionately known as the “Captain’s First Mate.”
Because of her vast technological database and near-omniscient capabilities, top scientists from various nations were left awestruck, hailing her as the technological side’s “Goddess of Wisdom.” The title soon spread far and wide.
According to rumors, the Goddess of Wisdom possessed extraordinarily high intelligence. Under normal circumstances, ordinary people could only interact with relatively rigid, standard intelligence templates. However, it was said that as one’s authorization level increased, it became possible to encounter higher-level “Goddess of Wisdom avatars.”
There was even a popular rumor online that the “Smiling Goddess” diplomat who once appeared at a United Nations conference was very likely a high-level manifested avatar of the Goddess of Wisdom herself.
Although the behavior patterns of these codenamed entities were highly anthropomorphic, for national intelligence agencies and news media that had repeatedly studied all available information on the Ghost Captain, uncovering subtle clues was hardly an impossible task.
As for the sudden emergence of such a super artificial intelligence, humanity accepted it with remarkable calm. After all, the world had nearly been destroyed once already, the Ghost Captain had even beaten aliens into submission—what else was there that couldn’t be accepted?
As for whether such advanced artificial intelligence might develop world-destroying tendencies like “Skynet” or “the Matrix,” humanity responded just as calmly: we have the Ghost Captain.
After all, when it comes to sheer presence and mystique, the technological path still falls slightly short of the mysterious one…
“Mm! According to my brother and the former Florida crew members who once had the ‘honor’ of being kidnapped by the Ghost Captain, this top-tier brain under the Captain’s command possesses an extremely mysterious ‘codename.’
Because no one has ever been able to clearly hear what the codename in the system prompts actually is…
And for that reason, ‘the Goddess of Wisdom’s codename,’ together with ‘the Ghost Captain’s heart’ and ‘the treasure of Atlantis Island,’ is listed among the ‘Seven Unsolved Mysteries of the Ghost Captain.’”
Alice had an intense curiosity about all rumors surrounding the Ghost Captain—even entertainment gossip fascinated her.
“The Seven Unsolved Mysteries of the Ghost Captain? Then what are the others?”
Chris asked curiously.
“Hehe! The fourth unsolved mystery happens to be directly related to Third Crescent City!”
Alice said with narrowed eyes, her tone full of mystery.
“There are reports that the reason the Ghost Captain named this immigrant city ‘Third Crescent City’ was no coincidence. It’s because beneath the city lies a vast underground space that serves as the Ghost Captain’s secret base.
Legend has it that the headquarters of the mysterious organization to which the Ghost Captain belongs is located there.
It’s also rumored that buried within the secret base beneath the city is one of the Ghost Captain’s ultimate weapons—an indestructible super divine arm capable of destroying stars and annihilating entire systems: the ‘Spear of Longinus’!
‘The Underground Divine Weapon of Third Crescent City’—this is the fourth of the Seven Unsolved Mysteries…”
TL Note- Seven Mysteries....
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