Chapter 1 Floating Island

The hover-style magic-powered vehicles manufactured by the Airem elves carried the group towards the center of the floating island known as the "Island of the Rising Sun." The hovercraft flew nimbly in mid-air, hundreds of meters above the ground. This type of vehicle should be a high-end item in the Airem world, but apart from a level of technology higher than Earth's, its interior and exterior were inferior even to private cars on Earth. Almost all parts inside and outside the vehicle were cast from the same kind of gray-white artificial substance, with an exceptionally monotonous color and material. There were no decorative patterns, no soft seats, and no special materials covering places like armrests or window frames.

It was like a cheap industrial product molded from plastic, and despite its high-tech appearance and performance, anyone who experienced it once could see at a glance that it was manufactured according to the standard of "good enough."

The Airem elves were generally taller and thinner than humans, but overall, the difference wasn't too great (at least they were closer to normal people than Izhaks), so the vehicle's interior facilities were suitable for Hao Ren and the others. Izhaks felt a bit cramped sitting inside, but it was tolerable. There were a series of narrow windows on both sides of the car, extending down to below the seats, through which they could see the cityscapes flashing by below.

At first glance, the buildings could be considered beautiful, with their slender, curved lines and simple, elegant structures. Most of the houses seemed to imitate the images of tree trunks and flower buds. The Airem elves' architectural style was dominated by various high towers and oval buildings with smooth lines, making their city like a city of a thousand towers—of course, only the name gave people this impression. But these elegant-looking buildings hid the truth of dwindling resources: all the building materials were that gray-white artificial substance, from the exterior walls to the roofs, spreading to the open spaces and roads between the houses. Everywhere was this monotonous, lifeless-looking synthetic material. Original and natural building materials must have been exhausted many years ago, or were the basic structure of the floating island and could not be easily mined. Therefore, the Airem elves used industrial recycling methods to recover these things from the ruins again and again to build their homes. But a completely gray-white city was too depressing, so these elven buildings were planted with as many plants as possible, but the number of these plants was not large. It seemed that in order to maintain efficient urban functions, most of the plants were planted in special places such as ecological domes. Apart from this, there was nothing decorative in the city.

No monuments, no street sculptures, no parks or any other facilities unrelated to survival that would waste building materials. The city was like a low-quality scene chosen to reduce graphics card pressure and ignore all terrain details. No matter where you looked, there were only monotonous, repetitive houses and straight, simple roads. The elves, in a hurry, lived in this monotonous, lifeless city, like a set of faded slides.

Izhaks looked at the city scene below, thoughtfully: "They are still maintaining an orderly life. It seems that no matter how bad the situation is, they are trying to ensure social order, and... at least superficial 'normality'."

Hilda's attention was not on the city below. She had already noticed the undisguised anxiety on her son's face: "How bad is the situation? Is it impossible to maintain it?"

"In terms of survival, it can still be maintained," Wim was a young man with a steady voice. He inherited from his mother—or every elf was like this—an almost perfect appearance, handsome and also masculine, "The casualty rate among the on-site astrologers and magic scholars was severe, but at that time, the test site was as far away from the main island chain as possible, so the loss of materials is still within acceptable limits. The supply to the main residential areas and the ecological domes are all fine. We can still maintain our past living standards, and we can maintain them for a long time."

"The problem lies in confidence... right," Hilda understood the current situation of Airem, so she quickly figured out the reason, "You finally restored social order, but I can feel a lifeless atmosphere."

"Yes, this incident has greatly impacted the public's confidence, even including some members of the council," Wim nodded. "The space-time accelerator was the last large-scale project we could launch, the only way to the depths of the stars that could be found under limited resources—the big bang destroyed many people's last confidence. We still have survival supplies, but all that's left is survival."

When Wim said these words, he couldn't help but look at the group of "visitors from another world" sitting in the back of the car. The situation he reported was the social situation before Hilda's return, but a group from beyond the stars… no, unimaginable guests from beyond the universe completely disrupted his worldview and his grasp of the current situation. The first thing he thought of was that the Airem elves' predicament for thousands of years had finally ushered in a glimmer of hope. Now, a group of highly civilized visitors who knew how to travel between the stars appeared in front of him, which might break the deadlock, but at the same time, he was worried about a more realistic question:

Is it too late? Will they help? Will their help be useful?

Hilda also turned her gaze to Hao Ren and the others, but she didn't ask anything, just turned her head to look at Wim again: "First announce the news of the visitors from another world, and then say that we have mastered the key to interstellar travel. Although the space-time accelerator failed, from the perspective of technological progress, it was a great success—in short, announce it like this. The primary task is to reinvigorate people and restore people's confidence."

Hao Ren nodded slightly, without making a clear statement. He was still thinking about the best solution, so he didn't rashly promise anything, but at least what Hilda said could be done. Wim seemed to have gained some confidence from this slight nod, and the expression on his face relaxed.

"Island of Rainbow Light... how much is left?" Hilda asked about other situations.

The Island of Rainbow Light was the floating island where the space-time accelerator experiment was conducted, and it was the Airem elves' last space test site with complete facilities and a large-capacity energy system. All along, because these elves only had one planet, and no other foothold could be found within tens of millions of light-years around, many of their super-large-scale experiments had been unable to proceed. It wasn't until they broke the planet into pieces and turned it into countless space islands that they began to test some dangerous projects that could not be directly carried out on the mother star. Thousands of years of struggling on a clueless technical path had caused them to lose one such test site after another, most of which were enough to pollute the entire planet—losing only one space floating island was already a relatively optimistic situation. But even so, the number of space floating islands was still limited, and thousands of years of continuous consumption had finally come to an end.

The Island of Rainbow Light was their last hope.

"The Island of Rainbow Light is gone," Wim replied in a low voice after a few seconds of silence. "Mother, you should have looked towards the end of the island chain when you were in space, right? There is a new pile of rubble there... that is the Island of Rainbow Light. After the big bang, fragments flew everywhere, some were thrown towards the sun, and others rushed into space. We only had time to salvage one-fifth of its material. Those rubble are temporarily placed in the wreckage pile of the island chain. Perhaps some resources can be mined from it. The test site is gone, but its wreckage can probably give everyone a few good years."

"I saw those rubble, but I didn't expect..." Hilda frowned, "What about the Island of Stars?"

The Island of Stars was another space floating island, an important industrial town and energy furnace. It received energy from the corona station and stored it. During the accelerator experiment, the Island of Rainbow Light was pushed to the far end of the island chain to prevent it from threatening the residential area, but the Island of Stars had to supply power nearby. It was so close to the test site that Hilda was very worried about the fate of this island.

She didn't dare to carefully observe the overall situation of the island chain in space, so she didn't know if she had seen the Island of Stars at all.

"The Island of Stars is still there, but it was injured. Some fragments broke through the air defense fire network and destroyed part of the gravity generator and propulsion device of the Island of Stars, and a fragment almost stuck on the energy hub—but fortunately it was a little bit off. The situation there has been controlled, and the Council of Technical Elders is trying to restore its function. The magic technicians dismantled some equipment from the Land of Death and brought it back. They seem to be still usable... at least better than completely broken."

"Well, the situation is better than expected," Hilda breathed a sigh of relief. "After we go back, let Kadillen come to see me. I, him, and our friends from another world have a lot to discuss."

"Elder Kadillen, he..." Wim suddenly avoided Hilda's gaze, "Elder Kadillen went to the 'World of Wishes'."

"What?!" Hilda's voice suddenly rose, "Who allowed it?!"

"He volunteered. There were some problems in the World of Wishes. The 'Land of Paradise' organization from two hundred years ago seems to be active again... part of the council..."

"So the current social order is just a facade?!" Hilda's face suddenly became very ugly and stern, "Immediately convene the Council of Elders after we go back. I want to reorganize the order!"