The Almighty Ring

When Jiang Fei returned to his home in the Winter Islands, Isabella was still fidgeting, flinching about restlessly. Hence, the natural thing to do then was to let the poor girl rest and recuperate for the night.

The journey today was rather unfortunate as Isabella went berserk halfway through. Other than Isabella’s sudden outburst, there was nothing else that hindered Jiang Fei’s journey besides knowing that there were others out there that were after the alien artifacts.

One night later, when Jiang Fei was about to leave the Winter Islands with Ariel, Han Tianyu came knocking on his door.

“Fei, you there? I’ve got some urgent news for you!” Han Tianyu bellowed at the doorsteps.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen with the martial artists? Did someone try to make a farce?” said Jiang Fei, glancing at Han Tianyu suggestively. It was predicted that some of the old farts did not enjoy the idea of abandoning their homeland.

“Surprisingly… no. It’s not about that!”

So far, those that had agreed unanimously were those smaller, second rate sects. They knew that the land they were stepping on belonged to Jiang Fei. While they were in the same alliance, the other sect members chose to obediently cultivate their arts without giving any trouble to Han Tianyu.

“What’s wrong then?”

Han Tianyu frowned and sucked in a deep breath before answering.

“The Chinese military had suddenly restricted all the martial artists from leaving their sect,” Han Tianyu reported. He had already contacted many of the other sects and had already arranged transport for all of them. However, before any of the ships and planes could start fueling up, Han Tianyu had received news about the military’s sudden change of plans. They would not allow any martial artists to leave China.

“What are they thinking?” Jiang Fei barked, confused.

“I really can’t tell. I don’t have many inside men that could give me any reliable information for now. We are truly in the dark here,” said Han Tianyu. To be fair, ever since Han Tianyu had chosen to flee China to the Winter Islands, all of his corporate connections to the military were severed. He had lost his power there and thus, lost his means to gather inside information.

“That’s fine. Nothing you can do about it anyway. Even so, try your best to investigate the matter. Once you’ve get hold on any important information, ring me up,” said Jiang Fei after giving it some thought. There was something odd about it but he could not put his finger on it, not that he wanted to just yet. He had other more important matters to tend to; to find the Main Engine room and other apparatus and materials to save Isabella.

“I’ll… try.”

Han Tianyu sighed. His original intention was to inform Jiang Fei about the situation and ask him to head over to China to investigate. With his powers, he could do it in a breeze. Nevertheless, Jiang Fei was current the boss of him now. Even though it might take some time, he would do it either way.

After dealing with Han Tianyu, Jiang Fei and Ariel proceeded with their plans to travel. Today, their first objective was to travel to the North Pole. According to 0542, there were two points of interest there. The two flew for some 5 hours before reaching the border of the Arctic circle. Unlike the Antarctic, the land was slightly different and there were no penguins. Nevertheless, it was still freezing cold.

“Let’s go down. Be careful when you’re walking on the ice,” said Jiang Fei.

The North Arctic circle was crumbling. Instead of a large piece of land covered in ice, there were icebergs. There were so many of them that when Jiang Fei was flying high in the sky, they looked like paper boats floating on water. Hence, the only place that could house the ship fragment would be at the bottom of the sea.

Jiang Fei equipped a few breathing gears that was provided by 0542 before jumping into the freezing waters with Ariel. The subzero temperatures were fatal but to Jiang Fei and Ariel, it was nothing but an ice bath. The two dove down with speed toward the point where the signal was detected.

“0542, have you locked onto the signal?” Jiang Fei asked, throttling a small machine that was helping him to dive downward fast.

“Captain, I am unable to accurately pinpoint the location of the signal. There is a strong interference wave being broadcast through the water.”

“Interference? Where? By whom?” Jiang Fei asked immediately. Right then, Jiang Fei was only accompanied by Ariel. Although she was strong, he did not want to clash with another Level 5 Metahuman.

“I am not detecting any life form around the vicinity.”

0542 immediately reported when it picked up stress patterns in Jiang Fei’s cognitive process.

“That’s good. Let’s go down slowly and carefully.”

Although it was nice to know that there were not living beings close by, heading down knowing there was something interfering with 0542’s signal was still nerve-racking.

20 minutes later, both Jiang Fei and Ariel got close to the signal and discovered a large chasm in the middle of the seabed. Close to the huge gaping hole of darkness, there was a small ancient submarine. Judging from the amount of rust around the submarine’s outer hull, the vessel had sunk down to the seafloor more than ten years ago.

“Captain, I have identified the source of interference and have isolated it.”

“When you say the source of interference, did you meant that broken submarine?”

“Yes, captain. That submarine has been leaking radioactive materials for decades, contaminating the surrounding water and rocks with radiation that was causing interference with the signal detection.”

“Well, lucky me. Get on with the signal detection then,” said Jiang Fei. He had zero interest in the old submarine that had been there for more than 10 years. Perhaps the Smithsonian museum would be interested in scavenging this old piece of junk.

“Captain, I have locked onto the ship’s fragment and established link. We are close to the ship’s Engineering Bay,” said 0542 after Jiang Fei had swam passed the broken submarine.

“What does it do?” said Jiang Fei. While he knew a little about engineering, no doubt he would not know anything about alien engineering.

“It is used to mainly to perform maintenance of the ship while on occasion, deal with other unforeseen circumstances. There were times when the Engineering Bay was used as a refiner when the ship encountered planets that the crew could use to harvest raw materials.”

Jiang Fei had never been to outer space but he did not lack in gaming experience. From what he gathered from 0542’s explanation, the Engineering Bay should be the production facility of the ship, allowing the ship’s crew to produce resources and even other facilities.

Whilst discussing with 0542, Jiang Fei had descended deep into the chasm. At the bottom, they found said production facility. The structure was completely covered by sea plants and other seabed animals. Even after an unspecified amount of time, the facility remained unharmed, undamaged.

Before entering the facility, 0542 projected an overlay hologram to show what the Engineering Bay looked like. The entire cube-like facility extended out for at least 500 meters. The main body was cube-shaped while the externals of the facility looked like a scorpion. It had metal claws and arms that were used to cut and pick up materials outside the ship. Better yet, one of its arms had a particle beam collector and condenser. It functioned exactly like a 3D printer, except that it only worked in outer space.

“Seems complicated. Put it away first. We’ll talk about it later when we’re back on land,” said Jiang Fei. He should be happy. He should be excited. Yet, there was nothing, at that moment, that he could use to save Isabella.

“I have established link with the Engineering Bay. You are now in control.”

Jiang Fei pointed the ring out toward the Engineering Bay and cleaned off everything that was growing on the facility before absorbing it into the ring.

“Next location, 0542,” said Jiang Fei immediately before resurfacing. There was one more point of interest in the North Pole.