I Have a Mansion in the Post-apocalyptic World (Web Novel)
chapter-1029

It was easy to grab the ball. The imagined scenario of him being bounced back didn’t happen.

However, when he tried to move the ball, the unnatural resistance made him stop.

There was no gravity in the universe, but the inertia of matter itself made it resist any changes in motion. Liu Qingpeng looked at the small ball, thinking it was peculiar. His right hand, which touched the ball, did not feel like it was touching a small ball, but a massive meteorite.

“What the hell is this stuff, and how is it so heavy?”

Liu Qingpeng cursed as he took out a mass analyzer that resembled a spatula. He knocked on the ball with force.

A muffled “bang” passed through the spacesuit into his ears. The ball just moved slightly and slowly drifted to the other side of the flying object. At this moment, the mass analyzer recorded the reaction force and the time, as well the micro-velocity change of the ball’s velocity. Based on all the parameters, it calculated the mass of the ball.

When Liu Qingpeng saw the data sent to his helmet, his eyeballs almost popped out.

“One hundred kilograms? How’s that possible? What’s the density of this thing? Even osmium doesn’t have this density.”

Osmium, which has a relative atomic mass of 190, was currently known as the heaviest metal that existed in nature. He immediately realized that he might’ve made a significant discovery. If possible, he wanted to report his findings to the ground command center immediately, but he was unable to do this because of the breakdown in communication.

Controlling his propulsion, Liu Qingpeng slowly floated over and held the ball in his arms. As he approached the edge of the flying object, he kicked against the wall and flew out of the fracture with the ball.

Carefully avoiding the sharp metal frames, he returned to the empty space. He opened the markers in his helmet and locked on the Stingray. Then he adjusted the output power of the nozzles to the maximum and pushed forward the ball weighing more than 100 kilograms.

With an extra one hundred kilograms hanging on his body, he was afraid that the nitrogen in his spacesuit wouldn’t be enough to “brake”, so Liu Qingpeng flew slowly. His previous trip that only took him fifteen minutes now took him over an hour to complete.

The ball was placed in the cockpit of the Stingray and he carefully fixed it in the compartment behind the seat. He immediately opened the navigator and established the return trip according to the data previously calculated by the quantum computer.

However, at that moment, the red signal light flashed on the operation interface.

“Warning, mass parameters are changed. Insufficient energy to enter return orbit. Please reduce the load inside the spaceship and restart the navigation system.”

Liu Qingpeng’s heart sank to the bottom. He almost forgot the immense mass of the ball. One hundred kilograms was already equivalent to the mass of one adult.

He heistated for a moment. He bit the bullet and reached out to the platform on the right side of the seat. He opened the safety and yanked out a ring.

With a slight tremor, the two laser cannons located below the Stingray A-1 were separated from the fuselage, and the attack module worth tens of millions of XND was abandoned. He could only leave the economic analysis to his superior to determine if he made the right decision.

The signal light was still flashing red, and the cold electronic voice was still so impersonal.

“Please reduce the load on the spacecraft.”

Looking at the remaining five kilograms of load exceeding the value, Liu Qingpeng was sweating profusely.

“Fu*k, I already tossed the attack module. It still wasn’t enough? Wait, there’s still the magazine…”

Since the laser cannons already drifted away, he didn’t feel too bad when he ejected the magazine. Two box-shaped power supply modules were left behind. When he watched the value returning to neutral, he was finally relieved. If he still needed to reduce the load, other than unloading himself, he didn’t even know what else he could throw out.

After restarting the navigator and setting the route, he waited for the Stingray to leave the communication shielded area, then he immediately restarted the communication module on the spacecraft.

“This is Stingray A-1. Command center, please reply…”

“…This is the command center. Navigator 01 continues to serve you.”

The command center, which was originally in a state of gloom due to losing Stingray A-1, erupted in a cheer after communication resumed. Not long ago, several space experts were still arguing whether his failure was due to a communication failure or because of the UFO attacks.

And now it seemed that these arguments were unnecessary.

The quantum computer calculated the returning orbit at the fastest speed. The navigator immediately sent the latest orbital data to the hero who was tens of millions of kilometers away, guiding him on his journey home.

At the same time, the one gigabyte of captured pictures was sent back to the ground command center with the restored communication channel. This valuable information happened to prove Kelvin’s previous hypothesis that the UFO was indeed a masterpiece of a foreign civilization.

This historic discovery was no inferior to the geographical discoveries centuries ago. The century-long debate could finally be settled—they weren’t alone.

It was almost foreseeable that if these photos were made public in the international community, that would undoubtedly create an unprecedented earthquake in every field. However, Celestial Trade would never disclose these photos and all data would be treated as top secret for at least 50 years.

“Minister, please take a look at this.”

Kelvin’s assistant walked next to him and handed a printed photo to him.

“This?” As Kelvin examined the photo, the frown grew more apparent on his eyebrows. He picked up the photo and examined it more carefully.

It was a picture of a small ball with its size, mass and other information marked next to it. When he saw the data in the mass column, he paused to process it for a moment. Then he turned to his assistant with a peculiar expression and knocked on the photo with his knuckles.

“Is this unit wrong? One hundred kilograms? How is this possible?”

“There’s no mistake in the data… Although I thought he was wrong at first, he insisted that he hadn’t made a mistake.”

“How did he start acceleration?” Kelvin looked at the assistant and asked in disbelief. “If I remember correctly, the Stingray X-1 series aircraft has a weight limit except for the C-1 freight type.”

“He ejected the two laser cannons under the spacecraft and a power supply module used as the magazine.” The assistant swallowed and said seriously, “If this wasn’t a trick by aliens, we might’ve discovered a new element that we’ve never seen or imagined before.”

“Look after the situation for me. I have to make a call.”

Kelvin clearly also realized this. He gave the command to his assistant, then walked to the door hastily.

While walking, he clicked twice on his wrist. The call was to Jiang Chen’s office.