Chapter 210: Lunar Pearl_1

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It wasn't until the Moon spaceship set sail that Number Three finally breathed a sigh of relief, "We should thank PDC for their sluggishness and carelessness. It's been two days, and they still haven't noticed that we've taken the Wallfacer with us."

Over the years, Guanghan City has once again sped up the shuttle service between Earth and Moon. Now, it's possible to reach the Moon in about a day.

On the weightless spaceship, Jiang Yu slept for a while. When he awoke, he had mostly regained his ability to move, though he still felt somewhat weak.

Fortunately, in the weightless environment, whether sitting or standing, one doesn't expend too much energy.

As they entered the Moon orbit, Jiang Yu looked through the porthole and noticed obvious changes on the Moon.

On what looked like the silvery-grey surface, there were already many man-made structures, and he could see some lights flickering on the ground.

According to Number Three, those lights were at the mining sites on the Moon; Moon City was airtight, with hardly any lights visible from the outside.

For years, Guanghan City had been expanding. From low Earth orbit, it could be clearly seen that Guanghan City was dozens of times larger than the other lunar cities!

It resembled a metal moss sprouting from a slab of silvery-grey rock, a testament to humanity's monumental ability.

This lunar city, now known as the "Lunar Pearl," represents the peak of human technological and cultural achievements.

It's a place many dream of, hoping to one day live within its bounds.

Another change on the Moon was the presence of a spaceport in low Earth orbit.

Shuttle crafts were continuously taking off and landing between the spaceport and the Moon's surface, signifying that the freight throughput of the Moon was now immense.

On the Moon, using shuttle crafts is cheaper than space elevators, because of the Moon's lower gravity, less thrust is needed to reach low Earth orbit, and the atmosphere is so thin it's almost negligible, offering little friction.

Space elevators, on the other hand, require a massive investment just for initial construction, not to mention the maintenance and care afterward.

They also need a large amount of energy to maintain daily operations.

The Moon's spaceport was even more spacious than the Yellow River Space Station. According to Number Three, the spaceport has two corridors: one for people and the other for cargo throughput.

The cargo corridor does not have an air-tight system and is highly automated. Only a few people manning the control room positions are enough to keep the freight corridor operating normally.

After disembarking from the Moon spaceship, Jiang Yu, holding on to the copilot's handrail, nearly floated as he moved forward. If not for others around, Jiang Yu would have liked to fly around in the spaceport just to try it out.

The group entered the passenger shuttle prepared for them, and in only half an hour, they landed on the platform of Guanghan City.

This landing process was distinctly different from Jiang Yu's last visit to Guanghan City.

The shuttle went straight into a small hangar. Such hangars, a whole row of them, would open their doors in advance upon receiving a landing request.

According to Number Three, Guanghan City now featured separate pathways for passengers and cargo. The passenger transition chamber was on this side, while the cargo transition chamber was built where Jiang Yu had landed last time.

The transition chambers from seventy years ago were still in use, only they had built two new, more scientifically advanced, cargo transition chambers over the years.

Once the shuttle was parked, the hangar's door closed, and then a burst of white fog sprayed from the ground.

Number Three explained that this was to remove the lunar dust that the spaceship had brought in.

The white fog was quickly sucked away, and the hangar's lights turned on, brightly illuminating the interior. After about three minutes, the shuttle received notice that it was okay to open the hatch.

After putting on his special magnetic boots for the Moon again, Jiang Yu thought back on his last visit to Guanghan City and was even more curious about the changes it had undergone over the years.

Stepping off the shuttle, Jiang Yu saw Burton with his grey hair and Bil with his completely white hair.

The scene of both men welcoming him in the transition chamber during his last visit to Guanghan City felt as if it were just yesterday.

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Now those two had grown old, but their skin was rosy, and they looked very spirited, not at all like people over a hundred years old.

Jiang Yu tightly grasped their hands, "You've worked hard over these years."

When he heard Number Three say that it had been in hibernation for 71 years, he thought that aside from Number Three and other friends who had entered hibernation, there was no one else familiar in the world.

To his surprise, Burton and Bil were still alive, and behind them, Jiang Yu also saw Lu Qingfeng, Gu Zhize, and several familiar faces from the Qi Guanglu team.

Especially Gu Zhize, who still looked like a middle-aged man.

Jiang Yu shook hands with them one by one, thanking them for their dedication to Guanghan City and the Wallfacer Project.

Many wiped away tears secretly after shaking hands, their goal over the years had been to serve Jiang Yu's Wallfacer Project, although they also received fame, status, and a comfortable life.

But compared to Jiang Yu's thanks, all the benefits they had received before seemed insignificant.

Under Burton's lead, Jiang Yu and his group left the hangar, and outside was a security checkpoint.

The staff meticulously conducted a security check on Jiang Yu and others, Burton explained that the main purpose was to check for microbes, which could proliferate massively in the low gravity of Guanghan City.

More than fifty years ago, there had been an incident where an Earth microbe had damaged the ecological environment of the French Lunar City.

Some microbes which seemed inactive on Earth could reproduce at a geometric rate in a weightless environment.

Since then, the Space Cities, Moon Cities, and Mars Cities had cooperated to identify eleven types of microbes that should not be present in low gravity or weightless conditions.

The security checks started from that time.

After leaving the security checkpoint, outside was a broad street.

The street was filled with people on both sides, and upon seeing Jiang Yu, they immediately cheered.

Some shouted, "Long live the Wallfacer!"

Some shouted, "Long live humanity!"

Some shouted, "Long live the Hermit Federation!"

Though it was a sea of people, there seemed to be an invisible cordon; the crowd cheered from the wide sidewalks, yet not a single person stepped onto the road.

Jiang Yu warmly waved to them; he saw that the green space of Guanghan City had greatly increased compared to before, and not just with tall trees, but also flower beds and lawns on both sides of the road.

The flowers in the flowerbeds were blooming profusely, and it seemed as if dew still hung on the grass.

If it weren't for the towering steel buildings on both sides of the street, one would never have guessed this was actually on the Moon.

The outside of the steel buildings also had miniature flower baskets, where colorful flowers and green plants vied for beauty, far removed from the last time Jiang Yu felt the cold, steely forest atmosphere.

The smart car that Burton had hailed was also more beautiful than before, although it was still an open-top, the lines were more aesthetically pleasing.

After getting in the car, Jiang Yu found that the smart car was faster.

The last time he came to Guanghan City, the smart car was only slightly faster than an electric car, but now it quickly accelerated to 60 miles an hour.

After passing several intersections, there was no longer a welcoming crowd on both sides of the road, and cars were speeding on the road.

Since there were no traffic lights at the intersections, Jiang Yu felt a surge of fear every time they crossed one.

Looking at Burton and the others, who were chatting and laughing, Jiang Yu felt that he couldn't keep up with the tide of the times.