Chapter 445: Meteor
In fact, the time that had been taken for the modification of the smart missile was shorter than expected. In less than two hours, a batch of smart missiles had already been remodeled. Half of the time had been used to search for information on the technology and to communicate with the Manufacturing Department.
The video tracking ability was not a complex technology and with the Glassian’s manufacturing standards, the modification process was a piece of cake. This could certainly be manufactured on a large scale.
Each weapon had their own distinct function. For instance, the smart bombs were used to aim at distant targets in space while the electromagnetics guns or high-powered lasers were used to attack enemies at close range.
Space battle was different from planetary war. They had never encountered an opponent like Luo Yuan who had a strong sense of danger and could avoid incoming attacks so quickly. Therefore, they had never required the smart missiles to have a video tracking function until they met Luo Yuan!
When all the weapons were ready, the Glassians were relieved. Admittedly, the strong human had caused them to be slightly tense and nervous. His incredible predictive ability and teleportation powers had caused the Glassians to feel a sense of helplessness. But it would stop here!
Regardless of Luo Yuan’s ability to teleport or to foresee danger, they were certain that Luo Yuan would not escape the attacks from their new upgraded weapons. He was fast, but not fast enough to escape from the nuclear powered smart missiles.
They were unable to explain how the teleportation worked but believed that there must be some limitations to it. Based on the previous battles, they noticed that he could not teleport continuously, otherwise, the battle could have ended quickly and he would not have been flying around dangerously for so long to avoid all sorts of attacks.
Suddenly, the Glassians realized that their target had gone missing while they were in the midst of preparing their weapons.
"Where is he!?" The captain asked.
"Sir, he’s on the Moon!" The army who was constantly monitoring Luo Yuan’s movements said while pointing on the screen that was displaying a planet pitted with craters.
"What is he doing there? Not long ago, a gigantic space beast had appeared there. Is he going to ask it for help?" The captain joked and look relaxed. He then said, "Let’s not waste our time here. I don’t want to stay here any longer. Destroy him with our newly modified smart missiles!"
"Yes, sir!"
After a few seconds, they fired the missile! It was as if a massive object blasted off into space! As usual, it flew for half a second before the long rays started streaming through the nuclear-powered engine. The missile continued to accelerate and after 10 minutes, it had reached a traveling speed of 3,000 kilometers per second. The smart missile resembled an arrow as it shot straight at a rapid speed towards the Moon.
"The major disadvantage of this weapon is the long waiting time!" The captain said helplessly. He could not wait to see the outcome of the attack. However, the spaceship was 2000 kilometers away from the Moon and despite the fast traveling speed of the smart missile, he would still need to wait for two hours in order to know the results of their latest attack.
"I think we are too far away. We should move closer to the Moon." He commanded. By assessing the human’s agility, he believed that it would be safe to stay one light-second away from him.
...
The spaceship vibrated slightly as the intermittent nuclear fusion from the engine propelled the spaceship forward marginally. The speed was so slow at the beginning that it was barely noticeable. However, within seconds it suddenly accelerated at an astonishing speed. A long light streaked across the dark space and the energy released by the nuclear fusion pulse was equivalent to the energy released during the explosion of a hydrogen bomb. The spaceship would accelerate every time a pulse was sent out.
...
At that moment, nobody noticed that an insignificant meteor had flashed across the side of the Moon. It was not moving very quickly and its path appeared to be slightly curved as it was influenced by the Moon’s gravity. After moving in a long arc, it was able to overcome the Moon’s gravitational force and blasted off into space.
During the flight, its path could be adjusted accordingly and it secretly deflected 30 degrees an hour when it was not in the Moon’s gravitational atmosphere. Of course, this was no ordinary meteor.
If the Glassians were to scan the meteor with an X-ray, they would see that there was actually a hollow space inside it in which Luo Yuan was sitting with his legs crossed.
...
In fact, when Luo Yuan had arrived on the Moon in a space-time bubble, he had almost used up all of his Will. Without his Will, his abilities were greatly reduced. He could still fight with mutated beasts using his Strength but he was certain that he would die if he had to deal with the Glassians’ spaceship without his ability to teleport or fly.
He had initially planned to take a short break when he arrived on the Moon to recharge his Will. His body’s fusion ability helped restore his Will at a faster rate. He could be fully recharged in just a few hours.
He was excited when he saw a meteor even though it was not rare to see a meteor appear in space or the solar system. In fact, there were tons of meteors that fall to the Earth every day, but most of them would burn up while entering the Earth’s atmosphere.
Luo Yuan had once entered the Glassians’ dreams before so he had a good understanding of the quality of technology they possessed and because of this, he felt helpless. He knew that he had revealed all of his abilities to the Glassians when he consecutively destroyed two of their aircrafts. It was just wishful thinking to believe that he could appear without being noticed. Perhaps the Glassians were now using all kinds of surveillances to keep their eyes on him - monitoring each and every move he made while analyzing his previous battles. Nevertheless, regardless of how advanced the Glassian’s technology was, it was impossible for them to keep track of every meteor that appeared in space.
After a while, Luo Yuan entered the meteor which was nearby. When he was completely hidden by the Moon, he used his Will to propel himself forward. Fortunately, the meteor was 10,000 kilometers away from the Moon and therefore it was unaffected by either the Moon’s or the Earth’s gravity.
Anyway, it was possible for Luo Yuan to generate forces that were sufficient for the meteor to move against the Moon’s gravitational pull when he was flying with his Will. Meanwhile, the centripetal force was also aiding the meteor as it was revolving around the Moon - allowing it to travel at up to 20 kilometers per second.
Of course, it was relatively slow since it had to travel a distance of 20,000 to 30,000 kilometers. The meteor might have needed 10 days to reach the spaceship if it continued traveling at this constant speed. Who knows if the spaceship would still be there after 10 days.
Luo Yuan wanted to fly through the fourth dimension when his Will had recovered by half. Even though it was dangerous to accelerate when he was in the meteor (as he could easily be identified), he did not care so much about it anymore. However, Luo Yuan had never expected a surprise from his opponent.
The ship was huge and despite the fact that it was so far away from him, he could still vaguely see the ship’s figure through a fist sized hole that he had made in the meteor. Besides, the long beam of light was prominent and certainly visible when it appeared in dark space. It would be difficult for one to not notice it.
The spaceship was now moving towards him at an extremely fast speed. He felt relieved at this turn of event and closed his eyes to speed up the recovery rate of his Will.
...
The "meteor" continued to streak across the dark and silent space. It looked just like an ordinary and unattractive piece of rock flying in space, heading straight towards the spaceship. Luo Yuan was sitting quietly and taking a nap to restore his energy when he suddenly felt palpitations and was awakened by it.
He opened his eyes and saw a glimmer of light passing through the dark sky. In just two hours, his Will had been completely restored and had even improved slightly in the process. Without a doubt, the battle was a good way to train his Will. Luo Yuan could vaguely sense that he was very close to upgrading his Will to 20 points, however, he was not concerned about that now.
He peeked into the near future using his prediction ability and the scene remained the same, showing that he was not in danger. However, before he could breathe a sigh of relief, it seemed like there was a strong and powerful energy wave that was coming from behind him. He then looked carefully through the small hole and confirmed it.
Luo Yuan got stunned as he saw an energy wave coming towards him. There was a dazzling white light shining through the Moon which now looked like a glass ball that was being shattered into tiny pieces and scattered across space. Broken pieces that remained on the Moon gradually shrunk and were soon completely vaporized by the high temperature. In just 10 seconds, the remaining core of the Moon had turned entirely red.
Luo Yuan could clearly see that boiling magma had formed which were spewing out flames occasionally. Flying in an arc, he then returned to the Moon once again. The dazzling white light had gradually faded, exposing the damage that had been inflicted on the Moon. Its shape resembled a bitten apple. Almost one-quarter of the regions had been destroyed, forming a massive hole in the Moon. The hole was there only for a while and soon became shallower as it was being filled with magma which tore through the surface of the Moon.
The Moon had become relatively small and was now the size of a soccer ball from where Luo Yuan was situated. He observed everything that had happened absent-mindedly and stood perfectly still. Contemplating what had happened, he was furious and clenched his fists in anger.
The Earth had adapted to the existence of the Moon and thus if there were any changes to the mass of the Moon, the Earth would be significantly affected as well. The ocean tides would become weaker, causing the Earth’s rotation to become faster. There would also be an irregularity in the four seasons and the stability of the Earth’s crust would be affected. Luo Yuan also predicted that volcanic earthquakes would occur more frequently. He could predict that even if he had won the battle, the Earth could be beyond saving. He shifted his gaze and looked at the spaceship coldly.
He had now gotten closer to the spaceship. He stopped accelerating and was moving forward at a constant speed using the inertia which was present. He took a deep breath and tried to remain calm. Luo Yuan had a tendency of acting irrationally when he was angry. All he had to do now was to continue being invisible and deliver a deathblow to the entire spaceship when was closer to it.
This was his usual way to launch an attack and he was good at it. However, this was his first time using a skill since he had acquired the Body Fusion ability. Soon, he had completely calmed himself down again and sat quietly with his legs crossed; waiting for the right moment to attack.
Luo Yuan waited patiently for 10 minutes when suddenly, the opponent stopped. They were now only 10,000 kilometers apart. Luo Yuan’s expression changed slightly and he waited for a while. The spaceship was not moving and he ground his teeth as he was getting ready to fly through the fourth-dimension.
In that moment, a meteor suddenly flew past him and disappeared in just a blink of an eye. He was stunned for a moment and soon discovered that there were many meteors behind him and they were flying in his direction. The meteors were dark red in color, emitting heat from its surface. Apparently, these were the meteors that had escaped the gravitational pull of the Moon when it had exploded.
In his heart, he thought, "God is helping me!"
The kinetic energy generated during the explosion of the Moon had caused the meteors to travel at an extremely high speed through space. The meteors reached 400 to 500 kilometers per second which were faster than the speed he traveled at in his space-time bubble. At such speeds, the meteors could reach the spaceship in less than 10 minutes.
He knew what he needed to do. By estimating the distance of the meteors’ trajectory behind him, he chose one of the meteors that were nearest to his flight path and slightly adjusted his path using his Will. This particular piece of the Moon was relatively big - resembling the peak of the mountain. It was rolling rapidly and violently towards Luo Yuan.
He stared at the meteor without blinking and braced himself for the collision. After 10 seconds, both of the meteors crashed into each other and the meteor that Luo Yuan was sitting in had been completely crushed.
Before the impact, Luo Yuan had targeted the position of the meteor with his four-dimensional vision and had teleported to the back of it. It would have taken the meteor quite some time to cool down as it was extremely big and Luo Yuan noticed that it was still in its molten state.
He took this opportunity to merge himself into the lava.