I Married A Degraded Alpha
Chapter 78: Success Against All Odds

Chapter 78: Success Against All Odds

The mountain’s about to split apart? Inside the spaceport, people remained calm and collected. Sitting within the oval-shaped structure, they showed no signs of panic; meanwhile, those outside turned their gaze upon the mountain riddled with a web of cracks, instinctively making their way towards the spaceport.

"We should go in, too," suggested Vernon.

Yuri frowned. While a small part of the oval-shaped spaceport was built on the mountain, most of it was held aloft by hundreds of large pillars. In theory, even if the mountain collapsed, the spaceport should remain stable. But something in her gut didn’t feel right.

Yuri stayed where she was, choosing not to follow the crowd into the spaceport.

Seeing her motionless, Vernon, Jo, and the others didn’t move either.

"Yuri, what’s wrong?" Vernon asked.

"Something feels off," Yuri looked at the fissures snaking across the mountain, carefully stepping onto one of the relatively intact boulders.

Vernon looked confused, "What feels off?"

Yuri gestured with her eyes towards the spaceport, "That. It’s making me uneasy."

Exchanging glances, Vernon, Jo, and the others wordlessly pulled out the weapons they had just put away.

Now they believed that when Yuri said something was off, it was off.

With the mountain continuously crumbling, thunderous rumblings echoed through the air and dust clouded the skies. Yuri, Vernon, and the others scrambled from one foothold to the next. By the time the collapse finally ceased, they were dozens of feet lower than the spaceport.

"Look! The pillars are leaning!" Vernon exclaimed.

Sure enough, the pillars - each with a diameter of nearly fifteen feet - were toppling over one after the other.

Yuri couldn’t see the bases of the pillars due to their immense height. But it wasn’t hard to guess that the insectoids had sabotaged them from below.

"The spaceport is tilting. It’s going to fall!" Vernon’s eyes bulged in alarm.

"There are twenty or thirty thousand people in there," Jo muttered, breaking out in a cold sweat. If it weren’t for their ’blind trust’ in Yuri, they’d be in the spaceport too.

"What can we do? Is there any way to save them?" Vernon asked. After a pause, he shook his head, "Unless a massive starship arrives, nothing can support such a heavy structure."

There was a way, if Yuri were to use Enova, but the price would be exposing herself.

To reveal myself or let twenty to thirty thousand people perish? Yuri was torn.

Inside the spaceport, the sound of wailing and crashing filled the air, terror written across every face, the fear of impending death.

Hearing the commotion, Vernon and the others winced, their hearts heavy with dread.

"There might be a way," Yuri suddenly spoke.

Vernon and the others swiftly turned to look at her, "Yuri, you have a plan?"

"Let’s try something," Yuri said, "Stay here and be ready."

With that, she took a running start and leapt onto one of the precariously leaning pillars.

Watching her balance on the teetering pillar, Vernon and the others felt their hearts jump into their throats. Her next move had them breaking out in a cold sweat.

She raised her right fist and struck the pillar hard.

"Yuri’s right arm is a bionic one, right? Is it really okay to use it like this?" Delamak was a bit concerned about her arm.

"It should be okay, I guess. But what I’m more curious about is what Yuri is up to," said Vernon, eyes locked on Yuri. "She’s pulling out a steel rod from the pillar."

"Could it be what I’m thinking?" Jo seemed to have thought of something, his face lighting up with excitement and anticipation.

"No way, that’s the Alliance’s hardest grade-197 steel," Delamak guessed Jo’s idea, but he was skeptical. The steel was the toughest that the Alliance had, bending it would be extremely difficult.

Jo, reminded by Delamak’s words, sobered up, "Maybe Yuri doesn’t know. What now? The pillar is collapsing, can Yuri make it back?"

Delamak shook his head, clueless.

However, Yuri once again shattered their expectations. The Alliance’s hardest steel became flexible and smooth in her hands. She clutched the steel rod, jumped onto the tilting spaceport, wound the steel around the enormous structure, once, twice, knotted it, and then threw the remaining end to Vernon and the others. "Tie it to the mountain."

Vernon and the others caught it, swiftly running around the mountain peak with the steel rod.

"A bit lower," Yuri directed them. The topmost part of the peak was slender and she was concerned that it might not support the weight of the spaceport.

"Yes." Vernon and the others responded, utilizing their mountain-climbing skills learned in military school to the fullest.

Yuri proceeded to do the same with another pillar, removing the steel, securing the spaceport, and throwing another rod to Vernon and the others.

It was only after all the pillars had collapsed, and there were none left to dismantle, that she finally stopped.

At this point, the spaceport had completely lost all of its supports and under gravity’s pull, it fell with a resounding crash.

Standing on top of the spaceport, Yuri held on tight to the steel rod, the wind whipping past her ears.

Boom—

The rapidly descending spaceport was caught by the steel rod, smashing into the mountain peak. The peak trembled, dislodging countless rocks.

Screams and crashing sounds echoed from within the spaceport once again.

Standing atop the spaceport, Yuri’s hand was numbed by the shock, while her other hand was devoid of sensation.

"Yuri, jump up here!" Vernon yelled from the peak.

Yuri shook her head, "The peak is collapsing, you guys watch out!"

Sure enough, the next moment, the steel rod cut off the very top of the peak. A chunk of the peak was severed.

"Jump down." This time, it was Yuri who issued the order to Vernon and the others.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Vernon and the others jumped onto the top of the spaceport.

The spaceport kept descending, the steel rod wrapped around the mountain slid downwards as well.

Only when the steel rod could no longer slide, did the spaceport stop its descent.

"Are we safe?" Vernon asked cautiously, his voice barely above a whisper.

Yuri surveyed the mountain and the spaceport, releasing a sigh of relief, "We should be."

"We actually did it. It’s unbelievable." Jo’s voice trembled, they had just saved the lives of twenty to thirty thousand people.

At that moment, Jo felt incredibly heroic, even though he had only contributed a small effort.

"This should go down in history. When my grandkids learn about this event, I can brag to them, ’See, one of those guys was me, your grandpa’," Vernon declared, his face filled with delight.

Even the usually calm Delamak was somewhat excited, exclaiming, "Do you think the Alliance will reward us? What kind of merit do you reckon we will receive?"

"I’m not sure about us, but Yuri definitely deserves the highest honor," Vernon asserted confidently.

A thrilled Jo chimed in, "Did I just earn a merit before even graduating? Is there a cash reward? Could they award a mecha?"

"Dream big, but wake up to reality," Vernon teased.

"There should at least be some reward, right?" Jo, coming from a poor background, insisted.

"If the Alliance doesn’t reward you, I personally will give each of you a hundred thousand astracredits as a reward for saving my life," a man’s voice suddenly came from within the spaceport.

Jo looked down through the opening torn by the insectoids and saw the man. He was just an ordinary-looking man.

"Never mind, you just lost your home, life won’t be easy," Jo refused.

"No, we will reward you. The administration of Planet 165’s spaceport will reward each of you with five hundred thousand astracredits," a man wearing the uniform of the guard captain announced.

Jo didn’t immediately accept. He looked towards Yuri, "Yuri?"

Yuri nodded, "Take it."

Joyful, Jo responded, "Thank you, Yuri."