Meteor Fall Master in the 'Starry Abyss'
Chapter 266 - 087. Orion Project

Chapter 266: 087. Orion Project

All members of the Red Squad fell silent for a few seconds.

Then, in unison, they said,

"Madman."

One of the members sneered,

"Not to mention the erosion from the Ersha Cloud, Azure Star is all tundra and blizzards. Where would you find a launch site for rockets? Where would you find enough fuel and a spacecraft? The launch weather is extremely harsh!"

"Besides, even if you planned to reach the Gamma Phase and your body could withstand the first cosmic velocity (7,900 meters per second, about 23.2 Mach), you wouldn’t be able to break through the erosion of the Ersha Cloud—no material can resist the erosion of Ersha; you would be infected and turned into a deformed monster."

"No one can go to space; for hundreds of years we’ve only been able to launch satellites within the atmosphere. Even Red Arrow hasn’t done it; how could you possibly manage?"

"The old era of Azure Star courted disaster by coveting space... Do you want to repeat their mistakes?"

It wasn’t even skepticism that people felt; their first reaction was to stop, to forbid Li Aozi from even contemplating the idea.

Every problem on Azure Star, sixty percent of them could ultimately be resolved by opening a cosmic passageway, but none could get past the hurdle of the Ersha Cloud.

Attempts were made, over and over again, only to fail; no nation had the power, economic strength, technological level, or courage to send their best talents into the clouds of Ersha, to watch them become eroded, decayed, and withered, or to see them infected and transformed into deformed creatures right under their noses.

For the citizens, as well as the nations, repeated failures in spaceflight had made people forget their dreams of the starry sky; many had never even seen the sun until the day they died.

Many still firmly believe that there’s no sun in the world at all, that darkness gave birth to humans and life—it’s as ridiculous as it is anti-intellectual and pathetic. Because the narrow vision and forgetfulness of humanity are truly frightening.

They will forget those who risked their lives to protect them just a few days ago due to various dissatisfactions at the moment, or they may outright forget the threat itself.

For hundreds of years, many have grown accustomed to a world dominated by Ersha and the cold. They don’t know what sunshine, dew, blue skies, white clouds, and lush grasslands are like, instead ridiculing those scientists who record history.

’The sun and the starry sky are nothing but scams to swindle funding. All that history is forged; I live perfectly fine without the sun, so why would I fund your attempts to go to space? Stop deceiving me.’

’You say that in the old era they went to space, that satellites were launched into low Earth orbit? That’s pure nonsense. According to John Hopkins’ research, if there was really a sun and the cosmos, shouldn’t Ersha have been pummeled into swiss cheese by meteorites a long time ago?’

’Why concern yourself so much? Even if you really get to space, those who flee will be the privileged elites. What does it have to do with you, a mere commoner? Better to mind your own business; the boss has called you in for overtime.’

Perhaps it’s not just the Ersha.

It’s the variety of phenomena, the self-deprecation and narrow-minded view, and the negative emotions that are preventing humanity from going to space; they’ve completely lost the courage to look up.

"...I could have endured the darkness if I had never seen the light."

Li Aozi calmly accepted their warnings and criticism,

"I will go to space, and I don’t need any spacecraft."

"Isn’t that nonsense? Even if you could fly, how would your body break through the first cosmic velocity to enter orbit, and then how would you accelerate to reach the second cosmic velocity (11,200 kilometers per second, equivalent to 32.91 Mach)? How would you solve the problem of the Ersha?"

"This is easy, acceleration isn’t a problem. For me, dealing with Ersha is enough."

"Then what do you plan to do?"

Li Aozi said:

"The Houjo Group has an old-era hydrogen bomb—’Hirosaki Yousha,’ with an explosive yield of about 140 million tons, a treasured relic of Sky Ring."

The members of the Red Squad were stunned.

"Everyone can imagine: since Ersha covers everything above the troposphere, effectively sealing off Azure Star, it also implies that it can block solar storms, gamma radiation, and prevent almost all thermal energy from reaching Azure Star. So conversely, the radiation produced by the hydrogen bomb explosion would naturally also be blocked by the Ersha clouds."

Li Aozi proceeded to educate them:

"Let’s simulate: a 14 trillion ton TNT equivalent hydrogen bomb, with an explosive fireball radius of about 138.02 kilometers, theoretically covers a kill area of 770.73 kilometers—but we should be conservative, considering that the ’Disorder Entropy Increase’ of Ersha could erode it, and the efficiency of the tritium fusion’s mass-energy conversion might be greatly reduced."

"Looking at it this way, the actual explosive fireball could reach 100 kilometers, and the shock wave could exceed 500 kilometers, would already be a cause for immense gratitude. Moreover, let me mention that the thickness of the atmosphere is about 1000 kilometers, but the specific spread of Ersha is only between the troposphere and the mesosphere, scattering across the atmospheric region near the ground up to 50 kilometers, with a thickness of up to 30 kilometers. For current human aircraft, this is already the limit."

"However, between 60 kilometers to 1000 kilometers above the ground, in the ionosphere, affected by charged particles, the density of Ersha becomes very low, and the erosion effect is also weakened. As long as one can leave the vicinity of 300 kilometers above the ground, they can be completely free from the erosion of Ersha."

"To put it simply, just detonate a hydrogen bomb in the middle atmospheric layer at 60 kilometers, using the thrust generated by the explosion, it’s enough to accelerate me to the second cosmic velocity on my own, and the heat and shock wave of the fireball would be enough to temporarily destroy the Ersha cloud within 120 kilometers."

"At that moment, my acceleration will reach 350G (3430 meters per square second), which is enough to escape the atmosphere. Plus, the shock wave provided by the hydrogen bomb explosion in the vacuum of space, with no air resistance impact, the nuclear pulse will continue to propel me, allowing me to keep accelerating. Of course, I don’t need to go too fast, just one-thirtieth the speed of light is sufficient for my needs."

"The biggest problem with this plan, considering materials, astronauts, resistance capability—all of it is unnecessary to think about. You don’t need to worry about gravity and the problem of flight endurance in space, because I am the master of gravity. To me, the cosmos is my dominion."

"The only trouble is on the ground. The theft of the Houjo Clan’s hydrogen bomb will inevitably cause a national panic, and I will be pursued by four currently active Gamma Phase officials from Sky Ring."

"Other matters are trivial in comparison."

The next moment, everyone’s gaze toward Li Aozi turned exceedingly horrified.

"Hey, you’re not thinking of..."

"Yes."

Li Aozi calmly declared:

"I will ignite a hydrogen bomb and shoot into space."

"In some sense, you could say that I’m blowing up a planet."

To soothe everyone’s emotions, Li Aozi considerately said:

"You all can rest assured, this isn’t my first time doing this, I’m quite experienced."