Chapter 241: Status Quo
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The levitating, magic-guided vehicle, manufactured by Aerymian elves carried everyone towards the floating Dawnbreak Island. The levitating vehicle was gliding through the air several hundred metres above ground. Although it was a premium item in Aerym and was of a higher technology than anything on Earth, it was bland. It had no designs in and out, unlike private vehicles on Earth. It was built with a type of greyish-white synthetic material, pretty much monotoned in coloured. The vehicle had no ornamental patterns, no soft upholstery, and no special covering on its handles or window frames.
It was like a mass-produced, mold-injected product. While it was technologically advanced, anyone who had experienced it could tell that it was made to meet the minimum requirements to function.
Aerymian elves were slender and taller thans human but the difference was not big—at least, they were closer in height to humans than Y'zaks was. For this reason, Hao Ren and the like felt relatively comfortable inside the vehicle. Even though Y'zaks felt a bit cramped in there, it was still bearable. On both sides of the vehicle were narrow rows of window, which stretched below the seats. From them, one could see the city scenery moving past below.
At first glance, the city's buildings looked beautiful; they had long arched lines, and were of simple but elegant structure, mimicking trees and buds in design. The architecture in Aerym was dominated by towers and various oval-shaped buildings with sleek lines, making Aerym look like a city of a thousand towers—though it was just an impression. At the same time, these elegant-looking architecture had also revealed the fact of the depletion of resources. All buildings were built from a greyish-white synthetic material—from the walls to the roofs, and even the spaces as well as roads in between these buildings were all of the same colour and dullness. They must have exhausted all their natural construction materials many years ago. Additionally, it was also not possible to mine natural materials from the foundation of the floating isle. So, Aerymian elves could only recycle materials from rubble and use it to build their homes. However, a grey city looked very depressing. To work around the problem, plants were planted in the spaces between the elven buildings, but not in large quantity. Apparently, most plants were in the eco-dome or some similar special location in order to maintain an efficient urban function. Apart from that, not much could be seen in the city.
No monuments, no street sculptures, no parks, and no other wasteful objects that were unrelated to basic survival. The whole city was built using low grade materials, and landscape details were omittted, like they were trying to lower the graphic resolution to reduce the load on their graphics card. No matter where one looked, there were only monochromatic buildings as well as straight and simple streets. The elves were living in this lifeless city like a faded slideshow.
Y'zaks stared down at the city's landscape, in deep thought. "They're still maintaining an orderly state of living. No matter how bad things are, they're working hard to ensure social order, and... at least, things looks 'normal' from the outside."
Hilda's attention was not on the city below her instead, she had noticed the unconcealable anxiety in her son. "How bad is it? Is it unsustainable?"
"To live, it is still sustainable." Vimm was a young man but his voice was deep. He fully inherited—probably every elf did—his mom's perfect look. He was handsome yet manly. "Astrologers and magic-guidance scholars at the scene suffered serious casualty, but the test site was pretty remote, away from the major island chain. Material damage is still within an acceptable level, and supplies for the major residential zone and eco-dome are fine. We can still maintain the same living standard for quite a long period."
"So, the problem is about faith... is it not?" Hilda knew the situation of Aerym well and that was why she had figured out the crux of the problem pretty quick. "At least you have restored social order for now. Anyway, I can still sense the lifelessness in the atmosphere."
"The incident hit the public's faith pretty hard, including some of the members of the assembly," Vimm said, nodding. "The space-time accelerator is the last large-scale project of its kind that we could afford, which even with the constraint of resources, would have enabled us to find a way to travel to the deep space. But the explosion ripped the faith of many people into pieces. We still have supplies left, but they are only good for survival needs."
While Vimm was talking, he glanced at the otherworldly visitors sitting at the back of the vehicle. His report was about the social status quo before Hilda returned. However, the appearance of these incredible visitors from outside their planet... or rather, outside their universe had totally messed with his worldview, and also his grasp on the current state of affairs. His first thought was of a new dawn, after the Aerymian elves had suffered thousands of years of embarassment. The arrival of visitors from a highly advanced civilisation, who could do interstellar travel may just be a game-changer. But at the same time, he was worried about another problem.
Would it be in time? Would they agree to help? Would they be of help at all?
Hilda's eyes glanced at them, but she said nothing. She then turned her eyes back to Vimm. "Firstly, announce that there are otherworldly visitors, and that we have mastered the key to interstellar travel. Although the space-time accelerator failed, it is still a success in terms of our technological progression. Make the announcement; our priority is to inspire the people and restore their faith."
Hao Ren nodded slightly but he did not make himself clear; he was still pondering about the best option and did not want to make any hasty promises. Nevertheless, he knew what Hilda said was totally within his ability. Hao Ren's nod gave Vimm a confidence boost, and Vimm's face began to soften up.
"The Isle of Rainbow... how much is left?" Hilda asked about the situation in other places.
The Isle of Rainbow was a floating island, the last space test site with comprehensive facilities and a high-capacity energy system, where the space-time accelerator was tested. All this while, the elves had only one planet—a lonely planet. There was no other places for them to set foot on and many large-scale tests could not be conducted. It was not until the planet was broken up and formed a space island chain that they could start conducting some dangerous tests, which could not have been carried out safely on the mother planet. During the few thousand years of technological trial and error, they had lost one test site after another, and the aftermath of most incidents was enough to pollute the entire planet. The lost of a floating island was the best case scenario. But even then, there were only a limited number of floating islands available. Thousand of years had passed and the numbers were dwindling.
The Isle of Rainbow was their last hope.
"The Isle of Rainbow is gone." Vimm was silent for a few seconds before saying in a deep voice, "Mother, I bet you have seen the far end of the island chain while you were in space; the area with new debris—that is the Isle of Rainbow. After the explosion, part of the fragments were thrown towards the sun while some towards deep space. We only managed to recover two-fifths of the materials. These materials were temporarily placed together with the debris of the island chain. Alhough the test site is gone, the resources mined from the wreck will allow everyone years of good life."
"I saw fragments. I just did not expect..." Hilda frowned. "What about the Isle of Stars?"
The Isle of Stars was another space floating island, an important industrial centre and energy furnace, which stored energy received from the coronal station. During the test of the space-time accelerator, the Isle of Rainbow was moved to the far end of the island chain to avoid it from becoming a hazard to the residential zone. However, the Isle of Stars was moved along to supply energy to the test site. Its close proximity to the test site had Hilda worried about its fate.
While in space, she did not carefully observe the situation across the island chain, so she was unsure if she had seen the Isle of Stars.
"The Isle of Stars survived with some damage. Some of the shrapnel punctured the air-defence fire network, and damaged part of the gravity generator and propulsion unit. Some almost hit the energy hub—missing it by a small margin. The situation is under control. The technical elder committee is trying to restore its functions while the magic technicians managed to recover some equipment from the death zone—the equipment are probably still working. That is better than nothing."
"Very well. At least, things are better than expected." Hilda breathed a sigh of relief. "When we land, have Cardillon meet me. We and our otherworldly friends have lots of things to discuss."
"Elder Cardillon..." Vimm suddenly became evasive of Hilda's stare. "Elder Cardillon has gone to the World of Prayers."
"What?" Hilda suddenly raised her voice. "Who allowed that?"
"He went of his own accord. Some problems arose in the World of Prayers. The 200-year-old Lotto Group are becoming active again... and part of the assembly—"
"So the current social order is merely superficial?" Hilda's face turned dead straight. "When we land, immediately call for an elder assembly. I am going to restore the order!"