Superstars of Tomorrow

Panda Novel

Woo Tianhao roared with laughter as he made fun of Zaro.

With a rigid face, Zaro slapped away the fine white dust on his hands. Beside him, Barbara avoided him like the plague.

Mitisy stifled his laughter. When he saw Colonel Song Ping, he ran over to borrow excavation equipment and mentioned to him their donation ideas that they came up with on the journey here. Song Ping was delighted; regardless whether it was garlic, a dojo, or a gym, they needed all of those!

When Fang Zhao heard this, he also chimed in, “I will take part too. What else does the base lack?”

Song Ping pondered for a bit before coughing lightly in an awkward manner. “How about you contribute a KTV bar?” ¹ Song Ping wasn’t bragging, but when it came to singing military songs, nobody in Bu Base would claim that they were better than him! Just that it was unfortunate that he didn’t have a place to exhibit it.

Fang Zhao: “… I will, if it is approved.”

As they were speaking, Curly Hair, who had been squeezed into a tent by Fang Zhao, stuck his head out and stared over at where Zaro and the others were.

Zaro, who had been just made the butt of a joke, was twitching his lips. He got up, turned on his detector, and changed another spot to survey when he heard a shrill beeping.

The few people who had just been avoiding Zaro all turned to look back.

“Eh?” Zaro waved the detector about. “There is something beneath the sand here… hey hey, what are you doing!”

Zaro squeezed out Woo Tianhao, who had scrambled over and started digging. He then ordered his bodyguards, “It’s here! Dig!”

After day broke, the temperature rapidly soared. Everyone had perspiration dripping down their faces, but they were in high spirits and didn’t hide inside the tents.

A bodyguard held out an opened umbrella to block out the sun and Zaro stood under it. Zaro downed a glass of water, wiped his face, and observed the two bodyguards digging. This was a metal piece he had detected. When it was out, he could use it as a souvenir and bring it back to show off!

Over at Flemington’s side, the excavation activities had gone on for some time already and they had found quite a few metal fragments in succession. Although they existed for a long time, these metal fragments didn’t seem to have too severe signs of corrosion. According to the analysis results of the technicians, these metal fragments were probably from a spaceship or exploratory ship. The materials found were similar to the ones found on the Arcturus and other exploratory ships.

The metal piece that Zaro had discovered didn’t arouse Flemington’s attention. Right now, Flemington’s main focus was all on the sand pit.

The two bodyguards dug out the top layer of sand and some rolled-up metal sheets were revealed. One of the bodyguards was about to use force and yank it out but was stopped by Zaro.

“Careful, careful!” Zaro blocked off the bodyguard who had been digging. “In the old archeology flicks I saw, you have to first brush off the sand and then blow lightly…”

As he said that, Zaro got down to his knees and inhaled. He had yet to blow when a gust of wind gave him a face full of sand.

He wiped his face miserably. The sand had mixed with his sweat to turn onto a muddy paste, and his face was all messy. Zaro no longer had any patience and pulled the whole metal sheet out from the sand.

“There are even words—hey!”

Zaro brushed off the sand on the metal sheet and blew gently. This time he took note of the wind direction.

Most of the metal sheet was already ruined and all fuzzy so the words couldn’t be distinguished. Fortunately, there was still a small portion in the middle that was clear.

Zaro rotated the metal sheet a few times. “This should be the right way up. It’s a letter…’n’?”

Mitisy came over and studied it. “Looks like ‘η’, the right portion is clearly a little longer.”

“Oh? Is it? No wonder I felt that something wasn’t right…” Zaro replied.

He hadn’t finished speaking when Barbara rushed over and snatched the metal sheet before kicking Zaro to the side.

Zaro was furious at being kicked aside. He rolled up his sleeves preparing to take revenge but was stopped by Mitisy.

“Barbara, are you able to recognize it?” Mitisy asked as he held of Zaro.

Barbara’s reaction was too huge. She no longer kept the image of a noble and virtuous young lady. Even her fan had been chucked aside.

Instances that could make Barbara act this way were extremely rare. Mitisy, who wasn’t able to see any useful information, waited for her answer.

Hearing Mitisy say this, Zaro also froze and glanced over. Zaro trembled as he saw the twinkling in Barbara’s eyes. Had this unreasonable demon gone crazy?

There was still quite some sand and a layer of grime on it. At this moment, Barbara couldn’t care less about her obsession with cleanliness. Her two hands held the metal sheet firmly as she stared at it. There was shock, fervor, infatuation, and crazed looks in her eyes, as though she had seen a 100 kg diamond.

“The Alkaid… the ‘η’ letter imprint. It is definitely the Alkaid, there’s no doubt about it!”

“What?!” Flemington’s pitch became higher. He had came over unnoticed by the others. He couldn’t believe his ears. All his internal organs shuddered when he heard “Alkaid”.

With his hand propped to his ears, Mitisy had also heard it. His face was similarly filled with shock. “You mean to say that the thing buried here is the Alkaid, one of the seven fabled primal interstellar exploratory spacecrafts of Dream Team?! Wasn’t the Alkaid said to have met with an accident in the preliminary stage and was destroyed?”

Flemington breathed heavily. “Contact with the Alkaid was lost. Just that no traces of it were discovered all these years so people guessed that it must have met with some geomagnetic storm in space and was destroyed and vanished from the universe.

Za·Dunce·ro appeared to be at a loss. What was an ‘Alkaid’? Was there such an exploratory spacecraft?”

His manager beside him proceeded to give him the lowdown.

Many people knew about the Sirius and that it had been one of the pioneers in space exploration in the New Era. It represented a new era. And before the Sirius, there was still a primal exploratory team comprising of seven unmanned space crafts that were christened after the stars in the Big Dipper. ²

“Primal exploratory team Dream Team bore the apex wisdom and intelligence of that time!” Barbara said with a fervor in her eyes as she stared ahead at the sand pit which was being excavated.

“Alkaid, serial η lost all communications during an exploratory mission. To find the Alkaid, the Inter-planetary Fund offered a reward of 100 billion!”

100 billion!

For the absolute majority of people, this number was an astronomical figure!

A fire lit up in the eyes of those present.

The one who started Dream Team was the founder of the Inter-planetary Fund!

The initial reward was 10 billion, but as the years passed, generations after generations of Inter-planetary Fund administrators had changed. But the reward for the Alkaid was never retracted and increased continuously! 400 years had passed, and the reward had already been raised to a point that could make Barbara and the others from an aristocratic super-family background go crazy.

In those 400 years, as humanity’s footsteps in space increased, many adventurers had tried searching for it, but they all returned in disappointment.

Whether it was Flemington, Song Ping, or many others undergoing military service on foreign planets, they would all have dreamt about finding the Alkaid. However, the harsh reality had sobered them up.

400 years had already passed, and the reward for the task of finding the Alkaid that remained in first place on the rewards board had already become a leisure topic.

“Could the Inter-planetary Fund set the reward so high because they themselves never imagined that the Alkaid could be found? Who would have imagined that traces of the Alkaid would be found after 400 years? If we really unearth the Alkaid this time, the Inter-planetary Fund wouldn’t go back on their word right?” Woo Tianhao voiced his thoughts.

“Definitely not! That is the Inter-planetary Fund we are talking about!” Barbara refuted. If this was really unearthed, the Inter-planetary Fund would definitely not go back on their word!

Whatever the case, the Inter-planetary Fund had never been fraudulent before this. Whatever was stated was paid out, not a cent less! And it wasn’t paid out in installments either.

If the offered reward was 100 billion, then it would be 100 billion!

So what if they went back on their word?!

That wasn’t permitted!

Absolutely not permitted!

Not a single cent less!

Flemington smiling mouth was about to crack. He felt as though he could soar into the high heavens.

100 billion!

Even if they couldn’t claim all of it, their Bu Base would surely claim the majority!

Even if they couldn’t apply for next year’s military expenditure, the reward from the Inter-planetary Fund would be enough for them to spend!

Spaceport upgrade… Base expansion… Mm, entice some agricultural scientists over with high salaries… a full scale refurbishing of soldiers’ equipment… Another 10 motorcades…

Flemington had already started to ponder about how to spend this bounty.

The teams that were excavating were stimulated as though they had been injected with amphetamine when the heard the information about the Alkaid!

Unlike the others who were going crazy, Fang Zhao was way more calm. He recalled something that he had read up on.

There was very little information concerning the first generation of seven interstellar exploratory spacecraft online. He only knew that the seven ships that comprised Dream Team were the batch with the best technology. Afterwards, the Sirius belonged to a “newer generation”, and further on, other exploratory spacecrafts in interstellar spaceships were considered even more junior.

Generally, science and technological products that were out of date would only have value in being collected and displayed in a museum or on a display shelf. Reasonably speaking, after so many years of science and technology, there was lots of innovation when it came to the strides humanity took in space. Spaceships and warships had already gone through many rounds of upgrades, and a spacecraft from that generation shouldn’t make people go that crazy. However, everyone’s reaction was just like an Old Era archeology team discovering a magnificent mausoleum of an ancient emperor!

The seven spacecrafts of the primal exploratory Dream Team that could make the Inter-planetary Fund fork out 100 billion wouldn’t be that simple. Furthermore, Fang Zhao took notice of the words “bore the apex wisdom and intelligence of that time”.

Flemington also didn’t care about what Fang Zhao was thinking. He directed men to continue excavating while preparing his report to the top brass. As for Zaro and the others, Flemington had partitioned some areas from them to play around.

Zaro and the others were also unwilling to sit at the side and be idle. They waved at Flemington and requested for some excavating machinery.

Mitisy’s manager Luxin was currently busy taking photographs of Mitisy.

Zaro noticed this and spoke to his agent who was currently drinking some water at the side. “Take a look at other people’s managers! Take more initiative!”

Zaro’s agent, who had just recorded over three hours worth of videos: “…” What the f*cking hell was I doing all this while?!

After taking a few photographs, Zaro turned on the machinery and started to dig. He felt that what he was doing was a tough mission that held great historical significance!

Zaro decided that he would write about a book of his travels when he returned—”Those Days Where I Used An Excavation Machine On Planet Bu”.

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