Chapter 501 - 489: Lost Plane

Chapter 501: Chapter 489: Lost Plane

Allen’s eyes narrowed slightly.

The mandatory mission, stipulated in the investment agreement he had signed back in his apprentice days, had finally arrived.

Highest priority. Refusal to comply would result in a tribunal hearing.

He stared at the line of text for a moment before leaning back in his chair.

He hadn’t taken any jobs from the Association for over a year to focus on his training. A mandatory mission now was terrible timing.

Allen didn’t want to go at all, but the contract was there in black and white: unconditional summons, not to be refused.

He and Eleanor had argued about that very clause in this same room for half a day back then, and he hadn’t won.

’I’ll go over and see if I can get out of this.’

Allen stood up and pushed open the door to his study.

The sea breeze outside the Deep Blue Residence hit him with its salty, damp air. In the distance, the Floating Islands began to glitter with pinpricks of light in the twilight.

「Fifteen minutes later, Allen arrived on the seventeenth floor of the Association’s administrative building.」

Twenty-odd years had passed, but the place hadn’t changed a bit.

"Please, come in."

As Allen pushed the door open, he saw Eleanor standing before a massive floor-to-ceiling window, reviewing a stack of documents hovering in mid-air. Outside the window stretched the endless, azure sea.

"Mr. Allen." She turned, raising a slight eyebrow at his expression. "Are you here about the mandatory mission?"

"You already know?"

"I’m your designated liaison. I was synced in when the mission was issued."

Eleanor walked back to her desk and sat down. With a tap of her finger, a screen of light appeared. "BR-0931, exploration and asset evaluation of an ancient mechanical civilization’s ruins in Lost Plane X-7734. Is there a problem?"

"Can it be postponed?" Allen asked, getting straight to the point.

Eleanor shook her head, her gesture sharp and decisive.

"The deferment mechanism doesn’t apply to mandatory missions. That’s not something I can change—"

She tapped a line of bold, red text on the light screen. "This is a project being directly monitored by the Association’s upper echelon."

"Then can you assign someone else? I have no intention of refusing a mandatory mission, but I’m truly at a critical point in my training right now."

Hearing this, Eleanor’s face took on a perfectly measured expression of "regret." She steepled her fingers, placed her hands on the desk, and leaned forward slightly.

"I’m afraid not, Allen." She pulled up the mission’s detailed information, and a new light screen unfolded between them. "This mission is different."

Her finger tapped lightly on the screen, and a line of special remarks appeared.

[Attention Level: Dawn Star Level]

"This is a project being directly monitored by a certain high-ranking member of the Association."

"The advance team in that Lost Plane discovered some... ancient mechanical constructs far beyond our current technological framework. Preliminary analysis suggests they may contain lost, ancient Alchemy Technology."

She switched to another interface, this one showing Allen’s personal file.

"The system ran an automatic screening based on the mission’s requirements. Your mission completion rate is still one hundred percent, and your tag in the system is ’High-Contamination War Relic Cleanup Specialist’."

Eleanor’s gaze fell on Allen’s face, as if observing his reaction.

"More importantly, the initial survey shows that the Plane is littered with a massive number of abandoned Golem husks. You are a Golem Wizard from the Alchemy School. In the entire Association, there is no one more suitable. The system designated you as the highest priority, and I cannot override it."

Allen was silent for two seconds.

’She has a point. There’s no flaw in the logic of sending me.’

An Alchemy Wizard who can both fight and dismantle things, sent to the ruins of an ancient mechanical civilization—there really was no one more suitable.

As if to dispel any of Allen’s lingering doubts, Eleanor pulled up another document.

"This is the safety report sent back by the advance team one standard month ago."

The report stated that an elite team led by three Second-level Wizards had already conducted "exploratory operations" in the target area for half a year.

[...Highest energy signature detected in the area is equivalent to a Second-level Wizard.]

[...A total of seven high-level curse anchors and numerous Magic traps have been discovered. We have only dismantled one hundred and thirty-two large-scale Magic traps.]

[...A stable, two-way Teleportation Star Gate has been successfully constructed at coordinates (0, 0, 0). It can be maintained for at least 20 years.]

[Target Plane’s atmosphere contains moderate Magic Power radiation contamination and a suspected magical plague.]

[Mission Difficulty: Low to Medium Risk. Potential Returns: Extremely High.]

[Recommended Wizard Level for Execution: Level 2.]

Eleanor retracted the light screen, a smile blooming on her face again as her tone became lighter. "You see? The Association has already handled all the preliminary dangerous work for you. The Magic Power radiation and plague won’t pose a threat to your protection systems, either."

She winked and said, half-jokingly, "Isn’t this just another gold mine for you? Just a simple fulfillment of your contract. When you get back, your account might just have a few more digits in it."

Allen knew this, of course. What was high-contamination scrap metal to others was a cash flow for his matter-reclamation furnace.

And if there were truly blueprints or equipment for ancient Alchemy Technology, the value would be immeasurable.

’The mission itself is perfectly reasonable. It’s just the timing...’

"Fine."

Allen withdrew his gaze and stood up.

"I’ll leave today."

Eleanor’s eyebrows raised slightly. "No preparations?"

"Not necessary."

His entire fortune was inside Cybertron. He carried a complete industrial production line with him.

’Since I’ve decided to go, I should get it over with quickly. Getting back to my training is what really matters.’

"As efficient as ever." Eleanor stood up and walked him to the door.

「Forty minutes later. Great Library Plane, Central Hub, Star Gate Array.」

Allen presented his mission credentials, and the corresponding Star Gate channel activated. Spatial coordinates locked: X-7734.

He stepped inside.

His vision twisted and colors collapsed, only to reconverge a moment later.

[Warning. High concentration of enchanted metal particles detected in the atmosphere, multiple unknown energy radiation sources, and... suspected supernatural plague spores.]

Good thing Allen had put up his protections before entering the Star Gate, or his physical body would have quickly started to decay.

The first thing he saw was a sky composed of countless fractured metal rings and a shattered dome.

Eerie blue and dark red arcs of energy leaped and flickered silently between the massive steel structures, like the last breaths of a dying dragon.

Beneath his feet lay a boundless graveyard of steel.

Stretching out like mountain ranges were the remains of colossal warships, sliced clean in half.

Sunk like deep valleys were the circular craters from energy weapon bombardments, some several kilometers in diameter.

Countless bizarrely-shaped mechanical creations lay "dead" here in various poses.

Some towered thousands of meters high, like metal spires piercing the sky.

Others resembled disemboweled steel behemoths, their complex internal pipelines and core structures exposed, glinting with a dangerous aura.

Besides the wind, which howled like lost souls as it coursed through the countless metal canyons, there was no other sound.

"No wonder they sent an expert like me to handle this," Allen said, gazing into the distance.