Chapter 78: Expand! Expand!
The sky above the Pacific Ocean.
Inside the business class cabin of a Boeing 787.
A middle-aged woman sitting in a thick seat couldn’t help but complain:
“When I flew from Da Qian to the Lighthouse, it only took eleven hours.”
“Now, it’s still following the Pacific flight path, but the return journey takes fifteen hours. Don’t you think it’s become much longer?”
A flight attendant next to her heard this and couldn’t help but smile and replied:
“Madam, this is actually easy to explain. The flight time is closely related to the flight path and wind speed.
Normally, when you fly from Da Qian to the Lighthouse, you pass through the prevailing westerlies, and the westward flight is faster with the wind.
Conversely, flying eastward is against the wind, and the return time naturally becomes longer.
Not to mention that before, there was no interference from the Floating Continent when flying the Pacific flight path.
Now, there’s this Floating Continent, and many flight paths need to be adjusted.
To save time, we’ve already tried to fly as close to the Floating Continent as possible.
If you choose those routes that go further around, the time spent might even exceed fifteen hours.”
“Floating Continent?”
The middle-aged woman frowned and looked out the window, then asked strangely:
“This Floating Continent has always been suspended in the air and doesn’t move?”
“That’s for sure,” the flight attendant smiled. “If it could move, it would have moved long ago, how could it wait until now?”
“But why do I feel that the Fog Sphere is getting closer and closer to us?”
“Closer and closer?”
The flight attendant raised her eyebrows slightly, bowed and looked out the window, and then was stunned.
All the passengers around who saw the situation outside the window were shocked.
Because the huge spherical Fog Sphere in the distance was constantly expanding outwards, rapidly approaching them.
Through the thick fog, they could vaguely see the doomsday scene of lightning and thunder inside.
“——No!”
Amidst the shrill screams, the plane, which had made an emergency turn, was hit by the Fog Sphere and instantly exploded into a ball of brilliant fireworks.
In the airspace around the Fog Sphere, similar fireworks kept appearing, exploding one after another.
And in the outer airspace, countless captains who received the news urgently maneuvered their planes to return.
……
The waters around the Floating Continent.
Warships were running at full speed, desperately fleeing outwards.
These warships were observation ships stationed nearby by the Official Authorities of Various Countries, including private individuals, originally intended to continuously observe the Floating Continent, or to deploy various observation equipment and even replenish necessary supplies.
Now, the Fog Sphere where the Floating Continent was located suddenly began to expand outwards. Although the altitude had not changed, still hovering above ten thousand meters, the rapidly increasing volume and mass in a short time immediately brought about a large degree of gravitational disturbance, the local sea level rose by dozens of meters, triggering unprecedented terrifying tides, mixed with a very wide range of sea storms, and rapidly spreading in all directions.
No. 4 Aircraft Carrier, the island command center.
Orders were roaring out from the commander’s mouth.
Although the damage suffered in various places on the ship had been dealt with in a timely manner, no one present dared to relax.
When they noticed the change in the Fog Sphere, they had already transmitted the news to all parties at the first moment and began to flee at full speed.
But the expansion speed of the Fog Sphere was really too fast. The exploration team closest to the Fog Sphere from Various Countries was directly wiped out, and some passenger planes near the Fog Sphere also exploded on the spot.
Even they, who were tens of kilometers away from the Floating Continent when the incident occurred, still couldn’t escape from the crisis.
Closer.
Too close!
The huge tidal waves visible to the naked eye behind them were surging in a sweeping manner.
Even though the displacement of the entire aircraft carrier had exceeded one hundred thousand tons, in the face of the raging sea, it was still like a toy boat casually pushed by a child, which could capsize completely at any time.
Liu Wang sat on the shock-absorbing seat, his left hand fastened with a four-point seat belt, his body swaying from side to side from time to time, but he didn’t care about his own violent shaking, but stared at the real-time panoramic image on the screen without blinking.
What was reflected on it was the scene behind the aircraft carrier. In the shocking waves, seven or eight ships from various countries were struggling in the surging sea.
Among them were large patrol ships, frigates, destroyers, and even a super yacht with a displacement of twenty thousand tons, which was the private yacht of the world’s top rich man, Barack, the Arkham.
But at this moment, whether it was the private yacht or the frigate, they all seemed precarious in the violent waves.
A giant wave more than thirty meters high crashed down, and the Sejong the Great-class destroyer, which was one hundred and sixty-six meters long, was directly cut in half on the spot. The broken hull didn’t even flip a wave, and immediately disappeared in the surging waves.
Then another violent wave struck, and the Mizuho-class patrol ship with a displacement of six thousand five hundred tons, as if it were a toy, was thrown into the air and smashed onto the two-thousand-ton super yacht, instantly shattering into countless pieces. The terrifying explosion didn’t even have time to spread, and it dissipated in the violent water tide like a silent fart.
More than half an hour later, the battered No. 4 Aircraft Carrier fortunately left the danger zone, and a large group of damage control personnel were busy all over the ship.
In the small conference room, Liu Wang was listening to the latest report:
“…As of now, the expansion of the Fog Sphere has temporarily stopped. Judging from all aspects of information, this round of expansion should end here.
And the expanded Fog Sphere, the overall shape is still similar to a sphere, the altitude remains unchanged, the lowest point is above the sea level of ten thousand meters, and the radius has increased from more than five hundred and seventy kilometers to nearly nine hundred and eighty kilometers.
According to strict calculations, the area of the Floating Continent inside the Fog Sphere has rapidly expanded from one million square kilometers to three million square kilometers.
We have reason to believe that this Cataclysm is closely related to the 【Sun】 that collapsed inside the Floating Continent, and may even be the only related factor.”
Hearing Little Li’s report, a leader below frowned and said:
“Then what exactly is the 【Sun】? Why can it cause a mass change of nearly three times? That’s an entire continent, not the mud in a child’s hands, which can change as you wish.”
Little Li said helplessly:
“Regarding this point, the experts are still discussing it and have not yet reached a suitable conclusion, but everyone believes that this change has already deviated from the basic scientific scope, or that since the Floating Continent appeared, it has been difficult to explain it reasonably with the existing scientific system.”
“If I remember correctly, in Qi Xuan’s Live Stream Room, there should be four 【Sun】 on the Floating Continent, right?”
Liu Wang said in a deep voice.
Little Li nodded solemnly:
“You’re right, in fact, there are not only four suns, but this time the one that exploded was only the smallest one.”
What if the largest one exploded?
Or what if they all exploded?
…Everyone simply couldn’t imagine.
Just as the atmosphere in the room fell silent, a rapid ringing suddenly sounded.
Little Li quickly answered the phone.
In the next second, the color of his face changed:
“What did you say? The Floating Continent is starting to fall?!?”
