A Super S-class Soul Bead grenade—the Academy generously awarded Wang Lan fifty credits for it. Although the Academy felt a twinge of pain over the dozen or so Soul Beads that had been wasted, the finished Soul Bead grenades were all decisive strategic treasures.

After all, the Academy had already promised that the first upper-grade Soul Bead obtained would go to Wang Lan. Upper-grade Soul Beads aren't single-use, and Elder Di once estimated that owning 10,000 upper-grade Soul Bead grenades would be enough to assemble an unstoppable Ghost Troops.

Hearing that there were upper-grade Soul Beads in the East Sea Pioneer Space, how could Wang Lan sit still?

Yu Ruoyun, not understanding Wang Lan's intentions, really thought there had been a misunderstanding. She cheerfully kicked open the door of the dean's office together with Wang Lan.

The negotiation process was easy and pleasant, and Yu Ruoyun's proposals met with no obstacles. Wang Lan didn't believe this outcome was achieved simply because Yu Ruoyun was tugging at Elder Di's beard and smiling while making her demands.

As a high-ranking and influential Elder, how could he care about a few hairs on his chin?

"If only one of you had come, I would have considered it more carefully and wouldn't have agreed so readily," Elder Di said. "However, since you both are here, and recognizing the strength of your partnership, I will reluctantly agree to let you participate in this support mission. Your team leader will still be Mr. Wu Shaohua."

"That's no problem, as long as we can participate."

In another conference room, Longya was presiding over a pre-mission tactical meeting with teachers from the tactics department.

"We have yet to clarify the anomaly in the East Sea Pioneer Space, so our main task is to defend the city. If the number of Exotic Beasts in a swarm exceeds what we can handle, we may abandon our position, retreat, and re-establish a defensive line."

"Longya, has it come to this? What's going on with the East Sea Pioneer Command? A month has passed, and they still haven't figured it out?"

"This matter isn't so simple. The Command has sent out dozens of Star Martial Warrior squads to investigate the depths—either they've been completely wiped out without a single one returning, or they've come back empty-handed. Even two Titled Strongmen didn't manage to find any useful information.

Alright, now let's start assigning combat teams. Each person will lead three students and coordinate with the Pioneer Team to strengthen our defenses..."

"ACHOO! ACHOO! ACHOO—" Suddenly, Wu Shaohua let out three earth-shattering sneezes. The surrounding teachers turned to look at him.

"Old Wu, got a cold? You've been a bit under the weather lately!" Longya teased, his words carrying an implied meaning, causing the nearby teachers to burst into laughter.

"No, no, just a sudden itch in my nose. Longya, give me three average students this time. It doesn't matter if their abilities aren't that strong, as long as they're obedient."

"What's the matter? Everyone likes to lead talented students, so why are you requesting average ones? Aren't talented students good?"

"Talented students are good, but talented students can cause trouble too. Last time in the Kingdom of Ice and Snow, I had more than enough of that."

Just then, Longya's phone suddenly rang.

"Hello, Dean. What? Okay, no problem, I'll arrange it! Yes..."

The sudden phone call brought Wu Shaohua's grumbling to a halt. After hanging up, Longya turned to Wu Shaohua with a sly smile. "Elder Di just called. Wang Lan and Yu Ruoyun are also joining this mission, and you're still the team leader."

"Damn it!"

The East Sea Pioneer Space was located due east of Jade Country, with Modu City to the south and Lu Province to the north. Departing from the mouth of Bohai Bay, it was 300 kilometers from the host country.

Wang Lan and the others boarded an amphibious bus at the Modu Naval Port and then traveled for three hours across the vast ocean. Wang Lan had grown up by the sea in his previous life, so he was very familiar with it. However, for most of the students, this was their first true experience of the ocean's enormity, and they excitedly gazed out the windows at the rising and falling waves.

As for seasickness, it was an impossibility for Star Martial Warriors. When they transformed into superhumans, many human frailties were rectified.

The seabirds in the sky called out cheerfully, rising and falling with the sea breeze and waves. In the distance, barely visible fishing boats and ocean-going freighters sounded their long, lingering horns.

"Attention students, we're about to enter the Pioneer Space soon. There will be a roller coaster-like experience during entry, so please be prepared," a voice announced over the bus's loudspeaker. The students onboard looked curiously into the distance.

"Pioneer Space? Where is it?"

"Why can't we see it? And I heard that even if the East Sea Pioneer Space is the smallest of the five major Pioneer Spaces, it's still the size of two Jiang Provinces..."

Just as everyone was puzzled and looking for the entrance to the Pioneer Space, the bus suddenly felt as though it had been tossed high into the air. Then, it plummeted sharply from the sky, rapidly spiraling and charging along an invisible track.

All of them were professional warriors, so no one screamed. After about three minutes, the bus suddenly plunged underwater before shooting up with a BANG and coming to a stop on the surface.

This is really... a magical place.

As the team went ashore, Wang Lan saw a huge harbor, one that was even twice the size of Modu Port. Next to the port stood an enormous city.

Towering skyscrapers penetrated the clouds, balloons with advertisement banners fluttered in the sky, and buses moved along the streets. The scene before Wang Lan made him doubt that this was some Pioneer Space; it looked more like a utopian city.

"Welcome, welcome to the support group from Modu Star Martial Academy."

Following their group, Wang Lan and the others met a contingent of people in camouflage attire, though their dress was somewhat unusual.

"I am Hu Wei from the East Sea Pioneer Team Headquarters," one of them said. "I've been ordered to escort you all to our headquarters."

A teacher from the Modu group said to Hu Wei's contingent, "Thank you for your trouble." Then, to the students: "Line up and board the vehicles in an orderly fashion."

At this moment, the senior students in the bus appeared calm, but Wang Lan was not. He looked around curiously, like a child full of wonder.

"Wang Lan, what are you looking at?" Yu Ruoyun gently patted Wang Lan and asked with a smile.

"Is this really a Pioneer Space? Wasn't it said that in a Different Dimensional Space, the normal laws of physics don't apply? How can there be a city built here? And cars? Also, wasn't a Pioneer Space supposed to be a bitterly cold place? But this city doesn't look anything like a bitterly cold place, does it?"

"The 'bitterly cold place' description is indeed true for those on the front lines defending against Exotic Beasts and those on duty," Yu Ruoyun explained. "The East Sea Pioneer Space was established 600 years ago, during the early years of the Great Jade Dynasty. It's the youngest among the five Pioneer Spaces. With six hundred years of development, the current East Sea Pioneer Space covers an area of 300,000 square kilometers and has seven large cities. Each city is built to accommodate a population of 3,000,000, yet the total population of the entire Pioneer Space is less than 300,000."

"In fact, life in the Pioneer Space is far less dangerous than rumors suggest," a soldier from the Command Headquarters contingent, who had come to welcome them, turned his head, smiled, and interjected. "If it were truly as precarious as some deserters claim, nobody could endure it for long. If it were as exaggerated as those deserters say, then they wouldn't be the only ones to have deserted.

"Our main mission in the Pioneer Space is to explore and defend the territory we've carved out. Each defensive line has surplus capacity. Even when Exotic Beasts launch attacks, we usually detect their movements in advance and prepare for battle. The attacks are repelled, leaving behind corpses and Soul Beads for us to collect. Battles might occur every few days, but casualties are few. Most casualties happen during exploration efforts.

"We expand outward by about ten kilometers every year, and not just in one direction, but in all directions. During this process, some teams might inadvertently enter Exotic Beast territories and fail to evacuate in time.

"As for this young man's question about why there's a city in the Pioneer Space... that's even easier to understand. Of course, it's a benefit the country provides for us. Every Pioneer gets a one-and-a-half-month holiday each year. We can choose to return to the homes provided by the country in the city, or leave the Pioneer Space to visit our families back home. Being a Pioneer is a profession, and the Pioneer Space is our workplace.

"As for cars, the laws of physics are different here, so gasoline and diesel definitely won't work. However, scientists invented the Soul Bead Engine, which serves as a replacement. The only requirement is that the driver must be a Star Martial Warrior, and the driving license is much harder for them to obtain than for ordinary people."

With the ongoing explanation, the Soul Bead-powered car slowly left the city. Outside the city, the desolation of the Pioneer Space became evident. Spanning an area larger than two Jiang Provinces, the Pioneer Space only had seven cities. It was already quite barren, but there was another essential difference from the outside world.

There are no rural areas in a Pioneer Space. Once you leave a city, you directly enter a desolate, uninhabited wilderness with no plants, no pedestrians, and no Exotic Beasts.

Crops cannot be grown in a Different Dimensional Space, and nothing from such a space, including its native creatures or plants, is edible. This means that pioneering in a Different Dimensional Space doesn't yield any tangible material benefits.

To support the five Pioneer Spaces, the nation has to invest more than sixty percent of its resources annually. With such a significant investment and no returns, many smaller countries have reduced, or even eliminated, their investment in Different Dimensional Spaces, some even canceling their Pioneer Spaces altogether.

Take the case of Samu country in the Middle East. It was once known as the strongest nation in the Middle East, with the world's fifth-strongest military. In the second tier of global powers, Samu country ranked among the top three.

Twenty-five years ago, they enacted a major policy reform, reallocating seventy percent of the funds invested in their Pioneer Space to the extraction of Energy Stones, aiming to improve their citizens' standard of living. Under normal circumstances, with the Hawk League Countries, led by White Eagle Country, providing support, Samu country's reforms would have had a ninety percent chance of success.

But no one expected that within just three years, the situation within Samu's Pioneer Space would deteriorate to the point where it had to be closed down. At that time, the White Eagle League Country was itself overwhelmed with its own problems, and Samu country ultimately paid the price for abandoning its Pioneer Space.

Eight months after its Pioneer Space was closed, Different Dimensional Spaces began to open chaotically across Samu country. Countless cities, towns, and farms were engulfed by armies of Exotic Beasts. The strongest country in the Middle East disintegrated within three years.

More than twenty years of international aid has not been able to resolve the turmoil in the Middle East.

Pioneer Spaces don't yield substantial material benefits, but they serve as a nation's spatial ramparts. With Pioneer Spaces, errant Different Dimensional Spaces are likely to be absorbed and integrated, concentrating the Exotic Beasts. The Exotic Beasts are gathered in one place; eliminating one or eliminating a group—it's all part of the same focused effort.

Without Pioneer Spaces, however, a single spark can ignite a wildfire. An army of 2,000,000 Star Martial Warriors would be unable to extinguish a blaze that consumes an entire country.

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