Chapter 229: Internet on Mars

He had never had much hope.

“Put it away! The soldiers are coming back!”

“Get back to work, or they’ll starve and beat us!”

“Hurry up, Shawn!”

Shawn nodded, unplugged the phone, and put it back in his pocket.

“Ding!”

Just then, he received a message. The notification sound wasn’t loud, but everybody was surprised. It felt like the sound from another universe.

The crowd looked at Shawn’s pocket.

He was taken aback and took out his phone.

Holy crap!

The signal bar was full!

“Ding!”

“You’ve received an M** message!”

“Ding!”

“You’ve received a message on QW!”

“Ding!”

“Someone has liked your comment on the Moonian government website. Click the link for more details.”

“Ding!”

“Your video has 999 comments. Click here for more details.”

“Ding!”

“You’ve received a message from the Moonian Census Bureau!”

…

Shawn was dumbfounded by the messages. So were all the people around him.

“What’s going on?”

“Why does he have service on Mars?”

“The bar is full! How’s that possible?”

“Seriously? Open the Moonian website now! Send them a message! Ask them to come here and help us!”

“Message? Post a video! Quickly!”

“OMG! How far is Mars from Earth? I can’t believe their signal can get so far!”

…

The soldiers returned after their meal and saw the laborers huddling together. They immediately raised their whips.

“What’s going on? Are you slacking off? You people must have a death wish!”

The crowd immediately helped Shawn to hide the phone. It was their only hope to get out of Mars.

“It’s nothing. I cut my finger, and they’re treating my wound,” Shawn told the soldiers.

“It’s just a finger. Don’t make a fuss! It won’t kill you! Get back to work! Don’t make me hit you again!”

“Yes, of course!”

The passengers moved faster after this little episode. They had hope again!

They didn’t need to wait for the scientists to send a distress signal to Earth. They could do it on their own!

Soon, the news was brought back to all the cabins. When the others heard about this, they took out their phones, so the workers could charge them in the land of hope and bring them back the following day.

While the workers were busy building the factory, the others contacted Earth in their cabins.

…

Back on Earth.

Three sharks with long spikes on their backs were moving fast across the ocean. Phoebe and over a dozen members of the Himmelian Pavilion were chasing them.

“Stop! You can’t get away from us! We mean no harm, nor are we trying to turn you into ordinary people! We only want some of your genes!”

“Bull**! You’re going to kill us! We’ve killed people. I don’t believe you’ll spare our lives!”

The “sharks” weren’t really sharks. Phoebe had gone through much trouble to find these three fishmen. They had all hidden deep in the ocean and wouldn’t come out.

These three tried to do some evil deeds after dark but were caught by the camera. Phoebe and the Himmelian Pavilion were onto them in less than a minute.

Having finally found three fishmen, they weren’t going to let them go. This was the last hope of saving their Patriarch. They could only get stronger after they obtained the genes.

The fishmen were humans, after all. They weren’t cultivators’ matches. After a 10,000m chase, Phoebe finally caught the three fishmen. They were sent to Viclan’s lab, where their genes were extracted.

At that moment, Viclan and Phoebe heard a voice.

“Viclan, go deep into the snow berg and find the 10,000-year-old ice crystal. It’s one of the key pieces to open the portal!”

Viclan and Phoebe looked around in astonishment. It was such a familiar voice. Himmel Soan!

At the same time, another network appeared on Earth. The signal was especially powerful. Skynet was back online as well.

Everybody was familiar with the network and Skynet. Skynet didn’t have a server because Himmel Soan was running it. For a while, only Himmel Soan could open the homepage.

After six months, Skynet was finally back online.

“What’s happening? I’ve just opened Skynet!”

“Is Skynet back? OMG! Does that mean Mr. Soan is back?”

“Mr. Soan! It really is him!”

“Patriarch? Where are you, Patriarch?”

“Mr. Soan has spoken! I knew he would be fine!”

“Has the Himmelian Pavilion found him? Have they rescued him?”

“It can’t be. If that’s the case, ‘Search for Himmel Soan’ would have broadcast it.”

“That’s right. If they had found Mr. Soan, Moon and the 100-Country League would have said something!”

…

Meanwhile, a verified account posted something on Skynet. Everybody could tell who it was. It was Himmel Soan himself!

“Hello, everybody. This is Himmel Soan. It’s been six months. Thank you for all your concern!”

Himmel Soan had been in Atlantis this whole time. He had completely sealed up the kingdom. He thought he could get out in a couple of months, but Atlantis absorbed the spiritual essence he had created.

He realized he had underestimated them. While in confinement, he discovered how to refine essence stones. They were made by combining the pure Atlantean sea water with his Innate Vigorous Energy.

The crystals created were mostly top-grade essence stones with some medium-grade ones. Atlantis found out this secret and took away all the essence stones.

Roams had been studying them since then. He figured out the power of the essence stones in two weeks. The guy had some real talent.

He didn’t become the leading scientist in Atlantis for nothing.