Developing Superpowers in Another World

Chapter 315 – Directions

 

After a long silence on the other end, a voice finally asked, “Do you have my phone’s location?”

Guo Changming glanced up quickly at the female officer standing before him with her arm propped up and explained, “Yes, but we only—”

“Come here now, and bring more people.”

Before Guo Changming could respond, the call ended abruptly.

He looked at the glowing screen of his phone, then at the female officer, and stood up from his seat. “Commander, I’ll head over immediately.”

The female officer nodded and swept her gaze over everyone in the conference room before locking onto a man in uniform seated in the fourth seat to her left. “Boming, take a team and go with Changming.”

Yu Boming rose to his feet, his posture as upright as when he was seated. “Yes.”

On the other end, Tu Ran, who had been forced to end the call, stared at her phone’s black screen and cursed at the battery for draining so quickly. She tossed it into the trash heap in front of her, where it blended in with the rest of the garbage.

The stench of the landfill was overwhelming. Tu Ran pinched her nose and stared at the mountains of trash stretching endlessly before her.

There was every kind of garbage imaginable here, and it was still summer—the smell was suffocatingly pungent.

Tu Ran rolled her eyes, nearly fainting from the stench.

Not knowing when the people from the Academy of Sciences would arrive, she couldn’t stand it any longer. She retrieved a matching helmet for her Pioneer’s combat suit from her personal storage space, put it on, and activated the air circulation system. The foul odor was instantly blocked out, and her head felt clear again.

Tu Ran began circling an empty patch of ground, surveying the area as she walked.

Half an hour later, the rumbling of helicopter rotors echoed overhead. Tu Ran looked up to see three helicopters circling above the garbage heap, searching for a landing spot.

They arrived faster than Tu Ran had anticipated.

After selecting a landing area, the helicopters descended slowly. Standing below, Tu Ran silently activated the helmet’s noise-canceling system.

The hem of her hoodie billowed in the gusts of wind from the helicopter blades, and the scattered trash on the ground was blown in all directions, clearing a patch of open space.

The three helicopters landed one after another. The cabin doors opened, and soldiers in combat gear quickly jumped out and surrounded Tu Ran.

Tu Ran raised an eyebrow, facing the last helicopter without making a move.

The last helicopter’s door opened first, revealing a sharply dressed officer. He stood at the door, scanning the surroundings before finally looking at Tu Ran.

He slowly descended the stairs and walked towards her.

Close behind him was someone Tu Ran hadn’t seen in a long time—Xiang Sheng.

Xiang Sheng, eager to find Tu Ran, spotted her standing amidst the soldiers and immediately sprinted down from the helicopter. She passed the uniformed man and rushed to Tu Ran, throwing his arms around her in a tight embrace.

The force of her sudden hug made Tu Ran take a step back to steady herself.

Why did so many people have to hug her every time they saw her?!

Xiang Sheng’s voice was filled with emotion as she held on tightly, trembling noticeably as she spoke. “Sister Tu Ran, I finally found you! I couldn’t reach any of you, I thought I was the only one who made it back.”

Tu Ran gently patted her back to comfort her, her gaze, however, shifting over her shoulder to the two men standing behind her.

The man in the suit, she had seen before—the one who had taken Xiang Sheng away.

The man in military uniform, however, was unfamiliar.

Xiang Sheng, knowing it wasn’t the time for reunion, let go of Tu Ran, turned to glance at the two men, and quietly stepped behind her.

Tu Ran faced the two men directly.

Guo Changming was the first to speak, extending his hand towards Tu Ran. “Hello, I’m Guo Changming.”

Tu Ran raised her hand to press the side of her helmet, removing it and tucking it under her left arm. She extended her right hand to briefly shake Guo Changming’s. “Tu Ran.”

“Yu Boming.” The man in military uniform also politely extended his hand towards Tu Ran.

“Tu Ran.”

After their hands parted, Tu Ran read their memories in an instant—gathering information on their positions, personalities, decision-making styles, and the latest progress on otherworld research from Blue Star.

Neither of them realized that they had unknowingly revealed everything about themselves.

Guo Changming looked around, seeing nothing but mountains of trash. “I’m not sure, Miss Tu, why you brought us here?”

“Follow me.”

Tu Ran turned and walked past two soldiers holding rifles, ignoring the guns pointed at her.

The crowd moved with her. Guo Changming whispered something quickly to Yu Boming, who waved his hand, signaling the soldiers who had been surrounding Tu Ran to lower their weapons. They switched to a protective formation, trailing behind her.

Tu Ran noticed this but didn’t mind. She stopped at the base of a garbage mountain.

“Here,” Tu Ran raised her hand to point at a clear spot on the ground. “The door.”

Both Guo Changming and Yu Boming stepped forward, focusing their attention on the spot she indicated.

This area seemed no different from the rest of the landfill, a stone surface that had been somewhat flattened by a road roller. The only difference was that there was less trash, but they couldn’t see anything special about it.

However, they recalled Xiang Sheng’s description.

“Wasn’t it said that the place where the door appeared showed signs of spatial distortion?” Guo Changming asked, looking at Tu Ran.

Tu Ran lowered her head, her toes tapping the ground, revealing a red plastic cap. “Watch.”

With that, she kicked the plastic cap toward the spot she had indicated.

The red cap spun rapidly in the air, heading toward the target. Based on its trajectory, it seemed to be heading toward the nearby trash mountain behind them.

But it didn’t. In mid-air, the red cap suddenly vanished.

In an instant, it was gone without a trace.

This scene, which only appeared in sci-fi movies, unfolded right before their eyes. Everyone’s heart skipped a beat, as if time itself had paused for a second.

The silent Yu Boming bent down, picked up a stone from the ground, and threw it toward the open space.

He wanted to verify it for himself.

The result was unmistakable—the stone also disappeared mid-air.

“We’re lucky. We’ve encountered a fixed door,” Tu Ran said, gazing at the door that, though invisible to the naked eye, she could clearly sense due to the movement of the air around it.

“Could you explain further?” Guo Changming asked, leaning in with an attentive expression.

Tu Ran hesitated for a moment. “The smell here is something I can’t quite handle.” She was already feeling nauseous from the stench of the garbage mountain for the fifth time.

Her sense of smell had always been sharper than normal, and after collecting a large amount of mental energy from the Haenden Star System, it seemed to have become even more sensitive.

Tu Ran took the helmet from her left arm and placed it on her head. “I’ll wear this helmet. Please don’t mind.”

Guo Changming nodded, “…It’s fine.”

Once the helmet was on, Tu Ran took a few deep breaths and felt herself come back to life, the air inside the helmet fresh and clean.

“The Technological World is a federal state composed of forty-two states. Until now, only two fixed doors have appeared there: one at their administrative center, and the other in a remote state.”

“The Technological World’s connection with other worlds is solely through these two doors. They don’t have random doors like we do in our world, which can appear anywhere.
The fixed doors limit where creatures from other worlds can enter the Technological World. This means that, to prevent invasions from other worlds, the Technological World only needs to guard those two doors.”