Chapter 443: Pluto: Close, Yet Distant
Pluto
Based on how you felt about Pluto, one could guess the era you were from.
The ancient humans before Blink only viewed Pluto with light curiosity.
The humans during 0-300 YAB, humans were confined to Earth and went through nuclear wars, Murloc crisis, fatal pandemic, and asteroid crisis. They had no time or resources to care about Pluto.
Then came the golden age of the 300s. Dungeons appeared in 300 YAB, not just on earth, but on every planet, including Pluto.
For a few years, humans were threatened by the magic beasts that broke out from dungeons and slaughtered the masses.
But soon, humans turned the situation around.
They started using beast cores to manufacture powerful star treasures—a new generation of weapons that vastly outmatched everything else.
They discovered the treasures dungeons had to offer—special aura-rich fruits, herbs, liquids, and many more natural.
And the third, but a most important factor was that they used the aura to train. Only the privileged got aura crystals. Only the geniuses got aura concentration formations.
Until then, normal people—the majority had no other alternative. But now, they did.
They entered dungeons in massive groups, cleared out areas, and started practicing under the rich aura.
Then they got stronger and went deeper into the dungeon. And the deeper one went into the dungeon, the higher the aura concentration.
This created a positive feedback loop that enabled everyone to grow. But it also created a problem.
For the 8 billion earthlings at that time, there were only so many dungeons. The competition turned fierce and internal conflicts broke out.
Since the solar system was still not colonized, all the major powers contended for resources, and that included the prime families.
Xanders, Nials, and Carons all fought each other, and the government for the dungeons.
But it only lasted until they found out that other planets also had dungeons. Since these planets were not hospitable, magic beasts couldn't break out except for a few locations where they used their strength to survive.
It could've scared the faint-hearted, but to the powerful people, this meant unlimited resources.
So, they used the latest technology, including the ones taken from ruins, and entered the dungeons in large numbers.
Since those planets weren't habitable yet, they simply lived in the dungeons. With unlock of more dungeons, the slowing progress skyrocketed and humanity as a whole grew stronger at a tremendous rate.
In a few more years, humans have located and explored the ruins. They all found some special treasures that were limited but helped terraform the planets.
Thus, in the second phase, the planets were made hospitable and mass migration began.
It was new properties, new lands, and new resources. To help them manage the scarcely populated planet, people began to have a lot of kids while the migration from earth continued.
The last to be terraformed and colonized was Pluto.
Humanity wondered if there were dungeons beyond the solar system. They were also full of curiosity towards the existence of other intelligent species.
Thus, with the rising economy and military power, Pluto took the role of the furthest outpost of the human race in the new frontier of space.
The people of the golden age saw Pluto as a new frontier. The next generations increasingly viewed it as a home.
Despite the wars and losses that followed the abyssals' arrival, Pluto always remained an integral part of the human federation. In fact, these wars only increased humans' attachment towards Pluto.
Living on Pluto meant being proud and happy.
Till six years ago.
Then, every man, woman, and child on the planet was killed. A billion lives were erased in the blink of an eye.
The Neptune Sovereign who was stationed on Pluto was also killed, though he injured his archenemy Thunder King gravely, causing the latter to recuperate for a long time.
As if being blessed by heavens, Ares reached Sovereign state and saved Neptune from the same fate.
Abyssals quickly launched a two-front war against Neptune from both Pluto and Thunder Abyss.
What was once the furthest outpost of the human race turned into a new front of a prolonged and deadly conflict.
From then on, Pluto only elicited pain and rage.
Even uttering its name touched the scar in the heart of every human. It even made some breakdown, particularly the ones that lost their loved ones.
That's precisely why Red Pluto day was treated with such seriousness.
In everyone's mind, Pluto was a land of war and only war.
That's why, when Boo said that the message was intercepted at Pluto, almost no one believed him.
Not even Blue Flash who was an expert in abyssal affairs.
"How can it be Pluto?" Blue Flash tapped her chin.
Varian took a moment to digest the truth and asked. "Any more on information? Where exactly on Pluto?"
Boo smiled with unconcealable pride. "Others might not be able to do it, but Boo did it—backtracking the interceptor. Here you go, master."
With a pop, Pluto's hologram appeared in front of them and a particular location was marked with an X.
Blue Flash tapped her comm and accessed some seemingly confidential files.
[Pluto planetoids deployment]
[Abyss Patrol Records: Pluto]
[Estimations of Pluto powerhouses]
As she browsed through the files, her eyes flashed from time to time and a plan started to brew in her mind.
On the other hand, Enigma browsed through her comm.
Thankfully, Boo helped safeguard her comm or it would've been under constant monitoring of the government. There would've been a danger of tracking everyone contacting her.
Of course, no one else but a select few people knew it, yet her comm was flooded with messages.
The only good thing was that none of the messengers used their original identity.
Enigma suppressed the turmoil in her heart and checked the messages of the last survivors.
While Shadow Guardians on Earth was wiped out, there were members on other planets, though relatively, they were far fewer.
And most of them were condemning her for trying to contact her species and invade the solar system.
However, Enigma noticed that some powerhouses were using anonymous comms and expressed their support.
One of them was Seth.
'While I don't know the truth, I don't trust the military guys. Rather, I'm willing to believe in you, leader. Once I finish my advancement, I'll help however I can.'
Enigma shook her head at the irony.
Knowing that he was going to be on ghostship with Varian, she didn't trust him completely and had him take the neutralizer.
It was essentially saying. 'I don't trust you enough, so take this poison so that I can rest assured you'll not betray.'
Seth was understandably angry at first, but after seeing they saved the cluster cities, Uranus, and even the life of Sovereign Irene, he thought Enigma's actions were justified.
So, he held no resentment against her and his respect for her increased greatly.
Once the mission was done, Enigma fulfilled her end of the promise and gave him the 'miracle potion'. Since then, he was in the middle of advancing to level 9 in both paths.
As the two women got busy with their own works, Varian asked Boo a simple task.
"Send a few million messages and try to locate all those interceptors."
"Yes." Boo happily agreed.
After a few minutes, Varian saw the twenty-five targets. All of them were on Pluto.
Taking a deep breath, he turned to Enigma and Blue Flash.. "We're going to Pluto, and grab one of those things."