As Liam played around with the observatory, he suddenly had an idea. Could he observe other planets? For example, Zantro Star, the closest planet neighbouring Falva Star?
Zantro Star was a rather prominent dot of light on Falva Star's night sky. Although he couldn't see it right now, Liam could still estimate the rough direction. He turned the telescope and searched for about a minute before locking the conspicuous planet. Curious to test this, Liam pushed the telescope to zoom in. And zoom, and zoom…
After a while Liam had to take a deep breath. On the screen in front of him was a single street crossing inside a large city. He could observe the hover cars speeding around and people going about their day. And yet this was still not the telescope's limit. A few letters and numbers floated in a corner, perhaps the observatory's designation for Zantro Star?
"Simply incredible…"
Liam let out a sigh and zoomed back out. Even if no one knew about him, it felt wrong to observe other people like that. However, a certain question occupied Liam's mind after everything he had seen. What exactly was the original purpose of the observatory? It couldn't be to spy on people, right?
Pondering, Liam tried to see things from the perspective of the ancient civilization. He had a few ideas.
First, the observatory could be used to watch traffic in space. The ancient civilization was prosperous and while toady's Falva Star was at the edge of the federation, in the ancient civilization it might as well have been a popular planet with ships coming and going every minute.
Second, the observatory could spot threats from the outside. The ancient civilization at its peak reigned the entire known universe but they were not the only civilization out there. Throughout its history the ancient civilization was embroiled in many battles. Furthermore, there were other threats like comets big enough to shatter planets or even the extremely rare space beasts, which seemed to have disappeared together with the ancient civilization.
Third, the observatory was used to guard against the void. If one asked what the biggest threat in the universe was, the answer would undoubtedly be the void. Even the disappearance of the ancient civilization seemed to be connected to it.
Liam mulled over his thoughts and recalled the news article from earlier. Didn't it mention a big discovery? Something which could be coined as such certainly wasn't about watching traffic.
"Either an alien threat or the void, huh?"
Liam was only mumbling by himself. But as the word 'void' fell, a tremor suddenly ran through the telescope. The drones lit up even more and an invisible pulse was sent out.
The telescope began to move on its own. It turned towards the right and zoomed in, bridging an unimaginable distance. On the main screen the stars flew by. There was a number at the corner of the screen indicating the distance. It was one of the few things Liam understood as the United Human Federation had adopted the metrics of the ancient civilization like meter and kilometre. However, as the number increased rapidly it reached heights exceeding Liam's comprehension. He could only stare blankly as the telescope zoomed into the universe.
From one moment to another the zoom ended and something appeared in front of the telescope. It was like a crack in the endless darkness of space. It would be extremely inconspicuous if it weren't for the faint violet fog surrounding it.
Yet as Liam observed the screen, he felt his heart pounding heavily in his chest. The sight reminded him of the portal the chaos faction of Crunaboul conjured during the war a few days ago. A portal to the void, capable of summoning fearsome creatures. Only, the crack Liam was looking at right now was much smaller than the portal. It appeared to be either sealed or newly emerged. However, if one such crack existed there might be more. Liam's face went pale imagining what could happen if a void creature invaded the real world.
"Calm down! Nothing is proven yet! I don't even know if monsters like that exist out there."
After forcefully suppressing his negative emotions, Liam knew it was time to report to the army. However, there was one more thing he wanted to try.
"Telescope, can you show me other void cracks?"
The observatory actually reacted to Liam's question. The drones repositioned themselves. Directing its zoom towards another direction it showed another crack after a few seconds. But this one was somewhat different. It was pitch black and without any void energy surrounding it. Additionally there were some numbers and letters on the screen, probably the crack's label.
Wait… if this crack has already been labelled but the first one hasn't, what does this mean?
Liam shivered as a conjecture formed in his mind. He quickly asked the observatory to show him more void cracks. Fortunately, as he did so it only alternated between those two cracks. There didn't seem to be any further threat.
"At least that some slightly good news… Ok, observatory. Go back to Zantro Star."
Liam paused for a moment. There was no movement on the screen. But this only confirmed Liam's guess. It seemed since the modern names of planets differed from the ancient civilization's names, the observatory didn't react. However, the word for 'void' was the same and was thus understood by the observatory.
Perhaps there was more to discover but Liam would allow the army to figure it out. He couldn't waste too much time here or others might worry for his safety. Thus, he commanded the observatory to bring him down and the building reacted smoothly. The drones returned, the screens disappeared, and the tower transformed back into a platform. Liam jumped off, took one last look around, and left the observatory. Without further exploration he directly headed for the exit.
The major and a few players were already waiting quietly outside. They nodded at Liam but remained silent. A few minutes passed and one by one all the players gathered.
"Good, everyone is safe and sound. Well, let's evaluate your findings."
The atmosphere was much less restrained than the last time Liam explored the ancient ruins. Everyone presented their discoveries. Most players brought some technological devices out. They were dysfunctional and not worth much more than the material value. One player told the major about the emergency shelter she discovered and a few others including Liam quickly chimed in to claim credit. Obviously almost half of the group discovered the shelter.
However, when everyone was nearly done, it was Liam's time to shine as he explained things about the observatory. Everyone stared at him in disbelief as they couldn't imagine how he managed to gain entry.
When Liam mentioned the gaming cabins there was not much reaction from the major. Apparently, such cabins had been discovered before, but the technology never spread. At first everyone was still busy with building the consoles, and now that everyone knew about the game's schedule there was not much demand for gaming cabins. They only circulated among some people and were treated as pure luxury.
Liam noticed that the major didn't show much interest and moved on to the telescope. But just as he started to explain, the major's expression turned serious. He could tell that this was an extraordinary discovery. Thus, he immediately pulled Liam to the side where no one could overhear the conversation.
When the two men returned the major's expression was indifferent, but everyone could feel a sense of urgency from him. The major swiftly wrapped things up and brought the group back to Mountain Gate City. Once there, he ordered a troop of soldiers to safely escort the players back to Red Oak while he immediately went to make his report.
Liam reached Red Oak without further complications. He returned to the guild house, threw himself on a couch letting out a big sigh. He needed a few minutes to digest the discoveries of today. At this moment he finally had time to take a look at the challenge given by C.
The challenge came with the usual three rewards of strength, items, or information. Right now, he didn't have much need for items and abruptly increasing his strength would lead to annoying questions. After all, not even Silva had reached the fourth stage of martial arts yet. It would be strange if he suddenly overtook here. Thus, Liam directly decided to choose information.
[Reward Information:]
[In six months from now on the Intergalactic Tournament will begin.]
Suddenly Liam's eye opened wide. This came completely unexpected. An intergalactic tournament? Did this mean the United Human Federation would face off against alien civilisations? Liam swiftly grew curious. There was not much known about alien civilisations among the general public. The matter was too far away for them. Especially considering their players. Did they have any geniuses? Perhaps their different foundation allowed them to excel in certain areas? Could there be someone able to rival him?
Liam was quite looking forward to it.
"Six months, huh? I might already be level 100 by then..."