The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 671 Stop making wishes! This isn't a shooting star! (Seeking monthly votes!)

The rocket launch site is far from the city center, and the night sky is clear.

The pristine white rocket, like a dazzling silver needle, rose higher and higher into the night.

This actually greatly increases the rocket's visibility range.

Not only could the audience on the viewing platform and in the live broadcast room see it, but people hundreds of kilometers away could also see it clearly.

In Ningzhou, the closest city, many residents gathered on their balconies after dinner, watching the live stream on their phones while the rockets rose into the night sky.

After reaching the designated altitude, the rocket's bright tail suddenly dimmed.

But the next second, the upper half of the rocket suddenly lit up!
A brighter, more concentrated, dark blue cone-shaped flame suddenly erupted from the "fracture"!
The rocket has broken in two.

The first-stage rocket completed its mission and was pulled into free fall by gravity.

The tail engine of the second-stage rocket spews out a pure and wild torrent of energy, which quickly changes from the initial dark blue to a dazzling blue-white!
As it continued to rise, the cone-shaped torrent of energy rapidly spread across the night sky, becoming even more magnificent and spectacular.

Like a fiery whale breaking free from gravity, it gracefully but irresistibly swims into the universe, leaving a magnificent, spindle-shaped blue trail in the night sky that lingers for a long time.

On this earth, countless people have fallen silent.

A moment later, it turned into excited chatter.

No one expected that after watching the launch all day, the final scene would be even more spectacular than during the day!
Those around Ningzhou, especially those who could see this scene with the naked eye, were so excited they danced with joy.

On the streets, excited shouts rose and fell from the crowd!

The social media landscape, which had already calmed down, has seen a surge in popularity once again!
As everyone knows, this is the last launch of the day, so it's natural to assume that this will be the last spectacular moment.

As the huge blue spindle-shaped trail gradually faded, I felt regret that this magnificent sight was fleeting, and I turned my attention to social media.

At the viewing platform, the reporters and players who had been up all day only packed up their things and headed to the shuttle bus not far away after watching the first-stage rocket reignite and complete its recovery.

As they walked, they chattered excitedly, sharing their feelings and the photos they had just taken.

The valiant sniper, Phantom Moon, and Seven Flower Flower are still together.

However, Qi Huahua didn't say much, and listened to the passionate interaction between Yingyong Sniper and Huanyue, saying things like "more powerful than a missile".

But she was too tired, and now all she could think about was the soft, comfortable bed in the hotel.

After boarding the shuttle bus, he slumped into the chair without any regard for his image.

In no time, the shuttle bus was full of people.

But this time, the driver didn't start the car immediately as before. Instead, he asked the passengers:
Are you all going back to the hotel now?

At this moment, everyone's mind was filled with either the blue blade slicing through the night sky or the fluffy hotel bed, and no one felt anything was amiss.

They answered all at once:
"Yes! I'm exhausted! I need to lie down right away!"

"Thank you for your hard work, driver! This is your last trip, so get some rest after you're done!"

"Hurry, hurry! I've wasted a whole day, I'm in a rush to get back online!"

……

The driver nodded and slowly started the car.
-
Contrary to what outsiders might have thought—that the launch was over and everyone was going their separate ways—this was not the case.

The atmosphere in the command center did not relax; instead, it became even more tense.

Almost everyone stopped what they were doing and focused their attention on Xu Meng.

Xu Meng gently tapped the holographic Earth in front of her, and the holographic image quickly grew larger, expanding from the size of a basketball to a diameter of more than one meter.

When magnified, the silver specks scattered on the orbit of the satellite finally revealed its original appearance.

At this moment, the last 36 satellites slowly dispersed, joining the original 180 satellites.

These 216 satellites, if arranged in optimal orbits, can be dispersed to achieve global signal coverage.

But Xu Meng did not make that arrangement.

At this very moment, all 216 satellites are completely intact.

With Xiaomeng's help in the calculations, these satellites, which were sent into space in six batches and could circle the Earth once every hour and a half, were all still in the same area.

From the perspective of satellite orbits, they are not far apart.

From both a communication and monitoring point perspective, this arrangement is a huge waste.

—For reference, Zhumeng's 216 Aurora Communication satellites have surprisingly surrounded more than 60 of the more than 10,000 satellites in the peripheral industries!

This is obviously unreasonable.

"Xiao Meng," Xu Meng called softly.

"Here I am!" Xiaomeng immediately jumped out of thin air, raising her right hand excitedly in response, "Xiaomeng is ready!"

"All satellites, begin final self-check," Xu Meng said.

"Understood! Self-check begins." Xiao Meng imitated Xu Meng, pointing at the holographic image in a very professional manner.

Then, the surfaces of those 216 satellites simultaneously began to shimmer with silver light.

Pink, flowing code light also appeared and disappeared beside her.

Within seconds, she reported to Xu Meng: "Inspection complete, everything is perfect! We can begin anytime!"

Under the watchful eyes of all the engineers in the command center, Xu Meng took a long breath and then slowly exhaled.

With this deep breath, he cast aside all hesitation and doubt.

"Activate all satellites and enable [Aurora Protocol]!"

"Great!"

Xiaomeng had been looking forward to this moment all day and couldn't wait any longer.

Now that Xu Meng has given permission, without the slightest hesitation, all satellites are immediately activated!
550 kilometers above the ground, 216 unremarkable satellites suddenly unfolded their square shells.

Above the sky, purple and green "flowers" burst open.

The intense colors spread at an astonishing speed, becoming invisible to the naked eye within seconds.

Those are high-energy charged particles developed based on holographic media technology and large-scale electromagnetic interference technology.

The coordinated and targeted deployment of 216 satellites is enough to expand its coverage area by dozens of times!

A man-made electromagnetic storm began to sweep across the sky!

Those who dreamed of building their own satellites were the first to be affected.

—The aurora communication satellite itself has strong anti-interference and independent operation capabilities, but under such strong electromagnetic interference, its communication with the ground is temporarily cut off.

They have been "spying" on the peripheral industries that dream of launching satellites, and are following closely behind.

In the ground command center of the peripheral industry, the engineers saw a satellite of Zhumen unfold its outer shell and release purple and green "dye". They were all confused and did not understand what was happening for a moment.

But they quickly realized—

It's not just one satellite, but all of them performing this action simultaneously.

The room full of engineers immediately tensed up!
"what's the situation!!"

"The satellite that builds dreams... has been activated?? Just how heavy is their satellite?"

"Now is not the time to consider launch costs! The focus is on those lights! What are those things!?"

……

Seeing the last batch of satellites launched into space, everyone thought it was time to go home.

Who would have thought they'd pull something at the last minute?!
"Something's wrong!" a telemetry engineer on the left suddenly shouted. "The satellite is slowing down!"

"The upper atmosphere is expanding! Atmospheric density is surging, and satellite orbital drag is increasing!"

"What's going on?!" someone asked in a panic.

"A magnetic storm?!" Chief Operating Officer Tver exclaimed in surprise. "How is this possible?"

The next second he realized—

Now is not the time to think about this.

"Accelerate immediately! Power up the thrusters to maximum and get out of the magnetic storm area as quickly as possible!"

"No!!" the engineer exclaimed in despair, "The signal has been lost!"

"Our communication with these satellites has been completely severed!"

As he spoke, images from different angles began to flicker wildly on the large monitor screen directly in front of him. Blinding red alarm lights flashed, then even the flickering images disappeared completely, leaving only two large words on the black screen—

【NO SIGNL】

(No signal)

Tver's pupils dilated violently.

But I quickly realized—

This unexpected geomagnetic storm did not affect satellites further away.

He immediately issued the order: "Move in satellites from further away to bring in the footage!"

The command center is staffed with experienced engineers, and even though they were a little flustered due to the unexpected situation, they quickly completed Tver's request.

The main screen in front of me lit up again.

In this entirely new perspective, satellites of dreams and satellites of peripheral industries are scattered across the vast continental plates and the cosmic backdrop.

Before Tver could give any orders, the telemetry and control engineers quickly adjusted the satellite monitoring equipment.

The camera then zoomed in rapidly, quickly focusing on a satellite whose attitude had become erratic.

The logo of Edge Industries is still clearly printed on the slowly rolling satellite shell.

"This is satellite number 10817," someone immediately explained to Tver.

"It looks like the Hall thruster has malfunctioned and has lost thrust."

"In addition, the increasing atmospheric density and orbital drag mean that the satellite's speed is insufficient, and its orbit is decreasing."

"If the thrusters aren't restarted immediately, it will soon plunge into the atmosphere and burn up!"

Tver's face was ashen.

Of course he understands that!
But how do I restart it?

That area is now affected by a mysterious geomagnetic storm, and the ground is completely disconnected!
The telemetry and control engineers at the command center have been trying to establish a connection non-stop since just now, but to no avail.

In this situation, they are completely powerless!

“Let’s look at the others,” Tver ordered.

Following his instructions, the telemetry and control engineer quickly adjusted the camera to look at other satellites.

It was soon discovered that each satellite in the peripheral industries was encountering the same problem—

Attitude out of control, thruster malfunction, and the trajectory elevation is continuously decreasing!

However, the Dream Satellite, which is located in the same area, appears to be completely unaffected!

Connect this to the unexpected turn of events in the footage—the satellite that was supposed to be building dreams suddenly "glowing" in the night sky…

This small-scale geomagnetic storm must have been the work of Zhumeng!

Xu Meng... actually dared to openly disregard international law and blatantly violate the Outer Space Treaty by launching a large-scale attack on satellites of peripheral industries?!

This is utterly lawless!

Tver's chest heaved violently, his face flushed with anger, and he was about to burst into a tirade.

But yelling won't help; he needs to calm down and figure out a solution!
But before he could come up with a solution, the image on the big screen started flickering again!
"?!"

Before the monitoring and control engineer could react, the screen went black again.

At the same time, the satellite also completely lost contact.

"The area affected by the geomagnetic storm is still expanding!" Tver shouted. "Detour! All satellites that will pass through there, adjust their orbits!"

"Hurry up!!"

The entire command center immediately became noisy.

Only one person was relatively free—Tver's assistant.

Tver has six assistants, each responsible for different business areas; the one present at the moment is in charge of online public relations.

She was the first to notice the online activity and quickly went to Tver's side: "Boss, I think you should take a look at this."

"What?" Tver was extremely busy and in a terrible mood.

"The aurora has appeared in Ningzhou." The assistant handed the phone to Tver.

Tver was stunned when he saw the dazzling green and purple aurora on the screen.

"Ningzhou? Aurora?"

"How could there possibly be an aurora in Ningzhou?"

As is well known, the aurora is a phenomenon unique to high-latitude regions in most cases.

His assistant reminded him, "Is this a geomagnetic storm caused by the Zhuzhu satellite?"

Tver shook his head frantically.

"how is this possible?"

"The energy released by those two hundred-plus satellites from Zhumeng could trigger a global geomagnetic storm? Impossible!"

"Do you think Xu Meng is the sun?!"

From any perspective, it is impossible for the satellites built to create a global geomagnetic storm, which in turn could cause auroras in low-latitude regions.

This isn't a question of whether or not to believe in Xu Meng, but rather a question of whether or not to believe in the conservation of energy!
—The fact that the other 10,000-plus satellites of Edge Industries are still flying in the sky perfectly also proves this point.

However, the overwhelming aurora videos on social media don't seem fake.

This completely confused Tver.

"Mr. Tver! The out-of-control satellite has exceeded the critical altitude and is re-entering the atmosphere!"

The call snapped him out of his thoughts.

But he didn't go forward; instead, he continued watching the live stream on his phone.

On the screen, a fiery meteor is falling from the sky, disintegrating as it tilts and passes through the aurora.

……

Ningzhou, 1.4 kilometers south of the rocket launch site.

The shuttle bus, which had just set off not far, suddenly stopped again.

Exhausted passengers rushed off the bus as if they had been injected with adrenaline, their eyes wide as they watched an invisible hand tear through the starry sky, and a magnificent aurora flowed down from the heavens, obscuring the entire starry sky!
At this moment, the entire night sky of Ningzhou, the six surrounding towns, and even many neighboring cities can see this magnificent aurora!

Tens of millions of Xia Kingdom residents were completely captivated by this astonishing sight, the first of its kind they had ever witnessed.

One by one, they came outdoors, gazing in awe at this incredible celestial phenomenon and marveling at their good fortune.

The internet exploded instantly.

The overwhelming popularity has swept across all platforms and communities!
But this is still not the end—

Soon, a fiery meteor plunged into the atmosphere, streaking across the dancing purple-green aurora.

"meteor!!!"

"I'm so lucky!!"

At this moment, countless people felt incredibly lucky and quickly put their hands together to make a wish, afraid of missing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

But they soon discovered:

There's no need to be nervous at all; there's plenty of time!
— Less than two seconds after the first meteor appeared, the second fireball followed.

Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth...

It was like rain, chasing and pelting down impatiently!
"Meteor Shower!!"

Some naive citizens were still cheering.

But some people have already realized it:

"That's not right, is it?"

"Wasn't that meteor a bit too big?!"

"Damn it! Stop making wishes! That's not even a shooting star!!"

(End of this chapter)