Superstars of Tomorrow

"This wreckage does indeed look like the Alkaid we lost contact with all those years ago. The archive files show the same ’η’ imprint."

"It is doubtful for now and not confirmed yet."

"Then shall we dispatch men over?"

"Flemington wants to determine whether our reward is still valid. They are eyeing the 100 billion reward."

Only the council could decide when it came to such an astronomical sum. The other small leaders simply couldn’t do anything.

"The reward isn’t a small sum. Oh dear! Never expected that the Alkaid would really be found."

"Who discovered it? Bu Base personnel?"

"Flemington says that it was Fang Zhao who heard activity. Afterwards, Flemington then dispatched a team to follow the sound through the night before they found traces."

"Wow——From the map, it seems a long way off. How do Fang Zhao’s ears work?"

"No wonder the Academy of Sciences keep wanting to study those ears."

"Forget about the matter with Fang Zhao for now. Let’s discuss what we should do."

Inside the conference room, the council members took turns speaking. This wasn’t just for show, and the council members had different views they insisted on. The debate was rather intense.

The director general at the head of the table furrowed his brows tightly. He lifted his hands and was about to tap the table when his communications device rang.

Afterwards, all the council members in the conference room realized that the solemn and serious director general had turned all smiles, as though he was having a chat with his own grandchildren.

Those arguing also kept their mouths shut. They didn’t dare make a ruckus and sat still like obedient primary school kids. Something that could make the director general react this way was a big deal.

The director general slightly bent his back. "... Yes yes yes! I will arrange it right away... yes! Don’t you worry! I will personally see to it!"

After the call ended, the director general’s expression immediately returned to its old imposing manner. He said gruffly, "Set the task of excavating the Alkaid as the number one priority! Immediately dispatch men to planet Bu to take over the excavation work!"

The others also didn’t press for answers at this time and simultaneously voiced their acknowledgment. Basically, this confirmed that the Alkaid was buried there.

"What... what about the reward?" Someone asked.

The director general gritted his teeth. "Give it! Once the Alkaid is excavated, transfer the money immediately! The full sum!"

As the Inter-planetary Fund team got into action, the Spaceflight General Headquarters didn’t fall behind either and sent a team towards Planet Bu.

Before the Alkaid was excavated, information would be classified and not publicized. The general public didn’t know about this matter. Online, many discussions were on how the entertainment program "Up Close Contact" would change its fortunes. During the previous high-profile marketing, everyone in the program team was full of confidence. Furthermore, the invited guests this time each generated their own discussion topics and thread traffic.

"The program should have started filming by now, right?"

There hadn’t been any official information. In the past, there would at least still be some photographs being distributed. Why wasn’t there anything this time?"

"This is standard procedure, deliberately trying to hide and maintain secrecy. Who knows, perhaps they are still conjuring up a big move."

"Director! Come out and say something!"

At that moment in Bu Base, the program team director, who was being summoned by the netizens, was looking through the script with a smile on his face. He gathered all the crew for a meeting to pump them up and prepare to go out. Then, he received a notification from the base——Temporary mission, collaboration to be postponed.

Director: "??"

He started to feel flustered.

The director immediately contacted the feel special guests and brought up filming matters. Fang Zhao had no objections, but the other four guests wanted to apply for temporary leave!

The director when he received these replies: "..."

Despair!

Fury!

The urge to scold someone!

The base isn’t cooperating and the guests are going on strike! What will happen to my godly script that I spent so many sleepless nights perfecting?! Compensation? All the compensation in the world cannot heal the hurt inflicted on me!

The director furiously brought out the contract and decided to get someone to go over it when the news about the Alkaid stopped him in his tracks.

"Alkaid? One of the spacecrafts from 400 years ago from the Dream Team?"

The director’s eyes were glowing indescribably.

Out of those seven old spacecrafts, only two remained. One was inside an aviation museum, while the other one was at a top-secret research institute. The remaining ones had met with various accidents when out on exploratory missions and were destroyed.

The Alkaid was a special technological legacy of that time, and if it was really discovered, the significance would be extraordinary!

No wonder Bu Base had changed their plans. No wonder the special guests weren’t in the right frame of mind to film!

This was also an opportunity!

The director stared blankly at the script he had poured lots of effort into. After mulling it over for five minutes, he finally calmed his wavering mind.

"We will go too! Change the script! This program will revolve around the Alkaid!"

The screenwriter was puzzled. "Director, we are a poverty alleviation reality show. Overall, the majority of the focus should be on entertainment, not archeology. This isn’t in line with our theme."

However, the director had already made his decision and had no intention of changing it. "From where we stand, we must know when to innovate when it comes to creating programs! We must follow the current trends and grab the focal points! Besides, if we don’t change and follow the previous plan, who knows how long we will have to wait before we can film?"

Everyone in the program team nodded their heads simultaneously: Makes sense!

In the end, they were still forced to follow.

The director didn’t want to find out what the others were thinking and instructed staffers to follow after.

Indeed, after the director had changed plans, Zaro and the others also agreed to cooperate. In any case, they were stationed at the sand pit and filming there wouldn’t make any difference.

Zaro held the metal sheet with the ’η’ imprint he had personally dug out and wiped it carefully. Delirious with delight, Zaro had intended to kiss it, but when he thought about how the metal sheet would have probably come into contact with feces, Zaro gave up the idea right away.

Zaro had gotten his assistant to prepare an exquisite box and placed into it the metal sheet along with some photographs he had personally selected and printed out. He then handed it over to base personnel for it to be brought back to earth. Today, Flemington had already arranged for men to fly a portion of the excavated metal pieces back to earth for the Spaceflight General Headquarters as well as the Inter-planetary Fund to study so Zaro had gotten them to help out with an express delivery. The box also contained a handwritten letter. Besides sharing the news of the excavation of the Alkaid to the Leizhou Governor, the letter also had bits that denounced his father.

Not too long after, Leizhou’s governor was delighted to receive this souvenir with special significance. The first photograph even had Zaro’s crooked penmanship at the back that read, "I dug it out myself!"

When he saw the foolish smiles on Zaro’s sand-covered face as he used the excavation equipment in the photos, the Leizhou Governor’s tender feelings towards his beloved grandson swelled. He immediately turned around and went to knock his own son’s head on behalf of his grandson.

Elsewhere, personnel from the Inter-planetary Fund and Spaceflight General Headquarters had already arrived on Planet Bu and had already taken over Bu Base military personnel.

The equipment brought by the Inter-planetary Fund and Spaceflight General Headquarters were of much higher quality compared to the old and outdated machinery of Bu Base. Their excavation efficiency was much higher.

The signal emitted below the sand pit persisted for 20 hours before coming to a halt. According to Fang Zhao’s conjecture, he reckoned that the signal would emit every once in a while and would persist for 20 hours each time.

Although the signal couldn’t be detected now, the position was already confirmed, and it didn’t affect the excavation work.

Following the arrival of personnel from the Inter-planetary Fund and Spaceflight General Headquarters, fortifications, rest areas, and dormitories were already constructed in the vicinity of the sand pit. The program team personnel had also moved over here as it made filming more convenient.

Flemington studied this arrangement and decided to turn this area into a second base after these people left. Such good construction and resources couldn’t be wasted and had to be used to the fullest.

Flemington’s spirits soared when he thought about the reward that would come as well as plans for the second base.

The base’s military personnel were excluded from the excavation assignments after handing over the job. However, Flemington wasn’t the least bit worried. Now, all he had to do was to wait for the money. The Inter-planetary Fund’s director general had already replied, agreeing to transfer the funds once the Alkaid was dug out. As for allocating the shares of the reward, it would be up to themselves to discuss.

"Where is Fang Zhao?" Flemington scanned through the area of the sandpit but didn’t catch sight of Fang Zhao.

"Filming the program. I think they ran over to that side." Song Ping pointed out a direction. "He has bodyguards as well as a map with him. Recently, there haven’t been any storms in the area. He will be fine as long as he doesn’t run out of the safe zone."

"Alright, got it."

It had gotten dark by the time Flemington had finished handling his matters.

Fang Zhao was looking for inspiration at an area one kilometer away from the sand pit.

An enchanting and mystical sea of stars spread out above him.

Beneath him lay a dry desert that was teeming with life.

The boundless starry heavens and the vast desert formed a dream-like tone.

A long long time ago, he had once sat on the sand in a certain area. Just that at that time, the resplendent starry heavens couldn’t be seen, and it hadn’t been that peaceful either.

This was a familiar yet strangely novel feeling.

It was very dark all around and there were no lights. Fang Zhao gazed out into the distance, flipped open his notebooks, and started writing symbols.

Fang Zhao wrote very smoothly. By the time Flemington came looking for him, Fang Zhao had already finished his first draft.

Flemington had sought out Fang Zhao to discuss the allocation of the reward.

"You were the first one to hear the signal. However, without our base military, you wouldn’t be able to find this place. Zaro is also making it widely known that he wants a share of the action; let’s find a time when we can all sit down and discuss it. Whatever it is, your share this time definitely won’t be small. It is a huge sum, and if you don’t know what to do with it, how about using it to support our Bu Base’s development." Flemington spoke without much thought.

"Sure."

"... I... I was just kidding." Flemington suddenly found himself stuttering.

"I wasn’t." Fang Zhao’s tone was mild, yet it was also serious.

"Cough... how embarrassing... Hahaha then it’s settled! Thanks in advance!" Flemington lamented deep down. Fang Zhao is a really good kid!

However, even if Fang Zhao said this, Flemington also felt slightly embarrassed, and he treated Fang Zhao much more sincerely now.

"Planet Bu doesn’t have the resources like Planet Baiji and Planet Wai. This planet is barren, poor, and very arduous. The conditions result in a high turnover rate for base personnel. I will also be transferred away in two years. Before I go, I hope to be able to build up the base even more and let the soldiers garrisoned here live a little better. My heart aches for my own men. I have to strive and fight for more resources before I leave."

"Not necessarily."

"Huh?"

"Planet Bu has its own advantages." Fang Zhao smiled.

Flemington treated this as Fang Zhao comforting him and returned a smile. What sort of sh*t advantages does Planet Bu have?!

After Flemington left, Fang Zhao gazed at the desert beneath the night sky.

He hadn’t deceived Flemington. Planet Bu really had its own opportunities. Yesterday, he had unintentionally overheard Spaceflight General Headquarters personnel’s hushed discussions.

In the future, there was a high possibility that Planet Bu would become a strategic location for military affairs!

Or perhaps it would become a new science and technology tourism base.