I Am Extraordinary Alone
Chapter 368 - 366 Ascending to the Skies

Chapter 368: Chapter 366 Ascending to the Skies

Wei Tianyang, wearing a cumbersome spacesuit, followed the staff’s guidance and arrived at the launch preparation room.

Inside, four other astronauts were already on standby.

He had yet to grow accustomed to the bulkiness of the spacesuit, which was heavier than a heavy-duty bulletproof vest. Although his feet were on the ground, he felt as if he were suspended in the air.

The soles of his boots were too thick, and the suit was a good six or seven sizes too large, making it impossible for him to fully bend his arms. He was like a doll with not enough joints, only able to wave his hands symbolically.

Without the support of others, Wei Tianyang nearly fell over.

Resting against the wall, he saw the other astronauts waving at him.

Since no one had yet donned their glass visors, among the four astronauts, three were foreigners.

"You’re the civilian volunteer for the spacewalk this time?" a black astronaut said with a smile.

"Yeah, it’s bound to be pretty bumpy later, right?" Wei Tianyang said.

"If you completed all the training, this old-fashioned launch method shouldn’t be difficult for you," the black astronaut said.

"What training? What old-fashioned launch method...?" Wei Tianyang asked, puzzled.

"Don’t listen to his nonsense. You’re called Yishenmali, right? That’s a strange name," a white astronaut then said with a laugh.

"Let me explain. Launching people into space with a rocket is the old-fashioned way, but nowadays, rocket launches are relatively cheap, safe, and even somewhat comfortable. You’ll be fine," an astronaut from the Yin Country said.

"What’s the new way like?" Wei Tianyang asked.

"At the International Space Station, they only launch the parts up with rockets, and people go up using the space elevator in the Sethiyan Federation’s Bin State," said a female astronaut with brown skin.

"A space elevator? Is there really an elevator that high?" Wei Tianyang was surprised.

"When we get up there, you’ll see it, heading in the direction of the southern hemisphere. If the orbital position is just right, you can see several black cables leading from the surface directly to the disc-shaped transfer lobby at the Lagrange Point. Then, it continues upwards to the International Space Station," the female astronaut said.

"It won’t break?" Wei Tianyang said.

"Of course not. The space station and the transfer lobby maintain the same orbit speed as the Earth, always aligned in a straight line. The elevator’s cables are made from the most cutting-edge materials we have," she said with a smile.

"It’s very flexible, extremely so, and it can conduct heat, which takes care of high-altitude icing problems. It requires maintenance every nine months mainly to address metal fatigue," the white astronaut said.

"That’s too bad, why doesn’t Zhao Ling also build a space elevator?" Wei Tianyang said with some regret.

"That thing... is not cheap. Both constructing it and the ongoing usage costs are high and there are many technical issues involved. It’s not something a single country can resolve. Ah, damn international politics," an astronaut from the Yin Country said.

As they chatted idly, the final preparations for the launch were already underway.

Wei Tianyang looked at the screen inside the room, where the pristine white launch vehicle stood upright on the launch pad. Vehicles were busily moving around on the ground below, their purpose was a mystery to him, and under the launch pad, more than a dozen staff members were performing final checks.

Half an hour later, they rode in a specialized vehicle to the launch platform. Wei Tianyang tapped on his visor and exhaled, surprised that no mist formed on it.

"Connect to the channel. Can everyone hear me?" an astronaut from the Yin Country’s voice came through the helmet.

On the blue HUD to the left of his visor, five life signs appeared, each with a name attached.

"Connected."

"We’re ready."

"Coming in clear."

"Hello? Hello? Hello?"

"..."

The vehicle reached the launch platform and Wei Tianyang clumsily stepped out. A dozen staff members came to assist them, and a shared orange work lift descended slowly. One by one, they stepped aboard.

"Open the hatch. You go in first, I’ll be second, and the civilian volunteer third," the astronaut from the Yin Country instructed.

"Who’s going to open this thing?" Wei Tianyang asked.

There was a moment of silence on the channel, followed by everyone bursting into laughter.

"If you can find the steering wheel, then you’ll be the one to drive," the white astronaut joked.

The shared lift beneath their feet shuddered and then started to rise slowly, carrying the five of them upwards. Wei Tianyang looked up through his visor, and the sun filtered through the iron framework of the launch pad, turning the small patch of sky above into a well’s mouth. The snow-white rocket was just an arm’s length away.

Wei Tianyang’s heart felt like a hand grenade with the pin pulled, in the silent moment just before an explosion. He was incredibly nervous, more than he had ever been.

In fact, he felt helpless.

Going to space. What a rotten idea...

He had never imagined that one day he would leave Earth, flying higher than the satellites.

Even though he had tried flying, his ambition had never soared beyond reaching slightly higher than a skyscraper, let alone venturing into that breathless, profound darkness.

The small elevator carried them to the top of the rocket, the entire lower half of which was the fuel tank that would disintegrate section by section during the flight, leaving only the short segment at the head as the astronaut’s capsule, akin to a hamster ball.

They were already high enough, with the altimeter in the helmet HUD showing 92 meters. Wei Tianyang looked around to see nothing but the desolate land, the low buildings of the launch center, and the solitary road leading there.

He felt there must be an issue with the altimeter. The vertigo-inducing sensation made him briefly believe he was at a height of 1000 meters, but even so, he knew this was merely due to the lack of any objects of similar height for comparison, which exaggerated his sense of elevation.

The first two astronauts had already passed through the small airtight hatch. Wei Tianyang was third. On the right side of his helmet’s HUD, a layout of the cabin appeared; it looked really cramped. For such a large rocket, the cabin was no bigger than a restroom.

He walked in slowly, and someone inside gave him a hand.

After finding his seat, he docked his space backpack with the slot on the seat, squeezed the handle next to the chair, and with a "kacha," he was secured in the seat.

Everybody took their seats in succession, and the electronically controlled hatch slowly closed.

"Check for the last time, is every status indicator on the spacesuit green?" asked an astronaut from Yin Country.

"Green."

"No problem."

"Check complete."

"Everything’s normal."

From that moment, everyone’s spacesuits unlocked their space mode, vital sign monitoring and temperature regulation functions turned on, and the central air conditioning and liquid circulation systems inside the suits activated as well. Over the next 37 hours, they wouldn’t be able to remove them.

After the hatch closed, the cabin darkened momentarily, only the blue HUDs on everyone’s helmets glowing. Then, the lights inside the cabin came on. Wei Tianyang saw the iron walls encasing them and a small, round porthole. Outside was the monotonous blue sky.

"Entering countdown to launch," a female voice came from the broadcast, followed by the countdown.

This tension made Wei Tianyang somewhat uneasy.

The Caucasian astronaut was murmuring something under his breath; Wei Tianyang caught the name Rada Gan, while the other three seemed quite silent.

"3... 2..."

"Ignition..."

The rocket vibrated as a frantic noise emerged from below. Despite being surrounded by several centimeters of iron walls and the noise-canceling helmet, the racket still made Wei Tianyang tense.

He felt as if he were sitting atop a missile...

Suddenly, a tremendous force pressed him into the seat, the vibration intensifying. His eyes flashed red, and the black corners of his forehead protruded slightly, pressing against the glass visor.

"We’re taking off... Feel this vibration!" exclaimed the astronaut from Yin Country, his voice trembling.

Everyone donned masks of agony, their bodies pressed firmly into their seats.

Wei Tianyang’s body shook; he felt his right arm twitching.

It was an instinctive reaction to danger; he had to control it... damaging the spacesuit would be a disaster...

Wei Tianyang tried to distract himself, to calm his body down. He turned his head with difficulty to glance at the small porthole. The color of the sky shifted from light to dark. He breathed deeply, his head aching, feeling as if his brain was being churned inside his skull.

In an instant, the vibrations ceased.

The sky outside the porthole turned black.

"Huff... huff... we’ve entered," said the Caucasian astronaut.

Instinctively, Wei Tianyang reached out to wipe sweat from his brow but hit the glass visor.

He looked at the Caucasian astronaut and asked, "Entered where?"

The Caucasian astronaut smiled and looked to his side.

Wei Tianyang turned his head to look. The porthole offered a view split between the black sky and the blue earth. He longed to move closer, but his suit was still fixed to the seat.

Just one glance was all it took, and he was captivated by the mysterious, vast, and majestic vista.

Clouds gathered above the blue and brown earth, slowly drifting by. The sunlight haloed the curvature of the planet. All was quiet, save for the ticking of the readings in the rocket cabin.

The communication channel was silent; everyone just quietly watched the outside.

Wei Tianyang understood.

They had entered.

That was the cosmos.