Chương 135: Chapter 134: The Most Expensive Business Trip in History, Just to Get a Login Code

The magitech warship The Sovereign cut through the waves as it turned, its massive mechanical propellers churning the Endless Sea into streaks of white foam, bow now pointed toward the western coast of the Solaris continent. Inside the VIP cabin's office, Lucian sat slumped over the edge of an ebony desk.

In front of him lay an accounting ledger, underlined heavily in red ink: Tartarus black mana-stone fuel consumption: 120, 000 gold Docking fees, customs inspection, and Dragon Empire pilotage: 45, 000 gold Diplomatic gift and reception expenses: 15, 000 gold Holy See digital certificate insurance rental: 20, 000 gold Lucian tapped his quill against the desk and let out a long breath.

"Two hundred thousand gold, clean. We crossed three thousand miles of storm-tossed ocean... just to pick up a login USB stick." Eleanor walked up to the desk, arms crossed.

"You are not allowed to bill the Holy See or the Dragon Empire a reconciliation surcharge just because this trip got expensive." Lucian didn't answer. The Root Certificate loan terms were brutally simple: seven days, one route-authentication attempt, bilateral supervision, no copying, and full replacement liability if the certificate was damaged. Before departure, Solaris and Dragon representatives had separately signed a preliminary bilateral trade MOU for a pilot corridor.

Dragon Empire exports: gold reserve certificates, deep-sea mineral ore, ancient magitech components Solaris exports: grain, automated looms, copies of Nameless Knight Volume 4, and train engines Under that pilot-corridor MOU, Vance Commerce would collect a contractually agreed 8% insurance and infrastructure fee on shipments using the Solaris–Aureum corridor. Lucian snapped the ledger shut and spoke flatly. If the corridor opened, projected recovery time was one month under the agreed tariff schedule.

Eleanor looked over the shipping-route plan and shook her head slightly.

"Did you just monetize an entire diplomatic mission?" Lucian took a sip of apple juice. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Diplomacy has operating costs too." Eleanor smiled. She reached into her cloak and pulled out a small velvet box, setting it on the desk in front of him. Inside was a solid gold coin engraved with an ancient dragon's head — the very first coin the delegation had received on landing at Aureum. Eleanor kept her hand on the lid.

"This commemorative coin... you are forbidden from auctioning it off." Lucian looked at the gleaming gold coin.

"Sentimental assets still carry an equivalent liquidation value of about fifty gold on the antiquities market." Eleanor immediately snatched the box back, glaring.

"I knew it." Ting! The Unified System V2. 0 panel appeared: [NEW TRADE ROUTE DATA VERIFIED] Solaris–Aureum Dragon Harbor shipping lane: SYNCHRONIZATION COMPLETE Permitted action: Authenticate one dormant route-chart segment [DIPLOMATIC GOODWILL ASSESSMENT:] System: [DECLINES TO ASSIGN A CASH VALUE] Lucian muttered.

"Useless." Sylvia, standing nearby, adjusted the stack of documents in her hands.

"Lucian, the return route is stable." The Aureum beacon had been paired during the supervised test and remained dormant until they returned to Station 50. This morning's front page of the Solaris capital's newspaper ran a bold headline:'A MARITIME MIRACLE: Young Master Vance Conquers the Dragon Empire in Just Three Days!' The reality: he'd spent two and a half of those days arguing about the import tariff schedule for dragon bone.... Three days later. Floor 50 Space Station, World Tower.

The five of them stepped out of the express elevator, back in the central control room under its familiar cool fluorescent light. Evelyn unlocked the Holy See's insured carrier and plugged the borrowed Root Certificate into Station 50's reader. Her fingers flew across the mechanical keyboard. Tak-tak-tak... Suddenly, the station's signal receiver crackled with a strange static. Not ancient magic. Not any Ancient Script frequency.

On Evelyn's crystal display, radio frequency graphs jumped and pulsed, showing familiar technical readouts: Carrier band: standard LTE, 1800 MHz Sync signal: Global Positioning System (GPS) Packet timestamp: YEAR 2026 Evelyn's hands stopped moving. Her fingers trembled violently against the brass keys. She stared at the number 2026 blinking on the screen, her voice catching in her throat.

"Lucian... this isn't archaeological data from ten thousand years ago." She took a deep breath, shoulders shaking.

"Earth is... still alive. Right now. This very moment." The control room fell into total, absolute silence. WHRRM! The Floor 50 main console suddenly lit up on its own, untouched. The Station 50 gateway hardware began to hum, then stopped at an authentication prompt. [LIVE EARTH ENDPOINT HANDSHAKE RECEIVED] [ROOT CERTIFICATE SESSION: VERIFIED UNDER JOINT SUPERVISION] [LOCAL TARGET DATE: 2026.] [GATEWAY STATUS: LOCKED — TIME CRYSTAL POWER REQUIRED AT DOOR ZERO.] Evelyn looked up at Lucian.

"Lucian." He slipped a hand into his coat pocket, closing it gently around his spatial ring, and answered, steady and low.

"Yeah." Evelyn looked straight at the dormant Door Zero icon now blinking on the console.

"We found the door home."