5: Chapter 5: Shocking Jupiter

Chen Yu saw several hatches open from the side of Ship 1.

A row of small transport ships flew out from inside, heading straight for the giant golden asteroid.

Chen Yu sat in the command room, watching the mining live stream in real-time through the video feed from the transport ships.

The appearance of the mining robots was somewhat different from what Chen Yu had imagined; at least they didn't look like humans.

They resembled four-legged crawling robots with four or five mechanical arms on their backs and a dedicated cargo space in their abdomen.

Though the transport ships looked small, they were over ten meters long, similar in size to a slag truck on Earth, capable of carrying over a hundred tons when overloaded.

After several hours of excavation, all five transport ships returned, fully loaded with gold ore.

Chen Yu followed the smart brain robot to the massive cargo bay and saw the five huge transport ships.

Picking up a piece of gold ore from one of the robot's mechanical arms, Chen Yu felt its heft. He knew without a doubt that its gold content was terrifyingly high.

"Smart brain, how are we going to refine these ores? If we transport them back to Earth, we don't have the equipment, do we?"

"Captain, you don't have to worry about that at all. Our spaceship has specialized equipment for refining various elements, several times more powerful than your Earth's purification equipment."

Chen Yu was overjoyed. Even this was available! That settled it!

"Alright, then arrange to refine all these loads of ore. We'll sell them when we return to Earth!"

"Understood, Captain!"

Chen Yu returned to the main control room, passing the boring time.

"Hey, smart brain, are we very close to Jupiter from here?"

"According to orbital calculations, if we fly a bit further out of the Solar System, we will reach Jupiter's orbit. Currently, Jupiter is approximately 130 million kilometers from us, and it will take us about half a day to fly there."

Chen Yu thought, since he was already here, he might as well go see Jupiter, the largest gas giant in the Solar System.

Everyone said Jupiter was terrifying, but Chen Yu was more curious about the patterns on its surface.

"Okay, adjust the orbit. Let's go see Jupiter now."

"Understood, Captain. Adjusting flight path now, heading for Jupiter."

"Oh, and to pass the time, hack into Earth's network and download some games for me to play."

"Captain, because we are currently over 700 million kilometers from Earth, it takes nearly an hour for Earth's electromagnetic waves to reach here, so game downloads are quite slow."

"However, you can establish quantum communication base stations on Earth in the future. This way, no matter where you are in the universe, you can overcome the speed of light limit and achieve real-time communication."

"Oh! That's great! Then in the future, when I come to space, I can still communicate with Earth in real-time. Hmm, when we go back and have money, we must build such base stations!"

After another half-day of flying, Chen Yu was playing a game on the glass screen of the main control room when a huge bright light suddenly appeared behind the screen.

Chen Yu looked behind the game screen and saw a super-massive planet slowly appearing before his eyes.

At the first glance of this planet, Chen Yu recognized it!

This was Jupiter; he could identify it from the layers of storm clouds on its surface and the Great Red Spot below them.

"Captain, we have arrived at Jupiter."

Chen Yu's mouth was wide open, unable to close. Jupiter was simply too massive, making him feel incredibly small.

Seeing such a behemoth up close, Chen Yu actually felt a bit intimidated.

"Smart brain, this thing looks quite intimidating, doesn't it!"

"Captain, Jupiter is actually a planet that did not become a star. If its mass were a bit larger, it could become a star like the next Sun."

"How much larger do you think Jupiter needs to be to become a star?"

"It would need to increase its mass by approximately 80 times to become a star."

"I know, I did go to college, after all."

Chen Yu continued to take out his phone and took a full-body photo of Jupiter as well.

If Chen Yu were to sell these close-up photos, he could probably pay off all his debts.

Since he had seen Jupiter, there was no reason not to go a bit further out and see Saturn!

Chen Yu spent another day going to Saturn to see its beautiful rings. When he witnessed that dreamlike scene, Chen Yu was captivated.

It truly lived up to its reputation as the most beautiful planet in the Solar System. The immeasurably vast Saturnian rings made Chen Yu feel the wonder of the universe.

"Captain, do you want to continue forward and see Uranus?"

Chen Yu knew that Uranus and Neptune were incredibly far away, and going there would take at least a few days round trip, so he ultimately decided against it.

He still had to rush back to Earth to sell gold and embark on the pinnacle of his life!

"No need. Seeing Jupiter and Saturn has already satisfied me. I'll have a chance to see the edge of the Solar System later. For now, let's set off immediately and return to Earth!"

"Understood, Captain. Adjusting course now, destination Earth!"

On the return journey, Ship 1 proceeded at full speed, taking approximately 4 days to return to Earth's orbit.

As Ship 1 approached the Moon, Chen Yu suddenly issued a command.

"Smart brain, let's land on the far side of the Moon."

"Understood, Captain."

Ship 1 landed in a huge crater on the far side of the Moon.

"Captain, why do you want to land on the Moon?"

"Our spaceship is too massive. I haven't decided where to park it when we fly back to Earth. I'll sell this gold, buy a piece of land, or buy a small island in the Pacific Ocean to use as our base."

"Captain, you are indeed thoughtful."

"How is the gold refinement coming along now?"

"Over the past few days, the element refining equipment has been operating at full speed, and half of the gold has already been refined."

Chen Yu's eyes lit up.

"How much gold has been refined?"

"According to Earth's weight units, we have already refined 730 tons of high-purity gold."

Chen Yu chuckled!

"Has... has over 700 tons already been refined?"

"Yes, Captain."

Chen Yu quickly calculated in his mind.

One ton of gold could sell for nearly 400 million. 730 tons would be almost 300 billion, and that was only half of it.

If the other half was also refined and sold, wouldn't he become the richest person on Earth! What was the point of even running a company then!

Just as Chen Yu was fantasizing about the future, the smart brain spoke up to remind him.

"Captain, currently, the global gold reserves of various countries are approximately 33,000 tons. If the gold we have flows into the market, it will inevitably cause a significant depreciation in gold prices."

Chen Yu frowned. He had just remembered this. A large influx of any commodity into the market would certainly cause prices to depreciate.

Also, Chen Yu couldn't just openly sell it. He was just a poor guy who owed the bank a few million.

Suddenly having hundreds of tons of gold would probably only earn him a commendation banner.

So, the hundreds of tons of gold on the spaceship, while seemingly a lot, actually weren't that useful in practice.

"I understand. Prepare a small landing craft. We'll take a dozen tons of gold back to Earth first. Once I develop and make a lot of money, I'll bring the Ship 1 back."

"Understood, Captain. I will go prepare the landing craft now."