Susan Stone's excitement stemmed from the potential for groundbreaking discoveries in both the origin of species and the evolution of planets, discoveries that would undoubtedly electrify the entire academic world.
Correspondingly, the stock price of the Doom Group would skyrocket!
At that point, all those directly involved in the Quantum Gate Project would see their personal worth surge, reaping both fame and fortune.
However, for Victor von Doom at this moment, stock prices and academic acclaim were utterly irrelevant.
His only concern was whether he could find a way to save his mother's soul within that space!
Therefore, he had to personally venture there to investigate.
Staring at the mysterious shadow shrouded in unknown light at the far end of the image in the lower-left corner of the large screen, Victor von Doom impatiently ordered:
"That's enough, have them bring back the exploration device and the monkey!"
Susan Stone nodded and immediately relayed the order.
"The return program will start in 5 seconds. Please wear your glasses…"
"Five, four, three, two, one!"
Accompanied by a burst of dazzling blue light, the exploration device and the hibernation pod reappeared on the launchpad.
Victor von Doom asked with concern, "Quick, check on the monkey! How is it?"
"Vital signs are normal. Our experimental subject 01 is in excellent condition."
Susan Stone threw herself into Victor von Doom's arms, cheering excitedly:
"Success, Victor, you did it… the first organic life experiment is safely completed!!"
Watching the staff carry out the chimpanzee from the hibernation pod, a chimpanzee that was either excited or frightened and flailing its limbs, Victor von Doom's heart surged, and he murmured with burning eyes:
"Next… it's my turn."
But perhaps it was just his imagination, he felt that the chimpanzee seemed much older than before the teleportation?
Could it be that the flow of time in that dimension is different from Earth?
Well, that doesn't matter!
Victor von Doom gently pushed away the gesticulating Susan Stone, straightened his expensive suit, and then stepped out of the control room, addressing all the staff present with a passionate voice:
"Gentlemen, ladies, you have not disappointed me. The results created by the Quantum Gate Project will soon shock the world!
And all the efforts and sweat you have put in will be duly rewarded and praised!!"
"Here, I express my heartfelt gratitude for your contributions… Now, everyone, please go to the catering department to celebrate. The staff there have already prepared a grand party for you!!"
Victor von Doom's style in treating his meritorious subordinates was very similar to Karl's, never stingy.
After all, both of them possessed the business acumen of top capitalists!
After the crowd dispersed, Victor von Doom came to Reed Richards and raised a finger upwards.
"Congratulations, Reed, my big toy in space is now yours."
"Susan will arrange all the matters for your launch… So, good luck!!"
With that, he ignored the hand that the other party extended, and like a victor, put his arm around Susan Stone's waist and strode away amidst a burst of triumphant laughter.
…………
……
Two days later.
Inside the Quantum Gate Project laboratory.
"Mr. Victor, the space shuttle carrying Miss Susan and Dr. Reed has just been successfully launched and is expected to reach the space station in six and a half hours."
Assistant Matt, while helping Victor von Doom tidy up his spacesuit, earnestly advised:
"Sir, you really don't have to personally risk going to that space. You can just leave this kind of thing to your subordinates."
"In case… I mean, in case something happens to you, it will be an immeasurable and enormous loss for the entire Doom Group… no, for all of humanity."
"Don't worry, nothing will happen. The Almighty… cough cough, I mean God will bless me!"
Victor von Doom patted his assistant's shoulder confidently.
Although he had a wild night with Susan last night, he was still radiant today.
As for Susan going to space with her old flame Reed Richards, and whether the two of them would rekindle their old love and cuckold him, he wasn't worried at all.
Because even if they really got together, it wouldn't be a big deal.
For Victor von Doom, career is always the top priority!
If there is anything more important than career, it must be how to save his mother's soul from hell.
And women, for him, are just a little embellishment to adjust his boring life… To put it bluntly, Susan Stone, in his eyes, is just a plaything that can be discarded at any time.
Although Susan can always bring him a different kind of freshness in bed.
But to be honest, being with the same woman for too long… is really boring!
So he couldn't wait for Reed Richards to help him take over and clean the pot.
After getting dressed, Victor von Doom couldn't wait to walk onto the launchpad with three fellow researchers.
Snap——
The capsule-shaped hibernation pod door closed tightly, and then locked from the inside and outside.
After a ten-second countdown, accompanied by a burst of dazzling blue light, the probe first vibrated violently, and then returned to calm.
"Arrived?"
Victor von Doom carefully opened the hatch, first observed the surrounding environment, and found that although the landing site this time seemed to have some deviation from the locations seen in the previous two experiments.
But it was still that extremely barren planet.
The reason why he was so sure was because at the end of his vision, he saw that special temple that had appeared in the reflection of the Fire of Destiny.
The sky of this planet was shrouded in continuous dark clouds, and there seemed to be a large area of severe thunderstorms in the extreme distance. Only occasionally in the cracks of the clouds, there were strands of light like sunlight scattered down.
It was in this dim environment that the temple in the distance, emitting bursts of fluorescent green light, appeared particularly "eye-catching"!
"Oh, Victor, we succeeded!"
The three accompanying researchers didn't seem to notice the abnormality in the distance. They excitedly took out various testing instruments from the probe and began to sample and analyze the surrounding soil and the air composition of the planet.
"Mr. Victor, I think you should come and take a look at this. There seems to be some kind of energy under the surface here?"
Soon, a researcher responsible for sampling exclaimed.
Everyone hurried over to check and found that under the soil layer that he had just drilled open, there was actually a pool of liquid energy emitting a fluorescent green unknown light.
Victor von Doom tentatively slowly approached the green liquid energy in the soil pit with his palm.
But before he could actually touch it, the green liquid energy had already flickered rhythmically.
It looked like some kind of special luminous organism with life.
"This thing actually responds to physical stimuli, like some kind of nerve impulse!"
Victor von Doom had never seen such a peculiar energy before, and he immediately became interested.
Another researcher looked at the data displayed on the energy detector in his hand and exclaimed in a lost voice: "My God, it's unbelievable, these substances… actually have no energy loss at all?!"
"Is it a new type of energy?"
A look of joy appeared on Victor von Doom's face.
If it was really as he had guessed, then they would have made a fortune this time.
It might even be possible to promote the industry and technology on Earth into a completely new era of civilization because of this new type of energy!
Victor von Doom forcibly suppressed the excitement in his heart and turned his gaze back to the alien temple in the distance that was also emitting a fluorescent green light.
It seemed that in the dark, a voice was calling him to go there and explore.
After thinking about it, he raised his hand and pointed to the temple and said, "The energy seems to be all converging there. Someone come with me to take a look, maybe we can find something in the ruins of that alien civilization!"
"What ruins?"
The three researchers looked in the direction he was pointing, but only found a huge shadow shrouded in a fluorescent green haze.
"Judging from the scale, that should be a mountain?!"
Victor von Doom didn't explain too much.
If he hadn't seen the scene of that temple in the Fire of Destiny, he would probably have automatically ignored it like these people at this moment.
So, under his repeated insistence, a researcher accompanied him to head towards the temple.
It took the two of them a full hour to successfully arrive in front of a dilapidated but exceptionally magnificent huge temple.
The height of the temple was at least 100 meters, and the front was a rectangular colonnade, but for some reason, whether it was war or something else, the right side of the colonnade had collapsed on a large scale and had turned into ruins.
But the left half still retained 9 giant stone pillars about 50 meters high and about 5 meters in diameter at the base.
The stone pillars were arranged in three rows, standing in front of the portico, supporting the part that had not yet collapsed.
And the main body of the temple behind was roughly in the shape of a huge circle, with a hemispherical dome on top.
And in the center of the dome, there was also an obelisk-shaped creation made of some kind of black stone that went straight into the sky, estimated to be at least 300 meters above.
Like the colonnade in front, the right half of the main body of the temple also had a large area of collapse.
But from the remaining parts, it can still be seen that the overall style of this building is very similar to the Pantheon (Temple) in the northern part of the Roman circular square.
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Humans standing in front of this magnificent alien temple were as small as ants.
Victor von Doom couldn't help but be amazed. To what extent would the civilization that once existed on this planet have to be developed to build such a magnificent building?
But soon he suppressed the curiosity and shock in his heart and ignored the accompanying personnel beside him who were still making a fuss, as if they had discovered a new continent and fell into ecstasy.
Following the guidance of the "call" in his mind, he walked alone towards the inside of the temple along the part that had not yet collapsed.
The collapse inside the temple was much more serious than imagined.
The huge space inside, which should have been as spacious as a football field, was already largely covered by various building debris.
Victor von Doom could only laboriously find a way to continue to move forward from it.
But in this process, he keenly noticed that on the walls beside him that had not yet collapsed, there were huge bullet craters everywhere, and deep scratches left by either sharp blades or claws.
There seemed to have been an extremely tragic battle here before.
Is this a planet abandoned by aliens?
But if this is the case, then how can the green energy under the surface be explained?
No civilization should actively abandon this kind of energy that has no loss at all, right?
After a while, after many hardships, Victor von Doom finally successfully arrived under the black obelisk.
Within a limited range, he carefully checked it with the lights on his spacesuit.
It was found that these huge black creations seemed to have grown directly from the ground, because he did not see a base for reinforcement at the bottom at all.
How could a 300-meter-high building have no foundation?
This obviously does not conform to the common sense of architecture!
Could it be that the foundation part is buried deeper under the temple?
Victor von Doom didn't delve too deeply into this question, but instead observed the dense alien inscriptions engraved on the surface of the black stone obelisk, which were like runes.
Although he couldn't understand these alien inscriptions, he still felt some kind of mysterious power from them.
"What you want is there!!"
At this moment, the voice that he regarded as "divine revelation" sounded again in the dark, and pointed out a direction for Victor von Doom.
Victor von Doom did not hesitate at all, and immediately walked towards the area buried by the ruins on the right side of the black stone obelisk, and kept digging into the depths with both hands.
"Huh? This is… a log?"
After a while, Victor von Doom dug out a special "book" made of metal from the ruins.
Although the whole book only had a dozen pages, it looked like a thick book!
The reason why it was called a "book" was because it was filled with unknown alien words and a few vivid dynamic illustrations composed of countless small and precise mechanical gears.
However, after Victor von Doom confirmed, the text on this "book" was different from the inscriptions on the surface of the black stone obelisk.
And through the content on those illustrations, Victor von Doom roughly judged that what was recorded on it seemed to be the process of how some kind of horned, demon-like creature invaded this planet.
But in the last illustration, there was a picture of refining the demon into some kind of green energy.
Σ(⊙▽⊙"a？？？
Wait a moment?
Could it be that the green energy under the ground before was formed by refining demons?
Victor von Doom couldn't help but be startled by his own guess.
After all, he had only heard of demons "eating" people, but he had never heard of anyone using demons as energy!
However, if that's really the case, then the characteristic of this fluorescent green energy being completely lossless seems to be explainable.
After all, that's no ordinary energy!
"Damn it, if only I could understand the alien text on this 'book'…"
The more Victor von Doom looked at it, the more itchy he felt, and the more eagerly he wanted to know the true content of the "book."
Because this not only concerns the true origin of the fluorescent green energy outside, and whether it can be used safely.
At the same time, it also involves whether he can successfully save his mother's soul in the future!
That's right.
If possible, Victor von Doom would definitely go to hell himself, and while rescuing his mother's soul, he would refine Mephisto and all the demons under his command into this green energy!!
Σ(⊙▽⊙"a？!!
Suddenly, Victor von Doom thought of the magical spell [Tzeentch's Blessing].
Maybe he can learn this alien text through [Tzeentch's Blessing]?!
After all, the previous [Fire of Fate] was "crammed" in this way!
However.
Just as he was about to try it immediately, he suddenly heard the slightly anxious call of his entourage from outside.
"Mr. Victor, are you alright in there?"
"That… the weather in this area has suddenly become bad, and I'm afraid there will be a thunderstorm soon. For safety, should we return to Earth first?!"
Victor von Doom's face showed a hint of annoyance after being disturbed.
But he still responded helplessly: "I'm fine, I'll be out soon."
...
An hour later, Victor von Doom and the researcher successfully returned the way they came before the bad thunderstorm arrived.
"Mr. Victor, it's really great that you're okay!!"
The other two people waiting next to the detector were already as anxious as ants on a hot pot, fearing that something might happen to them.
No, it should be said that they were more afraid that they would not be able to return to Earth normally due to the interference of the bad thunderstorm!
Moreover, whether it was an illusion or not, they always felt that something was strange here.
The longer they stayed, the more unconsciously they felt panic.
It was as if countless invisible eyes were quietly observing their every move around them.
Making people feel a creepy feeling inadvertently.
"Was the sampling work completed?"
"Don't worry, Mr. Victor, we have completed sampling of air, soil, minerals, and that green new energy!"
"Okay, let's go back then!"
Then the four people re-entered the hibernation pod of the detector, and then used the built-in transmission system to contact the laboratory.
Then the return system was successfully activated.
With a burst of dazzling blue light, they returned to the laboratory of the [Quantum Gate Project].
However.
Just after Victor von Doom and his party of four left.
In the originally endless desolate planet, a violent red wave suddenly appeared in the space.
Immediately afterwards, the picture suddenly changed, turning into a special maze with countless entrances and exits!!
