It wasn’t until the year 2147 that the Chaka Star Gate came completely under the control of the Asia-Pacific Community.
The Asia-Pacific Community invested manpower, material resources, and financial assets to clear away nuclear contamination and build massive defense constructions around the Star Gate. A corps was permanently stationed there, complete with an array of nuclear weapons.
Since then, the Chaka Star Gate had become one of the stable channels through which the Asia-Pacific Community could enter the Star Realm.
The Asia-Pacific Community had a total of three Star Gates, with the other two located in the hinterland named "Xianglian Star Gate" and in Sumatra called "Giant Port Star Gate."
The Chaka Star Gate was the closest to Chang’an.
Therefore, Ji Xinghuo chose to enter the Star Realm from here.
He rode a car, swiftly passing through the city streets, heading straight for the location of the Star Gate.
The entire Chaka City was built around the Star Gate, with the urban area roughly trapezoidal, covering an area of over three thousand square kilometers, with a permanent population of tens of millions. Though not very densely populated, the lives and work of the entire city’s residents revolved almost entirely around the Star Gate.
The Star Gate was right in the middle of the city. From afar in the car, Ji Xinghuo could see a huge construction standing under the night sky.
As the distance closed, the building loomed larger and larger before his eyes.
When he alighted from the car and stood before it, it was like facing a gigantic city wall, towering over three hundred meters high and with sides roughly five hundred meters long. It was a huge cube-like structure enlarged countless times, resting on the earth. Its color was grayish-white, constructed of composite cement and alloy, majestic and towering, inspiring awe in those who saw it.
"Star Gate Fortress!"
Ji Xinghuo had seen it in videos before, but only by seeing it in person could he truly sense the fortress’s solidity and grandeur.
The Star Gate Fortress, true to its name, was a real war fortress.
It was capable of withstanding attacks from nuclear weapons, and inside, it also housed a considerable nuclear arsenal. It was prepared not just for enemies on Earth but also for the terrifying enemies that might emerge from the Star Realm.
Within a five-kilometer radius around the Star Gate Fortress had been cleared, offering an unobstructed view.
Even at night, Ji Xinghuo could see the thousands of turrets built on this vast space, with even more powerful firepower hidden in scattered barracks in various directions.
The Star Gate Fortress had many entrances and exits.
These entryways varied in size; the largest were tens of meters high, like city gates, but were usually closed. Not all the smaller entrances were open either, and they were heavily guarded, with only three currently accessible.
After passing through identity verification and a security check, Ji Xinghuo walked into the fortress’s grand entrance.
The interior of the fortress was not entirely open but was divided into many levels, stacked like nesting dolls; each wall was over fifteen meters thick. The spaces between the walls formed indoor pedestrian streets wide enough to allow seven or eight tanks and armored vehicles to drive abreast.
The streets were flanked by shops, and the area was bustling with people—all Mutants!
Ji Xinghuo had never seen so many Mutants in reality. Through his magnetic field senses, he could see individual human-shaped magnetic fields moving, each significantly more potent than a regular person.
He stood on the sidewalk and observed for a moment.
His eyes were suddenly opened.
"Super Giant General!"
A giant of over two meters wore hundreds of kilograms of Heavy Armor and carried a massive axe. Each step he took felt like the ground might tremble.
By the Giant General’s side followed a blurry figure of a woman, enshrouded as if in a mosaic, making it difficult to discern her features.
"At least an Advanced Illusion Sound Master," Ji Xinghuo remarked, then turned to see a towering warhorse.
The reddish warhorse with horns on its head and scales on its belly had a man mounted on it, a blue hawk perched on his shoulder. Flanked by two fierce beasts of different shapes, guarding each side of the rider, it was majestically imposing, resembling a zoo director.
Ji Xinghuo watched the man ride away with a touch of envy.
If there was a Professional Template that was both powerful and flashy, not too high a threshold, with comprehensive abilities and convenient, it had to be the Master.
Masters were capable of communicating with Star Realm creatures, taming them to become War Pets and fight for them.
Masters were coveted, with the occupation making up 10% of the workforce.
The more people in a profession, the greater the influence of its association.
Within the Asia-Pacific Community, the two largest Professional Associations were the "Martial Artist Association" and the "Master Association."
The Master Association hosts the "War Pet Competition" every year, and the number of spectators is no less than that of the Super League, sometimes even more explosive.
Innumerable games, movies, and books have been created around Masters, and over the years, this has formed a globally popular Master culture. The related industries, such as war pet breeding, boarding, grooming, taming professions, veterinary medicine, breeding farms, pet food, pet beauty contests, and so on, comprise a massive market worth tens of trillions.
Ji Xinghuo had once thought about becoming a Master, but given his lack of interest in raising pets, he had to abandon the idea.
He continued deeper into the fortress while observing his surroundings.
One after another, Mutants passed by him.
Some were travel-stained, bearing traces of battle, having just returned from the Star Realm with spoils, entering the shops on the street to sell;
others were freshly garbed, moving in groups of twos and threes, ready to enter the Star Realm.
Ji Xinghuo saw more than ninety percent of the over forty professions known on Earth, the unseen ones being the rarest of Professional Templates.
He even saw a "Crowd"!
To be precise, not a "single", but a "group".
Four men with identical faces walked down the street. Although they dressed differently, wielded varying weapons, wore disguises, and had distinct hairstyles, spreading out to maintain a certain distance from one another, in Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic field perception, the magnetic field signatures of all four were completely identical.
These four men were actually the same person!
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ji Xinghuo turned and glanced at one of them.
The Crowd is one of the rarest professions on Earth.
Currently, there are only 66 Crowds known globally, even fewer than the Magnetic Field Madman, with only "Star Realm Traveler" and "Prophet of Destiny" being less numerous.
The core Ability of the Crowd, "Clone Twin", allows creation of an exact copy of oneself, but it splits the Star Power in half.
With each Level rise of Clone Twin, both the original and the clone can create another clone each.
Similarly, the new clone also takes away half of the Star Power.
The clone possesses all the Abilities of the original, and their thoughts are synchronized, giving them a huge advantage, whether in one-on-one combat or in a brawl.
This "Crowd" with one original and three clones indicated that his "Clone Twin" was Second Level.
Ji Xinghuo shifted his gaze away before he was noticed.
His magnetic field perception identified the Rank, but because the Star Power was divided into four parts, each of the Crowd’s clones wasn’t as strong as a Super Mutant of the same Level.
The greatest strength of the Crowd was still in brawls.
Therefore, other Mutants gave the Crowd a somewhat humorous nickname—hooligan gang!
Ji Xinghuo made a mental note of this Crowd’s appearance and continued on, finally reaching the deepest part of the fortress after passing through seven layers of walls.
A vast and bright space suddenly opened up before his eyes.
Ji Xinghuo’s first reaction was to look towards the "door" in the middle of the fortress hall, which actually did not resemble a door as one might imagine.
The Star Gate is a sphere!
It was approximately thirty meters in diameter, a perfect sphere without a single flaw in its shape, with a smooth contour that appeared black to the eye. In fact, it was colorless, simply not reflecting any light, resembling a black hole without gravitational pull.
Multilayered circular platforms were built around this black sphere.
People were entering and exiting on every ringed platform, stepping onto them along the passages, drawing near to the Star Gate, and the moment they touched the surface of the Star Gate they vanished.
At the same time, people emerged from the Star Gate, as if appearing out of thin air on the opposite platform.
Whether entering or exiting, there was no process involved.
It was done in an instant.
Ji Xinghuo curiously watched for half a minute as one Mutant after another came and went, the surrounding people accustomed to it. He did not join the queue to enter the Star Gate; before that, he still had things to do.