Return to Jupiter

As Xiao Yu approached the sun, he finally realized how shallow his previous understanding of it had been.

Books alone could never convey the sun's true power.

Now, Xiao Yu was sixty million kilometers away from the sun, still outside Mercury's orbit.

At this distance, even Jupiter would appear as a mere bright spot, lacking any discernible details. Yet the sun loomed large, the size of a millstone.

Here, in the void of space, there was no air, no diffuse reflection. A massive fireball hung in the pitch-black sky, emanating boundless light and heat. Xiao Yu tested the temperature of the heat shield—it was around 400 degrees.

A powerful stream of high-energy charged particles blew from the sun, its intensity more than ten times what had been measured on Earth.

"This must be the result of Jupiter's influence," Xiao Yu speculated, then decisively abandoned the idea of getting closer, making a slight adjustment to his trajectory to enter an orbit.

This was the closest Xiao Yu had ever been to the sun in his entire life, and perhaps the closest he would ever be. If it weren't for the need to harness the sun's gravity for acceleration, Xiao Yu would never have ventured into such a perilous region.

The sun's mass was not too different from Tianyuan Four's, making the comparison useful. With nothing else to do, Xiao Yu allocated a portion of his CPU to begin processing the data he had collected from the sun.

This data would help Xiao Yu make a rough estimation of the Tianyuan Four star system's conditions, guiding his actions once he arrived.

At this time, Xiao Yu's ionization plan officially commenced. In the previous phase, Xiao Yu had collected about 900 tons of water. During his approximately four-month-long journey around the sun, all of this water would be converted into hydrogen and oxygen, becoming fuel for Xiao Yu.

The 900 tons of fuel now exceeded Xiao Yu's highest reserves, allowing him to experience the lavishness of a spendthrift. Several projects were carried out simultaneously, with all efforts at full throttle. The central computer's load was maxed out, focusing entirely on computing data obtained from Jupiter. Meanwhile, the robot reproduction program officially began, with two robots working tirelessly to produce the next generation, and one robot assigned to continue repairing the spaceship's finer details.

Everything was progressing in a hopeful direction. Only now did Xiao Yu's mind finally relax.

Four months passed in the blink of an eye. Xiao Yu's position had shifted from one side of the sun to the other. As the spacecraft moved further away from the sun, its speed would gradually decrease under the sun's gravitational pull. But since Xiao Yu intended to escape the sun's gravity, he had naturally begun preparations in advance.

In fact, about a month and a half earlier, Xiao Yu had started a slow acceleration, increasing the spacecraft's relative speed from 20 kilometers per second to 40 kilometers per second, and it was still accelerating. It was expected that after crossing Mars' orbit, Xiao Yu's speed would reach 60 kilometers per second, surpassing that of Voyager 1, the fastest spacecraft humans had ever sent.

After that, Xiao Yu would continue flying at this speed until he reached a distance of 1 billion kilometers from Saturn, where he would begin a slow deceleration, eventually landing on Titan.

Everything felt as familiar as before. Once again, Xiao Yu passed within 30,000 kilometers of Mars, gazing at the planet that had suffered a great catastrophe but had also provided him with strong shelter, and his heart was filled with emotion.

"Alright, finally, it's time to cross the asteroid belt and take a new step forward!" Xiao Yu thought confidently.

The last time he had attempted to cross the asteroid belt, the major event of the Moon-Jupiter collision had forced him to change his course. Fortunately, Xiao Yu had not suffered a fatal blow. Like an indomitable cockroach, he had regained his supplies in Earth's orbit, and like Hu Hansan, he was back once again.

This time, no one could stand in Xiao Yu's way.

The asteroid belt indeed had many asteroids, estimated to number a million or more, but spread out over such a vast space, their density was debatable.

In fact, unless you specifically targeted one, you wouldn't even see any asteroids while passing through the belt. It looked as empty as the rest of the cosmic space. So, unless you were particularly unlucky, there was no need to worry about being hit by an asteroid here.

Xiao Yu passed through the asteroid belt without incident. Under the influence of Jupiter's gravity, he was accelerated to 65 kilometers per second, speeding toward his destination.

Now, he was about 300 million kilometers from the sun, 480 million kilometers from Jupiter's orbit, and 1.1 billion kilometers from Saturn's orbit.

Fortunately, Jupiter, Saturn, and Xiao Yu were all on the same side of the sun; otherwise, without Jupiter's gravitational boost, it would have taken Xiao Yu more time.

In the blink of an eye, nearly three more months had passed. Xiao Yu's distance from Jupiter had shrunk to less than 30 million kilometers.

As he gazed at the approaching Jupiter, Xiao Yu began to ponder a crucial question:

Should he take a closer look at Jupiter?

Xiao Yu had already finished calculating the data obtained from Jupiter, and it was now at the stage where it needed experimental verification. Until new data was obtained from experiments, Xiao Yu's research on nuclear fusion couldn't advance further. Although Xiao Yu was 90% sure that the final answer lay within one of his hypotheses, there was always a chance for an unexpected outcome.

What if, at this time, a close observation of Jupiter provided more data? Wouldn't that increase his chances? After all, once he reached Saturn, coming back to Jupiter would no longer be a simple task.

But the danger was also obvious. The Moon-Jupiter collision had only occurred a year ago, and a year in astronomical terms was just a blink of an eye. The impact of such a massive collision could not have dissipated so quickly. Countless satellite fragments might still be flying around Jupiter's orbit, and who knows if Jupiter's magnetic field had mutated, potentially causing all the spacecraft's instruments to fail.

Biting his lip and furrowing his brow, Xiao Yu pondered deeply and finally decided that he had to go take a look.

A strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge are the hallmarks of a scientist. As the most outstanding scientist, Xiao Yu undoubtedly possessed a curiosity intense enough to kill 500 cats. There were two reasons to go to Jupiter: one, a close observation would indeed aid Xiao Yu's research on nuclear fusion technology; and two, Xiao Yu was genuinely curious and really wanted to see what Jupiter looked like now.

"Even if I go, I must consider safety... Hmm... There's about five days left until I reach Jupiter. During this time, I should reinforce and thicken the spaceship's radiation shield... And, I mustn't get closer than 200,000 kilometers to Jupiter... Yes, really, I mustn't get any closer."

Muttering to himself, Xiao Yu commanded the eight robots—whose number had increased by five during the journey—to once again reinforce and thicken the spaceship's radiation shield. At the same time, he turned on the Geiger counter, magnetometer, radar collision-avoidance system, and optical detection system to full power, and even took out the only laser gun, ready to blast away any unavoidable meteorites.

After making all the necessary preparations, Xiao Yu silently watched the growing image of Jupiter, feeling a mix of tension and anticipation.

Jupiter's iconic stripes had disappeared, which Xiao Yu knew was due to the Moon's impact. Even the Great Red Spot, Jupiter's most famous feature, had fallen victim to the Moon-Jupiter collision and vanished.

Closer... Closer still... Xiao Yu's distance from Jupiter had now shrunk to 2 million kilometers. This was already quite close, yet Xiao Yu continued flying forward without hesitation. In about eight hours, the distance between Xiao Yu and Jupiter would reach its closest point—about 200,000 kilometers—before moving away.

The best observation time would only last for 16 hours. All the instruments Xiao Yu had brought were operating at full power, observing Jupiter as much as possible to gather more data.

Despite all these instruments, the central computer was only using less than 30% of its computing power. Xiao Yu had plenty of mental energy to simply stare at Jupiter in awe.

"It's... truly magnificent," Xiao Yu murmured to himself.

Behind Xiao Yu was the grand spectacle of Jupiter's rings, with faint glimpses of Europa and Callisto. In front of him was the gigantic Jupiter.

Jupiter now appeared in a chaotic yellow-brown hue, with massive cyclones visible to the naked eye. Xiao Yu had no doubt about their power—if his spacecraft were thrown into one, it would be torn to pieces in less than a tenth of a second.

At the poles, countless brilliant auroras danced across the sky, far more massive than those on Earth.

With the enormous Jupiter as the backdrop, Xiao Yu's spacecraft seemed no more than a tiny mosquito.

Eight hours passed, and Xiao Yu was now 400,000 kilometers from Jupiter. The closest distance of 200,000 kilometers was approaching fast.

Jupiter now filled Xiao Yu's entire field of vision. He could almost see the countless violent thunderstorms and lightning storms raging on Jupiter. Each bolt of lightning on Jupiter was hundreds of times more powerful than the strongest lightning on Earth. The long streaks of lightning tore through the Jovian clouds, releasing unparalleled energy...

Just the thought of such a scene made Xiao Yu's blood boil with excitement.

Two hundred thousand kilometers.

A strange palpitation suddenly washed over Xiao Yu's mind. He snapped out of his daze, immediately sensing a wave of data that almost made his heart stop.

"Why has the radiation level suddenly increased so much? Why