Chapter 37: Space Fortune (Bonus)

Chapter 37: Chapter 37: Space Fortune (Bonus)

When Daniel left the Sun, his speed had increased noticeably.

On the way there, his top speed had been around one tenth the speed of light.

Now, on the way back, he could already reach fifteen percent of lightspeed.

His first stop was Mercury.

The planet sat an average distance of 57.9 million miles from the Sun.

Fortunately, Daniel didn’t need to travel that far. After flying roughly fifty million miles, he arrived at Mercury.

The trip took less than twenty minutes.

Mercury was tiny, the smallest planet in the Solar System.

Maybe it had simply spent too long sitting next to the Sun and gotten baked down to size.

Like Earth, it was a rocky planet. Its surface looked somewhat similar to the Moon, covered with impact craters, vast plains, basins, and towering cliffs.

Mercury contained a significant amount of iron. Daniel picked up a meteorite from inside a crater, then circled the planet once before preparing to leave.

Before leaving, however, he decided to leave behind a souvenir.

’Too bad I don’t have a smartphone. Otherwise, I could’ve taken a picture,’ Daniel thought regretfully.

He completely forgot that the sunlit side of Mercury could reach temperatures of over 430 degrees Celsius. If he actually pulled out a phone here, it would probably explode.

Floating several dozen meters above the ground, red light flashed from his eyes.

Using his heat vision, he carved a message into Mercury’s surface.

Daniel was here!

Then he drew a smiling face besides it.

Quite satisfied with his masterpiece, Daniel nodded proudly and flew away.

As he traveled, he squeezed the meteorite in his hand.

Originally, it had been much larger, but carrying the whole thing was inconvenient, so he had broken off a chunk about the size of his palm.

Flying alone was surprisingly lonely.

He absentmindedly played with the meteorite, leaving finger marks in the metal.

’Meteorites are worth quite a bit of money, aren’t they?’

A thought suddenly struck him.

’What if I carry a meteorite back with me later?’

The more he considered it, the more reasonable it sounded.

’Bring back a huge one and sell it. Instant money.’

His imagination began running wild.

’And gold!’

’Any metal that exists on Earth exists somewhere in the Solar System. If I search carefully enough, maybe I’ll find an asteroid belt made entirely of gold!’

At that moment, Daniel realized something.

Making money would actually be incredibly easy for him.

He could soar into the space, dive into the depths of the oceans, and travel virtually anywhere he wanted.

There were almost no places he couldn’t reach.

Forget the entire universe, even within the Solar System alone, there were countless resources that were rare on Earth but common in space.

The entire Solar System was basically his personal backyard.

He could go wherever he wanted.

Why would he ever be short of money?

"I’m such an idiot. Seriously!"

Daniel muttered to himself.

"Why didn’t I think of this before?"

Quietly making a mental note, he decided that he would spend much more time in outer space from now on.

Treasure hunting.

Getting stronger.

And making money.

The future billionaire Daniel had officially arrived.

"Not this time, though. First I’ll check out the other planets. There’s plenty of time in the future."

"Next time, I’m bringing home a giant gold asteroid."

He wasn’t sure how long he’d already been away from Earth.

One or two days wouldn’t be a problem.

But if he’d been gone too long, Carol would definitely start worrying.

Besides, leaving Carol alone in Wakanda wasn’t exactly nice.

She didn’t know anyone there and she was probably bored out of her mind.

"I’ll visit Venus and then head home," Daniel told himself.

After all, Venus was on the way back to Earth. A quick visit would only take a few extra minutes.

About half an hour later, Daniel arrived at Venus.

Walking across the planet’s surface, he immediately noticed how weak the magnetic field was.

It was practically nonexistent.

After observing his surroundings, he found Venus surprisingly interesting.

There were volcanoes everywhere.

Right in front of him, one of them was actively erupting.

Unlike volcanic eruptions on Earth, there wasn’t much ash blasting into the sky.

But the lava flows were fascinating.

Streams of molten rock flowed like glowing rivers across the landscape.

Watching them, Daniel suddenly became interested.

A bold idea appeared in his mind.

He was going to take a bath in lava.

Just thinking about it sounded amazing.

How cool was that?

Daniel looked up at Venus’s sky.

The sky above was orange.

From Venus, the Sun appeared about one and a half times larger than it did from Earth, hanging in the sky as a massive glowing sphere.

Then Daniel sprinted toward the erupting volcano.

Braving scorching winds exceeding 400 degrees Celsius, he charged straight to the crater’s edge.

After studying it for a moment, he nodded in approval.

The lava looked perfect.

Not too thick.

Not too thin.

An ideal hot spring.

Daniel removed his suit and jumped in completely naked.

"Wooooah!"

"Now this is exciting!"

For the first time in a while, Daniel could actually hear his own voice.

Venus had an atmosphere.

There wasn’t any breathable oxygen, but there was plenty of carbon dioxide, enough to carry sound.

"Blub... blub... blub..."

Daniel sank completely beneath the lava’s surface.

Like a child playing in a swimming pool, he blew lava bubbles.

Even though the molten rock measured thousands of degrees Celsius, it felt no different from warm bathwater to him.

He rolled around happily.

He scooped up lava with both hands and splashed it around.

"I really am built different," Daniel thought smugly.

What other human could do this?

"I can!"

In old days humans had dreamt of crossing continents, reaching different lands.

Daniel had long surpassed those fantasies.

He slept on the Sun.

He bathed in lava on Venus.

"I truly am the complete package," Daniel sighed while floating on molten rock.

"Handsome, powerful, and one day I’ll be a billionaire too."

Then another thought suddenly hit him.

"Wait... why am I still single?"

Daniel stared blankly at the orange sky.

"I’m handsome."

"I’m strong."

"I make people feel safe."

"I’m going to be rich."

"So why don’t I have a girlfriend?"

A trace of resentment appeared in his heart.

"Are women blind or something?"

"I’m not even that young anymore."

"I’m already 15!"

...

Daniel spent over an hour soaking in the lava while letting his thoughts wander.

Eventually, the novelty wore off.

It stopped feeling special.

With a splash, he climbed back out.

After putting his suit back on, he prepared to return to Earth.

Before leaving, however, he decided to bring back a meteorite.

The thought of a flaming meteor descending from the sky towards Wakanda and terrifying everyone made him grin.

"I can already see it."

"They’ll all panic."

"And then I’ll walk in front of the meteor and stop it with a single finger."

"My cape will be fluttering dramatically behind me."

"That’ll definitely shock them."

More importantly...

"It’ll shock Carol."

"Maybe then she’ll finally stop trying to beat me up every day."

With his hearing, what couldn’t he hear?

Carol constantly muttered about wanting revenge.

Every single day.

Daniel had long since grown tired of listening to it.

Especially after the times she attacked him and ended up hurting herself instead.

Whenever that happened, she’d spend days talking about how she was going to get even.

"This time I’ll scare her so badly she’ll never think about revenge again."

Daniel grinned to himself.

Carol was simply too weak.

Whenever they sparred, he had to be incredibly careful not to hurt her.

Even after receiving the enhancement from the Heart-Shaped Herb, she still looked weak from Daniel’s perspective.

A stronger ant was still an ant.

Especially now that his power had increased yet again.

If he wasn’t careful, he might accidentally break one of her bones.

Venus wasn’t far from Earth.

Only about 40 million miles away.

At Daniel’s current speed, the trip took a little over ten minutes.

Near Earth’s orbit, he selected a meteorite.

It wasn’t particularly large.

Just over twenty meters in diameter.

Sitting atop the meteorite, Daniel looked back into space.

’I’ll definitely come here more often in the future.’

Out here, he experienced a freedom unlike anything on Earth.

There were no restraints.

No worries about accidentally destroying buildings or hurting people.

He could unleash his full power without holding back.

The feeling was like a fish returning to the ocean.

It was comfortable, natural and liberating.

No one on Earth could truly understand that sensation.

The entire Solar System was his backyard.

Out here, if he saw something he didn’t like, he could punch it into pieces.

He could do whatever he wanted.

Earth was different.

Then suddenly, Daniel froze.

"Oh no."

He had just remembered something.

When he was playing in the lava earlier, he had forgotten to leave behind a message.

The thought immediately annoyed him.

"Whatever."

"I’ll leave one next time."

"There’ll definitely be a next time."

He opened his mouth toward the endless sea of stars.

"See you later."

Then, pushing the meteorite ahead of him, Daniel accelerated toward Earth.

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