"Shockpoint Space entrance open, sliding in," the broadcast echoed throughout the Ishimura. Everyone, without exception, looked up and out the viewport. The space shrinking in front of the Ishimura had formed an inward concave shape, like a tunnel. Propelled by the pulse engines, the entire Ishimura slid into the tunnel ahead. Once the tail's jet flames had fully entered, the space distorted by the Shockpoint Engine returned to normal.
"Field shield integrity ninety-five percent, everything normal, estimated travel time: 40 hours," Chief Engineer Jacob reported, monitoring the complex data before him.
"Not bad," Marcus mused, sitting in the captain's chair. Pandora is 4.4 light-years from Earth, so forty hours meant the Ishimura's speed was roughly over nine hundred times the speed of light. It seemed incredibly fast, but in the vastness of the universe, it wasn't that quick. After all, the Milky Way galaxy alone has a diameter of one hundred thousand light-years; at this speed, it would take over a hundred years to traverse its entire length.
While it couldn't compare to some absurdly fast faster-than-light engines in certain sci-fi works, such as the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars, which travels at millions of times the speed of light, it was infinitely better than the Warp engines of the Imperium of Man in the Warhammer world. At least there was no risk of Warp demon invasion.
"Continuously monitor the ship's status; report any anomalies to me immediately," Marcus instructed Jacob. Although everything was normal at the moment, no one knew if the Ishimura's engineers had truly fixed the Shockpoint Engine. If anything unexpected happened, Marcus would have to directly interrupt the voyage and forcibly pull the Ishimura into another world.
Standing up, Marcus leaned towards the viewport, looking out at the bizarre Shockpoint Space. The so-called "Shockpoint Space" was actually a special kind of distorted spacetime, similar to Warp bubbles in other sci-fi works. Therefore, the Shockpoint Engine was actually a type of Warp drive. At such high speeds, everyone could observe redshift and blueshift phenomena, which were the lights emitted by stars rapidly moving away from the Ishimura.
"Truly, an indescribable sight," a ship operator from the Resident Evil world couldn't help but exclaim. The others who had not experienced faster-than-light travel also felt the same way, including Marcus. Since his dimensional travel and gaining the system, this was his first time undergoing faster-than-light travel. Fortunately, he wasn't on a ship of the Imperium of Man.
"Alright, stay at your posts," Jacob, who had undergone many faster-than-light voyages, was already accustomed to it and immediately reminded the dazed crew members.
Due to the lower technological level of the Resident Evil world, the crew members from that dimension were merely surprised by the Ishimura's voyage. However, the RDA crew members from the Avatar World were utterly terrified by the Ishimura's incredibly fast speed. The fastest ship on Earth currently, driven by an antimatter engine, could barely reach 0.7 times the speed of light. Even more advanced warships were only at 0.8 or 0.9 times the speed of light. The Ishimura's speed, over nine hundred times the speed of light, completely exceeded their wildest imagination.
"What on Earth are these people's origins?" the captain of the Star of Entrepreneurship pondered, having thought about this question countless times during the past few months of being under house arrest. It was no exaggeration to say that the Ishimura alone was powerful enough to destroy the entire Earth single-handedly.
"These guys aren't aliens mimicking human form, are they?" the first mate put forward a rather terrifying conjecture.
"Let's just take it one step at a time; thinking about it now is useless," the captain of the Star of Entrepreneurship said helplessly, shaking his head. With only forty hours left until they reached Earth, even if this ship truly harbored ill intentions towards Earth, there was nothing they could do. Moreover, due to the existence of the Psychic Contract, they would not truly do anything detrimental to the Ishimura.
"I wonder if this contact will bring destruction or rebirth to Earth," the first mate murmured.
"That's something for the government higher-ups to worry about; let's not bother ourselves with it," the captain replied, shaking his head.
Forty hours later, the Ishimura sailed smoothly through Shockpoint Space and began a slow deceleration.
"Arrived at the edge of the solar system, beginning deceleration, Shockpoint Space exit will open in half an hour," the announcement chimed. The Ishimura had reached the Kuiper Belt at the edge of the solar system and was decelerating, preparing to exit Shockpoint Space. If the calculations were correct, they would appear in space near Neptune.
"All transmigrators prepare; we are about to exit Shockpoint Space." Everyone silently gripped nearby handrails. With a slight tremor, the distorted space around the massive Ishimura slowly returned to normal. Only when the Shockpoint Engine completely shut down did the Ishimura return to normal space.
"Shockpoint Engine extinguished, field generator shutting down, pulse engines decelerated to appropriate speed." Under the complex operations of dozens of operators, the Ishimura finally concluded its faster-than-light voyage.
"How much longer until we reach Earth?" Marcus looked at Jacob.
"Four hours."
"Send a message to Earth, announce our arrival," Marcus said, standing up. In the past forty hours, he had already engaged in in-depth discussions with some crew members on the Ishimura who were proficient in diplomatic strategies. They had finally compiled a series of phrases to use for communication with Earth in the Avatar World.
"Communication array open, message sent." After sending out the lengthy compiled message, Jacob looked at Marcus. "Should the weapon arrays be charged?"
"ADS cannon arrays enter pre-fire status; other weapon systems remain inactive for now," Marcus shook his head. "Let's see what response Earth gives first." Marcus's eyes flickered as he looked in the direction of Earth. "I come with good intentions; don't disappoint me."
The signal propagated towards Earth at the speed of light. 2.5 hours later, the signal reached Earth. Almost all signal receiving devices could pick up this sudden, clear message. Initially, no one paid attention until a laboratory in an orbital space station noticed the signal and focused their attention on the direction from which the signal came—Neptune. The people in the laboratory then discovered the Ishimura, which had mysteriously appeared in the solar system, and began to take the message seriously.