The commotion Galactron caused was enormous. It didn't take long before Yuzhou arrived at the area where Galactron was rampaging.
All around, it seemed that in its search for intelligent life forms, many walls had already been blasted apart. Sparks shot skyward everywhere, and in several flammable areas, raging flames were burning intensely.
"Danger!"
A male voice and a female voice cried out in alarm at almost the same time, suddenly reaching Yuzhou's ears. Immediately after, Yuzhou saw Galactron fire a cannon blast at a massive stone wall.
In an instant, the corridor wall collapsed under the bombardment, breaking into huge chunks of stone that crashed down with a deafening clatter.
Then, a red glow flashed in Galactron's eyes. It aimed the cannon in its hand at the collapsed wall and unleashed another blast.
"Father!!!"
A heart-rending cry rang out at the moment the cannon fire exploded. It sounded like Airu's voice.
The instant the blast detonated, Yuzhou vanished from where he stood. In the next moment, he reappeared at the same spot, holding an unconscious middle-aged man in his arms.
"He should be Airu's father," Yuzhou muttered to himself.
Cradling the middle-aged man, Yuzhou flew out of the fortress.
He arrived at a relatively secluded corner and released a suitcase.
He quickly adjusted the time and location settings, then opened a wormhole.
Next, he tossed the unconscious man into it.
"You should go back first. Your daughter is waiting for you on the other side," Yuzhou said to himself. In any case, the man couldn't hear him.
After sending Airu's father away, Yuzhou put the suitcase away and flew up into the sky.
What followed was treasure-hunting time.
The technology of Planet Kushia was so advanced that it surely possessed many valuable treasures.
Even if they weren't on the level of the Giga Battlenizer or the Giga Finalizer, they should still be fairly decent items.
If there was any place most likely to house such "treasures," it would be the fortress they had just been in.
According to Airu, she and her father had gone into that fortress to retrieve the Red Steel—an Giga Finalizer—to prevent it from falling into Gillvalis's hands. That was how they ended up in such dire straits.
If not for the Giga Finalizer, they would have escaped aboard a spaceship long ago.
Flying back into the fortress at extreme speed, Yuzhou first headed to where Galactron was still causing destruction. He fired a freezing beam, encasing it in ice, then used the Giga Battlenizer to smash it to pieces.
This prevented the thing from continuing its rampage and destroying the "treasures" Yuzhou was looking for.
With Galactron dealt with, Yuzhou could finally search the fortress for high-tech products with peace of mind.
However, many rooms had collapsed due to Galactron's attacks, making them impossible to search.
With no other choice, Yuzhou headed toward the upper levels of the fortress. After all, valuable items were usually stored deeper inside.
On the upper floors, even more rooms were in a state of collapse.
Still, Yuzhou managed to find one room that appeared not to have been completely attacked.
On the door of this room were several rune-like characters carved into the surface—symbols Yuzhou couldn't understand.
That didn't stop him from going in to search for loot.
The moment he entered, Yuzhou saw many club-like objects that looked quite similar to the "Red Steel" from the original plot.
Judging by their appearance, they were likely failed prototypes created during the development of Red Steel.
Though they were failures, it was only in the sense that they weren't as effective as Red Steel and couldn't be used to defeat Gillvalis.
A spatial ring appeared in Yuzhou's hand. With a sweeping motion, he stored all of the clubs inside it.
The space inside the ring was enormous—no matter how many items he put in, it could hold them all.
After collecting the clubs, Yuzhou turned his attention to a shelf.
At the centre of the shelf lay a map that looked like a cosmic star chart.
Yuzhou couldn't understand it either, but he still put it away.
He could always ask Airu about its meaning once he returned to the future.
On a long experimental worktable, among scattered items, Yuzhou noticed several devices that resembled computers.
However, these devices had no screens, suggesting they probably used virtual displays.
Without hesitation, Yuzhou collected all of them as well.
After doing all this, he felt there was nothing else worth taking.
He scanned the room one last time—it had indeed been completely looted.
Nodding, Yuzhou left the area.
He searched a few other rooms in the fortress, but found nothing of value.
So he didn't continue exploring.
Returning to the secluded corner, Yuzhou deactivated his transformation, took out the suitcase, and released a white time wormhole.
Carrying the suitcase, he leapt straight into it.
Returning to Planet Kushia for treasure hunting could be described as pure bonus time.
There was no danger at all, and he even obtained so many valuable items.
Of course, the lack of danger applied only to Yuzhou.
…
Stepping out of the wormhole, Yuzhou put the suitcase away.
He was back on the beach. Looking around, he quickly spotted Airu and the unconscious middle-aged man—Airu's father.
"Father! Father!"
Airu held her father's hand, trying to wake him, but there was no response.
"I saved him at the exact moment Galactron's cannon fire hit. Before that, your father had already been pinned down from the waist down by falling rocks," Yuzhou explained as he walked over to her.
"Thank you, Yuzhou!"
Tears streamed from the corners of Airu's eyes as she looked at him.
"Hey, hey, don't cry!" Yuzhou panicked a little when he saw her crying. He wasn't afraid of anything—but girls crying was one thing he truly couldn't handle.
"If it weren't for you, I would never have seen my father again in this lifetime!" Airu said through her tears, her voice trembling. "So… thank you!"
"It's really nothing, just a small matter," Yuzhou said, waving his hand to signal that she didn't need to make a big deal out of it.
"If it weren't for you, my father would already be gone."
Looking at her father, Airu cried even harder.
Yuzhou felt helpless. She was already thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of years old, yet she was still crying like this.
"W-where… am I…?"
It seemed that Airu's crying reached her father's ears. Slowly, he raised one hand to shield his eyes from the dazzling sunlight and spoke weakly.
"Father, you're awake!"
Seeing her father regain consciousness, Airu was instantly overjoyed.
"Airu? You didn't manage to escape either?" However, the first thing her father said upon seeing her was this. "Is this… the world after death?"
"Sigh… what a pity."
"To think the Giga Finalizer still ended up in Gillvalis's hands."
"There's no hope left of defeating it."
Believing this world to be the afterlife, Airu's father sighed repeatedly, his heart heavy with despair.
"Father, we're not dead!"
Airu calmed herself slightly, wiped away her tears, and said to him.