The scientists witnessed a miracle. Kaitou Kid manually piloted the landing pod and precisely aligned it, sending it swiftly into low orbit.
The scientists looked on in disbelief. They refused to believe Kid had such skill.
The pilots, watching the scientists' faces, secretly laughed. They probably hadn't seen Kid zipping around space like it was nothing. And they hadn't noticed he wasn't even wearing a spacesuit.
"Exploration of the unknown planet starts in two days. Someone give it a code name."
"How about calling it Planet Good?"
"No, no way."
After some back-and-forth, they finally decided to name the planet near the wormhole 'Planet Einstein', in honor of the great scientist. Its nickname would be 'Core'. A Black scientist came up with it, saying the wormhole looked like it was drilling toward the apple's core—like that planet was its destination.
And so the nickname 'Core' stuck.
More waiting. Liu A'dou stood in Bunny's cockpit, completely still. An Rong walked over. "Kid, about what happened before… sorry."
"It's fine. No big deal. I'm doing recon now too, aren't I?" Kid replied.
An Rong let out a breath of relief. Kid seemed young, but he didn't look easy to get along with. She'd thought he might reject the apology. Superman and Batman weren't exactly friendly either—Superman was okay, but Batman was just cold. Kid came off as strict and intense.
"You're waiting for the landing pod to touch down?" she asked.
"Yeah. I just realized how small humans really are. Even with our most advanced tech, it still takes us this long to reach Core. And how many 'two days' does a person get in a lifetime? Since the wormhole appeared, all I've been doing is waiting." Everything had to move at the Earth government's pace, which was slow. If Kid were acting on his own, he'd probably be exploring Core already. But he couldn't do that—he didn't want anyone becoming dependent on him.
Earth didn't belong to Liu A'dou alone. It was also shaped by Superman and Batman. So Kid had to be like Superman—a role model, not a babysitter. He was here to protect the exploration team, not steal the spotlight.
So he waited, wasting precious time. Even someone immortal like him felt the drag of time. For regular humans, these months-long journeys were even harder. Then again, human progress never came overnight. It took generations—sometimes dozens of them—to build up medicine, culture, and technology. One lifetime wasn't enough to do much, but even a small step forward in human history was worth celebrating.
An Rong often pulled all-nighters. She knew there was never enough time, always too many things to do. She didn't like waiting either.
Still, the two days finally passed. The landing pod made it to the surface. It was a next-gen design that could land on any terrain. Expensive as hell. NASA had scrapped the design because of cost.
Good thing America had so many rich people. A lot of things governments dropped got picked up and made real by billionaires. Like now—if the Earth government moved too slowly, Stark would beat them to it. Only billionaires could pour that much money into aerospace tech and turn ideas governments couldn't afford into reality.
If the Justice League hadn't stepped in and pushed the UN to hold a meeting, the first people to arrive at the wormhole would've definitely been American corporations. Only after that would the rest of the world, bogged down in UN bureaucracy, get a turn.
But now, the Chinese side was moving just as fast as Stark—maybe even a bit faster. It just showed how important execution was in modern society.
Two days later, the landing pod finally touched down.
"Let's see what's up there." Everyone who wasn't busy gathered around as Liu A'dou opened the pod.
The pod had landed on a plain—perfect for reconnaissance.
"Dr. An Rong, you take the crawler. And you—yeah, you—handle the drone," Liu A'dou said, calling out two scientists.
"Go on!" Since Kid was the one assigning roles, the scientist who had badmouthed him earlier got pushed forward.
The footage from the camera was thrilling. No one expected the environment to be so Earth-like.
"That's a grassland."
"Yeah, really a grassland. But the grass looks kinda different from Earth's."
"Just different in appearance." A scientist checking oxygen levels said, "Functionally, it's the same. The oxygen concentration is a bit higher than Earth's, but still within the safe range. This is unbelievable—we actually found a planet nearly identical to Earth."
"Even the light levels match. Just don't know if Core rotates once every 24 hours."
The survey went smoothly. Besides the grass, there was nothing unusual—no animals at all.
"The drone can't fly beyond the grassland. Its range is limited. But our crashed probe did catch some moving shadows earlier."
"Maybe those are on another continent." Core had two continents and several scattered islands. It was a lot smaller than Earth, making it perfect for colonization.
Kid thought, 'Looks like the space age is really here. I said I wanted to make Elsa a galactic pop star—now that might actually happen.'
Core—Einstein Star—might just be Earth's twin. With a livable environment that didn't even need terraforming, Kid said, "Once we finish the space station on the other side of the wormhole, the first thing we're doing is landing on Core." He also wondered what kind of aliens might be up there.
Over the next month, Kid and Superman shuttled back and forth between the wormhole and Earth, delivering huge amounts of supplies to build the space station. Each trip, they carried enough cargo to stack like mountains. It helped a lot.
Core kept revealing more surprises—new plants, new insects. Every discovery brought tears of joy to the scientists. Core was a brand-new world, full of unexpected wonders.
With spirits high, the exploration teams finally arrived. After 38 days—3 hours just for deceleration—they made it. China brought three teams, the U.S. two, Russia two, and Britain and France one each. South Korea, Australia, Canada, Germany, and Italy formed a joint team. That made 10 teams total, 20 people in each. A full crew of 200.
Suddenly, the area in front of the wormhole was buzzing with life.
"Looks like we're finally going in," one of the scientists said, excited. They were all itching to experience the wormhole for themselves. "Think Kid will let us join?"
"We probably can, but not all of us. Look, some people are already moving onto Bunny. I bet only one or two teams will be allowed through this time." After all this time working with him, they knew Kid wasn't ordinary. He was on the same level as Superman. Seeing Superman flying around in space without an oxygen mask had practically stopped their hearts. But with the wormhole right in front of them, they didn't care anymore whether Kid was human or not. If Superman was doing it, they could accept Kid too.