Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Founded in 1870 and headquartered in Kyoto, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is the largest privately owned military production company in Wano Country. More than half of the armored vehicles, aircraft, submarines, and ships of the Wano Country Self-Defense Forces were designed and built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries itself or with its participation, demonstrating its significant position in Wano Country's military industry.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Aerospace Business Division comprises the Aerospace Business Division, Military Aircraft Division, Guided Weapons Division, Civil Aircraft Division, and Space Business Division.

The Vulcan Mars probe is a product of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

Some say that the Vulcan was directly involved with the Wano Country military and received assistance from the United States government.

According to the official statement of Wano Country, the "Vulcan" demonstrated to the world their ability to independently explore Mars, which will greatly improve the country's scientific and technological level and enable Wano Country to gain a place in the "international club of the universe" mainly controlled by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

However, in the eyes of insiders, the "Vulcan" uses technology that has been phased out by the previous generation of Mars probes. It is equivalent to using the core equipment of the United States, building a shell of Wano Country, and then sticking on the label of the United States flag.

Based on the technological level of the Vulcan spacecraft, it was only designed to visit Mars orbit, make initial checks, and then return. It wouldn't undertake any significant scientific research projects, much less possess the capability to land on Mars.

However, no matter how low the level of the "Vulcan" is, it is still a Mars exploration ship, which is enough to make the people of Wano Country have a good time.

The Vulcan capsule can only accommodate one astronaut, but for Wano Country, whose main purpose is to "check off Mars," it makes no difference how many astronauts there are.

So who should be assigned this simple "check-in" task?

After a rigorous selection process from tens of thousands of volunteers, the final winner was a 20-year-old woman named Yui Ishihara, the daughter of Ichiro Ishihara, the head of the Aerospace Business Division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and the granddaughter of Kazuo Ishihara, the current president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

That makes sense.

After all, this is a great opportunity to "gild" one's resume.

"Yui Ishihara, the youngest human astronaut to ever fly to Mars"—that title sounds incredibly impressive.

Another important reason for choosing Yui Ishihara is that she is younger than Zhang Fan.

After five months of interplanetary flight, the Vulcan probe finally reached Mars synchronous orbit.

Mars is not a completely barren place.

Above Mars' geosynchronous orbit floats another relic of human civilization:

Soyuz Joint Space Station on Mars.

Soyuz is an unmanned space station that performs similar functions to the Tiangong International Space Station on Earth.

Mars probes from Earth are interplanetary spacecraft and do not possess the capability to land directly on Mars. To land on Mars, astronauts must transfer to a lander carried by the probe, relying on the lander to travel to and from Mars, while the probe remains in Mars geosynchronous orbit to wait.

The Soyuz spacecraft served as a temporary docking point for the Mars Exploration Spacecraft.

The Vulcan spacecraft successfully docked with the Soyuz spacecraft. According to the established procedure, Vulcan will fly with the Soyuz for 24 hours before returning to Earth.

"The docking process has been completed."

"Begin waking the astronauts."

hiss—

The hibernation pod opened, and Yui Ishihara opened her eyes. She felt a little out of sorts, after all, she had slept for five months.

When Yui Ishihara emerged from the hibernation pod, she nearly bumped her head on the pod wall due to the excessive force. This reminded her once again that she was in Martian space, not Earth, and there was no gravity here.

Coming to Mars wasn't her original intention, but she couldn't resist her father and grandfather's repeated requests, and they assured her that the trip to Mars would be like a short trip of "one day and two nights," equivalent to sleeping in for two days and then it would be over.

As the heiress of the Mitsubishi Group, Yui Ishihara was born with an extraordinary background. She has the typical personality of a rich young lady: spoiled and adorable, but not good at cooking or sports, afraid of the dark, and dreads going to school. She's an amazing singer, and her popularity soared after becoming an idol.

She can't sleep alone at night, has no sense of direction, has a huge plush toy on her bed, her wardrobe is full of cosplay outfits, and her pajamas are personal clothes printed with her fan logo.

Having received an elite education since childhood, she is particularly proficient in economics and is also a seasoned Lolita fashion enthusiast. At home, she enjoys reading comics, watching anime, and playing games.

In short, Yui Ishihara is an idol girl who loves anime and manga.

To say that Yui Ishihara's selection as a Mars astronaut was due to her father and grandfather's connections would be a real injustice to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, because Yui Ishihara's highest number of votes was entirely due to the crazy votes cast by otaku in Wano Country.

A girl like that is clearly not suited to come to Mars.

After the initial novelty wore off, Yui Ishihara began to suffer deep distress.

She didn't know what to do; she couldn't even open the hatch connecting the Soyuz Joint Space Station on Mars, and no one had taught her.

As for Wano Country's casual visit to Mars, taking a quick shower, and leaving, there was no need for her to do anything. In the eyes of Wano Country's researchers, the less she did, the better.

Yui Ishihara is the biggest risk factor for the failure of the Wano Country Mars Project.

To resolve her current predicament, Yui Ishihara decides to use one of her strongest skills:

Sleeping in late.

Grandpa had told her that after 24 hours on Mars, the Wano Country Space Agency (JAXA) would send a command from Earth to guide the Vulcan back to Earth. She initially thought that sleeping in for 24 hours on the spaceship would be a simple matter.

But that's not the case.

Before the return procedure is initiated, the hibernation pod is just an ordinary bed. Without the release of sleep-inducing gases, a person lying in it simply cannot fall asleep.

On Earth, even in quiet moments, there are background noises like insect chirps, frog croaks, and bird calls. In space, the level of quiet is beyond her imagination; any tiny sound is amplified infinitely.

Inside the hibernation pod, Yui Ishihara could hear her own heartbeat, breathing, and even the sound of her blinking.

My teeth are broken; I need to do something about it.

Unable to sleep, tossing and turning, Yui Ishihara emerged from her hibernation pod and decided to do something else she excelled at:

Singing and dancing to otaku dances.

Seino

De Mou sent a large moldy bag to the family

After sending it to my family.

口口楼哇心卡素路哟某头口口……

It's a pity there were no cheers and shouts from the otaku, so it felt like something was missing, but at least I wasn't so scared.

After playing a few songs, Yui Ishihara was already drenched in sweat, so she stopped to rest for a while.

Half an hour later, Yui Ishihara noticed something was wrong. She was still sweating profusely, and it didn't stop even after she stopped dancing.

At this moment, she finally noticed the triangular exclamation mark flashing incessantly on the main screen of the "Vulcan" cockpit. With a trembling heart, Ishihara Yui tapped the warning icon on the main screen:

"The air conditioning system's mainboard is burnt out, and the cooling function has stopped working."

Spacecraft orbiting Mars generate heat when their electrical components operate. However, due to the lack of heat transfer in the vacuum environment, the heat inside the spacecraft accumulates over time, resulting in extremely high temperatures. This necessitates an air conditioning system to lower the indoor temperature to a level suitable for astronauts' work and living conditions.

Although Yui Ishihara didn't understand these technical details, she did understand the meaning of the warning message on the main screen:

The air conditioner is broken!

What should we do? What should we do?

What can a cute girl do?

Go ahead and cry.

"Waaaaah 555..."

Yui Ishihara was genuinely crying. She never wanted to come to Mars in the first place. She's the darling of the Ishihara family, and her father and grandfather can't really force her to do anything, but she couldn't resist the fans' enthusiasm.

For Yui Ishihara, losing fans is a huge deal, and a trip to Mars might put her at the top of the national idol fan rankings, so she has no choice but to bite the bullet and go for it.

The only solution Ishihara Yui could think of right now was to lie in the hibernation pod and wait to return. Once in hibernation, the pod would isolate itself from the external environment, so there would be no need to worry about overheating.

However, it was just as stuffy and hot inside the hibernation pod before it was activated.

Yui Ishihara had no choice but to run out again. To alleviate the stuffiness, she took off all her clothes, leaving only her underwear, and walked around the cabin, figuring no one would see her there anyway.

Eat liquid food when you're hungry.

She really wasn't used to eating this toothpaste-like food. Because she squeezed it too hard, the white, sticky liquid inside sprayed all over her, making her feel sticky and filthy.

Time ticked by, and Yui Ishihara finally made it through 24 hours. She happily lay down in the hibernation pod, but after waiting a long time, there was still no movement. She endured the sweltering heat inside the pod for a while, but nothing changed.

At this moment, Yui Ishihara emerged from the hibernation pod and tapped the "email" icon that had been flashing on the main screen since the beginning.

The Vulcan's email inbox was already overflowing with emails from her father, grandfather, JAXA, and even a video recording of the Prime Minister's live national address...

Upon opening the first letter, Ishihara Yui's eyes widened.

Upon opening the second letter, Yui Ishihara concluded that it was fake and that everyone was conspiring to deceive her.

The third letter, the fourth letter, the fifth letter...

Are humans really gone?

That's all!

Yui Ishihara broke down.

"No! I don't want to be alone on Mars!"

"Waaaaah... Grandpa, Dad, Mom, come pick me up quickly..."

"I want to go home, 555..."

In desperation, Yui Ishihara pressed the most prominent distress button in the cockpit of the Vulcan, sending a distress signal into space via a public channel:

"Waaaaah... Someone please save me..."

"I swear, I'll marry whoever saves me..."