Chapter 6251

When Balin arrived at Japan’s Antarctic research station, he was roughly four hundred kilometers away from Charlie in a straight line.

The Japanese station closely resembled those operated by the Nordic countries—isolated, surrounded by endless white desolation, with no neighboring facilities in sight.

Antarctica was vast, yet only a handful of nations maintained a limited number of research stations. Each country deliberately left space—not only for its own future expansion, but also for that of others. Establishing stations too close to one another could hinder independent research and risk exposing sensitive missions.

After all, Antarctic research wasn’t limited to studying the environment or local ecosystems.

In many ways, polar research mirrored space exploration, blending scientific inquiry with national strategy and advanced technological development.

Both the United States and China, for example, had tested Mars rovers in Antarctica. With an average temperature hovering just above minus sixty degrees Celsius, Antarctica was the closest terrestrial analog to Mars. Its glaciers, ridges, and barren terrain closely resembled the Martian surface.

Because cutting-edge technologies were often involved, research teams rarely clustered together.