Chapter 212: Uncertain Crisis
Vivian’s strength was real. Hao Ren had finally experienced it first hand. Getting hit by the vampire’s Lightning Strike at close range was an experience beyond words. As everyone scrambled out of the wreckage, they saw the spacecraft flashing with lights as well as a large number of dead fish and shrimp—if other people actually learned this fish electrocution ability, they would have been rich by now.
Vivian was the only one back on the surface still in good shape. She was immune to her own power—Lily was not. That was why after a fight with the vampire, she was not any better. But, there was another reason Lily was so enraged. It was because of guilt. The vampire maiden was a good person, just that her Physics teacher died a little too prematurely.
“Sorry, I didn’t realise.” Looking at Hao Ren and Lil Pea outdoing each other in puffing black smoke, Vivian came up to them, feeling bad. “I used to be on my own all the while and I haven’t been electrocuted before, so I forgot that water’s a conductor.”
Lily took a brush out of nowhere, brushing her own tail as she grumbled. “Sooner or later we’ll all die because of you.”
Hao Ren rubbed his face, thinking to himself. He would have to really watch out for Vivian’s move of mass destruction. When Y’zaks summoned a meteorite he had at least given this teammates a heads up, but this vampire maiden summoned her Lightning Strike on a whim without prior warning. She almost slaughtered five people, including the enemy, during their very first wreckage exploration.
Lil Pea rested on Hao Ren’s collar, coughing and puffing out two more rings of black smoke. Hao Ren looked on and realised—including her, it should have been six kills.
After brushing her feather-duster tail for like half a day, Lily still could not restore it. She gave up. Probably back home, a hot towel would do the trick, she thought. Tucking back her brush, she glanced at Lil Pea with concern. “Is she okay?”
“She was shocked.” Hao Ren found it incredible. “She’s bizarrely healthy even though she was struck by lightning at close range…”
Vivian looked at Lil Pea, whose face was black, and who was also muttering in fear. “She was born in boiling water, nothing could be more bizarre than that.”
Y’zaks guffawed, looking at everyone. He was the one who suffered the least injury. His face was black, other than that, he was as fit as a fiddle. He dusted the sand off his pant as he came near the alloy monster. “Anyway, at least this thing’s dead now. Vivian’s Lightning Strike worked like a charm.”
The robot monster that attacked them lay dead not far away. Vivian’s Lightning Strike was fatal. Coupled with the violent attack of Lily’s claws, its spherical core was punctured and its insides were a mess. It looked like it could never move again.
Hao Ren went near the monster, examining its bizarre arms. Its spherical body was less than a metre across, but dozens of alloy arms were attached to it, making it a giant. Some of its arms had been chopped off by Lily, and he could see the cross-sections. The insides were flexible like muscles glowing in metallic lustre. Some kind of terminal was attached at the end of the arm. From the looks of it, Hao Ren could vaguely identify a beam weapon, a visual component and some other sensors. Obviously, this thing was a warrior with awesome design. It was in the wreckage under water for two months and it still worked.
Out of curiosity, Hao Ren had dragged it out when he left the wreckage.
In fact he wished to shove the entire spacecraft into the Dimensional Pocket. This was because, letting it stay at the bottom of the Blood Lake posed a risk to the environment; although the spacecraft itself was shut down, its power furnace risked leakage and coolant—the green jelly substance—had been leaking out, slowly polluting the water around the island. But, he had to abandon the idea: scan images by the MDT revealed that the front end of the spacecraft had fused together with the rock beneath the lake floor. Probably a side product of the spatial incident. It was not possible to move the spacecraft without the risk of sinking the island.
The MDT knew what was in Hao Ren’s mind. Thus, it suggested, “Next time, you should bring more specialised equipment. Just get the approval from the Management Bureau. However, it’d be better if you could locate the Superior Unit of the spacecraft and let them handle the situation.”
“How?” Hao Ren did not have a clue as it was his first time. Although he was an inspector, all his missions were about meeting and bringing in people from various places. He was at his wit’s end when dealing with a spacecraft crash: handling the situation, relaying messages, writing reports, cleaning-up, contacting the spacecraft’s authorities and dealing with related organisations instantly caused a headache in his head. Such interplanetary diplomatic work were totally beyond his worldview.
“Post a message on the local universe channel.” To the MDT, it was a piece of cake. “As the inspector, you have official message broadcast rights on the universal information links. Post it up and see who has lost a spacecraft, and what category they can assign to this event. If it is deemed a minor incident, it will be the responsibility of one of the units of their organisation; if it is deemed a major incident, the head of the civilisation will be the one responsible. It doesn’t matter how they categorise it, the inspector is independent of various civilisations. All you have to do is bring the official stamp of the Empire. The only problem, if there is, is the involvement of a Torblec Hivekin in this case. It was among the dead. It was probably hired by some lower-rung civilisation as a technical advisor. Metaphorically speaking, it’s like a local business inviting the richest man of the country to its factory as an advisor. Subsequently, this rich man is found dead on the floor of the factory canteen, as a result of food poisoning. Some civilisations out there may encounter diplomatic trouble because of this. However, that doesn’t concern you.”
Hao Ren sighed. “Let’s wait and see. I’m having a headache.”
He was thinking about the situation at the control room, where no one was able to enter. Vivian had blown them out of the wreckage before they could do so, leaving the MDT the only one who had a first hand visit to the control room, bringing images with it. Most of the dead crew, which were greenish little figures found in the control room, looked horrific.
There was no way to move the spacecraft, and having no any idea about what to do with the alien corpses, Hao Ren had to leave them at the bottom of the lake. But according to SOP, he would still need to secure the crash site: Nangong Wuyue created a shield bordering the crash site, which would contain the pollution from spreading and slow down the decay of the bodies. Meanwhile, he hoped that he could contact all the relevant parties as soon as possible or he would have to find a way to move the wreckage himself.
Maybe the Disciples of Glory in The Plane of Dreams would send a death squad down there—although such a possibility was low, considering their religious taboos and the condition of the lake bottom, he could not totally dismiss it. After all, the environment at the bottom of the lake was deadly to ordinary people, but it was probably a walk in the park for the strong of this world. All they needed was a nod from the Pope.
Shaking his head, Hao Ren tried to shake off the creepy images inside the wreckage from his head. “Let’s compile every incident in the Blood Lake, then we’ll have a sizeable intel.”
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Vivian shook Lily off her tail. She started counting her fingers as if she was analysing something. “Let’s draw a timeline: two months ago, the Disciples of Glory were holding a parade, then the Orb mysteriously went missing amid different strange visions; at the same time, a spacecraft from the Surface World crashed at the bottom of the Blood Lake, an explosion ensued, which could have been part of the light vision sighted at the Orb’s watchhouse; two months since the disappearance of the Orb, unusual events continued to unfold around the Blood Lake, which according to the bishop were the increased activities of the monster living in the forest; two months later, we arrived and bumped into rock monsters in Dragonspine Ridge, whose target may be the Blood Lake, while four other rock monsters travelled in the direction of the steppe for reasons unknown. Basically that’s about it.”
“You left out one thing,” Hao Ren reminded. “Hilda arrived about seven days ago, two days before we did; this happened within the two months.”
“Now, let’s see whether these events are inter-related.” Y’zaks sat on the ground, legs crossed. “The disappearance of the Orb and the crash may be related. But, Hilda being here in The Plane of Dreams… tsk, what could link and explain all these events?”
“There’s a possible explanation.” Hao Ren gave the MDT a glance, recalling what the device had said while they were at the bottom. “The equilibrium of some kind is failing. Passing through to The Plane of Dreams is becoming easier. Maybe… maybe there’s already a hole that exists somewhere.”
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