Chapter 234: Violent Handling
Lulu, the guide was one of the few people Hao Ren knew in the space station at the edge of the solar system. It was pleasant to see someone familiar. His bad mood caused by the annoyed MDT had somewhat dissipated because of that. Without needing any reminders, Hao Ren knew the drill this time; He led Lily and Vivian away from the teleportation platform. As they walked over to the open floor opposite the teleportation platform, Lily suddenly came to her senses. She looked at the spectacular scenery and sighed heartily. “Awooo—”
Before she could finish howling, she was slapped and stopped by Vivian. “What the hell are you doing? Can you please behave yourself while you’re out here?”
Under normal circumstances, Lily would have gotten into a fight with Vivian, but this time, she was totally out of her character; her eyes were obsessed with whatever she saw, she scampered off and ran between the glowing columns in the hall. “It’s a space station! It’s a space station! It’s…”
Hao Ren hurried Vivian to keep going as he said, “Let’s go. We don’t know her.”
Lily shook her ears and ran back up, the excitement on her face had not subsided one bit. She wanted to get her hands on everything she saw and was restless like a rabbit on drugs. Hao Ren suddenly realised he should have put this lass on a leash. It did not matter how effective it would have been, at least, it would have complied with the safety requirements for keeping large dogs. The large husky had scared the hell out of the space station crew.
That being said, Vivian was also no less excited than Lily. However, she managed to behave—definitely a lass one would feel proud to go out with. She was always graceful and maintained her image as well as composure; a total opposite of the husky, who would be tempted to run on four legs when she got excited.
Except when finding money on the street, of course.
But Vivian never ever found any money on the street.
They paced through the scenic corridor where Hao Ren had once gone through. It looked like Lulu deliberately planned it so that the new guests could experience the unique scenery of Kuiper Station. Lily leaned herself against the shield, feeling extremely excited—she had nerves of steel, totally unafraid of the darkness and coldness of the space outside. After that, they were teleported to the special port where the Petrachelys was docked. They walked through a corridor high up across the space port, with giant windows on the side. Hao Ren looked through the glass and he could already see the massive body of the Petrachelys—though the spacecraft of several hundred metres was nothing compared to the Empire’s fleets of battleships, it was still extremely huge in Hao Ren’s eyes, and needless to say, Vivian and Lily’s as well.
The spacecraft had remained in the dock since the last time it ported, and was floating in the dock with help from a static energy field. A group of autonomous drones were flying around the spacecraft, conducting maintenance checks. The official ship of an inspector of the Empire did not need the maintenance services of the civilian port. All the crew members of Kuiper Station did was simply monitor it from the outside. The spacecraft could fully self-repair: it had life, it had its own onboard mechanical group, its own mini factory as well as production lines and it could take care of itself even under extreme conditions—like when the spacecraft was blown in half, it could regenerate itself. Lily leaned against the glass, wide-mouthed while she slid forward. “This is our spaceship…”
The husky maiden was pretty smart to say “our spaceship…”
“Awesome, isn’t it?” Hao Ren bragged. “The interior is much larger than the outside. It has spatial warp installation, and its warehouse can even fit an entire skyscraper.”
Vivian heard this and was astonished. She suddenly felt faint and almost dropped to the ground.
Hao Ren was startled and quickly held her up. “What’s wrong? Not adapting to the space environment?”
“No…” Vivian frowned as if she was confused herself. “I just felt like I was being held up in a spinning vessel and it made me dizzy… Oh gosh, here it comes again!”
This time, she was ready for it and held herself up well. Her expression did not look good though. Hao Ren was nervous. “Okay, wait. Lulu, she needs a doctor. The vampire may have space sickness…”
“Please, don’t. I don’t need a doctor. I know what’s wrong with me.” Vivian waved at them while she stared at Hao Ren with a strange expression. “It’s all your fault. Next time, I’m not going to send the bats by courier service!”
“What?” Hao Ren was startled.
Vivian’s face crumpled as she shook her head forcefully. “I’m being handled violently… Oww! Here it comes!”
“…”
Then Hao Ren recalled it; he had asked Vivian to contact the elders of all otherwordly beings by sending bats that carried runes and secret messages via courier service. No one had given it a thought and everyone thought it was a ingenious idea back then. Never did they expect the parcels to be tossed like a salad at the distribution centres.
Waves of dizziness began to hit Vivian. Apparently, several bat-parcels had arrived at the same distribution centre. The pathetic little bats sealed inside bottles within the parcels were being thrown around and Vivian was feeling the exact tossing movement. The vampire finally found a peaceful moment after almost 30 seconds of violent handling. She looked up and everything was still blurry. “Landlord, please don’t trust those courier service s… Here, I’m… the first-hand testimony.”
Keeping a serious face at this moment was excruciating, but he had to stop himself from laughing out loud. “Are you okay now?”
“I feel better. Just don’t know if the other parcels will experience the same thing.” Vivian’s head wobbled and she was clearly peeved. “I’ve never met with such a humiliation in my entire life! How dare they throw my avatars around like that!”
Hao Ren was breaking out in cold sweat and he dared not speak a word. Strangely, amid all the ranting, she kept mum about her humiliating days. There was a time she had to work as a cleaner in a church during the bad times, he thought.
Suddenly, something crossed his mind. He took the MDT out, asking, “Wait a minute, are the bats able to contact Vivian while she is in the Otherworld? If not, wouldn’t those little things lose control?”
“That is indeed a problem,” replied the MDT. “She wouldn’t be able to connect to the Empire’s Data Network, and she surely wouldn’t be able to contact her avatars across worlds. But, I could reconfigure the spacecraft’s broadcast antenna and open up a broadcast channel just for her. Then, she would be able to contact them via Madam Raven’s facilities on Earth…”
“You don’t have to do that!” Vivian waved forcefully. “The bats share my consciousness. When contact is lost, they can carry out the mission independently. Besides, losing connection is probably a good thing, I won’t have to worry about being traced by demon hunters when they discover the bats. Muahaha… Let’s quickly depart!”
Hao Ren glanced at Vivian. The vampire maiden clearly did not know how to lie. Perhaps, even Lily could see that she was afraid of being thrown around again…
They were approaching the entrance of Petrachelys, and the spacecraft’s main computer instantly detected the arrival of its captain. A very soft siren sounded inside the spacecraft as pulses of blue light and lamps began to flash on the spacecraft. Droves of autonomous drones began to make some pleasant whistles as they went back in via the carrier channel at the top of the spacecraft. Meanwhile, everyone started to enter via the hatch on the underside as the inspector’s spacecraft was about to begin its first mission flight.
The control room was all ready for the flight. Hao Ren, Y’zaks, Hilda and the two first-time space travellers were seated in the round room. As if something had struck her mind, Lily began to swing her arms and pose on her seat. “The ocean of stars is our destination! Towards the deepest part of the universe! Let’s go! Let’s… Landlord, why hasn’t the spacecraft moved?”
Hao Ren had just shoved the annoying MDT in a card slot. He said, “Soon, soon.” while he started the SOP, which a captain intern should conduct before flight.
Flight path, checked. Signposts, checked. Kuiper Station guidance signal, checked. Spacecraft’s main computer data report, checked.
Then… the autopilot mode was engaged as he released his hands from the control panel.
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