Chapter 28 Chapter 28 (1/2)
Chaos
Chapter 28
After finishing the can, Ji Yushi recovered a lot of strength.
After eating, the first thing he did was to rinse his mouth in the bathroom attached to the small room. To be honest, if it wasn’t because he had no choice, he wouldn’t have eaten canned food. He was a picky eater.
But seeing that Song Qinglan was even more picky than him, and in a situation where they should stay in good condition, he forced himself to finish it.
After rinsing his mouth, Song Qinglan who was pickier than him was already standing at the hatch. He asked, “Advisor Ji, have you seen these words before?”
This small room was very clean. There was nothing on the desks and cabinets. To prevent them from escaping, the bearded man didn’t leave anything behind.
The hatch was a style that could be opened and closed from both the inside and the outside. It required a password to be inputted into the touch panel.
Over the past few days, Song Qinglan had tried multiple passwords to no avail.
Ji Yushi walked over to look.
He had never seen those characters before.
It was a familiar password touch panel with a keyboard but there were no number keys. Every one of the keys where the number keys should be had strange symbols written and each and every one of them were different. They probably represent the meaning of a number.
if it corresponded with Arabic numerals 1-9, the remaining keys should be lock, unlock, etc.
Song Qinglan said, “I have been idle these days and have tried many combinations while regarding them as Arabic numerals but firstly, I didn’t know how many digits the password is and secondly, I didn’t know what the possible meaning behind it is, so I wasn’t able to open it.”
Selecting blindly would just be a waste of time.
No matter how intelligent one may be, it was still not possible for them to crack open a code so easily.
At this moment, both started to miss Duan Wen who always carried various high-tech accessories around with him. If Duan Wen was here, they would be able to use a device to directly decode it.
“It may be Big Beard’s language.” Ji Yushi said.
“Big Beard?” Song Qinglan reacted and said, “You mean that big guy? He’s like a savage. If this goes on any longer, I will almost be like him.”
Song Qinglan’s green stubble was fairly obvious. The speed of it growing was indeed quite fast. If it was a year and a half, it would likely become a beard comparable to Big Beard’s.
A man’s physiological structure and male hormone determined the growth of their hair. Song Qinglan originally didn’t care much about it.
But with the two standing side by side at the hatch and looking down from his angle, he happened to see Ji Yushi’s clean chin and delicate skin……..Ji Yushi probably was the type who didn’t grow beards.
Song Qinglan went on to say, “I have never heard of Big Beard’s language before. Advisor Ji, do you have any impressions?”
Ji Yushi shook his head, “No.”
The rapid development of science and technology in their Star Era allowed people to be exposed to all kinds of knowledge and information from all over the world. Some may be noticed by others while others may be inadvertently ignored, but for Ji Yushi, as long as it was something he had seen, heard, or felt, he would never forget.
Because he didn’t have the ability to forget.
That was why Song Qinglan asked.
“According to Star Era 1420’s Earth Language Encyclopedia, there are currently 7000 different languages in our world, many of which are endangered languages.” Ji Yushi recalled Big Beard’s unintelligible words, “So it is normal for me not to have heard it before.”
Having said that, he was puzzled, “But, in order to create a space capsule, technological development must be rather advanced, and it is impossible for just that alone to be developed. Arabic numerals have already been around for many years. Why are they using such an uncommon method instead?”
This was also what Song Qinglan didn’t understand.
Through the glass window on the hatch, Ji Yushi could see a long corridor. Like the small room they were in, the corridor was also brightly lit with white walls and floors. The corridor was quiet. It had a bend at the end leading to another direction.
The marks on the ground attracted Ji Yushi’s attention.
Mottled and continuous friction marks continued from the corner to the front of their small room. It looked like drag marks.
Ji Yushi asked, “He dragged me with an iron chain?”
JI Yushi asked calmly, but given his superb ability to hold grudges, it was very possible that he had already drawn a big red cross on Big Beard inside.
Song Qinglan made a sound of affirmation. He then also looked outside and comforted him, “I think Big Beard has done that more than once. These drag marks don’t seem to have formed from doing it once or twice. I wonder who those unlucky people were.”
Then didn’t that mean that someone else had been here before they came?
If someone had been here, where have they gone?
Ji Yushi fell into thought.
The two returned to the table. Suddenly, there was a loud noise.
As if thunder blasted right above them or a heavy object fell from the sky, the sound caused even the space capsule to shake.
Outside the small round window on the wall, the sky lit up for a moment and then darkened again.
Song Qinglan looked outside, “Again.”
Ji Yushi asked, “What again?”
“This kind of noise often appears, but it is irregular.” Song Qinglan was also used to this noise now. He told Ji Yushi his guess, “Although for now I don’t know where this place is, but every time that noise appears, Big Beard would push his cart out and return with a bunch of things. Look.”
Ji Yushi leaned over. The two looked out of the small round window together.
After a while, Big Beard appeared pushing the cart.
The ground was stiff frozen soil, and the temperature was very low.
When Big Beard breathed, he exhaled white mist. He was wrapped in a faded padded coat as he trudged forward.
Big Beard was about two metres tall and very burly. The sky above him hung down, and it was so close, it looked like he could reach it. He pushed the cart along, walking through this indescribable world. For some reason, from the perspective of the two, Big Beard’s figure showed deep loneliness.
They watched him walk a few steps and then stop by the roadside.
A transparent glowing flower bloomed there. It was bigger than the ones on that mountain of garbage.
Big Beard pulled it out, stuck it to the handlebar of the cart, and continued on.
Very soon, Big Beard’s figure disappeared into emptiness.
“Mountain of garbage.” Ji Yushi muttered to himself and then turned around, “He’s pushing that cart to go to that mountain of garbage?
Outside the window, an aurora of various colours rippled across the sky.
Blue, green, purple, that aurora lit up his eyes and face and even his individual eyelashes could be counted like this.
Song Qinglan retracted his gaze, “Yes, he’s probably going to pick up things again. We were both picked up by him from there.”
There was a brief moment of silence.
Ji Yushi whose mind didn’t stop working the entire time spoke up, “Cap Song, it may be a magnetic field.”
He was very intelligent, and his mind worked very fast, “Those piles of metal equipment and those cans were likely affected by some sort of special magnetic field and attracted here. Our capsules were the same. Every time that kind of noise occurs, it is when foreign objects are sucked in.”
“You’re right.” Song Qinglan agreed and then raised his own conjectures. “I suspect that this space capsule and Big Beard was also drawn here by that mysterious magnetic field.”
To be able to suck in a capsule that was in the process of transitioning, what on earth was this place?
The two couldn’t find an answer.
“We should go.” Song Qinglan said, “Next time he comes back, we have to seize the opportunity.”
*
Big Beard was very happy.
He had a big harvest this time. Not only did he pick up a brand-new pot and a whole box of photo albums, but he also found several boxes of canned beer.
Pushing the cart filled with items, he returned to the space capsule humming a small tune. He then drank a box of beer while looking through the newly picked up photo albums.
When he woke up again, Big Beard had a headache. It took him a long time to remember that there were still two traversers in the small room.
He didn’t want to starve them to death.
So he picked and chose, and saw the cans of spam meat he had picked up together with that beautiful traverser last time and picked up a can to throw into that small room for them to eat.
But just as he opened that small rectangular flap, he saw the taller traverser sitting at the door, looking at him coldly.
That tall traverser had been here for quite some time.
When he first picked him up, Big Beard felt that he exuded a dangerous air. Those firm muscles and strong body as well as the look of determination in his eyes clearly showed that he wasn’t an easy to deal with target. And so, even if he managed to lock him up while he was in a weakened state, Big Beard still felt that he was a dangerous lion. As long as he had he opportunity, he would fight back at any time.
That was why Big Beard had only fed him once a day and he only gave him an abysmal amount of unpalatable vegetarian food.
Big Beard wanted to keep that traverser weak.
But even after so many days, that traverser didn’t turn amicable.
He still dared to look at him coldly just like now.
Big Beard let out angry strings of curses and then threw in the spam meat.
The tall traverser suddenly stood up.
Big Beard was alert, but he saw the tall traverser use his finger to point to the side.
There was a person lying on the ground motionless with the blanket covering his entire body, including his head and feet.
Only dead people were covered like that.
Big Beard’s blue eyes widened.
That tall traverser was expressionless. He picked up the can and with a ‘clank’, he pulled it open and began to enjoy the food alone —– For the sake of having something to eat, the tall traverser may have killed his companion who wore the same clothes as him.
Big Beard was extremely angry.
He smashed his fist against the hatch and then turned and left.