Chapter 274 (1/2)
Hearing what Becky said, Hao Ren felt a stream of cold sweat starting to roll down his back. But she was happy-go-lucky as usual and did not detect that anything was amiss. She continued to mumble, “It’s been a month since I left home, I still have two unfinished jobs back there. I’ll become part of the missing person statistics if I still don’t show my face, you know—that’s the reality of being a mercenary; they’ll just assume that you’re KIA and close the case if you don’t report back after a while.”
Hao Ren looked at Becky very cautiously. “Aren’t you happy being here?”
“It’s pretty good here,” said Becky, absent-mindedly. “It’s just that, I feel Iike I can’t keep playing out there all the time. It’s time to go home; after all, this is not my place.”
All of a sudden, reality started to sink in. Becky asked, “Wait a minute… has something gone wrong and I can’t go home? Come on, this is all your organisation’s fault. I was brought here unwillingly!”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry.” Hao Ren waved his hand subconsciously. “I’ve already promised to take you home so, I’ll definitely take you home. But, it will take a while, because…” Hao Ren poked the MDT on the sofa handle, urging it telepathically, “Say something, pacify her!”
The MDT got up and projected a pile of data as well as images via a hologram. “Because the asymmetrical nature of the ectopic information has resulted in a different conversion mechanism for bi-directional and uni-directional teleportation, thus prolonging the waiting time for the crossing of each entity. The crossing process also involves information destruction of the third, sixth and seventh law, so additional calculation is needed. Additionally, the equipment to send you home is currently being cooled down so you may not be able to go home for a while—got it?”
Becky was none the wiser. “What?”
Noticing the blank expression on Becky’s face, Hao Ren let out a long sigh, feeling guilty. “There’s a few procedures to be completed before I can send you home. It won’t be long.”
Becky did not think much about it. She took “it won’t be long” at face value and nodded. “No problem, as long as I’m not stuck here for good. I’ll stick around for a little longer and I’ll pay for my room—I have money now!”
He quietly wiped away his sweat and smiled. It was a close call. But, he knew he could not drag it any further. While Becky and Lily were glued to the idiot box, Hao Ren shot Nangong Wuyue a stare and they both sneaked into the kitchen, bringing along the MDT. He could not alarm Lily either; the husky was known for spilling the beans. If you told her the nuclear launch code, she would not think twice about announcing it to the world. It was wise to keep her in the dark while she was still unaware of it. Allowing her to be occupied with the prawn snack commercial was the right thing to do.
“What are you two doing in here?” asked Vivian, who was cooking in the kitchen. She gave them a what-the-heck glance. “Don’t disturb me.”
“We have a problem. It’s about Becky.” Hao Ren closed the door behind him, then sighed. “How are we going to tell her that her body in The Plane of Dreams has been destroyed by the cosmic will?”
Vivian listened and the problem began to come to light.
The relationship between The Plane of Dreams and the real world was asymmetrical, and The Plane of Dreams in itself, was vulnerable. So, when Becky travelled from her home to Earth, it was partially unidirectional. This meant that she could cross over to Earth in person but not back. She would have to lie in a hibernation pod and go back home in her dream. In other words, she could not enter back into The Plane of Dreams physically. Her body had to stay back, and at the same time, she would not be able to stay for a very long period of time in The Plane of Dreams. She would have to leave once her dream was over, just like Hao Ren and the other earthlings. Such limitations were not a problem for Hao Ren, who only went in for business, but it would be a hopeless frustration for those were originally from The Plane of Dreams. Why could one not go home at will? Why could one only go home in a dream—a dream that ended?
It was like paying to stay in your own house and having to show your temporary residence permit from time to time. And, you would be required to get the f*ck out of your house every half a month or so and stay in a hotel. Who would have liked that?
“Didn’t you say that you were going to solve this technical issue?” Hao Ren jabbed the MDT. “Where’s your solution?”
“I’ve checked. Strictly speaking, it’s not a matter of whether we could, it’s about whether we should.” The MDT sighed. “I’m going to be honest with you; if you really want to send Becky back, you just have to request for Madam Raven’s intervention, or get authorisation for special teleportation to bring people back in there, disregarding the travel limitation of The Plane of Dreams. For the Empire, this is just a peace of cake; but the consequences are: you risk puncturing a hole in the real world by violating the rules of teleportation. The Plane of Dreams is unstable, leaking and having problems all the time; starting from the point of teleportation, the whole planet if not half of the galaxy, could be vaporised. Would you shoulder the responsibility?”