Chapter 339 (1/2)
The four ascetics and Hao Ren decided to stay in the eco-zone at Kuiper Station for a few days. After all, they had nothing to do back home. However, the space station was a quiet place. Although the material supply was adequate, it was monotonous. Nonetheless, this was not a problem. They were going to be there just for a short while, and the thrill as well as the excitement of living in space were enough to keep the country bumpkins busy and not complain about food. Lily for one was pretty satisfied. She would bother Lulu from time to time, and sometimes hang around the tourist corridor, staring at the spaceships.
The four ascetics had been calm in all the different situations they faced. In fact, Hao Ren had not seen the four weird individuals since he let Lulu arrange the accommodation. They constantly hid themselves in their room, meditating or studying mysterious and ancient stuff. They would only briefly appear and take what looked like a minimum ration of food and water. Then, they would go back to their cave—so to speak—and continued doing what they were doing. It was unclear what was so interesting about their monotonous way of life, but the four monks seemed to enjoy it very much. Hao Ren felt he could really connect with them, so he let them be.
They were actually waiting for the large teleportation gateway to arrive in Kuiper Station. The gateway was custom-made under the order of Raven 12345. It was unsuitable for Earth and could only be placed in Kuiper Station; transportation was handled by a chartered civilian company.
During the two days of waiting, Hao Ren had basically spent all his time with Lil Pea. Since the hiccup incident a couple of days ago, Lil Pea did not have any other signs of unusual behaviour. She hiccuped no more, and there were no more involuntary teleportations. But, they were still worried, so Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue had been keeping an eye on the little mermaid. The little mermaid seemed to have forgotten what had happened to her days ago. The MDT was right; the experiment did not have any side effects, it just gave the little mermaid more vitality.
Hao Ren knew he did not know how to train Lil Pea in mastering her telekinetic ability. He could only do his best to educate her and let her know that she had some amazing, but still uncontrollable ability. For now, he could only prep her mentally for more abilities, so perhaps she understood what he was saying.
On the third day, a huge, red cargo spaceship docked at Connection Port One. The cargo ship had a strange, flamboyant heraldry, from which the engineering team and several imperial autonomous robots emerged. They were escorting the integrated cabins to the station, deliverying them to the inspector. The equipment had arrived.
Hao Ren, his team and the little green people hustled to the connection port. A young chap with black hair, dressed in a foreign military outfit had been waiting in front of the cargo ship. Hao Ren immediately knew this young chap and his men were no ordinary civilian transporters. Even though they came in a commercial ship, their pressed military outfits and their mannerisms were telling that they were special. As he had expected, the young chap gave a standard military salute when he saw them, but Hao Ren was unsure which civilisation sphere the he came from. The young man’s voice was loud. “Sergeant Param of Fairy Void Consortium, deliverying cargo to the Xi Ling outpost. Kindly check before accepting.”
Lily said something, which sounded like an “okay”. She looked excited. “It’s a soldier! The soldiers are delivering the cargo! That’s so cool!”
Hao Ren glanced at the young chap. “I’ve heard of the Fairy Void Consortium. But, why is it military?”
The young chap’s face relaxed and he began to smile very politely. “Fairy Void Consortium is a state consortium set up by our head of state. It’s partly owned by the military, so all large cargos are handled by us. Basically, only we have the ability to handle escort missions of Category A and above in the Xi Ling Empire.”
“I see.” Pretending to know everything, Hao Ren nodded, but in his mind he wondered about the diversity of the multiverse. He looked up at the huge equipment requested by the MDt and commissioned by Raven 12345: it was a 3m x 3m x 3m cube of silver and it looked very much like a regular capsule room, instead it was glimmering with light. There were 10 of them lined up on the cargo platform. The MDT then proceeded to explain, “We only need three actually. The rest are back-ups. It’s modular and it has auto sync, so there’s no need for calibration. It has hibernation pods in there too. I guess you already know how to use it, right? Simply put, the operation of the device has been simplified for ease of use, and enhancements have been made for a more stable connectivity with The Plane of Dreams. There are other equipment being manufactured right now as we speak. They are ready to be sent here on request. Madam Raven ordered for a new building to be built to store these gateways in the Kuiper Station.”
Suddenly, Hao Ren had a weird feeling and he furrowed his eyebrows. “Why do I feel like Raven 12345 has something big coming up?”
The MDT smiled dryly. “God knows. Since you can’t do anything about it, why not close your eyes and enjoy it. If you can’t really enjoy it, at least let yourself die as a martyr. I will request to resurrect you after that.”
“…”
By now, the young sergeant from Fairy Void Consortium had finished the handover procedures. He took out a glowing tab and approached Hao Ren. “I know you’re busy, so let’s make this quick. Just place your hand here for a palm scan, then you’re good to go.”