Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren led the two ladies carefully as they navigated through the derelict space. They passed by a massive white spire and a wall encrusted with crystals. These structures had been at the mercy of the cosmic rays for over 10,000 years, yet they still looked pristine as ever. Perhaps it was a testament of the technological level that the sirens of yore possessed.
"This seems to be a water world of its own right." Vivian looked at the structure in awe. There was supposed to be a water dome over the structure, but as the engines shut down, so did the dome. The water-filled deck had since dried up as a result. "If there's no water at all, the sirens can't resurrect themselves."
"There's so much wonder in the world," Lily said as she grabbed on to one of the support rails to push herself past Hao Ren. "Human ships need oxygen, while the sirens' need water... What's that in front?"
The three soon came before a damaged alloy wall. There was a massive outward gash on it, clearly the result of a destructive shockwave. Hao Ren immediately rushed ahead. "Found it. Looks like this is the point of explosion."
The inside of the gash was pitch black, and without air to refract light, the internal structure could not be illuminated by the sunlight. They could just vaguely see some complicated tubes and grid structures. Hao Ren threw a few luminence orbs into the rent, and only with the floating orbs could they see what was inside: a ruined tunnel with a massive pile of twisted metal, which lay mangled along the wall. Along the tunnel you could see web-like impact marks, meaning that there was a massive explosion in the area.
Hao Ren led the way as he went through the rent, hoping to find the reason for the starship's destruction from the ruins. Lily and Vivian followed closely.
"Doesn't seem like an internal explosion." Hao Ren pointed at the torn tubes. "I remember that Nasaton has similar water tubes. These are low-pressure circulation tubes, and having this many tubes means that this place was also low in pressure. Even if the pump had busted, the explosion would not have been at such a scale. The thick, protective walls here were literally blown apart."
Vivian followed Hao Ren slowly and a small piece of metal flew past her eyes. On it was a series of curved siren writings, "Zalazarn: Sixth Low-Pressure Pump".
Hao Ren saw the small metal plate too. He shook his head as he sighed. "The Zalazarn. It blew up in orbit. Not sure what happened to the sister ships. Hopefully they managed to take off."
Vivian looked at the dark tunnel that extended endlessly before her and decided to fling out a few bat familiars to scout ahead. She conjured a few of them out of thin air and the little bats flapped their wings in position. Hao Ren could not stand the scene and quipped, "Didn't I tell you before? Your bats are useless in space. You sure are forgetful aren't you..."
"I know, so I've improvised," Vivian said as she pulled out a sling from her pocket and placed one of the bats on it before shooting it ahead. The bat flew towards the dark tunnel like a projectile. "See, it does fly!"
Hao Ren gawked as he looked at Vivian shooting her bats one by one into various corners of the tunnel. He felt that everything he knew was crumbling before him. "You-You're actually willing to do that to your doppelgangers?"
"There's just a minor dizziness to deal with at the start, but I'm used to it now!" Vivian proudly crossed her arms across her chest. "I've been following you to all sorts of weird places, how can I survive if I don't learn new skills."
Hao Ren was instantly reminded of Lily's five-year-long brick throwing practice. So, this bat was pretty much no different than the husky. Both of them were unusual creatures who had lived through almost every facet of human history and they could now focus on things that were just outrageously useless. Do not be fooled by Vivian's usual calm and measured demeanor. The only reason she was such was because she had done almost every foolish thing one could do in a lifetime!
Now that she had stepped into space, the vampire had opened the gates to a different frontier... She had started to use her brains again.
Well regardless, Vivian's little bats were at least more useful than Lily's bricks. Very soon, streams of blood started to come back towards Vivian. The latter frowned as she pointed in a direction. "Something's over there. It doesn't seem like it belongs in a tunnel."
Vivian was pointing at a mangled mess in the shape of a web. That was supposed to be a location where the tubes intersected and they were covered by a layer of alloy mesh. The explosion had blown the mesh into a shape akin to a fish net. Lily was intrigued by it and she dashed forward. "I'll go have a look!"
"Be careful!" Hao Ren yelled as he saw the husky running towards the mess clumsily.
Lily waved her hand in response before crashing headlong into the alloy mesh. Almost half her body sank into the mesh pile and her legs were thrashing about as she tried to extricate herself out of her predicament. Hao Ren and Vivian immediately went ahead to pull her out as he lectured her. "Didn't I tell you to be careful?"
Vivian even had the time to sneer ar Lily. "Well, that's what you get for being doggone stubborn..."
"...You sure have picked up some weird speaking habits," Hao Ren quipped.
"I managed to get hold of something." Lily seemingly ignored Vivian as she sheepishly tidied herself before looking back at the mangled mesh. She then pulled out a piece of black metal. "Ah, here it is!"
Hao Ren took the metal block from the husky. "What is this?"
It was a black tube about half a meter long. There were unknown marks on the surface. Hao Ren could not tell what its use was at first glance. After looking at it for a good while, he could only form the conclusion that it was not siren-made based on the style and material. He then knocked the tube against the pipe beside him. "Feels a bit hard... Hmm?"
As the tube struck the pipe, one end of the tube started to glow red, and the next second, the whole tube started to light up. An immenent sense of danger ovewhelmed him!
"F*ck!" Hao Ren screamed as he threw the now scorching hot tube towards the far end of the tunnel. He deployed his shield as he pushed Vivian and Lily into the nearest corner, using his body as cover to protect the ladies. At that very moment, a sudden flash of light burst from behind them.
The next second, a storm of metal fragments smashed against him and Hao Ren could even hear the rhythm of the onslaught. The Steel Membrane Shield blocked all of the fragments but could not dissipate all of the blast force, and Hao Ren was in a daze as the blast hit him in the head. Thankfully, it barely lasted a moment and due to the fact that they were in a vacuum, no follow-up shockwave came. It was nothing but silence after the storm died off.
It took Lily a while to react before she looked down and started to scream. "Awoooouch! Ouch! Mr. Landlord, you're stepping on my tail! Awooouch!"
"Uh..." Vivian checked herself before giving Hao Ren a rather bashful look. "Never thought I'd be protected by... Can you shut up, Doggie?!"
Lily hugged her tail as she licked it rather dejectedly. "Oh..."
"What was that?" Vivian looked at the other end of the tunnel in a slightly fearful manner. A giant spherical hole had been torn on the wall as molten metal floated around. The bomb was very powerful for its size. "A bomb?"
"No... A shell. A dud from 10,000 years ago." Hao Ren's face was grim. "Perhaps part of a cluster shell. It doesn't look like your standard warhead."
Lily immediately realized the gravity of things. "So that means..."
"The Zalazarn was blown apart by cannon fire." Vivian's eyes widened. "Io's destruction wasn't caused by the First Born."
Lily scratched her head. "Don't tell me it's those brain monsters? Can they actually manufacture cannons?"
Even Hao Ren could not answer the question. As he was about to further investigate the starship, which had been blow apart, the MDT's voice came from the communicator. "Boss, the scan's complete. There's an energy focal point deep in the ocean. When are you coming back?"
Hao Ren motioned. "Let's solve the teleportation gate issue first."