Chapter 1013: Lin Sanjiu Observes in Secret
"Don"t you know?"
Bohemia"s voice sharpened by eight degrees. "You bought the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, how could you not know?"
Lin Sanjiu sat on the corridor floor, vigorously ma.s.saging her temples.
"When I bought it, I thought it was just a house," she muttered. "The seller didn"t give me a user manual, so how was I supposed to know if it could actually perform long-distance interstellar travel?"
"Why don"t you ask Silas then?"
"I did ask, but there were too many technical terms that I didn"t understand." Lin Sanjiu sighed, not as anxious as Bohemia. "It seemed to indicate that under certain conditions, it could perform interstellar travel for a certain distance... but when I delved deeper, there were more terms that I couldn"t comprehend."
Silas, unlike the highly advanced artificial intelligence in Puppeteer"s hometown, was closer to the "Chinese Room" thought experiment of simulating an intelligent system. In other words, it didn"t actually understand the meaning of a sentence but had the knowledge and functionality to process the sentence and provide an appropriate response.
No matter how worried they were, there was no turning back now. They could only grit their teeth and move forward. Fortunately, they had brought out a lot of supplies from the Ocean Voyager, which Silas might find useful.
"You"re so clueless!"
Bohemia was hopping in place out of frustration but had no solution. She spun around in place, and the only thing she could do was rush back to the porthole and look outside through the "Garden of Crossroads."
"Where is the Great Deluge now?" Lin Sanjiu straightened her posture and asked.
"In s.p.a.ce, there are no reference points. How would I know where it is? Right now, the whole RH102 is submerged, s.h.i.+ning brightly. It looks quite beautiful... Although it is still surging forward, its speed seems slower than that of Exodus, so it probably won"t catch up."
Bohemia pouted and grumbled, "If we"re caught, will we be teleported together or separately? You owe me a lot of debts, so running away is not an option. If I have a visa, can I be sent to the visa world first?"
"The Great Deluge"s rule is that there are no rules, so anything is possible."
"You"re so good at speaking nonsense."
Lin Sanjiu couldn"t be bothered to argue with her. She stood up, brushed off the dust, and smiled at the few remaining people in front of her. "I"m going to check on Puppeteer, you all go rest. We"ve been mentally strained these past few days. After I came out of the infirmary, I planned to go straight to bed."
As she watched the others disappear down the corridor, she turned a corner and headed in the opposite direction. Her steps were light and quick as she pushed open the door of a cafe.
"Silas," she closed the door and lowered her voice, speaking softly to the interactive interface used for ordering drinks, "completely lock down the infirmary. Don"t allow anyone to enter, including me. It will automatically unlock after three hours."
"Understood," the system responded gently, "The infirmary is now locked."
"When I say "begin," record my words." Lin Sanjiu cleared her throat and shouted, "Begin," slightly raising her voice. "I"m taking a shower, we"ll talk later!"
After confirming that Silas had recorded her words, she instructed, "If someone knocks on my door, play the recording for them."
Closing the door of the cafe, Lin Sanjiu looked around, then stepped into a hovercar that had been waiting for her.
As she entered the control room with each step, the lights softly illuminated one by one, casting a white glow over the quiet, cold room. After giving a few instructions to Silas, she rummaged through the card library and found a box that she had put in while moving supplies from the Ocean Voyager. From the box, she pulled out a pile of metal tools. With the help of the "Power of Word Picture," the pile of metal tools slowly melted and rea.s.sembled into the shape of a circuit box.
This circuit box was based on the description of the existing equipment in the control room. It was as tall as a person and although it was empty inside, when placed in a corner, it looked as if it had always been part of the room.
Lin Sanjiu opened the door of the box and stepped inside.
Standing motionless in the narrow and dim box was naturally uncomfortable; she hugged her arms and closed her eyes to rest for a while. Then, she suddenly opened her eyes, inhaling silently.
She seemed to have forgotten to bring her diary card from the Ocean Voyager!
With one event after another, she didn"t have time to retrieve the diary card from Octo"s room. It was impossible to go back now, so she could only try to summon it remotely...
After trying for several minutes, she leaned back against the inner wall of the box in despair.
Although the diary card had a statement that it couldn"t be controlled remotely, she still held some hope—after all, remote control and summoning might be different things. But now, she had sweated profusely from the attempts, and the diary card had no response, as if it had disappeared into the depths of the ocean... It seemed she had to retrieve it personally.
Was there any other way?
She carefully recalled the instructions on the diary card and pursed her lips tightly. Before she could figure out what to do, an excruciating pain suddenly erupted within her body, as if someone was drilling through her marrow with a sharp electric drill. The pain overwhelmed her, causing her vision to darken, and she lost all sense of what she was doing. Her body went limp and slid down, her forehead hitting the cool surface of the cabinet with a loud "thud."
It felt as if... as if a part of her had been destroyed.
She realized that she probably knew exactly which part had been destroyed.
The intense pain quickly receded, retreating as suddenly as it had come. As her vision gradually cleared, a female voice reached her ears, saying, "... What was that sound?"
She was all too familiar with that voice.
It was her own.
Lin Sanjiu held her breath and silently stood up again. The light from the control room seeped through the cracks in the circuit box door, casting a pale hue on her eyeb.a.l.l.s.
Another "Lin Sanjiu" had just entered the control room.
"The hull is partially aging. Please conduct timely repairs."
This was the response program Silas had been set with—over the next three hours, if it was asked "What was that just now?" or similar questions, regardless of who asked, it would reply with that sentence.
"Lin Sanjiu" nodded. She was dressed exactly like herself, with bandages, a work vest, and field pants.
Even the clothes were fully equipped. There was no doubt that this was the result of Luther"s shape-s.h.i.+fting ability.
This reminded her of a question that had been bothering her—Luther must be somewhere, constantly transforming for others. However, the Ocean Voyager had been left behind in RH102, and only two outsiders had come to Exodus. Could it be that the Luther who had just arrived was actually Luther himself?
"Grant him access," the other "Lin Sanjiu" shouted, "Let him in."
"What level of access?"
"Crew member."
This was the permission Lin Sanjiu had given to the Chicky brothers. Specifically, it was the "Level Two Crew Member" she had found in the system. However, she had only told the Chicky brothers that they had "Crew Member" permissions, so this fake Lin Sanjiu naturally didn"t know that crew member permissions could be graded.
She silently made a mental note: The Chicky brothers had told this person—most likely Lyanna from earlier—their permissions but had concealed the Great Deluge.
Silas didn"t inquire further, just as it hadn"t questioned why "Lin Sanjiu" appeared in two places simultaneously. As the door opened, Luther walked in.
His appearance hadn"t changed at all, and the warmth that seemed to radiate from his brows and eyes was as clear as she remembered. The youthful look had faded, but that unique expression and radiance—
Just as Lin Sanjiu was about to think about it, she felt like she had been slapped hard, causing her whole body to shake.
The gentle expression rapidly vanished from Luther"s face, as if someone had quickly torn off a mask from his face. If she hadn"t been staring intently, she would almost have thought that his face had changed... but it hadn"t.
The features were still Luther"s features. However, after the dramatic change in expression, he looked almost like a different person: one eyebrow raised, one corner of his mouth tightened. This expression, seemingly indifferent and amused, looked abrupt and out of place on Luther"s face.
"Heh," he yawned widely, stretching lazily, "I"ve been holding back so much, afraid to reveal anything. I couldn"t even say a few extra words."