The underground channel grazed through the edge of the Eighth Galaxy and spanned outwards. It was said to go through three supply stations. The first supply station was secretly located near an asteroid belt on the outer rim of the Eighth Galaxy. The coordinates were very concealed, and it was now where the Self-Defense Forces are.
Cow - actually named Spencer, believed that besides having a slim body, his aura was filled with the manhood of a hero. He had no idea why the rogues called him such a humiliating name, but it was not like he was in any disadvantage: they humiliated each other all the time.
Mr. Spencer came from a family of smugglers and traders in the black market, so he understood the importance of plan B"s and C"s and D"s to Z"s. The location of the two supply stations were highly confidential. He was the only one who knew it. He would move there if and when this supply station would fall.
The Self-Defense Force administration building was 6 floors tall with the guest"s room at the top floor. The building was protected 24/7 by a security guard who looked like a weak loser. There were even robot servers in the room that could take food orders. For a s.p.a.ce station that served as a shelter, this was very luxurious.
Floating on top of the base was an energy tower that acted like a man-made "star". The light shone through the man-made atmosphere and scattered on the s.p.a.ce station. The blue sky was almost natural, except that if one looked closely at the "horizon", an unnatural clue could be seen -- at the junction between the "heaven and the earth", there was no longer a light grey line.
Bixing and his people rested for a night in the base. After months of drifting in s.p.a.ce, this was the first time they felt rested and alive. Even the sound of people arguing in the street sounded warm and familiar -- just like that "ultrafast bus" in Beijing β that never shut up.
The next day, Spencer knocked on the door pa.s.sionately. He first took them on a tour to the Self-Defense Force to see their military appearance, which, frankly, was just pathetic. Then he took them to his own office.
"The base is not temporary. Those buildings and the residential areas all have a long history. A lot of people spent most of their lives here." Cow pointed at the corner near them and said, "Look at that."
In front of the building, two groups of elderlies with snow white hair were physically fighting.
In the NSC era, people reach adulthood in their 20s, their appearance staying the same until they were over 200 years old. Then they reach their "mid-life", and their body would start to decline. Their mid-life was not long: only 30-40 years later, they would start to show signs of aging, and hit the end of their lives.
Judging from the grey hair of those elderlies, the average age was definitely above 250 years old.
But judging from the punk in the group, they were just as strong and stupid as before. The leader carried a huge knife, and two of his teeth were in his mouth, but that huge gap didn"t stop him from threatening the life out of other people.
"When they were young, they trafficked the goods for a living. They never had a legal ident.i.ty anywhere, so the only place they can spend their retired life is this underground city." Cow shrugged, and opened the window to shout, "f.u.c.k off! Get the h.e.l.l out of here and b.i.t.c.h at each other somewhere else!"
The elderlies looked up and gave him their middle fingers.
Cow was too elegant to argue with the elderlies, so he closed the window to block them out. "So sorry about that. This is a small place. The mechs took up too much energy, and our energy resource is a bit tight here. That"s why we"re having so many conflicts"
"There"s something I don"t understand." Jingheng said leisurely. "I am not sure if it is convenient for me to ask."
Cow said delightfully, "Don"t worry. Please tell."
Jingheng Linsaid, "People in the base mainly do trafficking for life. So I imagine they spend a lot of time in the s.p.a.ce. Then why is it hard to get a fleet of mechs?"
Bixing Lu was standing near the window, watching the elderlies fight. But after hearing this, he was suddenly stunned, then looked back to Jingheng.
Cow laughed bitterly, "B4 has overestimated us. Just little traffickers trying to make a living. No one even touched a mech. We"d be thrilled if our life savings can buy a shabby little business ship. How many of us can make it to a big trafficker? Most of us are rats in the sewers for generations after generations."
Bixing Lu frowned slightly. Before Cow could finish, he suddenly waved at the students, "You"ve never seen a permanent residency in a s.p.a.ce station, have you? This artificial atmosphere is different from normal planets. Come with me and let me show you around."
Among the students, the most sensitive one was Mint. She already sensed something was wrong, but she didn"t understand why. "Mr. Lu..."
"Let"s go. Come, come come." Before she could have the time to think, Bixing Lu dragged her out of the place. "It is boring to listen to them talk."
Mint looked back at Jingheng Lin, who nodded at her, and watched Bixing Lu drag the confused teenagers out of the way. His mouth curved up, showing a cunning smile.
"Really?" He said slowly. "You"ve never touched a mech before. Good thing you bought the mechs at such a right time."
Monoeye Hawk finally understood what he was going for. His eyes suddenly went cold.
Cow stuttered. He realized his fatal slip of tongue and stepped back out of instinct.
Monoeye Hawk stepped forward, grabbed Cow by the collar and lifted him off of the ground. "What do you mean? Never used mechs, but bought a fleet of mechs from me two months ago? You knew the Pirates were going to make a move early on, didn"t you?"
Cow managed to squeeze a smile to him, "Please, hear me out..."
"Hear you out my a.s.s!" Monoeye Hawk exploded.
Jingheng Lin pretended to try to calm them down. "Yeah, Brother Lu. Keep your temper. Let"s talk this out."
"You kneeled and begged for a discount like a pathetic dog. You said we"re friends and that you"re dying, and begged me for a discount layaway plan. What were you thinking, huh?" Monoeye Hawked suppressed his voice deep in his throat. It was hoa.r.s.e, like the roar of a beast. Veins were popping up from his hands, almost squeezing Cow"s neck in half. "You looked at me, and thought, "Look at this moron. He"s rich and successful. When the Pirates come, he won"t even have a grave to be buried into", right?"
Blood rushes into Cow"s skin, making his face scarlet.
Jingheng Lin leaned against the wall, crossed his arms, and watched the show with emotionless eyes.
"So many years in business, everyone pays the price I set, with no exceptions, even the Eighth Galaxy government. But I pitied you. You must think I"m stupid, don"t you? I"m a f.u.c.king fool!" Monoeye Hawk threw Cow on the ground and punched his face. "f.u.c.k you!"
Cow lost half of his front teeth because of this, which was half a carat of diamond. Blood wetted his shirt. He curled up in the ground, coughing his lungs out. "I...I didn"t have a choice."
"Yeah, you didn"t have a choice." Jingheng Lin said, "If everyone knew they were dying, how could you get yourself out? How could you buy all the resources and ammo cheaply? Mr. Lu probably wouldn"t sell one mech, even let along giving you a discount."
"I don"t care how you knew the Pirates" moves. But you knew Prince Cayley was about to rebel. You knew the scale of this attack. Cayley, Beijing...so many people helped you, treated you like their brother..." Monoeye Hawk"s voice broke. "Are you still a human?!"
"What was I supposed to do?" Cow raised his voice suddenly. "I"m not you. I don"t have money. I don"t have the power to get military mechs. If I tell one person, I"m telling the whole world. The Union government is trash. By then, the entire Eighth Galaxy will go nuts. You"ll all start to h.o.a.rd supplies and ammo. Everyone"s for themselves; no one"s going to give a s.h.i.t about anyone else! If anyone starts to look at my whereabouts, I can"t even negotiate with you. I might not even be able to keep this underground channel to myself. What if this gets out to the Pirates? n.o.body can guess what they"re capable of doing. I had to plan for everything! That"s the only way I can survive!. These people...these people who"s never had a legal ident.i.ty, how are they going to survive? Huh?"
Monoeye Hawked couldn"t keep any words in. Most of his properties were in planet Cayley. During his escape, he tried so hard not to think about that, about what had already happened and could never be changed. He pretended as if nothing happened, but how was that possible? He was born and raised in Cayley. He rebelled against King Cayley"s cruelty in his youth; he fought battles with countless famous or nameless heroes. Cayley not only had all his properties, but also his closest brothers and his warmest memories.
Only if he knew it one day earlier, one hour earlier...
Cow screamed. "If you were me, would you really be so selfless? You"re no better than me!"
Monoeye Hawk had always believed that the kind people who get betrayed by the ones they helped are stupid, but he never thought he would be one of them. He believed in the survival of the fittest, and nothing could really touch his heart and move it. But when Cow told him about his story with the "Rainbow Virus", it touched a soft spot in his heart. In hindsight, he should have fed his useless heart to his dog.
Monoeye Hawk hated him so much that he wanted to disa.s.semble him alive. He pulled out the laser gun that he always carried with him, and pointed at Cow"s head. "Someone has to pay for this."
The Self-Defense Force rushed in, blocking all exits, and pointing all kinds of guns at their hostile guest.
Cow spat the blood in his mouth on the ground. "Monoeye Hawk, I treat you as my friend, but don"t cross the line here. Have you forgotten who owns this place?"
Jingheng Lin stood up straight. "Who owns this place exactly?"
Cow was startled by his question. Before he could reply, the floor shook violently.
Jingheng Lin gave a small smile, and tapped on the mechanical hand on his arm. "There is a mech hidden in the bas.e.m.e.nt of the administration building...with three energy cores. Wow, it"s a heavy mech. Is it supposed to be your secret weapon?"
Cow took a second to take in what he said, then stared at him in disbelief.
"Still confused?" Jingheng Lin looked down on him. "So even now, you still don"t understand why such a tiny mech can have such a huge mental net, right?"
Cow couldn"t speak straight. "You.... you... you..."
"Because I didn"t use the mental net of that small mech." As he spoke, the entire building started shaking. As if hearing a summon, the monster who was underground woke up with thundering sighs, and climbed up through the walls and pipelines. Jingheng Lin smiled. "Now shall we talk about who owns this place?"
At this time, a soldier in the Self-Defense Force sent an alarm from the base. "Boss! In the mech room... there"s a ghost in the mech room! They all just stepped forward and loaded missiles for no reason! n.o.body even touched them!"
"You have two options: one, surrender, and give me total control of the underground channel and the s.p.a.ce station; two, I can take those fine mechs, and blow this place full of s.h.i.t into pieces." Jingheng Lin walked into the army of soldiers as if they weren"t there. "Which one do you prefer?"
At this time, the innocent people in the base had no idea that in the administration building, a bargain about life and death was taking place, and they felt the shuddering of the ground. The old man without his front teeth waved his hands at Bixing Lu. "It"s okay, this shabby place always shudders every now and then. G.o.d knows what"s wrong this time. Keep talking."
The primary reason why the elderlies fought was the man who lacked his front teeth and the crippled man had an argument about their solar panels. Since the s.p.a.ce station needs more energy than it could provide, and the system was just a mess with most of its output used in sustaining the mechs, this meant that the electricity support for most citizens was limited to several hours a day. A lot of them build their own solar panel, which was no better than the primitives" solar batteries. The city was filled with ugly homemade solar panels, greedily sucking the power emitted from the energy tower. Because of the high population density, the solar panels often overlap each other, which induced a lot of fighting every once in a while.
"The nuclear power tower on the supply station is left behind from the Age of Interstellar Discovery about 900 years ago." Utilizing years of experiences with gangsters and thugs, Bixing Lu quickly became a welcomed guest in the two groups of elderlies that were previously fighting. He held the cup of hot tea that the crippled man gave him, waiting for the man who lost his front teeth to skin an apple for him with the kitchen knife he used for fighting. Mr. Lu started a temporary science lecture, chatting with his audience pa.s.sionately. "In the Age of Interstellar Discovery, one of the biggest inventions was this "man-made star". At that time, there was a project called "Planting the Sun" - White, you guys, don"t just listen for fun, take notes - the energy inside is enough for ten thousand years. Even if the s.p.a.ce station is deserted, the man-made star can still glow and give out energy, so the source of energy is not a problem. I just took a look around. The energy supply of the entire base is still from the most primitive energy system used to charge the mechs and cargo ships pa.s.sing by. Can this kind of supply support the entire city? It"s too inefficient. I also don"t think it"s necessary to completely separate civil and mech used energy. The cooling system for takeoff and landing can support a thermal power plant, which is more than enough for you to use. If there"s no s.p.a.ce, you can even make it so that it is suspended in the air."
The man who lost his front tooth gave Bixing a newly peeled apple full of b.u.mps and hollows. He smirked, "Young man, it"s rarely as simple as it seems."
"It is quite simple." Bixing said, "There are so many mechs in the s.p.a.ce station, so there must be a group of robots for daily maintenance. As long as we can figure out a plan, we will just have to reprogram the robots, which is very easy."
The crippled man said, "You talk of grandeur. So what are you exactly?"
Bixing Lu modestly said. "Just a teacher."
All the elderlies started laughing. The young people were better and better at boasting nowadays.
"After all that boasting, I thought you were an astronomer from the Wotto"s Academy of Sciences."
"Kiddo, how many Suns have you planted?"
"You think a thermal power plant is a dough? You can make one in minutes?"
Bixing was very patient. Not only did he not get mad from the elderlies" shoving and laughing, he started laughing with the crowd. He cut the apple into several pieces, then gave them to his students who were about to speak up for him.
At this time, an old woman knocked him with her crutch. "Kiddo, after all that talking, can you repair that?"
Bixing looked at the direction she pointed, and found that in the middle of a narrow street floated a suspended 360 degrees screen. It seemed that it has been dead for years.
"When I was young, one of the biggest joy was to go trafficking, come back alive, and sit in the square to watch a movie." The old woman said, "About 50 years ago, they said it was because of a magnetic field disturbance or something, it was broken, and it never lit up again. Now the outside world is dangerous, the base can"t risk any communication to the outside, so there"s no signal. We can"t even watch TV. We are old and bored, with nothing else to do than picking up random fights for nothing. You boast so well. Can you make it light up again?"