Chapter 475: The Accursed Land
Furball suddenly interrupted Xia Fei and Avril’s moment of after-lunch intimacy. As if he had gone crazy, he bit Xia Fei’s pants leg and tried to drag him out. The urgency in his eyes gave Xia Fei pause.
“Something happened?!” Xia Fei muttered.
He did not dare to delay, for he had seen Furball like this before; it was when he had been suddenly attacked.
Xia Fei and Avril followed Furball to Nirvana’s lowest deck. In an empty corridor, Pod was lying on the cold alloy metal floor, his face on the ground, completely lifeless.
“AHHH!” Avril screamed, her hands covering her mouth in fright.
Xia Fei’s brows furrowed as he hastily walked over and held Pod, his mouth calling the robot’s name.
“Pod! Pod! What’s wrong?”
Alas, no matter how Xia Fei shook or called to him, there was no response.
There was an ill-foreboding, and Avril was on the verge of tears.
“Is Pod okay? Xia Fei, he’s just out of energy, isn’t he?”
Xia Fei did not answer. Hugging Pod, he led Avril back to the residential area.
“I’m not sure. I need to investigate this immediately. Pod is an ancient robot, and many of his parts are very old. Maybe he had a short circuit.”
Though he was doing his best to soothe Avril, Xia Fei was not confident at all. Xia Fei would check Pod’s condition every month, and he was well aware that all of his parts were running properly. For him to just collapse like this was extremely abnormal!
In the medical center of Nirvana, Pod was placed on the surgery table. Xia Fei used his tools to take apart the outer sh.e.l.l quickly; after which, he used a signal monitoring device to scan his important components.
Avril anxiously stood at the side, and even Furball looked very nervous. The eccentric Furball did not like how Pod was so obedient and servile toward humans, but this did not hinder their friends.h.i.+p. At this critical juncture, it was easy to see that Furball actually cared quite a lot about this diligent robot.
“The system automatically shut down?” Xia Fei frowned as he put down the monitoring device.
“Is it very serious?” Avril and Phantom asked almost simultaneously.
“It’s hard to say. It seems that the AI system automatically shut down all functional components. I’ll try to reactivate him,” Xia Fei sternly said.
An external energy source was linked to Pod’s energy system. Xia Fei placed his hands on the power switches at Pod’s head and chest and pressed them at the same time.
*Zzzzzt!* Electricity began to flow. Pod’s body shook twice, and his eyes lit up, but less than a second later, they dimmed again.
After a few more tries, Xia Fei unplugged the external power source, his expression grave.
“It failed. I can’t do a hard start. The AI system is refusing commands.”
“Why don’t you try the maintenance drone we brought back from the Holy Realm? That’s a product from the Law Realm. Didn’t you use it to repair the Black Bat radar?”
Phantom reminded Xia Fei. Xia Fei took out the three maintenance drones from his spatial ring and activated them.
The three spider-like machines crawled around Pod’s body several times, but after scanning him, they turned back into their original round b.a.l.l.s and stopped moving.
“What’s going on? Why aren’t the maintenance drones doing anything?” Phantom angrily said.
Xia Fei had turned pale. “The maintenance drones determined that there’s nothing on Pod to repair, so they had nothing to do.”
“Nonsense! How could Pod not be damaged in this state?!” Phantom raged.
Avril held Xia Fei’s arm, silently weeping as she gazed at the unmoving form of Pod.
Avril was in this state, so Xia Fei’s mood was of course even worse. He had spent so long with Pod and developed a deep affection for him, regarding him to be his most loyal companion who meticulously handled every aspect of his life. Now that this trustworthy companion was suddenly gone, a part of his heart suddenly felt empty.
“Go out and wait for me. I need to give Pod a full inspection.”
…
Several hours later, Xia Fei emerged from the medical center, and Avril immediately came up to him.
“Xia Fei, Pod, he…”
Xia Fei shook his head. “It’s a very strange bug. I inspected all of his chips and critical components, but I didn’t find anything. Pod seems to be in a state of feigned death. His memory and AI systems are fine, but they won’t turn on for some reason.”
“He’s…dead?” Tears began to well up in Avril’s eyes.
“No. He’s just gone for a little while. Trust me. One day, that obedient Pod will be back.”
Avril silently nodded, and the mood became extremely heavy.
…
The day after Pod suddenly entered hibernation, the fleet smoothly entered Terminus. The various commercial s.h.i.+ps began to separate from the main fleet, heading toward their predetermined areas.The others headed straight for Friedel, the only A-rank habitable planet in Terminus.
After some consultation with everybody, it was decided that Friedel would be renamed as New Terra and would serve as Terminus’s capital, becoming its political, economic, and cultural hub.
Construction immediately began underway. For this, Xia Fei brought the Alliance’s most advanced concrete pouring s.h.i.+ps. Alloy metal building frameworks were set up and then concrete was poured into a mold, allowing the construction to proceed at a flabbergasting pace.
This brand-new method of construction was not exactly a money-saver, but it was incredibly efficient. What Xia Fei lacked the most was time, so he did not care how much it cost to build every highway.
The infrastructure construction proceeded quickly, and three months went by in the blink of an eye.
New Terra, the Southern Four Lakes.
Four lakes were arranged in elevation from high to low, spring waters flowing down from the mountains to the north into the first lake; after which, the waters would overflow into the second, then the third, and finally the fourth.
Xia Fei’s new home was in the center of the first lake, on a small island about ten square kilometers. He had chosen this place because Avril liked the scenery of the lake and mountains. Also, he had quietly sunk the Source of Life into the lake, and he was not willing to stray too far away from it.
As 10 p.m. approached, a small shuttle descended on the island in the center of the lake. Uncle Porter had come.
Xia Fei went to welcome the old man warmly, with Avril right behind him.
After greeting each other, the three sat down on the beach. Avril brought over fruits and tea. As for dinner, the servants would prepare that.
“You chose a good place. The scenery is charming and peaceful,” Porter said.
Xia Fei replied, “If you like it, come and live here. The house is so big that the two of us can’t possibly use it all.”
Porter glanced at Avril and chuckled. “Forget it; I’m just an old man. How could I possibly disturb you young lovers?”
Avril blushed and said that she needed to go and help with dinner, leaving Xia Fei and Porter by themselves.
“A comprehensive highway linking all of New Terra is now complete. This six-million-kilometer-long highway connects every part of the planet, but we still need some time for the branching roads,” Porter sternly said.
Xia Fei nodded. “Roads are the foundation of a modernized planet. With roads, we have to accelerate the construction of complex cities. Forty cities that can hold one hundred million people each isn’t a simple undertaking.”
Porter ma.s.saged his temples. As the chief director of infrastructure, Porter had quite a lot on his plate. “Relax. In six months at most, all the infrastructure for New Terra will be completed. At that time, you’ll be able to see a modernized, brand new planet.”
Xia Fei smiled. “Once you’re done with getting the infrastructure set up, you had better spend some time with Windchime. I heard that you’ve even been eating at the worksite rather than going home.”
Porter sighed. “Work is work. We’ll talk about it once the foundations for New Terra are done. I heard that you dispatched Yawei to suppress bandits?”
Xia Fei nodded. “Terminus is crawling with pirates, and public safety is a mess. Once the three large fleets were formed, I immediately sent them out to suppress bandits. This can both ensure the safety of the star region and also train them, killing two birds with one stone.
“As for keeping the capital safe and the navigation routes open, two fleets will be enough. They can switch out every two months. Having the three large fleets go through actual combat as quickly as possible is the correct path. After all, there are far too many recruits in there.”
Yawei was Qin Mang’s warlord disciple. After the war was over, all the soldiers of the Black Abyss had been recruited into the military. As for the territory belonging to these tyrants, it returned to the Alliance. Many warlords had been seized by Tai’s iron fist. Yawei had gotten rather lucky, becoming a commander of a fleet after seeking shelter with Xia Fei.
Qin Mang and Thuram knew that Xia Fei was lacking in manpower, so they did him a favor and sent over the sibling trio, Ling Feng, Ling Yun, and Ling Xiao. At present, the three brothers were each commanding a fleet, with Yawei serving as the overarching commander. The two sides served to keep each other in check, and this also removed any doubts Xia Fei had in appointing Yawei to such an important position.
Porter nodded. “That makes sense. Xia Fei, I carefully examined the blueprints you gave me.”
“How is it?” Xia Fei asked, somewhat surprised.
“It’s impossible. Let alone us, even the four large wars.h.i.+p corporations or the military will be able to build such a large dock. Why do you even need that sort of superdock?”
Xia Fei helplessly shrugged. “It’s nothing. I just had an inspiration.”
Xia Fei was actually rather unhappy that he could not build a t.i.tan yet. More importantly, the Blood Demon Claw had yet to bear fruit. There was also Pod. He had yet to wake up after collapsing that day.
His appointment with Yujiang and Yuhua was fast approaching, but his seventh brain region was still damaged, and the obedient Pod had fallen into a coma. Xia Fei was gradually getting annoyed.
At this moment, the microcomputer on his wrist rang, and an unfamiliar number appeared.
Porter patted Xia Fei on the shoulder. “Take the call; I’ll go and see if Avril has made any progress with her cooking skills.”
Xia Fei nodded. Turning the screen on, he saw a face that he could not call familiar.
“Constantine?”
“Surprised? You’re the owner of Terminus now. We live so close to each other, so why didn’t you pay me a visit?”
Xia Fei chuckled. “That’s true. It’s been two years since our last meeting at the Golden Finger Cup. Who knew that we would become neighbors? Have you been doing well?”
“How could life in the Accursed Land be good?” Constantine spread his hands apart.
“The Accursed Land?” Xia Fei muttered.