Chapter 153 - Break Point
translator: xiin
editors: apricot & juurensha
Blue Planet Star Harbor.
The star ship that was mostly pink and decorated with other pastel macaron colors soon attracted the attention of countless girls who covered their hearts and screamed. The sparkling star ship had been modified into the shape of a unicorn, and the silver and blue mask emblem of Floating City was hung around the creature’s colorful neck.
“What is this?”
Someone slapped their thigh in realization, “I know! It’s Azure Cosmos, Floating City!”
“How could that be? I heard that it’s very dangerous––”
“No, no, it’s very orderly now! Last month, we went on a tour there with our family. In three days time, Floating City will be celebrating the Autumn Festival. It’s said that the entire city will be filled with roses, balloons, pink bubbles, and flamingos running around everywhere! It’s really interesting!”
“Re-really?!”
At port number 6.
Wu Jin took advantage of the big boss’s terminal chip and stepped delightedly into the VIP boarding channel.
Velvet and satin covered the corridor, and two pale masks lay waiting on silver trays. Through the clean French windows, they could see an endless stream of people making their way through the star harbor. The two girls from earlier appeared in the distance, and the familiar sound of conversation rang out again:
“What is this?!” “I know! Floating City!” … “It’s not dangerous at all, both public order and security are very good now!”
“……” Wu Jin was in a daze, “Are they advertising to attract tourists to Floating City?”
Wei Shi peeled the strip of Wu Jin off the gla.s.s and skillfully helped him put on a mask, “Mm. Let’s go.”
The star ship connected with the port gates. Wei Shi explained, “This quarter, Floating City is driving up tourism revenue.”
Wu Jin’s pupils reflected the pink that was around them, “On- on such an exaggerated scale?!”
The flight steward opened the cabin door respectfully for Wei Shi, and the little Pterosaur jumped in, looking extremely excited. The black cat remained lazily in the pet carrier, refusing to move, and Brother Rabbit’s white fur was washed pink by the lighting.
Wei Shi: “In the beginning, it was Arjun in charge. He imported 200,000 pink animals.”
Wu Jin: “And then?”
Wei Shi: “The residents voted to drive away all the pink iguanas and millipedes that he’d bought. Only the flamingos are still there.”
Wu Jin: “……”
The cabin the two of them were in was located at the top of the star ship. Wu Jin stepped in and immediately exclaimed, “Woah.” He revealed the joy of one who hadn’t seen much of the world.
An entire wall was filled with bottles of red wine, and the soft sofa, mahogany furniture, and complex patterns on the walls were all high-profile and luxurious. Lighting came from the chandeliers that were hanging from the ceiling, in the shape of two crystal flamingos whispering gently to each other. They cast an indistinct glow that reflected off the sharp crystal surfaces. There were first-cla.s.s seats near the corner of one wall, and when the chairs were faced outwards, they could talk to their neighbors, and when they were turned inwards, they provided excellent privacy.
The flight steward bowed and offered hand towels and champagne.
The atmosphere in the ship cabin was lively, and there was the sound of conversation and laughter from the guests. Except for in the first cla.s.s area, the business and economy cla.s.s cabins were full of pa.s.sengers.
Wu Jin suddenly noticed the difference. Only a few months ago, very few people visited the city, and online stores even refused to provide delivery to Floating City. Now, it had really started to take on the appearance of being a ‘tourist attraction’.
The place that was once the capital of the underground survival shows and dangerous living was very efficient in starting up its industrial transformation. It was estimated that the next step would be to enter the Federal survival show industry, and then come into contact with the profitable entertainment industry…
On the other side, the pterosaur soon started playing with another guest’s parrot. The black cat finally came out of its carrier and ordered the pterosaur to catch the parrot so that it could play with it.
Wu Jin could only pick up the black cat and find a plastic bag for it to play with.
There were two girls beside them who were whispering between themselves, “This kitty is so cute!”
Wu Jin pinched the black cat’s plum blossom paws and waved them at the two girls. The softer looking girl immediately giggled, and the short haired imperial sister next to her said, “We’ll raise one too in the future.”
However, this girlfriend of hers unexpectedly changed her mind, “Ahhhh! The rabbit is even cuter!”
Wu Jin turned back. The big boss came over from behind him and handed over Brother Rabbit.
The two girls immediately cooed over the rabbit, “Too cute wuwuwuk2013;k2013;are you two also lovers who are going to the Autumn Festival to play together?!”
Wu Jin accepted Brother Rabbit and was enclosed in the man’s strong embrace in the next second. Wei Shi’s eyes held no warmth as his gaze swept over the young girl who was attempting to get close to sniff the rabbit, and the little sister subconsciously stepped back.
Wu Jin hurriedly expressed, “Yes, yes!”
The little sister nodded and smiled happily, “The advertis.e.m.e.nts say that it’s the holy land for marriage proposals! If the real scenery is really that beautiful, I would also want to have it in Floating City…”
Wei Shi glanced at the black cat.
The black cat instantly became alert and jumped away with a ‘meow’. Wu Jin quickly looked back at the big boss, but Wei Shi was indifferent as he stroked the rabbit. Wu Jin had no choice but to say goodbye to the couple and run after the black cat.
By the time the star ship slowly pulled away from the port, Wu Jin was already lying comfortably on the sofa bed in their independent double cabin.
Their two masks had been taken off and were piled up randomly on the table. Wei Shi turned on the virtual screen, and ’s final episode was being replayed.
On the screen, in the smoky Warehouse 225, Zhuang Fan was battling against the underground rapper, and Wu Jin picked up a beer bottle, waving it around excitedly.
Wu Jin criticized himself, “So stupid!” Then, he looked down and browsed through the Crosson forums, where there were even more foolish things––
Finally, in the segment after the compet.i.tion, Wu Jin was shown climbing trees and jumping up and down. An unknown technological fan had made a casual game called ‘Bouncing Little Witch’. At this time, the special section on the forums was filled with activity as fans posted their own recordings of the bouncing game.
––“However much mama loves Little Witch is shown by how fast Little Witch climbs the tree!”
––“The 7th stage is too hard! Any carelessness, and Little Witch will get eaten up by Caesar, and the G.o.d Wei following behind Little Witch will also get eaten??”
“……” Wu Jin shut down his terminal instantly, but he couldn’t control the big boss who had expressionlessly opened up the game.
Bouncing Little Witch, single player mode.
A little, round, 2D Little Witch hopped around on the ground, and he would jump up whenever the s.p.a.ce bar was pressed.
Wu Jin: “Aiya!”
The 3D Wu Jin quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed away the big boss’s virtual keyboard, and the 2D Little Witch b.u.mped into a wall and fell down, crying all the way.
Wei Shi simply switched to the cursor to play. The 2D Little Witch on the ground climbed back up, and following the big boss’s detailed maneuvers, it avoided obstacles the whole way, its movements skillful and smooth.
Wu Jin watched for a long time, and his eyes grew rounder and rounder. Finally, he blinked and said, “Hey… I want to play too!”
The screen paused, and the cursor was handed over to Wu Jin. The small curls bounced up as he very seriously led the 2D Wu Jin to run around. Wei Shi bowed his head and kissed the side of the youth’s ear.
The tip of Wu Jin’s ear felt itchy, and he turned around to pounce fiercely on the big boss.
On the screen, the 2D Little Witch smashed into a tree and started crying again.
By the time Wu Jin picked up the cursor again, the 2D Little Witch had practically cried enough to make the tree collapse.
Wei Shi: “Switch to double player mode.”
One of them used the virtual keyboard, and the other used the cursor. As expected, the double mode consisted of Contestant Wu and Contestant Wei. Wu Jin moved quickly and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the 2D Wei Shi, and the big boss continued to operate Wu Jin. In the game, both of them jumped and ran around together.
The 2D Wu Jin ran around smoothly up in front, while the 2D Wei Shi stumbled along at the back. Wu Jin’s operation was full of errors, and he was constantly crying and howling at random, all the way until stage seven where a fat and chubby Caesar squatted in the middle. The 2D Wu Jin quickly skipped past Caesar, but the clumsy 2D Wei Shi was directly dragged away by Caesar as potential barbecue––
Wu Jin squeaked and squeezed in beside the big boss, shaking his cursor, “Sharing all difficulties!”
The 2D Little Witch went out of control and was also brutally dragged away by Caesar and tossed onto the grill.
They both became martyrs for love.
The star ship was flying over a meteorite belt at this time, and its hull vibrated slightly.
Wu Jin quickly picked up Brother Rabbit, who was about to slide off the table, and held it with both hands.
Wei Shi handed him a large goblet. He hadn’t yet poured in the wine when Wu Jin suddenly saw the light and directly stuffed the tame Brother Rabbit inside the gla.s.s.
Wu Jin shook the rabbit goblet, “I only need one hand to hold him this way…”
Wei Shi poured himself a gla.s.s of champagne.
The lights outside the window suddenly grew bright, streaming in from behind the meteorite belt. The light from the distant stars was transmitted over across the distance, and the Floating City in their field of vision grew bigger and bigger. The atmosphere caused an intense friction against the star ship, and then the scope of their vision was suddenly enlarged.
Clouds and flowers that had been dyed pink through artificial lighting all gathered together to form a dream-like ocean of pink.
Wei Shi raised his gla.s.s of champagne and b.u.mped gla.s.ses lightly with the goblet that held the big white rabbit.
“Floating City Autumn Festival. Cheers.”
After a few minutes, the port was connected again.
The fragrance of flowers floated through the air, and the silver blue mask shone brightly over the customs window. After entering the country, the original surreal cyberpunk style of the city had changed. Even the law enforcement machines wore pink ap.r.o.ns, and flamingos ran around everywhere on the streets.
Tourists, who had just landed, excitedly took photos, and the street vendors were happy to sell them souvenirs, taking the trouble to answer the tourists’ confused questions.
“Gang fights? They don’t happen here! The gangs can’t beat the law enforcement team.”
“Floating City’s King? Oh, there’s a box next to the mailbox with the words ‘Talk To The King’ stuck on it. You can post a letter there. Don’t throw in chocolate, you have to pay a fine if it gets stuck…”
Floating City that was now opened up to ordinary Federal tourists showed an extraordinary level of enthusiasm towards its guests.
Wu Jin felt that this industry transformation could help Floating City earn quite a lot of foreign exchange credits. Floating City’s standard currency was the rare ‘deep s.p.a.ce credits’, which was linked directly to the gray market. Before this, most of the credit points that were used to trade for ‘deep s.p.a.ce credits’ had come from Imperial and Federal n.o.bles who’d come to Floating City to have fun.
Both kinds of currencies had been equally scarce, resulting in higher transaction fees, and long-term deflation in the city. The foreign exchange brought about by the opening up of the tourism industry would no doubt fill up the money market and pull up Floating City’s GDP.
Wu Jin followed behind the big boss, looking left and right. He walked another step, then stared at a financial inst.i.tution’s hanging banner, ‘Floating futures’, ‘Flamingo gambling’.
Wei Shi slowly led Wu Jin forward, “Let’s go.”
When they entered the main urban area, the embryonic form of the Autumn Festival market could already be seen.
Masks and imitation guns of varying styles could be seen everywhere, and there were no lack of expressionless genetically modified people amongst the traders. At first, the tourists didn’t dare to approach them, but after finding that the ‘genetically modified were honest, trustworthy, and easy to bargain with’, they all crowded over in delight.
There was also a very conspicuous wedding company in the market.
The shopkeeper was eloquent, “Autumn Festival? It’s Floating City’s traditional Valentine’s day! We give refunds for proposal failures! The success rate has been 99.9% for the past two years!”
“We have water platform proposals, rainbow bridge proposals, ch.o.r.eographed flamingo proposals, canyon proposals… last month, some big boss even came to us anonymously to plan an armory proposal––”
Wu Jin was very happy listening to him, but Wei Shi suddenly pulled him out of the crowd.
Wu Jin: “Eh!”
A chill spread over Wei Shi’s entire body. He glanced at the shopkeeper, then turned around and left.
Wu Jin could only keep up obediently, his eyes filled with nostalgic reluctance.
An armory! So cool!!
A few minutes later, the two of them were eating wraps as they walked along the street.
A large flock of flamingos clattered past. Wu Jin ate faster.
Another large flock of flamingos fluttered past.
Wu Jin ran after them happily.
Another large flock…
Wei Shi pulled the Wu Jin, who was about to become a flamingo, away from the flock, calling over a suspension car with the ‘Floating Law Enforcement’ emblem to take the two of them to the Floating Base.
The misty city was laid out beneath their feet. Wu Jin lay against the window, looking at the ravines beyond the clouds in the sky, the training base shrouded in fog, and the bar, Sharp Blue, that Ming Yao had taken them to before…
At the entrance to Floating City military base.
Mao Dongqing nodded to Wu Jin in greeting, then bowed slightly to Wei Shi, “Researcher Song is ready. We can start at any time.”
Wu Jin immediately expressed that he would never delay the big boss’s affairs, “I’ll just wait here!” He wouldn’t take up s.p.a.ce and wouldn’t hinder anything!
Wei Shi nodded, glancing over Wu Jin before leaving.
On the other side of the door, the psychologist Zhou Nan wandered over leisurely. When he saw Wu Jin, his brows relaxed in happiness, “Oh, Little Witch is here!”
Wu Jin was sitting obediently on the bench. He was also in high spirits as they exchanged greetings.
Zhou Nan felt that he felt better the more he looked at him and wished that he could trick Wu Jin into becoming a son he could raise. He had a benign smile on his face as he spoke, “I’ll go buy some oranges. Stay here and don’t wander around.”
Wu Jin always felt that this sounded very familiar, but he couldn’t place it for a while.
By the time the two people were seated together on the bench gnawing on oranges, the door to the experimental clinic was pushed open.
Researcher Song explained, “There is no such thing as memory deletion in this world. Amnesia can be caused by brain damage, which is then split into psychogenic and dissociative. Little Witch is most likely psychogenic. He is aware of his own ident.i.ty, and his logic is self-consistent…”
Wei Shi repeated, “Emotional reasons.”
Researcher Song: “Theoretically, we can make use of the best hypnosis equipment. As long as the device is enabled––”
Wei Shi: “Not now.”
Researcher Song paused.
Wei Shi looked through the window, his gaze landing on Wu Jin, who was eating oranges in the distance.
Wei Shi: “I don’t have the right to decide for him. Whether or not his memories are restored is up to him.”
A long time later.
Researcher Song finally nodded, “Alright.”
“However. In any case, before using any equipment, I need to know––what is Mister Wu’s knowledge regarding his own ident.i.ty? As far as I know, the break point was when he disappeared from R-Code Base at the age of 15.”
“After that, before partic.i.p.ating in the Crosson Show. Where was he?”
Juurensha: ….I think WS made use of Floating City’s proposal planning services hahahaha
xiin: more on little witch’s history~ (this is the arc with the giant reveal, guys!) also it’s fricken hilarious that they ordered pink bugs. it’s so cute that this bunch of rough men are trying so hard to create this romantic atmosphere and have no clue what they’re doing, lol.