Chapter 163
Translator’s Notes: Sorry for the lack of creative memes lately. Believe it or not, we actually have terrible sense of humor and thus have to spend twice as much time to come up with something less funny than a 15 years old would have come up. >_>
Chapter 163: Aurelio’s Cage [Part 1]
The stars.h.i.+p the Andrea Family had prepared for Lung could be called a mini type, and it was a lot smaller than your average stars.h.i.+p. It was spindle-shaped and appeared harmless from the outside, but in actuality the stars.h.i.+p was installed with the latest ‘Sentinel’ defense system in GAL, cannons, high density energy particle beam launchers and more. Not only were these weapons concealed beneath its harmless appearance, the quality of all of the energy blocks utilised were also the absolute top tier. The moment it encountered danger, the stars.h.i.+p’s attack system would raise up its thorns like a curling hedgehog and attack the enemies at all directions.
The stars.h.i.+p’s interior design wasn’t flamboyant, but a closer look would reveal that every detail had been meticulously designed, installed and put in order. It gave off the impression of low-key extravagance.
Inside the stars.h.i.+p, there was a weapons storage room not far away from the control room and the lounge. All kinds of weapons ranging from cold weapons to energy weapons were stored inside it.
Just in case they encountered a mishap that they could not react to in time, the control room had been specifically modified so that they could rest inside it directly when they were tired.
Since the only pa.s.sengers of this stars.h.i.+p were Cillin, Lung and a cat, and that there were no beautiful girls on board, Lung purposely set the exterior of the robot servants on the stars.h.i.+p into the shape of all kinds of beautiful girls. Eye candy and all.
Inside the stars.h.i.+p, Lung was lying on top of a recliner inside the control room while eating the roasted meat served by the robot servants. Bored, he sighed for the fifty sixth time of the day.
Cillin did not even lift an eye since he had gotten used to it. He was the one who applied for this mission himself, and yet he’s been sighing for the entire day like a resentful housewife due to sheer boredom.
While staring at the gray cat entertaining itself on top of a table at the side, he said faintly, "Look at it. The life of a cat is so nice. It can happily play with its own tail for half the day. If it’s hungry after playing it’ll fill its own belly before falling asleep, and when it wakes up it can play with its tail again if it’s bored."
Cillin raised his eyes and looked at the duo, "Actually, you’re about the same as it. The only difference is that it is playing with its own tail, and you’re playing with your own legs."
Lung put his feet back down from the recliner and shook once, "I’m bored!"
"Then go to bed. If you can’t fall asleep naturally then enter the sleep capsule. Wake up only when something shows up."
"How can I possibly do something that boring?" Lung said disdainfully before falling into thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he said to Cillin, "Cillin, do you want to listen to some gossip?"
"Whose?"
"From fifty years ago, of course!" Lung controlled his recliner to move beside Cillin, "So, you wanna hear about it?"
Cillin took a glance at Lung’s ‘ask me beg me’ expression before moving his gaze back to the book in his hand, saying nothing.
Lung scratched his head, "Alright, I’ll a.s.sume that you agree since you’re not making a sound."
The moment the gray cat heard that they were going to talk about some secrets, it gave up on its tail and jumped off the table, climbing up Cillin’s body and sitting down on his shoulders. It straightened its ears and began to listen.
But a long while later, Lung failed to force even a fart out of his a.s.s.
"Hey, start speaking man!" the gray cat urged.
"Oh you know, the first step is always the hardest. I’m thinking where to start will be the most appealing!" Lung said righteously.
"And? It’s been ten minutes. Are you done?"
"Almost. Ahem." Lung cleared his throat and immediately fell into form. He asked with a tone of excessive enigma, "Do you know about ‘Aurelio’s Cage’?"
The gray cat c.o.c.ked its head. It actually had no idea about this.
Cillin answered uncertainly, "You mean the one from ‘Genesis Mythos’?"
Lung nodded.
‘Genesis Mythos’ wasn’t any profound reading material, but a story book for children. The stories in the book were simple, easy to understand, and short. ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ was one of the many stories in ‘Genesis Mythos’.
In this story, in order to test humanity, G.o.d imprisoned five objects that could help men realise their dreams. The prison was the hand of G.o.d itself, with each of his five fingers being a lock of the prison. The prison can only be opened by five corresponding keys, and the objects imprisoned by G.o.d’s five fingers are called ‘Aurelios’, which meant ‘dream’ in ancient language.
Aurelio was the byword of dreams in the legend. Those who found the keys, unlocked the cage and obtain the ‘Aurelios’ inside it would find their dreams realised.
"It may just be a children’s fairy tale, but no one knows if ‘Aurelio’ actually can realise a person’s dream. However, there were plenty of people who would jump at the opportunity to seek out and obtain ‘Aurelio’. The struggles from fifty years ago were caused exactly because of a key."
While listening to Lung, Cillin abruptly recalled that a key had been drawn at the end of the poem in Chamonidine’s diary. He hadn’t paid it any attention back then, but now he realised what it meant.
"Ah? Does a G.o.d really exists?" the gray cat said in shock.
Cillin, Lung: "&h.e.l.lip;"
You’ve gotten the wrong point, sir cat.
Cillin scratched the gray cat’s head and said, "Of course there are no G.o.d, it’s just a fairy tale and it isn’t real. Also, the focus of the story is on ‘Aurelio’s Cage’, and not G.o.d."
"Oh, I see. But if G.o.d isn’t real, then how did ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ come to exist?" the gray cat continued to ask.
Both Cillin and the gray cat looked towards Lung.
Lung shrugged, "That I don’t know. It seems that the stories related to ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ have existed since a long time ago&h.e.l.lip; it was probably a thousand years ago. A thousand years ago, the story of ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ had suddenly showed up, and a couple of large forces joined hands to seal off the news. Therefore, there are very few people who knows about ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ in GAL."
So that’s how it is.
"Continue."
Both Cillin and the gray cat wait for Lung to continue.
Lung proudly crossed his legs and instructed the beautiful robot girl at the side to bring him a gla.s.s of fruit juice. He was thirsty after talking a lot. Then he said, "There is a corresponding star map for every key, and for the past one thousand years these five star maps had already been broken into many pieces. Only by locating these pieces and putting them together could the keys be found."
"A jigsaw puzzle." the gray cat mumbled to itself. It sounded like a pain in the a.s.s. The jigsaw puzzle itself wasn’t troublesome, but locating these pieces, was.
"In fact, if you obtain even one piece of the star map and then travel all around the universe, you may be able to find other pieces of the same star map since the pieces can detect each other. Do not compare a star map’s pieces with broken gla.s.s or something. A star map would not have more than five separate pieces, and some may have pieces as few as two or three." Lung explained.
"That’s not too bad. If we get even a single piece then it’ll be easy, won’t it?" the gray cat looked eager to start looking.
Lung rolled his eyes at the gray cat and said, "The problem is that many people did not even have a piece to begin with, or how could a single star map piece possibly spark a commotion that big fifty years ago? Fifty years ago, a certain people collected the star map pieces, obtained a complete star map, and acquired information on one of the five keys. However, the news were leaked, thus causing a conflict of many sides."
"And these certain people are?" Cillin asked.
"Who else can it be but those three old foxes on the GAL parliament? They’ve gotten a piece each and put them together to form a completed star map. However, the news of their success leaked and triggered the uproar of many forces. However&h.e.l.lip;" Lung rubbed his chin, "I suspect that
"Do you know that the key’s location isn’t the only thing that would appear after a star map has been completed? The key’s name was also revealed, and the name of the key those three old b.a.s.t.a.r.ds discovered after the star map was completed was ‘White Night’."
Translator’s Notes: And I’m going to put together this Triforce and find the Master Sword.
Chapter 163: Aurelio’s Cage [Part 2]
"White Night?" Cillin frowned. In Genesis Mythos, one of the ‘Aurelios’ represented courage, while White Night could turn darkness into light.
"White Night is one of the five Aurelios. In Genesis Mythos, it is said that to give light to the people in darkness, but in reality White Night means energy, and in the explanation provided by the star map, White Night is the best ‘omnipotent power source’. I do not know how much energy this type of power source can provide, but the fact that it can drive so many people to risk their lives meant that it must quite big.
Moreover, those three old b.a.s.t.a.r.ds aren’t that interested in power sources. Relatively speaking, I think that they enjoy watching people risking their lives and fighting over something even more. That’s why there weren’t many government officials who were involved fifty years ago, but there were plenty of armies and Hunter regiments."
Now Cillin understood what Lung meant earlier when he said that everyone’s desires were different from each other.
Different characters had different objectives. Out of the five ‘Aurelios’, some might be suited for Hunters and some might be suited for traders. Those in academia, the military and the government all had their own respective objectives as well. They might be similar, or they might be different.
While talking, the scanner suddenly let out an alarm, "Energy signal detected ahead! Energy signal detected ahead!"
Lung immediately grew excited as his chair spun, "Activate invisibility mode!"
"Invisibility mode engaged."
"Deep scan!"
Five minutes later, a scene was displayed on the screen. It looked to be a battle between two forces. There was a giant-sized stars.h.i.+p and many s.p.a.ceplanes and fighters around it. Wreckages could be seen everywhere, and the exchanging of firepower was pretty intense.
"Alright, we got something to do!" Lung rubbed his palm eagerly.
After watching the scene for a moment, both Cillin and Lung had discerned some of the issues on that s.h.i.+p. The battle was either caused by internal strife, or spies and traitors in their own midst. A huge hole had been blown from inside to outside at the side port of the stars.h.i.+p, and from time to time fighter s.p.a.cecrafts consisting of both sides would fly out from it. It would appear that battle had been engaged inside the stars.h.i.+p, and it might not necessarily be any less intense than the battle outside.
"What are you going to do?" Cillin looked at Lung. Right now the guy looked like he had injected himself with chicken blood* and was full of enthusiasm.
*here’s a repeat of something I’ve explained in the past, but basically it’s your ancient Chinese equivalent of drugs for medical purposes. Usually it’s used as an idiom in the context of get high.
"Are we going to rush over?" the gray cat worked its claws and looked full of expectations.
But Lung shook his head, "Our opponent is too strong. Compared to that stars.h.i.+p our stars.h.i.+p is practically a harmless child who hasn’t finished p.u.b.erty yet."
Harmless child&h.e.l.lip; like h.e.l.l that is true!
Although the size difference was huge, but combat strength wise Cillin was absolutely certain that the stars.h.i.+p they were on could take out that big fellow.
"Don’t you see that they’re having a good time. What we should be doing now is of course to watch the show!" Lung snapped his fingers, summoning his beautiful robot girl to serve up tea and freshly baked biscuits.
However, just because they’re watching a show and doing nothing didn’t mean that they weren’t using their brains. After watching for a moment, Cillin had already figured out which side were the rebels.
While chewing his biscuit and not bothering to wipe the crumbs off his mouth, Lung said, "Cillin, I have an idea."
Cillin did not object after listening to Lung’s ‘idea’, "As long as you aren’t afraid that those fellows might break some things inside here, then sure."
"Heh, then it’s been decided!" Lung spun around on his chair once before laying down a voice command, "Exterior transformation, ball shape."
"Exterior transformation engaged."
The entire s.h.i.+p’s exterior began to transform as the smart system’s voice resounded. It transformed from its original spindle shape into a round ball shape. Even the color of the s.h.i.+p’s surface had changed into an arrogant white color, and a white ball sparkling with white light should be pretty eye catching amidst this darkness.
Since some people were also flying towards their direction, the two sides quickly pulled close to each other.
"Deactivate invisibility mode!" Lung instructed.
"Invisibility mode disengaged."
Just when the smart system had finished saying that, the fully transformed stars.h.i.+p in the shape of a white ball appeared before the people’s eyes.
Andrea Family’s technology was publicly recognised in GAL. The fact that the stars.h.i.+p could get so close and still not get detected by the other party’s counter surveillance system meant that its invisibility unit was just too good.
Meanwhile, the people on the other side were startled by the white colored ball shaped object that had suddenly appeared. At that moment, both engaging parties had become slightly absent-minded. However, when a line of words was displayed on the surface of the ball shaped flying object, the people on the other side finally began to react towards it.
The words appearing on the ball-shaped stars.h.i.+p was: Come up, we’ll take you away.
The side that was being hunted down and was almost driven into a final struggle immediately adjusted their flight path the second they saw these words. They flew towards the ball-shaped flying object.
"This is the Hunter regiment ‘Heaven’s Jail’. Who are you? We are purging our ranks of traitors, so please do not interfere!"
Cillin and Lung straight up pretended that they were both deaf and mute as they watched the stars.h.i.+p’s words displayed on the screen. They had heard of the Hunter regiment ‘Heaven’s Jail’ before. It was a Hunter regiment that often operated around Sector S, and they were largely related to the people of Sector S as well.
Seeing that the other party had not responded to their transmission, the Heaven Jail members on board that stars.h.i.+p grew angry and directly ordered a full scale attack.
However, the attacks were all blocked by the energy s.h.i.+eld surrounding the ball-shaped stars.h.i.+p. The s.h.i.+p was perfectly unharmed.
At this moment, the first four fighters and the s.p.a.ceplane that had escaped the farthest ahead had already arrived near the ball-shaped stars.h.i.+p. Five corresponding pa.s.sages opened up on the ball-shaped stars.h.i.+p, and the energy s.h.i.+elds surrounding this five pa.s.sages were extinguished.
On the stars.h.i.+p, a person in the control room slammed a fist onto the table with a loud bang, "Which forces do they belong to?!"
"Maybe they were here to rescue them?" someone said.
Sector S had been growing more and more chaotic as of late. There were quite a number of local Hunter regiments who were severely damaged by unknown figures, and the reason traitors had appeared within their midst was also due to the involvement of those outsiders. It used to be the local Hunter regiments riding roughshod over people in Sector S, but now they were pushed to the brink of mental illness one after another. What on earth was going on?!
"What should we do now, commander?"
"Chase after them at full force!"
"Yes sir!"
But when the five fighters and the s.p.a.ceplane had entered the ball shaped stars.h.i.+p, it immediately raised its speed and entered invisibility mode at the same time. Before long, it had thrown off the Heaven’s Jail Hunter regiment.
After they had entered the ball-shaped stars.h.i.+p, the people inside the five fighters and the s.p.a.ceplane walked out of their cabins. At first, they thought that someone had been sent to rescue them, but after they walked out they discovered that that was not the case. Wherever they looked there were only robots, and not a single one of them was holding a gun either. They gave off a very friendly impression.
The leader of the group was a man with a big beard, a slightly crooked back and an obese figure. However, when he walked he gave off a very graceful impression.
Big Beard looked at the surroundings and motioned for his subordinates to stay calm and act carefully. When he stared at a robot and walked closer towards it, the robot had not brandished a weapon. Although these robots looked rather friendly, and many of them in the shape of beautiful girls that were almost exactly the same as your average human, it was very easy for Hunters who often roamed around Sector S like them to distinguish an average human from a robot. There would always be people of bad taste with their high-end robots set in the shape of beautiful girls.
The leader of the beautiful robot girls walked in front of Big Beard and revealed a sweet smile on her face. She said politely, "h.e.l.lo and welcome aboard, our guests. My master would like to invite you all to meet him."
"Oh. I wonder what your master looks like?" Big Beard didn’t seem to be worried.
"Master will offer good hospitality. Master once said that all visitors are guests, and that we should receive them courteously."
"Sure. We also have the master of this s.h.i.+p to thank for saving us, haha!" Big Beard led his dozen or so subordinates and followed the beautiful robot girl out of the pa.s.sage.
Inside the control room, Lung sneered as he looked at the footage on the screen, "What a poor act. He looks very calm on the outside, but in reality he’s so nervous he could die."
Lung pointed at Big Beard’s stomach on the screen and continued, "This guy has more than a pair of hands. In fact, he has a few pairs of hands all hidden inside here. He’s probably holding a weapon in every hand, and the second he detects anything amiss he will shoot."
"How did you know that?"
"It’s a guess!"
Big Beard really was caught off guard when met the two men and a cat before him. At the same time, a plan was formed inside his mind. He put on a wide smile on his face and said, "Thank you for saving me and my subordinates! My name is Pillar. We are former members of the Heaven’s Jail Hunter regiment. We have left our Hunter regiment due to some disputes, and the reason that a battle was engaged was because they refused to allow us to leave. Thank you for extending us a helping hand, or we may not have left the battlefield alive."
"We are very glad to see you, Mr. Pillar. We just happened to be pa.s.sing by and decided to lend our aid, so don’t mention it. Come, come and taste the freshly baked biscuits of our beauty Lisa." Lung said while looking like a fop.
Pillar and the rest of his men could see that the wine on top of the table were all high cla.s.s goods. Even the wine gla.s.s was made of top grade materials. It was obvious that this guy was a young master of a rich family, and judging from his sloppy and indulgent appearance, it would appear that he had never suffered any hards.h.i.+ps in his life.
"Er, and you are&h.e.l.lip;" Pillar asked.
Lung winked while holding his wine gla.s.s, "Let me tell you a secret. Me and my little buddy here had secretly ran out from our homes. We heard that something big is probably going to happen here, which is why we couldn’t hold our curiosity to come over to have a look and join in the party. Hehe, as we expected, the moment we arrived at Sector S we immediately found you guys in the middle of a scuffle."
You call that a scuffle? It’s a fight with our lives on the line, okay! Pillar and the others criticised on the inside.
While listening to Lung’s explanation and combining it with their surrounding decor, Pillar and the others were beginning to believe somewhat that these two youngsters had truly ran away from their homes in secret. There were no servants, no guards, and all robots. They actually came to Sector S as two people only! Should they say that these two were innocent and ignorant of the cruelties of the world, or should they say that they were fools with a screw loose in their heads? Regardless, either scenario worked to their advantage.
While Pillar looked down upon this foolish young master of a rich family on the inside, he still kept his patience and talked just about everything with Lung as they felt out each other.
Cillin had been sitting on his chair and saying nothing all the time, reading his book. Lung had not been able to con someone for a long time, so he was just going to let him con all the way to his heart’s content.
The gray cat lay on top of Cillin’s shoulders and licked its lips from time to time.