Chapter 175
Original and most up to date translations are posted
Chapter 175: Which Force is It? [Part 1]
Cillin regarded Scarlet Wind’s problem as a matter of great importance. He had said earlier that he would give Scarlet Wind two choices to whether become a man, or a dog.
Different choices meant different ways of training. Right now Scarlet Wind was nearly a blank slate excluding its current abilities and nature brought by its genes. He would pa.s.s the choice of which development path to follow to Scarlet Wind himself. If Scarlet Wind were to regret it in the future, he could only blame himself. One would be encouraged to make progress only if the decision was their own.
Scarlet Wind had self-learned very quickly, and his intelligence was obvious to all who saw him. The genes and brain he inherited gave him quite the sizable amount of talent that many people did not possess. Even if he had started slow, he would be able to catch up pretty soon.
Man, or dog?
The gray cat looked down on Scarlet Wind from a high ground as the latter practiced conversing with a smart learning machine. In reality, the gray cat wasn’t all that interested in Scarlet Wind’s choice to develop himself as a man or a dog. From the point of view of a cyborg, neither man nor beast made much difference in its eyes. It was fine as long as Cillin was with it. Whether the others were men or beasts was no concern to it. They were just extra companions.
In fact Scarlet Wind himself did not quite understand why Cillin wanted him to make such a decision in the past. However, after understanding the different orbits of life of a man and a dog, Scarlet Wind chose to become a man without hesitation. Dogs gave emphasis to domestication and loyalty, whereas men gave emphasis to autonomy. The reason Cillin decided to bring Scarlet Wind with him back then was because he liked Scarlet Wind’s ‘autonomy’ when compared to the other h.e.l.lhounds. Scarlet Wind had not obeyed blindly the twisted and single minded responsibility of a protector h.e.l.lhound.
Although Cillin had predicted that Scarlet Wind would choose to become a man, he was still very happy when Scarlet Wind had made his choice firmly. Since Scarlet Wind had chosen to become a ‘man’, then he would have to teach Scarlet Wind using a ‘man’s’ standards.
Cillin instructed Scarlet Wind to start walking on his feet instead of all fours, and to start using his hands when he ate his meals. Right now Scarlet Wind was still unfamiliar with the use of his claws, no, hands. Sometimes, his five fingers were too stiff. While they were pretty agile when tearing a prey apart, wielding tools was a different story. In fact he had accidentally crushed many tools because he could not control his strength properly. However, Cillin paid no heed to this. It had been many years, so there had to be a process for his habits to form.
The good news was that Scarlet Wind often saw Cillin and Lung’s movements and learned fairly quickly. He still wasn’t quite used to walking on both legs and could not run swiftly, but walking was no longer a problem. Some of his hair had been shaved too, since the description ‘ungrown hair’ could not be applied to Scarlet Wind. The little fellow’s hair was way too thick since he had a dog’s genes. Although it was not as obvious as a dog’s, his hair was still rather offensively conspicuous compared to a normal human being.
After shaving the hair on his face, hands and other places, giving the small clump of hair on his head a cut, and putting clothes on him, Scarlet Wind looked more or less like a normal kid if one were to ignore his sharper-than-norm ears and his furry tail at his back.
Today, after Lung had awakened from literally several days of sleep, he circled around Scarlet Wind several times and admired his appearance.
"I can’t believe that little dog kid from back then actually looks decent now." Lung said at the dining table.
It was a small dining table with four seats. Scarlet Wind was holding a spoon with his hands and scooping the food inside the bowl. His long nails had long been withdrawn back into his fingers, and he looked rather harmless with his grinning, childish face.
The gray cat would scoop up the broiled fishes in its plate from time to time with its paws, first nailing it with its claws before lifting it up like a fork and delivering it to its mouth.
After teasing Scarlet Wind for a bit, Lung said, "Cillin, have you figured out which planet you want to go to?"
Before he slept, Lung had told Cillin to consider the latter part of their journey. Since they had decided to head towards a grade three prison planet, they must first decide on exactly which grade three prison planet to head to. Lung himself did not care where they were headed to, and he had pa.s.sed the decision making power directly to Cillin. He was going to fly straight towards their destination after he woke up.
The reason they chose a grade three prison planet was because there were too many Sector native forces in grade one and two prison planets. These forces had become even more anti-foreigner after the grade one prison planet from before had suffered a devastating blow.
High grade prison planets were too difficult for them since those places were the main focus of firepower right now. Most of the large forces outside of Sector S had all set their sights on these high grade prison planets. After calculating the risks for a bit, a grade three prison planet was the most suitable target for them. If after the journey they felt like they hadn’t enjoyed themselves fully yet, then they might go take a look at high grade prison planet depending on the circ.u.mstances. Those planets were not places they could cause trouble whenever they wanted to, however. Bravery did not equal asking for trouble.
If he had to make a choice, then Cillin preferred putting at least some thoughts behind the choice. He chose a planet after looking at the star map. This grade three prison planet wasn’t too far away from where they were right now, and it wasn’t the closest grade three prison planet to the grade one prison planet earlier. Lung agreed after giving it a look. He inserted the coordinates of that grade three prison planet as the target destination of the stars.h.i.+p and travelled towards it using the robot-a.s.sisted auto pilot.
Now that there was a new talking companion, Lung teased Scarlet Wind like he was teasing a child. Scarlet Wind gave Lung face and did not express dislike towards Lung’s talkative mouth, however.
They received a secret transmission before arriving at their destination. It was a transmission from the Andrea Family. After Lung had inserted the decryption program, the message revealed itself to the duo.
The Andrea Family might not have partic.i.p.ated much in that incident fifty years ago, but several of their seniors were sent to Sector S’ prisons prior to it. Therefore, the main reason they sent their men this time was to protect the safety of those few family seniors. After all, there was no telling if someone would seize the opportunity to a.s.sa.s.sinate them under the current circ.u.mstances. Now that ‘Mist’ and ‘Merciless’ had come out, and Blue b.u.t.terfly of the great four was growing restless as well, who wouldn’t take the utmost caution?
Lung also shared the secret transmission with Cillin after looking through it. There weren’t much secrets contained in the message, and it was useful for their latter operation anyway.
"A devastating catastrophe?" Cillin muttered after reading the message.
Lung scratched his head, "Isn’t that way too much an exaggeration? Even if that group of people you said came to Sector S, saved and killed some people, it couldn’t have triggered a planetary catastrophe, could it? An apocalyptic catastrophe no less?"
In reality, no prison planets of Sector S were at planetary habitability
But even a rank B or C planet was still valuable. Wasn’t it a pity to destroy it just like that?
Cillin sighed, "Of course they don’t care since it’s not their own planets."
It was a true statement. The reason Sector S’s forces were anti-foreigner wasn’t just because they hated foreign forces interfering with their own businesses, but also due to worry that a foreign force would ignore the circ.u.mstances of a Sector and destroy some good planets. After all, even a rank B planet was difficult to find these days.
When they recalled what happened on that grade one prison planet, both Cillin and Lung had fallen into silence. To some people, destroying a planet was only too easy. It might just be a grade one prison, but it was destroyed all the same in less than half a day. No one could tell if the other prison planets would follow its footsteps.
A grade one prison’s defenses were relatively simpler than others, so it did not take both ‘Mist’ and ‘Merciless’ much to break through it. Earlier, they used viruses to create confusion. The other forces may use a similar method as well." Cillin said.
Just like how Cillin had used parasites to nearly turn the planet ‘Poison Fang’ was garrisoned on into a graveyard, there were only too many methods to destroy a planet and send it into an apocalyptic catastrophe.
Sometimes, people complained that GAL’s military and government were too powerful and hypocritical, but it could not be denied that the places governed by the GAL army and alliance government had much better law and order compared to other places. In Sector S, the only ones who would be having a headache after the destruction of a planet there were Sector S’ forces. GAL’s military and government wouldn’t give a d.a.m.n about it.
"Let’s be more careful once we get there. Now that even grade one prison planets are unsafe, we might run into some trifle in a middle stage grade three prison planet."
"That’s all we can do. The situation’s not so bad that we have to give up, is it?" Lung yawned and when to the armory to prepare the stuff. This time, they would have to make even more preparations so that they wouldn’t be put in the pa.s.sive too much if anything were to happen.
When they were almost at their destination, Cillin hesitated whether to bring Scarlet Wind with them. After all, the gray cat had made up its mind to follow him no matter what, and the little fellow looked very unhappy to be left alone on the stars.h.i.+p. He had been staring pitifully at Cillin and Lung for the whole day, going so far as to make whiny sounds and putting on a pitiful appearance.
"Just bring him along." the gray cat licked its paws and wiped its face, "It’s not like he’s weak."
Lung also agreed to bring Scarlet Wind with them. After all, even if they wouldn’t be operating together, he might be able to help them with his b.e.a.s.t.i.a.l talents.
Due to something that happened later, it didn’t take long for Cillin to give his consent.
Chapter 175: Which Force is It? [Part 2]
Coincidentally, the grade three prison planet Cillin chose just happened to be the planet Ghost b.u.t.terfly had hung around earlier.
GAL time, six hours ago.
Inside the prison of this grade three prison planet.
Due to a major accident that had happened on a certain prison planet, every prison had strengthened their defenses, increased the frequency of patrols, and checked the defense system – especially the weapons system – every once in a while to prevent being invaded without noticing it.
Since a grade three prison’s management wasn’t as loose as a grade one prison’s, the convicts basically never even exited their prison rooms. Naturally, the confusing situation of a group brawl wouldn’t happen either.
What set the prison guards at ease was that the prison had been very calm lately. Other than the rise of tension among the prison guards, nothing abnormal had happened inside the prison.
But their relief was way too soon.
Some convicts grew restless and anxious. There were plenty of convicts who went ‘crazy’ during the norm, so their change did not appear too obvious when mixed among the other ‘crazy’ convicts.
Some convicts began to show nausea, vomiting and other symptoms, whereas some had fainted right away. Some convicts discovered that their limbs were heavy, and their muscles were somewhat withered, without strength and even paralysed. Some convicts discovered that their eyesight had fallen off sharply, and their joints felt painful and swollen.
One convict discovered that some unusually rugged skin ulcers had appeared while he was was.h.i.+ng his own face. The area of the ulcer was even spreading.
Some convicts discovered that they were scratching clumps of hair off their heads when they scratched their own heads impatiently. Even their eyebrows and facial hair were starting to fall off.
The sudden and terrible fear caused the convicts’ long suppressed emotions to erupt at once. They began hammering the walls and screaming in despair. Even when they were isolated, they could feel the restlessness of the other convicts stirring around them.
In reality, some of the prison guards themselves were facing similar problems. Since they had made all sorts of preparations beforehand, they swiftly took measures to counter it after the situation had happened.
They had prevented the viruses, but they failed to prevent radioactive materials. Since when were these radioactive materials smuggled into the prison? Why did the radiation detectors in the prison failed to warn this in advance?
The prison guards were busy rescuing themselves while checking the defense system. The convicts were wailing anguishly inside the prison.
Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen did not have the time to go crazy with the other convicts. Upon noticing the abnormality, he had taken out the thing Ghost b.u.t.terfly Zero left behind for him and opened the door of his prison room.
Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen was none other than that big man with an unkempt beard.
The surrounding reactions were different from to the plan Ghost b.u.t.terfly Zero had explained beforehand. The situation had happened one day ahead of time. This meant that it wasn’t Blue b.u.t.terfly who had done this, but someone else.
Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen did not wish to stay in here any longer. The radiation wouldn’t affect him too much within a short period of time, and he had not wasted his time when he spent these years inside the prison. He was much stronger than he was before.
It wasn’t just Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen and a few other ‘Blue b.u.t.terfly’ members who had walked out of the prison. There were also a few figures of certain forces who had done the same. It was obvious that someone had acted again during this period of time without anyone realising it.
In order to create enough confusion to escape this place, the people who exited their prison had released the other convicts as well.
"Fourteen, go get Seventeen quickly. The situation has changed, and we don’t know if he’s still safe. The amount of radioactive materials is growing bigger and bigger. Leave quickly!" one of the Blue b.u.t.terfly members said.
"I know. You guys go ahead. I’ll catch up right away." Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen arrived at a prison room and opened the door.
The person inside the prison room was sitting on his chair and reading his newspaper calmly. He was not affected by the situation going on outside, nor was he panicking in the slightest in face of the radioactive materials. He was still emanating with the gentle and cultivated aura of an academician.
Jiada did not raise his eyes to look at Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen for having unlocking his door. Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen was not dissatisfied in any way either despite Jiada’s cool disregard. Instead, he saluted Jiada as he was someone junior to him. Many people would salute Jiada when they saw him, and even Ghost b.u.t.terfly Zero had to take the initiative to greet him as a way to show respect.
Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen left and acted with his companions once he saluted Jiada.
After Ghost b.u.t.terfly Fourteen had left, several crazed convicts came into the room. These convicts had nearly lost all of their self consciousness and were no different from a madman. When they entered Jiada’s prison room, they pounced towards him with a cruel smile on their faces.
Pupu!
The two convicts who entered the room collapsed directly on the ground without a wound on their body. However, a closer inspection would reveal that their hearts had shattered.
Jiada’s movements never changed throughout the entire process. He finished drinking his water and set down his tea cup as the old newspaper in his hands flashed with the old images from a dozen or so years ago. He folded the old newspaper tidily and put it on top of the table. Jiada patted his pants and slowly walked out of the prison room. The convicts that were crowding in the surrounding were forcefully pushed away by a kind of force. Anyone who was too adamant would be killed straight away.
The prison rooms’ defense system had already become paralysed. Despite the prison guards and the technicians’ best efforts, they were unable to change this fact.
He did not need to deal with the monitoring cameras around him. They were already useless. Before he walked out of this floor, Jiada glanced towards a particular corner. There was an invisible person in that corner, but it wasn’t Ghost b.u.t.terfly Zero.
When that person saw Jiada looking at him, he showed that he meant no offense and tensed up his whole body. He was still a little shocked when he saw Jiada earlier, but now that Jiada was looking at him he hastily threw that shock to the back of his mind and expressed his standpoint.
Jiada was feeling good, so he paid him no heed and walked away from this floor.
Interesting. These hibernating fellows had all come out of their nests.
The prison guards were busy handling the escaped convicts. Since they had made preparations earlier, they weren’t completely helpless against the situation. Booming noises resounded from many parts of the prison. The convicts of a grade three prison weren’t completely fearless in the face of bullets, and there were plenty of killed convicts on the floor already.
When Cillin’s group had arrived around their destination planet, they already noticed that something unusual was happening on it. It would appear that even the satellite scanners...o...b..ting the planet had malfunctioned. At the very least Lung got no response when he tentatively transmitted a signal at it.
"What do we do? It seems that the riot inside the prison has already begun." Lung said.
Prior to arriving at Sector S, Lung had been preparing himself to create some riots of his own. But after he arrived here, he realised that he wasn’t needed at all. There were already more brilliant people who had finished his job beforehand.
Cillin did not say anything. Instead, he stared at the satellites...o...b..ting the planet. He kept feeling that something was going to happen with these satellites.
Lung brought up the scanner and the scanner page. The energy fluctuations on the planet were pretty widespread already. There were not only energy fluctuations inside the prison, but outside the prison as well. The amount of people exchanging fire were quite large, and the escaped convicts were also clas.h.i.+ng among themselves. It was common sight for someone to seize the opportunity to take out a thorn in their side.
While staring at the image on the screen, Cillin pointed at the satellites outside the planet just when Lung was about to say something.
Some smaller satellites had become separated from those satellites, and Cillin knew what this type of satellite was. These satellites would fly to every corner of the planet and form a gigantic network of defense and offense at a specific position from a specific angle – it was a microsatellite array!
It would appear the management of the prison had been pressured to take extreme decisions. A network like this would cause more destruction to the prison, so they would not have activated a network like this if they weren’t pushed to a certain extent.
It wasn’t that the scanners did not react to Lung’s foreign signal, but because it had no time to spare to react to it. Right now, the controller of the satellites had probably set the formation of the satellite array as top priority.
However, this microsatellite array did not manage to play a role before white beams shot out of a couple of mother satellites and swept past where the microsatellites were.
A series of dazzling explosions happened.
All of the microsatellites had been exploded into smithereens.
"What’s&h.e.l.lip;" Lung’s mouth opened, "&h.e.l.lip; that?"
"I don’t know." Cillin said, "But the planet’s external defenses are all gone. Some kind of device was apparently installed on those mother satellites."
That being said, this was the first time Cillin a microsatellite array being destroyed in an instant too. Just which force was it who had developed such a technology?
"Do you want to go down and take a look?" Cillin said.
The planet was in chaos and easier to invade now.
"Of course!"
"Let’s use site specific teleportation."
"Alright."