Chapter 77: Chapter 77: Mutation
In the officers’ rest room of the base, Sandora’s brows were tightly knit, Muller and his two companions wore complex expressions, seemingly lost in thought. Dingdang was holding a huge lollipop, but apparently with no mood to taste it; the atmosphere was oppressively somber.
“Shh—” With a light sound, the alloy automatic door slid open gently beside Sandora, and I walked in, supported by Pandora.
Sandora stood up and asked with concern.
“Nothing major, just a bit hungry…”
I scratched my head, feeling a bit embarrassed.
Because I had just thrown up last night’s dinner…
There was no helping it, the shock to the body from that sort of emergency space transmission, coupled with the mental fatigue from combat, meant that merely vomiting was quite fortunate.
Muller and the others would never guess that Pandora had helped me out to throw up last night’s meal, but their attention obviously wasn’t on what I was doing. Seeing the major players had arrived, Vinoa finally could not contain herself and stood up to ask Sandora, “Your Majesty Sandora, can you explain the situation with the Source of Demons? It appears to be quite familiar with you.”
“Indeed, I am very familiar with it,” Sandora said calmly, “because he was once the Emperor of the Xyrin Empire’s seventy-seventh governing district, while mine was the seventy-sixth. We’ve had countless dealings.”
“So, one of your country’s highest rulers has now become the Source of Demons?”
Muller suddenly said, his tone suggesting he was ready to pin the blame for the Abyss invasion on the Xyrin Empire.
To his question, laden with implications, Sandora just smiled faintly, “It seems so. Caesar used to be the Emperor of the Xyrin Empire, assimilated into a twisted life form just like most of the Abyss’s victims in this world.”
A sharp counterattack!
Muller’s expression became a bit awkward. He had to admit that, compared with one confirmed Xyrin Emperor, many more of his race were transformed by that highly corrosive power. When the Abyss Power first emerged and humanity had no effective countermeasures, even half of the world’s humans became accomplices to the Abyss. In comparison, an Emperor of the Xyrin corrupted by Abyssal Power seemed somewhat trivial—even though the destruction that fallen Emperor could wreak was undoubtedly immense.
“Anyway, we should now prepare a meticulous combat strategy,” Sandora said, and then pressed a few times on the armrest of her chair. The floor in the center of the room immediately split apart, revealing a hexagonal platform, above which was a holographic projection of the entire continent. Muller and the others were instantly captivated by this magical technology.
“Caesar was once an Emperor of the Xyrin Empire; he knows the Empire’s military combat power and tactics like the back of his hand. Especially since our relationship back then was not so harmonious, so he knows me even better. Plus, he’s been entrenched in this world for an unknown length of time and is very familiar with this continent. In contrast, I know nothing of his Abyssal abilities, and I’m even more unfamiliar with this world’s situation. That is our biggest weakness right now,”
As Sandora spoke, she suddenly turned her gaze toward me, “Therefore, Chen Jun, you are definitely the best candidate to defeat Caesar!”
“Yes, Caesar’s understanding of the Empire is based on past data, but you are a variable. He knows nothing about you. Your ability to directly summon strikes from another space through Spiritual Connection, unique among all the Xyrin Emperors, is something even I can’t achieve. And it is evident from the way Caesar has been disoriented by your unpredictable space strikes on multiple occasions, he’s not well-adapted to such unanticipated attacks. If you can capitalize on the right timing, you could easily inflict massive damage on him—of course, before that, we need to quickly resolve your physical constitution issue. I certainly do not wish to have you shipped back to Earth in a Regeneration Chamber.”
“That’s quite a blunt statement…” I muttered, but in my heart, I had to agree with Sandora’s assessment. My space strikes could more easily hit Caesar than those of other Xyrin Apostles, especially since he was quite adept at self-preservation. However, before that, I needed to consider how to protect myself in case the attack missed…
Just as I was about to ask Sandora if there was a good way to quickly enhance my body, Lin Xue suddenly burst in.
Due to the Xyrin Empire’s peculiar authorization system which had identified Lin Xue as the Mistress, this individual, whose curiosity about alien technology was insatiable, was given the freedom to move around eighty percent of the base. The officers’ lounge, not being a classified facility, was naturally no exception. But shouldn’t she be buried in some internal sensors, studying the energy crystal matrix at this moment?
“Chen Jun!” As soon as Lin Xue entered, she headed straight for me, “Qianqian, and Sister Chen Qian, they’re in trouble!”
I exclaimed in surprise and jumped up.
“What’s going on? Could it be that the enemy has infiltrated the base?” I suddenly grabbed Lin Xue’s shoulders, asking eagerly, “How are Qianqian and Sister doing?”
“It’s not the enemy,” Lin Xue’s face turned red when I suddenly grabbed her, then without hesitation, she lifted her foot to kick me, which I barely dodged, “They suddenly said they wanted to check out the beautiful crystals in the Mother Nest. I was dismantling a particle ejector at the time and didn’t follow them. But just now, that little girl called Bubbles suddenly contacted me, saying that they fainted inside the Mother Nest!”
“Sorry, looks like I have to leave for a bit,” I said to Muller and the others, then turned to Dingdang.
“Leave everything to Dingdang!” The little thing swung the lollipop in its hand and then daintily landed on my head, confidently declaring, “As long as Dingdang is here, there’s no illness that can’t be cured!”
Why did I suddenly think of a quack boasting about his all-curing salves?
Led by Lin Xue, Pandora, Sandora, and the super quack Dingdang, we rushed to the Earth-style house at the very center of the base. I had Bubbles specially build this villa considering the living habits of Qianqian and the others. Now, Qianqian and Sister were being taken care of inside.
I stepped forward, pushed the door open vigorously, and then saw Sister standing there with a beaming smile.
I slammed on the brakes, managing to stop less than a meter away from Sister. I flailed about for a good while before finally regaining my balance.
Pandora, who was following right behind me, couldn’t stop in time and crashed into me.
Sandora, seeing the small Pandora crash into me, didn’t know what she was thinking, suddenly let out a yell of excitement and pounced as well.
I finally lost my balance and fell forward. After Sister agilely dodged, it was only logical that I came into intimate contact with the super alloy ground, with a loli and a queen stacked on top of me. Dingdang, who had been perched on my head, let out a cry of alarm, took flight, and then turned back to grab my hair trying to pull me out, which of course was an impossibility…
Sandora and Sister were spectating…
What’s going on here?
As I lay on the ground, I was completely bewildered. If this was a prank, then all I could say was that Lin Xue and Sister had too much free time on their hands…
Having soft and warm beauty in one’s arms is a very enjoyable thing, but when that soft and warm beauty is lying on one’s back while oneself is face-down on a surface harder than titanium alloy, it’s not so enjoyable, especially since Pandora was still clad in an Alloy Armor capable of withstanding a nuclear blast; that’s a far cry from the real soft loli…
“What’s going on here?”
After finally escaping from the combined assault of Pandora and Sandora, the first thing I did was to ask Lin Xue, who had come to report the situation.
To my surprise, Lin Xue also looked puzzled. She curiously walked over to Sister, examined her up and down, and said, “Sister Chen Qian, have you woken up? How do you feel now?”
So that’s it, it wasn’t intentional torment.
“I feel fantastic now!” Sister suddenly showed a bright smile, “It seems that Qianqian and I were completely right in our guess!”
We looked at each other, entirely baffled.
“You guys aren’t mentally…”
Lin Xue suddenly blurted out such an unthoughtful comment.
A vein on Sister’s forehead pulsated, and then she put on an even brighter smile, saying to Lin Xue, “Floor’s slippery, be careful…”