Chapter 602 Clues

At the same time, on the distant border of the Flying Feather Starfield, inside the Black Stone Space Station, Luo was busy organizing his "belongings".

The Black Rock Space Station is being repaired at an astonishing pace, and the condition of its core systems is actually better than expected. Although its rift laboratory was almost completely destroyed by the Boundary Bridge, as a large space station, its "control center" is not in the laboratory, but in the "inner ring" between the laboratory and the outer ring. Therefore, it was able to escape the previous damage. Now, it only needs to be brought back online, and the basic functions of the space station can be restored to more than 70%.

A wealth of valuable research materials and log data were thus restored, even giving Luo an opportunity to re-examine the catastrophic accident.

For this great scientist, the end of the "Boundary Bridge" incident has only just begun, and its impact on her entire career will likely last for a long time.

Her feelings were complicated at that moment.

Being able to return to this familiar place is certainly something to be happy about, since most of the space station hasn't changed much, and with the help of the "Ink-dyed" city lord, Blackrock Station has basically returned to the conditions for long-term living. However, the fact that the boss's face might pop up on the walls and roof of the space station at any time is rather frightening...

Luo, who was busy with the central database, turned his head and looked at the alloy wall in the distance with some helplessness.

This place is a giant chamber resembling a "shaft". At the center of the vertical cylindrical chamber is a circular platform, which is built around a pillar-like silver-white "hub host". The outer edge is connected to the entrance and exit of the chamber by two drawbridges. Luo is now standing on the inner side of the circular platform - and on the inner wall of the shaft opposite the circular platform is Yu Sheng's huge face, which covers dozens of square meters.

A gigantic face appeared on the high, silvery-white wall, inspiring awe in those who beheld it.

"...Boss, you're scaring me."

"Don't I look like one of those big bosses in a sci-fi TV series?" Yu Sheng said happily. "The kind who causes trouble for the main characters every season, but because they're so popular, they're never killed..."

"Are you really that free right now?" Luo asked helplessly. "If you are, how about you fix the pipes under the suspension bridge for me? This place smells like the air circulation system is leaking everywhere."

"Oh, that's easy..."

A faint sound of metal crawling and healing came from the deep well below the suspension bridge, and the number of warning signs on the data terminal decreased as a result.

Luo began to think seriously about whether this place was more frightening when the Dark Angels were causing trouble or when Yu Sheng was causing trouble—the conclusion was that she shouldn't have sent people to get involved in the messy gang fights on Zolda Star back then.

If she hadn't gotten involved in that mess, she wouldn't have gotten involved with the Zolda Black Stone; if she hadn't come into contact with the Black Stone, there wouldn't have been the Boundary Bridge Incident; without the Boundary Bridge Incident, there wouldn't have been the Angel's Descent; without the Angel's Descent, her space station wouldn't have been targeted by the Angel Hunters—so she could still be staying in her happy old home, researching dark psionic energy on odd-numbered days, researching warp space on even-numbered days, and using the scraps from her research to swindle money on the black market during holidays, while also checking if Baili Qing had added another zero to the wanted poster she had issued…

It's all done now.

“Why do I feel like your eyes have suddenly become resentful again?” Yu Sheng suddenly spoke again, his voice coming from that steely face, with a metallic vibration and echo, “just like the expression Hu Li had when she went to the kitchen and opened the cupboard and found that I had put away all the soy sauce bottles.”

"If you didn't use that face to scare people here, but came to talk to me in person, my condition would be better."

"No, I'm shopping with Hu Li right now..."

Luo sighed, ignoring her unreliable new boss, and turned her attention back to the work at hand.

The silver-white "hub main unit" that ran through the entire cylindrical compartment emitted a deep, pleasant hum in front of her, and the lights on its surface flickered regularly and steadily, indicating that it had been fully restored after being recharged.

Luo connected a data terminal to a port on the silver pillar, while several other cables connected directly from the other ports on the pillar to the mechanical limbs on her back—relying on her highly modified implants to directly connect to the database. Each large storage server here seemed to become her external brain, with a vast amount of data readily available.

This was an operation that only she could accomplish; even Alvin and his team of Star Scholars combined couldn't achieve this level of efficiency.

Massive amounts of data flowed through her auxiliary brain, and the temperature and electrical discharges generated by the neural connectors occasionally caused stinging and itching. She was already used to brief auditory and visual hallucinations.

In the daze created by direct connection to the database, Luo sometimes even briefly blurred the line between himself and the machine, forgetting whether he was a surgically modified elf or a bunch of chips and living metal attached to a frail flesh and blood body.

Humans (elves) are truly adaptable creatures. She still remembers when her spine was severed by the Black Dot Group and her first piece of living metal was implanted, she even thought about dying. At that time, the discomfort and "personality confusion" brought by the neural connector almost turned her into a mentally deranged madwoman. But at some point, she adapted to this body of machinery and even used it to "prove her own value".

For a time, she even genuinely regarded this "self-affirmation" as an honor...

Luo shook her head, and just then, a piece of data flowing through her auxiliary brain suddenly caught her attention.

Yu Sheng saw the blonde elf standing on the platform suddenly frown, and then her expression became somewhat serious. Immediately afterwards, lights began to flash rapidly in the mechanical limbs behind her. A moment later, a low hum echoed throughout the entire data center.

A vast amount of data was being mobilized, and Luo began to traverse the entire database, seemingly searching for something.

"What's going on? Have traces of Blackrock Station's 'crossing the line' been found?"

“No,” Luo frowned and shook his head, his tone uncertain, “we just found something amiss in the logistics system and communication logs…”

"Something's not right?" Yu Sheng's face quickly disappeared from the metal wall above the server array, then reappeared on the silver-white pillar in front of Luo. "What's the specifics?"

"Boss, you scared me to death!" Luo almost jumped up on the spot, glared at Yu Sheng, and then pouted. "It's a few strange cross-border logistics orders... Starting several years ago, every year a batch of goods labeled 'high-energy minerals' has passed through my logistics channels. The origin is unknown, they are sent to the Dark Current Starfield, and the signatory cannot be found. The guarantee serial number seems to be issued internally by the group company, but... I have absolutely no recollection of these orders."

Yu Sheng was stunned. He didn't understand the rules of interstellar logistics at all, let alone how the intricate logistics network and approval process of Black Dot Group worked. But from Luo's expression, he could tell that something seemed amiss: "This kind of thing doesn't happen often?"

“It shouldn’t have happened—there will always be people who exploit loopholes, but for someone to do this for several years in a row without me noticing is a bit strange.”

As Luo spoke, she swiped on her data terminal, pulling up a series of documents and logs to show Yu Sheng—although she felt that her new boss's educational level was probably too low to understand these things, she still had to show a serious work attitude.

“I don’t know how these orders bypassed me… In addition, there are these communication records, which are basically around the time these ‘orders’ were placed. Several internal addresses of the group communicated frequently with an anonymous network outside the group. It seems that they were inquiring about the progress of the orders, but the sender and receiver were all anonymous.”

“…That’s interesting,” Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “So, looking at it this way, isn’t your control over your sphere of influence… a bit problematic?”

Luo remained silent for a moment, only pursing her lips with a solemn expression.

After a long while, she sighed and shook her head.

“In the past few years, I have been heavily influenced by the ‘Zolda Black Stone’. I was obsessed with its secrets and devoted 80 percent of my energy to it. At the time, I didn’t realize it, but now that I think about it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed if something was wrong right under my nose, let alone these ‘small things’ that happened in the logistics network and communication system.”

Yu Sheng didn't speak, but looked into Luo's eyes. After a long while, he finally spoke: "But now it seems you don't think this is a small matter."

“There are rats, stealing my things—it could be a traitor, or it could be a competitor from another department,” Luo said slowly. The usually listless elf spoke with a chilling tone, as if he were a different person. “These records don’t seem to be any big problems, but my spiritual intuition is warning me.”

She pursed her lips, paused briefly, and then suddenly looked up: "Boss, I plan to head back to my 'hidden place' immediately. Maybe I can find out something."

"Okay, approved."

Yu Sheng said casually, and then Luo saw the air near the hub host suddenly begin to distort. A phantom door appeared out of thin air in front of her. When the door opened, there was a familiar starry sky on the other side—a desolate rocky planet, a small starport, and several satellites floating in the planet's orbit.

This space station is now Yu Sheng's body, so it's perfectly reasonable for him to open a door inside himself.

"Alright, you can go now," Yu Sheng said.

Luo was still staring blankly at the door. She hadn't yet adapted to her new boss's pace and the inn's operating style. Her original return plan didn't include this step. After holding back for a while, she finally spoke: "Well, not so immediately... I need to pack my luggage and prepare another shuttle."

“Oh,” Yu Sheng closed the door again. “Then go and prepare. Let me know when you’re ready. Oh, and since that’s the case, before you leave, go to Mo City in Shuji and ask Mo Ran for some self-defense items.”

Luo subconsciously said, "No need, I have my own..."

"She has my blood grenades over there. You can smear them on the faces of people you don't like when you get back."

Luo instantly perked up: "Yes, boss!"

(End of this chapter)