Chapter 197 To give her a sense of security

K101 ruins.

It traverses a vast cloud of dust. The ruins appear as a broken, twisted, gigantic structure, with a visible length of an astonishing 0.6 light-years.

Its official observation name is recorded in a corner of the star map, called "Bone Crusher".

Due to its enormous size, this place rarely attracts explorers.

Ning Shuyin stood on one side of the nebula.

She had a tough week, but she achieved some results.

Before her stood a black particle gate. Deep within this gate, she sensed what she needed.

The final material needed to build the Ark – the Holy Casket.

Ning Shuyin reached out her hand and touched the mechanism at the door with her fingertips.

...

At this very moment, on Alice Space Station, a military restricted area.

This is where Situ Linchen usually handles top-secret military information. His private residence is also located here.

At this moment, the air pressure in the conference room was frighteningly low.

Four men, standing at the pinnacle of the alliance's power, who never met each other, sat around the same table.

The topic of the meeting was a woman.

Zhou Zhiheng directly projected the results of the superdimensional ledger onto the central screen.

The four of them looked at the words "Regression probability: 0.0000%" and their expressions turned as cold as ice.

“I know you might find this unbelievable,” Zhou Zhiheng said.

“No, I don’t find it incredible,” Situ Linchen interrupted him.

Loran's face darkened, as if he had suddenly realized something.

Only Caesar seemed confused: "What do you mean? Stop playing games."

Situ Linchen revealed his light screen and retrieved Ning Shuyin's most detailed information from the Heavenly Eye System. It recorded everything from what time she left home each day, what she did, how many minutes she spent watching the kittens by the roadside, to how many words she exchanged with the shopkeepers.

His information drew a chorus of apprehension from the room.

Situ Linchen snorted coldly: "Don't look at me like that. I can only use this when needed. I'm not monitoring him."

He paused again: "Don't tell me you don't want to do this. You just don't have the same level of authority as me."

The remaining three remained silent.

Indeed, if he could, he would even like to put a camera on her.

“I did find something was off about her.” Situ Linchen’s eyes became somewhat complicated as he flipped the screen to Ning Shuyin’s resume, as if presenting military intelligence.

"She was like someone who suddenly landed on Planet A. Although her resume had no flaws, her only strong social connection was Su Qianqian. Apart from that, she had no relatives, no friends, no classmates, and no other social life."

"So you're saying she might be a spy?" Caesar asked.

Situ Linchen shook his head: "She has saved us many times, and also saved many lives in the Alliance, such as movie theater audiences, poisoned navigators, and those who nearly lost their lives during the Dark Sphere crisis. These don't seem like the work of a spy. I had a suspicion before, but I wasn't sure."

He looked at Zhou Zhiheng: "But this message from you proves my suspicions."

“She may come from beyond this world.” Situ Linchen’s words silenced everyone in the room.

In the past, they would have thought this was crazy talk.

But now everyone here has to admit that she is special.

So much so that they weren't too surprised when Situ Linchen came to this conclusion. As members of the alliance's top ranks, they had vaguely heard about some of these things, but mostly considered them as some kind of mysterious legend.

Loran, who had been silent all along, spoke up: "So, she's not going on an adventure. Instead, she's preparing to go home? Back to a place we can't go to, or even understand."

"Then take her..."

The space around Caesar fluctuated violently, but he swallowed his words halfway through.

The four of them looked at each other, seemingly all thinking the same thing. But then they clenched their fists and then relaxed them.

"It's best not to let her know that we've seen through this," Caesar concluded.

The others nodded in agreement.

They all knew her personality to some extent, and if they scared her, she would probably just disappear.

If she truly becomes a doll, then she is no longer theirs.

Situ Linchen pointed to the location of the K101 ruins on the star map: "We need to keep her here, but we can't let her know that we did it."

“If the superdimensional ledger is reliable, she went to K101 to find the thing that could take her away. If that thing is accidentally damaged or disappears…” Caesar tapped his fingers on the table, “she naturally won’t be able to go back.”

Zhou Zhiheng snorted: "My ledgers are of course credible."

“We can pretend to fight over the ruins’ resources and start a brawl. A chaotic four-way battle might accidentally spill over onto her things.” Loran nodded in agreement with his suggestion. “That makes perfect sense.”

The four men exchanged glances and reached an agreement.

The goal is to keep her here, but without revealing the truth, interrogating her, or imprisoning her.

This is to give her a sense of security. They will temporarily join forces to keep her here and supervise each other to ensure she doesn't harm anyone.

Zhou Zhiheng curled the corners of his lips: "She'll definitely be heartbroken after the things are destroyed. Then, we'll each have to figure out how to coax her."

“As long as she stays in this world, whoever can win her over can keep her,” Loran said earnestly.

Situ Linchen's eyes were confident: "Deal. Then get ready to set off."

"Weld the car door shut for her when she gets home." Caesar's whistle drifted through the conference room.

——

Finally, she found it.

Beneath the stone slab in the secret room was an old, brown wooden box.

A soft light emanated from around the box.

"Is this the Holy Box? What's inside?" Ning Shuyin curiously reached out and touched the lid. Her fingertips touched the seam at the opening of the box.

A warm energy overflowed from the opening.

"This is used to nurture a new universe?" She could hardly believe it. How could such a small box contain a small world?

The box lid is about to be opened.

Just then—

boom!

The surrounding space was torn apart, and a violent shockwave swept through the entire secret chamber.

"Cough cough..." Before Ning Shuyin could open the crack, she was choked half to death by the dust that rose from the secret room and unconsciously took a few steps back.

She steadied herself and released her senses to see what was going on inside the dusty room.

On the vast 0.6 light-year landmass of K101, the probability of explorers encountering each other is lower than the probability of winning the lottery jackpot in the real world.

But now, the quiet, secluded room has changed. A game of interstellar mahjong has been set up?

A blond figure stepped out from the spatial rift, his energy-infused field whip lashing towards the ceiling of the secret chamber.

Large amounts of gravel and dust fell down, further reducing indoor visibility.

"Oh dear, my location is off. How did it send me here?" Caesar exclaimed dramatically.

His figure coincidentally teleported to the very back of the stone slab where the wooden box was placed.

He didn't even glance at Ning Shuyin, but the whip in his hand seemed to have eyes, bypassing the wooden box and lashing straight at Situ Linchen, who was not far away.

"Marshal, your all-black mecha suit looks like a giant recycling bin."

"Caesar!" Situ Linchen roared in fury.

He raised his armored arm, and the energy-converted floating cannons behind him were fully charged.

Energy shot out.

But the trajectory of this shot was ridiculously low. Although it was aimed at Caesar, it wasn't aimed at Caesar's head, but rather at the fragile wooden box on the stone slab in front of him.

"Caesar, don't use that box as a shield."

The moment the cannon fired, Situ Linchen's words finally came.

His intentions were clear. Even if he broke the small wooden box, he could only blame this despicable space pirate hiding behind the artifact.

Caesar frowned.

He had already figured out his strategy before he set off.

Although they're all here to destroy this strange object, she'll definitely be unhappy if it's ruined. So, it doesn't matter who destroys it, as long as it's not destroyed by him.

All four men are highly intelligent, and they all understand this principle.

Situ Linchen attacked under the pretext of being provoked. The wooden box was implicated by Caesar.

"Don't hit my box!" Ning Shuyin exclaimed.