Lin Dao glanced back, hesitated for a moment, then reached out and grasped the doorknob of the guest room—
Suddenly, the entire building beneath his feet began to shake. Without hesitation, he reached for the doorknob and opened the door—Breta, who was fast asleep, jolted awake and sat up. Little White quickly darted into his arms and hid. He opened his eyes blankly, just in time to meet the man who had pushed open the door, and stammered, "Mr. Lin Dao..."
Bryta felt the bed beneath her and even the glass window beside her making a clanging sound, and she opened her eyes wide with a start.
"An earthquake?"
Lin Dao pursed his lips and said, "No..."
A powerful shockwave emanated from the center of the Mix base outside the window, spreading outwards from the center.
A dull thud interrupted Lin Dao's words.
Lin Dao looked up through the window on the 27th floor and saw the direction of the underground city in the distance. He said in a low voice, "It's ammunition cleanup."
Unexpectedly, even though the entire 20th floor was cleared out, in order to cover up their negligence and conceal their dereliction of duty, they still carried out their original plan to clean up the ammunition on the 20th floor.
Bleta vaguely understood what he was talking about, and thinking of her and Xiaobai's bold actions last night, she quietly swallowed.
Lin Dao caught that familiar scent of alcohol emanating from him again, and strode into the room, his brows furrowed: "You've been drinking?"
"!" Bryta was caught off guard and panicked, but the man bent down and leaned closer to him.
Britta leaned back nervously, her small mouth pursed, and shook her head, making a negative humming sound.
Lin Dao stared at his flushed face, raised an eyebrow slightly, and asked, "Where did you get the wine?"
"I...I..." Bleta dared not look into his seemingly all-seeing black eyes. He felt as if his throat was blocked, and he couldn't say a word.
Lin Dao took in the tense micro-expressions on his face. His intuition told him that Breta must know something. His cold expression and furrowed brows made him wonder if he was really related to the alien substance.
"you……"
He had barely opened his mouth when the communicator on his wrist flashed. He swiped to connect, and it quickly projected Yu's face onto the screen.
When Xiang You connected via video call, the first thing she saw was Lin Dao, who was pressing closer to Blaita's bedside. She was so shocked that she couldn't speak: "What are you doing...?"
"Sorry to bother you." He said, preparing to end the video call.
Britta looked at him gratefully: "To Mr. Yu!"
Lin Dao turned around with a dark expression: "What's going on?"
Xiang You coughed twice, his eyes sweeping over the two men's neatly arranged clothes with disappointment. He said, "The underground city just carried out a cleansing operation, and you should have felt it too. The Asia Alliance headquarters believes that cracking West's brain memories is key, and the departure for Mechanical Sky City should not be delayed. Including the time to prepare supplies for the journey, we must depart within three days."
Lin Dao had already anticipated this, and nodded: "Yes, I understand."
After speaking to You, he glanced at Blaita, who was still clueless, and asked, "What about him?"
Suddenly being called out by name, Bryta panicked a little. He had actually been preparing to secretly leave the Mix base.
"I……"
Lin Dao then turned his gaze to him.
The Mix base was no longer safe for this mysterious blond boy; he seemed to be being watched by a clandestine force.
"He set off with us, passing through Mechanical Sky City, and then on to the Asian Alliance." Lin Dao's voice was firm and resolute.
Xiang You was taken aback. Klindor, who had been unwilling to return to the Asian Alliance yesterday, now wanted to go back on his own initiative. He glanced at the two of them with a probing look and smiled meaningfully.
Upon hearing this, Blaita was dumbfounded: "Me? I'm going to the Sub-Alliance too? Why?"
Lin Daohui gave him an unquestionable look: "You are the prime suspect in this alien substance incident. Secondly, I..." He paused, then changed his words, "The late Colonel Klindall of the Asian Alliance provided you with a six-month safe house and social education expenses. You should be a citizen of the Asian Alliance and obey the organization's arrangements."
"Now, you are being temporarily conscripted as a civilian volunteer to join the Asian Alliance's Alien Special Investigation Team." Lin Dao looked at the completely dumbfounded Bretta, slightly raised his chin, and said calmly:
"Breta, you've been training for a day to use it for a day. Now is the time to put your skills to good use."
Bryta, who couldn't find any reason to deny it: "?"
Watching his colonel efficiently recruit "talents," Xiang You thought: Is this even possible?
Bleta timidly raised her hand: "Could I...?"
Lin Dao: "No."
"But I..."
"No buts."
"Then what should I do?"
Lin Dao calmly glanced at the seemingly delicate and handsome young man and said, "I will follow your instructions."
Brytanana: "Oh."
Lin Dao turned to Xiang You in the video call, his jaw tightening, and said, "Prepare all supplies as soon as possible, and we'll depart in three days."
After saying that, he ended the video call.
The static in the room disappeared, and now only Blaita and Lin Dao remained.
Lin Dao looked up at the boy sitting on the bed.
Britta straightened up nervously, afraid he would ask her another question.
A few seconds later, Lin Dao looked away and said, "Tell me if you need any supplies, and I'll go and buy them. Only Mix Base recognizes contribution points."
Bretta realized that Mr. Lin Dao wanted to exchange all his dedication points for supplies that were common to all bases, such as food and weapons.
Bretta thought to himself that he had a bellyful of delicious exotic spirits and was quite wealthy, and shook his head.
"Nothing is needed?" Lin Dao asked repeatedly.
Upon hearing this, Bleta's heart skipped a beat, and she cautiously asked, "I want... some popcorn, the really sweet kind, is that okay?"
In the afternoon, upon hearing that the man had gone out to buy supplies, Blair, who had already smelled the aroma of popcorn, quietly pushed open the door and came out. He saw two large plates of popcorn on the table and his eyes widened in surprise.
Bretta found a cloth bag and stuffed it all in, filling it to the brim. Then he left a small pile out and swallowed the rest whole, storing it in his spatial storage along with the exotic vegetarian wine. He could take some out to eat whenever he wanted.
As Bryta ate the remaining small pile of popcorn with relish, he wondered: Now that he had been inexplicably recruited into the team that Mr. Lin Dao had mentioned, should he also call him "captain" like Cheng Cheng and the others?
However, Lin Dao did not return that day, and Blaita did not have a chance to call him "Captain". Instead, Qiao Song had time to contact him and congratulate him on becoming a temporary member of the special investigation team.
Bleta still felt a faint excitement about becoming a team member, and couldn't help but ask Joe Song, a veteran member, "So what should I do now?"
Qiao Song was one of the social common sense instructors who initially contacted and was in charge of Britta. He knew very well that Britta had an exceptionally high IQ, but unfortunately, he had missed the education period for entering the Mix Base Lighthouse and had not received any academic education.
He suddenly had a brilliant idea: "Tata, why don't you learn some characters first? It'll help pass the time."
Qiao Song was a man of action; he directly packaged and sent him a batch of teaching materials videos from the Asia Alliance, ranging from basic to intermediate and advanced levels.
After Blaita clicked on the instructional video, a Blu-ray virtual screen appeared before him. An elegant and intellectual-looking woman appeared, holding a pointer and facing the camera, beginning her lesson with the Chinese pinyin letter "a".
Having never received human education before, Bleta felt incredibly curious and took a liking to the gentle human woman in the video. As he watched and learned, he noticed that the video playback speed was a bit slow. He reached out and touched something, discovered the speed-up function, and curiously tried it out, going from 2x speed to 3x speed... and finally, he tried the progress bar.
In just over ten minutes, he memorized the Chinese pinyin and tried to open his mouth to learn all the pronunciations.
He then started watching more advanced teaching materials and videos, reading almost ten lines at a glance and remembering everything he saw.
Chinese characters with pinyin can be memorized after just one look.
Xiao Bai stayed by his side the whole time, but soon she lazily snuggled up to him and fell asleep.
On the large screen in Bryta's room, he excitedly swiped his hand across it, and countless words flashed by. Bryta had learned to read articles, and he found the stories created by mankind very interesting. Some of the poems from the Old Gold Era, though he only understood them halfway, gave him a sense of cleansing.
He became dissatisfied with studying this subject and started studying another one. He didn't even realize it until dark, and ended up reading through all the textbooks for the entire basic education stage.
Like a child who has just opened the door to a new world, Bretta was freely exploring the ocean of human knowledge. It wasn't until she had finished reading all the content of the intermediate level that Bretta finally felt hungry. She took out a bottle of alien vegetarian wine from her stomach, uncapped it, and gulped down a whole bottle.
Then, with alcohol flushing his face, Blaita continued to fumble through the advanced instructional videos.
However, the videos that Qiao Song packaged for him only contained content on intelligent mechanics.
After clicking on the video, he saw a tall, handsome middle-aged man. The man, with a hearty voice, immediately introduced himself: "You little rascals, you've probably all heard, right? No one can skip class in Rudolf's Intelligent Mechanics program. Get ready! I'm talking to you!"
The virtual imaging technology was so lifelike that Bretta was startled by his words, and saw the man grab a piece of chalk and throw it at him with pinpoint accuracy—
Startled, Blaita quickly covered her head and closed her eyes, accidentally pressing the pause button.
He didn't feel the winter for a while. He quietly looked up and opened his eyes. He saw that the image on the virtual screen was still frozen on the scene of the chalk hitting him. The spirited smile of the middle-aged man on the podium in the distance came from that distant peaceful era, across the golden years, and onto the slightly flickering screen in this narrow, dark safe room.
Looking out from the window of this room, one sees the Mixi human base, completely shrouded in darkness except for a few searchlights, and the pupils of countless monsters hidden in the darkness outside the base, shrouded in an unknown abyss.
Bretta found Mr. Rudolf's early courses quite humorous and interesting, and his lectures on intelligent mechanics were particularly fascinating. Unfortunately, he had no materials at hand, otherwise he would sometimes have really wanted to try making them himself. He could only imagine drawing various mechanical blueprints in his mind, constantly sketching out each tiny design and structure, and memorizing them.
Bryta was thrilled to discover that intelligent mechanics was truly fascinating.
On the morning of the third day, Mr. Lin Dao, weary from his journey, returned from his tireless study.
He tossed Bretta a bag containing two weapons, a combat uniform, and some compressed biscuits, and said to him, "Come here, I'll teach you how to shoot."
Bretta paused slightly, holding the heavy gun in his hand. The man stood behind him, his strong hands encircling his back and gripping his hands tightly. His deep voice clearly explained every detail of how to use the gun.
Touching a human's cold and hard weapon for the first time, Bryta felt a strange sensation. He stared at the gun in his hand, wondering what the internal structure would be like if he took it apart. He had been so engrossed in his mechanics class these past two days that he wanted to take everything apart and investigate it thoroughly.
Lin Dao noticed the boy's distraction and lowered his voice to command him, "Concentrate, don't let your mind wander."
He reached out and gripped Bretta's hand, guiding him to aim out the window, and finally—pulled the trigger!
"..." There was no sound at all.
Bryta: "?"
Lin Dao straightened up behind him, tossed him the gun with an air of nonchalance: "Bullets are precious. We'll find some aliens for you to practice with once we get outside the base."
Bryta was rather disappointed: "...Oh, oh."
"You have five minutes to get ready. Cheng Cheng's mech is waiting downstairs," Lin Dao said.
With his backpack on, Blaita followed Lin Dao downstairs, climbed into the mecha vehicle, and got inside. Besides Qiao Song, Xiang You, and Cheng Cheng, whom he knew well, Chu Hui was also huddled in a corner. When Chu Hui saw him, his expression was complex as he scanned his face. After a moment, he shifted his position, making room for him.
After Lin Dao got into the car, he noticed the situation inside, grabbed Bretta and pulled her to sit down next to him, saying:
"Everyone's here, let's go."
Qiao Song, who was driving in front, perhaps feeling quite energetic, turned around and chatted with Bryta in a cheerful tone: "Tata, how are those teaching materials and videos I showed you? How far have you gotten?"
Upon hearing this, everyone in the car turned their gaze to Blaita, including Lin Dao, who asked with his eyes.
Hearing this, Bretta, who was engrossed in her studies, became interested: "I've read them all, and Mr. Rudolf's lectures were the most interesting! His lectures on intelligent mechanics were really good!"
"—!" Qiao Song slammed on the brakes, asking incredulously, "What did you say?"
"You've read them all? What does that mean?"
Everyone in the car, except for Chu Hui, was greatly puzzled upon hearing Rudolf's name.
Lin Dao was the first to speak, asking, "Qiao Song, continue driving towards the base gate and report back clearly what the situation is?"
Despite his disability, Qiao Song continued to operate the mecha vehicle, offering a brief explanation: "Tata was bored a couple of days ago, so I sent him some teaching videos from our base, basic ones, intermediate ones, and my teacher Rudolf's intelligent mechanics video course..." He became increasingly guilty as he spoke, thinking that sharing knowledge wasn't such a big crime, was it?
—A crime of infringing intellectual property rights?
Seeing Qiao Song like this, Blaita thought he had caused trouble, so she sat up straight, lowered her head, bit her lip, and dared not speak again.
Lin Dao turned his head and looked at the seemingly well-behaved boy beside him with a probing gaze, then asked in a low voice, "Have you learned to write your own name yet?"
Bryta paused, then shook his head: "...No." He only knew his English name on his ID card, but didn't know how to write it in Chinese characters.
Upon hearing this, the others burst into laughter. Cheng Cheng, being the naive one, smiled and kindly reassured him, "It's alright, you've only been learning for two or three days."
Hearing everyone's laughter, Blaita nodded, feeling even more aggrieved.
Chu Hui, who came from the slums, glanced over from the corner, snorted coldly, and looked at Blaita, about to speak.
The man next to Bryta suddenly said, “Hold out your palm, and I’ll teach you how to write.”
Bretta was taken aback, hesitated for a moment, and then slowly extended her hand, palm up.
Upon hearing this, everyone in the car instinctively shut up and turned their gazes toward their captain and Blaita.
Ignoring these stares, Lin Dao extended his right index finger and lightly tapped it on Bryta's fair and rosy palm, asking, "Which character do you want to learn first?"
Bryta felt a tickle in her palm, and inexplicably felt a little embarrassed. Her face flushed slightly, and she bit her lip and said, "Ta, Ta-ta's Ta."
The lights inside the mech were dim, and after Bretta finished speaking, he could only vaguely make out the man's handsome profile. The other man stretched out his index finger and gently wrote his name in his palm—the character "Ta".
The touch of each stroke is very light and itchy.
Bretta caught a whiff of the man's pleasant scent and swallowed hard, feeling even more strongly that Mr. Lin Dao's index finger was writing on his heart.
After finishing writing, Lin Dao looked closely at the handsome young man with slightly wavy blond hair in front of him and asked in a low, magnetic voice:
"Did you see it clearly?"
"Huh?" Bleta snapped out of her daze and shook her head in embarrassment. "I... I don't remember."
Lin Dao seemed to have expected this, and chuckled softly. He took his right hand and wrote the twelve-stroke character "塔" (tower) again on the palm of Lin Dao's left hand, stroke by stroke.
Inside the already cramped mech, the even closer proximity made his scent almost impossible to hide. With the delicious food before him, Blaita forced himself to concentrate and remember the order and position of every single stroke.
"And this time? Remember?" Lin Dao's voice was a little hoarse this time, and the others in the car had already consciously shifted their gaze and pretended to rest.
Britta blushed with embarrassment and nodded gently, "I...I remember."
"Then I'll teach you the next word." Mr. Lin Dao didn't seem to have any intention of letting go of his hand so soon.
Bryta: "!"
"...Oh, okay."
The author has something to say: I'm teaching writing now, and other things later. Hehehehehehe
Future updates may be a little later (but not later than midnight). I'll try to write more before posting. My desire to write 10,000 words a day is burning! (Please comment! Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants between 2022-02-05 15:53:47 and 2022-02-06 22:22:24!)
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: HzXyyongheng 1;
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: zxy 10 bottles; liualiualiu 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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