Chapter 4

1300 Universal Time

It was late in the night in Venus Harbor on Beijing-β.

Venus Harbor was a nearly abandoned interstellar harbor. Only a few workers were left, living on low wages paid by the government.

It was cold tonight, and there was no one in Venus Harbor. Large tracts of wasteland were covered with dying weeds taller than an adult human, rustling, waving in the howling wind. It was a ghost town, run-down and somber. The antiquated buildings and launch pads in Venus Harbor were reminiscent of a setting in an old science fiction novel, indescribably unsightly.

Homeless people were walking up a narrow path lined with weeds designated for the workers to enter and leave the harbor. Workers would drive them away during the day, however, they still used it to take shelter from the wind at night.

Among them was an old man, and on his back was a child in shabby clothes like his. Suddenly the old man collapsed on the ground, taking the child down with him. The kid rolled over stiffly, revealing his blue face— he had already been dead for some time.

A nearby waste bin detected the corpse of carbon-based life form, and the cleaning protocol started automatically. It moved closer, reaching out a cold robotic shovel arm to dispose of the corpse. The old man covered the kid's body with his own right away, as if he could share his vitality with the dead child.

Unfortunately, the waste bin, although outdated, wasn't fooled. It kept shoveling, engaging a cruel tug-of-war with the old man.

Naturally, the waste bin won.

Beaten by the senseless waste bin, the poor old man kneeled down, crying out loudly for all he had suffered. His companions moved on without even a second glance. They couldn't give a shit. After all, disposing of a corpse as if trash was not unusual here.

The homeless men walked away. Then a pair of boots appeared in the pale weeds, going straight to the waste bin after hesitating for a few seconds.

It was a tall man with flaxen hair and pale skin. There was something mechanical about him; his facial features seemed too perfect. Every step he took was of exactly the same length, which gave him the air of a soldier even though he was casually dressed.

He hacked into the waste bin's background program silently. After he was done, the waste bin reached out the shovel and gave back the small corpse.

The man was not bothered by the dirt. He gave the corpse back to the old man, who was still sitting on the ground.

"Condolences."

The old man looked at him in shock. The man then pointed a direction. "At 3 o'clock, about 200 meters from here, the soil texture will make the best place for you to bury your child. Again, I'm sorry for your loss."

Not only his stride, but his voice was also monotonous like a machine. After talking as if he was reciting lines, he put his heels together and bowed, starting to leave.

The old homeless man could not help his curiosity.

"Are you..."

He regretted speaking the moment he had asked. The man dressed so well, emitting richness from head to toe, like a member of the upper class. According to his life experience, he had better stay as far away from the upper class as he could, or he'd only receive suffering. But the man stopped, and answered him quite seriously.

"My ID is encrypted data. Access denied. You may call me Zhanlu."

The old man panicked even more now.

"Do you have any more questions?" The man called Zhanlu asked.

The nervous old man shook his head, blowing his nose. The light-haired man walked away on his long legs, following the path the other men had taken.

There was a heating system in Venus Harbor. The homeless men all stripped off their coats, hoping to gain some warmth for themselves. They cherished every second of sleep as long as they could.

In less than half an hour, their snores were echoing through the room.

A small man stealthily rose from his spot in the corner, careful not to wake the others, and walked out towards the harbor.

If Jingshu Huang had been there, she would have recognized the man immediately. It was the man in disguise who had been forced to run away from that old speakeasy. He had landed near Venus Harbor by a small space platform, pretending to be one of the transients trying to leave Beijing-β.

The safety passage between the terminal and the launch pad was locked. The "homeless man" took out a chip and slapped it onto the lock. The door lock program opened silently within three seconds, and the heavy door opened as well. He snuck in cautiously and quickly.

"It's me. Spider."

There was no one else in the safety passageway. The thin and short vagrant removed his shabby coat. His bones cracked as they widened, returning him to his original stature.

He talked to the person on the other end in low voice, "Did I gain anything? No, I gained fucking nothing! I was spied on and nearly got trapped there!"

The passage was long and narrow, making his voice reverberate loudly throughout the hall. He knew the surveillance center was blocked, but he was still nervous about the echo.

"Son of a bitch," he complained, "The only thing they know how to do is ask for more and more people. But they can't even replicate a soundless phone. It's almost commonplace among those IU dogs. How can we overthrow the IU like this? Must be daydreaming... I dunno, a woman— How would I know who the fuck she was?"

Spider pressed on his wrist while talking, then Jingshu Huang's photos appeared above his wrist.

Then the photos were replaced with detailed information including identification, address and so on. The man glared at the girl with his beast-like eyes.

"Got her details, don't know if it's accurate. But I don't think she was some government agent...mm, it could just be a coincidence, those empty-brain idiots are fucking everywhere in the Eight Galaxy."

He walked to the end of the passageway. There were just a few security robots on the empty platform. Spider gauged the number of the robots, then pressed the disruptor on his hand.

The security robots and the surveillance system stopped at the same time. Spider casually walked past the frozen robots to the outer track on the railway. He took out a small mech that was docked at the space platform, and it landed on the launch pad as the cabin doors automatically opened.

Spider walked into the mech.

"Doesn't matter who she is, coincidence or not, just to be safe, we should probably kill-"

The alarm went off before he could finish his sentence. His call was cut off. He quickly looked up, only to find the mech trembling to life. The mech's mental network was not connected to the owner yet. An earthquake-like tremble shook the platform, which made Spider fall back. The mental network was sparking and burning with the smell of ozone— the result of a serious mech disturbance!

But most people in the Eighth Galaxy would never see a real mech in their whole life. Where in the universe could those poorest of the poor find that kind of interference technology?

Goosebumps ran up Spider's skin. No one could survive in such a messy mental network, especially someone at his level. Even though it's a silicon-based lifeform, it also was damaged by the electricity, so he crushed the emergency safety valve without thinking twice and transferred into manual operation, opening the cabin door that was already heating up, then rolled out yelling.

Smoke swallowed up the mech behind him, as the security robots spontaneously came back to life. Seven or eight laser guns pointed at his head. No one else was on the platform.

He had failed to get rid of the flies!

Spider put a hand on the left side of his chest— there was a chip embedded in his heart which was his last resort.

The robots approached him.

"Trespassing! Trespassing!"

"Failure to identify the trespasser!"

"Warning! Put your hands up!"

An invisible field spread out with Spider as its center. The trackers lost their targets, as the scan results were that no one was on the platform. The security robots wandered around with laser guns for some time but found nothing. They had to go back to where they were before.

Spider sighed in relief, smiling.

"Those idiots came up with something good for once."

With this secret weapon, he could control the senses of people or robots whenever he wanted, like what he had done on the Gay Sports. Sometimes it even worked on empty-brain idiots.

"Come and get me!"

The Spider shouted and whistled, bursting out laughter and pointing middle fingers at the sky. He was ready to enter the mech again.

A thin beam of red light shot out of the wall straight through his neck, right as he turned around. He fell to the ground without making any noise, his mouth still laughing.

A man with short blond hair magically stepped out of the wall. It was the man who had called himself Zhanlu.

He reached out his right hand. The pale hand turned into a robot hand exactly the same as the one at the speakeasy.

The robot hand scanned the unconscious Spider from head to toe and detected a strong energy field inside his heart.

Zhanlu tilted his head to the side. A threadlike probe reached out of his hand while five metal fingers sprayed a mist of disinfectant, creating a small temporarily sterile space. The probe stabbed into Spider's chest quickly. The minor operation was finished in five minutes— Zhanlu successfully took the biochip out of Spider's heart.

The moment the chip was taken away, Spider's metal-like skin returned to normal. His body temperature, heart rate, and metabolism decreased suddenly. He seemed to become older by decades in a single second.

The robot hand sounded like Zhanlu himself.

"Unknown energy field detected "

"Failure to recognize."

"Failed again— failure to recognize— warning— "

"Block it," Zhanlu ordered.

Zhanlu collected the hand cautiously. The robot hand turned into a human one, taking all the electronic equipment from Spider. He bent over to carry spider, slinging his arm around his shoulder, then destroyed the encryption system of the mech, taking the mech as well, leaving Venus Harbor.

He had planned to go back through the way he had come here at first, however, he stopped near the terminal. Closing his eyes and looking up as if summoned, he changed his direction, going straight into the thick pale-green weeds.

There was a car parked deep in the weeds. B4 was leaned against it, two arms crossed over his chest. He seemed to have been waiting for some time.

"Sir," Zhanlu bowed.

B4 raised his chin, gesturing for him to get in the car. Zhanlu put Spider into the trunk and put a hand on the car. His hand melted suddenly, then his body, and his head. He disappeared, rather, melted into the car. At the same time, the dormant car started automatically.

This tall handsome man called Zhanlu was an AI.

"Where shall we go, sir?" Zhanlu asked.

"Back to the speakeasy," B4 answered, "Can you tell where he came from?"

"Preparing the space platform. Location: Speakeasy— Based on his mech, he should be a member of the Toxic Nest."

The Toxic Nest was an organization at the edge of the Eighth Galaxy, beyond which it was almost impossible to survive. They seldom contacted the other gangs in the galaxy. It was more like a cult than a gang— there were many cults among the ambitious people of the Eight Galaxy, but they usually worshiped gods from ancient myths, or animals, mammals at least— it was very rare and extremely odd to worship bugs like the Toxic Nest did.

B4 was a bit surprised.

"What are they doing on Beijing-β?"