Dan Heng silently retracted his hand-chop.
He opened his mouth as if to say something, but stopped.
Only after a long pause did he squeeze out two words: “My apologies.” “Save your breath, wake Uncle Yang up!” Ye Cang couldn’t be bothered to argue with this quiet blockhead.
Judging from Welt Yang’s state since contracting the memetic pollution, its initial stage didn’t seem fatal to Pathstriders.
At least…
before the infection deepened to a certain level, Uncle Yang’s life wouldn’t be in danger.
This provided a basic safety net for their upcoming trip to the space station.
Ye Cang himself didn’t care.
He had a cheap life and could always cycle through death; he wasn’t afraid of dying suddenly.
It was the Astral Express crew he worried about.
Every loss was one less person…
the death of any single member would be a massive loss and could even have irreversible effects on the subsequent “plot,” forcing Ye Cang to commit suicide to restart.
It was like a high-difficulty horror galgame.
To achieve a perfect ending where everyone was saved, one had to go through countless deaths, saves, and loads.
Fortunately, Ye Cang had long prepared himself for this.
Little March grabbed Uncle Yang’s shoulders and gave him a vigorous shake.
“Wake up, Uncle Yang!
Wake up!” Clearly, perhaps because Dan Heng’s hand-chop had been a bit too heavy, Uncle Yang showed no signs of waking up.
Instead, his eyes began to roll back, and he looked as though he might stop breathing at any second.
“No, we need a shock to his system!” Steeling his heart, Ye Cang summoned his secret weapon—his own unfinished cup of Himeko’s freshly brewed, extra-strength espresso.
He poured the whole thing down Uncle Yang’s throat in one go.
*Gulp, gulp—* Visibly, Uncle Yang’s pale face suddenly turned bright red, followed by violent coughing and a fountain of coffee spraying everywhere.
“Cough, cough, cough, cough—” March 7th’s eyes lit up.
“It worked!
You’re a miracle worker!” With that, she rolled up her sleeves and prepared to pour more coffee down Uncle Yang’s throat.
“…” Himeko’s expression turned a bit strained.
Quick-eyed and deft-handed, Ye Cang stopped the overexcited March in time.
Amused and exasperated, he said, “Enough!
If you pour any more, Uncle Yang is going to lose any chance of coming back to life!” Consciousness returning to his body, Welt Yang instinctively chose not to speak this time.
He habitually adjusted his glasses, wiped the yellowish-brown liquid from the corner of his mouth, and turned to cast a grateful glance at Ye Cang.
It was hard to tell whether he was thanking Ye Cang for saving his life or for sparing his life.
Ye Cang silently ignored Uncle Yang’s gaze and said solemnly, “Uncle Yang, don’t say a word.
Just let me finish first…” After that, he carefully structured his sentences, making sure that every word that came out of his mouth was a strictly declarative sentence.
Only then did he relax slightly and slowly speak: “It goes like this…” “…” “In other words, questions and answers are the medium through which the memetic pollution spreads.
To prevent the situation from worsening, we must communicate strictly in declarative sentences until this crisis is fully resolved.” As expected of a dependable, mature man who had weathered countless storms, Welt quickly grasped the situation under Ye Cang’s explanation.
He adjusted his glasses and looked calmly into the handsome youth’s eyes.
“In that case, the memetic pollution on the space station poses no fatal threat to us…
Thank you for the information, Ye Cang.” Ye Cang shook his head.
“We should be thanking you, Mr.
Welt.
If you hadn’t actively interacted with the memetic pollution, we wouldn’t have been able to gather this information.” Himeko smiled slightly and spoke softly, “There is no need for the two of you to be so modest.
Everyone has witnessed your contributions.” She paused, glanced at the departing Conductor Pom-Pom, and continued, “The Astral Express has disconnected from the interstellar network.
The memetic pollution will not spread any further.
In approximately two system hours, we will arrive at Herta Space Station.” “My fellow Nameless, even though we now understand how the memetic pollution spreads, please do not let your guard down.
After all…” Dan Heng finished Himeko’s unspoken sentence: “After all, the Antimatter Legion’s lackeys are still lurking inside Herta Space Station.” “It seems a fierce battle is inevitable.” Welt’s eyes turned sharp, the lenses of his black-rimmed glasses reflecting a cold, imposing light.
In a corner where no one was paying attention, Ye Cang silently pulled out the *Death Diary* and recorded: *If we don’t ask or answer, will the memetic pollution really not spread any further?* *Then, in the previous cycle, what exactly killed me?* …
The starry sky was silent, and all was still.
The dark metallic space station floated silently in orbit around its central star.
Surrounding it was a vast planetary ring composed of countless meteor fragments, as if a planet had been shattered by some supreme force, its splattered debris gradually cooling in the vacuum to form a yellowish-brown disk.
Clearly, before the Astral Express arrived in this star system, a battle on a “planet-shattering” scale had taken place near Herta Space Station.
The planet originally in orbit had been destroyed by the flames of war, collapsing into a ring of debris, while Herta Space Station had fallen into complete deathly silence, like a lonely graveyard in the pitch-black universe.
As for the two opposing sides, they weren’t difficult to guess—the Herta Space Station Security Department and the Antimatter Legion.
This was a war between [Erudition] and [Destruction], and the price paid was the destruction of a planet, along with the star in this system, which was now on the verge of burning out.
The Astral Express slowly docked at the space station’s dry dock.
The light shining from the train car windows became one of only two light sources in this dark world.
The first light source, naturally, was the dim star at the center of the system, which looked as though it could burn out at any moment.
*Rumble—* With a heavy metallic thud, the Astral Express ground to a steady halt at the platform.
The sliding doors of the parlor car slowly opened, and a middle-aged man in a gray suit, holding a metallic cane, stepped out.
Adjusting his glasses, the man warily scanned the empty, deserted spaceport.
Once he was sure there was no immediate danger, he subtly raised his other hand and beckoned behind him.
Soon after, a black-haired youth dressed in a matching gray suit poked his head out of the carriage.
Clutching a small, pitch-black handgun that looked completely harmless, he hopped down next to the middle-aged man.
Raising the gun into a ready stance, he scanned the surroundings.
“It seems…
no danger has been detected for now.” “If the space station has only suffered from memetic pollution, then the physical threats we anticipated might not be very prominent.” Himeko was the third to leave the carriage.
Her amber eyes swept over the surroundings with a hint of regret as she said softly, “I have somewhat of a friendship with Station Master Asta.
I hope she’s alright…” “She’ll definitely be fine!
Don’t you worry, Auntie Himeko!” March 7th hopped out energetically, clutching her composite bow, followed closely by a silent, aloof Dan Heng.
At this point, the entire Astral Express crew had arrived at Herta Space Station.