There was no distinction between day and night in the underground world. When Su Lian opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was still the same cold, artificial lighting illuminating the room.
Yesterday, he had gone out to search for supplies, spending half of his time dodging the spore tide. He hadn’t expended much physical energy, and, logically speaking, seven hours of sleep should have been more than enough to restore his body to its optimal condition. Yet, at that moment, Su Lian felt as though someone had poured an entire ton of cement into his head, leaving it unbearably heavy and sluggish.
On the floor, the cleaning robot continued moving along its programmed route, wandering back and forth across the room. Just as it was about to collide with Su Lian’s foot, it came to a halt. Two seconds later, it changed direction and rolled away.
Su Lian sat blankly on the edge of the bed, his eyes still clouded with sleep and his mind in a daze. He remained there in a stupor until another sound suddenly rang out from somewhere inside the room. In an instant, he sprang to his feet, and the tail hook behind him shot out, piercing straight through the object that had made the noise.
“Su Lian, are you all right?”
By the time he came back to his senses, he discovered that he was already clinging to the wall, with a small energy storage unit impaled on the tip of his tail hook. Aivitis stood nearby, looking at him with an expression full of concern.
“I thought someone was attacking me…”
Su Lian had completely forgotten that he had brought home a companion robot the previous day. With his eyes lowered and his expression still somewhat dazed, he jumped down from the wall. He then picked up the energy storage unit he had just destroyed and asked, “Were you trying to repair this just now?”
“My internal power supply is experiencing some problems. The amount of energy you gave me wasn’t enough, so I need to replenish it from an external source.”
Aivitis glanced at Su Lian before continuing, “I saw it lying on the table. Am I not allowed to use it?”
“Of course you are. But you know how to repair these things?”
“I have some experience repairing adult pleasure devices. They’re more or less the same.”
Su Lian nodded slowly, understanding only part of what Aivitis meant. Still, if Aivitis could take care of his own energy needs, that would be ideal. He certainly didn’t want to waste any more of his own energy charging the robot.
“Wait a moment.”
He pulled open a drawer, took out several more broken energy storage units, and handed them to Aivitis. “Take a look at these and see if you can repair them. If you manage to fix them, you can keep them and use them yourself.”
After that, Su Lian quickly finished washing up and prepared to head out.
Companion robots were designed to be perfect partners, and Aivitis was no exception. Along with the little dog he had casually dug out of the garbage heap the previous day, Aivitis stood at the doorway to see him off.
“I’ll wait here for you to come back.”
“Woof, woof, woof! Whine, ”
Su Lian looked at Aivitis, then glanced at the dog. He fell silent for a moment before finally saying, “Then I’ll try to come back early?”
“If possible.”
The smile on Aivitis’s face grew even wider. It even leaned closer to Su Lian, seemingly intending to give him a farewell kiss.
Su Lian didn’t refuse. After all, Aivitis was genuinely beautiful, and he allowed the robot to lean in and press its lips against his own for a brief moment.
The heavy door to his room closed behind him. Su Lian walked along the passageway for a while before realizing that, at some point along the way, the heaviness in his head had disappeared without him even noticing.
After giving it some thought, Su Lian concluded that the heaviness in his head might have been a lingering effect of yesterday’s encounter with the spore tide. Alternatively, he might have been exposed to some form of cosmic radiation that had gone undetected.
After all, this damn garbage planet had no protective shield whatsoever. It simply floated, completely exposed, in the vastness of space, leaving it vulnerable to anything and everything that might descend upon it.
Su Lian thought about the remaining one hundred and forty nine years of his prison sentence and couldn’t help letting out a cold laugh. At this rate, he would probably die here in less than twenty years.
No wonder the tribunal hadn’t sentenced him to death.
“Wow, Su Su, you look absolutely terrible~”
Shier was holding a cup of sweet drink. When he saw Su Lian walk through the doorway, the little boy couldn’t help shivering slightly, as though Su Lian’s ghastly appearance had sent a chill down his spine.
After Su Lian sat down beside him, Elijah handed him a cup of the same sweet drink Shier was having. A heart shaped straw, carefully curled into the shape of a peach heart, had been inserted into the cup.
Elijah’s blue eyes were filled with concern as he looked at Su Lian and asked gently, “Darling, are you all right?”
“Thank you. I think I’m doing pretty well.”
Su Lian took a sip of the sweet drink. Its flavor was quite mild, yet it carried a refreshing taste. The sweetness came from a few particularly resilient varieties of climbing plants that managed to survive even in this harsh environment.
Shier took a long, satisfying sip of his drink, narrowing his eyes in contentment. He then released the straw and remarked, “Su Su, you’re not being honest at all! You look as exhausted as someone who hasn’t slept for ten whole days.”
Su Lian responded with a puzzled hum.
“Have you been secretly planning something big behind our backs?”
“What are you thinking?”
Su Lian vigorously ruffled Shier’s hair before replying, “I simply haven’t been getting enough rest. That’s all.”
“Please, could you stop treating that handsome face of yours so badly?”
Elijah pressed a hand against his chest as well, wearing an expression of exaggerated heartbreak. “Would you like a bottle of vitality potion?”
Su Lian asked, “Is it free?”
“I can give you a discount.”
“Then forget it.”
Shier had already burst into a fit of giggles. Because he was so short, his specially assigned chair had been raised considerably to accommodate his height. His little legs swung back and forth beneath the seat as he laughed so hard that he nearly toppled off it.
Su Lian reached out and caught him before he could fall. Once Shier had settled back into his seat, Elijah’s expression turned serious as well.
“A new batch of prisoners is going to be delivered here.”
Su Lian looked at him without saying anything. Shier blinked his big eyes and asked, “Is Elijah inviting us to hijack the transport ship together?”
Among everyone serving a sentence on this planet, Su Lian had the longest prison term by far: a full one hundred and fifty years. The person with the second longest sentence was Shier.
Yes, the very same Shier who was only a seven year old boy.
Shier had been part of the previous batch of prisoners sent to this planet, and his sentence was only twenty years shorter than Su Lian’s. When Su Lian had first seen the length of Shier’s sentence, even he had been taken aback. After all, he himself had been sentenced to only one hundred and fifty years for the crime of attempting to assassinate the Emperor.
Judging by the conditions on this garbage planet, there was little chance that Shier would live long enough to finish serving his sentence and regain his freedom. Hijacking a transport ship was undoubtedly an excellent option.
Excitement and anticipation began to creep onto the little boy’s face. “Su Su, why don’t we give it a try? We could leave this place and find some remote agricultural planet…”
“Shier, leaving this place isn’t as simple as you think.”
Even if they actually succeeded in seizing the transport ship used to deliver the prisoners, they still wouldn’t have any legitimate identities. The moment the ship’s system detected that they were escaped criminals, it would immediately activate the self destruct sequence.
Alternatively, they might be luckier. Perhaps they could stop the self destruct sequence before it was activated, or dismantle the ship’s engines and obtain a star map. However, there were still patrol fleets operating around this star system. No matter how carefully they planned their escape, they wouldn’t be able to evade the searches.
Shier pouted, looking rather unhappy.
Elijah continued, “I’ve invited Wang as well.”
Wang was a talented technical criminal who had committed his crime by exploiting the interstellar network. He had managed to steal a substantial sum of money by deceiving the network’s security systems, and he had even evaded capture for three months while the authorities searched for him before he was finally caught.
Su Lian tapped his fingers against the metal platform a few times before replying, “I’ll consider it.”
“I’m looking forward to having you join us,” Elijah said.
Su Lian didn’t remain in the spacious room for much longer. After finishing the sweet drink Elijah had given him, he turned around and headed back to the planet’s surface.
The sky remained its familiar orange red, and the satellite orbiting the planet hung above the horizon, appearing extraordinarily close. Su Lian could even make out the numerous craters of different sizes scattered across its surface.
Beneath his feet lay heaps of garbage. Most of it consisted of materials that were difficult to process or recycle, or whose recovery value was so low that transporting them all the way here and dumping them was simply more economical than attempting to reclaim them.
Some industrial waste was dangerous as well, such as containers filled with toxic liquids and untreated radioactive materials. Consequently, anyone searching for usable resources had to remain extremely cautious.
Su Lian had too many things on his mind to patiently search through the garbage. After rummaging around for quite some time, the only thing he managed to find was a lightweight exoskeleton that appeared to be relatively intact. In the end, he decided to return rather than waste any more time.
The spacious underground hall was still as lively as ever. A few bored individuals were gambling, their excited shouts so loud that it seemed as though they might tear open the ground above their heads.
Su Lian passed them with an expressionless face. Along the way, he dealt with a man who had attempted to sneak a touch of his backside.
Su Lian flung the man away. Just as he was about to crash into the wall, the man’s legs suddenly separated and reassembled themselves into a device resembling a thruster, allowing him to hover in midair.
“Su, spend one night with me, and I’ll get you the food you like… Ugh!”
Su Lian didn’t even wait for him to finish speaking before raising his gun and firing.
A small, intensely hot burst of explosive light pierced straight through the man’s heart. A charred, fist sized hole appeared in the center of his chest. The wound had been completely carbonized, leaving no blood flowing from it. Instead, a thick, unpleasant stench began to spread through the air.
The man fell from the air and crashed to the ground.
Silence descended upon the surrounding area.
After a while, Shier’s excited voice finally broke the silence from nearby. “Su Su is so cool-!!”
Su Lian didn’t linger because of this little incident either. Only after he had left the hall did the people inside begin exchanging glances, each discovering the same apprehension reflected in the others’ eyes.
Everyone remembered the commotion that had erupted when Su Lian had first arrived here. Those who had tried to capture him and drag him away had ended up being killed by him instead. In fact, if Elijah hadn’t intervened, Su Lian had nearly dismantled the entire underground settlement single handedly.
He was a terrifying poisonous scorpion.
By then, Su Lian was already making his way through the underground passageways. It didn’t take him long to reach the door to his room. Before he could even open it, the door slid open automatically.
“Woof! Woof! Woof!”
The little black dog still looked just as ugly as before. The moment it spotted him, it rushed out enthusiastically and ran around his legs, welcoming him home with unrestrained excitement.
Aivitis was also standing at the doorway. Looking at Su Lian, he said, “Su Lian, welcome home.”
He looked so remarkably human that, for a brief moment, Su Lian found himself in a daze. It almost felt as though he truly had a real companion waiting for him at home.
Aivitis took his hand and gently led him inside, while the little dog followed behind them, letting out a series of soft whines and whimpers as the door closed.
“Would you like to rest for a while first?”
Aivitis guided Su Lian to a chair. His hand lightly brushed against Su Lian’s neck before settling on his shoulder.
“Are you feeling all right?”
“I’m fine… Wait a minute. What’s going on here?”
Su Lian’s room had undergone a complete transformation. The metal plates he had casually attached to the walls had been replaced with uniform, light gray panels. The floor had been leveled and covered with a warm yellow carpet. And if his memory served him correctly, that carpet had originally been gray. He had shoved it into a corner and used it as a makeshift mat to keep the dampness at bay.
Everything, whether it had previously been in good condition or practically falling apart, had now been arranged neatly. It was as though all his belongings had been sent back to the factory for a complete refurbishment. Under the cold white lighting, their surfaces gleamed with an alluring luster.
No, that wasn’t quite right.
His entire room had been renovated.
Su Lian suddenly felt as though he were no longer standing inside an ordinary room. Instead, the place resembled a metal capsule, an egg, or some other kind of enclosed space. The metallic surroundings felt cold, and the air carried a faint, almost fishy smell of metal.
“I only made a few minor modifications. They’ll make you more comfortable.”
Aivitis detected some of the chemical signals associated with unease being released by Su Lian. His tone softened even further as he asked, “Su Lian, would you like to take a bath?”