Chapter 612 'Guest'

Before the "guest" arrived, Luo completed her final preparation in the reception room—she affixed a teleportation portal talisman card to the door leading into the suite's inner room and activated it, establishing a portal that could lead to the "Traveler Hub" at any time.

This building had extremely powerful early-warning antennas and a certain degree of self-defense firepower. Although she felt Old Joe probably wouldn't be that bold—after all, acting in the no-man's-land and opening fire on Grey Dwarf Star were two completely different concepts—but just in case, in the most extreme scenario where one of that mechanical freak's logic chips burned out and produced alarming intelligence, and he actually fired a "Purgatory" torpedo from space, she would still have a few minutes to evacuate herself and her men from here.

After completing that preparation, she gave all the building's employees an early holiday, kicking out everyone who just worked there.

After patiently waiting for an hour, her guest arrived as promised.

A little later than Luo had estimated.

A silver-white luxury shuttle entered the atmosphere and sent a docking request as soon as it reached the planet.

Luo had changed back into her favorite silver-white dress. She was lounging on the couch in the reception room in a lazy posture. A spherical communication robot floated in front of her, and a holographic projection floating above the robot displayed the visitor's docking request, along with a card-shaped icon.

Luo tapped the icon, and a beautifully designed welcome image appeared before her eyes. A line of text leaped in front of her, accompanied by a firework effect:

"Congratulations to the best colleague and friend for returning safely—welcome back among us."

"Boss," the captain of the guard said from the side, "two unidentified light frigates are parked in orbit. No group insignia. They jumped in together with Old Joe's shuttle."

"Mm," Luo nodded calmly, casually approving the shuttle's docking request. "Take two men to greet our guest."

The captain of the guard left the room.

The silver-white luxury aircraft landed on the rooftop landing pad of the building. After a while, Luo heard footsteps approaching from the corridor outside.

The door pushed open, and a tall figure entered her field of view.

It was a steel body—aside from a small amount of bionic skin covering, it was almost entirely a heavy machine. Over two meters tall, it was covered from head to toe in thick alloy plates. The angular steel and a few deliberately exposed cable conduits looked intimidating.

Old Joe, a former Algredian.

"Aha, Luo, it's really good to see you still in good spirits," the over-two-meter-tall steel body made a loud, almost noisy sound. The smile on the alloy-crafted face looked comical and strange. He opened his arms as if to give a hug, but when he got no response and was instead blocked by two guard soldiers, he awkwardly laughed and lowered his hands. "I'm serious, if you had really died that easily, it would be a huge loss for the company."

As he spoke, Old Joe raised his head and looked around.

The reception room was in traditional Algredian style. Dark blue decorative tapestries hung on the walls, a high-precision simulated starry sky projection was displayed outside the dome window, and in one corner of the room, a classical astrolabe was running. There were also wooden shelves, a bookshelf, and a burning fireplace—the flames in the fireplace weren't even holographic projections; they were real fire.

Firewood was expensive on Grey Dwarf Star, especially the kind that didn't release all sorts of strange toxic substances when burned.

"You still like this vintage stuff." Old Joe shook his head and clicked his tongue.

Luo lounged lazily on the couch, which was covered with a dark red cushion, and looked up at him. "I'm a bit old-fashioned. It's an old habit, hard to change."

Old Joe shrugged, producing a faint mechanical joint sound. He stepped over and sat down on the couch in front of Luo.

His massive, heavy steel body sank into the couch, looking a bit cramped.

Then he suddenly gave a questioning "Huh" and turned his head as if observing the air nearby.

"What's that smell? My sensors detect some... 'interesting' substances in the air," Old Joe looked at Luo, his tone unreadable. "Blood?".

"Incense. Black market shaman stuff," Luo said, deliberately taking a deep breath. "To be honest, it is a blood smell, because the stuff is made from blood as a raw material—the black witches added something potent to it. I have to rely on this incense to stay calm now... You iron block probably can't understand. You haven't needed to regulate your endocrine system for a long time."

Old Joe stared at Luo for two or three seconds.

There were indeed substances similar to blood floating in the air, but it seemed to be just evaporated blood components. His sensors didn't analyze more information and didn't report toxicity—the golden-haired elf in front of him and her guard team were also exposed to the thin blood vapor, and everything seemed normal.

The suspicion gradually faded, and Old Joe's expression relaxed.

What poison could affect a tough, reliable steel body?

"Looks like you've been through a lot," he shook his head, his tone seemingly carrying sympathy and concern. "Flesh and blood are fragile in the end, aren't they?".

"Probably, but I can't let go of the 'world' I can feel through this body. You might think these perceptions are blurry and inefficient, but I still can't quite accept turning the whole world into a pile of data sent back by sensors," Luo said calmly, her eyes falling on Old Joe. "This suit of steel you have is still a bit extreme for me."

The "incense" device on the table was operating silently, with thin mist seeping out little by little.

Old Joe felt some strange signals appearing in his sensors, but when he tried to pay attention, the signals disappeared like ghosts.

He also felt a slight... itch on his back, but how could a steel body have any concept of "itch"? He hadn't dealt with such a feeling for so long that he soon ignored the itch.

"Anyway, I'm happy to help anytime," he adjusted his sitting position on the slightly cramped couch and squeezed out a stiff smile at the golden-haired elf. "I helped finish your first surgery back then—without that first modification, you wouldn't be where you are today."

Luo blinked slowly, her expression unchanged.

The sharp pain of her spine being severed and the living metal gradually eroding the spinal canal seemed to resurface from her memory. She felt her brain implant discharging irregularly, numbness and tingling spreading at the base of her skull, but in the next instant, it was all soothed by the blood smell in the air, turning into a gentle illusion.

"I want to know what really happened," Old Joe stared into Luo's eyes. "I went to your stronghold a few days ago. It looked like a space storm had swept through. Even the entire planetary system had undergone a terrifying overall shift. The local log data was confusing. The last communication between your space station and the group company was a bunch of chaotic, mad gibberish, and by then, your personal identification signal had disappeared... Then we received news that the Borderlands had announced an Angel descent and fall event. In the limited video footage, your space station was floating on the dome of the Borderlands."

"An accident," Luo said calmly. "I got a 'stone' a few years ago, but I didn't expect it to be a 'beacon' capable of summoning an Angel descent—while trying to draw out the power contained in that stone, the Gloom Angel descended."

Old Joe adjusted his sitting position on the couch again, making a show of listening carefully.

His heart was pounding in his chest. The news about the Gloom Angel was valuable intelligence, but the story of how the golden-haired elf survived was even more intriguing.

"Then how did you survive? And what's the story with the news from the Borderlands?".

"That thing, the Gloom Angel, has power over space-time. The first time it 'awakened,' it teleported the entire Black Rock space station to the Borderlands," Luo told the truth almost entirely, just deliberately omitting a lot of details. "I don't know how I survived. When I woke up, I was already in the Special Operations Bureau's prison—I might not even know more about the Angel's fall than you do."

"Special Operations Bureau?" Old Joe's pitch rose. "How did you escape from that place?".

"Is this part of the company's investigation too?".

"Don't misunderstand. I'm not doubting you—this is all in the line of duty," Old Joe spread his hands. "You also know what the Special Operations Bureau is. That expressionless witch's cage holds the most dangerous living and non-living beings in this universe, and escape incidents in the last century have been rare. As for you..."

He looked Luo up and down.

"I don't think you have the ability to escape from that place."

Luo slowly pushed herself up from the couch, leaning her upper body toward Old Joe.

"An Angel Hunter took the Gloom Angel to break into the prison," she said in a slightly hoarse voice, as if telling a thrilling and bizarre story. "Just like a hero defeating a dragon to rescue a princess, they let me out right in front of that steel-faced woman."

Old Joe's eyes widened. The lack of detail in the metal face's expression of shock even seemed comical. He stared at Luo for several seconds, then suddenly leaned back on the couch, letting out a burst of laughter that was almost noise from his chest: "Hahahahaha..."

The unbridled laughter lasted for a moment, then stopped abruptly. His tone finally shed that surface politeness: "Playing tricks on an investigator won't do you any good at a time like this, Luo. You'd better think it through. I might be the only one who can help you get back to Black Point right now—in a place like this, someone without support is worse than a bug in the gutter."

Two guard soldiers stepped forward.

Luo waved her hand and lazily returned to her original posture. She let out a relaxed sigh in the scent of the "incense," then looked at Old Joe with a half-smile: "See, I still prefer you like this. We could have communicated this honestly from the start—just like before, before I got promoted."