Chapter 636: Dust and Iron Nest
Gray Dwarf Star, Steel Node City. Sunlight pierced through the thick, gray haze, spilling onto the tower rooftops of the upper district. A single shaft of light slipped through a gap in the curtains, illuminating a tastefully furnished bedroom—on the ornate bed, Luo lay sleeping, her brow deeply furrowed.
The golden-haired elf curled up in her nightmare, her body trembling slightly. After struggling countless times, she suddenly jolted awake.
Luo's eyes flew open, but her body remained rigidly curled in bed, as if her consciousness hadn't fully returned. Sunlight streamed through the window slit, and a warm current blew in from the ventilation grate, yet she still felt the world was terrifyingly cold. The horrors of the nightmare still clung to her mind, as if they had followed her into reality—
The searing pain, the wails, the pleas and screams through the walls, the convulsions of the dying as they suffocated, hands reaching out from cages, eyes begging her for help, and the spine hanging from the ceiling...
A sharp pain shot from the base of her skull down to her tailbone, forcibly jolting her rigid body out of its stupor. Luo couldn't help but curse, clawing at her own back in agony as several mechanical limbs uncontrollably extended from her living metal, stabbing randomly near her spine.
This horrific process lasted over ten seconds. When the pain subsided slightly, she struggled to climb out of bed, gasping heavily and muttering curses under her breath.
Soon, a strange, calm force surged from within her—like a warm current not her own, swiftly erasing and repairing the damage to her body. The warmth gradually soothed her discomfort and drove away the cold, even seeming to seep into the frigid living metal.
Luo raised her hand and saw fine red veins briefly appear on her arm before quickly fading.
"New work... still better than before..." She muttered, slowly getting up to change clothes. Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly noticed the data terminal on the bedside table blinking with a light.
A mechanical limb immediately reached over and grabbed the data terminal. From the boss?
Luo's eyebrows rose. She quickly opened the message and scanned it, her expression rapidly turning serious. The holographic projection above the terminal displayed a set of complex patterns left by psychic ablation, along with descriptions and a series of detailed parameters for the corresponding psychic waveform—data collected by technical experts from the Special Services Bureau from the spatial rift remnants opened by the Hermetic Order. And this data... was not unfamiliar to her.
Luo quickly finished changing clothes and walked to the table with the data terminal. One of her mechanical limbs plugged into the side interface of the terminal, while her other hand opened a hidden compartment under the table—the concealed control panel inside emitted a faint glow.
She activated another hidden antenna system within the building and began transmitting data through a concealed information link to the Blackstone Space Station far away in the Featherfall Star Sector.
The vast amount of data was broken into hundreds of seemingly meaningless and unrelated noise signals, sent into deep space via the FTL communication array at the border of the Darkflow Star Sector. Along the way, they were disguised as normal advertisements and greeting messages, received by the "Universal Communication Network" built by the Algrade, and forwarded to the Featherfall Star Sector.
After connecting to the Blackstone station's database, Luo's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
"This is really my research! This one too, and this... wait, this waveform seems a bit off..."
After an unknown amount of time, Luo threw the data terminal onto the table with a dark expression and sent out a call signal.
In a moment, her guard captain hurried in: "Boss, you called for me?"
"Ryan," Luo turned around, "How are things outside? Have you kept an eye on those people I mentioned?"
The guard captain immediately stood at attention, his expression serious: "We've been out gathering intelligence the past two days. Those two unidentified frigates in low orbit have disappeared, but we didn't find any corresponding jump records. Old Joe is probably still hiding somewhere on Gray Dwarf Star—after all, this place is full of 'dark ports' controlled by gang factions and free raiders, so anyone could be working with him.
"As for the people you mentioned... the administrator of the Gray Iron Scrapyard no longer seems reliable. He's recently been in contact with Old Joe's people, and there are strangers watching near the contact point. The contact on the black market disappeared last month—the timing is suspicious; it's hard to say if Old Joe is behind it, or if it's just a case of thieves falling out. As for the others... the contacts at the Lizard Bar, the Underground River Farm, and the Central Water Purification Station should be fine."
Luo nodded unhurriedly, appearing to be lost in thought about something. After a long pause, she suddenly stood up: "Good. Let's go to the Gray Iron Scrapyard."
"Yes... huh?" The guard captain nodded instinctively, then suddenly snapped to attention, staring at his boss in bewilderment. "You mean the Gray Iron Scrapyard? The administrator there might already be..."
"I know. They might already be Old Joe's people," Luo raised an eyebrow. "But when did I say we were going to avoid Old Joe? We came here to stir things up—have you forgotten?"
Seeing the guard captain's momentarily stunned expression, Luo showed no sign of blaming her subordinate for being slow. Instead, she laughed.
"Don't overthink it. The big boss's task for me is to fish out the fish in these muddy waters—he doesn't care how I do it. And we don't need to worry about cleaning up. For a corporation, only valuable employees need cleanup. If Old Joe happens to die in some corner of a lawless star sector, a new special agent will come to clear up this mess. Either way, it won't be my headache."
"But... if the mess is too big..."
"Then I'll just go back to that valley and keep digging mushrooms with Rapunzel—you can find a job in Shu Ji."
The guard captain blinked. Thinking through problems was clearly not this military officer's strong suit, so he quickly nodded: "Alright, I understand. I'll arrange things right away."
Watching her guard captain's retreating back, Luo let out a soft sigh. Then she got up, walked to the window, and pulled back the curtains to look at the gray city outside.
The vast, decaying city was like a rusted iron giant nest. Buildings accumulated over millennia were piled layer upon layer atop the ancient city, like countless thick scars and sores covering the planet's original appearance.
It was said that long, long ago, this had been a planet of scenic beauty, and the 'Gray Dwarf' was the name of the last civilization on this world. It was said that there had once been prosperity and order, kingdoms and federations both large and small. There had been heroes and betrayers, but overall it had been filled with change and hope.
But the steel giant ships that descended from the sky ended this planet's pastoral age. The primitive psychics who prayed day and night to the stars caught the attention of the Sky Raider Fleet. Then came the warlords under the pretext of exterminating interstellar pirates, followed by the Black Spot Group's armed trade ships and the cultists' slave ships... Grand epics of resistance and stories filled with myths, ravings, pseudo-history, and horror played out in a whirlwind, only to be devoured in an instant by those descending steel, eventually turning into this steel giant nest.
In this lawless star sector shrouded by dim nebulas, there are many similar stories—chaos and violence spread along faster-than-light routes, swallowing every habitable world among the clouds. Colonies are constantly forgotten or blockaded in the chaos, gradually regressing to primitiveness within light-speed traps and communication blackouts. Then new steel giant ships descend from the sky, ancient legends merge with warfire that streaks across the heavens, and everything resets, over and over again.
A light shuttle glided smoothly out of the landing pad, leaping toward the massive 'rift' in the city center that resembled a steel canyon.
The towering, ancient structures stood like cliffs in the dust and mist.
After leaving the relatively clean air and still-bright sunlight of the upper district, the surrounding environment began to deteriorate noticeably. The further down the city went, the worse the air pollution became, and the sunlight filtering from above grew increasingly faint. The surfaces of the giant buildings were covered with fungi and vines that had accumulated over who knows how many years. Some thick, continuous rust bands even made one suspect the buildings would collapse at any moment.
The pungent dust and mist shrouded everything in a nearly impenetrable veil. As the shuttle maneuvered between the buildings, those inside often couldn't catch a clear glimpse of the true appearance of the lower 'giant wall zone.' It felt like passing through a bizarre, surreal dream—by the time the vehicle stopped, only some terrifying phantoms remained in their minds.
In the middle section of the 'Giant Wall Zone,' a stretch of interconnected rooftops was layered with reinforced structures from an unknown era, eventually forming a kind of 'ground.' There were several factories and a crowded, suffocating settlement, and the waste accumulation site known as the 'Gray Iron Scrapyard' was the area's 'economic center.'
Luo sat in the shuttle's cockpit, carefully maneuvering the craft to avoid the steel structures hanging from above, steering toward the dilapidated landing pad at the edge of the Gray Iron Scrapyard. At the same time, she was sending messages to some distant recipients on her data terminal.
"Boss," the guard captain sitting in the co-pilot seat pointed outside the window, "Over there, on that second-level platform, there's a Fairy-6Z shuttle. It's a civilian model, but it shows signs of modification—might be armed."
"I've noticed it. Don't worry," Luo said without looking up. Her electronic mind was linked to the shuttle's data network, already sensing those gazes fixed on her and the ill intent within them. "I'd actually welcome Old Joe making a move at this level. The corporation won't come here to play sheriff for him. But unfortunately, he's clever—and more likely than not, he lacks the courage."