A delicate and beautiful little girl emerged from behind the corner of the corridor. She had grey hair and grey eyes, and she blinked curiously at the two of them. "Jelly, and... a sun."
Lei Ting’s brow twitched.
In truth, he had detected the girl’s approach long ago. It was her unique nature that had made him decide to hold his ground: she didn’t seem like a member of the Orion race, nor even a normal carbon-based organism. Her body was almost entirely a mass of energy, yet the outermost layer of energy was wrapped in a way that made her physical reactions to the outside world indistinguishable from solid matter.
When he first realized her existence, he had even thought she was one of the "enemies." However, upon closer observation, he discovered that the child seemed completely unaware of her own extraordinary nature.
She, and perhaps 'Ruo', likely only knew her as a genius child esper whose mental-inclination abilities had awakened prematurely.
But whether she herself could realize the possibility of this was still up in the air—her mental state was highly trance-like, and even her voice carried a strange, illusory quality.
Moreover...
Lei Ting frowned.
For some reason, based on the feedback from his mental scans, he felt that the child’s appearance somewhat resembled someone he knew.
However, during this period of combat readiness, he couldn't just take off his glasses and open his eyes—indeed, even though he was wearing the glasses for appearance's sake, his eyes were closed. If he didn't, the psychic power saturated within his eyes would tear apart the cognitive abilities of most people in a single brief moment of eye contact.
As long as those people’s mental strength was below A-rank.
It was the same for 'Ruo'—'Ruo' was actually a B-rank esper. The protective layer outside the planet primarily originated from the Dota people's racial trait, 'Extension and Shaping'.
"'Sun'? 'Jelly'?" Lei Ting asked, tilting his head toward 'Ruo'. "She is...?"
"Lina Ontok. You can just call her 'Lina'." 'Ruo' smiled and picked up the little girl who had run over, explaining to Lei Ting in a lighthearted tone, "She’s one of the refugees I brought to this planet two months ago. Now... I’ve adopted her."
Lina... Lei Ting’s brow twitched again.
That was it. 'Lina'. The esper who had used mental abilities to attack him during his internship—his classmate.
This girl, with her peculiar life form and equally peculiar abilities, bore an extreme resemblance to that 'Lina'.
Lei Ting had once asked Angye about that 'Lina'—or rather, 'Heart-Sound'. At the time, Angye said she and her brother were both working for him, having joined Angye’s factional team...
He had spoken with such confidence that Lei Ting hadn't probed further. After all, he didn't have the energy to figure out every single detail.
"You’re looking at me, Sun." Little Lina swayed her head in 'Ruo's' arms. "Mama said people should open their eyes to see the world for themselves. Why don't you open your eyes?
"Oh, I feel danger... You can't open your eyes? You’re protecting us? But vision is your innate right. Why would you sacrifice your own rights to protect us?"
"..."
Who taught a child to speak like this?
Lei Ting silently turned his head toward 'Ruo'.
"I don't know where she learned this rhetoric either..." 'Ruo' spread his hands helplessly. "She seems to have left her biological parents very early. Her foster parents were a bit afraid of her because she could perceive the mental images of others, to the point that they didn't even take her when they fled, only taking their other two children. I rescued her from a broken attic. She seems to have been locked in there for most of her life."
Lei Ting frowned.
He understood what 'Ruo' meant: logically, this child shouldn't have had the chance to learn such a structured way of speaking...
It was truly baffling. But it didn't matter; he wasn't one to beat around the bush.
"Where did you learn to speak like that?" Facing an anomalous event, Lei Ting’s voice carried a hint of his habitual cold hardness, but since the other party was a child, his attitude was gentler than it was toward most people.
"Learning? From everyone." Little Lina swayed her head, her pale grey eyes looking incredibly ethereal. "Mama said I’m a genius, and a genius should be able to learn skills from every thing and every person..."
"Especially since you can see the 'truth'?" Lei Ting asked. "Which 'Mama' are you talking about? Where is she?"
"Mama is Mama." Little Lina’s voice sounded like she was humming a song. "Isn't Mama right here?"
She leaned her upper body out of 'Ruo's' arms toward a patch of empty air. "Mama!"
Setting aside 'Ruo', whose expression had become as serious as could be, even Lei Ting couldn't see anything in that void. Not psychic power, not a collective of mental energy, let alone a physical entity that could be called 'Mama'.
It was just empty air.
"...Is she hallucinating?" Lei Ting used encrypted mental communication with 'Ruo'. "Is she always like this?"
"Yes, always," 'Ruo' replied helplessly. "This is why most races restrict the timing of psychic awakening at the genetic level, preventing it from happening too early—powerful mental strength and the acute perception that follows will overwhelm the psyche of almost any child."
As they communicated, they walked together down the long corridor, turning from the lights into a new hallway. Little Lina continued to hum in 'Ruo's' arms until they reached a junction that led, like the paths of an ant nest, to the massive gathering areas for the crowds.
Through his perception, Lei Ting discovered that there were numerous defensive and structural supports here, along with complete and sensitive daily life facilities. Although the quality of life and personal privacy for each individual couldn't be precisely guaranteed because the number of people received exceeded the initial planning, basic life safety was still secured.
It was currently meal distribution time. Each compartment had a team of a hundred drones cruising overhead to ensure no one fought over others' food. Additionally, some refugees were actively cleaning the surrounding environment.
"Not bad," Lei Ting said. "Have there been any riots?"
"There have been, many times. Either to snatch food or to seize administrative control. Some said they wanted to go back to the surface, or quickly take a spaceship and flee..."
'Ruo' shrugged while holding Little Lina.
"None of us knew how to tell them that even if we requisitioned merchant ships, the existing vessels and starships wouldn't be enough for even one-five-hundredth of the people here to escape.
"Moreover, the local garrison was completely crippled. The Federation high-ups ignored them for too long, and the problem of 'ghost soldiers' drawing pay was severe. The actual number of soldiers was less than half of what was on the registers, and a large amount of high-quality weapons and equipment was sold off as soon as it was issued... So now, security here has to be maintained by drone swarms."
"...Thank you for telling me this," Lei Ting said softly. "What about the people who started the riots?"
"Executed," 'Ruo' said decisively. "People who only think about dismantling others' starships to patch together their own escape craft at a time like this deserve no pity."
"Well done," Lei Ting said. "Saved me a bit of effort."
"I imagine it didn't even amount to 'a bit'."
"A figure of speech," Lei Ting said. "Someone is coming."
'Ruo' was startled and turned his head along with Little Lina to wait... and wait... and wait...
He kept waiting. During that time, Lei Ting had already finished 'looking' through the structure of this shelter, which spanned nearly half of the planet's continental underground, but 'Ruo' was still waiting.
After a full half-hour, Little Lina couldn't hold out any longer. She gave a soft yawn, curled up, and began to sleep. 'Ruo', while expanding his own mental strength, asked in a low voice, "Is someone really—"
His words cut off abruptly—outside his normal perception range, people were walking this way, discussing matters related to him.
—"I think he really should be back by now, right?"
—"I told you I’m not sure, aren't we going to see..."
"..." 'Ruo' was silent for a moment. "Just how large is your normal perception range?"
"Pay attention to that underwater laboratory on the opposite side of the planet," Lei Ting said. "Someone opened a virus cabinet..."
He paused. "...Never mind. It's an enemy."
"..." 'Ruo' was dumbfounded. "A-and then?"
"Solved. Please have someone go deal with it," Lei Ting said calmly.
At the same time, in a laboratory on the seabed on the opposite side of the planet, a corpse slumped down in front of a high-security virus cabinet. Some of the metal structures in the protective suit it wore were twisted, working in concert with the skeleton inside its body to simply and efficiently shred the entire frame.
Two sealed vials fell from its hand, but the metal rings fixed upon them lifted the completely sealed containers back up, flying them automatically back into the cold storage unit that was preparing to start its self-destruct countdown.
*Thud!*
The cabinet door closed.
Inside the mask of the corpse lying on the floor, a pair of eyes like those of a deep-sea fish stared wide, unable to rest in peace.
'Ruo' struggled to extend his mental strength there while maintaining the planetary defense, then his gaze sharpened. "Yabrisaks? I’ll have someone look into it immediately... If it really is them, this will be a serious case of espionage."
"Perhaps," Lei Ting said.
Then, as he walked forward with 'Ruo', occasionally nodding to the staff passing by, he added, "When you returned earlier, was that single-person teleportation technology?"
"No, that’s a racial talent of the Dota people," 'Ruo' revealed his secret straightforwardly. "I went to the war base on the opposite side to talk with their leader..."
"It seems the negotiations broke down," Lei Ting said.
"Indeed, the negotiations broke down." 'Ruo' sighed. "The part of 'me' that went up is actually dead, but my consciousness transferred back to another part of 'me'. Even the pollution I received... You see, being a mass of gelatin isn't such a bad thing. Right?"
"True." Lei Ting suddenly looked up, then nodded in agreement. "Your way... is very suitable for survival."
'Ruo' began to laugh.
Just as the conversation was about to open up, his expression suddenly slumped. The few current top administrators of this planet, who were concerned about him, had arrived.
'Ruo' sighed and turned to greet the several young men and women running from the end of the corridor, introducing Lei Ting and them to each other. "This is... an esper who came to help. His name is..."
As he spoke, 'Ruo' began to communicate frantically with Lei Ting on a mental level, trying to get the man to come up with a pseudonym—honestly, even with a hundred times the courage, he wouldn't dare to casually give the 'Sun Star' a new name.
Despite being suddenly touched on a mental level, Lei Ting, as he had in every previous mental exchange, perfectly controlled his mental pressure and automatic counter-instincts. He said, "My surname is Yu."
—He had temporarily tossed aside the 'Tian' (field) part of his surname, 'Lei' (thunder). Of course, if anyone were to ask for his full name, he would dare to say he was called 'Yu Tian'.
Meanwhile, the young people, all roughly in their early twenties, scrutinized Lei Ting. He was young and healthy, tall with a beautiful physique. Even from the lower half of his face visible through the translucent breathing mask, one could see a captivating handsomeness. His long, pitch-black hair was tied behind his head, and he was equipped with a full set of standard armaments...
Inexplicably, they felt a very peculiar temperament about this person. It didn't belong to the 'nobility' seen by ordinary people, nor to the grit of a common soldier, but was an indescribable...
A sense of power that felt trustworthy and reliable.
"Hello, Mr. Yu! I am the current Chief Administrator of Planet Qinghe 16-1!" The leader of the young people stepped forward quickly, wanting to shake Lei Ting’s hand.
Lei Ting didn't ask where the local high-ranking officials had gone. Instead, he raised his hand to touch fingertips with the other through his glove, then looked up and said, "Pay attention. The negotiations have broken down..."
"...What?" The crowd was somewhat confused, and they all looked up as well, but most could only 'see' the iron walls, the layers of soil and rock, and the wild winds sweeping above.
Even 'Ruo' only 'saw' the protective barrier he was supporting.
It was... fluctuating.
"...They are preparing to storm us," Lei Ting said.
***
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Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 140 | The Girl and the Imminent Storm | Novela.app | Novela.app
