The Cursed Grounds
Furball's sudden intrusion interrupted Xia Fei and Avril's moment of warmth after lunch. He bit on Xia Fei's trousers like a madman and dragged him out. Xia Fei could not help but be startled by the urgency in his eyes.
"Did something happen?" Xia Fei muttered to himself.
Xia Fei did not dare to stay any longer. He had seen Furball like this before. When he was suddenly attacked, Furball would be just as anxious as he was today.
Xia Fei and Avril followed Furball all the way to the lowest level of Nirvana. All they saw was the little robot Lil Pea lying on the cold alloy floor in the empty corridor, his face facing the ground, without a trace of life.
"Ahhh!" Avril screamed as she covered her mouth with her hands, a look of fear on her face.
Xia Fei furrowed his brows. He quickly picked up Lil Pea and called out his name.
"Lil Pea! Lil Pea! What's wrong? "
Unfortunately, no matter how much Xia Fei shook or shouted, he did not get any response.
A bad feeling welled up in her heart, and Avril was on the verge of tears.
"Is Lil Pea alright? Xia Fei, he's just out of energy, right? "
Xia Fei did not answer. Holding Lil Pea and Avril's hand, he quickly returned to the residential area.
"I'm not sure yet. I'll have to check immediately. Lil Pea is an ancient robot, and many of his parts have been used for many years. Perhaps there's a short circuit."
Though he was comforting Avril, Xia Fei had no idea what was going on. Xia Fei would check on Lil Pea's body every month, and he knew very well that all his parts were functioning normally. There was nothing wrong with him, so there had to be something wrong with him for him to collapse like this.
Back in Nirvana's medical center, Lil Pea was placed on the operating table. Xia Fei used the tools in his hand to quickly remove the outer protective shell before using the signal monitoring device to test the key parts.
Avril anxiously waited by the side, and even Furball appeared restless. The eccentric Furball did not like Lil Pea being so docile toward humans, but this did not affect the friendship between the two of them. At a critical juncture, it could be seen that Furball actually cared quite a bit about the hardworking robot beside him.
"The system shut down automatically?" Xia Fei put down the detector in his hand and frowned.
"Is it serious?" Avril and Phantom asked at almost the same time.
"It's hard to tell. It seems like the AI system automatically decided to shut down all the parts. I'll try to reactivate it," Xia Fei said in a deep voice.
The external power supply was connected to Lil Pea's energy system. Xia Fei pressed both his hands on the switches on Lil Pea's head and chest at the same time, forcefully activating it.
Lil Pea's body swayed slightly, and her electronic eyes lit up for less than a second before dimming down.
After several tries, Xia Fei pulled out the external power supply with a grave expression.
"Failed. Unable to perform hard start. The AI system refuses to execute any commands."
"Try out the maintenance bug we brought back from the Holy Realm. That's a product of the Law Realm. Didn't you rely on it to repair the Bat Radar?"
Phantom's words reminded Xia Fei of something. He took out three maintenance bugs from his spatial ring and activated them.
The three little spider-like mechanics crawled on Lil Pea's body a few times. After checking with the detector, they returned to their original little ball form and stopped moving.
"What's going on? Why aren't the maintenance bugs doing anything? "Phantom angrily asked.
Xia Fei's face paled. "The maintenance bugs determined that Lil Pea has no need to be repaired, so there's no way to repair him."
"Nonsense! Lil Pea is already like this. How can you say there's no damage?! "Phantom was furious.
Avril hugged Xia Fei's arm, her two eyes peeking at the motionless Lil Pea through the gap, her tears falling.
Xia Fei's mood was even worse for Avril. He had been with Lil Pea for so long, and their relationship was very deep. Lil Pea was like his most loyal companion, meticulously taking care of his life. Now that this trustworthy companion was suddenly gone, he could not help but feel that something was missing in his heart, making him feel empty.
"Wait for me outside. I'm going to do a full body check on Lil Pea."
…
Several hours later, Xia Fei walked out of the medical center, and Avril immediately went up to him.
"Xia Fei, Lil Pea …"
Xia Fei shook his head. "It's a very strange malfunction. I've carefully checked every chip and every key position, but I didn't find anything. It's like Lil Pea is in a state of suspended animation. His memory and AI system are intact, but he can't be activated no matter what."
"He's … dead?" Avril asked, her eyes brimming with tears.
"No. He's just temporarily gone. Trust me. There will be a day when that obedient Lil Pea will return."
Avril silently nodded, saying nothing. The atmosphere was abnormally heavy.
…
On the second day after Lil Pea suddenly went into hibernation, the fleet smoothly entered Terminus. The various merchant fleets began to separate from the main fleet and head toward their predetermined destination, while the others headed straight for Friedel, the only A-class habitable planet in the Terminus Star Region.
After some discussion, Friedel was renamed New Terra, and it became the capital planet of the entire Terminus Star Region, becoming the political, economic, and cultural center of the star region.
Construction immediately began in full swing. This time, Xia Fei brought the Alliance's most advanced concrete-pouring spaceship, directly using alloy to erect the building's framework and then using concrete to pour it into shape in one go. The speed of construction was astounding.
This new and highly efficient construction method did not save money, but it could greatly increase production efficiency. What Xia Fei lacked the most was time, so he did not care how expensive each road was.
The infrastructure construction progressed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, three months had passed.
New Terra, Southern Four Lakes.
The four lakes were arranged in descending order. The spring water flowed down from the northern mountain and into the first lake. Once the lake was full, it would flow into the second lake, the third lake, and so on.
Xia Fei's new home was in the center of the first lake, on a small island of about ten square kilometers. He had chosen this place because Avril liked the scenery of the lake and mountains, and also because Xia Fei had secretly sunk his Source of Life into the lake, so he did not want to stray too far from it.
Close to ten in the evening, a small shuttle landed on the island in the center of the lake. Uncle Porter had arrived.
Xia Fei greeted him with a smile, and Avril followed closely behind.
After greeting each other, the three of them sat on the beach by the lake. Avril served them fruits and tea, and the servants would prepare dinner for them.
"You chose a good place. The scenery is pleasant and quiet," Uncle Porter said.
Xia Fei said, "You can come and stay if you like. In any case, the two of us won't be able to live in such a big house."
Porter glanced at Avril and smiled. "Forget it. How can an old man like me disturb the two of you when you two are intimate?"
Avril blushed and said that she needed to help prepare dinner. She left Xia Fei and Porter alone.
"The highway that connects the entire New Terra has been completed. This six-million-kilometer-long highway can connect to any place on the planet, but the construction of the branch roads will take some time," Uncle Porter said in a deep voice.
Xia Fei nodded. "Roads are the cornerstone of a modern planet. Now that we have roads, the next step will be to speed up the construction of the complex cities. Building forty cities that can accommodate a hundred million people is no easy task."
Porter rubbed his temples. As the chief commander in charge of the infrastructure, he had been very busy recently.
"Don't worry. In six months at most, the infrastructure of New Terra will be completed. When that time comes, you'll be able to see a modern, brand-new planet."
Xia Fei laughed. "When the infrastructure is completed, you should spend some time with Sister Windchime. I heard that you've been living and eating at the construction site and haven't been home much."
Porter sighed. "Work is work. Let's talk about it after the infrastructure is completed. I heard that you sent Yawei to suppress bandits?"
Xia Fei nodded. "The Terminus Star Region is full of pirates, and public security is in chaos. The three fleets have just been formed, so sending them to suppress bandits will not only ensure the peace of the star region but also train the troops. It's killing two birds with one stone.
"As for the safety of the capital planet and the smooth sailing of the sea route, two fleets are enough. We'll change the defense every two months, so the three fleets should pass the combat test as soon as possible. After all, there are too many new recruits."
Yawei was the warlord disciple of Qin Mangs. After the war, the people of Black Abyss were all recruited by the military. As for the territories of these local tyrants, they were all taken over by the Alliance. Many of the warlords had even been taken over by Tai's iron fist. For Yawei to join Xia Fei and become the new fleet commander was already a good ending.
Qin Mangs and Thuram knew that Xia Fei was short on manpower, so they did him a favor by sending the three brothers Ling Feng, Ling Yun, and Ling Xiao over. Now, the three brothers were each in command of a fleet, and Yawei was the overall commander of the three fleets. There was a balance between them, so Xia Fei's doubts about putting Yawei in an important position was dispelled.
Porter nodded. "That makes sense. Xia Fei, I've studied the blueprints you gave me."
"How is it?" Xia Fei asked in surprise.
"Impossible. Forget us, even the four major warship companies or the military won't be able to build such a large shipyard. Just what is this super shipyard used for?"
Xia Fei helplessly shrugged. "Nothing. Just a sudden thought."
Xia Fei was actually not happy about not being able to build a Titan-class warship. More importantly, the Blood Demon Claw had yet to bear fruit, and there was also the little robot Lil Pea, who had not gotten up since the last time he suddenly collapsed.
Seeing that the appointment with Yujiang and Yuhua was slowly approaching, yet his seventh brain region was still unable to be repaired, and the obedient Lil Pea was still in a deep slumber, Xia Fei could not help but feel vexed.
That was when the microcomputer on his wrist rang. It was an unfamiliar number.
Porter patted Xia Fei on the shoulder. "Answer the call. Ill go and see if Avrils culinary skills have improved."
Xia Fei nodded. He turned on the screen, and what appeared was a face that he was not familiar with.
"Constantine?"
"You didn't expect this, did you? Youre already the lord of Terminus, and you never said you wanted to come over even though we live so close."
Xia Fei chuckled. "That's true. It's been two years since we last met in the Golden Finger Cup. Who would have thought that the two of us would become neighbors? How have you been?"
"How good can life be in the Cursed Land?" Constantine shrugged.
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