Standing on the upper platform of the garage, Hao Ren watched as the refugees he had just rescued lined up and walked through the inspection gate.
Nolan had just produced and installed the detection gate two minutes ago. A temporary partition wall had also been set up in the garage to ensure that everyone had to pass through the gate before they could enter the accommodation area. Nominally, the gate was used for "security" to prevent passengers carrying dangerous goods, such as cultists with twenty red tubes tied to their bodies. But in fact, the gate's real function was to scan for life.
Hao Ren turned his head and looked at the holographic projection beside him. Below the holographic projection was a jumping progress bar, and every time a passenger passed through the gate, the progress bar would move forward a little.
It was collecting the life data of the L 'Haronneans. For an inspector, when visiting a new planet with intelligent life, collecting the life data of the natives was the first step of the routine.
Hao Ren could not help but sigh. "After so many years of work … it's not easy to do a normal job …"
"Eighty percent are humans, and there are a few hybrids, like elves." The MDT floated beside his head as it read the report. "There are only a few hundred of them saved. That's too little to analyze the population of the entire planet."
Hao Ren waved his hand nonchalantly. "It doesn't matter. It's just the beginning. But this' real L 'Haronne' is quite different from the Dream of L 'Haronne that we entered. In that dream, there were a bunch of strange intelligent creatures crammed on a planet, but here, we have only seen humans and a few subspecies that are extremely close to humans. Looks like the experience accumulated in the Dream of L' Haronne is useless here. "
Rheia rolled her eyes. "Is it my fault that I'm dreaming?"
"Speaking of which, how did we save a few hundred refugees all of a sudden?" Lily scratched her head as her ears swayed on top of her head. "Mr. Landlord, isn't this a little beyond the plan?"
Hao Ren shrugged. "You'll get used to it. The life of an inspector is full of randomness, and the only way is to learn to adapt. By the way, put away your ears and tail first. This real L 'Haronnean doesn't seem to have any werewolves … "
"Yes." Lily grumbled in dissatisfaction, but it still obediently put away its furry ears and big tail.
The Petrachelys was not a specialized immigration ship. It was not even a passenger ship. The residential area on the ship was prepared for a small group of no more than a few dozen people. There were no extra rooms or entertainment facilities. Now that there were hundreds of refugees on board, it was obviously unrealistic to arrange a private room for each of them.
Furthermore, Hao Ren could not possibly let these people run around on his spaceship.
But since they were refugees, they naturally didn't care about the living environment and quality of life. In fact, for them who had just escaped from the pirates' cannons and almost lost their lives in the World Scar, it was already a great blessing to be able to take a breather in a stable cabin.
The garage of the Petrachelys was huge, and there were many empty cabins built using space expansion technology beside the garage. Plus, the ship had been used to transport passengers for a few short trips, and the factory mainframe of the Petrachelys had a variety of rapid relocation facilities blueprints. Nolan had urgently produced a batch of simple partitions and daily necessities, and with the high efficiency of the autonomous robots, by the time the refugees boarded the ship, there was already enough simple housing.
When they passed through the gate and walked along the long winding corridor to the end, they saw these simple but tidy "dormitories." Everyone was surprised by the new and peculiar style of the facilities. But no one would have guessed that these things were only produced a few minutes ago, and that they were standing in the warehouse under the silver-white giant ship.
After observing the boarding process through a one-way transparent polymer window for a while, Vivian was a little bored and twirled a strand of hair on her chest with her finger. At the same time, she tilted her head slightly and said, "Since the people have boarded the ship, should we ask them about the situation?"
"Captain Borken is in the first zone." Hao Ren nodded. "At first, I thought that the old captain would choose to live and die with his ship when it was about to sink. Isn't that what the books say? I was ready to knock him out and bring him up, but why didn't he play by the book?"
Lily could not help but roll her eyes at him. "Who told you that every captain has to sink when the ship sinks? That's the only way to play according to the rules? Look at the old captain with a white beard and a smoking pipe in his mouth. He looks like the kind of man who would shout 'this is a trap' and abandon the ship to escape even if his ship is shot twice with a pistol! "
Hao Ren gave the husky a chop on the head. "Don't play games. Do you think everyone can understand that?"
Charlemagne cautiously walked into the room that was assigned to him. Although he had left the crumbling airship and was now standing in a sturdy and stable silver-white giant ship, he did not let his guard down. Rather, he had become more vigilant because he had entered a completely unfamiliar and suspicious new place.
His cautiousness was not entirely due to the fact that the giant silver ship had neither magic sails nor elemental trails, and it did not look like it could fly. More importantly, even with his erudite education, he could not tell the origin of the ship at all. He could not even tell the origin of the most ordinary items on the ship.
The door of the room automatically closed after Charlemagne entered. Charlemagne turned around to check how the door should be opened and to make sure that it was not locked before he began to observe the situation in the room. He noticed that the entire room was cast with a silver-white metal, and the entire structure was seamless, almost like the result of a one-time cast. The texture of the metal itself was unusual, and its luster and hardness were very similar to mithril. However, no one in this world would be extravagant enough to use mithril to build a house, so it should be a special material that was slightly cheaper but still had excellent properties.
But such excellent technology and excellent materials were used to make such a simple thing.
With Charlemagne's vision, he could easily tell that the room was a product of a rush job. It was a square house with no decorative walls. Apart from the windows and the door, it was just a square box made of six metal plates. The furnishings in the room were also extremely simple. Apart from sleeping in the room, there was nothing else that could be done.
If this room was the result of serious consideration by the designer, it could only be said that the designer had a disastrous sense of aesthetics and design philosophy.
The sudden appearance of a silver-white ship of unknown origin, the strange and unknown flight method, the incomprehensible interior style, and the strange furnishings were beyond the prince's knowledge and imagination. Now he had to start to worry about a new problem. After escaping from the desperate situation of falling into the World Scar with the White Pearl, he had fallen into a new unknown situation. It would be fine if the ship happened to pass by and acted bravely for a just cause. But if it was the next link of the pirate ships, the situation would be very bad.
To make matters worse, Charlemagne was still not sure who was behind the conspiracy and what it was for.
At this moment, a soft knocking sound came from outside the door.
Charlemagne guessed the identity of the outsider from the rhythm of the knock. When he opened the door, he saw Awenna standing in front of him.
She had changed into a clean dress and washed her face. She had become the graceful Princess of Izzo again.
"Awenna, how are you?" Charlemagne brought his sister into the house and was about to ask about her condition, but Awenna held up a finger to signal him to be quiet. Then, Awenna summoned a light blue rune and scanned every corner of the room.
Charlemagne frowned. "Is there a tap?"
"No, just in case." Awenna dispelled the runes and exhaled softly. Although her face was as docile as water, the princess's vigilance and meticulousness were no less than her brother's. "The situation on this ship is very strange. I dare not let my guard down."
"It is indeed strange. I have never seen an airship that can fly without magic sails and elemental power, and everything here is different from any known kingdom." Charlemagne nodded. "What did you find?"
"Incredible," Awenna said faintly, but her eyes were shining. "I can feel a very powerful surge of energy in this ship, and there is an extremely complex control system in every corner of the ship. Even under every inch of the floor, there is a faint flow of information. It is like a living steel behemoth, with blood vessels and nerves all over its body. It is not a simple, dead thing propelled by a few engines and magic cores."
Charlemagne's eyes widened as he listened to his sister's description. He did not think that she was exaggerating because Awenna never had the habit of exaggerating. Moreover, his sister had been gifted in magic since she was a child, and she had even reached the level of the Chosen of the Elements. She could directly 'see' the elements and energy flow that ordinary mages could only perceive in the state of deep meditation, so her judgment of the ship was probably the most accurate.
"Can you determine where this ship came from? Based on your description, it looks like a 'spiritual object' made by the ancient elven craftsmen, or those unearthed by Latoun. "
Unexpectedly, Awenna shook her head. "I can't tell."
"You can't tell?"
"The structure of this ship is beyond my understanding. I can see part of its energy and information flow, but I can feel that what I see is only the most insignificant part of its huge 'body,' like the hair of a giant. And the way it operates is something I have never seen before. Whether it is the ancient books of the elves or the knowledge system of the wizards, there is nothing similar. "
Charlemagne could not help but press his hand on the saber at his waist. "This is troublesome. I even suspect that this ship is the 'follow-up' of those pirate ships. We are not out of this crisis at all."
Awenna was very smart in magic, and she did not lack caution and vigilance. But when it came to pure conspiracy, she was obviously not as experienced as her brother. She looked puzzled. "The follow-up of the pirate ships? Didn't this white ship destroy those pirates? "
"Do you really think that three pirate ships can sink the White Pearl?" Charlemagne asked in return.
Awenna fell into a thoughtful silence.
"Those pirate ships have a rotten shell, and everything inside is military," Charlemagne said. "And they accurately seized the moment when the White Pearl passed through the sea of glittering clouds and the energy shield was weak to launch an attack. After the attack began, they have been engaged in a long-range artillery battle without the slightest intention of boarding and looting the ship. This is not the style of pirates at all. Pirates rob ships for wealth, but if they do not board and loot the ship, where will the wealth come from? By sinking the White Pearl over the World Scar, they will not get anything at all, and they will waste the precious pyrocrystal shells. "
Awenna came to her senses. "So, those are not pirates?"
"No, they are real pirates. But someone must have hired them to do something that pirates would not do, but outsiders would think that it was a pirate crime. For example, sinking a passenger ship over the World Scar. As for whether they boarded the ship and looted it before sinking, outsiders would not know." Charlemagne shook his head. "Under normal circumstances, the people who hired the pirates would not trust the desperados who worked for money, especially after they were involved in such a shocking crime. So, they would usually kill the pirates afterward."
At this point, Awenna, with her intelligence, could, of course, figure out what would happen next. "So, this ship we are on now …"
"I'm not sure yet," Charlemagne said with a helpless look on his face. "If it were a normal warship, even if it were a warship from Izzo or the Dragon Empire, I would be able to identify it. But it is such a strange ship. I'm not even sure if it is from any known human kingdom. Such a ship that appeared out of thin air and can't even be identified by you and me is' transparent '. Even if it directly sank the White Pearl, there's no need to worry about being tracked down. In this way, it and the forces behind it don't need to rely on the pirates at all … "
"I think we should talk to the owner of this ship," Awenna said.
"I think so too, but the key is who we should talk to, what we should talk about, and whether they are willing to talk." Charlemagne frowned. "If they really have something to do with the pirate ships, then our identities must have been exposed, and we are prisoners on this ship. If they are really just passing by, then we have to consider pretending to be ordinary passengers, but ordinary passengers have limited say."
Awenna blinked and smiled faintly. "But it's better than nothing, isn't it?"
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