At the sa ti, on the distant border of the Feiyu Star Domain, inside the Black Stone Space Station, Luo was busy sorting out her "possessions".
The repair progress of the Black Stone Space Station is surprisingly fast, and the core system's condition is actually better than imagined. Although its Rift Laboratory was nearly completely destroyed by the World Bridge earlier, as a large space station, its "control center" is not in the laboratory, but in the "inner ring" between the laboratory and the external ring, thus fortunately avoiding previous damage. Now, it only needs to co back online for the space station's basic functions to recover more than seventy percent.
A large amount of valuable research materials and log data have also been repaired, even giving Luo a chance to reevaluate that disastrous accident.
For this great scientist, the cleanup of the "World Bridge" incident has just begun, and the impact of this on her entire professional career will likely continue for a long ti.
Her mood is complex at the mont.
Being able to return to this familiar place is certainly a cause for happiness. After all, most areas of the space station have not undergone significant changes, and with the help of that "Mo Ran" City Lord, Black Stone Station has essentially restored the long-term living conditions for residing there. However, conversely, the fact that the boss's face might pop out from the walls and ceilings at any mont is rather frightening...
Busy in the central database, Luo turned her head and looked sowhat helplessly at the distant alloy wall.
This place is a giant cabin like a "vertical shaft"; at the center of the vertical cylindrical cabin is a ring-shaped platform, which was built around a pillar-like silver-white "hub host", and the outer edge is connected to the cabin's entrance and exit by two suspension bridges. Now Luo is standing on the inner side of the ring platform — while on the opposite side of the ring platform within the vertical shaft wall is Yu Sheng's face encompassing dozens of square ters.
The gigantic face erges on that silver-white high wall, intimidating to behold.
"...Boss, you're going to scare like this."
"Do I look like the kind of big boss in sci-fi TV dramas," Yu Sheng was quite happy, "the kind that adds trouble to the protagonist team every season but never gets killed because they're so popular..."
"Are you really that idle right now?" Luo looked helpless, "If you're really idle, how about helping fix the pipelines under the suspension bridge — this place has the sll everywhere from the atmospheric circulation system leaking."
"Oh, that's easily said..."
A slight sound of tal squirming and healing ca from the deep well below the suspension bridge, and several warning signs on the data terminal thus reduced.
Luo seriously thought about whether this place is scarier when there's the Dark Angel or when there's Yu Sheng — the conclusion is she shouldn't have sent people to ddle in the gang conflicts on Zorada Star back then.
If she hadn't ddled in that ss, she wouldn't have gotten involved with Zolda Black Stone; avoiding Black Stone would have prevented the subsequent World Bridge event. Without the World Bridge event, there wouldn't be an Angel's Descent; without an Angel's Descent, her space station wouldn't have been targeted by the Angel Hunter — then she could still stay at her happy ho, studying Black Spirit Ability on odd days, Subspace on even days, using her research scraps to scam money on the black market during holidays, and casually checking if Baili Qing's bounty on her had gained another zero...
Now it's all totally finished.
"Why do I feel your gaze suddenly turned resentful again," Yu Sheng suddenly spoke again, his voice erging from that steel face, carrying tal tremors and echoes, "Like the expression on Hu Li's face when she opened the kitchen cabinet and discovered I put away all the soy sauce bottles."
"It would be better if you didn't use that face to scare people here, but ca over to communicate with directly."
"That won't do, I'm shopping with Hu Li right now..."
Luo sighed and no longer paid attention to her less-than-serious new boss, turning her focus back to the work at hand.
In front of her, the silver-white "hub host" running through the entire cylindrical cabin emitted a low, pleasant hum, the lights flashing on its surface regularly and steadily. It seems that its condition has fully recovered after the re-supply of energy.
Luo connected a data terminal to the port of this silver-white pillar, while several cables directly connected from the other ports of the pillar to the chanical limbs on her back — using the highly modified implant part of herself to direct-connect to the database, here every large storage server seems to have beco her external brain, with a vast sea of data readily available.
This is an operation that only she can complete, Alvin and the Star Scholars he led combined wouldn't achieve this level of efficiency.
The massive data stread through her auxiliary brain, the heat from the neural junction and occasional discharges causing sporadic stinging and itching, while temporary auditory and visual hallucinations have long beco habitual.
In the disorientation generated by being directly connected to the database, sotis Luo even montarily blurs the boundaries between self and machine, forgetting whether she is a modified Elf, or rely a pile of chips and living tal mounted on a fragile flesh.
Humans (Elves) are indeed adaptable creatures, she still rembers when her spine was first severed by the Black Dot Group and the first piece of living tal implanted, she even thought about dying. Back then, the discomfort caused by the neural junction and "personality disorder" nearly turned her into a ntally deranged lunatic, but at so unknown ti, she adapted to all these machines and even used them to "prove her worth."
There was a ti when she truly considered this "self-proof" to be a badge of honor...
Luo shook her head, and just then, a data stream flowing through her auxiliary brain suddenly caught her attention.
Yu Sheng saw the golden-haired Elf standing on the platform suddenly furrow her brows, and then her expression began to turn grave. Following that, lights rapidly flickered between the chanical limbs behind her—a mont later, the entire data center began to resonate with a low hum.
Vast amounts of data were being mobilized, and Luo began traversing the entire database, seemingly searching for sothing.
"What's going on? Have you found traces of 'transgression' during the Black Stone Station period?"
"No," Luo shook her head with furrowed eyebrows, her tone a bit unsure, "It's just that I found sothing odd in the logistics system and communication logs..."
"Odd?" Yu Sheng's image quickly disappeared from the tallic wall above the server array, reappearing on the silver-white pillar in front of Luo, "Specifically?"
"Boss, you're going to scare to death!" Luo almost jumped in place, glaring at Yu Sheng before pouting, "It's a few strange cross-border logistics orders... Starting from a few years ago, every year there's a batch of goods marked as 'high-energy minerals' passing through my logistics channel, origin unknown, sent to the Dark teor Domain, but the recipient is untraceable, and the guarantee serial number seems to be issued internally by the company, but... I have no recollection of these orders."
Yu Sheng listened in confusion; he completely didn't understand the rules of interstellar logistics, nor did he know how the complex logistics network and approval process within the Black Dot Group operated. But from Luo's expression, he could tell that there seed to be sothing fishy about this matter: "Does this happen often?"
"It's not supposed to happen—there are always people finding loopholes, but whoever's been doing this consistently for years without noticing is definitely odd."
Luo said while swiping on her data terminal, pulling up a series of docunts and logs to show Yu Sheng—though she felt her new boss likely couldn't understand these things, she had to present a serious work attitude.
"I don't know how these orders bypassed ... Additionally, there are these communication records, mostly around the tis these 'orders' occurred. Several internal addresses of the group frequently communicate with an anonymous external network, seemingly asking about order progress, but all senders and receivers are anonymous."
"...Interesting," Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, "Looking at this, is there a problem with your control over your domain?"
Luo remained silent for a mont, pressing her lips together with a serious expression.
After a while, she sighed and shook her head.
"In the past few years, I've been severely influenced by the 'Zolda Black Stone,' obsessing over its secrets like a demon possessed, focusing eighty percent of my energy on that thing—didn't feel much at the ti, but looking back, even if sothing wrong happened right in front of , I probably wouldn't notice, let alone these 'minor' issues occurring within the logistics network and communication systems."
Yu Sheng didn't speak, simply looking into Luo's eyes. After a while, he finally spoke: "But now you don't think it's a minor issue."
"There's a rat, stealing my things—possibly a traitor or a competitor from another departnt," Luo said slowly. The always lethargic Elf spoke with a vigilant coldness, as if she had changed into a different person, "These records may not seem like big problems, but my Spiritual Intuition is warning ."
She pressed her lips, paused briefly, then suddenly raised her head: "Boss, I'm planning to imdiately head back to my 'Hiding Place' to see if I can find sothing."
"Alright, approved."
Yu Sheng said casually, and imdiately Luo saw the air near the hub host suddenly distort. A phantom door appeared out of thin air before her, opening to reveal a familiar starry sky—a barren rocky planet, a small star port, and several satellites floating in the planet's orbit.
This space station is now Yu Sheng's body, and it's quite reasonable for him to open a door in himself.
"Okay, you go ahead." Yu Sheng said.
Luo was still staring at the door in a daze. She clearly hadn't yet adapted to her new boss's pace and the travel agency's working style. Her originally planned return trip didn't include this step. After holding back for a long ti, she finally spoke: "Well, well, not exactly imdiately... I should at least pack my bags and prepare a shuttle."
"Oh," Yu Sheng closed the door again, "Then go get ready, let know when you're done. By the way, before you head out, make a trip to Mo City in Shuji to get so protective gear from Mo Ran."
Luo instinctively responded, "No need, I have my own..."
"She has my blood grenades over there; you can plaster them on the faces of people you find unpleasant when you return."
Luo's spirit imdiately perked up: "Sure thing, boss!"
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