Chapter 1 Here

Here was the vast expanse of space. A blue-green planet floated alone in the endless darkness. Suddenly, a light blue spaceship appeared in orbit around the planet, breaking the silence.

The spaceship emerged from a spatial bubble, its warp drive's safety components smoothing out the spatial turbulence caused by faster-than-light travel. The spaceship's heat dissipation grids radiated a searing white light, indicating that it needed to cool down for a while before it could set sail again. Hao Ren and the others had already slept in their respective rooms, and the spaceship's arrival announcement woke them up.

"Is this the destination?" Hao Ren rubbed his sleepy eyes as he came out of his room. He saw the data terminal floating in the middle of the living room, displaying a holographic image of a blue-green Earth-like planet. "...Such a developed ecosystem?!"

"Highly Earth-like, with complex life forms. The carbon-based ecosystem has evolved to the stage of flourishing mammals, but no intelligent species groups have yet emerged. The temperature, atmospheric structure, and gravity are all suitable for short-term human survival, but the atmospheric oxygen content is higher than Earth's and contains trace amounts of toxins. Long-term survival will cause various physiological diseases for Earthlings," the data terminal reported, relaying the planet's brief from the spaceship's mainframe. "Of course, it's not a big problem for the three of you. Your physiques can ignore this effect."

Hao Ren stepped forward and put away the data terminal, at the same time hearing a crew member's voice from the direction of the hatch: "Inspector, we have arrived."

Hao Ren went over and opened the door, discovering that it was the same dark and thin young man who had led the way before. He still had that slightly reserved smile: "Originally, the captain should have personally escorted you to the surface, but he's currently copying traffic laws in the brig, so I'll take you to the planet's surface."

Hao Ren: "..."

Such a huge spaceship naturally couldn't land directly on the planet's surface. Even if it could, it would consume too much energy to take off again. So, Hao Ren and the others had to transfer to a small landing craft. This landing craft looked like a triangular plate and only needed one person to pilot. It was well-suited for transporting a small number of passengers or small amounts of cargo between the planet and the orbiting mothership. Hao Ren and the others checked their carry-on luggage and boarded the "small plane" with the young crew member. The instant they left the mothership's hangar in the small landing craft, Hao Ren finally experienced weightlessness as he had wished: small spacecraft didn't have artificial gravity devices. As long as they left the comfortable environment created by the mothership, the occupants would experience the true feeling of being in space.

"Our technology is still primitive, and we can't install artificial gravity generators on this kind of small boat," the young man responsible for sending Hao Ren and the others to the surface said with a smile. "It's said that downgraded military aircraft and small transport aircraft retired from the Imperial Auxiliary Army have ultra-small gravity generators. Our captain is trying to buy a few of them back, but it's not easy."

"What do you want that thing for?" The data terminal floated around in the landing craft's cramped passenger cabin, asking casually. "After those things have their weapons removed, they're just ordinary shuttles. They can only seat a few people and don't even have a cargo hold. Other than being faster, at most their shields are more robust than yours. They're also extremely expensive. Small gravity generators are useless except for showing off. Their cost performance is close to zero."

"Oh, it's just for showing off," the young man shrugged. "Our captain believes in buying things first regardless of whether they're useful or not. Look at this ship, it doesn't even have a passenger transport license, but he still prepared twenty sightseeing shuttles."

Hao Ren had a strange expression. "...That uncle is quite interesting."

The shuttle flew for a while in the weightless environment and began to enter the planet's dense atmosphere. After a heart-stopping deceleration, it finally landed smoothly at the location indicated by the data terminal: a rocky highland next to a coastline.

"Speaking of which, you guys are leaving, right?" Hao Ren, carrying a small suitcase, set foot on the alien planet's surface for the first time in his life. Before he could take a few breaths of fresh air, he thought of something. "How do I get back?"

"I don't know about that," the young crew member said, standing on the shuttle's gangway. "The orders we received were to send you here. The return trip should be arranged separately by the Empire." As he said that, he shrugged: "We're just a private company. The inspector's actions are confidential to people like us."

After saying those words, he turned around and climbed back into the shuttle. Then, the spacecraft silently took off in front of Hao Ren, turning into a stream of light and quickly disappearing into the sky.

"I have a bad feeling..." Hao Ren felt cold sweat slowly seeping out of his neck. "Are you saying that female psychopath might not have arranged a return trip for us at all... That psychopath might have forgotten?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a loud "crack," and a bolt of lightning from a clear sky almost scared Hao Ren out of his wits: "Damn it, this divine punishment is ubiquitous and never late!"

"Tch—" The data terminal saw that the lightning only scared Hao Ren and didn't actually strike him. Its tone seemed a bit disappointed. "Just send a message to Officer Raven after completing the mission, and she'll arrange the next itinerary."

Hao Ren said "oh" and then felt relieved. He also had the leisure to observe the surrounding environment.

The three of them were currently in a place by the sea. To Hao Ren's right was the vast ocean, with rolling white waves rising and falling endlessly, accompanied by the sound of crashing waves beating against the primitive coastline. The horizon was the setting sun, gradually sinking. The star here was smaller than the sun seen on Earth, but its brightness seemed more intense, bringing a sunset scene that was very different from Earth but had its own unique flavor. To Hao Ren's left was a gravel beach about one kilometer wide, the ground covered with coarse brown stones. Among the stones, he could see dried, fibrous substances that looked like plant debris.

At the end of the gravel beach was a lush primeval forest, and he could faintly hear the roars of wild beasts coming from the depths of the primeval forest.

Nangong Wuyue widened her eyes, curiously looking at everything in front of her. The cool sea breeze blowing on her face seemed to make her feel very comfortable. The mermaid girl narrowed her eyes and enjoyed it for a while before saying, "I really can't tell that this is an alien planet... I thought it would be like what I saw in the movies, a barren land with a bunch of craters."

"That kind of planet is the majority, but to be honest, it's not interesting at all," the data terminal opened a holographic projection, displaying a three-dimensional scanning map that was constantly expanding its range. "The universe is so vast, and the number of universes is so numerous, that you can find almost any kind of strange sight you can imagine or can't imagine. When I was still on the production line, I dreamed of becoming a starship mainframe, and then follow glorious imperial generals to fight on the battlefield, cracking open people's skulls on all kinds of wonderful planets—damn it, I didn't know I was a PDA until the serial number was issued... Alas, let's not recall sad past events. You guys should prepare a campsite first."

Hao Ren was busy admiring the alien primitive scenery and waiting for the data terminal to tell him the tenants' coordinates. He was stunned when he heard this: "Campsite? Aren't we going to look for people first?"

"Nonsense, don't you see that the sun is almost gone!" The data terminal turned off the holographic projection and slipped into Hao Ren's pocket with a whoosh. "The cargo container we're looking for seems to have a problem. It's no longer sending out positioning signals. I have to slowly expand the scanning range. The fastest I can do it is to know its approximate location early tomorrow morning. Before that, you guys better find a place to spend the night—I can remind you that this kind of primitive planet might have some dangers. It might not be a big threat to you, but being chased by primitive creatures for a night is definitely not fun."

The data terminal irresponsibly threw down the burden, leaving Hao Ren and the two "assistants" looking at each other in dismay: "Who knows how to build a campsite... Wait, we didn't even bring a tent!"

"I'll just soak in the sea," Nangong Wuyue waved her hand, not caring at all, but she turned back after taking only two steps. "Forget it, I don't know if the fish on this planet are more powerful than the ones on Earth. As a mermaid, it would be really embarrassing if I was eaten by alien fish."

Izhaks looked at the surrounding terrain: "Actually, it's not difficult. You guys step back a bit. I'll smash a pit, and then arrange a circle of demonic flames around the pit. Ordinary animals definitely won't dare to approach..."

Hao Ren quickly dissuaded him: "No, no, just use your flame to make a bonfire. There's really no need to use a meteor to smash such a beautiful natural landscape into a hole just to block the sea breeze..."