Chapter 1 Standing on the Upper Platform of the Hangar

Standing on the upper platform of the hangar, Hao Ren watched the refugees he had just rescued form a long line and walk through the inspection gate one by one.

The inspection gate was produced and installed by Nolan just two minutes ago. Temporary partitions were also erected in the hangar to ensure that everyone had to pass through this gate after boarding the ship before entering the resettlement area. In name, the function of this gate was for "security check" to prevent passengers carrying dangerous goods from mixing into the crowd—such as cultists with twenty large red tubes strapped to their bodies. But in reality, the real function of this gate was a life-form scanner.

Hao Ren turned his head and looked at the holographic projection beside him, which showed a humanoid phantom. Below the phantom was a jumping progress bar. Every time a passenger passed through the gate, the progress bar would move forward a small notch.

This was to collect the life data of the Lahrien people. For the inspector, when visiting a new planet with intelligent life, collecting the life parameter data of the local aborigines was the first step in routine business.

Hao Ren couldn't help but sigh, "After working for so many years...it's not easy to do a normal business..."

"Eighty percent are humans, and a few are mixed-blood species, similar to elves," the data terminal floated next to his head, looking at the report and said, "Only a few hundred people were rescued in total. It still seems that there are too few samples to analyze the races of the entire planet."

Hao Ren waved his hand indifferently: "It doesn't matter, it's just the beginning. But this 'real Lahrien' is quite different from the Lahrien Dream we entered at the beginning. In the world of that dream, a large number of strange intelligent creatures were crowded on one planet. So far, what we have seen here are only humans and a few subspecies that are extremely close to humans... It seems that the experience accumulated in the Lahrien Dream cannot be used here."

Liliya rolled her eyes: "I'm sorry for the wild imagination of my dream?"

"By the way, how did you suddenly rescue hundreds of refugees," Lily scratched her hair, her ears swaying on top of her head, "Landlord, is this a bit beyond the plan?"

Hao Ren shrugged: "Just get used to it. The life of an inspector is full of randomness. The only way is to learn to adapt. By the way, you should put away your ears and tail first. It seems that there are no werewolves in this real Lahrien..."

"Tch." Lily grumbled dissatisfied, but still obediently put away her furry beast ears and big tail.

The Petrified Turtle Rock Terrace was not a dedicated immigration ship, not even a passenger ship—the residential area on this ship was prepared for a small team of no more than dozens of people. There were no extra rooms or entertainment facilities. Now that hundreds of refugees have come up at once, it is obviously unrealistic to arrange suites for each of them.

What's more, Hao Ren couldn't let these people run around on his ship.

But since these people were already refugees, they naturally wouldn't care about living environment and quality of life. In fact, for them, who had just escaped from the pirates' guns and almost died in the World Rift, it was already a great fortune to be able to breathe a sigh of relief in a stable cabin.

The hangar of the Petrified Turtle Rock Terrace was very large, and there were many empty cabins added next to the warehouse using space expansion technology. In addition, the ship had been used to transport short-distance passengers several times before, and the factory mainframe of the Petrified Turtle Rock Terrace recorded the blueprints of various rapid resettlement facilities. Nolan urgently produced a batch of simple partitions and living supplies, and with the ultra-high efficiency of the autonomous machines, enough simple housing had been built inside while the refugees were boarding the ship.

After passing through the gate and walking along the long and winding corridor to the end, they saw these simple but clean "dormitories." Everyone was surprised by the novelty and unique style of these facilities, but probably no one would have thought that these things were all produced just a few minutes ago, and that the location where they were standing at the moment was just in the warehouse under the silver giant ship.

After observing the refugee boarding process through the one-way transparent polymer window for a while, Vivian twirled a strand of hair in front of her chest a little boredly, while tilting her head slightly: "Now that people are already on board, shouldn't we find out about the situation?"

"That Captain Boken is in the first district," Hao Ren nodded, "Speaking of which, at first I thought that a captain of that style would definitely choose to coexist with the ship when his ship was about to sink. Isn't that what they say in the books—I was ready to knock him unconscious and bring him up, but why didn't he play by the rules?"

Lily couldn't help but roll her eyes at Hao Ren: "Who told you that every captain has to sink with the ship to be considered playing by the rules?! An old captain with a white beard, a pipe, and a uniform like that looks like the kind who would shout 'It's a trap' and abandon ship to escape even if the spaceship was biu-ed twice with a pistol!"

Hao Ren chopped the husky spirit on the head with a hand knife: "Don't play game memes casually—do you think everyone can understand?"

Charlemagne cautiously walked into the room arranged for him. Although he had left the crumbling airship and was standing inside a sturdy and stable silver giant ship, he still did not relax his vigilance—on the contrary, because he had entered a completely unfamiliar and suspicious new place, his vigilance had greatly increased.

This caution was not entirely because the silver giant ship had neither magic sails nor elemental trails, and it didn't look like it could fly at all. More importantly, with the erudite education he had received, he couldn't even see the origin of this ship at the moment, and he couldn't even see the origin of even the most ordinary thing in this ship.

The room door closed automatically after someone entered. Charlemagne turned his head immediately to confirm how to open the door, and only after confirming that it was not locked did he begin to observe the situation in the room. He noticed that the room was entirely cast from a silver-white metal, and the whole thing was seamlessly joined, as if it was the result of a one-time casting. The texture of the metal itself did not look like anything ordinary, and its luster and hardness were very similar to mithril, but no one in this world would be so extravagant as to use mithril to build a house, so it should be some special material that was slightly cheaper but still had excellent performance.

But such superb technology and excellent materials were used to make such a simple thing.

With Charlemagne's vision, he could of course easily see that this room was actually a product of rushing to deal with the situation: a square room, walls without any decoration. It could be said that except for the windows and doors, it was just a square box pieced together with six metal plates. The furnishings in the room were also extremely simple, basically it was a problem to do anything other than sleep in it...

If this room was the result of the designer's serious consideration, then it could only be said that this designer had a catastrophic aesthetic and design concept.

A suddenly appearing, unknown silver-white giant ship, a strange and unknown way of flying, an incomprehensible style and oddly shaped furnishings inside the ship, everything exceeded the prince's knowledge and any situation he had assumed. Now he had to start worrying about some new problems: he had escaped the desperate situation of falling into the World Rift with the White Pearl, but he had fallen into a new unknown situation. If this big ship was really just passing by and doing a good deed, that would be fine, but if it was the "next link" in those pirate ships, the situation would be very bad.

And what was even worse was that Charlemagne was still not sure who was driving this conspiracy and why.

At this moment, there was a gentle knock on the door.

Charlemagne judged the identity of the person outside the door from the rhythm of the knock. After opening the door, he saw Awenna standing in front of him as expected.

She had changed into a clean dress and washed her face, and had returned to being the generous Isu princess.

"Awenna, you're okay..." After taking his sister into the room, Charlemagne was about to ask her about the situation, but she put a finger up to signal him to be quiet. Then he saw Awenna summon a light blue rune at random and sweep it across every corner of the room.

Charlemagne frowned: "Wiretapping?"

"No, just in case," Awenna dispelled the rune and breathed a sigh of relief. Although her face was always gentle as water, the princess's vigilance and careful thinking were no less than her brother's. "The situation on this ship is very strange. I dare not rest assured."

"It's really strange. I've never seen an airship that can fly without magic sails and elemental power, and everything in it is different from the style of any known kingdom," Charlemagne nodded. "What did you find?"

"Incredible," Awenna said lightly, but her eyes sparkled with a hint of light. "I can feel that there is a very powerful energy surging in this ship, and there is an extremely complex control system all over every corner here, even under every inch of the floor. There is a weak flow of information... It's like a living steel behemoth, with blood vessels and nerves all over its body, not a simple dead thing pushed by a few engines and magic hubs."

Charlemagne's eyes widened at his sister's description. He did not think that she was exaggerating, because Awenna never had the habit of exaggerating, and this sister had had extraordinary magical talent since she was a child, even reaching the level of "Elemental Chosen". She could directly "see" the elements and energy flows that ordinary mages could only sense in a deep meditation state, so her judgment of this ship was probably the most accurate.

"Then can you determine where this ship comes from? From your description, it is very similar to the 'spiritual objects' made by ancient elven craftsmen, or those unearthed by Latun..."

But Awenna shook her head directly: "I can't tell."

"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 its operation mode is also something I have never been exposed to... There is nothing similar to it in either the elven classics or the wizard's knowledge system."

Charlemagne couldn't help but press the sword at his waist: "That's troublesome... I even suspect that this ship is the 'sequel' of those pirate ships. We haven't escaped this crisis at all."

Awenna was very smart in magic, and she was not lacking in caution and vigilance, but she was obviously not as experienced as her shrewd brother in simple conspiracies. She seemed very puzzled: "The sequel of the pirate ships? Didn't this white ship destroy those pirates?"

Charlemagne asked back: "Do you really think that three pirate ships can sink the White Pearl?"

Awenna fell silent thoughtfully.

"Those pirate ships are just empty shells, and everything inside is military-grade," Charlemagne said eloquently. "And they accurately seized the time when the White Pearl had just passed through the Glittering Cloud Sea and its energy shield was weak to launch an attack. After the attack began, they have been conducting long-range artillery battles, without any intention of boarding and plundering. This is not the style of pirates at all—pirates hijack ships for wealth, but if they don't board and plunder, where does the wealth come from? Sinking the White Pearl in the sky above the World Rift, they get nothing at all, and they will waste precious fuel crystal shells like gold..."

Awenna woke up: "So those are not pirates?"

"No, they are genuine pirates, but someone must have hired them to do things that pirates would not do, but outsiders can completely blame on pirates, such as sinking a passenger ship in the sky above the World Rift. As for whether they boarded and plundered before sinking, outsiders will not know," Charlemagne shook his head. "And under normal circumstances, those who hire pirates will not trust those desperadoes who sell their lives for money, especially after letting them participate in such a shocking case, so they usually silence these pirates afterwards..."

Speaking of this, with Awenna's intelligence, she would of course think of the subsequent development: "So the ship we are on now..."

"It's still not certain," Charlemagne showed a helpless expression. "If it were a normal warship, even a warship of Isu or the Dragon Empire, I could confirm the clues, but it happens to be such a strange... ship. I'm not even sure if it comes from any known human kingdom. Such a ship that appears out of thin air and whose origin even you and I can't see is itself 'transparent'. Even if it directly sinks the White Pearl head-on, there is no need to worry about being traced. In this way, it and the forces behind it don't need to use any pirates as a cover..."

"I think we should talk to the owner of this ship," Awenna said.

"That's what I think too, but the key is in what capacity, what to talk about, and whether the other party is willing to talk," Charlemagne frowned. "If they are really related to those pirate ships, then our identities must have been exposed. Then we are actually prisoners on this ship. If they are really just passing by... Then we have to consider continuing to pretend to be ordinary passengers, but ordinary passengers have limited power..."

Awenna blinked and showed a faint smile: "But talking is always better than doing nothing, isn't it?"