Chapter 1 The Conversation with Captain Borken

The conversation with Captain Borken went smoothly and was quite pleasant—at least on the surface.

After the talkative captain left, Hao Ren and Vivian began to sort out the information they had just gathered.

"That old captain is unusual," Vivian said. Although she had been poor for ten thousand years, she had still accumulated some experience in dealing with people. She could see many problems subconsciously revealed by Borken at a glance. "He performed well, talkative, enthusiastic, and sincere, but it was precisely because he was too talkative, too enthusiastic, and too sincere that he seemed unnatural, at least beyond what he described himself to be."

"An ordinary civilian ship captain, doing passenger transport business over the 'World Rift' all year round," Hao Ren recalled the old captain's introduction of himself. "Unless this world has spaceships with our distinctive style coming to visit every now and then, a 'normal captain' like him wouldn't be so calm after boarding a starship. He kept all his curiosity to a minimum, seeming enthusiastic and sincere, but many of the things he said were vague, and his enthusiasm and sincerity themselves were a big problem—he didn't need to be so friendly with strangers he met for the first time, even if we had just saved his life. Grateful enthusiasm and ingratiating enthusiasm are different."

Lili shook her head beside him: "But that's not important."

Hao Ren smiled: "That's true, it's not important."

His group was just passing through, staying in Lahrandheim for a short time to investigate some things. Whatever grievances or conspiracies the people here had were nothing to do with them, and even if Captain Borken was hiding something, it was only for self-preservation or similar purposes, and it shouldn't affect their actions themselves.

"But from him, we can learn some basic information about this world," Lili said. "He wouldn't consciously hide anything in this regard."

Hao Ren listed the information he had gathered one by one: "The Lahrandheim people call the place where this planet is divided into two the 'World Rift.' The ocean, land, and even the entire planet are torn in half from here. Above the World Rift, there are several stable elemental vortices that can provide energy for magical devices, so the locals built flying 'airships' to follow the elemental vortices across the World Rift, connecting the two hemispheres. The eastern and western hemispheres of the planet each have relatively powerful kingdoms. The eastern hemisphere has dozens of kingdoms of all sizes, led by a kingdom called the 'Ancient Kingdom of Ys', which has formed an international organization called the 'White City Federation.' As for the origin of the name White City, it is not yet clear. The western hemisphere has a unified and powerful empire called the Dragon Empire. On the half of the planet occupied by this empire, there are no other significant kingdoms, only a bunch of loose city-states or even tribal autonomous territories living around the Dragon Empire as vassals..."

The data terminal projected a holographic image of the planet Lahrandheim. This image was taken by a probe in outer space, and the terms Ancient Kingdom of Ys, White City Federation, Dragon Empire, World Rift, and so on appeared on the image. Of course, this map was not complete, after all, the information gathered from Borken was quite limited.

"The White City Federation and the Dragon Empire maintain a balance, but not the kind of balance of friendly neighbors. It is purely because transportation between the two halves of the planet is difficult, and the limited elemental vortices simply cannot send enough troops to the opposite side of the planet. Therefore, there are frequent frictions between the two sides, but they have never really fought," Hao Ren said, pointing to several place names on the holographic map. "It is not yet known how the strength of the two sides compares, but this great empire is clearly stronger than any single kingdom on the other side of the planet... But according to Borken, the Ancient Kingdom of Ys in the White City Federation is a tough one. As the head of the Federation, it has been sitting firmly on the boss's seat for hundreds of years."

"The White Pearl was a 'flight' from the Ancient Kingdom of Ys to this Dragon Empire, which was attacked by pirates after passing through the Glittering Cloud Sea," Lili added. "According to the old captain, these pirates are quite common, because the concentration of high-altitude elemental power in Lahrandheim is very high, and there are all kinds of natural phenomena that hinder observation. The pirates hide in the turbulent cloud sea and often come out to attack isolated civilian ships..."

Hao Ren digested this information in his mind and looked at Lilya sitting beside him: "Obviously, this planet has a completely new worldline after being torn apart and reshaped, and the 'history' of the previous world's destruction has completely disappeared. The new history is completely based on the 'natural phenomenon' of the planet being divided into two halves. The captain doesn't know anything about the past doomsday—and there are no similar legends passed down."

"That is to say, the history of this planet has been completely reshaped," Lilya sighed softly. "At least it has been completely reshaped in human society. In addition, Lahrandheim has also experienced a devastating 'rebirth' in its physical structure. I am afraid it will be difficult for us to find clues on this planet from before the Dark Domain era."

Vivian rubbed her forehead: "Man proposes, God disposes. There can't be no clues left. Now I am very interested in that Dragon Empire. Borken said that the rulers of that country have the blood of dragons and their souls are immortal... If the soul is immortal, maybe they will know something. At least... they should know what happened when this planet's 'new worldline' was opened."

"That 'Dragon,' the pronunciation of the country is the same as dragon, and the rulers also claim to have the soul of a dragon, which is a bit interesting," Hao Ren pondered. "Then we have to find a way to meet that Emperor. It's best not to use tricks. It would be best to complete the contact if the other party actively cooperates. What do you think..."

Just as he was about to discuss with everyone how to contact the legendary "Dragon Soul Ruler", Nolan's holographic image suddenly appeared in the room: "Boss, two 'hitchhikers' want to see you."

"Hitchhikers?" Hao Ren raised his eyebrows. "Those refugees we rescued? Why would ordinary passengers want to see me?"

"They may not be ordinary passengers," Nolan said with a smile. "They are two people worth paying attention to: a young man named Charlemagne and his sister Avena. You saw them on the deck of the White Pearl. We later monitored their conversations in the room... and heard some interesting things."

After listening to Nolan's monitoring report, Hao Ren matched the two people in his mind. He remembered the gray-haired man who was as handsome as 0.93 Nangong Sanba, and the long-skirted girl who was dirty and ran out from under the deck—now he knew that the girl was in the magic engine core of the White Pearl at that time, helping the technicians on board to rescue the severely damaged power source.

Of course, the rescue was not successful. The White Pearl eventually lost all power and fell into the depths of the planetary rift a few minutes ago, burning in that high-heat space.

"It seems that the ship we rescued is really not ordinary. There are still remarkable people hidden on board. Are those pirates just a cover..." Hao Ren rubbed his chin, feeling quite interesting about this matter. "Okay, then let them in."

Charlemagne and Avena entered the room of the owner of the ship.

They had been carefully observing the internal structure of the ship along the way, and tried to roughly deduce the functional division of the ship and the role of various facilities through the direction of the walls and corridors, but the more they observed, the more surprised they became. The structure of the ship was inconsistent with any known airship, which was surprising enough, but they also discovered that the internal structure they saw along the way always had a sense of disharmony: spacious cabins would appear where there should only be one wall, and there would be longer corridors before the corridors that should have reached the end. Some places were even theoretically outside the ship: if their perception of distance and direction had not been disturbed, the ship should not have such a large space at all.

But these questions were buried in their hearts, because under the guidance of those mechanical squids like alchemical creatures, they had reached their destination.

The owner of the ship sat in front of them.

Hao Ren focused on looking at the brother and sister in front of him. The other party performed well: appropriate anxiety and fear, and uncontrollable curiosity. The younger sister hid half a step behind her brother, and her brother slightly nervously scratched the buckle on his waist.

"You want to see me?" Hao Ren withdrew his gaze and asked with a smile.

"Yes, Captain," Charlemagne coughed lightly and straightened his back. "My sister and I are very grateful for your help, but we want to know when we can return to the ground—our family will be very worried about us."

"That's not certain," Hao Ren spread his hands. "We are on a mission, and it depends on the progress of the mission. This ship may find a place to land tomorrow, but it may not land at all."

This question was obviously beyond the other party's expectations. Charlemagne's surprise this time was genuine: "Not landing?! Are you flying in the sky forever?"

Hao Ren waved his hand: "This question is not important. What I want to say is—did you really just come to ask this?"

Charlemagne frowned: "We are just worried about the itinerary. Of course, our family will thank you for this assistance, they will definitely offer..."

Hao Ren interrupted him: "Ahem, I think you misunderstood what I meant. I want to say... the eavesdropping technology we use is quite special. I am afraid that using magic runes or something like that cannot find it. Although we have no intention of invading the privacy of passengers, this is a warship, and your identities are unknown—it's meaningless to continue."

The handsome man with 0.93 Nangong Sanba's handsomeness and the quiet long-haired girl showed panic and vigilance at the same time, but they quickly controlled their emotions.

Vivian said lightly from the side: "So now we can talk openly and honestly?"