First Interstellar Guide Chapter 36: Rescue Plan

Chapter 36: Rescue Plan

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Lu Zexuan and Yu Ran arrived at the underground floor minus seven and found the sentinel. Mohr had removed the source of his rampaging, but only half of his damaged mental world had been repaired. The sentinel was currently in a restless sleep, frowning deeply.

Lu Zexuan swiped his card to open the door, and Yu Ran walked in, connecting the green mental tendrils to the sentinel’s forehead.

In his semi-conscious state, the sentinel felt a gentle breeze passing through his mind, soothing and warm. This breeze dispersed all the cluttered thoughts in his mental world. Simultaneously, the green tendrils seemed to bring vitality, slowly rebuilding his damaged mental landscape.

A clear voice echoed in his mind, “Your comrades surely hope you will live on until the day the truth is revealed.”

The sentinel murmured in his sleep, “The truth?”

Yu Ran asked softly, “Don’t you want to know why they suddenly rampaged?”

The sentinel hesitated for a moment, and the voice quickly disappeared. The repair of the mental world was complete, and the sentinel woke up confusedly, meeting a pair of strange eyes—

One black, one red, but not frightening; instead, they were clear, beautiful, and gentle.

This was… a guide?

Realizing what had happened, the sentinel hurriedly expressed his gratitude, “Th-thank you for saving me.”

Yu Ran replied warmly, “You’re welcome. Live well.”

The sentinel nodded. If he committed suicide, how could he face his sacrificed comrades? He must live until the day the truth was revealed, to give his comrades an explanation! With renewed courage, he began to adjust his mental world.

After dealing with this sentinel, Yu Ran went to other cells.

He whispered to Lu Zexuan, “I still can’t handle patients alone. I can only assist Mohr for now. I want to learn more from him these days. If you’re busy, you don’t have to accompany me all the time.”

Lu Zexuan replied, “It’s okay. I’m not busy.”

Yu Ran wondered, “…?”

If you keep hovering around me like a fly, how can I save people?

Forget it, forcing Lu Zexuan to leave would only arouse his suspicion. Yu Ran had no choice but to continue bringing Lu Zexuan along to check on the sentinels’ conditions on the minus seventh floor before returning to the dormitory to rest.

After taking an afternoon nap, Yu Ran wasn’t sleepy at all at night. He pretended to sleep with his eyes closed, but his mind was busy strategizing the rescue plan.

After observing the underground floor twice, Yu Ran had memorized the layout of the cells and the escape routes.

Cell 103 was the third room on the south corridor. If he took the elevator directly south, he wouldn’t be caught on camera as long as he destroyed the surveillance cameras in the southwest and southeast corners.

The A-level sentinels detained on the tenth floor would take longer to treat if they rampaged. It would be safer to subdue them with force and make them follow his orders. They could be treated after leaving the White Tower.

There were three ways to leave the White Tower: the helipad on the upper floors for spaceships or starships, the sky parking lot on the tenth floor for hovercars (with checkpoints and interception), and the ground-floor exit leading to the central square, where many sentinels patrolled.

The Marshal must have made arrangements for the rescue. The best approach was to take the sentinel to the ground floor, avoid the patrol teams, and blend into the crowd.

After 10 p.m., the number of people entering and leaving the White Tower would significantly decrease, making it the best time to act.

In the following days, Yu Ran continued to assist Mohr in treating the sentinels, and Lu Zexuan always accompanied him. However, it soon became boring for Lu Zexuan. During the treatment, Lu Zexuan could only watch as Mohr and Yu Ran extended their mental tendrils, touched the sentinels, then withdrew and moved on to the next one. The conversation between the two guides happened in the mental world without any sound. Standing there like a doorman, Lu Zexuan felt somewhat redundant. Initially, he was worried about Yu Ran, but now it seemed that Yu Ran following Mohr didn’t pose any danger.

It was May 6th, a Saturday. In the afternoon, Yu Ran continued to assist Mohr in treating the sentinels. He intentionally left one sentinel’s mental landscape only half repaired. After all, he had “limited mental energy,” so it was normal not to complete the repair at once.

Lu Zexuan brought the “exhausted” Yu Ran back to rest. After a nap, when Yu Ran woke up at exactly 10 p.m., he ate as usual and said to Lu Zexuan, “I want to go see the sentinel we didn’t finish treating this afternoon and help him repair his mental landscape.”

—This was already the fourth time.

For four days, Yu Ran had gone back to work overtime every night because he couldn’t finish his work in the afternoon. Repeated events were the easiest to get used to, which relaxed one’s vigilance. As expected, Lu Zexuan didn’t suspect anything and said, “I’ll accompany you.”

After a few seconds of silence, Yu Ran tentatively asked, “Can I go alone?”

Lu Zexuan asked, “Why?”

Yu Ran’s cheeks turned slightly red, and he whispered, “You’re always with me. In the eyes of outsiders, I seem too weak. It’s embarrassing for me to have you protect me when I go to see a patient. The sentinels might laugh at me. I don’t want to bother you all the time.”

Lu Zexuan was speechless.

Yu Ran looked at Lu Zexuan, his expression serious. “In future missions, you’re the captain. You have to command the situation as a whole. You can’t always be distracted taking care of me. Let me take care of myself and become an independent guide who can assist you, rather than being a burden, okay?”

Lu Zexuan’s heart trembled slightly. Every word Yu Ran said made sense, and he couldn’t find a reason to refute him. Being overly protective wasn’t conducive to Yu Ran’s growth. Moreover, with Mohr around and strict security within the White Tower, where all sentinels were locked up and could be controlled with electric shocks if necessary, Yu Ran wouldn’t be in danger. Even in such a secure environment like the White Tower, he still worried about Yu Ran. What would happen when they were out in the wild? He couldn’t tie Yu Ran to his belt forever, could he?

Lu Zexuan admitted remorsefully, “I’m sorry. I’ve been too eager to take care of you, neglecting your feelings.”

Yu Ran smiled. “It’s okay. I know you’re worried about me. Can I go see Mohr by myself today?”

Lu Zexuan agreed straightforwardly, “Sure, go ahead.”

Yu Ran happily left with his pass — he had no intention of taking action today. If something happened on the first day he ventured out alone from the White Tower, it would be too obvious.

This time, Yu Ran went to the negative seventh floor obediently and found Mohr to work overtime together.

Lu Zexuan messaged Mohr to inquire, “Did Yu Ran come to see you?”

Mohr replied, “Don’t worry, he’s with me. He’s been learning quickly lately. He can already handle some simple C-level sentinels independently. And he can assist me smoothly with B-level and above.”

Lu Zexuan felt relieved. “That’s good. Thanks for taking care of him during this time.”

Mohr teased, “Why didn’t the shadow follow him today?”

Lu Zexuan replied, “It’s not good to always follow him. After all, he’s 18 now and should be able to do things independently.”

Mohr chuckled, “Good to know. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were Yu Ran’s guardian.”

Lu Zexuan was speechless. Indeed, trailing behind Yu Ran all the time did make him seem like a guardian taking a child out. He should let Yu Ran grow on his own.

The next afternoon, Yu Ran repeated his previous actions, repairing half of a damaged sentinel’s mental landscape, and planned to work overtime again in the evening.

This time, Lu Zexuan didn’t ask much and let him go with confidence. He didn’t even bother to message Mohr, knowing Mohr would just annoy him, so Lu Zexuan didn’t send any messages.

At ten o’clock in the evening, Yu Ran quietly arrived at the negative tenth floor.

He first destroyed the surveillance in the elevator to the south. As he stepped out of the elevator, two specially made silent bullets in his hand shot out instantly, silently shattering the cameras at the corners of the southeast and southwest corridors — the force was just right, so although the cameras were destroyed, there was no glass shard on the ground.

The third prison cell in the southern corridor indeed had the number “103” written on the door, faintly glowing in the darkness.

Unlike the deafening roars and clinking of chains on other floors, the negative tenth floor was unusually quiet. There were no lights here, just pitch-black silence, which was eerie, as if one had stepped into the depths of hell.

Yu Ran quickly walked to cell 103, swiped open the door, and turned off the continuous electric current on the chains.

—Yes, to control these A-level frenzied sentinels, the underground tenth-floor cells had uninterrupted high-voltage currents.

The sentinels endured the torture of electric shocks every moment. After a long time, they stopped struggling and making noise, each one in a state of semi-consciousness.

In the darkness, Yu Ran couldn’t see what or who was inside, but the sentinel, sensitive to his presence, immediately noticed him when the electricity stopped. The frenzied sentinel seemed to regain its urge to attack, and without hesitation, lunged at Yu Ran!

With immense force, the sentinel’s fist, accompanied by a fierce gust of wind, headed straight for Yu Ran’s face!

However, the next moment, numerous red mental tendrils suddenly stretched out, swiftly wrapping around the sentinel in front of him like silken threads.

The sentinel seemed frozen, unable to move at all. In the swamp of his mind, dense red mental tendrils appeared suddenly, igniting terrible flames wherever they went! Flames soared into the sky, almost engulfing his mental landscape entirely!

The sentinel’s head throbbed with unbearable pain, but he couldn’t utter a word for help.

The flames burned away large patches of decayed bushes, and the impending sense of dread made the sentinel’s eyes widen slightly.

At that moment, a voice resonated clearly in the depths of his mind, “If you want to live, obey me. I will save you.”

The sentinel instinctively replied, “I-I’ll obey.”

Yu Ran calmly said, “Your spirit body, is it a chameleon lizard?”

The sentinel confirmed, “Yes.”

Yu Ran instructed, “Leave your tail behind and pretend to be dead. Come with me, don’t ask questions.”

—Chameleon lizards, this type of spirit body had a special ability: their bodies could detach voluntarily.

In nature, when chameleons encountered predators, they could leave their tails behind, pretending to be themselves, while the tail, wriggling around, attracted the attention of predators, allowing the chameleon to escape.

Sentinels with spirit bodies of chameleon lizards, even those above A-level, could do the same.

The sentinel’s body suddenly “cracked” from the waist, splitting into two. His “tail” quickly assumed his appearance, feigning death, while his “main body” detached from the chains and swiftly followed Yu Ran.

Placing his hand on the sentinel’s back, Yu Ran controlled him with mental tendrils and led him into the elevator.

Under the elevator’s light, Yu Ran finally saw the appearance of this sentinel —

The man, aged around twenty-seven or twenty-eight, had handsome and rugged features. However, it was evident that he had endured significant torment. His clothes were tattered, soaked with dried bloodstains and bruises from electric shocks. His hair was disheveled, resembling weeds, and it seemed like he hadn’t bathed in ages.

His eyes, devoid of whites, were as black as ink, akin to a demon lurking in the abyss.

The frenzied sentinel, controlled by Yu Ran, moved like a puppet, following Yu Ran with a vacant expression.

As Yu Ran caught sight of his face, a sharp pang pierced his heart — it was him.

No wonder the Marshal wanted him to rescue this sentinel.

An A+ sentinel, with a spirit body of a chameleon lizard, possessing powerful abilities such as tail detachment for escape, environmental camouflage, and extreme temperature adaptation. He was Tang Ce, the youngest captain of the Starlight Legion’s reconnaissance battalion. Once hailed as a prodigy, he had fallen to such a state!

Yu Ran suppressed his heartache and quickly brought him to the ground floor.

It was currently 10 PM, the time with the fewest people entering and exiting the White Tower. Several sentinel guards were stationed in the lobby. Yu Ran activated the nine-tailed fox’s invisibility ability, erasing his presence, and instructed the sentinel to use his spirit body’s power to blend into the color of the marble floor.

The marble floor on the ground floor was dark gray. After the sentinel changed his color, he almost blended seamlessly with the floor. Coupled with Yu Ran’s invisibility, people around them automatically ignored them.

Without anyone noticing, Yu Ran swiftly left the lobby with the sentinel.

Troops on the square patrolled every 10 minutes. Yu Ran timed it perfectly, leading the sentinel to a corner and quickly initiating treatment.

He had been injured for too long, and his mental landscape was in a deplorable state.

The vast marshland was filled with decaying mud, shrubs, and trees that lizards liked to crawl on, and large areas of dead vegetation. The entire mental world was dark and lifeless, resembling a desolate wasteland after a great battle, devoid of any vitality.

The mental world was filled with countless black mists.

“General, be careful!”

“This is a trap, Tang Ce, get out of there!”

“Ah! It hurts, my hand—”

“No—”

The frenzied sentinel’s desperate screams echoed repeatedly in the mental landscape. Countless faces of comrades appeared, bloodied and mutilated. Blue starships exploded in the sky, the glaring flames, the last and clearest image etched into his memory.

Yu Ran’s expression turned cold. The green vines suddenly surged, forcibly suppressing these negative emotions and burying them deep in the marshland.

The sentinel suddenly woke up from his nightmare.

The ink-black eyes gradually regained clarity, the whites of his eyes reappeared, and his gaze gradually focused. Looking at the person in front of him in the mental world, he muttered, “I… wasn’t I dead?”

In the mental world, Yu Ran calmly said, “I’m here to save you. I can’t leave the White Tower for too long, so it’s up to you now. Find a way to leave here; someone will assist you. Be discreet.”

The sentinel finally regained his senses completely. Sensing the renewed vitality in the mental world and the lively lizard spirit body by his side, he gratefully looked at Yu Ran. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Yu Ran glanced at him. “Take care of yourself.”

The sentinel hesitated for a moment, then suddenly disappeared from his sight… No, he disappeared from his consciousness. He couldn’t sense the other’s presence anymore.

This was an invisible guide, possessing S-level healing abilities, who seemed to have subdued him instantly just now.

Who was this person exactly?

Why did he feel strangely familiar?

Tang Ce refocused his thoughts and, restoring his mental state, immediately had the lizard transform into the same color as the surrounding environment.

Taking advantage of the distant patrolling sentinels, he agilely leaped, instantly jumping tens of meters away and landing on a tree near the square.

The sentinel, covered in injuries, quickly disappeared into the darkness with the lizard’s cover provided by the trees.