First Interstellar Guide Chapter 53: Meeting the Masked Man Again

Chapter 53: Meeting the Masked Man Again

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

 

In the front seats of the car, Rong Yingying suddenly said, “Ranran, I recently arrived in the capital star and I’m not very familiar with this place. Do you guys have any good restaurants with a nice atmosphere to recommend?”

“Nice atmosphere…” Yu Ran understood her meaning. “Then let’s go to the Garden Restaurant.”

The car quickly arrived at the Garden Restaurant.

Lu Zexuan remembered that he and Yu Ran had been here before. At the time, he hadn’t thought much of it, assuming it was just a regular meal. But now, upon careful reflection, Yu Ran had invited him to dinner right after the Twin Palace banquet. On the night of the banquet, the Twin Palace was suddenly surrounded by the Investigation Division…

Yu Ran had already admitted that he stole the data from Sentinel Academy, and during that time, Zhu Tianyi happened to be investigating the matter. So, it was very likely that Zhu Tianyi had found some clues, leading to the attempt to capture Yu Ran at the Twin Palace.

However, Yu Ran was very clever and sensed that something was amiss. He hid the data, and Zhu Tianyi couldn’t catch him. So, on the following weekend, Yu Ran invited Lu Zexuan to the Garden Restaurant for dinner, where he presumably handed over the data.

In other words, was the Garden Restaurant one of the bases of the Dark Night Organization? Lu Zexuan sorted out the clues before and after. He remained calm on the surface, but he gently tightened his grip on Yu Ran’s hand.

Sensing his concern, Yu Ran wrote in his palm, “It’s okay, the mission isn’t over yet. They won’t do anything to me.”

The three of them entered the restaurant together. Lu Zexuan saw the same waiter as last time.

Yu Ran asked, “Are there any private rooms?”

The waiter replied politely, “Yes, please follow me, three of you.”

He led them to a glass room where they could see the blooming flowers around. Even the air carried the scent of flowers.

Excitedly looking around, Rong Yingying said, “Right, I’ll go to the restroom first.”

Yu Ran said, “I’ll go too. The restroom is over there… Cousin, I’ll take you there.” He stood up, took a few steps, then turned back to Lu Zexuan, smiling. “You go ahead and order, we’ll be right back.”

Lu Zexuan nodded. “Alright.”

Seeing Yu Ran and Rong Yingying leave side by side, Lu Zexuan clenched his fist under the table — could Ranran be in danger?

Thinking about the so-called “high-level” figures Ranran was about to face, Lu Zexuan’s heart tightened slightly.

Yu Ran and Rong Yingying returned in less than five minutes, both looking calm. Lu Zexuan pretended not to notice anything, handing over the menu to Yu Ran. “Take a look, is there anything else you want?”

Yu Ran smiled. “You ordered a lot, it’s enough for the three of us.”

The food was served quickly. Yu Ran ate calmly, and Lu Zexuan played along, actively serving him dishes and peeling shrimp. Rong Yingying silently observed them the whole time.

After the meal, Lu Zexuan paid the bill, and the three of them left the Garden Restaurant. The hovercar entered the aerial highway and headed towards the city center of the capital star.

Lu Zexuan was wondering why Yu Ran hadn’t met with the organization’s high-level members when suddenly, Yu Ran quickly wrote in his palm, “She gave me a tranquilizer. Hide the secrets in your mental landscape as soon as possible.”

Regarding the secrets of the Eagle Legion Special Forces, his father had already ordered the Golden Eagle to seal them deep in the mountains, where even an S-level guide couldn’t easily break through that barrier.

As for other memories, Lu Zexuan could hide them himself. Suddenly, snow began to fall in the mental landscape of the Sentinel, and in the depths of the snow-capped mountains, another snow-capped peak silently rose.

Lu Zexuan spoke to White Eagle in his mind, “Someone might come to inspect my mental landscape later. Try to act like you really like foxes.”

White Eagle replied, “No problem, it’s a natural performance!”

Lu Zexuan squeezed Yu Ran’s hand, indicating that he was ready. The next moment, he felt a slight numbness in his arm as an extremely fine needle precisely pierced his vein. A strong drowsiness overcame him, and Lu Zexuan quickly fell unconscious.

Rong Yingying saw this scene in the rearview mirror, a sinister smile curling her lips. The car turned around and returned to the Garden Restaurant. In the secret basement of the Garden Restaurant, Yu Ran once again saw the masked person.

The person sat in a chair, motionless, but the eyes behind the mask stared straight at Yu Ran.

The room was dimly lit, and seeing this grim bronze mask suddenly would scare most people, but Yu Ran remained calm and respectfully bowed to the person. “You sent Yingying to find me. Do you have any orders?”

The person’s voice, processed mechanically, sounded hoarse. “Of course, to evaluate the results of your recent tasks — how much medicine did you give Lu Zexuan?”

Yu Ran replied, “The Eagle Special Forces were out for less than a week. I delivered water to him every day and gave him ten pills.”

The masked person said without emotion, “I heard that you risked your life to save him, disregarding your own safety, and rushed over in an airship. Could it be that you have developed genuine feelings for this handsome General Lu?”

Yu Ran’s act of risking his life to save someone had long been known, and everyone said he deeply cared for General Lu.

Yu Ran chuckled disdainfully, glanced lightly at the unconscious Lu Zexuan, and said, “How could I possibly develop feelings for those simple-minded sentinels? Lu Zexuan looks good and has a good figure. If I were really interested in him… I’d make him my puppet, obediently follow my orders, and be my slave. Wouldn’t that be more interesting?”

The masked person nodded approvingly. “Not bad. Guides are the most intelligent species in the universe. Your mental energy is strong and shouldn’t be disturbed by the foolish sentinels.”

He waved his hand lightly, and two people suddenly emerged from behind the curtains. It was Miss Adeline, the owner of the Twin Palace, and her “deceased” twin brother, Andre.

Yu Ran raised an eyebrow at them.

Adeline’s smile was gentle. “Long time no see. I was being watched by the Investigation Division recently, so I couldn’t contact you.”

Andre frowned. “Yu Ran, we can’t fully trust you. After all, you’re too good at acting. You successfully deceived Lu Zexuan and Zhu Tianyi, so there’s no guarantee you won’t deceive us. Therefore, our master hopes that we, as siblings, can join forces to inspect your mental landscape.”

Two identical praying mantises appeared in front of Yu Ran.

Yu Ran looked at the masked person and said sincerely, “Back then, when I was swept by a cosmic storm to Norma and seriously injured, it was you who saved my life. I understand the principle of repaying kindness. Since I’ve joined the organization, I have no ulterior motives. If you suspect me, you can inspect freely.”

He closed his eyes calmly in front of the siblings.

The next moment, Adeline and Andre simultaneously extended white mental tendrils, forcibly invading Yu Ran’s mental world. The normally palm-sized mantises suddenly enlarged several times in the mental landscape, resembling giant mechas, jumping around the primordial forest, conducting searches.

Yu Ran’s mental landscape was vast, with countless lush green trees towering into the sky, and the ground was covered with lush vegetation, with vines intertwining each other, completely obscuring the boundaries. However, Adeline and Andre were not to be trifled with. Both of them were S-level guides and were twins with a telepathic connection…

The two mantises swiftly searched the forest like a raging wind. They found the Nine-Tailed Fox deep in the forest, its nine red tails resembling blazing flames, enough to obscure the sky. Although the two mantises were large in size, they were ultimately healing-type spirit bodies. Faced with the brutal attack-type spirit body of the Nine-Tailed Fox, they couldn’t help but feel fear and stopped in their tracks.

Adeline’s voice echoed in Yu Ran’s mental world, “Your Nine-Tailed Fox can transform, right? I want to see it with my own eyes.”

Andre said, “S-level spirit bodies evolving to have shape-shifting abilities are rare. We also want to broaden our horizons.”

Yu Ran said casually, “Of course.”

The next moment, the Nine-Tailed Fox disappeared, and in its place appeared a cute little white fox, less than one-tenth the size of the mantises.

Andre whispered, “Can it transform back?”

Yu Ran chuckled, “Sure.”

Countless red flames suddenly soared into the sky, a glaring firelight burst from deep within the forest, and the Nine-Tailed Fox used its powerful invisibility ability to silently conceal the little white fox, then appeared in front of the two mantises.

The two mantises were almost intimidated by its ferocious aura.

Yu Ran humbly said, “This fox of mine has strong attacking abilities, but unfortunately, its healing ability is only at the B level, barely passing for an S-level guide. It can’t compare to the two of you, who are dedicated healers.”

It was beyond doubt that an attacking guide also had basic healing abilities. Yu Ran personally demonstrated the Nine-Tailed Fox’s “shape-shifting ability” to the two, and even the suspicious Andre couldn’t find any fault.

The two mantises continued to search in the primordial forest and saw many of Yu Ran’s past memories — all of which were mental illusions created in advance by Yu Ran. Since he was going to join the Dark Night Organization, his fabricated identity had to have a complete backstory, starting from childhood memories, with all memories being coherent.

The siblings were unaware that from the moment they entered Yu Ran’s mental world, they were quietly led into the mental illusion. No one expected that Yu Ran would have two S-level spirit bodies, and his mental energy had reached SS level, allowing him to cope easily with the joint search of these siblings.

The two didn’t have the patience to meticulously search the vast primordial forest, so after a quick inspection and finding no problems, they withdrew.

Adeline nodded to the masked person, who then smiled and said, “If you’re willing to join us, the organization will certainly not mistreat you. Your performance in controlling Lu Zexuan is crucial. We hope you can fulfill the task as planned.”

Yu Ran nodded, promising, “Rest assured, you gave me three months to deal with him, and half the time remains. I’ll definitely complete the task. He has no defenses against me now. His mind is filled with thoughts of romance with me. Whatever I feed him, he won’t suspect a thing.”

The masked person praised, “Very well.”

Adeline and Andre glanced at each other, then forcibly entered Lu Zexuan’s mental landscape for inspection. As a sentinel in a comatose state, his defenses weren’t high. With the two S-level guides joining forces, they quickly broke through the surface barrier and arrived at the foot of the snowy mountains.

The endless snowy mountains left the two in awe.

Between the mountains, a giant white eagle was soaring, muttering, “Woo woo woo, isn’t the little white fox too cute? When can I be with it? When are you marrying Yu Ran…”

Lu Zexuan, in his unconscious state, seemed to be dreaming, and a dream bubble appeared in his mental landscape. In the bubble, Lu Zexuan was gently kissing Yu Ran, and White Eagle was flying with the little fox, living happily together as a “family of four.”

Adeline and Andre were speechless. Indeed, he’s a romantic at heart, completely under Yu Ran’s control. The two mantises exchanged glances, changed color to blend with the snowy scenery, bypassed the dream bubble, and quickly jumped towards the depths of the snowy mountains.

The towering and majestic snowy mountains were filled with memory bubbles about Yu Ran, from their first meeting to getting to know him, and later, developing feelings for him…

Every detail, Lu Zexuan remembered clearly.

The intense desire to protect Yu Ran, the two guides could also keenly sense.

— Memories can be falsified, but emotions cannot be deceived. It seems that Lu Zexuan has truly fallen for Yu Ran.

The two mantises withdrew from Lu Zexuan’s mental landscape without leaving a trace. S-class sentinels were highly vigilant, and they couldn’t afford to leave any marks in the mental landscape. So, before exiting, the two healing guides thoughtfully repaired Lu Zexuan’s mental barrier and erased all traces of their presence in the snowy mountains, as if nothing had happened.

Yu Ran’s heart tightened when he saw the scene of the two guides forcibly invading Lu Zexuan’s mind. He was worried that Lu Zexuan would reveal something, and even more concerned that these two individuals would harm him. However, outwardly, he remained calm, looking at Lu Zexuan as though he were looking at a dead man.

It wasn’t until the two mantises withdrew that Yu Ran breathed a sigh of relief. However, he wore a smile on his face. “How was it? Isn’t the mental landscape of an S-class sentinel vast? It’s not easy to directly destroy his mental landscape and control him to become our puppet.”

Adeline nodded. “You must control the dosage properly, seize the opportunity when he is about to go berserk, destroy his mental landscape before he goes berserk, and capture his spirit body. Once an S-class sentinel goes berserk, they become uncontrollable factors, and the experiment fails.”

A berserk sentinel would attack everyone like a madman. What the Dark Night Organization needed wasn’t a crazed Lu Zexuan but an obedient General Lu. Hence, they needed to use drugs to destroy Lu Zexuan’s self-awareness and turn him into a puppet.

Just like Rong Yingying, she seemed normal, walking, laughing, talking… But her brain had lost the ability to think and only followed orders. Even if the organization ordered her to kill her own mother, she would do so without hesitation.

Yu Ran looked at the masked person and said, “Rest assured, I will bring an obedient Lu Zexuan to see you.” He glanced coldly at the unconscious Lu Zexuan and said, “Can we leave now? I’m worried he might get suspicious if it takes too long.”

The masked person waved his hand, and Rong Yingying turned around to lead Yu Ran and Lu Zexuan away.

—

When Lu Zexuan woke up, he found himself sitting in a hovercar, with his head resting on Yu Ran’s shoulder. The scenery outside the window hadn’t changed much from before he fell asleep. It seemed like the hovercar had been heading towards the city center all along, and nothing had happened. He must have just been too tired and dozed off for a moment.

Lu Zexuan’s spine chilled — the organization was terrifying, able to kill without leaving a trace.

He pretended not to know anything, lightly massaging his temples, and looked at Yu Ran. “How did I fall asleep?”

Yu Ran smiled, “You’ve been tired lately, haven’t you? It’s okay, if you’re tired, you can rest a little longer.”

Lu Zexuan said, “Hmm, then I’ll nap a bit more. Wake me when we arrive.”

He leaned on Yu Ran’s shoulder without any defenses, closing his eyes to rest.

Rong Yingying in the front seat saw this scene in the rearview mirror and gently smiled. Little did she know, out of her sight, Lu Zexuan tightly held Yu Ran’s hand.

Ranran, you’ve been working hard, dealing with these insane people.

All I can do is cooperate with you to the best of my ability.