Genius Chapter 174: The Spaceship Crew’s Life Signs Were Normal

Chapter 174: The Spaceship Crew’s Life Signs Were Normal

Translated by Karai of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Addis

The communication line was very noisy, with the assistant’s voice mixed with a lot of background sounds. Hearing this, Yu Zhen realized that the situation was likely more complicated than expected. The special rescue team heading to the Eternal Winter Star Region was constantly in contact with Capital Planet. During this time, there had been intermittent reports about the β2 unknown star region, and now, it seemed likely that they had found B2145.

“What’s going on? Is there a problem at work?”

Yu Zhen turned around and saw Su Mo standing behind him, holding the album with a slightly concerned expression.

He hesitated for a moment and told the assistant on the other end, “Send me the details of the situation to my terminal. I’ll be there in about half an hour. Also, send me the access key for the research institute in advance.”

“Something has come up at the research institute,” Yu Zhen said, looking at Su Mo. “I won’t be able to play games with you this afternoon. I need to go deal with it.”

Upon hearing this, Su Mo understood that there was likely a problem with Yu Zhen’s project team. “Is it serious? A technical issue…? Is there anything I can help with?”

He paused slightly and added, “I know some professors and researchers in the civil aviation field. I can ask them for advice.”

“It’s nothing serious, don’t worry.” Yu Zhen leaned down and gave Su Mo a gentle kiss on the forehead. “I’ll head out now.”

Lele was in the kitchen learning to make desserts. During this time, Su Mo’s body had been recovering quickly. Previously, Su Mo’s body had poor absorption abilities and had many dietary restrictions. Now, Dr. Wu had also relaxed the restrictions, suggesting trying different ingredients to see how Su Mo’s body would respond. This led Lele to explore new recipes in his cooking journey.

“Do you want to have some egg tarts?” Lele asked, bringing out two small desserts. Not seeing Yu Zhen, he inquired, “Has Mr. Yu Zhen gone to work?”

Su Mo walked in from the hallway and replied, “Yes, he just left. It seems there was a problem with his project team.”

He glanced at the items on Lele’s plate and asked, “Can I have his portion?”

Lele firmly refused, “No, you can only have one. Your intake will be too high today!”

Su Mo looked a bit disappointed and asked, “How much sugar can there be in an egg tart?”

“No means no; you can only have one.” Lele set Su Mo’s portion down and suddenly noticed the album on the sofa. It paused for a moment and said, “Su Mo, why did you take out the album?”

Su Mo sat nearby eating the egg tart and replied after a while, “Brother Zhen wanted to see it, but he left before he could.”

Lele asked, “Should I put it away?”

Su Mo thought for a moment and replied, “No need to put it away, just leave it out for now.”

Lele went over and put the album away in a place where it wouldn’t be easily bumped into. It then asked, “Does the lab need to be cleaned today?”

Su Mo said, “Yes, but don’t touch the parts on the desk.”

Noticing the album, Lele suddenly remembered, “This year’s photo storage ratio is only 3%. Su Mo, we have taken so few photos this year!”

Su Mo swallowed the egg tart he was eating and replied, “The year isn’t over yet. If we take more photos in the next few days, the ratio will go up.”

“Alright,” Lele nodded and added, “No sneaking extra treats.”

Su Mo was speechless.

“I know, just go about your work.”

The lab was Su Mo’s private space, but as a robot, Lele was allowed to enter after permission. During the cleaning, Lele noticed that the small box under the glass cabinet wasn’t properly closed. Considering how important Su Mo viewed the box, Lele carefully closed it and dusted off the area around it.

The box contained old things and old photo albums. Su Mo cherished these items and kept them stored away, rarely taking them out. Even though Su Mo seldom looked at them, he would always spend a long time in front of the box when he did. Lele knew that one of the boxes contained all the photos of the two main people in Su Mo’s family. When Su Mo was young and visitors came to the house, they would put away the photos in the box to avoid upsetting the young Su Mo.

Later, the owner rarely opened the box, but every time he did, he would look at it for a long, long time.

Su Mo liked looking at photos, but he did so infrequently.

Lele knew that every child needed a healthy and happy childhood, and photos were crucial for preserving those important memories of growing up. Just as Lele insisted on celebrating the owner’s birthday, it also made sure to take photos to commemorate and record Su Mo’s healthy and happy year. However, Su Mo was no longer as cute as he had been as a child; he used to love having his picture taken, but now he took photos less frequently and enjoyed teasing Lele, making it believe several times that it was falling behind in intelligence and unable to keep up with Su Mo’s way of thinking. He even downloaded many programs.

However, these programs were regularly deleted by Su Mo’s scheduled intelligence inspections.

As a robot, Lele’s judgments of its owner’s behavior and actions were based on emotional analysis. Nowadays, robots’ intelligent learning functions had developed rapidly, and their primary function was to analyze and provide the best assistance based on the owner’s commands, tone, and behavior. Lele was an outdated model, and in the eyes of newer robots, its usage time would have been enough to warrant a factory reset.

So, at many times, it had heard numerous people offer advice to its owner.

The owner’s distant relatives, teachers, healers… many had suggested replacing it with a more advanced and capable robot that could better care for its owner.

Yet, it had not been replaced or discarded by its owner. Instead, it had been saved time and again from being decommissioned by the young and vulnerable Su Mo. Lele’s memory board held countless memories with Su Mo, including the times when Su Mo, while staying in the hospital, had quietly shared his future dreams with it in unnoticed corners.

Young Su Mo had talked about wanting to learn mechanical forging, to create robots that would never malfunction, and to build the most solid and powerful spacecraft that could fly safely.

But this dream was flawed because no research institute would hire an engineer who could not operate machinery in practice; theory was theory, and safety was the final conclusion reached through countless practical tests.

But Lele did not voice this. As a robot, it wanted to nurture its owner’s young dreams. So it had found many relevant theoretical books, bought them for its owner, and fulfilled his wishes. It believed that its young master would grow up to become an excellent mechanical engineer.

And now, it was still the same. It wore the best synthetic leather exterior, its intelligent system had been updated many times, and its storage boards and parts were maintained every year. It no longer faced system failures due to excessive use. The owner’s health had also gradually improved. As long as its owner continued to persevere, Lele believed that the future owner would surely achieve his dreams. Thus, it was even more dedicated to taking good care of its owner now.

***

Su Mo indeed had a bit of interest in the other egg tart, especially since Lele’s culinary skills had recently progressed rapidly, especially in making desserts. However, Lele was quite strict about the ingredients, so if Su Mo was told not to eat too much, Lele wouldn’t add any extra sugar.

Originally, Su Mo had planned to go online with Yu Zhen in the afternoon to complete their daily tasks, but since Yu Zhen had something to do and was out, Su Mo had to manage the daily tasks on his own. With the end of the year approaching, ZenSlasher had more time to game during the holidays, while ClearWind was busy working on end-of-year performance targets, often exceeding his live streaming hours each month.

ClearWind sighed, “You don’t know, but our family still keeps the old tradition from Huaxia where the elders give out red envelopes to the younger ones. We have a lot of children in our family. And it’s not just that—if you want to give red envelopes to the younger ones, you can’t leave out the older ones. We have five generations living together, and New Year’s means big expenses.”

“Come on, you’re a top livestreamer in Celestial Horizon; can’t you show a bit more ambition?” ScarletFruit said. “It’s just giving out red envelopes!”

ClearWind chuckled, “The main issue is that recently, the Sky Realm has released several new products, and meeting this number of red envelopes has left me financially strained.”

ZenSlasher was speechless.

ScarletFruit then asked, “Big Brother, is Brother Wanderer not joining today either?”

Su Mo skillfully managed two accounts at the start of the ring runs, “Yeah, he had to go back to work on short notice.”

Regarding Momo and UnchainedWanderer, it had been unknown before, but now, with the game wedding, everything was known.

Good grief, these two had secretly gotten together, and now they were in a relationship. When ScarletFruit first heard this, his mind went blank. He had thought the two big brothers were still just close friends, but they had ended up together, and everyone was the last to find out.

Sometimes, reality was just too surreal. He could accept the gossip but didn’t dare to think too deeply about it.

It wasn’t until the two officially announced their relationship that he started clapping in belated realization. He had thought that marriage would be different, like seeing them being affectionate and lovey-dovey in the team. However, that wasn’t the case at all. They continued to run dungeons and fight just as they always had. If it weren’t for the ‘xx’s husband’ title above their heads, ScarletFruit would have thought it was just a dream.

“Which company is so intense that they’re still calling people in to work on a weekend?” ScarletFruit complained. “Not long ago, didn’t the Star Alliance advocate for reducing working hours? With advancements in artificial intelligence, the era should be liberating our hands.”

“Who said that? My second brother works at Firmament Group,” ClearWind continued. “But he isn’t in Capital Planet; he’s on a business trip to another planet with a project team that’s working themselves to death. But he said it’s much better now. He even complained to me about his previous team with the young master. For the current Celestial Horizon loader project, the most extreme period had them working without a day off for six months straight.”

ScarletFruit was taken aback. “Fuck, that’s intense?”

“But once their project was done, they took a continuous two-month vacation,” ClearWind explained. “There’s no helping it; researchers are on call at all times. When they get busy, it’s endless.”

Su Mo suddenly remembered that Yu Zhen had also taken a very long vacation. When he played games with Yu Zhen, Yu Zhen had been on vacation the whole time. Had Yu Zhen been so busy before that?

ZenSlasher added, “My senior hasn’t had her vacation yet either. She’s interning and won’t get a break until the New Year.”

The team members chatted about their daily lives, and ScarletFruit asked, “So our meetup has to be after the New Year, right? Brother Wanderer has been so busy lately, and after the New Year, when he comes back from his break, there’ll probably be a mountain of work waiting.”

He continued, “It’s all ClearWind’s fault for running off to other planets for a vacation.”

ClearWind sighed and said, “Stop scolding me. I’m paying off my debts now. I’ve been working overtime all month. It was so pleasant to rest and play games before, but now it’s just painful.”

ZenSlasher remarked, “But don’t you play games on your stream too?”

ClearWind replied, “You don’t understand, sister. Streaming games and casually playing games are two different things. Without streaming, everything is more enjoyable.” Afterward, he sighed and added, “Anyway, I’m going to start my stream now. Please, be mindful of your comments.”

ScarletFruit gave an OK sign.

“Oh right, big brother, did the spirit pet egg you got last time hatch?” ClearWind asked.

The grand event had given out many boxes. Su Mo had temporarily stored the materials and weapons he didn’t need in the warehouse. He had only opened the 8-star pet boxes, which had given him a warm white spirit pet egg. It had no markings and looked like an ordinary egg.

The event boxes had been opened not long ago, and now it was almost the end of the year. The egg showed no signs of hatching.

“Has Soul Rabbit been underperforming lately?” ScarletFruit wondered.

Su Mo let the rabbit out to stretch its legs and, seeing the spirit pet egg it was holding, casually said, “Is it? It’s been eating quite a lot lately.”

ClearWind noted, “Hatching eggs requires physical strength.”

Su Mo added, “The Flower Spirit hasn’t eaten much. It even ate the Flora Spirit’s rations yesterday.”

ScarletFruit was shocked. “Then whose rations did mine go to?”

Su Mo pointed to the Soul Rabbit, which was cuddling at his feet. “It’s the rabbit’s.”

ScarletFruit sighed, “My goodness, I didn’t waste my time feeding you. Your appetite is growing!”

ClearWind said seriously, “Last time, someone on the forum raised a tiger, and because it ate too much, its movement speed decreased… Brother, being too fat isn’t good, especially for rabbits. Excess weight affects their health.”

Soul Rabbit flicked its ears at ClearWind.

ClearWind complained, “Brother, it hit me.”

“If it hits you, it hits you. Does it need a reason?” ScarletFruit said seriously, “But it still needs to lose weight. Let’s reduce its rations a bit tomorrow.”

After finishing the daily tasks, Su Mo helped Yu Zhen feed the spirit pets. When he tried to send a message to Yu Zhen, he realized that the message he sent half an hour ago hadn’t been replied to. He paused for a moment, feeling a strange sense of unease that had been with him since he received the message from Yu Zhen earlier that afternoon.

Yu Zhen was usually calm and handled his work methodically. Even when encountering problems at work, he rarely showed a troubled expression.

Su Mo thought for a moment and deleted the game screenshot he had posted earlier.

[-mo: Will you come back for dinner tonight?]

“Brother, what was that one-click generation you mentioned last time?” ScarletFruit asked.

Su Mo came back to his senses. “Oh, it’s a program for generating artifact forging formulas with one click. Someone needed it before, so I exported it…”

By night, he still hadn’t received a response to his message.

***

At a confidential research institute on Capital Planet, the continuous communications with the β2 star domain rescue mission were ongoing, with dense and detailed data displayed on the virtual console. When Yu Zhen managed to pass through several security checks and obtained the access key to enter the institute, his terminal was detained outside.

He approached his assistant and quickly inquired, “What’s the situation with the health signs mentioned in the email? Are these health signs related to the crew members of the B2145 spacecraft?”

The universe had always been a mysterious entity, a fact established at the very beginning of the Galactic Alliance. Humanity’s exploration of the universe had never ceased. The ill-fated B2145 spacecraft had been assigned a secret mission by the Galactic Alliance to explore the unknown β2 star domain, aiming to uncover the mysteries surrounding the outer edges of the Eternal Winter star region. However, things didn’t go as planned; the B2145 spacecraft encountered an accident during its jump and went missing, leading to over a decade of silence.

The rescue team had been working for nearly ten years, and the accident was considered almost certain. It was not until an unexpected discovery by Yu Zhen’s research team that the investigation was restarted. With significant cooperation from the Celestial Horizon, the restart of the rescue mission proceeded smoothly. After a period of repeated exploration, a piece of good news finally emerged: the signal request for the connection had responded. This response was not from the spacecraft’s automatic system but from a manual response by personnel.

“The B2145 was an exploratory spacecraft. Before departure, its fuel tanks were fully stocked, and the crew members were skilled operators. According to the travel information at that time, following the Galactic Alliance’s regulations, the spacecraft’s fuel was sufficient for five years of operation. Considering the sustained flight time and the conditions for survival in space, the research team estimated that, under complete loss of contact, the crew could survive for up to three years.”

The assistant quickly explained, “The researchers hadn’t expected to receive a manual response. A manual response indicates the presence of survivors—either those originally on board or someone who discovered the spacecraft’s jump coordinates and manually responded.”

He continued, “We’ve also contacted all registered communication agencies with the Galactic Alliance but haven’t received any reports from relevant personnel. This leaves only one possibility: the manual responders are likely the spacecraft’s original crew members.”

“How many years has it been…” Yu Zhen’s expression slightly faltered.

The assistant added, “It’s possible they received additional fuel or resource assistance. If there are exploitable energy sources or planets with health traces within the β2 star domain, exploratory spacecraft can always harvest and resupply there.”

“Moreover, the magnetic field in the β2 domain is quite strange, so time distortion could be a factor. However, one thing is certain: the spacecraft’s manual responses are ongoing. They periodically send out messages requesting responses, indicating they are very aware of their situation and haven’t given up on contacting us over the years.”

Yu Zhen asked, “So what is the current result?”

“The rescue team has arrived at the coordinates where the jump occurred. After establishing initial contact, the manual responses have been very frequent. We receive responses to our signals quickly, but due to limited signal location, we cannot exchange information,” the assistant explained. “Researchers are currently attempting to decode the signals they’ve transmitted to pinpoint the coordinates. We’ve connected with ApexMind and the Celestial Horizon’s group intelligence, and results should be available in about half an hour.”

With today’s advanced research technology compared to the past, if manual signals are received and processed by the Alliance’s most powerful AI, results—including the rescue risks—are expected within half an hour. Yu Zhen slightly pursed his lips and asked, “Has the highest authority been granted as well?”

“Yes, there were important personnel on the spacecraft back then, and the Alliance approved it very quickly,” the assistant said excitedly. “Regardless of whether we can recover the people, this will be a historic step for space rescue. We can also use the rescue mechanisms to deeply optimize our System…”

“The research team’s matters can be discussed later. Rescue takes priority now.”

Yu Zhen stood outside the laboratory. “If Celestial Horizon needs to assist, authorize it under my name. We’ll handle other matters afterward…”

As he was speaking, he suddenly heard arguing from inside the laboratory. Seeing this, the assistant immediately went to check the situation and soon returned.

“What’s going on?” Yu Zhen asked.

“The coordinates we received back are very strange; they are not the jump coordinates registered by the Alliance,” the assistant explained. “They’re currently working on planning the jump route to estimate the initial coordinates, but β2 Vicinity is an unknown star region, so there’s insufficient information for the mainframe to operate.”

With insufficient information, the rescue team couldn’t perform a jump rescue. The risk was too high, and they might end up jeopardizing the rescue personnel.

Yu Zhen turned and left immediately. “Contact the border mercenary group, Regiment 856, Commander Jiang Yu. He has some β2 information charts.”

Jiang Yu was Yu Zhen’s uncle. As a teenager, Yu Zhen often went on mercenary missions with him. Dangerous and unknown star regions like this were frequent areas of their operations. To ensure the safety of their mercenary group, they manually recorded some safe coordinates, and information about surrounding star regions was within their records. The β2 unknown star region was also in Jiang Yu’s data list.

The research institute was brightly lit, and the snowstorm on Capital Planet intensified.

After Yu Zhen established contact with Jiang Yu, his uncle promptly sent over the β2 Vicinity recorded information. With ApexMind conducting risk assessments and coordinate estimations, a complete rescue line was finally determined in the early hours of the morning. The rescue team in the Eternal Winter Star Region Vicinity immediately sprang into action. As seconds ticked by, everyone watched the signals on the virtual screens intently.

After a sleepless night, the signal center finally received a response.

——

“Report: Target spacecraft detected, no damage. Proceeding with docking.”

“Confirmed. Rescue can proceed. The spacecraft personnel’s health indicators are normal.”