Mecha Chapter 171: Changes

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Lhachril

 

Luo XiaoLou stared dumbfoundedly at the huge grey rat running in the distance. What was this rat, bigger than a cow?! Moreover, that little red eye had a ferocious light in it. It stared at Luo XiaoLou and Yuan Xi for a few seconds, then quickly ran toward them.

“Yuan Xi, wake up! I think it’s… planning to eat us!” Luo XiaoLou shouted in alarm, but there was no way he could understand Yuan Xi’s voice now.

Luo XiaoLou looked anxiously at Yuan Xi. Something was wrong. Something was wrong with Yuan Xi! He barked at Yuan Xi, whose eyes were closed tightly, before jumping onto his shoulders and arching his back, calling out to the giant grey rat running towards him, showing his pointy claws. Luo XiaoLou glared at the grey rat, intent on finding a way to bite its throat and perhaps hopefully kill or chase it away.

He had to protect Yuan Xi. He’d fallen into the gray hole for him! He mustn’t let anything happen to him. If one looked closely, they would see his claws trembling slightly.

Luo XiaoLou’s hands and feet had probably just stepped on Yuan Xi’s face. Yuan Xi frowned, slowly opening his eyes as if enduring some pain, he reached out and pulled Luo XiaoLou into his arms in a defensive posture. Luo XiaoLou fidgeted and struggled, but soon lost his strength.

Luckily, Luo XiaoLou’s shrill cries woke Yuan Xi up, and although he was still clearly out of it, his keen sense of smell alerted him to the danger that was at hand.

At the sight of the grey rat, Yuan Xi’s pupils narrowed, and he gritted his teeth, reaching for the energy blade at his side. But tragically, it was as if his movements had been slowed down a thousand times, and the moment he got the dagger, the grey giant rat had jumped up!

In contrast, the grey rat moved too fast for Yuan Xi to make any other move, he just drew his dagger and now had to barely try to defend himself.

As Luo XiaoLou’s fur exploded all over his body, a sword glowing with blue flame flew over and pinned the gray rat to the ground. The gray rat’s head was still pointed in the direction of Yuan Xi and Luo XiaoLou, but it seemed to be quite dead.

Immediately following, a pair of feet appeared in front of the two, and the man casually pulled out the strange sword and looked down at them.

When Luo XiaoLou looked up, it was a handsome young man in white clothes, with grey hair and blue eyes, and although he had saved them, his expression was cold. Also, the style of clothes looked odd, and of course, the sword in his hand was even stranger compared to the clothes.

Yuan Xi slowly sat up, his clothes were still intact, but there was a lot of mud on them, as well as on his head and face, causing him to look both wretched and defeated. But regardless, his arrogance had reached his bones, and even then he only nodded to the person in front of him in an imposing manner and said, “Thank you.”

The man still didn’t speak or move to leave, but his gaze shifted to land on the animal in Yuan Xi’s arms.

Yuan Xi noticed and, without moving, pressed Luo XiaoLou back and said coldly, “I will repay you for saving my life.”

“No need.” The man finally spoke, slightly different from the common human language, but roughly understandable.

At this moment, a fat man ran over from far and near and said with a smile, “Lord Ling Xiao, you’ve finally returned. The Lord of the Realm is waiting for you to return.”

Saying that he looked at Yuan Xi who was sitting on the ground and said dismissively, “There will be outsiders here all day long. There’s no need for you to do anything, they’re too weak for you. I’m a bit reluctant to buy them as servants.”

At this point, the fat man only then noticed that Ling Xiao seemed to be looking at the animal in Yuan Xi’s arms, and immediately said toe-to-toe, “If I were you, I would give that – that thing to Lord Ling Xiao. It’s rare for Lord Ling Xiao to show his appreciation, and you should be more sensible. You might even be able to get a few points of accommodation when you enter District D in the future.”

The fatty turned to look at Ling Xiao, and said ingratiatingly, “You have good eyes. The fur is nice and looks warm.”

Luo XiaoLou sucked in his breath, but before he could make a sound, he felt the hand press on his body a little harder.

Then Yuan Xi said coldly, “That’s impossible.”

The fatty probably didn’t expect Yuan Xi to refuse and froze there, his face extremely ugly.

Instead, Ling Xiao who was standing next to him was silent for two seconds and then said, “I don’t want it. However, if you think you can’t afford to raise it, you can instead sell it to me.” After saying that, he turned around and walked away.

“Kid, where do you think this place is? If you don’t know what’s good for you, there’ll be a time you’ll regret it!” The fatty was exasperated and wanted to come over and kick Yuan Xi to the ground, but thinking that the Realm Master was waiting, he gave Yuan Xi a hard stare and turned to leave.

Sell?! My God, will he be skinned for a hat? Thinking of that, Luo XiaoLou lost all his gratitude for that person. Still, it’s better to be with Yuan Xi! Even if Yuan Xi hadn’t forgiven him yet, he wouldn’t get that idea.

Luo XiaoLou shuddered and stood upright, leaning close to Yuan Xi’s face and looking at him worriedly, pawing at Yuan Xi’s chest. Are you alright? What just happened?

Yuan Xi frowned, not answering Luo XiaoLou’s question – he felt the animal could do nothing but worry blindly, and mouthed a warning, “You behave yourself next time!”

As he sat on the ground gasping for breath, two more men came quickly in the distance.

“Jay, there’s someone up ahead!” A young girl’s voice called out.

They arrived at the place where Yuan Xi and Luo XiaoLou sat in a few steps, and the youth who was first, stopped and looked at Yuan Xi and asked, “Newcomer?”

Before Yuan Xi could reply, the young girl beside her had already said, “Looking at their clothes and this look, they must be newcomers. Mind you, you can’t stay out like this for more than half an hour, or you’ll get burnt.”

The youth took a look at Yuan Xi and said, “He probably can’t stand up. Xiao Qiao, come here, let’s help him back.”

The young woman named Xiao Qiao was stunned, and suddenly came to her senses, exclaiming, “God, he’s so weak.”

The two men stepped forward to assist Yuan Xi, who did not refuse, but held on to the animal in his right hand.

On the way, Yuan Xi seemed to recover somewhat and asked in a hoarse voice, “What’s going on here? Something is very wrong with my body.” 

Even if there was something wrong with the gravity field, he shouldn’t be at this level. He had done gravity field training. Even if it was increased to eight times, his body would still be able to accept it.

The young man nodded, “That’s because of the V-rays in the grey hole, it will inhibit the abilities of humans and all living things. Also, it affects people in different places or time zones differently. By the way, I’m Li Jay, and this is my sister Xiao Qiao.”

Yuan Xi looked at both of them and said, “I’m Yuan Xi, and there’s no way to remove this effect?” As Yuan Xi spoke, Luo XiaoLou noticed that Li Jay and Xiao Qiao’s faces didn’t even change, so it was clear that they really weren’t from the same place.

“It depends on your ability to adapt, but usually you can’t. That’s why the aborigines here take advantage of it.” The young man named Li Jay said helplessly, “Let me tell you about the situation here. You should have been sucked in by a black hole as well, right? If you enter through a black hole and get lucky enough to survive, but don’t exit through a white hole, there’s a good chance you’ll fall in here.”

“Including animals, plants, people and even monsters, anything you can and can’t imagine is possible, almost every day. However, there are so many negative particles and rays that are harmful to living things in the gray hole that most of them have a hard time surviving. But the fittest survive, and the longer people and animals survive in these conditions, the more powerful they become. The two people you just met are the original inhabitants of this place.”

Yuan Xi looked thoughtfully in the direction of the two men that had left and asked, “How powerful are they?” He hadn’t forgotten the fat man’s threats. There hadn’t been many who dared to threaten him since he was born.

“More powerful than you can imagine. Oh no, it’s almost time, let’s go. I’ll talk to you back home.” Li Jay and Xiao Qiao took a look at the sky and ran in a certain direction.

Soon, Luo XiaoLou and Yuan Xi saw the houses here, and the houses were divided into areas, some were ornate palaces, some were villa areas, and some were ordinary building areas.

The weirdest thing was that there was a huge transparent cover around the perimeter of each area.

The two of them guided Yuan Xi to the simplest residential area, which simply couldn’t even be called a building, with rows of wooden huts that were thin and dilapidated. There was a hood on this perimeter as well, but it was a little different than the previous four.

It wasn’t until they were inside the hood that they breathed a sigh of relief. At this time, many people were running below the hood. And not two minutes after the people came in, it was completely dark outside, and the air made a weird whirring sound that made people have chills.

Some people saw Yuan Xi and Luo XiaoLou and left after looking a few times, while others stopped to say hello to Li Jay and Xiao Qiao.

Li Jay simply pulled the people into his yard and he said, “It’s just as well. I have an empty room here. You can stay here first.”

Yuan Xi looked at the impossibly simple wooden house and calmly said, “Thank you.”

Xiao Qiao shouted, “Jay-ge, I’ll go prepare food, while you can talk to him.”

Li Jay enthusiastically pulled the man back inside, looked at Yuan Xi and told him to go wash his face first. Yuan Xi finally frowned when he saw the small amount of water for washing. He swept a glance at Luo XiaoLou and said as if he was serious, “You can lick your own fur, right?”

“…” Luo XiaoLou glared at him, gesticulating angrily, I won’t! I am not a cat…

When Yuan Xi shuffled out, Li Jay, who was about to speak, choked and silently turned his face away, Holy shit this is like a man’s public enemy! No, I can’t let Xiao Qiao in later.

“Go on,” Yuan Xi said as he sat in his chair and looked at the silent and speechless Li Jay.

Li Jay put away his marvelous thoughts and said, “Those aborigines are much more resistant to negative particles and radiation than the alien population, and they already have their own technology. Do you see the four residential areas in front of us? That’s all they built, there are boundaries on the outside to protect the people inside from the various elements of the grey hole.”

“It’s divided into four districts; A, B, C, D. District A is the best while District D is the worst, but it’s also much better than what we have here. We have the boundary they built for us here, but it’s much weaker, and basically doesn’t work when there’s a big particle storm. This is also called the Outer District. The Outer District is not a place to stay for a long time, or else one would be exposed to more or less radiation. The limit for a person to live in the Outer District is half a year, and if they can’t enter District D by then, then they’ll have to wait for death.” Li Jay took a glance at Yuan Xi, who was having difficulty walking, and had sympathy in his eyes.

Yuan Xi touched the fur of the animal in his arms that appeared to be listening intently and asked, “What are the requirements to enter District D?” 

“They’ll have an assessment. It’s really simple. Just pay a level two energy stone. But if you want to live in District D, everyone has to pay a level one energy stone every day.” Li Jay heaved a sigh, “That’s why a lot of people can’t get in.”

“Energy stone?”

“It’s a kind of stone from the mountains here. Energy stones are usually guarded by plants or animals unique to grey caves next to them, and it’s not easy to obtain. A first-grade energy stone is the lowest level, three first-grade energy stones are equivalent to one second-grade energy stone.” Li Jay shrugged his shoulders, “Everyone here is saving energy stones, and the water resources are in the hands of the locals, so we need to exchange energy stones for them.”

That was probably why the water was so scarce.

At that moment, Xiao Qiao carried a plate into the house and stared in surprise as she saw Yuan Xi, her eyes shining brightly.

Li Jay’s mouth twitched and he coughed before Xiao Qiao put the food down in a trance and called Yuan Xi enthusiastically to come over and eat.

The food on the table was an odd color, but the good news was that it didn’t taste odd, at least it was palatable.

Yuan Xi considered paying for the meal later, when Xiao Qiao smiled and said, “Actually, there’s another way to go, those people from the higher districts sometimes come here to pick their servants.” She stole another glance at Yuan Xi. Oh God, someone like that would definitely be snatched away. Hey, it’s a bit of a shame, looking at this person’s dressing style, he should have been someone very powerful in the original place. But in the Grey Planet, all outsiders were the same, at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Yuan Xi paled, grunted and said coldly, “I’ll enter District D by myself. I won’t be a servant to anyone.” 

Luo XiaoLou nodded angrily in his arms. What could Yuan Xi do? He doesn’t know anything!

“But the screening will take place in three days, and if you can’t get in, you’ll have to wait a long time. With a body like yours-” Xiao Qiao was left speechless by Yuan Xi’s glare.

Li Jay laughed heedlessly, “Brother has a backbone. He needn’t go if he doesn’t want to.”

“You don’t have a noblewoman to pick on you, do you?” Xiao Qiao asked sarcastically, and Li Jay coughed, changing the subject immediately.

“But it’s recommended that you don’t keep a pet. You can’t afford it. It’s just been out there, you might as well sell it. What is it?” Xiao Ciao looked longingly at Luo XiaoLou. Xiao Qiao leaned closer to Yuan Xi in high spirits. “Cat? A dog? A rabbit? Can I touch it?” 

Yuan Xi immediately leaned back, tucked Luo XiaoLou into his arms, and said, “He scratches and bites people, and has a bad temper. He loses hair badly, and people get allergic to it.”

Fuck you! Luo XiaoLou angrily cursed Yuan Xi in his heart.

Xiao Qiao stiffened, withdrew her hand to sit back in place and asked in surprise, “So it’s your pet?” 

What exactly do you see in it?

Yuan Xi thought for two seconds and declared with a cold face, “No, it’s my criminal who stole the most important thing from me. I have to take him back for questioning.”

Luo XiaoLou was dumbfounded, “……”

That night, Yuan Xi took Luo XiaoLou into the wooden hut next door, where there was nothing but a wooden plank bed.

God, this was where us newlyweds are staying on our wedding night? There was probably no more miserable couple than us…

Tossing the criminal onto the wooden plank bed, Yuan Xi lay down on his stomach.

 

Luo XiaoLou leaned in to look at Yuan Xi. He could see that his body was quite affected. How were they going to get into District D? Or rather, how were they going to get out of here?