Chapter 25: Don’t eat this, okay?
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Heinrich went back to his room and looked down at Blackie in his arms. The rabbit-cat was small enough to be held in the palm of one hand.
Heinrich looked at its green eyes for a while, ignored the little thing and went to clean up and wash himself. After he had finished everything and replied to a few military messages, he looked up and saw that the wary little thing was already crouched in the middle of Heinrich’s big bed, licking its fur leisurely.
The lights were set to night mode by Ruth, soft and calm, and Heinrich walked over to the bed and sat down, twirling Blackie’s long ears with his fingers, who shook his head and shook his fur, continuing to lick his paws.
The rabbit-cat’s pink tongue scraped across the glossy black fur, and there was a flash of red in the light. Heinrich frowned and stopped, wrenching Blackie’s head towards himself. The rabbit-cat’s throat purred with discontent and threat. Heinrich ignored it, cupped Blackie’s jaw with one hand, forced its mouth open with the other, and snapped the glowing red object out of Blackie’s mouth.
The coerced Blackie shrieked and, regardless of the treasure he had hidden under his tongue being snatched away, darted off the bed of the horrible upright ape and hid in the shadows of the cupboard.
Heinrich went to the bathroom to wash the retrieved item and paled slightly when he saw by the bright light that the corner of the red crystal he had given away had been chewed into a pitted chip.
He found a box to put the red crystal in and walked up to Blackie, giving him serious military orders, “No messy food, okay?”
The tall figure enveloped the weak and helpless rabbit-cat, and Blackie opened his green eyes innocently, “Mii.”
—
The next day, Lin Xu had to land at Star Ocean with Heinrich, who was waiting at his door. When Lin Xu opened it, he handed him a palm-sized metal box with an authentication latch.
Heinrich asked Lin Xu to enter his fingerprints and the metal box opened. Five large crystals of different colors were lying quietly on the black velvet, and there were fine diamonds under the large crystals, which were colorful under the light. The energy of the crystals washed over Lin Xu’s head and he steadied his expression, “For me?”
“Yes.” Heinrich then opened another small box, inside which lay the missing half of the red crystal, “I found Blackie with the crystal last night, the corner of the crystal was bitten off by him, I don’t know if he swallowed it into his stomach, I have sent him to Zhou Pingbo for a physical examination. It just so happens that I found some other crystals, you put them away in the box, don’t let the two rabbit-cats steal them, their stomachs don’t have the ability to digest the stones.”
Energy crystals were the food of the dragons, and by sucking the energy from them, the dragons could even travel through the death-like radiation and vacuum of space with their physical bodies alone.
Heinrich was half dragon, but he was born in human form, and could neither transform into a dragon nor absorb the energy from the crystals. As a young boy, he was bullied so badly by the young dragons on the Dragon Planet that he opened his mouth and bit into a cluster of crystals growing out of the ground.
The crystal cluster pierced his mouth, and he chewed and swallowed the crystal with his blood, staring at the young dragons with a pout.
The young dragons were stunned by the human blood.
But Heinrich was unable to digest the energy, swallowing the crystals and swallowing stones were no different. He almost died on the Dragon Planet because of this, and Andreas, who had returned from his old days, was so frightened that he took the child back to the Empire to find a hospital to clean his stomach. After that, Heinrich never returned to the Dragon Planet, and had been raised on his mother’s starship.His mother’s family was also hesitant to accept him.
The energy crystals Andreas left behind were just a bunch of pretty and useless stones for Heinrich, but Lin Xu liked them and they were of some use. Lin Xu took the crystals and walked side by side with Heinrich to the holographic chamber.
The two of them repeated this schedule over the next few days, with Heinrich going into Star Ocean with Lin Xu to practice for an hour every evening after finishing his military duties. They would then part ways at the door, with Heinrich going to his room to rest or being called by Arnold to continue his work.
Lin Xu returned to take advantage of his free time to repair the ancient books he had brought with him, occasionally feeling exhausted, he scooped up a teaspoon of crystalline debris to replenish his energy.
On the fourth day, Heinrich came to see Lin Xu early, during the afternoon hours, with the daylight supplemental lights on inside the starship, and he noticed, out of the blue, that Lin Xu’s thin spine seemed to have firmed up a bit.
“Marshal?” Lin Xu asked, a little puzzled as he opened the door. Snowy followed him to his feet, smelling the scent of another rabbit-cat on Heinrich’s body and rubbing his little head against Heinrich’s pant leg.
Heinrich remembered his reason for arriving early, “Tomorrow the Abyss Fleet will berth at the Silver Airfield, it will take sixteen hours to replenish its armament, after which the fleet will enter the Abatis Galaxy.”
Lin Xu nodded. Heinrich continued, “Maintenance has informed me that Blizzard is repaired and I would like to take you out for a spin. The magnetic field of the Abatis Galaxy is turbulent, and there may be no opportunity for mecha training after that.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. Blizzard is already waiting in the inner chamber.”
“Let’s get going.”
—
Lin Xu had been aboard Blizzard twice, but both times Blizzard was scarred and had no room to fight, and now, with the maintenance department rushing to repair Blizzard’s damage and refinish the paint job at Marshal’s urging, the gunmetal gray mecha radiated an icy aura.
The two boarded the mecha, with Lin Xu taking a seat on the side of the long-lost tandem pilot’s seat and fastening his seat belt, while Heinrich chose to operate the stick manually, without the mental energy link helmet.
A dark rectangle was slowly stretched out in front of them, and Ruth’s voice echoed through the cabin, “Attention all units, the mecha Blizzard is about to exit the cabin.”
The hatch was slowly lowered, the wind was gusting, the ventilator was recovering the air in the hatch, the residual air was being sucked out by the cosmic vacuum, the gravity system was working. Blizzard took a few steps along the downward sloping hatch and leapt into the galaxy.
The boosters kicked in the next moment and the mecha flipped upward, flying out of the plane where the Abyss Fleet was sailing.
Looking down, the fleet sailed slowly on a cosmic scale, as if flocks of whales swam in the darkness, and the silver and white arrow and shield symbols of the Abyss Fleet shone like daylight on the side of the Victoria.
The mecha came with its own internal gravity system, but the rapid ascent still caused Lin Xu to feel a sense of weightlessness. Heinrich looked at his tense arms and slowed down, “Lin Xu, are you okay?”
Most average players would not be physically able to withstand the propulsive intensity of a top-level mecha acceleration, and Star Ocean’s game designers have deliberately weakened the discomfort of a mecha speed-up. But real-world mecha pilots must face this test.
“It takes some getting used to, you keep accelerating.” Lin Xu bit his lower lip and straightened his back.
Heinrich turned the stick and controlled the mecha to turn around and head toward the end of the Abyss Fleet, the engines running at high intensity, leaving a shimmering band of light in the darkness of the universe.
Those in the starship who happened to pass by the window covered their lips in awe at Blizzard’s stern and technological aesthetic.
The speed gears kept increasing, and Heinrich kept an eye on Lin Xu’s condition, ready to slow down at any time, but this beta, said to be only D-Class, carried to the maximum speed of Blizzard, and even Heinrich would have a hard time turning on the maximum speed when his chest was churning.
Lin Xu closed his eyes and exhaled a foul breath, adjusting his body condition to be strong enough to withstand the acceleration.
The scenery outside the window was drawn into lines, and at maximum speed, the pilot could only judge the outside world through AI calculations, Abyss Fleet was far behind, and the two were moving away from each other in opposite directions.
Heinrich began to slow down gradually, “Lin Xu, I will adjust Blizzard to a relatively smooth speed in a moment, then turn off the gravity system, you unbuckle your seat belt and feel the weightless floating state in space.”
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