Chapter 67 A Bold Idea

Baozi jolted awake, finding himself locked inside a cage.

The room was enormous, filled with cages just like his. Each one housed dogs of various sizes and breeds.

It was clear these dogs had been sedated—one by one, they lay limp on the ground. Though their eyes remained open, they no longer had the strength to bark.

“Hell is empty and the devils are here!” Ninth Sister appeared, just about to raise her hand when Baozi, weak and breathless, said, “Wait a moment, check out the surroundings first!”

Like a drifting specter, Ninth Sister floated around the room. When she returned, her expression had changed slightly. “It’s the mechanical police—they’re capturing dogs on a massive scale.”

Baozi lay weakly on the ground, his tongue lolling out. “Damn it, just who is that fat man in the suit? How can he command the mechanical police?”

“I suspect he’s no longer a trainee; he’s been promoted from passenger to walker!”

Baozi was taken aback, then scoffed, “Don’t joke about things like that. That’s impossible. Back when our captain was still alive, he always said passengers are passengers, walkers are walkers—the two don’t even play in the same league.

We both travel between worlds, but our paths barely cross. If the danger level for passengers is one, then for walkers, it’s a hundred.

There’s simply no comparison between the two! If that fat man were a walker, we’d both be dead by now.”

Ninth Sister pondered for a moment, then nodded slowly. “You have a point. Maybe things have gotten out of hand, which is why everything’s changed so drastically.

But don’t worry. With the human population exploding, the number of dogs is booming too. Didn’t we find places where they breed dogs just for meat? Baozi, rest assured, there will always be dogs in this world!”

With that, Ninth Sister raised her hand again.

“Hold on! The mechanical police are rounding up dogs all over the globe. There’s a high chance we’ll keep respawning in dog cages—there are over a hundred just here! How long do you plan to keep killing? Let’s rest for now.

Things aren’t that bad yet. So far, our mission hasn’t failed!”

A sharp light flashed in Baozi’s eyes. “Do you think it’s possible that, this time, our missions aren’t actually in opposition?”

Ninth Sister fell silent, then suddenly vanished. When she reappeared, she was holding a cellphone.

Excited, Baozi stuck out his tongue and peered at the screen.

A breaking news report was airing, the host calm and unhurried.

“…Just last night, two rebels launched a raid on the villas attached to the resort.

They came in force, not only detonating a truck loaded with cargo, but also obtaining a Mark Three exoskeleton suit.

Once activated, this suit allows the wearer to unleash hundreds of kilos of force, enough to rival even the mechanical police.

Fortunately, the resort’s security forces received advance warning and deployed a large number of snipers. The rebels were gunned down the moment they launched their attack…”

At this point, the screen displayed photos of two individuals.

Baozi’s eyes widened. “Isn’t that Marx, the protagonist? He’s already been killed off?”

Ninth Sister considered this, then sneered, “No doubt about it—the protagonist was taken out by the fat man in the suit. Do you remember who that is?”

She pointed at the photo of a panda.

Baozi twisted his head, stared for a while, then shook his head.

“That’s the rookie on our team, you fool!” Ninth Sister slapped him, sending Baozi flying from one end of the cage to the other.

Baozi howled, “So he’s the rookie, what’s with the violence, you crazy woman? That hurt!”

“Do you remember when the alert sounded yesterday? The panda clearly ignored our instructions. By sheer dumb luck, he found the movie’s protagonist and thought he could ride that thread to success and complete the mission.

Who could have predicted that as soon as he left his hiding place, he ran into the opposition and got taken out by the fat man’s trap!”

Baozi blinked blankly. “So what now?”

“So now, we wait and see what their side intends to do. If I’m right, their mission is to acquire the Universal Medical Pod. Since they’ve already entered the Bliss Sector, their task shouldn’t be difficult.”

Ninth Sister narrowed her eyes, pausing before continuing, “They clearly don’t realize their goal should be to stop us from completing our mission.

As long as they follow the plot and bring the Universal Medical Pod to Earth, the two of us are finished. They’ll collect a massive reward.

Thankfully, we’re passengers, not walkers. The mysterious train has a protection mechanism during the internship phase, so this time, luck is on our side.”

“Luck?” Baozi echoed.

Ninth Sister nodded. “As long as they choose to return, our mission will be complete as well.”

Baozi stared blankly for a long moment, then erupted into a fit of rage, rolling around in frustration. “I’ve died over a thousand times, and in the end, it’s all down to luck? I can’t accept that! I can’t!”

Ninth Sister rolled her eyes and floated lazily in midair, ignoring him.

Though the mission was fraught with setbacks, the overall situation wasn’t so dire.

For now, all they could do was watch and wait.

Experience had proven Ninth Sister’s judgment—refined across four worlds—was sound.

After returning from the library, Gao Ning met with several headhunters, spending several times the usual price to acquire some odd little inventions.

Then a team from a cultural company arrived, bringing with them a device resembling a space capsule. Under the butler’s supervision, they injected a vast amount of computer knowledge directly into Gao Ning’s mind.

He didn’t feel much—just that, in the blink of an eye, his head seemed to have grown heavier.

He was told all the data had been uploaded, and if he wanted to access any of it, he could retrieve it through the device and transfer it to a computer.

In short, his brain had been developed into a flash drive rather than a biological computer.

Qi Shan found the outcome odd, but on the whole, he was satisfied.

After paying them off, another headhunting company arrived.

And so, money flowed out in a steady stream until late at night, when Robert arrived with two strange men in suits.

There was little conversation—just an exchange of money for goods.

A considerable sum was transferred to their account, and the crucial somatic cell repair technology finally fell into Gao Ning’s hands.

He drifted in a fog until dawn, uploading all the data into his mind. At last, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Checking the time left until return, he saw there were less than twenty minutes remaining.

As the simulated sky in the distance brightened, depicting a sunrise, a new mission suddenly popped up on the Red Alert interface.

[Hidden Mission Activated]

[Mission Three: Collect a Unique Object from this Plane]

[Reward: Unknown]

Gazing at the mission before him, Gao Ning was struck by a bold idea.