Chapter 162: Ready to Go [Part 2]
After getting out of the A Squad’s domain, Cillin and Shawton took a spaceplane and departed towards the Sixth B Squadron’s domain. The gray cat laid lazily on top of Cillin’s shoulder and moved its tail from time to time. It had not interrupted when Cillin and Lung were conversing earlier. It did not matter since it would have fun wherever they went anyway. Of course, the gray cat was very willing to go to an unfamiliar and dangerous place; preferably the kind where it could turn everything upside down.
“You look like you’re feeling pretty good.” Cillin poked the hair above the gray cat’s ear. The gray cat flicked its ears and patted Cillin’s hand away with a paw while letting out a humph, “The weapon loadouts at the A Squad’s domain are pretty good. Their signal protection is stronger than our squad’s too.”
“But?” Cillin raised an eyebrow and continued along the lines this fellow was headed to. He’d allow it to have a moment of self-enlightenment this time.
As expected,
“But! I can turn that place into a mess all the same, hehe meow.” the gray cat raised its chin and said proudly.
“Alright enough, when we get to Sector S you’ll have the chance to go wild.”
“Of~ course~. For the sake of the mission later, I want extra meals for the next few days!”
The main point is at the last line, isn’t it?
Although this was the first time he visited the Sixth B Squadron’s base, Cillin still felt a lot more relaxed. Perhaps that big emblem with the number ‘6’ alone was enough to soothe his feelings.
With Shawton leading the way, Cillin and the gray cat were able to go wherever they wanted unimpeded. Previously, the Sixth Squad had all operated on the starship, and now that they had all been transferred into the base. The many connected buildings looked just like a fort.
“Let’s go, everyone’s accommodations are over there.” Shawton led Cillin towards one of the buildings.
However, before Cillin could enter his own room, Cary intercepted him and gave him a bear hug. Then it was Xiao Shang, Eudy and the others. Tang Qiuqiu came over while hugging a white fur ball; the thing that had hatched out of its egg. Still, other than slightly larger ears, why did it look a little like a bear? While a bear was a mammal, this particular fat bear had most definitely jumped out of an egg.
Cillin scoured the information in his head for a bit and confirmed that he had not seen such a specie on that planet.
“Brother Cillin, I named it Snowball!” Tang Qiuqiu said clearly while hugging the fat little fellow.
“Snowball. That’s a good name.” Cillin said. It was a good name, since both the owner and the pet had the word ball* in their names, unlike a certain gray cat who once called itself Whebeze. Now it was called Wheeze, wasn’t it? So it would seem that names were defined by the people around you. No matter how much you disliked a name initially, given enough time you’ll eventually get used to it.
*The Chinese word 球 a.k.a ‘Qiu’ also meant ‘Ball’.
Cillin asked Tang Qiuqiu to give Snowball to him for a hug. The little fellow had awoken from its sleep since it was noisy with so many people around it. According to Eudy, this little fellow slept eighty percent of the time. The rest of its time was spent on foraging, excreting, and being rolled around like a ball by everyone for fun.
Little Snowball opened its silver eyes and looked at its surroundings in a daze. It did not struggle despite the unfamiliar surroundings, and after moving its little nose once it narrowed its eyes and let out a yawn. It then turned its gaze to the gray cat crouching on top of Cillin and patted it with a paw. It let out a whining cry that sounded like it was buttering up to the gray cat.
The gray cat’s whiskers shook once as it said with a serious expression, “This guy… seems to be older than me!”
The clamorous group who were chatting and laughing with each other fell silent at once.
“Wheeze, this little fellow hasn’t hatched out of its egg for much time. It hasn’t even been thirty GAL calendar days yet. I can guarantee this! The rest of the people in the Sixth Squad can be eye witnesses as well.”
The gray cat rubbed its whiskers and continued to ask, “When do you start calculating its age? When it took form after the ovum was fertilised? When it was an egg? Or when it hatched out of the egg?”
“Er, for creatures that hatched out of eggs, of course we start counting since the moment they were hatched.”
“Oh, I see. Then it’s okay.” the gray cat lifted its paws once more and touched Snowball. It now felt a lot more elated, “So it’s still just a baby!”
If they really counted its age since the moment the egg was born, this little fellow might as well be a demon already*.
*Chinese lore often say that animals who cultivate for a thousand years can become a demon, or what you may imagine as an elite, power wielding version of the animal. Hence the above.
Dough, who had been clutching the wall and watching the scene was unhappy when it saw everyone’s attentions were focused onto Snowball. It swiftly moved its four limbs and charged towards Cillin, climbing up his pants all the way up to his shoulders. It then stuck close to the gray cat and gave it a rather disproportionate sized hug.
“Yo, you came out, Dough.” Cillin loosened a hand and gave Dough a rub, “You seem to have grown bigger, little fellow.”
Dough grew even more pleased when it heard Cillin’s words. Its wide open mouth seemed to indicate that it was smiling.
The gray cat cast a glance at Dough beside it before looking down at its own completely unchanged body. It lifted a foot, and whack!
Sometimes cats really were petty minded. At the very least, Dough had been kicked off Cillin’s shoulders as a result of the gray cat’s own disgruntled feelings. That being said, with Dough’s abilities it would be perfectly fine even Cary grabbed it by the tail and flung it against the wall.
The few people gathered together and talked a little about the things that had happened during the period of time. Earlier, Tang Qiuqiu had already shown everyone the photos she took with her camera, and shared some souvenirs with them. The trip to Little Garden especially had Zaya Kasa – the girl who replaced Asiya’s position in the squad – claiming that she must take a stroll at Little Garden when she had the time. It was such a fantastic place. Bee honey can nourish one’s skin, and the bee honey of Little Garden was old several times its original price outside. This further fortified the decision of some of the females in the squad to form a group and take a vacation at Little Garden.
Cillin inquired about the situation over Dias’ side since Dias and the others who had gone to Sector E for treatment had not yet returned. Apparently things were going well, and they were undergoing recovery treatment. After all they were all Hunters, and no Hunter would wish to be incompletely healed. In a battle of life and death, an incompletely healed affliction was like an invisible bomb that could not be seen, but could explode at any moment and rob them of their lives. However, he also heard that they would be able to return after another half a year. Dias would often send some videos back to the squad, and in the videos everyone looked pretty healthy. This also caused the Sixth B Squadron’s morale to recover by a lot.
“Where are Udoze and Rikulab?” Cillin looked around but did not see the two people.
“They went to deal with the enlistment procedure. LC Akayi and Lu Suo are responsible for it.” Cary said.
Cillin was a little surprised by this. After all, back when he joined the squad he had to go through the joint voting of the commander and the LCs before a decision was made. So why was the decision made so quickly when he, the LC, had not showed up until now and Shawton was with the A Squad?
But after giving it another thought, Cillin found the answer on his own. Senior Barthus himself had agreed to the enlistment, and Cillin himself was the one who brought the two new members on board. Naturally, the rest of the people would not object to the enlistment. Shawton might be dealing with some work at the A Squad, but he should have been informed a long time ago. Therefore, the decision to admit Udoze and Rikulab into the squad had become much easier to make.
The moment the topic of the new recruits were brought up, Cary immediately grew excited, “I heard from the brothers at Second Squad that you guys showed off pretty well at Vanguard’s communication department on the transit planet!”
“What do you think of them both?” Cillin looked at Cary. He did not believe that Cary had not given both Udoze and Rikulab a show of strength, just like how Cary had wanted a handshake the first time he met him. He had to test their level of skill after all.
Xiao Shang interrupted laughingly before Cary could say anything, “That Udoze guy’s driving skills are pretty impressive. He took out Cary at least.”
Eudy also added, “It’s just like the time you dueled fighters against each other on the virtual platform!”
Cary’s face had been trained to become much thicker than before, so he simply chuckled at the jabs. He really wasn’t that embarrassed to lose five out of ten matches against Udoze. Plus, he had to admit that Udoze’s adaptability and driving skills were amazing. During the ten versus matches, he had won the first five and lost the last five matches. In fact, he had only lost faster and more decisively with each passing match. A talent like Udoze would be able to contribute a lot to the squad when they engaged in dogfights in the future.
“As for Rikulab, the guys at the medical team talked a lot with him. Sometimes they would skip meals altogether when they discussed.” Cary said.
It would appear that the duo had blended quite quickly into the squad.
After returning to the squad and resting for two days, Cillin got ready to head to the transit planet. For the past two days, they had drunk, dueled, and gave both Udoze and Rikulab a welcoming party in passing. The one who ate the most at the feast was the gray cat, and the fat Snowball came in second. It truly was a creature that had jumped right out of its egg, not having even a nursing period. Although it did drink milk, it ate even more of other things.
Therefore, the two greatest gluttons in the Sixth B Squadron became famous since that day.
Both Cary and Xiao Shang were rather disappointed when they heard that Cillin had a mission yet again. Originally, they were going to drag him to a few famous places of entertainment at Sector K. it would seem that Cillin could only join them after his mission was complete.
When Eudy heard that Cillin had a mission to perform even during such a time, a flash went across his eyes. He passed a note to Cillin when the others weren’t paying attention, and after he read it, Cillin destroyed the note and gave Eudy an ‘OK’.
He did not need to worry about Udoze and Rikulab. Right now, Udoze had access to fighters and received fighter training everyday. While this might be tedious and exhausting work to someone else, to Udoze it was something to take pleasure in. Meanwhile, Rikulab had also begun to attempt realizing some of the few inspirations he had in the past with the aid of some people in the medical team who were well versed in pharmacology.
After bidding the Sixth B Squadron goodbye, Cillin and the gray cat stepped onto the starship headed for the transit planet once more. Although they had not yet officially departed, he could obviously detect an unusual atmosphere during the few days he spent on the base’s planet. The atmosphere around the B Squadrons was still okay; it was mainly the A Squadrons spreading their tension and restlessness to their surroundings involuntarily.
A few days after they had reentered the transit planet once more, Cillin had purposely gone to the Blue Butterfly Hunter regiment’s communication department to take a look. It was as desolate as Lung had told him, but something else laid beneath this surface of desolation.
Cillin did not head to Vanguard’s communication department, and instead went directly to the place Lung told him to go. Lung was still sleeping when he reached that place. The same sight of a singlet and a pair of beach pants, slippers tossed randomly at the side and saliva flowing along the edges of the bed and onto the floor greeted him.
When Cillin saw the process of Berzett waking Lung from his sleep, he sighed: the actions of those who hail from great families were truly beyond the imagination.
What Cillin had not expected was that Berzett, the butler who had stayed by Lung’s side like a nanny all this time actually wasn’t following them along the trip. The only passengers on this trip really was just him, Lung and a cat. Even if the starship they were on was small-sized, it still had quite a large amount of space. However, everything else around them except them two and a cat were machines.
Suddenly, Cillin thought that a road of hardships lay ahead of him.