Cillin was immediately greeted by this scene when he opened the door: A white-haired young man staring at his receiver and watching the live broadcast of none other than the Winds of Freedom, a young man wearing what seemed like rags lying crookedly on the bed and sleeping, a third young man listening to music from his earphones and shaking his head rhythmically, and finally a young girl playing a game with her full attention. If they shared one thing in common, it would be that they were all busy with their own things and couldn’t be bothered to spare even a glance at him.
A wolf with snow white fur was lying on another sofa; its ears had moved once when Cillin came in. Out of all these people and creatures, the one with the biggest reaction was the armadillo lizard. Although Cillin had only caught a glimpse of it, he was certain that it was the spiky ball he saw at the desert.
The armadillo lizard looked up, swayed its tail once and stared at Cillin curiously.
Cillin had never seen them before. He could guess that they were probably members of the affiliated schools, but they were still largely different from the ones he had met in the past. For starters, they stood out a lot more compared to Requiem Vega and her group when they first attacked him at the bar. Their threat level was far higher as well.
After Sula had brought Cillin to this room, she left without seeming unnatural. They didn’t belong to the same faction, and she had no reason to stay behind. Also, White Night and the rest of the group wouldn’t speak up if she had decided otherwise.
As expected, White Night looked away from his receiver the moment Sula had stepped out of the door. When he looked at Cillin, he looked less like he was staring at a person, and more like he was confirming the correctness and authenticity of his target.
When he was finished, White Night took out a square object that was smaller than one quarter of his palm and placed it on the table. He gave it a tap, and the square object expanded just like the Vanguard exclusive receipt Cillin used a long time ago.
It was a slip. Cillin accepted it and gave it a look. It was stated on the slip clearly that these people had come over to help Cillin take out the troublesome robots so he could participate in the race without worries. If the mission was completed successfully, he was to sign his name and make payment.
While Cillin was looking at the slip, Chi Lafang got up from his sofa and said, “If possible, please add a comment saying that the mission was completed fearlessly, heroically and beautifully and that we deserve a reward, like a raise!”
Even Sediya had stopped listening to his music and moved closer, “Yes, yes, you must mention that we deserve a reward!”
Cillin shot them a glance as they watched him closely. Finally, he began moving his hand.
The slip had a sensor inside it, so it could only be written on with a finger. If he wished to sign on the slip, he could do it with his finger. The same went with writing a comment.
Cillin wrote the comment “deserves reward” in the performance column after signing his name, pleasing Chi Lafang and Sediya so much they they couldn’t stop grinning. After that, he produced his student card and waved it near the card reader of the slip. A beep indicated that the transaction had taken effect.
“All done!” Chi Lafang took back the slip and let it shrank back into cube form. Then, he put it away carefully like he was holding a treasure. It was proof that he deserved a raise.
“We should return now since the deed is done. We’ll talk again if anything else pops up in the future, yeah.” Sediya gave Cillin a pat on the shoulder before turning around to discuss with Chi Lafang in secret. Whatever they were talking about, the smiles on their faces looked suspicious to say the least. They were probably talking on how best to waste their money after they had gotten their raise.
White Night also stood up. Before he left, he said, “Teacher Guan told you to find him after you were done here. At his house.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
“No need.”
The group and the two animals left without another word after that. Outside the door, they didn’t even bother to greet Sula and the others. Cillin asked Sula after they were gone,
“Are they the graduates who stayed with the school?”
A large majority of the students in the affiliated schools joined factions while they were still studying, and those that didn’t normally had their own directions to follow after they had graduated. Some who were absorbed into the RAS. Not all who studied in the RAS’ affiliated schools belonged to the RAS alone.
There were also an extremely small amount of graduates who chose to stay with the school instead of joining other factions. They had a fixed salary, and they had plenty of options to earn extra money. This mission was one of them.
Sula nodded, “That’s right. I wasn’t expecting Teacher Guan to send them myself. It looks like this incident was a lot more serious than we know of.”
Sula had a lot of doubts regarding this matter that still didn’t have an answer, and she couldn’t get an answer from the robots or White Night’s group either. Although not all graduates who stayed with the school were tight-lipped, White Night’s group in particular was infamous for being difficult. It had been a couple of years since they graduated from school, but the teachers still couldn’t help but curse them whenever they entered the topic of a conversation. They were a subject of both love and hate.
Sula introduced White Night’s group briefly and mentioned that she was sent over by Gen Liao. They had had to work with little to no info, and they couldn’t confirm that Black Viper was indeed waiting to ambush Cillin. In fact, they were only there to prepare for any eventualities. It seemed like there were many things that eluded Gen Liao as well.
The robots that were waiting in ambush seemed to have undergone an upgrade. Their core was tougher, their wits were better, and they had all successfully circumvented the RAS’ latest safety net and scanners. In the end, the RAS was one step too late. Even now, Sula didn’t know exactly how many robots had infiltrated this planet.
Considering the robots’ abilities and their target, Sula was certain that they had had a lot of opportunities to take Cillin away by force. So why hadn’t they acted until White Night’s group and hers had finally arrived to intervene?
She gave up thinking once she discovered that she didn’t have an answer. Sula herself was but an executor in this matter, and she should leave the thinking to the higher ups.
By now Gen Xingming was urging Cillin to walk with him. The award ceremony was about to start, and Cillin’s presence was urgently needed.
“Please take care of whatever you have to take care here as quickly as you can. Then we’ll escort you and the princes back to safety.” Sula said.
“Alright.”
The award ceremony was going to take place at the finishing line, and everything had been set in place already. There were lights everywhere, and it felt like daytime even though it was night already.
When Cillin finally arrived, Gen Xingming dragged him over urgently like his pants was on fire. The first place driver and navigator were required to take a snapshot with their vehicle and give a speech during the award ceremony. Cillin left all the talking to Naimi since he was a chatty guy to begin with.
Tonight was a night that marked an epoch in the history of flying cars. From this night onwards, Vege-Fritter was no longer a tragic character that was used frequently in black humors. After having been buried for so many years, Vege-Fritter was finally standing in the limelight like during its glorious days once more.
The audiences were all cheering madly. No one noticed that a large man who was waving and shouting like all others had flashes in his eyes that looked like that of a reflected light.
At another spot on the planet, a robot dropped its invisibility and walked into an empty repair room.
“We’re done here.”
“The other operation is underway already; we don’t need to expose ourselves any longer. We will leave after he leaves.”
“Understood.”
…
Cillin and Naimi won a large sum of prize money since they took first place in the Winds of Freedom. After Brielles’ lost bet was also added to the pile, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Cillin had turned wealthy over a single night.
The overall second place of the race went to the flying car who was carried by the winds, Spearhead. Not only had it flown very well during the latter half of the race, it had clung to its chance and seized second place the moment Aero made a tiny mistake.
Lightning had almost gone past the finish line at the same time as Aero, but that was all. Aero might’ve slipped up and lost the top two spots to its competitors, but it was still better than Lightning and claimed third place.
Tobia and Qiu Xu failed to enter among the top 10, but this was just the first race of their life and a practice race focused on familiarizing themselves with the Winds of Freedom. In the future, they might be able to do better.
“What are you looking at!” Tobia gave Qiu Xu a clap before tracing her navigator’s gaze. As it turned out, she was staring at the shiniest spot of the award platform where the Vege-Fritter and the champion pair were standing and receiving their award.
“Don’t lose heart. We’re still young and this is our first match! Once we’ve gotten used to a race at this level, it’s only a matter of time before that spot belongs to ours! Let’s work hard for the next Winds of Freedom, okay? Four years is going to pass in no time!” Tobia said.
Qiu Xu turned her head and gave Tobia a smile. She didn’t give her a reply though.
Tobia suddenly recalled something and pointed at Cillin with wide open eyes, “Wait, you’re not falling for that kid, are you? Give it up, girl. My brother said that he seems pretty close to the noble descendants, and you know what type of people they are. Plus, they may be higher up than even the people who’re sponsoring our team.”
“Cut your guesses, it’s not like that!”
“Alright alright. Come on! Let’s go check out the medal our team got!” Tobia relaxed after confirming that Qiu Xu really wasn’t crushing on that boy. After all, no one in the team wanted to attract more nobles’ attention than necessary. They would be nothing more but cannon fodders if they were caught in a fight between nobles.
Qiu Xu followed behind Tobia as they walked towards their racing team, but the emotions in the former’s eyes were murky and unclear. She suddenly looked at a certain spot on the viewing platform, and the big man who was waving his hands there suddenly stiffened for an instant. He quickly regained himself, however.
“How troublesome.” Qiu Xu sighed quietly to herself.
No one heard her because the surroundings were too loud.
Meanwhile, Naimi was making his statement on the light-filled stage in an overly excited manner.
“... our ride is the Vege-Fritter, a model everyone thought was trash. Personally, I don’t think we did well this race. We were just a bit faster than our competitors, and we were just the champions of the race, that’s all…”
It was such a provocative speech that some of the participating racers felt like throwing their shoes at him.
When the ceremony was finally complete, Cillin was dragged into the afterparty by Gen Xingming. Some time later, a huge number of people had knocked themselves out with alcohol before their caretakers carried their limp bodies back to wherever they came from.
Cillin himself was dragging Gen Xingming, Naimi — who was so drunk that he wouldn’t stop talking nonsense even while unconscious — the sleeping Ulaganuo and Kenancy by the collar back to the Sizer Family’s lounge. He happened to run into Spearhead’s racing team exiting the venue from another entrance and caught Qiu Xu’s gaze, but they both looked away from each other quickly. Doubt had already taken root in Cillin’s mind, however.
On the day he saw Qiu Xu at the repair shop, he already had a feeling that she was a lot more than she appeared. At the time, he thought that they would do very well in this race, and that they were easily a top ten contender — but only if Qiu Xu was the one who was doing the driving. As it turned out, she was just a navigator, and they didn’t do remarkably well in this race either.
Why was she hiding her strength? Cillin had no idea. But he had had a very strange feeling when he caught her gaze, and he was certain that she knew something.
That being said, it was just a suspicion. Now wasn’t the time to investigate her even if he wanted to.
The next day, Cillin turned down Naimi and Fleka’s attempts to detain him and dragged the hangover bunch back to the Gen Family with Sula. On the way back, he briefly investigated into Qiu Xu’s background and discovered many traces of forgery that an average person wouldn’t normally see through. Whoever did this must be very familiar with their job because he couldn’t find any alterations to the files at all. Although everything inside could be proven one way or the other, some logical analyses and probability analyses quickly revealed that some parts of her files were suspicious. If it was only one part he could’ve signed it off as coincidence, but clearly her profile data was forged.
Who on earth had the power to perform such deep level forgery? It didn’t feel like Black Viper’s handiwork, but Cillin couldn’t shake off the feeling that they were at least tied to this in some way. It was intuition without any basis, but it was still his intuition.
Cillin spent his whole time on the ship thinking about Black Viper and Qiu Xu. His attempts to call Guan Feng hadn’t yielded any fruit either, entering voicemail every time he tried. He had no idea what his teacher was doing. Maybe he was busy working on PTS S, since he heard that the weapon was almost complete.
Cillin immediately noticed the big fellow the moment he walked into Genya’s courtyard. It was impossible not to considering how conspicuous it was.
“It’s that fellow from the egg?” Cillin said while pointing at the fifty meter tall sea creature in the courtyard. Right now the big fellow was keeping its mouth open while Wheeze instructed the servants to clean its tongue and teeth.
The servants seemed to have gotten used to the task already, showing no fear at all despite working inside the sea creature’s mouth. In fact, they were talking and scrubbing both at the same time.
Wheeze proudly ran over to Cillin and boasted the moment it saw him, “Look, that’s my pet. How does he look?!”
Cillin shot a glance at the big fellow who was keeping its mouth open but also looking his way, “This guy must have a huge appetite, right?” There was no other way to explain how it grew like someone had pumped hormones into its veins.
“True, but grandpa two says this is nothing!” Wheeze said while flicking its ears.
Grandpa two… can’t believe you actually address him like that!
“Oh right, I came up with a new name for it. I’m calling it Blueskin because it’s skin is blue!” Wheeze jumped up to Cililn’s shoulder and asked anxiously, “How is it?”
“... It’ll do for now.”
And so poor Blueskin had its name decided just like that.
Cillin told Genya how the race went roughly, and he glossed over some details here and there. Genya had to know some of Sula’s movements at the race, so Cillin mentioned her briefly, but didn’t go into the heavy stuff.
“What?! There’s prize money?! How much?!” Eyes shining, Wheeze clapped Cillin with its paw while asking.
Cillin ignored Wheeze, grabbed it behind the neck, and informed Genya that he was going back to his room to rest and left the courtyard. His departure didn’t stop the servants from continuing to brush Blueskin’s teeth.
“Any news?” Cillin asked after returning to his room.
“No, I can’t find anything that’s too useful from here, and the Gen Family hasn’t found anything yet. One thing is certain though, those robots are definitely scheming something.”
Cillin fell quiet for a moment before saying, “Come with me to Teacher Guan’s tomorrow.”
“What for?” Wheeze looked a little reluctant.
“Something. You can stay here if you don’t want to go.”
“No, I’ll come. I’ve stayed here long enough anyway, it’s about time to take a walk.” was what it said, though in reality the gray cat was simply coveting the money in Cillin’s pockets. Plus, it meant being able to buy more fish biscuits.
“Alright, then we will head to AF1 tomorrow.”
“In that case I’ll go settle a few things.” Wheeze went out to remind the servants to feed its pet on time.
Genya didn’t make a comment despite Cillin leaving again so soon after he had returned. The boy still had his studies, and there was no way Cillin could stay here forever.
Blueskin cried loudly when it heard the news, seemingly very reluctant to part ways with Wheeze. It quickly quieted after Wheeze slapped it around a couple times though.
“Be good. We’ll bring you food when we come back.” Cillin said.
Blueskin: “Meow”
Cillin: “...”
He hit Blueskin’s head once and said, “You’re a sea beast, not a cat!”
The Gen Family escorted Cillin and Wheeze to AF1. Gen Xingming and his friends were still absent from school, unwilling to listen to the teacher’s ramblings even when during their moment of boredom.
Cillin hadn’t left AF1 for long, but he felt a lot different after his return. It could be because he had successfully vented some of his frustration, or it could be because the school seemed like a relaxing environment after a bout of extreme racing.
When he first came to AF1, he thought that life was rapid and that everyday was filled with work. But now, he thought that it wasn’t a bad pace — it was at least much easier to deal with than the tension of a race.
Within the acceptable speed limit, he drove all the way to Guan Feng’s house and parked his car at the courtyard. However, he felt wrong the second he entered the courtyard. Although everything looked the same as ever, the place felt lifeless for some reason. Had Guan Feng not return home from his research lab even once? Didn’t White Night tell him to come here directly?
The house door opened automatically after Cillin swiped his student ID card on the card reader. Cillin walked in, but the house was empty. The fishes swam happily inside the fish tank, but the entire house was giving off a strange feeling.