Chapter 327: Do You Have Cat Lice? [Part 2]
“Give me a proposal first. When the time is right, we’ll build it together.”
Moon, Sigma, Czedow and Wheeze were included among this “we” as a matter of course. Their aid would greatly increased the plan’s chances of success since no one was more knowledgeable about intelligent mechanical entities than them..
“Alright, I’ll produce that proposal as soon as possible.” Xi Kai was very happy to receive the green light from Cillin, and he couldn’t wait to dive into the work. If his ancestors could modify Chip into a super AI that was capable of controlling an entire electronic planet by himself, then he could rise to this challenge as well!
Before encountering the Hades killers, Xi Kai had been planning to upgrade his robots. Now though, he realized that they were lacking in many ways possibly due to a limitation of resources. The robots he were using now were not the same as the ones that were used to carry out missions for Black Viper. Each one of those robots cost an exorbitant amount of money and was constructed using incredibly expensive materials, but money hadn’t been a problem at the time.
Now though, temporarily stuck in a foreign galaxy where most of his wealth couldn’t be carried over, it was. The weaknesses of his poor man’s construct were unnoticeable in the norm, but in a time of crisis they were immediately exposed for what they were: an inferior construct. For example, their speed, reaction speed, detection capability and more had failed to live up to his expectations. It was why he had taken a moment to discuss with Czedow on how to upgrade his robots—to construct a better robot and lower costs at the same time—after returning to the ship.
That plan would have to wait, however. The completion of the starship super AI installation proposal plan must come first.
Cillin was still thinking about the super AI when he returned to the bridge. If everything went well, then the benefits were tremendous to say the least. But if they failed, then it like sleeping next to a bomb that might explode at any moment. He would rather destroy the AI and all the hard work that went into it if that really happened.
Suddenly, Cillin heard a strange noise and looked. He immediately saw Wheeze lying on top of a table and shifting back and forth repeatedly as if it was scratching its own back.
Is its back itchy?
“Did you catch something during the hunt or something? Is it cat lice or fleas?” Cillin asked while walking over to it.
“No!” Wheeze replied while continuing to wriggle left and right. It was a hilarious sight especially considering how fat it was.
“Let me take a look.” Cillin beckoned it over, and Wheeze immediately ran to his side.
Cillin picked up Wheeze, gave its back a scratch and immediately noticed something unusual. Where there was nothing before, there were now two narrow, oval bumps on Wheeze’s back that felt like bones. They were invisible under the fur, but it was quite obvious once he touched its back.
“What is this?” Cillin gave them a poke.
“Yes, yes! That’s the spot! It’s super itchy for some reason!” Wheeze complained.
Cary was holding a glass of fruit juice and passing by the entrance when he saw the odd interaction, so he walked in to ask what was going on. After hearing Cillin’s explanation, he decided to touch Wheeze’s back himself. He cried out dramatically when he felt the two bumps, “Wheeze, you’re undergoing hyperostosis!”
Slap!
Unfortunately, Cary didn’t notice Tico entering the bridge from behind him, and when she heard his nonsense she immediately slapped him in the back of the head and scolded him, “That’s completely incorrect, stop making irresponsible remarks! If you want to make a medical joke, at least read up on the term you’re going to use before using it!”
Rubbing the sore spot on his head and tugging at his lips, Cary took a step backward so that Tico could give an actual professional opinion.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t find out what was going on despite performing many tests on Wheeze. Although she wasn’t a vet, she had studied the relevant science a little because she kept a pet rabbit. The problem was that the results she got for every test she performed on Wheeze largely differed to that of a normal cat’s, and without a baseline to refer to it was impossible to tell if Wheeze was healthy. The only thing she could really confirm was that the bumps weren’t causing discomfort to other bones.
“Wait! the itch is gone now.” Wheeze suddenly got back up to its feet and gave itself a good shake. Then, it hooked over its unfinished bag of fish biscuits and began feeding again.
“Maybe it’s because it’s overweight or something? Wheeze is way fatter than it used to be,” Cary mumbled.
Cillin could only shake his head and say, “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. This guy has always been anything but normal.”
Some time later, it was confirmed that Wheeze’s weird itch was a recurring thing. The good news was that it was the only symptom it displayed thus far, and as far as they could tell there were no negative consequences on its health whatsoever, if the way it sliced open the fish biscuit packets like a master was any indicator.
To make Wheeze more comfortable, Cillin prepared a scratching post so that it didn’t need to lie upside down anymore. One more thing to note was that Wheeze’s appetite had been growing my leaps and bounds recently, and it had been spending almost every waking moment feeding non-stop.
Back to the more serious matters. The inventorying of their loot from the hunt was finally complete, and Cillin was planning to trade them for resources. In times of chaos like the one they were in right now, physical resources would always be more reliable than credits. There were things that one couldn’t trade in a crisis even with an infinite amount of money.
Dias knew some old clients he usually traded his goods to after a hunt. These people specifically purchased goods from hunting sectors, and the prices they offered in return were usually fair. It was why many hunting regiments enjoyed doing business with them.
After contacting the buyers and confirming the trade location, Cillin told Ghost Butterfly Seventeen about it so that Blue Butterfly could meet them there.
“Don’t forget to tell your friends to bring your credits! You still have a debt to pay!” Wheeze said while chewing a fish biscuit.
Ghost Butterfly Seventeen immediately threw a nut at it. “Eat your biscuit, fatty!”
Technically speaking, the trade planets were a fairly isolated region compared to the rest of the planets of the hunting sector. However, it was where nearly 60% of the goods of the entire sector were traded. Moreover, most of the organizations that came here to deliver the goods to their clients were big hunting regiments.
After the chaos began though, the place was clearly a lot quieter than before. Only a couple of starships and spaceplanes were parked outside the spaceport.
“I don’t see Heaven’s Birth’s starship anywhere. Do we want to dock our starship with the spaceport, or do we go invisible and stop elsewhere?” Cary asked.
“We go invisible. We’ll fly over to the trade location on a spaceplane,” Cillin replied.
After going invisible and parking their starship at a good hiding spot, Cillin formed three teams and departed for the planet directly. There was no need to speak to a middleman since they had communicated with their client before.
The trade location was a big estate where tamed alien beasts were bred. The reason the trader went through the trouble to tame them was because they each possessed a certain quality that was desirable to their buyers. Naturally, they would want to maximize the value of their goods.
No contact was necessary; someone had already come out to receive them when they arrived. Cillin left the negotiations to Dias since he was an old hand in this area and a long-time acquaintance of the trader.
Cillin took in the scenery while the other party was examining the goods. A couple of buildings and pens were scattered across the grassy fields, and the ferocious alien beasts that once terrorized their homes were making lazy strolls and generally enjoying a comfortable life. Cillin thought they looked like dequilled porcupines.
Wheeze, Snowball and the rest of the animals in the crew had already left to roll themselves silly on the fields. Even Tico had set down her little rabbit so that it could enjoy some fresh, unpolluted grass.
Suddenly, Cillin noticed a couple of people walking out of a building. The building was pretty far away, but Cillin’s eyesight was good enough to see them clearly without needing to use a tool. It was a troop of bodyguards were escorting two young men, and one of them was a familiar face, Fen Yuzuo.
Cillin had only met Fen Yuzuo once, but he knew that the young man was tied to the famous media giant and electronic magazine with a contribution rating of over 80, “Lavish”. The magazine mainly reported on the happenings of the business Sectors. The reason Cillin recognized the young man was because he saw him once during Lung’s gathering right after the military opened “God’s Back Garden” at the center of Sector Z.
There was no way Fen Yuzuo would recognize him now though. For one, they had only met each other once, and two he had changed his appearance. Moreover, Lung was the center of attention at the time, so he doubted that Fen Yuzuo thought too much of him at all.
Surprisingly, Fen Yuzuo seemed to be speaking rather amicably with the other young man next to him. In fact, it was clear that it was a conversation between equals, even though Fen Yuzuo was the young master of “Lavish” himself. It wasn’t because that Fen Yuzuo was a humble person, Cillin knew. If the other young man was of a lower standing than he was, then Fen Yuzuo would be acting like the high and mighty young master he was already. This meant that the other young man was a VIP himself.
What really caught Cillin’s attention however, was the strange sense of familiarity from the other young man, even though he was certain that he had never seen him before. He seemed rather thin and frail, and Cillin could tell that he was a weak fighter based on the way he was walking alone.
Unlike the young man, the bodyguards escorting him were all expert fighters. They were always at the right place and the right angle to block a hit for their subject.
The young man might be a poor fighter, but his senses turned out to be unusually sharp. He actually noticed Cillin looking at him and shot him a glance. He quickly lost interest in Cillin, although the same couldn’t be said for the bodyguards. They kept at least one eye on him at all times.
Weird. Have I really not seen him before? If so, then why does he feel so familiar?
Eudy called out to him at this moment, so he shook his head and began walking away. However, he only managed to take two steps when a bolt of sudden realization passed through his head. His eyes widened, and he stopped in his tracks. That young man, he’s…