Cillin did not stay behind for the post-mortem involving the entire Vanguard as Ji Feng was still in the middle of treatment. He, Czedow and Wheeze took their leave as soon as he had informed Stanley of their upcoming absence.
Stanley accepted the decision without question as Ji Feng had already told him to allow the young man to do as he pleased. In fact, he was quite glad to hear this. Cillin had struck quite the impression in him to put it mildly. He would rather avoid the young man if possible.
Eudy would be attending the post-mortem on Cillin’s behalf. The deputy commander was the de-facto leader of the Eleventh Squad when Cillin wasn’t around.
The research team was currently busy upgrading the robots. Previously, the robots had been thrown into battle before they could finish the upgrades. It wasn’t all bad though. Thanks to the data from their latest conflict, Xi Kai and Xi Mu believed that they could improve the robots even better than their original expectations.
After the post-mortem was over, Eudy led the squadron back to their base for some much needed R&R. It wasn’t just their hardware including their Armor that needed some repair and maintenance. They needed to speak with Mogas’ group as well. They all needed a heart-to-heart talk after their recent experiences.
“Hey man, do you think our commander is made of super alloy or something? We just finished a war, and he’s out on yet another mission,” Xiao Shang asked lazily while resting atop a handrail.
Beneath the handrail, Cary replied while repairing his fighter, “How would I know? Our commander has always been a busy man. We don’t need to stick our nose into his business though. All we need to do, as always, is to grow stronger.”
Cary knew from the fact that Cillin had only taken Czedow and Wheeze with him that he was carrying out yet another dangerous secret mission. He and Xiao Shang might be above average compared to most others, but they were nothing before the trio.
Moon circled around the starship once before taking a seat at a random corner. He looked like he was absorbed in thought.
“What are you thinking, Moon?” Reefia asked while flying over to his side. Suyi and Sigma were right behind him. The four Origin robots almost always operated together since they were reunited.
The light strip on Moon’s faceplate flickered once before he replied in a deep tone, “I’m thinking about life.”
“Okay, but make sure you don’t dive too deep into your thoughts. The starship is still in the middle of upgrading. It would be bad if you accidentally crippled Little Eleven. You know the machines around us get messed up when we think too hard about something,” Reefia said in a proud voice for some reason.
Suyi interrupted in a cold voice, “You know there’s nothing to be proud about this trait of ours, right?”
Reefia glared at Suyi like he had just dumped a bucket of cold water over his head.
While everyone in the Eleventh squad was busying themselves, Cillin, Czedow and Wheeze had entered Sector X without anyone noticing.
The sector looked the same as ever. If he had to point out something, it would be that the Sector had fallen into a slump once more.
Before the chaos, Sector X had experienced a brief period of prosperity thanks to the rise and development of several tourism planets. Many people’s lives were improved thanks to the influx of people and money. Although their labor was still ludicrously cheap compared to other Sectors, it was still better than having no people or money coming into the sector at all. At the very beginning, Sector X was so unpopular they couldn’t even sell their labor for free.
The time Cillin had taken Wheeze and Tang Qiuqiu to Sector X was also the time it was most prosperous. Unfortunately, it only lasted a couple of decades before the chaos began, and everything went to shit. All tourism planets including the Little Garden created by the Feniers Family were half-closed as a result. This caused Sector X to fall into a slump once more, but that was only if you compared it to the trade sectors. For the locals, their lives had barely changed even when their Sector was experiencing what was supposed to be its Golden Age.
Cillin read the encrypted message he just received before ordering Czedow to fly their spaceplane into Brown Earth Planet. He didn’t bother checking a map because he was intricately familiar with the place even though it had been years since he came back. He knew at least a handful of places they could land without being detected by the satellite array.
Speaking of the satellite array, the surveillance slash global weapon looked just as menacing as ever, but unlike the residents Cillin had not been afraid of it for a very, very long time. Any one of them could’ve easily subverted its system to facilitate their entry. It was downright mundane compared to some of the surveillance systems they had had to face.
Eventually, the spaceplane landed in a secluded area with a small forest. The forest was horribly sparse and narrow due to the poor environment, but it was good enough to conceal their landing and keep their spaceplane hidden.
The spaceplane automatically turned invisible after they left it. Even if someone decided to visit this forest for whatever reason, chances were they weren’t going to discover the invisible spaceplane.
“Where are we going?” Wheeze asked from Cillin’s shoulder while stretching its claws lazily. Its paws got itchy every time it felt bored.
Cillin checked his communicator again. Although Yu Linglung knew that Samburt was hiding on this planet, she didn’t know his exact location. This meant that the only way they could meet up was if Samburt contacted Cillin of his own accord, or if Cillin somehow located the old man. Considering that Samburt was being hunted right now, he should’ve told Yu Linglung of his exact location so she could protect him as soon as possible. This could only mean two things: One, his circumstances weren’t yet so dire that he had to throw all caution to the wind. Two, he was suspicious of Yu Linglung and hadn’t yet accepted her olive branch.
In fact, Samburt must be incredibly distrustful toward the Yu Family itself.
Cillin scanned his surroundings briefly before saying, “Well, there’s no hurry. I think we can afford to go home for a bit.”
“Home? You mean that shabby town you used to live in?” Wheeze remembered that town quite well because it was literally worse than even its birthplace.
“Yeah.”
Wheeze’s ears pulled back immediately. Cillin didn’t even need to look to know that the gray cat didn’t like the decision at all. The only reason it didn’t say anything about it was because it respected Cillin’s decision.
Cillin smiled and patted Wheeze’s head. “It’s been a few years. The town should’ve changed a little.”
“So what? It’s still not fit for a cat to live,” Wheeze muttered.
“Have you forgotten? I bought an abandoned residential area the last time we were here.”
Wheeze’s ears immediately shot upward when it heard this. Now that he mentioned it, they had bought a residential area in that town. In fact, it was the one who modified some of the data to expedite the purchase. Otherwise, it would’ve taken Cillin much more effort to purchase it without showing himself.
Wheeze immediately huffed through its nose and said, “Let’s go then. We don’t need to pay for anything since we own the place, right?”
Czedow: “…” I think I know exactly what purchase you’re thinking about.
Wheeze wasn’t just trying to cut down on its cat food expenditures. Now that it knew that it had a territory on Brown Earth Planet, it wanted to mark and patrol it as soon as possible.
On Brown Earth Planet, there was a sort of neutral ground between the city and the slums. It was here the trio had landed the spaceplane. They didn’t need to walk far before they were greeted by rows and rows of rundown houses.
No one paid attention to the trio as they entered the small town. Cillin could see that the town population had become much sparser and smaller than before. Some of the buildings had even collapsed from lack of use and maintenance.
On the other hand, he saw new houses in the areas closer to the city. They were bought by laborers who had finally saved up enough money to fund the construction. The reason they chose these locations was because it gave them a sense of superiority. It made them feel different from those living at the center of the slums.
The abandoned residential area Cillin had purchased was at the center of the slums. The place was well-built as it was based on the blueprints Cillin had given to the developer.
There used to be a bunch of abandoned houses in the area, but now they had demolished and replaced by a massive residence. It looked almost like Genya’s place except that the architecture was intentionally kept simple and bland. As a result, the two-storey building was inconspicuous even from a satellite’s point of view.
Cillin had paid for the place with the money he had earned doing hunting missions. He hadn’t touched the Eleventh Squad’s budget or Wheeze’s cat food money at all. An entire residential area sounded expensive, but this was Brown Earth Planet and the slums. Moreover, its population was fewer than ever as everyone who had participated in the development of the tourism planets had moved out of the planet. Those who remained tried their best to move into the city. Those who couldn’t would camp in the city outskirts. Few people were willing to move back into the slums.
And of course, some people just vanished and were never seen again. It was unknown what happened to these people, or if they were even alive. All in all, this was why there were so many more abandoned buildings in the slums than before.
Back to the present, Wheeze leaped off Cillin’s shoulder and began exploring the residence almost as soon as the security walls had come within view. The residence was protected, but of course it took Wheeze no effort to slip inside.
Frankly, there was literally nothing in the residence that was up to Wheeze’s standards, but no matter how backward it was it was still its own “territory”. So, it carefully marked its territory and patrolled the whole place at least once before finally returning to Cillin’s shoulder. It then pointed at the abandoned buildings next to the residence and said, “Let’s buy up those plots as well, Cillin! This place needs to be bigger, don’t you think?”
“I am planning to buy up those plots, yes.”
Cillin hadn’t gone into the residence like Wheeze. After the gray cat had returned, he walked down another path toward a pub. It was the one he was renting to a friend.
The pub was doing poorly. He could tell few people frequented the place just by looking at the counter. He could hear the sounds of laughter both adult and young from inside the pub though.
Cillin noticed that the “Welcome” sign at the entrance was unlit as he entered the pub. It made sense. Considering the number of customers the pub must receive every day, it would be a waste of electricity and money to keep it on.
“Good day, customers! What do you—”
A middle-aged man with a sparse beard stepped out from inside to greet the trio. Although he looked weathered, his spirit was strong, and his eyes were smiling. Surprise overcame him, and he forgot what he was going to say when he saw Cillin’s face though.
“Long time no see, Er Cheng,” Cillin greeted his friend smilingly before taking a seat at a round wooden table.