Xyrin Empire

Sometimes, solving one mystery only means unraveling a bigger one, knowing some truths only means facing more fog, finding some evidence eventually shows they can only be used to support another hypothesis you hadn't thought of—like we assumed the Imperial Battleship that crashed on Mars would tell us where Visca's fleet went after losing contact with their leader, but in fact, the only intelligence we got was that at least one battleship in this fleet finally became the lair of a group of unexpected guests.

We should be grateful for the distributed onboard database technology and twenty-second level synchronous "Final Recorder" used by the Eternal-class Starship, which allows the Mother Ship to retain its intelligence to the maximum before destruction, even when broken to pieces. The low-power operation of discrete reactors and communication systems ensures that its scattered debris can still share databases within a range of one light year, so as long as a data terminal on any piece of debris can still be used, we can extract its Voyage Log: provided the battleship itself has not been written off by the self-destruct system.

This undoubtedly provides explorers, like us, with great convenience in finding out the accident's truth.

Visca tried to download the log from the database, but she found all devices' energy supply was extremely unstable, with the power core's Ghost Energy output fluctuations making the database inoperable under safe conditions. So, she promptly dismantled all storage units from the control core and ordered the engineers and technicians outside to go to the second impact crater several kilometers away, to dismantle another piece of debris's main database, barely salvaging the data before it was destroyed by its own energy coils. However, this means reading the Voyage Log on site on Mars is impossible; only upon returning to Shadow City can specialized facilities reactivate the starship's data core and extract these severely damaged materials.

Unknown corpses found in the wreckage were partially cremated by Visca, with the remainder handed over to follow-up engineers. Some corpse samples were sent to the scientific laboratory at the Mars Outpost, while others I planned to bring back for Dingdang to inspect. If these Otherworldly People occupying the spaceship were a Race created by the Divine Race, perhaps Dingdang could find their origin in the Divine Realm's library—though I seriously doubt whether Dingdang, as Life Goddess, even knows how to navigate her own grand library…

Given the large scale of this second impact wave with widespread fragments, Sandora decided to set up an outpost on Mars' surface for about a year; its mission is to study the Starship debris locally. Initially, I was curious about what was worth researching in these Eternal-class battleships, since the Imperial Army is now capable of mass-producing such gigantic Mother Ships, and their technical level doesn't surpass the empire's Eternal-class enough to warrant a year of study. But Sandora was evidently considering another factor: she discovered that the Eternal-class Starships manufactured by Visca's Destruction Army significantly differ from currently equipped ships of the same class in the empire. They incorporate many retro designs, likely because back then, the insane Visca didn't have complete Imperial Armory technology and could only rely on patching up her Mother Ships, yet these ships possess many astonishingly clever features. Evidently, some cat-eyed loli led the reform herself.

Due to being unable to match the Imperial Regular Army's rigid conditions, enhancing the ships' combat power by taking an alternative path is how Visca operated back then. Through analyzing the structure of this Eternal-class battleship wreck on Mars, Sandora found that while its Shield System wasn't strong, it possessed extremely "tenacious" structural designs that were difficult to completely destroy at once, allowing the ship to continue fighting even after its shields and armor were penetrated—a technology never attempted in the empire's equipped ships: Xyrin Apostle tends to charge at the enemy for mutual destruction or self-destruct in place to maintain "soldiers' honor" once shields and armor are lost. They lack a certain type of obsessive spirit Visca honed in the endless warfare—destroying and attacking until the bitter end, the last bullet always reserved for the enemy.

Furthermore, Destruction Army's warships have many strange aspects; even Sandora, after touring the wreck and scanning every compartment, found incomprehensible parts. Admittedly, these parts might have been installed when Visca was unclear-minded, but any modification a Imperial General who made her way through never-ending wars must have profoundly considered… Well, I still think it might have been that year Visca whimsically modified her ships, like she mounted two overlapping Teleportation Gates on her Barrier Star's Star Ring.

Given that Mars is quite far from Earth and humans won't possibly notice what happened here within a year, Sandora simply established an outpost here.

After allocating tasks here, everyone returned home.

The timing was perfect for meal time; I confess we were able to complete the task so swiftly largely due to Sandora's appetite.

The dismantled data components were directly sent to Shadow City, with Bubbles personally leading her daughters to repair and extract logs. Because the incident brought more variables and puzzles, Sandora seemed burdened with worries, even affecting her meal consumption that day, so at 7:30 PM, I called the cutlery store stating the tableware reserved for delivery the next day wasn't needed, while Visca displayed surprising carefreeness, cheerfully enjoying her meal, with corn porridge all over her head and face, and afterwards, she even fought with Pandora for fruit, until both sisters ended up tossed to the porch.

After dinner, resembling a damned rich landlord, I leaned on the sofa, picking my teeth and watching TV, seeing the host convey various incorrect sunspot theories to the public, watching them explain why countries are launching new communications satellites extensively lately, seeing those experts and professors use contradictory methods to explain why Southeast TV often has snowy spots recently, and meanwhile, witnessing Anwina playfully emerge from the TV to scare people but ultimately has to obediently wipe the TV cabinet. Truly feeling comfy nestled at home, then suddenly hearing a gust behind my ear, not reacting in time, a little one settled onto my shoulder and wrapped my head.

"Stupid human! Where's my gift! My gift!"

Mercury Lamp's unique voice, slightly bossy and cold, sounded by my ear; just hearing the voice one could imagine her lone little tiger teeth targeting the back of my head. You can't deny it; this girl has increasingly mastered the art of striking while the iron's hot to act cute: she knew my temper, understood that her Papa's combat power is at its lowest during the half-hour post-dinner spent lounging on the sofa like an '82 chewing gum watching TV. Using this tactic, she has swindled enough candy and various dolls from me to arm a football field filled with lolis.

But the problem is, I really forgot about this…

Mars! I just took a quick trip around Mars, and now where am I supposed to find a gift for her! This girl has been spoiled lately, if anyone from the family goes out without her, they must bring her a gift when they return. Although a handful of glass marbles might suffice, the only rule is that it must be a locally sourced gift. Once, I went on a business trip to Northrend and brought back two small pets as gifts, only to be busted and bitten on the head on the spot—of course, bringing tropical fish from Northrend was indeed my fault…

I saw Mercury Lamp already opening her small mouth, ready to bite, so I quickly fumbled around in my personal space and finally found something that might fool her: a small red round stone.

"Here you go, there's plenty of this on Mars. This is your own standard, it has to be a local specialty, and you collect these all the time."

Mercury Lamp held the apple-sized red stone, blinking her eyes, suddenly shouting with her teeth bared: "Isn't Mars supposed to have a rabbit named Chang'e and seven Ninja Turtles popping out of gourd? And shouldn't the ginseng fruit tree there be full of immortal peaches and morning glories? Why am I only getting a stone!"

As soon as she said this, the entire living room became silent enough to hear a pin drop. Everyone stared at Mercury Lamp in shock, and she immediately realized something was wrong, awkwardly tugging at my hair: "Did I say something wrong?"

The reason why Mercury Lamp was eagerly longing for a gift from Mars before our departure is now crystal clear, and now I'm curious about one thing: who fed these ideas into this silly doll?

As soon as this thought popped into my mind, the image of a mischievous, bubbly little face appeared. I glanced around and indeed found Lilina holding a leaf in front of her face, sneaking up to the second floor. At that moment, I felt like throwing a slipper at her: "Stop! Don't think you're invisible just because there's a leaf in front of your face, is this living room a place for water lilies to grow!"

Lilina let out a shriek, tossed the water lily leaf away, and bolted to the second floor barefoot with a smack: she's smart though, knowing that if she stops, only family discipline awaits her.

Mercury Lamp then realized and snapped out of her dream of the bountiful new era Mars Immortal Peach Orchard, her small face turning pale with anger. She finally understood she'd been fooled again.

Mercury Lamp and Lilina's mutual animosity and ongoing battles are one of the household's constants, and in their many clashes, the unlucky doll has hardly ever won. Her combat power is no match for the demigod body of Lilina, but that's not the real reason for her defeat. What truly lets the Fake Lolita Priest have a firm hold over her is that Mercury Lamp simply doesn't have as many devious tricks up her sleeve—Lilina is so cunning, if her moral index had an absolute value, it'd almost equal the combination of Jesus Christ and Confucius squared twelve thousand times. Unfortunately, without the absolute value sign, it's negative…

The reckless can't match the shameless, and the shameless can't match the utterly thick-skinned. My Little Light is a well-mannered lady who knows the four ways to brew black tea; how could she compare with Lilina, who treats tricking as the norm?

"Today you're liberated, go teach that girl a lesson." I lifted the doomsday-faced Mercury Lamp off my shoulder, gently ruffled her hair, and thought about it. Chairman Shui, such a formidable figure, has become a weakling in this household, "Don't worry about losing, I'll give you a helper today."

Mercury Lamp's eyes lit up immediately: usually, when she brawls with Lilina, she's always suppressed together, but today with the family support, the little doll feels it's time for payback.

I placed the doll girl to the side, a white light flickered on my wrist, and then a completely white, snow-like clean mini girl appeared in the air, staring at Mercury Lamp with wide-eyed curiosity before finally reaching out to touch her: "Hello, sister."

Little Qijing has a better grasp of speaking than Little Baobao.

"Go on, go have a fight with your sister!"

I patted Little Qijing on the head and pointed grandiosely at the second floor. Mercury Lamp, only just now catching on, immediately smiled with delight and pulled the still somewhat confused Little Qijing upstairs.

Ten seconds later, I heard Lilina's cry of surprise from upstairs and the shouts of three little girls locked in battle. Satisfied, I turned back to watching TV, which displayed in bold letters: Please tune in again tomorrow…

Damn, those unlucky kids!

Listening helplessly to the escalation of the battle upstairs, with Lilina already yelling her head off in frustration, Big Sister came over and poked me on the forehead, "You're such an adult now, yet still act like when you were little."

"When I was little, I was at least better than Lilina…at least not as mischievous…at least I knew how to behave," I sheepishly dodged Big Sister's hand, then took out a blood sample I'd collected from some starship debris from my personal space. "I'm going to look for Dingdang to gather some intel. Where did that guy go fooling around after dinner?"

"Kitchen," Anwina's head popped up from the back of the sofa. "These past couple of days, Lord Dingdang has often been sneaking off to the kitchen, and she even ropes in Monina. I can't even get in there, there's divine power being released inside."

"What are they up to now."

I patted my forehead and started walking toward the kitchen.

Though most of the time Dingdang seems well-behaved and easy to coax, there are also times when she acts unpredictably. Of course, using such highbrow words like 'unpredictable' is overdoing it. To put it more strictly, it's when this Little Thing is acting silly that you can't keep up with her thoughts, and every time she acts silly, she drags Monina along. In the Dingdang Squad, Monina and Uncle Kenser have the best relationships with Dingdang, especially Monina, since she remains a consistent underachiever with several subjects still failed. Together they complement each other, shine together, and feature prominently in one another's company — I'll leave it at that since I can't find the right words.

Monina was alone in the kitchen; the little green fellow was nowhere to be seen. I peeked around and then waved at Monina, "Where's Dingdang?"

"Captain…" Monina's expression instantly turned a bit awkward as if I'd asked a tricky question. My gaze swept over the kitchen and suddenly noticed something bubbling on the stove near the window, giving off a faint sweet aroma that was quite refreshing to the senses. I quickly ran over, "Wow, Monina, you're already preparing late-night snacks for everyone? By the way, the little cake you made the other day was really good; Little Baobao liked it…"

While talking, I lifted the pot lid to see what deliciousness Monina was cooking, and Monina quickly reached out to stop me, but it was too late.

The lid was lifted, and amidst the swirling steam, Dingdang was inside swimming around and spitting water upwards, and even more troubling — the water in the pot was boiling.

I turned again to look at the lid and found a small glowing crystal attached to it, seemingly used for illumination…

The sudden disappearance of the steam made Dingdang, who was joyfully spitting water, raise her head in confusion. Then her peanut-sized little face and my large one met gaze upon gaze, eyes locked through the seemingly real yet ethereal steam. I shared a deep, soulful moment with this mischievous pet for five seconds, then picked up Little Thing with chopsticks.

Yes, chopsticks, and they were Monina's too, the ones she normally uses for frying snacks. Whose side is this Dark God sister really on?

"Whoa! Quick, put Dingdang down!" Little Thing protested, flailing her arms while being held aloft by the chopsticks. "This is an affront! This is blatant desecration! Dingdang is taking a bath! Ah Jun, close your eyes, Dingdang's been seen all over, and now she can't get married!"

"Oh, Ding-dang it, hurry and get dressed!"

I jolted my hand, and with a plop, Dingdang fell back into the pot. Bubbles rose furiously in defiance against me, evidently throwing a tantrum over being seen bare—well, it's a rather small tantrum. You see, for a little being only a palm's length tall, does it even matter if she stands nude before me?

"Dingdang's just having a sauna," Little Thing summoned her divine-energy-condensed green long dress, lying on my shoulder still emanating steam, looking quite content, "I saw on TV last time that saunas feel really good, so I had Monina…"

"But it doesn't mean you should boil yourself, right?"

I poked Dingdang, her entire body was tinged with a slight pink hue, I couldn't tell if it was from cooking or from being shy. At any rate, she had an odd sweet fragrance about her, so could it be…

"What Dingdang smells like when she's cooked?"

"She just eats too much candy usually."

Monina explained rather calmly from the side and then took away the pot where Dingdang had her sauna, "This is good stuff, should we keep it?"

My expression grew increasingly vexed as I looked at the stainless steel pot still steaming. Recalling the scene where Dingdang placed herself inside and even regarded it as a sauna really made me sigh in agony. More agonizing still was the fact that Dingdang apparently cooked herself like this for several days already. No wonder she'd been exuding such a warm, sweet scent recently during the nights.

"What do you call this?"

I pointed at the pot of boiled Dingdang, genuinely at a loss for words.

Monina with a stoic face puckered her lips, "Dingdang Juice…" (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, feel free to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)