Sandora

"Ah—" Standing before a massive black square tower, Lin Xue cried out again. "What is this?"

I no longer needed Pandora to answer for me. I could tell her myself, "A Psionic Storm Obelisk... This makes the sixth one, right? By the way, what were you even listening to just now?"

"I was excited! How was I supposed to remember anything?" As she spoke, Lin Xue quickly ran toward the next enormous black square tower, shouting, "Chen Jun! What is this?"

...She was doing it on purpose. This girl had to be messing with me on purpose, right?!

I was already helpless against Lin Xue, who had long regarded causing me trouble as life's greatest pleasure, so I could only turn to Carmen for help. "Do you have any way to make this girl quiet down?"

"Carbon-Based Lifeform over there!" Carmen suddenly bellowed in a commanding voice. "Up ahead is the base's core defensive zone. Any unauthorized action will trigger concentrated fire from one hundred and sixty-six Autonomous Floating Turrets!"

What a fierce threat!

Carmen's words had an immediate effect. Lin Xue gave a cry and practically sprinted all the way back to our side.

"Behaving now?" I looked at her irritably.

Lin Xue seemed to think of something. She glanced at Carmen and said, "Were you telling the truth? I didn't seem to sense that anything dangerous was about to happen."

Carmen looked perfectly composed. "I was lying to you."

"...You!"

"All right, all right." I pressed a hand down on Lin Xue's head. "You'd better know when to stop too. You know what kind of place this is, and I know what you're planning—so quit causing me trouble."

"Tch." Lin Xue curled her lip. "You figured it out that quickly."

I'd figured it out from the start, all right?

Ever since arriving here, Lin Xue had been unusually excited, running around everywhere like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world, without the slightest bearing of the Esper Team's leader. How could I not notice such abnormal behavior? Sure enough, after Pandora checked, we found that every time Lin Xue reached a new place, she used her ability to carefully sense the surroundings—in other words, she was gathering intelligence on this alien base.

It was an incredibly blatant method. Every Shilin Apostle here had probably noticed what she was doing, but because of my absolute authority as a Shilin Emperor, they turned a blind eye to Lin Xue. Besides, with humanity's current level of civilization, they couldn't possibly pose any threat anyway...

I looked around. Though I had seen projections of cities on the Shilin Mother Planet countless times in my dream world, seeing a Shilin military base in reality was an entirely different feeling. Energy defense towers over a hundred meters tall stood everywhere, enormous factories continuously produced all kinds of war machines, and there were even more bizarre structures whose names I couldn't identify even after searching the Database in my head. Within this immense Shilin fortress, squads of fully armed—or rather, already weaponized—Shilin Warriors constantly patrolled back and forth. From time to time, gigantic, ferocious-looking Shilin War Machines or low-flying fighters roared past, startling me, a first-time visitor to such a place.

It was impressive that Lin Xue had the nerve to openly gather their military intelligence here—though no amount of intelligence gathering could let human civilization fly out of the Solar System overnight.

By then, we had arrived before a pyramid-shaped building at the very center of the base. Carmen saluted us and said, "Please wait here for a moment." Then he led his soldiers into the building.

Once she saw that no one else was around, Lin Xue quietly moved closer. "If they ever sent troops against humanity, we really wouldn't have any chance to resist..."

I didn't quite understand Lin Xue's concern. "They aren't going to attack humanity anyway, so what are you worried about?"

Lin Xue rolled her eyes at me. "You're awfully carefree. Who wouldn't worry after suddenly learning that such a powerful alien Empire exists? I don't trust this so-called Empire, anyway."

I gave an awkward cough. "You're saying that in front of the Empire's highest ruler and Empire High-Ranking Generals."

Lin Xue froze for a moment, her eyes moving back and forth between Pandora and me for quite a while. Then she said, "I forgot... By the way, do your words really carry weight? These troops aren't your subordinates, are they?"

"Armed conflict between Shilin Emperors is strictly forbidden. Even if they don't listen to me, they can't possibly go to war with Earth—or do you think I plan to conquer the world?"

"You don't have that kind of ambition." Lin Xue answered without hesitation.

Should I have cried or laughed?

Just then, I suddenly felt a strange fluctuation deep within my mind. It was completely different from the feeling of total control I usually had when contacting the Shilin Mother Planet or the Pandora Legion. It was more like resonance, a friendly signal carrying a trace of joy, as if old friends had reunited.

For a moment, that unprecedented mental sensation left me dazed. The next second, I saw a blue figure flying toward me.

Bang—

The sky was so high... The clouds were so white...

The howling wind by my ears told me that I was rapidly rising...

Now I understood what that unprecedented Spiritual Connection had been. It should have been the special psychic resonance between Shilin Emperors, and without question, I had just been sent flying by this rapidly moving Shilin Emperor.

And that was the historic "meeting" of two supreme rulers...

About ten seconds later, I hit the ground with a bang.

Since one of the two Shilin Emperors had suffered accidental internal injuries, the meeting ended without accomplishing anything. In the end, Pandora carried me on her shoulder and rushed into the base's maintenance station...

Hey! Wait! Why the maintenance station?! Pandora, did you really not know the difference between Carbon-Based Lifeforms and your kind? Those repair machines would absolutely kill me, aaaaaah...

The next day

The Empire's strength truly was no joke. Although they had almost never researched medical technology for Carbon-Based Lifeforms, they still managed to cobble together equipment that could treat me—I really had no idea how they figured out human physiology within a few dozen minutes. Earth's scientists still couldn't even sort out the stuff inside their own bodies.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying in a temporary ward, with the culprit who had crashed into me and seriously injured me sitting beside the bed.

She was tall and slender, dressed in a sky-blue long dress trimmed with white lace and styled after classical European aristocratic clothing. Her dazzling golden hair hung in curls around her cheeks, forming two exaggerated, huge golden spirals. Her clear blue eyes were as unfathomable as the ocean, as though they could gaze directly into the depths of one's soul. Although she had golden hair and azure eyes, Sandora's facial features were typically Eastern—delicate and elegant. Her temperament was seven parts noble and three parts mischievous, and paired with her luxurious attire, she looked like a princess visiting the common folk.

The moment she saw me open my eyes, the princess before me immediately flashed a brilliant smile, happily threw herself into my arms, and said, "Ah, you're alive! I thought I'd killed you when I hit you!"

...You really couldn't judge any Shilin Apostle by appearance. For example, Pandora, the loli-shaped war maniac; Sikaro, the righteous-looking pirate vendor; and Sandora, the noble and elegant yet scatterbrained girl in front of me...

"Hello," I said with a stiff smile. "Nice to meet you. I'm Chen Jun."

"Hello, hello!" Sandora seemed a little too excited. Grabbing my hand, she said, "I'm Sandora! I'm very sorry I injured you. I didn't expect your body to be so fragile, but don't worry, I strengthened your body while I was at it... Um... Are you here to take me back?"

"Huh?" For a moment, I couldn't understand the string of words Sandora had rattled off like beans spilling from a pod.

"I said, are you here to take me back?" Sandora repeated. "To take me away from this world."