Retribution

Retribution

"Monster! There's a monster!! On my bed!" Professor Chi Jianjun was so frightened he could barely speak straight. "Eight legs! Glowing green! Teeth longer than my arm! And two more mouths growing on its neck!"

"What?! What the hell are the Marines doing?! How did they let a monster into Old Chi's room?! This is ridiculous!!" Tang Xiao flew into a rage as well. Hearing Chi Jianjun's description, he did not think of anything else at all.

He immediately connected to Graham's comms and started cursing before Graham could say a word. "What the hell are you people doing?! A monster got into Old Chi's room!! I'll settle accounts with you later!! Send the Marines to seal off and surround the area immediately! Kill that monster! Then conduct a full security inspection and make sure the entire colony is safe!"

"Um... Administrator, let me expl—"

"I don't want to hear any explanations right now! Do it immediately!!" Tang Xiao barked.

"Wasn't that hide the one you told us to put there?" Graham snapped too, no longer caring about Tang Xiao's dignity as he roared back.

"What? Hide?" Tang Xiao froze. Then he remembered that when he had been furnishing the "mansion" earlier, he had told them to hunt a fierce beast and put its hide on the bed.

But perhaps due to his ingrained way of thinking from Earth, when Tang Xiao thought of fierce beasts, he imagined tigers, leopards, black bears, or, failing that, a wolf would do.

Who knew it would be something like this...

A moment later, Tang Xiao stood speechless as he looked down at the terrifying creature hide beneath his feet. It was smooth and hairless, its skin glowing green, with four claws, a flattened head and neck, and mouths on both sides of its neck in addition to the one on its face.

"Say, I told you to hunt a fierce beast. Why did you bring back something that would drop someone's sanity to zero at a glance?" Tang Xiao said, covering his forehead.

"Reporting, Administrator! This truly was a terrifying beast. It lived in deep water and attempted to attack our fully enclosed pig farm a few days ago. Our brave soldiers killed it with stun guns!" The speaker was the captain of Dawn City's Marines, and he answered in a stiff, formal manner.

Stun guns? Cold sweat covered Tang Xiao's forehead. He looked at the monster hide, which was still twitching, waved the man away, then instantly put on a smiling face as he said to Professor Chi Jianjun, "Professor Chi, we wanted to get something all-natural for your mattress. It's much better than synthetic leather and all that, right? But if you don't think it's suitable, I'll have them replace it with a cotton quilt right away. It won't be any trouble at all, don't worry. It's only proper for our soldiers to come change your quilt in the middle of the night."

"It really is a hide?" Chi Jianjun stood far away, staring at it, still not daring to approach.

"It really is a hide!" Tang Xiao kicked the hide's head.

"Take it away! Take it away! I don't want it! I'd rather sleep under a cotton quilt!" Chi Jianjun declared with absolute determination.

"Fine, fine, I'll arrange it right away." Tang Xiao had to coax Chi Jianjun for quite a while before getting him back to sleep. Then he stretched, yawned, and returned to his own dormitory.

Yet less than two hours after he fell asleep, he suddenly heard another shrill scream from the direction of Professor Chi's villa. "Help~~~~~~!!!"

Tang Xiao was now extremely alert. The moment he heard the cry, he sprang up and rushed over in a few strides. This time, however, he was more cautious. Rather than calling Graham to surround the villa with troops, he decided to check the situation first.

Sure enough, he saw Chi Jianjun again, clutching his clothes and quilt as he ran wildly toward him, shouting at the top of his lungs. "Help! Help! There's... there's another monster!!"

"How can there be another monster? There shouldn't be any left, right?" Tang Xiao scratched his head.

"There is!! Right outside my window!!" Chi Jianjun pointed toward the villa and shouted. The little old man looked as though he had nearly been scared out of his mind.

"The window... Wait, don't tell me..." Tang Xiao suddenly remembered something. He turned toward the villa, and sure enough, an ugly croaking call rang out. Then, amid a furious flapping of wings, a large black bird soared into the air and flew toward the forest.

"So this is the little bird's nest I had them put outside the window? Birds singing and flowers blooming, birds singing and flowers blooming... Next time, it won't be man-eating flowers, will it..." A bead of cold sweat slid down Tang Xiao's temple.

"Huh? What did you say about birds singing and flowers blooming?" Chi Jianjun had been scared senseless and had not caught what Tang Xiao said.

"Oh! Nothing! I'll send people to thoroughly inspect your room immediately. This time, I guarantee there won't be any problems!" Tang Xiao promised, patting his chest.

"Let them inspect it slowly. Say, where do you sleep at night?" Chi Jianjun suddenly asked.

"Oh, me? I usually rough it a little and make do with the dormitory at City Hall." Tang Xiao did not catch on right away.

Without another word, Chi Jianjun hugged his quilt and ran toward Tang Xiao's dormitory.

"Hey, Professor Chi, what are you doing? Your villa is over there!" Tang Xiao hurried over and grabbed him.

"Don't stop me! Let me rough it and make do too!" Chi Jianjun struggled desperately.

"But Professor Chi, that's the mansion we worked so hard to build for you..." Seeing that he could not hold him back, Tang Xiao wrapped his arms around the old man.

"To hell with your mansion! Let go of me! I, Chi Jianjun, may be sixty-seven years old, but even if these old bones give out today, I'm dying in your room!!" Somehow, Chi Jianjun found a burst of strength and trudged forward one step at a time.

Tang Xiao did not dare use too much force for fear of hurting the old man. The two of them struggled all the way back into Tang Xiao's room.

Chi Jianjun was not polite in the slightest. Pointing at the sofa, he said, "You're the leader, so you sleep in the bed. I'll sleep on the sofa." With that, he tossed his quilt onto the sofa and lay down, immediately falling asleep.

Tang Xiao covered his forehead and sighed. But it was already late, and he could hardly kick the elderly professor back up, so he climbed into bed as well.

Late at night, Dawn City had fallen asleep. Aside from Marines changing shifts on patrol in the streets, not a single person could be seen walking around.

Tang Xiao, however, lay awake, staring blankly at the ceiling. On the sofa, Chi Jianjun's snoring was deafening. Tang Xiao looked speechlessly at the glass of water on the bedside table, its surface rippling constantly with every snore, and muttered, "Retribution..."

It was not until noon the next day that Tang Xiao, who had finally managed to fall asleep, crawled out of bed. Rubbing his panda eyes, he saw that Professor Chi Jianjun had only recently gotten up as well. The old man was slowly practicing Tai Chi in the yard outside the window.

Tang Xiao threw on some clothes and walked over. Before he could speak, Chi Jianjun said directly, "Don't say anything. Starting today, I'm living here. Whoever wants that mansion can have it."

"But..."

"I told you before, I came here to retire."

"However..."

"Sigh, I'm already a useless old man. Why do you keep putting me through all this trouble?"

"Say..."

"I know. You want to talk about disasters. Our civilization had already developed to that point, yet it was still destroyed by endless calamities. Void Demons, the Purification Protocol, high-dimensional beings—which of those are easy to deal with? If you ask me, we shouldn't provoke such existences at all. Keeping an agrarian civilization like this is plenty good enough. Have you ever seen an agrarian civilization farming with spaceships? So I'd better just retire."

Your mind works pretty fast when you're arguing... Tang Xiao covered his temple, utterly speechless. After thinking for a moment, he crooked a finger and had T-850 bring over a computer. He placed it before Chi Jianjun and directly played footage of the brutal aerial battle from a week ago, when the three bounty hunters had attacked.

Chi Jianjun continued practicing Tai Chi, but his attention was clearly drawn to the aerial battle. His movements grew slower and slower, and his expression increasingly grim. At last, he stopped moving and stood before the computer, his face dark.

After a long while, he finally looked up and glared at Tang Xiao. "You're our leader? The Administrator?"

"That's right. I am." Tang Xiao nodded.

"You call yourself a leader? Go be a murderer instead! That's what you're talented at." Chi Jianjun cursed him, turned around, returned to the room, and slammed the door shut. Then he locked it from the inside.