"Got it!"
"I'll keep an eye out for your messages."
"Don't worry! With me around, all evil will be brought to justice!"
She planted her hands on her hips and tilted her pale neck slightly upward.
The beautiful young Trailblazer looked brimming with determination.
After waving goodbye to March 7th,
Lin Chen headed straight to residential cabin 0276.
Fortunately, nothing happened along the way.
The cabin before him was not spacious, with only a few simple pieces of furniture.
The snow-white bed looked quite soft.
On the bedside cabinet, an irregularly shaped lamp cast a faint, warm glow.
At the desk in the room,
a somewhat worn book lay open to its title page.
It looked like an ordinary book of fables, with text accompanied by sketched illustrations.
Lin Chen frowned, feeling that this book
seemed out of place in the residential cabin.
In this age of interstellar travel, paper books had long since become relics of history.
High-powered terminals of all shapes and sizes could directly access vast knowledge banks.
Aside from certain encrypted files and information,
users could look up anything they wanted to read, anytime and anywhere.
Only a few nostalgic collectors
would collect old paper books.
Most of these things were relics from the era before human civilization had left the cradle of its home planet.
Lin Chen certainly did not think
he was lucky enough to stumble upon a tome from such a distant age.
Sitting on a futuristic stool, Lin Chen began leafing through the book.
[The bells rang in the distance, their sound moving and melodious.]
[With fair skies and a gentle breeze, today was a fine day to weigh anchor and set sail.]
[The sailors raised their white sails and embarked on a voyage of adventure.]
[It was said that endless treasure lay hidden in the remote Northern Islands.]
In the book's illustration, an old, large sailing ship was slowly leaving a prosperous harbor.
Atop the lighthouse on the coast, beside the great bell tower,
the sketched lines curled and twisted, as though depicting the wind in the sky.
[Yet no voyage could always be smooth sailing.]
[On the night of the tenth day, a sudden storm whipped up monstrous waves.]
[Heavens, it was like punishment sent down by the gods!]
[The ship struggled in the wind and waves, and all the sailors trembled in terror.]
He turned to the second page, where the accompanying sketch showed
the sailing ship riding atop towering waves, on the verge of capsizing.
[Fortunately, the gods favored the brave after all.]
[The terrible storm finally subsided, and all the sailors cheered with joy.]
[Through the hazy mist in the distance, the scattered islands and their mountains were faintly visible.]
[At last, in a cave exposed by the receding tide, the sailors found the legendary treasure.]
[When the melodious bells rang once more,]
[they returned to their original harbor, where flowers, applause, and glory awaited the homeward voyagers...]
The book's third page showed the same prosperous harbor as the first.
The only difference was that the ship, its sails lowered, was now laden with countless treasures of gold and jewels.
"Huh? That's it?"
"A book this thick only has three pages?"
As Lin Chen continued leafing through the old book, he discovered
that aside from the story at the beginning, the remaining pages were all blank and yellowed.
"A bland bedtime story with nothing to offer."
"But this book being here really is a little strange."
Closing the book, Lin Chen could not help muttering to himself.
Could the story in the book be connected to the strange things happening on Herta Space Station?
After giving it some serious thought, Lin Chen could not come up with a convincing answer.
He went straight to the snow-white bed in the center of the room.
Not feeling particularly sleepy, Lin Chen lay down and started playing a game on his phone.
"Double kill!"
"Triple kill!"
"Team wipe..."
After a flurry of flashy moves, Lin Chen began slaughtering everyone in his path...
In this interstellar age, hero-based competitive games had still not fallen out of favor.
Instead, thanks to the invention of long-range remote sensing technology,
players from civilizations across the stars could compete together over a cross-domain network.
"Why are all the players in this interstellar age so terrible?"
"What the fuck... are they all playing with claws?"
"Boring. Seriously boring..."
Despite saying that, Lin Chen still chose to start another match.
Although, in this popular game called Honkai: Star Rail Glory,
he had already reached the highest rank, "Aeon," with no further room to advance.
Logging in now and then to crush some noobs at least helped kill a little free time.
Now that he knew something was very wrong with Herta Space Station,
Lin Chen did not dare simply fall asleep, even if he grew tired.
For all he knew, by daybreak,
there might no longer be anyone named Lin Chen on Herta Space Station.
"La la..."
"La la la..."
Just as Lin Chen was engrossed in a fierce battle,
soft, somewhat intermittent singing drifted in from outside the door.
"What the fuck is going on?"
Still furiously tapping his screen, Lin Chen felt a shudder run through his very soul.
An inexplicable chill crept up from behind him.
Startled, Lin Chen dropped his phone straight onto the floor.
On the Honkai: Star Rail Glory game screen,
several sneaky players lurking in the bushes suddenly sprang out.
With a clean, flashy chain of attacks, they took down Lin Chen's character in one burst.
[Congratulations to player Unbeatable Wolf for ending the undefeated legend-Invincible Cheng Ge!] [Legendary achievement earned: Aeon Falls!] [Congratulations to players Undying Blade and Not Kaka for completing an ace assist.] [Epic achievement earned: Godslayer Blade!]
The series of voice announcements from his phone left Lin Chen feeling irritated.
Clearly, those sneaky bastards were playing together as a premade team.
"Unbeatable Wolf, Undying Blade, Not Kaka..."
"Just you wait. Once I get through this crisis, I'll crush the hell out of you..."
After tossing out that threat, Lin Chen could no longer spare any attention for the match in Honkai: Star Rail Glory.
After all, it was now exactly midnight.
The strange singing outside the door was enough to make his skin crawl.
What Lin Chen feared most had happened after all.
As he moved closer to the cabin window, the mournful singing grew a little more grating.
The empty corridor remained just as it had been when he arrived.
There was not a soul in sight.
"La la la..."
"La... la... la!"
As Lin Chen listened by the window, the rhythm of the singing suddenly grew shrill.
And Lin Chen could clearly sense that its source seemed to be drawing closer and closer.
Amid the mournful, piercing singing, there also seemed to be the rhythmic sound of flowing water.
"Fuck... this is seriously creepy!"
"No, I need to contact March 7th right now!"
His heartbeat abruptly quickened.
Lin Chen grabbed the phone beside the bed.
With slightly trembling fingers, he sent March 7th a message.
Before you continue