Setting Out

Although there had to be a reason behind Lin Sheng's advice.

Unfortunately, Luo Ruzhuo had not hesitated to accept the commission.

Whatever happened, she had the confidence to deal with it.

Her hand paused for only a moment before she signed her name on the contract and sent it to Lin Sheng.

For her, obediently serving out the full five-year term was far too passive.

Luo Ruzhuo had not forgotten that the Feier Family was watching her like a hawk from the shadows.

She did not know what connection the Fang Squad, which was inexplicably hostile to her, had with the Feier Family—but this commission was based in the Central District. For now, this was her only chance to go there openly under the pretext of a commission.

She was not the kind of person to sit and wait for death.

The day of the commission drew near.

Before she left, Lin Sheng sent her a message saying that members of the Firmament Squad's vanguard would come to meet her.

Luo Ruzhuo leaned against the doorframe, idly scrolling through her light screen. The Firmament Squad was famous on the Star Network, and she had learned the basics while browsing.

It was a squad that could be called enormous, with three divisions alone: the vanguard, the core, and logistics.

All three divisions were under the command of their captain, Xianzhu, and each had its own vice captain.

The sentinels in the vanguard division ranged in rank, and most of their Mental Entities were birds. They were responsible for scouting contamination zones on the front lines.

The core division was the heart of the squad. Its sentinels were formidable, all ranked A or above, with no shortage of S-ranks. They handled the bulk of the purification work in contamination zones, as well as some purification commissions.

The logistics division's sentinels were not especially high-ranking, but they were important. They handled post-battle cleanup and resettlement, along with the squad's everyday affairs and diplomacy.

Lin Sheng was the vice captain of the logistics division.

Luo Ruzhuo browsed a few pages but could not dig up anything more. Perhaps to protect their privacy, the Firmament Squad was especially mysterious on the Star Network. Very little information about them leaked out, and only the logistics division was particularly active.

Perhaps because their mystery and strength had, by chance, fulfilled some people's fantasies in the interstellar age, the Firmament Squad had quite a few fans on the Star Network. Luo Ruzhuo's casual search turned up plenty of them—not just sentinels, but many guides too.

She closed the light screen and looked out the door. The silhouette of a black hovercar was flying toward her from the distance. Her ride had arrived.

Luo Ruzhuo gathered her things and boarded the hovercar sent by the Firmament Squad, which took her straight to the spaceport.

The moment she stepped out and saw a group of sentinels standing before her, she fell silent.

Luo Ruzhuo felt that the netizens on the Star Network had somehow misunderstood the Firmament Squad.

Each of these men was taller and more statuesque than the last, and the pectoral muscles beneath their black uniforms seemed more developed than those of any sentinel she had seen. More importantly, they were a far cry from their low-key, silent image on the Star Network:

Every sentinel in sight was outrageously good-looking-and they seemed to love wearing glittering accessories. From a cufflink pinned to a fold in a glove to their overall tall, sharp bearing, it was clear they had taken care with their appearance. With ornaments of all sizes adorning each of them, they looked all the more as though they were glowing.

Glowing in the literal sense.

Every one of them dazzled like a diamond, making Luo Ruzhuo's eyes swim.

As expected of the vanguard division, whose Mental Entities were mostly birds.

She could not help blinking her dazzled eyes. How is this a sentinel squad? They're obviously an idol supergroup.

Fortunately, the man at their head was a little different.

Luo Ruzhuo had never come across this sentinel on the Star Network. He had a straight, elegant nose, pale lips, and a jawline as sharp as if cut with a knife. When he raised his eyes, they were black as ink. It was a very classical face. To her surprise, he wore his hair long.

Long hair was inconvenient for sentinels, who fought contamination more often than anyone else. Since coming to this world, Luo Ruzhuo had never seen a sentinel with long hair, male or female.

A thought suddenly flashed through her mind.

No wonder no one had entered the gravity pod when she took it to the City in the Sky before. Only that pack of wolf cubs had squeezed in with her.

Everyone else had taken her for a sentinel.

Looking again at the man's long silver-gray hair, Luo Ruzhuo saw things differently-in a way, she had been stereotyping others too.

The man's hair was very long, reaching below his waist. It was loosely tied behind him, with a few strands occasionally falling over his shoulders, giving him an unworldly grace, as though he had stepped out of an ink painting.

Luo Ruzhuo stared at him for quite a while.

There was no other reason this time. Among a group of glittering, dressed-up male-model sentinels, someone so plainly dressed and utterly different in style would make anyone look twice.

His black uniform made him look especially upright and elegant. Unlike the others', its hem was embroidered with a bird poised to take flight. Luo Ruzhuo studied it for a moment but could not tell what kind it was—presumably, it was his Mental Entity.

The man held out his hand and helped her steadily down from the car.

"Hello, Miss Luo." His voice was as cool and restrained as his appearance. "Welcome to the Firmament Squad. We'll be responsible for your safety during this long-term assignment. I'm Liu Sui, vice captain of the vanguard division."

His fingers were long and strong, with distinct knuckles, but they touched hers only lightly and briefly. Once he had made sure she was on the ground, he withdrew his hand like a gentleman, judging the proper distance perfectly.

"Hello, Deputy Captain Liu." Luo Ruzhuo nodded, her gaze lingering on his face for a moment before she looked past him at the radiant sentinels behind him.

She did not see the one familiar face.

"Where's Lin Sheng?" she asked.

"Vice Captain Lin is in charge of transporting Captain Xianzhu," Liu Sui explained softly, his tone even. "Would you like to see the captain now?"

"No."

Luo Ruzhuo answered without hesitation. She was not in the habit of giving herself extra work ahead of time, and besides, she had come primarily for a vacation, not to purify anything.

She was more interested in the enormous starship before her than in the dragon who had only his human legs left.

Come to think of it, when the court officers had escorted her here, her treatment had been no different even after she had advanced to a guide. She had ridden in a small jump capsule for holding prisoners, designed for speed and precision, with no comfort to speak of. The capsule had been so cramped that even turning around was difficult, let alone admiring the aesthetics of interstellar technology.

So she really had never seen such an enormous technological behemoth.

For a moment, she was almost spellbound.

The starship's form was sleek and sharp, its hull shaped like a delta wing. Its matte gray-black surface gleamed with a cold metallic sheen, without a single unnecessary angle. It was like a steel behemoth lying dormant in the port, silent and imposing.

Luo Ruzhuo went first, following Liu Sui's guidance up the gangway and into the ship.

The remaining sentinels filed in after them, and the hatch closed silently behind them.

Liu Sui gave her a brief tour of the starship. She did not understand many of the facilities, but fortunately, she had a human guide beside her.

The young man kept neither too close nor too far away. His long hair drifted slightly as he walked, and he carried a faint, inexplicably serene fragrance. His explanations were delivered in a calm tone, and Luo Ruzhuo could not help imagining herself back in class before the apocalypse.

At the very front of the starship was an unobstructed viewing screen that gave them a full view of the scenery outside. As the starship slowly rose, the endless city of steel gradually gave way to a blue sky, then to deep purple.

Luo Ruzhuo felt a slight vibration beneath her feet. A thin layer of blood-red light enveloped the hull in her field of vision, until at last only boundless darkness remained.

The whole transition happened quickly, and the starry sky was suddenly very close.

"...The barrier outside the long-range ship keeps it clear of contamination zones during interstellar travel. It's equipped with the most advanced contamination removal system currently available." Liu Sui seemed to notice her subtle shift in mood. "Rest assured, Miss Luo, we'll be perfectly safe throughout the journey."

Luo Ruzhuo was still absorbed in the novelty of her first real space voyage. She had not thought much of it, but as soon as Liu Sui spoke, the mobile steel fortress he had just introduced suddenly seemed less safe.

She could not help asking, "Are you always like this before you go on a mission?"

The man's expression visibly turned puzzled.

Liu Sui asked, "What do you mean, Miss Luo?"

Luo Ruzhuo opened her mouth and ultimately told him that, according to something she had read about ancient Chinese history on the Star Network, one should never raise flags by saying things like "it's very safe" or "nothing will go wrong," especially during a journey.

Once said aloud, accidents might come one after another the very next second.

After listening, the young man gave a soft chuckle, like an ink painting suddenly brought to life with the finishing touch to its eyes.

"An interesting saying." He nodded, his face showing the confidence born of great strength. "But even if we do encounter a contamination zone, it won't be a big deal."

The Firmament Squad fought contamination zones year-round, so naturally he had reason to be confident when he said that.

"We'll ensure your safety. You can certainly rest assured of that."

Luo Ruzhuo neither said she believed him nor that she did not. "Okay, that's great, then."

When they reached the door to the lounge, the young man stayed where he was while Luo Ruzhuo went in and put down her suitcase. It was a room of moderate size, entirely enclosed and pure white throughout, with only a small window for viewing the scenery outside.

Luo Ruzhuo had not eaten much that morning and was a little hungry now, so she summoned a robot and, as naturally as if she were at home, expertly ordered a pile of her favorite foods. Only when she was done did she remember that someone was still standing outside.

"Deputy Captain Liu, thank you very much for showing me around." Unless it had been agreed upon beforehand, she generally did not share her food with others. For someone from the apocalypse, it was almost an instinct developed afterward. So she asked him to leave. "If there's nothing else, you can go about your business."

Liu Sui: ...

His assignment today was to stay close and protect Luo Ruzhuo.

But since the guide had said so, he could only nod. "I'm staying next door. If you need anything, press the call button on your optical computer, and I'll be there immediately."

Once Luo Ruzhuo's curiosity about the starship had been satisfied, all that remained was the daily routine of resting in her quarters: exercising, browsing on her optical computer, and lying down to rest.

Having just finished a set of exercises, she lay on the bed stretching and looked out through the lounge's small window. It was still pitch-black.

The darkness was even like thick paint, clinging fast to the window. Even the light of distant stars had vanished, leaving not a glimmer in the view outside.

Luo Ruzhuo abruptly stopped stretching.

Something was wrong.

That was not the starry sky outside.

Something was blocking her window completely, casting a vast shadow without a trace of daylight.