Chapter 1007: New Companion!

After placing Tan Zhang"s body down, Lin Sanjiu slowly stood up.

With the alloy gauntlet on her right hand, she opened and closed her fingers one by one, flexing and stretching them like a ferocious beast waking up from slumber, preparing its muscles for the prey in front of it.

A sigh escaped from the person at the door.

"You seem really angry. But I"ve actually hinted at it several times before," Lyanna said, glancing at Tan Zhang"s lifeless body on the ground and furrowing her brows slightly. "I told you from the beginning that I really like horseback riding, even though I"ve never actually ridden one... Aren"t you curious? How can you know if you like something without trying it? It"s because I have experienced horseback riding through the other personalities. Each of us has independent and complete memories and past experiences."

The tone of the young girl carried a hint of regret—as if she had carefully designed a game, but the other party hadn"t attended to play with her.

She tentatively took a step forward, raising both hands as if surrendering, and nervously smiled. "Don"t hit me. I can"t beat you, and I don"t want to die."

"You can just return to Luther"s body, can"t you?" Lin Sanjiu hooked the corner of her mouth, mocking. "You personalities have been playing hide-and-seek with me for so long. Aren"t you tired of it?"

"Whether you believe it or not, I don"t have any ill intentions towards you." Lyanna took another step forward. She glanced cautiously at Lin Sanjiu, apparently feeling it was too dangerous, and retracted her foot. "Not just the hints... ever since you boarded the s.h.i.+p, I haven"t tried to kill you, have I?"

"That"s because you can"t kill me."

"Whether I can or cannot kill you is one thing. Whether I have tried or not is another." Lyanna shrugged. "You are calmer than I imagined... I thought you would ask where Luther is and why the other personalities want to kill you."

Lin Sanjiu"s heart trembled slightly, but she managed to hold back her question. She just coldly smiled and said, "If I ask, will you tell me?"

It wasn"t that she didn"t want to ask, but she didn"t dare to. The actions of the twelve personalities were unpredictable and unscrupulous. She couldn"t fathom why Luther would cooperate with them—whatever the answer, it would be unsettling.

But unexpectedly, Lyanna nodded earnestly. "Not only will I tell you, but I can also bring him here to meet you."

What?

"Bring... bring who?" Lin Sanjiu could hardly believe it. "Luther?"

"Yes," Lyanna enunciated each word clearly, not joking around. "From the fact that Twelve has disappeared, you"ve probably guessed that Luther is nearby, right? I"m telling you, he is indeed on this s.h.i.+p—wait a moment."

She turned around and walked back outside. In Lin Sanjiu"s stunned gaze, the young girl whistled in the corridor.

After several months of cat-and-mouse games, covert struggles, and tracking, Lin Sanjiu had been unable to find Luther, making it all seem like a farce. But after that whistle, footsteps could be heard at the door.

Just as Lin Sanjiu felt that the twelve personalities must have some hidden plan, the light at the door dimmed, and a person quietly approached, casting a long shadow on the floor.

"You called for me?"

After eight or nine years, even his voice sounded different. The tall and slender teenage boy from the past had already grown into the appearance of an adult man. His shoulders were broad, his waist slim, and his demeanor composed. His features and face had gradually revealed firmness and sharpness over the pa.s.sage of time.

The sunny and youthful radiance of his youth had settled down with age, but a faint warmth still lingered in the corners of his brows and eyes, familiar and comforting.

Even if she hadn"t been told that this was Luther, Lin Sanjiu probably wouldn"t have dared to recognize him face to face. But it was indeed Luther. When he smiled slightly, her memories suddenly surged back to life.

"Long time no see, Xiao Jiu."

"You... what...?" Lin Sanjiu was so shocked that she even stuttered. She had no idea what to say: "What... what is going on?"

"You see, I told you I didn"t have any ill intentions." Lyanna also breathed a sigh of relief, taking a few steps closer to her and looking up at her. "It"s a long story, and Luther will tell you everything. But the details can wait until we"re safe. We don"t have much time left, do we?"

Lin Sanjiu lowered her head and met the gaze of the little girl—her pupils suddenly contracted, and two narrow black lines spun like a kaleidoscope. After a few seconds, her eyes returned to normal.

"Indeed," Lin Sanjiu relaxed her shoulders and her guard without realizing it. Since they didn"t harbor any hostility and Luther was an old friend, it was only natural that they were companions now. As for the rest, it could be discussed later. "I trust you... We have less than five minutes left. Are you more familiar with the Ocean Voyager than I am? Is the life support system located in this control room?"

"I think so," Lyanna looked at the screens and machines of various sizes in the room, "but I don"t know how to operate it, and they probably locked the system as well."

"That"s not a problem."

Lin Sanjiu smiled at the two of them and deactivated the cardification of the tape recorder. She placed the large and bulky recorder on the ground and was about to press a b.u.t.ton when a paper crane flew in flapping its wings through the door.

"Is it Puppeteer?" Lyanna leaned over and watched as it landed on Lin Sanjiu"s palm. "If Puppeteer is with you, the other personalities wouldn"t dare to show up from Luther"s body so easily."

At Lyanna"s words, Luther sighed with a touch of distress. He was probably fed up with the personalities bothering him, right? The one sending messages through paper cranes couldn"t be Puppeteer, of course. Bohemia"s voice rang out in a hurry, sounding like her b.u.t.t was on fire: "There"s no one in the control room! The captain and I are coming over to your side. Wait for us and don"t wander around. Oh, by the way, when we pa.s.sed by the dock, I found that Exodus is still there. The Night Wanderers don"t know what"s good for them!"

Lin Sanjiu was still surprised when Lyanna smiled at her and said, "I asked them to leave Exodus alone."

"Thank you," she sincerely thanked her. "I"m glad I have your help."

Compared to when she was tracking Twelve before, the process of hacking the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p"s system and unlocking the locks seemed much simpler. The ability Bohemia had given her was "proficiency in s.p.a.ce-faring technology," and after the collar heated up, everything in the control room—machinery, data, interfaces that seemed incomprehensible—was dissected and a.n.a.lyzed in her mind, as if they were simple modules. It was clear which paths to follow and which keys to unlock.

As the final five minutes came to an end, Lin Sanjiu finally breathed a long sigh of relief. Now that the air pressure and oxygen levels were back to normal, she also used the s.h.i.+p"s navigation log to redirect the course of the Ocean Voyager. If it weren"t for the fact that a significant portion of the fuel had been taken by the Night Wanderers, leaving insufficient fuel for the return trip, she would have turned the Ocean Voyager around directly to return to Heaven Underworld. Strangely enough, when the heat on her neck gradually dissipated, the door opened with a soft "whoosh."

Even without turning her head, she could feel the rush of cold air entering the room. It wasn"t because the atmospheric system was working again; it was because Puppeteer had stepped into the room.

"Who are these two?"

Puppeteer"s half-face was filled with disgust—he obviously didn"t like standing in the same room with others at such close proximity. The six puppets immediately took a few steps from his side, forcing the others to retreat a considerable distance. "Are you a scavenger?" he asked, his eyes full of gloom.

"This is my old friend, and this is his companion," Lin Sanjiu quickly explained, wondering why he still seemed so energetic. "So now they are all on our side. It"s no problem."

Puppeteer"s dark gaze s.h.i.+fted between the two individuals but didn"t say anything. Arianne stared at Lyanna, her eyebrows tightly furrowed, apparently recalling something. Bohemia, on the other hand, seemed accustomed to it and showed little interest in the new companions. She fumbled around in the control room and suddenly exclaimed at the largest screen, "Hey, what do these small s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p icons and numbers represent?"

"Well," Lyanna nervously peeked out and immediately hid behind Luther"s arm, "the Ocean Voyager didn"t deviate too far from its course just now, and now it"s traveling at full speed. We should reach our destination soon."

"What is the destination?" Bohemia turned her head, her thick and curly golden-brown hair, a bit messy, making her look like a little lion. "I"ve heard some rumors before. Is it another new world?"

It was Arianne who answered. She was calmer now and proceeded to explain the Night Wanderers" plan in detail—even though she had been abandoned by the organization, she couldn"t help but feel a hidden excitement. "Those posthumans who did all that actually returned to Heaven Underworld after the 14th month. This shows that there is a great possibility of the plan succeeding. So, although the destination is just an ordinary alien planet without any signs of life, not a new world, we—I mean, the Twelve Worlds—still have confidence in it."

Lin Sanjiu couldn"t help but glance at Puppeteer. Unexpectedly, their gazes met, and she was startled.

"We don"t need to stay long on the new planet," she pondered for a moment, deciding that it wasn"t necessary to tell Arianne about the Great Deluge to avoid complications. "The Night Wanderers are also heading to the new planet with supplies. If we catch them off guard, there"s a good chance we can seize enough fuel to return to Heaven Underworld."

No one among her old companions paid her any attention, but her new companions smiled and nodded.