Chapter 230: Space City
Everyone was shocked. Why would the Hell’s Handbook appear within a Challenge? In general, only the gods would know the existence of the Handbook. And even so, they only knew about it but they couldn’t possibly own a copy. Yet, one existed on Fearless.
Su Jin’s gaze shifted again and again. They didn’t know what the words on that Handbook meant, but based on the appearance, as well as what the black man had said about how those mighty beings had transformed the planet with the help of this book, this book was definitely a Handbook.
The black man didn’t notice the expressions on their faces and went on, “We’re now on our way back to Earth, but we can’t go on hyperspace for too long and it has a cooldown period. So this is a good time for everyone to check the spaceship and carry out any necessary repairs. But since your memories have been damaged, there’s no way we can proceed with the repairs.
“You can all head for the cafeteria first. Computer, shut off everyone’s hibernation systems. We’re not far from home and I can’t afford any slip ups at this point.” The black man shook his head and sighed as he told Fearless’ AI to deactivate all the hibernation equipment on board. The fact that Su Jin and the rest had lost their memories clearly worried him.
“Captain, we still don’t know how we should address you! Also… where is the cafeteria?” Su Jin called out after him.
The black man slapped his forehead and said, “You can just call me Jefferson. As for where the cafeteria is, you just need to turn right over there. If you can’t find it, just ask Fearless directly. The AI will respond.” He quickly walked away after that.
The nine of them exchanged glances but did not speak to one another. Since they had agreed from the start not to work together, there was no need to discuss anything at this point.
They followed Jefferson’s directions, but there were many turns on board the ship and it wasn’t that easy to find the cafeteria.
“Fearless, we can’t find the cafeteria. Can you help?” said Su Jin to nobody in particular.
Immediately after he asked that question, part of the spaceship wall lit up. Fearless was made from a screen-like material that could be controlled by its AI and used as a monitor.
“I have lit the way to the cafeteria, you just have to follow the glowing arrows.” The monitor showed what could be described as a perfect female, except that even though she looked beautiful, her gaze was lifeless.
Once she had finished saying that, the monitor faded and a glowing arrow appeared in its place. The group followed the arrow and every time they took one step forward, a new arrow would appear to show the way. As long as they weren’t blind, they wouldn’t get lost at all.
Even though Jefferson said that Fearless was a spaceship, as the group walked on, they felt like Jefferson had been too humble in his description. Fearless was practically a moving city.
Su Jin had no idea which part of the spaceship he was in, but when he looked up, he couldn’t see the roof of the spaceship at all. He felt like he was in a city filled with skyscrapers.
The cafeteria turned out to be the size of five football fields. It looked more like someone had removed the stands in a stadium and put in rectangular dining tables instead.
Team Volcano Mountain automatically kept their distance from Su Jin and his team. They only trusted the members from their own team and felt that anybody else was unreliable. If this were a regular Challenge, they might not have minded working with Su Jin, since Team Boning Knife actually had veterans. But this Challenge did not allow veterans to use their Spirit Power at all, so there was no need to bother themselves with doing this.
After Su Jin sat down with his team, the table lit up. Just like the rest of the spaceship, this table was also made from that same screen material, so the table was like a huge tablet. Various food items were displayed on it and crew members of the ship could choose anything they wanted.
Su Jin didn’t select food to eat. Instead, he whispered, “Fearless, can you give me a map of the spaceship? I want the one with the most details.”
“Verifying identity… Maintenance Crew Member Su Jin, Level 2 Access, Level 1 Access to spaceship information, allowed to see map of spaceship,” rang the voice of Fearless before a full blueprint of the spaceship appeared before them.
This map not only showed the various parts of the spaceship but also showed them where they were right now. Just like what Su Jin had guessed, Fearless was like a city floating in the middle of outer space. It was gigantic.
At the same time, Su Jin fell into deep thought. The Handbook had given them the identity of the maintenance crew on board the Fearless. That was probably a deliberate arrangement on the Handbook’s part, since being this sort of crew member would allow them to have a complete picture of the spaceship’s situation easily.
Su Jin quietly started studying the map. Fearless consisted of a hibernation system, a power system, a control system, living quarters, an exercise area, the cafeteria, a skills area, a fighting area, and more. There were a total of 380 crew members on board, which surprised Su Jin and his team.
There were 380 people on board, of which some of them were elite fighters with sufficient weapons on hand. It was pretty difficult to kill this many people at once, even if their opponent were an alien.
But the main quest of this Challenge was for the owners to make sure that at least one crew member survived. In other words, was the Handbook expecting a massacre of sorts to happen right from the start?
Su Jin’s analysis of every Challenge was very simple. He always started with the introduction of the Challenge and the quests it gave. If you observed these things very carefully, you could glean a lot of useful information from them. Su Jin could even say that the Handbook already had a fairly clear description of the overall situation of each Challenge right from the start.
But getting such information from the bits that they had depended on how clever the team’s strategist was. At the same time, the information hidden in these areas was actually very simple. Anybody could uncover them if they thought about the implications of these words carefully enough. The main quest needed at least one person alive, so besides Su Jin, his three other team members had also sensed how dangerous this quest could be
“Jin, is a massacre going to happen?” asked Kano Mai in an uneasy voice.
Su Jin didn’t dare to give her a definite answer since he wasn’t sure, so he said, “Don’t think too much about that. Our first mission is to ensure our own safety. We need to find a way to get our hands on weapons, otherwise all of you are going to suffer if a fight breaks out.”
His brows were furrowed as he said these words. He had an almost indestructible body and was more useful than many ordinary weapons available. But his team members didn’t have such a body, so they had to think of a way to keep themselves alive first.
“Fearless, are there weapons in the fighting area?” asked Su Jin.
“Yes, there are. The fighting area is an area that Fearless opens up to fight any invasion from outside the spaceship. All sorts of large sized weapons, from nuclear bombs to high grade explosives are available, but you need five Level 1 crew members to gain access to high level weapons,” replied Fearless without withholding any information. This AI was the core of the spaceship and its first instruction after it was built was that it must never lie to humans.
“Five Level 1 crew members? The captains?” asked Situ Jin.
“That is correct. There are eight people on board the Fearless who have Level 1 access, including the five captains and three of the best scholars. As long as any five of them agree to use the large or high level weapons, access will be granted,” replied Fearless.
Su Jin frowned and asked, “What sort of weapons are available to us at our access level then?”
“Checking in progress…” The table flickered before the voice continued, “You are a Maintenance Crew Member with Level 2 access. To ensure your own safety when doing maintenance work outside the spaceship, a Level 2 Maintenance Crew Member can choose from the following weapons within the weapons zone.” The table instantly lit up with a catalog of various equipment, including the armor that Jefferson was wearing earlier.
“What do we need to do to get these items?” asked Su Jin without hesitation.
“You can collect them once you’re at the fighting area,” replied Fearless.
Just then, Su Jin felt like something was clinging onto one of his legs. He got a shock and looked down to see that the one hugging his leg was a little girl, who was accompanied by a timid little boy.
The two children looked like they were only around five or six. The little girl had blonde hair and blue eyes, and while the little boy had blue eyes as well, he had black hair. They looked like specially made dolls and were terribly adorable.
“There are children on the spaceship?” Wu Chen was extremely surprised, but he quickly smiled at the two children and said, “Come over here, I’ll give you candy!”
The two children not only ignored Wu Chen but looked like they were terribly frightened and ran off. Wu Chen felt very embarrassed but he could only laugh and shake his head.
.
Several people started entering the cafeteria at this time. They were all crew members of Fearless, including formidable elite fighters and professors in various fields. They had all been woken from hibernation and many of them still seemed a little dazed.
The two children ran toward Jefferson and he immediately carried them both with a gentle look on his face. He laughed and said, “You can’t remember? These two fellows were born on Fearless, so they’re truly the children of outer space!”
“They were born on Fearless?” Situ Jin was rather surprised.
Jefferson laughed again and said, “Why is that so strange to you? Fearless isn’t some church that practices celibacy. Their parents fell in love on our way to the Hiding Place of God and had these two children. But it’s not easy for the spaceship to support additional people on board, so this sort of thing was banned. Otherwise, the entire spaceship would be filled with children and we wouldn’t have enough food to go round. Humans can reproduce at an astonishing rate, you know?”
He patted the two children’s heads, whispered a few things to them and they ran off happily. All the crew members who saw them had gentle smiles on their faces.
As the cafeteria began to fill up, everyone also began to wake up from their sleepy state. Just then, the AI controlling the spaceship suddenly paged for Jefferson.
“Captain Jefferson, I’m not able to wake Captain Reginald and Mr. Arkas from their hibernation mode,” reported the AI to Jefferson as it appeared at the table in the form of a person.
“Second Captain Reginald? Come to think of it, Fearless was the one that woke me up but I didn’t see Reginald anywhere,” mumbled Jefferson puzzledly to himself.
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