Book 6, Chapter 1 - Troop Formed

Love Code at the End of the World

Raffles moved his portable lab into the science cabin on the spaceship. It unpacked itself automatically, filling the entire cabin.

Gehenna had never used the science cabin, so it looked the same as it had when they’d first stolen the ship. The equipment was pristine, and all the reagents remained sealed. Off to the side, there was a prefabricated water cabin. Raffles had told me that most science experiments required a water reservoir, so lab facilities usually came with these.

In this case, Ghostie was floating inside the tank. He looked at us from behind the glass and waved at us, seemingly in a good mood. Raffles was very happy to see that the spaceship had this kind of reservoir built in, as well.

Our battlefield was outside, and Raffles’s battlefield was in the lab. There, he would become thoroughly invigorated and serve as our most powerful secret weapon. He was our hero behind the scenes.

Raffles took out a syringe that contained a colorless liquid from a refrigerated box on the table. Many similar-looking syringes could be seen in the box as white mist seeped out. He looked at me and peeked outside suspiciously. “I already merged their system with Ice Dragon completely. I’ll modify this spacecraft later on. Its weapon system is too backward; I want it to become the most advanced spacecraft!” he said confidently, his voice full of passion.

Experiments and modifications were the things he liked to do the most. He had two brains, and he couldn’t be idle. To his scientist’s mind, doing nothing simply meant wasting precious time.

His mad passion for science was similar to that of Hagrid Jones. The only difference was that Raffles still had humanity, but Hagrid Jones had none.

Raffles surreptitiously looked around as he spoke, even though the entire spacecraft system had been taken over by IceDragon. He looked as if he were worried that someone was eavesdropping.

“What are you looking at?” I asked.

He smiled embarrassedly. “I was worried that there might have been a flaw.” Raffles was the first person I had fallen for, and he had always been overly cautious and bashful. He picked up the syringe, saying, “This contains surveillance nanobots. You can inject them into Gehenna and his men. That way, you can monitor them.” I took the syringe from Raffles and he continued, “There’s also a stimulation function. If we anything strange, we can…”

“Raffles.” I looked at him and put down the syringe. He looked at me with a confused look and I smiled at him, saying, “We left Silver Moon City. We don’t have to act like them anymore.”

“But they’re Ghost Eclipsers! They, they can’t be trusted.” Raffles picked up the syringe hastily. Ghostie nodded forcefully from inside the water cabin.

“Shut up!” I barked, pointing at Ghostie, even though he couldn’t speak. I wasn’t really scolding him; it was by force of habit. Ghostie pouted and shrugged at Raffles, seemingly aggrieved. His expression conveyed a sense of ‘I tried to help, but I couldn’t.’

I looked at Raffles, “It’s been so many years. The Ghost Eclipsers are changing. I’m not saying that the Ghost Eclipsers all became better, but there are good people among them. Our goal on this trip is to find the good people among the Ghost Eclipsers. Then, we will break the Ghost Eclipsers apart from the inside.”

Raffles nodded in agreement. I took away his syringe and set it aside, continuing, “True collaboration can only begin with trust. Let me be frank with you: I’d rather trust Gehenna and his men than Silver Moon City.”

Raffles looked at me with a confused expression. “What happened in Silver Moon City? You didn’t finish the story last time.”

Ghostie opened his eyes wide, and he looked angry too. I looked at Raffles, telling him, “Ghostie knows everything. Why don’t you make a piece of equipment to communicate with water ghosts?”

Raffles was briefly stunned, but soon, a confident smile spread across his face. “Actually, I’m already on it,” he replied. He walked up to his lab table, and several holographic buttons appeared on its surface. He pressed one, and a blueprint emerged, depicting a sensor-like disc.

“This is a brainwave converter...” Raffles swiped across the image of the blueprint. “...to convert Ghostie’s brainwaves into words. It contains editing, translation, and vocal functions. It’s based on features all robots possess, and should allow Ghostie to communicate.”

I looked at Ghostie and asked, “Are you excited? You’ll get to talk now!” Ghostie just floated in the water and smiled gently at Raffles and me.

“Oh yeah, there’s some equipment for Ghostie, too.” Raffles switched to a blueprint of a uniform. “This is Ghostie’s battle uniform,” Raffles smiled and explained. “This uniform is made of unique material. It is covered in billions of microcells that can store and dispense water. This will solve the issue of Ghostie having insufficient water on land.”

“It’s all in your hands.” I held Raffles’s hand, then looked at Ghostie. “Ghostie, when you can talk, what will your first sentence be?”

Ghostie broke into a wide grin and played at seeming mysterious.

“Swoosh!” Lucifer came in with a piece of bread in his mouth, talking through it. “Sister Luo Bing, we’re almost there. Uncle Gehenna said to come over.”

“Why are you eating again?” I took away the bread in his mouth. He looked at me with an aggrieved expression. I opened the backpack he carried all the time. As expected, it was filled with food. “If you eat like this, your mouth is going to stink again.”

“But I’m afraid that I won’t have anything to eat…” Lucifer pouted.

“Lil’ Bing, this is just a common habit for flying corpses,” Raffles spoke up for Lucifer.

“Brother Raffles!” Lucifer saw that Raffles had backed him up, and he immediately moved to stand behind Raffles.

I was always like a strict mother, while the men around me were like doting fathers.

“Sister Luo Bing is so fierce!” Lucifer hid behind Raffles and gripped his shirt tightly. Raffles seemed to dote on Lucifer and rubbed his head.

“You won’t go hungry following me.” I said grimly. “But if you eat so much, and you store it and let it ferment in you, the gas that you let out…” Whenever Lucifer stored food, his farts could kill.

“But what if…” Lucifer popped his head out. This child looked as if he’d grown bigger again in the past two days, “What if you had no food? I could give it to you!”

Give it to us? Retch!

Raffles looked at Lucifer stiffly. No doubt he remembered the smell of the three eggs the Flying Corpse King had given to me. He was the one who had washed them.

I looked at Lucifer grimly.

“Good boy. We appreciate the thought…” Raffles forced a smile. “But we won’t be lacking in food. Since you’re already here, though, let me give you a medical exam.”

“Alright.” Lucifer sat on the lab table obediently.

Raffles began to perform the exam on Lucifer. When I left the cabin, I worried for a split second about whether Raffles would dissect Lucifer, because Haggs was in Raffles’ body.

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