Imperfections Chapter 37

　　The camouflage and invisibility function of the biochip had been used up to its maximization, all the surrounding backgrounds had been blurred, leaving only one enlarged giant screen whose effect of 360-degree stereoscopic image was so real that it formed an indistinguishable illusion -- as if the interstellar pirates and the Royal Guard of Prince Cayley whom people tried but were unable to avoid have already been close at sight with their b.l.o.o.d.y smell!

　　Even at the era of NSC, outer s.p.a.ce was still an extremely dangerous environment for human. Having their heads on their belts*, the smugglers would be ready for any fatal consequences for having their freights on the channels -- not to mention facing the interstellar war directly ... Although their opponents would never deem that random encounter as a "war".

*an idiom that means in a extremely dangerous time or situation that one could die at any time

　　But for ordinary people who had not experienced professional trainings and had no Eden system as a powerful support, the trauma of being deprived of the mental network in a vacuum was no less than being killed once, and it would bring constant extreme fear and anxiety -- therefore the Self-Defense Force members had a mutiny immediately after returning from the air. Mania and rage were the ways people try to control their fear, allowing even the timid mice to reveal their fangs.

　　Now, this air raid scene was like the flame that lit the fuse, suddenly detonating those repressed fear and anxiety. The fiercest people among the procession were precisely the most traumatized people, most of whom collapsed on the spot, and began to panic and to run aimlessly in vain of trying to find a place to hide. However, the crowded buildings in the alleys were only visually "invisible", the ent.i.ties were still there which did not disappear. The people who were running soon hit the unseen walls. Those who lost their minds had been unable to tell what were on their way. They began to scream again and again so madly, like beasts, and they slammed into the invisible walls repeatedly.

　　The strong emotions were often like a plague in the crowd, which spread out quickly. The angry crowd panicked, some held their heads up blankly, some s.h.i.+vered and sat on the ground, others began to shout out someone else's name, running as they stumbled in the direction from their memory, leading to a b.u.mp on the invisible walls, and then desperately clang up the wall seams ...

　　One of them, with a hoa.r.s.e voice, was even shouting out "Mom!".

　　The video on the stereo screen was recorded from a road monitor that captured the missile landing process during the bombing of the Beijing β planet. The monitor was located near a remote harbor in the southern hemisphere, and that mainland was spa.r.s.ely populated. So, in fact, the vast majority of the residents in Beijing β planet were just like Penny, who had not witnessed the process of themselves being swallowed into h.e.l.l. They just disappeared silently in the inexplicable rejuvenation. Death was quick and calm, like logging out from a not so interesting holographic game.

　　This palm-sized base was so lucky that they have got the chance to appreciate this terrible doomsday picture.

　　The missile in the video fell on the ground, creating the inflated white light whose speed was far beyond the speed of sound. The light silently rolled in and engulfed the entire base. At the same time, under the use of the chip, the looming machine armor at the back, the road under people's feet and the distant buildings ... all disappeared. The figures of the people around were elongated, whose flesh were as if made by sands. When the wind blew, they were just scattered and left only a dismayed skeleton.

　　The screams almost alarmed the energy tower.

　　"Aaaah! Aaaah!"

　　The video ended in the final white light. The multimedia screen went dark, with lotus blooming picture on the standby screen. And then, after the scourge by the high-energy particle guns, the high-power protective nets and the multimedia, the energy system whined a few times, officially announcing its overload. Except the core energy of the mech station, all other places were out of power.

　　The whole base was in silence, people lost control of their faces and bodies, some were kneeling, others were still standing, but none could escape this abyss of nightmares.

　　Even had the experience of using biochips, Bixing Lu had not tried to affect so many people at the same time. His brain hurt like needles were poking it. He leaned towards the wall weakly.

　　Sat.u.r.day gazed at him shockingly: "What ... what the heck was that?"

　　"Holographic horror movie." Bixing Lu put his thumb and index finger into the shape of a gun, playfully touched the forehead of Sat.u.r.day. After he wiped the cold sweat from his own head and drank the soup that was left in the bowl, he told Sat.u.r.day, "Just kidding, it is not a movie. That was the last piece of recording from the attack in Beijing β planet. The guardians at the track close to Earth uploaded it when they asked for a.s.sistance from the Union. I downloaded it from the supply station you abandoned."

　　Sat.u.r.day was not fully recovered from the shock, he just nodded unconsciously. Legs driven by only instinct, he followed Bixing Lu out. After a while, he finally thought of something, and whispered lightly: "Why would you save this video?"

　　Lu did not answer. Sat.u.r.day thought he did not hear him, but he was somehow afraid of Bixing Lu now, so he pressed the urge to ask again.

　　Until they made their way out of the mech station, seeing the procession of parade lying on the ground from a distance, Lu slowed down slightly, and suddenly brought up: "Because I lived in planet Beijing β."

　　Sat.u.r.day raised his head.

　　"I have done some investment to get the long-term resident status on the planet Beijing β. I have been living there for the past years.  I used the money to build a school, called Starry Sea Academy. The kids we got were all little a.s.sholes. They kicked the teachers all out on the first day of school. I had a lot of students in planet Beijing β, also many friends --" Bixing stared nowhere with a pokerface. The light from the energy tower was filtered by the atmosphere and hit his face softly. He seemed to zone out a bit, and then he shook his head, asking Sat.u.r.day, "What, you think that I'm another interstellar hobo?"

　　Sat.u.r.day did not know what to say -- he only heard about the munitions dealer named Monoeye Hawk among these people. Cow got his mechs from him. But what kind of arm dealer he was, where he lived, and why he was wandering in the universe ... Sat.u.r.day had no idea about all these since he never traveled with Cow nor encountered with Monoeye Hawk.

　　He just took it for granted that Bixing Lu must be one of those homeless interstellar hobos who had never rooted in any of the natural ground on any planets. He was just one of them "picked" up by Cow.

Sat.u.r.day opened his mouth like a robot: "What I said to you ... What I just said, in that working cell ... I ..."

　　Just now in the cell, he told Bixing Lu so casually that the smugglers in the underground channels at the time acknowledged the news from the outside, but they decided to keep it down and not to tell anyone.

　　Bixing looked over his shoulder: "Hmm, I know you did not mean it. You just climbed the window to deliver me breakfast."

　　Sat.u.r.day did not know what to say.

　　Strangely enough, if a person was lively, cheerful and righteous, then when he and another person become friends, it would really be easy to share the hatred of his friends as his own hatred, and the pain of his friends as his own pain ... he seemed to be unaware that, not so long ago, this man for him, was still "none of his business".

　　"Since you know it now, please pay attention not to let that sneak out of your mouth in front of my students next time." Bixing Lu tried, but the power shut down just now would need longer to recover. The broken audio equipment in the base was totally down, so he cleared his throat and walked into the crowd.