Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

"No, it's some guy who calls himself a royal detective and harasses Penguin Logistics in Victoria every now and then. He's a bit eccentric, but he's got the skills of a detective."

There are a lot of weirdos eyeing Penguin Logistics, but probably very few of them can leave an impression on Croissant and her friends.

"Let's not talk about that. She can't possibly chase you all the way from Victoria to Lungmen. Let's think about what to do now."

Returning to the present, the five people now trapped in mobile platforms face more than one problem.

First, there's this sandstorm. Although it can be classified as a sudden natural weather disaster rather than a natural calamity, judging from the intensity of the wind—which can still be heard howling even with the gates closed—it will last for quite some time, during which time they won't be able to drive away from this area.

Meanwhile, the trace amounts of Originium contained in the sandstorm also generate special energy due to their collisions, hindering normal communication in the surrounding area. This level of communication disruption would still occur even without a natural disaster.

Next comes the question that everyone present was most worried about—what happened here?

There was no reply to communications, no sign of human habitation, and no trace of human presence.

However, based on other clues, these people have never left this place.

"Judging from the current situation, we should investigate the entire area as thoroughly as possible before settling in." The undertaker still gave his conclusion, which was entirely based on rational thinking. "The structure has been checked. The structure of the entire mobile vehicle is relatively simple, with a storage area at the bottom, a central power area, and the building part on the surface of the platform at the top. For safety reasons, it is best for us to stay at the bottom level where we are now. In case of an accident, it will be convenient to leave immediately. In addition, this area has a network of elevators and staircases, making it relatively convenient to move around."

“Then all we need to do is patrol and guard the surrounding area, right?” Even without trying, Hongyun took the lead in taking off the bow from her back and immediately added herself to the patrol list. “There is indeed a strange smell in the air, but I’ve never smelled it before.”

“The light source outside this area has not been fully restored yet, so I can handle the patrol work on my own. I can handle any danger I encounter in the dark.”

The funeral director, however, insisted on taking on the job alone.

“If there’s any real danger, your gleaming circle in the dark is an excellent target,” Hongyun said. Even though the undertaker was determined to go, she was prepared to go with him.

"I think being drawn to his aura and launching an attack is more like 'moths to a flame.'" Having witnessed the Undertaker's strength, Jie felt there was no need to worry about the safety of anyone preparing to set off.

“There are many roads, so we can help patrol,” Croissant suggested. “Since we’re going on patrol, we need at least two people in a group to make sure everything is done properly, but we also need someone to watch the luggage, right?”

"...Why are you all looking at me?"

All eyes were on Tomat, who was indeed the best choice to go alone when the two of them were paired up.

Moreover, he was the one among those present who, even if he were alone, had the least need to worry about his personal safety.

"Alright, I'll stay here then. By the way, you just said 'this is the bottom floor,' right?"

“Yes, below this is the track section, there’s no separate space.” The Undertaker didn’t ask Thomas the Tank Engine why he asked that question, but simply answered him with what he knew.

"Is that so? Then be careful. Although you won't encounter any danger, if you shout loudly and I can hear you, I can come over immediately."

After asking such a seemingly random question and receiving a reply, Tomat leaned against the SUV parked there, closed his eyes, and appeared to have accepted his decision to stay behind.

"Don't worry, we're just patrolling the area to check if it's safe. The atmosphere here is weird, but nothing has happened so far, right?"

Croissant laughed heartily, then nudged the guy in her team with her elbow, signaling that they were about to get up and set off.

Hongyun and the undertaker chose a path leading to the power room, while Croissant and Jie headed towards a place on the same level as their location, resembling a warehouse.

Patrol the surrounding area in different directions to ensure sufficient coverage and that there are no dangerous factors nearby.

On the other side, although both men had good night vision, the undertaker, out of caution regarding the strange situation, took a portable flashlight and walked ahead, placing his shotgun at his waist with one hand on it, ready to draw and fire at any moment.

Hongyun then drew her bow, lowered her body, slowed her breathing, and twitched her ears every now and then to catch the smells and sounds around her.

"This mobile vehicle..."

The funeral attendant's steps were extremely light, contrary to his tall stature.

But precisely because of this, when the mourner spoke without warning and stopped walking, Hongyun, who was following closely behind, almost fell to the ground as if she had been hit by an iron wall.

"Oh dear, what's wrong... you suddenly stopped?"

"This is not a common mobile platform, at least not a commercially available mobile platform."

The funeral procession stopped because of his discovery.

Of course, Hongyun couldn't understand any of these words.

Meanwhile, Croissant and Jelly, who were illuminating the walls of the walkway with their lights and pausing to look around, also made a new discovery.

"Rembiton...Rembiton? This platform comes from Rembiton?"

There is a sign on the wall of the corridor that everyone in Terra knows.

— "Rembiton", a country known worldwide for its Originium mining industry.

It is also the homeland of the Catus people, who have rabbit ears.

"Something felt off before..." Jie carefully examined the markings on the wall, and said based on his existing experience, "Is this mobile platform a modified mining platform?"

Croissant, on the other hand, could rattle off a whole bunch of eloquent arguments: "Not to mention that the interior design is nothing like a mobile business platform, and it doesn't give you any sense of a shopping mall atmosphere, the overall appearance of the platform is completely unlike a commercial operation platform that has put effort into its appearance just to attract attention."

“Most commercial and trade organizations would buy specialized vehicle platforms from economically prosperous places like Colombia, which would save a lot of effort in operation, but this is obviously a mining platform... This is not the way to save money. Second-hand heavy industrial platforms are much more expensive than brand-new commercial vehicle platforms.”

Croissant's doubts grew as they discovered more and more clues.

—What are these people, pretending to be businessmen, secretly digging for?

Note: The voice actress for Texas is also one of the voice actors for characters in "The Detective Boys" (please don't associate the voice actress with the character.jpg).

[Main Text] A Guide to Wandering in Rhodes Island: Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Underground

A mobile city-state often has multiple functional areas. By miniaturizing these mobile platforms with specific functions and selling them to the market, they can be used by certain people with corresponding needs, allowing them to become a relatively independent organization and move around the world.

After all, many people are willing to take the risk of expanding their market to the whole world rather than just doing stable business in a single mobile city.

Rhodes Island, which was excavated from underground and converted into a mobile platform for medical organizations, is a rare example of a country without a clear national affiliation.

"Although there are heavy industry manufacturing companies that sell similar platforms, Rembitox's state-owned mining platforms are not sold on the market. As far as I know, they have only provided a few decommissioned platforms to the Shelag region under the official name."

The perspective shifts back to the undertaker, who walks through the darkness with a lantern, telling Hongyun, a girl who had recently been living in the wilderness of Syracuse, a lot of things that even ordinary Terrans wouldn't bother to know, before finally adding a concise explanation.

"Simply put, this mobile platform could not possibly have appeared here."

The funeral procession's lights moved about in the aisle as he checked the walls for light switches and explored the interior of the space.

"Didn't they say on the way here that it was just a group of guys who were buying things and got stuck, which is why they stopped here?"

Rather than using light sources to assess the surroundings, Hongyun still chooses to rely on her hearing and sense of smell.

There was no sound of air flowing, no sound of machinery running; all she could hear were the faint echoes of their footsteps in the empty corridor and her own heartbeat.

There was no smell of outsiders, nor the stench of blood that usually accompanies accidents. Although it was inside a huge mobile platform, it didn't have the pungent smell of disinfectant that Rhodes Island had, which was quite unpleasant for Hongyun. Instead, there was a sticky smell that she had never experienced before and that she couldn't describe in words.

"Can you smell it? A strange smell, like it's drilling into your brain, but it's not the smell of blood, and it gets stronger the deeper you go..."

"No, my sense of smell is still within the normal range for Lateran people."

But the mourners took Hongyun's words as a warning.

Even though Hongyun's intuitive judgment was inconsistent with his usual style of doing things by only using rational judgment.

The straight corridor leads directly to the power room, with only a few closed doors along the way as basic safety measures. This is the consistent simple structure of the heavy industry platform. However, even at this distance, it cannot be illuminated by the light emitted by the civilian Originium spotlight in hand.

The airtight doors on both sides of the corridor were tightly closed. These energy-powered doors, in the current situation where the power supply is interrupted, are no different from walls, simply isolating the existence of different spatial paths.

Apart from the door that connected to the parking platform where they came from, the passageway they were in was a semi-enclosed open space.

The funeral procession remained expressionless, and Hongyun lowered his posture to hide himself in the darkness, but the weapons in their hands—whether loaded guns or taut bowstrings—revealed their state of mind at that moment.

"...It's come to an end."

But when the funeral procession's lights shone on the first door that appeared before them, nothing happened.

There were no sudden figures, nor any monsters lurking in the darkness to launch an attack.

"No abnormalities. The road is also closed, and the power supply system has been shut off from the inner side. Unless someone inside activates it, this area will remain dark. Let's go back."

"No...that smell..."

The undertaker turned around, but Hongyun, as if in a frenzy, like a Pero or Lupo who used to chase their tails in circles as a child, held his bow and paced around impatiently, as if searching for something.

"...From above!!"

In an instant, she released the bowstring—an arrow powerful enough to pierce steel plates, which pierced the hole in the funeral procession's halo at an angle and shot towards the top of the corridor.

Those are louvered ventilation openings that appear at intervals.

"Drink it!!!"

On another patrol route, the Magnetic Storm Hammer crackled with electricity in the dark corridor as Croissant's seemingly frail arm was swung.

"Gurgle—"

But when she successfully hit the strange shape that resembled a giant flea with tentacled appendages in the darkness illuminated by the electric light, its body, which seemed to have no bones, kept changing shape, making a sound like that of a person from the East pounding rice cakes.

The current passed through its entire body in an instant, knocking it far away and sending it flying into the darkness beyond its sight.

"I was saved! Croissant, have you ever seen that kind of creature?"

Jie stood behind Croissant, still holding the meat cleaver that was more handy to him than any other weapon, but a corner of his clothes was torn, with fragments scattered on the ground. He spoke gratefully while also posing a question to Croissant.

"I've never seen this before... You've cooked so many dishes, you must have seen all kinds of fresh seafood, why are you asking me?"

Croissant recalled the monster's appearance—

Its tiny head has needle-like mouthparts, and its swollen body is oval-shaped like a flea, but it is big enough to be half an adult. Its strong, recurved hind limbs seem to be its main means of movement, but looking up, its forelimbs are countless twisted and swaying tentacles.

Its dull, dark green body resembled the color of a rotting corpse. The thick calluses on its back, which looked like chitin, were as soft as rubber. Although its eyes were not visible, one could feel the malicious gaze emanating from it.

"The tentacles are clearly a feature of aquatic creatures, but its hind legs are so well-developed... It doesn't look like a structure adapted to aquatic life at all. How could I possibly have cooked such a messy creature?"

The path where Croissant and Jehovah were was different from the path taken by the mourners; it was not a straight road leading to the end.

Instead, it's a sprawling area where a fork in the road or another passageway appears from time to time.

The consequence of not having a single path is that they don't know where the creature that was knocked away will reappear—there can't possibly be only one of those things.

“Seriously, I think I know why everyone here has disappeared and why they’re blocking the exit.”

In the darkness, a faint rustling sound came again, stirring the nerves of everyone present.

The battle between humans and monsters has begun.

—I thought it would be like this?

The deafening gunfire could not be contained by a mere corridor, especially given the continuous, dense barrage of gunfire.

The mushy, mangled flesh writhed and struggled, as if trying to reshape its body under the merciless hail of bullets. However, it was pinned to the edges and corners of its limbs by several sharp arrows and could not break free.

On the other side, the monster's figure rushed towards Jie, and Jie charged straight at it without flinching, just like the old trope in old comics where "the two rush towards each other and then appear behind each other in the next instant".

Having reached the other side, Jie sheathed his knife, while the monster, which had turned around to pounce again, disintegrated into a pile of still-trembling pieces of flesh after making the turn, just like the clothes it had torn apart earlier, and could not be restored.