While preparing the spacecraft to scan the entire planet, Hao Ren knew they had to do something.
Many details could be hidden in the unnoticeable corners. The spacecraft might be able to find the stronghold hidden under the earth’s crust, but it may not be able to find clues left by the survivors of the doomsday.
They sat in the living room in a circle to discuss the status of the strange planet. Vivian put her hands on the tea table while expressing her opinion. “The biggest problem now is why the native people of this planet are hiding, and why they leave such a strange city to trap outsiders.”
The live updates news, entertainment programs on TV, and products that had recently been produced and the ads. These showed that the human society of this planet was still working and they were just hiding somewhere unknown. And now, the empty city was more like a closed observation room. Whether it was the Nangong couple who came here 100 years ago, or Hao Ren and his companions who had just reached here, everyone seemed to have been treated as an observation sample. Hao Ren told them his speculation and got all the support, especially Lily—this Husky had just watched a lot of sci-fi movies before coming here, and now her head was full of conspiracy theories.
“They must have their own purpose, because it’s expensive to keep the city running,” Y’zaks said, knocked on the table and continued, “Look at the supplies, the energy of the city, the robots for maintenance, and the stuff in the mall—most of which have been put there until expired and thrown away. They maintain the normal operation of such a big city, but only to feed two people. This is certainly not a joke.”
Lily looked around and suggested, “I think that firstly, we should try to send our message to the natives of this planet. They surely can see us, right? Then we just ask them directly what they want. If they don’t respond, then we try to get out of here by force. Let’s see what’s the reaction of the defense system in this place. And if we have no any other option, we can only fight with them… That’s better than no progress.”
Hao Ren looked at the husky girl with a little surprised. “Good, I’ve never thought that you could come up with such a constructive plan. Not a coward this time?”
“I’m actually quite smart, okay?” Lily kicked Hao Ren under the table.
Vivian glanced at Lily and asked, “Okay, how are you going to talk to the natives here? Go to the balcony and howl at the sky?”
Without hesitation, Lily stood up and walked straight to the balcony, leaving everybody looking at each other. Vivian shrugged and said, “I forgot that this is what she usually does when she has nothing to do. No pressure at all.”
Before Vivian finished her words, a loud, shrilling howl was coming from the balcony. “Awwwwooooo—”
Hao Ren yelled at the balcony, “Speak human language!”
Lily just realized what she was doing, then immediately yelling at the natives of this planet, hoping to make them come out. A few minutes later, she trotted into the living room and said, “It doesn’t work. Nobody responds. Let’s carry out Plan B.”
Nangong Wudi had been watching this crazy bunch of people. “This girl has a good voice…”
“If the city is an observation room, there must be someone watching our movement. They must be watching Lily just now,” said Y’zaks. Although what Lily just did leave Y’zaks a little speechless, he had to admit that it really meant something. “Now we can think about breaking through the city checkpoint. This can probably force the locals out.”
Everybody nodded. But just as they were ready to go out, Ayesha’s voice was coming from the kitchen, “Shouldn’t we eat first before going out?”
Ayesha was standing at the kitchen door with a large tray with a smile on her face. Her lower body also turned into a snake tail. At the end of her tail was a steaming cauldron, with a peculiar smell of rice coming out of it. It seemed that Wuyue’s ability to create all kinds of strange uses of the tail, including those unusual ways to do housework using her tail, was inherited from her mother.
Nangong Wudi immediately stood up and said, “Come on, it’s hard for us to get together. Let’s sit down and try my wife’s cooking first. Anyway, we have been waiting for a hundred years. We can wait.”
Elsa placed the steaming dishes on the table. The small table could not accommodate so many people, and half of them simply ate at the side table. There were plenty of dishes on the table, and most of them were unheard of. But fortunately, they all tasted good. Everybody enjoyed the meal, especially Lily. The entire world stopped when she was eating. Hao Ren even had to watch her and pass her water at any time: This was the tacit understanding they had after living together for over a year.
Wuyue looked at the table of food and her parents sitting beside her, almost on the verge of tears and said, “We haven’t had dinner together for a long time…”
Ayesha looked at her children, getting emotional. “When mom and dad left, two of you were still little kids… Now you’re all grown up. What have you been doing over the years?”
“We had been looking for you all over the world. I was a singer, and brother worked as a demon hunter,” Nangong Wuyue said while poking the rice in the bowl, “100 years had passed and we still had no clue, until I met the landlord…”
Hao Ren turned to Nangong Wudi and asked, “How do you learn the language of this planet?”
He and his friends were assisted by translation plug-ins, and could quickly grasp any language and text, but he wondered how the Nangong couple learned it.
“Read books, listen to the radio, watch the TV…” Nangong Wudi said, pointing to the TV on the wall, “Although there’s no one in the city, we can still see these things. 100 years of time is enough for us to learn the language here.”
“Oh, yes, watch TV!” Lily threw away the chopsticks excitedly and ran to the ‘TV’. It took her some time to figure out how to turn on the TV. “Be careful, don’t break it!”
“It’s ok,” Nangong Wudi smiled and said, “when we first arrived here, we also broke a lot of things, and we even burned a house while preparing a meal. Haha. And there’re always some automatons come to clean it up afterward. ”
“The cost of living of you two is quite high…” said Hao Ren.
Lily kept changing the TV channels, from news to advertisement to entertainment, dramas, and movies, as if there was a thriving world outside. She then returned to the table and sat down, biting her chopsticks and muttering, “I’ve written a novel before, about a man trapped in a house. The house had no doors, no windows, only a mountain of cans and a TV. The man was born in the house and grew up in the house. All he could do was watching TV, watching the busy world on TV, news and current affairs, and learning about the world from the TV. He knew from TV that he was living in a big city and that the country he lived in was fighting with another country. Suddenly, one day, the TV broke down. He smashed the wall and came out of the house…”
“And then?” Vivian was curious about the story. “You can actually write something so deep?”
“Then? Then he fell straight down and down, endlessly. His room was the only thing in that world. There’s nothing outside the room. Just void,” Lily said while biting the chopsticks, “It’s a thriller.”
“The story is not funny at all,” Vivian said while eating.
Hao Ren pondered for a moment after hearing Lily’s story. He then shook his head, pointed to the screen on the wall and said, “But the TV in your story doesn’t show real news, and ‘the man in the room’ is not being observed.”
The news was being broadcast ion the TV, announcing that the ‘Department of Security’ and the ‘Department of Development Affairs’ was ready for the Planet Ark to decelerate. A news presenter with a straight face was urging residents not to get close to the places that collapsed easily to cope with the shock caused by the first switching of engines of the planet.
At the same time, Petrachelys also brought them the news: The propulsion engine of this planet was reducing its power, while several engine valves in the thrust reversal system were showing signs of preheating.
This was the difference between Lily’s story and this city: Someone made this ‘glass house’.
Y’zaks frowned while watching the news and suddenly stood up.
While everybody was puzzled, he came to the window, pointing to the tall buildings in the distance.
The next second, a huge fireball exploded in the city, rumbling like thunder.