Chapter 329: Hitting the Jackpot
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hao Ren never thought he would actually hit the jackpot, but the conversation between the two little green aliens had him frowning at the complexity of the issue. The two green aliens looked perplexed too when they heard him, and one of them ruffled his shiny bald head before asking. "An ascetic? What does that mean?"
"Oh, nothing," Hao Ren quickly interjected. "Tell me more about the pearly orb and those four people. I'm interested, and I might just be of help to your investigations."
The two Kerbalians looked at each other and were probably trying to understand why an inspector would be interested in the matter. Nevertheless, they were pleased about it and the Kerbalian who mentioned the orb spoke, "It was a few months ago when an explosion happened near the mines in one of our commonwealth stars. It may have something to do with the dimensional teleportation case. After the blast we found four.... oddly dressed humanoids. Hmm, in fact, there were just like you. Using our categorisation methods, we found out that they were a Class II humanoid species. They could not communicate with us, and they did not carry any identifications either. Our sensors also detected a strange gravitational anomaly after the teleportation but... we reached a dead end after investigating. We don't know where they came from and they can't tell us."
The little green man demurred for a moment trying to recall some minor details. "As for the pearly object, it came along with them. It seemed like something very valuable, but looked like your normal metal ball. They called it the 'Oobbu'. We originally wanted to study the thing but almost got into a fight with them for that. They treated that thing like it was as valuable as knowledge."
The Kerbalians viewed exploration and the knowledge that followed as the most important things in life. So, it was very common for them to compare something important to knowledge as opposed to life. In their culture, lives were simply a currency to spend... not a shared sentiment like it was for your average Earthling.
"Is it called the Orb of the Holy Synod?" Hao Ren queried after hearing the little green man's description of the item. He was sure he was not far off. He quickly adjusted his translation plugin to match the Kerbalian's pronunciation of the item. "Oo-bbu of the Holey Synod, that thing?"
The little green man immediately nodded. "Yes, yes, yes! That's it. It was troublesome to speak with those four humans, especially because their language was just plain weird... We only managed to decipher what they said after renting an Imperial Data Network Chain and the Oo-bbu of the Holey Synod was the thing they talked about the most."
Hao Ren then leaned forward towards the Kerbalians. "Where are they now? Both the men and the Orb are safe?"
They were taken aback by Hao Ren's sudden movement and one of them almost fell backwards. "They are safe. We placed them in a specialised settlement... Mr. Inspector, do you know who these people are?"
Hao Ren nodded. "Yes, but it will be a bit difficult to explain the matter, plus some of the details are... I'm sorry, classified and may affect the safety of the local universe. I want to meet them, and I may take them away after that. Can you arrange that for me?"
Hao Ren thought that the request would require a meeting of sorts, but little did he know that the word "classified" had an unexpected effect. The Kerbalian sitting across him immediately turned very green (the Kerbalians did not have much facial animation when compared to humans, and they used colours to emphasise their feelings; green being the colour of seriousness) and said, "Sir, I understand. I'll inform the Commonwealth's department in charge to make the arrangements."
He then spoke in a cautious whisper, "Sir, I have another thing to ask... Many day-to-day staff who have not undergone confidentiality training have come into contact with the four asectics and the Orb... Do we need to wipe their memories or take any other measures to ensure secrecy?"
Hao Ren quickly waved his hand. "No need for that. Don't panic, it hasn't gone to that level yet."
To many races in the universe, The Plane of Dreams was not a classified subject. In fact, the Xiling Celestials even handed some of the research tasks regarding The Plane of Dreams to common races. However, the matter of its stability and the cracks on the Wall of Reality were kept under the lid. While the matter was indeed sensitive, it was still not classified and it could be accessed by anyone with sufficient level of clearance. The only classified part was the results of the deteoration—the end the world was classified. Hao Ren had been studying his job manual, and he learned a lot about the various levels of classifications as well as balance in power. But, even though he had made some progress.... they were mere baby steps on the long road he needed to take.
The MDT had kept its silence throughout the meeting and it was quietly monitoring Hao Ren's first attempt at diplomacy with other civilisations. If there was something off it would say something about it. In this regard, its silence meant things were going rather well for Hao Ren.
Kabala and his other two ministers finally concluded their delibrations. Hao Ren then stood up as well to mention the Orb of the Holy Synod and motion for the delay in plans regarding The Plane of Dreams. It may have to wait a bit as he needed to retrieve the Orb before sending in a team to extract the remains of the ship.
And not forgetting, there was also the four ascetics.
The Kerbalians nodded in an understanding manner and did not seem to mind the slight delay. To them, it was a golden opportunity to go into The Plane of Dreams with authorisation. A few days meant nothing to them.
After setting the agenda and time to meet the next day, the little green men bid their farewells. They formed a line and bowed. "May your death be far from whence you came from!"
Hao Ren had to strain himself from not breaking into a hysteric fit of laughter and returned the heartfelt wishes... "May all of your deaths be far from whence you came from."
And thus, the meeting was concluded.
After that, Hao Ren decided to head home. He wanted to at least bring Becky along before he headed off to the Kabala Commonwealth to look for the ascetics.
As he was on his way to the space station's teleportation chamber, Hao Ren began to discuss the matter with the MDT. "What do you make of this?"
Hao Ren had pretty much guessed that the Orb ended up in the Surface World, but he just thought it was floating around somewhere in space. The spacecraft behind the incident at the Blood Lake was clearly navigating through space before being dragged into a spatial anomaly. If those on board were opening a two-way portal in space, the individuals in the church along with the Orb would have been thrown into deep space. And, they would have landed where the ship originally activated the portal. It was under this assumption that Hao Ren had put aside searching for the Orb. It was a tall order trying to look for something that small in the void, and on top of that, it was something no one had seen before. Finding a needle in a haystack did not even begin to describe the magnitude of the search. But as luck would have it, the four ascetics and the Orb had landed safely on a physical planet.
"Maybe there's a deviation between The Plane of Dream and the Surface World that caused this," the MDT theorised. "Teleportation between two worlds is not necessarily a direct two-way communcation. Maybe, the Orb itself has some special properties that helps it to select a physical point for landing after a teleportation. If that's the case, we are lucky that it didn't fall directly into the system's sun. The place where the Arcturus 4 ran into trouble was indeed near the Kerbal Civilisation Sphere and the Orb landing on one of the nearby planets is understandable."
Hao Ren nodded and kept quiet. Once he stepped into the teleportation chamber, he returned home in a flash of light.
The moment he appeared in the living room, a white silhouette charged happily towards him. "Mr. Landlord you're back!"
Hao Ren laughed at the sight of the hyper-energetic Lily. "You're back to normal now?"
Lily was hugging his arm as she licked it like a dog. She then turned around to show off her tail. "We had it trimmed twice. Battie said the effect is starting to wear off. My resistance is just that strong! Does it look good?"
Hao Ren was not sure on how to react and it was uncommon for a girl to be all flighty around him, asking the classic "Does it look good?" question. But woe be to him that the item in question was her tail... Hao Ren coughed drily and put on the sincerest face he could imagine. "Looks great. So, can stop going around and smacking others with it anymore?"
Lily gave a loud cheer and darted towards the cookie jar to reward herself. Hao Ren saw the recovered... maybe a little too recovered husky and sighed. "Haih... let's just treat this as a good thing."
Vivian was knitting some clothes for Lil Pea when she looked up at him. "Things went well I assume? Were the aliens cordial?"
"Yes, much better than expected really. I thought we would be talking all night long." Hao Ren nodded as he gestured towards Becky. "Becky! Come with me to the space station. We are going to look for the Orb of the Holy Synod!"