Silent Crown

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

First, it was personal cleaning, then disinfection measures, and finally, wearing thin underwear with grooves all over, the man fitted the equipment, resembling heavy armor, over himself, piece by piece, following the guidance of the AI.

Finally, Ye Xuan sat in a chair, waiting quietly.

The silence continued until the second person who also looked plump wrapped up in the thick spacesuit, a lady with her helmet in her lap, walked into the cabin and greeted him, "Dr. Ye, it's been a while."

After paying the price for genetic modification, she acquired super-accurate vision, ultra-precise spatial perception, and an amazing ability to tell things apart, at the cost of her skin becoming excessively white and her pupils turning green.

She looked like a European.

The thought inexplicably popped up in the mind of Ye Qingxuan, who was spectating.

"Yo, Zhangsun, are you still busy with your work at the bilge?" Ye Xuan asked.

Zhangsun sat next to him nonchalantly. Despite being a woman, she had a wild and carefree nature, like that of men. "It's one of the cons of being an engineer, we'll never run out of machines to repair. Sometimes I'm really jealous of Old Bai they all, they've no geology to study in space, so they always have time to take a break from work.

"What about you? Still researching humans?"

"That's just one of the topics I'm working on, I still have proper work to do." Ye Xuan sighed resignedly. "I think I may have to start researching about programming and circuits recently for the sake of my patients." As he said so, he glanced at the corner where Peter stood silently, not breathing, his presence incredibly weak.

Peter said nothing.

He simply remained silent.

Zhangsun seemed to have understood something, and her gaze turned sympathetic. "It must be really difficult for you. Hermes always has some weird ideas. He even pestered me yesterday, telling me jokes for half an hour…"

"Were the jokes funny?" Ye Xuan asked.

"It's exactly why I'm feeling depressed." Zhangsun sighed in distress.

Ye Xuan took out a case from the pocket of his spacesuit and handed it over. "Here's your medicine, don't spread the word. I'm going against the rules by giving you the medicine."

"Thanks." Zhangsun whistled and put a hand over his shoulder in gratitude. "I haven't been able to sleep recently, how about we go grab another drink together some time soon? Liu Dongli, that loser, secretly planted some paddy at my place, and we made some wine…"

"Nah." Ye Xuan smiled resignedly.

Ye Qingxuan sensed that Ye Xuan's emotions were stirred up. It seemed to be romantic feelings, as if the latter was recalling how he had once flirted with the woman.

Zhangsun curled her lips. "You've probably given medicine to plenty of people in private recently? Which little girl have you hooked up with?"

"Forget it, I never sleep with my patients." Ye Xuan shook his head. "You are not the only one feeling depressed. The closer we are to the ground, the more cases of space-induced anxiety and depression we have on board.

"We originally claimed that it was not the earth that had abandoned us, instead it was us who had abandoned the earth. But the artificial gravity we currently have still can't be compared to the actual ground."

"Aren't a lot of people choosing to spend most of their time being immersed in virtual reality?" Zhangsun asked.

Ye Xuan shook his head. "Even in games, the frequency of malicious attacks has risen to a dangerous level."

"Everyone can't wait anymore." Zhangsun said, "At such a crucial moment, don't we need even more psychological supervision and guidance? It's all on you."

"What can I do? Create a Geneva Sanatorium server and coop them up?" Ye Xuan rolled his eyes. "Everyone yearns for the actual blue sky and the ground. But despite the ground, and the blue sky being close at hand, we can't land because of the crappy colonial convention. The political turmoil in the upper levels has already affected the normal operation of the fleet."

Zhangsun glanced at him. "Aren't you a member of the crew committee? Your actual power isn't small, is it? Are you just going to stand aside and do nothing about it?"

"Didn't they choose me to fill the vacancy in the crew committee exactly because of how harmless I am?" Ye Xuan shook his head. "If I make my position known, it will only make the situation even more complicated.

"Captain Xiao is making arrangements with the other colony ships. Although the results aren't exactly clear, at least the discussion has brought about the upcoming joint investigative landing."

Zhangsun snickered and shook her head. "We've yet to even touched the ground, but humans have once again stirred up disputes because of land."

Heavy footsteps sounded and someone else came in.

Ye Xuan's expression became more and more resigned, and he lowered his voice. "Here comes the recent PK madman in the server…"

Just as he said so, a rough voice sounded, "I hear someone speaking ill of me again, Xuan Xuan, is that you?"

A bald man walked in, wearing a heavy black exoskeleton suit instead of a cumbersome spacesuit like theirs, with connectors of machine parts exposed on the back of his head and ears.

Ye Xuan rolled his eyes, unable to stand the girlish nickname.

"Even you are coming along?" Zhangsun subconsciously stood up, stunned. "At the very least, everyone is from the same fleet, has the relationship between the various parties deteriorated to such an extent?"

"I'm not clear about what the higher-ups mean, one way or another, I'm only responsible for ensuring the safety of you guys." Yuan Eryi patted the tag on him that read: Chief Military Officer. "You are in charge of technical support, and Xuan Xuan is the temporary diplomat, and we also have a robot. A team like this is enough to fight a Level 80 Boss even, let alone handle an investigative landing. Xuan Xuan, have you stopped logging into your healer account lately? Everyone is waiting for you to team up."

Ye Xuan rolled his eyes again and didn't want to say anything. After undergoing several times of modifications and transformations, this fella had nano-hormones and modified organs implanted all over him, half of him was human, and the other half resembled a machine more. However, it just so happened that he had both the shortcomings of humans and machines.

After the modifications removed the bipolar disorder, anti-social tendencies, and murderous impulses in his genes, he became a natural soldier, an expert in the operation of various weapons, vehicle driving, and a series of skills that would come in handy in committing murder and arson, destroying items, and blowing things up… The price he paid was a lack of empathy, as well as the inability to pick up social cues. He would offend people easily, yet he couldn't care less about it.

It was normal to have a bad relationship with such a person.

Ye Xuan would have stopped providing psychological counseling to Yuan Eryi had he not been worried that the latter might commit violence against medical personnel and hack him to pieces. But despite this, people like Yuan Eryi were still indispensable to the fleet.

Or rather, the fleet had chosen him exactly because of it.

The fact that he was part of the team taking part in the joint investigative landing mission meant that the relationship with other colony ships had deteriorated to a certain extent.

After the last few team members arrived, they wasted no more time blabbering. Only Yuan Eryi, who was sitting in the driver's seat, made a few dirty jokes that were not funny at all.

Then, the ship was thrown into space. Through the porthole, they could see the ship gradually moving away from the brilliance of the lights of the colony ship, as it was cast towards the arms of another monster of steel.

Everyone's expression became tense.

It was the seventh formal meeting of the inhabitants of the four colony ships, after drifting around in space for a long time. It was the communication channel that was re-established after they parted on bad terms the previous time.

When it involved the exploration of the new home, everyone inevitably felt nervous.

Only Peter sat in the corner, silently flipping through the old book in his end. Despite the fact that the information could be downloaded from the database in an instant, he chose to obtain knowledge through such a human method, reading slowly and seriously, word by word, his voice clear and deep.

"Seven are an abomination unto God. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief; a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren…"

Ye Xuan closed his eyes.

So, Ye Qingxuan was engulfed in darkness.

After God knew how long, Ye Qingxuan felt his body shaking. Then, the hull trembled wildly. In the end, a huge quake erupted, making one's vision darken.

The seat belt pressed against one so tightly that it made one breathless.

The centrifugal force was so strong that it was almost as if the force was trying to throw the passengers out of the cabin.

"I can't even drift with this crappy ship, I'm gonna leave a bad review!" Yuan Eryi complained disgruntledly, completely unfazed by the alarm. It wasn't just the people in the cabin who were shocked, but he probably even scared the people on the other colony ship so much that they were about to sound the alarm as well?

"We have arrived at our neighbor's, passengers, please gather your luggage and disembark in an orderly manner." He pulled his seat belt off and looked at the passengers behind him, who were pale, dizzy, and nauseous, his expression gleeful. When he saw Peter, the bionic person whose expression did not change, he tsked disgruntledly.

Sure enough, be it centuries ago or centuries after, people with the surname Yuan were all equally annoying.

Soon, the airlock was opened.

The team members, whose legs were quivering, finally set foot on the land 146,000 kilometers away from them after three years, visiting their neighbors who were "a stone's throw away."

Someone had been waiting for them outside the airlock.

The man with a full beard walked up to them and extended a hand. "Dr. Ye, it's been a long time."

Ye Xuan nodded and forced out a smile. "It's been a long time, Steven, you seem to be doing well."

The hydrologist, Steven, shrugged. "It's just as terrible."

"At least you look good." Ye Xuan looked back and glared at Yuan Eryi, then patted Steven on the shoulder. "Let's not talk here, surely the committee here has arranged a conference room for us?"

Steven glanced at him. "We don't have a committee here."

"In that case, your mutiny two years ago… Ahem, I mean the rebellion, has succeeded?" Ye Xuan looked around and lowered his voice. "Bro, who is the guy in charge of the ship now?"

"The Captain." Steven's tone became distant, as if he was hinting at something. He walked in front and signaled for them to follow.

When they walked into the conference room, the people from other colony ships had been waiting. It was like brothers who had parted ways for a long time gathering together once more, yet there was no joy in the atmosphere.

It was just a cold and solemn silence.

When they left, or rather, when they were expelled by the Earth, there were more than a hundred fleets in total. They abandoned the icy homeland that had dried up and flew towards the "infinite world" in the distance.

Or rather, they were driven away by the barren hometown, walking lonesomely into the dark desert.

They sprinkled seeds into the universe aimlessly. Rather than to say that it was a great pioneering era, as stated in the advertisements, it would be more apt to say that they, as humans who only knew how to waste resources, were banished to the distant darkness. It was a lengthy exile and ascetic practice.

Some of their memories were washed away, the coordinates of their hometown erased from their database. After the third year since their departure, they couldn't even receive messages from their hometown anymore.

The last sentence they received was the farewell the cold AI bid them—Goodbye.

So, the abandoned infants drifted around in the dark ocean of the stars.

Recalling the memory of the past, one would realize that many things on the Earth had become vague impressions, and it would be difficult to remember the details. But the only thing that could be confirmed was that they had been abandoned by the Earth, and the two sides had forgotten each other.

Just like that, they set foot on a path where there was no looking back.

Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, East Asia, West Asia, South America, North America, Australia, North Africa, South Africa… Colony ships from everywhere, constituting of all races, went in all directions aimlessly.

At the start, they were still able to communicate with each other, but as time went on, they received fewer and fewer responses. Finally, the fleets were totally cut off from each other. Some were destroyed in front of their eyes, some were sunk in the meteorite belt, and some were… destroyed in the wars among each other.

In the end, only four colony ships were left traveling in this direction.

Just as everyone thought that they would spend the rest of their lives in cold steel and accepted their fate, new hope appeared in front of their eyes.

In the dark nebula, thought to be barren and empty, hid the land and blue sky that they had been dreaming of.

The temperature was just right, the gravity was suitable, and even the air composition was identical to that of the Earth. It was orbiting around a healthy and long-living star and had a satellite similar to that of the Earth.

So… when hungry victims of disaster found a life-saving straw to clutch at—no, it should be referred to as the hope of redemption—how should the straw be allocated?

The lengthy meetings began.

Despite just being in the early stages of joint exploration and development, yet to even land on the surface of the planet, many schemes and strategies were already hiding beneath the calm surface.

Brothers who should have been making progress together were glancing at each other with coldness and an untrusting look at the moment, as if they were waiting for the inheritance to be split after their old father had died.

They had already spent three hours arguing over who should be the first to step out of the cabin door, and it was still ongoing.

Despite the fact that the lander module was ready, all the staff were present, and the equipment was in good condition, it was simply too difficult to cross the threshold to enter the world that they had desperately yearned for.

Ye Xuan smoked a cigarette and looked coldly at the quarreling people. Motivated by his occupational habit, he profiled them one after another, analyzing what part of their brains, what hormones, and which aspects of their personalities were controlling them at the moment.

As he wrote down the sixth exact copy of a prescription for bipolar disorder in his notebook, he couldn't help but put down the pen, and he sighed softly. "Here I am, expecting this group of creatures to have souls, haven't I gotten something wrong?"

"Mhmm?" Steven, who was beside him, also watching the show, turned back and looked at him.

"It's nothing." Ye Xuan closed the notebook and gave him a reassuring smile. "It's almost time, what time are meals served here?"

It was mealtime.

Except for a handful, the rest refused the food provided by the organizers.

Most of the people present had undergone modifications and implantations. Although they might not require custom-made food, they refused to expose such information as well. They would even return to their ships to defecate.

As for the reason why, transformation technologies were also unique to each colony ship. Even at such a crucial time where they should work together, they were still unwilling to disclose the slightest bit of information about it.

Plus, they faced the risk of being manipulated by some ingredients in the food. Sometimes, it was difficult for one to know what was in the creamy mushroom soup in front of them.

"I really envy you." Ye Xuan held his thermos flask with both hands, slurping the liquid that couldn't be considered pleasant to the tongue, and couldn't help but look at Peter. "You just need to be recharged, but not getting recharged here won't cause you any major problems, right?"

"No worries, I can maintain minimum activity for 500 standard cycles when I run out of electricity," replied Peter.

"That's why I envy you, you can live for so long." Ye Xuan shook his head. "If human beings could live a little longer, we probably wouldn't be so ugly?"

Peter said nothing.

In the silence, only the sound of Ye Xuan slurping the soup could be heard.

After a long time, Peter closed the book, his voice calm, saying, "Dr. Ye, I have something to ask you."

Ye Xuan raised his eyebrows and seemed puzzled. "Do tell."

"I don't understand certain parts of the book you recommended." Peter looked down at the old book in his hand. "No, let me rephrase, it is difficult to understand."

"It's normal. It's an old antique from thousands of years ago. It would be very odd if it is still applicable." Ye Xuan asked, "Which part are you at?"

"The prophet led the humans through the ocean, arriving at the promised land." Peter replied, "Under the rainbow, the humans made a covenant with God."

"Ah, isn't it very romantic?" Ye Xuan nodded. "The early human beings were full of beautiful thoughts of fantasy indeed."

"It is exactly what I can't understand, the agreement between the humans and God…" He looked at Ye Xuan, as if he was gazing at Ye Qingxuan hidden behind, and recited the dogma in the book, word by word, "You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it."