Chapter 81
Wang Li waited anxiously outside the door for a while before his mother came through, followed a moment later by his father, holding his little sister.
Only when the family was reunited did he breathe a sigh of relief. Arriving in this strange place, surrounded by pitch-black darkness, his little sister was terrified and started to wail. His parents were busy comforting her. Wang Li observed their surroundings. Some of the people who had arrived before them must have already left, as the numbers didn’t quite add up. About fifty or sixty meters ahead, a cordon had been set up, with soldiers standing guard, preventing them from going further.
Someone went to ask what they should do next. The reply was to wait where they were; a staff member would come soon to take them to their arranged accommodations.
Wang Li opened his phone and, sure enough, found that there was no signal. It could only be used to check the time and as a flashlight. After waiting for another half an hour, a team of about eighty or a hundred people in uniform volunteer outfits returned. The soldiers called for them to line up in the order they had come out. The volunteers counted the people and then, organized by family units, each led about twenty families away.
Once they passed the cordoned-off area, the lights gradually disappeared. The volunteer leading them shone a powerful flashlight and comforted them, “Everyone, don’t be afraid. This area is quite empty. In about ten more minutes, we’ll reach the residential area.”
“The facilities there are very complete. They were built by interstellar people and have a lot of things that would seem very high-tech to us. Life is also very convenient. Everyone, just relax and think of it as a government-funded vacation,” the volunteer said, deliberately joking to ease their tension.
Sure enough, after walking for a dozen minutes and passing through an underpass, they saw a bizarre and magnificent city rising from the ground.
Even Wang Li couldn’t help but stare, dumbfounded. He lived in the capital of the Hua nation, which was already one of the most prosperous regions on Earth. But compared to this place, it still seemed a bit lacking. It wasn’t that this place was dazzlingly golden and prosperous, but that the entire city had an overwhelming sense of technology.
There were no vehicles on the road they were walking on; the lanes and flight paths were all in mid-air. From time to time, small spaceships would fly by. The volunteer explained to them that no interstellar people lived here; the people piloting these spaceships were their staff, transporting supplies.
The entire city was brightly lit, and there were no skyscrapers, only simple, sparsely arranged villa-like houses that stretched as far as the eye could see. It was just that the houses didn’t look very large, perhaps only about a hundred square meters in area.
The volunteer led them through the streets. Wang Li noticed that some of the shops on the roadside were already closed, and their names were in a script he couldn’t understand. Some of the houses already had residents who had moved in and were busy unpacking their luggage.
After walking for a few hundred meters, the volunteer stopped and led the first family in their group to a house. The doors of these houses were also peculiar. They were a solid color, made of some unknown material, and were an inverted rectangle, taller than they were wide, the exact opposite of the doors on Earth. Fortunately, even so, the doors were not too short for a person to pass through, just a little strange to look at.
Under the volunteer’s guidance, that family plucked a strand of hair with the follicle still attached and dropped it into a small groove on the door. A moment later, with two beeps, the door opened.
“And with that, your genes have been registered,” the volunteer instructed. “Later, you can register the genes of your whole family in the same way. After successful registration, you can just turn the handle to open the door.”
The people behind them whispered to each other, exclaiming at the magic of it all. It truly was alien technology.
After that family had entered their house, the volunteer led the rest of the people to their respective residences.
Wang Li’s family was also assigned such a small villa. After registering their information according to the procedure, they took their luggage and entered the house. The inside was very clean, and it was fully furnished with furniture both familiar and unfamiliar.
After closing the door, the family of four sat down on the sofa and caught their breath. The experiences of this day had been too shocking. Now that they could finally stop and rest for a moment, they all felt a sense of unreality.
They were on an alien planet now? And living in an alien’s house?
His little sister was tired from all the excitement and was a little drowsy. The family quickly went to find the bedrooms. Only then did they discover that although the house looked small, it actually had three floors underground. Including the two floors above ground, it was a five-story small villa.
The bedrooms were all on the second floor. When they pushed open the door, they saw a rather strange bed. It was enclosed by a semi-circular thin shell, and on the far left was a screen glowing with a soft white light.
Wang Li went closer for a look and breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was written in the Hua nation’s script. When the Interstellar Empire had been preparing, they had specially used a program to change all the electronic text on this planet to the United Star System’s language for the convenience of the people of Earth after they moved in.
“What does it say on it?”
Faced with such a strange bed, his parents were a little hesitant to put their daughter in it. Wang Li checked the function of the electronic screen. “Adjust temperature, humidity, oxygen concentration, soundproofing…” He scrolled down, line by line, and after a long while, confirmed that this should be used to adjust the environment during sleep. It was a high-tech bed and posed no danger.
Only then did his parents place their sleeping daughter inside. He poked his head in and saw that there was a similar screen inside, probably for convenience of operation after lying down. There were many parameters involved, but fortunately, there was a one-click setting for a suitable environment. After he tapped it, a silver, light-beam-like shield fell vertically from the front of the semi-circle, enclosing the entire bed.
His parents were startled. He quickly pressed the close button, and it opened again.
After a great deal of effort to explain the bed’s operating principles to his parents, he finally closed it again for his sister. The three of them went out of the room and each found a room to sleep in.
Wang Li lay on this magical bed. After adjusting it, he felt that the temperature and humidity were indeed very suitable. He could also choose music and watch movies and TV shows. Out of boredom, he watched two interstellar films and then found that he couldn’t understand the language. He couldn’t understand what the actors were babbling about at all, and there were no subtitles. So, he had no choice but to give up. When he scrolled to the last page, he nearly shot up from the bed.
How could A Bite of Hua Nation be on here?!
He clicked on it doubtfully and found that it really was the familiar A Bite of Hua Nation. With only this one film to watch, he could only click on the first episode.
And then he was too hungry to sleep.
The human heart is too sinister! Who on earth put a food documentary in here?!
…
On the Earth side, the evacuation of the northern region of the Hua nation was completed at a little after two in the morning. There were still some scattered individuals who hadn’t come. Whether it was because of an accident on the road or because they had chosen not to leave Earth, there was no time to go and find them one by one now. Xia Anran could only rush to the next region to continue the evacuation.
On the way to the central gathering point, she even ran into the Qilin. Due to the bombshell news of Earth’s impending destruction, people hadn’t had time to process its appearance at the end of the military parade. The Qilin had also been running around, gathering the animals together to make it convenient for her to transfer them later.
After setting up the portal, she took a moment to chat with it. “Where are you going next?”
The Qilin shook its head. “Several of the seniors in the clan have already been mobilized. Since I have the closest relationship with humans, I’ve been asked to stay here and follow your command.”
Ever since they had confirmed that the interstellar side could send people to help, the leaders had decided to temporarily halt the awakening of Horn Power to avoid unnecessary trouble. They would talk about it after the crisis was over.
The speed of the Hua nation’s evacuation was about what the leaders had expected. In less than two days, the main force had been mostly evacuated. As she began to travel abroad, the now mostly empty territory of the Hua nation also began to be gradually filled by people from the interstellar era.
After an exchange of opinions, and especially after Ren Yi and the others had described the combat level of the Yaxun star, the interstellar side had assessed that they probably wouldn’t need too many interstellar soldiers to come to Earth. The currently discussed number was more than enough for the Hua nation to accommodate.
The humans who had been evacuated from Earth to the interstellar era were shocked by the technology, and the soldiers who had come from the interstellar era were also having such a good time on Earth that they forgot to go home.
“Is this Earth? Ahhh, it’s the Hua nation!”
“Wuhu! This is great! The registration was so crowded, I’m glad I was quick and managed to sign up as a support staff!”
“So many plants! The sky is blue! And there’s a sun!”
“A puppy! A puppy just ran past!”
The interstellar soldiers who had just arrived on Earth couldn’t suppress their excitement and chattered nonstop. The commanders this time were Xuan Mo, Qin Feng, and a general from the Interstellar Empire named Yun Qiao. The three of them quickly maintained order and assembled their teams. The Earthlings who were coming to receive them were about to arrive. They had to maintain their best state and appearance!
“Hey, are you excited? I haven’t been able to sleep for the past few days, just thinking about coming here,” Xuan Mo whispered to Qin Feng.
Qin Feng kept his eyes forward. “Maintain your image.”
Xuan Mo shrugged and gestured with his chin in General Yun Qiao’s direction. “That guy is putting on an act. You’re no fun!”
This was Earth! This was the Hua nation! Wasn’t it normal to be nervous, excited, and thrilled? And according to the feedback from the Earthlings, this war was going to be like a spring outing for them. In his eyes, this was pretty much a government-funded vacation. Ah, Earth is so warm, it smells so good! These flowers, these trees, this grass! And the little birds! I want to try Earth’s food so bad. The thought made him so happy he wanted to fly.
The soldiers of the Beastman race, in particular, felt their instincts were about to go out of control the moment they set foot on the soil of the Hua nation. They wanted to run on the grass, and they were incredibly excited whenever they saw a small animal pass by.
The Hua nation had arranged for them to stay at a military base and had prepared a sumptuous lunch. The top leader’s meaning was that since they had come from afar, they should rest first, and they would be officially received in the afternoon.
And then, the canteen of the military base where they were staying had to report, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, requesting more ingredients to be transferred over. The ingredients they had in stock had already been eaten clean by these interstellar people. The chefs were wielding their spatulas so fast they were about to create sparks, but they still couldn’t keep up with their eating speed.