Universe Infinite Canteen
Chapter 777 - 777: Preparing for the Trip

Ma Lu spent nearly 30 hours finishing the data at hand, having to restart three times in the process.

It wasn't until his eyes were bloodshot that he suddenly recalled an important question and asked the Female Doctor next to him.

"Do you have an email?"

"Email?" Erin also patted her somewhat tense cheeks.

"A place to send and receive online messages."

"Oh, I do, but you can't connect to the public network from the prison zone. You'll need to go to Prison Chief Yuwen's residence or the Central Contact Room to access it," the Female Doctor said.

"No problem, no rush. Could you do me a favor?"

"What kind of favor?"

"Share your account and password with me, and after you leave here, upload this data to your email. That way, I can access it whenever I need once I get back."

"Oh, oh, oh, sure."

Ma Lu then asked, "Have you found anything?"

"Unbelievable. If the content in these files is true, the existence of such terrifying creatures in this world is beyond imagination."

Erin swallowed a mouthful of saliva, then said, "And they possess incredibly strong learning and mimicry capabilities."

"I know. Can you pinpoint any weaknesses?"

"Not yet… but I have a vague hypothesis," the Female Doctor said. "I noticed that there seems to be very little variability in behavior among their individual organisms, despite physiological differences.

"So?"

"So either their individuals are almost identical to each other, or they're like the Bug Race, where every colony is led by a mother-entity, and all the other members strictly obey its commands without autonomous actions.

"However, unlike the Bug Race, which has clear divisions of labor, each of the Skulders can fulfill multiple roles and carry out various tasks, making their combat abilities stronger than the Bug Race."

"So you're saying that if we can identify and eliminate their mother-entity, we might wipe out all the Skulders?" Ma Lu rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Hmm, that's just my hypothesis," Erin said. "We'd need to conduct more experiments to confirm it."

"No time. Assuming your guess is correct, based on this idea, who do you think could be the mother-entity among them?"

"Ah, the possibilities are vast. Considering the unique reproductive methods of the Skulders, the one that appeared earliest is most likely to be the mother-entity."

"That little snake, perhaps?"

The Female Doctor nodded, then shook her head, "That was the first encounter between the Ares people and the Skulders, but it doesn't prove it's the mother-entity. I've seen recordings of that skirmish— the little snake died on the spot, then controlled the body of an Ares warrior afterward.

"But not long after, that Ares warrior was also killed by others, and the parasite switched hosts again. It may have gone through more hosts and battles since then. By now, it's almost impossible to determine what form it currently takes…"

Ma Lu understood that Erin was speaking truthfully. Even though they knew the Skulders were controlled by a mother-entity, finding it would be extremely difficult. Still, this hypothesis offered a sense of direction.

Ma Lu had also made some discoveries in the data, but he wasn't sure if they could be useful yet.

At any rate, with the clock ticking, he figured it was better to treat any scrap of knowledge as potentially life-saving, collecting everything he could.

As the countdown ticked toward conclusion, Ma Lu entrusted Erin to the Ares people, asking them to escort her out of Prison No. 444 as they departed.

Then, under the Female Doctor's astonished gaze, Ma Lu vanished on the spot, returning to Earth, where he barely had time to catch his breath before diving back into work.

Ever since Ma Youyou told him that the Skulders would arrive and annihilate Boggy's Plane in ten days, he decided to make that plane the final battleground.

First, he could rely on the Twin Sunflower Hunting Group's strength. Second, if they won, he could protect his friends there.

Although Ma Lu could return to Great Curtain City using the power of the Bug Egg, this time he intended to team up with Old Wang and haul a variety of supplies, so he had to take a Plane Spaceship instead.

But the Pink Whale Ship still wasn't repaired. Even though Yan Wu was willing to part with his precious Warp Pulse Engine, Ma Lu still needed to find another engine and an energy core to fully restore the vessel.

The Warp Pulse Engine wasn't too much trouble; using the Earth Autonomy Management Committee's limited-time double-revenue event, Ma Lu put the store's priciest dishes on the market, raking in huge profits that even turned the faces of four small animals green.

Now, he'd accumulated enough funds to purchase the engine. He also had Lao Hei negotiating with external sellers, but the engine couldn't be delivered to Earth.

The Fairy Dragon Smuggling Group had recently taken over Earth's smuggling operations.

However, as news of total coalition defeat led by Javier Cruz and the impending end of the universe began to slip out on a small scale, panic started to spread.

The first to catch wind of the news were always politicians and the wealthy. Somehow, they'd heard that Motti and others had already fled to Earth. Consequently, the cost of Fairy Dragon's tickets skyrocketed again—this time more frantically than before—jumping to an astonishing 200,000 Star Currency per seat within just three days.

Ma Lu calculated that if he persuaded them to prioritize delivering engines over transporting passengers, the freight costs alone would run at least 10 million Star Currency. Even then, their schedule might not free up soon enough.

Luckily, it wasn't impossible for the Plane Spaceship to function with one less engine, though the safety risk would increase significantly. Ma Lu decided to personally pilot the ship to a spaceport for delivery.

After securing the other engine, he'd make his way to find Boggy.

So now, all he lacked was an energy core—the priciest part of the ship.

Buying one would cost at least 60 million Star Currency, with scarce availability.

That's when Ma Lu set his sights on the core from the Cosmic One, which Motti and others had used to reach Earth. Since Dalia and her crew seemed disinclined to leave, he figured they wouldn't need the energy core of their ship any longer.

Ma Lu planned to "borrow" it for the sake of the Multiverse's salvation. Even though the odds of success were slim, it was still better than leaving it idle there.

However, when Ma Lu reached the deserted island where the Cosmic One was docked, he learned that Dalia wasn't there.

The guards on duty informed him that the Minister was in Shinjuku "chatting" with a host. So Ma Lu tried to meet with someone else instead.

As it turned out, Vice Speakers Cocobik and Gusta were also absent—one supposedly learning pole dancing in New York, and the other raising elephants in Africa's savannas.

All the other officials were off doing their own thing, leaving nobody in charge of managing the enormous ship.