Xyrin Empire
Chapter 403 - Chapter 403 Chapter 403 Leisure Time

Chapter 403: Chapter 403 Leisure Time Chapter 403: Chapter 403 Leisure Time In the following days, I finally got to enjoy a proper shut-in’s leisurely holiday, just like a true homebody should.

No need to think about anything, no need to do anything, no need to worry about Terminators suddenly jumping out to wipe out humans on the street, no need to fear Skytopians falling from the sky, no need to fret about asteroids from outer space that might require you to wear your underwear outside your pants–they’d even let the urban management uncle deal with bootleggers next door, so I didn’t have to lift a finger. I was completely free from worrying about doomsday, just eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, casually strolling out to watch some Little Lolis or sunbathe with the Queen, dragging the nerdy kid’s mom for some shopping or being dragged by my high-energy girlfriend, and even when sunbathing at home, I’d have fun teasing God and helping our home Angel fluff her feathers…

This is life!

This is what life as an Empire ruler should be filled with, lazy indulgence +10086!

As I’ve mentioned before, thanks to a group of highly talented Imperial Commanders, our corrupt little gang, not only possesses formidable military strength in the Dark World, but can also lead a parasitic blissful life in the real world, just like Sandora now, dedicating fifty percent of her day to eating. I truly have no idea how that Glutton Queen maintains her slim figure…

Anyway, Qianqian has repeatedly expressed her blatant envy, jealousy, and hatred for this–aside from the fact that her appetite can’t compare, that gal’s appetite has always been slightly better than mine since she was little.

But not every Imperial Commander has a knack for business. The tragic poor sisters still find themselves being supported by their colleagues. “The creepy little flower shop that no one ever visits at the street corner” seems to have become an unconventional landmark in the neighborhood; many even treat it as an urban legend to share around, and the most vital part of this urban legend is: no matter who goes in, it’s very hard for them to find the shop owner…

“Why don’t you two occasionally detach from your personal worlds and greet the customers? Would it kill you?”

Looking at the beautiful twin sisters in front of me, moved to tears and swallowing food with heartfelt devotion because they could dine at the Leader’s house, I… I was about to be frustrated to death.

Let me put it this way: Taking care of certain Imperial Officers is hardly easier than substitute teaching a kindergarten class.

Chastised by my words, the identical-faced twins, who could literally serve as mirrors to each other, stopped their motions and shyly bowed their heads, biting on their chopsticks.

These two, instead of learning other skills, spend their days hanging out with Sandora and the others, elevating their level of being adorably annoying like crazy!

Sighing, I found myself utterly at a loss with these two. Although Xyrin Apostles are powerful, due to their race’s uniqueness, many of them translate to absolute deadweights with a survival ability score of 5 in human society. For instance, these Space Twins in front of me, who spend nearly ten hours a day just looking at each other–I don’t even want to know how Sivis arranged them to run a shop…

“By the way, what have you two been busy with lately? Sicaro mentioned that he couldn’t find you at the flower shop several times.”

While expertly rescuing my food from Sandora’s whirlwind eating beside me, I asked the sisters.

Typically due to their personalities, these sisters stay in their little shop and hardly ever wander out (don’t even expect them to grasp the concept of doing business). Their flower shop has thus almost turned into a refuge that Uncle Hei Chao, a man often chased by urban management, visits every two or three days. But recently, Asida and Asidora seemed to often be away from the shop, which not only struck Sicaro as odd but also piqued my curiosity.

Had the sister flowers immersed in the land of lilies finally started showing interest in the outside world?

Of course, I was also very concerned about the news that “the city’s biggest pirate trafficker was finally caught recently,” which delighted the citizens but gave me a headache.

The sisters exchanged glances, then spoke simultaneously, “In fact, we have recently been assisting Researcher Taville with some experiments related to space.”

“Experiments related to space?” I vaguely remembered having some impression of this, as there had been a few reports similar to Taville’s in the command and communication links a while ago, but… cough cough, I passed them to Sandora and Sivis at the first opportunity, and now only remember that the bespectacled lady submitted a few research proposals.

Speaking of research related to space, I didn’t think Taville could achieve much in the near term. The establishment of the Super Space-Time Management Center and the restoration of the World Gate technology was already a miracle that could be described as luck. If she could come up with anything significant again, it couldn’t just be described as genius. I would have to suspect she was a master who had traveled from several years in the future.

Having been together for so long, even the Space Twins seemed to have a good grasp of my thinking habits, or perhaps they vaguely shared a glimpse into my thoughts through our dim mental connection. Asida and Asidora quickly guessed my thoughts and immediately explained, “It might be different from what you think. Taville’s research team has recently paused further development of space technology and is focusing on analyzing the two strange Star Ring Fragments we retrieved. The research they have involved us in seems to be related, but since it all belongs to internal information of the research department, we are not very clear about it.”

This made sense. Although the Twin Sisters were masters in space science, their abilities still differed from conventional space technologies. Even if they participated in the experiments, they probably wouldn’t understand much.

Somewhat concerned, I took the Pandora Sisters out for a walk after dinner and took the opportunity to connect with Visca Barrier Star, asking Taville about the progress of the research on the two Star Ring Fragments.

The diligent and dedicated female scientist never anticipated that I had scarcely read the reports she submitted–after all, all those professional terms are Greek to me!

“Ah, Your Majesty, it seems you have also become concerned about the abnormal state displayed by the Star Ring Fragments.”

Receiving my communication, Taville immediately responded with the joy of her research being taken seriously.

At that moment, I nearly leapt into a pond–unfortunately, there was no water nearby.

Mumbling an agreement, I led the two little ones–who were sneakily pinching each other trying to catch my attention–to sit down on a bench by the woods and seriously listened to Taville’s report–it seemed that there might be something remarkable within the remnants of the Star Ring Fragments?

Taville sent me images directly from the Moon Base disassembly site into my mind, where the majestic black machinery was now half dismantled into sprawling parts, while the remaining structure loomed like a massive beast with small detection devices glittering with blue Ghost Energy Shields, deftly navigating between these alloy frameworks, occasionally sparking with energy that indicated the disassembly was still underway.

“My Majesty, as you can see, we have separated all the armor and outer mechanical structures of this fragment. The surface materials are normal, but in the skeletal part of the fragment, an unknown mutation has occurred.”

As Taville spoke, the shared image in my mind zoomed in, clearly showing the internal structure of the fragment from the perspective of one of the detection devices.

A large mass of twisted metal structures, its material and details seemed mechanical but overall resembled some kind of biological tissue, even with my complete lack of understanding of such sophisticated technologies, I could easily tell this was not a style of equipment made by the Xyrin people.

It was more like a distortion of Xyrin design style in some way.

“It’s not suitable for using Ghost Energy, there are no corresponding energy decelerating devices or safety valves,” Taville’s voice carried a deep unease, “but what’s worrying is, it’s quite suitable for Abyss Energy.”

“Wait,” I interrupted Taville, “Abyss Energy? Isn’t the Abyss some kind of concept? Can it also produce usable energy?”

“The principle is complex,” Taville pondered for a moment, beginning to instill in me the worldview of the Xyrin people. “In our definition of Energy Science, as long as something describable can transition into another state, the ’cause’ that produces this transformation can be called energy. Many of the Xyrin devices that integrate mysticism are based on this idea–we call it Chaos Technology. Now these mutated mechanical constructs also employ Chaos Technology, and purpose-driven Abyss within them triggers complex changes from concept to reality, then propels the entire Star Ring Fragment into operation. Associated with these apparatuses, the skeleton of the entire Star Ring Fragment has also mutated to a degree. Their affinity for Abyss Energy is astonishingly high, far exceeding the maximum effects normally attained by Abyss corruption. It’s as though they were specifically altered for the usage of Abyss Energy, which is why the fragments themselves still possess the capability of continuous jumping, despite having lost Ghost Energy sources and most of their engine devices–theoretically, that is.”

Although Taville tried to explain this utterly inconceivable technology to me in the simplest terms, I was still half-lost and ended up dismissing the parts I couldn’t grasp. Finally, I sort of understood, “So you’re saying, the Star Ring Fragment has been modified, and the entire energy system has been converted into standard Abyss machinery?”

“Although we cannot currently be certain of the term ‘Abyss Machinery,’ such modifications are evident and the technology is quite mature–theoretically, that is.”

“Work of the Fallen Apostles?” I sighed. Other than them, I couldn’t think of another explanation: based on Xyrin technology, knowing such an advanced thing as the Star Ring inside out, and skilled at integrating Abyss Energy into their creations, couldn’t those bastards be a bit more peaceful?

“…” Taville hesitated before responding.

Despite saying she dared not make careless judgments, the scientist’s candor almost concluded the discussion for her.

I wondered what the next move of the Fallen Apostles would be, or further, what their ultimate goal was. Were they merely chasing the destruction of world after world? That’s just too… Forget it, I didn’t intend to understand the worldview of a bunch who had their brains burnt by the Abyss.

With these thoughts in mind, I unconsciously scratched Visca’s little head. The cat-eyed little girl quieted down like a real kitten at this moment, squinting and nuzzling her head against me, while Pandora, as always, sat upright and serious, looking every bit the leader–just like my high school principal during the graduation ceremony.

Watching my little sister cuddle in her brother’s arms without worrying about her identity as an Imperial Soldier, while I could only act like a stone due to shyness and protocols, the principal’s face remained motionless, yet she had already begun chipping away at her granite chair piece by piece.

That chair is made of granite, for goodness’ sake!

Coming out of my thoughts, I almost jumped when I noticed Pandora’s actions, then quickly turned my head around to look–fortunately, there were no city supervisors.

Speaking of which, was it even the city supervisors’ job to monitor little Lolis chipping at stones?

“Pandora,” I said with a somewhat indulgent smile, patting my sulky little sister’s head, “by the way, how is our military power now?”

Though I’m just a slacker Otaku, I understand the principle that ‘might makes right’, especially since we might need to save the world anytime, and with Abyss Power always ready to take a fierce bite, how could we manage without a sufficiently strong army?

Thus, after Pandora had established Shadow City using projection technology, our army numbers had been continuously increasing–of course, this refers only to the elite soldiers and high-level warships that could act as the Regular Army, not including those mechanical puppets mass-produced on the front lines.

The space in Shadow World is multi-layer folded, and the number of armies that can be stationed in its folds is definitely enough for us to develop for a while.

However… since I’m really not cut out for this, I couldn’t understand a single word of the reports submitted by Pandora and Sivis, and compared to me, who has only a half-baked understanding of the Xyrin Army’s formation, Sandora is obviously more suited for the role of Military Commander. I’ve always tossed related matters to that Queen of Appetite, and now I don’t even know how many troops I have under my command…

Well, I admit this is also the lazybones attitude of a homebody causing trouble…

Almost breaking precedent, when Pandora, my lazy brother, voluntarily brought up military matters, her little brain heated up at an astonishing speed. It was evident how much she had accumulated resentment towards someone on normal days. The usually cold Little Loli, filled with 120,000 points of joy, began her military report, “Brother, due to the partial unlocking of the technology lock and the restoration of a large amount of military technology, the work efficiency of the Xyrin Mainframes has increased several times. More advanced War Factories and Space Shipyards have already been put into production. Our current military force has expanded to a certain scale, and the War Factories on Visca Barrier Star have also resumed production. Currently, we have completed 22 star-level mother ships, 18 of which are in service. Each star-level mother ship is equipped with 100 medium-sized main attack warships and 3000 small escort and logistical support ships, various kinds of fighters, landing mechas, infiltration ships… Brother?”

Me: “…Can you stop with the data and just tell me what level our military size has reached, like if we encounter another incident like that with Azeroth?”

“Only one star-level mother ship and its supporting fleet are needed. We can solve the problem within a few days, and it’s also possible to launch a frontal attack on the Fallen Apostle’s hiding planet and achieve victory–but this is all conjecture since we don’t have precise data on the strength of the leader-level apostles.”

I blinked, surprised: Whoa, our strength has gotten this powerful?

Visca, who had been snuggling in my arms pretending to be a little cat, also raised her head then, “The most powerful thing about Xyrin Civilization is technology. As long as the technology lock is unlocked, our development speed increases exponentially. Coupled with Xyrin Mainframe Technology, for us, the increase in the number of troops is actually the simplest thing. Sometimes, just one new technology, once developed, can become a complete military unit within three days. So currently, our development speed is completely normal–in strict terms, we are not developing but recovering.”

Does that mean I’m not even as knowledgeable as Visca, this little madcap?

Although it was hard to get a concrete grasp of the situation reported by Pandora, at least I could be sure of one thing, and that was that the Imperial Army had finally roughly completed the restoration of its basic infrastructure and entered a period of rapid development. It’s a good thing, although I don’t like wars, but frankly, I don’t like dying in them either…

Also, wasn’t I supposed to be taking out my own Loli today? Why did it end up being a nutty scene discussing the expansion of the Imperial Army with two little Lolis? Could it be that something called the Pandora virus has truly become so pervasive that even someone who’s slacking off like me could be infected?

Just as I thought of this perilous possibility, I felt a cold sweat breaking out. No, I absolutely must not let this homebody spirit of mine be lost, damn it!

I must… I must adjust these two little ones who have gradually entered a militaristic state right away!

“Pandora! Visca!” I suddenly stood up from the bench, startling the two little Lolis flailing around, “Let’s go to the amusement park!”

Then the two little ones burst into laughter…

After a whole day of frolicking, Pandora and Visca finally forgot about their militaristic endeavors and were completely immersed in the excitement of playing, even showing reluctant expressions when it became too late and they had to leave the amusement park.

Should I take pride in a skill that can train Imperial Officers into well-behaved Lolis…

(End of the month, pull out all the old votes! They don’t earn interest…) (To Be Continued, for more please visit www.NovelFire.net, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)