CSMCDB - Chapter 199
Chapter 199
The sky was already starting to lighten when Wen Yuncheng woke up. Lin Jinyu was still asleep, however, so Wen Yuncheng didn't move and dozed off again for a while. The two of them didn't get up until noon.
The rest area didn't have a dedicated chef, so the food was average. After waking up and washing up, Lin Jinyu took a shower and changed into a fresh set of clothes. Wen Yuncheng then bought a hot meal of braised chicken and rice from the system's mall, along with a tureen of rich chicken soup.
"Here, eat up! Have some soup." Wen Yuncheng beckoned to her Little Ice Mountain. It was only after they finished their meal that Wen Yuncheng remembered the surprise.
She looked over at Number One and saw that he had apparently finished assembling the Space Shuttle and put it away. He was now working on a C-04 Self-Destruct Dog.
"Number One, bring out the Space Shuttle for a moment."
Wen Yuncheng took the Space Shuttle from Number One and said, "Be good. Let me test it out, and I'll give you a paint job afterward. You can pick any color you want!"
"I want gold and silver," Number One's voice echoed in her mind.
Wen Yuncheng agreed immediately. "No problem!" After placating Number One, she eagerly inserted a Hyper-Energy Crystal into the Space Shuttle. She then looked at Lin Jinyu. "Tell me, where do you want to go right now?"
Lin Jinyu had been curiously examining the new machine. It was a circular platform, slightly larger than the Floating Magnetic Disk. At first, she didn't know what it was for, but after hearing the name "Space Shuttle" and Wen Yuncheng's question, she understood. "Then… to Dragon Island?"
Wen Yuncheng froze for a second. She suddenly realized that with this, she could probably teleport directly to Dragon Island! As for the coordinates, 1947 could provide them. But… "Not Dragon Island. I said it was a surprise, so why would we go there? We can go later."
"In that case, can we go to the area outside the Imperial Palace in the Imperial Capital?"
"Well, we can, but do you have business with the First Princess? You could just use the communicator. Why go all the way to the Imperial Palace to find her?" Wen Yuncheng was a little dissatisfied. She had thought Lin Jinyu would want to go somewhere fun to relax. But on second thought, with the Huanling invasion and the demonic beasts making a mess of everything, many towns famous for their scenery had been affected by the fighting. The beautiful landscapes were gone, and who knew how long it would take for them to recover. If they wanted to go out on a date, there really weren't any good places to go right now.
Wen Yuncheng scanned a map of the Starry Sky Continent and sent it to 1947. Her dad immediately gave her a set of coordinates for the area outside the Imperial Palace.
[For 1000 points, I can make you an intelligent coordinate converter. The kind where you just tap the map and it instantly displays the coordinates. Want it?]
Wen Yuncheng pondered for a moment, tempted. How many minutes for delivery?
[?]
[Tomorrow. Do you want it or not?]
Wen Yuncheng sighed internally. Her dad was getting less and less tolerant of her teasing. Fine, it's a deal!
After dealing with 1947, Wen Yuncheng immediately input the coordinates and stood on the shuttle, holding Lin Jinyu's hand. The shuttle was a unique item; once one was created, it was the only one that would work. It was also bound to Wen Yuncheng. As long as she deployed her mechanical domain, she could summon and retract it at will.
In a daze, Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu appeared on a street outside the Imperial Palace, still some distance from the palace itself. If they had suddenly materialized right at the gates, the guards would have been scared out of their wits, even if they recognized Wen Yuncheng.
"That was fast. Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?" Wen Yuncheng remarked, then put away the shuttle and turned to Lin Jinyu with concern. She hadn't felt any discomfort from the spatial travel, but she was a Mechanical Master. She couldn't guarantee her Little Ice Mountain wouldn't have an adverse reaction.
"No." Lin Jinyu took in the surrounding scenery. They were suddenly in the Imperial Capital. The transit had been truly instantaneous. They stepped on, activated it, and the next second, they were at their destination.
"That's good." Wen Yuncheng was relieved. "Alright, let's go find the First Princess. By the way, what did you need to talk to her about?"
"I'm not looking for her." Lin Jinyu took Wen Yuncheng's hand and led her down the street outside the palace. Though this was the road to the palace gates, it was clear Lin Jinyu had no intention of going inside.
Suddenly, Lin Jinyu stopped. She was still holding Wen Yuncheng's hand tightly as she turned to meet her gaze. "Wen Yuncheng, I like you."
"I like you, too." Wen Yuncheng instantly understood why Lin Jinyu wanted to come here. She let go of Lin Jinyu's hand and threw her arms around her. "Honestly, when did you learn to do things like this?" It was foul play.
"I thought you would like it," Lin Jinyu said in a low voice. "I actually just thought of it. I wanted to give you a surprise, too. Although… I didn't really do anything." The Little Ice Mountain seemed a little embarrassed as she explained the last part, a hint of grievance and guilt in her voice. The sight of it nearly made Wen Yuncheng's heart stop.
"Who says? Kiss me!"
"…" They were outside, on a street, right in front of the Imperial Palace.
Lin Jinyu's face flushed red. She felt like the guards at the palace gates had been staring at them for a long time.
"Hmph, you say you like me, but you won't even give me a kiss—"
The palace guards stared straight ahead, feigning utter ignorance, not daring to even glance in their direction. Wei Qingyu, who had been about to head to the black market with Zero, stopped dead in her tracks at the gate. She didn't particularly want to go out now.
Of course, she also didn't understand why these two had appeared here, of all places, to kiss right in front of the Imperial Palace. Were young Star Emperors these days all so proud and flamboyant when they were in love? The First Princess gritted her teeth, turned around, and went back inside.
She would go have a cup of afternoon tea. She refused to believe it! There was no way those two would still be flaunting their romance at the palace gates in half an hour!
Woof!
Wen Yuncheng was very satisfied with their first date since reuniting. After their affectionate moment ended, she used the shuttle to teleport them straight back. Then, she gave Number One his noble paint job of gold and silver. Gold was magnificent, silver was understated. Honestly, Wen Yuncheng had no idea why Number One liked these two colors, or who he took after.
[Who do you think he takes after?]
Wen Yuncheng didn't say a word, completely ignoring 1947. After finishing the paint job for Number One, she was itching to take a trip to Dragon Island.
If only her camouflage could make Lin Jinyu invisible too. Alas, the effect only worked on her machines. But thinking about it, if it could also camouflage others, the skill would be ridiculously overpowered. Wen Yuncheng took off the Illusion Dream (Modified) and handed it to Lin Jinyu. "Try refining this first. When we go to Dragon Island, we'll use it to conceal your aura. As long as our teleportation isn't too unlucky and we don't land right under a dragon's nose, we should be fine."
Lin Jinyu didn't refuse, taking the Illusion Dream (Modified) and immediately beginning to refine it. While she was busy, Wen Yuncheng asked 1947 for coordinate data for the periphery of Dragon Island, then began to hesitate over which point to choose for their first jump.
It couldn't be too close to the center. What if they teleported right in front of the Dragon King? Wen Yuncheng wasn't ready to face the final boss just yet. But if it was on the edge, she was afraid of running into stationed Huanling troops. She didn't know where the Huanling people were staying on Dragon Island, but she figured the Dragon King probably wouldn't house them in the central area, right?
"Ah, whatever. As long as I eliminate any living thing that sees me, no one will know I was ever on Dragon Island." Wen Yuncheng rubbed her chin. She wasn't one to gamble on luck; she'd rather rely on her machines.
Hyper-Energy Crystals weren't terribly expensive, costing only 100 points each. That meant a round trip would cost 200 points. It seemed like a loss for a one-time use item, but it could transport people.
As long as she was teleporting with Lin Jinyu, Wen Yuncheng would be willing to pay 1000 points per trip, let alone 100!
"Take your time refining it. We're not in a hurry. A sneak attack at midnight is best. Maybe those dragons will be asleep, too," Wen Yuncheng said, offering a few words of comfort when she saw how focused Lin Jinyu was. She then sat down next to Number One and also began assembling a C-04 Self-Destruct Dog.
After their little trip to Dragon Island tonight, she would summon the other Apostles back for a reunion. The three of them could chat while they assembled things. "Number One, tomorrow I'll bring your two little brothers… uh, sisters?" Wen Yuncheng smacked her lips. Her Mechanical Apostles didn't have genders! "Tomorrow, I'll summon Number Two and Number Three back. You can chat with them from now on. When we can return to the Imperial Capital, there's a large library there. You can go read more books during your downtime. Everyone knows who Wen Yuncheng is now, so no one in the Empire will dare to bully you." As she spoke, Wen Yuncheng took out two blank, unregistered Star Stone cards from her storage ring. She transferred five million Star Stones into one and handed it to Number One.
"Of course, we can't bully others either. This is a Star Stone card. If you want to buy something, you can use this."
Number One carefully placed the unfinished Self-Destruct Dog on the ground and took the Star Stone card from Wen Yuncheng. "Thank you."
"It's nothing. If you run out of money, just contact me!" Wen Yuncheng patted her chest, declaring that she had her Apostles' backs!
Night fell, and the stars emerged.
Wen Yuncheng held Lin Jinyu's hand and entered a camouflaged state. Lin Jinyu also activated the refined Illusion Dream (Modified).
The equipment required points for Wen Yuncheng to use, but in the hands of a native of the Starry Sky Continent like Lin Jinyu, it simply consumed double the amount of Star Power to operate. The form of consumption changed depending on the user's system, which was quite flexible.
Wen Yuncheng had initially been wondering how she could transfer points to Lin Jinyu, but now she didn't have to worry about it. Lin Jinyu had the Heart of the Plane in her sea of consciousness; she would never be short on Star Power. The double consumption of the Illusion Dream (Modified) was nothing to her.
Before teleporting, Wen Yuncheng bought six Hyper-Energy Crystals at once and loaded them into the Space Shuttle, filling the energy storage slot completely. After all, if they ended up being pursued, the last thing she wanted was to be fumbling with buying crystals from the mall and stuffing them into the slot while trying to escape.
The two of them stepped onto the shuttle, and Wen Yuncheng input the coordinates she had carefully selected.
Before the jump, they were in their room.
After the jump, they were in a world of complete darkness.
Strange. Where was this? What were they standing on? Why did it feel a bit like metal? Wen Yuncheng and Lin Jinyu held hands, not daring to make any large movements since they didn't know their surroundings. Lin Jinyu took out an illumination crystal. It was one they had specially chosen, as it only emitted a faint glow. Many people embedded them in walls as night lights.
—A dragon, sleeping in the cave where it hoarded its treasure, widened its eyes in confusion. It watched as a faint light suddenly appeared atop its pile of rare metals and jewels, where the vague silhouette of a person could be seen.
Did… did its treasure just gain a human form?
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