How can a retired savior be considered retired if his price drops to 40,000?

Chapter 15 Why does everything come to interfere?

"Are you sure you want to let her enter the city alone like this?" Conrad Coates asked in the somewhat resentful tone he usually used recently, "I thought your duty was to protect her life."

The golden figure who was mocked or questioned by him showed no sign of wavering.Somni's face, which is always hidden under the golden helmet, is obscured by the layers of holographic light curtains projected in the air. The whole person is motionless, as if he is a statue that has blended into the background, facing the original body of the Night Lord. Provocation remains indifferent.

Even all the sounds he made were processed by the helmet and had a flat tone with a mechanical quality.Some people with rich imaginations may guess based on this that there might be a hateful intelligence sealed inside the golden armor.

"No situation has been detected in which the captain needs military support." Somni said without emotion as usual. "Relevant records in the sector planning and planetary government show that as an agricultural world with fragile general security forces, Jesta There is no armed force above us that deserves vigilance. After cross-comparing the data returned by the Auger array and the Sheba lens, the conclusion drawn can actually support this."

"But we all know 'something's wrong' on this planet, even if we don't know exactly what the problem is yet." Curze crossed his arms, "Even if you don't believe my prediction, we have done everything on the Storm Frontier Instruments that don’t understand the principle also gave alarms.”

"After observing the Sheba lens, the 'Human Foundation Value' rating here is C, the subspace energy level pointer is stable in the yellow zone, and Trismegistes has no abnormal alarm. Considering the subspace environment around the star field , the above values ​​are defined as within the 'normal' range. As long as the ship does not receive a clear request for support, I will continue to perform the role of intelligence collection while on standby."

"..." Somni's mechanical attitude finally made Koz stop his messy thoughts, and he was finally willing to speak frankly what he originally wanted to say: "The communication equipment on Fujimaru Ritsuka's exoskeleton armor has always been..." The way it was opened was connected to the Storm Frontier. You heard it too, and she found some clues after contacting the locals."

He waited for a short while, but Somni didn't react at all to this sentence, and even Coz couldn't tell whether he was waiting for his next sentence, or simply ignored it, which was so clear that it was right under his nose. Hints underneath.Ten seconds later, he finally couldn't help but add: "So, aren't you going to check the source of pesticides on this planet?"

Somni finally had some reaction, but unfortunately, just a little bit.

"No clear request for support has been received." He repeated his previous words like a machine that can only output a preset voice. "Under this premise, I will continue to perform my intelligence collection duties while on standby."

Konrad Coates narrowed his eyes dangerously, and picked his nails as if by accident - under the watchful eye of Fujimaru Ritsuka (or, Coze himself preferred to use the word "forced") Despite this, he had maintained a relatively good hygiene throughout his second life, but some of his old bone-deep habits obviously did not fade away with his death and recasting.

Sometimes it made him feel sick, other times it gave him a ridiculous sense of comfort that I was still me.

He pushed these messy thoughts out of his mind and deliberately asked in an elegant and noble High Gothic pronunciation: "If you decide to nail yourself to a pure decoration in the main control room, I wonder if I can Given this honor, could I trouble you to check the location of the Jestal Pesticide Factory—if it is indeed on this planet?"

"No. There is no clear command or coordination relationship between you and me." Somni immediately replied, "My duty here is to obey the captain's instructions and protect the captain's personal safety. In the absence of clear instructions, Before the instruction of 'authority transfer', other people's orders or requests have nothing to do with me."

——He didn't seem to have the slightest emotion, but when he said this, he deliberately used Nostramo.

This really angered Coates.He straightened his back, and his anger gave his already huge body the illusion of blocking out the sky.Some kind of suffocating pressure flows in the main control room at the edge of the storm, but the furious original body still barely restrains his behavior, intending to gather all his negative emotions, including dissatisfaction, into words——

But at this juncture, the warning of the storm boundary suddenly sounded.The silver-white main control room was immediately immersed in the flashing red light, which suddenly interrupted the process of Kurtz's brewing emotions.Somni, who seemed to have turned into a sculpture in front of the console, was also "turned into a human being" by this unexpected situation. Most of the holographic projection screen floating in the air suddenly disappeared, and the golden figure was willing to move a little from where it was. Lean forward and watch the monitoring data emerge on the Storm Frontier console.

"Sheba has detected abnormal subspace disturbances. The waveform has been compared with the database and it is highly suspected that it is the escape of psychic energy produced when the Eldar webway door is opened." Somni quickly read and summarized the data on the screen. , while reaching out to operate on the console, "In accordance with the emergency handling protocol, the task priority has been changed, and the relevant data has been passed to the Otenaus-type spiritual base exoskeleton."

Fine.Curze thought bitterly.Of course he knew what the so-called agreement was - to understand it simply, it was nothing more than throwing him over to eliminate any possible aliens if the situation allowed.Although they have their own tasks, as the imperial armed forces personally appointed by the emperor, theoretically they should not stand idly by when encountering such basic defense work on the imperial planet when there are no other major events.

The keyboard input device and ancient operating interface from the second millennium on the Storm Boundary did not affect the speed of Somni's processing of work, and with a peasant girl aboriginal from the local planet and a self-retired Aspen Tate's behavior of shopping together obviously did not affect the speed of Fujimaru Ritsuka's judgment.Soon, the real person in charge of this chaotic team sent her decision back to the main control room.

"If there are not many of them, find a way to drive them away. Even if it doesn't work, you have to find out what they are here for." Fujimaru Ritsuka whispered in the communication channel, "The trouble in this ghost place is getting worse and worse. The more we get, the more I suspect that the First City is now in some kind of critical period. If a third party comes in to fish in troubled waters, the variables will be too great."

Somni said he understood and temporarily closed the communication according to Fujimaru Ritsuka's wishes.He looked at the screen connected to Sheba for a while, and then said to Cozzi in an unquestionable command sentence: "You need to enter the frame. The transfer of the soul will begin in one minute and 30 seconds."

"You just threw me over like this?" Cozz asked sharply, but Somni didn't seem to think anything was wrong at all.

"If you were the Forbidden Army, you would never ask this." He said calmly but mechanically, "The spirit transfer project is already in preparation, which of course means that I think the number of Eldar coming to this world through the Webway Gate is not enough. It will exceed the range you can deal with. However, the Sheba Lens does receive psychic interference unique to the Eldar. It can only roughly judge the size of the team and cannot accurately observe the actual lineup. Therefore, I cannot provide any valuable intelligence, but theoretically Say, you can still complete this mission. You just need to obey orders."

"——But as you said before, there is no clear command or coordination relationship between us." Kurtz asked with clear malice, "If I refuse to perform this mission, what should you do?" I will report this matter to the captain and apply to go out to fight to solve this hidden danger." Somni's answer was smooth and natural, as if he had already thought of such a thing and had made a plan in advance. , "If you insist on doing this, I will immediately activate this backup plan."

Curze was silent for a few seconds.It's hard to say whether he was threatened by this "backup plan", or what his motivations were for taking action. Anyway, after these few seconds, he still chose to get in during the last 30 seconds of the end of the spirit transfer project. into the original body specification transfer frame specially built for him.

"I hope those Eldar... No, forget it." He said viciously in the frame, seemingly determined to vent his anger on these unfortunate aliens. "Ritsuka said that he had to find a way to do it. It’s good to know what they’re here for.”

I'll let you tell it all.

He thought viciously in the dizzying dazzling feeling unique to the spirit transfer technology.
-
"...So during the nine days of the celebration, there will be a parade like this every day?" Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the flow of people in strange costumes in front of him and asked Alita beside him, "Is there any explanation for this route?"

They are now in the First City, but in the 40th millennium of mankind, the definition of the word "city" has been very different from the one that Fujimaru Ritsuka is familiar with.Even in a sparsely populated agricultural world, the size and flow of people of this very perfunctorily named "First City" on Jestal far exceeded the Tokyo she was familiar with.

——After all, this is the administrative center and interstellar transportation port of the entire planet. Its characteristics leave a large number of facilities for the floating population in addition to the permanent residents.At this juncture when the imperial department came to collect taxes and celebrate the harvest, the city, which had gained temporary false prosperity, easily hosted countless immigrants: most of them were workers in the local farming areas who were allowed to stay. , a small number of them were soldiers and sailors who were allowed to go to the surface of the planet from the tax ship to "take risks".

These outsiders brought great inconvenience to Fujimaru Ritsuka's investigation: considering that "blue-gray syndrome" is a chronic disease caused by "long-term exposure to pesticides", theoretically speaking, this obviously abnormal symptom (or mutation) ) should be more common among front-line workers working in farming areas.

If she can confirm that this kind of change is relatively rare among people who live in cities and are responsible for clerical work, then she can be sure that the specially formulated pesticide on Jestal is the culprit.However, due to the impact of a large number of foreign residents, Fujimaru Ritsuka could not even determine where the people who walked in front of him usually lived. Of course, there was no way to observe this problem of incidence rate.

She didn't know whether she was happy or worried, but when she entered the city, she really discovered other problems.

"It seems that the procession started from the 'ancient ruins', spent nine days circling the city, and returned to the location of the ruins at noon on the last day. Because Technical Officer Hastings wanted to make a speech in the square in front of the ruins Speech, so anyone can follow the parade into the inner city that day." Alita was holding a piece of chocolate from Fujimaru Ritsuka on the roadside, looking at the people in front of her who were completely organized by local residents and had only half a bucket of water. "Vaudeville," he said happily, "Everyone thinks that just to see the star port up close, it's worth following the parade into the inner city on the last day - but Ritsuka, you came here from outside the planet. , you should be able to go in at any time to get back to the ship, right?”

"...Ah hahahaha." Fujimaru Ritsuka, who had never passed through the airport or entered the inner city, and landed on the planet entirely through informal channels, laughed dryly and casually talked about another topic to mix up the problem, "Said Come on, this is obviously a harvest celebration for the agricultural planet. Although you can see stalls on the street, why are almost all of them selling handmade crafts, but not even a stall selling food?"

"Huh?" Aelita was puzzled by this question, "Eating things... can food be sold?"

"Jestal is a planet with very few resources, Miss." Sevita's sarcastic voice came from a high place, "The only product available here is food, and because food is... The only product that is available here is heavily taxed by the empire - maybe the bureaucrats who make decisions on parchment feel that they are already very merciful, but even the lowest tax rate in the empire is very harsh on this once accident-prone planet. It was still too heavy to bear. For a long time, Jestal even owed a large amount of taxes. Until Governor De Vere took office, the technical officer Hastings improved the genes of round wheat and continued to try to increase grain production. This continued until A great harvest this year.”

Aelita didn't know what these things had to do with the topic, and looked up at "Jacob" beside her with a bit of confusion, while Fujimaru Ritsuka already understood what he wanted to express:
"I see. So before that, food on this planet was rationed and controlled as a strategic resource, and private transactions among the people were strictly prohibited, right?"

"That's about it."

Sevita seemed to want to say one or two more words, but Alita turned her head and interrupted him naturally: "If Ritsuka is curious about what round wheat tastes like, after returning to the cargo station, my The rations can be shared with you. Everyone has quite a lot of rations during the celebrations, so it’s not a problem to share some with others."

This kind of natural kindness made Savita a little angry for no reason. Even Fujimaru Ritsuka himself was stunned: "Isn't this bad? After all, it is something that can only be obtained through rationing. If you have too much temporarily, you should save it just in case. Is that okay?"

"It doesn't matter, the yield of improved round wheat is already very high, and everyone will not be hungry in the future." Alita said happily, "Besides, you also gave me the candy, so I can only use it for I am the only one who should feel sorry for this as a gift in return for the round wheat rations given to ordinary workers.”

"...No, a piece of chocolate is really nothing to me. You don't need to take this seriously..."

"But it's very important to me. I've never eaten such delicious candy!" Aelita happily unfolded the translucent plastic wrapper towards the light, "The candy wrapper is also beautiful, I want to keep it. I He is also the one who has received gifts from other planets!”

Fujimaru Ritsuka suddenly felt that this matter that should have been done casually became heavier.

(End of this chapter)