Master of the Stars

To realize equilibrium between his corporeal body and mental mind...... It was a simple and practical goal. One that was easy to focus his attention on.

But then He Yueyin immediately sent him a message; it was a form with the title “HexaEar Emergency Functional Training Program”.

HexaEar?

Luo Nan was stupefied until he recalled that He Yueyin had mentioned such a thing last night1. Did she finish arranging the program already?

“This...... You didn’t have to.”

It wasn’t only that he didn’t want to inconvenience her. He had adapted to his new abilities after 30 hours of sleep. This gave Luo Nan quite a high level of confidence. He felt that right now he could maintain 24 hours of continuous connection without any problems even without using the heavily chained crow.

He Yueyin didn’t let him off that easily: “Mr. Luo. Using the HexaEar isn’t just general knowledge, it’s also a skill. Even those who reached the level of Awakened still need to practice it often, especially now since the threat of the Human-Faced Arachnid is still far from being removed. We need to maintain even tighter communications to prevent the Arachnid from getting chances to take advantage of us.”

Luo Nan went, “uh,” but eventually he recalled the Human-Faced Arachnid and seized the chance to change the topic: “Oh right. What’s the latest news on the Human-Faced Arachnid? How’s the surround and destroy situation?”

“Not too good.”

Some of He Yueyin’s attention really did divert to this topic, but Luo Nan could hear the heavy implications from the tone of her voice: "The Society, the Military, and Quantum Corporation have handled eleven cases up to now. Four cases were settled. Seven cases ended in defeat. There are three other cases which have yet to be confirmed to be the doings of the Human-Faced Arachnid. Of these fourteen cases, five people died, one person heavily injured, and sixty-seven people received critical mental trauma.”

This was simply an utter defeat!

Luo Nan was practically facepalming hearing this. Before entering the Society, he had some reverence towards this secret organization that was hidden in human civilization. But right now it seemed that they were somehow in dire straits?

How could a youth who harbored the dream of entering the Society endure this sort of thing?

He Yueyin seemed to feel Luo Nan’s mood. She spoke lightly: “The Government and the ability users of the Society were in a much more pathetic situation when the Darksider life forms first appeared long ago. Then through paying heavy prices and launching a series of battle tactics, the situation was barely able to be controlled.”

“There are differences with the current situation. We have been constantly striving to prevent the Darksider lifeforms from converging into one being. But we lost control this time; our two years of effort2 was ruined in a day. We will need certainly need time to achieve control of the situation with Darksiders once again.”

Luo Nan blurted: “How is Quantum Corporation handling things?”

“Nan Nan, are you talking to yourself or something?”

Aunty’s voice suddenly rang out and the lights of the living room turned on to illuminate Luo Nan’s figure on the sofa. Mrs. Luo Shuqing was at the base of the stairs wearing pajamas. She stared fixed at him with furrowed brows.

..... Mistake made!

Indeed, Luo Nan was still lacking discipline when using the HexaEar. The usage was clearly on the mental plane, but he had neglected that for a time and spoke out directly! He also didn’t know if he had made similar mistakes in the past.

He Yueyin also discovered Luo Nan’s mishap and took the initiative to terminate the call: “Confirm the training program later. Just sending it back is fine.”

This time Luo Nan was too embarrassed to refuse. He could only agree silently. Of course, the most important thing right now was to deal with his Aunt’s questions.

He stood up, but he had forgotten the issues with his body and nearly sprained his back. He took in a deep breath in secret and scrambled his mind to think of an excuse: “I woke up and a schoolmate just so happened to call me. We were chatting. Yep. I sure did sleep for a long time......”

Mrs. Luo Shuqing3 walked over, her furrowed brows had yet to loosen: “Did you properly rest back over there in Blue Bay?”

“Yep. Quite well.” Luo Nan’s eyes didn’t even blink once when he spoke this lie. His inarticulate nature was also a good guise.

But Mrs. Luo Shuqing knew him far too well: “When you lived here, you would always stay up past midnight. How would you able to discipline yourself to sleep earlier if you’re on your own?”

“......”

Luo Nan knew that he couldn’t get tangled up in this any further. He lowered his head, looking for his shoe: “Aunty. It’s really early. You should go sleep some more. I can’t fall asleep, so I might as well go work out my body.”

“Who in the world runs at 3 AM in the morning?”

Luo Shuqing pierced him with this cold sentence, then she sat next to him on the sofa and patted him: “At my age, once I wake up I won’t be able to sleep even if I try to. Come. Talk to me.”

“Uh......”

“Come on! I still want to ask you. Do you have a fixed social circle in the school yet? That friend of yours on that day, his name should be Xue Lei. He looked to be sincere person......”

Luo Nan knew that he lost his chance to escape. He could only sigh secretly and become well-behaved as he bears this new round of torment.

A full two hours passed. He had chatted with Aunty from 3 AM to 5 AM before he was granted permission to do his early run. He was granted relief from this torment and he changed clothes and shoes at his fastest speed. He didn’t even look back as he exited the house.

It wasn’t that he was not filial. It’s just that the hazard of Mo Ya’s midnight excursion could be exposed at any time with the passing of time.

It must be noted that Mo Ya would normally practice her singing voice at this time...... It was best for him to get far far away from this dangerous place!

Luo Nan calculated the time and determined that by 8 AM, the battle between mother and daughter should have finished its first round. He would head home once that happens.

Three hours outside really wasn’t a lot of time to work out. The state of his body under the drug withdrawal response was really dire. His body couldn’t support too much energy consumption.

Luo Nan found a public park to properly get familiar with the Prison Format, the heavily chained crow, the Wraith Sign, and other elements. He wanted to see what sort of changes there were to his body after his adaptation period.

He didn’t reap much gain from these three hours, but as expected, he was greeted with his Aunt’s fury when he got home:

“Luo Nan. You were part of the deed!”

Luo Nan was unable to conceal the matter of him being an accomplice. The AI System had faithfully provided all of the recorded scenes for his Aunt to choose and evaluate.

Luo Nan knew that he shouldn’t try to defend himself in this situation. He should just lower his head and take the lecture. Anyway, soon there would be food to eat......

“The food is done. Calm down. First, eat till you’re full.”

Uncle Mo Haihang 4 was already sitting down in the kitchen and had already served himself congee as an appetizer. He slurped it in a not urgent but not slow manner to taste a few mouthfuls of it. Then he nodded: “Today’s rice is quite sticky. Let’s buy this brand next time as well......”

“Mo Haihang!” Aunty’s firepower shifted targets in an instant.

Yet Uncle remained calm and collected: “Since we know where she is, where she went, how can we lose her? First endure for now and give her a good lecture when she gets back.”

If it was any other person, such sloppy words may have been the fuse for a family war. But Uncle was one of the few people who was qualified to speak in such a way.

He was Senior Technical Staff of the SCA, also known as the Society Credit Administration. Mo Haihang had already worked for nearly twenty years in their Authority Department.

Credit Points had completely replaced the function of currency in modern society. The SCA was none other than the observer and administrator of all “Credit”. They were also in charge of auditing the granting of “Access Privileges5”. It could be said that this was the most mighty and powerful department.

Mo Haihang wasn’t an extremely high-level official, but if he wanted to borrow his organization’s resources to lock onto the whereabouts of his daughter, it would be as easy as breathing.

1. HexaEar Emergency Functional Training. Luo Nan didn’t notice the communications that were going on while he and Xue Lei were stuck in the elevator with the Black Wolf. When He Yueyin intervened and saved them, she asked him to do some training to avoid communications disruptions (Chapter 38.2).

2. Looks like the Darksider life forms appeared two years ago, but the Military and the Society were able to restrain them until now. Chapter 13.2 mentions that the Military had frequent encounters with Darksider Life Forms.

3. Luo Shuqing (罗淑晴, literally Luo Clear, Warm, and Virtuous). Luo is a last name, but could mean gather/collect.

4. Mo Haihang (莫海航, literally Mo Ocean Boat).

5. Access Privileges (权限, literally Scope of Authority). In Chapter 27.2, Xie Junping and Luo Nan were caught in the Privilege Trap in Gear. Xie Junping passed out and lost his privileges, so the various system modules of Gear shut down. Xie Junping and Luo Nan search for a way out and for signal, leading to their discovery that Gear was the creation of Luo Nan’s mother.