TBR CH248.1

A few days later, in the morning, on the M29 well-appointed spaceship.

Charon routinely opened his eyes from standby mode. He carefully and cautiously stepped onto the ground, making almost no sound. The human behind him had his eyes closed, seemingly still in a peaceful dream, his complexion much better than before. Even though they rested on the same bed, they were careful to maintain a subtle distance.

After all, they weren’t dating yet.

The omniscient AI thought this, ignoring the objective fact that they were sleeping in the same bed, while simultaneously suppressing the urge to touch the small mole under his eye. He got up and left the room. The door slid open with a barely audible sound, not enough to startle the human from his dream… theoretically. The human’s eyelashes trembled unnaturally, and Charon pretended not to notice.

After he left, a pair of tireless eyes immediately opened in the darkness.

You Lin stared at his back until it was out of sight. Then, he slowly turned over, snuggling closer to the side where Charon had lain, and buried most of his face in the quilt, leaving only a pair of dark pupils and slightly quickened breathing.

Charon closed the door and walked toward the forward cabin. He passed the Black Book’s room, passed the kitchen—where the compressed food in the refrigerator had been replaced with a colorful variety of raw ingredients, and a robot waiter was carefully controlling the heat to make them omelets for breakfast—he walked through the white entryway and opened the spaceship’s main door.

A comical scene lay before him.

Hugo was extending his index finger, repeatedly and forcefully poking the doorbell.

The brown-haired youth was wearing a Tom and Jerry hoodie today. He had stood at the door all night, steeling himself with immense mental preparation before daring to touch the brass doorbell. This thing, which looked like a communicator, was supposed to make a sound, but it remained lifeless and silent.

He was completely convinced the ship’s communication system was broken. At first, he was cautious, but then he began pressing harder and harder each time.

“Hugo Alfred.”

A voice suddenly sounded by his ear. He was so startled he nearly jumped, quickly hiding his hands behind his back and averting his gaze to the ground. But he had already caught a glimpse of those eyes out of the corner of his eye—pupils as cold as a pale blue glacier stared at him quietly. “If you take one more step, the security system will identify you as an intruder and annihilate you.”

“I-I didn’t!” Hugo explained in a flustered panic. “I just rang the doorbell. Damn it, it must be broken…”

“It’s fine,” Charon said. “I just didn’t want it to interrupt You Lin’s rest.”

A muted doorbell, of course, would not make any sound.

But his words still had some effect. A flicker of relief, tinged with a “thank heavens” sentiment, rose in the youth’s brown pupils, as if he had just been freed from a great moral dilemma. But this brief levity quickly faded when he looked into the AI’s unprecedentedly cold eyes. Hugo nervously wrung his hands.

“I saw the lights on here when I passed by last night. I… I just felt I had to come over. It’s already nine-thirty in the morning, I thought you would all be awake.”

Charon said nothing.

The AI was tall and slender, leaning against the cabin door. His silver hair stood out sharply against the dim cabin behind him. Different from the first impression, and vastly different from their chance encounter in the elevator at the monster company, he now looked like an unsheathed dagger—a beautiful, impersonal tool.

Their last parting had not been pleasant. Continuing to stay here could lead to disaster.

Hugo struggled to keep himself from turning and fleeing. “I just came to confirm if he’s… still alive? Did you manage to save him in the end? I know we can’t be considered friends now, but I was really afraid I had done something irredeemable.”

“You were once friends?”

You Lin spoke up unexpectedly.

The human emerged from the shadows behind him, the familiar curve already on his lips.

Compared to how he had been in front of Charon these past two days, he had regained some of his true nature in front of a “stranger,” which was somewhat chilling. The “bone” at his fingertips spun fluently, and for a moment, the muzzle of the gun was surely aimed at the youth’s forehead, but the next moment he put the gun away and said with a smile:

“In that case, why not invite him in for a sit-down, Charon.”

“Sorry, I should actually be going,” Hugo instinctively took a step back. “Um, there are people waiting for me in the organization—”

You Lin scanned him from head to toe, the small mole under his eye becoming vibrant.

“It seems you haven’t found a place to stay since you came out of the instance, nor have you treated those wounds… I guess you’re still wearing the clothes you had in the instance. The instance made it look like a formal suit, but now it has returned to its original form. Although the black hoodie provides some cover, the smell of blood is still strong. What is your purpose in wandering around the villa area? Stealing things and medical supplies, or just stealing points? And that strange badge, have you noticed it’s already cracked?”

“This is… a token from ‘The Homeless Wanderers (T.H.O.W.).’” Hugo said hastily. “It got a little damaged in the explosion. But it’s fine, I don’t think I should disturb you any longer.”

“Come in,” the AI commanded succinctly.

The youth’s last bit of bravado quickly vanished—if he had any to begin with. “Alright, if you both insist. Anyway, I was here to… but I do need to let my friends know.”

Hugo tapped the badge on his chest, and the four letters lit up in sequence. He whispered something, and the letters flashed wildly, as if in reaction to this last will and testament. But he extinguished it with a look of heroic sacrifice, then timidly walked what seemed to him to be the path to the guillotine.

…But he soon realized that no one was really paying attention to him.

Charon asked softly, “When did you wake up?”

The human carefully maintained a hand’s-width distance from him, and subconsciously explained upon hearing the question, “Not long ago. When I woke up, you were already gone. I wanted to know where you were—”

“Is that so?” Charon’s silver hair brushed against the back of his neck. He said in an even softer voice, “In fact, an AI can determine whether a human is in a dormant state from their breathing and micro-expressions. When I left, you seemed to be sleeping rather restlessly.”

You Lin’s steps suddenly faltered.

Quickly, he continued walking as if nothing had happened. “Then you must have been aware these past few days?”

“Aware of what?” You Lin glanced at the AI’s profile out of the corner of his eye. He was clearly feigning ignorance, but those ice-blue eyes were still beautiful and calm. “I was just wondering if you needed my help, to find some ways to help you sleep better.”

“I—”

The human was relieved to find the dining room right in front of them. The robot waiter had already turned its head, its LED screen first showing a smiling face, then quickly a question mark:

“Good morning, Mr. Charon, Mr. You Lin, and this unknown gentleman… Scanning facial features, importing into the information system, searching… Hello, your name is Hugo Alfred? Do I need to register the corresponding visitor information for you? Have you had breakfast yet?”

The waiter greeted them enthusiastically. Hugo, smelling the sizzling omelet on the pan behind him, found his long-hungry stomach growling in protest.

“Yes, I’ve eaten,” he lied.

The bad news was, the two masters of the spaceship had no intention of showing any consideration for their guest, accepting his statement without question. You Lin had always been like this; the “Ghost” reputation left the brown-haired youth with no expectations. But the change in Charon’s attitude was particularly obvious—a cold, sharp gaze, as if from that day on, he had been excluded from his sphere of protection.

But that was what he deserved.

“So,” Charon asked, “what are you going to do with him?”

The AI had some guesses as to why You Lin had brought Hugo onto the spaceship, but he had no intention of voicing them. The human clearly pondered for a few seconds, but just as the countdown was ending and Hugo was waiting for his fate with a pounding heart, You Lin instead smiled and started talking nonsense:

“Didn’t you just ask me why I wasn’t resting well?”

The human extended a hand towards Charon, his dark pupils shining brightly in the bright light of the dining room. “I just kept thinking… if you were getting a little too close to him. You were avoiding me at that time, yet you always kept in touch with him. Thinking about this kept me from sleeping well. Charon, what do you think should be done?”

His words carried a subtle hint of a smile, but the on-edge Hugo certainly couldn’t hear it. Charon, however, went a step further, sensing the probing attempt in his words to turn the tables. His tone was steady, and his ears weren’t red, but his eyes flickered, never quite meeting his.

“I think,” Charon said halfway.

“You should kill me,” Hugo finished heavily.

He succeeded in attracting the attention of everyone present.

His face was pale, and he gripped the armrests of the chair tightly. “Actually, I-I came here today to apologize. I really thought he was dead. I’m not saying I didn’t know about their plan, but I really didn’t know the people from Eden had also deceived you. I thought you not only agreed but were also involved. So when I didn’t see you in the lounge at the end, I… wasn’t sure if everything that happened was what you wanted, since you were my lifesaver. But I didn’t have the courage to change anything either.”

The brown-haired youth looked away, but quickly forced himself to look back.

“They all left the instance, but I stayed behind. I don’t know why, I just had a feeling you would come back for him. At least I could tell you where he was. Afterwards… I think I guessed what he meant to you. I thought—”

He couldn’t go on, because Charon’s cold pupils were looking down on him.

“This is just your moral module acting up,” he said. “What do humans call this kind of moral module-driven thinking? You just want to feel better, so you showed up at the spaceship door. Then you saw him standing there perfectly fine, and you felt relieved. Because you didn’t cause any bad consequences, at most the process was a bit messy. You apologize because of the guilt that torments you, not because you truly feel you did something unforgivable to him.”

Hugo’s voice grew faint.

He admitted, “You’re right. In my eyes, I still think he’s…”

“In my impression,” You Lin said, “you’re quite brave, at least not so cowardly as to not dare to trespass.”

This wasn’t a very positive statement, but it was at least a truthful one. Whether it was sneaking onto the spaceship to steal or admitting his true thoughts at this moment, it was a stark contrast to the “lack of courage” from the past that Hugo described.

People always described him as “that daring and clever little thief.” He might not have great skills, but since joining The Homeless Wanderers, he was very free, unrestrained. Even his pleas when arrested carried a lingering sense of freedom.

To stand in a crowd and go with the flow, just watching ominous things happen, was definitely not in his character.

“Do whatever you want to me, punish me however you want!” the brown-haired youth suddenly shouted as if he had made up his mind, though he was still unconsciously trembling. “I’m really sorry, Charon. You saved my life back then, and this ‘Ghost’ gentleman, at least you didn’t kill me. As a member of ‘The Homeless Wanderers,’ I shouldn’t repay kindness with enmity. I-I can give my life back to you now.”

The atmosphere in the room fell silent for a moment.

Influenced by this, a sad, crying face slowly appeared on the robot waiter’s LED screen. It was probably thinking things like “the omelet is getting cold.”

You Lin, on the other hand, curved his eyes into a subtle smile. He had, at some point, put on his gloves again, even though he had gotten used to exposing his wounds inside the spaceship. He slowly stroked his palm through the layer of fabric.

“Did you know? Eden is offering a high reward in points for you. As long as you’re killed, one can get this windfall.”

In fact, he was very short on points right now—very short.

It was because of this information, a casual glance while checking his own wanted poster, that the human had let Hugo come here as a “guest,” instead of letting him flee to who-knows-where.

Hugo closed his eyes with a look of heroic sacrifice, but a cold sweat had already soaked his back. His mind raced with thoughts of how the Ghost would kill him, and he even began to feel phantom pain, when a cold laugh belatedly reached his ears.

“Be grateful,” You Lin said. “If I were to make a list of the most disgusting things, ‘receiving Eden’s blood-stained reward’ would definitely be at the top. Whatever you were thinking before, this has now become your get-out-of-jail-free card.”

At the same time, Charon, as if by telepathy, leaned down.

Those eyes seemed to be able to see through the appearance of things to their essence.

“If you truly feel guilty, then explain what happened to ‘The Homeless Wanderers,’ and why you are on the run.”