Opening Boxes

"Wait... Am I the first human ever to step inside a Great Spike mothership?! How does that saying go again? One small step for Han Qingyu—no, one small pry, one giant leap for mankind." From ordinary shuttle crafts to the blue-light craft, he had pried his way all this time. Finally, this time, Han Qingyu had pried his way into a battleship-class Great Spike mothership. The lower hold was dimly lit, but it gave a strong sense of spaciousness. Even standing completely upright, there was still plenty of clearance between the top of one's head and the ceiling. Considering it was normally used by Great Spikes, given their massive build, this was probably the norm. "Qingzi." "Yeah." Han Qingyu turned around, reaching out to pull Rusty Sister inside as she leaned halfway through the opening, followed by Wu Xu. Now all three stood in the lower hold. None of them rushed to move, instead gazing around with a mixture of curiosity and unease. Suddenly, it felt very much like grave robbers entering a tomb—terrified that something horrifying beyond their comprehension would appear and trap them inside, yet simultaneously brimming with anticipation, eager to explore and wondering, *Where's the treasure? Where is it?!* Shen Yixiu tentatively reached out, lightly touching an iron fixture protruding from the metal wall. The piece felt completely ordinary to her touch, meaning that not everything inside a Great Spike mothership was made from high-grade dead iron after all. No matter. Rusty Sister had zero desire for plain iron plates now anyway. She was already hoping she might find a blue-light column sword just like Qingzi's in here. Now that would be amazing. And maybe, just as Qingzi had suggested, she could paint two red stripes on her shoulders and actually pose as a Red Shoulder to trick the black armors. Could there be a pint-sized, mute Red Shoulder? Why not? Great Spikes in black armor were stupid anyway. Han Qingyu muttered, "We're rich! Wait, no, I'm here to launch a sneak attack. Right, a sneak attack... on their equipment." Only Wu Xu stayed behind them, silently hauling the dead Great Spike's body aside to stow it away. He also pressed down the pried-open sheet metal to widen the opening, ensuring they wouldn't get stuck if they had to run later. Only then did he speak up. "Qingzi, did you notice something?" "What?" Han Qingyu turned his head to look at him. "That Great Spike's corpse didn't self-destruct." "...Right." Han Qingyu paused for a moment before snapping back to reality. He looked toward the alien corpse placed in the corner and suddenly realized this could be a monumental discovery. Although he had promised Yaoyao-huanghuang a living, talking Great Spike and this wouldn't fulfill that deal, to humanity, the significance of an intact corpse was still immense. Should they move it outside first? "Qingzi, Wu Xu, do you think it could be like this?" Rusty Sister pondered aloud. "The Great Spikes that drop in shuttle crafts all automatically self-destruct, but the ones arriving on large ships don't. They aren't fitted with whatever mechanism does it, and whether they self-destruct is controlled by the mothership..." So, right now, was the mothership unable to spare the attention, or had it simply not noticed? That had to be it. Han Qingyu quickly agreed with her deduction in his mind. "That's probably it," he said. "The ones that came before never intended to go back, while the big ship still planned on returning. It's probably something like that." Then there wouldn't be a shortage of just this one. No need to move it out for now. And presumably, the reason the blue-light craft hadn't self-destructed was similar: it had also been brought by the big ship, or was perhaps even more advanced and couldn't be triggered remotely to self-destruct. That was why carrying it off last time had provoked so many Great Spikes to give chase, ultimately forcing a Red Shoulder to intervene personally. Since they could afford to destroy them, there had to be more. "Let's head deeper in and see. Stay on your guard." With that, Han Qingyu took the lead. The three covered each other's flanks, controlling their strength as they moved forward cautiously. The non-slip treads on their Azure combat boots had already been removed, so their soles made not a whisper of sound against the metal plating. Their vision grew clearer. Ahead, there seemed to be a light source. "Be careful. If anything feels off, the two of you run first." "Got it." The three moved toward the light. Along the way, along the lower-middle section of the metal walls on both sides of the hold, long iron benches appeared. At regular intervals above them, hinged frame structures jutted out from the wall. The mental image formed easily: black-armored Great Spikes sitting side by side along these two long iron benches, secured in place by the iron frames, jolting and swaying through the long journey of interstellar space. So how did they survive? A source energy field? The answer soon presented itself before Han Qingyu. It was a room-like structure, but missing an entire wall... A diffuse, subdued blue glow spilled out from within. "This is probably a small source energy field." Han Qingyu felt no sensation of collision within his body, deducing that it was essentially switched off. There had to be goods in there... So should he raid it? This lower hold was likely just this and nothing more. Han Qingyu glanced at the room, then looked back at the stairs leading up to the next deck—or what passed for stairs, anyway. They were really just three large iron boxes stacked like steps for the Great Spikes to climb up and down. Better not stir the grass and startle the snakes. Han Qingyu thought it over; no grave robber picked up a clay pot and left before even finding the main burial chamber and sarcophagus. "Let's go up and check it out," he said. The three crept cautiously up the stairs. Lying flat, they listened for a while. Han Qingyu sensed no active source energy field, but the surging pulse of source energy from earlier felt very close now. Hearing no movement from any Great Spikes, Han Qingyu stayed flat against the deck and crawled forward slowly. The sight before him felt completely different from the lower hold. The space on this deck was still vast, but the layout was far more complex, resembling an advanced machine workshop. Devices of various shapes were neatly arranged on both sides of the corridor. "Qingzi, look at these." Shen Yixiu pointed to an oddly angled, rectangular structure. It looked like an electrical cabinet mounted on the wall, but its design was intricate, and it carried the heavy, solid feel of dead iron. Scattered near and far, there were about a dozen similar iron chests. Their shapes were roughly the same, but their construction and the carved glyphs on them differed. "Do we pry them? These... do we pry them open?" Rusty Sister asked. Having quickly glanced around, her strongest intuition was that treasure was hidden inside these boxes. Among all the equipment on this level, they gave off an aura of special significance, much like sarcophagi in a tomb. "Let's pry one open and see." Han Qingyu walked over as he spoke. Picking one out, he found the seam, pressed the tip of his blue-light column sword against it, and began drilling through bit by bit. He was here to launch a sneak attack; Han Qingyu hadn't forgotten. But if there were dozens or hundreds of Great Spikes upstairs and the three of them rushed up, killed two, and died... that wasn't a sneak attack. *Click... Creak.* The chest's seam gave way. The three stepped aside, using the column sword to hook the iron door and swing it slowly open. A soft white light spilled out from inside the chest... "Doesn't seem dangerous." "Yeah, judging by the design, they open it themselves normally." "Then I'll take a look first." Counting on her metal armor, Rusty Sister poked her head over for a glance. "Looks like a piece of jade." As she spoke, she stepped over and stood directly in front of the chest. "Qingzi..." Rusty Sister looked back. "Shh. Does it feel uncomfortable, Rusty Sister?" "Not at all." "Then stand there for a bit longer." Before Han Qingyu and Wu Xu's eyes, the white light radiating from the iron chest was seeping into Rusty Sister's iron armor strand by strand. Whether it was being absorbed by the armor or by Rusty Sister's body itself, they couldn't be sure. A thought instantly crossed their minds: the Great Spikes that had retreated to the mothership during battle after being injured, only to quickly emerge fully restored to fight again... "Huh? I..." Shen Yixiu looked down and finally noticed it herself, growing a bit tense. "It's fine. This stuff isn't harmful. And it's not jade." *Not harmful.* Han Qingyu chose a vague term because he couldn't think of a more precise or definitive description at the moment. Yet he had an instinct: that thing was bone. Another kind of bone, similar to the Bone of Eternal Life on him, but different. If the Bone of Eternal Life felt familiar and close to Han Qingyu, its inherent aura nevertheless carried a sense of raw power, even slaughter. Meanwhile, what Rusty Sister had called jade gave him an unfamiliar but gentle feeling, imbued with a restorative, healing quality. It even felt... as if it could be eaten.