Olson frowned as he tapped his desk, back in the real world while he waited for Paska to enter. His brows furrowed as he could already assume what had happened, especially looking at the state of Paska’s body, with all his cybernetic implants partially exposed.
Soon, two guards escorted Paska in, who immediately bowed in front of Olson. “Please tell me you at least have something good. Based on your current state, I can already tell you lost all the equipment I gave to you.” Olson clasped his hands together, staring Paska down.
“But in exchange, I have discovered a fully functioning slovesa temple. I myself have entered it and witnessed its activation.” Paska smiled gently, not in the slightest bit annoyed by his loss against Ceres. It was as though he truly treated everything as a game.
Olson immediately had a large grin on his face, forgetting whatever losses he had incurred. Two hundred laser rifles and combat armour were nothing compared to a functional slovesa temple!
The number of exotics available in such slovesa ruins was well known to someone like Manager Olson. He himself had excavated more than a hundred slovesa ruins, breaking them all down into their base metal constituents. No need to worry about history being destroyed – especially when the Loeric Empire was at war.
Perhaps this was the lucky break needed to climb to the top of Bee Strathon on Athen.
Without waiting for Olson’s reply, Paska walked up to the table, tapping it and bringing up a holographic map. “The temple is located here.”
Olson frowned at the location. It was fairly far away, and if he wanted to fully exploit it, he would have to dedicate a large amount of manpower to it. He stared quietly at Paska, trying to determine if he was lying or not.
However, he realized it did not matter if he was lying or not. Olson would never immediately send a large force, but send a small batch of explorers and surveyors to confirm the finding.
“I do have to warn you, that I did not lose my warriors due to the temple. I lost due to a conflict with a group of humans that live nearby. They have very strong individuals.”
“Live nearby? The closest city is Rockhold, and I doubt anyone in their right mind would live more than a month away. For us to get to that temple location, even if there was a road it may take close to a week of continuous travelling.” Olson replied angrily, obviously becoming a bit more suspicious.
“I assure you that I am telling the truth. Their ‘town’ is located near the temple, and could serve as a sort of supply point for your miners.” Paska said with a netural expression.
Olson simply nodded, but deep inside his mind he sneered, knowing that Paska only mentioned this to him because the town was his enemy and he wanted to wipe them out using Bee Strathon’s forces!
“That’s an interesting idea, I’ll consider it with the highest priority.” Olson said non-committedly. “You’ve done well this time. Consider the promise fulfilled. You may head down to the cybernetic room to receive your upgrade.”
“Thank you. If you’re planning on sending a force down to attack, I would like to tag along. I have some… unfinished business. There is an extremely strong individual in that town, so please assemble more.” Paska bowed again, before leaving the room with the two guards.
Olson smiled as Paska left. Quickly tapping a button on his desk, he activated a communication channel. “The tribal leader is coming for the upgrade. Proceed as planned. Retrieve his recording data chip and make a backup. I want to know everything he saw or felt in the last few months.”
[Yes sir.] The voice on the other side responded, ending the call.
Olson smiled happily. For one, he did not need to send a team down there as he could simply check Paska’s recording – with that he can see if Paska was telling the truth or not. More importantly, he was concerned with whether or not he had enough manpower to spare. He was already embroiled in an ongoing extermination campaign in his new main mining shaft.
Jacking back into the virtual meeting room, Olson quickly asked his subordinates. “Any news so far of new slovesa temples on the black market, specifically Rockhold?”
[No sir, closest was the discovery of some sort of spoon used by a slovesa child. It’s being sold as a sex toy currently, with the bidding being intense.]
“Good, it means that we are first to the race.” Olson nodded. He did not want to come into any conflict with any gangs from Rockhold, most notably the Queen who ruled the city.
There was a tacit peace agreement between the two of them, so for the sake of business, Olson tried very hard to not step on her toes. His predecessor had learnt the hard way what happens when you try to fight the Queen upfront.
The rest of the daily report went as per usual, but Olson couldn’t stop thinking about the potential riches of the slovesa temples. The slovesa temples that have been harvested thus far had always proved to be a literal treasure trove of exotic metal.
It’s like the slovesa race purely exists to accumulate good metals for Bee Strathon to mine away.
Near the end of the meeting, Olson received an update from the cybernetic room, noting that the recording function had somehow been damaged in one of his fights, rendering the data incapable of being fully retrieved.
However, they had verified from a few snapshots that the temple did exist, and apparently, Paska had been trapped inside for close to five months.
“A functional slovesa temple, with spatial anomalies to boot. This day gets even better and better.” Olson couldn’t stop fantasizing about how jealous the other managers would be of him.
“Form three squads of five exosuits to head down to the temple. If there truly are natives down there that are against the tribal leader, use full force to eliminate the locals and clear the town for future supply missions.”
[Yes sir. However, we will need time to gather the squads. Almost all of our forces are currently fighting at the main shaft.]
“That’s alright, we have the time advantage. The temple isn’t going to go anywhere. Wait till they finish the current extermination campaign before re-assigning them. I expect this mission to start in maybe two weeks or so.” Olson confidently ordered.
[Yes sir.]
***
Back in the town, Ceres had returned to a loud parade. It seemed like yet another festival had begun to celebrate his return. “It’s really been a while. The townspeople have a lot of energy now.”
It was much better than the first time he came to town, where the older folks were voluntarily starving themselves to ration for the younger expedition members.
Now that Ceres had given them a source of agriculture other than grodaw worms, the mood of the townspeople, especially their outlook had improved significantly.
Halyon, Mercer and Yan had followed him back to town. Halyon was surprisingly happy when he found out Ceres had returned, even though he was admonished for sleeping through the entire Paska attack.
He waved at the crowd, thinking that they were welcoming him back instead of Ceres. “Thank you! Thank you!”
“Who the fuck are you? Get away from Ceres!” A random shout from the crowd boo-ed Halyon, who sighed. “Ahh.. sweet love-hate relationship.”
“You’ve really changed quite a fair bit since the first time I met you.” Ceres somehow always had the image of Halyon being a snotty arrogant inner. However, Halyon’s genuine feelings could not be hidden from Ceres.
Over the last few months, Halyon had not run away from town, due to the fact that he did not know where to go, his Keeper exosuit was broken courtesy of Ceres dismantling it, and if and when Ceres exits the temple, he was bound to be chased down to the ends of the earth.
In fact, he did try to escape once, but he quickly reached a dead end and had to head back to town instead.
Due to his continuous interaction with the townspeople, he started to merge with them, becoming closer. The previous arrogance was now slightly toned down, as he developed more empathy for the town.
“Well, what about you? Don’t tell me, let me guess, oh wow another random ‘enhancement’. Are you some sort of main character protagonist with plot armour?” Halyon joked, looking at Ceres’s vastly improved physique.
“If I had plot armour, I would be ruling the planet right now.” Ceres frowned. He had nothing close to plot armour. He wished he had it, but so far he seemed to suffer more setbacks than benefits.
He had still made zero progress towards his goal of finding his friends.
Now that the town was ‘saved’, Ceres no longer had the intention to stay any longer than he should.
He began to consider leaving the town for the next city to gather more information. However, he could not leave until he solved and tied up a few loose ends for the town and the temple. Especially Goras who was still inside the temple.
Ceres was pessimistic about whether he could defeat Goras.
Who knows what benefits Goras received on the final floor? Could he even enter the temple again now that he had been kicked out by Goras? Regardless, he was open to the idea of going back to the temple and figuring it out.
The leaders of the town all came out to meet and receive Ceres. The town chief, Zhang, Xi, Misa and Captain Kai all shook his head greatly. Saving the expedition had definitely solidified Ceres’s position as the hero and saviour of this town, and no one was going to argue about it either.
Ceres followed them into an office. Despite the celebrative nature of the return, they were all aware of a looming problem – Paska.
“I think it’s important to investigate into who backed Paska. If there’s truly an organization or some sort of entity supporting him, he might come back with an even larger and stronger force. After the losses from the expedition, the town cannot sustain yet another conflict of such intensity.” The town chief stated clearly.
Ceres nodded in agreement. This was the main reason why he did not want to leave the town yet.
If the backers of Paska were advanced, he could already envision the town being dominated and forced into submission. If the townspeople were citizens, then it may be possible to defend themselves legally.
However, all the residents here were descendants of exiles and accused criminals, criminalized by Oliver Athen and the Five Families during the initial colonization period.
As such, they were considered illegal immigrants at most, and none of the laws that protected an ordinary citizen applied to them. Even the military themselves could come in and arrest them legally, so any other organization could do whatever they want.
The office fell into an awkward silence. Misa recalled the sheer force with which the tribal humans attacked. If the same thing is repeated in the town, the barrier might not hold up forever, and severe casualties and damages would be inflicted on the infrastructure.
“The only solution I see to this conundrum is that we too must have our own backer.” Xi offered her opinion. “Since we can’t level the playing field on our own, perhaps we have to hire mercenary groups or attract other organizations in Rockhold to help us in exchange for rights to the temple as an example.”
“No. Any outsiders we contact for help may easily turn their back on us.” Zhang shook his head vigorously, his paranoia flaring up yet again as he gripped his bony old fist tightly. “I suggest we continue developing weapons and combat using our unique mawsie metal to defend properly instead. We have Ceres here with us to help us fight anyway!”
The town chief sighed. “Ceres will not be here forever. We’re not the only one on this planet that needs him.”
“Then train our troops to be stronger, so we can fight them off.” Captain Kai suggested.
“But how fast are Paska’s backers going to arrive? Tomorrow? The day after?” Misa frowned.
“If his backers come within the next two weeks we would truly be out of time. All of these solutions rest on the assumption that we will not be attacked till then. The real question that we’ve not answered is: does the town want to keep the temple?” Ceres asked.
The office fell into yet another awkward silence, each of the leaders’ face glancing at each other.
“I say yes, we keep the temple.” The town chief said. “We earned it fair and square, and it can serve as an additional source of income for the temple. Maybe we might be even able to sell ‘dungeon’ tickets to people who want to fight the monsters in the first temple room for themselves.”
“But we won’t be able to withstand the next attack,” Misa argued. “If the backers come now, we’re all screwed, including the entire town!”
“We lost a lot of lives to gain that temple, and I don’t think we should let go of it that easily now.”
“Well, we will lose plenty of lives fighting AGAIN for that temple! I’ve already lost half of my friends just getting into the temple. If not for Ceres, all of us would be dead right now and we would not even have this discussion.” Misa shouted back.
“I say we remain fluid on the matter.” Yan suddenly spoke up. “We can still do our best at defending it, but if the enemy’s firepower is too great at the start, we can simply negotiate a surrender. At the same time, we’ll send a call for help right this instant to Rockhold, allowing one organization to send help down in exchange for exclusive access to the temple.”
Ceres was surprised yet again by the maturity of Yan, who seemed to almost be a natural-born leader. In contrast, Misa, who was the expedition leader, seemed slightly traumatised by the events of the expedition and was antagonistic against any idea of fighting.
“Any objections to the plan Yan put forward?” The town chief asked.
“We should ensure the organization had some sort of reputation behind it to prevent any sudden military takeovers. Since we will be supporting the defence too, the organization need not be to domineering in terms of firepower as well.” Captain Kai mentioned.
“In the meantime, I’ll stay in town and help develop more exosuits to be used by our key personnel. This should increase our combat strength quite a fair bit. I’ll train whoever is willing to fight.” Ceres promised. In his mind, this was his final gift to the town. After watching the news show in the temple, the sense of urgency within Ceres became a lot more apparent.
The town chief nodded in agreement, as did the rest. Everyone knew Ceres would not stay here forever.
A basic plan was laid out immediately, with various leaders taking charge of different areas. Ceres, Zhang and Yan were in charge of the workshop, while Ceres had to double up with Halyon and Misa to train fighters to defend. They had no shortage of weapons now that they had the laser rifles as the spoils of war, though the combat armour could be much improved by the mawsie metal.
A lone messenger was sent to Rockhold as fast as possible to recruit a mercenary group. It was estimated to take up to two weeks for a reply, though that was assuming that an organization was willing to accept the task. Minimal information was revealed, to reduce the chances of the mysterious backer of Paska being alarmed if anything.
Ceres re-entered the workshop, seeing his disabled heavy knight exosuit propped up. “Surprised you guys actually brought it back.”
“Of course we did. It’s the first exosuit of the town. Though not designed by one of us.” Zhang slapped Ceres on the back. “Either way, me and my daughter will learn from it and eventually design one without you when you’re gone.”
“Your daughter? I don’t think I’ve met her yet.” Ceres forgot who his daughter was, but somehow recalled something vaguely from before he entered the temple.
“I’m right here you know.” Yan groaned. Ceres had to do a double take when he observed Yan and Zhang side by side. They looked nothing alike.
How could such a paranoid crazy old man have such a smart daughter?
Olson frowned as he tapped his desk, back in the real world while he waited for Paska to enter. His brows furrowed as he could already assume what had happened, especially looking at the state of Paska’s body, with all his cybernetic implants partially exposed.
Soon, two guards escorted Paska in, who immediately bowed in front of Olson. “Please tell me you at least have something good. Based on your current state, I can already tell you lost all the equipment I gave to you.” Olson clasped his hands together, staring Paska down.
“But in exchange, I have discovered a fully functioning slovesa temple. I myself have entered it and witnessed its activation.” Paska smiled gently, not in the slightest bit annoyed by his loss against Ceres. It was as though he truly treated everything as a game.
Olson immediately had a large grin on his face, forgetting whatever losses he had incurred. Two hundred laser rifles and combat armour were nothing compared to a functional slovesa temple!
The number of exotics available in such slovesa ruins was well known to someone like Manager Olson. He himself had excavated more than a hundred slovesa ruins, breaking them all down into their base metal constituents. No need to worry about history being destroyed – especially when the Loeric Empire was at war.
Perhaps this was the lucky break needed to climb to the top of Bee Strathon on Athen.
Without waiting for Olson’s reply, Paska walked up to the table, tapping it and bringing up a holographic map. “The temple is located here.”
Olson frowned at the location. It was fairly far away, and if he wanted to fully exploit it, he would have to dedicate a large amount of manpower to it. He stared quietly at Paska, trying to determine if he was lying or not.
However, he realized it did not matter if he was lying or not. Olson would never immediately send a large force, but send a small batch of explorers and surveyors to confirm the finding.
“I do have to warn you, that I did not lose my warriors due to the temple. I lost due to a conflict with a group of humans that live nearby. They have very strong individuals.”
“Live nearby? The closest city is Rockhold, and I doubt anyone in their right mind would live more than a month away. For us to get to that temple location, even if there was a road it may take close to a week of continuous travelling.” Olson replied angrily, obviously becoming a bit more suspicious.
“I assure you that I am telling the truth. Their ‘town’ is located near the temple, and could serve as a sort of supply point for your miners.” Paska said with a netural expression.
Olson simply nodded, but deep inside his mind he sneered, knowing that Paska only mentioned this to him because the town was his enemy and he wanted to wipe them out using Bee Strathon’s forces!
“That’s an interesting idea, I’ll consider it with the highest priority.” Olson said non-committedly. “You’ve done well this time. Consider the promise fulfilled. You may head down to the cybernetic room to receive your upgrade.”
“Thank you. If you’re planning on sending a force down to attack, I would like to tag along. I have some… unfinished business. There is an extremely strong individual in that town, so please assemble more.” Paska bowed again, before leaving the room with the two guards.
Olson smiled as Paska left. Quickly tapping a button on his desk, he activated a communication channel. “The tribal leader is coming for the upgrade. Proceed as planned. Retrieve his recording data chip and make a backup. I want to know everything he saw or felt in the last few months.”
[Yes sir.] The voice on the other side responded, ending the call.
Olson smiled happily. For one, he did not need to send a team down there as he could simply check Paska’s recording – with that he can see if Paska was telling the truth or not. More importantly, he was concerned with whether or not he had enough manpower to spare. He was already embroiled in an ongoing extermination campaign in his new main mining shaft.
Jacking back into the virtual meeting room, Olson quickly asked his subordinates. “Any news so far of new slovesa temples on the black market, specifically Rockhold?”
[No sir, closest was the discovery of some sort of spoon used by a slovesa child. It’s being sold as a sex toy currently, with the bidding being intense.]
“Good, it means that we are first to the race.” Olson nodded. He did not want to come into any conflict with any gangs from Rockhold, most notably the Queen who ruled the city.
There was a tacit peace agreement between the two of them, so for the sake of business, Olson tried very hard to not step on her toes. His predecessor had learnt the hard way what happens when you try to fight the Queen upfront.
The rest of the daily report went as per usual, but Olson couldn’t stop thinking about the potential riches of the slovesa temples. The slovesa temples that have been harvested thus far had always proved to be a literal treasure trove of exotic metal.
It’s like the slovesa race purely exists to accumulate good metals for Bee Strathon to mine away.
Near the end of the meeting, Olson received an update from the cybernetic room, noting that the recording function had somehow been damaged in one of his fights, rendering the data incapable of being fully retrieved.
However, they had verified from a few snapshots that the temple did exist, and apparently, Paska had been trapped inside for close to five months.
“A functional slovesa temple, with spatial anomalies to boot. This day gets even better and better.” Olson couldn’t stop fantasizing about how jealous the other managers would be of him.
“Form three squads of five exosuits to head down to the temple. If there truly are natives down there that are against the tribal leader, use full force to eliminate the locals and clear the town for future supply missions.”
[Yes sir. However, we will need time to gather the squads. Almost all of our forces are currently fighting at the main shaft.]
“That’s alright, we have the time advantage. The temple isn’t going to go anywhere. Wait till they finish the current extermination campaign before re-assigning them. I expect this mission to start in maybe two weeks or so.” Olson confidently ordered.
[Yes sir.]
***
Back in the town, Ceres had returned to a loud parade. It seemed like yet another festival had begun to celebrate his return. “It’s really been a while. The townspeople have a lot of energy now.”
It was much better than the first time he came to town, where the older folks were voluntarily starving themselves to ration for the younger expedition members.
Now that Ceres had given them a source of agriculture other than grodaw worms, the mood of the townspeople, especially their outlook had improved significantly.
Halyon, Mercer and Yan had followed him back to town. Halyon was surprisingly happy when he found out Ceres had returned, even though he was admonished for sleeping through the entire Paska attack.
He waved at the crowd, thinking that they were welcoming him back instead of Ceres. “Thank you! Thank you!”
“Who the fuck are you? Get away from Ceres!” A random shout from the crowd boo-ed Halyon, who sighed. “Ahh.. sweet love-hate relationship.”
“You’ve really changed quite a fair bit since the first time I met you.” Ceres somehow always had the image of Halyon being a snotty arrogant inner. However, Halyon’s genuine feelings could not be hidden from Ceres.
Over the last few months, Halyon had not run away from town, due to the fact that he did not know where to go, his Keeper exosuit was broken courtesy of Ceres dismantling it, and if and when Ceres exits the temple, he was bound to be chased down to the ends of the earth.
In fact, he did try to escape once, but he quickly reached a dead end and had to head back to town instead.
Due to his continuous interaction with the townspeople, he started to merge with them, becoming closer. The previous arrogance was now slightly toned down, as he developed more empathy for the town.
“Well, what about you? Don’t tell me, let me guess, oh wow another random ‘enhancement’. Are you some sort of main character protagonist with plot armour?” Halyon joked, looking at Ceres’s vastly improved physique.
“If I had plot armour, I would be ruling the planet right now.” Ceres frowned. He had nothing close to plot armour. He wished he had it, but so far he seemed to suffer more setbacks than benefits.
He had still made zero progress towards his goal of finding his friends.
Now that the town was ‘saved’, Ceres no longer had the intention to stay any longer than he should.
He began to consider leaving the town for the next city to gather more information. However, he could not leave until he solved and tied up a few loose ends for the town and the temple. Especially Goras who was still inside the temple.
Ceres was pessimistic about whether he could defeat Goras.
Who knows what benefits Goras received on the final floor? Could he even enter the temple again now that he had been kicked out by Goras? Regardless, he was open to the idea of going back to the temple and figuring it out.
The leaders of the town all came out to meet and receive Ceres. The town chief, Zhang, Xi, Misa and Captain Kai all shook his head greatly. Saving the expedition had definitely solidified Ceres’s position as the hero and saviour of this town, and no one was going to argue about it either.
Ceres followed them into an office. Despite the celebrative nature of the return, they were all aware of a looming problem – Paska.
“I think it’s important to investigate into who backed Paska. If there’s truly an organization or some sort of entity supporting him, he might come back with an even larger and stronger force. After the losses from the expedition, the town cannot sustain yet another conflict of such intensity.” The town chief stated clearly.
Ceres nodded in agreement. This was the main reason why he did not want to leave the town yet.
If the backers of Paska were advanced, he could already envision the town being dominated and forced into submission. If the townspeople were citizens, then it may be possible to defend themselves legally.
However, all the residents here were descendants of exiles and accused criminals, criminalized by Oliver Athen and the Five Families during the initial colonization period.
As such, they were considered illegal immigrants at most, and none of the laws that protected an ordinary citizen applied to them. Even the military themselves could come in and arrest them legally, so any other organization could do whatever they want.
The office fell into an awkward silence. Misa recalled the sheer force with which the tribal humans attacked. If the same thing is repeated in the town, the barrier might not hold up forever, and severe casualties and damages would be inflicted on the infrastructure.
“The only solution I see to this conundrum is that we too must have our own backer.” Xi offered her opinion. “Since we can’t level the playing field on our own, perhaps we have to hire mercenary groups or attract other organizations in Rockhold to help us in exchange for rights to the temple as an example.”
“No. Any outsiders we contact for help may easily turn their back on us.” Zhang shook his head vigorously, his paranoia flaring up yet again as he gripped his bony old fist tightly. “I suggest we continue developing weapons and combat using our unique mawsie metal to defend properly instead. We have Ceres here with us to help us fight anyway!”
The town chief sighed. “Ceres will not be here forever. We’re not the only one on this planet that needs him.”
“Then train our troops to be stronger, so we can fight them off.” Captain Kai suggested.
“But how fast are Paska’s backers going to arrive? Tomorrow? The day after?” Misa frowned.
“If his backers come within the next two weeks we would truly be out of time. All of these solutions rest on the assumption that we will not be attacked till then. The real question that we’ve not answered is: does the town want to keep the temple?” Ceres asked.
The office fell into yet another awkward silence, each of the leaders’ face glancing at each other.
“I say yes, we keep the temple.” The town chief said. “We earned it fair and square, and it can serve as an additional source of income for the temple. Maybe we might be even able to sell ‘dungeon’ tickets to people who want to fight the monsters in the first temple room for themselves.”
“But we won’t be able to withstand the next attack,” Misa argued. “If the backers come now, we’re all screwed, including the entire town!”
“We lost a lot of lives to gain that temple, and I don’t think we should let go of it that easily now.”
“Well, we will lose plenty of lives fighting AGAIN for that temple! I’ve already lost half of my friends just getting into the temple. If not for Ceres, all of us would be dead right now and we would not even have this discussion.” Misa shouted back.
“I say we remain fluid on the matter.” Yan suddenly spoke up. “We can still do our best at defending it, but if the enemy’s firepower is too great at the start, we can simply negotiate a surrender. At the same time, we’ll send a call for help right this instant to Rockhold, allowing one organization to send help down in exchange for exclusive access to the temple.”
Ceres was surprised yet again by the maturity of Yan, who seemed to almost be a natural-born leader. In contrast, Misa, who was the expedition leader, seemed slightly traumatised by the events of the expedition and was antagonistic against any idea of fighting.
“Any objections to the plan Yan put forward?” The town chief asked.
“We should ensure the organization had some sort of reputation behind it to prevent any sudden military takeovers. Since we will be supporting the defence too, the organization need not be to domineering in terms of firepower as well.” Captain Kai mentioned.
“In the meantime, I’ll stay in town and help develop more exosuits to be used by our key personnel. This should increase our combat strength quite a fair bit. I’ll train whoever is willing to fight.” Ceres promised. In his mind, this was his final gift to the town. After watching the news show in the temple, the sense of urgency within Ceres became a lot more apparent.
The town chief nodded in agreement, as did the rest. Everyone knew Ceres would not stay here forever.
A basic plan was laid out immediately, with various leaders taking charge of different areas. Ceres, Zhang and Yan were in charge of the workshop, while Ceres had to double up with Halyon and Misa to train fighters to defend. They had no shortage of weapons now that they had the laser rifles as the spoils of war, though the combat armour could be much improved by the mawsie metal.
A lone messenger was sent to Rockhold as fast as possible to recruit a mercenary group. It was estimated to take up to two weeks for a reply, though that was assuming that an organization was willing to accept the task. Minimal information was revealed, to reduce the chances of the mysterious backer of Paska being alarmed if anything.
Ceres re-entered the workshop, seeing his disabled heavy knight exosuit propped up. “Surprised you guys actually brought it back.”
“Of course we did. It’s the first exosuit of the town. Though not designed by one of us.” Zhang slapped Ceres on the back. “Either way, me and my daughter will learn from it and eventually design one without you when you’re gone.”
“Your daughter? I don’t think I’ve met her yet.” Ceres forgot who his daughter was, but somehow recalled something vaguely from before he entered the temple.
“I’m right here you know.” Yan groaned. Ceres had to do a double take when he observed Yan and Zhang side by side. They looked nothing alike.
How could such a paranoid crazy old man have such a smart daughter?
