Chapter 31
She was determined to hide her greatest secret: "Bai Ye is Ye Bai." In her single-mindedness, she overlooked the dangers that "ancient human Ye Bai" might also face.
In the depths of darkness and silence, Ye Bai fell into deep reflection.
In the interstellar age, public safety facilities were nothing like they were ten thousand years ago. On Blue Star, there were no blind spots; everywhere was under surveillance.
Personal terminals were incredibly powerful and comprehensive, integrating communication, payment, and planetary transportation... They could even instantly load protective modules. Within the modified planetary magnetic field, they could almost defend against any non-military attack.
Previously, when Ye Bai used the purification module, she hadn’t been enveloped by a device falling from the sky. The effect was actually produced by the Blue Star beneath her feet. When it manifested on her, it felt as effortless as opening an app, though the technological sophistication was beyond her comprehension.
So, aside from spending money to stay in a hotel for a "business private space," sleeping on public benches every day was no different from her experiences in other parts of Blue Star.
Ten thousand years ago, there were banks, stations, and service halls that could be called public safety areas, but on Blue Star, these functions had all been replaced by personal terminals.
As a public star next to a wormhole, Blue Star was seen by people in this era as merely a "passenger station."
But this station was as large as a planet, and the traffic was not planes or trains, but interstellar spaceships.
In such an environment, Ye Bai, still clinging to the mindset of ten thousand years ago, felt unnoticed and safe.
Now, she realized: where was the real safety?!
The protection that interstellar citizens obtained through personal terminals was limited, depending on the planetary standard of protection. Here, as a public star, the defenses against the wormhole were likely very high, but the individual citizens here could not compare to the defense levels of their own civilization's core star regions.
Moreover, this was an era of the universe where technology and mental prowess could form a hierarchy of oppression between different civilizations.
Ye Bai couldn’t understand the principles behind the planet and personal terminals. In the eyes of the aliens capturing her, they might be easily cracked. The moment they silently and successfully abducted her, they must have disrupted the planetary signal, disguised it, and evaded all steps of planetary surveillance.
If she had known, she wouldn’t have tried to save money by staying in a capsule hotel... No, that hotel room wasn’t particularly difficult to crack either. The most direct reason for her abduction was probably not because she slept on the street, but because she had replied to that email.
It seemed that the job offer she received from Makur Star was perhaps not a legitimate recruitment... Ten thousand years ago, using job offers as traps for scams was not unheard of.
Who has ever seen a zoo paying monkeys, granting them the same freedoms and rights as "humans"?
People ten thousand years ago would joke about envying the animals in the zoo, being protected and well-fed, but if such a fate befell a sentient being with a sense of "self," the experience would be entirely different.
More importantly, Ye Bai was now taken away by such an obvious "unconventional method," and it didn’t necessarily mean she was being taken to Makur Star for exhibition.
Animal protection awareness led to the creation of zoos, but if the only goal was profit, there was another industry called the circus.
In an even darker scenario, she could be taken as a rare delicacy or for secret human experimentation...
As long as one is weak and backward, there is a possibility of becoming prey.
The law of the jungle still applied in this interstellar age, perhaps even more clearly; there was no morality between different civilizations and races.
...
Wrapped in a sense of powerlessness, Ye Bai gradually became more resolute in her thoughts.
She began to calmly search for solutions.
After trying to use the identification function for a while, Ye Bai didn’t gain much more from the nutrient solution enveloping her; she only received more refined information like "oxygen ions" and "hydrogen ions."
Given the current situation, with the powerful ability of [Identification], Ye Bai just needed to "touch" more external things to gain more information and find a way to respond.
When her body couldn’t move, she still had her mental power.
The kidnappers didn’t know that Ye Bai had activated the Star Network. She could utilize the upgrade effects of the myriad realms; if she could elevate her mental power to D-level, she could project it outside her body.
Thus, Ye Bai immediately logged onto the Star Network.
Before entering the myriad realms, she paused and searched for the Makur Group on the Star Network.
Unfortunately, aside from job postings and advertisements, she didn’t find any information that would help her current situation.
After all, most people accessing the Star Network were either for communication or for immersive gaming, and they didn’t pay much attention to such real-world entertainment projects. It was like two different tracks; Ye Bai couldn’t even find any "reviews" from interstellar travelers about Makur Star.
Seeing that she hadn’t found any useful information, Ye Bai didn’t waste any more time and logged into the myriad realms.
At this moment, it was still evening in Bai Ye Village. Ye Bai looked at the territory still under construction and began to calculate and assess in her mind.
Time was tight; the sooner she leveled up to level 20 and changed jobs, the better.
This meant she couldn’t stick to the original plan of waiting for the third batch of refugees to arrive and build the guard team before opening trade routes.
Gaining experience points wasn’t difficult for Ye Bai; the biggest problem was the job change.
"Swish."
Ye Bai opened her backpack and looked at the blueprint for the [Well of Origins]—if she were to enter the divine realm, it would be extremely dangerous, but it wasn’t impossible to change jobs...
However, upon seeing the 100 source energy crystals required for construction, Ye Bai ultimately gave up.
It was too slow. Due to her trade with the traveling merchant, she had used up a large amount of stored source energy crystals in her territory. With the current production capacity, it would take several game days to gather enough materials, and the villagers couldn’t work at night.
She would have to take the route of changing jobs in the town; she needed to find a faster way to get to the town.
...Traveling merchant?
Ye Bai’s gaze inadvertently swept over the hot air balloon at the edge of the market.
Traveling merchants would always be shuttling between towns for trade. Now, in the myriad realms, the only two player territories were "Rui Lan Village." Judging by the ratings, it hadn’t reached level 1 territory yet, so the next destination for the traveling merchant Kazmai would definitely be an NPC town, and there was a high probability it would be a town in the "Galactic Zone Blue Star" not too far away.
In the PC version of the myriad realms, players couldn’t make requests to NPCs beyond standard options, but this myriad realm didn’t seem to be the same?
Ye Bai’s eyes lit up, and she immediately headed to the market.
To give players time to stock up, it was set that traveling merchants would stay in the territory for two game days. So even though Ye Bai had previously cleared Kazmai’s inventory, she still saw him in the market.
Upon seeing Ye Bai again, Kazmai showed a hint of surprise, then shrugged and smiled at her:
"Milady, I’ve sold out of everything I brought this time; there’s no new stock."
"I know," Ye Bai nodded.
Kazmai looked puzzled: "Then what do you need me for?"
Ye Bai got straight to the point: "I want to ask if you can give me a ride, let me travel with you in your hot air balloon to the next town you’re heading to."
Hearing this, Kazmai was taken aback, then frowned: "That... won’t work. It’s against our merchant’s rules."
Ye Bai didn’t give up and continued: "I’ll pay you a sufficient fee."
If he couldn’t accept that, Ye Bai would consider using a "zero-cost purchase" method to obtain the hot air balloon. Even if it would come at a great cost, this was a matter of life and death for her; she couldn’t afford to be picky.
Perhaps it was the 20 points of goodwill at work, or perhaps it was the merchant’s nature, but Kazmai raised an eyebrow, his expression wavering.
Seeing this, Ye Bai realized she had a chance, and immediately took out a source energy crystal from her backpack.
This source energy crystal was different from the rough and ordinary ones she had traded before; it looked more translucent, and the energy core glowed brighter—[Source Energy Crystal (Fine)].
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