Alien Hotel.

Chapter 653 Searching for the Address
In a management room in the core area, Luo was standing on the control platform that Old Joe used to monitor the entire base. Several mechanical limbs extended from her back, connecting to several terminal devices beside her, while a large number of constantly changing holographic projections floated around her. Some of them displayed dazzling data and charts, while others showed the current situation inside and outside the base.

“Old Joe provided a ‘receiver location’ for the transaction with the Secret Order, as well as two secret lines for contacting the Secret Order’s contact person,” she looked up at Yu Sheng, who was standing to the side with his arms crossed, her golden, star-like eyes gleaming with the light of data streams. “But I have reason to doubt the accuracy of this information—knowing him as I do, even if he were truly driven to the brink of death, he would still try his best to dig a trap for me. Those two secret lines are very likely ‘warning routes’ that he and the Secret Order had agreed upon in advance. If they were used rashly, the contact person on the other side would probably know that Old Joe is in trouble.”

The nearby terminal devices were buzzing. Luo had already connected herself to the fortress's database. At this moment, she was browsing through the vast amount of local logs and data, while also organizing her thoughts.

"As for that 'receiver location,' the coordinates should be real. I found a preset jump coordinate that matches the coordinates in the navigation system of a cargo shuttle parked in the base. But if we sail there directly now, it might alert them... Once we get the control system sorted out here, I plan to launch a stealthy deep space probe over there first to find out what's going on."

"Wouldn't that 'receiver location' be close to the Hermitage's controlled planet?" Eileen asked curiously, sitting at a terminal next to her. "Would we be able to find the Hermitage's headquarters once we got there?"

“If those charlatans had even the slightest bit of caution, they wouldn’t have done this,” Luo glanced at the evil little dwarf beside him. “These kinds of rendezvous points are definitely far from their own base, and judging from what Old Joe told me, I don’t think there’s much ‘trust’ between him and those secret order followers. They must have been wary of each other, which is also in line with the ‘rules’ in the Dark Current Starfield.”

Eileen drawled, "Wow—I see."

I don't know if she really understood it or not.

Luo Ze subconsciously glanced at Eileen several more times, and after holding back for a while, he couldn't help but ask, "Besides, aren't you hot sitting on the equipment's heat vent?"

Eileen: "...Wow!"

Only then did the little doll belatedly realize what was happening and jump up from the terminal with a startled cry, quickly leaping onto Yu Sheng's shoulder.

Yu Sheng immediately felt a warm sensation on one side of his shoulder. He reached out and pressed the little one who was swaying restlessly on his shoulder, and said thoughtfully, "When I first connected my consciousness to this base, I seemed to 'see' Old Joe contacting someone. Although I didn't hear clearly, it was very likely someone from the Secret Order. See if you can find this record."

"Wait... Corresponding communication log found," another glimmer of light flashed in Luo's eyes. As a large portion of her computing power was connected to the base's database, her expression gradually became somewhat rigid, and even her manner of speaking seemed mechanical. "The communication content has been erased. It was an automatic action by the system based on a certain security protocol... Attempting to recover the contact information, searching for more similar communication logs..."

As soon as she finished speaking, the surrounding terminal devices started buzzing, and tiny sparks of electricity appeared on the surface of the mechanical limbs behind Luo. In just a moment, visible heat began to rise from her head.

Eileen was shocked when she saw this and immediately exclaimed, "Hey girl, is your vent blocked too?!"

The little doll had only been shouting for half a moment when the living metal covering behind Luo suddenly began to wriggle, and a large number of heat dissipation grilles opened out of thin air near the connection points of the mechanical limbs, with hot air rushing out from inside.

“My vents are hidden,” Luo’s eyes quickly returned to normal, and the mechanical feeling disappeared from her. She glanced at Eileen, then her gaze fell on Yu Sheng. “I found the communication records you mentioned. The communication content was wiped clean, but Old Joe obviously didn’t expect that his entire base’s access would be taken over—there are still quite a few other traces left in the system, including the registration list of forwarding nodes.”

Yu Sheng, who knew nothing about the technical details, asked directly, "Can we use this to pinpoint the location of the person who contacted him?"

After saying that, he added, "That's how it's always shown in movies. One person answers a phone call, and then the scientist on the other side frantically operates something on the screen, then goes through the internet cable and pins the person down..."

Luo's expression suddenly became somewhat subtle.

When dealing with the people at the hostel, she often felt the same helplessness that late Homo sapiens experiencing in the rainforest when encountering their primate relatives. But she quickly composed herself. After all, as a researcher, she was used to dealing with people who weren't well-educated, especially since the illiterate person opposite her was her boss—a boss who didn't understand science, but at least respected it… well, often his actions didn't respect science either, but at least he respected scientists.

……perhaps?
Luo Yue felt increasingly conflicted, but he patiently explained, "Every faster-than-light communication array in the Dark Current Starfield is disguised. Even if the information from the relay nodes can be successfully restored, it will definitely be covered with several layers of false features. Moreover, the Cult of Saints also has its own set of communication facilities and sovereign broadcasting devices. Their internal encryption is difficult to crack..."

She suddenly stopped and looked up into Yu Sheng and Eileen's clear, bright eyes.

Hu Li's eyes, however, were not clear—they looked hungry.

Luna wasn't listening at all—as a village girl saint whose basic education consisted of farming in the countryside for sixteen years and who spent the rest of her time killing people within cognitive barriers, any topic beyond the scope of arithmetic was beyond her academic level to handle (she usually operated the things on the Otherworld Hotel entirely on instinct).

Luo let out a long sigh.

"If you can crack it, give me some time."

Then she thought for a moment, and then explained a few more words without giving up: "At most a few days, I can deduce the real coordinates of those forwarding nodes based on the signal patterns of those nodes, and by cross-calculating, I can find the hiding place of the Revered Priestess - once I find a valid address, the rest will be very simple."

"That's good!" Eileen exclaimed happily. "We can use these next few days to make some arrangements with Iron Face. When we fight that beastly Hermitage, we'll be the vanguard, and Iron Face can gather the troops from behind..."

Yu Sheng, having discerned something from Luo's expression, now felt apologetic and spoke with exceptional sincerity: "Well, please understand, the average level of education in this inn is indeed limited. Our most educated person (pointing to Hu Li) is already at mealtime..."

Upon hearing the words "mealtime," the fox lying nearby perked up its ears, but after looking up and seeing that it seemed there was no sign of mealtime, it hummed and buried its head in its pile of tails again.

“Then there’s everything else Old Joe left behind—not just this base, but also his trade routes, factories, shipyards, and security forces scattered throughout the Darkstream Sector,” Luo said, glancing at the asset list in the database as he moved on to the next topic. “I plan to completely remodel this Deeprock Fortress, tearing down all those nauseating labs and exhibits. Of course, before that, we need to move it to Blackrock Station. This place is too remote and deep within the Darkstream Sector; it’s not a good location for an outpost—this process might require your help, Boss.”

"As for the surrendered clone troops and the local ships, I'll hand them over to Ryan for reorganization and handling. He has experience in this, and if all goes well, this force can be completely converted into my private army, bypassing the Black Dot Group."

"As for the factories and trade lines... although I really want to take them all, unfortunately my 'appetite' is limited right now. If I can't swallow them all at once, it may become a huge problem and easily attract excessive attention from the group company. Old Joe has many businesses that are related to other black spot project managers or special agents, some of whom are also connected to me. I can't go too far."

"So the best solution is to hand over this part of the industry directly to the group company for redistribution—after this redistribution, I should still be able to legally acquire a portion of the assets, and this can also, to some extent, restore my 'value rating' within the Black Point Group."

Luo paused here, a thoughtful expression on his face, before continuing after a moment: "The commotion on the Grey Dwarf Star should have been discovered by the group's spies. The news of Old Joe's death can be kept secret for now, but by now the news of my return has probably reached the higher-ups—this is also an opportunity, although it is not entirely as expected, but I can officially 'go back'."

“There’s a problem here,” Yu Sheng said, pondering as he listened. “Once the Black Dot Group starts dealing with the assets left by Old Joe, his death will be impossible to keep quiet. The Cult of the Holy Spirit should be very well-informed in the Dark Current Starfield. Once they know that Old Joe is in trouble, a lot of the intelligence we have here related to the Cult will probably become invalid. At the very least, the Cult will be on much more guard.”

“So we need to exploit this time difference,” Luo said seriously. “I will use various reports and paperwork to delay the group company’s investigation into the Grey Dwarf Star and this ‘internal struggle,’ and try to postpone the board of directors’ initiation of subsequent handling procedures. This way, we can temporarily keep the information within the Black Dot Group’s confidentiality level. Before that, we need to find and infiltrate the Hermitage’s homeland. With your methods, boss, once we can infiltrate, it will be too late for the Hermitage to react.”

(End of this chapter)