Alien Hotel.

Chapter 655 Momo Knows Quite a Lot

Momo sat somewhat nervously in the chair in the living room, her tail dangling from the armrest on the side of the chair, taut and afraid to even shake. For a gibbon, the chair seemed a bit too big, so much so that she tried to put her hand on the armrest but quickly pulled it back—this action only amplified her unease.

The important figure who claimed to be a "spirit detective from the borderlands" but was respectfully addressed as "True Lord Yu Sheng" sat opposite her. Next to him was an Algred elf who appeared to be a high-ranking executive of the Black Dot Group, an artificial saintess who looked exactly like a hermit, and a fox demon with nine tails.

There was also a small black-haired, red-eyed doll that was only a few dozen centimeters tall running around on the table—Eileen suddenly darted in front of Momo, her scarlet eyes staring at the tense Gibraltar girl: "Hey, don't be nervous, this place is very safe—it was just that there was a Dark Angel incident before, and now the earth's crust is full of angel remains, but it's all harmless now."

Yu Sheng strongly suspected that the little thing was saying this on purpose; he didn't even need evidence.

So he coughed twice, casually picked up the little doll that had been causing trouble on the table and stuffed it into Hu Li's tail, then nodded to Momo: "You have a general understanding of the situation of the rest of us. Now tell me about you. How did you become... uh, Old Joe's 'laboratory assistant'? How long have you been 'working' in that fortress?"

“Yes, it’s been about ten years, but I can’t remember the exact dates,” Momo hurriedly replied. “I, I was originally with a research team tracking a ‘lone star’ that was moving in a dark region, but our ship had an accident when it passed through the stargate of the Grand Cross Nebula. The ‘Nora force field’ that enveloped the ship broke during the jump, and we were ‘thrown’ to the vicinity of the Dark Currents…”

"Most people died on the spot. I and the remaining engineers managed to repair the spaceship's energy and life support systems, but just as we were trying to restart the engines, the Skyraider pirates tracked down the distress signal sent by the spaceship. At that time, we didn't know that we had entered the Dark Stream Starfield. By the time everyone realized what was happening, it was too late. The pirates looted the spaceship and kidnapped everyone."

"The leader of that Skyraider fleet originally intended to keep us all on the ship as slave laborers to replenish the manpower he lost in a previous accident, but he was allergic to cat fur, and later discovered that I was a technician, so he eventually sold me to Old Joe."

"Then, and then, I stayed in that base... There were actually a few other people who were bought by Old Joe at the same time, but they all died one after another, leaving only me."

Eileen popped out from under the raccoon's tail and peeked at the table: "What do you usually do? Have you ever been involved in Old Joe's 'business'?"

“Ping, normally?” Momo’s intact ear twitched, and then she said while recalling, “Most of the time I helped Old Joe with his experiments on living metal, or I helped him with my own tests, and I also helped him keep an eye on the production line of the living metal factory. When he went out, I was in charge of managing the other people in the lab—mainly to try to avoid any ‘unplanned material loss’.”

"As for business... he didn't have much contact with anyone. He doesn't trust others, especially when it comes to trade. He handles everything by himself, with only one AI assistant helping him. It's a machine he personally tuned; it has powerful computing capabilities but a rudimentary mind, ensuring it won't betray him. Even so, I once saw Old Joe in the server room viciously threatening that server—telling it not to steal his money. The scene was like him talking to himself, but it was also very frightening."

“…Damn it, this guy is really sick,” Yu Sheng said, rubbing his forehead. “Luckily, we carried out justice today.”

Luo also sighed, then looked more intently into Momo's eyes: "Have you had any other 'business' dealings with Old Joe? Especially those..."

She had originally intended to say "suspicious figures," but then realized that in a lawless place like the Dark Current Starfield, those four words probably encompassed 99% of the intelligent life within a million light-years. So, she changed her words: "Those who talk nonsense, they seem like charlatans..."

Momo blinked: "You mean the Confucian Order of Saints?"

Luo and Yu Sheng were both startled. They exchanged a surprised glance, and Yu Sheng was the first to speak: "You actually knew?!"

“Yes, he doesn’t hide this from us. After all, we can’t escape and we have no way to contact the outside world,” Momo nodded. “His attitude towards us is similar to that towards laboratory animals. So while he’s restricting our freedom, he also lets us know a lot of things. Sometimes, he’ll even talk to us about a lot of random things, rambling on and on like a neurotic person for a long time. It seems to be a way for him to release his stress.”

"But all I know is that he was secretly contacting people from the Secret Order of Saints, I don't know the details..."

"By the way, sometimes he would also berate the hermits in front of us, saying they were stingy and hypocritical, yet their demands kept increasing."

Momo suddenly stopped talking, thought about it carefully for a while, and looked up at Luo: "Ah, he recently mentioned your name - he mentioned some kind of laboratory accident, which is related to you. This accident seems to have made the Chong Sheng Hermitage very... unhappy, so they put a lot of pressure on him, which made him very unhappy as well."

Luo frowned slightly.

Eileen had already climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder again and casually asked Luo, "Your lab exploded, which means all the evidence is gone. What's the Hidden Cult unhappy about? Because they can't steal data from you anymore?" Luo pondered, "I'm wondering too. The Rift Lab accident... all my core data should have been transferred by the mole by then. How did those charlatans..."

Halfway through her sentence, Yu Sheng, who was beside her, seemed to have thought of something and suddenly spoke up: "Wait, could it be like this: When Old Joe handed over your core data to the Chong Sheng Hermitage, he made exaggerated claims to drive up the price, exaggerating everything he had stolen. Then those charlatans believed him and activated their rift generator based on the information Old Joe gave them. And as soon as they activated it, something huge happened on your end. The Hermitage people turned around and saw—oh dear—"

As he said this, Luo realized what was happening, and the two of them said in unison, "We can't stop the machine!"

The room fell silent. The group exchanged bewildered glances, their expressions quickly becoming quite varied. Even the dim-witted Eileen and the food-obsessed fox girl realized what was going on (Luna's body was relatively concealed, so the change wasn't outwardly apparent). Then, Hu Li clapped his hands: "Hey! So, all this connects to the story. The Secret Order's recent frequent activities are because their rift device is malfunctioning. The reason for the malfunction is that Old Joe's data is incorrect, causing that 'Gate of Eden' to fail to close. And that thing is likely using Dark Angels as energy, so now it's very likely that the angel's awakening process is also out of control. So, they went to Old Joe to put pressure on him..."

"The result of the pressure was that Joe had to 'take over' my businesses immediately, possibly even bypassing the group's standard procedures," Luo continued quickly. "I had been wondering how Joe could take over all the outposts so quickly after I got into trouble. He did it in such a rush that he didn't even have time to deal with the most profitable mines and trade routes, but instead kept looking for the disaster recovery databases I had hidden..."

"Anything else?" Yu Sheng turned to look at Momo. "What else do you know about the 'cooperation' between the Chong Sheng Hermitage and Old Joe?"

“There’s a planet called ‘Holy Realm.’ Old Joe has mentioned it several times when he’s cursing behind people’s backs,” Momo said after thinking for a moment. “It seems to be the capital of the Holy Order. Old Joe once cursed it out, saying that those inferior beings were stupid and short-sighted for putting that gate on the capital planet. He said that if the gate collapses one day, not a single person on the entire planet will be able to escape… and then he won’t be able to collect his debts.”

The room became even quieter than before.

After a couple of seconds, Yu Sheng finally exclaimed in surprise: "...They built that thing on their own capital planet?!"

"Holy crap, this is a bit too much for cultists, I'm serious," even Eileen realized, her eyes wide with shock. "I always thought they were at most welding detonators and sawing light bulbs, but God the hell they're welding right next to a gas station..."

“…This doesn’t make sense,” Luo Ze frowned, puzzled. As a seasoned unlucky person who had essentially been welding detonators and sawing light bulbs, and had recently even managed to blow one up, she simply couldn’t understand the cultists’ thinking. “Shouldn’t these dangerous things be kept far away? I even built a separate space station specifically for Zolda Black Rock, how dare they start doing this on our home planet…”

“Don’t say that, you’re not much better than them,” Yu Sheng waved his hand, he didn’t mince words with Luo on this topic, then stroked his chin and offered a conjecture, “I do have an idea about this matter… could it be related to some of their doctrines?”

Eileen thought for a moment, but still couldn't figure it out, so she patted Yu Sheng's head and asked, "What do you mean?"

"For example, should the sacred relic be placed in a sacred site? Or should the final step of the ritual be completed on the 'holy mother planet'?"

"Just for this, you put a 'Angel Technology' that could explode at any moment right under your feet?" Eileen looked utterly bewildered. "Aren't you afraid of killing yourself with this kind of nonsense..."

Yu Sheng clapped his hands: "What you said, if you don't do some ruthless things, what kind of cult member are you? Especially in a place like the Dark Current Starfield, which is also a place with outstanding people and resources, how can you stand out without the ruthless skill of wiping out your entire family?"

Momo blinked, looking at the group of strange-looking people in front of her.

She didn't know exactly what had happened, but she could sense that the information she provided was very useful, which made her feel somewhat relieved.

If it's valuable... then you probably won't suffer much.

Just as she was thinking this, several pairs of eyes suddenly turned towards her again.

Yu Sheng looked expectantly at the cat-haired girl across the table: "What else do you know?"

(End of this chapter)