Alien Hotel.

Chapter 671 Delivery Date

The faster-than-light antenna array pointing to the Dark Current Starfield was shut down, and the technicians in the communications room began to check the equipment and clean up the site—the empty shell of "Old Joe" was pushed to the corner of the room. It couldn't be thrown away yet; at least until the Hermitage incident was over, the shell might still be useful.

Luo's mechanical limb was still connected to the control panel. She needed to double-check all the data recorded during the previous communication to ensure that the Hermits hadn't tampered with the signal. She also needed to check that the disguise protocols from before were working correctly to avoid the plan being exposed without her knowledge.

Eileen leaned on Yu Sheng's shoulder, watching the others bustling around the room. Bored because she couldn't understand anything, she reached out and ruffled Yu Sheng's hair: "Hey, do you think those charlatans will really send someone to 'collect the goods'? Won't they notice something?"

Yu Sheng gave the little thing on his shoulder a strange look: "Don't jinx it, you're half a goddess of omens, saying this..."

The little doll waved its hand dismissively: "Hey, it's nothing. It's not like I'm showing you any bloodshed. I can't say for sure about other things."

Yu Sheng: "...So you can even predict when I'll die, right?"

Luo, who was checking the data and listening to the two chatting, couldn't help but turn around and chime in: "I don't think those charlatans will notice—not that our plan is so flawless, but the fact that 'Old Joe is dead, another black-spot warlord and the Secret Service are cooperating in a charade and using an angel catalyst to lure people in' is just too outrageous—reality doesn't follow logic, but suspicion and imagination do have to be reasonable. I think even ordinary human imaginations couldn't come up with such a bizarre script, not even those charlatans with their ingenious ideas."

She paused, then turned to look at the holographic projection above the data terminal next to her.

"Moreover, the matter of the 'Gate of Eden' is already a matter of life and death for those charlatans—the Angel Catalyst is a lifeline for them. Now that this lifeline has appeared, even if they suspect it's fake, even if 'Old Joe's' behavior is suspicious, they will at least come and see what's going on."

The holographic projection showed a scene in a warehouse in the lower level of the fortress.

A team of escorts in Secret Service uniforms is handing over the "cargo" to Los Angeles's personal guard.

……

Captain Ryan and his men stood beside the shuttle, their feelings somewhat complicated as they looked at the Secret Service agents before them.

He never imagined in his life that he would one day be working with the Secret Service in his current capacity, especially on a project to maintain world peace.

After all, when he walked out of the clone base of the Black Dot Group, he was already prepared to go all the way down the path of the dark organization. At that time, his life plan was basically loyalty—loyalty to the group, loyalty to the mission, loyalty to his master, and to be a conscientious and responsible henchman of the evil forces.

This continued until he took a somewhat eccentric boss—a maverick and unpopular figure within the conglomerate. Compared to other conglomerate executives of similar rank, this black-spotted warlord was dirt poor, his territory was remote and desolate, and it took him half a century to build his own space station and shipyard. His smuggling business was constantly raided by the Secret Service, Terra, and customs authorities in Algeria, and he only managed to maintain a semblance of peace by virtue of his technological prowess and his survivalist nature.

Following such a person, one's future is bleak.

But the boss built gymnasiums for the clone soldiers, gave them bonuses, named them, and sent them year-end gifts—she even tried to give them family visit leave.

No clone soldier liked going back to their production workshop, so during their family leave, they just stayed in their dormitories—and as they stayed there, the mindset of "three loyaltys" unconsciously erased the group and their mission.

Then, the boss invested.

Everyone followed suit without hesitation.

Most of the other clone soldiers didn't think that much about it. They were all a bunch of muscle-bound brutes with no plans for the future. Only Ryan considered the future at the time. On the day he voted with his boss, he thought with relief—okay, the future has gone from bleak to complete ruin.

A warlord with a tarnished reputation, kidnapped by a bunch of dolls over half a meter tall and then defecting to the Secret Service—how much trust and responsibility could someone with such a background gain? Probably just being used for a while, drained of their intelligence value, and then secretly executed…

At worst, we'll all be executed together. Compared to other clone soldiers, I've already lived long enough.

Who the hell would have thought that the boss actually invested in a dynamic, grassroots organization instead of the Secret Service?

It's even too energetic—the new big boss can tear apart angels.

Okay, no need to worry about being secretly executed, and now everyone is cooperating with the Secret Service.

The container was unloaded from the Secret Service's transport vehicle. A team of agents in Secret Service uniforms carefully followed on both sides of the container, escorting the hovering container, which was more than two people tall, to the loading platform. Then, they controlled the container to descend and began entering the opening code.

—By the way, this transport vehicle drove directly from the Secret Service's underground parking lot to this space fortress: the big boss opened a door, and the vehicle drove over. As for the principle behind it? Even someone as smart as the boss couldn't figure it out, let alone the clone soldiers.

It could be the work of some mysterious dark energy, or perhaps some omnipotent warp power.

"Such a big box?" Ryan muttered subconsciously as he looked at the large shipping container in front of him.

"The box is big, but the core 'cargo' isn't actually that big. Most of the space is reserved for various security devices and monitoring equipment," Li Lin, who was in charge of leading the escort team, said with a smile.

He wasn't actually qualified to carry out this level of field mission, but the nature of this "Hermitage Fishing Plan" was special. The higher-ups wanted as few people as possible to know about the whole thing, and for the person carrying out the plan to have the closest relationship with the "Hotel" team, in order to avoid leaks as much as possible. In addition, Li Lin did have experience with the Angel Incident (referring to his experience of standing up in front of the orphanage on the night Ankaela awoke), so he was brought in for this mission of escorting the "Angel Catalyst".

Moreover, this is a good match for his major, since Li Lin was indeed in charge of receiving and sending express packages at the entrance of No. 66 Wutong Road. Sending angel catalysts to the space cult is, in a way, part of the express delivery and logistics process.

As for why the other employee at the "Wutong Road collection point" didn't come, the reason is obvious—after all, it would be terrible if such an important package got lost or someone went missing en route…

The container door opened, and Ryan saw what was inside—it was practically a mobile laboratory converted from a shipping container. A dazzling array of monitoring and security devices almost filled the entire space. A semi-transparent blue "block" floated on the platform in the middle of the container. That block was a force field shielding box, and the "core cargo" being transported was located at the center of the blue force field.

A black crystal about a foot long that looks unremarkable—much smaller than the Zolda Black Stone, but almost identical in texture, shape, and even the unstable aura it exudes.

The moment Ryan saw this thing, he felt goosebumps rise on the back of his neck, and the guards next to him also gasped in unison.

Having spent several years with Zolda Blackstone at Blackstone Station and personally witnessed the moment when that thing went out of control, everyone was clearly experiencing some lingering effects.

Seeing the reactions of the people in front of him, Li Lin felt that Yu Sheng's plan was secure.

“…It looks just like the real thing,” a female guard standing behind Ryan swallowed hard and muttered under her breath, “How was it made…”

“I don’t know either. Anyway, the technicians in the bureau are really skilled. They’ve supposedly used real angel remains or something… Anyway, Brother Yu has quite a lot of these things,” Li Lin said casually, handing a data screen to Ryan. “This thing is unstable—this ‘instability’ is intentionally created to perfectly replicate the pollution characteristics of the ‘angel catalyst.’ So, it must be transported together with the force field box and the suppressor. All the precautions are on this screen.”

Ryan raised his eyebrows and looked up at the huge shipping container again.

He noticed that the entire device had been deliberately stripped of its markings, and that the box structure and the equipment inside were all in the Black Dot style, or even original components produced by the Black Dot Group.

...The origin of these components is probably self-evident.

"The arrangements are very thorough." Ryan nodded slightly, praising sincerely.

"Thank you for the compliment," Li Lin nodded reservedly, but couldn't stop smiling, and his tone was quite proud. "Professional matters should be left to professionals."

"Back then, our boss had two cargo shipments intercepted near the X-3 Star Gate by a law enforcement team disguised as black market traders. Was this how it happened?"

Li Lin remained unfazed: "How would I know? I'm just a deliveryman."

……

Two days later, the delivery date agreed upon by the Secret Order and "Old Joe" arrived.

The container carrying the "Angel Catalyst" has been transferred to a large shuttle—the specially customized container almost filled the shuttle's already small cargo hold, leaving not even enough space for two special forces soldiers.

In fact, there was no need to pretend to be special forces members anymore—Yu Sheng hadn't planned to arrange any escorts for this "cargo transport" at all.

After all, they were flying into the dangerous Morona Fault to make a deal with a group of cultists at the gravity collapse point. In this kind of environment and process, if it were in a movie, it would be like having flags stuck all over their backs and being shoved like a sword tomb. If some kind of hijacking incident were to happen, even if there was a company of Space Marines on board, it wouldn't be enough to prevent it.

For the same reasons mentioned above, Yu Sheng plans to personally drive the shuttle to deliver the goods this time.

(End of this chapter)