Starry Sky Railway, starting with a single draw of the Underworld

Where is Chapter 31? Check your browsing history.

"Ah, um..."

Qiong felt herself sweating profusely. In fact, the space station's security measures were perfect, but her hacker aunt was up to no good. When they came before, they had turned off all the security systems. Otherwise, the virtual soldiers wouldn't have been able to get in, and they wouldn't have been able to cause any chaos.

Qiong felt sorry for Estella. Her mother and aunt were undoubtedly members of the evil camp, otherwise their wanted posters wouldn't be flying everywhere. They were the kind of people who would do anything to achieve their goals. Now that Estella was in this situation, it could be said that those two had planted the seeds of trouble. As her mother's daughter, Qiong had to help Estella resolve this problem.

"Don't worry, leave this to me to investigate. Do you have any leads?"

Qiong comforted Estella with a few words, and Estella, knowing he was a capable person, gradually recovered her spirits.

"Before she disappeared, Lady Black Tower's doll said that she had lost a strange object that had no physical form but was alive."

"You don't know what that is?"

"I don't know. I'm not qualified to study strange objects, and I don't want to court death."

Estella was quite conscientious. Her job was warehouse manager. Actually, she didn't come here to manage the staff at first. The staff came to do research because of the Black Tower's reputation. Over time, Estella became the station manager. So, the idea that she wanted to harm people is just nonsense.

"Then I'll go ask those researchers who study strange objects. Don't worry, the results will be out soon."

As Qiong spoke, she let go of Estella's hand. There were many things that were inconvenient for her to do due to her status. In fact, these things should have been done by her trusted confidants. Unfortunately, Estella only had two trusted confidants: one named Pepe, who was a dog, and the other named Alan, who was a bodyguard. He was good at fighting, but it was difficult for him to use his brain.

Estelle didn't say it, but she felt warm inside. Even though Qiong was in a place like Pinocchio, he still came to help her at her call. His actions were all for her sake. This wasn't because of the Black Tower, but because he liked her.

Qiong quickly led Huang Quan to the place where the staff members were gathered. He was a new face, and no one thought he was a spy for management, so the staff members continued to chat as usual. Qiong eavesdropped for a while and found that things were not so simple.

The missing people didn't just vanish into thin air; some people witnessed them being engulfed by flames until not even ashes remained. There are will-o'-the-wisps haunting the space station, and no one knows if they will be next, which is why everyone is filled with fear.

"interesting."

Qiong stroked her chin and then found Alan patrolling the space station. As Estella's confidant, Alan really wanted to help, but since he couldn't find any clues about the murderer, he could only use the most primitive method: patrolling to prevent the will-o'-the-wisps from hurting people.

"Take me to the missing people's dormitory."

Qiong explained his purpose to Alan, who knew that Qiong was there to help Estella deal with this trouble. Without asking any questions, Alan took him to one of the dormitories.

After entering the dormitory, Qiong turned on the computer. Since it was a personal item, it was password protected. Obviously, there was something shady inside. But who was Qiong? His aunt was one of the top ten hackers in the entire galaxy. So he took out his phone and opened a software that his aunt had installed for him before.

The software scanned the screen through the phone's camera, and then a chibi version of Silver Wolf's avatar appeared. It began to automatically crack the secrets. According to Silver Wolf, the software could crack security levels below those of the Interstellar Peace Company Bank without her having to do it herself. It was something she had given to Qiong as a toy.

A moment later, the password was automatically entered on the computer screen. Qiong could only think that her aunt was indeed very good at doing bad things. She could even play the role of a super hacker with this software.

After turning on the computer, Qiong immediately checked the browser history, and Peipei also curiously lay on the table to look at it. Then, the expressions of the two gradually became serious. Qiong saw something dirty, and Peipei saw her own kind filming.

Finding nothing unusual in the browsing history, Qiong opened the chat software and started looking through the chat history. This led him to discover something: the missing person was actually a hater, and the person he was hating was Estella, the manager.

Qiong had chatted with Estella before and knew what kind of personality her girlfriend (tentative name) had. She was even so bored that she would sneak into a group of haters who specifically targeted her and create her own drama. This also proved that there were many people on the space station who were dissatisfied with her and vented their emotions in the group all day long. Qiong never expected to meet her in person.

After shutting down the computer, Qiong came to this dormitory and then went to the next one to continue doing the same thing. This time, he was also looking at the chat history and found that the missing person was also a hater. Qiong couldn't hold back anymore. These bastards hate on his girlfriend every day. They deserve to die. Even if he could save her, he would kick them out of the space station.

Then came the third and fourth. After reading the chat history, Qiong found their common ground: they were all people in the troll group who liked to troll Estella. After that, Qiong took out her phone and reported this discovery to Estella.

"The common thread is that they are all people who slander me? Your investigation is progressing very quickly. We couldn't find any common ground between them no matter how hard we looked before."

Estella said in surprise, but she wondered if criticizing herself was a common point? She had quite a few haters, but she didn't expect to lose four of them all at once. How much fun would she lose in the future?

"Ms. Estella, I think you may be in trouble."

Ladio, who was listening intently, then shared his opinion.

“Logic: Agreed,” ScrewGumm also said.

"What did Mr. Latio say?"

Estelle already had a guess about what was going on, but she wanted to hear what Latio had to say and also wanted to know who her enemy really was. The clerks couldn't possibly have such means. Could the artifacts of the Black Tower be used by anyone else who wanted to? Then what was the point of having a space station?

"If the investigation is true, the missing people are all those who have grievances against you. Coupled with the attack by the antimatter legion, the trust crisis on this space station will become irreparable. The crew will think that you used the Black Tower's artifacts to eliminate dissidents. Nobody wants to be the next target to be eliminated, so of course, they have to strike first."

Ladio said bluntly. Estella's expression was somewhat helpless. She wasn't afraid, but she was thinking about what the space station would look like if it were destroyed. Once the management was under control, as long as someone continued to fan the flames, there would definitely be people who went crazy and did irrational things, such as letting the space station crash onto the blue planet below. Humans are very fragile. Under constant threat, they will definitely do stupid things.

PS, please collect, recommend and vote for me

P.S. The prison scene takes place after Nguyen Mai, but due to length constraints, Nguyen Mai's story will be moved to the later part of the story.

Chapter 32: A Novice Who Loves to Play

"This was all planned, it's all a conspiracy, but who did it?"

Estella felt that the disappearance of the dolls from the Black Tower was the beginning of a conspiracy, but she couldn't figure out who the enemy was. Her first thought was that the Black Tower had offended someone, because the staff and the station chief were all working honestly, so it couldn't be that she had brought trouble upon herself.

Just as Estella was wondering, her phone suddenly vibrated. She picked it up and saw that a news broadcast had appeared on the internal chat network of the space station.

"There's finally been an update on the attack on Lady Black Tower! The Annihilation Gang has claimed responsibility for the entire incident and will take further action. The Association strongly condemns this."

This bizarre news interruption left Estella completely bewildered. Immediately following the news was a speech by a person in charge; after all, he had said he would take responsibility, so it certainly wouldn't be over with just a text message.

The video begins in a dark scene, then suddenly a flame appears on the screen, revealing a ram-headed demon engulfed in flames. It wears a crown of flames on its head, signifying its leadership, which confuses Qiong.

"The gods among the stars have departed from this world and are detached from worldly affairs, having no heart to care for the insignificant beings."

"Only the wounded Lord will allow all realms to be bathed in the fire of destruction."

“There are always cowardly people who try to refuse grace and escape the wounds bestowed upon them.”

"Run away, run away as much as you want, wherever you flee, oblivion will eventually come!"

After the goat-headed demon uttered those words, the video ended. Qiong was completely bewildered, both inside and out, her mind filled with the question, "Who is this?"

Is this considered a riddle solver?

Qiong looked at Peipei beside her and asked, but Peipei could only tilt its head, indicating that it did not recognize the guy that looked like a whole roasted lamb.

"Let me explain."

The sound of Screw Gumu came from the phone. Qiong had completely forgotten that there was a genius here who was on par with her grandmother. With it here, she could understand the riddle master's words.

"This Grand Duke of the Netherfire, Afrit, was born from the planet Dofet, which he destroyed. The fire demons, who are burning at all times, regard Nanuk as their emperor and call him their benefactor, but they have never received a glance from the star god."

Screw Gum is indeed a genius. He has all the information that Qiong doesn't know. At least he knows that the name of the roasted whole lamb is Afrit and that it is a follower of the [Destruction] faction, but it seems that he has been unknowingly labeled as a simp.

Think about it: Alfredo calls Nanook his benefactor and thinks about doing things for his benefactor all day long, but the Star God can't even be bothered to give him a second glance. Yet he is so loyal to him. He is practically a galactic sycophant.

"Did Estelle understand?"

Qiong asked Estella on the other end of the phone. Estella nodded, but watching Alfredo's speech only made him seem like a riddle. However, considering that the space station survived the attack by the antimatter legion, a conclusion could be drawn.

Afrit, a follower of Nanook, somehow learned that the space station had repelled the antimatter legion. Upon hearing this, it was displeased. In its eyes, destruction was a blessing from the Star God, and the space station had refused such a blessing. As a sycophant, it naturally wanted to save face for its benefactor, so it began its plan against the space station.

Although it sounds strange, it makes perfect sense if you think about it the way the villain thinks. After hearing this explanation, Qiong was dumbfounded. He didn't even know how to complain about Afrit, that simp.

"Fire demons are inherently ferocious; burning and destruction are their instincts. And Alfret is especially evil and cruel. As a fire demon, it is naturally adept at the trick of causing human beings to spontaneously combust. The disappearance of the clerk and the doll was also part of the plan. After that, the video will soon spread throughout the space station. Just watch, it won't be long before the space station becomes a sea of ​​fire."

Ladio spoke up and made a conclusion on the matter. Sora and Estella looked at each other, feeling helpless at being suddenly targeted by a simp.

"If it's so powerful, why doesn't it come and destroy the space station itself?"

Qiong asked in confusion. He felt that Afrit was at least at the level of a Doomsday Beast in terms of combat power. It seemed that the other party was just... bored out of his mind?

"Because its true form is inside the Eternal Flame Mansion, what has arrived at the space station is a wisp of flame. Guess why it's creating a crisis of trust?"

Ladio explained that what he actually meant was that Afrit himself and the Eight Masters of the Underworld did not have the courage to personally confront the Black Tower, so they did not even dare to come over in their true form, for fear of being played to death by the Black Tower's puppets. That's why they were secretly plotting these schemes.

Indeed, that was the case. If Alfredo had come in person, Black Tower might have come in person as well. Alfredo had previously attacked a doll, and Black Tower had only shown a question mark above its head before ignoring it and going about its own business.

"Because its capabilities don't allow it to destroy the space station itself, how did it get inside? Is the security here at the level of the Land of Light?"

Qiong had some ideas, so he looked at Estella and asked her. Estella gave him a huffy look, and her big blue eyes made Qiong's heart flutter.

"The strange object that Lady Black Tower lost had no physical form but possessed life; isn't that a characteristic of the Fire Demon?"

After stroking her chin and thinking for a moment, Estelle spoke, and her words brought many things to light, allowing her to continue thinking along these lines.

"You mean Afrit used that strange object, which might be related to fire, to project its flames here, thus creating the trick of spontaneous human combustion?"

Qiong found it somewhat unbelievable, because the explanation was rather far-fetched. If this explanation were to hold true, more explanations would be needed. After all, this was a matter of life and death, and conclusions could not be drawn based on mere guesses.

"Yes, that's right. Just look through the list of strange items and find those related to fire..."

As Estella spoke, she reached out to look up the list of artifacts in the Black Tower, but at that moment, Screw Goom beside her raised his hand, indicating that she didn't need to look for it.

“It’s the Phase Flame, a creation of Siskar, the 29th seat of the Genius Club,” Screwgoom said.

"Is that strange object our enemy?"

Upon hearing Slugum's words, Qiong immediately asked, "This is no joke. A creation of a genius from a genius club, that thing is not something a single space station can withstand. It's doubtful whether an entire star system can withstand it."

Chapter 33 You're courting death.

"No, the artifact that Lady Black Tower lost should be the spark of the Phase Flame. Lady Siskar was a remarkable genius, intelligent, kind, and humble. Unfortunately, according to human timekeeping, she only lived for 29 days."

Screw Gum patiently explained that Qiong Zheng couldn't understand it. He wanted to complain that the genius was too short-lived, but to be able to be among the geniuses with such a short lifespan, how brilliant must the wisdom of that person be?

"The Phase Flame shifted to another phase as soon as it was born, and by the time it returned, Siskar had already died. After that, it kept shifting phases and became difficult to capture."

Screws continued, and at this moment, Ladio began to display his knowledge. Although he was not a member of the Genius Club, he was already an unparalleled person compared to normal people.

"It is said that it burned through all realms, leaving behind numerous descendants of flame. The seed of this flame... must be the lost artifact of the Black Tower, and the Grand Duke of Netherfire is a descendant of flame."

Ladio and Sluggum sang in unison, leaving Sora and Estella exhausted. A bold guess at the current situation is that Alfredo wanted to attack the space station, but ended up finding the spark born of its mother here, which is its wild brother.

Then Alfredo and his wild brother got together and felt that this matter was worthwhile, so he projected his flames onto his wild brother and controlled him. Because they were of the same origin, they were easy to control. This is pretty much the truth behind the disappearance.

“Someone once caught a glimpse of the Phase Flame and captured a wisp of it. The Black Tower took it and lent it to Ruan Mei for research, but the flame seed was lost as a result. If Afrit is also a descendant of the Phase Flame, the whole story becomes clear.”

"As its descendant, Grand Duke of the Netherfire possesses abilities similar to those of the Phase Flame. He may not be able to perform phase shifts, but he can achieve degraded spatial transfer. This is the truth behind spontaneous human combustion; the clerks did not disappear, but were transferred."

After Screw and Latio finished speaking, Qiong felt as if her intelligence had been rubbed into the ground. This wasn't a derogatory term; it was a genuine feeling of being rubbed. These two were too smart, and compared to them, she felt like a fool. However, there was nothing she could do about it. Intelligence always requires training, and Qiong hadn't trained it, so it was normal for her to be inferior to them.

Just as Qiong was internally complaining, the space station's work group had already exploded. Following Afrit's declaration, the chat logs of the missing staff members were released. Their trolling of Estella was exposed, and then they disappeared due to spontaneous combustion. At this time, information about the Fire Seed artifact was also sent to the group.

The staff weren't stupid; they immediately saw the connection between the Spark artifact and Afrit. Coupled with the space station's ineffective defenses, they easily steered their emotions to the same conclusion: Estelle deliberately shut down the defenses to let the wolf in, first eliminating the Black Tower's puppets, then using the Spark artifact to repel dissidents—she was killing people.

“Not enough,” Latio suddenly said.

"What's not enough?"

Estella asked instinctively, only to find Latio staring intently at her, making her feel a little uneasy.

“If Ms. Estelle is willing to explain properly, there will still be people who are willing to listen. If I were Alfredo, I wouldn’t give you that chance.”

No sooner had Ladio finished speaking than Estelle's body burst into blue flames. She let out a scream and vanished from everyone's sight.

"Aista!"

Qiong screamed upon seeing this scene. He felt a chill run through him from head to toe. His girlfriend had just disappeared, gone. This scene was a perfect replica of the one that had disappeared before, named Tingyun.

"Calm down, Estelle was just teleported away, she is not in any danger."

Screwgoom calmly caught the phone that Estella hadn't taken with her when she disappeared, saving it from being broken. Screwgoom was kind to everyone, especially mechanical devices.

Screwgoom's words undoubtedly gave him hope. At this moment, he could only rely on this genius. He believed that with Screwgoom's abilities, he could definitely help him rescue Estád.

"Through actual contact, I have confirmed that Afrit's flames are merely sparks of the primordial spirit fire and do not possess phase-shifting capabilities. Logic: Estelle is still inside the space station."

Screw Goom continued, explaining that he had already recorded Afrit's flames in his data the instant just now. The difference between a machine's glance and a human's glance is completely different.

"What do we do now?" Qiong asked anxiously.

“That flame must still be somewhere in the compartment. If we find it, we’ll find a way to bring her back,” Ladio said.

"I will activate the folding space of the artifact containment chamber in the Black Tower office. With a slight modification to the parameters, it can be used to block the opponent's transfer route and trap them inside the space station."

Screw Gum continued, saying that this completely blocked the possibility of Alfredo running around inside the space station. The reason it couldn't leave the space station was because of the characteristics of the warehouses here. The warehouses that the Black Tower used to store strange items were not places where they could just run away as they pleased.

“Mr. Ladio, please accompany Mr. Qiong to take him in.”

“Netherfire is also a form of energy life, and its traces can be captured by imaging equipment.”

As he spoke, Ladio took out an instrument that Qiong couldn't understand, then left the Black Tower's office and went to the corridor of the compartment to meet up with Qiong.

Using the camera in Ladio's hand, Soma saw the trail of flames on the ground. He hurriedly followed the trails and found the location of the fire, but it had a strong ability to escape and moved away after finding it.

While the fire was escaping, the screw folded the surrounding space, making its movable space smaller and smaller. It kept going back and forth to the same few places, and it kept shrinking until it was finally blocked by the dome on a dead end.

"Run, you bastard, run again!"

Qiong glared at the flame in front of him and shouted. He was both angry and anxious, afraid that if he was too late to save Estella, something bad would happen. At this moment, he wished he could tear the flame to pieces, but he was also afraid of hurting Estella.

"No wonder it's a place that even our benefactor couldn't purify. It certainly has something special about it. I'll admit my mistake this time."

The azure flame spoke, and Qiong felt that this guy was just too proud to admit it. With its appearance, let alone the genius Screw Goom here, even just Latios would be enough to kill it, yet it still acted so high and mighty.

"Give Estelle back to me!"

Qiong, holding the Builder's lance, pointed it directly at the fire seed in front of her, as if she were about to kill Afrit's clone at the slightest disagreement. The fire seed didn't say much, but directly transformed into a human form, spat out Estelle, and threw her in front of Qiong.

Qiong immediately dropped her weapon, raised her hands and hugged the flying Estella into her arms, holding her shoulders and legs, catching her firmly in a princess carry.