Chapter 387

Chapter 387: Launch

In the end, no matter what little detours happened along the way, the final decision was that Immortal Yuan Hao would board the Otherworld Hotel with Xuan Che and go with Yu Sheng and the others to the border—to the planet Shu Ji—to look for Yun Qing Zi and traces of the Black-Robed Cultivator.

To be honest, Yu Sheng actually respected and valued Immortal Yuan Hao’s “rich experience with travel accidents.”

Yu Sheng believed his outstanding piloting skills and the Otherworld Hotel’s performance were more than enough for a short trip to the border, but it was still his first time actually flying a ship more than ten thousand light-years away. Last time, when he brought the ship back to the valley, it barely counted as voyaging—he’d opened a door and teleported it over. This time, he would complete a real journey from start to finish.

The trip was long, and there was no guarantee there wouldn’t be practical problems—big or small. Having an experienced long-voyage expert along made things feel a little more reassuring.

After the handover between the Special Operations Bureau technical team stationed on the ship and the crew responsible for the starport was completed, the Otherworld Hotel finally finished its last pre-launch preparations.

And just as the group was about to board, a familiar presence appeared nearby and stopped Yu Sheng in his tracks.

He followed the sensation and looked over. Sure enough, several shadow wolves leaped out of the nearby darkness. Riding the strongest alpha wolf was a familiar figure in red.

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. “Why are you here?”

Little Red Riding Hood rode up and smiled faintly. “I came to see you off, and to watch what it looks like when a ship takes off. It wasn’t easy keeping Rapunzel pinned at home.”

Yu Sheng grinned. “I was wondering why that girl didn’t show up for something this big. If she were here, she’d probably roll on the ground just to get onto the ship and take a look.”

Little Red Riding Hood spoke like it was nothing. “I know you’re going for serious business, so we can’t let her come and cause trouble. She was planning to trick everyone into coming for the excitement, and she wanted to bring the dollheads too, for some ‘kindergarten space field trip.’ The moment I heard that plan, I had the King summon a few royal guards and lock her in her room.”

Just listening made Yu Sheng shiver. He couldn’t help imagining it: dollheads in little yellow hats and tiny water bottles lining up to board under the lead of a group of thirteen- and fourteen-year-old children, with Rapunzel, Snow White, and Mermaid causing chaos in the middle.

After launch would be even worse. If one child counted as “one hundred thousand whys,” then he’d be facing several million.

And since the Otherworld Hotel currently had all its subsystems offline—basically a drum washing machine with an engine welded on—he would be driving that drum washing machine, carrying dozens of human youngsters, surrounded by millions of “whys,” and heading for a dangerous alien planet at the border.

Honestly, even by Hotel standards, that was beyond insane. It was the kind of situation even Immortal Yuan Hao, with all his accident experience, wouldn’t be able to handle.

Cold sweat broke out on Yu Sheng’s forehead. He looked at Little Red Riding Hood with genuine gratitude. Now that everyone in Fairy Tale was getting more and more unrestrained, it was lucky there was still a mature, steady Little Red Riding Hood to rein in a bunch of troublemaking kids. Otherwise, with Rapunzel’s personality—three ideas per second and afraid of nothing—the entire Fairy Tale organization would probably already be beyond saving.

Little Red Riding Hood’s voice snapped him out of it. She sat on the shadow wolf, smiling gently. “Be careful on the way. If you need help, I’m always here.”

Yu Sheng came back to himself. Looking at the red-clad girl, he smiled too.

“All right. I’m heading out. I’m leaving those little troublemakers to you.”

“Okay. Bye-bye.”

A hatch opened in the underside of the Otherworld Hotel. Yu Sheng and the others stepped inside, their figures disappearing into the depths.

Actually, Yu Sheng had originally planned to open a door straight to the bridge, but since this was his first real voyage, he decided it should have at least a little sense of ceremony. So he boarded through the main entrance.

A moment later, the towering high structure standing on the starport dock began to rumble, low and steady. The entire “tower” trembled.

The core system, dormant for many days, woke again. The reactor shifted from low-power standby into normal operation. Surging energy poured into the engines and antigravity components, and the ship’s silhouette slowly became faint and translucent.

Then, one by one, the energy-release grilles at the back lit up, and the huge triangular emblem on the ship’s midsection began to glow as well. There was no ear-splitting roar, no earth-shaking blast. The starship built with Holy Revere Hermitage’s dark tech rose slowly from the dock. Accompanied by the deep, solemn hum of the antigravity device, it climbed higher and higher, gradually nearing the sky-threshold of the valley Otherworld.

At that special altitude, the ship became a phantom outline. Then a “door,” like a space rift, appeared inside it. Centered on that rift, the whole ship flipped and twisted in an instant, vanishing without a sound from Little Red Riding Hood’s sight.

In a moment too brief for human senses to catch, the Otherworld Hotel entered real space, appearing in an empty stretch near the Grand Void Spiritual Axis.

This was the place Foxy had passed through when Yu Sheng and the others went to Nethermoon before. Because there was nothing nearby, Yu Sheng had chosen it as the outbound harbor where he could “release” the Otherworld Hotel into reality.

“Control system normal. Reactor normal. Energy management and feedback mechanisms normal. Energy network load: thirty percent. Engines normal. Hull-sensing system partially offline. All subsystems offline…”

At the top of the giant tower, in the bridge hall, the ship’s control system began reporting parameters.

A low hum echoed as rows of control seats activated from dormancy. The holographic projections in front of them lit up one after another, filling the air with dazzling data and graphs. On the far side of the bridge, the huge observation window was already open. The outer protective armor had retracted, and beyond the pale-blue field shimmering across the window, the horizon of the Grand Void Spiritual Axis stretched out, with the endless stars in the distance.

Irene shot through the hall like a little rocket and climbed onto the inner ledge of the observation window, almost pressing her face to the ultra-strong charged polymer. “Whoa! Wahahaha—space!”

Yu Sheng’s voice drifted over. “It’s not your first time in space. Why are you this excited?”

“Not the same!” Irene bounced on the ledge, glowing with glee. “This thing really lifted off! My own ship! Not rented, not borrowed, not hitching a ride—”

Yu Sheng stood behind the captain’s chair, watching helplessly. “All right, all right, I get it. But can you stop bouncing in front of me? I’m getting dizzy. Luna—grab her and hold her down.”

A heartbeat later, Irene’s scream rang out. “C Buckle! I’ll fight you!”

She didn’t win, and the bridge finally went quiet.

Yu Sheng let out a slow breath and forced himself to recover from the brief dizziness caused by releasing the ship into real space. Then he calmed his mind and synchronized his will more deeply with the Otherworld Hotel.

Foxy stood beside him, worry in her eyes. “Benefactor, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Yu Sheng said, waving a hand. “Just a little dizzy. It’s much better than last time. Mostly because the only way to get this ship out of the Otherworld was teleportation. Basically, I opened a giant door and pulled it out. During that, I’m one with the ship, so it feels like I’m constantly turning inside out.”

Foxy thought hard, ears twitching. “I didn’t understand that.”

Yu Sheng laughed. “Not a big problem.”

He reached out and ruffled her head, then sat down in the captain’s chair and pulled a thick manual from the side. “Next, let’s see how to do this. What do the traffic rules say again… Hmm. Start the conventional engines, boost out of the planet’s gravity well… Safe Navigation Rule Thirty-Six: you can only activate the jump drive in an area far from starport facilities and the near-planet deceleration zone…”

As he spoke, he raised a hand as if sensing something, then slowly clenched his fist.

The navigation headlights lit up.

“Turn on lights before acceleration. If other spacecraft are nearby, activate the anti-collision outline projection and the presence indicator…”

Yu Sheng kept controlling the ship while mumbling through the manual, then paused and glanced toward a corner of the hall. “Hey, expert. What’s a presence indicator?”

Several Special Operations Bureau technicians sat at monitoring seats. The one with the least hair looked up immediately. “This ship doesn’t have a presence indicator. That’s something only small craft use. A starship as big as the Otherworld Hotel has plenty of presence the moment you start engine warm-up.”

Yu Sheng nodded. “Got it. Like those long flagpoles tied to little carts in a mine—the big ones don’t need that.”

Then he started the Otherworld Hotel’s conventional booster engines. A low vibration rolled up from deep within the hull. He lifted the manual again, looking grimly serious. “Next, let me look at the next page…”

Xuan Che, seated not far away, watched with a stiff expression. After a long moment, he turned to Immortal Yuan Hao. “Elder Senior Uncle…”

Immortal Yuan Hao’s face looked stiff too, but he was calmer than Xuan Che. “Che’er, don’t panic. Your Martial Uncle has a lot of experience with travel accidents. Survival in the wilderness, too.”