Chapter 113: Rim Billiton Adventure (I)

The intelligence required to hand-craft an Aether-Phase Engine proved surprisingly useful in mundane situations. Theresa, who had originally intended to snatch his spoon by brute force, paused. She stared at the small plastic utensil clamped firmly between Tabo’s teeth. After briefly calculating the likelihood of accidentally dislocating the jaw of a fragile, precious pre-civilization human, she regretfully withdrew her hand.

Her Royal Highness, the Lord of Fiends, finally chose to finish her cup of instant noodles by drinking the soup directly. As she tipped the cup back for the last sip, the slippery plastic fork inside slid down, slapping right onto her upturned face. The oily, savory broth splattered across her long pink eyelashes. She looked as beautiful as…

Beautiful, my foot. No matter how gorgeous a person was, after laboriously slurping noodles only to take a plastic fork to the face, the aesthetic was completely ruined. Theresa’s complexion turned a vivid shade of green.

“Doctor…” Even a saintly woman who cared for all living souls needed an outlet when pushed. Dripping with noodle soup, Theresa sinisterly extended her hands.

“What are you doing?! Don’t come over here—”

The weak human’s resistance was entirely futile. Tabo watched, his eyes nearly popping out of his skull, as the wicked pink-haired Sarkaz grabbed his pure white collar and ruthlessly scrubbed her face with it.

There was no heart-fluttering romance at the close proximity of a beautiful woman. There was only pure, unadulterated heartache for his wardrobe. “Theresa—our light industrial park just collapsed! This is my last clean shirt!”

Theresa calmly lifted her head from the crook of his neck, her face now pristine. “Doctor, I firmly believe the reason you only have one clean shirt left is because you refuse to do your laundry, not because Kazdel is so impoverished that we deny you clothing.”

Tabo: “…”

It was better not to argue. He could clearly see it now: while Theresa appeared gentle and soft on the surface, she was actually a sadist in sheep’s clothing who could calmly execute outrageous atrocities with a smile!

Like wiping away the memories of a previous civilization and whispering, ‘This is my little gift to you…’

Forget it. He didn’t dare dwell on that. If canon actually happened to him, it would be a living hell.

Having secured her petty victory, Theresa sat back down, her expression returning to a serene calm as she addressed the main topic. “Do you truly wish to go out and see the world alone? Or should I assign two guards to your side? Walking this land by yourself is far too risky.”

Internal translation: ‘I don’t feel safe letting you wander off to cause trouble. I’m sending someone to keep an eye on you.’

“As you wish,” Tabo nodded, offering no objections.

Theresa broke into a radiant, genuine smile. “Doctor, I am actually quite happy to hear this request. This is the first time you have taken the initiative to learn about things outside of our war… You are adapting to this land, and that brings me great comfort.”

Tabo offered a stiff, awkward smile. “I… it’s probably better if I don’t adapt.”

In truth, Theresis—who had already struck a secret deal with him—was currently infiltrating Babel to reorganize the Military Commission. Tabo was using this “world tour” purely as an excuse to vacate the premises, wash away any suspicion, and establish an alibi. Beneath the high-sounding poetry of witnessing the beauty of Terra lay the quiet prelude to a blood-soaked betrayal.

Fortunately, the surface-level thoughts he used to shield his mind from the Lord of Fiends’ empathy were airtight. Theresa sensed nothing amiss.

“Then, goodbye, Lord of Fiends.” Tabo drained the last sip of his own noodle soup, offered a casual wave, and stood up to leave.

The next time they met, he likely wouldn’t be addressing her by that title anymore.

He didn’t look back at Theresa’s smiling face.

“See you in Rim Billiton~”

The atmosphere of Rim Billiton was a stark contrast to the grim desolation of Kazdel. While other nations were drowning in heavy philosophical dilemmas like survival, the future, and betrayal, Rim Billiton’s core mobile city, the Ultimate Iron City, felt like a bustling, chaotic Zootopia.

Hordes of Cautus lived crammed together in massive, sprawling warrens. The greatest existential crisis they faced was figuring out their life goals—well, except for Ray, who was currently wandering around numbly, wondering why she felt so uneasy after the Sandbeast she had raised for years finally died.

the nation in a single sentence: it was Kjerag without the looming threat of SilverAsh.

The reasoning behind choosing Rim Billiton as his travel destination was solid: low danger, a lighthearted environment, and a cultural knack for reforming war criminals through the power of love and justice. Along the way, he could even help Closure troubleshoot some technical issues regarding the excavation and repair of the Rhodes Island landship.

It was supposed to be a vacation.

Right up until he was nearly assassinated in a mining shaft.

“Cough, cough… what a disgusting smell…”

Tabo had only wandered near the excavation site out of idle curiosity, never expecting to be caught in the crossfire of a high-pressure Originium steam explosion. A lethal wave of scalding, jagged energy blasted toward his face.

Fortunately, the plain-looking Sarkaz guard trailing behind him reacted instantly. The guard’s body liquefied, expanding into a massive puddle of mint-green slime that absorbed the brunt of the impact.

“Thanks, Shapeshifter,” Tabo coughed, waving a hand to clear the acrid smoke. The green slime rapidly condensed, knitting back into a flawless human form.

“Doctor, is this also part of your grand design?”

That’s right. The loyal guard Theresa had assigned to him had their core quietly swapped out by a long-prepared Shapeshifter Cluster less than two hundred meters after they left Babel.

Since Tabo was actively collaborating with Theresis, it would be completely out of character for him not to smuggle a Shapeshifter along for the ride.

By now, the Shapeshifter Cluster had fully reformed its borrowed face, tilting its head to study him with deep, unsettling curiosity. “We originally assumed a mysterious mastermind such as yourself could not possibly make such a low-level navigational error… Does wandering into an explosion count as ‘God experiencing humanity’?”

Tabo pressed two fingers to his temple, a headache already forming. “Can you please just stay mute? Tell me exactly what about me fascinates you so much, and I will actively change it.”

“Every single point,” the Shapeshifter Cluster replied smoothly. “We have never witnessed such a contradictory lifeform. Compared to us, your gaze is excessively far-sighted, yet bafflingly short-sighted. You possess the capacity to transcend this land at any moment, yet you also seem perfectly willing to abandon everything, ready to drag everyone down to hell over this brief, insignificant war… Our premonitions are remarkably accurate, Doctor. Ever since we attached ourselves to your side, our danger radar has been ringing incessantly.”

Why the Shapeshifter Keeps Ringing.

Tabo offered a weak, deadpan threat. “…That is incredibly chuunibyou. Say one more edgy word and I’ll drag you to hell right now.”

Instead of being intimidated, the Shapeshifter Cluster looked genuinely thrilled. “A threat. Yet our intuition tells us it might actually be true. Why?”

Why are there so many whys?! Tabo’s internal resentment was thick enough to spawn a dozen vengeful spirits.

Just then, a faint sound drifted through the settling dust.

A soft, trembling cry echoing from the ruins of the collapsed mine.

Both of them turned their heads simultaneously. After a brief scan confirmed there were no secondary threats, neither made a move to approach the rubble.

Tabo had grown numb. Having absorbed so many of Terra’s tragic stories, and currently standing at the precipice of orchestrating an even bloodier tragedy himself, he had trained his mind to view the suffering masses as mere statistics. It certainly wasn’t worth breaking his cold, calculating facade in front of the Shapeshifter just to save some unknown little animal.

The Shapeshifter Cluster, naturally, didn’t care in the slightest. To the ancient Sarkaz entity, the crying of a mortal was no different from the howling of the night wind or the flapping of a Feathered Beast’s wings.

A child’s weak, desperate sobbing filtered through the cracked stone. “It hurts… Daddy, Mommy… where are you?”

The Shapeshifter observed the young man beside it, its gaze brimming with curiosity, perhaps even a twisted sense of anticipation. To its mild disappointment, Tabo’s face remained an unreadable mask. He showed no trace of painful empathy. He simply began dusting the ash off his hem, preparing to walk away.

“It’s so dark… Daddy, Mommy, are you okay?” The tiny voice continued to weep.

Just as Tabo turned his back to leave, the small voice made one final, trembling attempt.

“Big brother… where are you? Save me…”

Tabo’s footsteps stopped dead.

Before he had transmigrated into this hellish world… he had a younger sister, too.

[Rhodes’s Note:

Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?

(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent! 🙇‍♂️):

Massive thanks for reading and supporting the operation!]