Starship (Part 1)

Curious, Clarice walked in. They were now in the command center of the Far Voyager starship.

 In front of them was a huge viewport, through which they could see the bustling metropolis outside, with flying cars filling the sky. Surrounding the command center were rows of equipment, some still glowing with lights.

 "Oh my God!" Clarice exclaimed. "I thought everything here had been dismantled."

 "A lot has indeed been dismantled. But the original hope of the Golden Palm Group was to have a cruise ship capable of flying between planets. So they tried to retain the interstellar travel function of the starship. In order to maintain interstellar travel capability, systems such as life support, gravity, and energy must be retained. All the systems are interconnected, so even if they wanted to, they couldn't remove most of the equipment here," Reno explained as he connected the Invader's light brain to a device.

 As the device connected, the command center emitted a loud boom, all the lights turned on, and all the equipment started running. The entire starship even produced a slight vibration, the sound of the engines starting up.

 "Are you saying they haven't modified the starship? How is that possible? The Federation wouldn't allow an unmodified starship to be used for commercial purposes," Clarice said in amazement.

 "You can bribe officials to make it happen," Reno replied. "Of course, they haven't left it completely unmodified. The weapons systems on this ship have indeed been completely dismantled, and the remaining parts are just for show."

 "So you mean apart from the weapons systems being removed, all other functions of this starship have been retained?" Clarice asked.

 Reno nodded. "Of course, there have been some minor changes in other areas, but they don't affect the overall functionality."

 Filled with awe, Clarice walked towards the equipment console. It was her first time seeing the command center of a starship. Standing in front of the console, she felt as if the starship was sailing towards the sea of stars, with a brilliant starry sky before her.

 But she quickly snapped out of her reverie.

 She looked at Reno. "But how will you deal with them without the weapons systems?"

 Reno was about to reply when the door in the distance suddenly opened with a bang.

 Two hotel security guards walked in briskly.

 Seeing Reno and Clarice, they both froze and shouted together, "Hey, you two, don't move!"

 One of the guards even reached for the stun gun in his holster.

 While the guard was reaching for his gun, Reno pressed a button.

 Suddenly, a spark of electricity lit up the ceiling of the command center. It was a piece of wire, like a glowing electric snake, hanging from the air and landing on the security guard. The guard's eyes rolled back, and he fell unconscious.

 The other guard immediately froze. Before he could react, Reno's fist had already hit his face, knocking him unconscious as well.

 Pulling back his fist, Reno smiled slightly. "You don't need weapons to deal with them."

 ...

 Small mustache marched angrily down the hotel corridor, accompanied by reports from his subordinates.

 "Not here."

 "Nothing here."

 "Nor here."

 "Damn it, it's like he's disappeared."

 "Not only did he disappear, but his girlfriend also disappeared."

 All the reports were bad.

 Had Reno and Clarice evaporated from under their noses?

 The small mustache couldn't accept this result.

 He angrily exclaimed, "He couldn't have grown wings and flown away. We must have missed something."

 "He took Keller's light brain. Boss, we can't monitor the whole situation. Even if there are mistakes, we can't detect them," a secret police officer replied.

 "Then go to the hotel security center. They should still have surveillance footage."

 "You forgot we hacked into their system. All the footage over there is fake. If those idiots can detect any problems, that would be lucky."

 "Then hack back in, bring Keller over, and regain control!" The small mustache was almost going crazy. "Also, inform the hotel that we're taking over. It's time to show our identity."

 "That requires revealing our identities."

 "Then reveal them. Do you think we can still keep this hidden until now?" The small mustache shouted, "I don't care what the consequences are. First, find the people for me!"

 Closing the communicator, he said to the trench-coated men beside him, "I've had enough of these idiots."

 The two trench-coated men stood silently on the side, not saying a word.

 With the small mustache's command, the black-clad men were no longer discreet and secretive in their search.

 They began openly searching everywhere, kicking open hotel room doors, searching each room one by one, and asking guests to step out for inspection.

 Some people were less cooperative.

 "I'm the executive director of Ral Group. You can't treat me like this. I'll sue you!" an angry, half-naked fat man sitting on the bed shouted.

 "Go ahead and sue, but before that, cooperate with the inspection," a black-clad man lifted the executive director's blanket and saw a young girl curled up under the covers, making a lewd laugh, "She's quite something. I bet this girl who doesn't look over sixteen isn't your wife. Are you sure you want to sue me?"

 The fat man's face immediately changed color. He took out a stack of federal coins from under the pillow, "Don't say anything."

 The black-clad man took the money, laughed, "I like this job."

 After inspecting a circle of rooms, they walked out of the room.

 Similar incidents were playing out all over the hotel. The secret police were ruthlessly searching every corner, ignoring any consequences, and even taking advantage of the situation.

 This made them overlook the imminent crisis.

 A black-clad man arrived at a room filled with iron cages, all containing animals for slaughter.

 The black-clad man walked along the rows of cages, observing each one, while covering his nose, "It stinks here."

 "Roar!" Suddenly, a black shadow rushed over and collided with the cage, startling the black-clad man. Upon closer inspection, it was a wolf, growling at him from inside the cage.

 As people became wealthier, their demands for food increased. People were no longer satisfied with ordinary poultry and livestock; they would try all kinds of game. The Far Voyager Hotel had a dedicated ecological park where a variety of wild animals were raised. Lions, tigers, and even hungry wolves could be kept there. The ones in the cages were for slaughter.

 Seeing the wolf in the cage, the black-clad man showed a disdainful expression. He took out his stun baton and said, "Are you fierce?"

 The stun baton zapped the wolf through the cage, and the wolf let out a painful cry, collapsing inside the cage, its legs twitching as it foamed at the mouth.

 The black-clad man smirked, retracting the baton and moving forward.

 Just as he took a few steps, he heard a loud click behind him.

 The black-clad man felt something was wrong and turned back, only to see that the cage behind him had been opened.

 The evil wolf stood up again, looking at the black-clad man.

 "Damn it!" The black-clad man cursed.

 Whoosh! The wolf rushed out of the cage and pounced on the black-clad man, aiming for his throat.

 Just as it was about to bite, a flash of electricity struck, the stun baton once again coming into action, zapping the wolf.

 The black-clad man didn't hesitate to zap the wolf with electricity until a burnt smell wafted through the air. The wolf stopped moving, and the black-clad man stopped.

 He muttered, "Are you obedient now? Damn it, I'll complain to this damn hotel. They actually let a wolf out."

 Before he could finish his words, a series of clicking sounds of unlocking came from behind.

 The black-clad man's face changed.

 In front of him, iron doors were opening one after another, and animals were coming out.

 "Oh, crap!" The black-clad man groaned in despair.

 In another corner of the hotel.

 A short and chubby black-clad man was walking in the hotel's entertainment hall, scanning the guests one by one.

 Clang!

 "Damn it!" A young blond man who had been focused on playing electronic golf angrily slammed the machine beside him. He had just lost a good round.

 Turning around, he saw the black-clad man looking at him. The young man extended a middle finger towards the black-clad man. "What are you looking at? Stupid pig."

 The veins on the chubby black-clad man's forehead twitched a few times. He slowly turned his head away, ignoring him.

 Just as he turned his head, there was suddenly a loud bang behind him. Turning back, he saw a small white ball flying towards him, hitting him in the face. The chubby man fell to the ground without a word.

 The blond young man was startled, "Oh, my God... What are you all looking at me for? This has nothing to do with me. The ball wasn't hit by me; it came out of this damn broken machine on its own."

 At the same time, two black-clad men were riding a cargo elevator downward.

 The black-clad man in front held a wrench and occasionally tapped the thick walls beside him, making a buzzing sound.

 The black-clad man behind him was slightly annoyed, "Mike, could you stop tapping? You won't find Reno like this, you'll just let him know we're here."

 "I want him to know, Mills," Mike replied without looking back.

 "Why?" The black-clad man behind him was puzzled.

 "Don't you understand?" replied Mike. "He's not someone easy to deal with. Think about Ted and the others; they were four against one but still got knocked down, Ted's eggs were broken. There are only two of us, meeting him isn't a good thing. I mean, it's not a big achievement. We don't need to risk our lives for this. I'm eighty years old, I'll be retiring in twenty years. I don't want to risk my life for a little credit. I just want to do my job peacefully and safely, and get through to retirement!"

 "Come on, he's just a captain, nothing to be afraid of."

 "No, you don't understand."

 "So do you know why they sent us to catch him?"

 "In fact, I do know some..." Mike sighed.

 As soon as the words left his mouth, the elevator suddenly shook with a bang and then stopped descending.

 Both men froze simultaneously.

 "What's happening?" Mills asked in surprise.

 "It seems like the elevator has stopped," Mike pushed the elevator door, but it didn't budge.

 "Damn!" Mills also stepped forward to push the door, but it wouldn't move. The panic of being trapped made him feel fearful. He started kicking the door and shouting loudly, "Move, damn elevator, how could it suddenly malfunction at this time?"

 "This might not be a malfunction," Mike suddenly said.

 "What?" Mills turned to look at Mike.

 But Mike didn't answer.

 He stared blankly at the corner of the elevator, where a camera was pointing at them. In this old-fashioned elevator, the starship did not use holo-screens.

 "Oh, no!" Seeing the camera, Mills finally realized what was happening and groaned in despair.

 Reno's voice echoed in the elevator, "Do you know something?"