Chapter 10: Legion's Arrival?

　　Despite the fact that a rather malicious school shooting incident occurred in the morning, it was surprising that the school did not close or stop classes because of it. Everything proceeded as usual, which was quite baffling. However, the Canglan Private High School across the street, which was the scene of the shooting incident, was swiftly locked down. The students inside were quickly transferred to a safe location. Compared to our school, where it seemed as if nothing happened, it was like heaven and earth.

　　The courses in senior year were quite dull and tedious. You had to cram a bunch of things into your head that seemed entirely irrelevant to the world in just one year, only to write them down on a stack of paper in July every year, and then completely forget them over the next four years.

　　Our English teacher was a very kind old lady. It was said that she used to teach Chinese to foreigners at a private school in England, which led to our lovely teacher having a rather unique habit. Every time she taught, she always spoke long passages of English rapidly, and then slowed down her pace significantly when translating them into Chinese, enunciating each accented word carefully, afraid that we wouldn't understand.

　　In short, it was quite an exasperating thing.

　　I squinted my eyes slightly, trying to distinguish the parts I could understand from the authentic London accent around me and piece them together to form comprehensible sentences (which was quite a challenging task; I estimated its difficulty was no less than trying to deduce what the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh ate for breakfast based on half a stone tablet). Suddenly, a small paper ball jumped out from the side and hit me right on the head.

　　I caught the paper ball and quickly calculated the direction, angle, speed, current wind speed, and local acceleration of the paper ball's flight direction... Okay, better open the paper ball and have a look.

　　A line of highly encrypted alien-like characters appeared before my eyes: "Ah Jun, how is your sister doing?"

　　This kind of handwriting that looked like Van Gogh wrote it with his left hand after downing two catties of strong liquor was undoubtedly Qianqian's. Only a handful of people, including myself, could understand this atrocious writing in a short amount of time. This made it so that when Qianqian and I passed notes during exams, we never had to worry about anyone else picking them up and benefiting from them—in a way, Qianqian's handwriting served the same purpose as a cipher code.

　　"She is fine. Her classmates and teachers seem to take good care of her. I don't think anyone would be cruel enough to bully a girl who can't see, right?" I wrote back with a handwriting that was equally as difficult to read as Qianqian's.

　　"That's not certain. You must take good care of your sister. She is pitiful. If she gets bullied, I won't forgive you!"

　　... I really didn't expect that Pandora's cute appearance and the unfortunate childhood I fabricated for her would have such a strong impact, turning the carefree and careless Qianqian so quickly into her steadfast protector...

　　Bully Pandora? I thought about Pandora's terrifying combat stance from the morning and my lips twitched.

　　How many fully armed regular soldiers would it take to bully that strategic level war machine?

　　Just as I was imagining Pandora in battle mode, with an anti-phaser in one hand and a Ghost Energy Siege Cannon in the other, fighting the Human United Army, a peculiar feeling suddenly came from deep in my spirit. This feeling... Could it be that Pandora was contacting me?

　　No, it wasn't Pandora. According to Pandora, as my Chief Assistant, she and I shared a communication method called an unrestricted communication channel, so she could speak to me directly in spirit if something came up. But the current fluctuation in my spirit seemed more like a connection request—Pandora wouldn't need that.

　　Although I didn't know who it was, it was certain that it was related to the Xyrin Empire again.

　　I bowed my head, pretending to read seriously to disguise the surprise that might appear on my face in a moment (based on my experience, whenever the Xyrin Empire contacted me, it always brought surprises). Then, I agreed to the connection.

　　"This is World Arbitration Agency Unit No. 2, Gaia, requesting direct communication with the Emperor." An identifying message appeared in my mind.

　　Gaia? I was slightly stunned, then immediately realized—it was the semi-transparent projection I saw in my dream, the Immortal Sister.

　　In fact, I had many doubts about the dream that day. For example, why was there only one air fortress in the sky at that time (now I knew it was called the World Arbitration Agency)? Where did the other two go? Why did it almost touch the ground? What exactly was the so-called World Arbitration Agency? More importantly, was the female projection named Gaia the consciousness of that gigantic fortress in the sky?

　　Although I had so many questions, unfortunately, due to the intermittent connection with that Xyrin Mother Star (I learned from Pandora that the Xyrin Empire was vast, with many mother stars, and the world in my dream was just one of the many Xyrin Mother Stars), those remnant signal fragments that endured a long journey through the timeless space tunnels couldn't possibly re-sync the scenes of that world into my dream. It was like an online game getting stuck due to slow internet speed. The world in my dream remained in the scene I saw last night, and the connection with the Xyrin Mother Star was almost completely cut off. Even Pandora could only receive some very vague signals.

　　So, what did this artificial intelligence far away on the Xyrin Mother Star want from me now?

　　Curious, I agreed to the direct communication request. At the same time, I felt another spiritual connection coming through, which belonged to Pandora. It seemed she was planning to eavesdrop.

　　Although it claimed to be a signal transmission with no time lag, the absolute distance was still there. Moreover, it was corrected and filtered by Pandora, so Gaia's voice came through after several seconds: "The Imperial Expeditionary Army First Legion has entered space jump one hour ago your local time. It is expected to arrive on your planet in twelve hours. Please prepare for reception."

　　Just this one sentence, and then nothing more.

　　What? What did you say? Wait, big sister, you must have made a mistake?

　　But the series of questioning messages I sent out received no reply. The spiritual connection was already cut off.

　　It seemed that this connection was also an unstable forced link that couldn't last more than a few seconds, leaving me alone with a head full of questions.

　　Imperial Expeditionary Army?

　　What exactly are you planning to conquer?

　　"Hey, Pandora, did you hear about the Imperial Expeditionary Army thing?"

　　"Yes."

　　"Do you know what's going on? Why did such a force suddenly appear?"

　　"Simply put, it's my direct force, the Heavy Armored Pandora Corps."

　　Pandora replied in a calm tone. Although we only connected on a spiritual level, I could easily imagine the indifferent and matter-of-course expression on Pandora's face while answering this question.

　　Perhaps for her, deploying a force somewhere was nothing worth mentioning?

　　But for me, it was quite a big deal!

　　In that one moment, I felt as if my peaceful life was quickly slipping away...