The starskiff research and development process is quite complex.
By soaking starskiff 'seeds'—which consist of metallic materials, biological components, and jadesigns carrying genetic information—in a special nutrient fluid designed for gestating them, a starskiff can be born and begin to sprout.
It then undergoes artificial intervention, cultivation, and modification, passing through embryonic and formative stages.
It must be said, the production process sounds more than a little fantastical.
Countless manufacturing platforms holding starskiff seeds, sprouting wooden masses, and starskiffs in various stages of development were arranged throughout the Divergent Star Port.
These platforms were completely different from the machine tools known to humanity on Earth. At first glance, they were just cubic wooden frames.
Contained within glass walls was the nutrient fluid.
They looked a bit precarious; a careless bump might break the glass wall, causing the nutrient fluid to leak out and ruin the starskiff's growth environment.
So...
"Stop it!"
March 7th lunged from behind and wrapped her arms around Stelle, using her full body weight to drag the gray-haired girl, who was already revving up to third gear, to a halt. "We're here to catch Kafka, not to destroy property!"
"Destroy property? What property?"
Stelle didn't quite understand, vaguely sensing she was being blamed for something. She put on a wronged expression. "What bad intentions could little Stelle possibly have? I'm just opening a treasure chest to get some crystals."
"Caelus, here you go! We'll split it!"
Held tightly by March 7th, Stelle didn't struggle with brute force. Instead, she backhanded her Curio baseball bat over to Caelus.
"Hiyah!"
Caelus snatched the bat and whacked it against the lid of the treasure chest that required violent opening.
The lid dented slightly, then suddenly sprang back and burst open, spitting out several clear, blue crystals.
Watching Stelle joyfully go to split the crystals, March 7th was left speechless and facepalmed. "Fine, fine. It was mostly broken anyway. At worst, this just makes the repairs a little harder."
With monsters running rampant, some of the starskiff platforms had already been damaged by the Cloud Knights and the Mara-struck they were fighting.
"Hey, you two, shouldn't you be looking for clues now?" March 7th said, hands on her hips, in a very proper tone.
Though she, little March, had been the most unreliable one on the Express before, right now, she was definitely the most dependable 'senior' of their three-person team!
"We are looking for clues, just finding a couple of treasure chests on the side," Stelle said, scratching her head with an embarrassed laugh.
Caelus chuckled. As expected of the interstellar civilization of the Xianzhou Luofu, the treasure chests and crystals were far more abundant than on Jarilo-VI.
Adding the crystals Li Sushang had scrounged up back at Cloudford, they might even be able to save up 1600 before finishing the mission.
Caelus winked at March 7th. "Later, we'll have Stelle buy you a mecha to play with."
"Really?" Her slightly exasperated face instantly bloomed with delight, March 7th's eyes sparkling.
"Of course!" Caelus puffed out his chest.
"Why aren't you buying it?"
Stelle's little face scrunched up. She opened one eye wide to glare at Caelus, her gaze a mixture of confusion and bewilderment.
"Stelle, how could you say that? Do you need a reason to buy March a mecha to play with?" Caelus frowned and lectured her. "We're a team! Our bond is unbreakable!"
"So, why aren't you buying it?"
Stelle said kindly, her smile threatening to crack at the seams.
"March, look at this person. She's not even willing to buy you a mecha. All that time you spent playing with her was for nothing. Now you know who your real best friend is, right? Next time you take a bath, don't ask her, ask me."
Caelus's attempt at instigation was extremely low-level, clearly kindergarten-grade, but it was more than enough to handle March 7th and Stelle.
Stelle suddenly looked at March 7th with alarm. She saw the girl's pink hair hanging over her bangs, her smile shattered, her face expressionless, and her eyes dark, as if she were disappointed in Stelle.
"I'll buy it! I'll buy anything!" Seeing this, Stelle panicked and immediately agreed.
March was a crucial ally in her confrontations with Caelus; she absolutely could not let him win her over.
"I was waiting for you to say that! Yay!"
March 7th jumped up joyfully. As Stelle stared with a dumbfounded expression, she gave Caelus a thumbs-up, then walked demurely before the two with her hands behind her back.
"You can't go back on your promise!"
Stelle felt like her face was painted white, her blush was too heavy, and there was probably a little ball on her nose. The clown was me all along!
After some bickering, the trio arrived at the next intersection and regrouped with the other two teams.
"We found the remains of a destroyed automaton over there. It doesn't look like it was destroyed by the Mara-struck; it was most likely Kafka's doing."
Welt held up half of a broken weapon. "Did you find any other clues?"
"Seele found a letter, but it doesn't seem to be useful." White Seele was a bit embarrassed. Although she could read every character in the letter, she couldn't understand what it meant when put together. Luckily, the Seele from the parallel world was there; it turned out to be a love letter.
Everyone's gaze turned to the team of Stelle, Caelus, and March 7th.
"We found some traces, but they probably have nothing to do with Kafka," reported March 7th, the only one who had been seriously investigating.
"Then let's try with this first." Old Yang placed the broken weapon in front of the Diting's nose.
The cute mechanical doggy sniffed it, then barked 'woof woof' and started to lead the way.
As someone with a telepathic link to cute puppies, March 7th was in charge of translating the Diting's words.
"sir, this way !"
"Taikun, kochira e douzo!"
"General, please take this path!"
As they listened, Stelle and Caelus felt something was off.
"What the hell? Are you sure that's what it's saying?"
"Is this little guy broken?" Caelus poked the Diting's forehead.
"Why would you say that, Benefactor? The Artisanship Commission performs regular maintenance on the Diting to ensure it's always in optimal condition," Tingyun said, turning back to look.
The little Diting panted, tilted its head in confusion, and barked. In that moment, even Caelus could tell what it was trying to say: 'I'm perfectly healthy!'
"Oh, then never mind." Caelus nodded with a smile, thinking the little guy was pretty neat. Maybe he could bite it off the Artisanship Commission later and keep it as a pet.
"Woof, woof!"
The Diting continued to follow the scent, leading the group forward, when it suddenly barked as if it had smelled something.
"What did it say this time?" Stelle looked at March 7th curiously.
"It said it caught a scent and we should follow it over there to take a look," March 7th translated vividly.
"So, what's the principle behind this? I'm a cute girl too, so why can't I understand it?" Stelle was unconvinced, certain the Diting's recognition system had to be broken.
They ran after the Diting and found a black, egg-shaped object on the ground. It had a polyhedral structure, forming a honeycomb-like texture with dense grooves.
"This is..."
Since the Diting hadn't given any warning, March 7th casually picked it up. When she got a clear look, she shuddered and almost threw it away.
"Whoa! It's a grenade!"
"And there's something on it." March noticed a red mark on her hand. She turned the grenade over to look. "Ew~ It's lipstick."
To be precise, it was a line of small text written in lipstick.
"'A small gift for the lost travelers...'" Reading this, March 7th pouted indignantly. "This woman, she's clearly provoking us!"
The next moment, two righteous rebukes rang out simultaneously.
"March, what are you saying? How could you speak like that about our dear mommy who gave us a gift?!?" Stelle frowned and shouted with fervent solemnity.
"That's right. This is obviously a gift from Kafka-mom," Caelus said, taking the clear crystal from March 7th's hand.
"What are you doing, Caelus? Mommy gave that to me!" Stelle quickly grabbed Caelus's and March 7th's hands to stop him from taking the crystal.
"It's obviously for me."
"Mine!"
Old Yang, who was familiar with Stelle and Caelus, could tell from their sudden frenzy that they likely saw the grenade as a crystal. But Tingyun, who didn't know their secret, had no idea!
Watching the two gray-hairs fight over the grenade like children squabbling over the only gift their mother bought, Tingyun's expression grew progressively stranger. Phantylia was now even more certain that these two were mentally unstable and had something wrong with their heads!
"Can you two let me let go before you fight over it?" With an expression just as speechless as Tingyun's, March 7th's clever little head hadn't yet figured out that the grenade was a crystal.
"March, who do you think this gift is for?" came two voices at once.
"Uh..." Pulled into an embrace between Stelle and Caelus, March 7th was a bit dazed. From the light in their eyes, she finally realized what was in her hand.
"Then give it to Stelle," March 7th said after a moment of deliberation, handing the grenade to Stelle. After all, Stelle had promised to buy her a mecha.
"The next one's for Caelus," March 7th added thoughtfully.
"Hehe~" Stelle broke into a grin, shooting a triumphant and provocative look at Caelus.
"Tch~" Caelus pouted, then turned his head and started to laugh.
Trading one crystal for enough crystals to buy a mecha, plus little March's feeling of indebtedness—this was a huge win!
After discovering that the grenade Kafka left was actually a crystal, Caelus and Stelle immediately changed their tactics. "Kafka!"
"Mommy!"
"Leave some more gifts for us-nya!"
The two of them started shouting at the top of their lungs in the vast Divergent Star Port, making Tingyun's eyelids twitch uncontrollably.
"Benefactors..."
March 7th quickly came to her senses. "If you two shout that loudly, you'll attract monsters!"
Indeed, Mara-struck were already being drawn to the sound from the surrounding passages.
"Mere Mara-struck think they can stop Mommy from giving me presents?" With her bat in her right hand and a fire lance in her left, Stelle charged forward, smashing the Mara-struck as if she were chopping vegetables.
Facing more and more Mara-struck, Stelle suddenly remembered something. She put away her weapons, clenched her fists, adopted a delicate, maidenly pose, and cried out, "Help me! Kafka-mommy!"
"Hey, are you for real?!" March 7th's eyes went wide. Two Mara-struck had already rushed in front of Stelle, their branch-like blades about to strike.
Caelus held a wind card in his hand, his gaze passing over Stelle to a spot behind a certain starskiff container. He had used the wind to scout the Divergent Star Port long ago and had already located Kafka.
Just as the Mara-struck soldier's blade was about to touch Stelle, spiderweb-like purple threads materialized from thin air, restraining all the Mara-struck and halting their advance.
Gracefully stepping onto a starskiff container and looking down, Kafka propped up her alluring, mature face, her smile the same as ever.
But at this moment, the feelings in her heart were uncharacteristically complex. There were still many of Elio's scripts she hadn't read, but Kafka could guess that Stelle would encounter many dangers. Before wiping Stelle's memories, there was only one thing she wanted her to always remember: No matter where you go, no matter which corner of the galaxy you find yourself in, you can always find a safe harbor with me.
And now, watching the gray-haired girl standing in the circle of Mara-struck soldiers, happily jumping on her toes, laughing, waving, and shouting 'Mommy' like a child, a feeling Kafka had never known before welled up inside her. Although it wasn't what she had been seeking all this time, it was also something she had never possessed.
It was this emotion, which changed Kafka's mood, that made her decide to reveal herself.
Originally, she had planned to lure the group further inside, as that would be more convenient. But now...
"You're here."
"No way! She really came out!" March 7th's eyes widened, completely shocked that Stelle's unreliable plan had actually worked!
"It's... still early."
"Perfect. Kafka, hiding out in the Divergent Star Port these past two days, have you been eating well? I brought you some Tuskpir Wraps and Sweet Glimmerfowl Stew." Caelus pulled out the food he had bought on the way from his spatial storage.
"Me too, Mommy! I bought you Flapper-Pea Fowl Skewers!" Stelle also took out food and, under Tingyun's utterly bizarre gaze, ran towards Kafka.
At this moment, March 7th, Welt, and White Seele were all silent.
"..."
Kafka smiled without a word.
"Come on, let's eat first and fill our stomachs. We can fight later." Caelus used [Wind] to fly up, grabbing Stelle and soaring directly to Kafka's side. He took a picnic blanket out of his storage and laid out the delicious food.
"Tingyun, just as we agreed. While we're fighting Kafka, you're in charge of singing, dancing, and cheering us on. It's your time to shine."
Stelle and Caelus pushed Kafka down to sit, looked down at the plaza-sized open space below, and waved at Tingyun, exactly like ancient princes who required dancers to entertain them during a meal.
Tingyun (Phantylia): "???"
You call this capturing Kafka?
You call this a fight?
You call this cheering them on?
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