The Creators: From Night City

Page 294

Fortunately, the security inside these capsule hotels is not very strict. After all, it can be considered a temporary place for those who have not been completely marginalized by Crystal Palace. There are often 'respectable people' who come here for cheap monthly rent or even longer stay.

Therefore, the management here mainly adopts an intelligent network identity verification mode to ensure one person, one warehouse, which is quite safe.

If a mechanical lock or manual guarding were used, Song Zhaomei really wouldn't have any good solutions. However, this obviously more intelligent and advanced security verification was exactly what this super hacker wanted.

Without much effort, with Matilda keeping watch, she followed the trail and found a miniature information relay box in the capsule hotel.

Under Matilda's astonished gaze, the lark rolled up her sleeves and pulled out a single-molecule wire from the inside of her left forearm, which served both data transmission and self-defense purposes, and quickly pried open the box.

Instead of using network intrusion, the lark cautiously chose physical links, bypassing the most vulnerable external firewall infection stage in advance, and directly entered the hotel's internal database to forge a temporary identity.

To be honest, capsule hotels are just profit-making, affordable hotels, and could even be considered a kind of "poverty alleviation project" of Crystal Palace. Their network security protection is basically civilian-grade. If it weren't for security reasons, Lark could trace back from the front desk camera's line all the way to the other party's root server in the blink of an eye.

However, to be on the safest side, she opted for the method with the highest safety margin.

Therefore, she did not fabricate payment records; she simply cut and pasted together an entry permit.

Under the watchful eyes of three members of the 'Pipeline Guild', the two successfully passed the qualification check behind the door and entered the inn.

This place looks just like a beehive.

The capsules, more than two meters in diameter and about one meter wide, were densely packed in layers, covering both the left and right walls. From a distance, they looked almost indistinguishable from a honeycomb.

The people who live here can indeed be considered diligent 'worker bees' in a sense, using their hard work for the rest of their lives to support the 'queen bees' who are high above in the Crystal Palace.

"E-3-31"

Following the lark's words, Matilda skillfully led the other party to the target capsule.

This capsule is located on the third floor and requires a ladder to climb up.

"You only got this one?" Matilda asked in surprise when the lark didn't seem to be going to announce the second number.

"For safety's sake, the two of us should squeeze in," the lark explained her idea.

That's not wrong. Both of them are women, so there's no room for them to avoid suspicion. In other words, under these circumstances, even if it were a man and a woman, there would be no room for them to be coy.

The lark climbed the ladder, its prosthetic eye flashing, and easily opened the capsule, revealing a space inside that resembled a coffin.

She rolled inside, then turned around and pulled Matilda in as well.

Then, under the other person's gaze, the lark began to take off her clothes.

"What...what do you want to do?" The young waiter blushed.

"What are you thinking about all day long?" the lark scolded the other party irritably, while at the same time stripping herself naked without hesitation and stuffing her clothes into the special storage slot on her feet.

"We're going to be here for about ten hours. Are you planning to lie in there wearing these stinky clothes?"

“You don’t have to take your clothes off completely, do you?” Matilda said, glancing at Song Zhaomei’s chest with curiosity and suspicion as she took off her clothes.

This was certainly not because she was lustful, but because Song Zhaomei's naked body had long lost its traditional flesh and blood. Her armpits, the area next to each rib, and even the two mounds that symbolized women had been replaced with embedded turbine-style cooling vents.

“These?” Matilda exclaimed in disbelief.

Song Zhaomei forced herself to remain calm, but a hint of melancholy inevitably crept into her eyes.

"The price of power," she replied coldly.

"Also, I don't have any exhibitionism, nor do I want to take advantage of you. I'll probably be going into cyberspace for a deep dive into the internet later. Although my heat dissipation prosthetics are enough to support this kind of activity, it's still best to ensure maximum heat dissipation from my body surface." Perhaps not wanting to leave a perverted impression on the other party, Nightingale finally offered a few more explanations.

Matilda chose to believe.

She couldn't be as uninhibited as Song Zhaomei, and in the end, she only took off her clothes until she was wearing a three-piece underwear.

"Hold me," Song Zhaomei said, pulling the data chain into the interface on the side of the capsule. Without any pretense, she reached out and embraced Matilda's fair and rather voluptuous body, and they lay down together inside the capsule.

The cramped space meant that the two people had to embrace face-to-face to fit inside.

The soft, fleshy feel of the material caused the lark's mechanical arm to twitch involuntarily, as if it were recalling the body it once possessed, and its expression darkened.

The lark in Matilda's arms felt as if she were holding a robot. Her chest, abdomen, arms, thighs, and even their faces pressed together, she felt no warmth of flesh and blood, only the coldness of metal.

Chapter 585 The Smuggling Plan

She hadn't expected that the flesh beneath the other person's clothes had already been transformed into a cold, steel object, and she could hardly imagine what that would feel like.

The lark instinctively hugged Matilda tightly, as if it could feel a moment of warm dreaminess from her warm body.

"Your body?" Matilda pressed her face against the other's simulated facial skin, feeling the heat vents on the other's face constantly spewing out hot air.

The lark did not reply to "Hold me tight."

Matilda placed her hands on the other person's back, but only felt the jagged bionic mechanical structure, gears, pipes, bolts, and large heat sinks.

She was even more surprised.

"If my body temperature continues to rise, don't panic, and don't disconnect the network without my permission." The lark, relying on its metallic body, was not afraid of prolonged pressure. It rolled over and arched Matilda onto its chest, letting her rest against its chest, while it lay on its back and closed its eyes.

The next moment, as her body's cooling devices began to operate in sync, her consciousness began to rapidly sink into the cyberspace.

Inside the dark cabin, only Matilda remained, embracing the mechanical body of the other, her eyes fixed on the most human-like bionic panel of the lark in the dim light of the cabin, speechless for a long time.

Although no one knew what methods the lark used, by the time Matilda was woken from her drowsy sleep by the other party, the lark had already raised enough money for their travel expenses, and not only that, but also had more than 200,000 in reserve.

To be honest, the speed at which the other party made money completely stunned this young woman who had always struggled at the bottom of society.

Without further delay, the two immediately set off for 'Yongzhai'.

Before setting off, they needed to eat something, since neither of them had eaten much since the 'Golden Crystal' incident.

So they found a place to eat in the 'pupa village'.

Money, Euros—it's not that the merchants in the 'pupa village' don't accept it, but rather that some people genuinely don't have any cash and can only trade through barter.

With money in hand, the duo naturally wanted to treat themselves before their escape.

However, in an environment like 'Chrysanthemum Village', even if the two of them picked the best food, it wouldn't be much better.

They ate a gruel provided by the space station, which was at most a little sweeter and fruitier than the basic, tasteless rations. They drank pipe condensate water with a slightly rusty taste, which was already the best water source available, better than filtered urine.

Not only that, but they also had to remove their masks while eating, which meant they had to endure the torment of polluted air.

But at least I had a decent meal before I left.

The 'oil wrench' is still the same, standing in the best spot in 'Black Well', just like the tobacco and liquor stores that are ubiquitous by the roadside, deserted all day but never close down.

Captain Jack Sparrow had been waiting for the two of them for a long time.

After receiving the deposit from the lark using a shell account, he didn't waste any words and directly led the two of them to the room at the back of the shop.

The two larks naturally followed quickly.

When they arrived, they found that there were already four people in the room.

"What are they?" the lark asked in surprise and doubt.

“Like you, we’re both guests trying to smuggle ourselves to the moon.” Captain Jack waved for the two to come in, and seeing that Song Zhaomei had some objections, he explained, “I didn’t say I was only doing business with the two of you. After all, going down this route involves food and supplies for the people and horses, plus the bribes to those officials. If we only did business with the two of you, we might lose money.”

Song Zhaomei could understand this statement, but she could not accept it.

But at this point, the die was cast and the arrow was already on the bowstring; there was no turning back.

She could only take the opportunity to quickly observe the illegal immigrants, trying to discern any danger from them.

The four people were clearly divided into two factions.

One of them was a middle-aged man with a buzz cut, a thin build, and a gloomy face. He huddled in the corner, his face downcast, coldly watching the people in the room without saying a word.

The other group consisted of three tall women. Although they were all wearing robes and had semi-replica air purifiers on their faces, it was clear that they did not exhibit the tension and panic typical of most illegal immigrants. One of the women, with white hair, even curiously sized up Song Zhaomei and her companion who had just entered.

Those who had made it to the point of smuggling themselves out of the Crystal Palace must have had their own reasons, so the three factions simply exchanged a few glances and had no intention of speaking to each other.

"Everyone's here. Let's go. I'll take you to the special passage."

Captain Jack Sparrow, completely unconcerned about the strange atmosphere among the crowd, took the lead and, surrounded by several of his men, slipped out through the back door of the Oil Wrench.

The reason why the 'oil wrench' shop was built in 'Black Well' was mainly because of this passage. After turning left and right in the semi-abandoned tunnel, the group soon saw what the special passage that 'Captain Jack' had mentioned was.

There's nothing mysterious about it; it's just the Crystal Palace's garbage disposal tunnel.

As a semi-permanent space station, the Crystal Palace is capable of being self-sufficient in some aspects of its human survival infrastructure.

For example, oxygen is generated through carbon-oxygen conversion by algae, energy is generated by solar panels, and water is recycled through multiple filtration processes, theoretically achieving a 98% reuse rate.

However, Crystal Palace generates a large amount of garbage every day, every hour.

Because this is, after all, a city of space pleasures.

To be honest, the waste disposal system of a super-large lunar space station like Crystal Palace must be a highly complex, closed-loop, and multi-layered engineering marvel.

The ideal method is to use plasma arc gasification technology for incineration, which can basically handle 99% of the waste.

However, this method was not adopted by Crystal Palace because it consumed too much energy. Instead, they opted for a more complicated and costly waste transfer process.

After all, energy is meant to be used for guests' eating, drinking, and entertainment.

The vast majority of the debris will be guided by the tractor and, with the help of lunar gravity and the force of the space station's own orbital rotation, glide into near-Earth orbit with minimal energy consumption.

Once in Earth's atmosphere, this trash will fall into designated waste disposal areas (such as uninhabited areas in the Pacific Ocean), making it arguably the most cost-effective disposal method.

The group's smuggling plan was quite simple.

The crew and the waste will be placed in a special processing capsule. Then, as the space station rotates to a suitable orbital position, the processing channel door will be opened. Under the action of centrifugal force, the sealed waste processing capsule will be thrown into outer space. Then, a special traction ship will continue to guide it, eventually allowing it to accurately enter the predetermined low Earth orbit and fall to Earth.

Captain Jack Sparrow's ship will then get stuck at this point, taking over the role of towing the spaceship to snatch the garbage disposal container containing the stowaways, then dig the people out of the container, throw the garbage into deep space, and take the people back to the moon.

Chapter 586 Smuggling in Progress

The most difficult part of the whole process is figuring out how to hide people inside the waste disposal unit.

This is when 'Captain Jack' gets paid to do his job.

Crystal Palace, First Ring, Upper End, the entire waste disposal site.

The stench permeated every corner of the cabin; years of accumulated garbage had completely permeated the space, making it pungent and unpleasant to eat.

Captain Jack and his crew took a shortcut and easily made their way from Pupa Village to this garbage disposal station, which was also located on the edge of the Crystal Palace.

"The waiting ship is ready." Captain Jack seemed unfazed by the pungent stench as he led the group through a small pipe into the garbage disposal station.

It was clear that Captain Jack Sparrow frequented this road. He turned a dark corner with practiced ease and whispered something to the guards at a checkpoint.

The two whispered to each other for a while. During this time, the guard glanced up at the stowaways waiting to cross the border, but Song Zhaomei and Matilda were not very panicked. Not only were they dressed as refugees, but their faces were also completely covered by air purifier masks. How could the guard possibly see anything amiss?

Captain Jack has traveled this road countless times, and all those involved in the entire chain of interests have been well-fed, so naturally no additional risks have arisen.

Six worn-out full-body spacesuits were thrown on the ground by Captain Jack Sparrow's men.

These spacesuits weren't too old, but they all had an unpleasant odor.

Those are the traces left by countless "pioneers" who wore them and danced with garbage at the same time.

Matilda frowned even before she put it on, the familiar scent reminding her of the "golden crystal" from a few days ago.

It has a strong flavor, no further explanation needed.

The ticket price for smuggling is high, but the process is far from dignified.

The mountains of garbage would first be compressed into solid blocks of garbage one meter square by a high-pressure press, and then stacked into metal garbage bins by the staff. The six people, with the help of the mole, would sneak into one of the bins to hide.

The garbage bin, about the size of a standard shipping container, was already overflowing with trash, leaving only a small, isolated space for a few people to live in.

Although the spacesuit has a built-in oxygen supply system that can support the wearer's breathing needs for 12 hours, this timeframe is still somewhat short in the context of normal space transport.

Before the hatch was closed, Captain Jack threw a high-frequency signal transmitter into the cabin. It was the credential that the smuggling ship could accurately retrieve them from the endless sea of ​​stars. He waved meaningfully to the group as a farewell, then stepped aside. The mole in the garbage disposal station reached out and closed the two doors, and darkness immediately enveloped everyone.

The crackling sound of welding came from outside the container; it was the sealing process that the workers had to complete before throwing it out.

None of the six spoke; they simply awaited their fate in the darkness.

Matilda involuntarily grabbed Song Zhaomei's arm.

Then came the bumps, the swaying, and then calm.

Finally, a sudden impact jostled the panicked crowd together.

Before Song Zhaomei could even stand up, she suddenly felt lightheaded and unable to muster any strength.

As her body drifted away from the bulkhead, she suddenly realized that she had been launched into space from the Crystal Palace.

Without the artificial gravity field of the Crystal Palace, gravity suddenly disappeared from everyone's view.

She waved her arms and legs awkwardly in the air, and after struggling for a moment, she was pulled back by Matilda.