I Am a Salted Fish in the Interstellar Era - Chapter 3

Holding the hundred puddings she had scrounged from Gu Qianqian, Shi Yu hummed a tune on her way home.

Three little puddings a day, a hundred little puddings would last her a month.

Just as Shi Yu put down the puddings, her smart brain popped up a message.

?Sea Blue Express: Dear ‘Dreaming of Being a Salted Fish’, Sea Blue Express reminds you that you have a parcel arriving at Sea Blue Station. Would you like it to be delivered immediately??

A parcel?

When did she buy anything? Where did this parcel come from?

“Who is the sender?” Shi Yu asked.

?Sea Blue 007 Customer Service: Sea Blue 007 Customer Service at your service. Checking the sender, please wait.?

Within two seconds, another message came.

?Sea Blue 007 Customer Service: Dear Dreaming of Being a Salted Fish, your parcel’s sender is Dr. Shi.?

Shi Yu clicked her tongue.

The stingy uncle always had no shame, claiming to be a doctor just because he could adjust a physiological culture fluid that repairs bodily harm and cultivates organs, not afraid of the wind blowing his tongue.

“Proceed with the delivery.”

?Sea Blue 007 Customer Service: Okay, the Sea Blue delivery person will arrive at the delivery location in ten minutes. We wish you a happy unboxing.?

Before long, the door to Shi Yu’s humble abode was knocked on. Outside was a white, spherical robot with a pair of ring-shaped, retractable arms flying in mid-air.

Upon seeing Shi Yu, the robot, holding a box, cheerfully said, “Please present your ID to sign for the delivery.”

Shi Yu pulled out her ID from her smart brain, and after the robot scanned and verified it, it cheerfully said again, “Identity verified correctly. Please take your package and enjoy unboxing. Goodbye.”

After saying this, the little robot swiftly flew back to the Sea Blue Express transport vehicle. The transport vehicle entered the aerial lane, merged into the traffic, and disappeared from sight.

Shi Yu, holding the light box, returned to her room, curious about what the stingy uncle had sent her. Upon opening it, she found only a ring.

Before she could express her surprise, the ring emitted a light, scanned her face, and then a stiff mechanical voice said, “Identity recognized correctly, please wear the mech ring.”

“Damn!”

Mech!

Shi Yu grabbed the ring, and as she bent her finger, the ring slid onto her right hand’s index finger, impossible to remove.

The mechanical voice sounded again, “Mech ring worn successfully, owner Shi Yu, mech binding system activated, beginning physical ability check.”

Shi Yu, who had not been in this era for long, knew that mechs were the weapons of war of this time. She would curiously glance at the beautiful mechs in shop windows when passing by, but never desired to own one. After all, her goal was to be a lazy fish; why would she need a mech if she wasn’t going to the battlefield?

While she was lost in thought, the mechanical voice spoke again, “Physical ability check failed, not qualified to pilot a mech, system binding failed.”

Shi Yu: “……”

What the heck? All this only to fail the binding? How is this different from being told she won a billion in the lottery but then being told at the prize claim that there was a mistake?

Shi Yu flicked the ring with her finger, thinking about the basic requirements for piloting a mech.

In the interstellar era, only those whose physical and mental strength met the standard could pilot mechs, otherwise, the human body couldn’t withstand the burden brought by the mech, leading to either physical collapse and death or mental breakdown into idiocy.

The minimum standard for piloting mechs was to have a B-level physical and mental strength, which was the requirement for operating ordinary mechs.

For piloting combat mechs, the requirements for physical and mental strength were even higher, needing to reach A-level, otherwise, the high-intensity combat would damage the body, causing irreversible harm.

In the Federation, everyone’s mental strength is tested at birth and then recorded on their birth certificate. Shi Yu’s certificate indicated an average B-level.

Physical strength levels can improve with changes in human physical quality and are not limited by age.

However, improving mental strength levels is more challenging. From birth until the age of eighteen, mental strength can improve within a wide range, and all citizens of the Federation undergo a second assessment of mental strength at eighteen.

After eighteen, the level of mental strength almost becomes a fixed value, with very low chances of improvement.

Shi Yu changed a chip, and having lived a carefree life for the past ten years, guessed her mental strength level was just so-so. She wasn’t yet eighteen and hadn’t undergone the second assessment.

She looked down at the ring, which had been silent since it declared ‘system binding failed,’ unable to grasp the stingy uncle’s intention.

The stingy uncle couldn’t be unaware that she couldn’t pilot a mech. Sending the mech ring was somewhat strange, and most importantly, did the stingy uncle have enough money to buy a mech?

Mechs were not only weapons of war but also high-end luxury items.

There’s a saying on the Star Network that aptly describes mechs.

The army’s weapon, the rich man’s toy.

Shi Yu, touching her chin, examined the ordinary-looking silver ring. If it weren’t for the mechanical voice she had just heard, she really wouldn’t have been able to tell that this shabby ring was a mech ring.

Now with the system binding failed, she couldn’t even see what the mech looked like.

She wondered, do normal mech systems require binding?

After thinking for a while and not coming to any conclusion, Shi Yu simply gave up, ate a little pudding, and continued to lie in bed.

Unbeknownst to her, after she laid down, the originally calm mech ring lit up with a hint of blue light, and the mechanical voice sounded again, “SSS+ grade genetic lock Ransel detected, attempting activation.”

–

Night falls, and darkness quickly envelops the earth.

A hover car drives into the consumer area that was visited during the day.

On a lane bustling with luxury hover sports cars, this hover car is inconspicuous.

“What time is it?” a coarse voice asks.

The charming woman beside him immediately answers, “Twenty minutes to go.”

“Spider, how are things on your end?” the man asks, touching his earpiece.

“Everything is ready,” responds a hoarse voice, age indiscernible.

“Good, we move in ten minutes.”

With that, the hover car falls silent again.

A minute later, the skinny man sitting in the front row can’t help but say, “Big brother, it’s just a specimen, is such a big operation necessary?”

The man glances at him, “Do you think Gu Mingzhan is a pushover? He’s a retired officer from the Expeditionary Army.”

The Expeditionary Army is responsible for guarding the borders and conducting wars abroad.

The skinny man chuckles awkwardly, “Big brother, I didn’t mean that, just curious about why so much effort for a small specimen—”

“Remember what I told you, don’t be curious about what you shouldn’t be.” The man interrupts before the skinny man can finish.

The man doesn’t bother with him further, but the woman beside him can’t help but add, “A new species represents new genes, once—”

“Enough!” the man scolds, and the woman immediately falls silent, as does the skinny man, not daring to speak any further.

The hover car becomes quiet again, and once ten minutes are up, the woman, clinging to the man like a snake and occasionally giggling, exits the car with him, his arm around her waist showing an infatuated gaze, while the skinny man drives the hover car into the parking lot.

Upon reaching their hotel room, the man and woman quickly change clothes, and, utilizing the terrain and darkness, climb between the vertical buildings with the agility of monkeys, silently landing on the wall of the building where the exhibition hall is located.

Seconds later, a hover car goes out of control, bursting out of the aerial lane and crashing directly into the first floor of the exhibition hall, immediately igniting a large fire.

The man and woman glance at each other, and a virtual tentacle extends from the man’s brain chip, gently covering the eighth floor window of the exhibition hall. With a click, the window opens.

The hoarse voice from earlier comes through their earpieces, “Everything is ready, you only have ten minutes. Remember to use the mimetic exoskeleton I gave you, or you’ll be treated as intruders.”

With that, the man and woman immediately enter the eighth floor of the exhibition hall.

At the same time, a layer of what appears to be liquid metal covers their entire bodies.

In the blink of an eye, they become two metallic figures, one black and one red.

They move swiftly, their toes barely touching the ground. In the time it takes to breathe in and out, they rush to the end of the corridor. The two guards outside the room don’t have time to react before their throats are slit by the black and red crescent blades.

At the same moment, the two take the place of the guards at the door. Almost instantly, a faint yellow light, almost imperceptible, sweeps over from a distance.

As the pale yellow light approaches their bodies, they simultaneously swallow.

Once the pale yellow light disappears, they quietly breathe a sigh of relief.

The man is the first to turn around, placing his palm on the virtual screen that pops up from the door. A soft voice sounds as a blue light scans him from bottom to top, “Identity confirmed, Mr. Gu Mingzhan, please enter.”

The door slowly opens, revealing only a glass display case inside the room, housing a grey-black butterfly specimen.

Under the soft light, the butterfly specimen was as beautiful as during the day, yet it seemed that due to the change in light, the dim green glow on its wings was somewhat intensified, but upon closer inspection, nothing had changed.

“You go get it, I’ll keep watch,” the man said in a deep voice.

The woman nodded and walked lightly to the side of the butterfly specimen. With a gentle press of her index finger next to the glass display, a virtual screen popped up.

Her nimble fingers climbed the virtual screen, and after entering a string of numbers, a barely noticeable crack appeared in the glass of the display, symmetrically splitting to the side.

The woman took out a transparent box from her spatial bag, and when she looked at the gray-black butterfly specimen again, she found its antennae, which had been drooping like withered leaves, had somehow stood up.

She was stunned for a moment, thinking she had seen wrong, and hurriedly blinked, only to find that not only the antennae but also the butterfly’s wings began to emit a dim green light.

She was startled and hurriedly said, “Brother! This thing seems to be alive—”

She was cut off mid-sentence as the gray-black withered leaf came spiraling back, slicing through the red fluid metal covering her body and cutting her throat, then tearing a black circular hole through the space beside her.

The woman instinctively covered her throat, the warm liquid flowing out and the spreading pain making her eyes widen.

At some point, the gray-black butterfly in the glass display vibrated its wings, revealing a tiny person the size of a thumb hidden beneath its wings.

Hearing her voice, the man turned around, but before he could react, he felt a sharp pain in his throat, and his vision filled with falling leaves, also tearing a circular black hole.

He fell to the ground with a thud, watching as the circular black hole beside him grew until it was almost a meter in diameter, slowing down only then.

Wet tentacles stretched out from it.