Chapter 64: The Cage

The Cage

"If it's you, of course you can." Li Shao stared seriously at Fu Guang, looking unusually solemn.

"Oh." Fu Guang gave no comment, then she asked, "Are you planning to stay here?"

"Of course." Li Shao said firmly, his gaze sweeping over Ting Zhu and Xi Guang—adding one wouldn't be too many, removing one wouldn't be too few.

Fu Guang tapped the table with her fingertip, also agreeing to let Li Shao stay; being close would also make it convenient to order him around.

"Only the first floor; you can pick a room for yourself later." Fu Guang didn't intend to let this group of highly aggressive, destructive Sentinels live next to her.

Although she had originally planned to stay in the "cave heaven."

"There are only two rules to follow."

"One: No fighting in public areas."

"Two: Please remember you are a guest. Observe the etiquette that guests should follow in human interactions."

The girl lifted her thin eyelids and spoke; after finishing, she seemed to recall something, then said again.

"Oh, right, why not follow the Federal White Tower Rules?"

The White Tower Rules are extremely friendly to guides; if one follows the White Tower Regulations, it is believed every Sentinel can become friendly.

Her slender fingertips lifted slightly, and Fu Guang marked out the range she could accept.

"If you can accept it, stay; if you can't, leave."

She finally said, turning her gaze back to the light brain: "Next, feel free to do as you wish."

Fu Guang entered her citizen number, first accessing the website linked between the Military Department and Alliance University, scrolling through to see what was available.

First she looked at protective gear—two S-rank items.

They come in all elemental types; blocking S-rank attacks is the most basic function. Some are single-use; compared to reusable ones, these have stronger capabilities.

For example, the one she just saw, called "The Cage," resembling a "tortoise shell," the description says it can theoretically block all attacks from a single S-rank Sentinel.

That's a vague claim. Fu Guang understood it as: it would only break if S-rank Sentinels fought each other; if the attacks were dispersed, it should be able to withstand at least ten S-rank Sentinels' attacks at once.

Its shape also resembles a tortoise shell; it's a water-wood dual-element protective device worth ten million merit points.

One D-rank aberration counts as one point, C-rank ten points, B-rank one thousand points, A-rank twenty thousand points, S-rank two hundred thousand points.

Don't think that defeating five hundred aberrations would net ten million points; only a squad of ten S-rank Sentinels can take down a single ordinary aberration in one go.

After adding repair costs for various gear, purification fees, starship expenses, and sundry other costs, the net gain could be as high as thirty thousand, which is already a lot.

Moreover, killing aberrations two ranks lower than oneself does not earn merit points.

A normal S-rank Sentinel would have to save for several decades to obtain a single S-rank item.

Alliance University points and merit points also exchange at a ten-to-one ratio.

Federal points, however, exchange one-to-one with merit points.

Among them, federal points and merit points are just different names for points earned by civil and military posts; the exchange rate is still fine at one-to-one.

Alliance points, after all, are internal to Alliance University and aren't worth as much as merit points.

Feeling dizzy with so many departments, each having its own exchange rate—fortunately the light brain handles the conversion automatically.

Fu Guang calculated the points over and over, feeling that one hundred thousand star coins were as good as worthless—equivalent to 0.1 federal points—basically worthless.

Looking at her account's over five thousand two hundred merit points, Fu Guang actually felt she wasn't exactly penniless.

While examining her account, she discovered she actually had three sub-accounts.

They were the accounts of Shu Tong and Liu Yun, the two siblings, and of Xi Guang.

The merit points in the siblings' accounts weren't even a tenth of Xi Guang's.

Xi Guang's account had just exceeded five hundred thousand points, still far from the ten-million mark.

"What are you doing?" The light brain's projection had anti-peeping settings, but seeing Fu Guang's interested expression, one could roughly guess she was perhaps choosing something.

Fu Guang looked up; surprisingly, everyone in the room was still seated, none having left.

She said, "I don't know which of the rewards promised by the Military Department to pick."

She projected the light brain screen onto small raised screens in front of each person from the flat tabletop.

Ting Zhu slid the screen curiously, exclaiming, "Damn, this is the first time I've really looked—there's actually a lot of good stuff."

"I'm broke, don't even want to look, lest it hit my self-esteem; plus, using the gear issued by the Military Department, although it lacks many functions, it can still get by."

"Although he's never used it, he's beaten people up with it before, so he can still offer some opinions."

"Especially this 'The Cage'."

Ting Zhu felt annoyed seeing it; last time at the academy's grand competition, the War Academy used this thing to cover the military flag, dragging it out for half an hour—purely a tortoise shell.

"Once this thing is activated, just as its name suggests, the people inside can't escape." Ting Zhu said, "Unless the time runs out or it's broken, it's just a cage."

"Those inside can also break it, but even an S-rank Sentinel would have to expend half their strength to do so."

"The best way to deal with it is to leave it alone and wait for the time to expire, or have dozens of people strike together to break it."

Fu Guang checked the duration of "The Cage," which is said to be one day-night cycle on a B-rank planet.

If it's S-rank, that period would roughly allow recovery of one-eighth of one's strength.

Not bad; it's added to the shortlist.

The next item is an earth-element protective device; it shows a yellowish-brown sphere, and the description says that after release it covers the user's skin and then curls into a ball.

What a bizarre protective device—probably for fleeing. When the ball is shoved by a huge force, who knows where it'll fly?

Fu Guang wasn't too satisfied with this one.

"This won't do. The defensive state is too passive, making it impossible to scout the battlefield." Li Shao flipped to the next page in disdain.

Never mind how the person inside the device fares; as an attacker, seeing the ball, he'd only want to roll it more, making it fly higher.

The third protective device is a mass of water, a consumable type; how long it lasts depends entirely on the user.

Like the previous one, it likewise covers the user's skin, the intensity depending on the user; it has one feature: force dissipation.

How much force can be offloaded depends on suitability; only a few pieces of equipment are picky, and different people using them produce different effects.

"If Xiao Bai is S-rank, then this is actually quite suitable for you." Li Shao continued flipping to the next one, glancing past the bracelet on Fu Guang's wrist that glowed with a faint blue light.

He also added, "Water-system essence also boosts the compatibility of same-system equipment for its master."

"However, B-rank is still too weak for the blessing of 'Pure Water'; not recommended."

As for this point about essence, hardly anyone who discovers it, because those who can obtain essence are not weak, and few people would keep same-system essence for viewing rather than using it.

Fu Guang, however, took a good look at "Pure Water"; at B-rank its function is not obvious, but it can serve as a cover for the "robe," and she doesn't have to rely on mental force to resist directly.

Li Shao, because of his family background, knows a bit about these several S-rank defensive equipment; the Military Department also hasn't updated its inventory for a long time.

After picking and choosing, there is still one light-system defensive equipment that made the cut, but it requires dark-system ability to activate; no one knows what the master who made it was thinking back then—perhaps it was made for dark-system use.

But since they are dark-system abilities, if you don't hide yourself well, who would use a light bulb? Are you telling the enemy you're here?