RELDCF 02

Chapter 02

Strange

“Where is this place?”

“Why is it so hot? It’s so hot.”

“Why did I end up like this? Help me…”

Murong Xiao looked at the other cyborgs who were being scorched by the heat to the point of being unable to speak, then glanced at his own palms. To his surprise, he discovered that he hadn’t suffered much impact. The surroundings were indeed searing, but still within a range he could endure.

Thump.

Finally, one cyborg couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed. Almost instantly, as his body couldn’t withstand the high temperature, he spontaneously combusted. The burning speed was extremely fast; in less than a few seconds, the living body was incinerated into a pile of black charcoal.

The skin-tight suit used for testing bodily data was made of special material, so it didn’t burn away even after this high temperature.

Seeing this, although they lacked professional equipment to measure it, everyone could still judge that the ambient temperature of the ground they were on was at least several hundred degrees, or even hotter. If they weren’t cyborgs, they would have long since lost their lives.

Living on a desolate star—it sounds fine, but which desolate star isn’t formed because the harsh environment makes it unsuitable for human survival? Only the high-quality cyborgs could manage to hold on.

Realizing his situation, the remaining conscious cyborgs felt their hearts turn cold. It seemed they had already seen their own fate, just like the ashes of those who had fallen before.

Among them, some had voluntarily agreed to the cyborg experiments for various deals to become stronger, while others were like Murong Xiao—kidnapped and brought here. They had long been prepared for death should the experiments fail, but those who still retained consciousness were mostly in the latter group; they didn’t want to die like this.

They didn’t want to, but there was no other way. The Federation fleet that had sent them here had left long before they woke up, and there were no ships on this desolate star that could allow them to escape. This place was completely barren, without a single trace of life.

Just like that, the cyborgs had no choice but to accept their fate. The remaining conscious ones formed a circle, sitting together to comfort each other while waiting for their life force to run out.

Of course, there were those who were unwilling to just wait for the end. They, along with the cyborgs who had lost their sanity, chose to leave after resting for a while, wanting to go out and fight for a glimmer of survival.

Murong Xiao chose the former. He was on his own and understood his own body—he knew that he hadn’t lost his terminal illness just because he had become a cyborg. It was better to have a group of people to accompany him, so he decided to stay with them.

An hour later, half of the remaining cyborgs had left one after another, only to turn into ashes.

Five hours later, the number of cyborgs who could still remain was only in the single digits.

Ten hours later, the cyborg beside Murong Xiao patted his shoulder with difficulty because he was also approaching his limit.

“Brother, I’m going one step ahead.”

As he finished speaking, his body also collapsed with a “thump” beside Murong Xiao, then turned into ashes at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Murong Xiao: “…”

Perhaps he had seen too much during this period, which left Murong Xiao without much emotion now. Thinking that he would likely face the same end shortly, he didn’t feel much inner turbulence.

Just like that, as the starlight gradually dimmed, the ambient temperature also dropped rapidly. Before long, the once scorching heat turned into a bone-piercing chill.

Murong Xiao: “…”

One day, two days… a week passed.

The fact that he could survive for so long without food or water surprised Murong Xiao deeply. At the same time, he also understood that as a higher-grade cyborg, he would not die in such a short time. This feeling of wanting to die but being unable to was incredibly agonizing.

Just as Murong Xiao was considering whether to leave and take a look around, a massive, deep-green warship appeared in the sky and showed signs of landing.

To Murong Xiao’s surprise, that massive, deep-green warship landed right beside him…

The cabin doors opened, and soon Murong Xiao saw squads of elven soldiers armed with long spears and bows walking down.

That’s right, they were elven soldiers. Murong Xiao had seen information about them on the Star Network. They were all exceptionally handsome and beautiful, possessing extremely high talent for magic. That was why their value on the black market was sky-high.

However, no one knew where they lived, as the elven race had the ability to conceal their own planet. They could not only hide it but also make their planet perform spatial teleportation to leave their original location. This was also why they had survived repeated, massive catastrophes in the galaxy; the entire race was extremely mysterious.

The elven soldiers’ objective was very clear. After disembarking, they walked straight to Murong Xiao’s side and surrounded him.

Seeming to confirm there was no threat on the ground, a female elf holding a green crystal followed them off the warship. She came to Murong Xiao’s side, just like the previous elven soldiers, and then held the crystal toward Murong Xiao’s face.

In an instant, the crystal glowed with green light.

“It’s this one. Take him.”

It seemed that to prevent Murong Xiao from putting up any “so-called” resistance, she spoke in Interstellar Common.

After entering the Interstellar Era, people from Blue Star had also learned the Interstellar Common language, and now it had become one of the required languages on Blue Star, so Murong Xiao could understand it.

The next second, an elven soldier brought over a piece of cloth to blindfold Murong Xiao and tied it tightly. Then, Murong Xiao was carried onto the warship, one on his left and one on his right.

It seemed that because they had confirmed Murong Xiao had no other abilities, the elven soldiers did not impose any special imprisonment measures on him. Aside from not removing the blindfold, they only tied his arms with a rope. Other than that, they did nothing; they didn’t even interrogate him.

It seemed that because the human race was very fond of capturing elves for auction, the elves didn’t have a good impression of the human race. Murong Xiao had thought at first that they might want to extract some information from him, but it turned out they didn’t.

If they didn’t want to, then so be it. Murong Xiao wasn’t curious about where they were taking him; after leaving that torturous environment, he could finally get some rest.

Just like that, Murong Xiao fell into a deep sleep once more…

Not long after, when Murong Xiao woke up again, the cloth over his eyes had been removed, but the rope binding his hands was still there.

Murong Xiao looked around in a daze. Inside… it was still quiet.

The iron door opened. The elven soldier who came to see Murong Xiao looked surprised to see him looking so energetic, but surprise was surprise—it didn’t mean they were kind to him.

“Move on your own now that you’re awake. You actually dared to lay a hand on an elf; you’ll have a bitter time waiting for you later.”

I’ve translated the second chapter for you, keeping the characters and their names intact. Let me know if you would like me to proceed with the next part or if you have any other requests!