Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
In the Alternate World, in the afternoon, in a glade of a nameless forest…
Lin Xue and I, who were starving, were waiting for Pandora to return from hunting.
There was a short scream, and then Pandora—who was dressed for combat—dragged what looked like a boar with curved horns out of the jungle, not far away from us. From the looks of it, she had learned her lesson earlier when our food escaped from us. Now, she no longer wanted to waste any time with food and chose a decisive way to deal with the problem.
A boar definitely met the criteria of being food better than a huge dragon did. At the very least, we did not have to wonder where to begin when looking at huge areas of the meat. What’s more, looking at the incredibly tough dragon meat made us worry that our weak teeth would not be able to emerge victorious over the melee combat with it.
What’s more, we probably would have died waiting for the tons of dragon meat to be fully cooked. Alright, I admit, the above was just me comforting myself for not being able to eat dragon meat.
When Pandora dropped the nameless beast—which looked bigger than her—in front of us, Lin Xue suddenly said, “That’s right, Chen Jun, do you know how to barbecue?”
“…No, you?”
“I am very good at cooking instant noodles…”
“Pandora.” I turned and looked at the little Lolita, who was looking at the nameless beast greedily.
There were two cracks, and then Pandora silently summoned two two-meter long black barrels.
Are you trying to use the same method you used to deal with the huge dragon, in order to barbecue in the glade? Are you sure that your big brother wouldn’t die after eating completely burned food?
After that, all of us stared silently at the food in front of us.
“Big Brother,” Pandora said, tugging at my shirt. “I’m hungry…”
Forget it, wasn’t it just barbecuing?! I did not believe that a Xyrin Emperor would be defeated by a dead boar!
“Pandora, cut this fella for me,” I instructed, pulling up my sleeves. “Leave the barbecuing to me!”
In fact, whether I was the Xyrin Emperor or not had nothing to do with my barbecuing skills.
“Ah Jun, can we really eat this?” Looking at the half-raw and half-burnt artful barbecued meat, Lin Xue expressed serious doubts.
Pandora said nothing before picking up a slice of meat and taking a huge bite out of it.
“It can be eaten,” Pandora said in what sounded like an amazed tone, “Eating in small amounts will not cause any critical damage.”
Hahaha… I was being despised… I was being despised subtly…
Although the quality of the barbecued meat was really horrible—in order to avoid starving to death, we had to force ourselves to eat it. In such a desolate place—apart from these strange, magical, and wild beasts; there was nothing but tall trees around us. If we decided not to eat this strange barbecued meat, we would have no choice but to resort to eating the leaves of the tree.
After going through this fierce psychological and physical battle, we finally decided to dig into what looked like a meal from hell.
“I am never eating barbecued meat again…” Lin Xue, who forced herself to eat until she was half full, finally could not take it any longer. She lay down on the ground and heaved a long sigh.
In fact, I was thinking the same thing.
“If I did not witness it for myself, I would not have thought that such a cute little girl would turn out to be such a frightening warrior…” When Lin Xue saw Pandora obediently allowing me to wipe off the oil from around her mouth, she could not help but exclaim. “Pandora-zero… is that her real name?”
“En.” I nodded. “Does this name remind you of anything?”
“…It reminds me of that myth. Pandora opening the box and allowing all kinds of disasters to enter the world. Only hope remained in that box and was not allowed to emerge from the box. Could it be that Pandora really does have something to do with that myth?”
“Do you want to know Pandora’s true identity?” I asked quietly, looking into Lin Xue’s eyes. Up to now, Lin Xue had already discovered many things. Allowing her to know even more would make no difference. It would also save her all the trouble of guessing. Of course, I did not want to tell her all of my secrets either.
Lin Xue was clearly intrigued by this question. Anxiously, she said, “Can you really tell me?”
“If you can keep secrets.”
“I can keep secrets!” Lin Xue shouted. Then, as if worried that I would not believe her, she said, “I am a high-ranking member of the special-abilities organization after all. You can rest assured that I am able to keep secrets! If that doesn’t work for you, I can swear—”
“You don’t have to swear,” I said, waving my hand, “I’m just afraid you would not be able to handle the truth. Pandora is an Empire’s General!”
“An Empire’s General?” Lin Xue was stunned. “A little girl? Er… I don’t think she matches the description of a little girl, and you did say ‘For the Empire’ or something earlier. Honestly, Chen Jun, your explanation is confusing me even more. What do you mean by ’empire’? I don’t think it’s an empire of this world, is it? None of the countries on earth now have warriors like Pandora…”
“If I tell you it’s an alien empire, would you believe me?”
Lin Xue stared into my eyes, trying to determine if I was telling the truth. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders and said, “Alright, I believe you. I thought that the existence of people with special abilities already sounded science-fictional. I did not expect that even aliens would appear; much less aliens who looked exactly like humans… wait, Chen Jun, you said that Pandora is an alien General. If that’s true, what’s your identity?”
I stood up and faced the sunset, my expression turning somber. Slowly, I said, “Actually, I am the head of an ancient empire…”
“Pfft…” Lin Xue obviously did not believe me. “It’s ridiculous enough that you’re saying Pandora is an alien general. Now, you’re even calling yourself the head of an entire empire. Don’t forget, I researched your background very thoroughly before this, for the sake of recruiting you and Pandora. Apart from the sudden appearance of Pandora, we could not find any information on her. You, on the other hand, I know like the back of my hand—”
“Contact signal received,” Pandora suddenly interrupted Lin Xue.
Surprised, I asked, “A contact signal?”
Pandora’s eyes were already ice-blue. As she analyzed the signals from God-knows-where, she answered, “It’s a contact signal from Sicaro… he has found the missing expedition team. They were trapped by the defensive system in the remains. Once the Ethereal Beacon was activated, the defensive system was destroyed. That was how they escaped. Now, they and Sicaro are staying in the special-abilities organization’s base.”
…Alright, the expedition team had a smooth return, but we were unfortunately dumped in this Alternate World.
Just as I was feeling sorry for myself, Pandora said, “Contact signal received.”
“Another contact signal?”
Pandora nodded and said, “It’s coming from the middle two sets. Sicaro’s contact signal might have been unexpectedly interrupted by background noise.”
The little Lolita was stringing together the signals…
Just as Lin Xue and I started perspiring, Pandora suddenly said, “Contact signal received.”
Why were the contact signals coming one by one? Was Pandora at some kind of interchange for contact signals?
“Signal for help confirmed,” Pandora suddenly said something that surprised me and Lin Xue.
“Analyzing source… determining coordinates… analyzing identity of sender… Xyrin Combat Unit, unknown number, defining authority… B-Grade Battlefield Emergency… Advised to offer support.”
“Are you saying a Xyrin Combat Unit is requesting for help?!” I asked, shocked.
Pandora quietly nodded and asked, “Do you want to offer support?”
“Wait!” I said. “Are you sure it’s an army from the empire? Didn’t you say that the only awakened home-star of the empire is the one that I’m in control of? I don’t remember sending any units out.”
Pandora answered, “I can already confirm that the unit is from the empire, but at the moment, I cannot confirm which corps it is from. I’m not ruling out the possibility that other Xyrin home-stars have awakened before us. However, since this is yet unknown, I cannot get more information from that unit.”
At that moment, Lin Xue was utterly confused by our conversation. She turned from Pandora to me, and then asked, “What are you talking about? Alien signals?”
“Pandora just received a signal for help from one of our empire’s army units. However, they’re not from my army. I’m trying to decide if we should go and offer support.”
Lin Xue’s eyes widened. “…Chen Jun, you weren’t joking when you said you were the head of the empire earlier?”
“When have I ever lied to you?”
“You lied the first time you introduced Pandora!”
…I was silenced.
I could not be bothered to waste any more time with Lin Xue. Thus, I turned to Pandora, who had been quietly waiting for my orders. “Pandora, if they suddenly fight you, can you bring us to safety?”
“With all restrictions lifted, I can quickly launch Pandora’s Military Fortress, which would be able to fight the average-grade Xyrin Units. However, Big Brother, I don’t think there is a possibility that they would attack us. Under any circumstances, Xyrin Apostles would not attack the Xyrin Emperor. That’s a felony.”
You may be right, but I am an incapable Xyrin Emperor. What if they don’t recognize me as one with the ‘highest authority’?
I weighed the pros and cons again and again and finally decided to go and check things out.
Although I was not sure where that unit was from and I was not sure that my ‘Emperor’ status would be of any use, it was not like me to walk away while others were in trouble. After all, they were people of Pandora’s race.
“Offer support,” I said.
Pandora nodded and then carried both me and Lin Xue onto each of her shoulders as if she was extremely used to it. However, since she was not tall enough, both Lin Xue’s and my legs were touching the ground. Yet, regardless of this, I was sure our bodies would become horizontal once Pandora got moving.
Wait, that was not the point, was it? Why did we always have to get dragged by Pandora to our destination?! Couldn’t we use a cooler way of moving around?!
Unfortunately, Pandora did not give me any time to react.
Thus, as Lin Xue screamed, the Pandora-brand little war chariot tore through the forest.