How come I was the one being targeted?

The defense officers standing at the hatch let Alan in directly after seeing him, and looked at him with admiration as he strode in.

Alan walked straight along the corridor of the main control module and soon arrived at the office of the space station director. After pushing open the door, he saw the pink-haired girl who was busy at her desk.

She has neat and clean pink shoulder-length hair, and her fair and delicate face always reveals a hint of elegance and nobility that belongs only to those in a superior position, while her clear and bright blue eyes are particularly gentle and rational. She looks not like a vase at all in a simple off-shoulder business suit, but rather has the capable temperament of a strong career woman.

But she seemed to be too busy right now. When she noticed Alan standing at the door, she immediately put on an arrogant and domineering attitude and said angrily, "Alan, why are you here just now? Hurry up and help me clean up the manuscripts here."

"Ms. Heita, you're really messing around with all these precious manuscripts piled up in your office like garbage. Hmm...how long will it take to sort them out?"

The Black Tower's manuscripts are extremely valuable assets to the space station.

The core of its rarity is not that Heita is rarely willing to spend pen and ink to write down his inspirations and ideas, but that for such a genius, there is nothing in the world worth recording.

Yet, these manuscripts could represent the scientific achievements that would take an ordinary clerk ten years, or even a lifetime, to produce, potentially illuminating an entire unfamiliar scientific field. But to her, they were as mundane as casually lighting a CFL. Who would waste time systematically documenting such trivial matters?

Therefore, this task fell on the shoulders of the current station manager, Esther. On weekdays, whether it was managing the staff who expressed their opinions, or responding directly and politely to the various difficulties posed by the Knowledge Society, it was easy for Esther. However, organizing the manuscripts made her miserable.

The reason is simple - faced with the thousands of manuscripts here, no one can walk out of the office that is like a waste paper yard overgrown with weeds with a smile.

"Forget it, forget it. Don't sort out these manuscripts for now, Alan. We can deal with them in detail later when we have time."

Ester sighed softly as she stood up from the sea of ​​paper. She had something else urgent that needed to be done by Alan, so she stopped Alan, who was obediently busy organizing his manuscripts, and handed him a room card, explaining:

"Alan, a guest from Ms. Black Tower will be visiting the space station soon. Please go and greet the guest for me. As you can see, I have other matters to attend to here, so I can only ask you to do this."

It’s not that Ester doesn’t want to go to greet him, but she has other scheduled meetings to attend and it’s really hard to make time.

Normally, she should have been informed earlier about a guest's visit, but Ms. Heita was not a normal person. It was not until thirty minutes ago that Ester knew that there would be a guest visiting the space station today.

Ms. Heita was too lazy to come out, and she had to preside over a meeting. After much thought, she felt that Alan was the most suitable person for this situation.

"Eh? Leave it to me? Is it really appropriate to leave Ms. Black Tower's client to me..."

When Alan heard that the guest was from the Black Tower, his expression became visibly stiff.

Boshizun's club is full of weirdos, lunatics, lone wolves, autistic geniuses, and people with social disabilities, which is well-known in the galaxy.

Alan had the good fortune to meet several of Ms. Black Tower's guests - a mysterious android man covered in metal, a strange man with a plaster relief on his head... The only one who seemed normal was the black-haired woman.

But no matter what, geniuses are surrounded by geniuses, and fools are surrounded by fools. Ms. Black Tower's guests are definitely eccentrics like herself. Alan knows that he has a low emotional intelligence and can't speak well. If he says something wrong...

So Alan rarely shook his head to express some resistance.

"Let's let Ms. Heita come. I'm not qualified. If I say something wrong, it would be bad if I upset the guests."

"How could it be that easy? Haven't you noticed that all of Madam Black Tower's puppets have been in standby mode these past few days? For some reason, the energy of the star core stored in the storage room has been fluctuating, causing Madam Black Tower to focus all her attention on studying it. Plus, she doesn't care much about interpersonal relationships to begin with. Honestly, it's a miracle she even remembered she had a guest."

Ester bent down to pick up the staff buried in the manuscript and gently tapped Alan on the head. "Come on, you're the head of the defense department. How can you be so timid?"

"Um...sorry."

Alan lowered his head in frustration, wondering if he had angered the young lady again, so he had no choice but to agree to her request this time.

"Then I'll leave it to you. By the way, Alan, did you see Pepe today?"

"Pepe? I didn't see it today." Alan shook his head.

"Really?... I guess he's gone off with someone again. After all, Peppa is a bit clumsy, and he'll follow you if you just pat his head."

Ester, who was extremely confident in her pet's personality, nodded and stopped caring. After all, all the staff in the space station knew Pepe, and no one would hurt it. Pepe would come back naturally when he was tired of playing.

"Oh, it's almost time for the meeting. I'll be leaving now. Alan can go wait for Ms. Black Tower's guests near the platform."

Ester glanced down at her watch and hurriedly left the office. Finally, she added to Alan, "By the way, if you have time, please sign for the delivery of the 5,000 shells I ordered online."

"Okay...huh? Wait, what's with the cannonballs? Miss, what did you waste your money on again? I need your explanation-!"

Alan was stunned for a moment. After his brain finally processed the information, his calm demeanor suddenly collapsed and he shouted loudly at Ester who had quickly fled the scene.

.............

Support section, reception platform

The cold air was mixed with a slightly unpleasant smell of disinfectant.

The nerves kept sending strange signals, which brought a feeling completely different from Luo Fu. As far as the eye could see, everything around him was mechanical facilities and cold floors. The wide circular platform connected to the distant laboratory and the connecting passage.

Bai Jun walked down the stairs of the interstellar spaceship alone, ending his three-day galactic voyage.

He really wanted to stretch his body as much as he could and let out a long sigh of satisfaction, but it was too quiet around him.

Apart from Bai Jun, there were no other incoming starships on the huge reception platform at this time. However, despite this, the clerks coming and going did not cast their eyes on him even for a moment. Most of them looked hurried or looked down at documents with serious expressions.

The only thing that made some movement was the jade sign in his pocket. However, ever since Bai Jun used a list to send a group notification that he would not be in Luofu this month, he was bombarded with various messages and was forced to choose to mute it, so much so that he was now a little afraid to open the jade sign.

To be honest, Bai Jun actually likes this quiet academic atmosphere. Everyone does their own job, so they don't disturb others and can concentrate on their own work.

But the crux of the matter now is not this——!

"Didn't the old man say that everything had been arranged in advance..."

Bai Jun looked around several times but couldn't find anyone to pick him up. This feeling of being abandoned by the world made him wonder if he had been deceived by Huai Yan.

After all, such a large space station can’t be so small that it can’t even afford a receptionist, right?

After standing on the platform like a fool waiting for more than ten minutes, Bai Jun sneezed and realized that he could not sit there and wait for death any longer. When he was about to take the initiative to look for the black tower mentioned in the old man's letter, a sound suddenly came from a distance and attracted his attention.

“…What is that?”

Bai Jun blinked in surprise, looking at the small figure running towards him in a hurry.

"Hello, distinguished guest. I'm Alan, the head of the defense department of the space station 'Black Tower.' I will do my best to protect your safety while you're here."

Alan, who had been running all the way, was panting heavily. He then straightened his body and bowed to the guest who had come from afar.

"Protect me? What nonsense are you talking about, you little dwarf? Go away and leave me alone."

Ugh, what a bad attitude...

Alan had a very bad first impression of the guy in front of him. Although Ms. Black Tower's guests all had their own quirks, at least they were well-educated and well-spoken. But this guy in front of him was an exception, and he didn't seem to be that great.

No matter how dissatisfied he was, Alan's expression remained unchanged. He patiently explained, "My apologies, Ms. Heita's guest, for the issues concerning my personal appearance. If you don't mind, please allow me to take you to Ms. Heita's office."

"Take me to see Ms. Black Tower? W-What on earth have you been talking about from the beginning? Are you crazy!?"

After hearing the name of Black Tower, the bloated middle-aged man showed a look of horror and subconsciously took a few steps back.

At this moment, even if Alan was dull, he realized that something was wrong. He immediately frowned and asked, "Aren't you a guest of Ms. Black Tower?"

"No, how could I be Ms. Heita's guest? I just came here to discuss cooperation with Wen Mingde!"

Before the middle-aged man could finish, Alan had already disappeared from the spot. In a flash, he came to the clerk in charge of reception on the platform, shook his shoulder vigorously, and asked anxiously, "Have you seen a stranger who just arrived here?"

"Stranger?"

The clerk thought for a moment and quickly found relevant information from the corner of his memory:

"Oh, now I remember. I did see a very striking stranger standing on the platform for over ten minutes. Then... I remember him following Pepe towards the connecting passage. Brother Alan, are you looking for Pepe?"

“What, Pepe-Pepe—!?”

Alan was struck by lightning, and cold sweat instantly covered his forehead. If he remembered correctly... the confinement compartment is in front of the connecting passage, right?

The confinement section was once an important experimental site for cutting-edge scientific research on the space station. The shuttle buses, laboratories and plants provided convenient conditions for high-risk experiments. However, due to the energy leakage when Ms. Heita was studying the star core, a small-scale rift was generated in the section. In order to protect the lives of the staff from being threatened by the rift creatures, it has now been closed.

Because the Rift would regularly produce a certain amount of Rift creatures, their Defense Department would periodically clean up the monsters produced by the Rift. If I remember correctly...

It's over! There are a lot of Rift Creatures near the confinement compartment, and we haven't had time to clean them up yet!

Space Station Facts: Chapter 83 This is What I Spent (6k)

"Such a small one..."

Bai Jun lowered his head and saw a white-haired puppy running to his legs, rubbing his trouser legs affectionately, and then happily spinning around at his feet with its tongue out.

The people of Xianzhou mostly regard strong and big pets as beautiful. Bai Jun was used to seeing large dogs weighing dozens of kilograms in Xianzhou, so he couldn't help but feel very strange when he occasionally saw such a small pet dog, so he took the dog's fate by the scruff of the neck.

"Wang Wang!"

Even when being picked up by someone he met for the first time, Pepe was not only very lively, but even extremely excited. He stuck out his tongue and panted, and barked happily from time to time, as excited as if he had seen a piece of meat bone.

Seeing this, even Bai Jun had to call it a Haoxiu dog. He then held it in his arms, gently stroked its soft fur, and looked around.

But when he looked around, he didn't see any trace of the dog's owner. This was very strange. It went without saying that such a delicate and friendly puppy was a domestic pet. How could its owner let it out alone?

If they were in Luofu, Bai Jun could still take action to deal with it, but now he is in a foreign land and he doesn't even know where he is. It would be foolish for him to take care of other things without permission. After all, he can't tell what the dog's condition is. If a situation arises where someone says, "Why should I care about it when it's not your dog?", then he will not be able to clear himself of the blame even if he jumps into the sea of ​​​​Cha.

Thinking of this, Bai Jun decisively put the pocket-sized pet dog back on the floor and let it run and play.

Unexpectedly, the dog not only did not leave, but instead circled around Bai Jun's feet even more happily, and finally bit his trouser leg, as if it wanted to take him somewhere.

"Wait a minute, are you the one sent by the space station to receive me?"

A bold idea suddenly emerged in Bai Jun's mind.

Using a pet dog to greet guests, although it sounds unbelievable, this seems to be the only explanation for the current situation. Let's just call it a space station custom...

After confirming again and again that there was no receptionist nearby, Bai Jun had no choice but to follow Pepe's direction to see what was going on.

As he continued walking along the connecting passage, the number of people around him became even fewer than before on the platform. Occasionally, he could only see clerks in white uniforms and holding weapons passing by him, casting puzzled glances at him.

Several of the staff hesitated to speak, but upon seeing Pepe beside Bai Jun, they began to wonder if this unfamiliar stranger was an expert hired by Miss Ester to deal with Rift Creatures. After all, on such a massive space station, there weren't many people Pepe would willingly follow.

After hesitating for a moment, they chose to shut up and pay high respects to Bai Jun's back as he walked away towards the confinement compartment.

Recently, the activity of the creatures in the Rift has become rampant, and they are racking their brains over how to deal with them. Now that they have professionals, they are overjoyed.

But before they had gone far, they saw Alan running towards them, carrying a huge sword that was emitting lightning. He was panting heavily, and his eyes were now bloodshot from not resting for too long. When he saw the two of them, he asked directly:

"Hoohoo....Have you seen a stranger and Pepe?"

Several people swallowed their saliva. They hadn't seen Brother Alan look so serious and scary for a long time, so they looked at each other and tentatively pointed in the direction of the confinement compartment in the distance.

"Tsk, are we still a step too late... No time to explain, follow me! Get ready for battle!"

Everything seemed to be developing in the worst direction. Alan snorted and without giving any time to think, he gave a brief instruction to a few people and took the lead to continue running towards the confinement compartment with a big sword in hand.

The remaining defense department members were stunned for a moment, then followed with their weapons in hand.

"Isn't it a little too quiet around here? Something feels a little off..."

Bai Jun, who had been walking with Pepe, gradually stopped, blinked his eyes, and felt a chill on his back.

After leaving the connecting passage, the deeper into the cabin we walked, the stranger the atmosphere became. The already few staff members nearby completely disappeared, leaving only a dead silence in the air, with only one or two heavy gasps occasionally heard.

Instruments and equipment were scattered everywhere in the cabin. The high-end floor was covered with huge claw marks and knife marks. Pale yellow crystals, growing from nowhere, were scattered all over the ceiling and walls. And...

A dark calyx blooming out of thin air in the void?

Bai Jun stopped. He had some impression of this kind of substance. He remembered that it seemed to be a creation from the Rift World?

Pepe, who was walking in front, suddenly turned around. While Bai Jun was observing his surroundings, he happily moved back to his feet. His cute furry head instantly twisted, and he opened his bloody mouth, which was completely disproportionate to his size, towards his unprotected ankle...

However, what the sharp teeth came into contact with was not soft flesh, but the cold and hard muzzle of a gun.

"Is this a new scam? It's so exciting right from the start, someone who doesn't know would think it's a parasitic beast."

Bai Jun sighed, and seeing that Pepe had changed from a cute pet to an indescribable image, his guess was confirmed to be correct.

No, this can no longer be considered a guess, it should be said to be a poor disguise. Even he found the surrounding environment strange. How could there be a palm-sized pet dog that dared to lead the way?

The gilded gun barrel accumulated terrifying energy and allowed no resistance. With a gunshot, the monster's body was instantly annihilated in the raging flames.

With the sound of Tianhuo's gunshot as a signal, the space that had been stagnant since the beginning seemed to be torn open, and dozens of monsters with different appearances fell down, but without exception, they all emitted the same aura as the mysterious black calyx.

The monsters roared and surrounded Bai Jun who fell into the trap, not giving him a moment to breathe.

The dark black calyx blooming in the void seemed to have life, constantly creating monsters of various shapes from the cracks, including a monster that looked like Pepe, who had just been blasted into pieces by him.

"A fight broke out right after we got off the spaceship. Seriously... I was so carried away that I believed the old man's words. If I had known, I wouldn't have come here."

Bai Jun sighed softly, and while complaining, he aimed the heavenly fire in his hand directly at the bunch of calyxes in the void, his eyes gradually becoming cold.

boom--!

Hearing the loud noise coming from the confined compartment, Alan's heart tightened when he arrived. He didn't care about anything else and immediately broke into the confined compartment and ran towards the source of the sound.

Alan didn't see any creatures from the Rift Valley blocking the way along the way. He felt fortunate, but at the same time, he also had a very bad premonition in his heart - this seemed to indicate that all the creatures from the Rift Valley had gathered on the battlefield in the distance.

As Alan got closer to the battlefield, the temperature of the air became higher. A rough estimate was that the temperature of the air was at least ten degrees higher than usual. However, Alan had no time to think about what was going on. His mind was full of worry about Pepe.

"Pepe! Guests! Are you okay—!?"

Alan hurried over, and a scorching red wave hit his face first, causing a burning pain and making Alan unable to open his eyes. After a moment, he forced himself to open his eyes, but was shocked by the scene in front of him and was speechless.

Under the terrifying flames rising into the sky, no creatures from the Rift Valley could be seen on the battlefield. Pipes, iron pillars, walls, and even the ceiling melted into molten iron under the influence of the high temperature, and continued to spread along the grooves of the floor.