Just passing through a door allowed them to cross the distance of several days of interstellar travel, which made Rappa click her tongue in wonder.
"Master Yumao's Nin-Tech is truly astonishing."
Bai Luan put away the Anywhere Door.
"It's nothing much."
Then, with Rappa leading the way, Bai Luan and 882 followed, preparing to rendezvous with Boothill to discuss their next steps.
Along the way, 882 explained his name and the development history of Beta Star to Rappa.
"I see, it seems your name also carries a story."
"However, using production numbers as names should probably stop in the future."
882 asked with a hint of curiosity:
"Why? This naming method is very convenient, isn't it?"
"This is mainly for the future Beta Star people to consider, after all, the numbers will get longer and longer, and currently your designation only takes the first three digits of the number. Eventually, these abbreviations will overlap, and then you'll only be able to extend the abbreviation to differentiate, which will lead to the number becoming longer and longer, losing the meaning of an abbreviation."
Bai Luan smiled and asked 882:
"You can call yourself 882, but future Beta Star people can't introduce themselves by reciting forty or fifty digits, can they? And..."
Bai Luan's gaze was drawn to a cowboy waiting nearby, but he still finished what he wanted to say to 882:
"Rather than a number, this birth imprint, I hope you can find the name you truly desire."
Rappa stepped forward and greeted Boothill.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Silver Lance. Shura."
"It's fine, anyway, the clues are broken now, and there's nothing to do. These little darlings, for money, even dared to put that kind of chip in their heads."
Boothill described the current state of the small fry he had captured to Rappa.
"After that organization confirmed they were useless, they directly had the chips in their heads burn their brains into mush. Now they're like idiots, only drooling."
"Don't worry, Silver Lance. Shura, I've brought helpers this time, one of whom can even predict the future."
"Oh? You mean those guys who interfered with your arrests?"
Boothill's gaze bypassed Rappa and looked at Bai Luan and 882.
Soon, he locked his gaze on Bai Luan.
"I've investigated you, a genius from the Genius Society, a distinguished guest of the Company, correct?"
Boothill was already annoyed by his fruitless half-month investigation, and now someone connected to the Company had arrived, and had even interfered with Rappa's actions, so he found it difficult to give the other party a pleasant look.
If Rappa hadn't said they were here to help, he would have drawn his gun and pointed it at them by now.
"I'm not that easy to fool, my darling. If I find out your interference wasn't an accident, no matter if you're a genius or some Company celebrity, I'll just shoot you all, understand?"
882 heard this and was a bit confused. He leaned closer to Bai Luan and asked curiously:
"Miss Rappa was like this before, and this gentleman is also like this. His tone is clearly not friendly, but his words are... uh... sweet? Is it that all Galaxy Ranger speak so strangely?"
Facing 882's curious question, Bai Luan retorted:
...Are you, someone who uses Inspiration Mushroom as a 'good morning,' really qualified to complain about this?
"Isn't that normal? Wait..."
882 pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized:
"So, this is what cultural differences feel like!"
The thought of Beta Star possibly using this realization as an example and writing it into their history books made Bai Luan almost lose his composure.
"So, Bai Luan, how should we respond to him? 'We are very sorry, we will do our best to make up for our mistakes and try our best so you won't shoot us to death.' Like that?"
"Forget it, I'll say it."
Bai Luan cleared his throat and looked at Boothill, who was already a bit impatient.
"Interfering with the arrest was not our intention. To make amends, I'll help. I'm quite good at finding people."
"Do you think that just by talking to a few people, you're good at finding them?"
Boothill crossed his arms upon hearing this.
"These little darlings are very good at hiding. Most of the dirty work is done by robots.
The core members aren't robots, but they all have chips in their brains. Once caught, the chips will burn out their brains.
Catching those robots is useless; they're just machines executing tasks."
"It's fine. As long as people act, they'll leave traces. No matter how much they hide, they'll leave clues. Let me see those people whose brains were burned out, and the robot wreckage you've destroyed."
Boothill glanced at Bai Luan and snorted:
"You'd better really have the ability, and not just be bragging."
Then he turned and walked into the house.
Rappa walked over and smiled apologetically at Bai Luan.
"Master Yumao, I hope you don't mind Silver Lance. Shura's remarks. He really dislikes the Company, and you have some connection to the Company, so..."
"It's fine, I understand him. After all, the circumstances of our meeting weren't ideal."
After all, all of Boothill's precious possessions were ruined by the Company's Market Development Department. Anyone would hate the Company in his place.
However, since it's a misunderstanding, it's better to resolve it as soon as possible.
Rappa led Bai Luan and the others to their stronghold, and Bai Luan also took the opportunity to learn more information.
The organization that Rappa and Boothill were fighting against was named Entropy Machina, and its influence was spread throughout this entire planet.
Because of this, very few organizations were willing to fight against it, but the people on this planet who were persecuted by Entropy Machina still formed an organization—the Anti-Entropy—to oppose them. They were the ones who had been providing intelligence and venues for Rappa and her team.
However, for their own protection, they all helped from the shadows.
After all, Boothill and Rappa didn't have to worry about attacks from Entropy Machina, but the people in this organization were far from being that powerful.
It seems that the local forces on this planet are at an absolute disadvantage against the Entropy Machina organization.
Bai Luan quickly saw the abandoned pawns discarded by Entropy Machina and the salvaged robot wrecks.
There are many ways to investigate information, but Boothill and Rappa must have thought of them too, so the people from Entropy Machina must have cleaned up any normal investigative leads.
If they wanted to continue the investigation, they would probably have to find more unconventional angles, using a method akin to brute force, spending a lot of time and effort to uncover them.
But Bai Luan didn't need to, because he had Ark.
Ark had already brought the entire planet under his observation the moment Bai Luan stepped onto it.
Then Bai Luan entered the Aeon Cultivation Pod, allowing Ark to use those several scrapped robots and the people whose brains were fried by chips as anchors to begin calculating the locations of Entropy's strongholds.
Inside the Aeon Cultivation Pod, Ark replicated the entire planet using computing power, then rewound the planet's time to sort out Entropy's strongholds.
Soon, one stronghold after another was marked by Ark. The time consumed by this calculation was much faster than the one at Carlton.
After all, before, it needed to calculate countless possibilities, but this one only needed to trace backward from the present.
Soon, Bai Luan opened his eyes in reality.
He said to Rappa and Boothill:
"I've found their strongholds."
"No, buddy."
Boothill was directly angered into laughter by this sentence.
"You just glanced at them, then like a charlatan, closed your eyes, and a few seconds later, you tell me you've found their strongholds?"
"I know it's hard to believe, but that's indeed the style of a genius."
Bai Luan shrugged and casually pulled out a miniature holographic projection of the planet.
On the projection of this planet, several red dots were marked.
Soon, Bai Luan found his own position on this miniature projection, thereby locking onto the location of the stronghold Boothill and his team were looking for earlier.
"If you don't believe me, just come with me and raid their base. We're idle anyway."
Hearing this, Boothill became interested.
After being here for so long, he finally encountered something that didn't require brainpower.
Hearing Bai Luan's words, Boothill showed a smile.
"That's what I love to hear, my darling. Let's go, let me see if you're just bragging or if you really have the ability! If it's true, I'll love those little darlings to death."
882 asked:
"What if it's not?"
Boothill's smile widened even more at the question.
"Then I'll have to start loving you all."
"Then I'll have to start loving you all."