“This is the last scene before the signal was cut off.” Ice Dragon replayed the final scene on the monocle glass in front of my left eye.

Raffles was pacing back and forth in the maintenance warehouse. Just then, Hans and Tao Ze from the construction team ran in, panting. Seemed like something urgent had happened. They panted as they said, “Raf-Raffles! This is bad! Phew! Harry, he -!”

*Pak.* The footage was cut off and went dark.

What’s up with Harry?

“Now you really can’t hear Raffles nagging.” Ice Dragon was making fun of me.

“Sh*t.” That was really not good news. A soldier who was out of contact was in real danger. I gripped the light sword in my hand tightly. “I can only take care of this quickly. Stay far away.”

“Of course. I am not willing to meet death with you.” Ice Dragon flew high and went to hide far away.

I watched him in disdain. I am the mighty Brother Bing. How could my spaceship be such a coward?!

I advanced carefully. Thick tree vines crawled all over the sky bridge. On the vines, blue flowers bloomed in the silence. I extended my hand and poked the cobra-like tree vines with the short baton in my hand. If someone had seen me poking a tree vine in my own world, they would find me silly for thinking a tree vine might be alive.

But here it really was alive.

I poked it but it didn’t move. I wanted to leap over it but I hesitated. Thinking, I squatted next to it and extended my hand to touch its rough skin. Suddenly, the flower petals on its body shrunk, like huge butterflies folding up their wings.

The image of the two spirits I had killed resurfaced in my mind. Once again I felt guilty and saddened.

If they had been alive, we would really be the invaders from their standpoint. No, we were the thieves.

We didn’t knock but barged in aggressively. Without their permission, we broke their houses and took their things away. We even attacked them like monsters.

We were rude barbarians.

Just like the Eight-Power Allied Forces that had plundered Beijing back then.

In that moment, I suddenly felt like we were real b*stards.

“I’m sorry.” I rubbed the cold and rough skin. Then, I leaned down to hug its thick body. If there were really spirits in it, I hope this could convey my apology to them, regardless of whether they could understand or not. “I didn’t do it on purpose. Please don’t touch me. I don’t want to hurt you.” I hugged it and leaned my face against that cool rough skin.

That very moment, it was so quiet that no one would have believed that it was alive. Even I started to doubt if I had made a mistake, or if only some of them could move and the rest couldn’t.

Because this vine was just like an ordinary branch that could only silently lie there. Then, some strange person had unexpectedly touched and hugged it as if she was committing sexual harassment.

I let go of it gently, and the flowers on its body slowly bloomed. I watched the magical sight. The flowers bloomed very slowly, as if a camera had recorded the process and was replaying it at half speed. They were blooming before me, just like how they had closed in front of me earlier.

I hadn’t found it magical when they had closed because I had seen mimosa plants before. When you touched a mimosa, it would quickly close. The sight of the flowers closing had been similar to a mimosa.

I had never expected it to bloom again. It was as if they had only held their breaths because someone had touched them earlier, and now were relaxing their bodies again.

I slowly extended my hand and gently touched the crystal clear flower petals that looked like cicada’s wings. Before I would never have dared to touch her because I had guarded against her. But now, somehow I found her safe and believed she wouldn’t hurt me.

“The things inside, you don’t need them but I need them. Please give them to me. I give you my thanks.”

The flower petals quivered as I spoke, like a serene butterfly had stopped on the tip of my fingers. They looked beautiful.

*Pak!* There was a sound like a gentle bubble pop. The bubble in the middle of the blue flower, which seemed like its seed pod, popped. Familiar star lights flew out like spores and landed on the back of my hand, then immersed into my skin.

I was shocked. It turned out that the flowers here carried radiation!

What is the blue crystal energy exactly? How could it store itself in a plant?

If a plant was planted in soil that contained petroleum, would it bloom into black flowers and give out petroleum?

I don’t think that’s possible, right?

However, there were some plants that could produce fuel oil. In this boundless world, there is no lack of strange things. Humans know so little. If we don’t get to know the outside world, we would be as limited in our knowledge as a frog in a well.

Radiation could condense to form blue crystal energy. Kro contained a large amount of radiation. If all of it condensed, it could become a blue crystal energy and be brought away.

I stood up and looked upwards. The spaceship that was entangled by the tree vines was right in front of me. The interweaving thick tree vines blocked the opening, but had left a gap that a human could fit through.

I leaped over the tree vines and snuck through a hole in the corner.

Originally, I had worried that it would be dark inside. However, when I entered, I stood astonished on a tree vine because the view before me was like a blue fairytale forest!

Tree vines interweaved and covered the ground, the wall, the roof, the shelves, the pillars and everywhere else. There was almost no portion of modernized building left in sight.

They had conquered the entire floor, with blue flowers blooming on the tree vines. The glowing blue lights lit up the surroundings. *Pak! Pak!* There were occasionally bubble popping sounds, where blue light spots floated in the air and became the fireflies of this blue forest.

I advanced through the blue lights, like a lost maiden walking the depths of a blue forest.

Walking on the huge branches, I carefully avoided the flowers. Some seed pods in the middle of the flower petals popped together, the translucent flower petals waving in the air like beautiful elves dancing around me.

Carried away by the beautiful scenery before me, I totally forgot how dangerous it was to be in there. I forgot how terrifying the spirits were. I forgot the tentacle-like tree vines. I only wanted to watch the elves dance in silence. If they had wanted to kill me in that very moment, I would have just smiled because they were too beautiful and it was my fault for disturbing them there.