WP CH 1: Departure

Translator: Deyonna

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Volume 1: Core of Galaxy

Chapter 1: Departure

Prologue

"...We must reaffirm this point once more: in the history of humanity's exploration of the universe, the migration that began in the year 517 of the Marseille Calendar and the Great Retreat five hundred years prior both hold landmark significance. This migration, known as the 'Phoenix Route,' opened a new era. It was our brothers and sisters who brought new hope from the other end of the cosmos.

In fact, although the '517 Migration' involved fewer than a hundred people at its outset—they had lost their way, been separated from their companions, and had no expectations about where their journey would end—from our perspective today, the significance of this migration is so profound that it resembles a chain of explosions between us and Marseille. The migrants retraced the path of our retreat, and the destination they reached was simultaneously the starting point of everything." (From A Brief History of New Humans and the Cosmos)

—

Departure

Jiang Che leaped onto the ship's deck just before the final chime of the bell.

"Heavens!" Heaney waved his large hand as if about to slap him. "I told you yesterday. All crew members must be in position an hour early today! Why do you always wait until the launch bell rings before you..."

Jiang Che handed him a flatbread. "Beef and pickled greens stuffed flatbread."

The face of the furious middle-aged man with brown hair immediately softened, snatching the flatbread.

"Fine, for the sake of the flatbread, I'll forgive you this once." He ate as he asked, "Jiang, it's just a trip, why are you bringing such a huge suitcase? Is it filled with your transformation gear?"

Heaney was referring to the plot of 《The Black Hunter》, a movie that had recently become popular. He found his own joke quite amusing and burst out laughing, spraying bits of pickled greens onto Jiang Che's face.

Jiang Che wiped them off in annoyance. "Don't watch so many popcorn movies!"

Heaney: "What's popcorn?"

Jiang Che had been running the whole way and was out of breath, with no energy left for idle banter. He gave Heaney a hasty wave, turned, and dragged his luggage into his equipment room. He still had two flatbreads in hand, both warm and golden, their aroma making him feel even hungrier. After changing his clothes, he overturned a large bucket on the floor, sat down on it, and began eating his breakfast.

On Marseille, beef and pickled greens were hardly rare commodities. They were moderately priced, produced in vast quantities, and for Jiang Che, the only drawback was that they didn't taste right—not quite like the beef and pickled greens from Earth.

More than five hundred years had passed since humanity bid farewell to Earth and relocated to this planet named Marseille.

Marseille was located in the Orion-Cygnus Arm of the Milky Way. It possessed three moons of its own and orbited the star "Alpha." Its volume was three times that of Earth, its surface covered with vast amounts of liquid water and an atmosphere similar to Earth's. Biological evolution on the planet had already begun, and its surface was teeming with green vegetation and the animals that lived among it, making it a highly suitable planet for human habitation.

According to records, the first astronaut to set foot on Marseille was French. He stepped off his spacecraft, stood still for a moment, then, overcome with emotion, threw himself onto his knees on the damp soil of Marseille. Opening his mouth, he stammered out a rendition of "La Marseillaise."¹

¹The national anthem of France

His fragmented voice traveled across 42.73 light-years back to Earth. At that moment, over four billion people around the globe heard his choked singing.

In the subsequent global online vote, "Marseille" defeated names like "Bass," "Halo," "Gungun²," and "Iron Man" to become the new name of this planet.

²A cute nickname for panda, it also means rolling

Marseille was suitable for human habitation, and naturally, it was also suitable for farming and grazing.

But strangely enough, although the plants and animals brought from Earth could all survive on Marseille, their appearances underwent subtle changes, and even the texture of their meat and their flavors were vastly different from those on Earth.

So when Jiang Che ate, he always felt that the beef wasn't really beef, and the pickled greens weren't really pickled greens.

The stuffed flatbreads were made by himself. During his days living on Marseille, whenever he had time, Jiang Che would always cook for himself. He lived in a small dormitory, sharing communal baths and restrooms with many young people of similar age, along with a kitchen that no one ever used.

When Jiang Che left his dormitory today, pressed for time and unable to prepare a better breakfast, he grabbed the three leftover flatbreads from last night. The dough of the flatbread was kneaded by his own hands, and the filling contained chopped beef and pickled greens, along with a sauce he had made himself, all wrapped up in the dough, flattened, and thrown into a pan of sizzling oil. The hot oil bubbled and gurgled, tiny oil bubbles appearing at the edges of the dough, and as they burst one after another, a steaming aroma wafted out.

Although they had gone cold, a brief reheating brought back the fragrance. The dough wrapped around that warm, fragrant filling, each bite released savory, salty meat juices, followed by the sensation of individual beef granules. Jiang Che hadn't minced the beef finely; the meat juices and sauce soaked into the beef granules within the dough, and the pickled greens, softened yet slightly crisp, made him want to swallow everything in one ravenous gulp, yet he couldn't bear to, so he chewed slowly, bite by bite.

The sauce in the filling was rich and complex in flavor. Jiang Che wiped the sauce from the corner of his mouth with his finger and licked it clean, still savoring the taste.

Because the flavor of the beef was different from what he was used to, Jiang Che always added a lot of sauce to the beef filling. The sauce was made from a strange plant that grew on Marseille's soil. Jiang Che called it "beef-grass," because the juice of this plant, when heated, emitted the aroma of beef, remarkably similar to the taste of Earth beef. It was quite peculiar.

If it were the beef from before, there would be no need for such things to enhance the flavor. Jiang Che chewed the stuffed flatbread with big bites, his heart filled with regret: he missed those natural beef juices, thick, sweet, and fragrant, perfect for mixing into rice, with a flavor that was absolutely delicious.

After finishing one, he let out a satisfied sigh and prepared to tackle the next. Just then, Heaney's loud voice rang out from outside the door: "Jiang, you should go to the second deck and sweep the floor!"

Jiang Che had no choice but to stuff the flatbread into his lunchbox and carry it out with him.

The dolphin-shaped ship Jiang Che worked on was named "the Faust," and it belonged to the Interstellar Route 18 of the Marseille Interstellar Travel Agency. Among all the ships on Marseille, it was the only one modeled after a dolphin, but because of its round and bulky shape, it was also the only ship that the people of Marseille described as "cute."

The Faust had a passenger capacity of 1,000, but at this moment, there were only a little over 300 passengers on board.

Passengers carried backpacks uniformly distributed by the Marseille Interstellar Travel Agency, each printed with a round, chubby Earth. They were heading to Earth for a visit.

The moment humanity migrated to Marseille was also the moment they evacuated Earth. Over five hundred years ago, in the dead of night, people were jolted from sleep by a warning: an asteroid that had broken free of its orbit was hurtling toward Earth. It was so massive that there was no avoiding it.

The interstellar migration plan, not yet fully matured, was immediately pushed forward ahead of schedule. Marseille was the most suitable destination, but it lay a considerable distance from Earth, and no one could predict how many dangers this route would bring.

When the final moment arrived, as over a million lucky people departed Earth aboard their ships, they could already see, through astronomical telescopes, the small planet gradually drawing closer.

After two subspace jumps, Earth was no longer visible. The vast fleet threaded through countless perilous asteroid belts, its numbers of ships and people steadily dwindling. They had no leisure to wonder what had become of the homeland behind them.

That asteroid grazed past the South Pacific, crashed into the Australian continent, and triggered tsunamis that swept across the globe. It even destroyed the intact space broadcasting network surrounding Earth. Because of the immense distance, the humans aboard the fleet never learned anything about Earth until they reached Marseille.

More than five hundred years passed. People continued to survive and multiply on the new planet, and they established the first waystation along the long stretch between Marsai and Earth. The waystation soon became operational, relaying information about Earth back piece by piece.

But the new humans born on Marseille cared little about matters concerning Earth.

What they valued more was how to use Marseille as a base to continue exploring outward into the universe.

Marseille was a fresh planet, but humanity had already arrived with a highly developed civilization. Such advanced civilization and technology demanded vast resources and space to sustain them. The pioneers, eager to establish themselves quickly on Marseille, soon began constructing cities. Marseille's resources had not yet fully matured and could not withstand such intense exploitation. In just five hundred years, resource reserves were already flashing red warning lights.

To survive and perpetuate their civilization, the new humans were enthusiastic about probing deeper into space, showing little interest in the old home they had left behind.

It was precisely for this reason that the Earth route developed by the Marseille Interstellar Travel Agency remained open for registration for six full months, yet ultimately failed to gather even the minimum five hundred passengers needed to form a group.

Jiang Che, who was cleaning the floor, heard the captain's voice booming over the broadcast.

"This voyage is about to begin. I am the captain of the Faust, Piérome Loris Ayamitz Minda...”

The captain's name was sixty-eight characters long. By the time he finished reciting it, Jiang Che had already finished mopping.

"We will undergo no fewer than twenty-six subspace jumps before finally returning to the solar system. To allow full appreciation of its scenery, the Faust will reduce speed as we pass through…”

Jiang Che rinsed out his rag and began vigorously scrubbing a trash can in the corridor that had gum stuck to it.

Technology was so advanced, even interstellar travel was possible, so why couldn't every ship manage automatic cleaning? He thought indignantly, why hadn't humanity yet invented gum that didn't need to be spit out?

Because the passengers aboard the Faust this time were undertaking a "homecoming journey," every detail on the ship was designed to let the new humans experience history: human cleaners, green plants that would likely wither quickly during the voyage, a complex kitchen that few would use, and trash bins without automatic waste-decomposition functions.

"...the Faust is about to depart. We wish all passengers a pleasant journey."

Piérome's voice faded away. Jiang Che's heart stirred. He quickly steadied himself against the wall, stood upright, and looked out through the porthole beside him.

The Faust was vibrating slightly.

Jiang Che nearly pressed his face against the window.

Marseille Interstellar Travel Agency's escort ship, along with the Faust's departure from port, also sailed away from Marseille. Marseille, shrouded in a silver barrier, was slowly receding from his view. The silver barrier was released by the Sea³, Marseille's overall defense system, which could monitor the surroundings of the planet in real time and respond immediately. Beneath the barrier was the place where Jiang Che had lived. People went about their business as they always did, oblivious to the departure of a mid-sized vessel.

³The Sea is already in English in the original text. It is a large silver circle that covers Marseille.

In Jiang Che's memory, the most recent sensational ship departure was the giant scientific vessel that had gone on an exploration mission to the Crab Claw Galaxy last month.

He had been in the crowd then too, watching the silver-white ship leave port from afar.

The ship was massive, emitting a rumbling roar. Through the loudspeaker, a voice shouted at the top of its lungs: “They're setting off! Our brave warriors, the 124th exploration of the galactic bulge has begun!'”

Jiang Che was still not used to the way Marseille people spoke, nor did he know what the galactic bulge was, so he didn't understand much. He turned to leave, then spotted information about Faust's "homecoming journey" on a flyer at his feet.

He rushed to the travel agency immediately but was shocked by the cost of the homecoming tour. He didn't have that much money. A staff member told him that because the "homecoming journey" had attracted so little interest, this might be the last chance to travel to Earth on a tourist visa: Marseille Interstellar Travel Agency had decided to discontinue this tour route.

When Jiang Che was at his wit's end, he happened to see Faust's advertisement recruiting human cleaners.

Although the Faust had already filled its positions by the time he rushed to sign up, after verifying Jiang Che's identity, the other party sympathetically agreed to his request: "Not a single cent, just let me board the ship."

The Faust was rising higher and higher. Jiang Che saw the star Alpha, several times larger than the Sun, reveal its plump, rounded outline. Beneath its light were the silver-white Marseille, the escort ship flashing orange, and the vast sky slowly spreading out in several shades of blue.

I'm going home, he thought. Goodbye, Marseille. Goodbye, terrible beef.

The Faust had six decks. Aside from the storage space on the first deck and the entertainment space on the fourth, the other four decks were all guest rooms. The interior of this ship was modeled after an ocean liner, with a large amount of open activity space, making cleaning quite laborious.

Jiang Che had just finished cleaning the second deck and stepped onto the third when an announcement from the dispatch station came through his earpiece.

"Attention all units, attention all units. According to an urgent notice from Marseille Criminal Investigation Department, among the 16 ships that departed today, it is highly likely that a dangerous individual has already infiltrated..."

Jiang Che hadn't even finished listening when Heaney's voice suddenly cut in, ordering him to go to Room 666 immediately to clean the toilet.

Because the toilet in Room 666 was clogged, sewage had seeped through the ceiling, causing the guest in Room 566 to complain incessantly. Jiang Che hesitated for a moment outside Room 666, set his lunchbox down in the hallway, took a deep breath, and charged in wearing a mask.

Thankfully, it wasn't anything too hard to look at. What had clogged the toilet were some plastic packaging wrappers. Jiang Che fished them out and looked closely, turns out they were bags of a soda cracker that had been selling like hotcakes in Marseille lately. The cracker resembled a sandwich biscuit he was familiar with, two crackers with a green sugar paste in the middle, dyed with the juice of some plant whose name Jiang Che couldn't place.

This stuff didn't taste good, Jiang Che thought. You people clearly have never had 3+2 sandwich crackers⁴, the vanilla-flavored kind.

⁴A popular Chinese layered snack featuring three crispy cracker biscuits with two distinct flavored cream fillings

He walked out of Room 666 and was about to report the situation to Heaney when he looked down and found his lunchbox tipped over in the hallway, completely empty. The last beef and pickled greens flatbread was gone.

---

Author's note:

Jiang Che's identity will be gradually revealed later on. And our handsome Mr. Hitman is still waiting in the wings, rehearsing his lines.

The pickled greens are actually mustard greens.

 

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