Star Rank Hunter

Chapter 163: Aurelio’s Cage [Part 1]

The starship the Andrea Family had prepared for Lung could be called a mini type, and it was a lot smaller than your average starship. It was spindle-shaped and appeared harmless from the outside, but in actuality the starship was installed with the latest ‘Sentinel’ defense system in GAL, cannons, high density energy particle beam launchers and more. Not only were these weapons concealed beneath its harmless appearance, the quality of all of the energy blocks utilised were also the absolute top tier. The moment it encountered danger, the starship’s attack system would raise up its thorns like a curling hedgehog and attack the enemies at all directions.

The starship’s interior design wasn’t flamboyant, but a closer look would reveal that every detail had been meticulously designed, installed and put in order. It gave off the impression of low-key extravagance.

Inside the starship, there was a weapons storage room not far away from the control room and the lounge. All kinds of weapons ranging from cold weapons to energy weapons were stored inside it.

Just in case they encountered a mishap that they could not react to in time, the control room had been specifically modified so that they could rest inside it directly when they were tired.

Since the only passengers of this starship were Cillin, Lung and a cat, and that there were no beautiful girls on board, Lung purposely set the exterior of the robot servants on the starship into the shape of all kinds of beautiful girls. Eye candy and all.

Inside the starship, Lung was lying on top of a recliner inside the control room while eating the roasted meat served by the robot servants. Bored, he sighed for the fifty sixth time of the day.

Cillin did not even lift an eye since he had gotten used to it. He was the one who applied for this mission himself, and yet he’s been sighing for the entire day like a resentful housewife due to sheer boredom.

While staring at the gray cat entertaining itself on top of a table at the side, he said faintly, “Look at it. The life of a cat is so nice. It can happily play with its own tail for half the day. If it’s hungry after playing it’ll fill its own belly before falling asleep, and when it wakes up it can play with its tail again if it’s bored.”

Cillin raised his eyes and looked at the duo, “Actually, you’re about the same as it. The only difference is that it is playing with its own tail, and you’re playing with your own legs.”

Lung put his feet back down from the recliner and shook once, “I’m bored!”

“Then go to bed. If you can’t fall asleep naturally then enter the sleep capsule. Wake up only when something shows up.”

“How can I possibly do something that boring?” Lung said disdainfully before falling into thought. Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he said to Cillin, “Cillin, do you want to listen to some gossip?”

“Whose?”

“From fifty years ago, of course!” Lung controlled his recliner to move beside Cillin, “So, you wanna hear about it?”

Cillin took a glance at Lung’s ‘ask me beg me’ expression before moving his gaze back to the book in his hand, saying nothing.

Lung scratched his head, “Alright, I’ll assume that you agree since you’re not making a sound.”

The moment the gray cat heard that they were going to talk about some secrets, it gave up on its tail and jumped off the table, climbing up Cillin’s body and sitting down on his shoulders. It straightened its ears and began to listen.

But a long while later, Lung failed to force even a fart out of his ass.

“Hey, start speaking man!” the gray cat urged.

“Oh you know, the first step is always the hardest. I’m thinking where to start will be the most appealing!” Lung said righteously.

“And? It’s been ten minutes. Are you done?”

“Almost. Ahem.” Lung cleared his throat and immediately fell into form. He asked with a tone of excessive enigma, “Do you know about ‘Aurelio’s Cage’?”

The gray cat cocked its head. It actually had no idea about this.

Cillin answered uncertainly, “You mean the one from ‘Genesis Mythos’?”

Lung nodded.

‘Genesis Mythos’ wasn’t any profound reading material, but a story book for children. The stories in the book were simple, easy to understand, and short. ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ was one of the many stories in ‘Genesis Mythos’.

In this story, in order to test humanity, God imprisoned five objects that could help men realise their dreams. The prison was the hand of God itself, with each of his five fingers being a lock of the prison. The prison can only be opened by five corresponding keys, and the objects imprisoned by God’s five fingers are called ‘Aurelios’, which meant ‘dream’ in ancient language.

Aurelio was the byword of dreams in the legend. Those who found the keys, unlocked the cage and obtain the ‘Aurelios’ inside it would find their dreams realised.

“It may just be a children’s fairy tale, but no one knows if ‘Aurelio’ actually can realise a person’s dream. However, there were plenty of people who would jump at the opportunity to seek out and obtain ‘Aurelio’. The struggles from fifty years ago were caused exactly because of a key.”

While listening to Lung, Cillin abruptly recalled that a key had been drawn at the end of the poem in Chamonidine’s diary. He hadn’t paid it any attention back then, but now he realised what it meant.

“Ah? Does a God really exists?” the gray cat said in shock.

Cillin, Lung: “…”

You’ve gotten the wrong point, sir cat.

Cillin scratched the gray cat’s head and said, “Of course there are no God, it’s just a fairy tale and it isn’t real. Also, the focus of the story is on ‘Aurelio’s Cage’, and not God.”

“Oh, I see. But if God isn’t real, then how did ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ come to exist?” the gray cat continued to ask.

Both Cillin and the gray cat looked towards Lung.

Lung shrugged, “That I don’t know. It seems that the stories related to ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ have existed since a long time ago… it was probably a thousand years ago. A thousand years ago, the story of ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ had suddenly showed up, and a couple of large forces joined hands to seal off the news. Therefore, there are very few people who knows about ‘Aurelio’s Cage’ in GAL.”

So that’s how it is.

“Continue.”

Both Cillin and the gray cat wait for Lung to continue.

Lung proudly crossed his legs and instructed the beautiful robot girl at the side to bring him a glass of fruit juice. He was thirsty after talking a lot. Then he said, “There is a corresponding star map for every key, and for the past one thousand years these five star maps had already been broken into many pieces. Only by locating these pieces and putting them together could the keys be found.”

“A jigsaw puzzle.” the gray cat mumbled to itself. It sounded like a pain in the ass. The jigsaw puzzle itself wasn’t troublesome, but locating these pieces, was.

“In fact, if you obtain even one piece of the star map and then travel all around the universe, you may be able to find other pieces of the same star map since the pieces can detect each other. Do not compare a star map’s pieces with broken glass or something. A star map would not have more than five separate pieces, and some may have pieces as few as two or three.” Lung explained.

“That’s not too bad. If we get even a single piece then it’ll be easy, won’t it?” the gray cat looked eager to start looking.

Lung rolled his eyes at the gray cat and said, “The problem is that many people did not even have a piece to begin with, or how could a single star map piece possibly spark a commotion that big fifty years ago? Fifty years ago, a certain people collected the star map pieces, obtained a complete star map, and acquired information on one of the five keys. However, the news were leaked, thus causing a conflict of many sides.”

“And these certain people are?” Cillin asked.

“Who else can it be but those three old foxes on the GAL parliament? They’ve gotten a piece each and put them together to form a completed star map. However, the news of their success leaked and triggered the uproar of many forces. However…” Lung rubbed his chin, “I suspect that those three old bastards had purposely leaked the news so they could sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight*.”

*watch in safety whilst others fight, then reap the rewards when both sides are exhausted

“How so?”

“Do you know that the key’s location isn’t the only thing that would appear after a star map has been completed? The key’s name was also revealed, and the name of the key those three old bastards discovered after the star map was completed was ‘White Night’.”