Chapter 244: Green Noah’s Threat
Lunch break time.
Instructors led the students to the canteen together. The scale of the canteen on the Third Military Escort Ship is similar to that of the Production Escort Ship, both with a three-story structure, but it still couldn’t accommodate an entire grade’s students plus the soldiers coming to eat at the canteen, so Agricultural University Affiliated High School and Caida Affiliated High School were assigned to different canteens.
When the students from Caida Affiliated High School heard this arrangement, their faces fell immediately. None of the twelve escort ships in the Third Fleet had a branch store of Yue Xiang Restaurant, and news had just come from Nongda Affiliated High School that the escort ship’s canteen hadn’t introduced recipes authorized by Xiang Chuan either, which meant… they would have to face solid food and liquid food again after a three-month hiatus.
Some Caida Affiliated High School students who followed Xiang Xue Live Stream Room recalled Xiang Chuan’s occasional guest appearances in the live stream room, and her expression every time she mentioned liquid food was almost as bad as when she previously tried meat dishes with pork in the kitchen.
After these past few months adapting to the ancient gourmet delicacies supplied by Yue Xiang Restaurant and the school cafeteria on the main ship, how could these students tolerate solid food and liquid food anymore!
But no matter how much they struggled, the canteen seats were simply insufficient. Even if an area outside the canteen was designated as a temporary dining spot for the students, it couldn’t accommodate over seven hundred people from both schools, not to mention the soldiers and employees on duty or working nearby who also needed to come eat.
So the request from Caida Affiliated High School to squeeze into the same canteen with Nongda Affiliated High School was ultimately rejected by all class representatives except Class Eight.
The Nongda Affiliated High School crowd outside Class Eight: You’re joking, the canteen didn’t get authorization, so they could only hope that A Bite of China Club would make more dishes with Class Eight so they could mooch some food. If this group from Caida Affiliated High School came over too, would there still be food to eat?
The final result was that the students from Nongda Affiliated High School joyfully entered the First Canteen, while the students from Caida Affiliated High School headed to the Second Canteen, looking back every few steps.
——
Inside the canteen.
“This mission really isn’t worth it. The Space-time Network Signal Station didn’t give much reward, and now after finally coming to the Third Fleet, we still have to be forced to install this thing.”
Kenny touched his neck, his face showing a forced smile.
Li Wei’s expression was much worse. If it weren’t for all the soldiers and employees from the Third Military Escort Ship sitting around now, he worried he really wouldn’t be able to control himself from cursing out loud.
Two hours ago, the two had followed Captain Noah into the meeting room, but the moment they stepped through the door, the service-type AI robots standing on both sides of the meeting room suddenly activated suppression mode, charging directly at them, binding their hands from behind, and injecting them with a neural anesthetic agent.
“Although this is a bit excessive, it’s all for the future of the Third Fleet. Captain Kenny Alek, Team Leader Li Wei, please bear with it for a while.”
Captain Noah had his two deputy officers help Kenny and the other to the chairs, then the two deputy officers took out two metallic syringes. Seeing the model of syringes, Kenny and Li Wei’s faces changed drastically.
These were syringes specifically for injecting nanomachines! Was Captain Noah planning to get rid of them!
This idea flashed through Kenny’s mind, but he immediately dismissed it. If Captain Noah really intended to kill them, then when the AI robots suppressed them just after entering the door, they should have been holding lethal drugs instead of anesthetic.
“Don’t worry, as long as we can ensure the Third Fleet’s information doesn’t leak, we try not to kill anyone.” Captain Noah sat at the main table in the meeting room and signaled his two deputy officers with his eyes.
The deputy officers understood and aimed the syringes at the two’s necks, injecting the nanomachines of unknown purpose into their bodies.
“These are neural nanomachines co-developed by the Sixth Fleet and Ninth Fleet two hundred years ago. They can be used to monitor and control the injectee’s personal terminal and operation inputs. However, because of their high precision, their lifespan is short; they’ll stop operating in about fifty years and decompose into trace elements needed by the human body.” Captain Noah smiled as he explained to the two, his face showing genuine apology. “I’m very sorry. If you were exploration teams from other fleets, we wouldn’t have to resort to this method. Though I personally think it’s a bit overboard, for the fleet, we have to trouble the two of you.”
As the nanomachines were injected into their bodies, the anesthetic’s effect wore off quickly too. Undoubtedly, the two were prepared together. Barely able to move, Kenny touched the spot on his neck where the nanomachines had just been injected. He couldn’t feel any wound on the skin now. If not for the unusual sensation in the biometric authentication of his wrist personal terminal, Kenny would really have thought Captain Noah was just playing an harmless little joke on them.
“You… all… what… is… your… purpose…”
Kenny opened his mouth and asked intermittently. The anesthetic hadn’t fully worn off, so his tongue and jaw weren’t as flexible as usual, but this recovery speed was already enough to make Captain Noah’s two deputy officers look surprised.
Li Wei sitting next to him still couldn’t speak yet. This young exploration force captain might really have some skills.
Captain Noah’s expression turned serious, about to speak—when his terminal light screen suddenly popped up. Glancing at the message, Captain Noah smiled and said to the two:
“Our purpose is actually very simple, but rather than me explaining it, it might be better for the two of you to see it for yourselves for a deeper understanding. Conveniently, ‘she’ is also on this escort ship.”
Then, the two were half-supported and half-dragged by the deputy officers to the First Canteen.
——
Time returns to now, two hours later.
The anesthetic’s effect had long worn off, and at the same time, the soldiers and employees also began entering the canteen one after another. They had probably received the news of the Eleventh Fleet Pioneer Unit entering the port, so when they saw Kenny and Li Wei, they just cast curious glances before starting to line up obediently.
The solid food and liquid food in the Third Military Escort Ship’s canteen were very tasty, specially supplied with ingredients from the Fifth Production Escort Ship and directly processed and made in the canteen. The recipe was also unique to the Third Military Escort Ship. It was said that previously, quite a few food processing groups had approached Captain Huaken, hoping to discuss cooperation with the canteen side and obtain authorization for the recipe, but all were rejected by Captain Huaken one by one.
In front of Kenny and Li Wei was also a standard canteen set meal—three rectangular solid foods the length of building blocks, liquid food the volume of a noodle soup bowl, plus a pot of purified water.
As they put the food into their mouths, Kenny and Li Wei’s irritable moods eased slightly with the chewing and swallowing.
At that moment, noisy voices came from the direction of the canteen entrance.
“…I think dough drops are great. Didn’t we make chicken soup before? I think using that for dough drops would be very suitable!”
“No no no, there’s no physically demanding activity in the afternoon, dough drops would be a bit wasteful. I think steak and pancake are most suitable, best with a bowl of radish soup.”
“By the way, can’t we really get rice? I haven’t had rice in half a month, I really miss it…”
“Mandy, you’ve watched too many TV series, right? You’re starting to talk like ancient people.”
……
Kenny and Li Wei turned their heads and saw the four from A Bite of China Club at the front of the line.
The Class Eight crowd was chattering about the upcoming lunch, the gluttons with rich diet experience chattering as they made their demands to Xiang Chuan, not forgetting to give a string of proper reasons.
Xiang Chuan, walking at the front, happened to hear Mandy’s words and casually said, “Rice is easy to make, and stir-frying is simple, but we don’t have rice. Powdered rice, even if made from rice, isn’t real rice.”
With that, Xiang Chuan shook her head heavily. The Class Eight crowd let out a wail upon hearing this, then had no choice but to exclude rice from the menu.
Kenny and Li Wei naturally also recognized those young students they had seen at the port that morning.
Kenny thought: What a coincidence, it’s these pretty girls again. Chat them up later?
Li Wei thought: What bad luck, it’s these pretty girls again. How to knock Kenny out later to prevent him from harassing minors?
