Chương 53: Outstanding Balance

The emergency lights on the medical pod were still on. The Explorer outpost beneath the wall had not stopped moving. Preservation boxes were still being sent one after another onto the transfer rails. People kept entering and exiting the contamination wash sheds. Farther away, several armored vehicles were lined up, waiting for registration. Death. Severe injury. Missing. In the outpost system, those words were only status fields waiting to be completed. Rowan leaned against the wall.

His right palm still hurt a little. The high-density mana flushing had suppressed the Tainted Energy residue around the edge of the wound, and a fresh layer of medicinal film had been applied over the burn. From time to time, a fine itching sensation came from it. Syringe sat at the entrance of the medical pod, head lowered, still clutching the damaged terminal in his hand. The screen remained on the team member status page. Carl, deceased. Logan, deceased. Grey Raven, missing. Solly, severely injured.

Syringe's finger hovered near Solly's line. The door of the medical pod opened, and a medical worker stepped out. Syringe shot to his feet.

"How is my brother?" The medical worker glanced at him, first tossed the empty medicine vial in his hand into the recycling slot, then said,"His legs have been amputated. Vital signs are stable. Follow-up costs will be merged into the mission medical bill." Syringe's lips moved, but no sound came out. Adams came out behind the medical worker and comforted him.

"Magitech prosthetics and neural bridging both have mature solutions. For someone like Solly, if the fit is good, he may not be weaker than before." Syringe lowered his head, as if something were blocking his throat. After a long while, he nodded softly. Not far away, a new prompt lit up at the outpost settlement counter. [Solly Pioneer Squad: temporary profit calculation complete.] Syringe seemed to be pulled back from another matter. He raised his head and looked at the screen.

The outpost staff projected a distribution table. Outer-layer plant samples, Electric-Fungus Rat tissue, Pincer-Eyed Toad tissue, crystallized bone plates, preservation fluid, damaged array-pattern components, memory crystal chips, and several temporarily supplemented samples had all been purchased in bulk by the Explorer's Association. This method did not offer the highest price, but it was the easiest. No need to find the black market. No need to process contamination themselves.

No need to wait for private buyers to inspect the goods. For a broken team that had just crawled out of a ruin, selling directly to the Association was the safest choice. The settlement table continued scrolling downward. [Association recovery valuation: confirmed.] [Contamination testing fee: deducted.] [High-density mana flushing fee: deducted.] [Medical purification pod fee: deducted.] [Preservation consumables fee: deducted.] [Temporary medical consumables fee: deducted.] [Sample transfer and review deposit: deducted.] Syringe's mouth twitched when he saw the long string of deductions.

"Why don't they just deduct us too?" Adams leaned nearby, his voice a little hoarse.

"I did use quite a lot of medicine." Syringe glanced at him.

"I wasn't talking about you."

"I know," Adams said. Rowan looked at the settlement table without speaking. The Source-Energy Neutralizing Solution and Violet Frostvine Pills did not appear in the cost column. Those had been prepared privately by Solly. They did not go through team costs, nor did they enter the Association's calculation. They had been consumed in this mission, just like Carl's heavy axe, Logan's shield plate, and Solly's own legs. In the end, they would only become an internal outstanding balance of the team.

The shares of deceased members were transferred into a compensation reserve. Solly's disability compensation would go through separate medical and Association insurance procedures. Grey Raven was not an official team member. Since he was registered as missing, he did not participate in the profit distribution of Solly's squad. After asking Solly's opinion, Syringe confirmed the distribution ratio on his behalf. Adams supplemented the medical consumables record.

A few minutes later, the final distribution appeared on Rowan's screen. [Temporary member: Rowan.] [Mission profit distribution: 20, 000 Terra Credits.] [Explorer's Association contribution points: +200.] Rowan looked at the two numbers and calculated silently. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Twenty thousand Terra Credits.

Back when he was doing sewer dissection part-time and renting out processing power, he only made around two thousand TC a month. That had been mortal income, but even among Tier 1 Single-Phase Mages, twenty thousand TC was no small sum. For a D3-grade ruin exploration, getting this amount was on the high side. But too few people had made it back alive. Two dead. One missing. Fewer people to split the money meant more money for each survivor. The logic was cold. And real.

A few minutes later, Rowan's Akashic account received the payment notification. [Account income: 20, 000 TC] [Current balance: 41, 257 TC]"What are these contribution points?" Rowan pointed at the terminal. Now that the settlement finally had a result, Syringe seemed to return a little from that hollow state.

"It's another point system used by the Explorer's Association," Syringe said.

"Some controlled supplies can't be bought directly with money. Things like Mana Primordium, special medicines, and some internal Association equipment all require contribution points." Adams also managed a slight smile.

"They can also be used to offset fees. Roughly one contribution point for one hundred TC. But no one really likes using them that way. Contribution points are much harder to obtain than Terra Credits." After finishing the settlement signature, Adams walked over to Rowan. He took a small tube of ointment from his medical kit and handed it to him.

"This is better than what the outpost gave you. Apply a thin layer. Don't smear the whole tube on at once." Rowan accepted the ointment.

"Thanks." Adams waved it off. After thinking for a moment, he opened Akashic Talk and brought up his contact interface.

"Add me." Rowan was slightly startled. Adams said, "If you ever need a wound treated, stitches, foreign objects removed, or a small operation, you can find me." He paused, then added,"Not for free." Rowan looked at him. Adams gave a tired smile.

"Still more reliable than those black clinics outside." Rowan opened Akashic Talk and added him as a contact. [Adams] appeared in his contact list. His profile picture was a white mouse wearing goggles, which did not match his burly appearance at all. Rowan put away the interface.

"I'll contact you if I need it." Adams nodded, then looked toward the medical pod.

"I need to go back and watch Solly. He should be fine tonight."

"What about Syringe?"

"Let him sit," Adams said.

"He probably can't sleep right now anyway. And this place isn't suitable for cultivation." Rowan did not disturb them further. After receiving temporary passage confirmation, he left the outpost beneath the wall. By the time he took the large freight elevator back to the Seventh Abyssal Hive, it was nearly midnight. The lights of the upper city looked as if they had been soaked in fog. Through the gray pollution clouds, they could not shine very far. Night-shift transport vehicles were still running on the streets.

Hot mist from their exhaust ports rolled close to the ground. In the distance, advertising screens repeated promotions for prosthetics, medicines, and loans again and again, their voices torn into fragments by the night wind. Rowan did not take public transit. He circled through two extra routes, confirming that there was no fixed tail behind him before returning to his residence. There were no signs that the door lock had been forced. Even so, the first instant Rowan entered, his hand moved to his sword hilt.

After seeing the room clearly, he slowly lowered his hand. The room had been rummaged through. A bag of dry rations had been dragged under the table. A small hole had been torn into the opening, and two compressed biscuits were missing. Several old magitech parts had rolled into the corner. One of them had shallow bite marks on it. The old coat beside the bed had been half-pulled down, its sleeve hanging from the leg of a chair.

A drawer was open by a crack, and the miscellaneous items inside had been pawed into a mess. There were tiny claw prints on the floor. And a faint oily stain from dried mana-beast meat. He raised his head and looked toward the ceiling. Sure enough. At the edge of the ventilation duct on the ceiling, a pair of bright black eyes was staring at him. The Crystal-Scaled Pangolin lay beside the duct, its body curled into a ball, with only half its head exposed.

There were still a few biscuit crumbs at the corner of its mouth. Its claws rested on the edge of the duct, as if it had merely been passing by. Rowan was silent for two seconds. The pangolin was also silent for two seconds. Then it slowly shrank its head back a little. Rowan looked at the dry ration bag dragged under the table, then at the magitech part in the corner with bite marks on it.

"You did this?" There was no movement from the ceiling. The pangolin curled itself even rounder. Rowan walked over and picked up the magitech part. It had not been bitten through, only left with two rows of small tooth marks. It seemed to have bitten it once, probably to grind its teeth. He looked again at the opened drawer. There was nothing important inside. Of course, he would not have left anything important here anyway. Rowan put his sword away and leaned against the doorframe, letting out a breath.

The pangolin poked its head out from the ventilation duct. After confirming that he was not angry, it slowly climbed down. It landed on the cabinet, then jumped from the cabinet to the edge of the table, finally stopping two steps away from Rowan. It lowered its head and rummaged around in its personal space for a while, then tossed out a small piece of dried mana-beast meat. The piece of meat landed on the floor and rolled half a turn. Rowan looked at it. The pangolin looked back at him.

The meat looked like an apology gift. Except Rowan had bought it for the pangolin before leaving. Rowan bent down, picked up the piece of mana-beast meat, and placed it back on the table.

"Keep it for yourself." The pangolin tilted its head. Rowan resealed the dry ration bag, pulled the old coat off the chair leg, and casually tossed it beside the bed. The pangolin took the chance to dart near his shoulder, but seemed to dislike the smell of blood and medicine on him. It immediately retreated back to the table and rubbed its nose with its claws. Rowan lowered his head and smelled his clothes. They truly smelled terrible.

Blood, burned flesh, nutrient fluid, the residual mana smell from the contamination wash shed, and the ointment from the outpost were all mixed together. Even he found it pungent. He first washed the filth from his body, changed into clean clothes, and treated the wound on his right hand again. The pangolin crouched on top of the cabinet the entire time, watching him. Occasionally, it tapped the wooden board with its tail. When the room finally quieted down, Rowan sat at the table.

The gains on the surface were not bad. Twenty thousand TC could replenish medicine, repair weapons, buy better cultivation arts, and let him stop worrying about basic expenses for a short time. The two hundred contribution points were even more useful. Part of the Explorer's Association's information, mission permissions, and low-level internal channels were all linked to contribution points. This was the profit that could be written into the system. But the true gains were not here. Rowan's gaze fell on his wrist.

The Möbius Ring lay silent. The original codex. The recording crystal disk. The unknown scaled sphere. All of those things were now buried inside a burrow in another world. Only after the Möbius Ring stabilized again could he go over and examine them. The original codex could not be touched for now. That thing required a fresh Source Crystal Core to open, and it carried abnormality and ritual locks. Besides, Rowan already had the recording crystal disk. He did not want to touch the codex again lightly.

The recording crystal disk was the first priority. If the [Flesh Armament Art] inside the disk proved useful, it might change his cultivation route for a long time to come. The scaled sphere was more troublesome. The Blackwater terminal had identified it as a "Chimeric Armament auxiliary component," yet Grey Raven had taken such a risk to retrieve it. It was probably not a simple sample, but some more important core device. As for the Blackwater terminal and authorization card...

Rowan would not connect them on Terra for the time being. Anything capable of linking to old Blackwater protocols could expose him in return. Deep inside his mental sea, the gray-white chrysalis shadow was still pinned in the corner. It did not move. But Rowan had never truly believed it was harmless. Just then, the Gray Chrysalis trembled faintly. It was not that cold erosion that tore open his mental sea. Only a very light tremor. As if something, far away, had knocked on a door through a wall.

The Möbius Ring did not react. Rowan lowered his head and looked at his forearm. A patch of tiny red spots first appeared on the inner side of his arm. One by one, the red dots emerged, like an allergy, and like something pushing up from beneath the skin. Then a few rice-sized flesh buds rose from the red spots, their edges faintly gray-white. The pangolin, which had been chewing meat on the cabinet, suddenly stopped.

It curled itself into a ball and looked around warily, letting out a low warning growl from its throat. The flesh buds continued changing. They were not growing randomly. They lined up little by little, stretched, and connected, like strokes written in flesh. A fine itch and stabbing sensation came from under Rowan's skin. He could feel that thing borrowing his flesh to take shape. The Möbius Ring remained silent. Rowan's heart sank. Why was there no reaction?

After several breaths, the flesh buds finally stopped writhing. On the inner side of Rowan's wrist, a crooked line of words appeared. [How is the mission proceeding, Ring Finger-7?] Rowan stared at the line of words, his breathing slowing little by little. Ring Finger-7. This was... For Grey Raven? The pangolin shrank on the cabinet in confusion, wanting to approach Rowan yet afraid of the aura around him. Rowan looked at the line of flesh-written words on his wrist, still faintly rising and falling.

So the Gray Chrysalis was not merely a curse. The chrysalis that should have hatched inside Rowan's mental sea had been suppressed by the Möbius Ring. And now, the organization behind Grey Raven had contacted it through some unknown method. The next moment, the flesh buds trembled again. A second line of words slowly bulged out. [Please respond.]