A common tavern that connects all fantasy worlds

"Well... all fun has an end one day, I just didn't expect this day to come so soon." The Queen of the Night stretched, stood up from the throne, and smiled at Barbaria: "But I am a woman who can never be satisfied...Maybe there will be a day when my waywardness will cause more serious incidents, and you must come and defeat me at that time."

"Actually, it's not necessary..."

Barbaria didn't want to create for herself a nemesis who was always trying to kill her, and it wasn't some comic book hero.She took out a cross-space communication device from the pouch at her waist, handed it to the Queen of the Night, and said, "Several entertainment companies contacted me and asked if I could help you... Have you ever thought about being in the Is there a 'Queen's Spa' in the Commonwealth?"

The Queen of the Night didn't understand what it meant for a moment, she squinted her eyes and said, "'Spa'? The energy of Matzmoth is harmful to people. It will only absorb people's life force but not cure it. If it wakes up, it will be even more harmful. Burn all matter except me..."

"No, no, no, it's just a spa in name... You may not know much about the culture of the Earth Federation." Barbaria clicked her tongue a few times, and finally came over and said in the Queen of the Night's ear: "...So Well, there is such a kind of people in the Earth Federation... who are willing to spend money to accept your insults and whips... They are also willing to bear other tricks, and they are even more excited. This price is not low. I believe that with your Knowledge and experience can make them feel 'pain' without leaving them substantial harm."

The Queen of the Night licked her lips, evidently interested.But she quickly thought of another question, and immediately asked: "But I am not only satisfied with causing pain to others... I also seek real challenges and thrilling thrills."

Barbaria scratched her hair in distress: "I'll figure it out. To be honest, as long as you don't be too willful, and don't always think about killing me or being killed by me, it would be nice to have an enemy... Adventurers in old movies have to have an old enemy, and a protagonist without an enemy is not a protagonist."

A few minutes later, the flaming red-lipped spaceship also took off from Sete Star Airport.

Humming a cheerful tune, the Queen of the Night walked down from the palace all the way to the dream box.

In fact, she never said... The shallow pool under her feet is also part of Matzmoth's liquid body.When those marines came here and thought they had control of the situation, she could use these special waters to control the situation back.But the opponent's surprise attack was too beautiful. As a queen who considers herself a "player", she thinks that the most decent way to exit is to bet and admit defeat.

At the very center of the dream box, not far from where she slept, a row of joysticks appeared again.

This is the boundary between dreams and reality, and she is the one who weaves dreams for Matzmoth... This joystick is the embodiment of her "awakening" power.

"Matzmus, good girl...be gentle with me."

She whispered to herself, and pulled the joystick in front of her.

The human beings who stayed near Saite, the officials of the Earth Federation, and the audience who watched the news through the wide-area super-light speed communication network all witnessed an unforgettable scene in this life at this moment.

On the surface of the star Set, there was a huge crater that billowed thick smoke, which gradually covered the entire atmosphere on the sunny side; then after a few minutes, the entire planet suddenly swelled up, bursting like a bubble. opened.

Considering that it is not a real bubble... this "expansion" may be the splash of matter at a speed of thousands of kilometers per second, and the large spaceships that are still observing have opened up their energy shields.

But it didn't take long for these substances to expand to a distance several times the diameter of Seter's star outside the original location of Seter's star, turning into a circle of gradually thinning clouds.

A brilliant translucent liquid ball about half the size of the original Set star appeared in the middle of the cloud, spinning, boiling, and reflecting golden-red light under the shining of the star.Its shape is still changing, and it does not have the appearance of a "monster" at all. Instead, it is so beautiful that the viewers of the Earth Federation who are keen on retro aesthetics screamed excitedly in front of the holographic screen.

"Wow, what a big lava lamp!"

Barbaria's spaceship also stopped at the side of the Federation Fleet. At this time, she also turned off the fire, and watched everything there through the porthole. Relying on some power to act in the boundless space, in just a few seconds, he walked out of an astronomical distance and drifted away in another direction of the universe.

Before he had time to sigh, the communicator on the spaceship beeped.

She connected to the signal, and the seductive face of the Queen of the Night appeared on the opposite side.

"Sweetheart, I've thought about it..." She in the holographic image smiled and licked her lips, "Please contact the entertainment company for me, let's talk about the 'spa'."

Chapter 24 The Milky Way of Calm

In view of the fact that the hobbies of the guests are very different, and the friends who often come together are relatively fixed, several areas have gradually formed in Xue Li's tavern.

Max's seat by the window is the staff area, where Daiger, Cheetos, Bishop will sit when they are free, and Boss Xue himself who occasionally comes out from behind the bar.

The middle of the bar is usually reserved for new customers who have just walked in. Amelia sits on one side of the bar, the farthest chair, pretending not to care about the guests in the tavern, but can actually see and hear everything that happened up to here.

On the other side of the bar, where there are no bar chairs, there are faucets, ice machines, coffee machines and electric teapots. Uncle Jiu and Ning Caichen, etc., oriental guests like to sit in the table and chair area facing the other side the most. , Iqab doesn't come here very often recently... Newlyweds and their careers are just starting up, so it's understandable that they're a bit busy.

Gibb likes to lean against another table in the staff area, where her sisters occasionally come to meet her, chat and laugh, sit there and whisper girlish topics.

Selene sometimes went to Max's or Gibb's, but more often she sat at the small table by the door, drinking her wine quietly.

Barbaria has been here for a relatively short time, and she doesn't have a favorite position yet, and she likes jumping on the table the most...just like now.

She triumphantly carried a colorful ribbon, attracting the attention of all the guests in the tavern, and said loudly at the same time: "...So, the President of the Federation awarded me this—Galaxy Medal."

Sure enough, there is a round translucent medal with slightly convex front and back hanging at the end of the ribbon. I don’t know what kind of special treatment it has undergone. The little flares inside really form the shape of the Milky Way, and they are still rotating slowly; There is the name of Barbaria in gold, and the year and event are engraved on the back: "To commemorate, in the year 127 of the new era, the space adventurer Barbaria's achievements in saving Set and the Earth Federation. N127T0001."

Judging from Barbaria's excitement, this medal should be unusual; but the other people in the tavern couldn't understand the special significance of this medal in her universe at all, and could only applaud politely.

Xue Li was silent for a long time, and waited until Barbaria bowed to the surroundings, and once again announced that all the drinks would be paid for by her, then walked forward, stretched out her hand to support her arm, and let her get off the table safely. Jumped up and down.

"Thank you, Barbaria."

"Huh?" Barbaria turned her head suspiciously, "Why thank me? Shouldn't I thank you? Fortunately, I came here and met Ripley and the others, otherwise I would not have been able to get this medal , and may not be able to solve the problem of Star Set. Moreover, their universe is also very interesting."

"Yeah... Usually our guests can solve their own problems here, but at the same time I also get back my memory because of this... Our tavern has more and more facilities because of it."

Xue Li said, pointing to the side with fewer customers.

There used to be just a few windows painted with darkness... but now there are a few more arches through which a person can pass.There are three or five steps under the arch, covered with fine plush carpets, as if inviting people in the tavern to climb up.

Max stood up first.

What's outside the tavern?If you asked him before, his answer would probably be "the world of the guests", because there is no other entrance and exit except for the door. He once thought that the only "inside" of this tavern had a concept of space.

"Xue, there is..."

"Ah, it should be the terrace. It seems that Ms. Barbaria and Ms. Ripley's problems have been solved, so this tavern has changed again. There should be an extra cellar over there."

Xue Li said... Max noticed that his expression was a little strange, and he didn't know what was going on.

The sudden addition made everyone extremely excited, and the employees flocked out. Even the guests became curious and followed everyone out of the arches.

Unsurprisingly, outside the arch is a small terrace with a wooden floor and a wooden fence, above which is a transparent glass pergola. The whole area is not particularly large, with only three rattan tables and a dozen rattan chairs; Surrounded by the dark space around, for some reason, there was a gust of breeze blowing by, shaking the broad leaves of the small banana trees in the flower pots on both sides.

Looking forward, in the vast night sky, a silvery-white band of light runs vertically, extending to the other direction of the tavern.The twinkling stars are in motion every moment, as if the tavern itself is spinning like a planet.

Daige couldn't help but walked to the fence, leaned on the railing and poked her head out, looking down.

"what did you see?"

The good sister Qiduo couldn't help asking her.

"……water."

This terrace...or the whole tavern is located on a pool of calm, mirror-like water. Daiger can see the reflection of the Milky Way above from the water, but when she wants to reach out, she finds that she can't touch it anyway. Can't touch.

Not only that, she couldn't even climb over the railing, just like the "no harm to others" rule in the tavern, whenever she had such thoughts, her body could no longer move.

Cheetos also stepped forward, trying to stick his finger out through the gap in the middle of the railing, but he stopped suddenly after halfway through the movement.

"Don't try it." Xue Li said, "Having such a terrace is already very good, not to mention being able to see the night sky... how about we come here tomorrow morning to watch the sunrise?"

Employees, of course, agree.

Several people poked their heads sideways again, and took a closer look at the outer wall of the tavern.Although there is nothing extraordinary about it, it is still a novel experience to observe this pub from "outside" for the first time.

Boss Xue, who was left behind, also turned his head and said to Barbaria: "Look...we are helping each other. We helped solve your problem, and you brought us the Milky Way..."

"Ha, that's not bad."

Barbaria nodded, "This place is really amazing, making people want to stay forever... But I also have my galaxy, my universe is still waiting for me."

She tapped the medal in her hand, smiled at Xue Li, and walked into the house.

It wasn't long before another group of people from another galaxy returned to the tavern.

Ripley and Duran Duran ran back and forth a few times, not only bringing back the core components of the "positive electron death ray gun", but also bringing dozens of storm pulse rifles and a large amount of ammunition.

According to her, this is called "being prepared for any danger"... In case they are disarmed and imprisoned by the company as soon as they return to Earth, at least a few of them will have one last chance to come back.

In the tavern, the cellar, which appears with the terrace, comes into play immediately.

Just now Xue Li was thinking, isn't there a wine cabinet with automatic replenishment and a refrigerator?Why set up another empty cellar?Now it seems that there is indeed a good place to store some... things that should not appear in the tavern.

While Max and Barbaria helped to carry these things down the stairs at the end of the staff corridor with Duran Duran, Ripley brought back Newt who had just been picked up by her .

"We talked about it, and the kid doesn't want to be in that world anymore."

Ripley put her arms around Newt's shoulders and said to Xue Li.

Xue Li nodded, but still squatted down and reconfirmed to the little girl: "But Newt, you have to know... the time in this tavern is not passing normally. Whether it's the guests or us, in You never grow old in this tavern; for you, that means you never grow old."

"But I still have to go to school." The Newt kid said big, "No matter where I go to school, I have to leave here, won't I be able to grow up normally then?"

Boss Xue got stuck for a while, and after thinking about it carefully, he found that the little girl was right.

It's just that the current worlds the guests are in don't seem to be able to provide normal education, and even the personal safety of the students will be a problem.The most normal world is Max's place, and the education in the rich area of ​​Sao Paulo is still good.

"...Daiger? You have a new mission. Go back and discuss with Max to see how to help Newt enter school. And you, little girl, although education in the early 21st century may not be as developed as it was when you lived...but Most people still have to rely on themselves to learn," he said.

"...I just heard someone say that I want to study?" Barbaria, who had just finished helping with physical work, came up from the stairs, just in time to hear Xue Li's last words, and immediately responded: "Do you want to transplant the chip membrane? It is very convenient and can even be taken orally.”

"She's only 12 years old." Xue Li immediately dissuaded Barbaria, always feeling that if she adopts the learning method she said, there will be extremely serious disasters... It's too dangerous!

"...The chip membrane can also assist the normal learning process." Barbaria could only shrug, "It helps memory, calculation, and concentration. It can also directly download information through the Internet, just like the memory of a bionic human. Same. But...well, you decide, I've got it anytime. Hey Newt! Come and see my medal!"

Watching their getting along, Ripley couldn't help showing a smile, and then a touch of sadness.

When she sees Newt, she always thinks of her daughter. That little guy was once as lively and cute as Newt. Every time he came to live with her in the low-Earth orbit station, he would point to the starry sky outside the window and keep talking. Ask her questions, like why the stars don't shine, what constellation is that star, etc.

"Hey, I wish I had time to see her..." She couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Xue Li's expression changed, he stood up straight, and said to this ill-fated heroine: "I... don't know if I should tell you this. Your daughter is Amanda Ripley, right?"

Chapter 25 Capital

In the interrogation room on the low-Earth orbit station, Ripley sat behind the table, looking at the company representative sitting in front of her with a displeased expression.

"I suggest you cooperate with our investigation, Ms. Ripley. You are the only person directly responsible for the Nostromo incident. If you don't tell the truth, the company will not treat you kindly...we will pursue compensation , I demand that you compensate for all losses of the Nostromo and LV-426!" the company representative slapped the table and threatened.

Ripley gritted her teeth, and cursed back with uncontrollable anger: "Fuck you! Whether it's the Nostromo or LV-426, it's the company's decision-making mistakes that lead to You asked me to compensate you for the loss of assets and casualties? You think I’m a bully, don’t you?”

The representative of the company became even more arrogant: "...Think about it carefully, what does the name Wieland-Tangu stand for! We operate the entire universe, and you are just an insignificant dust, an ant, or even an ant in this boundless space. You don't even need to use your real strength to crush you to death. I advise you not to have any unrealistic ideas."

"Now you start 'we' again, right? Which director of the company are you?" Ripley sneered a few times, "You are just like me, just an employee of the company, an 'asset' of the company that can be disposed of at will , What happened to me today will happen to you one day! Oh, you are the middle of the company, right? How much is your dividend right? [-] out of [-]? What can you pay for these dividends? "

The atmosphere became awkward again for a while, and the company representative suddenly didn't know what to say.

Ripley doesn't care what the company does at all, she's had enough, and she doesn't want to be a flight officer or explore any universe anymore. At this time, she has no relatives on earth, only a few new ex-Marine friends, alone With nothing to worry about, I vowed to follow the company to the end!

Moreover, although Wieland-Tangu is a big company, it is not the only company on Earth... After the founder passed away, the strength and momentum of this company have long since declined.The reason why "Wilander" is followed by "Tanggu" is not because the failure of the Prometheus plan caused the company to almost go bankrupt?

If the interstellar colony development business is lost, or if there is something wrong with this business, the company may not be so strong...

When the silence of outer space gradually permeated into this small interrogation room, another person suddenly rushed in with a panicked expression, and whispered something in the ear of the company representative.

The company representative's expression changed again and again. After giving Ripley a hard look, he rushed out with the newcomer.

There is no need to ask any more questions... Your own wealth is more important.

News came from the earth that the stock price of Wieland-Tangu Group plummeted, falling by more than 30% within three hours, triggering a larger-scale panic selling.

The reason is that a business secret of the company was suddenly exposed this morning. According to the disclosure, Wieland-Tangu’s biotechnology department is conducting various human experiments in several colonies outside the galaxy. More than 50% of the human lives lost to these experiments were employees of the company.

Hundreds of reporters from various countries are gathering in front of the company's headquarters at this time, trying to capture people above the middle level for interviews; the launch plan of the new colony exploration spacecraft originally scheduled for next month has been cancelled, and many non-profit organizations have expressed concern about the company's " expressed concern about the inhumane operation strategy, and some people have even gone to the US government, Congress, and all branch gates of the company to block traffic to protest...

Wieland-Yuntani is indeed a behemoth, but it also has numerous enemies.When it showed its flaws and was about to fall, everyone was making trouble.

This opening was provided by Ripley herself.She did collude with the marines and modified the surveillance and navigation records of the Sulaco, but before leaving LV-426, she asked the bishop to download a copy of the confidential documents of the colonial base and copy them to the in her chip membrane.Just after returning to the orbital station, she secretly copied the record and handed it to Hicks who was about to retire and return to Earth.

She was just an ordinary person, and maybe she couldn't fight against such a huge company that controlled almost all space stations and colonies after all...but they should suffer a little bit.

Hicks was indeed a smart man, and for some reason, he suddenly exposed the contents of some documents to the world, which really caused a public outcry.For the company, this must be a bad feeling, right?Even if you don't die, you have to peel off your skin, right?

Sure enough, the company soon sent another representative.

This time, the weight of this person is different from that of the previous one. After sitting down, he didn't engage in any useless coercion, but just told her that the company can not pursue everything, and even compensate her so that she can spend the rest of her life in peace. property - the only condition is that she cannot be interviewed of any kind regarding the Nostromo and LV-426 events.

She had to change her name and identity. Ellen Ripley had died in the colony and could no longer exist.

If she insists on exposing the fact that the company killed her employees just to bring the alien back, then the pension or the hush money will naturally be gone, and she will have to face endless legal procedures in the next few decades , can't go anywhere, can't do anything, and has to deal with the company's lawyers every day.

"How about it, Ms. Ripley? If you agree, I will help you arrange a spaceship and send you back to Earth. From then on, you are a traditional American who has never left Earth. You can live in peace, even get married and have children, Start another family and all the pain will go away."

The top management of the company told her so.

[52. No. 52]

Ripley sighed, she would accept it... Although the company executive said, she couldn't understand this kind of arrogance.

But she still endured it, not for anything else, she has already exposed the content of the evidence, and exposed it?There is nothing to expose, and the rest of the company only needs to say "no certificate to check". How can you still mark my stock price as a negative number?The company delisted, changed the decision-makers, changed the name and restarted, what can you do?

So... this hush money is basically just taking off your pants and farting. Why doesn't she take the money that was given for nothing?

Let's settle the other accounts slowly... Sooner or later there will be a chance to meet again, and it is impossible to get rid of her just by spending a small amount of money.

Thinking of this, Ripley raised her head and agreed simply: "Okay. I don't want to fall out with the company either."

The high-level man on the opposite side showed a smile with everything under control. In his opinion, this kind of behavior is actually normal... Most people are unwilling to stand against the company. After all, reality is irresistible. Everyone has to live. Who is willing to live a good life, but must fight back for this injustice?How could a rational person do such a thing that pays out of proportion to the benefit?And no one will thank you!

"I'll arrange the spaceship right now, ma'am. Your new identity, your perfect new life, awaits you here on Earth."

After speaking, he turned and walked out of the room.

Ripley turned and walked to the window and drew the blinds open, the horizon arcing in front of her eyes.