meant that it was totally safe. Humans could travel around the area without any fear for their safety.

Then again, with Zhang Heng’s presence, the place was practically a dark-green area. Hence, this mission was a rare holiday for the both of them.

After everything was set up, Ebon chuckled slyly as he retrieved from his backpack several fis.h.i.+ng rods. He said, "How about it, Zhang Heng, want to go fis.h.i.+ng? The few things here can be considered antiques since they were taken from Earth. They have not seen use for several years; didn’t think I’d be able to use them again in this life."

Zhang Heng was slightly startled before saying excitedly, "Why not? I was deliberating whether we should have canned roasted potatoes with beef or canned pork for dinner. Fresh fish sounds a lot better. The fish from this planet have been a.n.a.lyzed by the Academy to be virus-free, right? There’s nothing in its meat that would be harmful to human consumption, and they said its meat was full of vitamins and nutrients. With the vaccine injected, it’s beneficial to our bodies to consume the fish on this planet, and I’ve always wondered what one tastes like."

Ebon’s face scrunched up and he shook his head real fast, adding, "You mean the one that has legs? They look so weird. Other than the eyes on their head, they have another pair on their belly; it’s so creepy."

Zhang Heng shrugged it off. He took Ebon’s fis.h.i.+ng rods, and with Ebon pus.h.i.+ng Jay, the three of them headed towards the riverside.

The new home planet was truly a natural paradise. It was a planet completely untouched by human pollution. It was filled with biodiversity, there were reptiles that reminded them of dinosaurs, giant mammals hiding in the forest, amphibians that were 10 meters long but had the look of a common frog. The evolution on this planet was completely different from that of Earth’s, but nature was beautiful in all of its forms.

Simultaneously, there were different species of aquatic creatures. Other than the obvious feet-like appendages, the fish on this planet had similar looks to the ones on Earth. With their "legs," they were able to survive on dry land for a certain period of time. They would crawl out of the water to munch on river weeds or move to another habitat.

With this evolution as evidence, some scientists believed that this planet had a serious tidal phenomenon. The fish had to evolve to survive on land because certain places would completely dry up when the tide ebbed. This was valid from a meteorological perspective. Since the planet and Moon 2 were so close in size, it was entirely possible that the gravitational pull between the two could dry certain rivers or lakes up during certain months. The month they arrived happened to be spring season, where the tide was high that so fish with legs were understandably a weird sight…

Of course, Zhang Heng and Ebon didn’t know nor did they care about such details. They started fis.h.i.+ng by the riverside. It was possible because the fish on this planet hadn’t seen a fis.h.i.+ng hook before, so they were easily drawn to their bait. In just 10 minutes, between the two of them, they had pulled in about 100 fish of varying sizes. If calculated in kilograms, both of them had a combined haul of about 120 kilograms in just one hour. However, due to the fragility of their fis.h.i.+ng rods and their inland location, they didn’t catch any big fish. Regardless, that didn’t take away from the fun that they had.

Suddenly, their communicator rang. Ebon turned serious, dropped his rod, and said, "This is the Black Star Troopers’ Lieutenant Ebon."

The reply came, "Lieutenant Ebon, this is Cadet Qiu Si Te from the tour craft. We have Feng Xiao Chen onboard with us. With the Captain’s permission, she wants to see Jay."

Ebon was at a loss. Before he could reply, Zhang Heng s.n.a.t.c.hed his communicator and said, "This is Lieutenant Zhang Heng, affirmative on that order. Please bring her to the resting bay. We’re fis.h.i.+ng by the riverside. If you spot us, please drive the craft down our direction."

A few minutes later, a mid-sized craft floated down towards them from upstream. There were about 10 people looking at them through the craft’s gla.s.s dome. Most of them were children interspersed with a few guardians. As the craft neared, Zhang Heng and Ebon stood up from the position and wheeled Jay further into the flat plains. When the craft halted, they saw Xiao Chen pushed up to the gla.s.s doom, her eyes scanning searchingly their way.

Zhang Heng mumbled a few words at Ebon before pus.h.i.+ng Jay closer to the craft. Because the craft’s elevation wasn’t high, when Xiao Chen lowered her head, she could peer into Jay’s sleeping face. Almost instantly, her tears started falling.

She stuck her hands to the gla.s.s and opened her mouth to say something, but she realized that the craft was completely segregated from the outside world. Other than through the communicator, there was no way her voice was going out of the craft. Helplessness made her cry even harder.

Zhang Heng sighed and grasped Jay’s hand to align it to Xiao Chen’s hands that were on the gla.s.s. Even though they were separated by the thick pane of gla.s.s, this reminded Xiao Chen of the walks they used to take together hand-in-hand.

"Jay Wales… You big liar, please wake up, I want to hear you call my name. I don’t want to be alone anymore; I want to be a h.o.m.o Evolutis, because I want to be beside you…"

Xiao Chen kept on crying, and gradually, she felt her consciousness giving. Finally, she collapsed to the floor…

Everyone stared at her with worry, and the medical unit stationed inside the craft rushed to her side. Zhang Heng and Ebon, who were outside the craft, yelled into the communicator, asking for updates. With all the commotion, no one noticed that Jay’s eyebrow had moved several times…