211 It’s Hanifa.... cute, right?

As he knelt there in the middle of the cave his hand on the scrap metal, Zi Han’s closed eyes kept twitching as though he was seeing something.

He was indeed seeing something. It was a scene blurred by a light so bright it could blind people. Though he couldn’t see the person’s face he could still see their every move and how they ended up here.

Like him, the person had jumped into the water and had an unexpected encounter with the monster under the lake. After struggling with that monster for hours the man finally had enough. Like him, he found this place and swam up to the cave.

He summoned his mech again but when it appeared a part of it fell off due to the vicious battle. Zi Han was seeing all this from the perspective of the mech.

Thus when the piece of metal fell he looked down staring at it blankly. The man laughed out loud finding this whole experience funny. “Iggy, don’t be mad at me. I thought we would win,” said the man looking up at his mech.

Zi Han heard the mech respond, “Sir, I am the least of your worries. The madam is going to kick you out of the house when you return.”

The man’s face still couldn’t be seen but his emotions could be felt clearly. “She won’t be mad when she sees the nursery I built for our daughter,” he said while rubbing the back of his neck.

Zi Han’s brows twitched when he heard the word daughter. ‘So this isn’t my father,’ he thought but what Iggy said next dispelled this.

“Sir, the madam is having a boy,” replied Iggy correcting its delusional boss.

.....

“Hey, hey, hey... don’t burst my bubble. Even if he is a boy I am going to dress him up like a little girl until he is six months. She already agreed. He will never find out. I already picked a name. It’s Hanifa.... cute, right?”

Zi Han gritted his teeth hearing this. No wonder in all his baby pictures he was dressed in bright colored dresses. His mother was only fulfilling an agreement she had with his father.

historical

“He will see those pictures when he grows up. Aren’t you afraid he will hate you,” said Iggy but the man chuckled while pointing at himself,

“Look at this face. How can my son hate me? Besides I can tell him that we were undercover. Let’s get out of here. I am done messing around for today.”

After the man said this the memory vanished and the pendant hanging on Zi Han’s neck dimmed before the light disappeared completely.

He opened his eyes abruptly as he slumped to the ground with a thoughtful expression. He couldn’t believe he had just seen his father and this would the first thing he would learn about him.

The man was the reason why he was dressed as a girl in his baby pictures. “Fuck,” he swore as his gaze unintentionally swept past the device. At least his father had nothing to do with this thing. How could he? The man was long dead after these things appeared.

From this encounter, he realized that his father had some business on Dark Star but what was it? Why was his father interested in such a desolate planet with such harsh weather that made it hard to thrive?

Even reaching Dark Star’s orbit was extremely difficult and most didn’t dare take that journey. It was as though the planet had a self-defense system of its own preventing intrusion.

Zi Han manipulated the nanotechnology in the metal and shrunk it before putting it away in his storage. Such incriminating evidence couldn’t be left here lest they accuse his father of doing something he didn’t do.

Zi Han put away the device and followed the path his father used to exit this cave. After thirty minutes of climbing up, he emerged on the surface.

Agial who was anxiously standing at the edge of the lake turned to the person Evan left in charge and said, “it’s almost four hours since he left. You should send someone to find him.”

The boy snorted coldly before saying, “What’s your problem? If he is in trouble he can just press the extractor button. He knows the drill.”

Agial didn’t seem to like his response. She glared at him and said, “You know that without him we would have lost so many team members by now. If he is gone then forget winning this challenge.”

“So what? Do you want to go in there? Do you think he will like you if you go and rescue him? Stop daydreaming sis,” said the girl who owned a bright pink mech.

“Roza, that’s enough,” said one of the boys when he noticed Agial was on the verge of tears.

Agial was about to defend herself when something rustled in the thick bushes nearby.

Everyone sprung up to their feet drawing their weapons. The temporary team leader gestured with his finger for everyone to keep silent and advance forward.

By the time Zi Han crawled out of that hole covered in tall grass and reeds he was met by five muzzles pointing at him. On reflex, he drew his handgun and was ready to fire when he heard a familiar voice. “Zi Han! How did you?” said Agial and everyone relaxed as they put down their weapons.

Zi Han put away his handgun as well but his expression was still so unpleasant. He walked out of the bushes and asked, “Is the captain back yet?”

Roza looked at him and asked back instead, “Did you manage?”

Zi Han ignored her choosing to ask in the team chat instead. “Captain, I got the device. How far that side?”

Evan who was also walking back paused his steps a little surprised. He honestly thought that Zi Han would take much longer than them to get the device thus he planned on going after him after he arrived back at the lake. But who would have thought Zi Han would get it done before they did?

“Great job. We are on our way back. We should set up camp soon after. The weather is getting worse,” replied Evan.

This was indeed true. The dark clouds that had gathered were most likely to bring forth a storm and not just any kind of storm but a hailstorm.

When Evan came back Zi Han silently

handed him the device. Evan asked him how he managed but Zi Han wasn’t in the mood to talk.