51 The Ultimate Creator and the Utopian Land [Please Keep Reading!]

Something was off.

First, Cage Port was not supposed to be connected to any external networks.

Second, the proprietress was under strict surveillance.

Third, not only the proprietress, but all the other shops were filled with that distinctive adventurer style—some were even converted from massive spaceships—and these individuals were equally under heavy monitoring.

So how did the proprietress know about the bounty?

Could it be...

“Was the proprietress once an adventurer who took on missions?” Golia leaned over to glance at the slip of paper in Lu Chen’s hand. Suddenly, as if recalling something, her eyes sparkled, and she declared confidently:

“Isn’t it obvious? She must be an adventurer. Her staff are all her former crew, and only those mechanical arms belong to Sion Star.”

“They took a bounty from the association, but when the mission failed, they were captured and turned into Sion Star’s permanent, unpaid workforce.”

“And it’s not just her. Everyone here is an adventurer. This so-called Cage Port is nothing but a prison for adventurers.”

“My guess? The Sionites deliberately post false bounties—well, not entirely false... In any case, it’s just like Arden Fermat, classic entrapment. They bait adventurers to work for free, and unless you earn Sion Star over a hundred million spirit stones, they won’t let you go.”

Golia’s analysis was relentless, her words brimming with conviction, lending her beautiful features an air of wisdom.

Lu Chen found her reasoning very persuasive; he almost thought someone else was speaking. Suddenly, he looked at Golia in astonishment.

“Your intelligence can actually improve at your age?”

Golia shot him a glare. “Why are you insulting me? Only the weak need intelligence!”

Lu Chen was taken aback. How could she take pride in that?

No wonder when she invited him to sail together on Rust Star, Golia was so upfront—she’d claimed to be an idiot, and a ship couldn’t accommodate two idiots.

“If you don’t rely on intelligence, how did you figure all this out?”

“I’ve been caught before!” Golia proclaimed heroically, her presence overwhelming.

Lu Chen was speechless. “You’re so full of yourself for getting caught. How do you turn shame into pride?”

Golia folded her arms, domineering as ever. “I got caught, but I escaped. Doesn’t that count as skill?”

Lu Chen glanced at her chest, compressed into undulating layers by her crossed arms, and asked curiously, “So, you’ve had a chest implant monitor before?”

Just hearing that made Golia shudder all over. Though she was a succubus, she had a cleanliness obsession and loathed anything foreign invading her body.

“Luckily, I escaped before that happened.”

Lu Chen didn’t press further. As far as he was concerned, their journey on Sion Star had reached its end.

“All right, since it’s a sting operation, let’s not get involved. We’ll resupply on another planet.”

Golia suddenly grew displeased. “Why the double standard?”

Lu Chen paused. “What do you mean?”

“You told Ai that only by seeking revenge can she become stronger, but when it’s my turn, you want to run away?” Golia looked genuinely aggrieved, as though she’d fallen from favor.

“Besides, isn’t there still a three-thousand spirit stone bounty? Even if it’s entrapment, the bounty was approved by the Adventurers’ Association. If you succeed, they have to pay!”

Still, Lu Chen shook his head. “No, we know nothing about Sion Star.”

“You may not, but I do. I’ll show you around.”

“No, it’s still too risky…”

Golia saw he was unmoved by either firmness or reason and decided to switch tactics. While Lu Chen sat in the captain’s chair, she plopped herself onto the armrest, wrapped an arm around his neck, and drew close.

“As the captain, you can’t play favorites… Don’t you want to recharge your magic?”

Unfortunately, her succubus skills were terribly unrefined; she was a novice at best. She sat right on the armrest controls, sending the ship veering off course.

Lu Chen quickly righted the ship and slapped her firm yet supple backside away. “Where do you think you’re sitting? There are buttons on the armrest—you’ll break them with your butt!”

Golia sprang up, grabbed his shoulder with surprising force, and her voice grew threatening. “You’d better drink the toast before you’re forced to drink the penalty. Are you hoping my ass breaks your bones instead of the buttons?”

Such bold words!

As Lu Chen hesitated, Ai, who had been reading nearby, came to Golia’s aid.

“Captain, can you unlock the explosive monitor in the proprietress’s chest?”

Lu Chen nodded. “Of course.”

Ai replied seriously, “Let’s give it a try. Perhaps Sion Star really is an ideal world. If we get caught, the captain can always unlock the devices and help us escape, right?”

Golia gave Ai a big thumbs-up.

Lu Chen inclined his head slightly. Truth be told, he could unlock them. If Sion Star really was as cyberpunk as it appeared, with his top-tier hacking skills and the resonance he’d mastered, he’d be virtually invincible.

He simply had no desire to witness such a dystopian society—it felt hollow and could easily shake one’s beliefs.

But with both women insisting, he couldn’t refuse any longer.

“Fine, I’ll indulge you both this once… Ah, I really am like an old father, forever worrying about his two daughters.”

Lu Chen wore the look of a man resigned to parental fate.

Golia and Ai exchanged glances and shared a knowing, auntly smile.

…

Sion Star was not entirely cut off from the outside world.

There was still an official tourist channel.

The fee was one hundred spirit stones.

You could tour the city for a day.

However, you couldn’t bring any weapons, magical devices, or modern spirit machinery, nor were you allowed to take photos or connect to the local network.

“Three hundred spirit stones for a shot at a three-thousand bounty… All right, let’s take a gamble and see if we can turn a bike into a motorbike.”

Lu Chen immediately piloted the ship to the central plaza of Cage Port and submitted a tourism application to the authorities.

The application was approved.

A payment of three hundred spirit stones was made.

The ship was impounded at the port.

All personal belongings had to be left aboard—including bracelets, Golia’s sword and wine flask, Lu Chen’s storage pouch, and every hidden device on their persons…

Only spirit stones were permitted.

Afterward, a female robot guide, dressed in a white uniform reminiscent of a flight attendant, drove an official open-top vehicle, ferrying the three of them into the tourist city of Sion Star:

Alice City.

It was a city brimming with a sense of science fiction.

Towering futuristic buildings rose from the ground, piercing the clouds, connected by suspended iron bridges into a three-dimensional matrix of mechanisms.

Each skyscraper’s exterior was adorned with complex, azure spirit patterns, serving as defenses against air raids and earthquakes.

Every shop in the towers had a semi-suspended welcoming island at its entrance, planted with an array of exotic flowers and spiritual plants, creating the effect of aerial gardens.

Between the towers, vehicles of every shape, illuminated by the glow of spirit patterns, shuttled in orderly fashion through the forest of spires.

Lu Chen was awestruck at the sight.

Their robotic guide was a beautiful woman in a white uniform, slim and stylish, with a bright, friendly smile.

After a moment’s thought, Lu Chen tentatively asked her, “Excuse me, who is the giant statue in the center of Cage Port’s plaza?”

The robot guide replied, “That is the previous king of Sion Star, the Final Producer, Edasis. He single-handedly staged the ultimate spectacle of capitalism.”

The Final Producer was a term for when a planet’s wealth gap had reached terrifying extremes—a single tycoon owned everything, and society consisted of one rich man and billions of poor.

Lu Chen asked curiously, “So, what about now…”

The robotic guide paused, actually turning her head to look thoughtfully at Lu Chen. “Actually, outsiders have many misconceptions about Sion Star. They think we’re puppets under control, but we’re actually very free.”

Lu Chen suddenly realized the robot was a prosthetic body, its consciousness remotely controlled via the network—potentially by a man on the other end.

“Have you all uploaded your consciousness and achieved mechanical ascension?”

The guide shook her head. “No, only our leader, the Big Sister, uploaded her consciousness as a pioneer. She was a great proletarian—no savings, no descendants. In pursuit of gender equality, she even self-castrated to become genderless, dismantling the concept of family. It’s the only path to a truly equal world. If we don’t want children, we don’t have to. If we do, we can renounce Sion Star citizenship and leave the planet, but outsiders don’t understand this.”

Dismantling the family structure…

Lu Chen felt his scalp tingle.

But when he set emotions aside, he realized it was an effective method.

The essence was that the first generation succeeded by their own efforts, but no matter how much resource and energy one invested in the next generation, there was no guarantee they’d measure up.

Yet second, third generations would monopolize vast social resources due to their lineage, blocking ordinary people’s paths upward.

Over time, the elite took root generation after generation, and society became bloated and inefficient.

This was the root cause of dynastic cycles in ancient feudal societies.

“Did the Big Sister’s consciousness upload succeed?”

“According to the consciousness program left after her death, it failed. She said unless you’re terminally ill, you shouldn’t upload. We ordinary people all stay at home in our longevity pods, controlling prosthetic bodies through the local network. I have lots of prosthetic bodies!”