Chapter 97: Is Paradise Real?

Chapter 97: Chapter 97: Is Paradise Real?

Waiting until everyone had looked their fill, the guide spoke again:

"Next we will sort out your accommodation according to the tickets you each registered for. Would those who received a garden house ticket stand to the left, those who received a hillside house ticket stand to the right, while those with a house in the riverside town please stand in the middle. The three lucky guests who received VIP tickets need only come straight over to me."

Three hundred tourists looked at each other blankly. Kay gaped: "Huh, it is even divided into several kinds of accommodation?"

The guide smiled: "Yes, you can see the ticket type right below your ID line."

Three hundred customers immediately opened their smart watches to look at their own ticket type. After a spell of scrambling about, they finally came to stand in their right places. Kay received a hillside house ticket, while the friend who had sat with him on the ship received a garden house ticket. The three guests who received VIP tickets went over beside the guide in embarrassment under everyone else’s scrutinising eyes.

The guide said with a bright smile: "Please board the dedicated electric carts to go to your accommodation. During these three days, you can use your identity ID cards to scan a dedicated electric cart at the district parking grounds and go sightseeing all over the planet. Please note, you must keep the location tracking and the emergency assistance function on your smart watch switched on at all times."

Having finished speaking, the guide inclined her body to invite them onto the carts. The dedicated electric carts for each district were each a different colour. The garden house district was red, the hillside house district was green, the riverside town district was blue, while the VIP district was pale orange.

Kay waved goodbye reluctantly to the friend he had just met on the ship, then picked up his backpack and stepped onto the green electric cart. The cart moved off smoothly on its own, rolling along a road paved perfectly flat with stone, beginning to wind its way up the slope.

Along both sides of the road, deep green groves of bamboo rustled in the wind. The higher it climbed, the thinner and cooler the air became, yet it carried a strange exhilaration with it.

Kay aimed his camera out of the window, filming the terraced fields that were ripening to gold, each ripple of rice rising and falling with the wind to make a magnificent view that no film effect could easily capture in full.

He suddenly said: "Everyone, is this yellow flower the very flower on the family crest?"

The hillside district’s guide burst into a laugh: "That is not a flower, sir. It is called wet rice, it is a food crop. After harvesting, once the husk on the outside of the grain is removed it is called plain rice. At lunch today you will be eating rice cooked from the grain of this plant."

Kay opened his eyes wide: "I have heard brother Sunflower mention it before, he even cooked plain rice porridge on the livestream. At long last I get to eat it for real." Everyone on the cart was excited, some pointing at the towering groves of bamboo, asking what tree that was. Or pointing at the strange grasses along the road, asking until their mouths were dry. And yet the guide still answered patiently question by question, the smile on his face never changing.

This professional attitude immediately earned a shower of praise from the viewers in the broadcasting rooms.

About fifteen minutes later, the cart stopped in front of a group of stilt houses built entirely of wood and bamboo, roofed with palm leaves, set with their backs against the mountain face, their fronts looking straight out onto the wide river below.

More than fifty tourists stepped down from the cart, carefully sizing up their surroundings.

Kay asked in astonishment: "These houses are made entirely of wood and bamboo?"

The guide answered honestly: "Houses of wood and bamboo alone cannot withstand the destructive force of nature, so to guarantee your safety, we use combined housing. The core inside is still mobile home material, only the outside uses wood and bamboo along with leaves to create a relaxing feel."

The tourists nodded in agreement. The guide then took out electronic keys, handing one to each of them: "These are the keys to your houses, numbered on them to match the house numbers. Would you please lock the electronic key’s location to your identity card, and on no account swap houses with one another."

One passenger raised a hand to ask: "So can we visit each other’s houses?"

"Of course you can. That is your own freedom." The guide nodded, then handed each of them a detailed instruction sheet: "I am in the house half a kilometre straight down from here, so if you need anything just come and find me."

Having said that he said goodbye to them, boarding the cart and driving straight off. The crowd of tourists gaped at the guide’s manner. The Omega girl said in a low voice:

"Why does he look as though he has just put down a heavy load?"

Kay shrugged: "Is that not all the better, we can move about freely without worrying about being watched by anyone. Let us hurry and find our houses, I want to know what it is like inside."

Kay quickly found his house, pushing open the bamboo door and stepping into the room. Inside there were no cold metal fittings, the floor was laid from strips of pressed bamboo polished smooth, cool under the soles of his feet.

The wooden bed was spread with a mattress covered in soft bamboo-fibre cloth, and to the right of the bed there was a large window besides, so that pulling the curtain open was enough to see the view outside. On the table there was already a plate of fruit set out, a few in brilliant orange along with several ripe, full tomatoes.

Kay picked up the orange one delightedly, saying to his broadcasting room: "Mandarins, everyone. In a meal sold online for five hundred and twenty silver stars you only get half a mandarin! And this red one is a tomato, isn’t it? It is the kind sold only in limited quantities, directly at the Luxe Morsel branches. Here they have given me a whole plate of these two!"

Having said that Kay immediately set his camera down, nimbly peeling a mandarin then picking off one segment to put in his mouth. The very moment the segments burst, the sweet-sour juice flooding his mouth, Kay screwed his eyes shut.

He whispered into the microphone: "So sweet... So fragrant. Everyone, the feeling of living in a house that breathes out the breath of nature is so wonderful that I do not want to go back to that cramped flat full of the smell of metal in the Capital. This much in this life is enough."

The comment section carried on weeping with envy.

Once his luggage was put away, Kay could not hold back his curiosity, immediately locking the door and going off to look round everywhere on the mountain. Besides him, every one of the other passengers had the same intention. More than fifty people decided to divide into ten groups and spread out along the paths. They created a group broadcasting room, so that even split up they could still know what there was on the mountain.

The road up the mountain grew steeper the higher it went, and those with poorer stamina were soon propping their hands on their knees and panting hard. However the things they did not yet know spurred them on forward.

Kay’s group went through a large pine forest, when one friend suddenly said:

"Do you hear something?"

A female Beta said hesitantly: "It seems to be... the sound of running water?"

Everyone in Kay’s group looked at one another, then without any of them saying a word, they all quickened their steps towards where the sound was coming from. The further they went, the clearer the sound of running water became, the clear babbling winding its way through each tree trunk and leaf canopy, making a gentle music of nature that people living amid the noise of the city like them had never heard before.

Coming out through the dense pine canopies, a magnificent scene appeared before their eyes.

"Oh my..." The female Beta murmured, dropping the bottle of drinking water in her hand.

Before them a waterfall poured down from a high rock face, the foam flung up white. The stream water was crystal clear and cool, running over smooth-worn pebbles then spilling into a still, green-blue pool below. Around the pool were lush clumps of fern and wild flowers in brilliant colours stretching themselves up to catch the sun.

Kay swallowed, hurriedly adjusting the camera angle to capture this exquisite scene in full. He could not get a word out, only gaping as he looked.

[Heavens! A waterfall! A real waterfall!]

[What is this? Is paradise real?]

[This view is so beautiful it has me wanting to cry...]

[The Martinez family really are good, however did they create natural scenery as breathtaking as this?]

The broadcasting rooms exploded, the number of viewers shooting up dizzyingly.

"This water... would it be drinkable?" The young man with Kay asked curiously.

"I really do not know, best not to try it." An older man advised cautiously: "After all this is a newly opened eco planet, we do not yet know what the water source here is like."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Much as they longed to taste that crystal-clear water, reason still reminded them to be careful. They only crept closer, reaching out to touch the cool water lightly, scooping up a little to wash their faces. The refreshing coolness spread through their whole bodies, driving away all the weariness of the climb.

Kay’s group lingered beside the pool for a long while, looking at the view while taking photographs, chatting away merrily.

The others in the group broadcasting room kept updating their own exploration as well. One group found a valley of brilliant flowers, one group discovered mysterious caves, one group discovered a forest with a great many spiny fruits, and were just about to touch one when an electronic fence appeared along with a notice board.

[Plant name: Chestnut tree – edible. Please do not enter the chestnut forest area on your own, go to your guide first.]

Another group also came upon a few strange forests with electronic fences and similar notices, and they said excitedly to one another:

"Hey everyone, let us go and explore these this afternoon! I have no idea whether they are good to eat but seeing that they are edible is enough to make me happy!"

The whole group nodded in agreement at once, not forgetting to tell one another to invite the people down the mountain too. The whole planet Sirius was like an enormous treasure store waiting to welcome their exploring.

And this was only one mountain, which with just the fifty-odd of them they could not possibly explore in full.