Chapter 163 Luggage-Carrying Protagonist

The big shopping trip outside took quite a while, and it was basically evening when Hao Ren returned home.

As soon as he entered, he saw Lily rushing to greet him. The husky girl's tail was almost a blur behind her, and she was carrying a bulging travel bag. "Landlord, let's go to sleep now!"

Before Hao Ren could even get his bearings, Lily's words nearly made him stumble. He frantically pressed down on the dog-girl's head to stop her from trying to lick him, shouting, "Calm down, calm down! Can't you have a little bit of a girl's reserve..."

"How is it? Can we bring people in?" Vivian grabbed Lily's collar and dragged her to the side, asking Hao Ren. Her voice was very steady, but the faint anticipation in her eyes couldn't be hidden.

"No problem, I brought back five hibernation pods. They can let all of us enter the Dream Plane and prevent accidental disconnection," Hao Ren said, looking around the living room for space to put the five coffins. "...Not enough room."

"Hibernation pods? Where are they?" Lily stared and bounced over, circling Hao Ren twice.

Hao Ren grinned. "I'll show you a magic trick..."

With that, he held out his hand in front of Lily, and a distorted light flashed in the air. A bag of bread suddenly appeared in his hand, and Lily's eyes went wide. "Wow! What's this?"

"Personal space!" Hao Ren tossed the bread to Lily, crossing his arms with an arrogant expression. "I'm a protagonist with a full set of gear now! This personal space can fit four or five thousand Whitebeard old men."

Lily and Vivian were immediately amazed. Even Nangong Wuyue, who was teasing the little mermaid by the table, quickly brought her pot over. Hao Ren, like a child who had just gotten a new toy, demonstrated how to store and retrieve things with his personal space. So Lily handed over her travel bag. "Here, you're in charge of carrying luggage from now on."

Vivian also rushed to the sofa like a gust of wind, grabbing a suitcase. "Oh, and mine."

Nangong Wuyue put down the pot and ran back to her room, bringing two large bags. "And mine."

In the end, Yizaks was the only one with a good heart. He glanced at Hao Ren's blank face and chuckled. "I don't have any luggage to bring."

Hao Ren was about to nod gratefully when he saw Yizaks point to the TV in the living room. "Take that with you. I get bored easily."

"There's no signal in the Dream Plane!" Hao Ren finally exploded, then pointed at himself, on the verge of tears. "This personal space of mine is such a high-end item... how did it become a luggage carrier? What happened to the protagonist's cool exclusive skill?"

The four tenants in the living room said in unison, "What else can you do besides carry luggage?"

Hao Ren: "..."

He decided he would never hope to have a cool moment again. With this group of quirky guys at home, even if he brought back Frostmourne from the Management of Time and Space, the first thing they would think of was using it to make shaved ice in the summer...

"If you're looking for a place... how about the basement?" Just as Hao Ren was worried about where to put the five coffins, Vivian suddenly remembered that her usual sleeping place had a lot of space. "The basement is so big, and besides the small storage room, it's just where I sleep. I don't have any furniture, so it's empty."

Hao Ren nodded. "Then we'll put them in the basement."

Everyone was eager to see something new, so they all ran to the basement in a crowd. Fortunately, Hao's father had built the basement exceptionally large when he planned the house, so this warehouse-sized space was enough to hold many things. Currently, Vivian's sleeping area only had a small bed, a low table, two chairs, and a small cabinet, perfectly matching her poor girl identity. Hao Ren had always felt that this environment was too shabby and wanted to add at least a sofa and a TV, but Vivian had politely declined. She was already satisfied with her current living conditions, and being able to watch TV with everyone in the living room was a "luxury entertainment" that she had never dared to imagine before. So the basement was still as empty as when she first moved in.

Now, this empty space had some new additions: five brand-new, silvery-white hibernation (coffin) pods lined up opposite Vivian's bed, finally making this overly spacious place look a little "fuller".

However, using five coffins to fill the space... the atmosphere was really eerie.

After Hao Ren arranged the hibernation pods, he stepped back to the door and looked. It felt like he was standing in a morgue. Not only did these damn hibernation pods look like coffins, but they also used the cold colors favored by large freezers in morgues. Coupled with the cold, lifeless mechanical texture and the crystal crosses on the equipment covers, if anyone was stupid enough to turn off the lights, there was no need for special effects to film The Grudge.

"...Is it a little inappropriate to put these things where you sleep?" Hao Ren glanced at Vivian, thinking that even if the vampire girl had a good temper, he couldn't bully her like this. Who would want to put a row of coffins where they sleep? "If you don't want to, we can move them to the empty rooms upstairs. We should be able to put two or three in each room. There are four empty rooms upstairs."

But Vivian shook her head, not caring at all. "It's okay, it looks pretty atmospheric. It reminds me of the places I used to live."

Hao Ren then remembered that this girl had not only slept in coffins but also often spent the night in cemeteries. Having a circle of coffins around her was just like reminiscing about her hometown.

The data terminal floated in front of Hao Ren and displayed the operating methods of these hibernation pods. As Raven 23333 had said, these things were surprisingly simple to use. The ability to input mental commands made almost all civilian equipment in the Empire easy to operate (presumably the more advanced military and professional equipment was not so simple). Hao Ren studied it for a few minutes and knew how to set the relevant parameters and understood the basic performance of these devices. What was even more satisfying was that each hibernation pod had a high degree of intelligence and supported connection with the data terminal. Even if Hao Ren, the novice operator, made a mistake in some commands, there was no need to worry about a "medical accident."

Hao Ren was now curious about how Raven 12345 and Raven 23333 had managed to break these devices that even Doudou could learn to use: Goddesses above, the original adjustment pod only had one button, and Raven 12345 still managed to press the wrong one!

While he was complaining in his heart, he was connected to the data terminal, so the words in his mind were directly shared with the data terminal. The latter swayed and explained in a lazy tone, "The reason why the Ravens can't use technological equipment isn't that they can't remember the operating steps, but that they always do unnecessary things. After pressing the one-button start, they should just wait, but they have to add an arcane catalyst, time warp, or something to speed it up and improve efficiency. And then it's kaboom—every Raven's use of technological equipment begins with 'I think I know how to use it' and ends with 'I feel like I have a big advantage.' All the Ravens in the Empire are the same... probably because they all come from the same template."

Hao Ren stared at the data terminal in astonishment. "Can these messages be discussed publicly?"

"Yes, you can see them on the data network. The earliest posts have been pinned for over two thousand years."

Hao Ren felt incredible. "Isn't this blasphemy? Don't those powerful goddess sisters care?"

"The post was made by His Majesty the Emperor."

Hao Ren: "..."

At this time, Lily had been studying those coffins for a long time, holding a power strip and asking curiously, "Where's the plug for this thing?"

"You brought me a 220v socket to power something so high-end?" Hao Ren flicked Lily's ear. "The hibernation pods have their own power, using a miniature reactor located in another dimension to supply energy. Use them freely, as long as they don't break, they'll last until the end of the world. Come on, stop studying them, I'll talk about the precautions."

Hao Ren clapped his hands, and Lily, Nangong Wuyue, Vivian, and Yizaks immediately lined up in front of him according to their height. Hao Ren pointed to those coffins and introduced them, "These things can reduce the body's physiological activity to near-freezing, so we can stay in the Dream Plane for a long time without worrying about our bodies starving to death outside. As for the principle of bringing people in, it's mental synchronization. These coff... hibernation pods can synchronize our minds, and then, with me as the 'primer,' pull you into the Dream Plane. In other words, you first enter my dream, and then I enter the Dream Plane. So don't stray too far from me after you enter. If you spread out too much, you might leave the service area."

Lily shouted loudly, "So you're wifi, right?"

Hao Ren glared at the girl, then remembered something. "Right, Lily, let me ask you a question: can you do dog teeth fillings?"

(The internet was down for a while at noon. It's finally back.)