Aric was taken aback by the loud noise and the shower of sparks, and he instinctively took two steps backward. When he heard the shouting outside, he glanced at the charger that had turned into blackened scrap, then he turned around and walked away as if nothing had happened.
When he reached the maintenance bay's washroom, he took a look at the comm device in his hand and found there was no visible damage. There was still a half-centimeter of the charred charging cable sticking out of the port.
He was holding the device with his left hand, which was now smudged with soot from the burned wire and looked a bit grimy.
After carefully washing his hands twice with a cleansing gel, he was sure that there was nothing abnormal about his hands. He held the comm device and walked slowly toward the diagnostic station.
A small group of technicians had gathered in the station to discuss the situation. The main generator for the station's power grid was located just outside Nebula Station 7's core module. It was less than a hundred meters away from the maintenance bay, and black smoke was now billowing from it.
"This is really bad luck," said the technician in charge, Officer Kane, sipping her protein shake and pointing at the generator. "That flare yesterday just knocked out the main generator, and it was repaired in the middle of the night, but now it's overloaded again!"
"I think the circuits weren't connected properly," replied Rian Grayson, shaking his head as if he were an expert. "It's not even peak power consumption hours in the early morning, so it shouldn't have overloaded."
Officer Kane rolled her eyes at him and argued, "Maybe it's because the parts were substandard. That seems more likely."
"Hey, what are you two talking about?" A loud voice called out from the distance. A man in a blue uniform walked over to them. The uniform was the standard issue of the station's engineering crew, and on his left chest, the word "Maintenance" was embroidered in bright red letters.
The engineer was clearly frustrated by their conversation. In his eyes, it had been hard enough to repair the generator overnight, especially after yesterday's solar flare had damaged several critical systems.
He had been working nonstop until now and hadn't had any rest. Hearing someone question the quality of his work was the last straw. "Maybe it's because you people overloaded the circuits!"
Since Rian fancied himself an expert, he had his own ideas. He snorted disdainfully and said, "We have power limiters on the station. If there was an issue with the load, the limiters would've tripped first. You should know that, right?"
Aric stood a bit away from them, listening to their bickering. He took out his comm device and saw it still only had 12% battery left.
He must have just used a faulty charger, but he was taken aback when he glanced at his wrist the next moment. The mark left by his crystal band had darkened from light blue to a deeper blue.
Did the generator overload because my body absorbed a huge amount of energy?
It was just a theory, but it didn't seem plausible that simply charging an old comm device could cause such a significant incident.
As for why the station's power limiters didn't trip, Aric couldn't offer a reasonable explanation. After all, he wasn't an engineer by training.
Seeing that the color of the crystal band mark had darkened, Aric was itching to find a secluded spot and try entering the virtual space again. It was really hard to resist the urge.
However, he managed to hold back. The memory of the 10 plots of crystals in his holo-farm was still fresh in his mind and helped him make the decision.
The frustrating experience last time left a strong impression on him, so he thought it would be safer to attempt the test during the lunch break.
When it was finally noon, Aric hid in one of the maintenance bay's private lockers and immediately opened his holo-farm app. Before he could even touch the screen, a message popped up on the interface.
Dr. Langston just harvested 15 crystals from your farm.
Aric was momentarily stunned. He then shook his head with a resigned smile.
Without further delay, he tapped the big hand icon on the screen and was once again transported into the strange virtual space.
"Oh, I must charge myself first if I want to come here," Aric finally realized.
Afterward, he reached out and patted his pockets. He wanted to see if the ration packs he carried had been brought in with him.
It was tiring to harvest crystals, and a quick meal could help him recharge. He wouldn't exchange the comfort for anything.
He would have felt a great sense of accomplishment by eating a ration pack inside the holo-farm too.
Unfortunately, Aric searched himself for a long time, but he couldn't find any pockets at all.
He looked down and found that he couldn't even see what color his clothes were, let alone what style they were.
He was certain he was wearing something, but he just couldn't tell what it was. If he hadn't been searching for his rations, he might not have even noticed the strangeness of his appearance.
The feeling was very peculiar, yet somehow it made sense.
Aric sighed heavily. "It seems that I really exist in the form of data in this space."
Anyway, since this was an anomaly, he shouldn't be too demanding. There was likely no one else in the galaxy who could enter a virtual world as data.
After glancing around, he sighed heavily once more. "Damn, it's time to harvest the crystals again. I should really plant fewer plots next time."
In fact, the realization that he could only enter the holo-farm in the form of data hit him hard. Six hours later, Aric breathlessly sat on the edge of the last plot, looking at the 10 empty plots in front of him. He wished that he could lie down and sleep right there. "Damn, it's really not an easy job. Hello, system? Can you hear me?"
No response.
"Alright, I can accept some system help." Aric gave in. "Hi, is there a system guide?"
Still nothing.
Aric began to panic, and he feared that he might not be able to exit the virtual space. Although his life was somewhat unsatisfactory, he wasn't mentally prepared to be stuck in a virtual farm, let alone forever.
Thinking of that, he felt quite anxious.
Will I become a data stream of "0" and "1" if I can't leave here after coming inside?
After trying countless times, Aric finally returned to reality.
He glanced around, then reached out and pinched his arm. He didn't have a better choice. That slap he gave himself earlier was too strong, and now he had a slight ringing in his ears, so he thought it was better to pinch himself.
The pain in his arm told him that he had truly returned to reality.
Immediately afterward, he let out a sigh of relief. "Holy stars, I almost got stuck in there."
It turned out there was no system guide in the virtual space. The reason why he couldn't exit was that he had missed a single crystal in one of the plots.
Just because he didn't harvest every crystal, he almost became trapped in the virtual space. It was a painful lesson.
"It seems that this farm still strictly follows the program's rules," Aric said to himself, still somewhat shaken by the experience.
Next, as the recipient of this strange anomaly, he decided he needed to analyze how it had happened.
However, his stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten in over eight hours, and he had even been doing virtual physical labor during that time.
When he glanced at the time on his comm device, he was stunned again. "No way, it's still 2000 hours?"
Aric checked the date and made sure that he was still on the same day when he had experienced the energy surge.
In other words, after he entered the virtual farm, time outside had stopped, even though he had stayed inside for seven hours.
"This is unbelievable." He was amazed, and he couldn't help but imagine how successful he could be with this anomaly in the future.
As he walked to the door of his quarters, a little stocky man hurried in from outside. He was taken aback when he saw Aric's exhausted look. "Hey, what happened to you?"
The stocky man was Aric's roommate. He was usually responsible for cargo management. He often received tips, so his income was a bit higher than Aric's, but he spent more than he earned.
Aric didn't particularly like him, not because he was jealous of his higher income, but because he had lost tools twice and suspected Rian Grayson.
Therefore, he gave him a curt response. "I just spent half a day in the virtual farm."
"Ridiculous." Stellar Colony 7 was a state-of-the-art station. There was no physical farm for him to work in. "I was just showing you some concern. Would it kill you not to snap back?" said Rian with a frown.
Aric looked at him for a long moment. He then said in a serious tone, "I'm not lying to you, and I mean it."