At Kevin's call, Lily rushed out of the house in a flash. The next second, she was pinned to the coffee table by Kevin, her claws bared. She struggled and protested, "Landlord, you can't learn from bats! Huskies have dignity too!"
"Enough! You already know you're a spirit, and you're still talking about dignity!" Kevin knew Lily wasn't being serious. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to pin down Lily, who possessed the brute force of a siege tank. So, after a brief fuss, he let go of the Husky. "The mission has arrived. We're going on a long journey. Really, really far. You'll definitely have trouble acclimatizing. And we can only take two people this time. One of them is the new arrival, Nangong Wuyue. Which of you three is willing to come?"
"I, I, I!" Lily jumped up with her hands raised, not even hearing the mission. "I'll go with you. I'm awesome! And now I can use my claws to release steam and dig holes. You say running for cover or digging a hole to hide, I'm good at it!" "That's not something to be proud of," Vivian said, pushing Lily away. "Why don't you spend your time studying some serious techniques? Landlord, where are you going? I'm free at home anyway, so it's no problem for me to go with you. Besides, I know every corner of the world."
Vivian had the nerve to mention "everywhere on the planet"; it seemed her last blunder in the British Isles hadn't made a lasting impression on her. "Um, you probably don't have any idea of this distance..." Kevin glanced at the two fantastical creatures from Earth before him, suddenly feeling that the high-sounding concept of "interstellar travel" didn't quite fit them. "Eight hundred and ninety-five light years away."
Lily: "..." Vivian: "..."
"Oh my god..." Lily was stunned for a moment before she realized what was happening. She stuck out her tongue in amazement. "Landlord, are you kidding?"
"It's true," Kevin said, his tone a bit unrealistic. "I'm going to pick someone up again. A new tenant got off the spaceship at the wrong station, just like Y'zaks did. But this time, there was a problem with the spaceship, so they were over eight hundred light years away..."
Kevin explained what he had heard from Raven. He finally explained why Nangong Wuyue had to take up a spot, and mentioned in passing that he could teleport to Kuiper Station. Finally, he looked at Lily seriously, "This isn't a fun trip. At least the last time I went to England, we were still on Earth. Even sightseeing would be acceptable, but this time... I'm really unsure where we're going. I heard it's an Earth-like planet, but the ecological environment and everything is bound to be different from here. I need someone who's bold, careful, courageous, resourceful, and knowledgeable."
"I'm bold!" Lily said, her voice ringing with the first half. The second half of the sentence almost choked back, "Only the brave..."
"You're actually going to another planet..." Vivian, the usually mature and steady girl, couldn't help but gasp in amazement. This was beyond her experience. "Honestly, when I first learned about humans leaving the atmosphere, I was so surprised. Although I've known for a long time that the Earth was round, I never imagined anyone could fly to another planet. During the Apollo moon landing, I almost wanted to hang onto the rocket and see the world... Luckily I didn't go, or I would have died in the stratosphere. Landlord, honestly, I really want to go with you."
"Me too," Lily crouched on all fours on the sofa like a dog, head lowered and nudging Kevin's arm a few times, her tone pitiful. "Just think of it as poverty alleviation. Take me out to see the world? I promise I won't cause any trouble, and I won't sleep while walking."
"No, I don't think we're suitable," Vivian shook her head seriously. "Big Dog, this is no joke. The two of us can't help. The big guy is the best fit. Let him go with the landlord."
Kevin glanced at Vivian in surprise. He saw a reassuring calmness and reliability in her eyes. This good wife and mother vampire was indeed much more reliable than Lily, the husky. At least she knew what was important.
"As for experience... I do have some spaceflight experience," Y'zaks, who had been silent until then, spoke up without shirking his responsibility. "I've used space magic to explore satellites near my hometown a few times before. Later, I've also been on Imperial spaceships. I know what life on a starship is like, and I've even seen civilian flights. But that's all my experience is. As for exploring larger Earth-like planets or deciphering star maps... I'm just like you."
"Don't worry about that. Your experience on a spaceship is enough," Kevin clapped his hands. "So, you don't have any plans for the next few days? Come on a business trip with me?"
"Okay," Y'zaks smiled innocently. "I can't find a job anytime soon anyway. When are we leaving?"
Kevin pulled out his data terminal and glanced at the log. "We can leave within three days. It says we're boarding a civilian transport ship, which will be in transit through the solar system for three days. By the way, discuss this with Nangong Wuyue when she gets back. She probably doesn't know about this yet. That Raven 12345 always does things on a whim." Lily mumbled beside them, "I want to go, I want to go, I want to go..." She looked like someone who'd just seen a piece of meat bone and kept saying, "I want to eat it."
"You'll have a chance soon," Kevin patted Lily's head. "My private spaceship will be down soon, and I'll take you all over the universe. So stop chewing on the sofa cushions."
After some consolation, Lily finally calmed down and returned to her room with the cookie box to continue watching TV. Although Vivian couldn't go along, she seemed just as concerned about the matter as Kevin. Someone nearby, lost in thought, suddenly launched into a barrage of questions: "By the way, what do I need to pack for a business trip like this? Will I have easy access to food and drink on the spaceship? What about a change of clothes? Are there any diseases on alien planets that Earth medicine can't treat? Isn't that Kuiper Station you mentioned run by Earthlings? They're supposed to be full of aliens, right? Are they easy to deal with? Landlord, can your translation system translate alien languages?"
This barrage of questions left Kevin a bit bewildered. He stared at Vivian, vaguely seeing a reflection of his mother, and a bit like a young housewife fumbling with her luggage for the first time. These unreliable associations flashed through his mind, and finally, with a mixture of laughter and tears, he calmed Vivian down: "Don't worry, don't worry. You don't have to worry about anything. Just pack me a few clean clothes. Raven said everything else has been arranged. Someone will pick me up at Kuiper Station. Oh, and I remembered the terminal, too. How will we solve the problem of eating on an alien planet?
"If you're willing to risk it, you can eat the synthetic food from Kuiper Station. But I can't guarantee its taste, or even whether you can digest it. After all, Kuiper Station purchases universal organic matter developed by the private company Tongbiao, and it's not suitable for Earthlings. If you don't mind the trouble, Miss Vivian, please prepare some easy-to-store food. It's better than those sawdust-tasting compressed biscuits."
Kevin and Vivian calmed down from their excitement and began to seriously consider what they needed for the trip. As he listened to the data terminal's introduction, Kevin couldn't help but sigh, "I really envy those protagonists who have storage space right now... They don't even need to prepare a suitcase."
"We'll have it in due course," the data terminal said. "Once your rating rises a bit, the benefits and privileges of a full-time employee will gradually arrive. What official employee of the Empire doesn't even have a portable storage device?"
Kevin was stunned for a moment: "They really even have that!?"
"Why not?" the data terminal was even more surprised than Kevin. "You're working for a god, can't you raise your expectations a bit?"
Kevin wanted to say that every time he met Raven 12345, his expectations dropped by at least ten points, but thinking that the psychopathic goddess might eavesdrop on a whim, he didn't dare say it.
Nangong Wuyue returned from the city a little after five in the afternoon. When Kevin told her about this important event, the siren girl seemed particularly overjoyed. As a siren, she loved traveling!
Although Kevin felt that a spaceship mission to a desolate planet over 800 light-years away was far from travel...
And just like that, the personnel and preparations for this ultra-long-distance mission were finally finalized. On a beautiful afternoon, Kevin and his two assistants (the demon and the siren) each showered and changed their clothes, preparing to teleport to Kuiper Station.