Chapter 7

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Chapter 7: Adaptive System

Zhu Huai didn’t understand Ying Zhao’s question. As she changed clothes, she looked around, saying, “What’s different? I haven’t moved anything; hasn’t this room always looked like this?”

“No, it’s different from last night,” Ying Zhao replied while scanning the room, gesturing with her hands. “This table, this sink, they’re at least ten centimeters taller than what’s in my room.”

Luo Yu, standing outside and overhearing this, walked in. She didn’t think the surfaces were any higher; in fact, she felt they seemed a bit lower. “The ones in my room are even a bit taller than this.”

“Is that so?” Zhu Huai became interested, and the three of them checked each room. Indeed, they found differences from last night. The surfaces in Luo Yu’s room were the tallest, followed by Zhu Huai’s, and Ying Zhao’s had the lowest surfaces.

“This is a bit strange,” Zhu Huai murmured as she walked back and forth across the three rooms, measuring with her hands. After calculating the height differences, she squatted in front of the screen at the archway and pondered for a moment. Luo Yu and Ying Zhao stood beside her, equally puzzled.

Suddenly, Zhu Huai had a flash of inspiration. “I got it!” she exclaimed, standing up and walking to the handwriting board to write down the height differences. “It’s the information input from last night; the indoor facilities here are height adaptive.”

Luo Yu and Ying Zhao gasped, “Can it really do that?!”

Zhu Huai listed the official heights of the three of them beside the handwriting board: Luo Yu was 1.81 meters, she herself was 1.77 meters, and Ying Zhao was 1.67 meters.

The difference in their heights perfectly matched the height difference of the room’s facilities. Zhu Huai rested her chin on her hand, “Yes, it must be that, but…” She dashed back to the screen at the archway, circled around it, and then crouched down to examine it closely. “How was this triggered? I didn’t feel anything.”

Luo Yu and Ying Zhao followed her. Ying Zhao tapped the screen and noticed an icon labeled “Change Occupant.” She clicked on it, and the screen asked, “Would you like to change the occupant?”

Zhu Huai urged her, “Try changing it.”

Ying Zhao clicked “Confirm,” followed the prompt to stand in the circular groove, and after inputting her information, the screen signaled, “Change complete, Ying Zhao, welcome to your stay.”

As soon as the prompt ended, all the facilities in the room began to slowly lower. By the time Ying Zhao stepped out of the groove, the height adjustments were complete.

Luo Yu and Zhu Huai watched the entire process in amazement, exclaiming together, “So advanced!”

However, Ying Zhao missed the spectacle and anxiously asked, “How did it change?”

Zhu Huai laughed, “Come on, let me make it change again so you can see.” She approached the screen and selected the Change Occupant option, noting that it no longer required a new input; her information was already in the system. She switched back to her name, and the screen displayed, “Change complete, Zhu Huai, welcome back.”

Seeing the facilities rise again, Ying Zhao walked over to the table, amazed, but found that the surfaces and the floor fit together seamlessly, as though they grew directly from the ground with no visible retraction design.

At that moment, Zhu Huai discovered that, from the two changes in information, a new icon had appeared on the screen: "Body Shape Tracking Adaptive." She clicked on it, which prompted a request to connect to the in-house housekeeping system.

“Come look at this,” Zhu Huai said while opening the new icon’s description. Luo Yu and Ying Zhao joined her, seeing it read: “Equipped with a body shape adaptive feature specifically for youth care suites; upon connecting to the in-house housekeeping system, it can adjust facility height and position based on the occupant’s body shape changes at any time.”

The three of them stood before the screen, stunned.

So, they were staying in a children’s room.

The height adaptive system in the room was designed for growing teens, likely set up because the facilities in a house designed for adults were too high for them.

After a moment of silence, Ying Zhao lightly cleared her throat, “To be fair, this arrangement is rather thoughtful.”

Zhu Huai shook her fist in frustration. “They actually treat us like children… thoughtful but extremely humiliating!”

At that moment, the panel on the circular table in the lounge suddenly chimed, “You have a new message; would you like to play it?”

The three of them walked out of Zhu Huai’s room together. Because they hadn’t connected to the in-house housekeeping system, they couldn’t control it with their voices yet. Luo Yu stepped up and pressed the play button.

It was Lei Ming’s projection. She recorded the message while walking, looking like she was in a forest, with a small basket on her arm, full of wild fruits and mushrooms. With a vibrant expression, she waved at them, saying, “Good morning, ladies! I’m getting ready to go home to take a shower, then I’ll come find you. I’ll be punctual at ten o’clock. See you soon!”

After the projection ended, Luo Yu looked at the time on the panel—it was just past nine.

Ying Zhao also noticed the time and turned toward the main control panel at the entrance. “I’ll order some food for you; the menu here is quite rich. Is there anything in particular you want to eat?”

“Anything is fine; just order something to fill us up,” Luo Yu replied, then stopped Zhu Huai, who wanted to follow her to check the menu. “When Lei Ming comes, let’s first go to the hangar and see if we need any materials or tools to fix the control panel. That way, she can help us arrange it.”

Zhu Huai thought for a moment, “The tool compartment has everything we need, and we have spare materials too. We’ll have to clear out the mud first to see the specific situation.”

The two sat at the round table and discussed repairs for the time capsule. Meanwhile, Ying Zhao had already finished ordering food and returned. While waiting for the meals, she excitedly introduced Zhu Huai to the soft glass she had recently discovered.

Luo Yu watched them examining the material by the window and didn’t join in. Instead, she sat there contemplating their plans for the day. After a moment, she turned to gaze out the window at the waterfall, still flowing vigorously. A flock of birds flew lazily by, and a gust of wind blew the water curtain, transforming it into a mist that wrapped around the birds like a delicate veil.

Before long, they heard a sound from outside the main door; the delivery robot had arrived.

Since Ying Zhao had opened the permissions earlier, the delivery robot walked directly into the lounge, set down two meals on the round table, and cheerfully said, “Enjoy your meal,” before turning to leave.

Zhu Huai, feeling hungry from waiting, was drawn in by the delightful scents and, abandoning her study of the soft glass, rushed to the soft cushions to see what was being served. Ying Zhao also ordered herself a cup of hot grain drink and joined her at the table. “I ordered what I had for breakfast this morning: energy wraps paired with a snack platter. I noticed that most of the protein sources here are seafood, but we must be quite far from the sea in this place.”

Zhu Huai took a bite of the wrap, declaring, “Everything here comes by plane; transporting seafood must be pretty easy. Mmm, this tastes good.” She then glanced at the snack platter, puzzled by its contents. “What are these?”

Luo Yu picked up her utensils to poke around. “Sea cucumber, sea urchin, lobster, and goose barnacle. And this is…” She picked up one little dish, sampled a bit, and remarked, “Crab meat, but I can’t tell what kind of crab it is.”

With each ingredient she mentioned, Zhu Huai gasped in awe. In their world, due to increased ocean pollution in recent years, many marine species had gone extinct. Only one area in Antarctica remained protected, reserved for the top-tier elites, leaving ordinary people with no opportunity to eat seafood; many ingredient names had become almost legendary.

“These are all top-tier ingredients!” Zhu Huai exclaimed as she took a small spoonful of sea urchin.

Luo Yu sighed and gently shook her head. “In our world, these are considered top-tier ingredients; here, they might just be the most ordinary items.”

“That’s debatable…” After saying that, Zhu Huai suddenly had a thought, looking intently at Ying Zhao. “Do these items cost money?”

Ying Zhao stared at her, confused by the question. “They didn’t say anything about it costing money.”

“There’s no such thing as a free breakfast,” Zhu Huai frowned, suddenly finding the wrap less appetizing. “They provide both food and shelter; how could there be such good luck? The contract we signed yesterday, it wouldn’t be a contract for servitude, would it? Are they expecting us to stay and work off our debts?”

Luo Yu calmly peeled a lobster and ate it. “Don’t overthink it. With their power, if they wanted to deal with us, they wouldn’t have to beat around the bush.”

“That’s true,” Zhu Huai nodded, taking another bite of her wrap.

After they finished their breakfast, Ying Zhao called a housekeeping robot to come and clean the table, demonstrating her growing comfort with the system.

Not long after the housekeeping robot left, the main control panel of the suite chimed with a notification: “Visitor Lei Ming has arrived at the ninth cliff dwelling, requesting access to the Third Cave Villa.”

Once the permission was granted, the three of them stood by the control panel, waiting for a moment until the butler robot announced from outside, “Visitor Lei Ming has arrived.”

Luo Yu stepped forward to open the door and saw the same butler robot from last night, standing next to a tall young woman with a cheerful smile. Holding a small basket in her hand, she was none other than Lei Ming, whom they had seen in the video message.

It had been hard to gauge her height from the video, but standing before the three of them now, she was clearly just over two meters tall. Although she was significantly taller than any of them, her warm demeanor felt much more approachable compared to the robust women they had met in the assembly hall yesterday. She lacked the intense aura Mo Chuan had, making her seem easy to talk to.

The butler robot brought Lei Ming to the door and then turned to leave. Lei Ming stepped inside warmly, placing her basket on the table near the control panel. “I brought you some fruits I picked from the forest this morning. Are you getting used to living here?”

Without waiting for their reply, she walked straight to the floor-to-ceiling window and exclaimed, “The view from the ninth cliff dwelling is truly amazing!” She then turned back with a smile, addressing the three of them, “I stay at the fifteenth cliff dwelling by the river. The view is broad and beautiful. I hope you can visit me someday.”

Luo Yu invited her to sit on the soft cushions, and after some casual conversation, the three of them sampled the wild fruits that Lei Ming had brought, before getting up to head towards the hangar to check on the control panel of the Shan Hai Jing.

As they stepped outside the laser screen of the ninth cliff dwelling, they encountered a few people passing by, one of whom was a familiar face—the young nurse who had helped Luo Yu order food the previous day.

The nurse clearly recognized Lei Ming too. When she saw them, she first greeted Lei Ming and then smiled at Luo Yu with a nod before Lei Ming asked her, “Are you going into the mountains to sketch so early? The last time you said you would show me that painting, when are you going to take me to see it?”

The nurse laughed brightly, “In a couple of days. I’ve only just finished half of it; I need to go to the mountains to find some inspiration.”

“Great, I’ll wait for your news.”

After exchanging a couple of sentences, the nurse didn’t linger when she saw her companions walking ahead. She waved goodbye and quickly dashed to catch up with them.

Once they left, Lei Ming turned back to the three of them and smiled, “That was my friend; she’s my favorite painter.”

This left Luo Yu somewhat confused. “I met her after I woke up yesterday. Isn’t she a nurse?”

“Right, she works at the nursing center in the assembly hall, but she’s also a painter and a rock climbing instructor.”

This amazed Luo Yu further. “Can a person do so many jobs?”

Lei Ming looked puzzled in return. “In your place, do people only do one job? That must be so boring!”

Zhu Huai chimed in curiously, “I heard from Luo Yu that nurses only work three hours, resting for a day after working for three days. So, they must take on several jobs because their salary isn’t enough to support a family?”

“Salary? What’s that?”

With that question, the four of them exchanged glances, and the thirty-thousand-year gap appeared unexpectedly before them.