Dread Jade Tower 又恐瓊樓玉宇

1. Barcode knows

2. Hyperplasia

3. New Pig Recruits

4. How dare you

Two aliens in reflective silver suits arrive on ‘Earth’, a blue planet known far and wide. They are searching for a Thing that their superiors describe as a stellar-class weapon capable of drawing everything into itself. Few have ever seen this weapon. Most have become lost within it—that is its power. These two poor silver beings have travelled a great distance in search of the weapon for the sake of their home planet’s civilisation. Their leaders need it to fend off invaders from more distant planets.

“Ah, there it is!” One of them spots the legendary piece of advanced Earth technology. It gives off a red glow, the only point of orientation in the darkness. The silver beings slowly approach the source of the light. Be very careful!

Earth no longer looks as it does in the planetary guidebook. The ground is covered with black stalagmites formed from layers of strange sheet masks. Such formations usually take hundreds of millions of years to accumulate. The intelligent beings who now inhabit Earth have already prepared a gift of their own for the silver visitors—or rather, a sacrificial offering: a pig-man. This is the latest breed developed on Earth. Explaining the species known as ‘pig’ would take some time. Humans, meanwhile, are the makers of these advanced weapons.

“In their memory!” the inhabitants of Earth cry, offering the pig-man to the silver beings.

“Then where have the humans gone?”

“Nobody knows. They say a weapon broke down two hundred million years ago, and the humans became part of this planet.”

“What a pity! They had weapons so advanced they could save us from ruin, yet they could not communicate with them.”

“It is easy to become lost,” the sacrificial offering says. Even to the two silver visitors from outer space, the creature is exceedingly strange.

Suddenly, the ultimate weapon in one of the silver beings’ pockets makes a strange noise.

“I told you those ancient weapons weren’t so easy to control!” an intelligent inhabitant of Earth shouts.

The red light engulfs everything in an instant.

Dread Jade Tower

I yearn to soar upon the wind and return to the heavens, 

Yet I fear the crystal palaces and jade pavilions, 

For the cold of such lofty heights is more than one can bear.

—————Su Shi

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