599 Quite A Handsome Fortune

The Engineer Walker spent some time mourning the death of his super-exclusive-limited-edition, the one that got away with banshee-like howls. Afterward, he marched back to his workshop in Da Xue with purposeful strides.

The other Voidwalkers had nothing to do. Now that they had regained their fleshly bodies, not even one of the Voidwalkers was bold enough to casually leap through the portal.

Thus, they stayed in the living room, talking about current affairs whilst waiting for the Engineer Walker.

As the first Voidwalker, the Archmage solemnly stated his opinion. "What we don't have to do right now is to name educated guesses about their civilization, military might, and technological capabilities. The most important question is: what do we call them? Fellas, we need to name them. Since they appear to ride what resembles snowmobiles in the sky, then let's call them 'Sky Knights'!"

"That's accurate, but I get the feeling that something is… off. Like, it's gonna turn into a bait-and-switch hyperlink and QR code[1] any second now," Baiyi replied, shaking his head in disapproval.

The Scholar Walker, whose focus was still on her decoding work, suddenly said, "Is anyone in favor of calling them the 'Last Airbenders'?"

'Way to go, telling everyone what generation of cartoons you watch.'

"Ooh, I know! The Flying Dutchmen!"

'Can we just stop stealing names from already established works for a change?'

While the other Voidwalkers showcased the terrible level of skill they had at naming, the denizens of the other world were examining them, too. The unlucky marionette was atop a long office table in the best room of the steam-powered flying ship. This was the Captain's quarters.

A few human silhouettes in thick furs were gathered around the table, looking intently at the marionette, an object they had never seen before. They conversed amongst themselves in a strange language.

"I took this to our best technical officer on the ship, and he said he'd never seen anything this exquisite before! He could not figure out how the robot functioned, neither could he tell how it had hovered at such heights," said a middle-aged man, comfortably resting beneath a layer of comforters. As the man spoke, wisps of white vapor were let out into the air. A small golden emblem of a sloop was pinned on his chest pocket, outing him as the captain of this crew.

"Indeed! This really is the most delicate and beautiful piece of art I've ever seen; it is simply irreplicable," the First Mate, who wore a silver sloop on his shirt, said. He gingerly caressed the marionette with his gloved hand as though he was examining its beauty. "Anyway, we should really descend right now. It's freezing up here!"

The Captain nodded and shouted out a command for the ship to descend. Clouds of steam and vapor surged out of the ship's smokestacks as it descended below the sea of clouds like a submarine. The airship continued to descend until it reached an altitude appropriate for its model.

The temperature in airship rose rapidly; it was as though mid-winter had been chased away by the gushing warmth of the humid summer. The airship's crew began to remove layers of clothing from themselves.

"Rising to the edge of the sky is a pain, but if we're rewarded with a treasure every time we do it, then sign me up for a few more rounds!" The Chief Engineer, a man with a full, bushy beard, exclaimed boisterously. He lifted his fingers to count. "This little babe is gonna bring us a fortune! We'll be able to upgrade our propeller system completely, and we'd still have more than enough left over to add more cannons!"

"You're seriously thinking of selling that?! Selling a delicate, exquisite piece of art from another dimension, which is worth more than all the gold in the world..." The Captain protested a little hotly. His face unnaturally beet red; no one could tell if it was because of his emotional response or if the abrupt change in temperature had left a strange effect on his body.

"Why not?" The First Mate asked. "It'll net a few months' worths of wages for everyone in this crew, without enough left over to get drinks. You know, there's mighty rich fella, Lame Hank, who has an eye and money for these sorts of things."

The marionette had sparked a discussion so loud, even the crew members that were not there could hear the others; the lucky rider, whose snowmobile was the landing point for the marionette, was one of them. He was on all fours outside the Captain's quarters, his ear directly on the door, listening in on the conversation. When the rider heard the others talk about selling the marionette, he frowned.

"They're just going to sell it? Just like that?!" The rider asked his partner in disbelief. "This won't do! We can't let 'em!"

The rider got up in a huff, ready to storm the room next door — intent on stopping the higher-ups from going through with their plans — but his partner, who looked a decade older than him, pulled him aside. "Are you out of your mind? If you break into the Captain's room like that, we could get kicked off this ship!" He whispered.

"So what? I thought you'd be used to it by now," the young rider snapped as he smoothened his shirt.

"Alright, kid. Listen. We all know who you are — Lear the Resplendent, the best skyfarer on this side of the endless blue! But, please, brave little Lear, how many crews have we joined and quit so far? I'm getting a little too old to be a vagabond, boy, and the other day, I set my eyes on this ship and found me your future auntie," the older partner said, trying to reason with the rider on whose shoulders his hands rested. "So, please, my darling rascal, be a dear for once, would you? Let this slide, please?

"Besides, you know that when they sell it, they won't keep for themselves the money that is rightfully ours. Our Captain is known for his firm sense of fairness!" The older partner said. "Just understand that your fortune, this time, is good enough to get us a few years of comfort. Everything is good! Don't you agree?"

The young rider hesitated. The unpleasant expression on his face belied the internal struggle he was having, but after a while, he relaxed and nodded.

The young rider did not want to relinquish the marionette after it landed on their sky-ski, but his older partner — who could also pass for an uncle to him — convinced him to make the "wisest choice." The young rider knew that his older partner was right this time, too. Selling the marionette did seem like the best course of action.

However, the crew did not know that if they returned the marionette to its rightful owner, he would be so excited that he rewards them with luxuries beyond their wildest imaginations!

"Do you think we'll cloud-soar again?" Lear asked.

"Maybe, maybe not." The older partner shrugged; he could not read the Captain's mind. "It is dangerous to venture to the edge of the sky, so I think they would rather know how much that pretty thing is worth in gold before making a decision. Besides, my gut tells me that the black hole in the sky is not good news. 'Dangerous!' my gut screams every time I look at it. There's certainly danger on the other side of the hole, and we'd be playing with fire if we mess with it. Don't you remember? Something shot out of the hole and attacked one of us!"

"That wasn't an attack! Philip's sky-ski suffered hardly any damage; its paint only peeled off a little," Lear replied. "If whoever was responsible for that was actually angry, they'd have done way worse than create a spark."

The older partner shrugged and dragged Lear, his nephew, off to a bar on the ship. It seemed he planned to celebrate their fortuitous encounter.

Later, both men were drunk, and they both had their arms around women, who were they were leading to their cabins. Suddenly, a loud horn blared from the deck. This was a signal for all riders to get ready. It seemed the Captain had decided to go up in clouds for another run.

Lear was a little baffled that his leader's uncommon decision to cloud-soar twice in a single day, but his excitement for the unknown was enough to shove the woman in his arm away. He quickly put on his sky-riding uniform and protective gear before slapping a pair of goggles on his face. The young man exited his cabin to see the older partner, who had just finished suiting up, and the two linked each other with a knowing smile and a nod.

They were sure that their fortune would smile at them again. It was just as the local saying goes, "If you're lucky today, you're lucky for the whole day."

Soon, about twenty sky-riders readied themselves on their trusty sky-skis as they approached the black hole. The number of people surrounding the portal had doubled from the last; since hearing the talk of Lear the Resplendent's treasure, everyone had wanted a shot.

The Captain had made an unprecedented choice to bring his ship above the clouds twice in a day after being thoroughly convinced by one of his engineers. The man had suggested selling the marionette to a wealthy collector who lived very far away from where they were. The trip was projected to be a lengthy one demanding a lot of provisions, repairs, and maintenance for their cloud-soaring rounds; it also meant that the ship would have to leave the mysterious black hole behind for a long, long time.

It would be wise for the Captain to soar above the clouds one last time before they leave. If they were lucky, they could bag another treasure before some other ships discovered this portal and plunder all of the best things from it.

Now, the steamship approached the portal carefully as the sky-riders disembarked from the ship's hulk and sped towards their target until they were enclosing it. Then, they hurled all kinds of objects into the portals — beer bottles, talismans, and more — excitedly, believing that Lear's reward was a result of throwing the right object into the black hole.

Someone must have thrown the right thing because soon, the black hole began to react. Then the treasure appeared: a beautiful marionette on par with pure art, bearing the same shiny green coat and a roundish head. Surprisingly, this time, it was no longer the size of an adult's hand but a metallic giant about two meters large.

There was no rule that a scout must be small, so the Engineer Walker brought a big one this time. It was originally one of the battle marionettes left from the war; the Engineer made a few last-minute paint job and tweaks before sending it out on the field.

He did expect his marionette to be greeted by a circle of sky-riders.

"What the hell are they even trying?" The Engineer Walker asked out loud in confusion as he watched the riders swinging what looked like lassos as though they were cowboys. They flung their ropes and captured the scout marionette, before beginning to shout to their partners to drive their snowmobiles at maximum speed.

They were planning to haul the marionette as though it were a bull!

[1] "Sky Knight' is a Chinese mainland meme that works more or less like our "rickrolling." People could submit in a link purportedly related to a topic, and someone would click on it, only to be linked to a pretty broken game where "Sky Knight" was one of its players.