With ninety-five galaxies now linked by the Unbreakable Inter-Galactic Wormhole Expressway and five more galaxies scheduled to be connected by tomorrow noon, Dry-Well Cluster had grown into a bustling super-metropolis spanning hundreds of millions of light-years.
Yet that very afternoon, as Pei Xuan strolled through Civic Galaxy Plaza #88 in the newly joined Merchant Sector, he heard a loud commotion near the local delivery dock.
A sixteen-year-old mortal delivery boy named Er Gouzi, wearing a blue Dry-Well Canteen apron and riding a stubborn, long-eared Rank 2 Flying Iron-Hoof Donkey, was scratching his head in circles while staring at twenty rolled-up paper star-charts tied to his saddlebag.
“Uncle! Do you know which exit ramp goes to Planet Green-Turnip in the third spiral arm of Galaxy Eighty-Eight?!” Er Gouzi called out anxiously to a passing blacksmith. “I have forty boxes of Old Guo’s hot Braised Pork Buns and Fried Scorpion Nuggets in my insulated saddle-crate! The customer lives on Third Street in West-Creek Town, Planet Green-Turnip, Galaxy Eighty-Eight—but my paper star-map only shows the big stars! There are four hundred billion planets in this galaxy! How am I supposed to find West-Creek Town before the pork buns lose their steam?!”
Even the Flying Donkey looked confused, turning left, then right, and letting out a loud HEE-HAW! as it accidentally backed into a directional signpost.
