Xyrin Empire
Chapter 390 - Chapter 390 Chapter 390 Collision

Chapter 390: Chapter 390 Collision Chapter 390: Chapter 390 Collision “Lighting, turn the lights up a bit!”

“Scorpion over there! Step back–I know you want to stand closer to the Emperor in a bit, but you’re already blocking his spot, dummy!”

“Vega, have you seen Sicaro? Is he already on standby with the Defense Fleet? Great, I just saw someone by the door predicting fortunes and thought it was him… wait, there are no fortune tellers in Academy City, right? Grab that bastard back here! He must be one of Sicaro’s trainees!”

“Sound system, who’s in charge of the sound system?”

As I looked around the busy scene in the large conference room and saw Lin Xue excitedly directing everyone in the middle, it felt like I had stepped into another dimension the moment I walked in.

“Girl Lin! Are you really planning to shoot Independence Day? Wow–what’s with that huge military emblem on the back wall?”

Finally seizing the moment, I hurriedly rushed over and pulled Lin Xue down from the sofa to ask.

With an excited flush on her face, Lin Xue wobbled in front of me, “Haha, Wood, today you’re supposed to issue a decree to the heads of major countries around the world as the Alien Emperor! Of course, we need to prepare thoroughly! Hey over there, bring the holographic projector here, in a bit we need to project Earth right in this spot…”

Watching Lin Xue shouting as she walked away, I was somewhat confused. I’m the protagonist today, right? Why does she seem even more excited than I am?

“Ah Jun, Ah Jun! What are you still standing there for? Come on, change your clothes!”

Qianqian’s voice suddenly snapped me out of my reverie. That’s when I realized she was also busy adding to the chaos–I knew it, there’s no way Qianqian wouldn’t join in on a chance to create mischief with her boundless energy!

Almost in a daze, I found myself already switched into the extremely complex royal attire that I had only glanced at once before and never worn since–The efficient mindset of the Xyrin Empire seemed to have penetrated every one of their nerves, but their absolute class system also spawned plenty of stuff that seemed quite troublesome to me, including those special battle etiquettes for each type of soldier types that I still can’t memorize, and then there was this attire…

Though it looked magnificent, if I had to wear it myself, my daily routine would look like this: in the morning, put on clothes, immediately take them off, and go to bed–because it’s already night.

I have no idea how Qianqian managed to get me into these things in such a short time.

“Dressing up your boyfriend in the shortest time is the essential skill of a great girlfriend!” Qianqian skillfully straightened my ribbons and then pushed me in front of the mirror, “Ah Jun, take a look, isn’t Ah Jun the handsomest?”

I stared blankly at myself in the mirror. The complex war robe in silver, inlaid with ornate gold stripes, the complicated and absolutely essential ribbons and medals, the large lapels marked with the light blue crystal cross representing the supreme power of the empire, and the silver-white emblem cape behind me that allegedly could withstand a nuclear blast but seemed to me just pretty in pattern–plus all the various trinkets and the overly long commander’s sword at my waist, this whole set…

“How can a nice piece of clothing make Wood look like an interstellar pirate…”

For the first time in my life, I thought Lin Xue was right about something… and it was even when describing me.

“No way… I think it looks pretty good…”

Qianqian muttered in disbelief, then Lin Xue sighed deeply and said, “You also said this when he wore a tank top–has there ever been a time when he doesn’t look good in your eyes?”

I abruptly pulled off the gaudy pile of accessories on me, like a nouveau riche, and set aside the commander’s sword that kept hitting my heel as I walked. Only the war robe and cloak that looked rather majestic remained, which importantly, I couldn’t take off myself. I said, “This is fine. After all, even if you threw an amoeba up there, the national leaders eager to see aliens wouldn’t be surprised.”

Then I stood at the podium, styled like something out of an interstellar pirate movie, that Lin Xue had set up and began the highest-level video conference.

It was supposed to be a serious event–the first interaction between the leader of the Alien Empire and human rulers. However, in reality, it was merely a catwalk that Lola insisted on to prove her point. My own task was simply to read the speech–speaking of which, this time the roles were reversed because right in front of me, the foolish Angel Araya was holding up a huge white sign with my speech written on it…

I forgot to memorize it last night…

“… Under the guidance of faith, we come here, pleased to find you amongst the vast universe, now I will confirm…”

After reading the scripted speech by rote, my job was considered done. What remained was for Lola to use her influence to facilitate the evacuation of the populace in those cities, which was being competently managed by Amakusa-style personnel and local governments in Japan. I was relieved–had it not been for the Japanese archipelago shielding us, the tsunami’s shockwave would likely have hit mainland China directly…

As for the meteor that would impact near Antarctica, I ultimately decided it was best left uninterfered with by humans. Although Lin Xue had a good point, honestly, with the current human technological prowess, the sacrifice required to intercept a celestial body was enormous and the success rate was nearly absurd. To save trouble, I arranged for a ready-to-launch interceptor squadron nearby Antarctica. Letting two meteors crash into the international waters would serve as a formative challenge for early human civilization.

Sandora’s United Fleet had already started to take shape in Earth’s orbit. In fact, she had more ships ready but sending these warships here involved complicated steps due to massive gravitational interference. Not every large warship was equipped with anti-gravity engines, hence each ship’s positioning had to be meticulously set and arranged in an almost stringent sequence. These massive structures in Earth’s vicinity formed a precise three-dimensional gravitational structure field, balancing each other’s gravity to prevent damaging the fragile Earth while moving. They also had to cautiously avoid turning some unlucky satellites into debris–they were no bigger than flies compared to the massive Imperial warships. As more warships performed space jumps to enter near-Earth orbit, the creation of the energy barrier accelerated, enveloping Earth with a powerful energy field. However, we couldn’t allow this to destroy the modern communication networks that humans had built over decades, so ensuring that those “primitive devices” endured this month under intense energy radiation became a tricky issue. Aresta played a significant role here; humans began collaborating with the Alien Empire to protect their fragile new communication networks under the increasing cosmic energy radiation. At least this way, human panic was mitigated.

This highlighted Sandora’s extensive experience. It seemed she not only had experience in warfare but also in pacifying the public: she dispatched a large number of Xyrin Single Soldier Fighters, letting these sci-fi inspired flying devices help establish temporary communication beacons, invisibly making the general public begin to accept the existence of aliens–from pure fear to curiosity and goodwill.

Meanwhile, in Academy City, things were even more harmonious–Scorpions had now started shopping in their Armored Scorpion forms. Initially caused by some confused Scorpion commander’s mistake, their increasingly frequent appearances surprisingly had an unexpected effect: Bai Jing Heizi and Chichun no longer had to work overtime.

“After contact, we realized it wasn’t as frightening, and the students of Academy City have a remarkably strong adaptive ability…”

Visiting Bai Jing Heizi, head bent studying a PSP with holographic projection capabilities (a proud creation of Bubbles), suddenly grew curious and leaned forward, her small head blocking the view between me and the blueprints on the table.

“What’s this? It looks like a giant top?”

I pushed it away and nodded, “Indeed, it does look like it. This device is called the Sniper Star Cannon, something we use to destroy that iron Earth.”

Before Bai Jing Heizi could respond, Chichun and Mikoto came running over like lightning, “Wow–really? Something so powerful?”

“Of course, it’s real, and it’s a stroke of genius.”

I couldn’t help but praise Taville’s super-genius, who really managed to create a Sniper Star Cannon for me in such a short time.

According to her, it involved finding a sufficiently adequate pure natural weapon core, adding a scope and cannon barrel to make it ready for use–those admirable Imperial Researchers had discovered two neutron stars…

The theory was quite complex, but summarized, it involved two mutually approaching stars, akin to twin brothers, reaching the end of their lifespan and simultaneously collapsing into two rapidly spinning neutron stars. After devouring their respective planets, these stars formed a buddy duo… cough, a twin star system. The two orbiting neutron stars continuously emitted intense g-rays which, due to the presence of a gravity trap, converged to form a powerful g-ray gun. In essence, at the center of this pair of newborn stars, there existed a storm’s eye of nearly infinite and unstable energy. With reasonable external energy stimulation, these g-rays could be emitted furiously, forming the most powerful natural laser in the universe. The power of this super pistol could even instantly vaporize Earth–this is essentially the mechanism of a conventional Sniper Star Cannon, only that the star-level dual-oscillation g-source that is most time and energy-consuming in the cannon was replaced by naturally formed neutron stars.

This thing was insanely mad; Earthlings could probably only dare to imagine it, yet the Xyrin scientists have used it as a core component of the Sniper Star Cannon. For Taville, who had already restored the Super Space-Time Management Center, the two neutron stars, tens of thousands of light-years away, seemed as accessible as if they were at her doorstep. She had already dispatched a large number of Imperial soldiers and a Xyrin Host to go there, to install aiming devices and control systems for those two space “handshaking” buddies… cough, then encapsulated the entire twin star system in a historically unprecedented gigantic gun chamber with an artificially created spatial collapse, topped off with a “gun muzzle” for super space-time energy transmission. Positioned in another universe, the neutron star Sniper Star Cannon was powerful enough to mount devastating attacks on any planet in any spacetime.

I’ll be honest, when I first obtained the data regarding this device, I was nearly scared.

It seems like Xyrin Empire scientists have a very low bottom line…

“This… I can’t understand any of it,” Misaka Mikoto flipped through the schematics on the electronic screen, sweating profusely.

“Nonsense, even the smallest part on there could advance all of human technology by a hundred years.”

I grabbed back the electronic screen that was almost crashing due to Mikoto’s electric current, my mind racing with thoughts…

From now on, I’d be capable of annihilating stars in a single strike…

My spiritual power control can activate Xyrin equipment across spaces without any intermediary process! Plus, according to Taville’s calculations, under my spiritual power manipulation, the recharging time of the Sniper Star Cannon could even be reduced by thirty percent–equivalent to the power output of thirteen Mother Ship level Ghost Energy Wells.

But I also knew this device was just for kicks; the quickest charging time still stretched to three days, but more importantly, why would I bother blowing up stars on a full stomach…

Days later, the last Special Shield Defense Ship finally took its place in Earth’s synchronous orbit, and humans briefly bid farewell to the last rays of sunlight from the sun. The sky was completely replaced by an orange hue, and the prolonged dusk heralded that the initial collision was fast approaching.

The research institute’s meeting room had been converted into a temporary ground control center, and Sivis, who had rushed from Shadow City, stood next to the projector to report on the warship’s situation, “All fleets have taken position, and the energy systems are functioning well. Ships responsible for gravity adjustment are on standby in low Earth orbit, ready to repair any crustal resonance events caused by gravitational fluctuations in the shortest time. From the ground to the innermost layer of our defense, we have set up eleven layers of gravity trap generators, which can effectively prevent incoming asteroids from jumping directly behind our defensive lines.”

“Who will recover the fragments?”

I asked, knowing that if the fragments weren’t seized immediately, all efforts would be in vain.

“Emperor Sandora will be responsible for the recovery of the fragments; her spirit will permeate the entire Earth-Moon system through the human brains on Earth and all Xyrin Apostles. With Space Twins accompanying her, wherever the fragments appear, we’ll be able to control them immediately.”

It was a meticulously planned arrangement, so I had no objections.

One day after the activation of the energy shield that enveloped the entire Earth, the first impact occurred exactly as Lin Xue had predicted, not a millisecond off.

Indeed, it directly jumped near Earth–a small asteroid, perhaps half a kilometer in diameter, suddenly appeared above the North Pole and then, with a gathered speed of thirty thousand miles per hour from nowhere, ferociously crashed into the stout fleet shield.

Of course, it merely raised a small splash of energy before it was shattered into fragments by the nearest assault ship and then cleanly absorbed by the shield itself.

If endless fragments of meteors were left in outer space, it would essentially put an end to human space travel.

The first impact was the starting signal. The moment the alarm went off, countless asteroids also completed their long space jump, appearing out of nowhere near Earth like an angry swarm of bees, then began bombarding this unlucky blue droplet.

Massive meteorites, each capable of astonishing human civilization, crazily rushed toward the vast and thick pale blue energy shield enveloping Earth, then shattered into pieces upon it, or were blown apart into cosmic fireworks by the swarms of assault ships and single soldier fighter jets, but they fearlessly and relentlessly continued their assault on our defenses. With countless asteroids smashing, ripples suddenly sprouted across the planet shield, even making the entirety of Earth’s visage seems to wobble.

Back on the ground, the events unfolding in space weren’t entirely without warning: bright spots of light frequently erupted, signaling the mother ship’s main cannons firing at giant meteorites, and barely visible ring-shaped shock waves flashed by occasionally, a result of asteroids striking the planet shield. States that were until yesterday promoting the “alien threat” theory, started to abruptly shut up at this embarrassing juncture. The meteor shower bombarding the entire alien fleet was like a frenzied slap across the faces of those politicians. Whether humanity would survive this disaster or not, it was certain that some people’s political careers would not.

By this point, Earthlings had finally come to believe those doomsday warnings, but thanks to having been forewarned, a large-scale panic didn’t break out. Governments began their routine task of calming the public and used a slew of leaky even fantastical adjectives to describe how indestructible the aliens’ energy shields were. A variety of experts and scholars sprouted like mushrooms after rain, prolifically expressing on television their views and research findings about this alien technology, and even overnight, several small research groups emerged, claiming they had been attempting to replicate these technologies for years–I have every reason to believe that these fanciful experts were meddling under bridges before they dove into scientific research…

Here’s something worth mentioning: less than two hours after the asteroid collision began, South Korea issued an official statement declaring that these powerful alien friends were actually allies they had ties with from a century ago, and South Korea had possessed interstellar communication technology since then. This reinforcements were entirely summoned by them for their Earth brethren, and all of humanity should remember this outstanding contribution…

Anyway, a few minutes later, I issued a statement considering the withdrawal of the interceptor fleet above South Korea–although such forces never existed from the start.

Like this, Earth under great disaster had many amusing incidents…

Of course, there were also many discordant events. To use a proverb once said by Emperor Sandora, it goes: “The fickle carbon-based life cannot be trusted, the brevity and fragility of life make their wills complex and ever-changing.” Despite being ridiculed, I admit, this saying is quite sensible.

Some places still experienced riots, and baseless rumors thrived in this highly tense atmosphere. Claims that the alien fleet had suffered severe damage and that Earth’s shields were about to collapse, even asserting it was all an alien conspiracy, sprouted up quietly and then caused sudden outbreaks of violence in a few areas.

Although it was suggested to disregard these nonsensical statements, their occurrence naturally caused discomfort. The local government was quite clever in suppressing these incidents with swift and decisive action. In fact, immediately after the impact had begun, governments around the world had reached an undisclosed consensus: in the face of the greatest crisis, human rights laws would be temporarily suspended, and those foolish enough to seek attention during such times had now seen what official violence was.

We also issued a statement, which read:

“Having received a demand from humanity that we immediately leave their homeworld, in accordance with interstellar treaties, we have begun preparations to retract the planet shield…”

You see, with just one sentence, those who propagated alien conspiracy theories were killed by their own neighbors the next day…

On the second day of the impact, the number of asteroids peaked, and the United Fleet began to face a hail of bullets from space. Those massive meteorites were not just rocks, they all contained vast amounts of Abyss Energy, and the wear and tear on the planet shields surged as the damage suddenly exceeded replenishment. Each mother ship’s heat vents were erupting with intense white light, half of the shield generators were sparking with overload, and watching tons of Ghost Energy Crystals turn into shiny glass debris pained me to the core…

I and Qianqian took a shuttle to the flagship of the United Fleet located near the Moon. In such critical moments, staying safely on Earth didn’t seem quite right, being on the front lines was what being a qualified leader entailed. Of course, Qianqian, this crazy girl who got excited and jumped around at the sight of space fireworks, was purely here out of boredom, and I…

Well, I too was here purely out of boredom… However, even before we arrived, two others had already arrived at the flagship, one was the violent loli Pandora, prepared with tons of explosives to blast stars in space, and the other was Prophet Lin, wanting to experience space warfare. Clearly, these two beauties… were also here out of boredom, so don’t expect our group to have sincere intentions of public service.

As for Big Sister and Visca, they stayed on Earth to monitor whether Aresta was behaving, as the latter, similar to Pandora, was a war enthusiast, however, she showed little interest in bombarding defenseless asteroids, while the former disliked space warfare even more, hence she eagerly volunteered to remain on duty.

The flagship was a specially designed “Imperial Admiral” class space mother ship, shaped like a giant cross floating vertically in the universe, not very strong in firepower nor fast in speed, but its defensive capabilities and information processing were extraordinarily remarkable, a typical frontline command post. The four squadrons of escort ships it carried effectively compensated for the combat deficiencies of the big cross. From a design perspective, it was a standard large warship, quite suitable for a battlefield with no surprises–I mean, compared to annihilating cunning enemies, intercepting an asteroid belt had no surprises.

The area we were in now was the central location of the Mother Ship, featuring an open storage hangar with thousands of square meters and a long rectangular window that only had a very thin energy barrier through which an entire escort ship could pass. Outside was the boundless universe, truly a great place to watch fireworks… cough, I mean, observe the battlefield.

“Ah Jun! Ah Jun! Look over there!”

Qianqian, leaning against the energy barrier at the window, danced with excitement as she pointed out the scenery outside. Through this observation window, we could clearly see the dazzling light balls constantly exploding in the far distance. Of course, every now and then, fragments of meteorites would hit near us and then turn into large pieces of space debris on the rippling energy shield.

Magnificent! Is the romance of men indeed bound to the endless stars?

However, the next second, Qianqian blurted out something that almost choked me: “Ah Jun, how much do you think the electricity bill for this second would be?”

Baby, can we talk about something fun?

At that moment, familiar footsteps suddenly came from behind us. I turned around, and sure enough, it was Sandora appearing at the entrance of the storage hangar.

“Sandora, I was just about to… hey!”

The moment the noble blonde girl saw me, she had already turned into a dazzling bolt of lightning, charging at me at least seventeen times the speed of sound.

It was the long-lost Sandora human cannon!

I didn’t even have a chance to dodge. Carrying such thoughts, Sandora slammed into me and then, without any resistance, flew past Qianqian and inevitably crashed through that thin barrier used only for blocking outer space radiation, heading towards the endless stars…

I really shouldn’t have been sentimental about the romance of men!

Being able to bump your own boyfriend into outer space, Sandora, you’re truly top-notch.

Creaking and squeaking, turning my already deformed full-body joints, I firmly grabbed Sandora, who was rubbing against my chest, and cupped her face in my hands.

At that moment, it was proper to give a long-awaited deep kiss–amidst the vast cosmic starry sky, with the backdrop of crisscrossing warships and exploding flashes, the beautiful queen condensed all her longing into a single kiss. The two figures embraced each other as if forgetting time and battlefield–an Oscar-worthy scene if there was ever background music playing.

Such a romantic scene–if only I really had a fate with romance.

Just after our affectionate eye contact and before we could kiss, I felt something suddenly surge past us, and then… the two imperial leaders were hit by a passing meteorite…

“Deserved it! Who told you two to kiss in outer space? Hit by a meteorite, didn’t you?”

Qianqian looked at me lying on the deck in convulsions, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

…that’s why they say good kids definitely shouldn’t learn from TV. Look how many in a hail of bullets kiss without even a scratch, yet Sandora and I get hit by a meteorite just for a kiss in the empty space…

“Ah Jun, are you alright?”

Sandora asked with a look of concern, squatting next to me. Though she had been hit too, she seemed better off; not a speck of space dust on her.

Qianqian squatted down amusedly, poking at the one pretending to be dead, and grinned mischievously: “Of course this pervert is alright. I saw that meteorite earlier and specially reduced its speed… cough cough, Ah Jun…”

“It’s nothing, just hit by a meteorite.” I expressionlessly rolled over and got up, waving to the Imperial audience around us to show I was unharmed as I inwardly cried. They say that a meteorite escape is the only way for the protagonists to get away, but now it seems… damn it, even meteorites don’t work!

“Sandora, how are things now?”

After stretching my limbs, confirming that several key joints had returned to function, I turned and asked.

“All under control,” Sandora waved her hand gently, and the air immediately showed a holographic projection of the entire Earth-Moon defense system. “The strength of the planet shield has started to drop, but it seems we can hold up for four or five days. It’s just a pity that Taville can’t recover the real planetary defense force field. Using the warships’ energy shields to form the planet shield is still too wasteful–speaking of which, what’s the situation on the ground?”

I roughly described the situation on the ground, which actually wasn’t bad; no major panic, no riots. Under the government’s firm policies and Lola’s religious influence, Earthlings hadn’t yet wiped themselves out.

“That’s good. It seems that humans still have their merits,” Sandora nodded lightly. “For a junior civilization, being able to face this situation is indeed a show of potential. Have the people in Europe and Japan already evacuated?”

“Yes, their governments actually responded as soon as the Imperial Fleet appeared. Whether the reason for the evacuation was really heeding our warning, they did evacuate.”

I said, shifting my gaze to the exit of the storage hangar. Outside, the scene of meteorites bombarding the planet shield special effects continued, and a team of recently refurbished assault ships was leaving the Mother Ship from the launching platform below the hangar.

Sandora’s voice sounded beside me: “It might be best to let humanity see this scene. Even if they can’t help, at least it might quiet them down a bit.”

“Ah, a boost in friendliness? That’s a good idea.”

I nodded, instructing someone to send the video recordings from several Mother Ships to Aresta, who had now been somewhat forcibly turned into our employee, practically colleagues with Lola.

“Ah Jun, I find it a bit strange.”

Sandora seemed to have been thinking about something and suddenly furrowed her brows, her words tinged with worry. “Our fleet’s energy is quite sufficient, and the interception troops even exceed the necessary amount by thirty percent. According to Bubbles’ calculations, under such a defense system, it’s simply impossible for anything to slip through and reach Earth. Did something go wrong with the future Lin Xue saw?”

Sandora’s words made me startle, and this concern also started to preoccupy me. Although Lin Xue’s prophecy mentioned three meteorites bypassing our interception and falling on Earth, but…

A fleet that can intercept tens of thousands of asteroids–could it really miss two or three insignificant meteorites?

“But Lin Xue’s predictions shouldn’t go wrong,” after thinking about it, I still shook my head and said, “So far, haven’t all the asteroid impacts been in her calculations?”

“Maybe I’m just overthinking it.”

Sandora sighed, then suddenly adopted a very interested tone.

“By the way, did you guys find that Fallen Apostle who ambushed us back in Azeroth? What was her name, Bella something?”

“Bellavilla, but now she goes by Silvia,” recalling that scatterbrained girl who was happily enjoying a prison life of plain meals at the research facility, I wasn’t sure what expression to show and just shrugged, “Lost all her memories, even her soul became someone else’s. Now she thinks she’s an orphan who grew up in Academy City, and her personality… mix Alaya’s scatterbrained and slow reactions with Little Baobao’s bewilderment and intelligence, I think that girl’s brain got blasted while escaping Azeroth.”

Sandora’s expression stiffened and then, sympathetically said, “That’s really unfortunate–but we still have to be cautious around her, even if she has lost her memories, we have to keep a close eye on her.”

I nodded, this was something I was aware of without needing Sandora’s reminder.

Just then, a violent white light suddenly erupted in the distance, illuminating even the Gnaku in a dismal white.

Qianqian and I exchanged blank looks, while Sandora heaved a long sigh, “… it’s Pandora, she went with her trusted troops to intercept the asteroid this morning… The girl is throwing Energy Annihilation Bombs everywhere in space, what we just saw was definitely several bombs exploding at once.”

I listened with veins popping out of my forehead, having long guessed that the girl wouldn’t stay out of trouble if she came over early.

This mother ship’s core area has a very peculiar spot, where the style is completely different from the cold sci-fi alloy corridors surrounding it. Verdant vines and dark brown ancient wood intertwine to form a cave-like depth similar to a primordial forest. Hanging on the vine-woven walls are tender green buds glowing softly, replacing the lighting already entirely covered by these plants. This dense “Corner of the Forest” strikingly appears in the high-tech spacecraft, creating a rather bizarre dissonance. Yet, wandering through it, one would involuntarily feel reassured, even the odd sensation gradually disappearing without a trace.

This is Dingdang’s bedroom–or rather, those are her exact words.

Dingdang, responsible for dealing with that rogue constant star, arrived here as soon as the mother ship was positioned, even earlier than Pandora whose mind was fraught with the urge to release nitroglycerin. She swaggered into the core section of the flagship and then began her mysterious ritual. I’m not sure how the ritual goes, but the second day after it started, these strange plants took over the entire section.

No wonder Little Thing chose to unleash her power in outer space, even the faintest life force here could generate such transformations. If it happened on Earth…

We wouldn’t even need to worry about deforestation, but then the problem would be how to excavate human cities from the dense primordial forests.

Truly, the power of a God is beyond comprehension.

With that thought, I aimlessly walked around the “forest,” initially only intending a casual stroll, but unexpectedly found myself drawn near Dingdang working area, probably influenced by the affinity effect her power had on all living beings–it doesn’t discriminate.

The vines did not grow from a certain place and then cover the alloy walls; rather, the alloy walls themselves had transformed into plants.

This was a shocking discovery I made after curiously pulling aside a green vine–the other half of it was still entirely metallic!

It was all unwittingly caused by Dingdang’s subconscious thoughts, and these cold inorganic substances carried them out unconditionally.

According to the schedule Lin Xue gave us, the appearance of that rogue constant star is supposed to be around four o’clock tomorrow afternoon. Right now, Dingdang must be busy studying her pile of research notes, so I guess Little Thing won’t have time for lunch.

Thinking this, I turned around to leave.

Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something flash by.

“Who?!” I spun around quickly, only to find nothing ahead of me but the depth of the “forest corridor,” with occasional green luminescence drifting out from the walls, but nothing alive.

But that was not an illusion.

I strained to recall the fleeting image; it seemed like a girl, about as tall as Qianqian, had just run past me in a hurry. Of course, I didn’t see her face clearly. The only thing I remembered was the green dress she was wearing–but the problem was, this place was filled with green, who knows if what I saw was really there.

“Central Computer, did you scan anyone near me in the past thirty seconds?”

As soon as I spoke, a mechanical voice immediately resounded directly in the air within a two-meter range around me, “Reporting to Your Majesty, no data found as specified.”

Strange, could it have been my illusion? I clearly saw a girl in a long dress go by.

Well, maybe it was just a hallucination, especially since I have been lost in the warship for a full two hours–uh, I mean, inspecting for two full hours, and I might be a bit hungry now.

“Central Computer, show me the quickest route to the officer’s rest area.”

It seems I had to resort to the Central Computer after all, just hoping that Lin Xue wasn’t online right now.

As it turned out, my optimism was unfounded. The moment my words fell, Lin Xue’s boisterous laughter echoed in my mind: “Ahahaha! Wood, you really are lost! You’ve been looping around that area for over two hours!”

I felt a quiver in my liver: “You haven’t been secretly watching me all this time, have you?”

I knew Lin Xue wouldn’t pass up any chance to tease me… uh, she must really be bored, huh? Watching my location on the monitor for two straight hours? I wasn’t even this bored when I used to name passing ants one by one at the alley entrance.

“Who… who would bother observing such a blockhead like you continuously! Hurry over here this instant! We’ve come across something really interesting!”

Hearing Lin Xue’s tone, why did it suddenly sound so odd?

I hesitated slightly, but quickly headed for the officer’s rest area.

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