The team rarely got together like this, and no one wanted to be a killjoy.
Everyone couldn’t wait to rush over and capture Chatosi, to interrogate him about the Saints’ Hand Society. So the atmosphere in the spaceship was quite lively.
But the audience, who knew that Yun Ruoxi had already set her sights on them, really couldn’t laugh along.
“Laugh, keep laughing—Yun Ruoxi is about to come collect you!”
Chicha input the farthest coordinates and directly warped through the Stargate to its maximum distance.
This round trip, using the Stargate warp as a relay, could reduce time by at least five days. And this was exactly why Lin Zhen had specifically gathered here.
The spaceship’s internal warp engine started, coating the hull with a protective film that prevented the ship from being crushed by the membrane wall.
Then the spaceship flashed with blue light, pulled by the Stargate like a pellet in a slingshot, forcefully thrown into the cosmic membrane, flying toward the target coordinates at an unimaginable speed.
Half an hour later, the spaceship successfully emerged from the cosmic membrane and safely returned to the Positive Universe.
At this moment, they had arrived at a dead star system with a lifeless planet five thousand light-years away.
With the Empire’s technological strength, there were almost no star systems that couldn’t be developed or modified. But star systems were infinite, while the Empire’s power had limits, so some systems without life-bearing planets and with harsh environments were voluntarily abandoned for development.
Only some communication buoys were placed there, so that Empire citizens who suffered accidents in these systems wouldn’t be trapped for life. And such star systems were collectively called Dead Star Systems.
“The 41-SAWE-241 Star System… it’s about sixty thousand light-years from Shenke Star where Chatosi is. Under full-speed warp, we should be able to get there within thirty days!” Lin Zhen glanced at the starmap on the console and said softly.
This time was still within the plan for now. Chatosi had managed to survive under the Empire’s wanted list for so long, and even expanded his business, even connecting with the Saints’ Hand Society.
There was absolutely no way he couldn’t even last a month before being caught by the Galactic Security Office.
“Check the nearby warp nodes!”
Lin Zhen activated the warp node detector, quickly scanning for possible warp nodes nearby.
“Sigh, the most troublesome part of every voyage is finding warp nodes. If only there was a tool that recorded all warp node information!” Anvil watched the busy Lin Zhen and recalled his own struggles of desperately searching for warp nodes without success.
“Warp nodes are hidden, their disappearance times unpredictable, and they’re as endless as the stars, so Brother Anvil, your idea is destined to never come true!” Aili replied with a smile.
“I know, but after this, I’m definitely going to install a warp node detector on my spaceship.”
Warp node detectors were a high-end configuration for spaceships. Even Anvil would have to grit his teeth and save up to afford one.
“After this operation ends, I’ll help you. Bring your ship to my academy—I have connections there. I can find a technology department student to help, and it’ll be much cheaper.” Lin Zhen turned and said.
As his voice fell, the detector’s results came out. Lin Zhen turned back, glanced at it, and sighed.
“Average luck. There’s no warp node within at least a hundred billion kilometers of this star sea. We’ll have to keep moving forward.”
He pushed the control stick, activated the curvature engine to its maximum, and maneuvered the spaceship at eight times the speed of light—the fastest non-warp speed—toward the star sea five light-hours away.
As the spaceship’s speed continuously increased, the pitch-black space and stars outside the porthole turned into lines that constantly fluctuated up and down.
But the interior of the spaceship remained so stable that if you didn’t look outside, you might not even realize that the ship had accelerated to such a speed in an instant.
Lin Zhen got up from his seat, asked Chicha to take over piloting, and went to the rear cabin to rest and chat with Zi Jiu and the others. They hadn’t seen each other for two years.
Although they had been chatting online, the ridiculously long delay of several days between each reply meant they essentially communicated like writing letters. Now that they were together face to face, they had so much to say to each other.
Especially Zi Jiu. After five years, no matter how much guilt she felt toward Yun Ruoxi back then, she had mostly let it go by now. She also had new thoughts about Lin Zhen.
But she also knew that before rescuing Yun Ruoxi, Lin Zhen would never invest energy in romantic relationships. Even after rescuing Yun Ruoxi, she was destined to fail.
But what if? She still had a glimmer of hope in her heart. But this attempt was the same as before. The wall in his heart that Yun Ruoxi had blocked with her life was only getting thicker with time.
“Hell, in the first season, Lao Xi became heavy later and turned into a landmine girl with a twist; this second season, Lao Xi gets brainwashed and turns dark, and Lao Zhen inherits her setting and becomes heavy himself.”
“Landmine guy Lao Zhen, LOL.”
“Damn, I can’t imagine how much Lao Zhen will crave Lao Xi when she’s rescued.”
The barrages flashed by.
***
Half an hour later, Lin Zhen and the others successfully reached the area with undetected warp nodes. The spaceship’s speed slowed under Chicha’s control.
But before Chicha could activate the detector, the spaceship’s alarm suddenly flashed. A red dot abruptly appeared on the radar, less than ten kilometers away!
Moreover, that spaceship had locked onto them with weapons, causing the Flying Kite Type 3 Modified’s fire control system to alert.
[Locked On]
[Locked On]
Bright red warning characters flashed continuously from the console.
Lin Zhen suddenly leapt from his chair in the rear cabin and strode toward the pilot’s seat. Zi Jiu, Anvil, and Aili also immediately became serious, ready for battle.
Chicha, who was temporarily acting as the ship’s central AI, had taken control, activating the energy shield and deflection shield to maximum, and maneuvering the ship for emergency evasion.
But before Lin Zhen could sit back in the pilot’s seat, the spaceship represented by the red dot was unusually decisive, as if it had identified them as enemies.
It attacked the moment it locked on. Just as the ship turned its hull to block the enemy’s attack with its strongest side, the enemy’s attack had already reached close range.
A bright blue laser struck the energy shield, constantly neutralizing and eroding it, creating ripples like water waves on its surface.
This blue laser was extremely powerful, likely military-grade. If it were an ordinary private spaceship, it would probably penetrate the energy shield instantly and melt the entire hull.
If not for the fact that when Lin Zhen modified the ship, he took advantage of being at the Imperial Institute of Technology and installed a self-produced high-end energy shield, they probably couldn’t have blocked this attack.