The warp node detector quickly swept over the surrounding 10,000 kilometers but didn’t detect any fluctuations from a warp node.
Seeing this, Lin Zhen had no choice but to start the curvature engine and head toward the destination at nearly eight times the speed of light.
In this interstellar era, spaceships often serve the dual role of transportation and residence.
Unless one is a “lying flat” person who intends to stay on their home planet forever without moving, a spaceship of one’s own is an absolute necessity.
Many interstellar adventurers who spend years on their ships even invest the vast majority of their wealth into modifying their spaceships.
Lin Zhen wasn’t as extreme as those interstellar adventurers. Of course, as a poor academy student with no income, living entirely on a Cosmic Academy scholarship, he didn’t have the financial means to make drastic modifications to his ship.
But as a formidable person who could personally craft a spaceship with his supernatural power, over these four years, using the academy’s resources, with guidance from Chicha and his own research, he had made a truly “significant” upgrade to his standard-issue ship from the academy—the Feiyao Type 3 Modified.
Currently, the Feiyao Type 3 Modified was small but complete.
High-end devices like the warp node detector, curvature engine, Starshield, polymorphic metal armor… anything a private spaceship could be equipped with, he had installed.
In addition, he had also made some combat modifications to the overall ship… He believed it would definitely give Chatosi a little surprise.
The spaceship passed by a planet, and in an instant turned into a tiny speck of light, dotting the starry sky.
No matter how close the progress bar got to the end, or how much the barrage complained, Lin Zhen in the anime world wasn’t affected in the slightest.
He had been carrying out this boring cycle of “searching for nodes to warp” for days on end. Searching for warp nodes, warping, searching for warp nodes again…
Because he was traveling alone, apart from resting a bit while searching for warp nodes, Lin Zhen spent almost all his other time in the cockpit. This was also why there were very few lone wolf adventurers or Star Bandits.
Long-term boring interstellar travel, especially in the early years when the imperial network hadn’t covered the territory and one couldn’t relieve stress by going online, made a spaceship an isolated island, easily causing various mental illnesses.
But Lin Zhen felt he was doing okay. Reading, studying, researching supernatural powers, analyzing intelligence… he had too many things to do. He filled every spare moment of the voyage.
Even the anime footage could only use montage to cut and show his activities to the audience.
And so, on the fifth day after departure. The ship’s map showed that the ship had successfully entered the towing range of the Baifan Star Gate.
A Star Gate is a fixed and expanded warp node. Through a special device, all spaceships warping within its influence range can be uniformly towed to the Star Gate.
It can also tow spaceships that pass through the Star Gate to designated locations. However, to prevent criminals from causing trouble, spaceships being towed not only need to input the Stargate coordinates but also have to install a real-time network-updated towing certificate.
As for this towing certificate, not only did it cost a sum of universal coins to purchase and install, but each time one warped, they also had to pay a fairly acceptable “toll fee” based on the distance towed.
Therefore, not all spaceships were equipped with towing certificates; it was mostly cargo ships that used them.
However, the Feiyao Type 3 Modified was an academy-issued ship, so it naturally came with a towing certificate, and there was also a fixed annual quota for students to use the Star Gate to travel between home and the academy.
Why did everyone want to enter the Cosmic Academy? Because this was just one small benefit for academy students.
“Got it, the towing certificate is like an expressway ETC.”
“Will the Star Gate have traffic jams?”
“So the quota is like a student ID that lets you buy tickets for free?”
“In the interstellar era, you still get ship jams?”
Entering the towing range of the Star Gate meant that only one more warp was needed to reach the destination.
Lin Zhen found a nearby warp node. He input the coordinates of the Star Gate. Then he initiated the warp.
After entering the towing certificate on the ship’s system connected to the imperial network, the ship entered automatic control mode.
Guided by the built-in system of the towing certificate, it made fine adjustments to the ship’s attitude based on the direction and distance between the ship and the Star Gate.
Moments later, the adjustments were complete, and the ship slid into the cosmic membrane.
The next second. A blue light extended from the distant cosmic membrane, connected to the ship’s bow, and then slowly enveloped the entire hull, towing the ship at an extremely fast speed across an unknown distance.
Half an hour later. The ship slid out from the cosmic membrane, and the originally dark outside suddenly became bright. It was as if someone was shining a searchlight into the window.
Lin Zhen squinted and looked outside through the dome window. A huge black-gray door frame, firmly blocked between several planets by thick iron chains, appeared before his eyes.
As a node on the Empire’s important trade routes, the Baifan Star Gate built in the Baifan Star System was much larger in scale than the one owned by the Saints’ Hand Society in the Asha Star System.
Every moment, an endless stream of private spaceships, cargo fleets, and even military fleets were towed from within the Star Gate’s influence range to its vicinity, stopping to rest or directly transiting to be towed elsewhere through the Star Gate.
Seen from a great distance, it was like countless moving specks of light scattered across this Star Sea. So much so that if one were near the Star Gate, the Star Sea was bright.
This was already Lin Zhen’s second time at the Baifan Star Gate. The first time was four years ago, when he had found Zi Jiu and the others to go back and search for warp nodes.
***
So after four years, Lin Zhen couldn’t help but be shocked by this magnificent sight, a human miracle. For a moment, he didn’t steer the ship onto the course toward the Fifth Spaceport.
However, the reactions of the audience from another time and space weren’t much better than Lin Zhen’s.
Even though they were observing through the camera and couldn’t be there in person, they could still feel the shock through the lens.
Especially when some people paused, zoomed in on the picture many times, and found that almost every spaceship wasn’t simplified to save costs, they were even more amazed.
“Wow, that’s some super money power! They drew every single spaceship?”
“With so many ships here, and so many frames, how long did it take to draw this?”
“It’s really shocking. The budget for these few seconds is probably enough to film an entire season of One-Punch Man Season 3.”
“Just one season? At least two seasons!”
“This kind of anime is free for me to watch? Too generous, won’t the production team lose money?”
“I really feel like Netflix is showing off their skills.”
“Ahead is a magnificent view, behind is the budget burning.”
“Put the budget to good use! Don’t let Season 2 be the last hit and become a swan song, production team, please!”