The barrage did indeed gain recognition from many viewers.
Barrages like “The Stardust Production Group spent the money on the blade” immediately filled the screen.
They were worried that if such a high-quality anime failed to control production costs, leading to severe losses and thus no third season, wouldn’t that be a huge loss?
So, the search term “Please, Stardust Production Group, spend the money on the blade” somehow made it to the hot search list of major global software.
But all this happened after the first episode ended.
At the moment, the progress bar had only a tiny bit left, and most viewers’ attention was still on the anime.
They saw Lin Zhen drive the spaceship to the vicinity of the Fifth Spaceport.
And as per the spaceport’s broadcast requirements, he drove the ship into the rather busy inbound channel, switched to automatic mode, and prepared for inbound inspection.
Lin Zhen looked up, his gaze crossing the dome window.
Hundreds of long, endless queues formed by spaceships connected to a huge and majestic city.
This was the Fifth Spaceport!
Raising his sight a little higher, he could see behind the city was a Stargate several times larger than a planet.
And near the Stargate, there were four other cities as majestic as the Fifth Spaceport, orbiting it like satellites.
As an important node on the trade route, the safety of the Stargate was crucial.
So these five spaceports served both as docking and maintenance areas for ships and as the first line of defense for the Stargate in times of danger.
Any ship entering the spaceport needed to undergo inspection.
Therefore, even if members of the Star Bandits or evil organizations could obtain towing certificates and transit through the Stargate, they generally would not enter the spaceport during that time, to avoid detection and unnecessary trouble.
And Lin Zhen chose to assemble at the Fifth Spaceport precisely because he valued its relative safety.
The influence of the Saints’ hand society in the positive universe had not yet surfaced.
Every time he left the Academy, he was very cautious and would not go to any dangerous places unnecessarily.
To avoid being ambushed by the Saints’ hand society as he had been during his first operation.
“Stay steady!”
“This Lin Zhen is super strong but too cautious.”
“Lao Xi: Really super strong?”
“Lao Xi is already down, and you’re still calling her Lao Xi! It’s Lao Zhen’s time now!”
“Lao Xi is dead, long live Lao Zhen!”
The autopiloted spaceship slowly advanced in the long queue, estimated to take at least three hours before docking.
Although small private ships were agile, this was the downside.
Too many people owned small ships, so they often had to wait in long lines when entering the port.
Lin Zhen listlessly watched the long queue outside the window, mentally reviewing his plan to capture Chatosi.
Just then.
A flash of black suddenly occupied his peripheral vision, and he almost instinctively turned his head to look.
Outside the queue formed by hundreds of private ships, on a slightly emptier channel of the Fifth Spaceport.
Dozens of frigates and cargo ships clustered around a gigantic pitch-black battleship shaped like an arrow, slowly approaching the spaceport.
Judging by the number of bulky cargo ships in the formation.
There was no doubt—this was likely a transport fleet from some family, large corporation, or in any case, a cross-galaxy major power.
Only major powers needed to transport high-value goods over long distances and would dispatch such a massive formation.
However, although such transport fleets were quite rare at the Empire’s border, they were common near the Cosmic Academy and Stargates.
Lin Zhen had seen quite a few over the past four years.
So now he was used to it.
Thus, after scanning the ships in the fleet and finding that the logo printed on the hull was unfamiliar to him, he looked away.
But he had no idea what important thing he had missed with that casual glance.
The camera rapidly panned forward along Lin Zhen’s line of sight, focusing on the fleet he had overlooked.
Several pilot ships quickly emerged from the spaceport and began guiding the fleet into the port via a special channel.
The camera moved again, passing by the pilot ships.
Then through the battleship’s thick alloy armor and Star Energy shield, it entered the interior of the battleship.
It focused on the cockpit.
Employees wearing Pole Group uniforms worked busily, communicating back and forth with spaceport staff to ensure the ship would get the fastest inspection upon arrival.
It seemed…
This fleet had no issues.
But the audience knew that the anime wouldn’t have several seconds of useless footage for no reason.
This fleet was definitely suspicious.
So in the viewers’ sight.
The camera continued downward, and after passing through the ship’s deck, it actually arrived at a hidden space.
This hidden space was located between the upper and lower decks, not part of a standard battleship layout, nor in the ship’s structural diagram submitted to the Empire.
Although not cramped, it was quite cold and desolate.
***
In the entire space, only a faint conical beam of light illuminated the huge alloy throne below.
The camera focused on the back of the throne.
A small screen was embedded there, showing a cute chibi girl happily eating cake.
“This fleet is definitely suspicious.”
“There’s a hidden space in the deck.”
“What’s this? An AI?”
“A new character?”
“What if it’s Lao Xi?”
“How could Lao Xi appear so quickly.”
The camera slowly moved, passing the back of the alloy throne.
A smooth, flowing gray long hair immediately entered the screen.
Gray, not blue.
Not Yun Ruoxi!
Many viewers silently sighed.
The progress bar continued.
The next second, the new character with gray hair was also briefly revealed in the camera’s glimpse.
It was a woman with a good figure and cold, fair skin.
Young.
She wore a loose, somewhat punk-style black trench coat, leaning back on the throne like a king.
She wore a T-shaped black-and-white demon mask that covered her features except for her cheeks.
Her specific face was unclear.
But her overall aura was cold and fierce, overwhelmingly strong, like a queen ruling over darkness.
This formed an enormous contrast with the cute girl eating cake behind the chair.
“A new character? Interesting!”
“Probably a villain? But feels very contrasting, with a cute chibi image behind the chair.”
“Good character design. I bet there will be a ton of lewd pictures tonight.”
“Probably an enemy later? But feels like this kind of design will later be redeemed and join the main cast.”
“Classic: before even speaking, people are already eating her out.”
“This one is worse—she hasn’t even shown her face and will get facial.”
“Oh no, the progress bar can’t hold out!”
Many viewers were stimulated by the new character and the progress bar, and the barrage suddenly increased.
And just as the progress bar was about to reach the end.
Two scarlet dots suddenly appeared at the eye positions of the mask.
They flickered.
She also slowly looked in a certain direction.