In the lower hangar of the Deep Rock Fortress, technicians are doing the final check on the "cargo"—they need to ensure that the "Angel Catalyst" in the shuttle's cargo hold remains stable during the upcoming delivery, and once again confirm that there's nothing on the entire shuttle that involves the Special Service Bureau's recognition items.
Yu Sheng stood on the platform next to the shuttle waiting to depart, while glancing down at the little puppet who was grabbing his pants and climbing upwards.
"Got yourself a mass-produced body?"
The little puppet comnted casually while climbing, "Yeah, in case you die outside this ti—I wouldn't mind taking a mass-produced body to perish with you."
Yu Sheng: "That's not how you use the term 'perish together'."
Erin climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder, casually ruffled the hair of the latter, "…A normal person would first focus on 'dying outside'."
"From common sense and logic, the possibility of those Hidden Monastery diviners betraying is low, at least they wouldn't act during this transaction," Luo, who had been listening to the increasingly bizarre exchanges between the boss and the evil red-eyed little dwarf, finally couldn't help but speak, "Mainly there's no necessity, the Angel Catalyst is delivered, they're not going to get stuffed and decapitate a delivery boy at the door..."
Yu Sheng laughed, "You've ntioned common sense and logic—those diviners wouldn't even be involved in a cult if they cared about those words. What if they think slaughtering a delivery boy at the door during collection pleases the chanical Soul of the Gate of Eden, you never know with cultists..."
Luo pondered, but couldn't find a reason to refute.
Then she watched Yu Sheng and Erin turn and board the shuttle. After the two got into the cockpit, they waved to the outside through the heavy protective barrier.
The feeling was sowhat strange—running to a dangerous trading point in the lawless zone to et cultists, such a top-level dangerous mission actually has the organization's big boss personally on stage; Of course, the people inside the travel agency were accustod to this, but Luo, who had only joined not long ago as a peripheral mber, was obviously not yet adapted to it.
However, rationality told her, this matter was indeed full of reasonableness.
After all, Venerate Saints Monastery was a group of madn, and Old Qiao was known for treating his subordinates like consumables, especially involving his inner secrets, and it's likely that the ones sent for delivery before were all disposable hands. In this way, both sides' trading site decapitating a delivery boy to appease the chanical Soul would be regular operations, so only Yu Sheng carrying a mass-produced Erin could go, after all, one is willing to die, the other is willing to bury...
As she pondered, the shuttle was ready to depart; as the technicians evacuated the platform and released the locks on the docking area, the modified "Silver Star" shuttle slowly broke free from the stagnation force field. With the low hum of the anti-gravity engine, the heavy alloy gate at the end of the launch channel slowly opened—to the end of the channel was the shimring starry sky observable from the high orbit of Shuji.
Luo raised her hand and gestured towards the shuttle cockpit, "Wish you the best—rember the procedures, slowly elevate when departing the launch channel..."
Before she finished, she saw the vehicle before her burst into a change of light and shadow, the illusory space rift rapidly erupted from the shuttle center, and in a blink, the docking area was empty.
The next mont she heard Yu Sheng's voice through the communicator, "We've reached the Morona Fault—where to navigate next?"
Luo stood frozen for two seconds, then heard the chanical limit reached clicking sounds from the channel end—by this ti that alloy gate had just reached position, and the acceleration guiding lights in the channel hadn't completely illuminated.
"You still need to adapt a bit," Hu Li ca over and patted Luo's shoulder, then curiously asked, "Hey, weren't you transmitted directly by the Savior on your last outing?"
Luo winced at the Vajra Palm from the Nine-Tailed Fox, "…I used to first drive the shuttle into space before letting the boss open the door, a standard small craft departure procedure, anyone who passed the certification would..."
"Savior hasn't passed the certification," Hu Li patted Luo's other shoulder, "Our entire travel agency, adding Fairy Tale Valley, can't scrape together a single license, I've got a temporary mobile Immortal driving permit."
Luo: "…?"
Then she drooped her nearly dislocated arms to send guiding signals to Yu Sheng.
…
The silvery gray "Silver Star" shuttle carved a stream of light through space, swiftly navigating the rifts between two fractured continental plates, skimming over the cooled solidified remnants of a planet's core, heading towards the gravity fault emitting gaseous cloud luminescence.
The conventional power engines at the rear of "Silver Star" spewed casual flas, pretending to strive to propel the shuttle, and the attitude adjustnt boosters on either side of the body occasionally lit up, pretending to be functioning during flight.
After entering the gaseous cloud light band, Luo, who has been remotely providing navigation and constantly monitoring the shuttle's status, couldn't help anymore, "Boss, why don't you take your hand off the control stick; this shuttle can fly on its own..."
Yu Sheng glanced at the control console before him, asking a profoundly deep question, "…Which one's the control stick?"
"…Stop controlling the shuttle! Let it rely on autopilot!" Luo's voice sounded almost tearful, "The flying state when you handle it looks like the chanical Soul has a major illness, forget the Hidden Monastery, even the Sky Attacker Pirates seeing a vessel flying like this would shoot a Photon Spear from two thousand kiloters away—Do you usually pilot ships like this?"
Yu Sheng felt a bit embarrassed: "I usually use autopilot when I operate the Otherworld Inn..."
Just as he finished speaking, Erin leaned her head towards the communicator: "Automatic ans it moves on its own. Whenever Yu Sheng touches anything, it's like it's haunted..."
Luo unhesitatingly took over the remote control of the shuttle.
Yu Sheng resigned himself to giving up the idea of personally piloting the shuttle through the star sea. He temporarily withdrew his consciousness from the aircraft, then let out a gentle sigh, finding more energy to focus on the magnificent scenery outside.
They were now crossing the "visual boundary of existence" of the Morona Fault. Through that layer of luminous gas clouds, the magnificent "space mountain ranges" ford by a torn planet were clearly visible outside the porthole, along with the starlight in the distance slightly distorted by the gravitational fault.
"...Truly spectacular."
He praised sincerely.
"Incredible."
Erin also praised sincerely.
"Are you talking about the starry sky?" Luo's voice echoed in the cockpit, carrying a touch of sowhat lancholic calmness, "Yes, the starry sky is beautiful..."
"A planet like this—probably much larger than Shuji—might have once orbited a constant star, but it was torn apart, split into a heap of stones running through the cold space by an invisible gravitational rift," Yu Sheng felt as though sothing deep within his heart was touched, a feeling he had never experienced while standing on the surface, but only when bathing in starlight in space, "And such a spectacular sight, in the scale of the universe, doesn't even count as a grain of sand... How many secrets do you think there are in this starry sky?"
Erin sighed once more: "...Incredible."
"I've always been fascinated by the stars since I was a child, those vast and grand things and the dark deep space full of countless secrets between them," Luo said slowly, "Back then, I could directly hear the lodious songs between the stars, but now I can only hear so vague noises."
"I've heard of the Algredians' 'Star Language' ability," Yu Sheng thought for a mont, "I've also heard that people still haven't figured out how this 'Star Language' talent of yours is produced, so... maybe one day you could get it back?"
After a mont of silence, a faint sigh ca through the communicator: "Thank you—you are always comforting ."
Erin opened her mouth—but this ti, before she could speak, Yu Sheng covered her mouth.
And just when the little puppet was about to bite Yu Sheng's finger in retaliation, a distortion of light and shadow outside the porthole interrupted her action.
The distant starlight suddenly flickered a few tis, and then all the stars seed to shift slightly in position. The "space mountain ranges" ford by the shattered planet suddenly disappeared from view, replaced by a fuzzy twisted "boundary" stretching across the space, and in front of the shuttle, all the distorted starlight directions vaguely ford a "funnel" shape collapsing towards the center—as if gravity was focusing there, capturing all the starlight.
"This is the gravity collapse point inside the Morona Fault," Luo's voice carried a hint of seriousness, "The delivery location is right here... hold on, I'm initiating a scan, the Hidden Monastery's contact ship should be nearby, they should signal as agreed."
Listening to Luo's voice, originally Yu Sheng was like an idle traveler in the universe, but he imdiately beca serious, quickly adjusted his posture, relinked his consciousness to the shuttle, especially paying attention to the cargo area while casually lifting Erin off his shoulder and placing her in the co-pilot seat, his gaze falling on the information display in front of him.
The little puppet, after being tossed onto the chair, imdiately began searching around: "Do I need to fasten my seatbelt? Do I need to fasten my seatbelt?"
Yu Sheng: "No, the seatbelt can't hold you."
"Oh... hey you—"
The next second, she was interrupted by the shuttle's system notification: "Detected ship approaching, concealing force field disengaging, identity verification passed..."
Erin, who was about to curse and had one hand on the seatbelt buckle while pointing at Yu Sheng, instantly fell silent, turning to look out the porthole.
Near the focal point of the distorted starlight, a concealing force field was rapidly dissipating, and an oppressively large shadow erged from the dark cosmic background.
It was a spaceship—a massive space battleship.
It featured a sharp-lined black body with dark red painted patterns, its imposing and massive hull like a steel wall stretching across the starlight. Despite its technological appearance, its hull was adorned with religious-style spires, walkways, and patterns, its prow towering, flowing with ominous red glow between the sharp arc structures, and its flanks covered with honeycomb-like weapon launch units.
Luo's voice imdiately ca through the communicator: "It's the Hidden Monastery's flagship! 'Dark Star' class missile cruiser!"
Reviews
All reviews (0)