I Married A Degraded Chapter 40: Hot Pursuit and the Trap

Chapter 40: Hot Pursuit and the Trap

The word about Yuri and Tuss showing up at the transfer station got out. Folks figured out their end goal from the path they were traveling—Planet Alpha.

It was pretty easy to put together. Planet Alpha was ho base for Yuri and Tuss. It was where their friends and teachers were. It was the only place they’d head to.

Now, everyone who was interested in the starstone was getting ready to fight, planning to either stop Yuri and Tuss before they made it to Planet Alpha, or grab them as soon as they landed.

"We’ll make it to Planet Alpha by tomorrow," Tuss said out of the blue.

"I’ve picked up on that. The amount of spaceships and chas we’ve seen in the past few hours has really gone up," Yuri replied, while examining so rocks. "Should I crack these open now?"

"If you feel like it. If there are gems inside, you can use them to make jewelry," Tuss answered.

Yuri shook her head. "We’ll see. I might not be into the gems inside."

Tuss looked at her, confused. Shouldn’t she be excited or happy? Why is she being so choosy? Tuss made a ntal note to check out more romance books and love advice columns when he got back to Planet Alpha so as to better guess Yuri’s thoughts.

With the help of Enova, Yuri sliced through the rocks as easy as cutting cheese. In under thirty minutes, all eleven rocks had been neatly split.

Six out of the eleven rocks had gems inside. The gems were all different sizes, with the biggest around the size of Yuri’s fist, and the tiniest about as big as a lychee seed.

The colors were different too—pink, red, green, blue, purple, and yellow—each one bright and eye-catching.

Tuss turned around to see Yuri holding the six gems on her lap, checking them out with wide eyes.

"All of them out?" he asked.

"Right here," Yuri answered, showing each gem to Tuss. "These gems are so big, so pure, and so bright, they almost look fake."

Tuss cracked a smile, "A treasure of a lifeti ends up looking phony in your eyes, huh..."

Yuri rolled her eyes, "A treasure of a lifeti? I’ve got six right here."

Tuss was stumped. He was just using a figure of speech.

"How much could we sell these for?" Yuri asked.

"You could auction them off for millions, maybe even tens of millions," Tuss answered nonchalantly.

Yuri’s eyes got even bigger, "That much?"

"They’re top quality. You don’t find gems like this every day. Average gems would only go for ten thousand to a hundred thousand credits." Coming from the rich Hiro family, Tuss had a good idea about how much these jewels were worth.

Just like he said, Yuri started looking for gems online.

A few minutes later, she murmured, "We sure are lucky, finding such nice gems on our first try."

Tuss responded, "I thought you figured out we were lucky when we found the starstone."

Yuri went quiet.

As they got closer to Planet Alpha, even Yuri, who had been calm at first, started to feel jumpy.

"This spaceship seems to be tailing us," Yuri pointed out, gesturing to the slowly shrinking spaceship icon on the screen.

"It’s not just that one. There’s this one, and this, and this, and those," Tuss said, zooming in on the screen to show all the spaceships and chas that were closing in. "They’ve been following us for two hours now."

Yuri jumped, "Have we been spotted?"

"Not necessarily. They might just be keeping an eye on us." Tuss looked serious.

Beep-beep-beep—

"Sobody’s trying to get in touch," Yuri glanced at the red light flashing on the control panel of the cha, her heart pounding.

"Ignore it," Tuss said.

Yuri thought to herself, ignoring it won’t make it disappear. The more they ignored it, the more suspicious they looked. But right now, they didn’t have any other choices.

Above Planet Alpha, a spaceship had been hovering for a whole day and night. A beautiful woman was setting up her fancy recording gear while talking into a microphone, "Look, guys, isn’t the starry sky gorgeous?"

Comnts on the screen were scrolling fast.

"I don’t want to see stars; I want to see the starstone."

"Where’s the starstone? Are you ssing with us?"

"Yeah, where’s the starstone? I’ve been waiting for hours and haven’t seen anything."

The live stream audience was getting restless.

The woman laughed, "Don’t rush. According to trustworthy sources, the starstone will make it to Planet Alpha within the next hour. There’s going to be a face-off here. Do you see the military? There are four groups here, all waiting for the starstone. Let’s see who gets it."

Like her, there were hundreds of other people live streaming the arrival of the starstone on Planet Alpha. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of caras floating above Planet Alpha.

anwhile, countless people were sitting in front of their screens, eagerly waiting for the starstone to arrive.

Back at the military school, students who had just finished their exams were logging onto the internet using their computers.

"Tuss is in hot water this ti."

"I agree. He shouldn’t have walked right into the trap."

"It’s riskier outside. Coming back ans only losing the starstone; not coming back could cost him his life."

"That’s right, you see the situation clearly. Besides, both he and Yuri are neither alphas nor betas. The starstone is useless to them."

From what Edgar and others at Military Academy No. 2 were saying, they knew about Tuss’s missing consciousness, shrinking gland, and him turning into an oga.

"Should we help Tuss?" soone proposed.

"I’m in. Tuss saved my life once; I owe him that."

"Tuss saved

too. I’m going."

" too."

"But how? Who here has a spaceship or a cha?"

"I have a spaceship."

"I have a cha."

"I can borrow one."

A whole group of school students stord out the gate.

Half an hour later, a bunch of chas and spaceships appeared at Planet Alpha’s port.

Seeing the chas and spaceships show up on the screen, the viewers outside were taken aback.

"What’s going on? Why are they sending out so many chas and spaceships? Are they going to fight?"

"Is Planet Alpha in chaos?"

"Because of the starstone?"

The people online were filled with guesses.

"Don’t worry, everyone. I’ll connect with them and ask," the female strear offered, sending a communication request to the closest cha.

When the request connected, Ender’s good-looking face popped up on the screen.

The strear gave a graceful wave at Ender and said, "Hello."

"Hello," Ender responded, his tone chilly.

Caught off guard by his cold attitude, the strear dropped her professional act and asked directly, "Do you know why so many chas and spaceships have suddenly shown up at the port?"

"Yes." Ender kept his answer short.

With a sweet smile, the strear asked again, "Could you tell us why?"

"We’re here to pick up a classmate," Ender replied.

The strear’s eyes lit up. "Which classmate is important enough for you to send out so many chas and spaceships to greet them?"

"His na is Tuss Hiro. He’s saved over a thousand of us. We should be here for him," Ender explained, before ending the communication.

The mont Tuss’s na was ntioned, the streaming channel audience were shocked.

"They ca for Tuss Hiro?"

"Is Tuss Hiro really that great? He saved over a thousand people?"

"So many classmates backing him up, it must be true."

"Is there going to be a fight? There’s definitely going to be a fight."

"Hey, you better live stream the battle."

The strear put on a sad face, saying pitifully, "Aren’t you worried about

if there’s going to be a fight?"

"Don’t worry, sunshine. You’re not the starstone, nobody will want to snatch you."

"Yeah, you can just watch from the sidelines. You won’t get hurt in the fight."

"Fine," the strear laughed and shrugged.

anwhile, as the chas and spaceships got nearer, Yuri’s palms started to sweat.

"I’ll pilot the cha," Yuri offered.

"Do you think you can handle it?" Tuss asked, his eyes questioning.

"We’re not shooting, just running. I should be able to handle it," Yuri reassured him.

"Okay." Tuss surrendered his seat to her.

Yuri’s ntal threads took over the whole cha. She commanded in a cold tone, "Hold on tight."

In the next mont, Tuss felt his world turn upside down and his insides lurch. He, who had four years of cha piloting experience, was surprisingly getting motion sickness.

To the public, a red and green cha was seen rolling like a ball in the starry sky, changing direction and leaping with a speed and angle that normal chas couldn’t match.

"It’s almost like teleportation."

"If we didn’t slow down the footage, it would be teleportation."

"Wow, a bunch of chas and spaceships tried to corner and intercept, but it managed to escape."

"That has to be Tuss. I heard he always ca first in cha classes at Military Academy No. 1."

"Worthy of being the forr first chair at Military Academy No. 1."

"Stop talking and start chasing."

Above Planet Alpha, a cha was drawing near, trailed by countless chas and spaceships.

"That cha definitely has the starstone, everyone stop it."

Various groups started to move, the once spacious starry sky was now packed.

anwhile, the academy students were shocked.

"Is it really Tuss piloting the cha so showily?"

"Showily, good word.?"

"But it doesn’t seem like Tuss’s style, right?"

"Highly skilled, even if it’s not Tuss, it’s soone on his level."

"Maybe it’s a diversion by Tuss. To distract everyone’s attention."

"Then let’s help him make this diversion bigger."

"Whoever it is, guys, let’s get there first."

"Go, go, go!"