On the fourth day of traveling along the Star Banner Route, they had already reached the fourth star jump point.
Based on Cheng Weilu’s past experience with interstellar travel, her first choice had always been the more formal official routes, such as official civilian jump points. The spaceports were larger, waiting times were shorter, and traffic moved more efficiently. When no official route was available, she would choose a more popular unofficial route. The fees were higher, but they were relatively safe.
The absolute worst-case scenario was when neither of those options was available, leaving them with blank areas on the star map where only a few locations were marked. Venturing forward recklessly in such regions made it very easy to encounter accidents. The most common type of accident was encountering interstellar pirates.
Although the route was narrow and the jump points small, requiring them to wait at least one stellar hour inside each spaceport, their journey along the Star Banner Route had been remarkably uneventful these past few days. It had gone so smoothly that Cheng Weilu felt she might need to reconsider her understanding of unofficial routes.
And then an accident happened.
At the entrance to the Fourth Star Spaceport, Xiao Wei reduced the ship’s speed and was connecting to the checkpoint to pay the fee and obtain an entry permit. Cheng Weilu was in the living room when she suddenly felt a fairly powerful tremor.
Robert, looking as though he had been splashed from head to toe with colorful reagent solutions, rushed out of his room in a panic.
“Was that an earthquake?”
This was space. Where would an earthquake come from?
Cheng Weilu caught Robert as he came rushing over and raised her head in bewilderment. Li Xu, who had been standing by the porthole, turned around.
“There’s been an accident.”
Xiao Wei’s voice rang out in the living room.
“Scans indicate that multiple spaceships have collided at the entrance to the jump point ahead.”
“Is it because the star map hasn’t been updated again?” Cheng Weilu recalled the warning in the First Star Spaceport group. “Isn’t the accident rate a little too high?”
Moreover, this route had been popular for many years. In theory, all the necessary information should already be on the star map, so there shouldn’t have been any problems.
“There are a total of seventeen spaceships involved in the accident. Based on analysis of the scans, the current suspicion is that there is a problem with the spaceport network’s traffic scheduling,” Xiao Wei said. “In view of the current situation, the checkpoint has stopped allowing ships to enter.”
Their spaceship was still outside the spaceport, but judging from the holographic projection Xiao Wei displayed, the already-congested area around the Fourth Star Spaceport had descended into complete chaos because of the collision.
Several of the spaceships involved in the collision had caught fire. The automatic piloting systems of some of the damaged ships appeared to have malfunctioned. For some reason, the pilots of the panicked spaceships were also having problems with all their controls, as if their minds had gone out of control while connected. Every action they took was completely random.
Watching the spaceships on the holographic projection darting around like headless flies, Cheng Weilu said doubtfully, “Why are they acting like they’ve gone completely insane? Are they possessed or something?”
To get away from the damaged spaceships that were careening uncontrollably in every direction and avoid being caught up in the chaos, the ships that had originally been quietly waiting inside the spaceport began fleeing in all directions. This made the already cramped spaceport even more chaotic. Perhaps to prevent an even larger chain-reaction accident, the Fourth Star checkpoint opened the spaceport and released the ships that had been waiting.
“Those out-of-control spaceships probably aren’t malfunctioning because of a scheduling problem.” Li Xu stared at the holographic projection, his expression extremely grave.
Inside the spaceport, the damaged spaceships had almost completely broken free of control. One after another, they began attacking, colliding with, and rolling over each other like severely intoxicated people.
“Then what is causing it?” Cheng Weilu asked.
Li Xu did not answer. Instead, he continued, “The pilots cannot recover on their own. Intervention is required.”
His tone was extremely certain, almost as if he had extensive experience dealing with this kind of situation. Yet apart from the message Cheng Weilu had seen four days ago, she had never heard of an accident like this. It struck her as strange, though she could not quite put her finger on why.
“Xiao Wei, can we connect to the spaceport’s mental network from outside the spaceport?” Li Xu asked.
“I’ll try. Please wait…” Xiao Wei began attempting the connection. A minute later, it said, “Attempt complete. Successfully connected to the mental network. However, the other side has a defensive firewall.”
Li Xu turned to look at Cheng Weilu.
“Should we give them a hand?”
They were already connected. Given Cheng Weilu’s personality, there was no way she could refuse now.
“How?” she asked.
“You break through the firewall first,” Li Xu said.
“Me?” Cheng Weilu pointed at herself. “Me again? Are you trying to set me up again?”
“This time it’s to save lives. Don’t worry. I’ll handle the cleanup afterward.”
The two of them settled into the chairs in the main control room and put on the masks and helmets used for mental connections.
Robert paced back and forth behind them, looking somewhat nervous.
“I’ll keep a close eye on you two.”
Cheng Weilu completed the mental connection in an instant and located the Fourth Star Spaceport’s mental network that Xiao Wei had connected to. Li Xu’s voice sounded in her ear.
“Follow this mental network and find the defensive firewall in its backend. Once you break through it, we can bypass it.”
Once you had done something once, the second time was always easier. Cheng Weilu had already caused an even bigger mess at the Gray Dove Base, so naturally, a tiny checkpoint like this was nothing to her. She broke through it effortlessly, and the mental strength of the two of them successfully entered the spaceport’s mental network.
The mental connections of all seventeen spaceships remained intact. Strangely, however, the condition of every person was extremely abnormal, as though they had been possessed by something. All their movements were stiff.
Cheng Weilu wanted to try connecting to them, but Li Xu immediately stopped her.
“Don’t touch them.”
“Then what do we do?”
Cheng Weilu’s mental avatar circled around the group of people. It was obvious that something was wrong with every one of them. If this continued, the spaceships could be destroyed and the people aboard could die.
“Don’t connect to them. Take control of their spaceships directly.”
Li Xu’s tone was extremely calm.
“Can we do that?” Cheng Weilu hesitated. She had never done anything that involved violating someone else’s privacy or taking control of their property before.
“We can. Our mental strength is stronger than theirs, especially yours,” Li Xu said. “I’ll help you. We’ll take control of those spaceships together, have the pilots disconnect from the mental network first, then move the spaceships onto the spaceport platforms. Shut down the ships, exit the mental network, and erase our personal traces.”
“We need to hurry,” Li Xu said. “Their mental states won’t hold out much longer.”
“How fast?”
Cheng Weilu immediately began trying to do as Li Xu instructed, but she preferred working in a relaxed state. She really disliked this feeling of having a fire burning under her feet.
“Everything must be completed within fifteen minutes. We’re starting now.”
And so, for most of the time, Li Xu was responsible for monitoring the overall situation while Cheng Weilu took control of the spaceships.
At first, she needed at least two or three minutes to successfully secure a single ship. Later, however, her movements became extraordinarily fast and precise, completing the entire process in a single smooth sequence and taking only a few dozen seconds to finish all the necessary operations.
Even though Li Xu was already well aware of Cheng Weilu’s innate talent, her astonishing reaction speed when connecting to and disconnecting from the mental network still left him deeply shaken.
He assisted her in transferring several spaceships on the periphery whose conditions were not yet too serious. After successfully handling the third ship, Li Xu suddenly noticed new mental strength entering the area from behind.
He immediately released a warning signal.
The two new mental forces retreated slightly. After realizing that he had no intention of attacking, they continued forward, but the moment they approached Cheng Weilu, Li Xu warned them again.
The two then moved to a position farther away from Cheng Weilu and began attempting to take control of and transfer the spaceships in the least serious condition.
Li Xu kept an eye on the movements of the two outsiders. He discovered that they were struggling with every operation, and their progress was extremely slow.
After finally succeeding with one spaceship, the two were apparently too exhausted to continue. They silently watched Cheng Weilu and Li Xu’s operations from within the network for a while before quietly withdrawing.
Through this mutual cooperation, all seventeen spaceships were eventually transferred.
After shutting down the navigation system of the final spaceship, Li Xu erased the mental traces and withdrew from the mental network.
The mental connection and disconnection between the human brain and a system consumed an enormous amount of brainpower. By the time Li Xu pulled off his helmet, sweat had already appeared on his forehead.
He immediately turned to look at Cheng Weilu, who was half reclining in the chair beside him. Her face was pale beneath the mask, her lips slightly parted as she gasped for breath. She tried to raise a hand to remove the mask herself, but she seemed to have already exhausted all her strength.
In ten minutes, she had successfully secured ten spaceships.
Li Xu walked over, removed her mask, then scooped up the mentally exhausted Cheng Weilu and carried her to the medical pod. It was an advanced model that Li Xu had brought with him, far superior to the one Cheng Weilu had previously owned.
Robert followed anxiously and leaned over the edge of the medical pod to look at her.
“Will A Luo be okay?”
“She’s fine,” Li Xu said. “She’ll be fine after resting for a while.”
“How are you… still in such good shape?” Cheng Weilu opened her eyes and looked at him, her voice as faint as a mosquito’s. “I can barely even lift my fingers.”
“Because your physical fitness is too poor.”
Li Xu looked at her with a grim expression.
“Starting tomorrow, you have to come with me to the gym every day. I’m going to make you a physical training plan.”
“I… I don’t want to. I’m not your subordinate, nor am I your soldier, Commander Li.”
“…..”
Li Xu’s forehead nearly bulged with veins. Even in this condition, she could still argue with him.
He reached over and covered her mouth.
“Just be quiet for a while.”
Cheng Weilu normally did everything she could to avoid physical contact with other people, and this was practically the first time she had encountered a situation like this.
When Li Xu’s slightly cool hand pressed against her face, Cheng Weilu froze for a moment. Her lips unconsciously pursed. She could feel that Li Xu’s hand seemed to stiffen slightly, but he did not immediately pull it away. Only after she quieted down did he slowly remove his hand.
“You have no right to control me. You’re only my…” Cheng Weilu took a breath and stubbornly continued provoking him.
“Your what?”
“My client… that’s all.”
“…”
“Shut up.”
Heh. He was angry again.
─────── ✦ · ˚ ✧ · ˚ ✦ ───────
The defensive backend of the Fourth Star checkpoint had malfunctioned. Before the staff could figure out what had happened, the system returned to normal more than ten minutes later, and the spaceships that had inexplicably gone berserk and collided with one another were also successfully transferred onto the platforms.
After a few minutes of recovery, the checkpoint resumed operations and began allowing spaceships into the spaceport’s waiting area.
Because of the accident just now, the Fourth Star Spaceport group had already turned into a gossip and chatter zone, with messages scrolling by at lightning speed.
“Did you see that? Those spaceships went crazy on their own. It wasn’t because they said the star map hadn’t been updated.”
“Was the collision accident at Seventh Star like this too?”
“All the spaceships involved in the accident are on the platforms now. I wonder how the pilots are doing?”
“Why did they suddenly go crazy and then suddenly recover?”
“Just ask the pilots.”
“That’s useless. Of the three spaceships involved in the collision at Seventh Star last time, only one pilot survived. But they didn’t remember anything that happened at all. They developed traumatic empty-brain syndrome.”
“They didn’t suddenly recover. Someone powerful stepped in and saved them.”
“What? Who? Saved what? I don’t understand.”
Li Xu stared at the message about someone stepping in to save them for a while. He could tell that the person capable of manipulating mental strength was probably one of the two people from earlier.
As he continued reading, a private message popped up in the group chat. It was from that 1247—
“Was that you just now?”
Before Li Xu could respond, another message from the other person popped up—
“Who was the other one?”
…
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