Sevi Base was one of the Alliance military’s five old-established bases, backed by the large warship port at Nianchuan Fortress. The base encompassed ten planets, including three artificial planets. Its scale was incomparable to small bases like Arvid’s Gray Dove Base, which had only been established after the war.
There was not much detailed information about Sevi Base in Cheng Weilu’s database, but all of it conveyed the same straightforward message:
A major military facility. Do not approach.
On the thirty-fifth day of the journey, Cheng Weilu found it increasingly difficult to concentrate as she stared at the massive holographic image of SW07 in the living room. She put down the photon gun, drank some water, and looked at Li Xu, hesitating to speak.
“Are you going to tell me what we’re going there to do?” she finally asked.
“We’re going inside the base to take a look.” Li Xu stared seriously at the defense grid flickering with red dots on the holographic image. It enveloped SW07 like a dome, forming the base’s defensive system around all ten planets. Approaching recklessly without authorization would trigger an automatic attack.
Cheng Weilu did not dare imagine what kind of defensive weapons a base this important would have. For all she knew, one antimatter cannon could hit them and annihilate the entire spaceship on the spot.
Two stellar hours later, the spaceship came to a stop above SW07’s low orbit.
“We are too close to the SW07 defense grid,” Xiao Wei warned.
“It’s fine.” Li Xu remained calm. “Activate the spaceship’s stealth mode and hover here for five stellar hours.”
In stealth mode, the spaceship could not be detected by radar systems, but would simply putting on an invisibility cloak and hovering so blatantly at someone’s doorstep really keep them from being discovered?
In the center of the living room, the holographic image of SW07 slowly rotated. Its surface was completely black, with the side illuminated by the star’s light source giving off a faint glow. There were nine more of these enormous, oppressive objects.
Thinking of this, Cheng Weilu still could not avoid feeling somewhat anxious. She even went to the gym and walked ten kilometers on her own to distract herself.
He must have his reasons for doing this. Cheng Weilu gave herself that reassurance.
Five hours later, during the evening leisure time after dinner, Cheng Weilu’s attention unconsciously returned to the base. She went to the main control room and looked through the star charts and various received signals. As she watched, she gradually sensed that something was wrong.
The high-energy signals sent outward at regular intervals were still active. The defensive network remained online. The surrounding starfield was empty and silent. There were no stellar storms, no magnetic storms. Everything was perfectly normal.
But what was wrong?
It was too normal, yet too quiet. From the moment they began approaching the base until they hovered over SW07, they had not seen anything else. Spaceships, fighter craft, starships, military vessels entering or leaving the port… Nothing.
They had flown their spaceship right up to a silent behemoth.
Li Xu took out two spacesuits and looked at Cheng Weilu. “Want to go out for a ride? We should be able to get back before your bedtime.”
That left about four hours.
Cheng Weilu thought about it for a moment, then followed Li Xu aboard the fighter jet. Xiao Wei took control of the spaceship and activated defensive and stealth modes.
As usual, Cheng Weilu sat in the co-pilot seat. In fact, over the past few days, she had already become very familiar with this cutting-edge technological masterpiece that Adela had described as having “three times the performance of Alliance fighter jets.” It was light and agile, incredibly fast, and its offensive and defensive modules were both highly autonomous and coordinated.
Even though she was not particularly interested in weapons, she could clearly feel that after the optical-brain synchronization, the light-energy rounds equipped on the fighter jet moved almost at will. Wherever she pointed, they struck with extremely high accuracy.
Under Li Xu’s control, the fighter jet activated its autonomous defense and stealth modes before plunging into space.
Cheng Weilu watched the enormous planetary surface on the main control screen and the SW07 defense grid drawing closer and closer. The oppressive presence unique to such a colossal structure made her head start buzzing.
After spending these days together, she had discovered that Li Xu was gradually developing a bad habit. As long as Cheng Weilu did not ask, he would not explain many things outright. His reason for not explaining was that he simply assumed Cheng Weilu knew what he was planning to do.
Well, generally speaking, Cheng Weilu could indeed guess what he was planning. For example, when he said they were going out for a ride, she had very consciously brought along her photon gun.
This inexplicable atmosphere of mutual understanding made Cheng Weilu feel that something was strange, yet she could not quite put her finger on what.
“You’re sure you want to go for a ride here?” Cheng Weilu asked. “Compared to the scale of the defensive network, our fighter jet is like an ant.”
Once the defensive network retaliated, the ant would disappear in an instant.
“Ants have their advantages too. We can be like ants and quietly slip through a corner of the wall.” Li Xu’s voice was soft. “Can you sense it? The firewall attached to the defense grid?”
Cheng Weilu suspected that her ability to perceive mental strength and her compatibility had improved again after Li Xu had her attempt to connect with various systems during this period. In fact, she had sensed it the moment the fighter jet approached. It was difficult to describe the sensation. It was like standing before a wall so high that its top could not be seen.
“Use your mental strength to get past the firewall. The moment you break through, we’ll go through.”
“You really do treat me like some kind of universal lock-picking master.” Cheng Weilu curled her lips. “If I’d known you called me out here for this, I would have been better off going to sleep.”
“Lock-picking master? Is that another new profession that appeared after the war?” Li Xu picked up on her words. “I have complete faith in your abilities.”
The hole just kept getting bigger. Once was unfamiliar, twice was familiar, and by the third and fourth time, it had become commonplace. Cheng Weilu was beginning to suspect that if she really could not make a living in the Alliance anymore, Li Xu would take her next to crack the “Pearl Ring” defense system of Baicheng Star.
The instant the optical-brain connection was established and her mental strength connected, it was as though her entire body had fallen into a mental sea. It was vast and boundless, stretching as far as the eye could see, yet her foot had stepped into empty space and she was plummeting rapidly downward.
The sensation of weightlessness as she fell through her mind was too real. Cheng Weilu instinctively reached out, trying to grab hold of something. Then her left hand was grasped. Through the gloves of their spacesuits, she could feel that it was Li Xu’s hand.
Within the mental sea, Cheng Weilu sensed a consciousness drifting over and approaching her. Her mental projection instinctively pressed against it.
“Mm…” A muffled groan came from Li Xu through the audio channel, and Cheng Weilu’s heart suddenly leaped.
This was the first time Cheng Weilu had touched someone else inside the mental realm. An inexplicable tingling sensation spread from her cerebral cortex, and her fingers unconsciously dug into her palm.
Li Xu’s breathing grew increasingly clear in the audio channel. Cheng Weilu steadied her mind, and her mental projection pried open the firewall, revealing an opening. The towering walls of digital information began collapsing in all directions before rapidly reassembling. Cheng Weilu watched the defense grid sweep toward them and, carrying the consciousness clinging to her, leaped toward the shrinking opening.
At the SW07 planetary military defense system monitoring center, strings of garbled data rapidly streamed across the enormous monitoring hologram. The firewall data fluctuated slightly for an instant, the disturbance so faint that it was like a butterfly’s wings skimming across the surface of the water. Before the monitoring alarm could sound, everything had returned to normal.
At the instant the red light of the defense grid on the main control screen went out and then lit up again, the fighter jet passed through.
Cheng Weilu released Li Xu’s mental projection and disconnected the optical-brain link.
For some reason, she felt her face growing hot. Thankfully, both of them were completely covered from head to toe by their spacesuits. Otherwise, she would probably have looked a little strange right now.
The ant had successfully slipped through a crack in the wall and entered the other side, but the fighter jet suddenly began drifting and crashed toward the atmosphere.
Cheng Weilu did not know what had just happened to Li Xu. She was about to engage the brakes when Li Xu released her hand and pulled up the control stick, then calmly operated the fighter jet as it passed through SW07’s atmosphere and rapidly descended.
On the monitoring screen, as the surface gradually came into view, something moving rapidly entered their field of vision. Li Xu quickly adjusted the fighter jet and approached the object from above. As the distance closed, Cheng Weilu realized that it was a military fighter jet.
“Can you connect again and sense the other side?” Li Xu asked.
“Okay.” Cheng Weilu connected to the optical-brain system and clearly sensed a mental presence approaching. “There’s one person on board.”
Because they were close enough, Cheng Weilu could even feel the intense presence of the other person’s mental consciousness. It was almost as strong as Li Xu’s had been just now. Along with it came an extremely, extremely intense… pain?
Cheng Weilu frowned tightly. Such an intense emotion made her feel uncomfortable, and her breathing unconsciously grew heavier. Li Xu noticed that something was wrong with her, and his mental consciousness immediately pressed against hers, diverting her attention.
The fighter jet in stealth mode fired a light-energy round, accurately striking the military fighter jet’s main control position. The opposing fighter jet began to lose control and plummet downward, and Li Xu pursued it all the way.
Adela’s stealth mode for the fighter jet was extremely thorough. The light-energy rounds were invisible until they struck.
Before hitting the ground, the damaged military fighter jet eventually managed to brake in an emergency and came to a successful stop.
Li Xu landed the spaceship in a mountain hollow some distance away and said, “Let’s go take a look.”
Cheng Weilu looked at the pitch-black night sky outside and nodded.
Li Xu clipped a ring-sized control device onto both his and Cheng Weilu’s clothing. When he pressed the switch, their figures disappeared. Cheng Weilu remembered that this was the military’s optical camouflage.
SW07 was a mining planet. There were no living organisms on its surface, only rocks everywhere. Its gravity was very weak, probably because the planet’s gravity had not been modified to account for the size and weight of large warships.
This area consisted mostly of open, flat ground with occasional low hills. There was probably no military outpost nearby. The two of them easily ran and jumped across the surface, approaching the damaged military fighter jet.
Li Xu led Cheng Weilu to a slightly elevated position and silently lay down, as if observing something or waiting. In the helmet’s night-vision mode, Cheng Weilu suddenly discovered that the main pilot’s seat was occupied by a robot with a very low degree of humanoid resemblance.
A robot? How was that possible?
Cheng Weilu looked at its appearance, which was even rougher than Robert’s, then turned in shock to look at Li Xu. She had never heard of robots being capable of having mental consciousness.
More than ten minutes later, a faint mechanical sound came from above. A small aircraft landed beside the fighter jet. Its hatch opened, and two robots with the same appearance climbed out. They opened the fighter jet’s hatch and carried out the damaged robot, then lifted a large box out of the co-pilot seat.
It was a large, opaque rectangular box. The space in the co-pilot area was limited, so under normal circumstances, there should have been no room for something this large. The fighter jet must have been modified.
In the audio channel, Li Xu’s breathing suddenly seemed to grow heavier. He appeared to have become very agitated, his hand clenching into a fist.
Cheng Weilu looked at the box in confusion. What was inside?
The small aircraft flew very slowly. The two of them followed from a distance until they reached a valley. Cheng Weilu saw what appeared to be a huge cave faintly visible in the mountain ahead. After the aircraft entered the cave, it disappeared from sight.
Cheng Weilu glanced at Li Xu beside her. He had clearly come here specifically for this place.
“You specifically chose nighttime to come here and go mountain climbing?” Cheng Weilu stared at the pitch-black cave and began talking nonsense again. “I don’t want to climb.”
Li Xu, who had remained silent all this time, was amused by her words and visibly relaxed. “I won’t make you climb.” He stepped forward, grabbed Cheng Weilu by the wrist with one hand, and stretched the other upward. Something on his arm silently shot out, and the two of them were pulled upward.
“What’s that good thing? Did you get it from Zhou Yan?”
“It’s not that good. It’s not as fun as the hovercarpet you made.”
There was still a defensive network at the entrance of the cave. Cheng Weilu was already very familiar with breaking through this sort of thing, and the two silently passed through it in the darkness.
There were no lights at the cave entrance. Cheng Weilu could even smell a faint trace of rust in the air despite the filtration of her spacesuit helmet. Some form of artificial gravity had probably been added inside the cave, as she could feel that the gravity was slightly stronger than outside.
Li Xu pulled Cheng Weilu deeper into the cave, flying through the darkness before stopping at a corridor.
Below the interior of the cave, the area was brightly lit. It was actually a vast hollow space. Cheng Weilu was reminded of Zhou Yan’s underground weapons factory.
Cheng Weilu followed Li Xu carefully and silently along the corridor. Robots occasionally passed by them, yet none noticed their presence.
They followed a robot pushing a long white box into a transport pod. The robot hesitated when the number of people displayed on the transport pod showed “4.” It rotated its head once on its neck but detected nothing unusual. The transport pod then sent them to the ninth underground level.
The robot pushed the long box into a room and opened the door. The two of them quickly slipped inside behind it. Cheng Weilu discovered that this was a huge warehouse area.
The high-ceilinged space was filled with countless neatly arranged shelves, all of them stacked with those long white boxes. In the central area of the warehouse were several translucent glass rooms that looked like laboratories. There was a huge holographic screen in the center of the warehouse.
The robot pushed the box into one of the rooms in the central area of the warehouse. Several minutes later, it pushed the door open and left the warehouse.
The two of them walked to the central area. Cheng Weilu glanced at the data on the screen. It recorded the warehouse’s code, temperature, pressure, humidity, gravity, the quantity of goods, abnormal conditions, and so on.
They could not sense it through their spacesuits, but the data on the screen showed that the temperature here was extremely low. The names of these things seemed to simply be “boxes.” There were more than thirty thousand boxes in this warehouse.
Apart from that, the place was completely silent.
Cheng Weilu looked at that room, and a strange feeling rose in her heart. She had the distinct feeling that there was someone inside. Just as she moved forward, her wrist was caught.
“Don’t open it.” Li Xu’s voice carried a faint warning.
“What’s inside?”
“You won’t want to see it.”
…
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