“…Why?”
“Clear goals, strong execution, intelligence, courage, and a steady mindset.” Taking on an entire base alone, blowing up a fighter jet, and escaping through a jump point.
Cheng Weilu thought about it. Although she had been forced to do this and that, and had even been turned into a master locksmith who went around opening doors everywhere, from another perspective, it was—
“Good at making use of whatever can be used, while maximizing efficiency.”
Cheng Weilu took a sip of tea. It was smooth and mellow, with a lingering sweetness. Even this old-fashioned hobby from her days on Earth, brewing tea, was something she did quite well.
“Your identity hasn’t been restored, yet Zhou Yan still respects you greatly even though he’s no longer in the military. You must have been a fairly decent person in a position of authority before.”
“But the most important thing is…” Whether it was breaking into Gray Dove Base, rescuing people on the Star Banner Route, or warning Cynthia about the possible risks to her informant fortress, “Commander, you care about human lives.”
Li Xu looked into her amber eyes, his fingers twitching slightly. He really wanted to reach out and touch those eyes.
The person before him was sincere and kind, low-key yet brave, intelligent and perceptive, able to see through many things at a glance. She possessed the ability most highly valued in this era, yet she did not seem to care much about it. Her eyes probably held nothing but the endless sea of stars.
He had never met someone so pure and free before.
Then he withdrew his fingers, curling them tightly into his palm. Turning to look out the window, he pressed his lips into a straight line.
“If I cared about human lives, how could I have let so many people die because of me?”
After a moment of silence, Li Xu turned back. His gray eyes were just as serious as he looked at the person before him.
“But there are others who deserve to die even more. I woke up to settle this score. That is what I’m here to do.”
Cheng Weilu paused, thinking of his sleeping disorder and how he had been searching for information everywhere after waking up… Everything had a clear trail leading to it. This man really had been handed the script of a tragic, beautiful, and powerful revenge story.
But living, breathing human lives and the casualties of war were not weightless plot points in storybooks separated from her by a screen. They were real, cruel, and bloody. What Li Xu and the realities and complicated circumstances he had revealed to her made Cheng Weilu feel that the road ahead of him would probably be fraught with difficulties.
For the last time, Cheng Weilu asked, “What are you going to Freedom City for?”
He already had a legitimate Alliance identity. There was no need to obtain another identity as a Freedom City citizen, so the excuse he had given at the beginning no longer held up.
“To find someone,” Li Xu said. “Someone very important. Based on the intelligence, this person is very likely in Freedom Corridor.”
There were no more questions. Cheng Weilu lifted her teacup and drained it in one go.
“Whether it’s for yourself or for those who died…”
“I hope the people who care about ordinary people and human lives win. I hope you win.”
Once the heavy conversation, though not quite a heart-to-heart, came to an end, the two finished resupplying the spaceship and slowly wandered along the commercial street.
Looking at the food city covered in dazzling, multicolored neon signs, Cheng Weilu suddenly remembered something.
“You said last time that you’d make yuanyang rice noodles because it was a taste from your hometown, but you never did.”
“You were distracted back then. You didn’t care what you ate, and a nutrient solution was enough to get you by.” Li Xu gave her an annoyed look. “There was no need to waste my rice noodles.”
Cheng Weilu laughed awkwardly and rubbed her nose. Holding up her wristband, she opened the current location and began searching.
“Is there any here?”
“No. Forget it.” Li Xu pulled her forward. “I’ll make it for you when you want it.”
“You’re so nice, Commander. Thank you.” Cheng Weilu grinned.
Looking at her smiling face, Li Xu kept a straight face and tugged at the corner of his mouth.
“Call me by my name.”
“I don’t know your real name, but thank you, Li Xu.”
…
To clear the route normally, they had to go through the fortress’s official checkpoint. Under the original plan, because of her identity, Cheng Weilu had intended to take an illegal route around the fortress, passing through the peripheral star systems. It would be somewhat difficult, and she could easily run into small-scale pirates.
Although the pirates that appeared in the peripheral star systems were generally just roadblocks and robbers, they were on an entirely different level from the interstellar pirates with enough armed forces to destroy an entire fortress that Li Xu had described.
But now that the nominal pilot was Li Xu, who had a legitimate identity, they could pass through the checkpoint normally.
After leaving the asteroid where they had stopped to rest, the spaceship headed toward the fortress checkpoint and entered the waiting area to queue for clearance. It would probably take half a day. Once they passed through, they would have officially left the Alliance.
If everything went smoothly, she would be able to see Qiqi in a few more days. This trip had lasted far too long. She was almost home, and just thinking about it made Cheng Weilu a little excited. Although she did not feel particularly attached to the house outside Freedom City, it was the place where she felt safest besides her spaceship.
Only after entering the checkpoint waiting area did she realize that quite a few spaceships were lined up waiting. As usual, Cheng Weilu connected to the information group. It was bustling with activity.
“Feels like the waiting time in line has been a little long these past few days. The longest wait for clearance used to be half a day, and the shortest was less than an hour.”
“The checkpoint seems to have updated its system. It’s still in the adjustment period, so there are frequent glitches and lag.”
“Isn’t a system supposed to become more stable with updates? Why is it getting laggier the more they update it? Did they add a malfunction module?”
Cheng Weilu only read a few messages, all of them complaining about the same issue. She continued scrolling down when the holographic projection flickered and the page disappeared.
“Hm?” Cheng Weilu tried connecting again, but could no longer connect. “What’s going on, Xiao Wei?”
“Checking… The Star Network has been disconnected.”
In the living room, Li Xu was holding his optical-brain and searching for information. He raised his head.
“It’s disconnected.”
This was a checkpoint at a major fortress. How could the Star Network suddenly go down? Cheng Weilu waited with a puzzled expression, hoping it was only a short-term malfunction. Without the Star Network, many things could not be done.
Ten minutes passed, then half an hour, then an hour… It still had not been restored. Cheng Weilu went to check their spaceship’s queue number for clearance. It had not changed at all during that hour. The checkpoint itself had also become stuck.
What was going on?
Without the Star Network, nearby devices could still communicate through their own transmission and receiving configurations, but once the distance became too great, that no longer worked. The asteroids inside the fortress port and the checkpoint should now be unable to exchange information, leaving them with no way of knowing what was happening to one another.
On the main control screen, the weather information returned by Xiao Wei showed that everything was normal. There had been no unusual incidents such as the common stellar storms or major magnetic storms. If an unexpected weather event was ruled out, then…
Could it be a human factor?
Li Xu looked at Cheng Weilu.
“Let’s leave the waiting area first. Something may have happened.”
…
Five days earlier—
In the conference room, the black-haired, green-eyed fortress commander was suppressing her anger as she looked at the system specialists from the military.
“No. We can’t shut down the defense network.”
These people had arrived at the fortress from Baicheng Star with military orders only three days ago, and were already demanding that the system replacement begin.
Not long after leaving Baicheng Star, Cynthia received a secret message from one of her subordinates on the Star Banner Route.
What shocked and excited her was that the person was really still alive. He was coming back.
But the practical implications also made her brows draw tightly together. If what he had said was true, they had to ensure that the fortress’s defense system remained stable.
“Commander,” the head of the system team said, looking at her, “the military issued a unified order for the system reconstruction. You attended the meeting yourself. How can you refuse to acknowledge it after coming back?”
“I agreed to the system reconstruction, but not now. The defense network cannot be shut down at this time.”
“The new system has already been completed and needs to be deployed at all major fortress bases. If we don’t shut down the old system, how are we supposed to install the new one?”
The person in charge looked at Cynthia.
“The old system uses Commander Li’s mental strength value as the configuration maximum. I understand that, because of your personal feelings, you don’t want to replace it…”
“Do you know what you’re saying?!” Cynthia cut him off sharply. “I am an Alliance soldier!”
The person in charge shrank his neck, but with the military backing them, they were not afraid of the woman in front of them.
“But you also know that the fortress system has already been breached by outsiders. That means there’s a problem with the old system. That former commander’s old data is no longer useful.”
“The new system uses dynamic maximum-value configuration. Although none of the individual mental strength values in the collected samples are as high as his, the sample pool contains enough data to keep the system constantly active while also saving energy…”
Cynthia only cared about the most important issue.
“It will take time to complete the deployment and stabilize the system. Do you really have to choose now to shut down the defense network? If something unexpected happens and pirates attack—”
“The time window needed to stabilize the system isn’t long. How could the pirates possibly happen to attack at such a convenient time?” the person in charge continued. “Besides, Commander, you are stationed at Nianchuan Fortress. It has always been safe and stable. We have absolute confidence in your abilities.”
…
The spaceship left the checkpoint waiting area and hovered in an empty stretch of space. The nearest asteroid was Leila, the main military station of Nianchuan Fortress.
“Spatial vibration waves detected.” Xiao Wei issued a warning.
On the main control screen, an undetectable source of fluctuation appeared. The intensity value was gradually increasing.
Cheng Weilu knew what this meant. A large fleet was approaching.
At this point in time, with the abnormal Star Network and a fleet arriving without warning, the only thing Cheng Weilu could think of was pirates.
If her spaceship could detect them, the garrison on Leila Star definitely should have detected them too. But judging from the detection information sent back by Xiao Wei, Leila Star was currently showing no response whatsoever.
“Military fortresses of this scale are covered by an integrated defense grid. It doesn’t only cover the checkpoint itself. The asteroids inside the port are covered as well. They operate independently but belong to the same system, with deployment and management handled by the fortress.”
“The defense network cannot fail,” Li Xu said. “If it’s Heta’s group, about half of these asteroids probably won’t survive.”
There were hundreds of asteroids inside the fortress port…
Cheng Weilu found it unbelievable.
“Are these pirates really that strong? Isn’t Cynthia a famous Alliance commander? And this is a major fortress…”
“They can’t fight them with their bare hands.” Li Xu said, “Zhou Yan manufactures and sells military weapons on Alto Star. Cynthia is his biggest buyer.”
Cheng Weilu’s mind stalled for a moment.
“What?”
An official Alliance military fortress had to buy weapons from a private workshop?
“Because Nianchuan Fortress is backed by Sevi Base, its military equipment and weapons allocations are under strict control. Compared with the number of troops stationed here, warships, fighter craft, spaceships, ammunition, and weapons are all in severe shortage. Even the number of weapons purchased from Zhou Yan is only a drop in the bucket.”
“…Why? Isn’t this an important checkpoint?”
In an interstellar war, without warships, spaceships, and weapons, having only people was completely useless.
“Because of Cynthia’s identity. There are people in the military who want to tie her hands and feet.”
Li Xu did not continue explaining. He went to get his spacesuit and put it on, then headed toward the rear cargo hold and ordered Xiao Wei to bring out the fighter jet and assembly robot.
“I’m going out to take a look. Wait for me in front of the checkpoint waiting area. I’ll be back before dawn, by five at the latest.”
“If I don’t come back…” Li Xu paused. “Breaking through the checkpoint’s system network won’t be difficult for you. When that happens, don’t worry about anything else. Leave immediately.”
…
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