[Space station deployment complete. Please summon players as soon as possible.]
A few days ago.
Earth-Star Joint Council, High Tribunal.
“Defendant Yao Qian, Serial Number Terra-9527.”
“Regarding your public insult of the New Human evolutionary path and your assault on Gene-Integrator Officer Saleh, how do you plead?”
A blinding spotlight burned down on Yao Qian’s face.
He narrowed his eyes and glanced toward the victim seated on the left side of the bench.
The so-called Officer Saleh had half his face embedded with compound eyes.
Where his nose should have been hung a wriggling elephant trunk, which spewed twin puffs of yellowish gas every few seconds.
Yao Qian’s stomach churned violently, nearly sending up the nutrient paste he had eaten for breakfast.
Ever since reincarnating into this interstellar era that treated “mutation” as “evolution,” his aesthetic sensibility had suffered daily nuclear strikes.
“I plead not guilty.”
Yao Qian adjusted the position of his magnetic handcuffs, his expression filled with revulsion.
“I refuse to acknowledge that thing as human. Looking like an over-fermented lump of dough—what kind of evolution is that supposed to be?”
“Order!” The presiding judge struck his gavel heavily.
“This is a grand modification to adapt to toxic gas planets!”
Saleh bolted upright, his elephant trunk trembling violently as it produced a sound like a puffing bellows.
“This is racism! Stubborn pure-blood scum like him should be sent to a waste mining star to stoke the incinerators!”
“Gimme a break.”
Yao Qian didn’t bother looking at him directly, his gaze sweeping across the jury filled with antennae-bearing, chameleon-skinned freaks.
“If the future of humanity means turning into a seafood platter, I’d rather be an uncivilized monkey. At least a monkey knows an ass shouldn’t grow on its face.”
The entire courtroom erupted into an uproar.
“Enough!”
The presiding judge was thoroughly enraged, pounding his gavel like thunder.
“The defendant, Yao Qian, shows zero remorse and openly preaches extreme racial supremacy! He is hereby stripped of his Earth Union military status and immediately exiled to the fringe sectors!”
Exile to the fringe sectors was equivalent to a suspended death sentence.
Out there lay only space pirates, Zerg swarms, and solar storms that could erupt at any moment.
Yet Yao Qian’s face showed no fear.
Instead, he let out a long sigh of relief.
Finally, he wouldn’t have to look at these monsters anymore.
…
Three days later, Military Spaceport No. 7.
A pitch-black frigate lay quietly at berth, its hull mottled and battered as if it had just been dragged out of a scrapyard.
“This is your coffin, the *Yabo*.”
The escorting gendarme—a figure clad in full exoskeleton armor—gloatingly tossed a chip over.
“A fifty-year-old decommissioned antique. Its shields can probably barely block hail. Hope you die a quick death, pure-blood.”
Yao Qian caught the chip, walked straight toward the airlock, and waved a hand back without turning around.
“Thanks. At least this ship looks like it was built by human hands, not pulled out of someone’s ass.”
The airlock door slammed shut, cutting off the gendarme’s roaring curses.
Stepping onto the bridge, the air was thick with the scent of stale motor oil.
Yao Qian flopped into the pilot seat and masterfully inserted the chip.
“Main control online.”
The screens lit up.
There was no AI voice; instead, an encrypted audio file played automatically.
“Yao Qian, if you’re hearing this recording, it means you weren’t foolish enough to beg for mercy in that court.”
The voice was old and tough.
Grand Marshal Layton?
That stubborn old man who had lost his legs but refused mechanical cybernetics?
“The Earth Union is sick. They’ve forgotten how humanity conquered the sea of stars—not by turning ourselves into monsters, but with the swords in our hands.”
“You cursed them well in court. Humans shouldn’t look like damn seafood.”
The old man’s laughter came through accompanied by a bout of coughing.
“On the surface, this *Yabo* is decommissioned junk. But I had my boys mess with it a bit.”
“Under the main console, there’s a red manual pull-lever. Pull it.”
Yao Qian leaned down and felt around, sure enough finding a cold metal handle.
Without a moment’s hesitation, he yanked it down hard.
*Clack!*
The crisp snap felt as though it had broken a seal.
The entire warship shuddered violently as a deep rumble echoed from its depths, like a behemoth awakening.
Armor plates on both sides of the hull slid back, exposing menacing dark ports.
Warning lights instantly flooded the holographic screens in red:
[Warning: Contraband illegal components detected!] [Power Core Replacement: Red Giant Mark III Fusion Reactor (Battleship Grade)] [Main Cannon Unlocked: 380mm “Gravedigger” Railgun × 2] [Point-Defense Array: “Metal Storm” CIWS × 12] [Special Ordnance: Antimatter Annihilation Torpedo × 4]
Stuffing the firepower of a cruiser into a frigate?
It was…
absolutely glorious.
“Keep the ember alive, and don’t forget what you originally were,” Layton’s voice cut out abruptly.
“Long live humanity.”
The corners of Yao Qian’s mouth curled up, a long-extinguished fire igniting in his eyes.
“Main cannons charging. Set sail!”
The tail of the *Yabo* erupted with a dazzling blue exhaust plume.
Like a sharp blade, it broke free of the gravity well and surged into the wild sea of stars.
As the ship entered superluminal cruise, the red dots on the radar representing Earth Union monitoring completely vanished.
[Earth Union monitoring disconnected…] [Stealth protocol lifted.] [Ember System online.]
Yao Qian’s fingers froze mid-air as he went to light a cigarette.
A system?
This thing actually had latency?
Did it really have to wait until no one was monitoring him before showing up?
Before his retinas, a stream of pale blue data cascaded down like a waterfall, condensing into a minimalist panel:
[Host: Yao Qian] [Race: Pureblood Human] [Territory: None] [Starter Pack distributed.]
Without any nonsense, Yao Qian tapped it with his mind.
[Congratulations!
Obtained: Ember Space Station (Core Module)] [Function: Possesses industrial mother-machine properties.
Capable of autonomous production of drones, repair robots, and frigates.] [Description: The foundation of your survival in a chaotic universe.
Note: Space station is currently folded; please find coordinates to deploy.] [Obtained: Energy Points × 100]
Yao Qian looked out the window at the brilliant nebula and blew out a ring of smoke.
Guns, cannons, and a base.
Things were finally looking up.