"This...the person is gone?"

A group of masked, weapon-wielding people disembarked from several unmarked starships. Seeing that the starships, which should have been completely depleted of energy and lying in place, were now empty, they momentarily lost their minds.

"Holy crap! Where are they? Where's the boss's huge mech and all those fat chickens?!"

Someone shouted, their voice filled with grief, as if they had gone bankrupt overnight, and they were so angry that they took off their face mask.

If Mingmei and the others were here at that moment, they would definitely recognize who this person is.

Isn't it just that they lost Valdo when they left?

There's no need to look at the people around him; they're all definitely his teammates.

But at this moment, these veterans were dressed very differently from soldiers; they were acting suspiciously, more like—space pirates.

"Holy crap, could someone among them be hiding a starship energy stone?" Someone's guess was very close to the truth.

"Seriously? This is outrageous! Are all freshmen this rich these days? We agreed to strip them naked and let them experience the harsh realities of the world!"

In the end, it turns out the clown was actually myself?!

“We did include the possibility that they hadn’t left in our original plan! Since the others didn’t send any messages, it means they didn’t encounter those students on the road. Either they haven’t gone far, or they’ve realized something is wrong and changed their route.”

Waldo did observe the students on these starships along the way; he never stopped observing the two students with ridiculously high game scores.

The girl who came in first place certainly seems strong, but when it comes to scheming, the guy who came in second place is truly unfathomable.

Every time Waldo looked at Mu Chen, if his gaze lingered on him for even half a second longer, Mu Chen would notice. Not to mention, when their eyes met, Mu Chen's dark eyes would stare at him for too long, making him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

It's as if he sees through himself.

If they leave this place this time but don't fly to Qilan Star according to the information they left behind, he dares to say that the guy named Mu Chen must have figured something out.

"Could it be that the major general's sister let it slip?"

At this point, some of them remembered that there was one of their own in the group.

"How much do you think the Major General will tell her?" Waldo glanced at the skeptical person beside him and said, "Don't treat everyone like fools. After all, our legion has a 'notorious reputation,' so it's not impossible that they'd be wary of us."

Speaking of these things, who among you here wasn't pranked when you were young?

I remember getting caught in the rain myself back then, and I felt so angry that I wanted to tear all the new guys' umbrellas off and then kick the younger ones.

"I heard from some of the other brothers that the students from the schools they were leading all suffered losses. I hope we don't run into trouble here."

Some soldiers felt heartbroken whenever they talked about it. It was supposed to be the veterans who were intimidating the new recruits, but what if the new recruits messed things up?

"If we're the ones who crash, I'll be too ashamed to face anyone when I get back."

"Shut up, all of you!" Waldo glared at the group of veterans as they wailed. "Pull up the entire star map here. You know you've messed up, so why aren't you trying to fix it?"

...

"Oh, how embarrassing!"

The group rested on the mining planet for a day, where they were treated to delicious food by the robots. The robots even replenished some of the resources in their starship for free.

They provided them with food and drink, and even noticed that their starship had no offensive weapons, so they reinstalled some energy weapons that could be used for combat.

If it weren't for the robots pointing it out, they wouldn't have noticed that the starship didn't have any weapons to fight back.

"It's okay. This location isn't safe. You all need to learn to protect yourselves when you're out and about."

As they stood on the periphery of the starship watching various robots assist with repairs and installations, their words were met with a response. The group couldn't help but look up in the direction of the electronic voice.

A robot with enormous arms is installing missiles on a starship. It turns its pointed head and reveals a smiling emoji.

Smiles are contagious, and soon everyone around couldn't help but smile too. (Reading)

However, after the laughter subsided, some perceptive individuals in the crowd suddenly realized something: "You guys can understand us?"

Why can't we understand?

"You...you can even reply automatically?"

"If it weren't for some strange Whitey, why can't we reply?"

"Can I hear it anytime, anywhere...?"

"Yeah~ You can hear it anytime, anywhere~"

Upon hearing the robot's "hmm," the student who was standing there visibly turned pale.

What triggered this?

As Mingmei was thinking, before she could ask what was wrong, a robot with small wings flew by and passed in front of the gray-faced classmate, saying, "Wow, are you the cool guy who said he'd marry a robot wife in the future?"

Everyone: ? ? ?

Wow! Dude, your taste is truly unique!

Perhaps it was the overly intense gazes from the crowd that made Kawao Ryo, who had been strolling last night and had casually praised the robots—who were also "observing" them from the roadside—and said they were his ideal type, almost to the point of instant ecstasy.

His words spread throughout the entire robotics community last night.

It's so shameful that this statement, "I've lost interest in living people, robots are better," has been so blatantly made public!

As Mingmei watched his face go from white to red and then back to white, and finally manage to return to normal, she still couldn't help but ask him earnestly:

Is there really nothing left in this world that you should cherish?

Yes, he's already said that. Now that even the robots know, what else does he have to hold on to?

Kawao Ryo thought bitterly, meeting everyone's gazes and the little robot that had just flown past him. Finally, with a blank face, he said, "Yeah, so what if it's a robot? As long as it looks good and we get along, what's wrong with that?!"

Oh, what's wrong with that last shout? It was quite high-pitched, which startled everyone.

"Slap slap slap"

Suddenly, someone in the group started clapping and cheering.

"Dude, what a tough guy!"

"That's right! As long as they look good to me and aren't Zerg, any other race is fine! I'm not picky!"

"Yes! What's wrong with anything I like?"

Suddenly, everyone shouted out their thoughts. Mingmei looked at everyone and seemed to have been encouraged by this classmate, and they all shouted out their ideas.

Mingmei listened for a long time and was surprised to learn that people from the neighboring merfolk and orc races all had ideas.

For a moment, Mingmei wondered if she had somehow found a partner who was already outdated.