Chapter 98 Top Alpha: He was once a crippled Omega 8. Eyes...

"Select secondary weapon, lock coordinates..." Qi Pingye commanded while maneuvering the aircraft to dodge and attack with the main weapon, "Once you've aimed, don't hesitate, fire directly! Very good, pay attention to the flight angle!"

He had taken many lessons on the fog of war, but this was his first time actually doing it. He was so nervous that his palms were sweating, and his first three attacks all missed. He didn't know how Qi Pingye could have boasted about it.

Seeing that one of the aircraft was about to catch up, Chen Wu took a deep breath, calmed down, and pushed the control stick.

The fourth attack was successful; the nearest aircraft was hit in the head and dared not advance any further.

"Impressive, assistant operator!" Qi Pingye praised without reservation.

Shen Wu relaxed a bit, her face flushed slightly, and she smiled, focusing even more intently on cooperating with Qi Pingye.

Various lasers and wrecked ship cannons silently crisscrossed in the vacuum.

Four spacecraft, one in front and three behind, chased and fought each other in space.

Suddenly, an even louder alarm blared in the cockpit.

"Airborne storm detected, Level A, distance 1,000 kilometers, 800 kilometers..."

Qi Pingye's previously unperturbed demeanor upon encountering space pirates has finally changed completely.

Class A storm!

A-class storms that sweep across the airspace are practically cosmic catastrophes, occurring only once every few years. Yet he encountered one the moment he left Zorro Star. His luck was astonishingly bad. Just a few days ago, he felt that God was being kind to him, and now God was about to take away his wretched life?

Qi Pingye cursed inwardly.

Shen Wu's face suddenly turned pale.

"It's alright, don't panic," Qi Pingye cursed inwardly but remained calm on the surface. "Lock the protective arm and activate the cockpit safety devices."

Chen Wu took a deep breath and did as instructed.

The space pirates had clearly received the warning as well; their three spacecraft immediately changed direction and accelerated to avoid the storm. Qi Pingye reacted even faster, already piloting his spacecraft away from the storm.

However, a Class A storm truly lives up to its name.

It came at an extremely fast speed, far beyond what their old-fashioned aircraft from ten years ago could easily evade.

Qi Pingye had pushed the aircraft to its maximum speed, and the engine and power system began to emit piercing alarms due to the strain, but even so, they still failed to escape.

The pitch-black space outside the porthole disappeared, replaced by indescribable colorful noise and energy ripples flowing eerily like a river.

The aircraft shook violently, as if it had been thrown into a washing machine, spinning wildly. The gravity regulation system malfunctioned, and everything inside the cabin would sometimes fly high into the air and sometimes fall heavily to the ground.

Shen Wu was locked tightly in the passenger seat, his brain congested with blood, his breathing trembling, and his retina covered in a red glow, making it almost impossible for him to see anything. He could feel Qi Pingye in the driver's seat next to him, and he tried to reach out and grab him, but something hit him, and he could no longer lift his hand.

A piercing alarm blared inside the aircraft, and Chenwu finally succumbed to unconsciousness.

Just before his eyelids drooped limply, he seemed to see Qi Pingye's deep black eyes as he moved closer to him.

When Chenwu regained consciousness, her body was immersed in icy water.

He was dressed in thin clothes and shivered from the cold. He opened his eyes with difficulty, stared blankly for two seconds, then remembered everything and hurriedly looked around.

He was still inside the spacecraft's cockpit, but outside the porthole wasn't space; instead, he saw a beach. It seemed they had survived the air storm and hadn't been torn apart, but rather swept to some planet.

Shen Wu breathed a sigh of relief and immediately looked to the side. But what he saw made him pause in surprise. He realized that Qi Pingye wasn't there, and he wasn't in the passenger seat either; he had been moved to the driver's seat at some point.

The passenger-side safety arm appears to be broken, hanging to one side, while only the driver-side safety devices are intact.

As Shen Wu recalled the blurry images she saw before losing consciousness, her heart sank, and her breath almost stopped.

"Qi Ping!"

The fog disengaged the driver's seat safety protection and plunged into the water.

The aircraft was damaged in an airspace storm and a large amount of seawater rushed in, but because it was on a beach, the seawater did not completely flood the cabin.

The mist swirled and swam within the cabin, anxiously searching for Qi Pingye's figure.

If Qi Pingye really did give him his driver's seat, then Qi Pingye certainly wouldn't have foolishly stayed in the passenger seat where the safety device malfunctioned; he would have found a relatively safe place to take cover.

Shen Wu tried hard to recall the safe locations for emergency evacuation that Qi Pingye had taught him, searching one place after another, and finally found the person in the lavatory of the cockpit.

Qi Pingye had most of his body submerged in water, his eyes closed, and blood flowing from his forehead.

He used the makeshift safety device in the bathroom to pin himself against the wall, but he still suffered many injuries, and the nearby seawater was stained crimson.

Shenwu hugged him and tried to untie the temporary safety device, but because she didn't know it well enough, she couldn't untie it no matter how many times she tried.

He choked on the water, painfully closed his eyes, wiped his face, and continued to bury his head.

The water level inside the cabin gradually rose.

The tide is coming in on this beach.

Shen Wu's body grew colder and colder, and the risk of hypothermia made him increasingly anxious.

He glanced at Qi Pingye, and thinking of his deep, calm eyes, his expression slowly calmed down.

He submerged himself underwater, intently observing the structure of the temporary safety device and patiently disassembling it.

Two minutes later, with a few soft clattering sounds, the temporary safety device fell off. Overjoyed, Shenwu dragged Qi Pingye out and vigorously swam away.

He led his men ashore, walked a short distance into the woods at a higher elevation, then slumped down to catch his breath. He then patted Qi Pingye in the water and checked his injuries.

His heartbeat and breathing were normal, but his body was a little cold. He had fractures in his left hand and ribs, which were reversible. He also had a head injury, possibly a fracture or minor fracture, which wasn't a serious injury. The only problem was a laceration on his side of his waist and abdomen that was bleeding quite a bit, which was probably the main reason Qi Pingye fell into a coma.

Shen Wu had anticipated this situation and had taken out a waterproof first-aid kit when she came out. Now she opened it and could give Qi Pingye some simple treatment to stop the bleeding.

After finishing everything she could do, Chen Wu leaned against the big tree behind her for a while before bending down to Qi Pingye again and softly calling his name: "Qi Ping... Qi Ping!"

He tried to wake him, but he was soaking wet and weak, and simply didn't have the strength to carry him any further.

But Qi Pingye remained unconscious. Shen Wu sighed, shivered, but did not abandon him. Instead, she got up and carefully carried him on her back.

"Smack!"

With a soft sound, Shen Wu looked down and saw that something had fallen out of Qi Pingye's pocket.

He picked it up and looked at it; it was a C3 real-time map device.

According to Qi Pingye, this type of map device is only available to the military and cannot be used by ordinary civilians. However, he can use this real-time map device because he has already cracked it.

Looking at the map, Shenwu saw a small town five kilometers from the beach.

...

Three days later.

Near the border, on the Y77 modified star, in Jinshi Town.

After work, a long queue formed again outside Wang Ma's Hot Braised Food stall. This delicacy, originating from ancient China, still has many fans today.

While dealing with customers, the shop owner, Aunt Wang, kept an eye on the small door at the back. When she heard footsteps and the sound of keys being taken out, she quickly snapped out of her daze, pulled her son over to take over her shift, took off her gloves, washed her hands, and turned to leave.

As Aunt Wang peeked out of the kitchen door, she met the gaze of the young man upstairs.

"Good evening, Aunt Wang." The young man, in his early twenties, was handsome and gentle, and smiled at her with his eyes crinkled.

"Hey, good evening!" Aunt Wang said with a smile.

She beckoned to the young man, "Come here, Xiao Shen, this is the ticket you asked me to buy. Because it's a temporary identity, there's no electronic card connected to the internet, so you can only get a paper one. You have to be careful not to lose it, or you won't be able to get on the spaceship."

"You bought them so quickly!" The young man's face lit up with surprise. He stepped down to take the two tickets and said gratefully, "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't been willing to help me..."

"Oh, it's nothing," Aunt Wang laughed. "You stayed at the hotel upstairs from my house, and when the water pipe burst, you didn't say anything and even helped fix it. I didn't even thank you much. What's a couple of boat tickets? These things are everywhere."

“Our Y77 is supposedly affiliated with Far Voyage Star, but in reality, it still operates like a refugee resettlement system on a terraforming star. It's not well-managed and it's chaotic. Too many people have lost their belongings here. Some can get replacement identity cards, which is fine, but others can't. We can't be stuck here forever, unable to go home, can we?”

Shen Wu squeezed the metal code on the ticket, feeling relieved, but still expressing her gratitude.

As Aunt Wang spoke, she seemed to remember something and asked with concern, "Oh, by the way, how's your brother? He's still not awake?"

Shen Wu shook her head: "He's not awake, so I don't want to delay any longer."

Aunt Wang clicked her tongue: "Sigh, to run into such an accident just by going out, it's really... Oh right, don't delay any longer. There aren't many good doctors around here. Let's go to a big city or a big planet to get checked out, so as not to develop any chronic illness. It'll be easier to get a replacement ID card there too."

Shen Wu agreed, without mentioning that they couldn't use their real identities. One was worried that the city lord of Ganlu City and some powerful figure from the Central Star would come to arrest them, while the other was suspected of having an extraordinary past and enemies.

He then slipped a thank-you fee to Aunt Wang.

Aunt Wang initially refused, but after some back and forth, she finally accepted it.

A voice came from inside the shop, calling for Aunt Wang.

Seeing this, Aunt Wang didn't chat any further. She only asked Chen Wu about his check-out time tomorrow and whether he needed her son's help. Then she waved and hurriedly slipped into the kitchen.

Chen Wu stood there for a while, then put away her boat ticket and went upstairs.

Although Y77 belongs to the Far Voyage Star and is located near the border, it is still far from both the Far Voyage Star itself and the front line. In daily life, it is no different from many other modified stars. It may be a bit chaotic, but it is definitely not in danger of being attacked by alien species.

The town of Jinshi, nestled there, is quite peaceful. It's a small town, and most of the hotels are family-run guesthouses, like the one Chenwu chose. The guesthouse room wasn't very new or large, but it had a good location and was fairly clean.

Shen Wu entered the room, put down what she was carrying, and went straight into the bedroom.

The bedroom only had a narrow bed, barely big enough for two people, but Chen Wu slept on the sofa for the past two nights so as not to squeeze into Qi Pingye's room.

He walked to the bedside, looked down at the man lying on the bed, still unconscious, and his expression gradually darkened.

"Why aren't you awake yet..."

A deep sigh escaped the heavy fog.