Chapter 13: First Preliminary Match (Part 3)

"What an unexpected move!" the host, Rabbit, exclaimed in the livestream, jumping up and down. "The Colorful Team actually took advantage of the moment they were being chased by the starship to destroy a resource station! Destroy this resource station. If you can't get it, no one else can!"

"But the starships chasing the Colorful Team clearly have no intention of letting them go! Although the resources in the competition cannot be transferred, and the opponent cannot inherit resources by attacking the Colorful Team... but... they clearly want to eliminate more teams by destroying starships! - Look! Another beam cannon!!"

"The energy waveform of the laser cannon is weakening--" Red Hair howled, staring at the feedback from the observer.

Ming Yu spoke almost at the same time: "The energy of the light cannon is weakening!"

His information came from the mental thread that popped up.

Mu Boxing stored several resource blocks in the storage bay. They had been sailing at an oblique angle downward, trying to escape the bombardment radius of the rear laser cannon. Without its tail fin, the starship's stability was questionable, and it began to roll at high speed.

Xiao Zi was about to howl her throat out, and Ming Yu was unable to help in any other way at this time. He could only use his mental power to observe the energy fluctuations behind him.

"It's definitely fading! Their laser cannon has been improved, with a larger diameter, but it's fading quickly. Turn southwest! Safe station! ...Wait!"

"The light cannon's energy is fluctuating!"

"Side - Boss -!" Green Hair shouted.

The next second after he opened his mouth, the starship shook violently.

Mu Baixing's fingers were hooked on the handrail, and their right side happened to hit a light cannon shot from the oblique direction, and they turned and fell rapidly.

Maybe not by chance.

Mingyu's throat tightened as he watched the white beam behind him suddenly expand outward, covering the area they had just passed through. The light's initial fading seemed to lure the enemy into a state of relaxation, then it surged again, like a roaring beast with its jaws agape, biting empty before emitting a furious roar and finally dissipating.

"It's a spiritual weapon..." Ming Yu muttered after reacting, "It can control the increase and decrease of energy to a certain extent..."

"Is it still southwest?" Mu Baixing's voice sounded.

Mingyu immediately turned his attention to the star map.

"North," he said quickly. "It's north now. Only three minutes away."

It was truly a thrilling three minutes.

The newly launched exploratory starship was already battered and shabby, seemingly ready to crash at any moment. From its muzzles, golden streams of psychic force spewed intermittently, replacing the lost tail fins to maintain the ship's balance. In the still-lit universe, it staggered, nearing a stall, and crashed into the safety port as if on the verge of a crash.

"Bang——"

The starship trembled violently and crashed into the buffer layer below the vertical interface. The high speed of the fall stretched the buffer layer fibers to the extreme, nearly breaking them. But the starship managed to stop at the last moment.

There was a moment of silence in the cockpit, and everyone was recalling the moment they had just escaped.

Except for Mu Baixing.

He took off his driving helmet and stood up by holding the seat.

"Going in for maintenance." His voice was a little hoarse, but otherwise everything was normal. He raised his arm and turned on the emergency light on his communication bracelet.

The starship's normal and backup lighting had burned out during the previous voyage. Mu Boxing illuminated the passage with an emergency light and signaled them to go down first.

The team's maintenance engineers are Xiaolan, Xiaolu and Xiaozi. Mingyu now realizes that the main job of these three is probably maintenance, and being observers is better than nothing.

Mu Baixing gently pushed Mingyu's shoulder and asked him to walk in front of him. Mingyu looked back at him and said, "How about I help Xiaozi watch over her."

"I can read the detector data, so Xiao Zi can take over."

Xiao Zi burst into tears upon hearing this, sobbing, "Brother LU, wuwuwuwuwuwu...it's me, it's my fault, wuwuwuwuwu——"

He really didn't expect that sitting in the starship cockpit as an observer would be so terrifying!

He usually specializes in starship maintenance, but this time he is here to help the boss as an observer. He even watched a lot of holographic Star Wars videos in private to prepare himself mentally.

But when I really got to the scene, I was still so scared that my brain was frozen and I could do nothing but scream.

"You're being forced into this." Mingyu saw him crying so hard and hurried to comfort him.

Mu Baixing put his finger on his temples and said briefly, "I haven't thought about it yet."

"Hard."

The second half of his sentence was addressed to Mingyu.

Xiao Zi cried even louder after hearing this. She was moved and felt guilty towards Mingyu and Mu Baixing. She couldn't stop crying and couldn't stop even after being comforted by the colorful brothers in front of her.

He didn't waste any time after getting off the starship. He went to the maintenance room while crying, wiped his tears while picking up tools, then wiped his face twice and jumped onto the lifting maintenance platform.

"It'll probably take at least ten hours to repair," Redhead followed him onto the inspection platform. He hadn't passed the mechanic test, but he was able to help by pointing directions and handing tools. While helping, he chatted with Little Green and said with emotion, "Luckily I grabbed the resource pack before leaving. I hope there are more things in it."

There wasn't much of a hint of frustration in his tone. He was extremely optimistic as he said, "The fact that we were able to escape is already... miraculous! Wow! The boss is still so amazing!"

Mu Baixing leaned back against the fence, watching the robots bring the resource package he'd hooked over to him for dismantling. Mingyu stood beside him, watching with a touch of curiosity as the colorful, hairy brothers repaired the starship.

Mu Baixing: "Don't you want to rest?"

The chaotic voyage must have taken a heavy toll on someone like Mingyu, who rarely embarked on dangerous voyages. He'd seen it when he'd just disembarked from the starship: the designer's face had turned pale, he'd been sweating profusely, and his steps were unsteady. But his physical condition was better than Mu Boxing had expected, and he'd already recovered considerably.

Mingyu shook his head, his voice weak but full of excitement: "I'll go draw the design drawings."

Mu Baixing turned to look at him.

"Starship engine." Mingyu said, "We'll make it better for you. The outer shell can't be changed, but the tail fin can be replaced to make it stronger."

The Star Navigation Competition allows starship designers to replace starship parts in a safe house during the competition, which is why Mingyu, as a starship designer, still follows the team on board.

"Hurry up and finish the graphics for testing. We estimate it can be finished within a day, so the repair time won't be extended." Mingyu said as he jumped down the stairs, waved to Mu Baixing, and suddenly smiled, with a subtle arrogance in his voice, "You have a good rest! Wait for me to upgrade your equipment!"