Chapter 147 Finals (Part 1)

Mingyu pulled Mu Baixing back to the room, pressed him down on the bed, and told him to rest and sleep.

On the other side of the star field, someone was awake all night watching the unresolved turmoil.

In the office of the Star Navigation Department, Gao Siqi looked at the limelight on the Star Network with an annoyed look on his face. He tapped his fingers on the table, thinking about the consequences of himself helping Mingyu to save the situation.

She was not afraid of getting into trouble with Wang Xi, but she was afraid that if she got caught up suddenly, people would suspect that LUCE really had connections in the Star Navigation Department and the Star Navigation Competition, which would make things worse.

Stunt designer Su Bing doesn't have this worry.

As a senior in the design field, why should I be afraid to say a few fair words for LUCE, who is also a designer!

The old man put down the design draft in his hand and immediately went on Star Network to issue a statement.

"LUCE is an exceptional starship designer, rarely seen in centuries. He has made an outstanding contribution to the development of human space travel. If you know nothing, don't speak nonsense!"

"Wow, Mr. Su is supporting LUCE. He's a highly respected veteran, and it looks like he's worked with LUCE before. I'll stand by LUCE for a second longer."

"Even the senior may have been deceived... How far has the Security Department investigated..."

"Stop making noise, classmates! Here comes the second big bomb of the night!"

"The Minister of Security has been suspended for investigation!——"

Because of this news that suddenly appeared in the early morning, the post refresh in the Star Network discussion area stopped for a while.

A minute later, the scrolling comments grew even faster than before.

"...What do you mean? What's going on?! Wow, an investigation order issued directly from the Director's Office, with such high authority... I've never seen anything like this."

"...You mean Security Minister Wang Xi violated some rules? It has something to do with this LUCE incident, right? And it just happened to be revealed tonight."

"See this link: Ministry of Security spokesperson apologizes for inappropriate remarks! Several explanations for the misunderstanding caused by the Ministry of Security's response to reporters' questions."

"As the class representative, I'll summarize. This clarification states that LUCE was involved in the Kuroshio attack, but it doesn't mean he colluded with the Kuroshio to betray humanity. LUCE was actually a victim of the incident, and his relationship with the Kuroshio is similar to a murderer seeking revenge on his victim. To protect the rights of the parties involved, we're not releasing the specific details."

"The Star Line incident is true. The Ministry of Security did propose to hold those responsible accountable, but both the Military and the Star Navigation Department disagree, and the dispute is still ongoing."

"Also, his previous remarks were biased. He was told to do so by Security Minister Wang Xi."

“…”

“…”

“…”

"...What grudge does Wang Xi have against LUCE that would make him treat him like this?! And what connections does LUCE have with the higher-ups that would even intimidate someone as high-ranking as the Minister of Security?!"

"I don't know what the connection is, but it must be very deep... Fortunately it's deep, otherwise he would have been scolded for nothing!"

"Looks like that post guessing LUCE was Mingyu can be put to rest. Poor Mingyu, how could he have the connections to alert the Star Region Directors?"

"...I think you're right." The poster who speculated on LUCE's identity replied with a sad face, "Even if General Ming Zhuofeng's former friends and connections could report it upwards, it wouldn't be possible this quickly."

"That was too fast! They practically called the director out of bed! Who the hell is LUCE? He's so unpredictable!"

"I'm sorry, LUCE dad." Numerous users on Star Online lined up to apologize. "I was misled by the Ministry of Security's statement! Forgive me!"

There was a violent storm on the star network all night, but the artificial weather system in Kash Space City showed clear skies.

The controversy surrounding LUCE didn't affect the finals; instead, it catapulted the competition's attention to a new level. Even those normally uninterested in space travel caught wind of the debate over whether the contestants had betrayed humanity and tuned into the livestream to see who this LUCE was.

On the day of the final, the central square of Kash Space City was packed with people.

Because the square's capacity was too low, the high-rise suspended streets had almost become a parking lot for aircraft. Countless people stared at the holographic projection screen above the square, observing the impact of the airport below Kash Space City.

The host, still wearing an exquisite suit, stood on a podium suspended high above the central square. He looked radiant and professional, unaffected by any gossip reports. He read out the opening remarks of the finals host in a methodical yet excited manner.

"Ladies and gentlemen! The time has finally come to this day!——"

"This is Rabbit Host! I'm at the finals of the Star Navigation Competition in Cash Space City! I'll be giving you the latest information on the competition—!"

Colorful fireworks exploded behind him, displaying a huge digital countdown.

Amid the countdown, the rabbit host's voice can still be heard clearly.

"This final is very different from the previous qualifiers and star region competitions!"

"Not only will the finals be held offline, but each participating starship will also be equipped with a real-time energy monitoring system... Yes! This means we'll be able to see the energy levels of each team's starship's main and secondary guns! We'll be able to truly feel the power of those attacks numerically—"

"Now! There are only five seconds left before the game starts! - Four - Three - Two -"

The same countdown lit up on the light screens in the cockpits of each team's starships.

Mingyu, who did not open the star network and was not affected by any public opinion, put on his helmet and opened the star map.

The first stage of the competition is a free competition between the red and blue formations. The star map provides complete competition map information, and the coordinates of the finish line at the end of the competition area are clearly marked on the star map.

Also appearing on the star map are the camps and positions of the teams within the nearby three stars, and the number of teams that have reached the finish line.

Mingyu couldn't help but sigh.

"Isn't this telling us the answers to the test?" he said with a smile. "We can reach the finish line at any time."

"Brother Mu! Let's save some points first and go kill someone, shall we?"

Behind him, fireworks on the starship's light screen exploded into a vertical number one.

In the distance, the rabbit host was extremely excited and shouted loudly: "Star Navigation Competition Finals! The first stage of the competition! Officially begins!——"

“Boom.”

With a slight sound, the starship's fixed bay unlocked and floated upward. The passage above the starport opened wide, and thirty large starships departed from the fifteen bays above and below the starport, accelerating forward.

Amidst the roar of the thrusters of thirty large starships, a deep explosion was heard clearly through the screen and into the ears of all the audience.

"Bang!--"

Someone fired the first shot directly when breaking out of the space station's protective layer.

"It's the Killer! The match has only started for five seconds! The Killer has already opened fire!——"

On the podium, the young man with rabbit ears shouted, "As expected of the radical Slayer team! Shortly after leaving the starport, the Slayers have already fired the first shot of the finals! The red team's Slayers have already begun their hunt!"

"The killer's first target is no simple matter! It's a ranger from the central star field—"

"The Slayer is more comfortable. They just go in and fight straight away, unlike some teams that are just trying to gain recognition and are so timid," said a StarNet user named xkk. "Look at how much LUCE hypes up the colorful team, but right from the start, they're still sailing steadily. They might have to hide and fight for a while, and if they do fight, they'll probably just pick on the weak."

"...I admire you for being a warrior." Someone immediately responded, "How dare you criticize LUCE? Don't you see what happened to Wang Xi?"

xkk: "No matter how deep LUCE's background is, he can't stop people from speaking. What I said before was all reasonable suspicion, and I didn't spread rumors. Now I'm just expressing my feelings and speaking a few truths..."

"Second shot! Another team has launched the first attack!" As the comments refreshed, the host Rabbit shouted, "Six seconds into the match! The blue team, the Colorful Team, has also fired their first shot!"

"Wow!! Colorful and radical!!! They perfectly fulfilled their promise in the pre-match interview!"

"The opponent they chose is Qiehua from the Southwest Star Region!——"

Well-known LU black xkk: "..."

"We all know this! In the pre-match audience prediction poll, the Colorful Team didn't have as much support as the Qiehua Team. And this team, ranked number one in the Southwest Star Region, is truly a very special team."

"Oh, I'm not referring to the team being entirely female... Of course, that's also their characteristic," the rabbit host said seriously, "but more importantly, as the number one team in the Southwest Star Region, their observers only have B-level mental power."

"The Qiehua team, the one with the highest spiritual power level is Captain Qiehua, level S, with the special attribute 'Zero'."

"Observer Leon, Hundred Days Red, Lime Lamp and other eight people, their mental power level is only B level."

"As an aside, since the preliminaries began, some people have been asking why Qiehua didn't choose an awakened human with a higher level of spiritual power as her observer. Qiehua has publicly stated that participating in the Star Navigation Competition is a shared dream of her and her sisters, and that friendship and promises should never be measured by spiritual power level..."

"So, Rabbit, who has B-level mental power, is looking for a friend. I hope someone will be willing to take me to the Star Navigation Competition without caring about my mental power level!"

"A colorful first shot! Qiehua narrowly avoided it!"

The bright blue high-speed mental cannon brushed past the bottom of the Qiehua starship, spreading out in a cloud of smoke and being left behind by Qiehua.

"Dear audience, please look! The energy values ​​of the Colorful and Eggplant cannon barrels are displayed on my left and right screens respectively! The one who just fired the Colorful cannon was... LUCE!"

Rabbit host: "Let the observer, not the driver, fire the first shot in the competition. Colorful is the first!"

As he spoke, he slapped his forehead.

"That's not right," the rabbit muttered. "Letting the observer attack is something only Colorful does. This isn't a question of who fires the first shot!"

"I thought we could force them to engage us in a head-on exchange of fire." Inside the cockpit, Mingyu observed the situation on all sides. "Qiehua's reaction speed is so fast! She can even dodge such a high rate of fire!"

"Let's try our luck." Mu Baixing said calmly, "Open it again."

"Bang!" A second bright blue mental cannon shot out. Ming Yu concentrated his attention on sensing the energy in the area around the cannon fire, not daring to relax for a moment.

The spiritual power of the eggplant flower is called zeroing.

This mental power characteristic is very mysterious. Wucaibian has watched the videos of Qiehua's past games, but cannot get much information about the effects of this property from the videos.

Every time a team competes against Qiehua, they are defeated in one blow by Qiehua.

In the final attack, they were either forced or happened to collide with the main gun barrel of the Qiehua team. The offensive power of most teams was greatly weakened by this shot.

However, the degree to which Qiehua weakened the enemy's attack power varied depending on the team. Sometimes the enemy starship crashed directly, and sometimes it was only severely damaged.

There is no doubt that zeroing has the effect of reducing the amplitude of energy vibrations, but it is difficult to judge the extent.

The eggplant flower is a big variable in this game.

For most teams, after seeing the past game videos of Qiehua, they will try their best to avoid fighting against Qiehua.

But Mingyu and Mubai can't do it.

They don't like the fact that there is a time bomb of unknown power during their game.

Instead of constantly defending and evading, it's better to take the initiative. Plan your subsequent evasive strategies and take the initiative...

Mingyu made up his mind that he would force Qiehua to fight with them a few times at the beginning of the game, so as to feel the opponent's mental waves!

"Qiehua's observers clearly can't detect the movement of Lucé's psychic cannon!" the Rabbit host shouted. "Pilot Qiehua is trying to evade it by quickly changing direction! They clearly have no intention of engaging Colorful right away!"

"Wow—Qiehua actually dodged it again! Successfully dodging twice in a row by randomly changing direction only has a 25% chance of success. Qiehua is pretty lucky today! It seems like luck is on Qiehua's side!"

Mu Baixing: "Open again." The man's voice was steady, unaffected by anything. "Aim."

"LUCE's laser cannon is charging again! Qiehua obviously needs to dodge!"

"This move perfectly aligns with Qiehua's traditional combat strategy," explained the host, "due to their unique mental strength, the Qiehua team excels at defensive counterattacks. They wait until the opponent is tired and relaxed, revealing a flaw, then strike unexpectedly and kill with a single strike."

"Although most people haven't figured out the specific details of zeroing out, there's one thing everyone can agree on!"

"It seems there's only one chance for the eggplant flower to significantly reduce the enemy's attack power to zero. This opportunity must be used carefully, before the enemy starship can resist and escape!"

"I have to say, Qiehua has done a great job in this regard! In all the matches, this team's special move has only failed once, and that was against the Killer in the preliminaries!"

"We still remember that at the end of the first match of the preliminaries, the Slayer and Eggplant fought for over three hours, with no clear winner. Despite the Slayer's intense attacks, Eggplant remained undefeated and didn't suffer excessive damage."

"For three long hours, the Slayer didn't reveal any weaknesses. However, fearing that Qiehua would seize the opportunity to counterattack, the Slayer didn't dare to withdraw... The stalemate lasted until the end of the match, when Qiehua took a risk and launched an attack, resulting in a draw with the Slayer—"

"I think based on that unpleasant experience, the killer won't easily choose Eggplant Flower as his opponent again."

"I don't know how long the colorful battle with the eggplant flower will last this time!"

In the comments section, the ever-pessimistic xkk let out a series of "haha"s after hearing this commentary, gloating, "Wucaibanlan is truly overestimating their abilities. If Qiehua drags them out for a few hours in this finals, they won't win a single point! I wonder how impatient they are! How far can they get in this maze of the second stage?"

"The colorful flowers are in a hurry, but the eggplant flowers are even more anxious! Let's wait and see!"

"Stop arguing and listen to the commentary! Stop making the comments so chaotic! This is the first time in all this competition I've seen someone go for a cannonball... Did Lucé's cannon hit?!"

"Colorful didn't hit!" the rabbit commentator yelled. "The third shot! Lucé's third shot didn't hit either!"

"Strange! A B-rank observer couldn't possibly have caught Luce's movements with simple observation! Was it pure luck?!" the host asked doubtfully, "Or has Qiehua's psychic qualities begun to take effect?!"

"Qiehua's laser cannon has reached full charge and appears to be showing no signs of firing. However, only the Qiehua team knows how 'Reset to Zero' works and its full effects!"

"Although the zeroing effect we've seen in the past seems to reduce the opponent's mental cannon strength when Qiehua fires, it may not be limited to that..."

Mu Baixing: "Open again."

His voice was firm: "There is no abnormal change in the energy within the three nearby stars. Our light cannons have not been affected by the special properties of the eggplant flowers."

Ming Yu stared intently at the purple-painted Eggplant Starship in the sight and nodded, "I think so too. The surrounding energy is quite stable... I need to increase the right offset angle by thirty. I've found a better striking position."

As he spoke, he asked curiously, "But Brother Mu, how come your mental power can suddenly see so clearly?!"

In space travel, the pilot's mental power has always been duller and not as sharp as that of an observer.

In previous competitions, although Mu Baixing could also sense the movement of surrounding energy, he only had a vague feeling, and he relied entirely on Mingyu to judge the direction and strength of the attacking light cannon.

But the man's tone of voice just now was not like that.

The man hummed.

"It's 'susceptibility' to nearby energy waves." He said.

"After the spiritual domain is restored, all my spiritual properties are restored as well."

"The mental power is extremely sensitive. If the energy beam is attacked and dispersed, it will hurt a lot."