Chapter 76 Star Region Tournament First Match (Part 2) (Part 2)

The corridor outside the Star Navigation Competition lounge is a suspended corridor suspended in the starry sky. In addition to the stone door symbolizing the entrance to the lounge, you can see the twinkling starry sky through the gaps between the columns.

Glowing pink starry roses climb from the ground to the dome of the corridor, creating a dreamlike scene against the backdrop of the universe.

In this dreamlike scene, a little squirrel with brown fur and a white belly is fighting with a little yellow duck with yellow fur all over its body.

The little squirrel dropped to all fours, chasing the yellow-feathered duck in front of it with unwavering ferocity, determined to beat the living crap out of it. The duck, flapping its short orange legs and swaying its wings, scurried across the ground, its beak emitting a human voice as it shouted, "I've already apologized! I didn't mean to! I was just... I was just curious!! I thought you were that cold-faced guy's Tamagotchi—"

"What electronic pet?! How could there be an electronic pet in the Star Navigation Competition?" Cui Xiaoduo was furious, punching him. "You pervert! How dare you bite the tip of my tail!!"

"I know I shouldn't have electronic pets! That's why I was curious! I already told you I didn't mean it! I apologize to you! -"

At the lounge door, Mu Lian's face was icy. His avatar was a cyborg, half human, half robotic. Gray mechanical eyes accentuated his expression, making it even more cold. Mu Lian, arms folded, confronted a boy standing across from him, a head shorter than him and dressed in a high school uniform.

In other words, it is a unilateral aura suppression.

The boy in school uniform looked embarrassed, knowing he was in the wrong. He kept bowing and saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Our captain, ah, that duck... he sometimes has some mental issues... I'm really sorry..."

Mingyu: “…”

"Where does the tail in the avatar correspond to?" he whispered to Mu Baixing. "It shouldn't be, um, the butt, right?"

Mu Baixing: “…”

He really couldn't answer this question.

"There probably isn't a corresponding part." Red Hair, who was standing behind them, came forward to watch the fun and said, "I remember there was a post on Starnet. It said things like animal tails, or the wings of some special creatures, and other parts that can't be matched to real people are just virtual parts. Otherwise, I'd have to sue Duck for, ahem... harassment..."

Mingyu: “…”

"Ah, colorful, LUCE!" The boy in school uniform noticed that the door in front of him had opened, and his face became even more embarrassed.

"We are the Duck Duck Rush Team." He stood up straight, facing Mingyu, and quickly introduced himself, "Hello, LUCE! I'm actually here to see you! My sister is a fan of yours! I came to ask for your autograph for her... uh... it's just that I happened to run into one of your friends..."

Mingyu remembered something, "Your lounge is right next to ours."

When he first entered the lounge, he was curious about the corridor's structure and looked outside to see if there were other team lounges near the colorful one.

"Oh, right, right," the boy in school uniform said immediately, turning around and pointing to the end of the corridor, "Our lounge is right over there!"

"We met in the last qualifying match!" He spoke quickly and excitedly, pointing to the duck logo sewn on the chest of his school uniform and reminding Mingyu, "In the map of the desolate planet's surface, that lava eruption area—"

Mingyu nodded.

"I remember," he said seriously, "you were flying a duck starship, and you installed rows of gun barrels underneath the ship for sneak attacks."

"Yes!" The boy in school uniform immediately puffed out his chest, clearly proud of his starship. "That was our captain's brilliant idea!"

Mingyu: “…”

"Master LUCE! Could you please sign an autograph for me...no, for my sister? Just sign this dress!" The boy in school uniform took off his backpack, took out another set of school uniform and a marker, and said sincerely, "Please!"

Mingyu: “…”

Mingyu was speechless about the situation before him.

He was being watched with great enthusiasm by the boy in the uniform. He took the marker somewhat awkwardly and signed his name on the blank space on the front of his uniform. Just as he was about to hand the pen back, Mu Boxing reached out and snatched the marker from his hand.

Mingyu: "Brother Mu?"

Boy in school uniform: “???”

Mu Baixing said nothing, his posture casual, his expression calm, as he signed his name right behind Mingyu. The glimpse below the first letter connected and overlapped with the last letter of Mingyu's signature.

Boy in school uniform: “…”

The boy in school uniform choked on his breath.

He...his sister is just a fan of LUCE!

He likes the designer's creative ideas! He thinks the devouring spiritual power that has rarely been seen in more than ten years is very cool!

As for Mu Boxing...

Although Mu Baixing is also very cool.

All right. The boy in school uniform could only console himself, thinking that it was no big deal if two signatures were linked together!

While they were talking, the little squirrel chased the little yellow duck back from the end of the corridor, and ran through the crowd, squeaking and chasing each other.

Mu Lian had a cold face. Seeing that Cui Xiaoduo had been chasing for a long time but failed to catch up, she finally couldn't help but stretched out a foot.

Yaya was tripped and fell over.

Duck: “…Gah!!”

The little squirrel that was chasing after the duck seized the opportunity and immediately performed a set of squirrel punches on the duck, making the duck quack.

Boy in school uniform: “…”

Colorful hair: "..."

Mingyu: “…”

Cui Xiaoduo, the squirrel who had beaten the duck, put his hands on his hips and finally calmed down. He jumped lightly, stepped on Mingyu's knees and jumped onto the young man's shoulders.

"Brother LU, be careful," Cui Xiaoduo automatically changed his address and said to Mingyu from his shoulder, "We heard the news. Although the teams can't communicate with each other during the competition, Lieyang has coordinated with several teams in advance. They can see your location and send out special wavelength energy flares to report your coordinates."

The boy in school uniform was standing not far away. He heard what the little squirrel said and said in surprise, "Wow! Is this possible?"

"It's not against the rules," the little squirrel said unhappily, "but it's tasteless."

He leaned close to Mingyu's ear and lowered his voice, "I guess he wants to get back at you in the virtual star map and take revenge on you!"

Mingyu nodded, his face looking well-behaved, but there was a hint of coldness in his eyes.

"It's still unclear who will take revenge on whom."

Lieyang was ruthless on the Maze Star and injured Mu Baixing so badly... Mingyu will have to settle the score with them!

The durability of his mental strength has increased a lot, and he has been training non-stop on the starship these days... Now he can't wait to meet Lieyang in the competition!

*

Half an hour later, Mingyu sat in the cockpit of his own starship and put on an observer helmet.

The colorful-haired brothers at the back had no idea that their brother LU was having conflicts in his heart and were having a heated discussion at the back.

"You mean... when a squirrel hits a person, oh no, when a duck is hit, does it really hurt?" Red Hair asked doubtfully, "Why is that duck quacking like it's about to be killed?"

"It still hurts," Orange Hair responded, "Look carefully next time. That little squirrel avatar has pecs!"

"What's the use of chest muscles... The power of the Star Network is not related to one's body type." Blue Hair said speechlessly, "I guess the little squirrel has practiced privately..."

Mu Baixing sat next to Mingyu, quickly checked the functional values ​​of the starship, and after confirming that everything was correct, he put on the driver's helmet.

This action indicates that the final preparations before sailing have been completed.

The colorful-haired guys were familiar with his procedures, and when they saw their boss's actions, they all shut up, sat down in their seats, and put on their helmets.

The countdown to the start of the first game of the Star Domain Tournament appeared on the light screen in the cockpit.

The huge number jumps as time passes, adjusting from two digits to one digit, and then counting down from ten.

"Ten—nine—eight—"

Mu Baixing pulled the start lever, the starship's engine made a humming sound, and the hull trembled slightly.

"Six—five—four—"

Golden and blue mental powers intertwined and flowed into the starship, entwining each other tightly, flowing over the mechanical heart, being pumped out and then separating again, entering their respective lines and pipes.

"Three—two—one—"

"The competition officially begins!——"

With a roar from the engine, the starport's securing clips loosened, and the starship set sail. The dark landscape and dim skyline of Labyrinth Star appeared in his field of vision, leaving Mingyu in a momentary trance.

A few days ago, they were actually sailing through this virtual mining area used for the competition, and now they entered it again through the virtual mining area projection technology on the Star Network map.

In order to ensure that the talents of designers are not affected by the availability of materials and to uniformly control the production standards of starships, the Star Navigation Competition adopts an online competition system in the preliminaries and star field competitions.

Only in the finals will the competition invest a huge amount of money to make the starship drawings submitted by each designer into a physical object. And the competition will finally take place in reality.

Hundreds of warships left the huge star port and dispersed in all directions.

The various take-off gates of the star port were far apart, and Mingyu did not catch a glimpse of Lieyang's warships, so he turned his gaze to the star map.

The mining area in Area A of Labyrinth Star is very large.

The terrain here is similar to the wild resource area, filled with black, rolling hills. The hills and mountains in Area A are more densely packed than those in the wild resource area, but the underground lava activity is quieter. The mountains here are not continuous, but rather irregularly shaped protrusions on the ground.

Mu Boxing flew the starship high over the initial flat area, then descended in altitude after entering the mountainous area.

According to Mingyu's guess, they decided to search first in places where star beasts usually appear.

The more complex the terrain, the more star beasts are likely to appear.

Mingyu's blue mental power threads emanated from the surface of the starship, and in an instant turned into a dense blue mist, sinking downwards and sinking into the ground.

Starting with the Star Domain Tournament, the live broadcast perspective is no longer solely controlled by the host, Rabbit. Each starship is equipped with recording equipment, allowing viewers to not only follow Rabbit's commentary but also select the team of their choice to watch the match.

Teams from other star fields can also observe their opponents through these different perspectives.

"This colorful observer is truly remarkable." Inside the Southeast Star Region Star Navigation Competition lounge, several muscular men from the Killer Team sat in rows on sofas, staring at the screen before them. Observer Momonga shook his head and said, "His mental form has become incredibly versatile."

"During the preliminaries, Luce's psychic power was in the most common filamentous form. He hadn't even created a thin membrane web covering the entire starship. But now... the energy utilization rate of the psychic mist is far greater than that of filamentary forms. The area he manipulated the mist to spread outwards is nearly five square miles."

"It takes an average starship five to seven seconds to travel five miles. The energy wave from a standard energy cannon travels five miles in one second on average. An average person would be at a disadvantage if they fought them."

"Not to mention they have that pilot," said Black Bear, the starship designer. "Ah Xiang, when Mu Boxing's mental power explodes, he looks even more powerful than you."

The white elephant nodded.

"At least 3 seconds," he said. "I wonder how long he can maintain this level if he goes all out."

"Even if a normal person's mental power exploded, it wouldn't reach the 3S intermediate level from around A-level, and yet they still maintain such a stable output." Momonga said, "It seems to me that the opponent has dropped levels due to injury."

"This is a formidable foe," Black Bear agreed, nodding. "We have a lot of information on Qiehua, Lieyang, and Youxia, but we know almost nothing about Wucai Bianlan, aside from the footage from the last few matches."

Similar conversations were taking place among many teams. In the lounge of the Qiehua team, which Bai Xiang had mentioned, the five members of the team were sitting together on the sofa.

The members of the Qiehua team are all female. The girls with similar virtual images and wearing colorful floral dresses are staring at the game screen with nervous expressions.

"We can't be eliminated! Colorful!" whispered Saori, the team's designer. "I want to shake hands with LUCE face to face in the finals!"

Driver Qiehua: "I want to shake hands with Mu Boxing in person!"

Observer Leon: "I'm different. I want two people to shake hands, one with the left hand and the other with the right hand!"

Several other members: "...I want one too! I want one too!"

“…”

Another observer in the team, Shihuideng, did not comment on the behavior of his teammates. He was holding an electronic pen in his hand and quickly recording the information on the screen.

"Luce's mental power is clearly being released more recklessly," she muttered to herself. "His mental power level must have improved, or it's about to be upgraded..."

On the light screen, the silver starship lowered its altitude and sailed near the surface, casting a black shadow on the ground.

A blue mist of spiritual energy seeped through the cracks in the soil and seeped downwards. Mingyu closed his eyes and concentrated, taking in the underground scene surrounding the starship.

He saw the sand layers of different shades, the small rodents running through the cracks in the rocks, and the plants and minerals being gnawed by them.

"I really want to mine." Mingyu couldn't help but mutter, "Don't the rules of the game say we can't collect resources from the mining area? I'm just worried that it will delay the search for treasure."

The blue mental power followed the passage dug by the rats. The originally narrow passage suddenly expanded after a corner.

Mingyu looked at it carefully.

"Hey, Brother Mu," he said, "behind the five stars, there's a hole in the ground. It looks like an underground lake."

The temperature of the underground space was slightly higher than that of the surface. The starship turned left according to the information provided by Mingyu.

The designer is immersed in the vision of spiritual power.

He saw ripples suddenly appear on the dark blue lake water, and a creature was lurking in the lake.

The blue mist sank coldly, seeping gently into the water's surface.

The creatures in the lake are extremely sensitive.

A black shadow flashed by, and it suddenly opened its claws after sensing the bright blue mental power.

Mingyu seemed to have made up his mind. His mental power gathered and pulled upwards in an instant. The underwater creature was like a predator that saw its food leaving. Following Mingyu's mental power, it jumped out of the water, closed its claws, stretched its body, and brought out a little silver light in the dim underground.

Mingyu: “…”

"Wow." The young man sighed meaninglessly, his eyes wide as he stared at the creature leaping out of the lake. He muttered, "The Star Navigation Competition's organizing committee is too... How did they manage to tie the treasure chest to it... Did the organizing committee deliberately release this star beast?!"

"It's not impossible!" Red Hair said excitedly, "Brother LU, have you seen the treasure chest now?"

Mingyu nodded.

"Let's go down to the underground lake!" He turned to Mu Boxing, "We definitely can't get in through the gerbil tunnel. There are tunnels eroded by rainwater nearby... but they're not wide. Forget about a starship. Even if you wear a powered exoskeleton, you'll get squeezed in there."

Mu Baixing piloted the starship and hovered above the underground lake that Mingyu had found: "How big is the space above the underground lake?"

"It's big enough for a starship to navigate," Mingyu said. He thought for a moment and suggested, "Blast it down? Brother Mu?"

Mu Baixing: "I'll do it."

Mingyu turned to look at him.

In the past few days, he strictly forbade Mu Baixing to use his mental power, and he was not allowed to go to the virtual mining area or drive the starship. It was obvious that he was making the other party feel uncomfortable.

However, Mu Baixing's spiritual realm has been almost developed.

"I'll lift the ban on you." Mingyu was very easy to talk to.

"Don't make too much noise. These star beasts usually live in groups," the young man added. "I suspect there are quite a few special star beasts released by the tournament organizing committee on the map right now, all of them carriers of treasure chests! If we catch this one, we might be able to catch more!"

"Also! Also! You can't exceed the threshold of mental power usage that the doctor mentioned earlier."

Mu Baixing nodded.

"Okay." He agreed to Mingyu's requests one by one and said calmly, "I'll do as you say."

The golden spiritual power descended from mid-air to the ground with overwhelming momentum.

Mu Boxing adjusted the energy valve of the gun barrel to the minimum, so only the mental power beam that had been amplified by the heart of the starship fell to the ground. It was unstoppable, but only made a slight sound when it landed.

It doesn't look like artillery fire, but more like golden rain that dissolves everything.

The ground collapsed, the rocks dissolving in a golden mass, transforming into a dense, thick smoke that floated above the ground. The gerbils living nearby turned their heads in confusion, unaware of what was happening. They listened for a moment before returning to eating the rations they had stored in their nests.

A golden beam of light fell from behind it. After finishing lunch, the gerbil turned around and couldn't help but stare with its black eyes in a daze.

The original wall behind the nest disappeared, revealing a cavern that was enormous for a gerbil. The passage from the ground to the underground lake descended vertically, its surface neatly cut, revealing the crispness of the golden energy wave as it passed through.

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!" The gerbil didn't know what was happening, so it stuck its head out to look and saw a huge silver monster falling from the passage. It was so scared that it immediately stuffed all the treasures in the hole into its mouth, its cheeks bulging, turned around and quickly dug a new hole, and fled to its other nest.

The starship descended along the corridor, leaving no other creatures untouched except for a poor gerbil. Mingyu exclaimed, "Awesome, Brother Mu!"

The young man looked at the scene in the underground lake and said, "The star beast carrying the treasure chest under the water is a water scorpion."

"That silver treasure chest... is right above the scorpion's head!"

The scene Mingyu saw through his mental power had not yet been captured by the camera carried by the starship.

The Qiehua Team, who were closely watching the colorful movements, watched Mu Baixing cut through the soil. Although they didn't know what they were looking for, they looked solemn.

"The mental energy density is very high." Lime Lamp muttered to himself, "Mu Boxing is a formidable opponent. Although his mental power is less than A-level, his use of it is impeccable."

"It's much better than Feren's random attacks." Meanwhile, White Elephant, captain of the Killer Squad, wondered, "Why is Feren's mental control getting worse?"

His tone was puzzled, and he looked at the other screen. "It's almost like he's venting his emotions..."

Nearly a hundred star miles away from the colorful world, Feren followed Ming Yan's guidance and blasted through the mountain in front of him with artillery fire.

He uncontrollably unleashed his mental energy, blasting a rough hole in the mountain. The crimson giant-eyed bats living in the narrow crevice were awakened by the rapid-fire noise and flew out with a bang, shrieking.

The birds and beasts living around the mountain were startled from the stone forest and fled in all directions.

"Feren!" Ming Yan said angrily, "I didn't ask you to fire so rashly!"

The high-pitched, piercing echo of the giant rock bats was unheard by the less mentally sensitive pilot, yet it nearly pierced Akihiko's brain. The starship's hull vibrated, creaking, and cracking under the sonic attack.

Akihiko's head ached. He saw the alarm that indicated the 15% damage to the starship's hull, and he said angrily, "I told you to be careful not to alert the surrounding star beasts! What on earth are you listening to?"

The reason he had Feren blast through the mountain was because he'd seen a flash of silver within the caverns of the giant rock bats. If the giant-eyed bats could carry treasure chests, then other star beasts could too! Ming Yan had intended to seize the treasure chests he'd spotted before thoroughly exploring the surroundings, but Feren's reckless bombardment sent the beasts fleeing.

Feren's face darkened, and he didn't answer. Ever since returning from Labyrinth Planet, he'd been sullen all day, on the verge of exploding with irritation. Even Ming Yan, who'd grown up with him, didn't want to bother with him.

Feren felt that his time was forcibly frozen in the red rain in the wild resource area.

He'd been in a bad mood the past few days. Even after several detailed discussions with a psychologist, he still hadn't been able to recover like he had the first time he was defeated by the colorful creature...

Defeated by Colorful.

There was actually someone who was able to escape from his mental fire wearing only a powered exoskeleton!

Feren looked gloomy and irritated. No matter how hard he tried to control himself, he couldn't help but doubt his own abilities.

He was the only human to have awakened to a dual-S-class ship in the Central Star Region in recent decades! How could he be defeated by an unknown pilot?!

Still twice.

In his opinion, letting LUCE and Mu Boxing escape from his fire was also a complete failure!

He clearly remembered the golden mental shield, a shield so strong that it seemed impossible for anyone to break it!

No matter how hard he tried to increase the strength of his mental power, even under the constant bombardment of artillery fire, cross-shaped markings had already appeared on the surface of the golden mental power. Even if his marking ability caused those markings to explode and crack the shield...

It's just a small crack.

He tried his best to widen the crack! To let the artillery fire penetrate the golden shield! And then there was the blue mental force that absorbed all his energy... No matter how hard he tried, he was just one step away! Just one step away...

Furen was filled with rage, overwhelmed by a deep sense of defeat. Mu Baixing and Luce...had practically become his inner demons!