Chapter 88 Vacation Planet

"The North Star Region is about to fall. The news arrived too late. Planets 11 through 5 have already been conquered by the Black Tide creatures..."

"Even with the support of the Central Star Region, we have no chance of victory! That only buys time for our residents to migrate. This time, the spread of the Black Tide is unstoppable..."

"You're scared before the fight even starts?! We can't escape without a fight!"

"We must fight."

"Of course! It will take approximately three days for all residents of the North Star Region to complete their migration. The main fleet can stay behind to contain them, and you can follow the escort ships and evacuate to the Southeast Star Region first..."

"The spread of the black tide must be stopped outside this planet."

"You can't stay! It's too dangerous! You were already injured in the Black Tide!"

"I'm staying here not just for the North Star Region."

"And for humanity."

"If the black tide continues to spread inward beyond the Northern Star Region, the Central Star Region, the Southeast Star Region, and the Southwest Star Region will all be threatened... You're right! But you shouldn't..."

The conversations in the dream were chaotic. Before one voice finished speaking, a new voice would interrupt.

"The Central Star Region Military will provide full support," a calm, young voice came over the line. "In three days, the Third Legion will arrive first. We will not let the Northern Star Region fight alone."

"They broke their promise!" someone shouted angrily. "There's not even a trace of the Third Legion's fleet!"

“…”

Countless conversations overlapped, turning into a rumbling sound. A strange low voice mingled with it, making the already chaotic dream even more chaotic.

"You can choose to join us," a strange voice resonated with a hollow echo. "The end of human life... is the beginning of another form of life."

"Get rid of those weak, meaningless, pathetic fellows..."

"The black tide energy has entered your body and your brain. As long as you give up resistance and join us..."

Mu Baixing frowned tightly.

Intense pain surrounded him in his sleep, and the boundless darkness pulled him downward in chaos, until a clear voice suddenly appeared in the midst.

Clearer and more real than any other sound.

"Brother Mu...?" The voice came from nearby, a hint of anxiety in its tone. As there was no response, the voice gradually became louder. "Brother Mu! Mu Baixing!"

Mu Baixing suddenly opened his eyes.

Early morning on the capital planet.

Not very bright sunlight shone through the gap in the curtains onto the ground in front of the bed.

Most of the light was blocked by a figure standing leaning over the bed.

The figure was very close to him, and the shadow it cast was of a strange shape, with the head of the shadow having strange jagged edges.

Mu Baixing: “…”

His breathing was rapid, but his tense body slowly relaxed in his sleep.

"Having a nightmare?" Mingyu, wearing the shark pajamas, was leaning over to look at him.

Mu Baixing's eyes met Mingyu's, and the coldness in his dark green pupils disappeared completely.

"Yes." Mu Baixing said.

The designer's face was filled with obvious worry. He reached out and touched his cheek. "What did you dream about just now?"

He got up early and just logged onto the Star Network to see how long it would take to repair the strange chip that was taken out of the black tideworm's body. He also browsed the popular discussion area on the Star Network.

While reading the Central Star Region's announcement on the black tideworms on the Labyrinth Star, I heard Mu Baixing making a soft sound in his dream.

It was like a low groan of pain caused by unbearable severe pain.

But even when the Labyrinth Star was bombarded by Feren's light cannon, Mu Baixing did not utter such a cry of pain.

Mingyu quickly turned around and saw the man with his eyes closed, shaking violently on the bed.

Mingyu was so scared that he immediately rushed over and woke the other person up.

"Black Tide." Mu Baixing's voice was hoarse.

He broke out in a cold sweat.

This dream was so tiring, as if it had drained all the strength from his body, and even his spiritual realm was aching slightly.

Mu Baixing took a moment to recover, turned his head and kissed Mingyu's palm, then sat up with the help of the bed, put on his shark pajamas, and went to the bathroom to wash his face with cold water.

Mingyu: “…”

Mingyu touched the palm of his right hand with his left hand.

Then he followed Mu Bo into the bathroom, pretending nothing had happened, and reached out to press the hot water button.

Mingyu: "Dreaming about the Kuroshio? Because of that chip?"

The icy jet of water hitting his face instantly turned to a warm and comfortable sensation. Mu Baixing exhaled softly and heard Mingyu continue, "The information in the chip is severely damaged. Analysis and recovery will take a long time, at least a week."

Mu Baixing responded and shook his head.

"It's not because of the chip." He looked at Mingyu.

"It's a memory from the past."

"I've been deep into the Black Tide."

Mingyu was slightly stunned.

Hongmao once mentioned to Mingyu that they once entered the outer reaches of the Kuroshio Star Sea to rescue a starship that had mistakenly entered the Kuroshio Star Sea due to the complex navigation conditions near the outer port.

But the memory that Mu Boxing was talking about obviously refers to an earlier time.

"Back then, there was the North Star Region." The man reached out and turned off the water valve, paused for a moment, and then continued, "I lived there."

"I dreamt of chaotic artillery fire. A large number of black tide creatures invaded the Northern Star Region, and the battle was extremely difficult."

Mingyu: "Battle of Dawn."

"Don't frown." He reached out and smoothed Mu Baixing's unconsciously furrowed brows. "The bad things are all in the past."

The student dormitory was quiet in the early morning, and the roar of aircraft engines could be heard in the distance.

Mingyu raised his head slightly to look at him. He didn't like the solemn atmosphere in Mu Baixing's eyes caused by memories of the past.

For a moment, he felt that the person in front of him seemed to be pulled back to that difficult battle, struggling between life and death, and seeking a way to survive in despair.

The Battle of Dawn was a great victory for the ordinary people who were protected and for humanity as a whole.

But for those who witnessed the war, and for Mu Baixing who may have experienced a starship crash because of that battle, drifted in a cryogenic chamber for decades, and was fortunately rescued in the free star field... it was probably indeed a nightmare.

Mingyu regretted asking Mu Baixing about the content of his dream and was eager to divert his attention away from the gloomy details.

The young man thought for a moment, not knowing what to say to change the subject, so he could only tentatively say, "Brother Mu."

"So you participated in the Dawn War and were a hero protecting humanity's star system!" He asked, seemingly serious but actually joking. "In that case...how old are you this year?"

"I won't have to call you uncle anymore!"

*

Because of Mingyu's joke which was meant to liven up the atmosphere, Mu Baixing didn't speak to Mingyu for most of the day.

His thoughts had completely left the heavy memory fragments in the dream, and he began to think about his age before the space travel accident.

He rested one hand on his chin, his expression expressionless.

He had clarified to the designers that time spent in cryostasis must not be included in the calculation of age.

But what about before entering the cryostat?

Mu Baixing vaguely felt that he should be in his twenties when he entered the cryostat, perhaps a few years older than Mingyu, but not too much different.

However, if we change our thinking and use the Battle of Dawn as a time anchor to think about the gap between the two.

Then he and Mingyu are indeed not from the same era.

Will the designer dislike it?

Mu Baixing: “…”

Mu Baixing frowned again.

Mingyu watched him from the side, finding it somewhat amusing.

He didn't mind Mu Boxing's age. The average life expectancy now was 300 years, so a difference of more than ten years between lovers was normal.

There are also age-gap relationships where the age difference is over a hundred years!

"It's okay, Brother Mu!" After most of the day, the designer couldn't stand it anymore. He didn't expect that a question he asked jokingly would make Mu Baixing think seriously for so long.

Mingyu then sat down next to Mu Boxing, bumped his shoulder, and comforted him lightly, "I'm very tolerant of age! As long as you're not a centenarian, I won't ban you from the game!"

Mu Baixing: “…”

Mu Baixing is certainly not a centenarian.

But even though Mingyu said that, the question of age still popped up in his mind from time to time until the next day.

The two were on a public starship heading to a tourist resort planet called Ice Mars near the capital star.

This exclusive planet features snow-capped hot springs, glass-topped houses, deep-sea barbecues and other amenities.

After further improving the design drawings of his and Mu Bai's planetary ship, Mingyu felt that both he and Mu Baixing, who was either training his mental strength or soaking in the mining area, needed to relax before the crucial second star field competition.

So the young man booked a night's rest and vacation time.

This planet is not the only resort planet around the capital planet, nor is it the closest resort planet. The reason Mingyu chose this place was not only because he wanted to soak in the hot springs, but also because he was attracted by the geothermal fire.

"I heard that the underground fire here is drawn out from the deep strata of several thousand meters deep using the latest technology with high-heat-resistant energy pipes, and directly input into the barbecue grills under each glass house." Mingyu pushed the light screen in front of Mu Baixing, who had a serious face, and asked him to read the slogan on it.

"'A ground fire grill with a flame intensity comparable to that of an S-class burning energy crystal, a fully functional grilling robot, all-natural healthy ingredients, and the most professional grilling time control, giving you a perfect and novel grilling experience!'"

Mingyu blinked and looked up from the screen: "Brother Mu, what did you think of?"

Mu Baixing: “…”

Mu Baixing glanced at the young man's pocket.

"That's right!" Mingyu smiled brightly, "Roasted bird eggs!"

"Earth fire comparable to an S-class energy crystal!" the young man said eagerly, "I'm going to go test their advertising to see if it's false!"

*

The airport on Ice Mars is not big.

Five-sixths of the planet is a natural park, accessible by aircraft along a designated route. The remaining one-sixth has been developed into a resort, with tiled, sparsely populated wooden cabins nestled amidst the snowy plains below, interspersed with hot spring pools and glass-enclosed observation rooms.

Because there are not many accommodations on this planet and it focuses on natural scenery, the number of guests it can accommodate is limited and the starport is also small.

There were not many passengers on the public starship that Mingyu and Mu Baixing were on, and they were the only two who got off the ship at Ice Mars.

The two of them took the resort's aircraft and arrived at the door of the cabin they had booked.

Mu Baixing dragged his luggage along as he followed the housekeeping robot through the custom settings for the cabin's living system. As he reached the door, he heard a clear, mournful wail from not far away.

"No way! This is the energy rebound device designed by LUCE! Why would it break just by playing with it casually...?"

"What's LUCE, LUCE?" another impatient male voice rang out. "I've already told you that what you found on Starlink is fake! You're just trying to ride on LUCE's popularity, right? Call the police immediately and report it to them for fraud! Make that scammer refund your money! How could a god-level designer like LUCE design a starship for an older, immature teenager like you?"

"...Why not?! Isn't this starship cool?! Maybe LUCE saw my design requirements and decided he wanted to design such a cool starship, so he took my job." The first boy said unconvincedly, "Besides, I say, brother, didn't you support Lieyang before? Now you support LUCE with me?"

"That was before! I can't switch teams now?!"

"Anyone with eyes can see that Lieyang's skills are not good enough now. He's probably been praised so much that he's been too busy bragging and forgetting to improve his strength and work. Look at what they've been beaten into by Wucailan! They just turned around and ran away when faced with the Black Tide Queen, after all, they graduated from a military academy! What a shame."

The sound came from the cabin next to theirs. The two holiday cabins were no more than ten meters apart, and the sound from the other side had an astonishingly strong penetrating power.

Mingyu looked over there curiously.

He first saw a familiar-looking starship.

Like most resort planets, Ice Mars’ resort program includes not only sightseeing tours of the planet’s scenery, but also entertaining real-life small starship simulation battles.

The planet provides a large area of ​​airspace for battles and competitions, and each holiday home is equipped with an open-air small starship take-off and landing port.

It was early evening now and the sun had not yet completely set.

With the last bit of sunlight, Mingyu saw a very cool purple starship in the shape of a muscular unicorn parked at the neighbor's small starship landing port.

The appearance of this small starship is indeed flashy and a bit childish. The only flaw is that black smoke is coming out of the unicorn horn.

Mingyu: “…”

This is indeed a starship that he drew on the design drawings himself.

After all, the iconic unicorn device on the front, the exaggerated shell image at the expense of a portion of the starship's speed, and the purple paint mixed with glittering sequins... all left a deep impression on Mingyu.

If nothing unexpected happens, this starship should indeed belong to the old customer he met in the designer free trade market.

Mingyu: “…”

Two young men and a slim woman stood next to the purple unicorn starship.

The weather on icy Mars was sunny, but the temperature was not high. The two men were wrapped in their down jackets, each one tighter than the other, but the woman next to them didn't seem to feel the cold at all.

She was wearing a red dress and stockings, only a faux fur shawl, with snow-capped mountains behind her.

In such a low temperature, she didn't seem to feel cold in this outfit. She was leaning on the railing with her arms folded, looking at the starship in front of her, and listening to the quarrel between two boys with a casual expression.

Mingyu's gaze lingered on her briefly. He felt that she looked familiar and couldn't help but take another closer look.

However, before Mingyu could remember where he had seen the other person, the woman had already caught his sight and turned her head.

Mingyu: “…”

Their eyes met, and Mingyu felt that staring at the other person was a bit awkward, so he smiled at her politely.

The woman in the red dress was slightly startled, then raised her eyebrows in surprise, stood up straight and turned to Mingyu.

Her expression changed so much that Mingyu felt as if she recognized him.

He was a little surprised, but before he could say anything, the two boys who were originally arguing around the starship noticed her actions and followed her gaze to Mingyu.

The next second, one of them stared at Mingyu with a look of astonishment.

"Mingyu?!" the other party shouted, "Why are you here?!"

Mingyu: “?”

It's really an acquaintance. Mingyu thought to himself, isn't this his classmate in the same major at the comprehensive university?

Mingyu attended classes only a limited number of times and could not remember the faces of many of his classmates, but he still had a very deep impression of this classmate.

Because the other party had quarreled with him more than once.

This semester alone, they had two face-to-face arguments, once in the Chuan Chuan Xiang cafeteria and once in front of the Star Navigation Museum, on the school square.

"Oh!" Mingyu suddenly realized, "It's you."

The boy curled his lips.

He used to dislike Mingyu very much, but ever since the last argument with Mingyu in the square, he stopped saying bad things about Mingyu in private.

A big part of the reason was that Mingyu said his half-concealed behavior was ugly and ungenerous.

Although the boy was not convinced and angry on the surface, and was angry all night, but when he woke up, he felt that Mingyu was right...

Compared to Mingyu's behavior of directly questioning and refuting him when he heard his disliked complaints, he just kept gossiping about others behind their backs...it seemed really not very decent.

What's more... the changes in perceptions between people are actually quite amazing.

In the past, he just followed what others said about Ming Yu's bad things, so of course he hated this young master of the Ming family very much.

But after actually arguing with Mingyu face to face, he felt that the other party was not so annoying anymore.

At least Mingyu is not like many other "young masters" he knows who like to bluff and put on airs.

The boy raised his hand awkwardly and greeted him.

Mingyu also waved, looked at him, then looked at the starship behind him, and then recalled the conversation he had just heard. He confirmed incredulously, "Is this your starship?"

The boy nodded and said gruffly, "It's mine, what's wrong?"

Mingyu: “…”

It turns out that this person is his big client on Starnet.

This wonderful fate.

Mingyu calculated the money he earned from the other party and found it a little funny.

I don’t know if this classmate who hates me knows that he has actually become my money-maker.

Mingyu looked at the classmate's sour face, then looked at the starship behind him. Adhering to the sense of responsibility of a designer, he turned in another direction and walked towards the neighbor's wooden house, intending to find out whether the cause of the engine problem was a design flaw that he was unaware of.

This is the engine he designed. Even though the temperature on icy Mars is low, it does not exceed the engine's tolerance limit.

Mingyu needs to figure out why the engine he designed could fly around, smoke, and get damaged.

The boy saw the other person's eyes fall on his starship and subconsciously straightened his chest.

"Isn't it cool!" He thought Mingyu was impressed by the appearance of his starship, and boasted with his chin raised, "This is my personal starship that I spent a lot of money to customize! Isn't it cool?"

Mingyu hummed, thinking that the huge amount of money was now in his bank account. He nodded calmly and asked, "Can I come closer and take a look?"

The boy looked at Mingyu and hesitated.

Although he doesn't hate Mingyu that much, their relationship... isn't that good either?

Mingyu had already walked outside the other party's wooden house.

He stood low, raised his head slightly and looked at the open-air starport platform in front of him, waiting for the other party's response.

The young man has delicate features, and his expression looks a little well-behaved when he looks at me like this.

It makes people unable to refuse.

The boy held his breath and opened the fence door outside the wooden house for Mingyu.

"It's okay to show you..." He hadn't spoken to Mingyu calmly for long, and it felt a bit awkward. He couldn't help but curl his lips as he watched Mingyu leisurely walk up the steps of his holiday home.

Then, he felt himself being locked in an extremely cold gaze.

Boy: “…”

The boy shuddered, feeling as if he was locked in the sights of some dangerous weapon, and subconsciously raised his head.

Not far away, Mu Baixing had put away his and Mingyu's luggage, reset the living system of the wooden house, and was walking out of the house.

His expression was originally just cold, but because of his good eyesight, he could see from afar the slight reluctance on the boy's face towards Mingyu, and his brows unconsciously frowned.

This brought about a terrifying sense of oppression.

“…”

The boy's whole body felt stiff, as if he was immersed in an ice cave.

He subconsciously froze in place, not daring to move, almost holding his breath. It wasn't until Mingyu stepped onto the Starport platform that a voice rang out nearby.

"Um..." The young man stood in front of him and stretched out a hand, "Would you like to get to know each other again?"

His tone was very polite, his voice clear, but a little hesitant. "I'm sorry, I didn't have time to ask the first two times..."

"What's your name?"