Chapter 96 Star Region Tournament Second Round (Part 5) (Two-in-One)

"A colorful team is approaching Space Station Three! But they're not the only one heading there!" Inside the livestream, the commentator positioned two screens side by side. On the screens displaying the trajectory of all teams, two different colored spots of light were rapidly advancing toward a single destination.

The bright spots a little further away from the space station were marked with colorful names, while another team closer to the space station was Lieyang.

"It had to be Lieyang!" the plush rabbit fanned the flames with a tone of excitement. "Think about how much Lieyang suffered in the last Star Region match with Colorful LUCE's new moves!"

"As a seeded team, Lieyang has also been subject to controversy due to its repeated defeats against Wucaibianlan."

"Now, it's time for Lieyang to prove himself again!"

"A single space station cannot dock with two teams' starships simultaneously. Lieyang and Wucaibanlan have met in front of Space Station No. 3. Let's see who will complete the information transmission to Space Station No. 3 first!"

"However, I don't think Lieyang has noticed the colorful approach yet... After all, if we didn't actually see it on the screen, who would believe that a team would rush out from the most intense area of ​​cosmic storm cloud activity?!"

"Liyang is currently traveling at full speed! Space Station 3 will be the first station they reach... They chose to bypass the Star Beast Zone and also traverse the cosmic storm, but they're circling the edge of the less active energy field, so it takes much longer than the Colorful... Oh! The gatekeeper has appeared!"

A black starship similar to the Third Legion and the Lieyang Command emerged from the universe, and the gray main guns charged and fired.

Similar to the artillery fire that just attacked the water ball, Albin's artillery fire tore through space and appeared right behind the opponent's starship.

Lieyang's starship seemed to sense something and suddenly sank. Then, the second shot appeared on the port side of the starship.

"It's like a perfect replay of the last match against Water Ball!" Rabbit commentator exclaimed, "But Lieyang handled it with ease—"

Inside the Lieyang cockpit, Feren's face suddenly changed color when he saw the gray artillery fire attack, revealing an expression of disbelief.

Ming Yan hardly needed any prompting. When he looked out the porthole and saw the black starship opposite... and saw the gray artillery fire in front of him as if it had been cut off artificially, sinking into the void, and about to penetrate the space and exit to another place, his arm had already subconsciously pulled down the operating lever.

The actions that seemed extremely sharp to everyone were simply the result of muscle memory trained over and over again.

Feren's face was pale and he looked dazed.

Mingyan's burning red mental power burned the mental threads of the opponent's observer, intending to prevent Albin's observer from accurately capturing the energy changes and movement speed around his own starship.

Despite doing all this, he, like Feren, also had his mind wander.

...Is their father helping them cheat? Akihiko couldn't help but wonder.

The trajectory of the Albin Space Tearing Cannon's fire is really too familiar!

Another barrage of artillery fire came from the front. Feren gritted his teeth and hesitated for a moment, but he could only fire head-on.

He knew that unless he wanted his starship to crash... otherwise, this collision would be the best solution to Albin's death.

This was the solution he had figured out during his repeated battles with Elbin over the previous week.

The powerful black mental cannon collided with the gray palm attacking from above, smashing the gray hand into a piece of scattered and discontinuous energy fragments.

Inside the Third Legion starship, Albin and Allen exchanged a quick glance.

"Gatekeepers, please attack with all your might. Please note that all your actions are recorded by our surveillance system. We will monitor and assess your attitude towards each team. Please refrain from favoritism or corruption—"

The Star Navigation Competition monitoring staff did not report any abnormalities and only issued prompts as usual.

Albin let out a light click of his tongue and, as planned, pulled down the fire button again.

Twelve hours before the start of the second game of the Star Domain Tournament, Ailun received an urgent task notice directly issued by the military. This task notice was issued directly from the military headquarters, bypassing the commander of the Third Legion, Ming Zhilang, and required him to immediately enter the star network to implement the requirements of the Star Navigation Competition Organizing Committee and not to communicate with the outside world in order to avoid suspicion.

The competition committee used gatekeepers as a benchmark to judge the performance of each participating team. They chose not to select teams from the outer regions due to concerns that the disparity in strength and unfamiliar combat methods would lead to total annihilation. Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, they chose to select three gatekeepers from each of the three elite legions in the Central Star Region. The directors of the three branches of the Star Navigation Department would serve as the third gatekeeper. The final gatekeeper remained a deeply mysterious figure.

The reasons are actually very detailed.

However, the moment Albin received the task, he remembered what Ming Zhilang said after he asked him to be responsible for Lieyang's training.

"In the next game, even if Lieyang can't win, I will make them win."

A week before the second Star Region Tournament, Ming Yan and Feren's pre-match training was led by Albin and Lunpo.

Ming Zhilang obviously attached great importance to this training. He came to the training ground several times to inspect it. He patted their shoulders and told them in a very serious and solemn tone that Lieyang must advance brilliantly this time.

These words seemed very natural in the context of the situation at the time. However, if he and Lunpo were the gatekeepers of the second Star Domain Tournament, the meaning behind these words would obviously not be that simple.

Observer Lunpo also went to find Albin after receiving the order.

"Captain." He hesitated and asked uncertainly, "Does the Legion Commander... have other intentions?"

Albin is actually not good at this kind of game of intrigue.

However, the hint given by Ming Zhilang was too obvious.

During the week-long training, he had a very clear and familiar understanding of Mingyan and Feren's attack patterns. Even without the indication of mental color, he could recognize the opponent's aircraft carriers and distinguish the mental energy fluctuations of Feren and Mingyan.

For example, now.

In the dark night sky, the spiritual energy around the starship rushing towards the space station kept leaping, pulling out a wide energy belt.

That was the energy-boosting method Lunpo had spent a week teaching Mingyan. Mingyan had learned how to expand the range of his mental power, how to maintain the flames with minimal load, and how to quickly release and retract mental power to counter Luce's consuming blasts.

Of course, through repeated experimental training, Ming Yan has also understood what the threshold of mental energy must be in order to force Lunpo's mental power back.

He can maintain his mental power output at the corresponding level without wasting any mental energy, neither more nor less.

Akihiko gradually came back to his senses.

"It's Albin," he murmured. "Ferren, we..."

The muzzle of the black starship completed charging, and the space on the side of the Sun starship was suddenly torn apart again.

Gray artillery fire as wide as the starship shot out and spread across the starry sky, becoming a huge dark gray palm.

"Lieyang's dodges are incredibly fast! They're completely different from Water Ball! Their movements are incredibly smooth! Both Mingyan and Feren's reaction speeds are incredibly fast! ...Oh!"

Lieyang's starship narrowly missed the edge of a gray hand. The plush rabbit was startled and raised its voice, "Oh! Almost!! - Almost got caught!!"

Akihiko: "Faerun?"

He shouted, "What are you doing?! We all know..."

During the pre-match training, Albin and Lunpo had repeatedly conducted pressure training on them, and the location and direction from which the opponent was firing now... had appeared countless times during the pre-match training.

In this set of attacks, they would be shot down after more than 30 seconds at first, and it was not until halfway through the training that they were able to completely avoid the opponent's attacks.

Mingyan's mental control ability improved a lot during this training camp, but it was not until now that he finally understood the purpose of his father asking him and Feilun to participate in that training camp.

Feren's expression was tense and his heart was in a mess.

He wanted to try to forget the memories in his mind and pretend that he didn't know the direction of Albin's attack...

But it was all in vain.

The habits that have been deeply engraved in the body through repeated training will lead the starship in the correct direction of dodging.

Feren slammed the control screen hard and roared, "Have we fallen to this point?! Mingyan?!"

The whites of his eyes flashed a little red. He looked at his long-time partner and gritted his teeth, "Do we have to rely on others to help us?! We are so useless..."

He was clearly a 2S-class ship that was considered a genius since he was a child.

How did he get to the point where he had to cheat to participate in the Star Navigation Competition? ! !

For a moment, Feren almost wanted to throw his pilot's helmet away and let the starship crash like this...

"There's something on the side!——" Ming Yan noticed that something was wrong with Feren, but before he could ask, the tip of his mental power sensed a hint of something in the strong wind and clouds on the side, and he raised his voice in an instant.

Years of training and coordination made Feren subconsciously avoid to the side.

From the porthole of the cockpit, he vaguely saw an extremely bright ball of light.

...What is it? Feren's pupils dilated slightly. Is it a high-energy lightning ball bred in the cosmic storm cloud?! Or...

Akihiko: "It's a Psychic Cannon!!"

Mingyan could hardly believe his own judgment.

He preferred to believe it was a powerful energy phenomenon from a cosmic storm cloud, something beyond human control. But the trajectory of that light was so clear and orderly, hurtling straight towards their starship with terrifying momentum, that Mingyan's hair stood on end, and he had to believe his eyes.

“Get out of the way!!——”

Bright artillery fire shot out from the energy cloud on the left side of Lieyang, and brushed past the tail of Lieyang's starship as Feren tried his best to dodge.

It was a ball of light so blinding that one couldn't discern its color or shape.

It was like a bright star burning fiercely in the dark universe. Against its backdrop, Mingyan's fiery red spiritual power dimmed to the point of looking like a dying spark.

The black starship dodged to the side in a hurry, and a gray mental cannon happened to appear at the position where Lieyang was just now, and naturally and coincidentally crashed into the ball of light.

boom.

The two groups of artillery fire collided, and the spreading energy waves caused the starship of Lieyang not far away to tremble while sailing.

As the gray artillery fire was completely engulfed, in the short-range contact, Ming Yan's mental force, which was dodging backwards, saw the golden and blue lights mixed in the tail wing drawn by the light burning like the sun.

“…It’s colorful,” Akihiko murmured.

A huge sense of absurdity surrounded him, making him want to dismiss it all as an illusion.

However, right before his eyes, just outside their construction, Ming Yan clearly saw a silver starship wrapped in dazzling light, following closely on the heels of the terrifying artillery fire, rushing out at high speed from the extremely turbulent cosmic energy ball.

This was a multicolored sight several times more powerful than anything he had ever seen before and beyond his imagination!

The psychic light and fire surrounding the silver starship almost made him look away.

Mingyan's heart was beating rapidly, and the terrifying energy coming from the mental tentacles made him tremble unconsciously.

Whose mental power was this? Luce or Mu Boxing? Or both?

The mental strength of these two people is stronger than at any other time... than the golden light that erupted in the third qualifying match, and than the blue devouring explosion that killed the huge Black Tide Queen at the end of the previous star field match... It is more powerful and terrifying.

Akihiko's voice was tinged with panic as he instinctively said, "They're coming... Back off! Feren!"

The colorful silver starship was very fast. In the blink of an eye, it had rushed out of the energy ball, and the main gun muzzle in front was charging again.

Lieyang dodged quickly, and just as the resonant spiritual power of Mu Baixing and Mingyu combined into one appeared in the starry sky, a gray palm rose out of thin air.

"It's the gatekeeper!" the plush rabbit shouted. "The gatekeeper strikes again! Is Albin trying to take on two at once?!"

"Albin launched an indiscriminate attack on Lieyang and Wucaibian at the same time!"

"We all know the gatekeeper for this match is from the Third Legion! Honestly, before they met, I actually doubted whether Albin would give Lieyang a break..." Rabbit, the commentator, was so excited that he accidentally spoke his mind. He then realized something was wrong and said, "Oh no!" He mentally begged his superiors not to dock his salary, while quickly adding, "Of course! That's impossible! We absolutely believe in the fairness and justice of the Star Tournament!"

"Look at the arena! The gray space-tearing hand's attacks on Lieyang and Wucaicai are getting more powerful each time! But... Lieyang is obviously dodging more calmly? It seems that Luce's sensitivity to the space-tearing cannon is temporarily lagging behind Mingyan."

The discussion topics in the comment section of the live broadcast room are being refreshed rapidly.

"Is this really okay?" someone couldn't help but ask, "Lieyang is more familiar with the Third Legion's tactics than the other teams, right?"

"Even though Lieyang is a member of the Ming family! They haven't yet joined the Third Legion and are only training at the military academy!" Someone immediately replied, "It should be fair, right? This is the Star Navigation Competition. If you're caught cheating, you'll be banned for life and can't even join the military Star Navigation Department."

"But their evasive paths... are much clearer than Wucai Hualian's, aren't they? Albin's space-tearing cannon is difficult to determine its position, but Lieyang can predict it most of the time..."

"Perhaps after Luce's mental power resonated with Mu Boxing, his observer qualities were reduced?" someone in the comments section speculated, "Instead, it neutralized the driver..."

Because cases of psychic resonance are so rare, this speculation is not entirely unreasonable. Everyone discussed it while watching the scene of the game.

"If Lieyang reaches the docking station first, the pressure on the colorful group will increase even more!" the rabbit host explained, "because they will need to survive the two or three minutes it takes for Lieyang to exchange information..."

"Obviously, Colorful has realized this too! They're trying to overtake us!"

The gray artillery fire was dense.

After the mental resonance, Mingyu's mental acuity didn't diminish, but instead significantly increased. Despite this, he could only sense the gray artillery fire for a brief moment before it appeared. In that brief moment, even with Mu Baixing's reflexes, he couldn't perfectly avoid the overwhelming gray palms.

But the gray palm could do nothing to them.

The resonant psychic light coating the starship blended with the gray artillery fire, creating a silent, crackling explosion. The silver starship charged through the barrage of artillery fire, accelerating forward, trailing a trail of light as it slid through an arc, gradually approaching the scorching sun, which was also hurtling toward the space station's docking port.

"Hit Lieyang every time I see him!" Mingyu still remembered the harsh words he had said in the last game, "Brother Mu! Fire!... Watch out to the left!"

puff.

Another gray hand appeared in front of their starship, blocking the way ahead and colliding with the bright light cannon again.

Mu Boxing turned the car with the edge of his palm, pulled up the starship, glanced at Albin's artillery fire, and then looked down at the scorching sun in front of him.

Inside the Lieyang cockpit, Ming Yan was also looking back, breathing rapidly out of fear of Mu Boxing's fire.

If it weren't for Albin's artillery fire, their situation would have been extremely bad!

Fortunately, gray artillery fire appeared in the air. Although the aftermath spreading forward almost hit their tails, Feren had already maneuvered the starship to sink, avoiding Albin's attack while regaining distance from the colorful star.

"We have to seize this opportunity! Speed ​​up! Feren!" Ming Yan said nervously, "We can't get shot down by the colorful ones again! Otherwise, our reputation on the Star Network will plummet!"

Feren: “…”

He didn't speak.

reputation?

His fingers moved away from the operating screen and put them back again and again.

The so-called 2S-level awakened human is nothing but trash.

Feren heard himself cursing and scorning himself in his usual sarcastic tone.

Under the colorful pursuit, they dodged blindly, not even daring to turn and return fire. And he was relying on improper shortcuts, seemingly rushing towards victory, but in fact he was fleeing in panic.

Feren already knew they couldn't beat Colorful.

It is impossible for them to win openly in the face of all the colors.

Because of the brilliant light shining from the other starship.

Because... the opponent had been sailing almost unscathed for three minutes under Albin's attack, while just a week ago, they had only lasted a short thirty seconds in the training ground.

They can't win.

He and Mingyan are both trash!

Feren's fingers trembled.

Years of arrogance made him unable to face this in front of hundreds of millions of people!

Feren stared. He almost felt like crying... because of his hypocrisy and arrogance, because of his incompetence and weakness.

"What is Feren doing?"

In the Third Army Commander's office, Ming Zhilang complained, "We've already paved the way for him, why is he still dragging his feet?"

For the sake of the Ming family's reputation, Lieyang can no longer lose.

He had no choice but to resort to this desperate measure. He tried to hint to others several times in a roundabout way, mobilized a lot of connections, and even asked people to write several analysis reports. In the end, he succeeded in getting the Star Navigation Competition Organizing Committee to use outstanding star navigators from the central star field as gatekeepers.

He calculated clearly that the levels of the star navigators in the civilian exploration team were uneven, and their backgrounds were unknown, so they would not be the choice of the organizing committee of the Star Navigation Competition.

Then the other party must choose people from the military and the star navigation department.

In order to strike a balance between the various forces, the gatekeepers cannot be concentrated in the same legion. One or two teams must be selected from each legion, and 80% of them are selected from the best teams in each legion.

In order to target Elbin, Ming Zhilang dispatched most of the Third Legion's fleet to carry out the mission. After careful consideration, the competition organizing committee notified the military and sent an invitation to Elbin for the mission.

However, because he was afraid that his cheating would be exposed, Ming Zhilang hinted to Elbin about his arrangements, but did not inform Ming Yan and Feren.

Elbin, Lunpo and other members of the first team have been valued by him since they were teenagers and have been promoted all the way to where they are today. He believes in their loyalty to him and also believes in the calmness and prudence they have cultivated through repeated legion missions.

But as for Ming Yan and Fei Lun... Ming Zhilang was a little afraid that they were young and would accidentally reveal their true colors due to nervousness or other reasons before the game.

However, as long as Lieyang fights with Albin, he will realize his deep meaning.

So far, Lieyang has done quite well. Their dodges are quick, but not too dramatic.

But after the colorful unexpected appearance, Lieyang began to look timid.

Ming Zhilang was a little disappointed about this.

This was clearly a good opportunity to cooperate with Elbin, destroy the colorful beast, and wash away the impression of weakness from the previous game, but Feren didn't even fire a single mental cannon!

"Lieyang didn't turn back to retaliate against Wucaibanlan. It seems they're solely focused on quickly reaching Space Station Three." The commentator, Rabbit, also noticed the problem with Feilun and Mingyan. "They're afraid of complications, so they're holding back. Under Wucaibanlan's barrage, they could only dodge quickly, feeling quite passive."

"If it weren't for Albin's artillery fire holding back the colorful beast, Lieyang would have been hit by the colorful beast and overtaken by it!"

"Don't tell me he's scared!" someone in the comment section mocked, "Being beaten by Wucailan has left him with a psychological trauma! He doesn't even dare to fire a single shot! Look at how cowardly he is! Has Lieyang secretly changed his style? He used to be a reckless, reckless guy, but now he's a coward and a coward."

"Is this an illusion? The Albin artillery fire looks like it's hitting all the enemies equally, but the bombardment on the colorful ones is actually more intense? Does anyone else feel the same way as me?"

"Now that you mention it, I do feel a little bit as well?"

The comment section refreshed rapidly, while inside the live broadcast room, the plush rabbit stared at the screen, paying attention to the development of the situation.

"Will the Colorfuls fire again?! The distance between them and Lieyang has been widened again by Albin's attack... But the Colorfuls are still accelerating! The main gun is once again focusing its energy..."

Mingyu: "Show them some color, Brother Mu!"

The young man laughed in his voice, "How come you didn't hit the target after firing so many times? Are you not..."

Mu Baixing: "Watch."

He pulled the main gun fire button and calmly interrupted the young man's joke.

The designer's arrogance is getting more and more arrogant day by day. When the time is right, he will definitely teach Mingyu a lesson.

The man thought this, his expression slightly distracted. However, his resonant mental energy, in stark contrast to the expression on his face, surged into the starship's pipelines.

At the same time, Mingyu's mental power also rushed out, entangled with Mu Baixing's mental power threads, and was pumped into the barrel by the mechanical heart.

"Buzz—"

A low humming sound came from deep within the starship's gun barrel.

Inside the Lieyang cockpit, Ming Yan keenly sensed the changes in the energy field behind him, and hurriedly turned around and let out a terrified cry.

"Feren!——"

Feren turned to look at him blankly, his thoughts scattered, but he still caught a glimpse of the scene outside the starship window out of the corner of his eye.

The colorful ones opened fire again.

The broad muzzle of the starship's main gun stands in the center of the starship's hull.

A bright white, interlaced light flashed from the ribbon-like muzzle.

And when that broad, blinding beam of light shot out from the muzzle—

Feren saw the artillery fire flashing and turning into a huge flying bird with spread wings in the black universe, like a mythical beast from ancient times.

It seems that their starship will be destroyed again with overwhelming force!