Yalan Star is freezing cold and deserted, with only a few spaceships seen throughout the year.
"Perhaps there was an accident and it deviated from its course."
He Kun led Gu Qiongsheng and the others toward the spaceship. His expression was serious as he explained in a low voice, "Sometimes, this happens. A spaceship bound for Xiling Star unexpectedly encounters interference from the cosmic magnetic field or is struck by a small asteroid, forcing it to make an emergency landing here."
"Of course, it's also possible that some reckless bounty hunters came here to hunt snow beasts. Even though these things aren't popular here, some wealthy people love these things, and the rarer and more bizarre they are, the better."
"We encountered one a few years ago while on patrol. The man wanted to capture it alive and bring it back, but he underestimated the beast's ferocity and had his hands and feet bitten off. If someone hadn't happened to be patrolling by, he would have been dragged into the pit and eaten clean."
Gu Qiongsheng pursed his lips and nodded in understanding.
People who value money over their lives can be found everywhere.
"But Brother Kun," she asked doubtfully, "these spacecraft landed on Yalan Star. Can't we detect them?"
He Kun rubbed his elbow and said helplessly, "Under normal circumstances, we would have detected them before they landed and issued a warning signal. But today, unfortunately, the satellite happened to be shut down for self-inspection, so... they took advantage of the opportunity."
As they were talking, they had already crossed the Great Rift Valley and approached the wreckage of the spacecraft below the mountains.
It was a small spaceship with limited space. It seemed that it encountered a blizzard during an emergency landing and accidentally crashed into the foot of the mountain.
But it was empty inside.
Not only was there no one there, there wasn't even a trace left.
Even the control console at the front of the spacecraft was smashed by tools like an iron axe, and the screen was shattered everywhere, revealing the messy wires inside.
He Kun squatted down and tried to operate it a few times, frowning slightly. "The damage was quite thorough... After discovering that the spacecraft could no longer operate, instead of deleting the star map records, they directly scrapped the console. I'm afraid they have bad intentions."
Most of the spacecraft had been buried by the blizzard, and the front end was severely damaged, making it impossible to dig it out with just a few people.
After discovering this, the other party used violent means to erase all traces. They were ruthless because they were afraid that the console password would be cracked by an expert, who would then find clues from the star map.
Being so sneaky and with unknown whereabouts, he is probably not a good person.
"There's nothing to see here anymore," He Kun said as he stood up. "Let's go outside and look around to see if we can find anything else—"
Before he could finish his words, Gu Qiongsheng's fair and clean palm had already touched the screen.
She opened her lips silently: "Holy Light!"
The console was physically destroyed, which was exactly what Gu Qiongsheng wanted.
Under the repair skill, the screen fragments scattered around seemed to be pulled by thin lines, slowly flying to where they should be. Under He Kun's stunned gaze, they silently returned to their original appearance.
The surface is as smooth as a mirror and spotless.
There was no sign of damage at all.
He Kun: “!!!”
He Kun was speechless: "What is this?"
Gu Qiongsheng tilted his head slightly and said without hesitation: "Spiritual power characteristics?"
He Kun: “…”
He thought dizzily, what about special features?
Which type of trait is this?
Besides, I’ve never heard of the mental trait of “quick repair”!
No matter how confused the young soldier looked, Gu Qiongsheng remained calm and composed - her mentality had changed for the better, and she could now calmly use her characteristics as an excuse to fool the onlookers.
When the repair was complete, the console lit up.
Program deciphering was not Gu Qiongsheng's strong point, so she pulled He Kun, who was still in a daze, over and asked him with a smile to give it a try.
"So there are things you can't do. I thought you were a jack of all trades."
He Kun muttered softly, but his hands moved without hesitation.
"It's just me here. If someone else comes, don't think they can handle it easily."
As he repaired it, he muttered softly, as if trying to save face: "I was previously responsible for satellite operations at the base, so I have some experience in signal transmission and decryption."
Most of the programs on the console had been deleted, but as He Kun continued to invade, they still found some clues - soon, a piece of text and a picture appeared in front of everyone.
The girl in the picture has elegant features and a sweet smile, but there is an arrow pointing directly at her with the words "Mission Target" written on it in large letters.
It was Gu Qiongsheng.
Looking at the clear photos, everyone looked at each other in disbelief.
Zhou Qing whispered worriedly, "Sister Qiongsheng, are the people on this spaceship... coming for you?"
…
Thousands of miles of white snow are fluttering in the wind.
In the dim mountain forest covered with ice and snow, there are six dark figures, moving forward quickly against the wind and snow.
Their equipment was sophisticated, more stable than the patrol soldiers' power boots, and they moved very quickly in the blizzard. The inclement weather provided great convenience for concealing their whereabouts, and even if they left a trail of footprints behind them, they were quickly buried under the heavy snow.
However, even with sufficient preparation, the harshness of the climate on Yalan Star still exceeded their imagination.
While sliding down a snow slope, one of them made a "squeak" sound with his feet and suddenly stepped on empty air, almost falling into a snow hole.
Fortunately, someone nearby was walking alongside him and quickly pulled him up. The two of them stared at the huge hole under their feet in shock, muttering, "Fuck!"
"What the hell is this place, Boss? Didn't you say you came to Yalan Star a few years ago?"
The man called "Boss" walked in front, his face gloomy. Upon hearing this, he cursed back angrily: "How should I know?"
"In previous years, the snow wasn't this thick, the wind wasn't this strong, and the weather wasn't this cold!"
"...That's right." The first person muttered, "If we had known earlier, we would have asked Lao Wu to add a few more layers of protective barrier to the spacecraft, so we wouldn't have crashed into the mountain."
The people behind were of average strength and were already out of breath after reaching this point. They complained, "It's already like this now, why are you still talking about those useless things?"
"Sixth Brother, how far are we from our destination? Let's quickly tie up our target and get out of this damn place!"
Lao Liu was a young man who fell to the back of the group. He held a black locator in his hand. His slender fingers clicked a few times and he said in a charming voice, "Almost there. Right ahead."
"Hold on a little longer, we'll be there soon."
Lao Wu curled his lips impatiently: "It's almost there, almost there! You've said this three times. Where is the horse? Where are we going to get on?"
"Okay, stop arguing and save your energy."
The third brother, who had been silent the whole time, smiled and said, "By the way, sixth brother, you were the one who set up the sponsor this time. He's so generous. Where did you get it?"
After so many years of being space pirates, they rarely saw orders of such a large amount.
The mission is also simple. It involves sneaking into a remote planet, activating a device that the sponsor claims "can cause unrest in the base", and then taking advantage of the chaos to kidnap a girl in the base.
The blizzard was vast and Lao Liu, holding the black locator, fell a little further away.
As if feeling a little suffocated, he took off his goggles briefly, and snowflakes danced on his wet black short hair.
"Don't talk about that."
He raised his hand and pointed forward.
There was a faint flash of light blue in the bottom of the eyes, and against the backdrop of the white snow, the color was gorgeous, like a gorgeous pair of beautiful contact lenses.
"The destination is here, just ahead."
Everyone looked in the direction of Lao Liu's finger, and saw dark mountains undulating before their eyes, as if the sky was collapsing and dark shadows were falling.
The boss touched his chin and raised his eyebrows suspiciously.
"Who would hide something in a place like this? They're so bored." He complained. "Is the sponsor's information accurate?"
"Something that could cause unrest in the garrison, allowing us to kidnap people... is it really in this mountain?"
…
On the other side of the mountain, inside the wreckage of a crashed spacecraft.
Seeing that the mission target on the screen was Gu Qiongsheng, He Kun refused to take them on patrol and insisted on returning immediately to report to the base.
"Don't let your guard down," he said earnestly. "They're so far away from the remote corners of Yalan Star for this mission, and they don't care about losing a small spacecraft. They're probably experienced pirates."
"This kind of person has no moral principles and is ruthless. They actually asked space pirates to deal with a little girl like you. They are too cruel. Did you offend someone?"
Gu Qiongsheng hesitated and said, "...Well, I did offend a few."
Is it Fosun Group behind Zhao Qingke?
Or was it Lu Yuanji's father's deliberate revenge?
If you think about it carefully, both seem possible.
Gu Qiongsheng told He Kun the general situation.
He Kun frowned tightly, but finally shook his head and said, "I'm afraid it's not that simple."
"Yalan's satellites only shut down for self-inspection one day each year. This day isn't fixed, but rather randomly selected by the Federation's central AI throughout the year. Even we only know the specific time one day in advance."
"The fact that they were able to infiltrate on this day is probably not a coincidence. Someone in the upper echelons of the Federation leaked key information."
"Furthermore, they arrived right after you arrived at Yalan Star. They even know your whereabouts clearly. The person behind this wave of space pirates is definitely quite powerful."
Gu Qiongsheng: "...Okay."
She was a little disappointed that she failed to reach the outpost.
But what He Kun said made sense. The other party was targeting her, so she should be more cautious now.
After walking out of the wreckage, the wind and snow outside were getting stronger, and most of the spacecraft was buried under the snow.
He Kun climbed to a high place and just confirmed the direction when he suddenly heard a shout from below: "Brother Kun!"
"Come and see, what is this?"
He Kun returned to the spaceship in confusion, only to see Gu Qiongsheng and Zhou Qing standing at the front of the spaceship.
Somehow they pried open the head of the spacecraft, revealing a dark, abyss-like crack below.
It was a hole accidentally revealed when a spaceship crashed into a mountain and cracked the surface.
It was previously covered by the wreckage of the spacecraft and was not discovered by anyone.
Gu Qiongsheng and Zhou Qing noticed the strange traces of snow in that area, so they curiously pried it open and tried.
Pointing at the cave entrance, Gu Qiongsheng asked, "Did the snow beast dig this?"
He Kun stared at the cave for a while and said hesitantly, "...not really."
Besides, this area is not where snow beasts live.
He pulled out a burning stick from his backpack, lit it, and threw it onto the ground. With a series of crackling sounds of flames, the light source quickly disappeared into the bottomless darkness.
"Not too deep." He Kun muttered as he straightened up. "This cave is a bit strange. I'll note the location and bring people to explore it another day. For now, let's hurry back."
Just as he was about to turn around, his wrist was suddenly grabbed.
He Kun turned around in confusion, only to see Gu Qiongsheng and Zhou Qing exchange glances. Their expressions became very serious, and they looked towards the ground with vigilance and fear.
He Kun asked in confusion: "What?"
"Wait, Brother Kun," Gu Qiongsheng whispered, "Do you still have any burning sticks?"
Just now, at the moment of firelight, Gu Qiongsheng glanced at the corner deep in the cave and vaguely saw a huge dark blue object that was glowing with fluorescence.
It looked very much like the life minerals they saw on the planet Weilun.
"Yes, I have more..." He Kun hesitated and took out two more from his backpack. "These are all I have left. What are you going to do?"
Gu Qiongsheng took the burning stick, lit it, and threw it into the cave.
Sparks flew, and a faint light fell on a corner of the cave. Gu Qiongsheng tried to open her eyes wide, but the light underground was too dim. She could only see vague outlines and could not make an accurate judgment.
"...There's no other way," Gu Qiongsheng murmured, "I still have to go down and take a look."
He Kun: “???”
"Wait a minute," He Kun asked anxiously, "Didn't we agree to return immediately?"
Gu Qiongsheng pulled out a climbing rope from his backpack and carefully secured the fulcrum while whispering, "Brother Kun, this cave isn't deep. I'll go down and check to see if it's something I recognize."
"If not, I'll be right back. It won't take much time."
"If it really is..."
She took a deep breath and shook her head slightly.
——If that’s true, then there will be big trouble on Yalan Star.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
