Chapter 12: First Preliminary Match (Part 2)
At this second, the starship had just left the starport.
But what greeted them was not the dark and peaceful universe they expected, but a dazzling crimson beam of light.
An ominous red light filled the cab through the transparent windows, and even without the observer reporting, everyone in the cab knew that the situation was not good.
Mingyu suddenly grabbed the armrest beside the seat. At this moment, he forgot that this was a virtual universe. He only felt that the deep red seemed to be the devil's eye revealed under the black cloak of the god of death, and it was the announcement of the end of life.
His whole body was stiff, his mind was blank, and in extreme tension, he felt the ground beneath his feet suddenly tilt.
Despite being protected by the fixing device, Mingyu's body still hit the chair behind him with great force.
The exploratory starship's rear engines roared, emitting a beam of orange light. The entire ship suddenly pulled upward and rolled to the right, faster than Mingyu could have imagined. The red light slid past them, striking the starship behind Mingyu, sending a shower of sparks flying.
"Oh my! That's an unexpected move by the tournament committee!" the rabbit host said excitedly. "Maybe there were too many people registering this year! The committee has clearly adjusted the probability distribution of spawn locations! Nearly 50% of the teams spawned in the center of Area 31!"
"Please look at this star map! In this tiny patch of sky, Area 31, there are fifteen small resource stations! They're arranged in a ring around a large resource point in the center! If there were only a few teams landing here, there wouldn't be any fighting, but right now, there are over a thousand teams in this star field—everyone is vying for an early advantage! This star field, which should be vast and empty, is now like a bustling fish pond!"
"Ladies and gentlemen! Let me remind you! Any warship shot down in the starry sky will be automatically eliminated! The game has only been going on for twenty seconds, and the number of eliminated teams has already risen from single digits to double digits—!"
"If I were one of these starships, given the current situation, I would definitely not bother with the central resource station, but would quickly flee to the outer reaches of the star field! There are five safe stations on the outskirts of this star field. Once you enter, you won't be attacked and can even perform starship repairs and upgrades. Oh my god, I'll definitely survive this wave of turmoil first..."
Mingyu held on to the armrest of the seat tightly. He didn't expect that his first star voyage experience would be so exciting right from the start!
"Left!! Three o'clock! In one second!"
"Five o'clock! Two seconds!"
"Tail! Boss!! Watch out for Tail!!——"
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh I can’t see clearly—what’s written on the instrument—! The data is changing too fast! Where! Where!”
"Wuwuwu... Wuwuwu... I... I'm so scared..."
Mingyu felt that the situation in the cockpit was more exciting than the various artillery fire outside.
Awakened observers can communicate with the pilot through their psychic powers, so the cockpit is usually silent. The colorful-haired men are ordinary people, and can only communicate with Mu Boxing through the communication channel. Mingyu had already prepared for the cockpit to be very chaotic.
...But how could it become such a mess!
The red-haired and orange-haired ones were fairly professional in their reporting, while the green-haired one knew how to warn but his shouting was erratic. The blue-haired one couldn't even catch the signal on the monitor most of the time, and the purple-haired one... the little brother was almost scared to tears!
Mingyu was disturbed by his crying and he was no longer nervous!
I was just thankful that Mu Boxing was wearing a sound-isolating helmet, and Zimao remembered not to connect to the communication channel when crying.
Miraculously, the aircraft carrier they were on did not crash in the chaos.
Mu Baixing seemed to be accustomed to all this.
This exploratory starship showed Mu Boxing the posture of a battleship.
As the designer who knew the starship's parameters best, Mingyu looked at the values on the screen. The starship had already exceeded its maximum safe speed and acceleration. The roar of the engines carried the ominous sound of overload, and the starship was nearly out of control as it rapidly tumbled.
The dark gold lines in the cockpit flashed with a terrifying light, and the blue light emitted by the Lambda cannon below was now mixed with the golden light of spiritual power. Mu Baixing's palm rested on the armrest of the driver's seat, his slender fingers hanging down, his posture relaxed.
Mingyu's breathing quickened as he watched a starship explode behind his porthole. The shattered hull slammed into the glass with a resounding thud, denting the bulkhead. Mu Baixing's maneuvering was flawless. Their exploration ship sank sharply, quickly moving away from the spurting debris and dodging the incoming laser cannon fire.
Mingyu's modified Lambda laser cannon had a significantly shorter charge time. The rapid charge and thirty seconds of continuous firing allowed them to clear a small area of the surrounding star field in the midst of the melee.
Mingyu bit his tongue, calmed himself down, and looked at the star map.
In the noisy cockpit, he quickly adjusted to the starship's rotation and turbulence, staring intently at the star map before him. PsyForce threads densely covered the star map, compensating for the blurriness of his vision caused by the starship's swaying.
"Two o'clock west is a twenty-minute voyage to the safety station." He quickly determined their location on the star map and said on the communication channel, "We can go there."
As a ship-type awakened human, Mu Boxing possessed strong and aggressive mental abilities, but his acuity and clairvoyance were limited. His vision was obscured by a variety of laser cannons, and he listened to the unprofessional reports. Occasionally, he would be able to focus enough to determine the starship's position, but his coordinates would quickly shift due to the rapid attacks and evasions.
Mingyu's reminder was exactly what he needed right now.
Someone told him to sail to a location that would greatly reduce the time it would take him to escape from the chaos.
Mu Baixing: "Are you passing by the resource station?"
Mingyu: “…”
...Mu Baixing can actually still think about the resource station now.
"There's one ahead." Mingyu responded quickly, "but there are many starships there."
The area near the resource station is the hardest hit area by the melee. Although many teams are eager to leave this chaotic star field, some teams are confident in their own abilities, or rely on the outstanding design of their starships, and are still competing for the resources in this star field.
"The area with the densest concentration of light cannons." Ming Yu's voice tightened. "Can you see it? The universe ahead is almost turning into a colorful stage!"
Mu Baixing: "Go and have a look."
The starship suddenly accelerated again.
"Xiaohong. How many teams are there?" he asked. "What weapons?"
Red Hair is the most experienced of the five.
He was surrounded by data screens. Although he screamed when he was attacked at first, he quickly adjusted himself.
"Estimated to be at least ten teams," he said quickly. "Beta cannons, gamma cannons, and modified firepower. I've never seen this waveform before, so I designed it myself. The energy value is comparable to that of the gamma cannon... They're in full swing!"
"There's someone behind us—!" Green Hair yelled at the top of his lungs, "It's a stealth battleship—"
It was a huge, pure black shadow that emerged from the universe like a ghost. The muzzle in front of it flashed brightly. It was a high-energy laser cannon that had just completed charging in stealth mode.
"This thing is a massive battleship! How could someone in the Resource Search Bureau operate a heavy-fire, slow-moving battleship—!!!"
"The muzzle width and diameter are too large. It can directly cover the escape area around us." Red Hair's face turned pale. "Boss!"
Mu Baixing: “I know.”
He accelerated again.
The hull of the medium-sized exploratory starship was peeling off due to the high speed, high temperature and the collision of the laser cannon.
Mu Boxing charged into the front group, carrying a high-energy beam of light from behind. It was as if he wasn't fleeing for his life, but rather a guide for the light cannons behind him. Fearing the fire from behind, the starships moved away from him, like a school of fish making a path to avoid their pursuers.
Mingyu's mental threads continued to spread outward uncontrollably, probably reflecting his eagerness to know whether the starship could escape the pursuit. He rushed out of the starship's cabin and clung to the outer layer of the starship.
The bright white high-energy light cannon distorted the surrounding energy field, pushed away the stellar fragments, and teased the tail end of the starship.
The colorfully painted tail fins melted and broke, and the huge heat made Mingyu breathless, but at this moment, he noticed that the hatch under his starship suddenly opened.
Hook.
The exploration starship's unique hook was swung downwards, and Mu Boxing's operation was more accurate than that of the most experienced claw machine player. He hooked up several resource blocks at the top of the resource station at a moving speed far exceeding the starship's design.
He passed over the resource station, and the broad beam of light behind him engulfed the entire resource station, burning it to ashes.
"Depend on!!!!"
At this time, curses were heard from countless team channels.
"Where did this lunatic come from!!" they couldn't help but exclaim, "They destroyed the resource station just to fight?!!! They only took less than half of the resources inside--!"
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