Chapter 124 Rescue (Part 3)
Mingyu saw it out of the corner of his eye and subconsciously reached out to take it.
Mu Baixing was one step faster than him, blocking Mingyu's fingers and letting the small round bead fall into his own hand.
It was a round bead, much smaller than the energy crystal swallowed by the bird. It rolled in the man's cold white palm, emitting a soft red-gold glow.
A warm, yet not unpleasant, aura of flame emanated from it. A distinct, incendiary energy wave emanated from it, its intensity no less than that of the 2S-level energy crystal, yet its energy ripples were friendlier and more intimate.
"Chirp--" The little firebird flapped its wings, puffed out its chest, and made a series of calls as if asking for credit.
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu: “???”
He held the electronic pen in his hand and turned his head as far as he could to look at the hairy area on his shoulder.
...No way? He looked at the bird, then at the round bead in Mu Baixing's palm, then at the bird again, and put down the electronic pen.
Mu Baixing felt it for a moment and confirmed that the bead would not cause any harm, so he picked up the bead with two fingers and placed it in Mingyu's hand.
This was indeed a 2S-level incendiary energy crystal. Its energy ripples were completely different from the one swallowed by the bird. Instead, they resembled the energy fluctuations emitted by the flames ignited by the firebird's fall on Maze Star.
It's like the energy fluctuations of a bird... and is very similar to the mental power ripples of Mingyu and Mu Baixing.
Mingyu hesitated for a moment, then reached out and poked the bird's bulging belly: "...It's not indigestion... is it vomiting?"
Mu Baixing: “…”
He raised the corner of his mouth, revealing a slightly amused expression.
"Don't worry," the man said, "It's not."
Bird: "...Chirp?"
It didn't understand human language and tilted its head. It looked at Mingyu, then at Mu Baixing. It flapped its wings and jumped off Mingyu's shoulder, landing on Mu Baixing's arm, then lowered its head.
"Chirp!" The bird bit Mu Baixing's finger without exerting any force and without leaving any marks. It then raised its head to look at the round energy crystal, jumped a little, and emphasized: "Chirp, chirp!——"
Mu Baixing chuckled and rubbed the bird's head with his fingers.
Mingyu opened his eyes wide, watching the bird's movements. He understood for a moment, then asked uncertainly, "An apology gift for Brother Mu?"
"Chirp—" The bird repeated the action again, stretched out its head to rub Mu Baixing's fingers, and flapped its wings again, "Chirp!"
Mingyu: "...baby."
He reached out and stroked the bird, sighing, "How can you... be so considerate?"
The bird puffed out its chest: "Chirp!"
It remembered Mu Boxing's action of covering the energy crystal with his hand, and felt that its two hosts seemed to have a demand for its favorite food.
The bird chirped twice again, making a very heroic promise to Mingyu and Mu Baixing.
From now on, it won’t eat alone! If it comes across such delicious food, it will definitely leave a bite for its owner!
Mingyu and Mu Baixing couldn't understand the bird language, so they didn't know the bird's heroic words.
Mingyu stroked the bird several times until it felt comfortable. He squinted his eyes dazedly and then went back to revising his drawings.
Each energy crystal has a limited number of uses. The smaller the energy crystal, the fewer uses it has. Given the size of this energy crystal, it's probably enough for Mu Boxing to fire once.
Have to make good use of it.
The electronic pen fell on the screen faster and faster, finishing the design for the secondary gun barrel modification first. Mu Baixing then stood up, operated the robotic arm to pick up the welding gun, and re-routed the circuit according to Mingyu's design.
The young man was concentrating on modifying the main gun barrel line to add a space for the 2S energy crystal.
There was no modeling equipment here, so his design draft could not be tested by calculation, but Mingyu did not hesitate. He thought carefully, compared the materials available in the underground base, and quickly drew up the design.
In order to leave before the Black Tide Day, it was too late to widen the width of the barrel, but there was still time to optimize the barrel's energy accelerator, increase the routing of mental energy, and then install a gear for switching the barrel's function on the main barrel, just like he did when designing the starship for the Star Navigation Competition.
"In order to increase the mental energy circuit, the regulating valve must be removed." Ming Yu compared his own design drawings with the old starship drawings, and turned to look at Mu Baixing, "This way, the starship can't be switched to manual operation mode. You must use mental power to drive the entire time."
He hesitated and asked, "But if we don't expand the spiritual power channel, the attack power of the muzzle can't be improved, and it will be difficult to deal with the attacks of the black tide creatures..."
Mu Baixing was using a mechanical arm to peel off the outer shell of the secondary gun barrel. Hearing the voice, he said calmly: "Tear it off."
He placed one hand on the light screen and with the other hand he pulled out a medicine box from his pocket and showed it to Mingyu, saying comfortingly, "I brought the medicine."
Mingyu recalled the first time he met Mu Baixing and the starship design drawing without a regulating valve that Mu Baixing showed him. He knew that Mu Baixing had already driven this kind of starship without safety guarantees.
He pursed his lips, nodded, and said firmly: "Okay."
The conditions are limited and there is no better way.
The designer refocused his attention on the drawing, not noticing that Mu Baixing was feeling unwell and put his hand on his brow. He then lowered his eyes to glance at the medicine box in his hand, shook it gently, poured out a pill and swallowed it.
The activity of Kuroshio energy is increasing.
He put the medicine box back into his pocket and realized from the gradually worsening headache that the Black Tide Day was coming.
*
"Eight hundred and seventy survivors from the base, carrying enough nutrient solution for a three-day voyage and one hundred Kuroshio biological data chips for research."
Five hours later, Rose confirmed with Mingyu, "There's no real-time Kuroshio energy detection equipment outside the underground experimental base. Anything outside will fail. The departure time can only be estimated based on the Kuroshio daily forecast you provided. We'll leave in about ten hours."
Mingyu has completed the design of the main gun barrel and is calculating the load based on Rose's data to determine whether the thrust of the starship engine is sufficient and to make the final design draft.
"We'll have crew loading completed in nine hours," Ming Yu said quickly. "There's no need to streamline supplies. This is a cargo ship, so it has a high payload and sufficient thrust. The protective coating on the starship's hull still needs to be re-coated, right? Is there anyone else who can help?"
"I know how to do simple coating," Rose said. "I'll do it."
Mu Baixing inserted the 2S combustion energy crystal loading device into the main gun muzzle and frowned.
"The Kuroshio's energy is growing faster than expected," he said. "This Kuroshio Day is no ordinary event."
"A Kuroshio Day usually lasts between twenty and thirty hours, with energy reaching its peak between ten and fifteen hours. It would be best if we could leave the Kuroshio Star Sea before that peak."
"Loading will be completed in five hours." Mu Baixing looked at Mingyu, "We will set off as soon as possible."
Mingyu paused with the electronic pen in his hand, looked up at Mu Baixing, and then nodded.
"Okay." He squeezed the electronic pen, his palms slightly damp. He thought that in order to complete the loading and departure in five hours, he would have to leave at least four hours for engine modification, so he had to finish the design draft in an hour.
Mingyu was a little nervous. He had never worked so quickly before.
But he knew that Mu Baixing would not do it without a purpose. Since the other party had said so, there must be a need to do so.
This escape plan concerns his life, Mu Boxing's, and the lives of hundreds of others. To increase their chances of survival, the starship must leave the port at the most opportune moment.
Mingyu then breathed a sigh of relief, nodded, and repeated, "Okay. I have no problem."
People are forced to do things.
The bright blue cloud surrounding the designer almost enveloped him. He was concentrating on his work, writing every line on the design paper without making any revisions.
Rose was spraying the outer protective film of the starship. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the cloud of mental power surrounding Mingyu and whispered, "Is that a computational mental power trait?"
Time was running out, and loading robots were already loading the nutrient supplies onto the starship. A Fei, also a member of the Border Force, was pushing energy crystals into the energy compartment at the rear of the starship. He nodded and said, "Very impressive. Even an observer could use it. Maybe we can actually leave this time."
"If there aren't any black tide creatures attacking together," Rose said, "I don't want to encounter moths again."
Mingyu finally put the finishing touches on the design.
He turned the light screen towards Mu Baixing, and when he heard the word "moth", he raised his head and pursed his lips.
"High-level Black Tide creatures?" He stood up, stretched his stiff arms, and asked, "Can you show me the information about your attempts to sail out in recent years?"
Rose nodded and said to Mingyu, "It's in the data room on this floor. Feel free to look around. There's not only information about the voyages, but also records of base intrusions and attacks."
"Originally, this Black Tide Sea only had a few low- and mid-level Black Super creatures, with Black Tide Worms being the most numerous. But in the last year or two, we've discovered moths."
"As you said, they're advanced Black Tide creatures, or descendants of those controlled by them. The last time the base was attacked, a moth parasitized a pilot who was out exploring the starry sea and infiltrated the base... That incident resulted in heavy casualties."
"But we left behind some moth energy samples... We speculate that those moths were all developed and reproduced by the same high-level black super creature, and they must have only developed and flourished in recent decades."
"The base's research suggests that high-level Kuroshio creatures operate in clans. There may also be conflicts between them. Most high-level Kuroshio creatures seen during the same period belong to the same clan."
"We also saw descendants of high-level Black Tide creatures during the Black Tide that attacked the Northern Star Region fifty years ago," Ah Fei recalled. "Back then, they weren't moths, but black-tailed beasts. They were ugly creatures with long, slender bodies, dragonfly wings, and hooked tails... But we haven't seen them since we sailed out in the past few years."
Mingyu raised his eyes and looked at Mu Baixing's back.
"The Black Tailed Beasts were annihilated by your Celtic King in the Battle of Dawn," the young man said. "According to you, moths should have flourished after the Battle of Dawn..."
He paused mid-sentence.
Mingyu's gaze passed Mu Baixing and fell on the corner at the end of the starport, where the ceiling and the wall met.
He saw a bit of moving black.
"drop--"
At the same time, the alarm in the underground base sounded sharply.
"Alert! Black Tide energy is invading!" A mechanical voice echoed throughout the base. "Alert! Please prepare for combat evacuation!——"
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