Chapter 39 Preliminary Round 2 (Part 4)
In the live broadcast room, the plush rabbit turned the light screen back to the colorful figure.
"Wu Cai Ban Lan also discovered the space station set up by the competition organizing committee! And found the sign indicating the X7 star sea! If they had some historical knowledge, they should have realized that the collapse of the central star's energy field was not a simple matter, but was caused by the black tide creatures." He scratched his head, his expression unnatural, and he said with a hint of confusion, "I wonder what considerations the Star Navigation Competition organizing committee had in designing this scene in the virtual star map."
"But now it's time to show off your keen observation skills! Let's see if Colorful can find the key information in the space station like Ranger!—"
There was dead silence in the space station.
The golden spiritual light dissipated, and the light that fell on Mu Baixing's face disappeared with it. Mingyu could not see his expression clearly.
He only saw the man stand there for a moment, then step through the broken metal door and continue forward.
Mingyu wrapped himself in Mu Baixing's uniform, zipped up to his chin, and followed him forward. Soon they reached the next intersection.
There were three closed doors on each side of the passage, and in front of it. Red lights beside the doors were on, indicating they were locked. Mu Baixing walked straight to the door in front of him. His patience was running low today, and without much thought, he reached out and pressed the door shut.
It seemed as if something was urging him to keep moving forward.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Mingyu quickly grabbed Mu Baixing's hand, and his bright blue mental power wrapped around the gold that oozed from Mu Baixing's fingertips and pulled it back.
The golden thread of spiritual energy, sharp in nature, then froze in mid-air, as soft and harmless as the most common decorative thread, as Mingyu pulled it down to the ground. Mu Baixing lowered his eyes, looking at the two people's clasped hands.
"Brother Mu, don't worry." Mingyu whispered, "Let me see how we can proceed. The distress signal has been interrupted. If we want to find someone, we have to look for signs of life."
The passage doors here were all made of a material that blocked out spiritual energy. Mingyu couldn't sense the energy within through the door panels. The blue spiritual force thread split into three parts, swaying left and right in front of the closing door. After a moment, it found a tiny gap and slipped in.
"The first floor is empty. Everyone must have evacuated early."
"Both the left and right sides lead to the mining team's office. In front is the activity area, with an elevator leading to the upper levels. The station is currently closed, so the elevators can't be used, and there are no regular stairs. To get to the second floor, you have to go through the small door above the activity area reserved for maintenance engineers."
The designer's earnest narration echoed in the empty corridor. The young man's clear voice pulled Mu Baixing away from the vague memories that filled his mind.
His eyes moved away from the Celtic star domain symbol painted on the side of the passage door and fell on Mingyu.
Mingyu's spiritual power continued to extend and climb upwards.
"There's no one on the second floor either." A bright blue light snaked up from a portable ladder. "This floor is all the space station office area, and the dispatching screens are turned off. The third floor above is the living area, which is also empty... The fourth floor is the mineral material sampling and acceptance area, and all the acceptance rooms are closed..."
The various functional areas in the space station were fully laid out, and all instruments and equipment were in a turned-off state. Mingyu's mental thread once again traveled around the space station and found nothing unusual.
There were no signs of life and no signal transmitters, as if the signal they received on the starship was false.
But he knew that there must be some clues in this space station that he had not discovered.
Mingyu hesitated for a moment and turned to look at Mu Baixing.
"Brother Mu." He hesitated, staring at Mu Baixing. After a moment, he asked in a low voice, a little embarrassed, "Can... can you let me suck it again?"
Mu Baixing: “…”
The man didn't say anything, but the golden thread of spiritual power wrapped around his wrist swayed gently, like a branch inadvertently blown by the breeze.
Ming Yu wanted Mu Baixing to have a strange impression of him, so he explained to him seriously: "In the mining area, I found that when I absorbed your mental power, I could temporarily increase the energy intensity of your mental power... or its acuity."
At that time, they left the base and took off in a starship. He had not yet absorbed the energy of the blue lotus stone and awakened his mental power. However, the originally colorless mental power thread showed a bright blue color for the first time after it tightly wrapped around Mu Baixing's mental power.
That is a symbol of the increase in the intensity of mental energy.
Mu Baixing hummed and said calmly, "'Swallow'."
"Your mental power possesses the 'devouring' property."
Mingyu looked at him in confusion.
"It's not just my mental power." Mu Boxing explained succinctly, "You can absorb any energy."
"When the wavelengths are nearly aligned, you can temporarily increase your own energy intensity through the other person's energy."
"'Devouring' is a special A-level mental power characteristic." Mu Baixing explained with a slightly cold tone, frowning, "Devouring is usually caused by dangerous extreme awakening induction methods, or due to extremely unsuccessful or nearly failed mental power awakening."
"Because the awakening process is too dangerous, there haven't been any awakeners with this characteristic in many years."
Therefore, it is rarely mentioned.
Regardless of the reason, the price of failing to gain the devouring ability is death.
He looked at Mingyu.
The designer seemed to understand, his eyes widening slightly: "Then I'm quite lucky!"
Mu Baixing: “…”
There was an unconscious joy and excitement in the depths of the young man's eyes, as if he felt that the awakening of his spiritual power and the awakening of his devouring ability after a near-death experience was like some kind of lucky break, and he completely forgot about the danger at that time.
Mu Boxing simply didn't know whether to be angry at his generosity or praise his optimism.
He simply stopped answering, the golden threads of spiritual power at his fingertips moving closer to Mingyu, wrapping tightly around the bright blue. The man's expression, which had remained cold since entering the space station, relaxed slightly at this moment.
Mu Baixing: "We are in a hurry, let's talk after the game."
When Mu Baixing's mental power wrapped around him, Mingyu felt like he was being embraced in a strong embrace.
The aura belonging to Mu Baixing surrounded him tightly without leaving any gaps.
Mingyu subconsciously closed his eyes and his ears turned red, but he immediately focused his attention and extended his mental power outward again.
The faint blue light grew brighter and brighter, emitting a brightness far greater than at the beginning, and swam into the space station again.
This time he saw more things and more detailed details.
He saw an inconspicuous narrow mezzanine between the second and third floors.
This interlayer was originally supposed to be used to store some unstable and dangerous energy items, so it was made of extra thick energy-blocking materials, which is why Mingyu just missed the abnormality.
In the mezzanine, he smelled a faint... bloody smell.
*
"Bang!"
On the top floor of the Star Navigation Department in the capital of the Central Star Region, which was located in the same block as the live broadcast room, the door of a small conference room was thrown open.
A middle-aged man in a suit and tie with graying hair hurried into the conference room and angrily demanded, "How could you set up this kind of virtual map in the Star Navigation Competition?! Gao Siqi! What are you doing!"
In the conference room, ten people sat around a round conference table, watching the live broadcast of the qualifying matches in the center.
They ranged from young to old, male to female, from the three major star regions of humanity, and were all members of the organizing committee for this interstellar navigation competition. Six of the ten were holographic projections projected by the instrument, and were not actually from the Central Star Region. Of the other four, two were from the Central Star Region's Star Navigation Department, and two were from the Central Star Region's Military Department.
The Star Navigation Competition had three preliminaries and two star field competitions, with two people responsible for each problem. The final three finals scenarios were determined by everyone's cooperation.
A brown-haired woman in a bright red sequined fishtail dress turned around at the sound. On the front of her dress was a nameplate from the Star Navigation Department, with the words "Gaosiqi" written on it.
"Why not, Minister Terrell?" she said casually. "What's wrong with setting up a virtual map based on scenes from the history of interstellar navigation to test the children's courage and adaptability?"
The gray-haired young man sitting opposite her also turned his gaze.
"I agree with Minister Gao," he said in a businesslike tone. "This is a star sea collapse incident that serves as a warning to all of humanity."
The middle-aged man who broke into the meeting room took a deep breath.
"Only through human unity can we resist the dangers of the universe." Gao Siqi smiled at Terrell, a hint of sadness and pity in his eyes. "Otherwise, we will end up like what happened to Star Sea X7... being devoured by the creatures of the Black Tide and becoming nutrients that feed it."
"Using the death of fellow human beings, we will blow the horn of expansion for the Black Tide."
"But the X7 Star Sea accident is a confidential matter..." Terrell was furious with her, and was unable to refute the high-sounding words. He squeezed out a few words from between his teeth.
"Please check the calendar," Gao Siqi pointed to the date on the screen. "The sixty-year confidentiality period expires today. Before today, although I used this incident to set up a virtual map for the second qualifying round, I never leaked any relevant information. My partner has given me full authorization to set up the virtual map for this competition."
The gray-haired young man nodded.
Terrell: “…”
He took another deep breath and said calmly, "Minister Gao, can you please excuse me?"
Gao Siqi sneered: "After talking for so long, you're thinking of having a private conversation?"
Even as she said this, she still stood up and followed Terrell out the door.
"Minister Gao!" Terrell slammed the door shut, his eyes gleaming with anger. "This matter concerns the reputation of the Star Navigation Department within the three star regions! Even if the confidentiality period has passed, it shouldn't be so brazenly aired during the Star Navigation Competition, which is the focus of everyone's attention."
Gao Siqi crossed his arms and looked at him dully.
Terrell: “…”
He clenched his fingers and lowered his voice: "Did you know that the Ming family is running for the position of Executive Officer of the Capital Star?"
"You're practically handing them a ladder!"
"They can use the X7 Star Sea accident to bring up the topic first, and then everyone in the entire star field will find out that Ming Zhuofeng was the only one who intended to turn the tide in the Star Navigation Department's erroneous decision, and after failing, he left the Star Navigation Department and joined the military..."
"Wrong decision." Gao Siqi stepped forward, stretched out a hand, tapped Terrell's shoulder, and smiled slightly. "Minister Terrell also knows that the Star Navigation Department made a wrong decision back then?"
"I don't care what the Ming family wants to do now. I have nothing to do with them." She said, "I just need to make this mistake public so that everyone can learn from it."
"The scum of the Celtic royal family once colluded with the Central Star Region to cover up the truth. I was too young to stop them then, but now, it's time for the Star Navigation Department to face up to its mistakes."
Terrell: “…”
His expression twisted, the corners of his mouth twitched, and he said viciously, "Gao Siqi...!"
"Don't think you are righteous..."
Gao Siqi waved to Terrell, too lazy to pay attention to him, and turned to go into the meeting room.
Trail endured it again and again, but when he couldn't bear it anymore, he punched the wall hard, making a loud noise.
"bump!"
The passage door, which was one person tall, was violently broken open by Mu Boxing.
The vigorous golden mental power threads wrapped around the twisted passage door and threw it on the ground. The electronic locks on the door frame on all four sides had been cut off and deformed by the mental power. The recorder on the side flashed a red light symbolically, marking the intrusion video in red and uploading it to the system, but the space station, which was running in sleep mode, did not issue any alarm.
The damage was not fatal, and there were no personnel on board the station capable of stopping or capturing the intruders.
This is the third passage door that Mu Boxing has removed.
They advanced destructively along the passage on the third floor, and under Mingyu's command, found a small door located under a utility room.
Several dark blue threads of mental force coiled around the door, with the tips hooked upwards, forming a shape like a perfect finger, and pressed down on the door panel.
"This should be the mezzanine storage room," Mingyu said. "That's where the dangerous materials are stored. The bloody smell I sensed is in there."
The golden thread of mental force repeated its trick, lifting the door panel from the ground. Mu Baixing took the lead and stepped forward, blocking Mingyu behind him. However, the bright blue mental force was not obedient. It immediately jumped over the golden thread in front of it and slipped down into the storage room.
"Mingyu." Mu Baixing gave him a warning look, indicating that he should wait for him to complete the safety check.
The young man paid no attention to what he was saying.
Because he had seen the image inside through the mental thread.
The temperature in the storage room is very low.
The dangerous items originally stored here were taken away with the resource mining team when they left the star sea. But there is still something else inside.
Mingyu first saw a hand reaching out.
A layer of white frost coated his blue-gray palms, and brown, congealed blood ran from his upturned fingertips down the back of his hands, across his wrists, and finally into his black combat uniform. The communication device on his wrist flashed a red warning light, indicating that its battery level had dropped below 1% and entered sleep mode. The distress call he had originally sent was also interrupted due to the low battery.
It was a corpse with a horrible death.
When Mu Bo walked down the steep ladder, the first thing he saw was the black cuffs of the deceased with metal buttons in the shape of a white bird, symbolizing his identity as a military member of the Northern Star Region.
His gaze moved, and then he saw the young face of the deceased, which was distorted by death.
It was a face covered with frost, with an expression that had long been frozen.
The memory was shaking, but Mu Baixing seemed to see the vivid appearance of the other person when he was alive.
A young man who had just graduated from the Star Navigation Academy was in disbelief when he suddenly received a letter of employment from the military as a non-awakened human. He was trembling with fear when he reported to the fleet, and trained extremely hard to make up for his lack of mental strength...
Then they received an order to sail to the X7 star sea to assist in the development of rare minerals on the resource star.
Sharp pain surged from the depths of his mind, along with the lingering memories. Mu Baixing's breathing became unsteady, and he reached out to hold onto the handrail on one side of the ladder.
He closed his eyes tightly, trying to keep his balance amidst the onslaught of chaotic memories.
"Brother Mu...he...they..." Mingyu murmured.
There was obvious fear in his voice. He was so immersed in the shock of the scene in front of him that he didn't notice the strange behavior of the people around him.
His voice brought Mu Baixing back from his memories.
The man exhaled softly, then turned his head to look at Mingyu, stretched out his left hand and covered the designer's eyes.
His fingers trembled slightly and touched the skin around Mingyu's eyes, which was so cold that it didn't feel like that of a living person.
Mingyu shuddered and calmed down a little.
"Are you cold?" he asked Mu Baixing in a low voice, reaching out to take off his coat.
"No need." Mu Baixing let go of the armrest and pressed down his hand that was about to unzip.
Mingyu blinked.
His eyelashes brushed against Mu Baixing's palm, causing a slight tingling sensation. Mu Baixing subconsciously pulled his arm back, and Mingyu grabbed his wrist, pulled both of his hands together, and rubbed them in his palm.
Mu Baixing: “…”
The designer's palms were warm, and he exhaled softly, explaining, "It's not cold."
The golden mental power thread hooked the bright blue thread and pulled it back.
"If you don't dare to look, close your eyes. Stand here and wait for me."
Mingyu pursed his lips and shook his head.
"I'm not that scared." He whispered, "I'm just... because it's the first time I've seen a dead person."
It was also the first time I saw... a corpse with such a tragic death.
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