Chapter 78 Star Region Tournament First Game (Part 4)
"I don't know how many silver treasure chests the competition committee has distributed, but it's certain not every draw opportunity will contain star map fragments. There are only fifteen valid map fragments in total, and there might even be duplicates," Mingyu speculated reasonably. "Anyway! Let's get more treasure chest fragments first!"
"Sink! Brother Mu! Let's follow the scorpion to their lair!"
This is much more labor-saving than searching with mental power.
The starship then retracted its cannons and robotic arms, sinking into the vast underground lake. A bright blue mist of spiritual energy hovered around the starship, allowing Mingyu to clearly discern the shape of the lake's bottom even without illumination.
The underground lake was deep, yet devoid of life. On the surface beneath the lake lay a series of hollow tunnels running vertically downward, as if a giant ant nest were hidden beneath the surface.
The scorpion swung its pincers and burrowed into the tunnel. Mu Boxing piloted the starship, descending, barely making it down. The starship's hull scraped against the hard rock of the tunnel, making a dull scraping sound in the water.
The passage that is very spacious for the scorpion is extremely narrow for the starship, but fortunately, the space around it becomes wider and wider as you go down.
Mu Baixing: "How much is there below?"
Mingyu's blue mental power has already seen the situation in front.
"A lot." The young man straightened up, a look of anticipation on his face. "A lot of silver treasure chests!"
A few minutes later, the bottom of the tunnel suddenly widened outward, changing its direction from vertical to horizontal. The starship moved forward, its top arc emerging from the water.
This is a deeper and larger underground lake.
The silver starship was like a white duck, floating in the lake.
The dark lake water around was covered with ripples in circles and layers.
"Oh my god..." Red Hair couldn't help but say, "What did I see..."
He saw a lot of silver treasure chests.
It's not just a silver treasure chest.
Hundreds of purple-black water scorpions emerged from the lake, their claws turning towards the steel monsters that had followed their kind into the lair. Their tails glowed purple, illuminating the underground space.
Red Hair: "...Brother LU." Red Hair looked at the detection equipment in front of him, and after a moment of silence, he continued: "Oh my God...Brother LU, when I first met you, you were not so fierce. Brother LU, you were more concerned about navigation safety back then!——"
"...So many." In the Killer Team's lounge, Observer Momonga couldn't help but sigh. "The Water Scorpion's destructive energy balls may not seem too threatening, but as soon as they touch the surface of a starship, they'll disrupt the internal structure of the starship's materials, significantly reducing the resistance of the starship's hull, and possibly causing it to disintegrate during a rapid change of direction... They shouldn't know that, right?"
"A scorpion can throw three or five energy balls per second... There are hundreds of water scorpions... Can we dodge them?"
"Even a small starship wouldn't be able to turn quickly enough to avoid the water scorpion's frenzied attacks!" "I'm curious! Lucé chose to charge the starship directly into the herd of star beasts! How will Colorful respond..."
"Boss, ahhhhh!" Inside the starship cockpit, Red Hair was yelling, "Hurry, hurry, take off!!——"
At the same time, the vertical lift engine under the silver starship and the propulsion engine at the rear roared at the same time, breaking through the water in an instant!
Droplets of water fell from the silver starship, arcing as it changed direction, splashing onto the lake. Purple energy balls thrown by the scorpions slid across the lake in intersecting arcs, chasing the starship.
The scorpions gathered in the center of the lake. Mingyu looked down and curled his lips.
"It will be easier to get the treasure chest if we gather together!"
The space above this underground lake is not as wide as the upper level.
However, in an instant, the outer shell of the starship had already rubbed against the rock wall above the lake.
Mu Baixing instantly shut down the lift engine completely, and the silver starship suddenly fell. Large purple light balls slid past the top of the starship. The huge feeling of weightlessness made the red-haired man couldn't help but let out a series of howls.
Mingyu tightly grasped the armrest of the chair and shouted loudly: "Brother Mu! Can you do it? If not, let me do it——"
The muzzles of the four secondary guns at the bottom of the silver starship flashed with golden light, but the most powerful main gun remained silent and quiet, not even raising itself up from the starship's hull.
Because the mental power pipeline of this main gun barrel is only connected to Mingyu, and it is not even controlled by Mu Baixing.
As a starship designer, Mingyu completely cut off the possibility of his opponent getting carried away and having another outburst of energy during the game to increase his mental power level.
Mu Baixing: “…”
The man said nothing, only chuckled. He stared ahead, golden threads of spiritual energy flowing out of the muzzle.
The functional valve loaded in the secondary gun barrel rotated, and the mental force concentration effect was removed. The energy flow completely controlled by Mu Baixing turned into golden light balls, floating out of the gun barrel and colliding with the purple light ball.
The sound of the energy explosion echoed layer by layer in the underground space, like thunder in spring, stretching endlessly.
Golden purple energy rain fell on the lake, making the water boil as if it was being boiled, and casting crisscrossing dreamy light and shadows on the noisy water surface.
The bright blue mental power shuttled through this ever-changing light and shadow, like a willow leaf blowing in the wind, with thin and sharp edges.
They appeared calm and leisurely, using their old tricks again. While the scorpions were fighting with Mu Baixing and had no time to take care of themselves, they transformed into thin blades and cut off the visible silver treasure chests from the backs of the scorpions.
The silver starship's sailing angle changed accordingly, and the colorful-haired people were tossed left and right by the high-speed, disguised starship, while one silver treasure chest after another was thrown into the collection cabin at the rear of the starship.
"Ding—All-channel broadcast. Congratulations to the Colorful Team for obtaining 1, 2... 100 Silver Treasure Chests, and a score of +20,000."
In the live broadcast room, the host Rabbit stared at the light screen in front of him in amazement.
"It's like watching an exquisitely designed light art show," the plush rabbit murmured. "Mu Boxing's artillery fire, Luce's exquisite mental control, and the smooth trajectory of the starship... In this artistic feast, the number of colorful treasure chests is rapidly increasing!"
"Of course! We can see that the number of treasure chests obtained by many teams, such as Lieyang, Ranger, and Water Ball, has been steadily increasing! But only Colorful! They seemingly recklessly broke into the star beast's lair! Their own starship was completely unscathed! Instead, their points skyrocketed in just one minute—"
"But if the points continue to increase at this rate... aren't they worried about becoming a target for many teams?!"
Mingyu is not completely unconcerned about this.
But after weighing the pros and cons for a moment, he still felt that finding the treasure line star map of the golden treasure chest was more important.
Now is the first game of the Star Domain Tournament. According to the rules of the competition and the usual temperament of the Star Domain Tournament... obtaining a golden treasure chest can greatly increase the chances of winning in the next game.
Their goal now is not just to advance from the Star Domain Tournament, but to get into the top five!
The silver starship quickly harvested the silver treasure chests. At the same time, the prompt sound of the Star Navigation Competition was heard.
"Ding—Team broadcast. Congratulations to Colorful for finishing the battle within thirty seconds and getting a chance to draw a hint."
"Ding—the drawing is complete. Welcome to come next time."
"Ding—Team broadcast. Congratulations to Colorful for finishing the battle within thirty seconds and getting a chance to draw a hint."
"Ding—the extraction was successful. Congratulations, Colorful, you have obtained 1 fragment of the golden treasure chest treasure map."
…
"The probability of finding a treasure map is so low?" The young man's voice was a little interrupted by the rapid turns and turbulence of the starship. "I drew dozens of times before I saw another star map fragment..."
The two light screens overlapped, exchanging information and merging into one. Ming Yu took a look and shook his head, saying, "There's nothing to be seen from these two fragments! Let's continue downwards!"
"Still going down?!" Red Hair wailed, "There won't be more scorpions down there... - I'm scared just looking at them -"
Mu Baixing ignored his complaints.
The starship turned around, dived downward, and plunged vertically into the lake.
Swarms of water scorpions followed closely, densely surrounding the starship. The energy light balls projected from the scorpion tails formed an arc and collided with Mu Baixing's mental power.
"Bang bang bang bang!——"
All the treasure chests have been harvested and the starship sinks to the bottom of the water.
Mu Baixing no longer cared. The golden cannonball suddenly grew larger, dragging a tail of light into the water, illuminating the dark waters into a brilliant, clear glow. A massive golden wave rose in the lake, as if stirred by a giant hand, sweeping the aquatic star beast upwards and slamming it down fiercely!
“Boom…boom boom boom!”
The huge impact force knocked the scorpion unconscious. Water scorpions as big as starships scattered in the water, and the purple light went out.
The silver starship didn't waste time fighting the scorpion swarm, it just passed through the unconscious layered star beasts and continued to descend.
There was still a downward passage at the bottom of the second underground lake. However, unlike the narrow and winding passage just now, it was extremely wide, almost as large as the lake bottom.
It is located right in the center of the lake bottom, forming a black hole that looks like an abyss with no bottom.
The starship was carried downward by the current. As the current accelerated, Mu Boxing moved the control lever to increase the speed of the starship's lower engine to a higher gear, steadying the starship's descent. The torrent of water then slammed into the starship, making a loud noise that seemed to crack the starship's hull.
"It hasn't reached the maximum bearing capacity of the shell yet, so it's fine." Ming Yu stared at the starship performance screen and said, "There's a waterfall below."
As he finished speaking, the starship rushed out of the black passage and drove out from the water curtain, and the view suddenly became clear.
The water behind him roared as it fell from the heights, plunging into a vast underground river. The blue-black water rushed forward, skirting a black corner and intersecting with another fiery red underground river, forming a vast underground sea.
Hot air rushed forward from the confluence of the rivers, and red smoke rose from the sea.
Mingyu saw that it looked familiar and suddenly realized, "This is the lower reaches of the Rift Valley Waterfall River in Area E."
He looked up again.
The starship was located deep underground, far from the surface, and the space above the river was surprisingly high. Black rocks extended upward from both sides, forming a high and pointed dome.
It was dark underground, with only the faint flashes of light from the red river lava in the distance and the blue-gold filaments of mental power illuminating the general direction of the surrounding mountain walls, but not the appearance of the dome.
A blue ball of spiritual power floated upwards, the light penetrating the darkness and reflecting the red creature hanging upside down on the dome.
"Giant-eyed bat." Mingyu whispered, "Has it been harvested by someone? There doesn't seem to be too many treasure chests..." Mingyu's voice paused slightly.
He saw a bat with a large burnt hole in its wing.
There are remnants of Mingyan's spiritual power on it.
It’s the scorching sun.
Mingyu's expression paused slightly.
The blue spiritual power spread upwards, looking for gaps between the rocks, bypassing large passages and rising to the surface.
"Luce's mental power coverage has clearly increased!" the plush rabbit explained in the livestream. "Luce is clearly searching for something... but he hasn't forgotten to collect the treasure chest!"
When the light shines, it reflects a shining silver treasure chest.
The giant-eyed bats, startled by the light, let out a series of shrill, whistling sounds and flapping wings. The blue spiritual energy ball instantly dissipated into a mist, seeping into the holes in the surrounding rock walls. Darkness returned to the surroundings, and the bats stopped in confusion, looking around.
"puff."
With a slight sound, a small burst of blue mental energy severed the treasure chest straps on the back of a bat. The silver treasure chest fell rapidly downwards and was caught by Mu Boxing's mechanical arm.
The big-eyed bat flapped its wings. Feeling no pain, it was hard to tell what had fallen. Its bright blue mental energy flickered among the bats, plucking silver treasure chest after silver treasure chest and dropping them into the starship's cabin.
The bright blue spiritual power particles that have returned to the surface are mixed in the rough sand and gravel, moving forward with the wind.
Then he saw the black starship.
Lieyang is sailing westward, chasing a huge pterosaur star beast.
Mingyu glanced at the passage ahead. Their starship happened to be able to sail to a nearby location from underground...
Then, at a mountain pass that leads straight upward from the underground, they returned to the surface and unexpectedly captured Lieyang's starship from the front.
Hit him again and catch him off guard!
Mingyu: “…”
From a competition perspective, according to the Star Navigation Competition, Lieyang has quite a few treasure chests on him...
From the perspective of personal grudges...this opportunity for a sneak attack must not be missed!
"Go forward, Brother Mu." Mingyu then said, "Let's go and slaughter the fat sheep!"
The silver starship sailed away before the bat swarm became agitated again, heading along the passage ahead towards the top of the underground sea.
The surrounding temperature rose, and the red and black sea water did not roll restlessly like the underground in Area E, but remained dead silent.
Inside the Star Navigation Competition live broadcast room, the plush rabbit looked at the light screen in front of it, its gaze gradually changing from confusion to realization, and then to surprise.
"Look here!" As the commentator of the game, he had a complete three-dimensional star map in his hand, and each team appeared on the star map with bright spots of different colors.
The rabbit commentator pointed his finger at the colorful starships, then at the Lieyang team above, and said excitedly, "The colorful starships are going to intercept Lieyang's starships!"
"What a bold idea! This dark horse seems very confident in his own abilities! He wants to challenge the original seeded players in the Star Navigation Competition!"
"The colorful method you chose is a sneak attack from underground! But I want to say! The energy cannons of asteroid ships are far less penetrating than those of medium or large starships."
"Based on the depth they're at now, even if they're equipped with a focused valve and fire from underground, the energy cannon's energy threshold will drop by more than half by the time it reaches the height of the blazing sun! Its speed will also be significantly reduced!"
"Firstly, Mingyan's mental power is very sharp! And Feren's reaction ability is also not low! After the energy cannon slows down, it will most likely be detected and avoided."
"Secondly, even if Lieyang doesn't have time to react, based on Mu Boxing's A-level mental strength, even with the power amplification function of the starship's heart, after the energy decays, it might not even be able to penetrate the red flame film burned by Mingyan outside the starship..."
While the plush rabbit was speaking, the silver starship had already reached the end of the underground space.
This is the exit of another cave.
The rock walls on either side of the cave were rough, with a deep indentation forming in one spot, containing only a few dark pebbles. As the starship rose higher, the cave entrance Mingyu had anticipated appeared above.
The pale sunlight from the surface of Labyrinth Star appeared outside the cave entrance, making it look extremely bright.
Dots of bright blue spiritual energy passed through the cracks in the cave's stone walls. They were Mingyu's "eyes," allowing him to see what was happening outside.
Red fireworks glided across the sky.
It was as if it was the rainy night when he picked up the Firebird crystal core. Mingyu controlled the mental mist, through layers of obstructions, passed through the cracks in the rocks, looked out, and saw the black starship.
After the Star Domain Competition begins, the materials used by starship designers are no longer restricted.
The black starship that Lieyang was driving at this time was far more sturdy and aggressive than the one on Maze Star.
It was right above the cave, fighting with a large black ancient pterosaur.
Mingyu suddenly realized that this deep cave was the nest of this ancient pterosaur, and the depression on the rock wall was its nest.
Mingyu's gaze briefly shifted away from Lieyang's starship and looked at the back of the ancient pterosaur.
A silver treasure chest hung on its back, gleaming in the sunlight.
This treasure chest is very large, and the Pterosaur Star Beast is at least A-level, much higher than the Water Scorpion, so there must be a lot of points in it.
It's like killing two birds with one stone.
Mingyu exhaled softly. A fighting spirit flickered in his eyes. He pursed his lips slightly and pulled down the light screen above the driver's seat, which was very similar to Mu Baixing's control panel.
Mu Baixing leaned back in the driver's seat, his left hand on the starship joystick, but his right hand moved away from the weapon control screen.
Colorful hair: "???"
The brothers with colorful hair looked at Mu Baixing and then at Mingyu. They didn't know what their boss and Brother LU were going to do, but they still subconsciously held their breath.
In the silence, the mechanical arm inside the starship made a dull low sound, and the silver shell above it lifted up, revealing an extremely slender silver main gun barrel.
This is Mingyu's main gun barrel.
The young man narrowed his eyes slightly.
The black starship glided quickly across the sky, leaving behind a trail of afterimage.
The red spiritual power enveloped it, like a raging fire in the sky, expanding and contracting with the movement of the starship.
Controlling all movements in the sky, arrogant and ostentatious.
"You're going to stop laughing soon." Mingyu murmured in a low voice.
At the same time, the accumulator behind the slender barrel made a slight sound.
The sound was much softer than the sound of any gun barrel charging energy, just like the faint sound of a breeze blowing through the leaves.
The blue mental power was briefly stored and then injected into the circuit. After passing through layers of accelerators, it was superimposed at a speed that could not be accurately captured by the naked eye or any detection device...
Rushed to the sky in an instant!
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