Chapter 92 Star Region Tournament Second Round (Part 1) (Two-in-One)
Mingyu slept until dark.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the sun was setting on Ice Mars.
The golden-pink sunset cast a dreamy bright color on the snowy field. The last ray of sunlight slanted through the window into the house and shone on Mu Baixing.
The man was leaning against the floor-length sofa beside the bed, wearing a helmet and logging into the virtual star network. The virtual goggles on the helmet were pulled down over his eyes, revealing a high nose bridge and a well-defined jawline, making him look very handsome.
His aura returned to its usual cool and calm state, no longer carrying that passionate aggression. It seemed that he was sober.
Mingyu admired it for a while, then opened his communicator. The first message that popped up was from Gao Siqi.
She moved quickly, completing the guarantor process and sending the formal employment letter for Mingyu to sign.
This time, Mingyu read the terms of the employment letter carefully from beginning to end, and then simply signed his name.
The signed employment letter was uploaded to the Star Navigation Department's human resources system and took effect after a quick review. From the HR team reviewing the information, to the team leader and deputy team leader, and even Gao Siqi's immediate superior, the general manager, everyone couldn't help but smile.
"Great, Xiao Gao," the director exclaimed. "I didn't expect you to find him so easily! You've made good use of your vacation. How did you contact Luce? Did you see him in person? Did anyone else see him? That Mu Baixing. It's impossible for him to just come to our Star Navigation Department directly."
Wucaibanlan's performance in the Star Navigation Competition was too eye-catching, so the Star Navigation Department certainly did not want to miss this opportunity.
"Let me see." Gao Siqi didn't answer the leader's first question. He simply said, "Proceed step by step."
Mingyu is not familiar with them yet, so even if she invites them now, she will probably get a polite rejection.
That being said, hiring LUCE as a non-staff designer was a significant event. The official Star Navigation Department staff list was immediately updated that day, and the department's Star Network operations account also announced the change.
"Welcome LUCE to become the specially appointed non-staff designer of the Central Star Region Star Navigation Department!"
The first match of the Star Region Tournament had just concluded two days ago, and the topic of LUCE's repeated destruction of the Fiery Sun and detonation of the Black Tide Bug hadn't yet subsided. With the announcement from the Central Star Region Navigation Department, the Star Network immediately exploded.
Countless people flooded the Star Navigation Department's Starnet account, asking how to contact Luce, asking about Luce's real life, and asking if he planned to reveal his identity. The military and other exploration teams didn't respond outwardly, but privately they intensified their search...
After all, LUCE just became a non-staff designer in the Star Navigation Department!
Is this position unique?! If I can get a position as a part-time employee in the Star Navigation Department, I can get one in any other department! We need to grab Luce before he's completely recruited by the Star Navigation Department!
Mingyu was unaware of the turbulent situation on Starnet. After replying to Gao Siqi's message, he opened the message notification from Mu Baixing.
The other party was obviously searching for issues related to mental resonance, and sent him a research paper on mental resonance from twenty or thirty years ago.
"From the above calculations, we can see that 100% spiritual resonance allows both parties to acquire each other's spiritual power characteristics. Mastery increases with the number of 100% spiritual power resonances. At the same time, the strong energy resonance caused by 100% spiritual power resonance can cause the spiritual power levels of both parties to increase exponentially during the resonance period. I would like to call this perfect resonance."
"By deduction, perfect resonance cannot occur repeatedly in a short period of time."
"It is known that the shortest usage interval for normal resonance is generally five to ten hours, while the range of the usage interval for perfect resonance is roughly between ten and thirty hours after dispersion."
Human beings' understanding of mental power is incomplete, and many things about mental power are still unknown.
Historically, there have indeed been awakened individuals in the human star field who have a high degree of matching and can achieve spiritual resonance, but there has never been a case of spiritual characteristics being transmitted.
Mu Baixing searched for a long time before he found an unread paper in a corner of the Star Network.
All the conclusions of this paper about perfect resonance are based on simple theoretical calculations and are not even supported by model simulation data. Therefore, it has not been accepted by any journal and is stored alone in a corner of the Star Network.
But this seemingly unreliable paper is the only information that can explain the transmission of mental power between him and Mingyu.
Mu Boxing then highlighted the phrase "as the number of resonances increases," and then marked "ten to twenty hours," and confirmed with Mingyu, "Tomorrow night."
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu: "Tomorrow night is tomorrow night!"
People must have the courage to explore the unknown!
Mingyu thought so and quickly replied to the other party. Then he turned off the light screen, jumped off the bed and knocked on Mu Baixing's virtual helmet.
Mu Baixing: “…”
He pushed up his helmet and saw the young man standing barefoot in front of the bed, his face slightly flushed against the backdrop of the setting sun. He said, trying to change the subject, "I'm hungry! Brother Mu! Let's eat!"
Half an hour later, Mingyu and Mu Baixing arrived at the self-service barbecue glass house equipped in each holiday cabin.
One of the biggest goals of this trip was finally achieved, and they started grilling bird eggs over an underground fire.
The barbecue glass houses in the snow are far apart and have one-way glass, so Mingyu doesn't have to worry about anyone seeing what's happening inside.
After entering the barbecue house, he didn't even look at the menu screen, and directly took out the white bird egg from his pocket.
This bird egg has been puffing in his pocket every day recently, apparently because it is very dissatisfied with Mingyu's behavior of not feeding it high-energy flames.
Mingyu turned on the switch of the ground oven, and the orange-red flames from the deep layer of the planet that were transferred from underground instantly filled the entire furnace, and the temperature in the room rose immediately.
He held the egg and gestured, feeling that putting it on the grill would look too much like grilling bird eggs, so he used large tweezers to remove the bracket above the oven and placed the egg directly into the oven.
The white bird egg seemed to move contentedly in the oven, then stopped and sat quietly in its place.
No fussing, no jumping, and no turning off the oven here.
Mingyu was a little surprised.
"It seems to work!" He said as he looked at the bird eggs engulfed in orange-red flames, and suddenly remembered something.
"The burning flame of an S-class energy crystal is comparable to the underground fire of an S-class energy crystal..." Ming Yu flicked his fingertips and ignited a cluster of spiritual power flames he had just learned. "I have S-class spiritual power! I'll give you some more encouragement!"
Mu Baixing also threw a little gold into it, with a casual posture, looking like he was just joining in the fun, while his other hand was still sliding the single light screen.
Ten minutes later, the fresh ingredients promised by Holiday Star were delivered by the service robot. Mingyu took the tongs, moved the bird eggs aside, built a small shelter for it with a few decorative stones in the oven, and then put the barbecue rack back on the oven.
A service robot on the side held a brush and began to brush oil on the grill.
The fresh ingredients it delivered were lined up on a small table next to the oven. A light screen behind each plate of ingredients displayed the best cooking method and time for that ingredient. Mingyu was excited and began to try grilling.
The thinly sliced beef, with its alternating fat and lean texture, quickly changed color and cooked through on the grill, emitting a fragrant aroma. The young man busied himself with placing the meat on the grill and turning it over. Mu Baixing, meticulously calculating the time, placed the roasted slices on the plate. Once they cooled slightly, he dipped them in the barbecue sauce on the side and brought them to Mingyu's lips.
Mingyu stopped moving for a moment, tempted by the fragrance, and opened his mouth naturally.
The young man's tongue curled outward, drawing the thin slice of beef in. A speck of oil stained his healthy pink lips, and Mingyu licked them subconsciously.
Mingyu: “It’s delicious!”
The young man's eyes lit up and he couldn't help but say, "Brother Mu! Have another bite!"
Mu Baixing: “…”
Mu Baixing's gaze deepened and he picked up another piece of barbecue with chopsticks.
Mingyu didn't notice the change in the man's eyes. He turned the pork belly over while chewing the delicious food in his mouth.
He curled his eyes in satisfaction and touched Mu Baixing's shoulder, "Brother Mu, try it too! It smells really good..."
He paused slightly and looked down at the oven.
In the quiet night, the only sound in the glass house was the soft crackle of a burning flame. Mingyu waited for a few seconds, and sure enough, he heard another crackling sound, as if something were shattering.
Mingyu: “!”
He quickly moved all the meat slices on the grill to Mu Boxing's plate, removed the grill above, and opened the stone hut he had built to prevent the bird eggs from being submerged in oil.
The white bird egg still lay there quietly, surrounded by three colors of flames, and looked intact.
Mingyu looked puzzled. He picked up the bird egg with pliers and touched it tentatively.
After being burned at high temperature for a long time, the shell of the bird egg was not hot at all, only slightly warm.
Mingyu simply took the bird eggs in his hands and turned them over.
The bottom of the bird's egg was dyed with a palm-sized block of blue, gold and red mixed together.
Small patches of color spread upward, forming cracks.
Mingyu reached out and touched it, and felt a small bump on the crack.
Mingyu: “…”
The crackling sound just now was indeed the sound of the bird egg shell breaking.
He compared it with his fingers. The crack growing upwards was very short, even shorter than his fingernail.
"...Isn't it going to burn here for days and nights?" Mingyu couldn't help but reach out and flick the eggshell. The bird egg bounced in his hand, spewing out circles of white steam, as if urging him to put itself back into the fire quickly.
Those energy flames are its appetite. The child has been starving for the past few days without food!
Mingyu: “…”
Mingyu put the bird eggs back into the oven and glanced at the calendar.
It seems... their second star field competition will be held on this resort planet.
It doesn't matter, since I have a new salary of 100,000 yuan per month.
Mingyu was thinking while rebuilding the stone house for the bird eggs, and his attitude towards spending money became more and more casual.
What's more, the Star Navigation Competition is an online competition, and the design draft can be drawn anywhere.
Apart from paying a few extra nights of accommodation, it doesn’t make much difference whether you’re here or in the capital star!
Mingyu thought about it while setting up the grill and continuing the barbecue.
Mu Baixing took a look at the steak he put on the grill, then looked at the operating screen, went to the seasoning table to prepare the sauce, and came to help Mingyu.
As he was brushing the steak with a soft brush in one hand, the communication bracelet on his wrist dinged.
"I heard you're looking for evidence of the Third Legion's massacre, Boss Mu." The woman on the screen had neat short blond hair and said straight to the point, "I have something fresh..."
She was halfway through her words when she saw the background behind Mu Baixing.
"Wow." The woman whistled and asked curiously, "What's so great about this place? The snow scene out back is quite beautiful. What are you doing here? Grabbing a brush and painting the starship?"
Mu Baixing focused on brushing sauce on the steak and said simply, "Date."
woman:"……"
"Tell me. What evidence?" Mu Baixing clicked on the virtual image setting function of the light screen call, and then pushed the light screen away so that Mingyu could see the scene inside clearly.
"Adeline." He introduced Mingyu, "Captain of the Outer Harbor's largest exploration team."
"LUCE." Mu Baixing nodded and said to the person on the screen, "The person I'm pursuing."
Although the Star Navigation Competition also has a competition zone in the Free Star Region, the registration fee in the Free Star Region is very high, so the number of participants each year is surprisingly small. As the Outer Harbor is the most harsh star sea in the Free Star Region, no one pays attention to this event.
Most of their time is spent sailing to make money and engaging in group fights. Their rest time is precious and limited. They prefer some real, tangible and visible entertainment rather than watching others fight on a screen.
Adeline was one of the few people who knew about the Star Navigation Competition and would occasionally watch the replays.
As the leader of the largest exploration team in the outer port, she advocates an open vision and dares to think and act. She cannot really exile herself and cut herself off from the vast human star field just because the conditions in the outer port are poor and the location is remote.
Adeline's biggest dream is to lead her exploration team members into the safe star field.
As soon as the colorful group appeared, Adeline recognized Mu Baixing and the others, and she must have known LUCE.
After hearing what Mu Baixing said, she sighed in disbelief, "That's incredible, Mu Baixing. You went out to participate in a competition and found a partner?"
"You look so cute, little cutie?" She glanced at Mingyu, who was flipping the steak. "It would be so boring to be with that cold, wooden Mu Baixing. Why don't you just follow me?"
Mingyu: “…”
He glanced at his image displayed on the call interface: the most ordinary appearance, shirt, jeans, and black thick-bottomed glasses.
Mingyu had no idea where the words "little cutie" came from.
Mu Baixing looked indifferent as he pulled the light screen away from Mingyu, his body filled with coldness.
"Let's get down to business," he said. "What evidence do you have? What's your price?"
The playful look on Adeline's face faded.
"Half a year ago, a volcano erupted underground on that molten planet far from the outer harbor, causing the earth's crust to shift and reveal a lot of things. Have you heard about it?"
Mu Baixing nodded.
The planet was located at the farthest point of Outer Harbor, close to the star line. Archie, the Outer Harbor know-it-all, stumbled upon the planet's environmental changes while passing by. News quickly spread to Outer Harbor, but because the planet was so dangerous, few exploration teams dared to send anyone there.
What's more, if this kind of long-distance exploration wants to ensure the safety of personnel, the initial investment required is huge, and not many exploration teams in the outer port can afford it.
Mu Boxing's exploration team was still in the process of expansion and reorganization, and funds were even more limited at the time, so they had not thought about going to that planet for development.
But Adeline was different.
She has been developing in Outer Harbor for decades, and her exploration team is financially strong. If she doesn't get involved in this ownerless resource planet, she would be unworthy of her title as the number one boss in Outer Harbor!
"As a result, we sent three or four groups of people up there, and not a single one came back."
"They say that place is remote and dangerous, and that there's been plenty of murder and robbery in our outer harbor. Someone's got to compete with me." Adeline frowned. "But I'm confused. Who would dare to go after my men like that and still not find any trace?! Those guys are usually pretty aggressive, and they've fought over resource stars before... How could they have lost so many men?"
"I just tinkered with this thing myself, a bionic microneedle monitor."
Adeline snapped her fingers.
Mingyu leaned closer to the light screen and saw that what was resting on her fingertips looked like a small black beetle.
"It can stick to the target's skin." Adeline casually pressed the beetle against the back of her hand and shook it twice, signaling to Mingyu, "It's not easy to get rid of, and it knows how to hide."
As soon as she let go, the black beetle crawled along her wrist and into her sleeve.
"Anyway, it's a modified miniature surveillance camera." Adeline didn't bother to explain too much. "I asked my men to carry it. If we really had to die, we had to die knowingly. And it turns out someone was watching us and attacked us."
"Burning property mineral crystals above grade A." She glanced at Mu Baixing and Ming Yu, "My men are quite good at finding things. They dug up several and were seen when we returned to the starport base on the resource planet..." She stretched out her hand and made a gesture of wiping her neck.
"I gave out more than a dozen of these things, and most of the people I caught were from the Free Star Region. They looked like they were hired specifically to intercept the goods. I led my men to block and kill several waves of them."
"There are three or four more, which is interesting," Adeline said coldly. "I guess the employer behind the scenes was afraid that he couldn't intercept the goods, so he took action himself. He was followed by this thing into the central star field and even into a military space city."
As she spoke, several waves of videos came through.
In the video, a beetle-shaped black monitor poked outward, half of the lens was blocked by the sleeve, and the other half showed the starport entrance of the iron-gray military space city.
"The supplies have all been sent to the resource group." The camera panned, a white military uniform with a flash of the golden Third Legion insignia on the cuff. "Did everything we got this time prove useful? It's really tough being in the outer harbor. The exploration teams there are so difficult to deal with. I almost didn't make it back."
"Follow the orders of the Legion Commander." The Star Harbor's guide said casually, "We are looking for something for Master Mingyan. Don't try to fool him."
"Hey, that's what you say, easy." The first person said, "Next time it's your turn, try it..."
The two people who were chatting suddenly stood up straight, turned to the front, saluted, and said briefly: "Captain."
The captain's face flashed by in the camera, and Mingyu frowned.
"He's the captain of the first squadron of the Third Legion." He whispered to Mu Baixing, "We met on Labyrinth Star."
"It seems these people...are from the Third Legion, searching for crystal cores to help Ming Yan improve his spiritual power."
The meat on the grill was still sizzling and emitting a burnt smell from over-grilling.
Mu Baixing took the tongs from Mingyu's hand and put the overcooked steak into the plate.
Mingyu's eyes flashed with anger. At that moment, he just wanted to know...how many people had the Third Legion harmed for Mingyan?
He took a deep breath, managed to calm down, and turned to Adeline.
"Can you sell me some of these micro-monitors? I want four or five," he said. "They'll be useful against the Ming family."
Next week is Grandpa’s birthday. Ming Yan, Fei Lun, Ming Zhuo, his parents, and the captain of the first squad of the Third Legion who is treated like a “crown prince” will all go to the Ming family.
He had evidence of the Third Legion's murderous intent on Labyrinth Star, as well as information gathered from the outer ports. If he could also find evidence of Ming Zhilang or Zhao Ying...
The Ming family won’t be able to turn things around easily!
"Of course, you can. But the only shipping company from the Free Star Region to the Central Star Region is one invested in by that old man, the executive officer of Labyrinth Star, and they have strict inspections. This thing is illegal, and it won't pass the security checkpoint when it's sent by courier into the Central Star Region."
"Send it to my exploration team base." Mu Baixing said.
"Someone brought it in."
Mingyu turned to look at him and realized that he was talking about the brothers with colorful hair.
Mu Baixing handed Mingyu a plate of barbecue.
“They will be able to arrive the day after the next game.”
That night, the two of them ate up all the barbecue. Because the glass house was a public area, they couldn't leave the bird eggs in the stove, so they could only dig the white eggs out of the flames and take them away.
The bird egg returned to Mingyu's pocket. After tasting the sweetness, he ran around in dissatisfaction, jumping up and down, wanting to go back to warm himself by the fire.
"You can forget about that underground fire today." Mingyu tried to reason with it but to no avail. Finally, he lit the spiritual flame in the antique fireplace of the wooden house and put the white bird egg in it.
The blue-gold spiritual flames were clearly just snacks. The bird egg rolled around unwillingly for a few times, but realizing there was no earth fire to eat, it had no other choice but to sit in the blue-gold flames, feeling aggrieved and quiet.
Mingyu tapped the eggshell soothingly and turned on the communication bracelet.
On the way back from barbecue with Mu Baixing, the questions for the second game of the Star Domain Competition happened to be distributed.
The questions this time are very short and the competition format seems simple and crude.
"Central Star Region, Star Region Tournament, Match 2: Dark Night Beacon—"
"On the eve of the battle with the enemy, due to a strong cosmic storm, long-range signal communication between the front-line space stations has been lost. Team members are requested to rush to the space stations along the way as quickly as possible, connect to the space station information plugs, transmit strategic deployment information, and ignite the 'Dark Night Beacon' in the universe—"
"Once all teams have completed the information transmission and returned to the departure starport, the information transmission will be considered complete."
"During navigation, if a starship crashes, it will return to the last space station it passed before the crash. The starship's damage level will increase by 100%, forcing it to enter the repair port."
"Please note that each fleet in this star map can only use the repair port three times. Teams that exceed this limit and fail to complete the information transmission will be automatically eliminated."
"The top ten teams that complete all information transmission first will enter the final of the Star Navigation Competition."
"If there are fewer than ten teams that have completed all information transmissions, the process will continue based on the number of space stations that have completed information transmission until ten teams are selected to advance to the finals!"
*
"Breaking! Big breaking news! Explosive news! A Black Tide Queen appeared during the second match of the Central Star Region Tournament! Click to see LUCE's unparalleled heroic performance of killing the Black Tide Queen with a devouring bomb!—"
"Another explosion! Another explosion! Huge explosive news! LUCE becomes the specially appointed designer of the Star Navigation Department! Assisting the Star Navigation Department in developing a new type of exploration starship to equip the Black Tide Star Sea Exploration Team! —"
"LUCE oh my god!! LUCE is awesome!!!"
Post the title, followed by a series of ellipsis.
“…”
“…”
"...Isn't that the village network upstairs?"
"It's been a week since the last match! I've watched the video of my idol, LUCE, killing the Black Tide Bug hundreds of times every day! How did you just see it?! We watched LUCE unleash his might!! We've been going crazy on Starnet for a week!!"
"That's right! I never thought the observer's mental power could be so terrifying! Let's not even talk about that Black Tide Queen! Just the scene of destroying those starships earlier... it was too amazing! I was completely stunned! I used to like the blazing sun! Now I like colorful things! Isn't colorful things a million times more powerful than the blazing sun?"
"It's not that exaggerated a million times over; victory and defeat are common in the military. But Lieyang was truly disappointing this time," someone replied. "Please don't criticize me. Although Lieyang advanced to the second Star Region Tournament, they only ranked sixth. And compared to Wucai Bianlan, the situation is really not good..."
"Especially at the end! When that Black Tideworm Queen came out!"
"Luce's move was so cool! Lieyang was so disappointed when he saw it from afar and turned around and ran away!"
"Not really," someone immediately retorted, "Lieyang obviously contacted the tournament committee to avoid being affected by the Black Tide's energy! Not everyone is going to rush in like a fool!"
"Come on, stop being so hypocritical. Why didn't they turn back after contacting the Star Navigation Competition Organizing Committee?! Ranger, Little Yellow Duck, and Pearl Earrings all went back to lend a hand! And honestly, I understand other teams choosing to play it safe, but Lieyang... Mingyan and Feilun are cadets slated to join the Third Legion and about to graduate, right?! Don't they have any sense of responsibility?! They talked so nicely during the promotional campaign, but why did they run away so quickly when things really got tough?!"
"If you ask me, don't be like Ming Zhilang last time, when he was heartbroken after making that statement about the Death Star Sea and then got exposed...his previous reputation was all just publicity!"
"That's right! Because of this, I didn't even vote for Ming Zhilang in his bid for the Capital Star Executive Officer position this time!"
As the second game of the Star Domain Tournament approaches, the Star Network is in a bloody mess.
At the Central Star Region Military Academy, Ming Yan sat on his bed in the dormitory, looking irritated.
He had just finished special training in the Third Legion and returned to the military academy. Even though he didn't log on to the Star Network to read the news, he could still hear some of his classmates' gossip behind his back on the way back to the dormitory.
"Why did Senior Mingyan and Senior Feilun run away? They are so powerful..."
"How cowardly! Such a disgrace to our Central Star Region Military Academy!"
The second Star Region match was about to begin in a few hours. Ming Yan became increasingly angry as he thought about it. He rushed into the public bathroom and washed his face with cold water.
He wished he could cut LUCE and Mu Boxing into pieces right now.
But his father is now running for the executive officer of the capital planet. Their last attempt was unsuccessful, and they also received a warning from Luce...
His father warned him again and again that now was not a good time to strike again.
For the Ming family's sake, and for his own sake, he and Fei Lun had to perform brilliantly in the next game to reverse the trend of public opinion on StarNet.
"He's just an observer and pilot who came from nowhere." Mingyan splashed water on his face again, barely controlling his emotions. He ignored the fear and dread that would arise in his heart whenever he thought of the colorful world, and returned to the dormitory to put on the virtual helmet.
At the same time, the live broadcast room of the Star Navigation Competition and Star Domain Competition was reopened on StarNet.
“Dangdangdangdang!——”
With a burst of passionate music, the rabbit in a suit fell from the sky, landed on the commentary desk, and struck a super handsome pose.
"Ladies and gentlemen! I'm your Rabbit commentator!" He put on a show for the camera, blowing a rather awkward kiss. "This is the second game of the Star Navigation Tournament! It's also the final game in the Central Star Region!"
"The theme of this competition is Dark Night Beacon! We will select the ten teams among the thirty participating teams that complete information transmission the earliest and advance to the Star Navigation Competition finals!—"
"You know! The qualification for advancement in this match depends entirely on the speed of information transmission! And each team's departure time is determined by the treasure chest points they earned in the previous match!"
"Under these screening conditions, the first place winner of the previous match, the winner of the golden treasure chest, our Colorful Team! has a huge advantage—"
"Team Colorful will have a five-minute departure time ahead of the second-place team. What a precious, important five minutes! "Rabbit Commentator," I'm so excited to see what surprises Colorful will bring us in this match!
"Now that the starport is open, let's move the camera towards the colorful silver starship!——"
"Oh, this is the first time I've seen Wucailai use a medium-to-large starship in a competition! The traditional inverted triangle model! Silver paint job, with the tail painted in the same rainbow colors! Look at the terrifyingly wide strip-shaped main gun port! And the row of intimidating secondary gun ports below! It's..."
"The competition has already begun, but why hasn't the colorful starship set sail yet?"
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