Chapter 93 Star Region Tournament, Game 2 (Part 2)
Inside the starship's cockpit, Ming Yu was looking at the oblate disk-shaped star map floating in the air in front of him.
In every previous competition, the Star Navigation Competition had distributed star charts directly to the contestants after the communication was interrupted. This chart was concise and clear to read. But just now, after the countdown on the light screen in the cockpit reached zero, the star chart for this competition did not appear on their screens. Instead, it appeared in the form of an oblate star disk in the center of the cockpit.
This oblate star disk seems to contain a miniature universe.
The star map was pitch black, with distant stars gleaming and nearby planets hovering. Seven space stations were scattered across the universe, symbolizing the locations they would pass through during their voyage. And at the edge of the star map, the starport gleamed, marking both the starting point and the end point of their race.
They need to plan the fastest route.
However, this star disk is not like the usual concise and clear star map. It does not provide any energy information about the navigation environment. It seems that they need to explore it themselves.
Bright blue spiritual power seeped out from Mingyu's fingertips and wandered among the black star disks.
Mingyu sensed that the star map seemed to be infused with interfering energy. He quickly brushed aside the interfering energy strands and absorbed them, allowing him to see the full picture of the star map.
"The background of the competition is due to a strong cosmic storm, which has blocked long-distance communications." Ming Yu whispered, "The sailing conditions this time are really terrible..."
As he spoke, he picked up an electronic pen and drew two strokes on the light screen, drawing out the information he saw from the star chart.
"These areas are where the cosmic storms are most intense," the young man spoke quickly, tapping the screen with his electronic pen, painting several areas crimson. "The cosmic storms here are intense, exceeding the capacity of our starship's hull. If we rely solely on the hull's strength, we'll surely crash if we enter."
"And these light red areas indicate the starship must have sustained damage during its voyage."
There were no repair stations in this match; if a starship was completely damaged, it was disqualified. All teams were targeting those same space stations, and fighting was inevitable to prevent the other teams from transmitting information.
The damage value of a starship is both a non-repeatable resource and an advantage when fighting against other teams. It is a factor that does not need to be considered during navigation.
"The fastest way to completely avoid cosmic storms is to take these two routes." Mingyu changed the marker to orange and drew two routes on the light screen. "The cosmic storm here isn't very severe, but there are two locations along the way... The spiral energy flows nearby are a bit strange, like the lair of a large cosmic beast. If you want to pass through here, you may have to fight, and it may also take time."
"If you want to completely avoid the star beast, you can take a longer route." Mingyu switched to a green marker and drew a line, frowning slightly. "But there's a black hole in this line... Even with my mental power going in, I can't clearly see what's inside the star disk."
"It could be a space wormhole," Mingyu said. "We don't know where it leads to, and we don't know if we'll be caught in turbulence and be judged as a crash if we enter it."
"If it's safer, you can take these routes, but it takes five times as long as the previous ones, so it's not worth it."
Mu Baixing leaned back in the driver's seat with his arms folded, looking at Mingyu's circuit diagram.
"Avoid the wormhole," Mu Baixing said. He saw that Mingyu hadn't finished speaking, so he gestured for the young man to continue.
Mingyu slid his electronic pen across the screen, "I personally prefer this approach."
"Turn here from the fourth route, bypass the wormhole, continue on the third route, bypass the spiral energy field, and enter the first route."
“It goes even faster than taking the first route.”
A few people with colorful hair peeked in and squeezed in to take a look.
"The area around the wormhole is red, hey, LU brother." Red Hair asked doubtfully, "You just said that the cosmic energy intensity here is too high. If you go in, you will crash in minutes."
Mingyu raised his eyebrows in the direction of Mu Baixing, with a smile in his clear eyes.
"If we rely solely on the hull of the starship to resist the energy flow, it will crash," he said, "but we still have me and your boss."
"Three hours, put up a mental shield to pass through the red energy storm zone." He bumped Mu Baixing's shoulder, "Is that okay, Brother Mu?"
Mu Baixing rubbed the back of Mingyu's head, stood up and sat in the driver's seat.
The lights inside the starship cockpit dimmed and entered navigation preparation mode.
In the live broadcast room, Rabbit commented and said "Oh".
"The colorful ships have finally set sail! Their starship is incredibly fast! Apparently, they're using the acceleration engine that LUCE has repeatedly improved!" he exclaimed. "I just got the news that the organizing committee tampered with the star maps of each team. No wonder the colorful ships only just left port!"
"They spent five minutes reading the star charts and deciding their sailing route for this race! Now let's take a look at the second team, the Rangers, who set sail at the same time!"
"Sure enough, the Ranger didn't leave the starport immediately!"
"As the second-place team in the last match, the departure time between Ranger and the third-place team was five minutes apart. They also spent nearly five minutes reading the star map! So, the third place is... Ya Ya Chong Chong."
"The Duck Battleship, which set sail four minutes earlier than the fourth-place team, wow! It seems they're very confident in their own abilities! They've already set sail from the harbor in three minutes!"
"Of the three teams, Ranger and Colorful are heading in completely opposite directions! Yaya Chongchong's route is also different from the previous two! It looks like they won't be meeting anytime soon. Hmm... a bit of a shame."
"Our fourth team, Water Polo, has also departed! Hmm! It seems the Water Polo team didn't make any special plans based on the locations of the various space stations or the development of the cosmic storm energy cloud. Instead, they chose the space station closest to the departure port..."
The observer of the Water Ball Starship looked depressed.
It’s not that they don’t want to make a plan, but his mental power is unable to clear away the interfering energy in the star map, nor can he penetrate those energy threads and see all the markings on the map clearly!
Therefore, they can only temporarily choose the nearest space station as their destination, hoping that the star map can provide more information and prompts near the route as the starship sails.
"It's okay." The team's driver noticed the observer's mood and took the time to comfort him. "We're definitely not the only team that can't see the star map clearly, but we set off several minutes earlier than the last few teams!"
"Isn't it just that we might have to take a long detour later? Drive faster, we can handle the detour. If we encounter an enemy starship on the way, we can shoot it down and slow down our progress!"
"Maybe it's not that simple." The observer forced a smile. "If it's just a competition of speed in path planning, the Star Navigation Competition would seem a bit lenient."
Mingyu was lost in thought amidst the sea of stars. However, from the moment they set sail until now, and even after half an hour, the universe had remained completely calm, with no unusual signs appearing.
The large silver aircraft carrier was sailing rapidly along the planned route, with the only disturbance coming from the cosmic storm energy wind blowing in the distance.
But such energy waves had no effect on the large starship. The silver starship sailed smoothly and there was no trace of other teams around it. It was like a lonely voyager.
The competition officials projected a complete virtual star map and the routes chosen by each team onto all live broadcast screens. On each map, as soon as the information was successfully transmitted, the corresponding space station symbol would light up.
"This colorful route isn't a good one," Observer Momonga wondered in the Slayer Team lounge. "It's safe, but it takes a long detour. Since most of the teams that choose this route aren't very strong, they shouldn't be at a disadvantage in a fight."
"Although they will enter Space Station 7 first, the safe routes from here to all other remaining starports are very far..."
"Colorful has chosen to be the first to reach Space Station 7." Inside the live broadcast room, the plush rabbit was a little hesitant. "Although Colorful is the first team to depart, they won't be the first team to arrive at the space station this time."
The plush rabbit looked at the light screen in front of him, shook his head and said, "It seems that their route selection was a bit wrong."
"Half an hour after the match began, most of the teams split into three groups. One group, led by the Rangers, attempted to break through the Star Beast Zone, while several other ships, such as the Lieyang, aimed to pass through the edge of the cosmic storm and the Star Beast Zone. Five or six other teams, like the Water Balls, chose to head for the nearest space station first."
"And Colorful has taken a different approach. It seems they have some kind of plan, but... I can't quite understand their thinking."
"Based on their performance in previous matches, I think there must be some mystery behind their choice."
"As they sail safely and colorfully, let's take a moment to shift our focus away from them. The Water Polo Team, the first of the third group to set sail for Nearby Space Station 3, is approaching the outer reaches of the station!"
"Once their starship enters the space docking station and inserts the communication plug to exchange information, the information light in the center of the space station will light up green, indicating that the communication has been transmitted... Oh!!"
The plush rabbit suddenly opened his eyes wide and said in surprise: "The water ball was attacked!"
"What the... what is this!! Where did this starship come from! - It appeared right next to the space station -"
In the dark universe, a black starship, almost the same color as the background, appeared out of thin air.
It was huge and sharp, with a huge bright red "three" painted on the side of the pure black hull, and a black and white circular emblem like a bull's eye painted next to it.
"Is that... the logo of the Third Legion?!" The rabbit commentator scratched his head. "Everyone knows that the circular black and white bull's-eye is the logo of the Central Star Region Military, and the number three symbolizes the Third Legion. Oh, and I see there are two numbers below the three?"
The rabbit squinted his eyes and carefully identified it: "Three... one... one..."
“Beep, beep, beep—”
The light screen in front of the commentator lit up, and real-time information from the Star Navigation Competition Organizing Committee came in.
He quickly pulled the light screen in front of him, and then showed an expression of realization.
"It seems that this suddenly appearing starship from the Third Legion is the 'easter egg' prepared by the Star Navigation Competition for all participating teams! Even I was kept in the dark!" He projected his light screen in front of the camera and let every audience member read the rules on it.
"The Star Navigation Competition Organizing Committee has dispatched gatekeepers to each space station to prevent participating teams from docking with the stations. Six of the seven stations are guarded by experts from the First to Third Legions, as well as the Star Navigation Department."
"The gatekeepers, like the contestants, access the virtual star map through their helmets! Using their coordinates, they'll directly block any participating teams as they approach the space battle—"
"Well, I guess each of our teams will only know this 'good news' when they gather close to the space station..."
The plush rabbit rubbed his chin and asked doubtfully, "Seven space stations, but only six groups of gatekeepers are mentioned... Could it be that the seventh space station is accessible without any obstacles? Or is there something else going on?"
"Anyway, let's get back to the water polo game... Oh!! Things aren't looking good for the water polo game!!"
The dark blue starship is traveling at high speed, intending to rush towards the docking port of the space station.
And in front of it, the black starship was quietly suspended in the universe.
Its six gun barrels spread out in all directions, gleaming faintly. After a brief period of charging, they unleashed a barrage of gray fire. However, shortly after firing, not far from the black starship, the dense barrage mysteriously vanished, as if cut off by something.
The rabbit explained: "How come..."
Before he could finish his words, the gray light reappeared.
But it was behind the Water Ball starship which was several miles away from the Third Legion starship!
The energy cannon tore through the universe as if it had experienced a short-distance space jump, and suddenly appeared at the tail of the Water Ball starship, which was completely beyond Water Ball's expectations.
The blue starship moved quickly to the left, but it was difficult to dodge completely.
The outer layer of the starship suddenly lit up, activating a large area of energy protection film, but the gray artillery fire instantly spread outward, spreading like blown dust, forming a giant, wide gray palm.
The rabbit commentator was rummaging through the information he had just received and quickly read out, "The gatekeepers of this space station are from the ace fleet of the First Squadron of the Third Legion! They have a single pilot and a single observer. The observer has A-level mental power and no special mental power attributes. The pilot has A+ mental power and the mental power attribute is 'Space Tearing'... - Wow -"
Inside the Third Legion starship, silence fell in the cockpit.
Observer Lunpo glanced at the captain secretly.
The driver's helmet blocked most of Albin's face, and Lunpo could only see the slightly raised corners of his mouth.
Lunpo had not previously been Albin's observer, but rather one of the two observers for pilot Sun Nian. He was on personal leave when the order to go to Labyrinth Planet was issued, and missed the mission. However, his partner pilot died during the mission, and the captain's observer was also injured and on leave on Labyrinth Planet, so Lunpo was transferred to the captain's position.
Shortly after returning from Labyrinth Star, the First Squad received a new mission and set out again for the Free Star Region to continue searching for resources. However, just before departure, he and Ellen received an invitation from the Star Navigation Competition Organizing Committee to become "gatekeepers" for the Star Region Competition, so they stayed.
It wasn't clear what had happened to the captain on Labyrinth Star, but he felt that since returning from Labyrinth Star, Albin had become even more aggressive, his attacks in training matches much more ferocious than before. During training with Lieyang, watching Albin's slight interest as he repeatedly blasted the opposing starships apart… briefly terrified Lunpo.
But at the same time, Albin's strength also increased. The artillery jump distance, which was originally only able to perform small space jumps, now reached one star mile.
"Gatekeepers, please attack with all your might until the opposing starship's damage level drops below 0.1 percent, or it enters the space station docking port." A warning appeared on the screen in the cockpit. "Please note that all your actions are recorded. We will monitor and assess your attitude towards each team. Please refrain from favoritism or fraud—"
"I understand." Albin said slowly.
In the star map, gray artillery fire shaped like a hand falling from the sky, enveloping the water ball starship...
Then, clench your palms inwards with force.
The large starship belonging to the water ball exploded outward, was shattered in an instant, and turned into a piece of debris floating in the universe.
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