Chapter 43: Warship Graveyard
The “Qinyuan” roamed through space, with its sensors occasionally detecting fleets of varying sizes, from small fleets of dozens to hundreds of ships, to large fleets numbering in the thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, forming an endless sea of warships.
The most dangerous threat occurred when the “Qinyuan” collided head-on with an endless ocean of steel. The warship markers on the sensors stretched to the horizon.
Just as the “Qinyuan” emerged, thousands of large turrets fired, and the dense barrage of projectiles almost covered the entire sky.
The dangerous premonition made Lin Zhichen tense up. The “Qinyuan” immediately operated at full power, drawing a zigzagging trajectory across the sky to avoid the increasingly dense attacks.
Fortunately, this fleet seemed to have a specific purpose. After driving away the “Qinyuan,” they did not pursue further and continued flying in a certain direction.
“Big brother, was that a pirate fleet just now? How could there be so many of them?” Lin Ke asked, breathing a sigh of relief as he watched the pirate ships quickly disappear from the radar. Due to the psionic perception link, he had sensed that at least a thousand warships had targeted the “Qinyuan” at that moment.
Even a slight reduction in speed could have resulted in being overwhelmed and destroyed by the over-saturated firepower.
“It is a pirate fleet,” Lin Zhichen said, furrowing his brows. This NPC fleet was very peculiar, with a clear objective. Even when encountering natural humans, they didn’t bother to engage but continued towards their destination.
He looked at the radar markers. The direction the pirate fleet was heading was not towards the hyperspace route to the Redor Fortress but deeper into the star system.
Judging by the space gravity, it should be a planet.
“Let’s go take a look,” he said after a moment of contemplation. The “Qinyuan” turned in space and headed towards the deep space.
To establish a foothold in this star system, it was essential to understand its basic situation: how many bases there were, whether they belonged to rebels or pirates, the approximate number of fleets, their general activity areas, the weak points of NPC forces, and which bases could be captured…
Knowing this information was crucial for effectively searching for targets and preparing the location for a secret base.
Indeed, despite the continuous crises, Lin Zhichen’s determination remained unshaken. After all, developing in the Dark Star Region inevitably involved these dangers. Facing threats from NPC wild monsters was preferable to dealing with the complex dangers within the Federation.
“Hmm?” Suddenly, Lin Zhichen’s expression changed. The “Qinyuan” rapidly decelerated from 50% light speed, drawing an arc in space to avoid something ahead.
At this moment, Lin Ke, who was also trying to synchronize with the sensors using psionic energy and observe through radar waves, was stunned. What lay before the “Qinyuan” was not a dense fleet of wild monster ships, but a sea of floating debris in space!
“My heavens, is this the legendary warship graveyard? How many starships have sunk here?”
The shattered hulls densely populated the entire space, with metal plates occasionally colliding and breaking into smaller metal fragments.
Against the dark void background, tiny light spots flickered like fireflies in the summer, with some lights occasionally going out.
“Hurry! Big brother! These are the spoils dropped by the wild monster starships. We need to find a way to collect them quickly. If we wait too long, the protective glow will disappear, and the spoils will become ordinary starship parts, which will soon become brittle and useless in the starry sky!”
Lin Ke was jolted awake by the disappearing light spots and hurriedly urged, “Big brother, hurry!”
According to information on the star network, within certain Dark Star Regions, different factions of wild monsters also vie for power and territory, engaging in spectacular large fleet battles in the vast starry sky.
Due to the refresh mechanism, NPC bases that grew to a considerable extent could produce quantities that astonished civilized nations with each refresh. The massive fleets gathered could cover the sky, and once they went to war, the intensity of the battles was beyond ordinary imagination.
It was possible that in a single day, the number of fleets lost in battles between the two sides could reach millions, filling the entire starry sky. The shattered hulls did not naturally refresh but remained like meteors and ruins, becoming a unique spectacle of the Dark Star Region.
The warship graveyard before them was just like that, and it hadn’t been long since its creation. The spoils dropped would turn into ordinary items if not collected within three days, losing their protective glow and quickly becoming useless in the freezing temperatures.
“Maintain psionic harmony,” Lin Zhichen instructed. At this moment, the “Qinyuan” had slowed to below 1 km per hour. This low-speed flight was something the “Qinyuan” and its crew were well accustomed to.
In fact, due to the numerous threats posed by the abundance of shattered hulls, the “Qinyuan” had to navigate through this complex environment, which further improved the crew’s piloting skills.
“The Qinyuan’s storage bay isn’t very large. We can only load a limited amount of spoils,” Lin Zhichen said, sensing a nearby spoil. He extended his psionic energy, forming an invisible hand to grasp and easily pull it into the ship’s hold.
Collecting spoils was exhilarating, but due to the previous battle with the rebel fleet, the Qinyuan’s storage bay was already filled with a large amount of spoils. Just picking up a few more filled the warehouse to capacity. Seeing so many spoils in space but being unable to collect them was a constant torment for the two.
“Time is running out,” Lin Ke said regretfully, watching the light spots in his field of vision extinguish faster and faster, knowing the final protection period was nearing its end.
“Big brother, let’s make a trip back to Earth. If we send this batch of spoils back, we should be able to come back and collect more!”
Lin Zhichen nodded silently. This was a great opportunity to make a fortune, and even he was somewhat tempted.
The “Qinyuan” quickly exited the metal debris field and entered normal space. The spatial jump initiated, and time and space rapidly shifted.
A distance of several light-years became as close as two points on a blank sheet of paper. When the space around the “Qinyuan” returned to normal, they were already in Earth’s outer space.
“Big brother, why are you back so soon?” Wu Tianyi, who received the holographic communication, was somewhat surprised.
“We’ve made some gains. Send a transport ship over to unload our spoils,” Lin Zhichen said.
“Alright,” Wu Tianyi quickly made the arrangements and then turned his attention back. “Our transport ship will arrive in five minutes. In the meantime, tell me, what did you encounter this time?”
“It’s a long story. I’ll send you the video of our encounter. You can watch it later,” Lin Zhichen said. “In an hour, once the spatial jump cooldown is over, we’ll head out again.”
“I understand. Is there anything you need me to prepare?” Wu Tianyi asked, becoming serious upon hearing the urgency.