Chapter 26: The Battle of the Space City (1)
Rong Mi: “……”
At this moment, he “resented” the general’s sharpness and straightforwardness!
The young man let out an “ah” and calmly said, with his hands in his pockets, “No. You saw it wrong.”
There was nothing unusual, just some reasonable associations related to handsome men.
“I’ll go do the mental power and physical assessment,” he said, giving Sun Tong a meaningful glance, signaling the starship pilot and deputy captain of Team One to quickly take him out of the meeting room.
During non-combat times, when the surrounding environment was normal, the starship navigated automatically, and as long as someone kept an eye on the starship’s navigation information screen, the pilot didn’t need to be at their post all the time.
Sun Tong stood up to carry out the task assigned by Lu Yi. He caught Rong Mi’s gaze, and though somewhat confused, he quickened his pace and led Rong Mi out of the meeting room.
“The starship of Team One is a medium-small-sized starship and isn’t equipped with the highest-level detection facilities,” he said as he led Rong Mi to the elevator and down to the starship’s bottom-most floor, into the testing room. He handed Rong Mi a black helmet.
This helmet didn’t look much different from the one used for connecting to the star network in a holographic manner. Rong Mi put it on, curious about his own mental domain attributes.
His original mental power had entered this body’s mental domain, creating some sort of fusion. This was the first time since his rebirth that he was measuring his mental domain condition.
“Stand here,” Sun Tong gestured forward, indicating where Rong Mi should stand for the test. “The machine will directly scan your body and mental domain. It will take a few minutes, so relax.”
“Beep… beep…”
The scanning lights on all sides of the detection station lit up, and Rong Mi relaxed his mind. He heard a calm prompt sound from the helmet, “Scanning in progress… 10%… 20%… 50%…”
Meanwhile, the information was being refreshed line by line on the external display of the detector.
“Physical comprehensive quality: B…”
Sun Tong read aloud the data on the screen, “Physical strength: C, agility: A…”
The initial data was not much different from his impression of Rong Mi.
The young man had a slender build and hadn’t undergone much specific training. Fortunately, most modern mecha cockpits were equipped with gravity balancing systems and temperature control devices, so the physical requirements for pilots weren’t that high.
“Mental power attribute data…”
“Mental power strength: S. (Undetermined, ++)(Confidence level below 95%, higher-level scanning equipment recommended.)”
Sun Tong: “……”
Sun Tong slowly widened his eyes.
The S-level mental power strength matched the strength Rong Mi had shown during the Ice Fire competition.
But… the “undetermined” part was not simple.
It meant that Rong Mi’s mental power strength still had potential for growth, and the “++” sign indicated that the minimum upgrade threshold for his mental power strength, according to the equipment, was 2S.
The equipment’s confidence level of below 95% meant that the device didn’t consider its judgment sufficiently accurate.
This suggested that Rong Mi’s upgrade potential might not be limited to just 2S.
Sun Tong: “……”
Although many people underwent mental power level tests daily, no human had been tested with a mental power level above 2S in nearly thirty years.
The last person to exhibit such a remarkable ability was Ren… Lu Yi.
He widened his eyes in shock. Before he could even utter an expletive, the machine refreshed with more data.
“Mental power sensitivity: S.”
“Mental domain regulation: S.”
“Mental power softness: F.”
“Mental power rejection level: F.”
“Detected extremely low mental power rejection, initiating additional scanning… connecting to the therapist level assessment module…”
Sun Tong: “……”
Sun Tong flipped through the series of data repeatedly, doubting whether the machine’s modules were malfunctioning.
Mental power strength S, sensitivity S, regulation S, which indicated that Rong Mi had the qualifications of a top-tier mecha pilot. He was strong and recovered quickly.
The softness of F showed that Rong Mi’s mental power was highly aggressive, which was a common characteristic of mecha pilots’ mental powers. However, top-tier therapists usually had mental power softness at S or above.
Sun Tong originally thought that the F rating for softness explained why Rong Mi had only been a D-grade therapist before, but the next set of data contradicted that assumption.
Rejection level F… This indicated that Rong Mi’s mental power had a high tolerance, a characteristic only seen in advanced therapists.
While still puzzled, the final two lines of data on the machine refreshed.
“Therapist level scan: S. (Confidence level below 95%, higher-level scanning equipment recommended.)”
“Scanning complete.”
Sun Tong: “……”
Sun Tong stood there, his face wooden, and sent the results to Lu Yi, attaching a message.
“General, request to replace the testing equipment.”
Sun Tong was sure the machine was broken!
“Should I try retesting it?”
The data in the legion files was too absurd… it seemed somewhat irresponsible.
Mental power strength S, with a high attack attribute… an S-level therapist, unheard of.
In the command room, Lu Yi quickly skimmed through Rong Mi’s data. Without hesitation, he directly entered it into the database.
“No need,” he replied, “Re-test once we reach Capital Star.”
Sun Tong: “……”
…Was that too hasty?
In the testing room, Rong Mi had already removed the helmet and was looking at the data display with curiosity.
Sun Tong, seeing Lu Yi’s reply, scratched his head and said to Rong Mi, “This machine might not have been used in a while…”
He feared that Rong Mi might see the strange data and question the equipment quality of the First Legion, and was preparing to explain when he saw Rong Mi deep in thought, nodding with satisfaction.
“That’s about right,” he casually remarked. “Aside from the undetermined parts and the 95% confidence level, it’s pretty accurate.”
He had never seen such uncertain wording in the tests during the Interstellar Nomadic Era.
But other than that, most of the values were the same as the ones from his previous test before his rebirth, with only the softness differing.
Previously, his mental power softness had been F-, and many of his patients had screamed in pain when his mental power probes entered their minds.
It was similar to Sandell Lion’s reaction, if not worse.
Now, with the softness raised to C, it seemed to be related to the original body’s mental power attributes.
It appeared that his current mental power had selectively merged with the more outstanding parts of the original’s abilities, just like how he had completely overcome the genetic disease threat after his rebirth.
It was a very fortunate thing.
However, a C-level softness would still cause discomfort for patients during treatment, though when he treated A Yin and Lu Yi, neither the wolf nor the man showed any severe negative reactions.
Rong Mi thought about the mental power compatibility that Lu Yi had mentioned, pondering.
“Therapist level S,” Rong Mi turned to ask Sun Tong, “What is the general’s mental power strength?”
After several treatments, he had been able to probe the bottom of Silver Wolf’s mental domain, but for Lu Yi, he could only enter the upper-middle layers of the mental sea for now.
“Oh, oh…” Sun Tong was still distracted by Rong Mi’s earlier comment about the test being “about right” and absentmindedly answered, “The general’s mental domain level used to be 3S. After being injured and his mental domain disorder, when his condition was good, it had returned to 2S-. But after several mental domain disorders, it dropped below S.”
Rong Mi nodded.
This was the data from before Lu Yi had encountered him.
But after several treatments, the general’s mental domain had stabilized, so based on this, it should have risen back to S, or even S+.
Rong Mi thought for a moment, calculating in his mind.
If the insect toxin in Lu Yi’s mental domain could be cleared, reaching 2S would be no problem, and 3S wasn’t impossible.
It was worth trying.
The young man thought about the future plans. After a few days of getting to know Lu Yi, the general’s status in his mind had risen, and he was no longer just the adorable, fluffy wolf’s owner.
He didn’t realize that some thoughts had quietly emerged in his mind… thoughts that seemed to be related to treatment, but not entirely.
He wanted to see the general no longer tormented by pain, but full of vigor.
Mental domain treatment had always been a step-by-step process, so Rong Mi wasn’t in a hurry.
Under Sun Tong’s guidance, he familiarized himself with the starship’s combat zones, preparing for the upcoming battle.
The starship sailed through space, drawing closer to their destination, H9 Space City Starport.
H9 Space City was a small space city in this star system, serving as an energy replenishment point for long-distance starships.
Only about ten starships entered and exited the port daily.
Half a day ago, the space city had issued a warning of A-level space pirates in the nearby star system, requiring all starships to enter port for inspection. Sure enough, not long after, a medium-sized starship from the military docked at the starport and began the inspection.
To avoid alarming the enemy, Team One started a search operation for the A-level space pirates within the space city.
Several members of the mecha squad played the role of investigators, setting up temporary checkpoints at the lower levels of the military port to inspect incoming personnel.
The head of the space city’s security department hurried over to meet with Lu Yi and others.
Since Rong Mi was not part of the military, he didn’t need to participate in the “search,” so he stayed in the preparation cabin on standby.
He had the communications screen open in front of him, and through the wartime communication channel, he knew that the small civilian starship, specially modified by Team One, had quietly left the port unnoticed.
Rong Mi looked outside the cabin.
Below, there were several starships in the civilian port preparing to queue up for entry, but the military starport was eerily empty.
Most of the patrol fleet that had originally docked here had already set out to the wasteland star, participating in the hunt for the fifth-level Ice Butterfly.
Rong Mi looked at the empty military starport, recalling the past.
In his memory, although the activities of the insect race were frequent, there were no records of large-scale insect invasions in human star domains from the old era.
Of course, it was also possible that many records were lost due to humans fleeing in haste at the time.
After all, the anomalies related to the wasteland star weren’t recorded in history.
With that in mind, solving this crisis couldn’t rely entirely on historical knowledge.
“Report,” came Sun Tong’s voice over the comm channel, “We’ve entered the Storm Sea.”
The spaceport was calm now. Rong Mi, while listening to the sounds from the wartime channel, idly played with the metal chain of the space button as if it were a toy.
“Report. We’ve entered the outer edge of the Storm Sea, no unusual activity so far.”
“Report. We’ve entered the middle of the Storm Sea, no unusual activity so far.”
Rong Mi looked at the star map, calculating the position of the civilian starship.
According to previous records, a starship went missing every ten days on average. Since the last disappearance had been a week ago, the high-level Ice Butterfly hiding in the wormhole should be hungry by now.
Logically, it should make a move.
Or perhaps… the mastermind behind the plan to promote the fifth-level Ice Butterfly had not completely given up after their failure to hypnotize and surround it, and now intended to “recycle” the space city as a feeding ground for the injured Ice Butterfly.
Rong Mi: “…… Lu Yi. If there’s no unusual activity in the Storm Sea, the space city might be the first target.”
Lu Yi: “Yes.”
A small flying vessel from the Space City Guard was passing overhead from the spaceport. The Minister of Security for the Space City had executed Lu Yi’s order, beginning a lockdown above the city to prevent the star pirates from escaping.
Then, silver light descended.
Lu Yi’s mental force spread outward, enveloping the entire Space City, monitoring every movement inside and protecting its existence. The silver light particles drifted through the air like floating ice crystals, reflecting the artificial lights of the spaceport below.
This mental domain’s coverage was much gentler than when they were on the barren planet. Rong Mi felt that the domain Lu Yi had cast over the Space City was like adding a romantic holographic effect to the city, similar to the ones released during major winter holidays in shopping districts.
The general’s mental force passed through the streets of the Space City, searching for any unusual activity within.
Rong Mi looked at the dreamy silver energy particles and suddenly thought about how Lu Yi’s mental domain had become so damaged.
Because his power was so strong, even after suffering heavy injuries, he continued using his abilities without much opportunity for rest. He had no other faster or better solutions.
“Report.” The voice of Sun Tong came through the communicator again. “We’re about to leave the Storm Sea, still no unusual activity… Wait! There’s an energy response from the Ice Butterfly behind the starship! The Storm Sea space has been torn apart… The starship is turning!”
A buzzing sound like the flapping of butterfly wings came through the channel.
The first squadron, which had been patrolling the Space City under the pretense of hunting star pirates, pressed their earpieces and looked toward their teammates. “Did we finally find a high-level Ice Butterfly?”
“Wait.” A teammate stared below, his voice tense. “Look over there.”
In the distance, in the Space City square, a handsome man with light blue hair and deep red eyes was holding a cup of hot cocoa, gazing up at the silver mental snowflakes falling from the sky, just like the passersby around him.
“What is that?” A couple with a child passed by. The child’s eyes gleamed with curiosity, staring at the sky.
“We should get home quickly,” the mother said uneasily. “The Space City administrator said an A-level star pirate has entered the city. A curfew will be imposed soon, we need to hurry or it might be dangerous.”
“If we can’t make it back, we’ll get a fine,” a group of students, hurriedly heading to school, complained as they walked fast. “How can there be star pirates? This small place is usually so peaceful…”
“Come on, hurry up. Don’t you know? Ice Butterflies have appeared on barren planets, anything’s possible now.”
Amid the crowd rushing along, the man holding the hot cocoa stood still, smiling as the silver mental force landed on his arm.
Then, the intense silver light exploded.
Mental energy particles from all directions surged toward the blue-haired man.
The silver light surged, creating a whirlwind on the streets of the Space City.
Frost formed on the tiles beneath his feet. Ice columns shot up from the ground as though trying to bind him in place.
Inside the starport, Lu Yi’s brow twitched, and he shouted, “Everyone, stay alert!”
Meanwhile, in the square, the cocoa cup fell to the ground, and the man suddenly sprouted wings from his back.
The light blue butterfly wings fluttered, and in an instant, his figure appeared high in the sky.
His wings’ red venom glands shot out in all directions, turning into large beams of light that illuminated the central square and the surrounding streets.
Many pedestrians, confused, looked up at the sky in surprise.
Their faces were lit up by the red light falling from above.
If the light enveloped them, they would immediately turn to ashes, becoming the Ice Butterfly’s food.
The snowstorm intensified.
A thick layer of ice suddenly appeared in midair, blocking the red light.
Lu Yi’s mental force collided violently with the Ice Butterfly’s venom gland energy, producing a fierce whistling sound as the energy clashed.
“Lu Yi,” the Ice Butterfly in midair still maintained a humanoid form. Apart from its wings, its body resembled that of a human.
Not only that, but it could also speak human language.
“I didn’t expect it to be you.” The Ice Butterfly smiled. “I’ve heard about you for a long time.”
“I’m surprised. You should be unable to use your mental power anymore… your mental domain should have already collapsed and killed you. Who healed your mental domain?”
“But even so, it only temporarily alleviates your symptoms.” The voice of the Ice Butterfly was soft like velvet but ethereal, with a faint hum like the flutter of butterfly wings.
“Your control over your mental power has weakened. You can no longer precisely use ice blades and are forced to use this more energy-consuming area attack.”
“Fighting like this will only lead to a faster death.”
“Why not join us…”
“An Ice Butterfly is never troubled by mental domain injuries…”
The Ice Butterfly’s voice spread throughout the entire Space City.
“Beep… beep… beep… Space Station under attack… All personnel evacuate to the underground shelters!”
The city-wide alarm sounded, and patrol flying vessels descended to direct residents to the nearest shelter routes.
Many residents hadn’t yet understood what was happening, pushing and shoving as they ran forward, but every so often, they would glance in fear at the sky, dazedly listening to the Ice Butterfly’s speech.
Inside the starship, Rong Mi couldn’t help but curse.
Outside the porthole behind him, the silver mental force was retracting upward, rushing toward the sky, heading straight for the Ice Butterfly.
The Ice Butterfly folded its wings, and a red energy ball appeared around it.
The second clash between the two energy forces caused a blinding flash across the sky.
All the lights in Space City exploded and were destroyed by the energy wave.
With a series of explosive sounds, the lights went out, one by one.
In the ensuing darkness, the snowstorm ceased, and the red energy ball in midair melted away from the collision.
It was as though they were evenly matched in strength.
“Your power is far weaker than before, Lu Yi.” The Ice Butterfly reopened its wings, still smiling. “You’re definitely not my match now…”
Its voice abruptly stopped.
Because, from the seemingly unending darkness, a purple light suddenly appeared in the distance.
At first, the light was faint, but as it rapidly closed the distance, it grew bright and dazzling.
“What?” The Ice Butterfly laughed. “Another human who overestimates themselves.”
This beam of light seemed like a military-grade handheld long-range weapon attack.
Although it had been enhanced by mental force, it posed no real threat to the Ice Butterfly.
It extended its palm.
The Ice Butterfly’s hand was pale, with no lines on its palm.
It grabbed the purple light ball as it flew through the air.
When its fingers closed, the light ball didn’t disintegrate as expected.
The purple light suddenly expanded outward, bursting into an incredibly bright flare.
The energy intensity of this attack increased a billionfold in that instant!
It ignited, forming a bright, burning energy blade that stretched out, piercing through the Ice Butterfly’s palm.
Then, it continued to extend…
With blazing flames, it seemed unstoppable, cutting through the Ice Butterfly’s chest and completely piercing it!
The Ice Butterfly’s pupils dilated.
The purple energy blade, like a meteor streaking across the sky, flashed brightly before vanishing, yet it left behind a trail of the Ice Butterfly’s crimson blood in the sky.
Time seemed to freeze for a moment.
The Ice Butterfly’s red eyes were illuminated by the afterglow.
Its gaze was bewildered as its pupils slowly moved, looking toward the distant light.
A black starship rose from the horizon.
It was the medium-sized starship of the first squadron that had been on standby, now departing the port.
In the sky, the hatch of the starship’s mecha compartment was unusually wide open.
Standing beside the door was Rong Mi.
He had a heavy machine gun strapped to his right arm, kneeling beside the hatch, squinting as he watched the distant Ice Butterfly.
The wind at high altitude tousled his hair, sweeping across his cheek.
For a moment, Rong Mi and the Ice Butterfly locked eyes.
In the now-darkened sky, he saw a burst of crimson light explode.
The Ice Butterfly did not die from that attack.
Its red venom glands emitted a blinding light. Countless red glands wriggled toward the gaping wound in its body, filling it with blood and regenerating the injury quickly.
At the same time, the butterfly wings fluttered, and a red venom gland shot out from its wing, speeding toward Rong Mi.
The attack was so fast that the red light was barely visible in the field of vision, only leaving behind a lingering afterglow.
It was like a fine needle, shrinking into a point, and in an instant, it arrived in front of Rong Mi, aiming for his brow.
However, Rong Mi had already prepared.
Purple flames erupted, enveloping and twisting the red attack.
With a loud explosion, the flames blasted outward, destroying the Ice Butterfly’s attack and scattering it like fireworks in the air.
Rong Mi clicked his tongue lightly, smiling faintly but annoyed. “I knew it.”