Chapter Thirteen: Wealth and Poverty, Section 5

Transitioning is a tedious and dangerous process. No matter what kind of warship it is or how advanced its technology, certain special rules must still be followed.

For example, during this process, all living beings aboard must enter their own sealed compartments and enter a low-energy hibernation state, with their metabolism controlled entirely by the ship’s equipment. The reason for this is to avoid the chaotic spatial jets during transition and prevent the ship from being instantly shattered by sudden fractures.

Thus, even the bravest individuals feel fear when it comes to the ship’s sealed compartments. Those oval objects, seemingly only three meters long, resemble coffins—no one knows whether they can wake up again after entering. And as carriers of these “coffins,” the warships themselves are like tombs.

Silence reigns here—a pitch-black space without any stars. Nothing can be seen here; it’s even darker than the darkest night. All lights and scanning devices fail in this place. Rows of warships float in this space like dead fish.

This place is, of course, the nightmare of all crew members: the Anti-Space…

“Now, I’m alone again.” It was pitch black in Li Feng’s control room. He sat quietly in the captain’s chair, gazing out at the window, feeling a chill in his heart. The entire Li Feng was now deserted—Baroque, Sulei, Blood Pupils, Lily—all crew members had returned to their small sealed compartments, like corpses.

This was Black Hair’s secret. He could remain awake in Anti-Space.

Unlike the civilizations of this world, Earth-era technology had actually conducted extensive research on Anti-Space. Black Hair was well aware of the true nature of this space.

As a necessary part of transition, Anti-Space is actually the reverse side of normal space. In normal space, the speed of light is the upper limit, but in Anti-Space, it is merely the lower limit. In this strange space, everything is distorted, even time. And it is this distortion that prevents any living being from staying awake here.

Because no life form can keep up with the constantly twisting time in Anti-Space.

Black Hair is the only exception.

The genetically modified brain possesses unparalleled resilience and high-speed computing capabilities. Its robust physique is even comparable to steel. In some ways, although it still has human emotions, Hei Ba can no longer be considered a human. In the reverse space, where everything is distorted, it merely feels uncomfortable and thinks more slowly.

Standing up, he walked down the long corridor, passing through dozens of sealed compartments one after another, until he arrived at a special corridor lined with small rooms on both sides. Each room contained four oval objects that resembled large eggs—these were the sealed compartments that terrified all crew members.

In the silent darkness, Hei Ba’s vision seemed unaffected at all. His movements were steady and meticulous. It took him about thirty minutes to thoroughly inspect each sealed compartment to ensure there were no accidents.

There was no choice—such were the rules of reverse space. Once inside a sealed compartment, a crew member no longer owned themselves. If even the tiniest damage occurred, as small as a hair’s breadth, the lives inside would turn into mummies once they emerged from reverse space. The distorted time there was beyond the tolerance of human frail bodies.

Therefore, every time a jump was made, as long as Hei Ba was present, he would ensure every subordinate was carefully inspected. Not only because he was the only living being capable of moving around there, but also because he didn’t want any unnecessary losses among his subordinates after the jump, even if those losses fell within the range of normal wear and tear.

After completing the inspections, Hei Ba closed the doors of the sealed compartments again and headed to his next destination—the core area of Li Feng, a place only he could enter. He needed to work there for a long time to gradually improve Li Feng’s performance and restore its true capabilities as a heavy assault ship. To others, Li Feng might already be the most powerful warship in the universe, but only Hei Ba knew that over the years, this massive heavy assault ship had lost too much energy and had many functions degraded. Without systematic repairs, it might not even reach 50% of its peak performance. And these tasks were extremely tedious and time-consuming. This was a world of magic-based civilization, and for a warship like Li Feng that didn’t use any magic technology at all, aside from Hei Ba, there was really no one else who could maintain it.

So all the work had to be done by Black Hair with his own hands. This was undoubtedly a massive and lengthy task. Under normal circumstances, it would likely take more than five years. Fortunately, in the anti-space, all its distorted properties helped him. No matter how much time he spent here, it wouldn’t show up when he returned to normal space. Even normal crew members leaving their sealed cabins would think only a few minutes had passed.

The desolate warship, with a solitary figure on it. At this moment, there was only one person on the entire warship.

Just one.

“Boom!!”

With a loud noise, the massive hull of the ship suddenly began to shake violently. After a month of travel through anti-space, it finally reached the coordinates and jumped out of anti-space. If anyone happened to be in normal space at that time, they would see a fleet of warships appearing suddenly in the vast universe, like a group of giant whales rising from the deep sea. Their long engine exhaust trails streaked across the starry sky, glowing brilliantly like meteors. The huge ship bodies caused ripples in space, like concentric circles.

Of course, no matter how beautiful the scene was, it could only be viewed from afar. Everyone knew how terrifying a transition of this scale was. The ships that had just jumped out of anti-space carried a large amount of negative ion energy, which would react violently with the energy in normal space, creating dazzling sparks like fireworks on the ship’s hulls. This could easily cause instability in the surrounding space. Approaching recklessly could result in being instantly swept into spatial turbulence and torn to pieces.

“Captain, we’ve arrived,” Baroka’s voice came from behind Black Hair. Different from before, this voice lacked its former defiance and was filled with respect.

“Mm. I see it,” Black Hair said, still sitting in his captain’s chair, a cigarette tucked between his lips. His fingers tapped lightly on the armrest as he stared intently at the huge main screen.

“Where is that neutron star?”

“Here,” Baroka pointed with his fat finger at a spot on the screen. “It’s about 1.2 million kilometers away from our current coordinates. We’ll reach it soon.”

“Baroka, is that neutron star really, as you said, a terrifying celestial body that could potentially become a black hole?” Lily suddenly interjected, her beautiful eyes shining with a strange light—like… a curious child.

It’s not her fault. Though the universe is full of wonders, neutron stars with the potential to develop into black holes are utterly unheard of. And the Hunter’s Guild itself is a place full of curiosity; Lily, who holds the title of elite bounty hunter, naturally has an unparalleled interest in everything new.

As long as the information is true, even just selling it can bring in a large sum of money. Lily is a very poor bounty hunter, already struggling to support her large harem.

Unfortunately, the real significance of such a planet is far more than its superficial strangeness—it’s the vast amounts of Kemsi ore there that constitute the true wealth. Compared to that, all other benefits are insignificant. She would never reveal the information about Black Hair.

“Tch, what an ignorant woman. It’s just a neutron star—what’s the big deal?” A clear voice interrupted Lily’s fantasies. It was Sulei, who had remained silent until now. The little girl pouted, her face full of disdain.

“What do you mean by that?” Lily was stunned, her eyes widening instantly.

“You can’t even understand what’s being said, and you still dare to ask? Always clinging to others, wearing so little—how shameless,” Sulei retorted coldly before turning back to her seat, leaving everyone with only her back in sight.

“You!!” Lily flew into anger and tried to chase after her, but was pulled back by Blood Pupil. With a cold expression, she was about to deal with Blood Pupil when she suddenly noticed Black Hair looking unwell. She immediately calmed down and meekly returned to her seat.

The argument between the two women came suddenly and disappeared just as quickly, but everyone present understood why it happened. The look Black Hair gave her before turning away said it all. Baroka and Blood Pupil exchanged a wry smile and pretended not to have seen anything.

“Whoa.” As if unaware of the argument, Black Hair stood up abruptly, walked to the main screen, and quickly tapped the controls. Countless data streams appeared, and soon, the image on the screen zoomed in rapidly.

Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times, ten thousand times. As the screen enlarged, the distant scene seemed to be pulled forward by an invisible hand. With a collective gasp, a tiny planet appeared before everyone’s eyes. Though only ten kilometers in diameter, the patches of green on it resembled jade, stunning in beauty.

That was the glow of Kemsi ore.

“That’s it, Captain!!” Baroka exclaimed excitedly. “That’s the neutron star we discovered. Those must be Cymex ore!!”
“Whoa…” Everyone in the control room rushed to the main screen, straining their eyes.
Cymex ore—the most valuable ore in the universe. With such a large planet, how much ore could there be? Almost everyone was stunned by this sudden good fortune, their eyes filled with stars.
Among them, Bloodpupil immediately frowned. “That’s not right!”
“Hm? Why?” Baroka was surprised.
“It doesn’t seem to be Cymex ore. Cymex ore is a high-energy condensate; its reflection of light wouldn’t be this strong. Even if it existed on a planet, we shouldn’t be able to see its reflection from this distance.” Bloodpupil slowly expressed his opinion.
Hearing his words, everyone in the cabin immediately calmed down.
“Not Cymex? Then what is it? Only this ore has such a vivid green glow. And when I used the energy detector, this planet’s energy level was astonishingly high—far exceeding the monitor’s highest reading!” Baroka retorted loudly.
“I don’t know either. We’ll find out once we get closer.” Bloodpupil shrugged indifferently, unwilling to argue with Baroka.
His suggestion was supported by everyone. The massive engine nozzles at the rear of the Fury suddenly emitted thick exhaust plumes. Its huge body seemed to be pushed forward, accelerating rapidly, while the eight Pike-class ships following it immediately turned and scattered.
This was part of the Black Hair Plan. To prevent leaks and ensure safety, after the jump, these ships would contract into a new form to carry out surveillance tasks. Of course, they could also hunt on their own when they encountered smaller fleets.
A distance of 1.2 million kilometers was barely an hour’s journey for the Fury. During this time, everyone on board was in an extremely excited state, except for Black Hair, who silently gazed at the green planet on the screen, lost in thought.
“Kid, what are you thinking about?” The weird face of Core suddenly appeared in his right palm.
“What Bloodpupil said,” Black Hair replied briefly.
“You mean those aren’t Cymex ore?” Core was slightly stunned but soon laughed. “That’s possible too.”
“What?” Black Hair raised his eyebrows.

“Our race’s food is ore, so we know a bit about it. I know of an ore that looks extremely similar to Kemsy ore on the surface, but its internal structure is completely different. This ore also possesses abundant energy and is one of our race’s favorite foods.”
“What is it?” the black-haired one asked, showing a hint of interest.
“Fiths—it’s called that. Though it seems ordinary, its energy reserves are no less than those of Kemsy ore. I think if the ore on that planet isn’t Kemsy, it’s likely to be this kind.” He replied quickly, suddenly licking his lips.
“Of course, as your parasite, I need to remind you that aside from us, many other races also hunt for this ore. So, there are often large groups of guardians around it. Be careful.”
Before He could finish speaking, a loud screeching sound suddenly filled the cabin, and everyone’s expression changed drastically.
“Alarm!!!!!! Enemy attack!!!!!!”