Chapter 28: A Bloodshed Triggered by a Stone – Section 6

Guaranteed by the owner of the pencil sharpener’s character, Hei Fa had never seen such a bizarre defense system before. But unlike ordinary crew members, he had noticed it right away.
One hundred seventy-three celestial bodies meant one hundred seventy-three attempts. He suddenly realized that at least three of the craters formed after attacks were similar!
Not the process of the attacks was similar, but the shape of the craters!
What did this imply?
An odd phenomenon he had heard of long ago but never seen before flashed through Hei Fa’s mind.
“A mirage!”
“What?” Xue Tong was still astonished by the sudden disappearance of a planet and didn’t hear Hei Fa’s words clearly.
“A mirage—a cosmic phenomenon akin to mirages in deserts. It’s extremely rare in the universe. But once it appears, its coverage area is astonishingly vast. Within a mirage, everything that seems real is actually illusory, and every illusion could turn into reality at any moment!” Hei Fa gritted his teeth, staring intently at the spot where the planet had disappeared, his eyes cold. “We’ve been deceived.”
“You mean the star region occupied by these Rock People we’re in now is actually a mirage?” Xue Tong finally understood, but his face still showed disbelief. Not only him—every octopus crew member on the warship was the same. Everyone stared at each other in shock.
It wasn’t surprising they were puzzled; Hei Fa’s conclusion was too unexpected.
In fact, even Hei Fa himself wasn’t entirely sure about this idea.
A mirage is originally an illusion caused by light refraction. But when it appears in the universe, it’s a different concept. On Earth in the past, he had heard similar theoretical speculations but had never seen any actual evidence. Yet still, Hei Fa couldn’t help but link this star region to this strange hypothesis.
The countless eerie and lifeless celestial bodies, the occasionally recurring landscapes, and the suddenly disappearing planets—all of these matched the idea that in a mirage, the real is actually fake, and the fake is actually real. And the star map given to them by Miss Wei Li clearly showed what this star region used to look like.
Right. That star map!
Hei Fa’s eyes lit up as he suddenly turned to face Xue Tong, his tone urgent. “Quick. Bring out Wei Li’s star map.”

“Huh? Okay, fine.” Although Blood Pup didn’t understand Black Hair’s meaning, he didn’t dare neglect the situation. Soon, a massive star map appeared on the warship’s display terminal. The brilliantly lit stars, magnified countless times, were clearly visible—almost like another entire world.

But Black Hair didn’t have time to admire the intricacy of the star map. In an instant, his gaze swept across it. With a serious expression, he pointed at one of the stars. “Here. How far is it from us?”

“A short-distance jump distance. If we don’t use a jump, normal navigation would take five hours,” Blood Pup replied immediately.

“Good, that’s the one. Order the fleet to cease all attacks immediately. Activate all defense systems. Head to this coordinate. Oh, and don’t use jumps—just normal navigation. Also, turn off all active scans. The route… straight!” Black Hair rubbed his chin, his eyes gleaming with determination.

But Blood Pup was shocked. “Straight navigation! What if we hit a star?”

“Ignores it!” Black Hair gave an answer that left everyone stunned.

“Don’t joke around! Boss, are you trying to send us to our deaths?” Blood Pup jumped up. “Without proper evasion, what if we hit an asteroid? Well, even small asteroids can be blocked by the ship’s hull, but what about planets? There are countless of them ahead of us!”

As Blood Pup cried out in alarm, the octopus-like creatures around him echoed his fear. These docile creatures, before secreting hormones, were actually as timid as rats. Hearing that Black Hair intended to take such a radical action, they all paled with fear.

Navigating a warship wasn’t like driving in a city. Any accident could have serious consequences—minor damage at best, total destruction at worst. If they collided with a planet, there might not even be time to escape! In this vast universe, without the protection of a warship, even a genetically enhanced being like Black Hair couldn’t avoid death!

Perhaps only strange cellular creatures like wanderers could survive—provided they had a host.

But if Black Hair’s decisions could be changed by difficulties, then he wouldn’t be the protagonist of this story. So soon, the massive fleet silently changed direction in space and rushed toward the coordinate he had indicated.

Time passed by in the blink of an eye. Five hours of ordinary sailing was undoubtedly dull and boring. Yet Blood Pupil and the others showed no sign of boredom at all, for they soon encountered trouble.

Just as they had anticipated, a celestial body appeared on the fleet’s route—a huge planet, almost as large as Death Star!!

“He said to ignore it…” Staring at that celestial body, Blood Pupil felt as though all the blood in his body rushed to his head. His eyes instantly turned bloodshot. The warship continued to accelerate; even with the naked eye, he could sense its lightning-fast speed. The distant planet grew rapidly larger, and an extremely intense sense of pressure weighed heavily on his heart like a boulder, making it hard for him to breathe.

Yet even so, Blood Pupil was not overwhelmed by fear. Though he still had doubts about Black Hair’s orders, he trusted his chosen leader without reservation. Over all this time, Black Hair had never disappointed him. Perhaps… this time would be no exception?

But the octopus crew members around him were different. Not only on this flagship but also on almost all the warships in the fleet, the octopus crew members suddenly screamed in panic. Extreme fear spread to every corner of the fleet. Every octopus crew member trembled uncontrollably, shook violently, and lost consciousness. Even the scolding from the Blood Wolf pirates couldn’t change this situation.

Amidst those shrill screams, Black Hair’s fleet rushed toward the planet at lightning speed, with an unstoppable momentum. With a massive shock from the floor beneath them, the fleet entered the planet’s gravitational field. Thanks to the added gravitational force, their speed became terrifyingly high. No, it could no longer be called sailing—it was nothing short of falling!! As the surface of the planet grew larger like lightning, everyone instantly closed their eyes…

“Boom!!”

A deafening explosion!

Mountains shattered, debris flew everywhere, the earth rose under immense force, the warship’s armor crumbled, its massive hull twisted and deformed, and eleven mushroom clouds rose. Black Hair, Blood Pupil, all the Blood Wolf pirates, and even the docile octopus crew members all went dark before their eyes, then died instantly. And that’s how the story ended—Little Knife was cursed by his brothers mercilessly…

Well… of course, that’s impossible.

And in fact, none of the catastrophic scenarios described above occurred. At the moment of impact, Xue Tong and the others all felt a blur before their eyes—the entire fleet passed right through that planet! Meanwhile, the real planet suddenly turned into an illusion.
What was going on?
The shrill screams instantly changed into eight different tones, turning into utter astonishment. All the octopus crew members were stunned, even forgetting to lower their tentacles clinging to the walls, hanging there like geckos, speechless. Xue Tong’s eyes almost popped out of their sockets!
“This… this… what is this?”
“This is a mirage…” came a voice with black hair from the captain’s seat. Sweat could be seen on his forehead, but he was in high spirits, with a faint smile on his face.
“I’ve said it before—within a mirage, anything is possible. There’s no difference between reality and illusion.”
“No… not that. I mean that planet just now!” Xue Tong was confused. Before the man with black hair could finish speaking, he rushed to the control panel and, without hesitation, activated the flagship’s firepower system to fire at the planet behind them. A beautiful blue light filled everyone’s eyes. After the blue light faded, a huge crater appeared on the surface of the planet they had just passed through.
“It’s… real.” Xue Tong was completely stunned. Staring at the lifelike crater, he opened his mouth but was speechless.
Seeing his reaction, the man with black hair smiled faintly. Yet he wasn’t embarrassed by Xue Tong’s shock. After all, the existence of mirages was just a legend. Even he had been anxious before the collision.
The power of nature is truly great and awe-inspiring.
A real planet like this turned out to be just an illusion, capable of reacting to changes in the surrounding environment. Who would believe such a thing if they hadn’t seen it with their own eyes? Surely, after the battle footage from this expedition was sent back, Miss Wei Li and the others wouldn’t believe it was real either, right?
Thinking of this, the man with black hair suddenly realized a problem.
Reality and illusion are often just separated by a thin line. So, what is real, and what is illusion?
Is what I’m doing now real? Am I alive, so that’s real? Are all my actions in this world real? Is the pencil writing this novel real? Is it real that you’re reading this article of mine?

If all of the above is illusory, then, we…
Are we already dead?