Chapter 32: Black Holes, Section 3

Hei Fa was in a terrible state—worse than ever before.
Though he was quite satisfied with the effectiveness of the Black Hole Cannon’s attack, he never expected such a major problem to arise. Nor did he realize that a true black hole wasn’t something he could simply escape from, no matter how far away he was.
The white light spread into a ring, and in an instant, darkness enveloped Hei Fa’s vision as he found himself in reverse space. All the busy staff members had entered hibernation. The vast command room was now left empty except for him alone. It was eerily silent—not a sound to be heard at all.
This was the lifeless reverse space. Hei Fa frowned. As the only human capable of moving around in reverse space, he had experienced such environments countless times before. He was used to both the intense sense of loneliness and the deathly silence. But for some reason, this time, he felt something was wrong.
What exactly was wrong? Unintentionally, his gaze fell on the screen in front of the Black Prison Engineer’s seat.
“What!?” His eyes widened instantly.
On the screen, the gravity gauge was still rising steadily! Moreover, the readings showed extreme chaos in the surrounding magnetic field! Dozens of indicators were flashing and jumping uncontrollably. The entire screen was in disarray.
“Damn it! Is this place affected too?” Hei Fa cursed under his breath, immediately realizing what the problem was.
A black hole. It had to be a black hole.
A black hole that penetrated all three spaces—normal, subnormal, and reverse—indeed had the power to affect this area. And due to the uniqueness of reverse space, its influence was likely even greater than that in normal space! After all, in reverse space, the fortress’s thrusters were almost useless!
Without hesitation, Hei Fa switched channels and issued orders to the still-asleep Bak Bug tribe.
“Studded Armor, stop resting. Take your subordinates and accelerate the fortress right away. Hurry up—we don’t have much time left.”
“Add three hundred tons of celery,” came a simple-minded reply.
“No problem. Just speed things up!”
“Understood, my dear boss!”
After ending the call, Hei Fa walked to the window and stared at the pitch-black space outside, sighing.
He would do his best. He hoped the Bak Bug tribe could live up to their claims of being incredibly strong. Otherwise, he might become the first human to be devoured by a black hole in reverse space.

There was nothing to do; the energy reduction rules of anti-space prevented Black Hair from increasing the speed of the Thor Fortress by even a fraction. The only hope lay with those powerful insects. He had no idea what their structure was or how they could move so freely in anti-space. For a moment, Black Hair even thought about going back to dissect them.

Yet even so, he still experienced a life-altering ordeal.

He was right—the black hole did affect anti-space. But unlike what he had imagined, its reaction in this space wasn’t absorption but an explosion!!

Just as the Buck insects were about to take action, alarms blared in the command room. Immediately afterward, Black Hair felt as if he had been pushed hard and shot out, crashing violently into the wall. Before he could understand what had happened, the massive Thor Fortress was already engulfed by turbulent dark currents!!

By God, it was the most difficult time of Black Hair’s life. Though the Thor Fortress was enormous, it was utterly insignificant in the face of these sudden dark currents. In an instant, all ground-based power was cut off, and it began shaking violently like a can. Black Hair was the poor thing inside that can.

With continuous thudding sounds, Black Hair lost count of how many times he collided with the wall. His muscles ached from the impacts. Helpless, he curled his body into a ball to minimize the contact area during collisions. As it shook violently, he flew chaotically around the command room. It wasn’t until he passed by a protective device that he seized the opportunity to grab it. The immense pull when his palm made contact with the device made him feel as though it would be torn apart.

This was only because Black Hair’s physique was extremely resilient. If it were an ordinary human, they would have turned into pulp by the first wave of impacts. In fact, after the violent shaking stopped, everything in the fortress that wasn’t properly secured was shattered beyond recognition, with no remnants left to use.

As for those Buck insects that were about to leave but hadn’t yet left the fortress… well, could their armor, which was supposed to rival that of warships, really be just for show? Of course, the spikes on their armor were gone for good.

A few brief minutes seemed like an entire century to Black Hair. After the violent oscillations ceased, the entire command room was in chaos, as if a typhoon had passed through. Everything except for some specially reinforced items had been reduced to dust, even the display terminals had been shattered by flying chairs!
Yet Black Hair finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, he had just escaped a disaster. Who would have thought that a black hole could be so terrifying even in reverse space? Those turbulent dark currents—had Thor’s Fortress not possessed the strongest defenses of a Death Star, it might have been crushed to pieces as well. And this was only at the edge of the storm; if he got any closer… Black Hair shuddered, hardly daring to think further.
But anyway, he had managed to escape. Those damned black hole cannons—once back, he had to have the Black Prison crew thoroughly inspect them. Such terrifying consequences couldn’t happen again. Using them for the first time already caused such trouble; Black Hair didn’t know how he would explain this to Marshal Wick when he returned.
But soon he realized he didn’t need to explain anything. After such a violent collision, he was shocked to find that he couldn’t determine his own coordinates!
What did that mean?
In normal space, losing one’s coordinates meant endless drifting. Unless someone passed by and detected a distress signal, it would be impossible to find the way home. So what would happen in reverse space, where every movement was infinitely amplified? What consequences would losing one’s coordinates entail?
Probably, he would be banished to the edge of the universe…
In horror, Black Hair ignored the pain in his body. He rushed to the control panel, waved his hand a few times to clear the debris, and then issued a series of commands. Fortunately, although the display terminals were destroyed, the control panel still functioned. So Black Hair quickly succeeded in transporting Thor’s Fortress out of reverse space. After the familiar white light, he saw the endless stars of normal space once again.
Unfortunately, without the display terminals, he had no way of knowing where he was!
All his strength vanished in an instant. Black Hair slumped weakly in his chair, a bitter smile appearing on his face.
Could this be considered an unlucky start?
Putting aside what was happening to Black Hair for now, let’s talk about Marshal Wick at this moment.

Because of the Black-Haired One’s promise, he had been in agony all this time. On one hand, he had to deal with the calls from civilians demanding battle, and on the other, the pressure of an impending war. Marshal Wick was like an ant on a hot pan. Three thousand warships had been urgently assembled, with ample ammunition supplies—yet they still hadn’t taken action.
“One day left, the last day.” In his office, the old marshal sucked at his cigar one after another. The blue smoke darkened the entire room. In less than half a month, Marshal Wick had gained more wrinkles, seeming to have aged significantly.
The large clock in the room continued to tick. The old marshal glanced at its hands again. There were still twenty hours left until the Black-Haired One’s promise would be fulfilled. He shook his head and reached for the button on the desk.
There were less than twenty hours left, yet there was still no sign from that brat. It seemed he could no longer be counted on. It appeared that this old body of his could not escape this war after all. He just wondered if this war would bring him even greater glory, as before.
With a self-mocking smile, the old marshal didn’t even believe such a possibility. In a daze, his finger pressed the button. “Saka, order the entire fleet to prepare! We set off in thirty minutes!”
No response. The old marshal frowned. He was a meticulous man who also valued meticulous subordinates. Saka had earned his approval precisely because of his calmness and precision. But what was wrong today? Why wasn’t his usually diligent adjutant responding?
Could it be that he too had lost confidence in this war? The old marshal shook his head, dismissing this unrealistic thought. He pressed the button again, but before he could speak, the door burst open from the outside! A figure rushed in—was it his adjutant, Saka?
“M-Marshall!! It’s… it’s terrible!!” Adjutant Saka’s face was pale. The man, who was usually so calm, now showed unprecedented panic. This made the old marshal’s heart sink.
Had the Moors launched another attack?
“Calm down, Adjutant Saka!! What exactly happened? Tell me slowly. It’s an order!!”
“Yes, yes, Marshal!! The Seventh Star Region…”
“What’s wrong with the Seventh Star Region?” The old marshal stood up abruptly, asking anxiously.
“A black hole has appeared in the Seventh Star Region!! All of the Moors’ fleets have been destroyed!! The star region… it’s on the verge of destruction!!”

“Bang!” Everything went dark before his eyes, and the old marshal collapsed onto his armchair. In a daze, he remembered what the black-haired man had said.
“Give me half a month, and I’ll come up with a solution…”
Half a month… Is this your answer for me?