Chapter 47: Time Sealing – Section 3

In the silent universe, a small high-speed shuttle raced through space at lightning speed. What was once far away on the horizon was now whizzing by in an instant. Even though the resistance in space had been reduced to a minimum, sparks still flew off its hull.

It was naturally Black Hair and Baroka. After receiving news from Black Prison Star, Black Hair rushed into the shuttle without delay and flew straight out of Death Star. In his haste, he didn’t even have time to communicate with anyone else. Fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the scene.

Then, Black Hair witnessed the most unforgettable sight of his life—a massive fireball formed by an explosion. By God, Black Hair had never seen such a huge fireball; its diameter spanned dozens of kilometers, almost as large as an asteroid. Its nearly white core further emphasized its terrifying destructive power. From Black Hair’s perspective, he could even see the bright red shock waves at the edge of the fireball.

But that wasn’t what surprised Black Hair. The real reason was…

This fireball was stationary!!!

Could one understand what “stationary” meant? It meant a state where everything came to a halt. In other words, it was like a freeze frame in a movie! The fireball was enormous, but it didn’t move. All the debris, including armor fragments and building ruins ejected during the explosion, were frozen in space by some mysterious force. And that massive shock wave could only remain in a nascent state, never able to spread outward.

This was utterly bizarre!

Black Hair stared at this incredible sight before him, completely stunned. After a long while, he poked Baroka beside him.

“You already knew about this?”

“No. I just saw it now too.” Baroka also looked dazed, as if a puppet. “But my subordinates must have seen it. If I’m not mistaken, they’re ahead.”

“Understood.” Black Hair took a deep breath, his brows furrowed. “We’ll go there right away. Once we understand the situation, we’ll start rescues immediately.”

“What!” Baroka exclaimed in shock, pointing at the giant fireball in the distant sky with his finger as thick as a radish.

“With things like this, is there even any hope of rescue? Besides, we still don’t understand what’s going on. Entering recklessly is far too dangerous.”

“Shut up!” Black Hair snapped coldly. “We have no choice. Black Prison Star is a stronghold of the Blood Wolves. Anyway, I must make one last effort—get them alive or dead.”

“Live, I want to see him; dead, I want to see his body…” Baroka was momentarily stunned as he watched Black Hair quickly leave the cabin, muttering to himself. “That’s exactly what I’m worried about. Now not even a body can be found. Those crazy Black Fish guys are all extremely tough opponents.” This was probably what Baroka was truly concerned about. He knew Black Hair’s personality all too well. If he didn’t go personally on this rescue mission, it would be the biggest joke of the year. As a comrade in battle, he was more worried about Black Hair’s safety than the dangers of the rescue operation. But it was all useless. Black Hair’s decisions couldn’t be changed by ordinary people. So, thirty minutes later, they boarded thewarship fleet fleet that had already arrived there. They met Baroka’s men, who, perhaps frightened by the strange scene before them, hadn’t carried out any actual rescue efforts despite being there for half an hour. They simply followed Death Star’s rules strictly—forming a blockade with their warships while conducting various scans. By the time Black Hair arrived, the preliminary scans had just been completed. “What’s the situation?” As soon as he entered the cabin, Black Hair got straight to the point. “It’s very strange, truly bizarre,” said the scavenger in charge of the scans, looking troubled. “We’ve used all kinds of scans, but nothing works. On the scan results, Black Prison Planet is completely blank.” “How is that possible?” Black Hair was stunned. Black Prison Planet was blank? Such a large planet, visible even to the naked eye, showed up as non-existent in the scans? Could it be that everything he saw was an illusion? Just as Black Hair was surprised, he heard the scavenger speak again. “But…” “But what? Speak clearly. Are you trying to provoke me?” Seeing Black Hair’s growing displeasure, Baroka shouted at him, scaring the scavenger into shrinking back. “But we’ve detected signs of life! There are still lives there, and quite a number at that!” “Hm!?” Hearing this, a glint appeared in Black Hair’s eyes, and his expression softened significantly. Thank goodness. The presence of signs of life meant there were still living people. It was a stroke of luck amidst misfortune. For Black Hair, the people of Black Prison were irreplaceable. As long as they were safe, even if the entire Black Prison Planet exploded, it wouldn’t matter. It seemed he still had some leeway.

“What are we waiting for? Organize the rescue immediately. Have more people prepare a set of engineering mechs. I want to go and see for myself,” said Black Hair quickly.
“Well…” The sand bandit glanced at Baroka with some hesitation, clearly thinking of the same issues Baroka had considered earlier. But at Baroka’s slight nod, they took action.
Two minutes later, a rescue team composed of 500 engineering mechs quickly left the fleet, heading toward the Black Prison Star at a pace that seemed slow but was actually fast, like a group of dumb penguins. Among them was one mech painted blood red—Black Hair’s own.
The cockpit of the mech was extremely quiet; aside from a faint humming sound, nothing else could be heard. The cramped space was pitch dark, and Black Hair felt unusually calm, as if hidden in his mother’s womb. Looking at the approaching giant fireball, he felt no trace of tension.
Actually, this kind of rescue operation wasn’t new to him. Black Hair was already accustomed to the procedures. He also understood well that although rescue missions weren’t actual battles, in a sense, the danger didn’t decrease at all—it multiplied. No one knew if any remnants of past disasters still existed, or if they might strike again while they were trying to rescue them. Black Hair had once witnessed a warship explode during a rescue, with hundreds of rescuers and their engineering mechs none escaping.
In other words, rescue work was a job where you had to put your life on the line. Those who did this job didn’t plan to return alive.
This time would be no exception.
And it was even worse.
As time passed, the air in the cockpit seemed to freeze. Finally, a red light on the control panel in front of Black Hair lit up, accompanied by a “beep” sound.
“The vanguard has made contact. No abnormalities for now. Please keep your formation dispersed. The search operation will begin in one minute. Good luck to everyone.”
“Snap!” A finger silenced the sound. Black Hair rubbed his stiff face.
It had begun. Let him see what was going on in this strange situation.
With a slight movement, the red engineering mech immediately executed a graceful sidestep, separating itself from the formation like an eagle soaring through space, and charging toward the nearby giant fireball. Its agile movements were completely unlike those of a bulky engineering mech. At the same time, ten more mechs automatically separated from the formation and closely followed behind Black Hair.

Kurokami knew that they were members sent by Baroque to protect him. Perhaps Baroque himself was piloting one of the mechs. Yet, regarding such an action, Kurokami remained indifferent. After all, this was a rescue mission, not a battle—one that couldn’t be accomplished merely by courage. In a sense, it was a technical task. Just like the giant fireball ahead, though seemingly frozen in place, Kurokami didn’t think charging in with a mech was a good idea. So, although his approach seemed fierce, it actually followed an extremely precise trajectory. The true landing point for the engineering mech was a narrow gap on the fireball—Kurokami could clearly see a gap large enough for the mech to enter.

Don’t assume a fireball must be a solid, unified entity. In fact, that’s just an illusion. In a real explosion, countless energies collide every millisecond, naturally leaving fleeting traces. But because the explosion energy moves so fast, these traces are usually impossible to detect.

However, the situation here was different. Though Kurokami still didn’t know why, everything here clearly seemed frozen in time. The crack formed by the explosion remained fixed before him. As long as he could enter that crack, he could relatively easily penetrate the outer layer of the fireball and reach its core.

The core, of course, was the true body of the Black Prison Planet…

The scene ahead rapidly expanded. In just an instant, Kurokami’s mech rushed into the crack under everyone’s gaze, triggering outcries over the channel. The ten mechs following behind him hesitated for a moment before stubbornly following suit.

It had to be said that their skills were far inferior to Kurokami’s. At least three mechs failed to control their flight trajectory, allowing the flames at the edge of the crack to scorch them. Bright sparks flew as their scorched parts turned completely black.

Seeing this, Kurokami, who was moving deeper ahead, felt his heart sink. Those frozen flames actually had lethal power!?