Opal and Raymond opened a double room in the hotel. Opal connected the terminal to the Ares galaxy local area network. The information website of Lie Xing was not as developed as that of the Republic. As a result, the weekly magnetic storm limited the Internet with the Star Alliance. The two young and strong mercenaries are supporting their families, and there are very few dead houses.
However, the number of Chinese people increased sharply during the rest day of the magnetic storm. The mercenary forum was noisy, and the entertainment hall was full of people playing virtual games. Inside the ring light screen is a blue cosmic star map. Opal participated in a simulated interstellar war, driving a spaceship to rush to and fro.
The scoreboard jumped rapidly, the radio waves rustled, and an unfamiliar voice roared: "Wrench! You fucking cheated!"
Opal shouted "Yohe", and controlled a small fighter jet to land on the Republic's galaxy mothership, circled around, and a dense number of light bombs flew behind him, sinking his fighter jet.
"Wrench!" Opal angrily said, "You attacked me!"
"Little Ouou—" Lily's voice laughed, "I recognized you, this time it's me—"
A slightly familiar voice said: "Everyone hold your ground." - It was Rosen's voice.
Opal screamed: "No way! You bully recruits!"
"What recruits!" The man said solemnly: "Go in line and prepare to join the battle again!"
Opal suddenly heard the voice of the instructor, Grey Wolf, and immediately said, "I'll get someone to help!"
Opal put away the light screen and said, "Raymond, come to participate in the imperial war."
Raymond was lying on the bed, his feet crossed, his feet in white socks moved, and he pillowed his arm, and said, "Don't play, you play by yourself."
Opal said: "What are you thinking? About Sid?"
Raymond was noncommittal, narrowed his eyes, Opal rolled over and got out of bed, and wanted to go over and say something, Raymond raised his leg and gave him a kick, gently kicked him back to the bed, and said, "Play your imperial war."
Opal had to continue to play his video games. In the virtual world, there was no distinction between big and small. The mercenaries chose a camp and divided into two teams. One team invaded the territory of the Republic, and the other team defended.
This virtual game is a global Internet platform technology that Azeroth bought back with huge sums of money. From S-class mercenaries to restaurant owners, they can participate, and different people can play different roles in it.
"What are you thinking!" Gray Wolf's voice said loudly in the communicator: "Be serious! Don't be distracted! Show Rosen some color!"
The leader of the attacking side is Grey Wolf, while the leader of the defending side is Rosen. There are more and more people, and tens of millions of people have joined the entire interstellar battlefield. After talking with the temporary team members, Opal discovered that Grey Wolf and Luo Sen is actually an S-rank mercenary!
The peak of the pyramid of the country of mercenaries, the remaining members of the six S-rank superpowers under Azeroth—the strength of these two should not be underestimated. The command tactics of the gray wolf are simply amazing. It was the first time that Opal participated in the space starship battle. The arrangement of small warships was overwhelming, and the formation was changing rapidly.
Opal lost the battle without taking precautions. This time, he did not rush to line up to join the battlefield. He chose the ghost mode and overlooked the entire U-star offensive and defensive battle from the observation tower. The command of the gray wolf is like an art in the dark universe, and the space magnetic defense array constructed by the six planets is Rosen's heroic stage. Tens of thousands of strange soldiers participated in the battle and disappeared in an instant and turned into dust in space.
The battle was stalemate, Opal looked dizzy, temporarily shut down the LAN, and Raymond was still lying in bed sleeping.
"Hey." Opal went over and lay beside Raymond. Raymond opened his eyes and saw that the screen was off, so he didn't drive him away. The two lay side by side. Opal said, "What do you want to eat? I'll go buy something to eat."
Raymond said: "Whatever, I plan to take Sid's mission."
Opal wondered, "What made you change your mind?"
Raymond said absentmindedly, "Let's try it out, no loss if it doesn't work, isn't it? Let's go to apply for union arbitration first, and then apply for the employer's special entrustment to ask Sid to add a clause with no risk of breach of contract."
Opal said: "Okay."
Raymond nodded, and Opal said, "I'll go tell him now."
Raymond hurriedly got up and said, "No, wait a moment, we have to make thorough preparations."
Opal went to buy food, and when he came back, Raymond turned on the Internet and began to collect information on the M97 nebula.
The Mercenary Star is not the planet with the most timely and rich information in the Covenant, but it is the place with the most practical information. For tens of thousands of years, there have been many places in the universe that have left the footprints of mercenaries. Where is the danger? Where to take shortcuts, where not to approach, these are all information from the edge of life and death, exchanged with blood.
Opal and Raymond huddled side by side on the bed while eating and watching. The information on the periphery of the nebula was dazzling. There were three life planets in total, followed by tens of millions of stars and asteroids, each of which was completely different. , the planets are also strange, nitro, methane, heavy water, uranium, radium, and molecular variants and compounds between various elements fill the entire screen.
"This is not where we're going," Opal said.
Raymond: "I know, go to the center again."
There are two dark areas in the swirling M97 nebula, Opal pushed the touch screen away with his finger, pulled another photo, and said: "This is an unknown place, a dark area, and the nearest star gate is also one thousand seventeen from here. Hundred astronomical units."
The two watched for a while, and in the powdery nebula, one of the dark spots led to a red line, with the note saying "Ingredient unknown".
Opal said: "Strange, what is the purpose of building the Star Gate here?"
Raymond thought for a while and said, "Who knows? Maybe the empire once had a plan to open up wasteland, but it was temporarily put on hold for some reason... What do you think is inside?"
Opal said: "I can't say for sure, it could be a black hole, or a few neutron stars... or it could be a blob of expanding gas... or nothing at all."
"Guess." Raymond said leisurely, he got up to pour the coffee in the pot: "Just guess."
"I hope it's not a black hole." Opal stared at the darkness and muttered: "We need all the information we can find about this area, including the surrounding life planet, the construction and development history of the Stargate, and electric sparks. The courier company's courier list ... including what goods they shipped, and the origin and identity of that customer."
"Let's split up." Raymond said: "I'll go to that kid and ask, if necessary, go to the Republic once."
The relationship between the member states of the Star Alliance is very complicated. In theory, as long as the country to which it belongs has registered with the Star Alliance and becomes one of the member states, the ID card can pass without hindrance.
The nationality system before the Light Era has been abolished, and the star status on the ID card only represents birth and entry into the planet. The relationship between the country of mercenaries and the republic and empire has changed in recent years. The two have been together for a long time. Raymond first went to the union to issue a certificate, while Opal went to the information center to inquire about all the contents of the M97.
The day of the magnetic storm passed, Opal pulled out the list of mercenary groups that had performed missions there in the past, and learned about the situation one by one, while Raymond drove the spaceship to the Republic. After two days of preparation, we finally met in the lobby of Sunlight City.
When Sid heard their plan, he just nodded gratefully, and said nothing. He went to change the content of the commission—special commission, for the smoke and sword mercenary group. The two sides signed a certificate to confirm that there was no connection before this task. . This is the anti-cheating mechanism of the country of mercenaries. In order to avoid entrustment by acquaintances, money is used to help the mercenary group quickly advance.
The quest was adjusted in accordance with their E-level mercenary group, the monetary reward remained unchanged at 250,000 credit points, and the union took 20% of the 50,000. The rating is 240 individual points and 118 team points.
Raymond closed the mercenary diary and came out, and said, "Go and sort out the news first, and leave this afternoon."
Sid said: "I'll go with you."
Opal and Raymond immediately said in unison, "No way!"
Opal: "We are incapable of protecting you."
Raymond: "Don't make trouble."
Sid said: "But I have been there for nearly two cosmic years. I have searched many areas, and these are marked on the star map of my spacecraft. Let me follow, and I can know the way."
Opal said: "Give us the star map, you can't..."
Sid insisted: "I won't get in your way! I can recognize my dad, you at least let me have a look, okay? I can handle the logistics for you, fly the spacecraft, and use my spacesuit for you, you guys. Don't buy any more!"
Opal was really devastated by him. The three discussed at the door for a while, and finally Raymond had to say: "You must swear that you must stay on the spacecraft at all times, and you cannot come out without our permission."
On the tarmac, Sid moved out the living materials that he could use, including some weapons, and after Raymond screened them, he put the useful ones on Era-VI.
"Sid!" On the side of the apron, Xun drove over.
"Quick!" Sid laughed.
Xun: "Did someone pick it up? I've packed my bags, why are you two again?"
Opal: "… "
Xun said: "Forget it, let's go." He picked up a bag and walked towards the spaceship, and Opal was furious and said, "Hey! Did you make a mistake!"
Xun said: "I promised Sid to help him find his father! What do you want to do? I don't want to go on a mission with you two wastes!"
Opal: "Who wants to go on a mission with whom! Who was beaten up by trash last time! This is my spaceship! Hey! Don't touch it! Warning!"
Sid said: "Xun, wait, thank you."
Opal rudely took Sid by the collar, dragged him over, pressed him next to the back door of the spacecraft, and said, "I don't care what you promised him, I'll send him away immediately, go now!"
Opal got into the spaceship, and outside was Xun's loud questioning and Sid's whispering explanation, Xun was always very aggressive, Opal and Raymond didn't like him. Sid was scolded bloody, and the two voices drifted away.
Raymond shook his head and smiled, and after waiting for a while, Sid came in, closed the spaceship door, the corners of his mouth pursed into a smile, and Opal steered the spaceship to set off.
"Exchange information." Opal said, "What conclusion did you draw?"
Raymond said: "There is nothing unusual about Spark Express. It is a very ordinary private industry. The courier customer for this order is a man over 200 years old, his name is Ya Sui, who wants to send a suitcase to In the depths of the M97 nebula, the black ant planet on the spiral arm goes up. According to the backup of the express list, it is a plant growth agent."
Opal said: "How did you get this news?"
Raymond: "I checked with the contacts Sid provided. There are his father's former colleagues on Grey City."
Sid nodded and said, "As far as I know, it's the same."
Opal said: "You just went for a walk to see the scenery!"
Raymond said: "I also brought you some specialties! Don't forget it!"
Opal hurriedly said: "Come out and let me see."
Raymond took out a pack of Gray City Star's specialty from his backpack—it was a pie made of gray fruit. Sid smiled and said, "This tastes very good, and a lot of this fruit is grown in my hometown."
Opal didn't talk about him anymore, the three made tea and started to eat gray fruit sandwich pie, and Raymond said: "On the surface, it looks like a very ordinary express order, go to Black Ant Star to plant plants, if this is the case... "
Opal interrupted: "What if the inside story is unusual?"
Raymond said: "Then only go to... Black Ant Star to investigate."
Raymond's eyes were clear, and Opal understood it almost at the same time. This is actually an accident. The cause is very common, and the accident is very common. Even if you think hard, you can't think of any special loopholes.
But neither of them said it, so as not to make Sid have any more thoughts, which is very cruel.
After a brief awkward silence, Opal said: "I asked a few mercenaries who used to perform missions over there. There are several people who have been there, and they said that there are three life planets there, none of which are inhabited by humans. There are many strange-shaped lifeforms living in this place. Among them, there is a strange bug on a planet with a biological jet on its butt... It can leave the atmosphere and fly in the universe. They once attacked the other two planets, and were later attacked by these two planets. The monsters were defeated separately... Forgive me, I've always had a headache with history."
Raymond said: "This is almost the same information as the information provided by Sid, you just invite the veterans to drink and chat!"
Opal said: "If you insist on that, I have no problem."
Raymond: "… "
In other words, the two were busy for a long time and did not get any meaningful information at all. So everyone continued to eat the pie without mentioning it.
"Oh right." Opal remembered something again, narrowed his eyes and said, "I applied to retrieve all the open commission materials, and one of them has also made commissions in the M97 Nebula."
Raymond moved his eyebrows, meaning: So what
Opal said: "This person's rank and content have been sold out in the union, and the name is a question mark: '?'."
Raymond: "Is that weird? If he died in battle or stopped being a mercenary..."
Opal: "No, even if the victim is sold out, the name is still there. After leaving the union, the name and deeds can be retained."
Raymond: "Assuming this person gets a new job and doesn't want to be identified, he can also choose to hide his name..."
Opal: "If it was made by myself, then the column for that person's name would show 'unviewable' instead of a question mark."
Raymond: "… "
Opal: "It feels like a reasoning game?"
Raymond: "That's enough, what do you want to express?"
Opal shrugged and said: "I just think it's a little weird. I continued to search along the relevant content of the question mark person and found that there are pagination. In the light brain content of the trade union database, I can find the guy whose name is the question mark, and executed it. All missions."
Raymond narrowed his eyes slightly, and began to notice something strange. He said, "Then, in the commission he received, his name is also a question mark? Shouldn't he say that his name is a question mark?"
"No." Opal looked into Raymond's eyes and murmured: "All his tasks have been deleted, not hidden, but completely deleted. The content of M97 Nebula's exploration is no longer in the commission record, it is only He proposed to share a single message so that the younger mercenaries would know more."
Raymond asked a question: "When did that happen?"
Opal said: "The entry was written many years ago. I read the storage order. The number of years is at least in the order of thousands. The database administrator also told me a very interesting thing, this The question mark was changed by Azeroth himself."
Raymond: "So, how does Azeroth explain this?"
Opal: "No explanation, he didn't have time to meet me at all."
Raymond pondered for a moment, and then said: "I don't think it has anything to do with our commission from a thousand years ago."
Opal echoed: "At best, I can dig a little bit of Azeroth's gossip... Forget it, I really am too idle."
Sid said: "I think it might have something to do with it. Well, that's an intuition."
Opal and Raymond looked at Sid.
"Adults speak, children don't interrupt." Opal said blankly.
"Sid is older than you." Raymond said casually, "Let's play bouncy billiards."
After a short voyage of several days, they passed through the star gate of the M97 nebula and arrived at the beginning of the incident, during which time the Era-VI will continue to follow the trajectory of the previous transport ship.
Just looking outside, it is impossible to find that an explosion has occurred here. A star emitting a red flame erupts with majestic light and heat in the dark. This is a red giant star-an expansion of the star in the process of destruction.
The hot wind blows and disperses into the icy cosmic space, and thousands of ice crystals gather in the space toward the stars.
"Don't get too close." Raymond said: "I will be sucked in, and I want to live a hundred years."
Opal glanced at the gravitational field: "It's still far away, safe."
In the five light-screens of the spacecraft, hundreds of progress bars kept jumping, showing the detection energy of nearby elements, and the cabin was filled with red light.
They moved along the trajectory that the transport ship had traveled at that time. This was the plan proposed by Raymond. Sid had followed it a few times, but according to Opal and Raymond's idea, they still had to walk once in person. For seven consecutive days, the two took turns on duty, and sometimes they each had a cup of coffee on hand, and sat together in front of the console to watch the stars outside.
Sid was very tired and slept in the bedroom, while Opal and Raymond sat at the console chatting casually.
"It's boring." Raymond drank a cup of coffee and stared out of the cabin.
Opal murmured: "I think it's okay, such a beautiful starry sky, no matter how you look at it, you won't get tired of it."
The two sat quietly, and Opal asked, "Hey, dear, why are you helping him?"
Raymond said, "Enough is enough, don't be so disgusting, we've only known each other for a few weeks."
Opal smiled, and Raymond said: "It's a little touched, he is quite pitiful, Azeroth asks you not to forget your feelings as a mercenary."
Opal said: "What's the touch, you also have such a father?"
Raymond ignored Opal.
Opal adjusted his sitting position, half lying on the swivel chair in front of the console, and closed his eyes.
Raymond: "Go in and sleep."
Opal said: "I'm just meditating, don't interrupt me."
Opal's spiritual power radiates out, like a gentle ray of light, extending toward the vast and unknowable starry sky. It was huge, gentle, like a king who took over all the places in sight.
This king is dying, and after tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years, one day in the future, it may collapse into a black hole, or it may burn out its own light and heat, and gradually cool down and become an ice-cold the Death Star.
Opal's spiritual world went against the wind, and in the vast universe, it seemed to be watching him quietly.
[Human, what are you doing here?]A grand voice resounded in my mind.
Opal: "!!!"
Opal's consciousness was like a tiny light in the mighty particle wind. He felt that this red giant star was talking to him! The surrounding planets were all looking at him. The red giant star was like a king on a throne, surrounded by subjects composed of millions of galaxies, looking down at him condescendingly.
"I, I... are you talking to me?" Opal was stunned.
The surroundings were quiet, and there was still only the magnificent and boundless stellar electromagnetic wind, which penetrated all of his consciousness like a rolling torrent.
I don't know how long it took, Opal stammered: "Are you talking to me? Can we communicate?"
Lecter said that the stars have their own souls and thoughts, but they never communicate with low-level creatures. Opal was very at a loss, and said: "I am a mercenary, I... come here to find someone, no , a missing transport ship... your name seems to be..."
Opal remembered the labels on the star map, and also thought that those were names given to them by humans, a huge star comparable in size to the entire Ares galaxy, how could he care about these
"Have you seen that spaceship?" Opal asked at last after giving an overview of the matter.
He waited for a long, long time, until he almost thought that the question just now was an illusion, and he felt a lot of magnificent color winds blowing between the planets, and every inch of space was filled with electromagnetic particles that glowed like atoms.
Are the planets communicating? Is this their consciousness? !
[Your first question.]The voice sounded again.
Opal didn't know why, but suddenly he noticed a certain star in the distance, and his vision condensed there in just one second.
[And here.]
Opal's eyes shifted again to a dark place in the M97 nebula. The next moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.
Raymond put a blanket over him, a slight gesture interrupting his meditation.
"What are you doing!" Opal yelled at him angrily.
Raymond said, "Are you crazy?"
Opal ignored him, closed his eyes, and entered into meditation again, but this time his vision was completely different, the red giant star still radiated light, and the boundless dark red silky particle wind was no longer visible.
Opal radiated his spirit several times, but no matter how hard he tried, the red giant no longer responded in the slightest.
"Hey, talk to me." Opal shouted in his mind, "There was a little accident just now."
Opal: "Let me sing a song for you, do you know how to play table pool? Have you ever seen The Wandering Pig Bear? Now there is a second generation!"
Opal: "Do you know a man named Rector?"
Returning without success, Opal opened his eyes, and the culprit, Raymond, was still drinking coffee leisurely.
The appearance of the star was still in Opal's mind. He turned the swivel chair, opened the star map, and called up the surrounding galaxies.
Raymond: "?"
Opal turned his head to look out the porthole and adjusted the angle of the spaceship. The spaceship was tilted 90 degrees. In fact, in a place without gravity, the effect was similar whether it was head-up or tail-up. The only difference was that the nebula disk in the distance looked like Horizontally or vertically.
He adjusted the era-VI to a suitable angle according to the star map, and while looking out the window, he made a mark on the star map.
"What's wrong?" Raymond asked.
Opal looked at the star map suspiciously, it was a star - it's impossible to run into a star, what does the red giant mean
Raymond said: "This is your meditation enlightenment?"
Opal said: "Yes."
Raymond laughed, and Opal said, "Is this funny?"
Raymond said: "I heard that the Holy See also used this method to solve problems. The Pope closed his eyes and rested for a few minutes, so the whole galaxy was different because of God's revelation..."
Opal said: "This is what the planets told me."
As soon as he said these words, he realized that he was wrong. It seemed that he said it was too strange, and Raymond probably wouldn't believe it.
Raymond really disagreed. The two looked at the star map together, and Opal scratched his neck in confusion. Are you going here? After getting close to the star, it will only die. Even if it is not burned to death, it will be pulled in by gravity... He noticed the planets around this star system, and one of the planets is named: Black Ant.
Annotated as follows:
[Situation: Safe.]
[Higher intelligent creatures: Evolved from arthropods, with certain intelligence and hospitality.]What did Opal vaguely understand, that Sid's father's spaceship has something to do with this planet? ! Maybe it crashed on Black Ant Star
Raymond: "Safety and hospitality."
Opal said: "Don't believe the above evaluation. For the owner of the star map... I think his so-called 'safety' does not mean our safety."
Raymond asked with a little doubt: "The owner of the star map is very powerful?"
Opal replied: "Well, very strong..."
Rickett is indeed very strong, but Opal seems to be vaguely thinking of something... Is this what Rickett marked? Has he been here too? The owner of this star map...
Raymond called out the following line of dense small print and said, "Look."
This voyage diary is brief but striking:
[This planet is not marked in the Covenant aerospace system, and intelligent life is in the form of ants, which is very rare. Like a laboratory abandoned by the creator. I named it "Black Ant".]The name of the black ant star was actually named by Rickett? ! Although Opal had become accustomed to Rector's profound knowledge and knowledge, he couldn't help being deeply shocked when he read this comment.
He was following the footsteps that Lecter had walked, exploring step by step in the vast universe. Just thinking that the teacher had also been to this planet, gave birth to an indescribable enthusiasm and excitement in his heart.
Immediately afterwards, a basin of cold water quenched his excitement.
"Sid? Are you there?" - Xun's voice came from the spacecraft's loudspeaker communicator.
The corners of Opal's mouth twitched slightly, and Raymond spilled the coffee all over his hands.
Opal: "… "
Raymond: "… "
"Yes! Yes!" Sid woke up, ran out of the control room, and said loudly: "Xun! Are you here?"
"I'm right behind your spaceship!" Xun said: "I plan to go out into space to see!"
Sid said: "Can you use the spare spacesuit in my spaceship, will you use it?"
Xun said: "Yes! I'm going out now."
Sid said: "You set up the positioning follower system, remember to fix the magnetic field on the spacecraft cabin..."
"Sid! You tell me first!" Opal roared: "What the hell is going on!"