Barren Star – Chapter 16
by Little PandaThey’re really unlucky.
After agreeing to Hua Zhuoyu’s conditions, Ning Buyi began cramming knowledge about manually operating mechas.
In the early days of the mecha era, everyone controlled mechas manually. But as technology developed, “manual operation” became a thing of the past. However, in critical moments, manual mode could save the day, so major training camps didn’t stop “manual operation courses”. Compared to the past, though, no one could become legendary through “manual operation” anymore. One mecha warrior summarized: Today’s automation versus manual operation is like the difference between a spaceship and an old car. Seeing this, Ning Buyi felt relieved. Her mental strength wasn’t low, just her physical qualities couldn’t keep up. Surely she wouldn’t get dizzy in an “old car”, right?
With this “mysterious confidence”, Ning Buyi firmly rejected Hua Zhuoyu’s suggestion to “adjust for a few days”. She just wanted to urge her to set off quickly to deal with the “uninvited guests” on the barren star. Seeing Ning Buyi’s urgency, Hua Zhuoyu didn’t refuse again. Even if she got “dizzy”, it would probably only last a few days, not a life-threatening issue.
Endless yellow sand filled the sky and earth, strange rocks stood tall and rugged, like sentinels of the boundless desert. Among a stone pillar, an insect-shaped spaceship hovered, its shell covered in impact marks. Below the ship was a small protective shield, inside which sat three humanoid creatures with unpleasant expressions.
“This damn place, when can we leave?”
“Hei Rui still hasn’t come back yet. If there really is a base over there, we could get resource replenishments.”
“The shield can’t hold up anymore, the dark pollution concentration on Barren Star is too high. That damn woman must be dead by now, right? What’s the point of searching?” Jack cursed with a gloomy face.
“This is the Queen’s order.” Monasha coldly looked at her two companions, a poisonous light flashing in her eyes. Jack and Benjamin’s eyelids twitched, and they immediately fell silent. It’s well known that this woman is the Queen’s personal guard, extremely ruthless, and countless male worms have died by her hand.
“Could something have happened?” Benjamin, after a moment of silence, couldn’t help but speak up with worry. They were low on energy and couldn’t afford to waste time here. Although nutrition agents were plentiful, they were running out of medicine to suppress the dark pollution. At this rate, before they could leave Barren Star, they would be controlled by dark pollution and turn into waste worms.
Monasha thought for a while, then said coldly: “Wait another half day.” Hei Rui was their scout, with the strongest detection and escape abilities. If he encountered trouble that even he couldn’t handle, rushing over might not help them find a way out. But just staying here was useless too, they could only make a desperate attempt.
Just as the three were quietly discussing, a huge commotion came from about a thousand meters ahead, and the energy signal detector alarm let out a high-pitched long beep. Monasha and Jack Ray exchanged a glance, their thoughts racing quickly, immediately entering a battle-ready state, transforming into insect-like mimicry, and moving swiftly from their original position. The moment they left, cannon fire struck with pinpoint accuracy!
“Annihilation cannon? There are mecha warriors!” Monasha’s voice suddenly became shrill.
Not far away.
Po Jun moved like a silver wolf riding the wind, like an arrow released from a bow. Hua Zhuoyu’s hands were in motion, inputting commands, her speed getting faster and faster, almost creating a blur of afterimages. Ning Buyi stared at her hands, and before long felt dizzy. She pressed her throbbing temples, and in the rapid flight of the Po Jun mecha, it was as if some unknown drug had been injected into her central nervous system, making her feel terribly nauseous.
Hua Zhuoyu had no time to worry about Ning Buyi right now. She continuously controlled the mecha to change its movements, seemingly chaotic and disorderly advances containing a trace of strange fluctuations. Po Jun’s energy was insufficient and couldn’t be equipped with too many high-end weapons. After firing one annihilation cannon shot, she quickly switched the weapon to the least energy-consuming magnetic wave sword.
“They, they’re rushing over.” Ning Buyi suppressed that dizzy feeling and sat up straight, staring seriously ahead. What met her eyes were three monster insects. Their bodies were nearly three meters tall, their backs weren’t flat, but instead had rows of purple spikes sticking up. On both sides of their shells grew two pairs of wings as thin as cicada wings. Each insect had eight legs, moving extremely fast. The eight insect legs lifted and fell like incredibly sharp spears.
Ning Buyi glanced at Hua Zhuoyu, seeing her calm expression, looking confident, as if she didn’t take the three insects seriously. In fact, it was exactly so. With Hua Zhuoyu’s godlike operation, the Po Jun mecha avoided all the Insect Race’s attacks while moving, while the magnetic wave sword cut solidly into the shells, leaving a long trail of sparks. Piercing screams pushed like waves, sticky blood dripped along the wounds. The three insects had no intention of retreating, their eyes flashing with crimson light.
Monasha recognized the Po Jun mecha, confirming that the person before her was who she was looking for.
Until now, there was no sign of Jack Ray. It goes without saying that Jack Ray must have fallen into Hua Zhuoyu’s hands. But Hua Zhuoyu was severely eroded by dark pollution, how could she be like nothing happened? Could it be that another Judge also appeared on this barren star? Monasha’s thoughts turned, and she let out a sharp whistle from her mouth. Suddenly, another pair of wings appeared behind her, and she flew up into the air. Her mouthparts contracted, continuously spraying thick green liquid.
Although Po Jun had extremely high resistance to corrosion, Hua Zhuoyu didn’t want the mecha to be touched by that disgusting sticky liquid. The mecha’s body twisted, sliding sideways, the magnetic wave sword turned and cut off the weakest little insect’s legs. “Even if they know they can’t win, they won’t retreat. When they die, important information will automatically be transmitted to the Insect King’s mind,” Hua Zhuoyu said to Ning Buyi in her spare time.
If the Insect Queen found out about this, it would be terrible! Ning Buyi’s eyes narrowed: “Then we definitely can’t let them die.”
“Not necessarily, it depends on how much they matter to the Queen,” Hua Zhuoyu smiled. The Insect Race’s nature means they automatically transmit their information to the Insect King. But if the Insect King maintained this state all the time, their brain couldn’t handle that flood of information. Only the death messages of insects that are closely watched would reach them immediately, while the rest are tossed into the Insect King’s mental trash heap.
Ning Buyi frowned and said: “You back off first.”
Hua Zhuoyu raised an eyebrow, didn’t ask more, and controlled Po Jun to jump out of the battle circle.
Seeing this, Ning Buyi started using the planet master’s dominating skill on the three insects, not just marking them as “Uninvited Guests” but as “Enemies.”
Jack Ray and Benjamin saw Hua Zhuoyu retreat and thought she couldn’t hold on anymore. After all, in their minds, Hua Zhuoyu was severely injured and at the end of her rope. They subconsciously moved forward, but suddenly their eight legs went out of control. Their bodies swayed and with a crashing sound, they fell to the ground, their shells pierced by each other’s sharp spear-like long legs.
“So Insect Races can trip themselves up?” Hua Zhuoyu was amazed.
“They’re really unlucky, maybe they’ve done too many bad deeds,” Ning Buyi said with a schadenfreude (pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune) look.
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