The administrative center of Beijing-β was 300 kilometers away from Starry Sea Academy. It was noon, the outdoor apparent temperature deviated from the expectation for no reason at all, rising straight up approaching 20 degrees. The stone-like ice was moist with life, and the deep winter that had lasted for more than two years seemed to have some idea of recovery, as if a sudden burst of spring wind came from the ends of the universe, blowing the sky as blue as if washed.

It was the third day of the "thesis week" in Starry Sea Academy. On the evening of three days ago, when the students had just finished their cla.s.ses, they were suddenly notified that this school with only one headmaster had quite an arbitrary teaching schedule. The princ.i.p.al probably wanted to have an annual holiday. He temporarily changed this week to a thesis week, opened the library, made a list of dozen books, and left a very big question -  where will the future of humanity go?

At this point, with four days to go until the a.s.signment was due, most students were not thinking about the future of humanity, but about the unexplained disappearance of White and the others. The entire college had become a happy rumor mill. The debate about who among the four people eloped with whom had already caused two rounds of brawls.   

Mint's orphanage received a stipend -  she had set it to automatically transfer three quarters of her monthly stipend to her "family", but this time the stipend was sent along with a letter of complaint.

Headmaster Lu, who vowed to expel them, did not even write down the punishment, but adopted the management style of kindergartens - when he left, he wrote a letter to inform the parents of the selected students. White's parents had already made two trips to the empty princ.i.p.al's office. Rickhead's mother was less responsible. After reading it, she answered the letter with four simple words: "Then let him die."

The letter that was sent to Jingshu Huang's home according to the enrollment information failed to send, wandering around in the entire planet and was returned to the headmaster's mailbox by the system.

On this day, the old dean of the Information Technology College who had resigned was packing his bags and was ready to leave Beijing-β. On his way, he came to Starry Sea Academy where he could see from a distance the magnificent dome of the auditorium and the noisy naughty children all over the school. The old dean did not expect to have so many students in the school. He put his hands on the fence and looked inside. He saw two teenagers fighting. The boys were fighting over the forms in the girl's hands.

"Show me, I don't have to chase you, don't flatter yourself!"

The girl kicked him in the s.h.i.+ns, "Go away!"

"I can show you mine! I didn't sign up for any of the three colleges, and I offered a new professional direction — interstellar smuggling guides. How about that? It's a f.u.c.king great idea, right? Hey! Wait for me!"

After listening, the old dean was stupefied for a long time. It seemed like this sacred hall of knowledge was still feeding a group of dumb moving gorillas, so he held the railings, walking away slowly. He was two hundred and sixty years old, and had no permanent residence. He had taught at every university in the Eighth Galaxy, and had watched dozens of schools fail in the face of overwhelming odds. Starry Sea Academy was his last stop, and he was finally disappointed.

Suddenly, he felt a little frustrated, looking down at the dry old spots on the back of his hand, feeling that his life might have been a pipe dream, and that he took a stubborn and wrong path.

Two hundred and sixty years, it's time to wake up.

Not long ago, he spent the better part of his life saving up a place for himself in a property-owned retirement home on the Cayley planet where he intended to spend his remaining years. It's a pretty decent old age in the Eighth Galaxy. He's leaving today.

The old dean looked up at the sky. It was a rare sunny day. There was no north wind. It was not as warm as Beijing-β's winter. He thought this might bode well for his journey.

Homeless vagrants emerged from their hiding places, cheerfully waving to the pa.s.sing professor and congratulating one another on surviving another winter, which was about to usher in a good season of up to four years.

Not far away, a flock of pigeons flying across the sky  fell on the-six-million-worth roof in Starry Sea Academy, dropping endless excrement to express endless "blessings" to the students.

Penny opened the door of Speakeasy , brought a bag of fresh mealworms to the lizard, opened the window, rolled up her sleeves, and wiped the tables and chairs -  B4's place was so clean and barely anyone lived in it, daily maintenance was enough, so she might as well do it herself.

Penny had known Lin for five years, and by the standards of a woman, he was not a slovenly man. He had no other vices than his unkempt personal image. He drank, but never got drunk. Everything that had been used would be put back in its place, and there was a clean, cold sense of order in both Speakeasy and his home.

"When's your master coming back?" Penny said to the lizard as she stepped on the bench, "B4 had been out of touch for quite a few days. Where did he go with Lu the pretty face? I'll try to contact him again."

She wiped the gla.s.s clean, couldn't help putting her hand over her eyes, "Why is it so sunny all of a sudden? I'm sweating a bit."

The lizard was silent and never responded to the woman's affectionate soliloquy.

"I guess I still can't get in touch with him," she said, "I know he likes to be alone, but I keep coming up to him. Will he be annoyed with me after a long time?" Penny, who was accustomed to rough weather, looked at her personal terminal with some apprehension, not noticing that the big lizard behind her slowly moved its clumsy body, fearfully hiding from being exposed to the "sunlight" outside the window.

It was as if the personal terminal had been wandering in the Eighth Galaxy for a week. There was still no answer. The man had gone off somewhere and there was no communication signal at all.

Penny sighed. "As expected ..."

As her voice faded, the terminal suddenly seemed to be jammed, lighting up. Penny, horrified, unconsciously thrust her fingers into her hair and quickly grabbed a shape out of her collapsed hair.

The next moment, as the image floated in midair, Penny saw that B4 seemed to be in a very dark place. There was no way to calculate the time difference while one was traveling in the s.p.a.ce, and she regretted to call a little bit and asked cautiously, "Is it night over there? Did I disturb you?"

The speed of light and shadow signals were unmatched, but there would still be delays across the galaxy. Even if the projections on a personal terminal appeared to be face to face, it was impossible for two people in s.p.a.ce to talk in real time.

Jingheng was in an unknown abandoned supply station, smoking beside the scarred mech when he suddenly received the communication request from Penny.

He could have had a bad signal. His face was blurry. The transparency of his terminal was obscured by the sunlight outside the window. Penny hurried to the window, intending to close the curtains. "d.a.m.n beautiful today. Wait a second …"

The too brilliant sunlight reflected her side profile red, the originally slightly strong appearance unexpectedly had a girlish temperament then.

Zhanlu who was recharging said, "Headmaster Lu restored the communication system on the abandoned station.  Although I don't have enough power, but I can borrow the communication network of the supply station to search for the coordinates of the Ninth Squadron."

"Charge faster." Jingheng was a little impatient, the message has not yet arrived, he flicked the cigarette ash, "Hurry up and answer the phone for me, just fits you since you can't stop talking too …"

The word "much" was still stuck in his throat when the image came to him. Lin saw the "suns.h.i.+ne" outside the window through Penny's screen and heard the silly girl still sighing about how it's "d.a.m.n beautiful today". The cigarette on his hand fell to the ground. "Penny, get away from the window and get a mech with defense system!"

However, the interstellar distance was too far away that the waves travelling close to 300 thousand kilometers per second were also exhausted. He had blurted out this warning, but it had been doomed to only be on the way.

Penny saw in the distance what seemed to be cl.u.s.ters of red light exploding on the horizon, and her hand, which pulled the curtain down, paused in confusion. But before she could see it, the red light suddenly split open as if a thousand stars were exploding in the sky, white as a sheet of paper.

The ground quaked in anger, the crust that had naturally formed for billions of years crackled like death, rocks crumbled, and the artificial atmosphere was like a layer of paper and gla.s.s.

The houses, the city buses that whistled every five minutes, the machine garbage cans that never shut their mouths, the college domes full of pigeons, the old professor who politely waved to every homeless person, the children who gathered in the courtyard, the frightened lizard, and ... the woman with her hand up on her forehead ...

They were all enveloped in that white light, which was as worn and decayed, and became overexposed pale silhouettes and then melted into the world that had turned upside down.

The outdated anti-missile system on the Beijing-β finally sent out a post-perception alert. The civil servants in the low planetary orbit* were awakened by the screams. They stayed in a daze for a full five minutes and then got up in a heap. The capital planet of the Eighth Galaxy, Cayley Planet, had been out of contact. They had to make incoherent calls for help to the distant Freedom League.

*low planetary orbit is an orbit around a planet between 400-1000 miles above a planet's surface. Most man-made objects are in low planetary orbit.

"The Eighth Galaxy's Beijing-β planet is under attack. Report ... We were bombed by a wide range of planet-cla.s.s missile attack. Enemy unknown. We're defenseless, the entire planet is collapsing under the weight of nuclear missiles ... f.u.c.k!"

"Ten years ago, you had promised to upgrade our defense system! You had promised ... where the f.u.c.k are you b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"

"Help! Hel ..."

"Beep-"

"Penny!"

Jingheng Lin's personal terminal signal suddenly disconnected, and the girl who claimed to have lived over the average age of the Eight Galaxies stood there. The figure solidified in front of him, leaving him a red profile.

Lin stayed for a second, then turned to go.

Prince Arthur Cayley's maniacal laughter flew out of the main control room, and the screen played like a cheap game ad. Tons of missiles blasted through the screen and were blowing up on the unaware. The animation effect was old-fas.h.i.+oned, there's nothing spectacular about the perspective, and even the quality of the picture was troublesome.

White laughed. "Is this a TV show or a commercial? The special effects are so speechless. I'll give you one and a half piece of money for this. No more."

"I'll give you two." Rickhead felt inexplicably a bit uncomfortable, "Pres Lu, can we change the channel?"

But the two adults in the main control room did not say anything.

Mint looked at Monoeye Hawk and then looked at Lu. As if she had realized something from their facial expressions, she whispered, "Pres Lu, when can we finish charging and go home?"

Lu slowly turned his head, on the girl's eyes, Mint had never seen such an unsightly expression on him.

At this time, Lin rushed into the main control room without any greeting nor introductions, directly saying, "Check all the stocks of the supply station, especially supplies and weapons."

Lu's voice seemed to press down on his throat. He looked at Lin in dismay, and his words seemed to burst out without thinking, "Supplies are sufficient, the a.r.s.enal is empty."

Lin did not make any comment on what had happened, he said quickly, "Sort the supplies separately, make it enough according to the expectation that the next replenishment will be in six months. Mech charging and repair will be completed in half an hour, after completion, we immediately set out."

Before the students could react to what had happened, they were confused by the order. What did he mean by "the next replenishment will be in six months"?

The Eighth Galaxy might not be civilized, but it was still a human society. Now they were about to fly in s.p.a.ce for six months? Who knew how much supply they would need to spend six months in s.p.a.ce?

Lin: "Turn off all unnecessary lights. Encrypt the communication network. Beijing-β's communication can get through here indicating that this place is within search range of the Eighth Galaxy's core region ..."

White asked stupidly: "Ah, can I get through? Should I call home?"

Mint was the first to react, swaying blankly, grabbing White's elbow unconsciously and shaking.

White gave her a puzzled hand and said, "What's wrong?"

Two seconds later, he realized what she meant. White had a full realization, standing still for two seconds, squeezed out a smile and looked back at the flame on the screen. "…This is not special effect?"

No one answered him.

White's breath had grown heavy, and he glanced frantically around everybody's face, trying to find any trace of bluffing on it. His voice suddenly broke, "It's just a game ad, isn't it? Huh? I … I used to play a similar one …"

In normal times, it was alright to be noisy and talk nonsense. But in such a state of emergency, he was still unable to make sense of the main point. Not mentioning the Silver Fortress, even the inferior brand of "young master" soldiers randomly a.s.signed by the Military Commission would not dare to face him while acting confused and disoriented. Admiral Lin was used to having all his orders being executed without fail. He became angry there and then, saying coldly: "Beijing-β planet was attacked. According to the style of the interstellar pirates, they will not stop. The Eight Galaxy has no regular garrison, no one can stop them. Moving a little further, the energy waves generated by the nuclear missile attacks on the planet are enough to break up this small supply station into pieces, leaving you dead and buried - Did I make myself clear enough? If you don't want to die, then move quickly!"

Monoeye Hawk: "Jingheng Lin, this is not your Silver Fortress! You ..."

Lu stopped him. At the same time, he stepped forward and put his arm around White's shoulder. "I'll make a list of supplies. Little Huang will take notes. The stores are not locked, so the four of you will follow my father to prepare separately. Come back to me in twenty minutes. I will give you a simple mech armor training. I need to encrypt the communication network and do other preparatory work."

"Pre…"

"The Department of Mech Operations has to go through at least one academic year of training before getting to the real mech. We have to catch up with a year's teaching in 10 minutes. If you fail this subject, you might die. How can you still have time to cry, kids?" Lu sighed, reaching out his hand to wipe White's head and face, "Get going. Do something. Don't think about it."