Chapter 210: Pandora

Border star field.

　This was the edge of the federal government’s jurisdiction. Most of the planets here were either filled with extremely hot, poisonous gases, or dangerously low temperatures. It was the transition zone between the habitable zone and the unexplored star sea. It was an inaccessible place, where even federal patrol ships rarely visited. Anyone who lingered in this area was either an exiled death row criminal or a vicious outlaw.

　In the past decade or so, the star pirated that were rampant here had gradually declined.

　Since the coverage rate of the starnet had grown further, their living space was becoming smaller and smaller. For some reason, the federal army could always find their traces with miraculous precision. After several large-scale cleanups, many well-known star pirates fleet had been wiped out, only small-scale small ships escaped from the suppression.

　Soon someone discovered that the problem was on starnet.

　In all the areas covered by the starnet, as long as the federal government wanted, every small communicator or terminal could become their eyes. Each and every human being connected to the starnet with spiritual power could become a branch of that huge spreading system. Needless to say, under the pursuit of such a behemoth, the star pirates’s protective measures soon became useless, leading to their demise. They could only survive in the desolate border star field and because they were forced to use more primitive communication equipment, their activity area was also greatly restricted. The pirates could only dream of setting a single step in the central star field.

　A starship covered by outer armour was quietly moored outside the gravitational zone of a desolate star.

　Its steel hull was covered with potholes and dents. It had clearly experienced many misfortunes and missions, turning into its current old and dilapidated look. The hull was covered with eroded rust marks and even the coating on it had become fuzzy and mottled, the only remaining words barely recognizable:

　”LEVIATHAN”

　A small transport ship carrying the crew to the starship returned from the deserted star.

　”Damn it, there’s not even a fucking hair on this planet.” A sallow-faced crew member spat angrily, cursing in dirty words.

　”Just like your lower half?” Another crew member sneered and sarcastically.

　The crew roared with laughter, but the vulgar laughter and cursing stopped at the moment when the hatch opened—they were shocked to see several crew members who were originally stationed in the ship collapsed on the ground, unconscious.

　They seemed to be still breathing, but couldn’t be awakened at all.

　The expressions of the star pirates became serious. They took out their weapons one after another and proceeded cautiously towards the cockpit—this way of acting was unlike that of the Federation or its dogs, otherwise they would have no chance of returning to the intact ship alive. However, apart from these two forces, who else could it be?

　To everyone’s surprise, there was only one person in the cabin.

　He was not so much a man as a boy, with long limbs and a slender figure, curled up on the large captain’s chair without any scruples, playing with his fingers boredly.

　Baggy clothes fell from his arms, revealing a scarred wrist.

　The boy raised his head, revealing a face that was too beautiful to be real.

　Under the aim of dozens of guns, his face remained unchanged and he even smiled softly:

　”My future crew, welcome.”

　Against the blue screen behind him, a faint blue light reflected in the depths of his dark eyes. Just like the turbulent abyss and ocean in the dark night, he had a dangerous and unpredictable sense of instability, which made everyone who looked into his eyes feel chills down their spines.

　His voice had a hoarseness to it, as if it that hadn’t been used for a long time, as he spoke with a fleeting smile:

　”This is our first meeting, you can call me Ge Xiu.”

.

　A star pirate ship named Leviathan rose in fame within a few years.

　It set the target on border posts located in the border star field, captured several ships and even began to form its own communication and force network. The underground industry that had almost been eradicated began to become active again, circulating around this fleet. Soon, from one starship, it had developed into a fleet of huge scale and incredible influence.

　The captain of the star pirates fleet was extremely mysterious. No one knew his appearance and background, or had heard where he came from. There was no actual information other than his name, as if he jumped out of crack in a meteorite, or out of thin air.

　It was said that this captain’s military and mechanical attainments were extremely terrifying. His main ship was refitted and upgraded by him, becoming the most sophisticated ship in the entire interstellar in just a few years.

　The main ship of the Federation once encountered it head-on.

　Even though the Federation ships were equipped with the most advanced propellers they could research, but still could only watch the steel ship with the word Leviathan leave them far behind. It was tantamount to giving the Federation’s leading scholars and research institutes a heavy slap in the face.

　Its danger level gradually increased and the wanted criminal who was the captain of the Leviathan also quickly reached the top.

　Behind the lines of the arrest warrant representing the dangerous value of S-level, there was a reward amount of hundreds of millions of interstellar coins.

　However, the whereabouts of this entire fleet were extremely unpredictable, like a legend that only exists in imagination, or a wisp of smoke, trying to chase and capture, but when you open your hands, you can only see empty palm.

　·

　On August, year 538,

　the Leviathan fleet launched an attack on a planet near the border star field.

　This planet had no resources and its geographical location was not important. It was as inaccessible and inconspicuous as possible.

　No one knows why this unpredictable star pirate leader was interested in this place.

　—even including his subordinates.

　The captain’s room.

　A slender youth with light gray eyes was sitting on the co-pilot seat, staring at the slow screen displayed on the screen with some horror and sighed in disbelief:

　”My God, such a small broken planet was actually equipped by the Federation with so many top-notch weapons to guard, this is almost as good as an A-level military base…”

　He turned his head and looked at the driver’s seat: “What I’m saying, Captain, is there something really good there?”

　Ge Xiu crushed the candy in his mouth with a “crack”, raised his eyelids, and glanced lightly at the screen showing the battle situation in front of him:

　”Good thing? Of course not.”

　”…Huh?” The young man who asked the question was befuddled.

　Ge Xiu yawned, changed into a comfortable position on the captain’s chair, and lazily replied: “This is Federation’s secret research institute studying spiritual power.”

　The bottom of his eyes reflected the silent gunfire explosions on the screen, like a cluster of flames ignited in the dark deep sea:

　”Of course, in truth, it can only be counted as the second such institute in the Federation.”

    On September, year 538.

     The fleet raided a planet near the border star field and carried out an inhuman massacre.

　In the pictures and videos widely circulated on the star network, the raging flames of war were burning continuously between day and night. Countless pale and severed limbs were thrown around the huge potholes, the charred corpses burned black beyond recognition, it was like hell on earth.

　Only a few insiders know that there were no inhabitants on that planet at all.

　In the entire research base, there was less than a hundred researchers and a large number of illegal experimental subjects.

　After the looting, the Federation sent people to conduct a rigorous search among the body waste of those experimental subjects, but no DNA of any researcher was found. This showed that the Leviathan not only robbed the entire experimental base of the experimental equipment, but also kidnapped one hundred of the most precious researchers in the Federation.

　… Nothing could be more disturbing.

　The arrest warrant for the Leviathan fleet and its captain, Ge Xiu, had become even more important. The Federation began to send search spaceships more frequently, the mobilization of troops became more common as well.

　At the same time, the abnormal behavior of the Leviathan fleet had attracted the attention of the Research Institute.

　The director of the Institute secretly met with high-level federal officials that night.

　”So, you suspect that the captain of the Leviathan is related to the accident in your laboratory a few years ago?” the middle-aged man asked gloomily.

　The director pondered for a while, then nodded slowly: “I’m afraid it is.”

　”Then we must stop it.” The middle-aged man frowned, with a serious expression: “We can’t afford the possible consequences of that experiment being exposed.”

　In a panic, the director stepped forward hurriedly:

　”No! If he is really the experimental subject that I think of, then he must not die!”

　”Why?”

　The director took a deep breath and replied: “You and I both know that the reason why the current starnet system can cross galaxies is because of the spiritual power provided by its source, Pandora. However, after the accident a few years ago, Pandora begun to escape into a deep sleep. We’ve tried all methods, but there is no way to wake him up, so there is only one possibility… that is, he is not willing to wake up.”

　He paused, and continued: “Although Pandora fell into a dormant state, since we have mastered all the permissions before the dormancy, the normal operation of the starnet can still be maintained, but, as time goes by, we found that Pandora’s mental power is gradually getting exhausted…”

　The middle-aged man was startled: “What do you mean?”

　”He will soon be brain dead,” the director said with a regretful expression: “If this state goes on, our starnet system will collapse within three years and all our hard work and research will be in vain.”

　”Can’t you just make another one?!” The middle-aged man became visibly irritable.

　”Unfortunately, we can’t.” The director shook his head: “Over the years, we have tried every kind of gene sequence, trying to repeat our previous success. Of the hundreds of millions of embryos, ninety-nine percent did not successfully develop. All of the surviving embryos also died within a few months—— as it turns out, our two successes were pure chance and it may take at least two decades of research to replicate this chance… but the starnet is on the verge of dying, it can’t wait that long.”

　The middle-aged man stood up, walked around the room twice with his hands behind his back, pondered for a long time, and finally raised his head:

　”Alright, if we can capture him alive, I will let you take over.”

     .

　December, year 538

　Ge Xiu sat on the test bench, wearing an oversized hospital gown. He was barefoot, and his two slender legs were hanging in the air, shaking carelessly.

　Beside him, countless sophisticated instruments were in operation, and the researchers wandered nervously among them, doing the final test before the operation.

　The young man with gray eyes stood beside him, looking at him worriedly:

　”Boss… are you sure you want to do this?” He took a deep breath: “Leaving you on a planet close to the central star field, it’s too simple, the people in the Federation will definitely suspect that you have other plans.”

　Ge Xiu smiled happily: “Of course they will.”

　He narrowed his eyes, and the curve of his lips gradually deepened: “But, they have reasons to do it still.”

　”But…” the young man became anxious.

　Ge Xiu glanced at him indifferently, and the young man immediately stopped talking.

　He said slowly: “When the temptation is strong enough, even if they know it’s a trap, they will jump in obediently.”

　Ge Xiu retracted his gaze, his eyes fell on the machine running in the distance, as he said lightly:

　”What’s more, they are arrogant enough to think that as long as I fall into their hands, there will be no chance of a comeback… In fact, the game has just begun.”

　The researcher on the side prepared everything and went forward to report.

　He took a deep breath and asked with some uncertainty: “You…you know what the necessary conditions for this operation are, right?”

　 “Of course.” Ge Xiu turned over and laid down: “Let’s start.”

　Although this wasn’t the same as chip implantation, but the overall process was basically the same.

　In order to prevent mental violence after losing consciousness, it was necessary not to use any anesthetics during the whole process and to remain absolutely awake.

　But since that person can make it through, so can he.

　Looking at the dazzlingly bright lights above his head, Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes slightly.

　[If you want to fight, you got to be smart]

　——Thank you for the suggestion.

　·

　Six months later

　On a desolate planet where not even a blade of grass grew, the young man stood beside the crashed ship, dozens of guard ships were suspended in the air and countless searchlights were directed down on him.

　He stared blankly at the deadly weapon pointed at him in front of him, with a confused and blank expression, as if he didn’t know what happened and why he was here.

　——

　[Ge Xiu was arrested.

　This explosive news spread throughout the interstellar at an almost terrifying speed, multiplying and spreading like a virus, occupying every still functioning smart light brain screen.

　No one could believe that this most wanted criminal, whose whereabouts were unpredictable and who had no real information other than his name, was actually arrested? !

　How was it possible? !

　For a moment, all eyes were focused on the Interstellar Referee on the edge of the Milky Way.

　It was said that this is where Ge Xiu was secretly held. ]