The Star Knight

Opal and Raymond opened a double room in the hotel. Opal connected the terminal to the Ares galaxy local area network. The construction of the information site of the star was not developed in the Republic. Once a weekly magnetic storm restricted the Internet with the Star Alliance The signal transmission problem of the two, two young and strong mercenaries are living in support of their families, very few deaths.

However, the number of people on the day of the magnetic storm surged. The mercenary forum was noisy. The entertainment hall was filled with people playing virtual games.Inside the circular light screen is a blue cosmic star map. Opal participated in a simulated interstellar war and drove to and fro in a spaceship.

The scoreboard jumped fast, the sound of radio waves rustled, and a strange voice shouted: "Wrench! You fucking cheat!"

Opal yelled, maneuvering a small fighter plane to land on the Republic’s galaxy mothership, circling around, and dense light bombs flying behind him, sinking his fighter plane.

"Wrench!" Opal said angrily: "You attack me!"

"Little Ou--" Lily's voice laughed: "I recognize you, but this time I am—"

A slightly familiar voice said: "Everyone sticks to their positions."-That was Rosen's voice.

Opal screamed: "No! You bully the recruits!"

"What new recruit!" the man said sharply, "Go to the queue and prepare to join the battle again!"

Opal suddenly heard the voice of the instructor gray wolf, and immediately said: "I'll go get some help!"

Opal put away the light screen and said, "Raymond, come and take part in the Empire War."

Raymond was lying on the bed with his legs crossed, his feet in white socks moved, and his pillow was resting on his arms, saying, "Don't play, you play."

Opal said: "What are you thinking? About Sid?"

Raymond squinted. Opal rolled over and got out of bed. He wanted to go and say something. Raymond lifted his leg and gave him a kick. He kicked him back into bed and said, "Play your Imperial War."

Opal had to continue to play his video games, regardless of size in the virtual world. The mercenaries chose to camp, divided into two teams, one team invaded the territory of the Republic, and one team defended.

This virtual game is the all-planet Internet platform technology that Azeroth has invested heavily in. It can be participated by S-class mercenaries and restaurant owners. Different people can play different roles in it.

"What do you think!" The wolf's voice shouted in the communicator: "Be careful! Don't be distracted! Give Rosen some color!"

The leader of the attacking party is the gray wolf, and the leader of the defending party is Rosen. There are more and more people. Tens of millions of people have joined the entire interstellar battlefield. Opal and the temporary players only discovered that the gray wolf and Luo Mori turned out to be S-class mercenaries!

The peak of the pyramid of the mercenary country, the left-behind of the six S-class superpowers under Azeroth-the strength of these two people is really not to be underestimated.The gray wolf's command and tactics are simply strange soldiers. It was the first time Opal participated in the space starship battle. The small warships were overwhelming and the formation was changing rapidly.

Opal was defeated without warning, this time he did not rush to queue to join the battlefield, chose the ghost mode, and looked at the entire U-star attack and defense 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 built by the six planets is Rosen's hero stage.Tens of thousands of strange soldiers joined the battle and then disappeared into the dust of space in a blink of an eye. There was a heavy sense of life and death, and the world was vast.

The battle was stuck, and Opal looked dizzy and dizzy. He temporarily shut down the LAN and shut down the LAN. Raymond was still lying in bed and sleeping.

"Hello." Opal used to lie down next to Raymond. Raymond opened his eyes and saw that the screen was off. He didn't drive him away. The two lay side by side. Opal said, "What do I eat? I'll buy it."

Raymond said: "Just casually, I plan to take on Sid's task."

Opal said: "What made you change your mind?"

Raymond said absently: "Try it, no loss, no right, let's apply for union arbitration first, and then apply for a special commission from the employer, so that Sid plus a non-default risk clause."

Opal Road: "OK."

Raymond nodded, and Opal said: "I will tell him now."

Raymond got up and said: "No, wait a minute, we have to be well prepared."

Opal went to buy food, and when he returned, Raymond opened the Internet and began to collect information from the M97 Nebula.

The Mercenary Star is not the most timely and informative planet in the Star Alliance, but it is the most practical place for information. For thousands of years, too many places in the universe have left the footprints of mercenaries, and where is dangerous, Where you can take a short cut and where you can’t get close, these are all the information exchanged with blood from the edge of life and death.

Opal and Raymond squeezed together on the bed while eating and watching. The information outside the nebula is dazzling. There are three life planets, followed by tens of millions of stars and asteroids, each of which is completely different. The planets are also strange, with nitro, methane, heavy water, uranium, radium, and molecular variants and compounds between multiple elements flooding the entire screen.

"The place we are going to is not here yet." Opal said.

Raymond: "I know, go to the center again."

There are two dark areas in the swirling M97 nebula. Opal pushed the touch light screen away with his finger and pulled another photo, saying: "This is an unknown place, dark realm, and the nearest star gate is also 1,700 kilometers away from here. One hundred astronomical units."

The two looked at it for a while. In the powdery nebula, one of the dark spots led to a red line. The note was "Unknown Composition."

Opal said: "Strange, what do you do to build 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 because of something... what do you think is inside?"

Opal said: "I'm not sure, it may be a black hole, or a few neutron stars... it may be an expanding gas...or nothing."

"Guess." Raymond said leisurely, and he got up to pour the coffee in the pot: "Just guess it."

"Hopefully 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 history of the construction and development of the star gate, and the electric spark. The courier list of the courier company...including what goods they deliver, as well as the origin and identity of the guest."

"Separate." Raymond said: "I'll ask the kid to ask, and go to the Republic once when necessary."

The relationship between the members of the Star Alliance is very complicated. In theory, as long as the country is registered with the Star Alliance and becomes one of the member countries, the identity card can pass through unimpeded.

The nationality system before the light age has been abolished, and the star status on the identity card only represents the birth and household planet.The relationship between the mercenary country, the republic, and the empire has changed in recent years. The two have combined for a long time. Raymond first went to the union to issue a certificate, and Opal went to the information center to check all the contents of M97.

When the magnetic storm day passed, Opal turned over the list of mercenary regiments that had been there to perform missions in the past, and learned about the situation one by one. Raymond drove the spaceship to the Republic.After two days of preparations, I finally met in the lobby of Sun City.

When Sid heard their plan, he just nodded gratefully, said nothing, and went to change the entrustment content-special entrustment, the target is the Yankee Sword Mercenary Corps, the two sides signed a certificate, confirming that there is no anything before this mission Related.This is an anti-cheating mechanism for the mercenary country. In order to avoid the commission of acquaintances, use the money to help the mercenary regiment quickly upgrade.

The mission was adjusted according to their E-class mercenary regiment. The monetary remuneration remained unchanged at 250,000 credit points, and the union paid 20% for 50,000.The score is 240 individual points and 118 team points.

Raymond closed the mercenary diary and said, "Go and sort the news first, and set off this afternoon."

Sid said: "I will go with you."

Opal and Raymond immediately spoke in unison: "No!"

Opal: "We have no ability to protect you."

Raymond: "Don't mess up."

Sid said: "But I've been there for almost two cosmic years, and I searched a lot of areas, these are marked on the star map of my spaceship, let me follow, I can know the way."

Opal said: "Give us the star chart, you can't..."

Sid insisted: "I won't hinder you! Can I recognize my dad, you at least let me take a look, okay? I can do the logistics for you, drive the spaceship, my space suit is for you, you No more buying!"

Opal was really scorched by him. The three of them discussed at the door for a moment, and finally Raymond had to say: "You have to swear you must stay on the spaceship at any time, and you can't come out without our permission."

On the tarmac, Sid moved out the living materials that he could use, including some weapons, and Raymond screened and put the useful materials into Times-VI.

"Side!" On the side of the apron, he drove over quickly.

"Xun!" Sid laughed.

Xun: "Is anyone picked up? My luggage is packed, why are you both?"

Opal: "..."

Xun said: "Forget it, let's go." He took a bag and walked towards the spaceship, and Opal Blast exploded, saying, "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 send you two waste tasks yet!"

Opal: "Who wants to work with someone! Last time, who was hit with waste to find his teeth! This is my spaceship! Hello! Don't touch it! Warning you!"

Sid said: "Xun, wait, thank you."

Opal lifted Sid's collar politely, dragged him over, pressed against the spaceship's rear hatch, and said, "I don't care what you promised him, send him away immediately, go now!"

Opal burrowed into the spaceship, and outside was Xun's loud question and Sid's whispered explanation. Xun's breath was always strong, and neither Opal nor Raymond liked him.Sid was scolded for a bloody dog, and the two voices drifted away.

Raymond shook his head and smiled. After waiting for a while, Sid came in and closed the door of the spacecraft. With a smirk in his mouth, Opal steered the spacecraft to set off.

"Swap information." Opal said: "What conclusion have you drawn?"

Raymond said: "Spark Express has nothing unusual. It is a very ordinary private industry. The express customer of this list is a man over two hundred years old. The name is Yasui. He wants to send a suitcase to Deep in the M97 nebula, the black ant planet on the spiral arm goes up. According to the courier list backup, it is a plant growth agent."

Opal said: "How did you get the news?"

Raymond: "I asked in the past based on contacts provided by Sid. There were former colleagues of his father on the Grey City star.

Sid nodded: "As far as I know it is the same."

Opal Road: "You just go shopping around to see the scenery!"

Raymond said: "I also brought you special products! Don't count!"

Opal said quickly: "Hurry up and show me."

Raymond took out a bag of Gray City Star's specialty from his backpack-that is a pie made of gray fruit, Sid laughed: "This taste is very good, a lot of this fruit is grown in my hometown."

Opal didn’t talk about him anymore. The three of them brewed tea and started to eat pistachio pie. Raymond said: "The surface looks like a very ordinary express delivery list. I plant plants on Black Ant Star. …"

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 met almost at the same time.This is actually an accident, the cause is very common, and the accident is also very common. Even if you think about it, you can't think of any special loopholes.

But neither of them said, so as not to cause Sid to have any thoughts, which is very cruel.

After a brief embarrassment and silence, Opal said: "I asked the few mercenaries who had performed missions over there. There were several people who had been there, and they said that there are three life planets, none of which are inhabited by humans. There are a lot of strangely shaped living bodies in the place, among them there is a strange bug on the planet and a biological jet on the butt...Can leave the atmosphere and fly in the universe, they once attacked two other planets, and later were The monsters defeated...forgive me, I have always had a headache for history."

Raymond said: "This is almost the same as the information provided by Sid. You just invite the veterans to drink and chat!"

Opal said: "If you insist on thinking so, I have no opinion."

Raymond: "..."

That is to say, the two of them have been working in vain for half a day without any meaningful information at all.So everyone continued to eat the pie without mentioning it.

"Oh, right." Opal remembered again and narrowed his eyes: "I applied to retrieve all the open entrusted materials, and one of them has also been entrusted in M97 Nebula."

Raymond raised his eyebrows, meaning: so?

Opal said: "This person's rank and content have been sold in the union, the name is a question mark:'?'."

Raymond: "Is this weird? If he died or was no longer a mercenary..."

Opal: "No, even if the victim is sold off, the name is still there. After leaving the union, the name and deeds can be retained."

Raymond: "Assuming this person has a new job, and he doesn't want his identity information to be found, he can also choose to hide his name..."

Opal: "If you apply for hiding by yourself, then the person's name column will display'not viewable' instead of a question mark."

Raymond: "..."

Opal: "A sense of reasoning game?"

Raymond: "That's enough. What the hell do you want to say?"

Opal shrugged: "I just feel a little bit strange. I continued to search along the relevant content of the question mark person and found that there are pagination. The guy with the name question mark can be found in the light brain content of the union database. All tasks."

Raymond narrowed his eyes slightly, and began to notice something strange, saying, "Then the name of the commission he received was also a question mark? Wouldn't it be said that his name was just a question mark."

"No." Opal looked at Raymond's eyes and muttered: "All his tasks have been deleted, not hidden, but completely deleted. The exploration content of M97 Nebula is no longer in the commission record, just by He proposed a separate piece of information to share so that the younger mercenaries would know more."

Raymond asked a question: "When did that happen?"

Opal Road: "The entry was written many years ago. I looked at the sorting of storage. This year is at least in the order of thousands. The database administrator also told me a very interesting thing, this The question mark person was changed by Azeroth himself."

Raymond: "So, how does Azeroth explain this?"

Opal: "Without explanation, he has no time to meet me."

Raymond pondered for a moment, and then said, "I don't think this matter has anything to do with our entrustment."

Opal echoed: "At best, you can dig a little gossip of Azeroth...Forget it, I really am too busy."

Sid said: "I think maybe it's a bit related. Well, that's an intuition."

Opal and Raymond looked at Side.

"Adults talk, children don't interrupt." Opal said blankly.

"Side is older than you," Raymond said casually. "Come and play billiards."

After a few days of short voyage, they pierced through the star gate of the M97 Nebula and arrived at the beginning of the incident. During this time, Time-VI will continue to follow the trajectory of the previous transport ship.

Looking outside, there has been no explosion here. A star exuding red flames emits magnificent light and heat in the dark. This is a red giant star-a certain expanding form of the star's process of destruction. .

The hot wind blows into the icy cosmic space, and thousands of ice crystals gather towards the stars in the space.

"Don't get too close." Raymond said: "It will be sucked over, I want to live for a hundred years."

Opal glanced at the range of gravity: "It's still far away, safe."

Among the five display light screens of the spacecraft, hundreds of progress bars can't keep jumping, showing the detection energy of nearby elements, and the cabin is filled with red light.

They followed the trajectory of the transport ship at that time. This was the plan proposed by Raymond. Sid had already walked through it several times, but with the idea of ​​Opal and Raymond, he still had to walk once.For seven days in a row, the two took turns on duty, sometimes they each had a cup of coffee on hand, sitting together in front of the console to see the starry sky outside.

Sid was so tired that he slept in the bedroom. Opal and Raymond sat in front of the console chatting casually.

"It's boring." Raymond drank a cup of coffee and stared outside.

Opal murmured: "I think it's okay, such a beautiful starry sky, you won't get tired of looking at it."

The two sat so quietly, Opal asked, "Hey, dear, why did you help him?"

Raymond said: "You are enough, don't be so disgusting, we have only known for a few weeks."

Opal smiled, Raymond said: "A little touched, he is very pitiful, Azeroth let you do not forget the feelings of being a mercenary."

Opal said: "What touched you, you have such a dad?"

Raymond ignored Opal.

Opal adjusted his sitting posture, lying halfway on the swivel chair in front of the console, closing his eyes.

Raymond: "Go inside and sleep."

Opal said: "I'm just meditating, don't interrupt me."

Opal's spiritual power spread out like a gentle light, which continued to stretch towards the vast and unknown starry sky, the color wind of the distant red giant star blowing, spreading to hundreds of light years.It is huge and gentle, like a king who occupies all places in the field of vision.

This king is in the late twilight, another tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years, and one day in the future, it may collapse into a black hole, or burn its own light and heat, and gradually cool down, becoming a cold Death star.

Opal's spiritual world went against the wind, and it seemed to be watching him quietly in the vast universe.

[Humans, what's the matter here?] A grand voice sounded in my mind.

Opal: "!!!"

Opal's consciousness is like a tiny light in the grand particle wind, he feels that this red giant is talking to him!The surrounding planets are watching him. The red giant star is like a king on the throne, surrounded by subjects of thousands of galaxies, overlooking him from a condescending position.

"Me...Is you talking to me?" Opal stunned.

There was silence all around, and there was still only the magnificent endless stellar electromagnetic wind, which was like a rolling torrent, penetrating all his consciousness.

I don't know how long it has passed, Opal whispered: "Are you talking to me? Can we communicate?"

Rector said that stars have their own souls and thoughts, but they never communicate with lower creatures. Opal is very at a loss and said: "I am a mercenary, I... come here to find a person, No, a missing transport ship... your name seems to be..."

Opal thinks of the labels on the star map, and thinks of the names that humans have for them. A huge star whose size is comparable to the entire Ares galaxy, how can it care about these?

"Have you ever seen that spaceship?" Opal said something about it and finally asked.

He waited for a long time, until he almost thought that the question was just an illusion, and he felt that many magnificent winds were blowing between the planets, and every inch of space was filled with atomized electromagnetic particles.

Is the planet communicating?Is this their consciousness?!

[Your first question.] That voice sounded again.

Opal did not know why, and suddenly noticed a star in the distance, his vision condensed there in just one second.

[And here.

Opal's eyes shifted again, and he shot into a dark place in the M97 nebula. At the next moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.

Raymond covered him with a blanket, and this slight movement interrupted his meditation.

"What are you doing!" Opal shouted angrily at him.

Raymond said: "Are you crazy?"

Opal ignored him, closed his eyes, and entered meditation again, but this time his vision was completely different, the red giant star still radiated light, and the endless dark red silky particle wind was no longer visible.

Opal diverged his spirit several times, but no matter how he tried, the red giant star no longer responded in the slightest.

"Hey, you talk." Opal shouted in his thoughts: "Just a little accident."

Opal: "I'll sing a song for you. Will you play table pool? Have you seen the pig and bear wandering? Now it's the second generation!"

Opal: "Do you know someone named Rector?"

After failing to return, Opal opened his eyes, and the culprit Raymond was still drinking coffee leisurely.

The star was still remembered in Opal's mind. He twisted the swivel chair, opened the star chart, brought up the surrounding galaxy, moved his hands in vain, and turned the star chart up and down.

Raymond: "?"

Opal turned his head to look out of the porthole and adjusted the angle of the spacecraft. The spacecraft tilted 90 degrees. In fact, in the place without gravity, the effect is similar whether it is head-up or tail-up. Horizontal, or vertical.

He adjusted the era-VI to a suitable angle against the star chart, and looked at the window while marking the star chart.

"What's wrong?" Raymond said.

Opal looked at the star map doubtfully, it was a star-it is impossible to run into the star, what does the red giant star mean?

Raymond said: "Is this your meditation insight?"

Opal Road: "Yes."

Raymond laughed, Opal said: "This is funny?"

Raymond said: "I heard that the Imperial Holy See also used this method to solve the problem. The pope closed his eyes and raised his mind for a few minutes, so the whole galaxy was different because of the revelation of God..."

Opal said: "This is what the planets told me."

As soon as he said this, he realized that it was wrong. He seemed to be talking too strangely, and Raymond would probably not believe it.

Raymond did not take it seriously. The two looked at the star map together, and Opal scratched his neck in doubt. Go here?When you are close to the star, you will only die, even if it is not burned, it will be pulled in by gravity... He noticed the planets around this star system. There is a planet named Black Ant.

Marked as follows:

[Situation: Security.

[Higher intelligent creatures: evolved from arthropods, with certain intelligence, hospitality.

Opal vaguely understood what, Sid’s father’s spaceship is related to this planet?!Maybe the black ant star forced landing?

Raymond: "Safe, hospitable."

Opal said: "Don't believe the above evaluation. For the owner of Star Map... I think what he calls'safety' does not mean our safety."

Raymond Wei asked with some doubt: "The owner of Star Map is very strong?"

Opal replied: "Well, very strong..."

Rector is indeed very strong, but Opal seems to vaguely think of something...Is it Rector's label?Has he ever been here before?The owner of this star chart...

Raymond called up the dense lines in the following line and said, "Look."

The content of this sailing diary is short, but very amazing:

[This planet is not marked in the Star Alliance aerospace system, and intelligent life is an ant form, which is very rare.Like a laboratory abandoned by the Creator.I named it "Black Ant".

The name of the black ant star turned out to be Rector?!Although Opal has become accustomed to Rector's profound knowledge and knowledge, he still couldn't help being shocked when he read this note.

He was walking along the footprints of Rector, exploring step by step in the vast universe. Just thinking that the teacher had also visited the planet, there was an inexplicable blood and excitement in his heart.

Immediately afterwards, a pot of cold water poured out his excitement.

"Side? Are you there?"-Xun's voice came from the spacecraft's amplifier.

The corner of Opal's mouth twitched slightly, and Raymond spilled his coffee.

Opal: "..."

Raymond: "..."

"In! In!" Sid woke up and ran out of the control room, shouting: "Xun! Are you here?"

"I'm right behind your spaceship!" Xundao said: "I plan to go out into space!"

Sid said: "You can use the spare spacesuit in my spaceship, will you use it?"

Xun said: "Yes! I'm going out now."

Sid Road: "You set up the positioning and following system, remember to fix the magnetic field on the spacecraft cabin..."

"Side! Let me explain first!" Opal shouted: "What the hell is going on!"