Great, I'm surrounded by villains.

She sat like a duck on the soft big bed, fully enjoying the brief peace after the turmoil.

As for Mr. Owl, who had a lot of problems, he missed a step while walking and hit his head on the railing, and fell asleep on the spot.

Mr. Owl slept on the cold floor. He also had a whole day of running around and needed a good rest.

Seeing Duan Mingyuan close his eyes, Jiu Yue hummed a soothing and hypnotic tune, leaned down, and touched his forehead with her lips lightly.

"Have a good dream. I hope you can see me in your dream too."

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 263 Gambling

The Robot Star is alive, at least on the surface.

When the morning light came to the planet again, the residents from all over the Mechanical Star left the town. They could not remember how long it had been since they had seen the lake and the forest. Some people excitedly took off their clothes and jumped into the lake. When the cold water covered their necks, they were finally sure that these were not dreams.

So a new problem arises.

Why did the “cocooning” stop?

Who prevented the planet from being destroyed?

Everyone is looking for the answer to this question, including the Flash Flag Chamber of Commerce.

They finally found Duan Mingyuan from the Mechanical King's Court, but were told that he was resting. When they wanted to go in to check the situation, they were forced back by a ferocious-looking fox demon.

The information sent back from the royal court put the Chamber of Commerce into a difficult decision. They didn't know whether this was good news or not.

They believed that the rest the fox demon mentioned should refer to a "weak" state. Although they had no way of knowing what means Duan Mingyuan used, preventing a planet from becoming a "cocoon" would be an unimaginable drain even for a transcendent. This meant that Duan Mingyuan was most likely in an unprecedentedly weak state.

They may never get such a golden opportunity to get rid of the "big devil" in the future.

Although this fox demon looks ferocious, it is not impossible to deal with.

This gave them a new plan - if they could get rid of Duan Mingyuan when he was at his weakest, they could also take the credit for preventing the Mechanical Star from becoming a "cocoon", which would bring strong public support for the merger of the Chamber of Commerce and the company.

As of this morning, the credit remains unclaimed.

The only question is how weak the Transcendent is and how much combat power he has left in his extremely weak state.

This is a gamble.

If the bet is won, the winner takes everything.

Fame, power and hope, no one will be able to threaten the Semites in the future.

The Semites are all born gamblers, and no one of them is willing to miss such a gamble. However, before taking action, they must minimize the risk of failure, or in other words, transfer the risk to others.

So, on this morning, everyone in the Gear Hotel was awakened by a loud roar.

They saw a crack appear in the sky above their heads, and a huge dark shadow was tearing through the sky. When they saw the skull symbol that was full of ominous meaning, their faces suddenly changed.

Space pirates are coming.

First there was the curse of flesh and blood and the "cocooned" planet. Before they could even catch their breath, they were faced with the most notorious force in the entire universe.

As soon as they appeared above the city, the space pirates greeted all the board members in the Gear Hotel - with a miniature tactical nuclear bomb.

Security personnel immediately activated the Gear Hotel's defense system. Although the defense system prevented the entire hotel from being destroyed instantly, the aftermath of the explosion and the spreading heat wave caused a large number of casualties in an instant.

"These bastards!"

Coyote Twelve gritted his teeth. He didn't expect that the Chamber of Commerce would actually turn against each other and instigate the pirates active on the surface of the Mechanical Star to attack the Mechanical Throne.

He knew very well that Oasis was an organization supported by the Chamber of Commerce behind the scenes. They were nominally space adventurers, but in reality they were a group of greedy robbers who plundered on the Mechanical Planet in the name of legality.

This building is for the directors from the Sixteen Star Summit. Each of them is an important figure on their planet. If they join hands to expose the actions of the Flash Flag Chamber of Commerce, it is bound to have a great impact on public opinion. The moment the space pirates unscrupulously dropped miniature tactical nuclear bombs at the Gear Hotel, Coyote Twelve understood the Chamber of Commerce's intentions.

He had never intended to let any member of parliament leave Jiqiao Star from the beginning.

Originally they were supposed to die from the Curse of Flesh and Blood, but now they are space pirates.

The hotel was filled with shrill screams, making Coyote Twelve's head buzz.

But to them, the battle situation seemed one-sided. These space pirates did not need to send out ground combat troops at all. They only needed to drop a few more tactical nuclear bombs to defeat the Gear Hotel's defense system. By then, everyone in the hotel would die.

The worse news is that the Queen of the Mechanical Planet has passed away, and the defense systems in the "Mirage" have fallen into an unmanned state.

Coyote Twelve stared at the flagship that blocked out the sky. At this moment, he deeply felt that the ability of Cowboy Bebop was limited.

When he defected from the company, he had not yet been hired as a regular employee, and the committee had not equipped him with armor strong enough to penetrate the flagship. His current body modifications were all custom-made by someone on a neutral planet using his own salary and the money he saved from solving commissions.

He didn't trust the Chamber of Commerce's technology, and allowing the Chamber of Commerce to transform his body was equivalent to handing his life into the other party's hands.

Just like now, if he was using Chamber of Commerce technology, the top executives could just press a button to completely shut him down.

Coyote Twelve found the Blue Star delegation from the crowd. It was said that the young man in front of him was the prince of Blue Star. He directly stated his purpose, "Have you heard of boarding warfare?"

"……heard about it."

The Third Prince heard a piece of bad news from Jiu Yue not long ago - Teacher Ming Yuan slept very soundly, and even the sound of the explosion of a miniature tactical nuclear bomb failed to wake him up. Perhaps it was because preventing himself from becoming a "cocoon" had consumed too much of his energy.

In other words, before Teacher Mingyuan wakes up, they have to find a way to deal with the space pirates on their own.

"That's great. I need to borrow your aircraft to get close to their spaceship. As long as I can get up there smoothly, I can find a way to shoot them down."

Coyote Twelve told his plan. Although it was very risky, it was the only feasible option at the moment.

When there is a huge disparity in firepower between the two sides, retreating to defense often leads to a dead end.

"The teacher did save some life energy on the Ranger for emergency use."

The third prince said.

only……

,: The difference in realm between the two sides is too great.

With his cultivation level at the Foundation Establishment Stage, can he really shake the powerful man above his head who uses tactical nuclear bombs as weapons?

....................................

At the same time, Duan Mingyuan returned to the original place again.

This is a white space. He is in the center of the space, with a door in each direction.

He tried to go through all the doors, but behind each door were the same rooms and the same doors.

It was a pity that he didn't see September in his dream. The only people who accompanied him here were a few dummies without facial features.

But just now, something unusual happened in this space—the ground shook violently several times, as if someone from outside had shaken the space he was in.

This seemed to be a puzzle left for him by the Mechanical Star, or perhaps it was revenge for him preventing the "cocoon" transformation.

Only those who solve the puzzle can get out of this space.

After the shaking stopped for a moment, the space underwent new changes - eyes and a mouth grew on the blank face of the dummy, revealing a malicious smile.

"Everyone you save will die."

The dummy laughed, "And you'll never be able to get out of this place."

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 264 The answer

“You’ll never get out of this place.”

The puppet had absolute confidence in the maze he created, and its words made Duan Mingyuan even more certain that something had happened on the Mechanical Star at this moment, and the vibration just now was the commotion coming from outside.

This couldn't help but bring back some bad memories for Duan Mingyuan.

When the villain faced the "invincible" mentor of the protagonist's camp, he turned to the sealing technique.

The entire dream world was like a seal, woven by the "cocooned" consciousness of the Mechanical Star. Its complexity and energy intensity far exceeded any opponent he had encountered so far, and it trapped him in this empty room for a whole night.

"Because you never designed a way out of here from the beginning."

Duan Mingyuan roughly figured out the structure of the room. It was a closed space made of mechanical energy, and there was no road leading to the outside world.

He started the communication with the mood of participating in a puzzle game and with a "cocooned" consciousness, but the other party let him down and cheated on the puzzle.

“It’s too late to realize it now.”

The puppet sneered.

No matter whether Duan Mingyuan opens one door or thousands of doors, this space will not change. However, the place outside this space is not static. The flagship of the space pirates has opened a gap in the "Mirage". It will not be long before those who were rescued by Duan Mingyuan will be killed under the bombardment.

Although it was against his original intention to achieve his goal through the hands of others, this was the first time he had seen someone like Duan Mingyuan.

Although they exude the same aura, their way of thinking is completely different from theirs.

But when it first encountered Duan Mingyuan in the hall, it thought that the other party was a comrade from the same camp as it, and came here specifically to admire the transformation of the Mechanical Star into a completely mechanical cage without any life.

It also learned that there are many beings like it in the universe, and humans call them "cocoons."

"What a pity! I was planning to become your friend and listen to you talk about your planet."

The doll shrugged in a very human way, and its simple facial features expressed a look of regret.

"Yeah, that's a shame."

Duan Mingyuan felt the same way.

He was originally apologetic about the consciousness produced by "cocooning". After all, this was an internal affair of the Mechanical Star, and it should not be up to him, an outsider, to decide the future fate of the Mechanical Star people and the planet. But unfortunately, the Sixteen Star Summit was about to take place on this planet, and he would have to stay on this planet for a while.

So he accepted the other party's "invitation" after falling asleep and started this decryption game.

A puzzle that can never be solved because the designer cheated.

And now, something is happening outside that forces him to stop playing this game.

"Game time is over."

"Give up? Then just stay here and wait until things outside are over. Maybe I'll let you out."

"Thanks to you, you helped me understand how mechanical energy works through a game."

Duan Mingyuan expressed his most sincere gratitude.

Although he ultimately failed to solve the puzzle set for him by the "cocoon" of the Mechanical Star, he learned everything he wanted to know about Mechanical Energy.

In order to lock him up, the "cocoon" dragged his consciousness to the place with the most energy on the planet. Only here could the mechanical energy suppress the life energy to a certain extent, preventing him from arbitrarily modifying the space he was in.

Reversing the "cocoon" state did consume a lot of Duan Mingyuan's energy. What he did was to spread out his own energy, while what the "cocoon" did was to collect and gather all the energy, thus achieving a delicate balance in such an unknown space.

The puppet was not wrong. At least in the short term, he could not use his life energy to create a gap in this closed space.

So, Duan Mingyuan changed his angle.

Previously, on the flagship of the Embers Consortium, he learned that different energies were not mutually exclusive. In his opinion, life energy has always been a gentle and inclusive energy.

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

The puppet questioned.

It confirmed the integrity of the space once again and was very sure that not even a trace of life energy could penetrate into this place.

If it looked at Duan Mingyuan from the perspective of its own kind, it would admit that the man in front of it had a stronger control over energy than it did, but the other party's foolish behavior gave it an opportunity to take advantage of.

After spreading out such a huge amount of energy, how can it compete with the energy it deliberately gathers?

The only thing it couldn't understand was why the person in front of it would let itself be at a disadvantage in this fight for a group of strangers.

"I'm just saying, as a puzzle player, it's hard to leave this place."

As he spoke, Duan Mingyuan walked towards one of the doors. He had passed through this door dozens of times before. "So this time I want to change my identity and look at this puzzle from the perspective of a designer."

"you--!"

The puppet's words stopped abruptly, and its eyes widened in disbelief.

Duan Mingyuan disappeared, without a trace right under its gaze.

Although it could still see the other person standing only a few meters away from it, his breath and energy disappeared without a trace.

All that remains here is its breath and endless mechanical energy, and apart from that, there are no other impurities.

"It looks like what I thought."

Duan Mingyuan pushed open a door, and the scene behind it kept changing like his thoughts.

Every door here leads to the outside.