Chapter 109: Black Star Phantom Bat
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Xia Fei entered the Anathema-cla.s.s frigate. The s.h.i.+p was still in perfect condition after drifting in s.p.a.ce for over two thousand years. The indicator on the warp engine showed that it had only been used thrice since production, meaning that it was almost brand new.
After successfully initiating its self-a.s.sessment system, Xia Fei realized that although the s.h.i.+p was a top-tier special ops frigate, its equipment and components were fairly average. Other than the small energy draining device, produced by the top-tier components manufacturing company Shasan, everything else could be described as just satisfactory. The a.s.sembly principles were also incredibly ordinary and mediocre.
Xia Fei thought that the most important thing a s.h.i.+p should have was its unique ident.i.ty. They should either specialize on their offense, packing weapons up to a s.h.i.+p’s limit in order to maximize its firepower, or specialize in electronics, equipping countless devices to hara.s.s the enemy incessantly.
Mediocre and well-balanced were two completely different concepts, and Xia Fei liked to equip his s.h.i.+p to maximize its advantages best while achieving a balance between offense and defense.
Of course, adhering to such demands was difficult, but Xia Fei had his own ideas of doing so by giving up the comforts of the s.h.i.+p.
Lunar Eclipse achieved its high-performance today by sacrificing most of its living s.p.a.ces. As life in s.p.a.ce was incredibly boring, most wars.h.i.+ps would use a large amount of s.p.a.ce for living and entertainment, allowing its pa.s.sengers not to feel lonely or bored during their long s.p.a.ce voyages.
Comfort was one thing this Anathema-cla.s.s frigate excelled at. The crewmates’ living quarters were incredibly well-equipped. Even the bathroom was equipped with an AI computer, so the crewmates could have a bath while watching shows. Its kitchen was s.p.a.cious and grand, comparable to a proper restaurant.
Xia Fei pursed his lips. In his eyes, it was a stupid decision to use the valuable s.p.a.ce in the s.h.i.+p for entertainment. Traveling in s.h.i.+ps would be and always had been a boring task. If one was afraid of boredom, they should just stay at home. A person should get used to the boring tedium of s.p.a.ce if they had decided on this path in the first place.
Risking their life piloting a wars.h.i.+p to travel long distances just to watch shows or have baths in s.p.a.ce? That was just not logical.
After walking around inside the Anathema, Xia Fei had a few ideas on how to retrofit this s.h.i.+p. If he could bring the s.h.i.+p back, Xia Fei would own two top-tier frigates. Owning a wars.h.i.+p had always been the dreams of men; Xia Fei would not complain about having two hundred wars.h.i.+ps, much less two.
Xia Fei had a smug smile on his face before moving down to the power room on the lower levels, hoping that he could repair the ma.s.sive capital s.h.i.+p; he would have a mobile fortress if he was able to do so.
With a capital s.h.i.+p-cla.s.s carrier and two top-tier frigates in hand, Xia Fei worried that he would be laughing in his sleep. He decided to think of how he could get this capital s.h.i.+p back into an Alliance-occupied area later.
Suddenly, a tiny undetectable wave of energy brushed across Xia Fei. At the exact moment, Xia Fei started using his Breath Control technique, blending into the environment as fast as he could.
His Breath Control was getting ever closer to reaching perfection. He could now enter his subtle hidden state at any time without preparation.
“What’s wrong?” asked Phantom.
Xia Fei shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I think I felt a small energy disruption from downstairs, which made me feel a hint of danger.”
Phantom did not say anything as it had been proven time and again that Xia Fei’s perception was extraordinarily acute. It was something that could not be explained and could only be chalked up to an unintended effect of having his seventh brain region forcibly opened.
Slowing down his footsteps, Xia Fei carefully walked down the set of stairs as silently as a leaf falling from a tree.
This floor was where all the important mechanical parts of the s.h.i.+p were housed, for multiple alloy pipes went from one side of the room to another, forming a maze-like structure.
As it was quite easy to hide among the messy pipes and machinery, Xia Fei sneaked along the pipelines, slowly approaching the power room.
The closer he got to the power room, however, the more obvious the energy wave was.
Phantom knitted his eyebrows. “Be careful. The energy doesn’t seem to be coming from a machine; it’s more like some sort of living thing.”
Xia Fei nodded as he extended Chasing Light which was on his right arm.
The capital s.h.i.+p’s power source came from a ma.s.sive main reactor and two emergency reactors. The room was located right in the middle with layers upon layers of reinforced alloys to protect it against outside attacks. As the reactor of a capital s.h.i.+p was huge, it would most certainly damage nearby friendly forces if it exploded, which was why it was so st.u.r.dily fortified.
Xia Fei entered the first floor of the power room; this was probably where the staff rested and operated.
The energy wave became more complex. Other than the disruption coming from the living thing, there was now the energy from the reactor. If Xia Fei’s hunch was right, the weird energy wave was coming from the core reactor chamber.
There were many windows in this operation room, allowing staff to see the conditions of the reactor.
Xia Fei squatted near a window, poking out half his head, and started to inspect the premiere of the room.
The main reactor was a semi-sphere like an upside-down bowl. A thick alloy sh.e.l.l secured the core components of the reactor.
Xia Fei had seen the reactor before, but he had never seen the being on the reactor that looked like a huge bat.
It had a wingspan of over one hundred meters. It had striking edges on its body, which was black and s.h.i.+ny. The bat, which had two extremely sharp fangs, was currently lying sprawled across the reactor, sleeping with its eyes closed.
Xia Fei’s heart was almost pounding out of his chest because he already recognized this being: a black star phantom bat, an ancient s.p.a.ce exotic beast.
The Beast Spirit Codex had information on many different exotic beasts, and this looked just like the black star phantom bat shown in it.
According to the Codex, the black star phantom bat was one of the oldest beings in the universe. Its skin was as hard as steel and could survive in the toughest environment. Not even the near-perfect vacuum of s.p.a.ce could stop them.
The black star phantom bat could absorb many different types of energy and could survive thousands of years without eating. They also had an isolation film on their skin, meaning no radar would be able to detect them, allowing them to fade into the background like a phantom at night.
Juvenile black star phantom bat was playful and active, but it would become extremely fierce as it reached maturity. It mainly attacked using brain waves to send out messages and interferences that could firmly control its opponent.
Countless beastmasters failed at taming this ferocious beast. This exotic beast, which was at the top of the food chain in the entire universe, was incredibly powerful and on a completely different level to humans.
Luckily, black star phantom bats were rare and their mind-control waves had a limited range, so they did not pose much danger to humans, unless someone accidentally ventured close to their nest.
From its size, the black star phantom bat was pretty close to adulthood. It lay on the reactor to absorb its energy, which was why the s.h.i.+p did not have enough power when Xia Fei tried to start it.
When black star phantom bats were absorbing energy from a large source, they would enter hibernation, and this state could last thousands or even tens of thousands of years until it acc.u.mulated a lifetime’s worth of energy.
Evidently, this black star phantom bat was still deep in hibernation, though it would wake up once it gathered enough energy from the reactor.
Xia Fei quickly exited the power room and told what he saw to the Phantom.
“The entire fleet was killed because it strayed inside a black star phantom bat’s nest,” muttered Phantom, “but how could a black star phantom bat control machinery?”
Xia Fei shook his head. “It can’t control machines, but it can control human thought. The crewmembers were probably under its hypnosis, so everything they saw was just their fevered dream.”
“Oh, is that so. Let’s leave before it wakes up.” Phantom seemed to put two and two together.
Xia Fei did not say anything however as he was deep in thought.
The black star phantom bat was more than what Xia Fei could deal with. Unless he cultivated his Beast Spirit to the sixth stage, he stood no chance against it.
There were no options in front of Xia Fei: first was to initiate Thanatos’s self-destruct system and destroy it along with the beast; second was to escape from this region, leaving behind the black star phantom bat as well as this fleet and only returning once Xia Fei had mastered the sixth stage of his Base Spirit Codex, so he could defeat the monster and bring back this capital s.h.i.+p.
The pros and cons of both choices were evident. The former would rid the Wild Star Region of extreme danger, whereas the latter would leave him a promise of a Thanatos carrier in the future.
Xia Fei was not a resident of the Wild Star Region, nor did he need to think of the residents here, so he of course went against the idea of initiating the self-destruct system and decided to leave the s.h.i.+p for now, instead.
Xia Fei quickly headed back to the Executioner frigate and stored the salvaged items into his spatial ring. As there was limited s.p.a.ce in it, Xia Fei had to make a trip several times for all the equipment to be transferred to Anathema’s storage.
Anathema was a rare top-tier hybrid wars.h.i.+p, after all, and there was no way Xia Fei would give it up so easily. Even if he were to leave, he would leave using that s.h.i.+p. As for the Executioner, he would have to leave that here. At worst, he would pay Andy accordingly to compensate; what was an old crusty Executioner compared to an Anathema-cla.s.s frigate, anyways?
Just after Xia Fei carefully exited Thanatos with the Anathema, Xia Fei initiated a warp at ten percent of the engine’s capacity.
As he could not determine his location near the black star phantom bat’s nest, he had to warp randomly and leave its territory before searching a way back to Red Rock Base.
Just as the wormhole opened, unrivaled spirit energy swept over Xia Fei like a tsunami.
Xia Fei jolted. “Oh, no, the black star phantom bat woke up!”