Chapter 175: Vexor-cla.s.s Battlecruiser
The golden signal receiver was flas.h.i.+ng non-stop, so Xia Fei pulled it out from his spatial ring.
“Did Old Porter send another message?” Phantom poked his head out and asked.
“Yeah.” Xia Fei furrowed his brows and nodded. Though he had already tried to settle the business with Avril as quickly as he could, it still took almost half a month, which was more than what he had scheduled for, so now, he had no idea how Uncle Porter was doing.
“Emergency. Porter hasn’t been back for more than a month. I’m very worried about him; quickly come find me in Black Abyss, Star Region DLC-133. Windchime.”
Xia Fei reread the message sent over, and it was not hard for him to infer from this simple statement that it was not Old Porter who had sent the message but his friend Windchime, instead.
It was very likely that Old Porter had informed Windchime of his situation, and now that he had not yet returned, Windchime must be concerned over Old Porter’s safety; thus, he thought to contact Xia Fei.
“Not back for over a month… One can travel across half the Alliance s.p.a.ce in that timespan. Porter couldn’t be in some sort of danger, could he?” Phantom wondered out loud.
Not saying another word, Xia Fei walked over to the console and set Vampire’s speed to the maximum before returning to his cabin. “In any case, we’d better hurry. From what we know of the situation so far, Old Porter appears to be in dire straits.”
….
Gamma Star Region, a necessary path from the capital ring to Black Abyss.
On a planet by the name of CH-5286, Xia Fei located a special task force fleet the Adjudicator Union had stationed there.
Showing the doc.u.ments that Thuram gave him, Xia Fei was led to a landing ap.r.o.n by the fleet logistics officer.
The retired wars.h.i.+ps of various cla.s.ses and tiers were all randomly parked out all over in the open air, and among them was a very eye-catching, s.h.i.+ny silver battlecruiser, for of all these old wars.h.i.+ps, only it looked quite new, its hull even showing a soft, silvery glimmer. Even its portholes were polished to a s.h.i.+ne.
The logistics officer s.h.i.+elded his eyes as he pointed to the wars.h.i.+p and said, “That’s the Verox-cla.s.s battlecruiser you wanted. Boss Thuram told me that you’re an expert s.h.i.+p retrofitter. Don’t randomly change the wars.h.i.+p’s mechanical systems, or else you’ll only be doing yourself a disservice if the changes you make backfire.”
Actually, Xia Fei did not tell Thuram about his s.h.i.+p retrofitting experience. It was probably Elder Qin Mang who told his old friend that; still, it suited Xia Fei just fine. After all, retrofitting a s.h.i.+p was like getting something tailor-made. Only the person wearing it would know if it fit them, and Xia Fei simply would not be satisfied if others did the job for him.
However, Xia Fei did not have the time to retrofit this s.h.i.+p this time as Porter was anxiously waiting for him, and retrofitting such a huge battlecruiser would take at least two months; Xia Fei simply did not have that much time.
“I installed a subsidiary hangar in your wars.h.i.+p, so you can dock your frigate inside, allowing you to swap between the battlecruiser and the frigate as necessary. Plus, as per Boss Thuram’s request, I configured this to have a smart drone control computer,” the logistics officer said.
Xia Fei was mildly stunned. A drone control computer was designed specifically for the manipulation of drones, and having this auxiliary computer meant that he could a.s.sign plenty of the drones from this Vexor-cla.s.s battlecruiser to his Vampire.
For example, Vampire’s main weapons were the energy-draining device and pulse laser cannon. While the firepower it possessed was superb among frigates, it still lacked the capability to match up against larger battlecruisers.
With this auxiliary computer in his possession, however, Vampire would gain control of this Vexor-cla.s.s, allowing Xia Fei to take command of two s.h.i.+ps at the same time, getting a substantial increase in his might!
Even more incredible was that there was no need for a Vexor-cla.s.s battlecruiser to engage in direct combat, for it could just send its drones out to a.s.sist Vampire, essentially allowing the frigate’s firepower to surpa.s.s a normal battlecruiser’s offense.
With the energy-draining device, pulse laser, and combat drones working in tandem, forget a battlecruiser, he could go toe to toe even with a higher-tier battles.h.i.+p.
Vampire was already very agile, making it very difficult for large wars.h.i.+ps to hit it. When a small and agile wars.h.i.+p had stronger firepower than a battlecruiser, its strength was not simply a matter of one plus one beget two.
A smart drone control computer was costly; Xia Fei had already gotten a great deal by purchasing the Vexor-cla.s.s battlecruiser for five hundred million star coins. Including the combat suit, dagger, and now this computer, Thuram had truly done him a huge favor this time.
Xia Fei walked over and closely examined the wars.h.i.+p. The Vexor-cla.s.s battlecruiser, which reached a staggering 1.15 million cubic meters in volume, was essentially a behemoth. The insignia of the Adjudicator Union was visible on both sides of the wars.h.i.+p; logically speaking, they should have been removed given that the s.h.i.+p had been sold to Xia Fei as a private wars.h.i.+p.
“Just what’s up with this?” Xia Fei pointed at the insignia and asked.
The bespectacled logistics officer merely laughed, giving a stack of doc.u.ments and an electronic disk to Xia Fei from his spatial ring.
“These are the paperwork. Now that the s.h.i.+p is yours, you can take it off any time. I don’t know anything else about all that.”
Xia Fei was puzzled. Taking the paperwork, he examined it closely, only to be astonished by what he read.
As it turned out, Thuram had given Xia Fei a whole new ident.i.ty, and he was now a special commissioned investigator from the weapon and equipment department, which was to say that Xia Fei would be recognized as a visiting official on this trip to Black Abyss, so it of course made sense that the Adjudicator Union’s insignia would be left untouched on his wars.h.i.+p.
The Adjudicator Union would purchase large batches of weaponry and equipment from all across the universe every year, and an investigator from the weapon and equipment department was in charge of liaising with various factories and finding the necessary equipment and weapons for the Union. Though it was not a high position, it still came with a substantial amount of prestige and power; it was a typical well-paying post in the Union.
As for just what equipment Thuram had sent Xia Fei to Black Abyss to investigate, only G.o.d and Thuram himself knew.
In any case, Xia Fei had transformed into a librarian of the Heaven Execution Training Camp to a special investigator of the Adjudicator Union headquarters’ weapon and equipment department. The two jobs were heaven and earth from each other, which Xia Fei himself had no idea whether he should laugh or cry over.
After spending an entire day loading Vampire into the battlecruiser, Xia Fei proceeded to pilot the Vexor-cla.s.s toward Black Abyss.
……
Xia Fei had his two eyes shut while inside his cabin, devoting himself entirely to his cultivation and training.
Be it Sly Thrust, psychokinesis, or the Beast Spirit Codex, each of these served as his protection amulet, so he would not stop his practice on any one of them for even a moment.
The journey to the Death Trio Star Region was long, making it perfect for focusing on his cultivation and training. Xia Fei would spend sixteen hours a day cultivating, excluding the three hours he spent studying the Introduction to Robot Coding Qin Mang had given him. Aside from eating and showering, Xia Fei only slept for no more than three and a half hours every day.
To a warrior, the length of sleep was not the most important aspect; sleep quality was far more crucial. If the quality of sleep was poor, even getting twelve hours of sleep daily would still not be enough for anyone to recover their strength fully. Conversely, just an hour of quality sleep was enough to rejuvenate his energy and strength by a lot.
*Beep beep beep!*
A series of beeps signifying an incoming call sounded. Xia Fei paused from his cultivation and checked his microcomputer; Avril’s pretty face appeared on the screen.
After experiencing so much, Avril had become a lot more well-behaved than before. She no longer forced her calls on Xia Fei and would use the call request function to let him know that she wanted to chat with him.
Sometimes, because Xia Fei was too focused on his cultivation and training, he would fail to contact her in time; during those times, she would patiently wait until he finally contacted her.
Xia Fei found this one point to be very ideal. Avril would definitely disrupt his train of thought if she forcibly established a video-call with him while he was in the middle of something important, bringing him plenty of unnecessary trouble. Besides, Xia Fei still subconsciously believed that women ought to be a bit gentle and considerate.
“Where are you right now?” Avril somewhat worriedly asked.
“If there aren’t any incidents, I’ll enter No Man’s s.p.a.ce in seven warps,” Xia Fei said.
Avril pouted. “The No Man’s s.p.a.ce is outside Alliance territory, so there won’t be any internet. It’ll take you at least a month traversing from the borders of the Alliance to Black Abyss, and that means I won’t be able to see you during that time.”
Xia Fei chuckled. “Oh? Are you reluctant to let me go?”
“Yes”—Avril nodded earnestly—”so be sure to contact me the first chance you get once you reach the Death Trio Star Region. I’ve been trying to convince my father to include No Man’s s.p.a.ce into the interplanetary internet coverage, but he’s simply refusing to budge.”
Xia Fei was speechless. To think Avril would think of expanding the interplanetary internet’s coverage until No Man’s s.p.a.ce while ignoring everything else… Just the yearly losses from such a venture were enough to bankrupt Starlink Corporation, so of course Newman would not agree to increase the coverage.
In order for Starlink Corporation to fulfill their promise of an interplanetary internet that encapsulated the entire Alliance, they had installed a communication link between the Death Trio Star Region and the Alliance, and just the annual maintenance of the link alone cost the corporation twenty percent of its total profits. The high cost did not mean the connection was stable, either, for electromagnetic storms or pirates would damage this, and one outage could last several months.
“If the interplanetary internet coverage includes No Man’s s.p.a.ce, too, the communication between the pirates there will be even smoother; at that rate, any s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p pa.s.sing by can forget about escaping their grasp,” Xia Fei half-jested.
“Oh, yeah. The interplanetary internet is a service for the ma.s.ses. It will be terrible if the pirates utilize it”–Avril nodded—”but I won’t be able to see you without the interplanetary internet.”
Avril was even more concerned with Xia Fei’s safety now that he was about to enter No Man’s s.p.a.ce. This one chat of theirs lasted several hours, only begrudgingly turning off the screen when Xia Fei was one warp away from crossing the borders, parting with a constant reminder for him to be careful.
Xia Fei was extremely moved by this heartfelt concern of hers for him, making him ponder the need to treat her better when he returned.
Traveling in the sea of stars was a very lonesome affair, especially in this region where he knew danger lurked everywhere.
The scenery outside his porthole would change every day, the colorful stars and planets mesmerizing to behold.
In the blink of an eye, thirteen days had pa.s.sed. Xia Fei got the navigation system to do a calculation. Due to the complexity of the unfolding cosmos, the speed of his progress was slightly slower than what he had initially expected, only clearing out a third of his journey in these past thirteen days.
“This is too slow,” Xia Fei mumbled to himself. “At this rate, there’s no way for me to even clear No Man’s s.p.a.ce in forty days.”
His fingers tapped away on the screen, doing his best to configure a shorter route in order to reach Black Abyss as soon as possible.
All of a sudden, a weak SOS signal was picked up by his communications system. From the strength of this signal, this other party was approximately thirty-five thousand lightyears away.