translator: loop
proofreader: roki
The entire complex suddenly trembled again, like the surface of a lake stirred by a long pole. The shadows of the buildings and trees began to be affected, and swaying branches would occasionally block the road ahead.
Jiang Qi stood in the shadow of a tree and remained silent for a moment, staring calmly at them. He didn’t speak for some time, and his eyes and expression were blurry in the darkness of the night, making it hard for others to grasp what he was thinking.
“What I said may be very abrupt.” Chu Si felt that he had never done anything so impulsive and reckless in his entire life. Perhaps it was because he had never witnessed the irreversible butterfly effect with his own eyes. “But—”
“It’s okay.” Jiang Qi’s tone was filled with gentleness. “It’s okay. We all have our impulsive moments. No one’s an exception.”
The vibration of the communicator echoed several times, probably a new development on Tang’s side.
The apartment complex, decades old, was becoming increasingly unstable. While Jiang Qi’s side probably couldn’t feel the instability, Chu Si’s side didn’t have the time to pay attention to it. All he wanted to hear was Jiang Qi’s answer, to hear him say, “Alright, I’ll remember.”
Yet when Jiang Qi spoke again, he still didn’t give the response that Chu Si wanted.
Amidst the increasingly intense tremors, Chu Si heard Jiang Qi say, “I seem to have forgotten to tell you. You and my son are very much alike, in both appearance and habits.”
Chu Si stood there, the hand hanging by his side clenched into a fist. After a long time, he gave an “en.”
“I once joked with my son that he grew up too slowly, that I wanted to pull the clock forward a few decades to see him as an adult.” Jiang Qi’s voice carried a bit of laughter.
Chu Si closed his eyes, but still could only return one word: “En.”
“This may sound a little abrupt, but I still want to say…” Jiang Qi paused for a moment. “I’m very happy.”
“I’m also… very happy,” Chu Si said.
“To be honest, I can’t quite tell.” Jiang Qi joked. The entire apartment complex was nearing collapse, with little time left. He looked at Chu Si again for a moment, then waved his hand and said, “I should go now, perhaps…”
Before he could finish speaking, the scenery in front of him had already changed. Chu Si could only watch helplessly as this piece of space-time shattered into pieces like cracked land, with one of the cracks stretching out in front of him. Jiang Qi could be right behind the crack, or he could have already disappeared with that piece. Chu Si couldn’t see him, and he wasn’t able to hear him finish his sentence.
“Executive, if we stay here, we’ll be torn apart by the shattered space-time.” Sa’e Yang’s voice rang out by his ear. “But I’m not afraid of that. Your words… if we’re split up, we won’t be able to fight.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The only intact flat surface was only half a person tall, and still shrinking.
“Come, give me a hug!” Sa’e Yang turned his head mid-sprint to give a laugh, pulling suddenly on Chu Si’s wrist to bring him close.
“Jump!” Chu Si followed the pull and hooked an arm around his neck. The two of them leaped sideways with great momentum, sticking close to each other through the shrinking plane and falling heavily on the ground.
They had tried to stay as close as they could to minimize the likelihood of hitting the cracks of the edges, but as they hit the ground, the back of Chu Si’s shoulder burned with pain, probably cut by one of the shrinking edges.
It was no joke. The thick smell of blood spread out instantly, enveloping the two of them.
Chu Si rolled his shoulder and let out a tut, enduring the pain in his shoulder as he pushed himself up. “This position is quite unsightly, let’s get up quickly.”
Sa’e Yang nimbly turned over and stood up. His entire arm was bloody, and the severity of the injury was unknown. Although he looked completely unconcerned, Chu Si still noticed his movements were slightly awkward when he turned around.
Not unexpectedly, his black sleeveless shirt had a cut on the ribs, with a large portion of the fabric missing and a layer of blood and flesh smeared on his exposed skin.
He touched the SkyEye pinned behind his waist to make sure it hadn’t been damaged, then took out the communicator from his pocket and tossed it back to Chu Si.
“Take a look, it’s been vibrating for a while.” As he spoke, he pulled off his torn shirt, lean upper body completely bare. Under the flickering of their fingerlights, his firm chest and abdominal muscles mingled with crimson blood, giving off a sense of wildness with a sliver of ferocity.
“Get on the aircraft first!” Chu Si scanned the injuries on his body, keeping an eye on their surroundings while he connected the communicator.
The aircraft parked outside the apartment complex instantly disengaged from its silent state and hummed to life.
The two of them didn’t even wait for the gangway to be lowered, flipping over and leaping onto the high platform, diving like fish through the opening hatch into the cockpit.
“Speak.” Chu Si connected to Tang’s communication channel, then walked straight through a passageway into the rear compartment of the aircraft, which was its main part. It contained a variety of different rooms, including a living room, dining room, weapons and equipment storage, and of course, a medical equipment room.
“We intercepted those floating objects three minutes ago, all of which were cloaked so that we couldn’t see their origin or appearance, but experience and intuition tell me they should be combat-type military aircraft.” Tang spoke quickly, and he occasionally emphasized certain words, sounding like he was still entangled with those unidentified aircraft. “But just half a minute ago, something strange happened.”
“What?” Chu Si rummaged through several places and threw away several obstructing bottles and cans before finally finding a simple first aid kit. Picking it up, he walked towards the cockpit.
Tang: “The reason why I think the other party uses combat-type military aircraft is because their firepower equipment and defense levels are significantly higher than ours. Although we slightly outnumber them, if we really clash head-on, we’ll probably only be chased down and beaten up. The wanderer’s aircraft are really too ancient.”
“Fuck your grandmother’s ass!” Carlos Black’s curse came over clearly.
Tang said, “Fine, he’s still not willing to admit it. Anyway, it was obvious from our confrontation that the other party had a huge advantage. We could only disrupt their rhythm and hang onto their legs to buy some time. But the strange thing was, they suddenly stopped concentrating their forces, as if they were about to turn around and go home.”
Chu Si furrowed his brows: “Because the forcibly rewinded space-time suddenly collapsed just a moment ago. Even if they come, they won’t be able to find anything.”
“No wonder!” Tang suddenly understood. “But they withdrew too quickly, as if they didn’t want to entangle with us at all. If I were them, I would at least finish this fight before leaving.”
“It’s obvious they don’t think the same way as you do.” When Chu Si walked back into the cockpit, Sa’e Yang was wiping the blood off his body with the black sleeveless shirt he’d taken off. He wiped very offhandedly, then rolled up the bloodstained shirt and threw it into a garbage bin in the corner.
As always, he left the chair untouched and instead leaned slanted against the pilot’s console. He tapped on some keys with one hand, commanding the aircraft to enter its intelligent piloting mode.
As Chu Si placed the first aid kit on the console, Sa’e Yang lifted his eyelids to glance at him, then extended his index finger to gently push on a joystick.
The entire aircraft gave a tremble, and dozens of clangs sounded as SkyEye connected to the central system with a ding—
“Interstellar guided cannons in position, omnidirectional forced silence cannons in position, space towing devices in position, non-directional leap protection cover in position, multi-target stealth cloak in position.”
Chu Si: “…”
From the communicator, Tang’s voice suddenly stopped. After about three seconds of silence, he asked with a trembling voice, “Executive, what are you doing? We can’t beat them!”
Chu Si looked at Sa’e Yang with a paralyzed face: “What are you doing?”
On the console’s monitor, nearly a hundred locked targets simultaneously turned into flashing blue dots.
Ding—
“The targets have opened leap protection covers and are expected to undergo a collective leap. Estimated time, three seconds.”
“Countdown, three—”
If the other party was truly using combat-type military aircraft, their leaping devices would be much better than civilian leap devices. They would have more accurate positioning, faster speed, smaller fluctuations, and an unbreakable protective cloak. Sa’e Yang narrowed his eyes at the screen as he spent just a second to switch the piloting mode to manual.
He grabbed the joystick and circled it around in a loop, causing the entire aircraft to make an urgent turn in midair. It happened so quickly that even Chu Si had to hold onto the pilot’s seat to avoid hitting his head on the console.
“Two—”
As they were in the middle of their rapid turn, Sa’e Yang waited for the correct angle and moment before slapping a start-up button.
Ding—
“Space towing cable has been launched.”
“One—”
At the end of the countdown, there were four loud bangs. The countless blue dots representing the other party on the monitor leaped instantly, disappearing from this star region. Only two struggling dots were left behind.
Because in those three seconds, Sa’e Yang had accurately hooked into them and forcibly pulled them out of their leaping state.
Ding—
“Omnidirectional forced silence cannons have been launched.”
Sa’e Yang’s maneuvering was seamless. The other side probably didn’t even have time to react to their sneak attack before being bombarded on all sides by the silent cannons, which instantly halted their entire aircraft from operating.
Ding—
“An undirected leap within the chart is beginning— countdown three— two— one— leap completed, multi-target stealth cloak in place, all commands carried out. Overall, total time elapsed ten seconds, with a reaction speed faster than 92% of highly intelligent systems. Praise me.”
The entire aircraft, under the inhuman Sa’e Yang’s commands and SkyEye’s blind obedience, completed a series of hijacking actions in just ten seconds. Then, dragging two unlucky spoils of war, it lazily suspended itself in a new star region.
Only then did Sa’e Yang release the joystick and reply to the earlier question. “I’m not doing anything. My hands were itching, so I grabbed two to play with.”
Chu Si: “…”
Thank you Sa’e Yang question mark?