She emphasized Han Xiao’s name like she was trying to say that she did not forget.
Han Xiao shook his head and said, “The aircraft I’m currently in is attacked by DarkStar. The situation is dire, so I’m here to ask you for help.”
“Why did DarkStar attack you?” Ames asked curiously.
Han Xiao coughed.
“A few days ago, DarkStar caused trouble on Floating Dragon while you were not there. It seems like they were up to something. Coincidentally, I happened to disrupt their plan. This attack should be an act of revenge.”
Ames tilted her head. She recalled Jenny’s report. Now that DarkStar was mentioned, she seemed to have some kind of beef with DarkStar, and she had even been planning to find trouble with them earlier.
“Alright, wait there, I’ll go when I’m free,” Ames said with a casual tone, then hung up the communication.
Han Xiao was speechless. Ames’ attitude was carefree, so he had no way to force her to come immediately. He was not strong enough, so he could only seek help from someone stronger.
_____________________
You have triggered an urgent mission [Escape]!
Mission Introduction: Start running.
Mission requirement: Escape DarkStar’s pursuit and stall till backup arrives.
Reward: Basic reward 800,000 experience. The final reward depends on mission rating. The basic reward is given when achieving the lowest rating, D. After lasting for 2 days, the mission rating will reach D. The rating will increase by one level every 12 hours thereafter.
Failure Condition: Captured by DarkStar.
_____________________
Han Xiao looked around at the players and realized that their faces changed a little—they had probably triggered the mission as well.
This time, the reward for the players was exactly the same as Han Xiao, so all the players were shocked!
800,000 experience!
Han Xiao was long used to it; it was not much for him. However, to the players, this was the highest reward that they had ever seen in a mission!
Shock, joy, surprise—various expressions appeared on the players’ faces.
Han Xiao analyzed the information that he read between the lines of the mission. The lowest rating requires me to last for two days. This should mean the earliest backup will only arrive after two days. Which means that we need to fight alone for two days…
He was instantly troubled. They might not even last two hours, let alone two days.
This time, the aircraft finally returned to the ground and flew at a low altitude. This desolated planet was almost completely empty. It had no forests and no signs of life, and it was filled with stones and mountains. The only good thing about it was that its terrain was vicious enough. The three aircrafts took the same approach—stall for as much time as possible by using the obstacles in the terrain.
Boom boom boom!
Hundreds of mini DarkStar hovering ships were in pursuit, firing green colored low-energy laser cannons from above, chasing after three spaceships, and creating clusters of dust on the ground. The sound of explosions was nonstop, and the spaceships’ shields were flashing from the impact.
DarkStar wanted to capture them alive. They did not want to destroy the spaceships as it would destroy the Secret Message Bead that might be in the hands of one of them. So, they sent out mini hovering ships that were less than ten meters long. The mini laser cannons had very low power too, good for damaging yet not destroying. Using speed and mobility, they would force the mercenaries to give up their spaceships.
“Split up!”
The three spaceships dashed past a black and gray colored menacing mountain, then suddenly split up and escaped in three different directions. Green lasers hit the mountain. With a loud bang, its peak broke and rolled down its hill, stirring up a cloud of thick dust. The hovering ships split into three groups as well, chasing after the spaceships.
The Sky Ring spaceship that Han Xiao was on was being chased by about a hundred hovering ships. However, unluckily, the direction that they turned toward was a plain land without any obstacles.
“This is bad!” Their faces changed.
The pilot was covered in sweat, trying his best to control the spaceship and dodge the attacks. The dust created by the green lights was like a fountain. The spaceship was able to dodge some lasers, but it was getting hit more often than when the three spaceships were together. The shield was flashing rapidly.
“Warning! Warning! Sixty-seven percent energy left in shield! Energy level entered the yellow warning zone! Please refill in time!”
“Energy core close to overload! Please cool down in time!”
A string of warnings was announced, like a hammer hitting their hearts.
The pilot’s face was pale.
Suddenly, they saw Han Xiao walk out of the crowd. He walked to the pilot’s side, pressed on his shoulder, and said in a confident tone, “Stand up, give me the seat.”
The face of all the mercenaries in the spaceship changed. Changing pilot during the fight, are you sure‽
Goa stared at Han Xiao and said, “This concerns the life or death of everyone here, do you know what you’re doing‽”
Han Xiao nodded and said, “If he continues piloting, the chance of crashing is ninety-nine percent. If I do, it’s only thirty-percent.”
“You!” The pilot was outraged.
Goa stared at Han Xiao for a full two seconds, then nodded and said, “Okay, you do it.”
The Sky Ring mercenaries were shocked. Even though they knew Han Xiao’s capabilities, piloting a spaceship was completely different from fighting. In such urgent situations, no one would be willing to entrust their fate to someone whose pilot skill was unknown.
“If we carry on this way, in less than an hour, our ship would crash. Let him try,” Goa explained.
Although the pilot knew that this was a fact, he was unwilling to let someone else control his fate. After the expression on his face changed several times, he finally gave the position to Han Xiao.
Han Xiao took over the pilot position immediately. This time, Goa walked to him and said in a very serious tone, “Black Star, our lives are in your hands… You must—must—be careful about this.”
At this moment, the mercenaries could only place their hopes on Han Xiao. Quite a number of mercenaries actually knew how to pilot a spaceship, but no one was confident that they could do it better than the previous pilot, nor did they have the guts to take on this responsibility, worrying that their mistake might kill everyone. This was a very large amount of pressure, and no one dared do it. Now that Han Xiao had stepped forward at this crucial moment, they could only hope that he was dependable.
“Black Star, you know how to pilot spaceships‽” Herlous said with surprise.
“I know many things. Do you know me very well?”
Han Xiao adjusted the control panels casually and easily.
Piloting a spaceship is nothing; I used to pilot mechanical suits!
Like the difference between a passenger aircraft pilot and a fighter plane pilot, one requires safety and stability, and the other requires complexity. The difficulty of piloting a mechanical suit was much higher than a fighter plane.
Han Xiao was someone who had horned his pilot skills killing other players in the galactic battlefields! Even in the entire universe, he was a top-notch ace pilot!
They suddenly heard an announcement from the system.
“Adjustment complete. Shield output decreased to 20%…”
“Have you lost your mind‽” the pilot yelled uncontrollably.
Everyone was shocked. Han Xiao weakened the shield as soon as he took over. The spaceship’s defensive capability was largely decreased. If they got hit by attacks like earlier, the body of the spaceship would be damaged.
Was that reminder all for nothing‽
Goa was filled with regret. Just as he was about to yell, another announcement sounded from the system.
&nbs
p; “All energy is being directed into the engine… complete.”
Han Xiao turned his head back a little and gave the people behind him a reminder.
“Hold tight.”
The next moment, the sudden explosive recoil tore straight through the internal gravitational stabilization of the spaceship—everyone staggered and fell down in unison.
The yelling that was just about to come out of Goa’s mouth fell right back down his throat!
Chapter 394 - Speed and Motion Sickness
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
On a desolate, unpopulated planet, a chase was underway on its gray plains.
Almost a hundred hovering ships were chasing after the Sky Ring spaceship. The Sky Ring spaceship’s exhaust flames expanded violently in an instant. The sudden increase of speed was like a tornado that stirred up countless dust from the floor.
Hum!
Dashing at a low altitude, the head of the boat was covered in dust, like a high-speed triangular speedboat dashing across the ocean.
Boom!
The hovering ships hastily increased their speed as well, but they could barely keep up with the Sky Ring spaceship. Many hovering ships’ accuracy decreased noticeably because of the angles, and their attacks missed much more often.
The spaceship was trembling like it would crash at any moment, but everyone felt the visible change. Although it felt more dangerous, the number of times that the spaceship got hit decreased drastically. The high mobility largely enhanced the ship’s ability to dodge. The weakened shield was just strong enough to endure these attacks. Han Xiao’s piloting skills were horrifying.
By increasing the power of the engine, the difficulty in piloting would increase as well. Yet, As compared to the previous pilot, everyone could directly feel the difference when Han Xiao took over. It was like the spaceship became ‘alive’! It felt like the spaceship became an extension of Han Xiao’s body.
The gravity in the spaceship was finally calibrated. The people stood up one after another, and their doubts all disappeared.
They were overjoyed by Black Star, who took on such crucial responsibility in the current dire situation. Anything that could better the situation was a pleasant surprise. They never expected Black Star to have this up his sleeves.
“Fantastic!” Goa’s tone changed instantly. A glimpse of a smile appeared on her expressionless face. “At this pace, the damage dealt by the hovering ships will be minimal. You did very well!”
“What?” Han Xiao was confused. “This is just basic controlling. I have not done anything yet.”
The higher the speed, the better his controls. He was far from his limit at the current speed.
Sadly, if he increases the speed further, the shield would be too thin. He was worried that he might be rusty after not piloting a battleship for so long. Maintaining the current shield thickness was a safer choice for him.
However, in the mercenaries’ eyes, the shield’s thickness was already horrifyingly thin, yet Black Star said that this was just his basic controls?
What was he going to do then‽
A bad feeling arose in everyone’s heart.
Han Xiao stretched his wrist and said, “Hold on tight.”
With the lesson of falling right on the floor earlier, no one ignored his reminder this time. They held onto anything that they could as soon as possible. Their faces were filled with nervousness.
Hum!
In an instant, the Sky Ring spaceship started to drift, like a raging horse trying to get rid of the rider on its back!
All kinds of tricks were interjoined smoothly—lateral rollover, roller coaster, Z-maneuver, and so on. The spaceship had still been flying in a straight line just one second ago, and now it was completely random!
The hovering ship fleet was already having a hard time following, and now that Han Xiao was moving this way, their formation became broken immediately. Many hovering ships blocked the shooting range of the fleet behind them. Their laser fire became sparser, and the threat level of the attack decreased largely again.
Everyone felt like they were in a can that was being shaken violently. For the first time, they felt inertia that pulled them in all directions. Their stomach acid was rushing up, their brain juice was vibrating, and their faces were pale white. Their vision started to blur, and the surrounding environment and people started to have mirror images.
After piloting spaceships for so many years, the pilot felt like he was back to when he first started learning. The dizziness was like an old friend that he had not met for a long time. He could almost see his pilot teacher waving at him with a smile on his face.
Han Xiao could still divert his attention and said, “That pilot, come and control the weapon. If we keep running and don’t fire back at all, it will be the end of us sooner or later. Fire when you see a chance.”
The pilot hastily followed the order and sat in the weapon operating seat. Compared to Black Star, his piloting skills became completely ordinary. The resentfulness before completely disappeared—he was now only scared that he might burden Han Xiao.
“On my count—five, four, three…”
Han Xiao stared at the screen, then did one more drift that messed up the formation of the hovering ships, creating a split-second opportunity to fly straight up.
Hu!
The trembling came once again!
Even if the people expected it, their legs still softened, and they almost fell.
The spaceship flew in a ‘U’ shape, flying from close to the ground right to above the hovering ship fleet, dashing back in the opposite direction.
“Fire!”
The pilot fired immediately. The cannon shot out from the Sky Ring spaceship. There was no need to aim—it was an attack fired at the dense part of the formation.
Boom boom boom!
Shield lit up on a few leading hovering ships as they were forced to stop for a moment. The fleet behind bumped into them straight away, causing chain reactions like dominos. The entire fleet in front became a mess, rolling across the sky.
The hovering ships were not that fragile, so they did not crash.
Han Xiao only stayed in this position for less than three seconds. Before the fleet could adjust, he made a sharp turn and escaped to the side. Its movement was as smooth as silk.
On the other hand, the chasing fleet took a few seconds to adjust before catching up. Although no battleship crashed, Han Xiao largely increased the distance between them.
“Not bad.” Han Xiao smiled and gave the pilot a thumbs up.
The pilot smiled brightly back at him, as vomit flew down right between his teeth.
The difficulty of these few movements was very high. Yet, no one in the ship showed any sign of being shocked. They did not even have the strength to be surprised—their legs were shaking, and their heads were spinning.
These movements had successfully given all of his teammates a debuff.
Goa opened her mouth, forcing herself to try to give a few words of compliment, but instead covered her mouth in an instant. The muscles in her neck could be seen clearly to have moved up and down, only then did she dare put her hand down.
Aroshia shook left and right, then sat down on the floor, unable to stand up. She said with confusion, “What’s happening to me?”
Herlous was breathing heavily, and he almost suffocated like a fish out of water. The mercenaries around were all trembling. Luckily, Herlous’ body was strong enough, so he could still hang on. He turned around and was shocked to see that the players were very calm. “Are you people feeling fine‽”
The players smiled cheekily. As short as three seconds after Han Xiao took over the spaceship, they realized the danger and immediately decreased their physical senses to five percent. Therefore, although they had the [Heavily Dizzy] status on their character, so they were still feeling very refreshed!
“I thought we just entered a time and space tunnel.”
“This pi
loting skill is absolutely horrifying!”
“I have seen Fast and Furious; this is fast and dizzy.”
The players still had the strength to discuss what was happening.
With no time to be bothered about everyone’s reactions, Han Xiao started to think of the plan.
“Just piloting the spaceship will not last us two days. The DarkStar fleet will not make no changes. When they realize that the hovering ship fleet cannot deal with us, they will definitely use more aggressive methods. I can only play with the hovering ship fleet for two hours at most. After that, the danger level is going to rise step by step.”
He planned ahead. After all, stalling for two days was not an easy task at all.
The others did not know DarkStar’s motive, only Han Xiao did. DarkStar had come for the Secret Message Bead. Therefore, DarkStar would not be willing to miss out on even one person.
A few plans flashed in his head before Han Xiao said, “It’s not going to work out like this. We can’t stay on the surface. I have a plan…”
As soon as he said this, the expression on everyone’s face became as tragic as a prisoner on their way to the execution ground.
“Anyt… Anything you say. We trust you,” Goa said.
Despite it clearly being an encouragement, there was no sound of joy in it at all. Instead, her voice was trembling a little.
…
In the command hall of the DarkStar mothership, the image feedback from the hovering ships was shown on the screen. The captain, Sarota, was watching it with hands behind his back.
Ten minutes passed after the battle started. The spaceships of Blades and Purple Gold were clearly struggling—only Han Xiao was doing slightly better. This attracted Sarota’s attention right away. He pointed at the screen and asked, “Which mercenary group does this spaceship belong to?”
“The Sky Ring Army.”
The Legendary Mechanic c1-1385 Page 225