Black Beard hesitated. He didn't want her to worry, but if he didn't tell her, she would find out eventually. After two seconds of internal struggle, he decided to tell her plainly, "Red Hair got into a massive fight last night and it was mutually destructive; it’s on the interstellar headlines today."

Strangely, an anonymous message arrived in his mailbox instructing him to go and rescue someone—there was no sender!

Although suspicious, he rushed over immediately. However, when he reached the corresponding coordinates, he found no one, only robots cleaning up bloodstains. He worked half the night and searched for the rest of the morning, yet he couldn't find any trace of where Red Hair had gone.

He decided not to mention the letter to Ziye; talking about it would only make her more anxious.

Ziye seemed utterly thunderstruck, her vision darkening in waves, tears involuntarily springing to her eyes. "Mutually destructive? You mean Red Hair, she... she..." She struggled for a long time, unable to utter the word "dead." That woman had a tenacious hold on life; how could she just be gone? How could that be!

Black Beard soothed her, "She must be fine, definitely fine. As long as we haven't seen the body, she's still alive."

Truthfully, he wasn't certain himself. But he had checked the morgue at the space station administration, and Red Hair wasn't among the deceased. At this moment, that was the only way he could comfort himself.

Ziye wiped a tear away with the back of her hand and, with trembling fingers, logged back onto the light-net. She didn't need to search at all, as blood-red, giant headlines blazed everywhere: Kore Pirates Clash, Both Sides Annihilated!

Since pirates generally avoid fanfare and use aliases, the news report didn't list the pirates' names, only the material losses: over twenty vessels destroyed, nearly ten mechs wrecked, and over forty bodies recovered from the debris.

Clicking on the news summary revealed a video. Her gaze locked onto the video, but she lacked the courage to press play. She was suddenly afraid; she dared not know the truth. She gripped the back of her chair in distress, trying to draw some semblance of strength from it.

"Ziye, what's wrong? Don't cry yet, listen to me, Red Hair definitely isn't dead." Black Beard's voice crackled over the sub-comm, frantic. "I'm going back out to look for her. Don't worry."

Ziye snapped back to reality, and fearing Black Beard’s concern, hastily smeared away her tears, choking out, "I'm fine, I wasn't crying." As she spoke, she clicked the video.

The more she watched, the more shocking the video became. Although it didn't label who was who, Ziye instantly recognized Red Hair's vessel.

It was because her fighting style was simply too ferocious.

At the start, two ships cornered her. Not only were their ship specs superior to hers, but it was a two-against-one scenario. Red Hair managed to take down both of them, carving a path of escape.

Amidst the smoke and gunfire, all her allies were killed, yet she held on alone. Even when facing five enemies, she seized the perfect moment to charge into the enemy formation, self-detonating in a mutual kill!

After the first viewing, Ziye cried so hard her vision blurred completely.

It wasn't until the video auto-replayed that her emotions settled slightly, allowing her some measure of control. Watching it a third time, she finally calmed down enough to notice something amiss.

She decisively downloaded the video, used the program Little Sprout had written to enhance the pixel clarity, magnified it tenfold, and closely examined the anomaly. Finally, in the instant before the ship’s explosion, she spotted a silver streak moving at incredible speed toward the space station.

Her sorrow instantly transformed into elation.

Red Hair was not dead!

She didn't even need to zoom in a hundred times to know that the silver streak was an invisible escape pod. Because it was cloaked, it appeared to the camera lens as just an unremarkable line, easily overlooked.

Now, she could be certain of one thing: Red Hair had evacuated in a stealth escape pod the second before their mutual destruction!

Red Hair, truly, was not someone who died easily.

Ziye rapidly wiped away her tears, relayed the news to Black Beard, shut down her quantum computer, and headed out to search.

Little Sprout had vanished somewhere, and Ziye couldn't find it. She also lacked the patience to search everywhere; finding Red Hair was the most crucial thing right now, so she simply left alone.

To find Red Hair, she had to start from the source.

As she drove her mag-lev car toward the space station, her sub-comm buzzed. She assumed it was Black Beard, but it turned out to be Bran. Bran opened with congratulations on her successfully passing military training and achieving an excellent rating, his tone utterly formal.

Ziye was extremely agitated at the moment and had to deal with him, her mood terrible. She managed a curt "thank you" and nothing more.

Bran detected the strain in her voice and asked, "Are you indisposed?"

That single question hit Ziye's nerve, causing her to well up. This was the first time she had encountered such a severe situation—a major disaster with an unknown fate, and a minor issue—an unknown person hiding somewhere—it was truly internal and external distress combined.

She sniffled, "It's nothing. Why are you looking for me?"

Bran got straight to the point. "Yes, it’s about the promotional film for Lingsi University's spring semester. The administration sent over the proposal. If you don't mind, could you come by tomorrow to take a look? We can make any necessary adjustments in advance. Filming is the day after tomorrow; it won't take long."

Ziye rubbed her forehead, forcing herself to rally. "Alright. Set a time and email it to me. I’ll rush back tomorrow."

Bran paused for a second, then asked, "Where do you need to go? I can send someone to take you, and they can bring you back tomorrow."

That way of speaking was high-class and impressive, definitely the tone used by major figures in the Interstellar Federation. Ziye sighed internally. "You are too kind, it makes me feel awkward."

Bran said seriously, "It is my duty. You are Mr. Tang Wen's student; I am obliged to provide you with maximum convenience."

Ziye desperately wanted to reply with a scoff. Since the day of her interview, the name "Tang Wen" had haunted her like a nightmare. Everywhere she went, people described her with those five words: "Tang Wen's student." She couldn't fathom how the young, cold man she saw outside the Kore Market entrance had become her personal nightmare.

Fame brings trouble, just as fatness brings a butcher. At this point, the official meeting with her mentor hadn't even happened, and she hadn't formally met Tang Wen, yet those two words had already become her shadow.

Even without the shadow, what right did she have to use his name to gain advantage?

Taking favors means being obligated. She now desperately wished to sever all ties with Tang Wen!

Ziye firmly declined Bran's offer and boarded the interstellar bus heading for Kore Space Station.

Bran, meanwhile, was utterly confused by her attitude.

For him, achieving tasks with the highest efficiency was his guiding principle. She was the student personally selected by Tang Wen; her status in the Interstellar Federation was equivalent to a formally hired designer of the Federation.

Whatever she wanted, all she had to do was ask, and someone would provide it for her.

But alas...

When Ziye arrived at Kore Space Station, it was unnervingly quiet. The pirates who usually thronged the entrance were nowhere to be seen, likely frightened by last night's incident.

It could be said that this mutually destructive battle inflicted the most severe damage on the pirate industry in centuries. If they didn't hide, the Kore administrator could leverage this power to wipe out the pirates entirely, potentially ending the pirate trade forever!

Of course, neither the overt powers nor the hidden forces wanted pirates completely extinguished. Consequently, after the news broke, everyone unexpectedly lay low, adopting a wait-and-see approach.

After getting off the bus, Ziye walked in the direction Red Hair might have gone.

Since the escape pod entered the station, the internal surveillance must have recorded it. A thought struck Ziye, and she settled into a lounge area, preparing to commit a minor transgression.

If only Little Sprout were here; it could bypass the station's surveillance and access the backend records directly. Without its help, things would be much trickier.

Fortunately, while she had relied heavily on Little Sprout, she had picked up a few tricks from it. Checking the backend monitoring records was manageable. After several hurdles, she finally broke in, only to be utterly shocked by what she found inside.

No surveillance records!

Someone had erased the monitoring data. Judging by the timing, it had been wiped quite early, likely the night before, using an extremely sophisticated method that left no trace. If she hadn't spent so much time around Little Sprout, she wouldn't have even noticed the deletion.

Fearing discovery, Ziye didn't linger inside and quickly retreated. Given the situation, someone was clearly watching Red Hair in secret, but whether they were friend or foe was unknown.

The opposing party's operational security was too thorough; she was at a complete loss.

Ziye relayed the situation to Black Beard, who was equally helpless. "As long as she's alive, there's hope. You come back first, and we can think of another plan."

Back at the villa, the two sat in silence.

When the three of them were together, it was lively and joyful. Now, with one person missing, it felt as if a piece of flesh had been gouged from their hearts, leaving a hollow emptiness.

Neither of them knew that the one who cleared the surveillance footage was Little Sprout!

Meanwhile, the perpetrator had already arrived at the starting station of the Angel Domain, ES-2 Space Station.

Little Sprout wasn't human, but it had been with Ziye for so long that it had adapted—waking up during the day, sleeping at night, getting used to lazily sprawling on the cool glass table to do its homework, and nestling on her head for a nap...

The journey from Kore Station to ES-2 was the longest trip it had ever taken. It felt profoundly exhausted. Constant transfers, constant jumps, over and over; it only felt its body subtly swelling, as if ready to burst.

At times like this, it only wanted to hide in Ziye’s arms, nuzzling against her chest. Halfway there, it desperately wanted to jump out of the viewport and turn back to find Ziye. But the viewport wouldn't open. Even if it could open, it couldn't jump. Otherwise, it would drift in space forever, never returning to Ziye's side.

Little Sprout covered its eyes like an ostrich, yet its heart knew it was moving farther and farther away from Ziye!

When it finally reached ES-2 station in the afternoon, it was nearly in tears.

Because it realized the Angel Domain was vast; it would require at least 28 more jumps to reach An Junlie. Little Sprout studied the interstellar routes of the Angel Domain, its heart heavy with sorrow.

This place wasn't bustling like Kore; there were no interstellar buses. Even the orbital paths were different from those it had traveled before—everything was high-speed transit.

Traveling on a high-speed track was eight times faster than a normal jump.

But without a ship or mecha entering or exiting, it couldn't just jump onto the high-speed track itself, could it!

Waaah... RS