187 Ziye rushed excitedly to the Research Institute and declared to Blan, "Blan, teach me how to fly the stealth bomber!"

A flicker of surprise, mixed with a touch of intrigue, crossed Blan's eyes. "What kind of trouble are you planning to cause?"

Ziye shot him a sidelong glance and boomed, "What do you mean, trouble? I am clearly a good kid!"

Blan suspected she had no idea what an invisible bomber (stealth bomber, Yin Hong) was actually used for, and was merely curious to play with it. He smiled faintly. "Do you know what the military calls the Yin Hong?"

Ziye looked at him blankly. He sighed inwardly, realizing his guess was correct, and explained, "The Sneaky Ship. The Yin Hong is the sneakiest vessel."

Ziye gasped, "Sneaky?"

Blan nodded. "Exactly. The Yin Hong is a reconnaissance ship. As long as its distance is beyond 5,000 meters, it can evade all radar and electronic equipment searching and tracking. You can pilot a Yin Hong in the dead of night, sneak into their airspace, drop a few torpedoes, and send them into chaos. Tell me, isn't that the epitome of sneakiness?"

Ziye clicked her tongue.

She didn't quite grasp the technicalities of these functions, nor did she intend to use them. She figured Blackbeard wanted to fly the Yin Hong to escape being tracked, and as long as she could get people out of Silver Crest, the rest wasn't an issue.

Seeing Ziye deep in thought, Blan probed further, "Tell me, who are you planning to ambush? If it's not someone too troublesome, I can help you."

Ziye loudly retorted, "Am I that kind of person?"

Blan smiled without speaking.

Ziye glared fiercely at him. "I just want to learn! Believe it or not!"

Blan couldn't help but chuckle. "If you truly wish for me to teach you..."

Ziye immediately scurried over, clinging to his arm, pouting sweetly, "Teach me, please, please?"

During this time, Ziye had become quite familiar with him. Despite his fierce exterior, he was actually quite gentle. Since he was old enough to be her uncle, she had taken to treating him as such.

Blan considered it for a moment. "Fine."

Ziye instantly jumped up with delight.

Blan added coolly, "On one condition: you have to withstand one hundred blasts from my laser cannon without turning into scrap metal."

Ziye's joy immediately soured into dismay. One hundred laser cannon shots—good heavens, that was more straightforward than just killing her!

Blan glanced at the time and stated calmly, "I can give you one week to prepare."

Ziye had already been learning evasion techniques from Blan for three days. Add another week, and that made ten days; by then, only half of her vacation would be left.

She definitely needed several days in advance to prepare for her trip to Silver Crest, and departure itself would take a few days. Coupled with the initial Yin Hong training, she simply wouldn't have enough time. She quickly tallied the days and pleaded, "Give me two days. I'll pass your test after two days."

Blan raised an eyebrow. "That confident?"

Ziye scratched her head and nodded firmly. She simply couldn't tell him the real reason: she had no time. Matters concerning Silver Crest were strictly internal; outsiders, especially Blan, must never know.

No matter how kind Blan was to her, he served the Interstellar Federation. If he knew she was going to retrieve everyone imprisoned on that planet, he would likely go insane.

No choice but to push through!

For the next two days, Ziye trained relentlessly. She woke up at five in the morning to practice and didn't return to sleep until eleven at night. Blan stayed with her every day, feeling both astonished and a little heartbroken.

He didn't know Ziye's background. He just felt that a young girl shouldn't spend every day wielding weapons and firing cannons like an overly bored special forces pilot. Girls her age should be thinking about how to dress their most beautifully and how to meet more excellent young men...

Sometimes, he wished Ziye wouldn't push herself so hard.

In his eyes, girls were meant to be cherished and pampered; she was already outstanding enough, capable of navigating life effortlessly with her current talents.

So, every day he asked her, "Little girl, do you want to take a break tonight? I can teach you the violin."

Ziye shook her head resolutely.

Undeterred, he tried again, "Don't your classmates ever ask you to hang out?"

While dodging his laser cannon fire, Ziye mentally tallied her friends: Lingyin was off at the hospital "tormenting" patients with her mother; Sha Xini spent her days shouting "Darling" at the beauty salon; Li Chunyu was interning as a designer for the Huaxia Legion; as for Aixbent, they were thoroughly annoyed with the latest twins, Tris and White, believing they had stolen their parents' affection, and had specifically flown to the Angel Domain to lecture them...

Actually, Lingyin had wanted to invite her on a planet-wide tour before she went home, but Ziye had been too busy rebuilding a disastrous-class armor project and had to decline.

She let out a slight sigh. "Everyone is quite busy."

Blan shook his head and remained silent.

He didn't understand the immense pressure students faced today, but the greater the pressure on students, the harder they worked, and the higher their achievements—which in turn meant greater pressure for professionals like them.

Space was always a volatile mixture of pressure and opportunity.

The reason Tang Wen took Ziye as a student, aside from a certain reason that was temporarily inappropriate to share, was largely due to her talent and diligence.

Two days later, Blan and Ziye entered space respectively. As the assessment was about to begin, Blan posed a question to Ziye: "Which type of laser cannon do you want me to use to attack you with?"

There were nearly ten types of laser cannons. The three commonly used ones were Multi-Frequency, Standard-Frequency, and Radio-Frequency. Their effective ranges increased sequentially, while their damage output decreased sequentially. This meant Blan had been using the weakest cannon all along.

Hearing this, cold sweat immediately beaded on Ziye's forehead.

If only she had asked Blan to practice with the Multi-Frequency cannon! If she could withstand Multi-Frequency, she wouldn't have worried about Radio-Frequency. Now, switching from Radio-Frequency to Multi-Frequency would certainly mean her death.

She subtly refused, "Blan, let's just stick to Radio-Frequency. Switching back and forth is too much trouble."

Blan intentionally teased her, "It's fine. I can switch different crystals based on your evasion patterns to maximize the output."

Ziye nearly exploded in frustration. "Do you hate teaching me how to fly the Yin Hong that much?"

Blan smiled faintly. "I'm starting now."

Ziye had mostly figured out Blan's movement patterns over the past two days. Blan didn't deliberately switch to Multi-Frequency, which somewhat eased Ziye's mind, allowing her to evade with apparent ease.

Of course, she could tell Blan was deliberately holding back.

With his special forces experience, killing her in just a few shots wouldn't have been impossible!

However, in Blan's view, Ziye had improved significantly, so he relaxed and began firing in earnest.

Ziye cursed him inwardly as his attacks grew sharper, dodging desperately. The yellow laser cannon shots, unlike standard cruise missiles, felt like long, sharp needles piercing the mech.

Sparks erupted off the mech's shields, accompanied by the screeching sound of tearing metal entering her ears. Ziye’s heart hammered, sweat slicked her forehead, and a chill ran down her spine. After successfully dodging seventy shots, her shields were completely shattered, leaving only the armor and internal structure.

If the armor failed, the mech was essentially doomed.

Ziye watched the armor break down piece by piece, biting her lip and counting the shots, refusing to let her guard down.

Ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight...

Ziye managed to dodge three more shots, but the final two were already flying toward her. Shocked, she frantically forced the mech into a steep dive. If those last two hits landed, the structure wouldn't survive!

Her descent was fast enough; the laser beams whizzed right over the top of the mech's head. Before she could breathe a sigh of relief, three blinding white beams seared her eyes.

White light—the signature of the Multi-Frequency laser cannon!

Damn it, Blan broke his word!

Ziye squeezed her eyes shut and slammed the button to activate the warp engine, ready to jump away.

But the warp engine required five seconds to initialize.

The laser cannon required only two seconds to hit her.

The warp sequence hadn't even begun when the three white laser beams slammed into her airframe.

Ssssss—

Ssssss—

Ssssss—

The three shots connected, hitting Ziye’s disaster-class mech simultaneously.

Ziye stared at the control interface, leaning back limply against the cockpit seat. She was really about to become scrap metal... Before the thought finished, the mech violently shuddered and disintegrated, pieces flying everywhere.

She desperately grabbed the cockpit handles. The next second, a blue Gamma laser beam struck her command module. The cockpit jolted violently, and Ziye screamed, finding herself still seated, Little Sprout clinging to the top of her head, but nothing else remained!

Everything else had turned into space debris, scattering with the shockwave of the blast.

What in the world was this situation?

Ziye gaped, unable to close her mouth for a long time.

Her mech had been utterly dismantled by laser cannons!

"Wow, what amazing maneuvering!" Little Sprout clapped its wings in amazement, then suddenly realized they were in space. Seeing Ziye drifting in the void, it quickly settled back onto Ziye's head, extending a tiny sprout-tendril to clutch her hair, afraid of being thrown off.

The shock was still overwhelming Ziye when she suddenly realized she was utterly alone in the dark expanse of space, seeing nothing. She was drifting in the darkness, pushed by the residual energy of the explosion.

She couldn't see anything.

She had no idea where she was.

Ziye shrieked in terror, "Blan! Help! Help me—!"

Little Sprout opened a virtual screen in front of her. "Ziye, he's 100 kilometers away."

Ziye felt utter despair. Despair for this entire world!

Blan must have done this on purpose. How could she not have realized Blan was such a scoundrel? What was she supposed to do now? Ziye looked at Little Sprout, and Little Sprout looked back at her. They remained silent, speechless.

Can a person adrift in space without any equipment save themselves?

She had absolutely no experience in that area.

Darkness enveloped her, spreading outwards, seeming to harbor immense terror. Within her visible range, the only things present were Little Sprout and its display screen.

Ziye had no idea what action she could take to change this terrifying predicament, feeling a block of suppressed anxiety she couldn't shake off.

The fear of once being abandoned in space suddenly surged back. Ziye burst into tears, clutching Little Sprout tightly to her chest, her voice trembling, "Little Sprout, I’m scared..."

-RS