The cosmos teemed with infinite marvels, suggesting that audacity was the true measure of achievement. Lan Li, raised in the cradle of aristocracy and subjected to a sheltered, elite education, was born to space yet forbidden from setting foot in it.

As the years accumulated, the yearning buried deep within his soul grew stronger annually, slowly slipping beyond his control—until one fateful day— Lan Li sat in the command chair of his small destroyer, raising his hands in jubilant triumph, "My ambition is to conquer the sea of stars!" He suddenly recalled his very first tutor from childhood. The teacher had explained the formation of stars, the secrets hidden within nebulae, the creation and demise of meteors, and the entire history of human life in space.

That had been, without exception, his most cherished subject. He was ceaselessly drawn to the myriad strange occurrences scattered throughout the vast universe, often dreaming himself into those times, those places, those moments, charting a territory that was uniquely his own.

Now, the first step toward that goal was realized! He seized the lax atmosphere during a family gathering to steal the small destroyer docked in their private hangar and blasted off into the void.

That year, he was fifteen. Lan Li clenched his fists, burning with determination; space belonged to him, offering unparalleled freedom and ease!

However, the good times were short-lived. He hadn't even cleared the star system where his family was based when a broadcast blared from the family flagship: "Destroyer Lan Ling, heed this transmission and return immediately, no excuses permitted!" Discovered?

Lan Li froze for a fraction of a second, then slammed his fist onto the warp jump activation button. To hell with protocol—escape was paramount.

If his father found out about this, he wouldn't escape unscathed. His idealized solo voyage through the cosmos had devolved into a frantic flight.

Lan Li could manage no more than survival; he careened wildly, ignoring established interstellar routes and jamming every traceable signal. After a series of jarring jolts and near misses, the Lan Clan’s pursuers were finally shaken off.

Lan Li let out a massive breath, switched the piloting system to automatic cruise, and decided he would go wherever the current took him. Experiencing space life like this—this was the real fun, wasn't it?

Outside the viewport, spherical planets, comets, and luminous cosmic dust streaked past. The sheer, boundless grandeur of space captivated him utterly.

This was the space he had longed for. Exactly as he had envisioned.

Everything within his field of vision filled him with exhilaration. "Magnificent!

One cannot know the vastness of the world without leaving home!" Lan Li murmured in a theatrical, resonant voice, completely mesmerized by the splendor the cosmos displayed, dreaming grandly of becoming a true interstellar wanderer. Imagination is beautiful; reality is cruel.

His dream of leisurely cruising was cut short when he found himself encircled by three heavily armed faction ships. The hulls of the faction ships were emblazoned with a large, laser-painted tiger head, beneath which were two crossed, ominous white bones.

Unmistakably, pirates! Lan Li stared at the universal pirate insignia of crossed bones and nearly overturned the control console.

Damn it, who could explain why pirates existed in a system governed by the Lan Clan? Perhaps this was a divine opportunity granted him to eradicate them?

Lan Li's blood boiled with righteous fury. The complacency of certain elements within the Lan Clan that allowed pirates to infest their governed space was utterly intolerable.

Before settling accounts with them, he first had to wipe out these buccaneers on behalf of the Lan Clan! Lan Li operated his console swiftly, projecting his family crest via the interstellar holographic array.

It materialized, hanging starkly before the pirate faction ships, accompanied by a broadcast: "This sector is under Lan Clan jurisdiction. Pirates, disperse at once!" These three pirate ships belonged to the Tyrant Tiger Pirate Fleet.

A wholly insignificant, minor faction. Lan Li did not take them seriously at all.

Perhaps youthful dreams had clouded his judgment, or maybe he was accustomed to his family’s superior standing, but in any case, these pirates should pose no threat to him. In his estimation, the skills he had painstakingly acquired over the years were more than sufficient to pilot a single destroyer against three pirate ships.

The Tyrant Tiger contingent was incensed. Initially, the Tyrant Tiger contingent had shown little interest upon seeing only a small destroyer—it looked like scant pickings.

They had approached merely to intimidate and chase it away. The commander of the Tyrant Tiger contingent, a hothead named Saru, was already losing patience, preparing to turn back and find his brothers for a drink.

But upon spotting the Lan Clan insignia, his fury erupted. Such arrogance from a mere small destroyer?

Did this brat intend to die? Hmph.

Saru decided it was necessary to teach this young man a lesson in humility. "Listen up, Lan Clan scum!

This is the domain of the Tyrant Tiger Pirate Fleet. Advance one more step, and you die!" Saru roared into the interstellar communicator with what he considered a powerfully imposing voice.

Lan Li, accustomed to wielding authority within his family, had never imagined anyone would dare shout back after hearing his family name! This petty pirate clearly held the Lan Clan in utter contempt!

Young Lan Li also took offense. Given that he rarely got to pilot a destroyer, he fumbled clumsily for a moment before finally activating the comms and shouting back with equal bluster: "Insolent pirate!

This is Lan Clan territory! Where is this your pirate land?

Establishing domain in the Lan Clan’s space—who gave you such audacity!" His tone was forceful, but Lan Li's youthful, squeaky voice, stuck in the throes of puberty, betrayed him. The pirates responded with booming laughter: "Hahahaha, looks like a little kid who hasn't even hit his growth spurt.

Say, little sprout, why don’t you go home and get some sleep? Your mommy is calling you for milk!

Hahahaha..." Lan Li felt utterly diminished. Since childhood, everyone had treated him with such reverence, afraid to utter a harsh word lest they upset him.

To face such crude mockery was an insult, showing he, the great young master of the Lan Clan, was nothing. Lan Li's face flushed crimson: "You—you—you wait!

See if I don't teach you a lesson myself!" "Hahahaha!" The only reply was another wave of pirate laughter. "You, you, you, you what?

A snot-nosed brat who hasn't even learned to speak properly yet, and you're already threatening people. Who gave you that privilege?

A little kid who hasn't even grown fur yet dares to challenge us? Ooh, I'm so scared, what should I do?

Heavens above, please don't catch me, I'm terrified," Saru’s second-in-command, Anster, yelped dramatically, eliciting fresh howls of amusement from the crew. Lan Li felt profoundly humiliated and finally blurted out: "You insult me like this, and I will make you pay double!

Do you think I, the noble Young Master of the Lan Clan, am afraid of a few petty pirates?" The instant Lan Li uttered those words, the pirates' mocking ceased instantly. Lan Li preened internally, thinking, See?

Just mentioning the title 'Young Master of the Lan Clan' was enough to intimidate them. This is the true power of my family!

After a brief, heavy silence, Saru’s voice cut through, laced with malice: "Very good, little fellow. I was wrong, horribly wrong.

I shouldn't have let you go home. I should have kept you here; perhaps your Lan Clan patriarch would prefer sending a massive heap of Interstellar Credits to retrieve you." Lan Li froze, utterly stunned.

It dawned on him belatedly that announcing himself as the Young Master of the Lan Clan while out in the black could place him in grave danger. The Lan Clan were filthy rich!

From childhood, his family had cautioned him constantly: be careful out there, you absolutely must not fall into the hands of kidnappers. Losing wealth was a minor issue; being executed was the end.

Lan Li finally understood his profound lack of worldly experience. However, he was not stupid.

As the most highly favored heir of the Lan Clan, he instantly grasped the necessary course of action. Otherwise, the Lan Clan's decision-makers would go insane.

Imagine the headline: the long-anticipated heir runs away and gets captured by pirates—what idiotic news! In that event, he wouldn't just disgrace himself; he would shame the entire Lan Family!

Saru had been closely monitoring Lan Li. Oh my gods, what a fat prize!

The moment he saw Lan Li attempt to pivot and flee, Saru commanded the other two faction ships to rapidly maneuver and cut off the destroyer, ensuring they captured Lan Li without killing him first. The final destroyer would be brought back.

Even if destroyers weren't expensive, every little bit helped, right? Lan Li was instantly cornered.

The rebellious pride of a fifteen-year-old forbade him from meekly surrendering. How could a scion with noble breeding surrender to crude bandits?

Death would be preferable! Even if he died, he would not drag the family down; even in death, he must maintain some shred of dignity.

With this thought, Lan Li activated the access port, setting the destroyer's auto-navigation destination back to the Lan Clan headquarters dock. He then deployed his mech, slid into the cockpit, and launched out of the access ramp.

The mech was compact and agile; their heavy ordnance would have difficulty tracking it, and his piloting skills were superior in this domain. "Hey, Captain, look!

The brat actually bailed out. Guess he got scared and is surrendering directly.

Saves us the trouble of violating his destroyer," remarked the pirate responsible for tracking routes, slapping his thigh. Saru quickly redirected his view to the tactical screen tracking Lan Li.

Indeed, Lan Li had emerged in his mech. The destroyer's launch bay was somewhat narrow, and Lan Li’s mech was excessively large, flashy, and tall.

It got briefly snagged in the doorway, causing Lan Li, enraged by the delay, to simply shear off the docking structure and force his way out. "Hahaha, this kid is an absolute fool!

Just a spoiled brat playing hooky—an ignorant youth who has no clue about the world. Remember that jackass leader of the little squad from the Swift Leopard Pirates?

He was bragging about effortlessly kidnapping a runaway noble kid for the easiest score in the galaxy." Saru grew increasingly gleeful, laughing heartily: "To think I’ve run into the Lan Clan’s Young Master! This is like money falling into my lap!

The Lan Clan—hehe—they're vastly more prestigious than that forgettable family. This haul will be immense!

This is a chance to slap the Swift Leopard Pirates right in the face! Hahahaha..." Saru could already picture the glorious promotion awaiting him when he presented this Lan Clan youngster to the Fleet Commander.

Life was wonderful: he had youth, and he had cash. Tsk, tsk.

Lost in his thoughts, Saru grew impatient to capture Lan Li, urging the other two faction ships to intercept and secure the boy. Once Lan Li was airborne in his mech, the faction ships immediately detached two capture squads, piloting mechs to intercept him.

Eager to claim the glory, Anster, who had been shadowing Saru, joined one of the capture teams. Capturing a mere noble youth seemed like a simple task, a surefire way to earn acclaim—perfectly tailored for him.

Once he secured the capture, the main credit would be his. That brute Saru, hmph.

But Anster didn't get to indulge his fantasy for long. A ten-times amplified laser beam shot from a mech and slammed directly into his mech’s primary energy plate.

The mech’s energy plate shouldn't have been that weak. However, during a previous engagement, the outer casing had been hit once, and Anster had decided the damage was minor enough to save money by skipping immediate repairs.

He never expected the brat’s eyes to be so sharp, identifying that weakness instantly and compressing the laser beam tenfold to multiply its destructive power. The beam was thin, long, and brilliant, yet carried the shadow of immediate death.

The moment the laser fired, Anster knew he couldn't dodge it. Death arrived so swiftly that in his final instant, he was still caught in his pleasant daydream.

Pirates without clone bodies had no chance for a second life. As Anster’s mech exploded, the pirates froze.

They hadn't expected this noble Young Master to have any real skill. Surrounded by three faction ships and dozens of mechs, managing to land such a decisive blow was unexpected.

This drastically overturned the image they held of elite noble youths—they expected such privileged boys, faced with this threat, to be weeping and begging for mercy, kneeling in the dust. The shock was so profound that the pirates stood dumbfounded, staring at the inferno of scattered mech debris, momentarily forgetting to react.

While the Tyrant Tiger Pirates were stunned, Lan Li was razor-sharp. Having eliminated one mech, his confidence surged, and his demeanor grew calmer and more focused.

This was his debut battle! The youthful fervor remained, but his hands were steadier, and his gaze sharper.

Come on, let’s go! In the blink of an eye, the Tyrant Tiger Pirate Fleet lost four more mechs, each bearing existing structural damage that had been neglected for repair.

His superior combat prowess dealt a heavy blow to the interstellar pirates. This gruesome lesson finally snapped them back to reality, forcing them to reassess the Lan Clan Young Master before them.

Interstellar pirates, after all, lived by licking the edge of the blade; once they got serious and stopped underestimating him, their battle skills far surpassed a youth accustomed to the light-touch sparring of family duels. Plus, there was the numerical advantage.

As they fully encircled him, Lan Li suddenly felt overwhelmed, his movements constrained. Either he found no opening, or when he struck, his aim was suppressed, causing the shots to veer wide.

The shields of his magnificent ice-blue, towering mech accumulated more and more impact marks, becoming increasingly dense. If the pirates hadn't been counting on capturing him alive to extort the Lan Clan, he would have been vaporized beyond recognition long ago.

"This can't go on," Lan Li thought, parrying attacks while analyzing the situation. The low-energy warning indicator on the mech’s display served as a stark reminder of his perilous circumstances.

Fortunately, Lan Li possessed a unique trait: the more intense the pressure, the clearer his mind became for problem-solving. While fighting, Lan Li observed his surroundings and realized, without noticing the shift, that he had drifted directly above a small asteroid.

Lan Li quickly made a daring decision: he channeled maximum power into the mech, pushing it into the asteroid’s gravitational envelope, then instantly cut power to the propulsion system, allowing the mech to enter a state of freefall, pulled in by the planet’s gravity. The heat generated by the mech’s friction with the atmosphere caused its internal temperature to skyrocket.

While the mech cockpit normally had an insulation system allowing it to traverse planetary atmospheres safely, Lan Li had shut off the energy supply, making it feel like sitting inside a bonfire. Lan Li fiercely regretted his decision, but the heat was so intense he lacked the strength to even reach out and restart the energy system.

Alas, his combat experience was simply too thin. Could someone like him truly soar freely through space?

In the scorching heat, Lan Li doubted his lifelong conviction for the very first time. "Damnation!" Saru slammed a heavy fist onto his control panel.

Having lost five mechs and deploying two full capture teams, they still couldn't secure a single Lan Clan heir. What right did the Tyrant Tiger Pirate Fleet have to still exist?

The mere thought of the ridicule—it would make them the laughingstock of the galaxy! Saru signaled the bridge commander to retreat.

This planet was a Devil’s World; they couldn't approach too closely. He had intentionally forced the boy near the planet, hoping to compel surrender.

He never imagined the fool would display such reckless courage and plunge directly into the atmosphere. Foolish boy; wasn't being captured by them infinitely better than falling onto the Devil’s World?

Saru ordered the faction ships to hover just outside the asteroid's influence, hoping the boy might miraculously emerge intact so they could collect him without further effort, hehe. No miracle occurred.

Since he didn't crave death, Saru dared not pursue them into the Devil's World and reluctantly ordered a retreat. The duck cooked to perfection had flown away; the cash in hand had become food for the Devil's World.

How vexing. Lan Li had been cooked alive by the intense heat inside the mech and passed out.

When he awoke, he found himself dangling from a massive tree limb. Fragments of his mech were scattered around him; they were less like wreckage and more like mangled shards of metal.

If it weren't for the faint ice-blue glow emanating from those metallic pieces, he wouldn't have believed the scene before him was real. He thought entering the asteroid would save him; instead, he was suspended from a tree, his mech utterly destroyed, and his own life...

"Ah!" Lan Li tried to move his body, but agonizing pain locked him in place. "Did I survive the interstellar pirate pursuit only to starve to death ignominiously hanging from a tree?" This tree bore no fruit.

He’d probably starve to death and starve on top of it. Lan Li, miserable, pounded the tree trunk, cursing venomously: "Serves you right for running away, serves you right for having no social skills, serves you right for being arrogant.

What good is arrogance when you can’t even eat it?" He couldn't move; he wasn't sure he could even last until starvation set in. As Lan Li desperately reviewed the highlights of his short life, a sound like a heavenly chorus drifted into his ear.

"Grandpa, look! There’s a giant bird in the tree!" -RS