Chapter 5

For Lin Youde, space travel was not unfamiliar. Although he had never been to Alpha Centauri, during his high school space practice class, he still boarded the practice spacecraft provided by the colonial government and went on a week-long short trip. During the trip, he visited New Moscow, which was 15 light-years away from New Zhengzhou, and witnessed the prosperity of a first-class colony.

In that practical class, Lin Youde scored quite high in the spacewalk project, one of the few times he had been at the top of his class. Now, the synchronization with Noah gave Lin Youde an edge in the zero-gravity environment.

Therefore, after entering the zero-gravity environment, Lin Youde could still help Xia Yongzhi a little. After boarding the regular shuttle, the process of faster-than-light travel passed in the blink of an eye. Modern space travel was like this: it might take dozens of minutes from boarding the spacecraft to reaching the orbit where faster-than-light travel could begin, but once the faster-than-light travel started, it would be over in just a few minutes. Of course, this referred to the subjective experience of the spacecraft's crew; outside the spacecraft, two months had quietly passed.

Lin Youde lay on the porthole, looking at the Alpha Centauri space station—no, calling it a space city would be more appropriate. The entire "space station" was formed by stacking twenty discs into a cylinder, which rotated to generate gravity. The central axis of the cylinder, which was a zero-gravity zone, was used as a spaceport. It is said that after humans joined the Galactic Council and were granted permission to cultivate Alpha Centauri, it took a full century to complete this massive space station. The entire space station housed 100 million residents and was the industrial core of the entire Alpha Centauri colony.

Lin Youde's mouth hung open as he watched the large number of spaceships queuing to enter the space station.

"There must be over a hundred ships just in the queue, right?" Xia Yongzhi also leaned on the porthole, her voice full of unmasked surprise. "Most of them look like small ships that can only use first-level faster-than-light, but the number is really scary."

First-level faster-than-light was actually the speed of light, and such ships were only used for intra-system transportation. Each level of faster-than-light travel had a vastly different actual speed. The regular shuttle Lin Youde was on could travel at fourth-level faster-than-light, so it took only two months to cover nearly a thousand light-years—of course, for the passengers, there was no difference between first-level and fourth-level faster-than-light; the journey ended in just three minutes, regardless of the distance.

Lin Youde was less familiar with spacecraft than Xia Yongzhi. Generally, boys liked spaceships, but in the case of Lin Youde and Xia Yongzhi, the situation was reversed. Xia Yongzhi was a spaceship enthusiast, while Lin Youde had little interest in spaceships and weapons.

At this moment, although they were both looking at the Alpha Centauri space station, Lin Youde's focus was completely different from Xia Yongzhi's. Lin Youde was simply marveling at how incredibly large it was. Incidentally, the flood of data entering Lin Youde's mind at this moment made his brain struggle to keep up, and he reacted slowly, like a computer with insufficient memory.

"You should try to process this data with your subconscious," Noah suggested, but Lin Youde didn't notice the advice.

After the spacecraft docked at the spaceport, Lin Youde floated out of the cabin and saw the holographic projections of various universities' welcoming teams. The largest projection read "United Nations Space Military Academy."

"I think I should go there," Xia Yongzhi pointed to the welcoming team. "Have you found the welcoming team for your Ship Maintenance Academy?"

Lin Youde was still searching with his eyes and didn't immediately answer Xia Yongzhi. His vision had been enhanced by Noah's nanomachines, but the massive amount of data that came with it made his search speed slow down. Moreover, for some reason, most of the data flooding in was related to women: this girl's skirt had blue and white stripes; that girl's legs were really great, and so on.

At this moment, Noah, who had been acting like a real maid robot and hadn't spoken much, pointed to the distance: "There, about a kilometer away. I suggest using my propulsion function."

The entire central axis of the space city was a spaceport, so a kilometer wasn't an exaggerated distance, considering the port was nearly a hundred kilometers long.

While Lin Youde was looking for his school, a pair of senior students from the Military Academy's welcoming team flew over using small propulsion devices.

"Are you Xia Yongzhi from New Zhengzhou?" the girl shouted before she even got close. Lin Youde noticed she had almond-shaped eyes, which were quite special in an era where most people adjusted their genes to have double eyelids. The moment he thought this, a large amount of information about almond-shaped eyes and gene adjustment flooded into Lin Youde's mind, indicating that Noah had successfully connected to Alpha Centauri's network data center.

"Yes, I'm Xia Yongzhi," Xia Yongzhi stepped forward, her voice somewhat nervous. "Hello, senior sister..."

"Hello, welcome to Alpha Centauri," the senior sister said after her welcome speech, then turned to the boy and said, "See, I told you this one was definitely it! Her demeanor is just like a female captain!"

"Female captain? That's still a long way off," Xia Yongzhi looked a bit embarrassed. "Although I was indeed accepted into the command major..."

"That's right, she must be a female captain! Those boys always think girls should go to the communications department, which is so arrogant. Every female student in the command major should strive to be a captain!" For some reason, the senior sister suddenly entered a passionate mode, grabbing Xia Yongzhi's shoulders and declaring, "I support you, senior sister!"

The boy, who had come with her, picked up a tablet and glanced at it. In reality, modern tablets could directly link to the human brain through nanomachines by touching the contact area, making the display unnecessary, but many people still habitually used their eyes to read information. After confirming the information, the boy looked at Lin Youde, "So, you're Mu Tian?"

"No..."

"I am Mu Tian." The arrogant tone could only belong to Mu Tian.

Lin Youde turned his head and saw Mu Tian staring at him with a look of anger. On the shuttle, Xia Yongzhi had specifically chosen a window seat, forcing Mu Tian to sit behind them and watch them chat, which had probably filled his anger meter during the journey.

"According to my model, he is very angry," Noah said.

"I know, thanks," Lin Youde was speechless. Noah seemed proud of the mathematical model he had just established and wanted to show it off.

"Oh, I smell the scent of youth!" the senior sister pulled Xia Yongzhi, "Come on, be honest with your senior sister, which one did you choose?"

Xia Yongzhi pointed at Lin Youde without hesitation.

"What, so Mu Tian is the one who's intruding, huh. Tsk. By the way, I chose this one!" The senior sister swung her arm and made a beautiful turn in the air—using one's limbs to change posture in zero gravity was a skill everyone mastered, but the senior sister was clearly one of the best, befitting a student of the Space Military Academy.

Her index finger pointed to the senior brother behind her.

"Sorry, that's not the case," the senior brother explained seriously to Lin Youde and the others.

"Hey, how can you say that, after you've played with me so much..." The senior sister immediately pretended to cry.

Lin Youde couldn't help but smile. At this moment, Xia Yongzhi's voice came through WeChat: "These senior brother and sister are so interesting... I think they must be a couple."

"Uh, maybe," Lin Youde thought for a moment and replied. Unlike direct physical contact, which transmitted thoughts directly, WeChat allowed one to choose what to send. Physical contact transmitted surface thoughts directly, a method used only by intimate people. "So, shall we part ways?"

Lin Youde looked at Xia Yongzhi with some reluctance.

The girl reached out and grabbed Lin Youde's backpack strap, pulling herself toward him. Due to the excessive force, their foreheads collided. Xia Yongzhi grabbed Lin Youde's shoulders to stabilize herself, and they began to rotate slowly, as if the world around them was revolving around them.

"Stay in touch," her words transmitted through the contact of their skin into Lin Youde's mind, "Use WeChat often."

"That depends on the distance between Dock 15 and the space city. If it's far, it might take you over ten minutes to hear me."

"How can you ruin the mood like that!" Xia Yongzhi glared at Lin Youde and pouted, "Hmph, no farewell kiss for you!"

"Don't be like that, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

Xia Yongzhi pressed her lips to Lin Youde's, causing his mind to momentarily shut down.

The senior sister cheered, while Mu Tian, who was beside her, looked like he could shoot fire from his eyes. He kicked off and used the senior brother and sister's propulsion devices as leverage, floating toward the welcoming team.

After a brief, light kiss, the girl made a playful face at Lin Youde and pushed him away, using the force to float backward toward the senior students welcoming the new students. She maintained her face toward Lin Youde, as if trying to stay in his sight for as long as possible.

Mu Tian stared at Xia Yongzhi's back, his teeth clenched.

Lin Youde watched Xia Yongzhi float away, not changing his posture.

***

Xia Yongzhi boarded the small boat for the Military Academy's welcoming team. The senior sister who had caught up from behind whispered to her, "That boy, is he your childhood friend? Is he here to study or work? Or did he come to see you off?"

"He's here to study."

"Oh? Which academy?"

Before Xia Yongzhi could speak, Mu Tian interjected, "Ship Maintenance Academy, just a red-shirt cannon fodder."

The moment he spoke, all the senior students turned to stare at Mu Tian, their expressions suddenly serious.

"How can you speak of the martyrs who sacrificed for the benefit of all humanity like that?" the boy with the "Student Council President" armband asked sternly, "You'd better change your attitude, or I won't stamp your character assessment as qualified."

Mu Tian, clearly not expecting this, shrank back under the sharp gazes of the senior students but still tried to be defiant, "T-this is the truth, isn't it? They are indeed..."

At this moment, the senior brother who had gone with the senior sister to welcome Xia Yongzhi suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Mu Tian's shoulder, and punched him in the face.

"My father was one of the cannon fodders you mentioned. You'd better apologize to him and to me."

"I've never been hit by my father!" Mu Tian shouted at the senior brother and activated his psychic abilities, but before he could use them, the senior brother punched him in the face, sending him flying into the wall.

"What good are your third-level psychic abilities if you have no combat experience? Apologize now," the senior brother said coldly.

"S-sorry," Mu Tian, seeing stars from the second punch, finally cowered and stammered.

Xia Yongzhi immediately recorded the scene with her bracelet and sent it to Lin Youde, adding a short comment: "Feels good."

At this moment, the senior sister seemed to lose interest in Mu Tian and asked Xia Yongzhi, "What department is your little lover in at the Ship Maintenance Academy? If it's the medical department, you should be careful; there are a lot of beautiful girls there..."

"Uh, I don't remember which department was mentioned in his acceptance letter..."

The senior sister raised an eyebrow, "Not mentioned? Could it be that the address is UN Navy Dock 15?"

"Yes, what about it?" Xia Yongzhi asked, puzzled.

"UN Navy Dock 15 is a UN facility for training ghost agents and support personnel. Almost everyone on Alpha Centauri knows this 'secret.'"

The senior sister's mouth opened wide enough to swallow an apple.

"UN Navy Dock 15, that's where they train ghost agents and support personnel. It's a well-known 'secret' on Alpha Centauri."

(Last night, I was thinking that if this book could get 5,000 to 6,000 recommendations by Friday or Saturday, I would be satisfied. But when I asked for recommendations yesterday, there were only about 400. Now, it's almost 9,000. The question now is, can it break 10,000 recommendations before the end of today...)

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