Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

Hebrew Adam knew that Ruo Manni had a personal spaceship and understood that her perspective was different from others. He walked over to her and explained the key points of piloting.

It’s really not difficult; in this highly advanced interstellar civilization, ships are automatically controlled by intelligent systems, and humans only need to manage the overall control.

This private spaceship is also controlled by an intelligent system, which requires the owner to authenticate with their genetic code before they can take full control using a light brain. This ensures that no one else can replace the owner. Even if someone intrudes on the user’s light brain, they cannot access the spaceship’s intelligent system without the owner’s genetic authentication, making it very secure.

With the intelligent system automatically managing the flight, the owner doesn’t usually need to be in the cockpit; it’s only there for manual control in case of system failure or emergencies.

Ruo Manni is currently learning how to manually operate a personal spaceship online.

As it is now, although there are people in the cockpit, the spaceship is controlled by Hebrew Adam’s commands, with the intelligent system automatically calculating the flight direction and speed, so there’s really no need for anyone to stay in the cockpit.

“Hebrew, what exactly is our destination? Since we’re all on the ship, can we discuss it?” Dean Atchison asked.

“We’ll arrive in no time. Instructor Dudley should soon gather us for a briefing,” Hebrew Adam replied.

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone received the message from the instructor calling them to assemble.

“Two days ago, a medium-scale beast tide occurred on Desolate Star, and the military there has sent out a distress signal to the entire Gus Empire. Our mission is to disguise ourselves as a small mercenary squad and accept the rescue mission to eliminate the beasts on Desolate Star,” Instructor Han Zhengbang said.

“The assassination bounty has not been lifted, so you need to be careful while operating on Desolate Star and avoid revealing your identities.”

A spark of excitement flashed in Ruo Manni’s eyes. Desolate Star! Beast tide! Wasn’t that the location for the third training exercise in the novel after the male and female protagonists entered the Xuan Gu First Military Academy?

It seems that the opportunity for the second training exercise in the novel was swept away in this world, but the location for the third training exercise remained unchanged.

However, some details have changed. In the novel, the male and female protagonists participated in the battle as military students.

In this world, they have hidden their identities, even altering their appearances, disguising themselves and their instructors as a freelance mercenary group heading to Desolate Star.

With these changes, they likely won’t encounter puppet attacks like in the novel, but as for assassins, that’s uncertain.

“Everyone, bring your defensive gear, but try to make yourselves look ordinary. Although interstellar freelance mercenary groups are usually wealthy, they still can’t compare to you,” Instructor Dudley said, having altered his appearance so that only those very familiar with him could recognize him.

Upon hearing that their group would disguise themselves as a freelance mercenary squad, everyone immediately understood why the elite class had to pose as adults.

Given their current levels, appearing as young people in their twenties or thirties wouldn’t be remarkable, allowing them to use their real abilities without reservation.

If they didn’t disguise themselves and appeared at their actual ages, they would attract attention even without acting, leading to speculation and investigation through the celestial network.

Talented individuals around fifteen or sixteen aren’t exactly common, and if a group of them suddenly appeared, it could easily reveal their backgrounds, drawing countless assassins to them.

Instructor Han Zhengbang also disguised himself as a seasoned veteran, sporting a scruffy beard that gave him a distinctly ordinary look.

The youths donned seemingly simple mercenary combat outfits, but in reality, the quality of these clothes was even better than what they wore during their training exercises on the island.

Hebrew Adam’s spacecraft didn’t have any obvious markings. For someone with his unique status, displaying special symbols on his vehicle would practically be inviting attention.

As a result, all of Adam’s vehicles share a distinct characteristic: no matter how luxurious and comfortable the interior, the exterior is designed to be understated and ordinary. His small spacecraft, capable of loading and unloading weapons, was disguised to look like a typical civilian ship.

Thus, when their spacecraft landed at the space station on Desolate Star, it drew no attention. After all, interstellar mercenary groups wouldn’t be able to operate without spacecraft, and many similar-sized ships were docked around the station.

When Hebrew Adam stored the spacecraft in the space compartment, the soldiers at the station were slightly taken aback. Such a large space compartment is extremely valuable, even more so than the spacecraft itself.

Initially, Ruo Manni was unaware of this because smaller space compartments aren’t as expensive, while large compartments are government-regulated supplies that not everyone can purchase, with no circulation in the market. So, she didn’t know their value.

When she received the spacecraft from King Adam, inexperienced Ruo Manni felt that it was so expensive it made her hands tremble.

Later, after discussing this with Lixi Amber on the flight communications, Ruo Manni learned that the space compartment was even more precious than the spacecraft itself.

King Adam hadn’t just given her a gift worth one hundred million credit coins that day; it was more like a gift worth nearly three hundred million. Ruo Manni felt completely stunned at the time.

However dazed she felt, Ruo Manni understood Lixi Amber’s implication: the gift worth three hundred million credit coins could never make up for the years of separation that Ruo Manni and her mother had endured.

Ruo Manni fell silent; it was true. With the original host gone, no amount of gifts could compensate for her loss.

Although several people in the elite class had personal hover cars, they had already flaunted their wealth with the space compartment, and pulling out a hover car would attract even more attention. To avoid exposing their identities, the group from Xuan Gu had rented a hover car to enter Desolate Star, just like other mercenary teams.

From space, the most striking feature of Desolate Star was the vast expanse of forest. Ruo Manni felt an inexplicable excitement, as a planet typically features either forests or oceans, with non-forested land only occupying a small portion.

Ruo Manni’s mind drifted, wondering if she could gather any news about Teresa Du. If Teresa Du was still alive and saw her, would she be able to tell that the little girl she had raised was no longer there?

“What are you looking at?” Dean Atchison asked, leaning closer to Ruo Manni.

In that moment, Dean sensed a sadness emanating from his cousin and thought he understood the reason behind it.

Hua Deli approached with a concerned expression and said, “If we have a chance, we should try to find her.”

However, so much time had passed, and now with the beast tide happening in the desolate forest, the hope seemed exceedingly slim. Hua Deli thought to himself, not wanting to shatter his sister’s hopes.

Ruo Manni nodded; they all knew that Teresa Du had disappeared in the forest while coming to Desolate Star for the original host. It was clear that her earlier expression had given them clues about her feelings.