Staying Alive Cautiously in the Celestial Realm and Becoming the Strongest

A cocktail of deep blue with tiny flashes of red, consumed in one gulp by Wang Chen.

Starry Sky Blaze is an old sailor's signature cocktail, reportedly concocted using five different spirits, blended with the essence extract of mutated creatures, creating a highly distinctive flavor.

Some people like to savor this cocktail slowly, but Wang Chen prefers to down it in one go.

The liquid slides down his throat, stimulating the mucous membranes, with an invigorating spicy sensation surging directly into the stomach and then tinglingly spreading warmth.

Intermingled with a subtle hint of life energy.

Wang Chen took a long breath and ordered another one from the bartender.

The white-haired bar owner glanced at Wang Chen and said, "Young man, you've had three drinks already."

The last few times Wang Chen visited the Old Sailor Bar, he only ever had three drinks at most.

Starry Sky Blaze is extremely potent, one drink knocks out an ordinary person, and three drinks are considered excessive.

"I know."

Wang Chen smiled and said, "The last one."

The bar owner silently mixed another drink for him and then said, "This one's on me."

"Thank you."

Wang Chen raised the glass, ready to drink.

Suddenly, his personal terminal vibrated a few times, instantly displaying a holographic screen.

The text on it was bright red and eye-catching!

Wang Chen had just received a B-level alert and summons, requiring him to immediately proceed to spaceport D72 for boarding to carry out an urgent rescue mission.

The same information was also received by several members of the Black Flag Squad accompanying Wang Chen.

They exchanged looks and simultaneously leaped up, rushing out of the bar at the fastest speed.

Wang Chen didn't expect his first combat mission since joining would come so quickly; he didn't think much about it, left the bar, and immediately rode a hovercar to spaceport D72.

Spaceport D72 serves as the docking area for the Seventh Rapid Response Fleet's warships; upon arrival, Wang Chen and his teammates promptly boarded the Jiangyuan destroyer stationed there.

Only ten minutes later, this high-speed destroyer lifted off, departing the spaceport and heading toward the boundless star sea.

Simultaneously, another destroyer, River Sun, took off as well.

Wang Chen received the detailed mission information from his personal terminal only after entering the combat mech.

It turns out, just half an hour ago, in the void only 500,000 kilometers away from the TK043 Space Fortress, a large civilian transport ship—Safety—was suddenly attacked by space pirates.

Safety sent out an emergency distress signal, and upon receiving the message, the Space Fortress immediately dispatched two high-speed destroyers from the Seventh Rapid Response Fleet to the incident area for rescue.

Currently known, the enemy consists of three medium and small warships employing wolf pack tactics to encircle Safety.

Safety is still holding on.

But for such civilian transport ships, strong defense is limited; it's only a matter of time before the energy shield is breached.

Inside the Jiangyuan destroyer's flight bay, hundreds of combat mechs were arrayed in neat rows, with all mech pilots, including Wang Chen, quietly awaiting the moment of battle.

As the external scenes are not connected inside the mechs, everyone was unaware of the specific situation.

Until a new directive came through.

The latest update was that Safety's shield had been breached; the pirate warships completed a boarding assault after connecting with the transport ship, taking some of the crew hostage.

Other crew members had taken refuge in the safe house but had also lost control over Safety.

This caused a change in the Black Cavalry Squadron's mission.

Another ten minutes passed, and a cold electronic voice sounded in Wang Chen's ear: "Sergeant Wang Chen, prepare for ejection combat, countdown 10, 9, 8..."

When the count reached "0," Wang Chen, along with the SPB17 Phoenix he piloted, was instantly ejected from the warship.

The next moment, Wang Chen's mech entered the vast space.

The two PC5600 engines erupted with blazing blue flames simultaneously, propelling the Phoenix mech forward at high speed, while multi-phase radar and all-view systems activated, transmitting spatial data to Wang Chen.

It took Wang Chen only 0.5 seconds to lock onto his target.

A pirate warship thousands of kilometers away!

This pirate ship, entirely black, was nearly indistinguishable against the deep starry sky background to the naked eye, but couldn't evade the scans of multi-phase radar and onboard optical detection.

Its size was about half that of the Jiangyuan destroyer, shaped like an enormous, hairy black cigar, appearing strange and ugly.

But this pirate warship wasn't the immediate target of the two high-speed destroyers; another larger ship, suspected to be the flagship, became the focal point.

The former was attacked by the shipborne mech battalion, including Wang Chen!

As a raider cavalry in the Black Flag Squad, Wang Chen increased the Phoenix's engine power to maximum, rapidly leaving the ranks and transforming into a solitary wolf charging ahead.

As they say, the bird that sticks its neck out gets shot; Wang Chen promptly became the primary attack target of the pirate warship.

Beams of high-energy particles shot towards him through the void.

But at this moment, Wang Chen maintained high-speed advances while initiating extraordinarily agile maneuvers and evasions.

Compared to the massive size of the warship, the Phoenix mech was like a tiny fly, not at all on the same level.

Even with high-tech firepower lock-on, the pirate warship's first wave of long-range artillery couldn't stop the frenziedly advancing Wang Chen, allowing his Phoenix to approach rapidly.

The pirate warship, realizing the danger, immediately deployed its combat mechs.

However, such battles were what Wang Chen was most familiar with.

He quietly unleashed his spiritual energy.

Wang Chen had long discovered that his spiritual energy had far greater transmission and coverage ranges in space than on the ground.

This disparity was significant.

Two pirate mechs were instantly encompassed within the range of his spiritual energy scan, their every move crystal clear to Wang Chen's perception, enabling him to anticipate their actions.

Having narrowly dodged a high-energy particle beam, Wang Chen controlled the Phoenix mech to suddenly raise its right arm, and the 150mm high-energy particle cannon mounted there emitted a burst of dazzling light.

A stream of particles imbued with destructive energy swiftly traversed over 100 kilometers, accurately hitting a pirate mech and instantly shattering its energy shield.

And this pirate mech had been performing high-speed maneuvers, yet it seemed to intentionally crash into Wang Chen's cannon muzzle.

The sense of perfect coordination was remarkable.

The pirate mech, under the tremendous impact force, lost control and was sent tumbling backward.

Without waiting for its shield to recover, it was hit by another high-energy particle beam.

A massive flower of flame erupted in the void, with countless shattered fragments scattering and flying.

It was completely blown up!

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The second chapter has been delivered.