"Be good, it’ll be okay, don’t cry."
On the LCD screen, refugees comfort and encourage each other, praying for a miracle to happen.
Li Cheng turned his head and looked at Gray Rain with some surprise, not to mention her being a prisoner in the Narrative Cage (likely non-human), how much empathy and compassion she could have,
these refugees are most likely just false images created by the Main Character Effect Room.
Gray Rain guessed what Li Cheng was thinking and explained, "Isaac mentioned that he once tried to rescue a ship of Zeluo civilization refugees. This civilization used sub-light speed travel technology for interstellar colonization in its early development due to population shortages in the colonies, extensively using robotic labor, which resulted in some robots developing self-awareness and demanding citizenship.
Just then, the Zeluo civilization’s home planet erupted into civil war, and a nuclear war led to a massive loss of life. The robot city-states on the distant Colonization Star built warships to return to their home planet to help the government forces suppress the rebellion. This prompted the Zeluo civilization to eventually grant citizenship to the robots.
This tattoo is used to distinguish between robot citizens and native humans."
Gray Rain pointed her finger at the LCD screen, where some refugees had a concentric circles nested with triangles pattern on the backs of their hands, while others did not.
"To maintain his personality, Isaac often talks to himself in solitary confinement, speaking of some memories he can still remember."
Gray Rain said solemnly, "He didn’t clarify the cause and process, but the result was the only one. This group of Zeluo civilization refugees all perished, dying from a severe airlock breach."
Robots don’t need to breathe oxygen, their death from an airlock breach indicates that the ship itself was severely damaged to the extent that it threw the people inside into a vacuum.
Which means... there isn’t much time left.
Li Cheng turned his head to look at the bridge, where the crew had already begun the first space jump.
"Field guide collecting Y-rays, current progress 100%."
"Reactor running at full power, opening the space matrix."
"Space matrix has opened, initiating inertia control! Stasis field maintaining the space-time flow speed of the entire ship!"
Below the Blood Eagle, the trapezoidal nozzle emitted a pale blue ripple, forming a pitch-black vortex about five hundred meters in diameter in front of the ship.
The warship accelerated full speed, plunged into the vortex, and like a star’s brilliant bright light illuminated the entire ship, everyone was kneaded and stretched like noodles.
As if in an instant, or as if centuries had passed, the Blood Eagle abruptly appeared one hundred fifty million kilometers away, or five light-seconds.
It was only a few thousand kilometers from an enemy pirate ship.
A few thousand kilometers in space, was no different from face-to-face, the enemy warship had not yet reacted, and the Blood Eagle, with its cannon ports already adjusted, brazenly opened fire, its sixteen heavy guns on the right side simultaneously firing high-energy particle beams, hitting the enemy ship.
The Blood Eagle’s bridge sound system simulated the sound of the explosion of the enemy ship in the vacuum.
"All hands," shouted the rabbit-eared deputy, "Prepare for the second space jump! Field guide countdown two minutes ten seconds!"
They could not wait any longer, Isaac remembered the Blood Eagle would be severely damaged, and this bridge might not be safe.
"I’ll go press the button, cover me."
Li Cheng said solemnly to Gray Rain, clenched his fist, and released the Fog Concealment Technique.
Thick fog centered on him, surging rapidly around, quickly filling the entire corridor, drifting towards the bridge.
"Where did this fog come from?!"
"Is there a gas leak?"
The crew of the Blood Eagle had no idea what was happening, some thought it was a leak of high-temperature toxic gas and panickedly dodged, only then realizing that the fog had no temperature.
Following the bridge layout remembered from memory, Li Cheng fired the Bat Hook Claw Gun, maneuvering around obstacles, heading straight for the control console.
The soldiers at the bridge felt a gust of wind and instinctively tried to stop him but all grasped at nothing. The rightful source is novel-fire.ɴet
This [Main Character Effect Room] and [Misleading Room] worked similarly, the difference being the latter fabricated memories out of thin air, creating illusions, while the former extracted existing memories from Isaac’s mind, creating illusions, trapping him here.
The reactions of everyone on the Blood Eagle were not their real reactions, but reactions Isaac remembered these people should have...
A gust of wind rushed fiercely, Li Cheng’s body hairs stood instinctively, he twisted hurriedly, his right hand drawing out the 170 Straight Blade from thin air, slashing towards a certain side.
The sparks from the metal collision briefly lit up in the fog and went out.
Li Cheng felt his arm go numb, not minding to dodge with his blade withdrawn, he switched the Hook Gun in his left hand to the Nuclear Energy Lighter, shooting a blazing flame forward.
The roaring flames briefly dispersed the dense fog, revealing Isaac standing in front of Li Cheng like a boulder, blue flames burning in the sockets of the skull, his black metal left hand casually catching the rusted broadsword,
right hand unhooking the cloak from the shoulder, spinning it to catch all the flames, then stabbing fiercely out, thrusting through the layer of cloak towards Li Cheng’s wrist.
As a metal skeletal frame, Isaac hardly feared the flames, catching the flames was largely to protect the crew. Whereas Li Cheng, still a carbon-based life form, would inevitably suffer burns if covered by the high-temperature cloak.
He shut off the Nuclear Energy Lighter, his left arm sprung out the Mantis Arm Bone Blade, he lunged forward with a punch, slashing towards Isaac’s torso with the Bone Blade.
The military uniform tore with a sound, exposing the metal skeleton beneath, and the fine complex cables embedded in the gaps between the bones.