Chapter 1 The Abyss

In the starry sky, Su Mo controlled the V-type biological mecha, Light of Sin, floating silently, gazing at the bubbling Qijuzi and exhaling a deep breath.

At this moment, Creator Devourer also canceled its stance disruption and series of power enhancements.

Su Mo then anxiously asked Creator Devourer, "Xiao Shi, how much energy did that consume?"

They hadn't been exploring for long, and if charging consumed too much energy, the days ahead would be really difficult.

"It's okay, it only dropped by one percent."

Creator Devourer casually replied.

Hearing this result, Su Mo's first reaction was indeed that it was okay, but after a little calculation, he twitched his lips and said.

"Just a little while, and you've consumed about 300 billion worth of energy at normal prices!"

"What's so surprising about that? Don't you think it's worth it? You killed two twin V-type fortress-class Qijuzi. But you're also lucky. These two twin V-type fortress-class Qijuzi had only just entered the fortress class and hadn't grown to the point of merging. If they merged, a qualitative change would occur, at the very least becoming the pinnacle of the V-type fortress class, and there's even a small probability they would evolve into a VI-type. If you wanted to kill them then, it wouldn't be possible with just this little bit of energy."

"Never mind I said anything."

Su Mo sighed leisurely.

At this moment, Su Mo suddenly noticed that after the twin Qijuzi bubbled, a large number of precious minerals were floating everywhere.

"Sigh~"

Su Mo looked at those glittering rare minerals and sighed helplessly.

Unfortunately, their ship was full of supplies and couldn't hold any more.

Then, without looking back, Su Mo controlled Light of Sin and flew back towards the Star Destroyer Grey Fin.

Before long, Su Mo returned to the hangar.

At this time, many soldiers who had just returned to the hangar saw Su Mo and stood at attention to salute. Everyone's eyes revealed reverence.

It could be seen that it was an extremely fanatical look, their yearning for the strong.

Su Mo nodded slightly in response and walked straight towards the command room.

A moment later, he entered the command room. Gries and Salier saluted Su Mo when they saw him return.

"Commander Su Mo, you're back. Thank you for your hard work."

"Yes, how is the ship? Was it damaged?"

"The Star Destroyer Grey Fin is fine."

"That's good, rest a bit and prepare to sail. By the way, Gries, will the trajectory of those two twin Qijuzi cause you to completely lose your sense of direction?"

Su Mo nodded slightly, then asked Gries.

"Commander Su Mo, don't worry, I have my own way."

Gries replied with great confidence.

"Good."

Su Mo felt relieved after hearing this.

......

Several days later, the Star Destroyer Grey Fin continued to advance.

Su Mo and others frowned as they stared at the starry sky presented by the optical device. Solving the problem of those two Qijuzi didn't seem to have improved their situation.

The surrounding starry sky was still empty, and they hadn't seen anything that could be used as a reference point.

Gries was still focused on piloting the Star Destroyer.

Just then, suddenly the Star Destroyer Grey Fin shook slightly without warning.

Sensing this subtle change, Gries looked closely at the index on the mechanical speed dial and was overjoyed. He murmured softly.

"On track."

At this moment, Su Mo stared at the optical scanning device, his brow furrowed as he said.

"I have a feeling that we seem to be flying in circles."

"That's right, I have the same feeling. We've been flying for so long, and the starry sky hasn't changed at all?"

Salier said in agreement.

Gries smiled and replied, "How could there be no change? It's just that you haven't noticed it. But I can't blame you, we're inside the Star Destroyer, so it's naturally difficult to detect subtle changes. If you were flying in the external starry sky yourself, you might be able to notice something."

"What kind of change are you talking about?"

Salier humbly asked for advice.

"Actually, we are heading towards the Absolute Forbidden Zone, the Eye of the Devil."

Gries suddenly dropped a bombshell of information.

"The Eye of the Devil? Isn't that a special area hidden inside the Absolute Forbidden Zone? Are we going there? I can't tell at all?"

Salier was stunned, then asked doubtfully.

"That's right, we're going there. Of course, you can't see that we're heading to the Eye of the Devil with the naked eye. But you can follow the special gravitational waves. Haven't you noticed that the Star Destroyer Grey Fin's sailing speed has a slight abnormal acceleration?"

"Acceleration?"

"Yes, you can understand it as following a tide. As long as we follow this acceleration, we are heading to the Eye of the Devil."

Gries explained the reason behind it.

Then Salier began to check the mechanical speed dial. He observed carefully and found that the Star Destroyer Grey Fin did seem to be a little faster than normal.

But it wasn't very obvious now, and since a large number of instruments were out of order, the intelligent system couldn't give a reminder either. It was only because he was unusually familiar with the Grey Fin that he noticed it.

He said with some surprise.

"It does seem to be a little faster, but just based on this?"

"If you're not sure, you can manually mechanically control the ship's bow, and you'll find that when you're offsetting the bow, the feel will be different than usual."

Gries continued.

"I see."

Salier nodded.

"Remember, in this starry sky, don't rely on any machines, trust your own perception and judgment."

Gries said everything he knew.

"Well, how long will it take us to reach the Eye of the Devil?"

Su Mo asked curiously.

"I don't know, but you'll know when we're close. Just wait patiently."

Gries smiled and replied.

"Okay."

Su Mo and others nodded.

Several days later, Su Mo and others clearly felt where the problem was. The Star Destroyer Grey Fin began to experience uncontrolled acceleration, and the speed was getting faster and faster.

Salier had even started the reverse thrusters to reduce the acceleration.

"The speed is getting faster and faster. If this continues, the reverse thrusters may not be able to hold on."

"Then turn them off and let it accelerate."

Gries replied in a deep voice.

"Are you sure?"

"Sure!"

"Okay!"

Salier then gritted his teeth and manually cut off the reverse thrusters.

In an instant, the Star Destroyer Grey Fin was like a wild horse, its speed getting faster and faster, sliding towards the abyss of loss of control.

"Notify everyone to prepare for impact. Maximize the shields and activate them!"

Gries gave the order with an unusually firm look in his eyes.

The people in the command room were also extremely nervous and quickly made preparations.

"It's coming!"

As Gries's voice fell.

Rumble~

Suddenly, the entire Star Destroyer Grey Fin seemed to have hit something. The entire ship shook violently, and at the same time, the starry sky presented by the optical image became pitch black.

It was as if the entire ship had entered a black hole in an instant.

At this time, everyone was shaken and thrown off balance.

"What, what's going on?"

Many operators struggled to steady themselves and shouted in horror.

"Hold on!"

Gries only said two words.

Su Mo activated his implanted armor and stood straight on the command platform, his eyes narrowed, staring straight at the dark starry sky presented by the optical imaging device.

Just then, suddenly the ship shook violently again, throwing everyone into chaos. In an instant, the dark starry sky suddenly brightened up.

Then the ship stabilized. When everyone came back to their senses and looked at the surrounding starry sky, their expressions froze.

The originally empty starry sky was now filled with countless wrecks. Judging by sight, there were mecha, battleships, transport ships, space fighters, and the floating corpses of monsters, as well as some strange-looking mechanical equipment.

Some of the mechanical wrecks were even never seen before, and didn't seem to be products of the Star Ring City.

"This is the Eye of the Devil."

Su Mo looked at the spectacular scene in front of him and asked in a low voice.

"That's right, this is the Eye of the Devil. It is said that you can find everything you want here. Of course, it is also extremely dangerous. Various monsters and even unknown creatures roam here."

When Gries said this, his body trembled slightly.

Su Mo stroked his chin and thought for a moment. He roughly understood what Gries meant. In short, this was an area where opportunities and dangers coexisted.

However, judging from Gries's reaction, it was clear that the dangers outweighed the opportunities.

"I see."

"If I'm not mistaken, the Free Fortress is most likely inside. We need to search here. I need to tell you in advance that I don't know how deep the Free Fortress is. And even I haven't gone particularly deep inside, so I can't predict all the dangers."

Gries said with a solemn expression.

"Understood."

Salier nodded in response.

"From now on, everyone should be alert and take turns being ready for battle to deal with all possible crises. In addition, we will first use the Star Destroyer Grey Fin to conduct a rough search. Once we discover traces of the Free Fortress, we will dispatch a large number of personnel to search the area with all our strength."

Gries planned the strategy.

"Okay."

Su Mo agreed.

So the Star Destroyer Grey Fin began to slow down and search little by little in stealth mode.

Su Mo stood on the observation deck, using an optical viewing device to look at the distance to the side. Of course, other people were observing in other directions.

"There really seems to be a lot of good stuff here. Just now when I came in, I saw the wrecks of seven level 5 ships, the wrecks of thirty-two level 4 ships, and several mecha wrecks with good designs."

Su Mo communicated with Creator Devourer while observing.

"This can be understood as a high-level version of the Dunkerque Starry Sky Graveyard, but it's best not to be greedy. No one knows what deadly dangers are hidden in those wrecks, so be careful of being caught off guard."

Creator Devourer replied in a deep voice.

"Don't worry, I know what the purpose of coming here is."

Su Mo was still very measured. He was here to rescue people, not to get rich.

After a long time, just as the Star Destroyer Grey Fin was advancing.

Bang!

Suddenly a huge alien monster covered in bumps and hair, with four red eyeballs, suddenly rushed out of the broken body of a level 4 ship next to it, and slammed into the Grey Fin's mimetic protective color energy barrier.

The Grey Fin, which was in stealth mode, was immediately revealed.

The Grey Fin's surface interceptor turrets moved and fired violently at the alien monster!

Boom~~

Without any accident, it was killed.

On the observation deck, Su Mo frowned and communicated with Xiao Shi.

"I feel like the Star Destroyer Grey Fin's camouflage ability doesn't work here. It was one thing to be targeted by those two fortress-class Qijuzi before, after all, their forms were what they were, but now even this kind of garbage monster can detect us?"

"There's nothing strange about that. The monsters here have mutated so badly that they can't be viewed with ordinary eyes."

Creator Devourer replied in a deep voice.

"Sigh."

Su Mo sighed.

....

Half a month later, Su Mo was sitting in the command chair, holding a cup of coffee, taking a sip from time to time to refresh himself.

Salier was reporting the situation these days to Su Mo.

"We've been in the Eye of the Devil for fifteen days. During that time, we suffered a total of one hundred and thirty-two monster attacks, the highest level being a IV-type. During that time, our people discovered four ship wrecks, but after careful analysis, all were ruled out. There are still no clues. According to Gries, we have entered quite deep."

"I see, how long can our supplies last now?"

Su Mo replied calmly.

"We brought plenty of supplies. Without fighting, they can last for five or six years without any problem. If you count the supplies you brought, then they can last for fifty years, easy."

Salier replied confidently.

Su Mo stroked his chin and fell into thought. The supplies were indeed plentiful, and in theory, it shouldn't be a problem to search slowly.

At this time, Creator Devourer said in a low voice, "No, you can't waste so much time. You still have to find the old man's Pala Fruit."

Su Mo replied to Creator Devourer without showing any emotion, "Don't worry, I'll plan it out."

"It better be."

Creator Devourer replied in a low voice.

Su Mo raised his head and shouted to Gries not far away, "Gries, come here for a moment."

Gries walked over after hearing this.

"What's wrong?"

Su Mo pondered for a moment, then said to Gries, "Is there any way to speed up the search? I feel like this might not yield any results for several months."

Gries thought for a moment, then said to Su Mo, "Yes, but doing so is very dangerous."

"Tell me about it."

Su Mo replied solemnly.

"That is to speed up the sailing speed and search like sifting through a large sieve. Although the probability of missing clues is very high, the probability and efficiency of obtaining clues will also increase. However, the downside is that it is easy to alarm the monsters here, and also lose direction and get lost here."

Gries explained everything to Su Mo in detail.

At this time, Creator Devourer said to Su Mo in a low voice, "It doesn't matter, let it do so. Although my scanning ability is limited due to strong interference, I can still easily record the Star Destroyer Grey Fin's driving state and trajectory inside. It won't let you really get lost."

After hearing Creator Devourer's words, Su Mo said to Gries without hesitation.

"It doesn't matter, just speed up."

"Okay."

Seeing that Su Mo had said so, Gries didn't say anything more.

So the Star Destroyer Grey Fin began to accelerate forward, directly crashing into smaller obstacle wrecks.

Just as the Star Destroyer Grey Fin was moving at high speed, behind the wrecks floating in the distant starry sky, illusory shadows appeared.

......

A month later, Su Mo was lying on the bed in the captain's rest room next to the command room, taking a nap.

Bang!

The door was opened.

The moment it opened, Su Mo's eyes snapped open.

He saw Gries rushing towards Su Mo and said, "Commander Su Mo, we seem to have found the Free Fortress."

Hearing this, Su Mo jumped up.

"Are you sure?"

"Ninety percent."

Gries said very confidently.

Su Mo quickly got out of bed and walked out of the rest room, heading towards the command room.

He talked to Gries as he walked.

"How did you find it?"

"The observer below saw it with a telescope. I was also very surprised and thought it was a bit unbelievable. To put it bluntly, I didn't have much hope for this rescue."

Gries said to Su Mo.

"Yes."

Su Mo suppressed the joy in his heart.

Soon Su Mo and Gries arrived at the command room. Salier and others were gathered in the command room on the left side of the observation deck, all watching with telescopes.

Su Mo hurried up.

Salier saw Su Mo coming and quickly made way for Su Mo.

Su Mo looked through the telescope and saw a circular fortress made of steel, with slightly rough workmanship, appearing in the distance.

The entire fortress looked dilapidated, and many gun barrels and launch ports were damaged.

It could be seen from the surface that this fortress had experienced something.

"Great, that's it!"

Su Mo said excitedly.

Salier quickly asked Su Mo, "Now that Free Fortress is just floating there quietly, seemingly losing its power source. We don't know what that fortress has encountered. To be on the safe side, we didn't rashly approach it."

"That's the right thing to do."

Su Mo nodded in response.

"Commander Su Mo, what should we do now? Should we send a vanguard team to investigate first?"

Gries tried to offer a suggestion.

"No need for such trouble, I'll personally lead a team up there."

Su Mo directly rejected it. He couldn't wait to find out what was happening on the Free Fortress.

Confirm if Li Ruqi and others were still alive, but judging from the current situation, it seemed very unfavorable.

Salier originally wanted to persuade Su Mo that this was too rash, but when he thought of Su Mo's strength, he immediately changed his mind and said.

"How about this, Commander Su Mo, let my adjutant Carlmon take some people with you, he's good at this kind of thing."

"Okay, let's go to the hangar! Salier, I'll leave this to you. If there's anything unusual, adapt accordingly."

Su Mo didn't say anything more.

"Understood, Commander!"

Salier replied very affirmatively.

Before long, Su Mo controlled the Light of Sin and flew out of the Grey Fin with ten mecha.

Among the ten mecha that followed, one was the pseudo-V generation pure mechanical mecha, Shadow, which was piloted by Carlmon, and the other nine were IV generation pure mechanical mecha, Night Guard.

They flew towards the Free Fortress in the distance at high speed.

Along the way, Su Mo carefully observed the surroundings, but everything was normal and he didn't find any problems.

Creator Devourer said to Su Mo.

"Be careful, it's too quiet here, a little too quiet. Under normal circumstances, there should be some monsters roaming around. Don't let it be an upset."

"I know."

Su Mo replied calmly.

A moment later, Su Mo and others approached the Free Fortress.

At this time, they had a more direct view of the Free Fortress, and it looked extremely shocking.

Carlmon then used tactical movements to indicate to Su Mo that there was a damaged entrance here.

Su Mo immediately controlled the mecha and led the way to the damaged gap.

It could be seen that the damaged gap revealed a large number of broken steel structures, as well as some circuits. The circuit openings were not sparking with electricity.

It could be preliminarily determined that the entire fortress was in a power loss state, at least in this damaged area.

Su Mo turned on the night vision system and led the way in.

Carlmon and others followed Su Mo down in an orderly manner. Those who weren't up yet controlled the mecha and were vigilant about the surroundings, with very strong alertness.

Soon Su Mo entered the interior through the gap, arriving at a hangar.

Everywhere you could see broken mechanical wrecks, and there were also many bloodstains on the ground, but these bloodstains were dry and black.

It could be seen that it had been stained for quite a long time.

But there were no bones or remaining biological tissue on the ground.

Carlmon controlled the mecha to squat down and carefully inspected it, reporting to Su Mo with an interference-resistant short-range communication device.

"Judging from the bloodstains, it was at least a year ago. No corpses were found at the scene, most likely they were eaten by monsters. Commander, you may need to be mentally prepared, the people who asked for help may have been completely wiped out."

"Yes, I know."

Hearing this news, Su Mo frowned and replied in a low voice.

"Of course, it can't be ruled out that there are survivors, but the Free Fortress is not small, it's unrealistic for the eleven of us to search. I suggest finding the central control first and reading the data here. Basically, we can know what happened. If conditions allow, Salier can send a large number of personnel to search."

Carlmon suggested to Su Mo.

"Feasible."

Su Mo thought about it for a moment and agreed.

"Commander Su Mo, do you know the specific location of the central control room?"

Carlmon quickly asked.

"I don't know, I forgot to ask Ougulas for the Free Fortress's structure diagram. It's a bit troublesome."

Su Mo was a little regretful for a moment. But there was nothing he could do, things were too rushed at the time, it was impossible to think of everything.

"It doesn't matter, we can explore along the way and we'll always be able to find it. Under normal circumstances, there are guide markers between the various passages."

Carlmon didn't say much. Although it would be a little more troublesome, it wasn't a big problem.

"Okay, let's go."

Su Mo immediately controlled the mecha and walked out of the hangar.

At this moment, Su Mo was also extremely worried about the safety of Li Ruqi and the others, hoping that they were still alive.

P.S: I have something to deal with, I will resume the five updates tomorrow, (*^▽^*) Please forgive me!