Chapter 1 Living, Until the Breakthrough

Seeing the final instruction that was both an order and a blessing, Mingmei pursed her lips, a helpless smile appearing at the corners.

This time, her uncle really had too much faith in her.

She looked at the swarm of Zergs through the mecha's viewport, then shifted her gaze to the Qi Lan Star beneath her. Her emotions were complex.

Qi Lan Star was just a place she'd briefly stayed in her life. She didn't even have much attachment to it.

But just last night, it was still a place of bright lights, magnificent buildings, and the beautiful night scene woven from the lights of starships on the busy highways. Now, it was a scene of utter devastation.

That feeling of yesterday's beauty collapsing today was truly painful.

Mingmei lowered her eyes, remained silent for a moment, and slowly exhaled, saying, "Achen, shall we go?"

"Let's go, together."

Mu Chen, who had been silent all along, immediately responded to Mingmei as soon as she spoke.

Mu Chen didn't know what Mingmei's silence was about just now. He himself had been silent, wondering why Yan Hui would entrust such a dangerous mission to Mingmei.

Did he anticipate that he would protect Mingmei no matter what?

Yan Hui, how could he dare put Mingmei in such a dangerous position?

...

"We've received a message from the command on Qi Lan Star."

Jian Yunhe didn't know that the personnel movements on the command side had suddenly increased. She was focused on disassembling the supplies with her senior colleague and packing them into the space buttons of the mechas.

Instead of blindly guessing, it was better to keep her head down and work.

Some things became more appalling the deeper you thought about them.

She had thought she would soon be entering a mecha and rushing into Qi Lan Star with the battle starships, but she was suddenly caught off guard by a new command.

"What?"

Upon learning that she wouldn't be piloting a mecha for the time being, but would instead be staying on a battle starship, Jian Yunhe was slightly stunned. She looked at the others, but they seemed to be continuing with their original orders. She couldn't understand what was happening.

"Not not piloting forever, but pretending not to at first. Then, at a specific time, you'll go out and charge down in one go, understand?" The deputy commander spoke quickly.

After hearing the entire complete plan of action, Jian Yunhe took a few seconds to digest it, confirming the brilliance of the final command.

She nodded slowly, confirming, but asked, "Understood... But why the sudden change in strategy?"

"Mainly because the commander on Qi Lan Star has changed. We just need to follow orders. Don't think too much about the rest."

"Okay..."

Jian Yunhe nodded hesitantly. If she wasn't mistaken, the deputy commander's face also showed doubt about the sudden change in strategy on Qi Lan Star, right?

...

Fourth Army Information Department.

The information officer, who hadn't received any support messages, was truly bored. Sitting in his chair, he turned on the massage mode while others were away. While massaging, he also watched the live broadcast of the battle on Qi Lan Star.

"Damn it! Why haven't we received orders to mobilize us to help, even though we're so close?"

The information officer was a small figure, so he only dared to complain at this time.

While complaining, he also read through all the comments on the barrage cursing the Empire's military.

"Right? I also think those people have shit for brains. They don't issue us rescue orders, and they even stop other passing armies!"

Remembering the Fifth Army, which they had let through earlier, the information officer felt that they were really caught in the middle and pleasing no one.

How would they get along with the Sixth Army in the future?

Being scolded by a bunch of people on StarNet for inaction, although they weren't directly scolding their Fourth Army, wasn't their inaction also part of it?

"Damn it!"

The information officer couldn't help but curse as he watched the tragic battle scenes in the live broadcast.

Just as he was about to join the barrage of curses, he suddenly received an order.

"What the!?"

It was an order from the Empire's military!

"Oh my god!!! Heaven bless me!!"

He was so excited when he saw the order instructing the Fourth Army to support Qi Lan Star that his eyes turned red. Completely ignoring the fact that the format and wording of the order were very different from the past, he got up, pushed the door open, and ran out.

While running, the information officer shouted excitedly, "Reinforcements! Reinforcements! The Fourth Army is gathering to reinforce Qi Lan Star!!!"

He shouted, completely forgetting that he only needed to copy and forward the order to the army commander. He now wished he could run through the entire base and announce it to the world in his slightly choked voice!

The Empire hadn't abandoned the Sixth Army, and their Fourth Army wasn't standing by idly!

They were about to go and provide support!

...

On a planet at the border of the Guangyu Starfield,

Chi Yu sat in a bar, intently watching the live broadcast provided by the Federation, just like everyone else.

"Yes!"

Suddenly, Tianma, who was beside him, let out an excited roar, causing Chi Yu to almost spill the drink he had ordered.

He glared at the guy who had been hunched over, fiddling with his optical brain since just now, and was about to smack him when Tianma suddenly looked up, his face full of excitement, and said, "I did it! I did it!"

"Did what?"

Chi Yu tilted his head, sizing up Tianma, and said, "Did you get a battle starship? Planning to fly to Qi Lan Star like a moth to a flame to save your老大 (laoda, boss) whom you've never even met?"

"You're being so harsh." Tianma pouted, then, as if the happy thing was just too happy, he couldn't help but share what he had done.

Hearing what Tianma had done, Chi Yu was shocked and angry, "Are you crazy? You hacked the Empire... the military!!"

If there weren't too many people around, Chi Yu would have shouted the whole sentence out, directly shocking the other party awake from his dazed state.

"Last time, you guys hacked the Sixth Army..." Chi Yu said the first half of the sentence, but couldn't remember what punishment they had received after hacking the Sixth Army's system.

Oh, the Sixth Army took them to play games together.

But this time was different!

How dare this idiot!

How dare he directly hack into the Empire's military system, forge an order, and have the Fourth Army directly reinforce the Sixth Army?!

"Wait, with your skills, you can hack into it?" For no reason, Chi Yu, who was still scolding him for his insane death-seeking actions a second ago, was now doubting his abilities?

Seriously—"Hey! You can think I'm crazy, but you can't question my skills!" Tianma was also led astray by Chi Yu's words, "I'm the top... ah, I'm one of the best experts in my area!"

"Really?"

No matter how strong Tianma was, this was the Empire, an Empire with hundreds of billions of star citizens. How many people were there in the Outer Star Sea? Even if Tianma was truly a hacker genius from the Outer Star Sea, what about the hundreds of billions in the Empire?

As the most important part of the Empire, the military, wouldn't they have talent to defend it?

No matter how confident Tianma was, Chi Yu still didn't believe it.

Tianma's skills definitely couldn't do this!