"How would I know?"

Hu Mingli snorted softly, in no mood to concern himself with Yan Hui's question.

How many die in the Outer Star Sea each year?

He didn't even know how many people died in the Empire each year, and now he was being asked about the Outer Star Sea?

Seeing Hu Mingli's expression, Yan Hui knew what he meant. He didn't tell Hu Mingli exactly how many people died in the Outer Star Sea each year, but after holding his teacup for a long while, he said, "In recent years, the population of the Outer Star Sea has been steadily increasing. In fact, some regions of the Empire aren't growing as fast as the Outer Star Sea."

…

The dazzling lights stung Mingmei's eyes. Standing in front, her ears were almost deafened by the cheers. After enduring nearly two hours, she finally saw Mu Chen enter the arena, facing Aolai, the number three fighter, who was a size larger than Mu Chen.

From yesterday to today, Mingmei noticed that Mu Chen's opponents were generally taller and bigger than him. Staring at those light golden eyes, Mingmei was stunned.

[Ghostie, what race has eyes like that?]

Looking at the other person's intimidating golden vertical pupils, Mingmei subconsciously assumed he was from some kind of beast race. But perhaps because she was too slow, she stared at those eyes for a long time without looking away.

The reason she couldn't look away was that Mingmei even saw the patterns in the light golden vertical pupils.

The entire vertical pupil was composed of dense, tiny golden diamonds.

This didn't seem like a beastman.

[These eyes don't belong to any recorded racial characteristics. It should be some kind of mutation.]

Ghostie's explanation made Mingmei even more confused.

Eyes that didn't belong to any race, or rather, any recorded race. Ghostie's words were as good as useless!

Unable to find an answer, Mingmei continued to stare at the other person's eyes. Naturally, her actions were noticed by Aolai himself. Few people could meet his gaze for so long.

Mu Chen noticed the other person's gaze on Mingmei and snorted softly to assert his presence. Only then did Aolai turn his attention back to his opponent in the ring.

He didn't seem as scary as people said.

Aolai had defeated many opponents, and he remembered many of them, but he had never encountered someone like Mu Chen before. He didn't think he would make an exception and remember him tonight.

"Fighters, take your positions!"

The robot referee stood between the two, making gestures. The arena fell silent as everyone waited for the match to begin.

"Begin!"

The robot left its position the moment it gave the command. At the same instant, a fist came crashing down from either side of where it had been standing!

Mingmei was so surprised to see Mu Chen unleashing a powerful punch without holding back that she almost forgot to breathe. She could tell that Mu Chen was using his full strength.

Both sides suddenly attacked, each throwing a punch at the other. The audience couldn't help but gasp. So fierce right from the start?

However, neither fist landed. Both men dodged each other's punches and simultaneously threw another punch.

In a matter of seconds, fists and legs flew, and as the speed increased, the people around could only see the two figures rapidly engaging and disengaging. The crackling sound of flesh colliding sent shivers down their spines.

"Oh my god."

Out of the corner of her eye, Mingmei caught sight of the black-robed figure who had been asking around about Aolai and Mu Chen earlier. Now, the person's hood had fallen back, revealing their face, whether due to the crowded conditions or their excitement over the match.

It was Hu Yue.

There was a scabbed-over, inch-long wound on her cheek, as if it were a recent injury.

"Hu Yue?"

Mingmei called out. Hu Yue, who was mesmerized by Mu Chen in the ring, turned her head when she heard her name. She saw Mingmei's face hidden beneath a hood.

"It's you?"

Hu Yue looked at Mingmei in surprise, then, remembering Mu Chen in the ring, asked, "Are you here to see him too?"

"Yes." Mingmei nodded, her eyes scanning Hu Yue. "How did you get to the Underground City?"

"That's a long story..."

The scene was too noisy and chaotic to chat. After only a few words, a series of gasps from the surrounding crowd drew their attention back to the ring.

Mingmei turned her head to see that the two men had each landed a blow, forcing them to take a few steps back.

Mingmei saw Mu Chen's grim face, while the other man had a trickle of blood flowing from the corner of his mouth.

"Heavens! Number Three is spitting blood!"

Someone in the crowd shouted. Mu Chen hadn't fought many matches, so people didn't know his true level. It wasn't clear what his performance really meant.

But they knew a lot about Number Three, Aolai.

For example, he had never spat blood in any of his winning streaks.

Although it wasn't yet clear who would win today, the sight of that trace of blood on his lips changed the way people looked at Mu Chen.

This Number Eighteen was ruthless!

Everyone was marveling at Mu Chen's strength in making his opponent spit blood, but Mingmei was worried.

Mu Chen's physique was rated 3S. Entering the game, his physical qualities hadn't been suppressed. Basically, whatever physique you had would be reflected in your character.

For Mu Chen to be forced back like that…pure humans couldn't do that.

Mingmei had only been this worried yesterday when he fought the lizardman, a beastman with an abnormal physique and strength. But this Number Three fighter, apart from his eyes revealing that he wasn't entirely human, Mingmei couldn't guess his race.

Without knowing his race, Mingmei couldn't even begin to guess his overall strength.

[Could Aolai be a hybrid?] Mingmei thought of what Ghostie had said earlier about his characteristics not belonging to any recorded race.

[I'm sorry, Host. My data is incomplete, so I can't give you a complete assessment.]

Ghostie's answer was clearly not what Mingmei wanted. She looked at the ring. After a moment of confrontation, the two clashed again. Mingmei didn't know if Mu Chen had used a boxed lunch to investigate Aolai's background, but she felt like she couldn't wait to use one herself.

So—

[Ghostie, how do I use the boxed lunch function again?]

She ate the boxed lunches quickly enough, but now that it was time to use them, Mingmei realized she wasn't quite sure how.

Ghostie paused, digesting the fact that it was Mingmei, not Lu Xiaoyao, who had asked the question, before answering: [Just stare at the person and recall the boxed lunch you ate.]

[Oh~]

Mingmei looked away a little embarrassedly and continued to stare at the two in the ring. This time, she focused on Aolai. Suddenly, Mingmei felt a sharp pain in her eyes!

She instinctively closed her eyes, but a woman's figure appeared before her eyes, blurry and indistinct, reaching out towards her.

"Are you willing to leave with me?"

The woman's voice was ethereal and melodious, making Mingmei's heart flutter. Then, the scene changed to an irregular, white, cocoon-like object.

"As expected, the hybrid is unable to hatch from the insect cocoon. This experiment is pointless, isn't it?"

"Yes, these hybrid experiments... they're simply wasting our genes."

Mingmei heard indistinct voices in her ears. Even though she had a god's-eye view, when she heard those strange conversations, Mingmei felt like she was the one wrapped in the insect cocoon.

"Don't cry, Aolai."

A warm touch came to her face. In her blurry vision, Mingmei seemed to see the woman with the ethereal voice comforting her.

Those light purple eyes looked familiar to Mingmei, as if she had seen them somewhere before. The tear-shaped marks at the corners of her eyes, like scales, made Mingmei even more confused.

When she was online, she had seen pictures of the interstellar merfolk, who had scale-like tear marks at the corners of their eyes that shimmered in the sunlight...

"The universe is so big. There's bound to be a place for us, Aolai. Will you leave with me?"