Chapter 1 I'm Curious

"I'm very curious, how do you know so much about the space pirates?"

Hu Mingli handled a round of affairs and still managed to drive his mecha to Qilan Star late at night to have a "candlelight dinner" face-to-face with Yan Hui.

Of course, Yan Hui didn't expect this either.

He actually had a good plan: come here, no overtime, a retirement life.

How could he stay up late and work overtime while taking care of the children?

Discussing this matter during dinner, Yan Hui raised an eyebrow when he heard his question, "Aren't you the same, General Hu? You've wiped out so many space pirates; shouldn't you know everything?"

"As for me, when I fight, I basically go straight to their lairs. I haven't personally witnessed them discovering planets, plundering people, or mining resources. Although textbooks mention it, they're not as detailed and realistic as what you mention in your game. It seems—you have experience as a space pirate."

As Hu Mingli said this, he picked up his wine glass, his eyes fixed on Yan Hui's face as he drank, the dangerous meaning in his eyes clear to Yan Hui, even without looking.

"Just childish antics. Always dreaming of conquering the stars and the sea. An elder like me would naturally be soft-hearted. Just playing house with the kids."

Yan Hui smiled and put a piece of the cut roast meat into his mouth, slightly smiling as he described the days he stirred up trouble on the border with Ming Qi and Mei Qiu as a child's game.

This explanation almost made Hu Mingli spit out the red wine he was drinking.

Only he would have the nerve to call it "playing house."

"We just destroyed a space pirate gang and used their starship to smash things up everywhere. We didn't do any of those illegal things like plundering people or seizing resources. Well, there was that one time that was a bit much..."

As Yan Hui spoke, he looked at Hu Mingli with a smile that wasn't quite a smile. The meaning behind his words was clearly related to him.

When Hu Mingli was young and vigorous, after being captured by Mei Qiu, Mei Qiu's actions towards him were indeed quite terrible.

Stripping him naked and hanging him up—it was a black history that was hard to erase for anyone.

Even though the two had become good friends, that didn't mean Hu Mingli didn't remember what happened back then.

Because of Yan Hui's words, Hu Mingli looked away first, laughing to himself. He didn't want to bring up that embarrassing event, so he quickly changed the subject, "How much of the game, adapted from the ancient Blue Star's past history, is actually true?"

"At least, more than half, perhaps. They took liberties with the details."

Yan Hui reached out and picked up his red wine glass, a barely perceptible sigh escaping his lips as he looked at the ruby color inside.

"General Hu, have you played the game?"

"Me? No. But my subordinates have played it and told me about it, which is why I find it unbelievable." Hu Mingli followed Yan Hui's topic and opened up as well, "I didn't expect that space pirates would only have a few dozen people."

A few dozen people, manipulating a planet with billions of people in the palm of their hands.

"Hahaha, not just anyone can be a space pirate. Besides, the space pirates don't come out in full force every time. A few dozen is already a lot."

Yan Hui smiled as he looked at Hu Mingli, asking in return, "When you wipe them out, even when you go to the space pirates' lair, you don't necessarily see that many space pirates, do you?"

Speaking of this, Hu Mingli's expression became somewhat serious. Before Yan Hui could say anything more, he said, "In the entire space pirate lair, the number of people who can truly be called space pirates is only in the tens of thousands, but they have many slaves who were plundered, ranging from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand."

Every time after wiping out the pirates, settling these slaves who had been almost completely destroyed was a huge undertaking.

Among them were not only humans, but also non-human races such as orcs and merfolk. These were fine, but there were also many humans who had long had their minds destroyed when they became slaves.

They didn't remember where they came from, nor did they know who they were. Other than being numb and obeying others' commands to do menial chores, they knew nothing else.

This was also one of the reasons why Hu Mingli hated space pirates.

Yan Hui's game didn't show the things that happened in the space pirate lair, but only showed the space pirates who were plundering outside.

"There are still inferior gene modification sprays circulating in the black market."

Thinking of this, Hu Mingli's eyes also carried a murderous intent.

Their Sixth Legion wasn't one to shy away from buying and selling things on the black market; they had a lot of contact with these things.

Precisely because of this, when intelligent life was discovered on primitive planets, in order to forcibly open up these closed planets and plunder and sell the "population" on their planets, the first step was to make them able to adapt to outer space, and gene modification was an indispensable act.

Only space pirates would buy and sell these crude gene modification agents on the black market.

"Of course, the universe is endless, and no one knows if there are planets with intelligent life in the borders we haven't discovered. We don't dare to go to those places, but the space pirates dare to." Yan Hui sighed after saying this, "We have been confronting the Zerg for too long. They have been trying to infiltrate us, but no one thinks about going to the Zerg territory. Perhaps, in places we don't know, there are other races in the Zerg territory.

We have no one to see what their living conditions are like, or to understand why they are invading and fighting. Is it just the aggressive genes etched in their memories?"

"That's a new thought."

What Yan Hui said was at least impossible for Hu Mingli himself.

He and the Zerg had a major feud, the kind that was obvious to both sides.

However, because of his words, Hu Mingli became more and more interested in Yan Hui.

Mei Qiu and the group of people around Mei Qiu were all incomprehensible to him.

A family that wasn't even famous on Hua Lan Star could raise someone like Mei Qiu.

And his uncles, his brothers and sisters, and his rarely heard-of parents—the occasional news that came out about these characters was all very frightening.

His elder brother was the biggest newsmonger in the entire interstellar black market.

One of his uncles was the chief researcher at the research institute, almost as if he had descended from the sky.

The other uncle was the man in front of him, whose game was popular throughout the entire star system, and the game wasn't just a simple game...

There were even rumors that during the years Mei Qiu was hidden, his parents had been handling the Zerg research data and the source of those insects...

His whole family wasn't simple.

It even seemed that his whole family had a deep connection with the Main Brain.

People from such a strangely born family were naturally worthy of his serious treatment...

In the game,

Mingmei left very quietly and smoothly.

Especially after Guigui agreed to her conditions in a strange silence for a while, this wave of her "escape" was extremely smooth.

Mingmei carried her backpack in front of her and walked swaggeringly in the starship. She didn't know how Guigui solved the matter of her glitch, but in the end, she did come out smoothly.

Even, when Mingmei came out, Guigui also said to her [Even if you go to the central control room now, and stay with that group of space pirates, nothing will happen to you.]

Regarding this, one dared to say it, so the other definitely dared to believe it.

So, Mingmei rushed directly to the central control room. As soon as she opened the door, the smell of alcohol and meat that permeated the room almost suffocated her.

"Oh! Old Xiao is back!"

Just when Mingmei was a little nervous and wanted to "recognize relatives" with the NPCs, these space pirates started to make connections first.

Mingmei: ??

Who?

Who is Old Xiao?

Before Mingmei could be confused, a big hand stretched out from inside and pulled Mingmei in. Mingmei was dumbfounded, and she heard them say in her ear: "If it wasn't for Old Xiao going to disguise himself, we wouldn't have known the situation on this planet. Thanks to you!"

Mingmei: !!!?

[Is this boxed lunch-selling NPC also a two-faced spy disguised as a human?]

Mingmei was greeted in by a group of people, and food and drinks were pushed in front of her. Mingmei showed an awkward smile on her face. For a while, besides calling Guigui crazily in her heart, she didn't know what to say.

[Isn't this supplementing the setting for you? To prevent you from being killed by someone after you glitch out.]

Mingmei: [So... this is the solution you gave me?]

Mingmei was almost laughing out of anger, but she still had to keep smiling on her face and accept the food and water they handed her, pretending to refuse: "I felt a bit disgusted just now after seeing so many people die. I'll eat later."

Hearing Mingmei say this, the surrounding space pirates laughed, saying that she was still young and hadn't seen the world. Just a few deaths and she was like this.

"In my opinion, there's no need to send Old Xiao down this time. Just do it directly. If there are resources, dig them up. If there are no resources, just capture the survivors. Why let Old Xiao go down to scout? Look, he's lost weight. He must be scared, right?"

The space pirate on the side looked at Mingmei affectionately, as if to say, "The child has lost weight and needs to be nourished," which made Mingmei quickly explain that she was eating well.

"There's nothing on this planet. The environment is polluted, and the resources aren't abundant. There are so many people, and they waste so many potions. I don't know if the sale of the people will be enough to cover the cost of the potions. Why bother with so much trouble?"

Mingmei quickly imitated the contemptuous tone of the people around her and began to ask for information.

She didn't believe that since her uncle had made a game based on ancient Blue Star, then everything he had written was already prepared, including the origin and reasons for this group of space pirates...

"Do you know what we found in the lair of the space pirates we wiped out back then?"

While playing the game, the content of Yan Hui's chatting with Hu Mingli also gradually increased.

"What?" Hu Mingli saw that the other party suddenly mentioned that group of space pirates.

"A specimen of a flower that used to be produced in my hometown."

When Yan Hui spoke, his mouth was still smiling, but the light in his eyes gradually sank into his increasingly deep blue pupils.

"Your hometown..."

It seemed that he realized that the past of the person in front of him might not be as he imagined.

"Those space pirates... once hurt... my hometown. I took revenge in my early years."

Not knowing whether it was ridicule or resentment, Yan Hui took the opportunity to swallow another mouthful of red wine, rambling, with a gentle light of remembrance in his eyes: "At that time, I was really happy when I knew they were all gone, but I didn't expect to see the things from my hometown again after many years."

"Where did it come from?"

Hu Mingli was a little confused.

"Did the space pirates who escaped take it away?"

"How could they? None of them ran away." Yan Hui shook his head. "There are also contacts and transactions between their space pirates. That specimen was bought by these space pirates from other space pirates in their early years.

He also bought many other items, all kinds of miscellaneous things. Including a photography collection about ancient Blue Star... a very beautiful past."

Speaking of this, his face was full of envy.

Even when he was making the game, he was sighing that ancient Blue Star would be remembered by countless people, the hometown where the earliest batch of immigrant star citizens on Hua Lan Star were born.

Hua Lan Star uses food, stories, and games to constantly tell the interstellar people about their past, their former selves.

Vast Hua Lan, forever prosperous.

Unlike his hometown, except for him and his close friends, no one else can prove its existence, annihilated in the universe.

"It's a pity that in the game you made, ancient Blue Star was destroyed in the end."

Hu Mingli sighed quietly, raised his eyes, but heard, "Is there any possibility that ancient Blue Star will be saved by the players?"

"No."

Yan Hui gave an affirmative answer.

"Only what is permanently lost will be remembered forever, and only its most beautiful appearance will be remembered forever..."