Inside the hijacked spaceship—
The crowd stared dumbfounded at the images on the display.
The flashes from explosions flickered across their faces through the screen.
Silence, stillness...
Then came panic.
The old, the young, men, women—they screamed, shouted, and pounded desperately on the tightly sealed hatch doors.
Sam's Ship Bridge—
Watching this through the hijacked cameras, Sam burst into laughter.
"That's more like it, that's more like it!" He slapped his thigh repeatedly, laughing so hard he could barely straighten up. "Cry, scream! Hahahaha!"
After laughing for over a minute, Sam finally stopped, wiping tears from his eyes with thick fingers. "Tell them the ransom just went up—1 million per person. If even one payment is missing, they all die together."
"Understood!" The crew member replied excitedly.
At that moment, the radar operator let out a puzzled sound, rubbing his eyes before scrutinizing the screen. After a moment, he relaxed.
Sam's previously grinning face turned serious. "Something wrong? Don't make judgments yourself—spit it out!"
"There was some electromagnetic interference during the last scan of the surrounding area."
"Could something be approaching?"
"Unlikely." The crew member shook his head. "I monitored it afterward—no heat signatures or signal bands were detected. It's probably not man-made."
Sam thought for a moment. "Double-check visually."
"Got it."
The main screen displayed the scene ahead—a black backdrop dotted with stars.
The image zoomed in, in, in...
Starlight, debris, asteroids...
After staring blankly for a while, Sam squeezed his eyes shut and blinked rapidly. "Stay sharp. Don't screw up at the last moment."
To the radar operator, he added, "Keep an eye on this area a while longer."
"Understood."
...
A few minutes earlier, the Black Tortoise had entered the preset 5,000-unit distance range. Its engines and electromagnetic Overdrive were shut down, leaving it to drift forward on inertia.
Metal debris, drawn by its magnetic field, caught up from behind and clung to its external armor.
On the bridge, Zhou Tianming and Natarle observed the situation in Copernicus City through the optical telescope.
Natarle exhaled upon spotting the Nelson and Drake warships above Copernicus. "The Atlantic Space Force is here. Things should be under control."
Meanwhile, Zhou Tianming's gaze was fixed on the hundreds of spaceships near the exhibition hall.
The ships hovered silently in neat formation, showing no signs of disturbance.
Natarle tapped the keyboard, focusing the image on the swirling clouds of lunar dust.
Due to the low gravity, the dust kicked up by impacts remained suspended midair, refusing to settle.
Through the hazy white dust, a massive shadow loomed faintly in the distance.
The White Rabbit automatically adjusted the image, outlining the contours in red lines.
A shattered spaceship wreckage came into view.
Zhou Tianming studied the wreckage outline: "Looking at it this way, it definitely doesn't seem like it just fell."
"There was an explosion," Natarle said. "White Rabbit, pull up the data on Mercedes Aerospace's Flagship 2 medium-small spaceship model."
A brand-new spaceship appeared on the screen.
Natarle input a command, and an AI simulation played out—the intact spaceship first plummeted, then exploded, ultimately forming the wreckage they saw.
"The explosion started from the engine—100% man-made."
As they spoke, a round, bulky spaceship emerged from the fleet, gradually accelerating as it approached Copernicus City.
"Are they here to negotiate?" Natarle looked puzzled.
Zhou Tianming, however, had a bad feeling. "White Rabbit, what's the current distance? Can we hack into their systems from here?"
A moment later, White Rabbit responded, "Distance: 4800. Currently in silent running. Activating the Network Amplifier would break stealth."
Zhou Tianming glanced at Natarle.
She lowered her head in thought. "It's fine. Gathering intel takes priority right now. Just be careful."
"Understood."
Zhou Tianming added, "Limit the Network Amplifier's power output to a slow ramp-up. I'm just scouting—higher latency isn't a big deal."
Ten minutes later, Zhou Tianming infiltrated the opposing spaceship's system.
The moment he entered, he found chaos—the original system had been altered beyond recognition, transformed into a labyrinth. Someone was stumbling through it in panic.
Zhou Tianming proceeded with extreme caution, avoiding any aggressive actions. He disguised himself as a data stream, slipping into the maze like a gust of wind.
After circling around, his frown deepened.
Following a river-like flow of big data, Zhou Tianming drifted downstream, arriving in another massive labyrinth within milliseconds.
One, two, three…
Layer upon layer of mazes interconnected, weaving into an enormous web.
"This is bad!" Zhou Tianming carefully withdrew. "The situation's worse than we thought."
"What happened?"
"Whoever we're dealing with is a pro. They've overwritten the control systems of all 200-plus ships in the exhibition using a custom-built system."
Natarle stiffened, her gaze snapping to the densely packed fleet on the screen. "All of them?"
He nodded. "All of them. Every ship's been hijacked—their crews no longer have control."
As he spoke, his peripheral vision caught the spaceship inching closer to Copernicus City. The image of the wreckage flashed through both their minds, and a terrifying possibility dawned on them.
"They're going to drop the ships!"
"They're going to drop the ships!"
They spoke in unison, voices laced with shock and fury.
Both immediately realized they had to resolve this quickly—otherwise, their families would be in grave danger.
The next second, they locked eyes. "Stay calm!"
They froze.
An unspoken understanding surged between them.
After a silent moment, Zhou Tianming spoke first. "One ship would only take minutes to handle, but pulling one thread could unravel everything..."
Natarle nodded. "We need a way to solve this in one go, or the fallout will be endless."
Their eyes met again.
Suddenly, White Rabbit's voice cut in. "The Nelson-class warship from the Atlantic Space Force has fired its main gun."
Their gazes broke apart as they turned to the screen.
A green beam pierced the plump spaceship, reducing it to fragments in a flash of explosion.
Silence filled the Black Tortoise.
Sigh...
The lingering sigh hung in the air.
After more than ten minutes of silence, Zhou Tianming spoke: "Where do you think the enemy is?"
Natarle, who had been staring blankly at the screen, snapped back to attention and pondered for a moment. "There must be their people aboard the spaceship, but the mastermind... I doubt someone capable of this would put themselves in danger."
Still so young, lacking experience.
Shaking his head, Zhou Tianming said, "I'm about 70-80% sure the mastermind is on one of those 200 spaceships."
Natarle frowned. "Then how would they escape?"
"By disguising themselves as a hostage. After all, everyone aboard is just visiting, and it's normal for strangers not to know each other."
"Would that pass the Atlantic Space Force's follow-up inspections?"
Seeing Natarle's naive expression, Zhou Tianming hesitated to say it outright.
The other side had likely already made arrangements—the Atlantic wouldn't dare arrest anyone.
Changing the subject, he said, "Either way, let's try to find them first. To end this, we must cut off the head."
He made a chopping motion with his hand.
Natarle nodded.
The two began working separately.
As the Black Tortoise drew closer to Copernicus City, the network signal grew stronger.
Zhou Tianming moved through the digital world like a fish in water.
Disguising himself as a shadow, he quietly navigated the maze by riding the data ripples caused by others attempting to break through firewalls.
Within minutes, the first maze held no more secrets for him.
He traced the data stream at the maze's core, moving upstream against the current.