At that moment, Liuge also spotted everyone standing on the deck and came over curiously to ask.
"Sorry, Young Master, we disturbed your rest."
"You're too polite, Miss Tingyun. If you hadn't kindly taken me in, anyone else might well have thrown me out of the cabin. How could I have been given a place to rest?"
Hearing this, Tingyun smiled faintly, accepting his words.
Then, she looked toward the approaching Star Pirate Ships in the distance.
"Young Master, look over there."
"Hm? What's that?"
"Star pirates!"
Tingyun answered and continued.
"It seems our luck isn't very good this time. We actually encountered a star pirate crew on our return journey, something that wouldn't happen even once in decades."
"Star pirates..."
Liuge listened to this novel term.
There hadn't been such a group in the game, but considering his current circumstances, this counted as reality.
Since it was a game set in the universe, it was only natural for all sorts of people to be mixed together. The seas had pirates, so the stars naturally had star pirates.
"Hm? Something's wrong, Lady Tingyun!"
Suddenly, a subordinate in the observation deck shouted.
"What happened?"
Tingyun looked over, and the next moment, a figure leaped down from there and arrived before her.
"Lady Tingyun, I took a look from above just now. It seems those Star Pirate Ships have been through battle. Every ship has suffered varying degrees of damage."
"Star Pirate Ships that have been through battle?"
Tingyun frowned, then looked at the subordinate.
"What about the people? Were there any aboard?"
The subordinate thought for a moment and shook his head.
"There were no signs of anyone."
"Unmanned ships?"
Tingyun frowned and walked to the railing, gazing at the Star Pirate Ships in the distance.
She found that it was indeed as her subordinate had said. There were clear signs of damage.
Every clue suggested that something about this was abnormal.
By then, Tingyun's brows had knit deeply together, as if she were pondering something.
As those ships gradually drew closer, the eerie atmosphere grew heavier.
Seeing this, Liuge thought briefly before looking at Tingyun.
"Miss Tingyun, are there any human-shaped objects in the cabin?"
"Hm? There are, but they're just mannequins used to display clothes. Why do you ask, Young Master?"
"I have an ability that allows me to control puppets and receive everything they see."
Hearing Liuge's words, Tingyun's eyes immediately lit up. She turned and instructed the subordinate beside her to bring over several mannequins.
"Then I'll have to trouble you, Young Master."
"It's nothing. Being able to help Miss Tingyun puts me more at ease. Otherwise, simply accepting Miss Tingyun's kindness without giving anything in return would be difficult for me to bear."
"Young Master, you jest!"
Tingyun covered her mouth and chuckled. Her impression of Liuge immediately improved considerably.
While they waited for the mannequins to be brought over.
Liuge directly dismantled the affixes that had combined into his clone.
He regained a whole series of affixes, including Puppet Phantom and Autonomous Consciousness.
Then, following the affixes he had already recorded, he used Puppet and Silk Thread to combine the skill affix Puppetry.
Just then, the subordinate carried over three mannequins.
"I'll leave it to you, Young Master."
Seeing that everything was ready, Tingyun gave Liuge a slight bow.
"It's nothing!"
Liuge nodded and used Puppetry on the three mannequins. The next instant, he felt his consciousness split into three strands, each entering one of the puppets.
Surprisingly, Liuge felt no discomfort at all. Although he had three perspectives, they appeared in his mind as easily as three surveillance feeds.
After successfully controlling the three mannequins, Liuge had them placed in a prepared small boat and sent swiftly toward the distant Star Pirate Ships...
Phantylia: There's a Sneaky Bastard
The small boat gradually approached the Star Pirate Ships.
Through the puppets under Liuge's control, he saw that the ships were not as undamaged as they had appeared from afar.
Their hulls were pitted and scarred with damage, with what even looked like blade marks.
"Some of the marks are old, but most are new."
Liuge even received part of the puppets' sense of smell and caught the heavy scent of rust and gunpowder.
Bang.
The small boat collided with the lead ship and finally came to a stop.
By then, Liuge had already controlled the puppets to climb aboard.
The three puppets formed a triangular formation and reached the deck one after another.
Broken weapons, shattered flooring, and even dried, blackened bloodstains splattered all around.
The battle was brutal!
Liuge frowned slightly.
Then, he had the three puppets split up to search.
Puppet One headed for the ship's helm room, Puppet Two entered the interior, while Puppet Three remained wandering the deck.
Through Liuge's controlled vision, Puppet One reached the helm room and saw a charred corpse leaning against the wall. It seemed to have been the helmsman. Around it lay severed limbs and chunks of flesh. Judging from the tattered clothing, they appeared to have died protecting the helmsman.
Was this where they made their last stand?
After Puppet Two entered the ship's interior, it found a large quantity of cargo in the cabins. Judging by how disorderly it was, none of it seemed to have been taken.
So this wasn't a slaughter for wealth?
After searching around, Puppet Two found nothing unusual.
Just as Liuge was about to switch his view to Puppet Three, the connection to Puppet Three suddenly cut off.
Liuge froze for an instant, then immediately controlled Puppets One and Two to head toward Puppet Three's location.
A minute later, Puppets One and Two arrived there in turn and discovered an Antimatter Legion vanguard soldier: a Voidranger: Reaver.
"Hm?"
Liuge's puzzled sound made Tingyun, who was waiting beside him, curious.
"Young Master, did you find something?"
"Yes. A Voidranger from the Antimatter Legion appeared on those ships."
"The Antimatter Legion?!"
Tingyun frowned slightly, seemingly surprised by the answer as well.
On the other side, when Liuge spotted the Reaver, the Reaver also moved, swinging toward the two puppets.
However, Liuge was prepared now and immediately controlled the puppets to dodge aside.
At the same time, under his control, Puppet One swiftly grabbed the Voidranger's arm and used the force of its swing to hurl it off the ship.
Sending it flying directly into space to stand shoulder to shoulder with Kars.
After doing all that, Liuge had Puppets One and Two search once more before moving on to investigate the other ships.
All four Star Pirate Ships were filled with varying numbers of Antimatter Legion Voidrangers.
Clearly, these four ships had encountered an attack by the infamous Antimatter Legion.
Most likely, they had simply been unlucky.
Star pirates had no fixed abode. After looting one place, they would run off elsewhere, only to encounter the Antimatter Legion, which was searching for Stellaron-related traces.
They had obviously been slaughtered on the spot.
"Tut, tut, tut... What terrible luck."
Liuge muttered and directly severed his connection to the puppets aboard the Star Pirate Ships.
Leaving aside the fact that puppets were consumables, the puppets aboard those ships had already been badly damaged after several attacks by Antimatter Legion Voidrangers. There was no need to retrieve them.
"Hm, Young Master?"
"The investigation is over. The star pirates aboard those ships were all slaughtered by the Antimatter Legion. Only Voidrangers remain up there."
As Liuge spoke, he looked at Tingyun.
But when he saw the faintly puzzled expression on Tingyun's face, his own expression changed.
Wait, Tingyun?
The Antimatter Legion?
"Fuck, a Lord of Ruin!"
Remembering Tingyun from the game's plot and combining that with the Antimatter Legion Voidrangers they had encountered now.
A bad premonition surged up within him.
And at this point in time, the Astral Express crew should have just been about to resolve the situation in Belobog.
Liuge would never believe that Tingyun encountering Star Pirate Ships with Antimatter Legion Voidrangers at this point was a coincidence.
"Hm? Young Master, why did you suddenly mention The Lord of Ruin's Emanator?"
Tingyun found it strange. They had just finished investigating the situation over there, and this Young Master suddenly brought it up. Could there be a Lord of Ruin over there?
Thinking of this, Tingyun looked toward the four ships in the distance and shook her head.
Probably not. Wherever a Lord of Ruin appeared, there would inevitably be a complete Antimatter Legion, not merely this handful lingering aboard star pirate ships.
"There's no time to explain. Go, hurry! Get us away from here!"
Liuge no longer had time to explain. He immediately called for the nearby Minghuo Merchant Guild members and told them to notify the helmsman to accelerate and leave.
But Liuge was ultimately an outsider, and his words carried no weight at all.
"Miss Tingyun, we have to leave immediately. I'll explain later!"
Liuge looked at Tingyun.
In the original plot, many people said Tingyun had been replaced by Phantylia when the player used Diting during the tutorial.
But Liuge believed that was impossible.
The explanation he found most convincing was that Tingyun had been replaced by Phantylia midway through her journey, before returning to the Luofu.
In the plot, Fu Xuan had also confirmed this view. Tingyun had been replaced before the Astral Express crew arrived.
"Alright! We'll listen to Young Master Liuge. Full speed ahead, get us away from here!"
Seeing Liuge's serious attitude, Tingyun nodded and immediately gave the order.
Only after Tingyun gave the order did Liuge finally let out a sigh of relief.
Before you continue