Warning! Warning! The spacecraft is entering a Level One emergency state. Passengers, please do not leave your cabins!
This emergency notice made Wang Chen's gaze sharpen, and he had a bad feeling.
Ordinary civilian spacecraft had five emergency levels. Level One was the highest danger rating, usually meaning the ship faced destruction or had come under attack by interstellar pirates.
The former was extremely unlikely. A space liner like the Far Star had an exceptionally high safety rating; accidents where a malfunction caused the ship to be destroyed and everyone aboard to perish were rarer than winning the lottery.
Interstellar pirates, on the other hand, were a malignant tumor that had plagued the Empire for centuries!
Interstellar pirates had existed for a long time, splintering into countless groups large and small. Like bloodsucking horseflies, they would bite the Empire's massive body from time to time.
Every year, many merchant ships, cargo vessels, and passenger liners were attacked and plundered by pirates, suffering considerable losses.
The Empire's upper echelons were likewise furious with the interstellar pirates, but wiping them out was extraordinarily difficult. Even when they exhausted every ounce of effort to destroy several groups, new gangs would soon spring up.
For centuries, the Empire had expended enormous manpower and resources, yet it had never managed to remove this malignant tumor.
It was said that many interstellar pirates were supported by the Stellar Alliance, which stood opposed to the Holy Light Empire. Some were even organized by Alliance forces themselves.
Moreover, quite a few Imperial nobles and wealthy financial clans had countless tangled ties with certain pirate organizations.
It was all extremely complicated.
Wang Chen had not expected this perfectly ordinary trip to encounter the threat of interstellar pirates.
It really felt like winning the lottery.
What rotten luck!
When he