Grey Heron-class Cruiser

The rest of the journey went fairly smoothly for the two of them. Though they encountered a few monster attacks along the way, they were all merely First Order Gene Bodies and were easily dealt with by Gu Ding.

Although Gu Ding had yet to fully recover from his injuries and was carrying Liliath on his back, he still reached the shipyard before nightfall.

The moment he saw the shipyard, Gu Ding was stunned.

The shipyard was so vast that its boundaries could not be seen. Hundreds of aircraft of various makes and models were parked across the enormous plaza. However, most had been damaged beyond recognition, while even the ones in better condition bore obvious signs of having suffered severe impacts.

Several monsters even larger than the giant beast from before wandered around the plaza, occasionally swatting at the nearby spacecraft. Some seemed to be playing, while others appeared to be venting their frustration. Yet strangely, they did not fight among themselves.

Gu Ding lowered his body and, carrying Liliath on his back, hid behind a spacecraft. They were at the edge of the plaza, far away from the giant beasts.

"This still isn't safe enough," Liliath said in an extremely low voice, sounding worried.

"I know. We need to find somewhere we can safely spend the night." Gu Ding nodded and lowered his voice as well.

Sea Emperor's voice soon came through. "Although my detection range is only one hundred meters, I can estimate the movement patterns of those monsters based on what you can see. There are five of them in the plaza, completely blocking the shipyard entrance. If you provoke even one of them, the other four will definitely converge on you. They aren't fighting each other, nor are they hunting other monsters. The only explanation is that a stronger monster has stopped them from fighting and ordered them to guard this place. That also means the creature hiding behind the scenes has evolved considerable intelligence."

"All the video surveillance inside the shipyard has been destroyed, but that thing wasn't smart enough to disable the fire monitoring system. I can still observe its movements through the fire surveillance." As he said this, Sea Emperor's tone suddenly turned grave. "I can only make a rough assessment of its strength through observation, but my conclusion is that it is at least comparable to a Sixth-Order Gene Body. If you and that little girl are discovered, your survival rate will be zero."

"That monster has taken over the shipyard and stationed so many monsters here. Could it be trying to leave this planet?" Gu Ding voiced a terrifying speculation, typing the words into the wristwatch in his hand.

"Based on the data I've gathered so far, that does seem to be the case. It is repairing an enormous spacecraft, perhaps intending to take those giant creatures with it." As Sea Emperor spoke, he sent over an image.

Gu Ding was practically dumbfounded as he looked at it. The spacecraft in the image was no ordinary civilian vessel—it was an assault cruiser.

Assault vessels were ranked after birds of prey. From lowest to highest, there were nine grades: fledgling, Purple Martin, Black Crow, Grey Heron, White Falcon, Silver Eagle, Golden Eagle, Giant Peng, and Phoenix.

The Young Eagle Gu Ding had purchased before was a branch of the fledgling-class vessels. It counted as an assault craft, but in truth had little offensive capability. The massive airship in the image, however, was already a highly offensive Grey Heron-class vessel. Ships that reached the Grey Heron class were immensely destructive and could easily wipe out a city with a population of tens of millions.

Having studied warship command at the military academy, Gu Ding recognized the vessel's grade at a glance. After staring at the image for a while, he suddenly noticed something unusual. "Why is there an extra gun barrel? Did it install that itself?"

"Yes. It's an Antimatter Cannon. Before being infected by the virus, that thing was probably a weapons engineer with an exceptionally high IQ. It added that cannon itself, and it has even installed an antimatter reactor." Sea Emperor had scanned all the information the other party had hidden online and roughly understood the entire process of how it had repaired the vessel.

"In that case, this ship's offensive power even surpasses the White Falcon class. An Antimatter Cannon can easily destroy a country spanning millions of square kilometers on a planet. It seems it isn't just a scientific maniac—it's also a war maniac." Gu Ding frowned deeply. "We absolutely cannot let it take this ship away. Either we destroy it, or we take it for ourselves."

"Are you insane?!" Sea Emperor felt that Gu Ding did not seem to understand his own situation. "If you're discovered, you'll definitely be killed, and that little girl will be buried with you."

"Of course we're not making a move right now." Gu Ding seemed to have already made up his mind. "Help me see which nearby spacecraft still has an intact internal shielding system—one that can isolate fluctuations in energy."

"You want to advance in such a dangerous place?" The moment Sea Emperor heard Gu Ding ask that, he guessed what he was thinking.

"Is there anywhere safe on this planet?" Gu Ding asked in return.

Sea Emperor had wanted to argue that the volcano from before had been safe, but after thinking about it, he felt there was no point in such an argument.

Gu Ding had already come this far. Sneaking away would not actually have been difficult. He only needed to find a spacecraft whose propulsion system had not been badly damaged and which still had enough energy left to activate its energy shield. They could sneak inside, activate the energy shield, then start the engines. Even if they were attacked by several giant beasts, the shield only needed to hold until the spacecraft took off. Yet Gu Ding had chosen another path instead, leaving Sea Emperor utterly speechless.

Sea Emperor soon scanned every spacecraft in the plaza. To his astonishment, he discovered that the propulsion systems of every ship there had been destroyed. Not a single one could take off. In other words, if Gu Ding wanted to leave without relying on rescue, the only way was to seize that Grey Heron-class giant vessel.

"At your Eleven O'Clock Direction, one hundred and twenty meters away, that black spacecraft has an intact shielding system. It also has enough remaining energy to maintain an energy shield for roughly two hours." Sea Emperor informed Gu Ding of the results. "Follow my instructions. First, move left and get beneath the spacecraft beside you..."

Gu Ding hoisted Liliath onto his back again, crouched low, and began edging toward the left...

That one hundred and twenty meters took Gu Ding more than ten minutes to cover, stopping and moving as he went.

After secretly climbing aboard the spacecraft, Gu Ding carried Liliath to the passenger cabin.

Sea Emperor had already taken control of every remaining function of the spacecraft. With a soft click, the passenger cabin door opened, and almost at the same time, one of the giant beasts looked in their direction.

Gu Ding, with Liliath on his back, immediately darted inside. The door shut in an instant. Though the giant beast had heard the sound, it could only determine the general direction, not the exact location. It began walking toward where the sound had come from...

(After seeing everyone's suggestions in the book review section, I borrowed EVE's ship classification system for this chapter and made a few slight changes. There's something else I need to do as well: thank everyone. Today, I unexpectedly made it onto the homepage's new book rankings. When I checked this morning, I was still ranked fifteenth. I had thought there was no hope of getting onto the list this week, but I just saw that I'd reached eleventh. Looking at the people behind me, only one had been ahead of me this morning. Logically, I should have been fourteenth. I guess three books ahead of me must have finished their new book periods, so I was lucky enough to make the list. Well, thank you for every click, every recommendation vote, and every bookmark. I hope everyone will continue supporting me. Also, I want to thank the comrades whose new book periods have already ended. Thank you for making room. Well, that's all. Good night, everyone.)