Global Crossing: Empire of Stars

This is not the beginning. With a single strike, the "Qinyuan" drew an arc through space, charging towards the pirate fleet.

Because there were too many warships, the pirate ships couldn't all gather together. Instead, they were organized into small squadrons, each led by a gunboat, with about two or three ships per group.

There were clear gaps between each group. The "Qinyuan" weaved through these gaps, while the gunboats fired deadly projectiles.

"Boom~"

Three more explosions bloomed. The "Qinyuan's" unexpected trajectory threw the pirates into chaos. Some ships fired wildly, hitting their own allies.

At this moment, the "Qinyuan" and Lin Zhichen were one. The metal hull moved like a dancer at a ball, performing a magnificent waltz in space.

If anyone had the clearest view of the situation, besides the pirate base itself, it would be the netizens back on Earth.

Perhaps for some reason, or perhaps due to some "mistake," the space surveillance eye had not been shut off. As the battle began, it had "coincidentally" started a live broadcast.

The spectacular battle from five days ago was over. There were too many things to pay attention to in the Interstellar Era, but the ripples had not yet subsided. The second climax was here again. The mysterious Frigate had reappeared!

"It hit! It hit again! A pirate gunboat's engine was directly pierced, exploding like a turkey!

God, forgive my rudeness, but this is so satisfying! Damn space pirates, go to hell!

"

In the live broadcast room, a retired general was once again brought out. Watching the battle unfold on the holographic display, he became instantly excited, feeling the same thrill as when he used to sweep through slums with his soldiers.

Accompanying the excited general as background on the screen were the explosions of ship after ship in space.

The "Qinyuan" attacked at near light speed, drawing arc after arc through space. Each turn caught pirates who couldn't adjust their ship's orientation in time, exposing their tender flanks.

Then came a righteous bombardment!

One after another, fires in space extinguished and reignited. Shattered ship hulls drifted in the Universe, vanishing into the darkness.

Psionic energy expanded, merging with the "Qinyuan." In the intense battle, a vague sensation washed over him. It felt like his vision was becoming wider?

The psionic fluctuations shifted, gradually aligning with the fluctuations from the ship's gravity sensors. It seemed to reach a point of resonance. The psionic fluctuations perfectly matched the radar waves from the gravity sensors. In an instant, Lin Zhichen's vision, along with the spread of the radar waves, rapidly encompassed a range of two light-seconds.

Psionic energy consumption increased sharply, but the mind was infinite, psionic energy was infinite. The power from the psionic realm allowed Lin Zhichen to receive endless support, constantly recovering.

The speed of thought increased a hundredfold at this moment. Because of the expanded vision, countless streams of information flowed in and were categorized and processed.

It was only a moment, yet it felt like millennia had passed. When Lin Zhichen regained his senses, he calmly maneuvered the "Qinyuan" with a slight drift, targeting a pirate gunboat 100,000 kilometers away that was still turning.

An electromagnetic projectile shot out at near light speed. A few seconds later, it pierced through space, hitting the gunboat just as it had turned its tail engine to the rear.

The projectile penetrated the relatively fragile engine, passed through the warship's hull, and struck the fission reactor in the energy core. The entire ship exploded.

With the clear data of the entire battlefield, Lin Zhichen's grasp of the situation became more precise. He could always fire at the critical moment, accurately hitting the enemy ships' weak points.

At this time, the crew members, also connected to Lin Zhichen's thoughts, saw parts of the battlefield information. Their brains could only process a small portion of the data. Noticing the crew's predicament, Lin Zhichen expanded his psionic energy to make subtle adjustments, opening up some necessary information according to their duties.

Of course, this was on the battlefield, and the adjustments that could be made were limited. He could only filter some of the information.

However, as the battle progressed, the effect of these adjustments became very apparent. After a short period of adaptation, the crew quickly discovered the benefits of this method. Their coordination became closer, their reaction times shortened, and they even gained a slight predictive ability by sharing some of Lin Zhichen's and the "Qinyuan's" psionic energy.

Even a tiny bit brought about a qualitative change. Originally, Lin Zhichen had to spend a certain amount of time relying on the "inspiration" of psionic energy to determine the enemy ship's position.

This was a method that relied entirely on psionic talent, colloquially known as mystical attacks. Fortunately, Lin Zhichen's talent was good, which ensured an astonishing hit rate.

But now, in addition to talent, they could use a more scientific method to predict the enemy ships' status.

The most significant change was not an increase in accuracy, but an increase in firing frequency.

Before, they had to wait for Lin Zhichen's talent to take effect, and each assault might only have one attack opportunity. But now, every time the electromagnetic cannon finished charging, it fired immediately.

In the Earth's Star Net live broadcast room, the netizens watching, along with General MacArthur, were stunned. The mysterious Frigate had suddenly transformed from a sniper into a Gatling gun, firing electromagnetic projectiles one after another, causing pirate ships to explode.

Previously, there would be a gap of ten seconds or even a minute between attacks. Now, it had been shortened to one or two seconds, almost the blink of an eye. The firing frequency had increased more than tenfold!

And so, in space, the "Qinyuan" drew a beautiful arc, and explosions bloomed along its path. The surviving pirates were almost driven mad by the sudden threat, desperately fleeing into deep space.

However, where was there any safe place now?

Having completed its transformation, the "Qinyuan" became like Nezha with eight arms. Under the successive sweeps of its electromagnetic cannons, pirate ships exploded, annihilated in swathes.

Fear spread like poison, eroding their minds in an instant. These relatively simple pirate NPCs looked at their radars in terror, seeing their own ship's lights being destroyed one after another, while the Grim Reaper drew ever closer.

Finally, one pirate completely broke. His pirate ship's engines died, and it drifted in space, appearing ready to die.

Soon, a radio wave spread, covering the entire battlefield: "We surrender!"

Lin Zhichen, who was in berserk mode, snapped back to reality. He marked the ship for later processing and then continued his attack on the other pirate ships.

At this moment, the remaining pirate ships, seeing that the surrendering vessel was not being attacked, finally awoke from their despair. Like a drowning person grasping at the last straw, they all shut down their engines and sent out surrender signals.

In the blink of an eye, space fell completely silent, with only the "Qinyuan" gracefully traversing the battlefield in victory.

The Star Net live broadcast room was silent. General MacArthur stared at the scene, dumbfounded, unable to snap out of it for a moment.

"General?" the beautiful host beside him asked cautiously, patting his arm.

"Oh? The battle is over?" the General asked, as if waking from a dream, looking a bit dazed.

"General, the pirates surrendered!" the host reminded him.

"That's impossible!" the General stated firmly. "NPCs don't surrender. These emotionless fellows are more like biological robots, only operating according to preset programs.

The number of NPCs who can break free from such programming is extremely small, perhaps not even one in a hundred! And each pirate ship has at least five people. If one person surrenders, their companions wouldn't allow it!"

"What if all five surrendered? Theoretically, I mean?" the host asked.

"Uh... it's possible, but the probability is too low," the general replied reluctantly.

"Look, a miracle is happening now~" In response, netizens flooded the chat with "666".

"23 pirate ships! And among them, 3 pirate gunboats. We've hit the jackpot this time." After carefully observing the battlefield, Lin Zhichen couldn't help but laugh.

This was truly an unexpected windfall. Even if he had gained nothing at the pirate base, he was already making a huge profit.

There were 20 plunder ships and 3 gunboats. Although their quality was far inferior to regular warships of the same class, their numbers gave them a significant advantage.

If he waited a while longer and trained the pirate crews, improving their skills, even the pirate ships alone could exert considerable combat power.

The battle ended, and a strange sensation arose. The previously calm psionic energy around him surged at this moment, like cold water being brought to a boil, with wave after wave of psionic energy spreading outwards.

This peculiar feeling immediately jolted Lin Zhichen awake. The rapidly growing psionic energy brought a premonition, and he instinctively opened his personal status panel.

[Name: Lin Zhichen (Red, Metamorphosing)]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 21]
[Talents: Heaven Rewards Diligence (Purple): Effect 1: Effort yields rewards; practicing skills leads to improvement. Effect 2: Members within influence enjoy the effects of this talent.
Gate of Time and Space (Blue): Opens once a month, searching for temporal imprints to open temporary dungeons.
Psionicist (Red): Effect 1: Awakens psionic energy. Effect 2: Skill learning speed +10%.
Ship Command (Red): Effect 1: Ship Evasion +25%*10. Effect 2: Sub-light Speed +25%*10 (Metamorphosing)
Sub-light Assault (Red): Effect 1: Sub-light Cannon Accuracy +21%*5. Effect 2: Sub-light Cannon Damage +24%*5.]
[Class: Captain (Red), Grandmaster]
[Skills:
1. Psionic Cultivation (Red), Apprentice 95.37% (Metamorphosing)
- Ship Command (Red), Grandmaster: Effect 1: Ship Evasion +25%. Effect 2: Sub-light Speed +25% (Metamorphosing)
- Sub-light Assault (Red), Master 13.21%: Effect 1: Sub-light Cannon Accuracy +21%. Effect 2: Sub-light Cannon Damage +23%.
- Fatal Strike (Red), Novice 13.27%: Critical Hit Rate +2%]
[Evaluation: "Watch me soar through the heavens!"]

"I'm about to promote?!"

The moment he saw the Grandmaster-level Ship Command skill, he understood his current state.

There were two types of psionic cultivation: one was pure psionic cultivation, continuously increasing one's psionic energy limit, and breaking through once the limit was reached, specifically by strengthening one's connection with the psionic realm.

Some powerful psionicists could even use their connection with the psionic realm to enter this mysterious world, the source of all psionic energy in the New Universe.

The second type was to spiritualize skills and then develop them into domains. This was what Lin Zhichen was currently experiencing. His Ship Command skill, having already reached Grandmaster level, was naturally sublimating, advancing towards becoming a Psionic Warrior.

This natural sublimation of a skill reaching Grandmaster level would result in a more powerful Psionic martial art upon completion, and it wouldn't occupy the precious skill slots available for each tier of psionic profession.

Lin Zhichen had no teacher to guide him, nor had he ever systematically learned how to sublimate his skills. However, at this moment, a faint intuition guided him to learn this technique naturally.

Psionic energy surged throughout his body, intertwining with something unseen. The formless, intangible concept underwent a qualitative change with the influx of endless psionic energy. Soon, an understanding dawned upon him.

It felt like an instant, yet also like an eternity. This wondrous sensation faded in a flash, leaving behind an aftertaste that lingered for days.

The Psionic combat skill was complete!

[Name: Lin Zhichen (Elite, Red)]
[Gender: Male]
[Age: 21]
[Talents: Heaven Rewards Diligence (Purple): Effect 1: Effort yields rewards; practicing skills leads to improvement. Effect 2: Members within influence enjoy the effects of this talent.
Gate of Time and Space (Blue): Opens once a month, searching for temporal imprints to open temporary dungeons.
]