"What is this?" Seeing the fantastical scene, Link's eyes nearly popped out of his head. How had such a huge crystal appeared out of nowhere?
A few days earlier, after the new month's instance refresh, a brand-new world had appeared: Superpower Outbreak.
The moment the instance had taken shape, Lin Zhichen, as a half-"Creator God," had learned the world's "story."
It was about three lucky people who found a strange Crystal Stone in a pit. After touching it, they awakened psychokinetic powers.
It should have been a cheerful tale of urban heroes, but the protagonist Andrew had suffered domestic abuse since childhood and grown up withdrawn. The story turned into a tragedy. In the end, only one of the three survived, and after their superpowers were exposed, the government pursued them.
After emerging from the Warp of Superpower Outbreak, they found a mysterious crystal ball over two meters in diameter inside the Qin Yuan's cabin.
Civilization Relic*Psionic Crystal Rarity: Red Passive effects: 1: Psionic Cultivation speed +300% within a one-kilometer radius of the Psionic Crystal; 2: Psionics consumption -90% within a one-kilometer radius Activation effect: Transforms one person who touches it into a Psionicist Cooldown: 3 months
"What a treasure!" Lin Zhichen looked at the Psionic Crystal, unable to stop grinning.
Its active effect could be triggered once every three months to transform one person into a Psionicist. Even if they used it to awaken Army Soldiers, that would still give them four Psionicists in a year.
Best of all, it could be activated deliberately, allowing them to choose who awakened. Just imagine those geniuses who were already exceptionally talented. If they awakened psionics as well, how incredible would their potential become?
This was a powerful tool for raising the upper limit of a civilization!
Until the Yang God cultivation method produced noticeable results, this was the Meteor Mercenary Group's only way to obtain Psionicists.
"B-Big brother, what is this?" Link stammered.
"This is a Civilization Relic, a Psionic Crystal. Every three months, it can awaken one person as a Psionicist!" Lin Zhichen said with a smile.
"A Civilization Relic?" Link gradually recovered, his mind starting to work again. Then he exclaimed, "It's actually a relic?!"
Most people knew about Civilization Relics through scattered rumors on StarNet. Naturally, they had all sorts of theories about these treasures that could affect an entire civilization, but in truth, most of them were pure speculation.
Lin Zhichen opened the Psionic Crystal's status list for Link. Its unremarkable appearance belied its abilities, which left him stunned.
"Big brother, I..." Link's voice faltered as he seemed to realize what this meant.
"Go over and put your hand on the crystal," Lin Zhichen said encouragingly with a smile.
Link steadied himself and placed his trembling hands on the crystal.
"Vmmm—"
Triggered by a living being, the inferior-looking crystal, mottled with impurities, immediately gave off psionics so dense they seemed almost tangible, rippling like water.
Powerful psionics enveloped Link, blurring the entire space around him as if it were murky water.
Lin Zhichen sensed the immense psionics gathering without being released, constantly permeating Link's body.
At that moment, Link looked unwell. His face was pale, as if he had lost too much blood.
But Lin Zhichen wasn't worried. How could anyone gain power on par with, or even greater than, the Yang God in such a short time without paying some price?
It was only a little pain. He just had to endure it, and it would soon pass.
Sure enough, a mere ten minutes after the awakening ritual began, the tremendous Psionic Tide came and went just as quickly. In no time, it receded, revealing Link's weakened figure.
His legs gave way, and he nearly fell. Lin Zhichen caught him. "How do you feel?"
"I feel great." A faint smile appeared on Link's pale face. After awakening his psionics, he saw the world completely differently. He could perceive the smallest corners of the ship's cabin, the faint gravitational fields of the generators beneath the metal floor, and the energy circulating through the hull.
It was an entirely new sensation. For the first time, he felt the life-force of the Qin Yuan in its cold hull—a form of life completely unlike any ordinary living being.
"I can feel the Qinyuan greeting me," he said. "It's amazing. So this is what a Psionic Warship is like."
"Keep sensing it, keep learning. Psionics aren't just power; they're an extension of our senses," Lin Zhichen said.
"They're our hands, our feet, our eyes and ears, and even our noses and brains—the sum of all our senses. They can even go beyond that."
Link continued to sense the ship. "Big brother, can you get a second Psionic Warship?"
"Yes, but not until next month," Lin Zhichen replied. "Until we return to Earth, you'll learn how the Qinyuan operates alongside me. You need to understand how to pilot a Psionic Warship and fight with it so you can get the most out of its combat capabilities."
"I understand." Link nodded.
"Extend your psionic perception and join it with my power," Lin Zhichen instructed.
Link tried. Guided by Lin Zhichen, a new consciousness soon appeared within the Qinyuan's psionic fluctuations.
In that instant, he "saw" Lin Zhichen and the NPC Crew, their thoughts linked. He "saw" how they seemed like independent individuals, yet became a single entity through their psionic connection. Each person was like one part of a living body. At every moment, vital information was sifted out and sent to the relevant stations.
In almost a second, dozens of exchanges took place. The crew understood and discussed things through thought, made the most suitable decisions within a tenth of a second, then carried them out in unison.
It was this method, utterly incomprehensible to ordinary people, that allowed the Qinyuan to fly at 50% of the speed of light while remaining safe and reliable.
"So the Psionic Warship is the body, and the crew are like its limbs and organs. The Psionicist is the warship's brain and eyes!" Once he understood, Link finally grasped how a Psionic Warship operated. He watched the changes carefully and tried to understand them from Lin Zhichen's perspective.
The Qinyuan roamed through space. Its sensors periodically picked up fleets of various sizes, from small fleets of dozens or hundreds of ships to enormous ones with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands—and even seas of warships stretching beyond sight.
The most dangerous threat came when the Qinyuan plunged headlong into an endless ocean of steel. The warship markers displayed on the sensors stretched almost to the horizon.
Just as the Qinyuan appeared, thousands upon thousands of large gun emplacements opened fire. Dense volleys nearly covered the entire sky.
A sense of danger made Lin Zhichen tense up. The Qinyuan immediately went to full power, tracing a crooked path across the sky to evade the increasingly dense attacks.
Fortunately, the fleet seemed to have some other objective. After driving off the Qinyuan, it made no attempt to pursue and continued flying toward its destination.
"Big brother, was that a pirate fleet? Why was it so huge?" Link watched the pirate ships quickly recede on the radar and breathed a sigh of relief. Their psionic perceptions were linked, so he had sensed at least a thousand warships targeting the Qinyuan just moments earlier.
If they had slowed down even slightly, the overwhelming firepower could have covered and destroyed them.
"It was a pirate fleet." Lin Zhichen furrowed his brow. This NPC Fleet was strange. It had a clear objective; even after encountering Natural Persons, it hadn't stopped to hunt them down, instead continuing toward its destination.
He looked at the radar markers. The pirate fleet wasn't heading for the Hyperspace Lane leading to Raidor Fortress, but toward the depths of the star system.
Judging by the gravitational pull in space, there should be a planet there.
"Let's go take a look." He considered it for a moment. The Qinyuan turned in space and headed into the depths of the system.
If they wanted to establish themselves in this star system, they first had to understand its basic situation: how many bases there were, whether they belonged to the Rebel Army or pirates, how many fleets they had, roughly where they operated, where NPC Factions were weakest, and which bases they could seize.
Only with that information could they search for targets effectively and plan where to establish a Secret Base.
That was right. Even after encountering one crisis after another, Lin Zhichen hadn't given up on the idea. After all, developing in the Dark Star Domain meant facing these dangers. Dealing with threats from NPC monsters was still better than confronting the tangled dangers within the Federation.
"Hm?" Suddenly, Lin Zhichen's expression changed. The Qinyuan's status shifted as its speed plunged from 50% of the speed of light. It traced an arc through space, veering far away from what lay ahead.
Link was also trying to attune his psionics to the sensors and observe through the radar waves. He stared, dumbfounded. What lay before the Qinyuan this time wasn't a dense fleet of monster ships, but a sea of debris floating through space!
"My God, is this the legendary Warship Graveyard? How many starships sank here?"
Broken hulls densely filled the entire stretch of space. Metal plates occasionally collided, breaking apart into even smaller fragments.
Against the dark void, tiny specks of light glittered like fireflies on a summer night. Every so often, a light went out.
"Quick, big brother! These are loot drops from monster starships! Find a way to pick them up. If too much time passes, the protective glow will disappear, and the loot will become ordinary Starship Parts. They'll quickly become brittle in space and stop working!"
The vanishing points of light jolted Link into action, and he hurriedly urged him on.
According to what StarNet showed, monsters belonging to different factions in some Dark Star Domains also fought for power and territory, engaging in spectacular fleet battles across the boundless reaches of space.
Because of the refresh mechanic, the number of NPCs in bases that had grown to a certain size could astonish the Civilized Nations every time they refreshed. Their vast fleets gathered until they blotted out the sky. When they went to war, the intensity of the fighting could exceed anyone's imagination.
In a single day, the fleets lost by both sides could easily number in the millions, enough to fill the entire stretch of space. The broken hulls didn't refresh naturally. Like asteroids and ruins, they remained for a long time, becoming a unique spectacle of the Dark Star Domain.
The Warship Graveyard before them was just such a place, and it couldn't have formed long ago. If no one collected the loot drops within three days, they would lose their protective glow and turn into ordinary objects, quickly becoming useless in the freezing cold.
The sheer number of broken hulls also posed a host of threats. The Qinyuan had no choice but to maneuver through the incredibly complex environment, further improving the crew's piloting skills.
"The Qinyuan's storage hold isn't very big. We can carry only a limited amount of loot." Lin Zhichen sensed a nearby piece of loot, extended his psionics, and formed an invisible hand that grasped it and effortlessly pulled it into the cabin.
Collecting loot was thrilling, but after their previous battle with the Rebel Army fleet, the Qinyuan's storage hold was already packed with loot. Picking up just a few more pieces filled it to capacity. Seeing so much loot drifting through space that they couldn't take, the frustration gnawed at them both.
"Time's almost up," Link said regretfully. He watched the lights in his field of vision go out faster and faster, realizing they were nearing the end of the protection period.
"Big brother, let's go back to Earth. We can drop off this batch of loot, then come back and collect more!"
Lin Zhichen nodded silently. It was a great opportunity to make a fortune, and even he was tempted.
The Qinyuan quickly left the belt of metal fragments and reached open space. The Space Warp engaged, and space-time shifted rapidly.
The distance of several light-years became two points on a sheet of white paper. When the space-time around the Qinyuan returned to normal, it had arrived in the space beyond Earth.
"Big brother, why are you back so soon?" Wu Tianyi asked in surprise after receiving the Holographic Communication.
"We found some loot. Send a Transport Ship over to unload it," Lin Zhichen said.
"All right." Wu Tianyi made the arrangements quickly, then turned his attention back to them. "Our Transport Ship will be there in five minutes. First, tell me what you ran into this time."
"It's a long story. I'll send you the video of what we encountered, and you can watch it later," Lin Zhichen said. "The Space Warp will be ready again in an hour. We'll head out again then."
"I understand. Is there anything you need me to prepare?" Hearing how soon they planned to leave, Wu Tianyi grew serious.
"No. Keep training on Earth for now, and wait for my reply." Lin Zhichen shook his head. "How are things with the Rockefeller Family?"
"We've taken the Asteroid Base, and the Energy Coins have come through. Our unit has gained two levels." Wu Tianyi smiled as he spoke. "Big brother, do you know? We found a way to increase NZT-50 production!"
"What way?" Lin Zhichen was delighted. Increasing NZT-50 production meant the Meteor Mercenary Group would soon earn even more, giving his plans a greater boost.
"It's the Mercenary Group's level! When it reached level three, NZT-50 production increased to 30,000 pills a day," Wu Tianyi said:
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