The Persistent Ghost

Afraid Milili might get the wrong idea, Yang Ming made a point of putting on his Imperial uniform instead of wandering around in nothing but a bathrobe.

Even though he really wanted to.

When he opened the hatch, Yang Ming's eyes lit up.

Milili had changed into tight jeans and a Batwing Shirt. A heart-shaped pendant now hung from her snow-white neck, and the cute Butterfly Tattoo on her shoulder was visible.

"Uncle." Milili looked up, studying Yang Ming's expression. "Try these clothes on and see if they fit. They've all been steam-cleaned at high temperatures... Is it okay if I come in?"

"This is your ship, Captain Milili."

Yang Ming stepped aside and gestured for her to come in. Milili's smile instantly grew more confident.

It was obvious she liked being called captain.

Yang Ming had deliberately left the hatch open.

They were about to make a Continuous Jump, so he secured the hatch with a suction cup.

Milili looked around the rest cabin, which she hadn't visited many times either. She perched on the edge of the desk, her pert bottom resting against it, and smiled. "My father told me you and he joined forces to take care of Kor Port Prison."

"That's right." Yang Ming pointed to the Blue Coating appearing outside the porthole. "Why don't you find somewhere to sit down first? We're about to jump."

Milili went to the sofa beside Yang Ming. She sat with her long legs neatly together like a proper lady, then leaned against one side.

"Jumping with Dad at the controls is very smooth. It won't affect our conversation... Uncle, are you a soldier in the Sherman Empire?"

"I was, before they abandoned me." Yang Ming shook his head. "But from now on, I need to make new plans for my future."

"The mighty Empire can sacrifice countless soldiers without feeling a thing." Milili's expression turned disgusted. "They use imperial authority to shackle individual freedom. I can't understand why, in this day and age, there are still nobles as a ruling class!"

Vmmm—

The jump began.

Faint light appeared around them, like a hazy lens had formed. Even the sound waves from their vibrating throats shifted slightly, making the echoes deeper and longer.

These were all phenomena unique to Subspace.

A dozen seconds later, everything returned to normal. The membrane turned into scattered motes of light and vanished into space.

The ship immediately began forming a new coating, but this time it wasn't blue.

"Does this ship have multiple Subspace Membrane Emitters?" Yang Ming asked curiously.

"Yes." Milili smiled. "We have to stay highly mobile and avoid being tracked. Don't let the ship's length of only a hundred meters fool you. In reality, sixty percent of its space is taken up by jump equipment. It also has an equal number of Deflectors to prevent resonance, and its hull materials are comparable to those of large warships... A pirate ship is our second life, Uncle Hanton."

Yang Ming crossed his legs and watched her pale, gemstone-like eyes.

"Milili, you came to see me while Kolev was handling the jump. You probably didn't come just to pass along his concern, did you? I'm a straightforward person. I prefer getting right to the point."

Milili bit her lower lip. "My father has praised your combat ability highly... I want to see for myself first."

Was she checking the merchandise?

A hint of amusement entered Yang Ming's eyes. "Milili, I can roughly guess what you're planning. That guy named Gimo—your father's former subordinate—took your position as Group Leader of the Black Dragon Pirate Group. You want revenge on him, right?"

"Yes." Milili's gaze sharpened, filled with hatred. "I'm going to take back what belongs to me, without relying on my father's help."

"You've fallen into a misconception," Yang Ming said.

"What?"

"Or rather, Kolev loves you too much, and that's made him misjudge things."

Yang Ming picked up the distilled water he'd been drinking earlier and wet his throat.

"Pirates are a bunch of unruly people. Leadership shouldn't pass from father to son; it should go to whoever is capable. Kolev thinks you have what it takes, but the truth is, you don't—at least not yet."

"Gimo framed me!"

Milili grew agitated. "He tricked me into buying those beauty devices, and I didn't know the money was specifically meant to buy fuel cells! He planned the whole thing!"

Yang Ming: ...

That had been easy. He'd gotten her to spill the truth with hardly any effort.

"See? You can't even manage the most basic thing—staying calm. It was easy to make you angry."

Yang Ming sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "I said 'not yet.' You don't have what it takes at the moment, but that doesn't mean you never will."

Milili's pretty face flushed a little. She glared at Yang Ming, unable to say anything for quite some time.

The second jump began, and Milili used those dozen seconds to calm down.

"Uncle, you mean we need to prove ourselves to each other. I have to prove I'm capable of taking back the Black Dragon, and you have to prove your outstanding fighting skills. Is that right?"

"Something like that," Yang Ming said. "But there's something else I need to be honest with you about."

Milili stood up and quietly looked at Yang Ming.

"Until you become more capable than your father, I won't consider working for you," Yang Ming reminded her. "And even if you become better than him, I still won't give up my freedom. At most, we can work together temporarily."

Milili nodded and said no more. She turned and left the cabin.

If she hadn't kicked the bulkhead in the corridor, Yang Ming might really have thought that the future Star Widow was a docile little lamb.

The clothes had clearly been worn by someone else, but the material felt soft, and they did seem to have been disinfected.

Yang Ming locked the hatch and looked himself over in the mirror on the wall. Then, for the last time, he took off his Imperial uniform.

Vmmm—

The jump began again.

Yang Ming narrowed his eyes, ready to enjoy the strange sensation of those dozen seconds, when his eyelid suddenly twitched.

Gugugu—

Yang Ming wondered if he'd heard wrong.

He spun around. The cabin seemed to overlap with itself, and when he closed his eyes, an image flashed across his vision.

The vast starry sky, the brilliant nebulae—distant scenery without meaning.

As if right in front of him, in the darkness directly ahead, a girl floated silently. She curled up her mutilated body, as though asleep in the universe.

The Valkyrie?

Gugugu—

'I want to devour you.'

'I want to devour you.'

'I want to devour you.'

Posa's soft murmurs echoed again and again. A phantom planet seemed to appear behind her. Just as Yang Ming tried to get a closer look, the light and shadows before his eyes trembled slightly, and everything vanished.

The jump was complete.

A faint echo still crept into Yang Ming's ears, like the Valkyrie murmuring in her sleep.

'Become one with me, Yang Ming.'

Every hair on Yang Ming's body stood on end.

Even an Antimatter Bomb couldn't kill the Valkyrie?

As everyone knew, an Antimatter Bomb worked by making antimatter collide with matter and annihilate, producing high-energy gamma rays and converting nearly one hundred percent of the mass into energy.

The most powerful weapon developed by Earth's civilization, the hydrogen bomb, could convert less than 0.7 percent of its mass into energy!

Ah, right. Talking about power without considering mass was just playing dirty.

The Antimatter Bomb Brother Ji detonated might not have had that much mass. And the small lander Lina and Yang Ming had been in was hit at close range, yet it hadn't sustained any obvious damage.

If any wreckage remained from that Research Ship, and it contained the goddess's cells, the goddess could revive!

That was what made Ancient God Lifeforms so terrifying.

They were aggregates of cells, but they could also use individual cells as spores, dividing, growing, and reconstructing without limit.

Even if the Valkyrie wasn't dead, she had to be at her weakest right now. Maybe he could finish her off for good!

No, that wouldn't work either. The Imperial Legion must have surrounded the area near the Research Ship's explosion and begun investigating. He'd barely managed to escape. Going back now would be like delivering himself to them.

Yang Ming hurried through the pirate ship, his thoughts in a tangled mess.

It was like reaching the door to a happy life, opening it, and finding the Valkyrie inside with a knife in her hand.

A string of curses ran through Yang Ming's mind. He opened the door in front of him and entered the ship's bridge.

Calling it a bridge was a stretch. It was more like a combined living area.

Only a third of the space was taken up by the control consoles. In the middle stood an old-fashioned wooden ship's wheel. Weapon racks, dining tables, and chairs filled the rest of the room.

More than a dozen figures stood around Kolev, who was frowning at the Projection screen in front of him, apparently looking over the accounts.

"Everyone, head out for now. I want to talk with my friend," Kolev said. "Milili, stay."

The dozen or so pirates each acknowledged him and left the bridge in a subdued atmosphere.

Yang Ming hid his anxiety and walked over with a smile.

"How are things, Kolev?"

"A complete mess." Kolev opened a bottle of liquor, took an empty glass, and poured Yang Ming some. "I'm sorry you had to see me at my most pathetic."

Milili gave a slight pout beside him.

Yang Ming pulled out a chair and sat down. He raised the glass, smelled the liquor, then took a small sip.

"Where are we headed now?" Yang Ming asked.

"The middle of the Second Spiral Arm, where several small countries meet. We're planning to visit a Black Market nearby." Kolev shrugged. "To be honest, I'm a little lost right now. News of my escape will spread through the circles soon. The people who betrayed my daughter—the ruthless pirates I trained myself—will definitely come after Milili and me. I can just imagine how they'll be losing sleep over it."

Yang Ming nodded. "Yes. Milili might not be a threat to them, but you're different."

Milili nearly rolled her eyes all the way to the ceiling.

"What else can I do?"

Kolev glanced at Milili, then continued.

"Right now, I can only show myself in public and go to a Black Market where the pirates gather. I'll catch up with some old friends and publicly declare that I've left the pirate world. From now on, I only want to find a quiet planet where Milili and I can grow old in peace."

Yang Ming frowned. "Will they believe you?"

"Of course they won't," Kolev said. "But Hanton, you need to understand that I still have some prestige. If I openly say I don't want to be enemies with Gimo and the others, they'll have to consider how their subordinates feel. Pirates can be utterly ruthless to their enemies, but they have to look after their own. Otherwise, they'll eventually die with one of their subordinates' gun barrels pointed at them."

"And after that?"

"Perhaps disappearing and leaving the pirate world behind for good is the best option."

Kolev said, "Milili isn't cut out for this. She'd be better off opening a beauty salon."

Milili lowered her head and bit her lip.

"No, no." Yang Ming smiled. "Parents always look at their children through all kinds of filters. Milili was born to be a pirate. I guarantee it."

A hint of surprise showed in Milili's eyes. She hadn't expected Uncle Hanton to think so highly of her.

Kolev frowned deeply. "But she failed."

"Everyone fails. Success can't be the main theme of life. What matters is whether we choose to try again after we fail, or let ourselves sink."

Yang Ming spoke slowly.

"You can't expect Milili to outwit the people you trained. She was only sixteen or seventeen back then, and she's only twenty now. Which of those subordinates of yours hadn't spent decades following you across the stars before becoming the scoundrels they are?"

Kolev's expression eased.

Milili looked at Yang Ming with a little more gratitude.

"You're talented at comforting people, too," Kolev said with a sigh.

Yang Ming asked, "When we were making those Continuous Jumps, did we pass through anywhere in particular? Did we cross the Empire's border?"

"Oh? Why do you ask?"

Kolev said:

"Didn't you learn elementary physics, Hanton?

"The principle of a jump is to travel in a straight line. The universe we live in is a four-dimensional body, contained within a five-dimensional world.

"Why four dimensions? You can directly see an object's three dimensions: its length, width, and height. From the five-dimensional world, they can directly see our length, width, height, and state through time.

"Our universe is like a surface in that five-dimensional world. You can imagine that, after reducing its dimensions, the surface becomes a series of complex polyhedrons that we can't accurately calculate using our methods. When we jump, we travel rapidly within those polyhedrons.

"We live in a four-dimensional world, but we're also part of a five-dimensional world. Just as you can see a cube enclosed within our universe, we can make use of a few of the five-dimensional world's rules."

Yang Ming shrugged. "Why not just fold a piece of paper and push a pen through two holes that line up?"

"Oh, your knowledge of physics is surprisingly primitive." Kolev shook his head. "That's just an analogy."

"You mean that when we jump, we might pass through distant regions of space in another dimension?"

"Yes. We can't determine the exact locations of those regions. They're extremely abstract."

Yang Ming sat there, lost in thought.

How could he deal with the Valkyrie?

Going into the Sherman Empire now was clearly impractical. If he went back later, the Valkyrie might have already regained her strength.

He'd already seized the advantage. The Valkyrie would probably need some time to recover.

That was his chance.

He had to get stronger.

He could have a powerful pirate group—or perhaps something more than a pirate group. An army of intelligent machines was another good option.

He had to obtain greater strength, both individually and as a whole. If he could use a legion's main guns to "bully" the Valkyrie, that would be even better.

At that moment,

Yang Ming's nerves, which had finally relaxed, tightened again as he kept thinking about the road ahead.

Kolev covered his forehead with one hand. His aged face was full of weariness; he was clearly thinking about the future of himself and his daughter, too.

"Let's officially work together, Kolev."

Yang Ming suddenly spoke, raising his right hand as if challenging him to an arm-wrestling match.

"I was thinking the same thing." Kolev grinned, reaching out with his dry, bony right hand to clasp Yang Ming's firmly.