My First Encounter with the Valkyrie

Had that "thirty years" been a rounded estimate?

Could the modified humans riot at any moment?

Images surfaced in Yang Ming's mind.

In the gray-toned game instance, a fully armed player squad was chased and hacked apart by a sexy, powerful Valkyrie, suffering wipe after wipe amid a chorus of curses.

The dim corridor was plastered with dark red bloodstains. Headless skeletons still wore pale blue Imperial military uniforms, while two tumor-like monsters seemed to be devouring something at the bridge entrance. Every so often, a low moan drifted from the depths of the corridor.

This was the fate of this research ship.

No. He couldn't just sit around and wait to die.

He'd finally gotten a second chance at life, and dying had been awful.

Yang Ming spun around and rushed toward the hatch. He couldn't afford to rest now.

He wanted to find Geglov, the person in charge here, and talk to him. They had to get off this research ship before it turned into a living hell.

But...

The hatch slid open, and a young woman who'd been raising her hand to knock made the hurried Yang Ming stop in his tracks.

She looked about twenty-four or twenty-five.

Although cosmetic and anti-aging technologies were so advanced these days that you couldn't judge someone's exact age by their looks, Yang Ming knew she was his age. She was the ship's intern navigator, whose job was to check star charts, confirm routes, and serve tea and water.

Of course, she also had a rather distinctive private identity:

Hanton's Mistress Number One.

She was a sexy woman, with full lips, bright eyes, and a high nose. Her skin was fair, her figure excellent, and although her waistline wasn't particularly defined, the bulge of her work uniform made Yang Ming's heart pound.

"Hey, darling! Are you all better?"

Her eyes lit up with delight as she deftly wrapped her arms around Yang Ming's waist.

Yang Ming instinctively took half a step back. Before he could say anything, a pair of full, soft lips, sweet with flavor, pressed against his.

Wait, what?

Were Imperial girls all this warm and welcoming?

Thanks, Hanton.

After their lips and tongues tangled for a while, just before Yang Ming's breathing grew ragged, he finally regained a little sense.

This young woman was a navigator, the sort who could read star charts. So she should know the ship's current course, right?

Since the timeline was a little vague, he'd try to figure out their location instead.

"Where are we now, sweetheart?" Yang Ming asked.

"Oh, darling, are you sure you want to bring up such a mood-killing topic right now?" the woman complained coquettishly.

Yang Ming gripped his waistband tightly.

Mistress Number One quickly gave in.

"Darling, what's with the sudden interest? We've just shaken off the Humanity Association's survey ship. We're near Empire Border Tower 4339, and in another two hours we'll pass a deserted resource planet, where we can extract water and replenish our supplies."

Yang Ming nodded, about to pick up where they'd left off and continue his academic exchange with this Imperial girl on Earth's civilization and extraterrestrial civilizations, when his hands suddenly trembled.

A resource planet?

A deserted resource planet?

What was the first sentence of the background description for the Lost Voice instance?

[The border patrol ship discovered a research ship abandoned on the outskirts of a deserted resource planet.]

"Sweetheart, sweetheart, wait a minute!"

Yang Ming pushed the octopus-like woman away again. "Dr. Lina said I shouldn't do anything strenuous right now."

"Oh, right. You were injured in the line of duty."

Mistress Number One smiled tenderly, then bit her lip and gave him a sultry look as she slowly pushed him toward the single bed.

"This is a reward for our hero. You just lie back today. You don't have to do a thing."

Yang Ming asked quickly, "Does that deserted resource planet have a planetary ring? A ring made of rock and dust? Is the surface yellowish-brown, with a massive storm that never clears from the atmosphere?"

She looked puzzled and stared at him. Some of the fire in her eyes faded.

"How do you know that? Our star charts are classified..."

He'd known it!

Yang Ming swiftly flipped her onto the bed, gave her full lips one last, reluctant bite, tightened his waistband, pulled down his undershirt, grabbed the military jacket hanging on the wall and his Identification Card, then charged toward the metal door without looking back.

"Sorry, sweetheart. I have something to take care of."

The woman on the bed looked completely bewildered.

Just before he left, Yang Ming paused and glanced back at the beautiful woman. A string of fond memories with her surfaced in his mind.

"There are three lifeboats on the ship. You can wait near any one of them."

That wasn't rational. It could easily give her the wrong idea.

But Yang Ming felt he should at least warn her.

"Darling?" Mistress Number One looked completely confused.

Bang!

The hatch slammed shut.

Yang Ming hurried toward the nearest elevator.

In the convex mirror at the corner, he saw his reflection: a sharply defined face, the standard close-cropped haircut of an Imperial soldier, a long neck, and a strong build. He really did look like the kind of man female crew members liked.

But nothing mattered more than surviving.

No one was going to make him die again!

Yang Ming broke into a run.

He had to find Geglov. Only Geglov could order them to abandon the Valkyrie!

Yang Ming found his Identification Card in his jacket pocket, swiped it smoothly, and darted into the elevator. He pressed the topmost button, marked Bridge, and instinctively grabbed the handrail.

The elevator entered a weak-gravity environment as it moved, temporarily disabling the ship's simulated gravity field. It had to do with the limitations of field technology.

That detail matched the setting of Abyss exactly.

I need to sort this out.

Hanton's memories showed that Geglov had prepared for the Valkyrie's destructive potential long ago. The Valkyrie was housed in a chamber at the very bottom of the ship, inside a separate module that could be jettisoned at any time.

Yang Ming's thoughts were unusually sharp, and he quickly realized there were problems.

As Third Mate, he could request an audience with Geglov directly, but why would that evil, arrogant professor listen to the advice of a mere "senior technician" like him?

How could he prove the Valkyrie was about to go out of control?

Tell him he'd suddenly gained the power to see the future?

There was a good chance Geglov would take him apart in an experiment as a valuable specimen—the kind where they cracked open his skull.

The problem was that Geglov considered the Valkyrie his life's work: the Valkyrie Project's only near-perfect prototype, and his trump card for demanding a huge research grant from an Imperial minister.

Geglov couldn't bear to give her up.

That was the most fatal problem of all.

There's no time.

Yang Ming looked up at the elevator buttons, pressed the top one twice, then changed his mind and selected the bottom floor, marked with a red exclamation point.

He should check the Valkyrie's condition and look for proof that she was about to lose control. Then he could persuade Brother Ji.

There must be some telltale signs.

Yang Ming thought as much.

The elevator descended slowly and silently. Yang Ming watched the smooth alloy panel and gradually steadied himself.

Hiss—

The elevator doors opened, and the weak gravity gradually returned to normal.

Yang Ming's military boots came into view of the two guards standing ahead.

The two soldiers saluted at once.

"Captain!"

"Mm. Thanks for your hard work," Yang Ming said calmly with a nod, and continued forward.

One of the soldiers started to warn him that the area ahead was off-limits to non-lab personnel, but the other stopped him with a look. In the end, they both kept quiet.

He was the ship's Third Mate. He had the authority to inspect fire-safety equipment and ventilation ducts in every corner of the ship.

The scene before him made Yang Ming somewhat uncomfortable.

The lower deck was like a circular hall, divided into carefully separated sections.

Yang Ming was standing in the upper-left area. A metal staircase spiraled down to his left.

Along the left side of the lower deck stood a row of sealed chambers shaped like cans. More than a dozen men and women were inside, their bodies plugged with all kinds of input tubes. They were clearly in suspended animation.

The special robes covering them preserved the last vestige of dignity the genetically modified experimental subjects had.

Among the modified humans, Yang Ming spotted the mini-boss from the Lost Voice instance, as well as two or three muscular men who were probably elite enemies. When they weren't out of control, they still looked like ordinary people.

The central area held an array of dozens of precision instruments. Narrow walkways connected to small labs on every side, where researchers in protective suits moved back and forth.

On the right was a small "training ground." Several strong figures were exercising, with laser guns constantly pointed at their heads.

Security here was pretty tight.

Soldiers guarded every entrance and exit. The ceiling and walls were lined with high-powered anti-personnel laser guns controlled from the bridge.

The Valkyrie should be in a special chamber in the front-left corner. Hanton had once come here to inspect the fire-safety system.

Yang Ming hurried down the stairs and headed straight along a narrow path boxed in by laboratory equipment.

The chamber door was ajar. Two researchers in protective suits were busy at an instrument panel beside it, whispering to each other.

Yang Ming thought he could hear a heartbeat pounding.

He reached the door and paused, pretending to glance casually inside.

The chamber was about thirty or forty square meters. In the middle was a five-meter-wide biopool shaped like a "can." The beautiful Valkyrie, at once familiar and unfamiliar, floated silently in the pale green water.

Her figure was flawless, and her lovely face held the purity of a young girl. Her orange-red hair drifted upward through the pale green nutrient fluid;

the silver-white collar around her neck was probably some kind of explosive device, yet it only added to her transcendent beauty.

But right now, Yang Ming was more concerned with the nutrient fluid... slowly flowing around the Valkyrie.

"Hanton?"

A sharp, stern female voice came from behind him. "You're not part of the research team. Regulations prohibit you from entering the lower deck, and this area is especially off-limits to you!"

Yang Ming turned to look at the middle-aged woman behind him. Without wasting words, he immediately pointed at the Valkyrie's nutrient tank and asked,

"I'm doing a fire-safety inspection... What's this for? Are you changing the nutrient fluid?"

The woman replied coldly, "Yes. We're changing the nutrient fluid and conducting a scheduled test. Leave at once!"

"Can you stop it?" Yang Ming asked directly.

The woman approached in high heels, looking puzzled.

Her expression softened a little. She folded her arms and frowned as she replied,

"This is a routine experiment on the schedule. Is something wrong, Hanton? This doesn't seem to be your area of work, and you look a little pale. I heard you injured your head while repairing a mech's tail assembly."

Yang Ming tried to make his gaze as sincere as possible.

"That's right. I hit my head, and then I vaguely saw some scenes that made me, well, uneasy. They were about the Valkyrie losing control..."

"Losing control?"

The woman folded her arms. Her figure beneath the lab coat was extremely thin. She smiled and shook her head, then continued,

"She's like a baby right now, a pure and powerful baby. She won't escape our control. Besides, Hanton, we don't need to control her in the first place. She's my friend, my best friend."

Yang Ming quickly picked up on something strange.

As she spoke, her gaunt face, clearly marked by unfulfilled desire and dusted with pale freckles, took on a rapt, almost infatuated expression. There was a strange sense of reverence in it.

No way.

Yang Ming remembered clearly: in the second phase of the Valkyrie fight, she used a Mind Control skill. It affected everything in range, leaving players without mental-protection gear highly likely to become confused and attack their teammates indiscriminately. It was a nasty wipe point.

An unpleasant possibility suddenly occurred to Yang Ming.

He decided to test the woman in front of him.

"She really is beautiful," Yang Ming murmured in admiration. Then he narrowed his eyes and smiled, trying to look as sleazy as possible, and said slowly, "I think I'm falling in love with her."

"Hanton!" The woman looked disgusted. "Don't sully her purity with your filthy thoughts!"

"Isn't she just a test subject?"

Yang Ming looked confused and deliberately raised his voice.

"She may be beautiful, but she's still just a prototype. At the end of the day, she's an artificial product. She reminds me of those expensive, non-intelligent mechanical sex partners. You can even customize their figures and faces, and give them unique sounds when they—"

"Shut up... Just shut up! She's perfect! She's great! She's a god! She's a god!"

The woman's voice suddenly rose to a shriek.

She clutched her ears in pain, letting out a series of low growls.

"She's the most perfect god! Hanton! You'll pay for your frivolity and arrogance!"

This woman's mental state really was a problem.

Brother Ji, look. One of your subordinates has become the Valkyrie's little darling.

He had the proof he needed. Yang Ming immediately took two steps back, making sure to stay as far from the woman as he could.

The workers nearby noticed the commotion. Some of them looked at Yang Ming with revulsion and disdain.

A strange feeling suddenly rose in Yang Ming's heart.

He instinctively looked up through the half-open Special Protective Door toward the chamber where the Valkyrie was kept. His hair stood on end, and his heartbeat seemed to skip.

Behind the transparent wall of the nutrient tank, the Valkyrie was opening her eyes. Her almost translucent eyelashes slowly lifted, and red light shone in her ruby-like eyes.

Pale red ripples, visible to the naked eye, shimmered like ripples on the surface of water.

This was the Valkyrie's "Mental Control"!