Kari's Frustration

Dias did not immediately respond to the invitation to join the team that Dias extended. Dias was not in a hurry; both parties needed a period of mutual understanding, which would be beneficial for future team cohesion.

Kari pestered Xilin daily, explaining the benefits of joining the team. Kari was unsparing with his high enthusiasm for capable individuals. Moreover, Kari was a battle maniac and often dragged Xilin to the training room for sparring.

Since it was sparring, neither party used the methods they would employ when killing. However, even so, Kari fought with great enjoyment. Xilin's boxing techniques were unlike anything he had seen before, flexible and ever-changing, yet carrying a strange aura. Strength and gentleness, harmony and ferocity, were all within Xilin's will.

Even though Xilin was a B-class genotype, Kari did not deliberately yield, because Xilin possessed the ability to fight against A-class genotype individuals. Xilin also gained a lot from sparring with Kari. Encountering different combat styles was highly beneficial for self-improvement. During their sparring sessions, Kari shared a lot of combat experience and examples with Xilin, as Kari's hunter experience far surpassed Xilin's.

For fleets traveling between star sectors, combat personnel must understand mecha combat. Even if their mecha piloting skills were not good, they had to learn the most basic operations.

Good mechas were too expensive, so Dias would not let Kari take them out for fun. Since they couldn't spar with mechas, Kari dragged Xilin to the mecha combat platform on the computer. Although it couldn't compare to the thrill of real mecha combat, the simulation was quite good, and they could have a few rounds.

Initially, Xilin was not familiar with it. When he was on Brown Earth Star, he had played with hovercraft and all-terrain vehicles, but he had never actually piloted a mecha. At first, he lost a few rounds to Kari, but within five rounds, Kari began to lose, and each subsequent loss was faster and more devastating. Whenever this happened, Kari would request to switch mecha types and then start the competition again, continuing the cycle from winning to being utterly defeated.

Later on, even after switching mecha types, Kari was still defeated miserably.

"That guy isn't human!"

After a losing match, Kari exited the online combat platform, grabbed his messy hair, and yelled.

"Do you need me to comfort you?" a voice sounded, seemingly just waking up.

Xilin looked over to see a tall, thin youth, about Kari's age, wearing pajamas with a Strawberry Pattern and white fluffy slippers. He was looking at them curiously.

Still childish? It's hard to imagine someone on the ship dressed like this.

When Kari heard the voice, his expression was like he had constipation, and he remained silent. However, his twitching facial muscles revealed his current depressed mood, because the owner of the voice would surely say something unpleasant in this situation.

Did that guy recover from his sleep so quickly? What is he doing wandering around here!

"Oh, Yudi, you're awake?" Bifur walked over from outside and said to Yudi, who was standing at the doorway. He then turned to Xilin, chuckling with schadenfreude at Kari's predicament: "Xilin, won again? You're improving quite quickly. The deputy captain is looking for you and wants you to go to the control room."

Xilin nodded a greeting to Yudi and left with Bifur, leaving Yudi and Kari staring at each other.

"So he's the Xilin the deputy captain mentioned," Yudi looked at Kari: "With his reaction time, body coordination, and control over mechas, combined with some information I heard before, I can draw a conclusion..."

Kari covered his ears: "I don't want to hear it, I don't want to hear it!"

"He was holding back during the match just now."

"..."

Kari felt an urge to strangle that scoundrel Yudi.

Is this comfort?! Is this comfort?!

Yudi scratched his head, yawned, and walked out. Before leaving, he couldn't resist leaving Kari with a parting shot that almost made him spit blood: "You're so lame."

"Yu--di--I'm going to fight you!"

The sound of banging came from the combat room. Dough stopped his steps towards the combat room and turned to run. There were two dangerous individuals inside, and when these two fought, they tended to affect innocent bystanders.

Xilin's sleep time had also gradually increased recently. Apart from being dragged to the combat platform by Kari for a few rounds, he spent the rest of his time eating and sleeping.

Initially, Dias and the others thought that since mental labor was very draining, resting was normal, just like Yudi, who would sleep for a period after performing a large amount of calculations.

But this explanation was quickly rejected because Xilin slept too much. Even if he didn't spar with Kari, he would sleep soundly, and his sleep time even showed a trend of increasing. The amount of brainpower used was completely disproportionate to his sleep duration. Dias had the ship's physician examine Xilin, and the results indicated that Xilin was very healthy. They could not explain Xilin's sleep. Xilin himself stated that it was due to his physical constitution...

Dias was so worried about Xilin's sleep phenomenon that he developed dark circles under his eyes. He had originally planned to recommend Xilin to join the fleet when he met up with the others from the Sixth Team. However, the other vice-captains already had some opinions about Dias. If it weren't for the fact that Shaun, the captain of the Sixth Team, was Dias's own brother, Dias would have had trouble keeping his own vice-captain position. If Xilin's tendency to sleep excessively were added to this, it would likely not be smooth sailing to have them accept Xilin as a main team member.

The competition between the ten sub-fleets of the Vanguard was becoming increasingly fierce. Moreover, in order to surpass the other three hunter groups, the main team had begun to implement a series of measures. Shaun had not specified what they were, but Dias knew that the Sixth Team urgently needed to accelerate its development and achieve results. What they were desperately lacking now was talent. It was precisely because of this that Dias was so eager to keep Xilin.

"Xilin, are you also a hunter?" Although it was a question, Dias spoke with a tone of certainty.

Xilin knew that Dias must have investigated him, but as long as Yuanye's matter and that strange chip were not exposed, Xilin wouldn't care. Moreover, Xilin believed that they would only find Xilin's fake identity certificate and storage card. As for previous matters, their conclusions would mostly be speculation. No one would have thought that Xilin could adjust his external phenotype starting from his origin genes.

"Yes, but I'm just a shadow hunter, just getting by on a small planet." Compared to the hunter groups, freelance hunters were insignificant, but Xilin had no intention of being inferior or escaping his past.

Dias sighed, "I don't care what you were before. As long as your character is approved and you have strength, I welcome you. You've been on the ship for many days and are familiar with our style. Compared to the other three major hunter groups, our Vanguard is much more free and independent. This is also why our group leader named the starship 'Freedom Ship'."

Seeing Xilin remain silent, Dias continued, "The universe is vast, and this endless space is the dream of every hunter."

But this dream must have a certain foundation, otherwise, it cannot be borne. Freelance hunters simply cannot access this boundless domain. Only by joining a hunter group can they go further and higher. After all, one person's ability is limited.

Xilin knew the words Dias had left unsaid. Moreover, joining a hunter group would be beneficial for finding the Yuanye Family that Yuanye had mentioned. After interacting for these past days, Xilin was quite satisfied with the atmosphere of the Sixth Team. He truly yearned to explore this starry sky that seemed within reach yet remained unfathomable.

"What do I need to do?" Xilin looked at Dias.

This sentence indicated Xilin's decision, which greatly relieved Dias's recent gloom. As long as Xilin was determined to join the team, Dias would do his best to deal with those troublesome vice-captains.

"With you saying that, I'm relieved. You don't need to worry too much. I'll handle everything. Who told me I'm the vice-captain?" Dias no longer cared about Xilin's "sleep constitution" and focused entirely on planning how to deal with the situation after meeting up with the others from the Sixth Team.