The Sea Wolf's bridge.
"Captain, the other side has shut down its tractor beam!"
"Phew... good! Looks like they didn't see through our fake signal!" Nie Yun breathed a sigh of relief.
Despite his relaxed appearance, he had been sweating inside. After all, his knowledge of the Gemini Civilization's technology was limited. In the worst-case scenario, they would see through his deception, and the two sides would fight head-on to settle things.
Even if he managed to drive them back, Earth would be in danger.
But with the first step of his plan successful, the rest now had a chance of succeeding!
"Eight Stripes!" Nie Yun called. Eight Stripes, who had been wandering around the bridge, stopped at his voice, obediently hopped into his palm, and stared up at him with big, round eyes full of confusion.
Nie Yun stared motionlessly at Eight Stripes for a long time. Just as Eight Stripes began to get unnerved, wondering what mischief this master was plotting now, a mass of Mechanical Insects suddenly appeared in Nie Yun's right hand. After he kneaded it like modeling clay, a thoroughly bizarre "insect-skin mask" was ready.
Nie Yun slipped the mask over his head and adjusted it with his hands. Then he turned his strange new face toward the stunned Eight Stripes and asked smugly, "Well? See the resemblance?"
Eight Stripes: "..."
The Ranger's bridge.
"Judging by that ship's heading just now... it came from the outer Milky Way, in the direction of the Perseus Arm! Damn it, could there be a wormhole in that direction we haven't found yet?" the Sea Race captain cursed, his expression grim.
"We can't rule it out. Our wormhole detection technology may be unrivaled among the neighboring civilizations, but we still can't scan every region on the outskirts of