Star Pirates, Static Shuttle

The spaceship was traveling through the Dark Universe, but this tranquility would not last forever.

"Beep!" "Beep!" "Beep!" A harsh sound rang out in the control room.

"Warning, warning! An unidentified spaceship is closing in on us!"

On the large screen above the console in the central control room, the image of a black-haired girl appeared, accompanied by a crisp, anxious voice.

"What?" The Stellar Rank guard monitoring the control room was startled.

Su Ke and the others, who had been cultivating, rushed over and stared at the screen in the control room.

The screen displayed a scene of a streamlined, deep-cyan triangular spaceship flying through the Dark Universe, pursuing them from behind.

"Are you sure the target is heading toward us?" Su Ke's expression was grave.

The Smart AI replied, "Confirmed. Since it was first detected, the opponent's flight angle has not changed. Even when I attempted to actively adjust our flight direction, the opponent followed suit. Excluding other possibilities, there is a high probability that the other ship is targeting us."

"This..." The others in the ship looked at each other; this was clearly a hostile encounter.

Su Ke's expression was grim. The Dark Universe was so vast that encountering another ship was already a low-probability event, yet they had happened to run into one.

"What is the opponent's ship class? Position? Speed?" Su Ke asked.

"The opponent's ship is C9 Rank, 12 million kilometers away from us. Its current detected speed is 1.8 times the speed of light, which exceeds our maximum flight speed," the Smart AI answered quickly.

"Damn it." Su Ke's face darkened further. "We must have run into space pirates." They were traveling through the Dark Universe, where the environment was relatively calm, allowing them to avoid many of the natural cosmic disasters found in the Original Universe. However, on such long journeys, the energy consumption of the ship was staggering. They had originally planned to traverse about two hundred star systems within the Jialan Empire, totaling over 20 million light-years. Given the speed of Su Ke's ship, he didn't want to maintain maximum speed due to the excessive energy drain, so they usually traveled at about 1.3 times the speed of light, meaning it would take two years to reach their destination.

Beyond that, flying in the Dark Universe was not safe in certain regions, as there were space pirates and even raiders from other races. But these were low-probability events; the Dark Universe was so vast that such encounters were extremely rare.

"The opponent's ship is faster than our maximum speed. At this rate and distance, if we continue flying in the Dark Universe, we will likely be caught," Su Ke said, taking a deep breath.

In the Original Universe, reaching the speed of light would, according to the laws of physics, instantly transport one into the Dark Universe. In the Dark Universe, there was a minimum speed limit but no maximum; as long as your spaceship could withstand the stress, you could keep pushing for higher speeds.

Civilian spaceships (E Rank ships) could only reach a few times the speed of light in the Dark Universe even at their best. It was rumored that the legendary Machine Race ships could reach speeds approaching 10 times the speed of light in the Dark Universe.

The C Rank Jialan ship had a maximum speed of 1.6 times the speed of light in the Dark Universe, but even though the opponent was also C Rank, they were capable of 1.8 times the speed of light.

The speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second. Their maximum speed was 480,000 kilometers per second, while the opponent's was 540,000 kilometers per second. By this calculation, the opponent was 60,000 kilometers per second faster than them.

It was estimated that they would be caught in about 3 minutes.

Zuo De and Su Kai stood together in the ship, their expressions equally serious. "A C9 Rank ship must be worth at least tens of billions. What kind of background could they have?"

Su Ke shook his head. "I don't know, but if they dare to come after us, they must have enough confidence to deal with us. There is a high probability that there is a Universe Rank powerhouse on board."

Universe Rank powerhouse.

This term sent a jolt of fear through everyone present.

The strongest person on their ship was only at the ninth stage of the Stellar Rank. If they were intercepted by a Universe Rank powerhouse, they would surely die.

"Even if those riding a C9 Rank ship are Universe Rank powerhouses, they shouldn't be too strong, but we cannot gamble on that," Su Ke said in a deep voice.

Above C Rank was D Rank; a D1 ship alone was worth over 100 billion Jialan Coins. A Universe Rank individual could easily afford that, though one couldn't rule out the possibility of a particularly poor Universe Rank individual.

If they weren't poor, they shouldn't be interested in being space pirates, or perhaps they were unable to integrate into a cosmic civilization for some reason. After all, if a Universe Rank powerhouse joined a cosmic civilization, they could obtain over a dozen planets. Although these would be ordinary life planets, they would still be worth nearly 10 trillion in total.

Therefore, the price of a first-stage Universe Rank slave was generally between 10 million and 30 million Universe Coins (one Universe Coin was equivalent to about 3,300 Liuyun Coins, and 1 Liuyun Coin was approximately equal to 1,000 Jialan Coins). That was equivalent to the price of dozens of life planets.

"We cannot let them get close to us," Su Ke ordered. "Ship... decelerate!"

The people present were stunned. Su Ke said calmly, "Since we cannot compete with their speed in the Dark Universe, we will definitely be caught if we keep flying like this. We will decelerate until we come to a stop and exit the Dark Universe."

Su Kai realized, "That's right! We can stop and exit the Dark Universe. If they want to keep chasing us, they will have to exit the Dark Universe as well."

However, deceleration was not instantaneous; it required time to go from high speed to a full stop.

Su Ke watched the screen and let out a breath. "Fortunately, the opponent was still a long way off when they were detected. We still have time." If the opponent had been too close, their deceleration would have been tantamount to suicide as the enemy closed the distance at high speed.

The Smart AI controlling the ship immediately executed the order.

The gray, disc-shaped ship began to slow down, its speed dropping rapidly: 1.6 times the speed of light... 1 time the speed of light... 200,000 kilometers... 100,000 kilometers...

During this process, the deep-cyan triangular spaceship behind them was also constantly closing in on Su Ke, 9 million kilometers... 8 million kilometers... 7 million kilometers...

It felt as if the breath of death was closing in.

The people on the ship felt so tense that their hearts seemed to stop beating.

Su Ke felt the ship beneath his feet vibrate slightly. The vibration lasted for about ten seconds before everything fell silent.

Whoosh, decelerated to a stop! The ship automatically shuttled back into the Original Universe!

"Space shuttle successful, returned to the Original Universe," the black-haired, beast-eared girl in a gothic maid outfit on the screen announced in a pleasant, melodious voice.

Swish! Through the external simulation, they immediately saw the vast starry sky, with starlight twinkling in the distance.

"Choose a direction with a complex stellar environment. Accelerate the ship again, get it up to sub-light speed, and maintain that speed. Keep a close watch on the surroundings and report any findings immediately," Su Ke ordered once more.

Reaching the speed of light in the Original Universe would inevitably force one into the Dark Universe. Of course, even for super-beings, it takes time to accelerate to the speed of light, and the same applied to spaceships.

This created a problem: as long as one reached a sub-light speed infinitely close to the speed of light and maintained it, if the opponent wanted to chase them in the Original Universe, they would have to maintain that same speed. Once they exceeded it, they would enter the Dark Universe.

At the same sub-light speed, it was almost impossible to be caught again.

Traveling at nearly 300,000 kilometers per second, unless they were extremely unlucky, they would not be caught by the opponent shuttling back from the Dark Universe.