Star Origin!

[Both sides entered the field. The battle began.]

As the system prompt sounded, the other contestant instantly entered. The pink color and cube-shaped hull made Feng Xiao's mouth twitch.

Looked like a tough guy...

"Hahaha! I was only a few dozen points away from entering the top ten billion. I didn't expect the system to hand me a newbie!"

Inside the pink starship, a bald, muscular man in a tank top burst into laughter.

At the same time, he made no hesitation, arcing widely from the left as he charged toward Feng Xiao while his two ship cannons fired in alternation.

"Prioritizing agility and attack. A common setup."

Feng Xiao controlled his four ship cannons and fired. Without checking the results, he accelerated into the asteroid field. More than a dozen massive missile pods then began detaching.

Though this was a virtual competitive arena, it was 99% realistic. Other than not dying and having unlimited energy, it was nearly identical to reality.

As the missile pods landed on the asteroid surfaces, Feng Xiao immediately stopped circling and turned his ship toward the pink starship charging fiercely in from beyond the asteroid cluster.

Feng Xiao fired another four energy beams at the pink starship darting toward him like a fish.

As expected, the pink ship evaded. Violent explosions blossomed behind it, and raging energy flames completely engulfed tens of thousands of meters of space.

"Definitely a newbie. He put most of his attribute points into attack and defense, but no matter how high his defense is, it can't possibly exceed five hundred points!"

The big man no longer held back. His four ship cannons rapidly gathered energy, while every missile pod opened, ready to finish Feng Xiao in one wave.

But at that moment, a piercing missile warning blared. The radar showed huge numbers of missiles approaching from both sides of the starship, leaving the big man utterly dumbfounded.

Before he could react, energy missiles traveling at dozens of times the speed of sound struck the hull directly from asteroid surfaces hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

Terrifying shockwaves and energy waves completely enveloped the pink starship. Moments later, Feng Xiao received the victory prompt.

[Victory

Battle Points +10

Strategy Points +10

Starship Undamaged +10

Total: 30 Points

Rankings are not displayed before reaching the top ten billion.]

Feng Xiao ignored the victory prompt and the added points, instead frowning slightly.

"I only meant to weaken his ship's shields and hull. How did I take him out directly?"

If he had known, he would have just used precise controls to force an attack. Why go through all that trouble and waste time?

Tch! What a noob!

After that, Feng Xiao simply used the various micro-control techniques his father had taught him, winning continuously and gaining points until Feng Xue'an returned.

"Six hundred points is still far from the top ten billion. It seems humanity has far more than ten billion starships. Why does the Blue Crystal Federation only have a little over five hundred?"

His consciousness withdrew from the Star Ring, and Feng Xiao muttered to himself.

"Haha, of course. The Morton Galaxy, where the Blue Crystal Federation is located, alone contains thousands of nations, let alone all of human civilization.

And the name Star Sea Human Alliance isn't something humanity came up with itself.

But Star Net rankings only reflect a captain's experience and seniority. Starship combat rankings require actual battles to qualify."

Feng Xue'an's voice came from the doorway. Then Feng Xiao saw a medium transport shuttle slowly descending into the courtyard.

"That is..."

"Starship cores, and... more than a dozen fairly good Star Weapons..."

Feng Xue'an said with a smile, as though they were mere toys and not worth caring about.

"!!!"

Was his dad really this rich?

That had to be worth over a hundred million Alliance Coins, right?

Blue Crystal Federation currency did not even qualify for transactions within the starship system.

Inside an empty shipyard at Telan Planet's orbital starport, Feng Xiao gazed at the thumbnail-sized multicolored ball of light in his hand, feeling deeply amazed.

"So this is what a starship core acquired using an Empathy Crystal looks like. It has no physical form, yet its captain can touch it... Amazing."

Unable to discern anything further, Feng Xiao suppressed his intense curiosity and gently activated the core according to his instincts.

In an instant, hundreds of differently colored energy ribbons spread out, sweeping up the large pile of energy crystals nearby and absorbing them frantically.

At the same time, Feng Xiao's captain talent and the Heart of Dawn quietly activated, continuously raising the quality potential of the initial starship being formed!

As the illusory turned real, a starship around one thousand meters long gradually solidified. Its length-to-width ratio was roughly five to one, and its overall shape was rectangular.

Its streamlined hull resembled dark crystal, brimming with technological flair while carrying a hint of mystery. It looked incredibly cool.

Feng Xiao impatiently entered the starship. Looking at the empty interior, his heart filled with joy.

His own starship!

Arriving in the main control room, Feng Xiao looked at the orb-like control core and enormous virtual screen, suppressing the excitement and delight in his heart.

"Display the starship data!"

[Please name it...]

"Star Origin!"

[Starship: Star Origin (Legendary)

Level: lv0

Skill: Primary Immortal Hull (Passive)

Star Weapons: None

Amplification: Immortal (Expand)

Details (Expand)]

Other than four ship cannons matching the hull's quality, a basic propulsion system, and an intelligent system, an initial starship came with nothing else.

The primary source of a starship's combat power—Star Weapons—had to be acquired separately by the captain.

Therefore, ordinary civilian students who awakened captain talents had to attend Starship Academy.

Upon graduation, the academy would gift them a set of white-quality Star Weapons to help graduates survive the difficult early days of entering interstellar space.

Families with sufficient means would prepare a slightly higher-grade set of Star Weapons themselves, better aiding the development of their new-generation captains.

Well, like himself.

Though his family was not particularly wealthy, they should at least count as comfortably well-off within human civilization.

"Immediately transfer the Star Weapons outside into the ship's storage, then display their data."

There was no choice. Only after placing Star Weapons into his own starship's storage could he inspect their data.

[Scanning...]

[Fierce Star Main Cannon: Main Cannon

Quality: Blue

Level: lv0

Attack: 800 (+80 per level)

Charge Time: 120s]

[Mystic Azure Armor: Shield

Quality: Blue

Level: lv0

Durability: 2000 (+200 per level)

Recovery: 20/s]

[Titanium Steel Armor: Outer Armor

Quality: Blue

Level: lv0

Durability: 1000 (+100 per level)

Recovery: 20%/h (Immortal). External equipment can be used for repairs.]

Looking at the three massive blue-quality Star Weapons among the pile, Feng Xiao's face was full of excitement.

Generally speaking, white-quality Star Weapons had a level cap of lv10. Each increase in quality afterward raised the cap by five levels.

Knowing most basic starship knowledge, Feng Xiao understood that lv0 to lv10 primary starships had only one Star Weapon slot, while white- to blue-quality Star Weapons each required exactly one slot to install.

Since he could only choose one, he truly needed to carefully consider which type of Star Weapon to select from among the three blue-quality ones.

"Captain, legendary-quality hulls possess four times as many Star Weapon slots as starships of the same level."

The shipboard intelligence, which had remained silent, suddenly spoke, seeming to have guessed Feng Xiao's thoughts.

"Oh?"

Feng Xiao no longer hesitated and immediately integrated every Star Weapon into the starship.

A layer of somewhat thin, scale-like starship armor swiftly appeared across the hull. A faint blue shield emerged for less than three seconds before gradually fading away.

A massive red diamond-shaped crystal and an orbital platform circling the hull materialized at the same time.

"An Orbital Main Cannon. Attacks without blind spots."

After offering a word of praise, Feng Xiao was about to share the good news with his father when he suddenly caught sight of the rapidly changing Star Weapon data.

[Captain talent and legendary hull are applying amplification to Star Weapons...]

[Shield Durability:

Increased to 4000 (+400 per level)]

[Armor Durability:

Increased to 2000 (+200 per level)]

[Main Cannon Attack:

Increased to 1000 (+100 per level)]

[Attack of Four Built-in Secondary Cannons:

Increased to 50 (+5 per hull level)]

Feng Xiao froze, finally understanding why legendary talents were so rare and precious.

The legendary hull it had spawned, along with its talent amplification, had caused the major attributes of a mere primary starship to rise so absurdly high.

Even considering the quality of the Star Weapons, Feng Xiao was certain that even lv10 ordinary blue-quality Star Weapons could not reach such attributes.

How precious were blue-quality Star Weapons?

Even the Blue Crystal Federation possessed fewer than twenty of them!

Though he had no idea why his father had blue-quality Star Weapons...

"Hahaha! Star Origin is probably in the first tier even among rookie captains."

Feng Xiao felt rather pleased with himself.

At that moment, several million kilometers away from the starport, over thirty black light armed warships, each two thousand meters long, were rapidly approaching Telan Planet.

Their vicious hulls were covered in scars, dense shipboard weapons blanketed their frames, and an intense murderous aura and pressure filled the fleet.

The black-and-red vortex emblems at the front of every warship clearly revealed their identity.

The Blood Hole Pirate Fleet!