Zhao Qing exhaled. He had run flight simulations countless times, and although he was actually aboard a ship this time, it still felt no different from his usual training.
He said, "Set the warship's destination to two million kilometers beyond Orange Star. Set main engine output to 75% and accelerate to 800,000 kilometers per hour within one hour."
"Activate the warship's automated navigation scanning. Activate all radar systems and link them to the active defense system."
"Broadcast a navigation warning every four hours. Authorize the defense system to attack obstructions within a radius of 100,000 kilometers along our course."
"Warship, move out!"
"Understood!"
The operators swiftly carried out the commands, and the drifting warship started moving again.
Meanwhile, Zhao Qing was thinking about how the deputy captain had not logged in. He had tried this sort of flight simulation far too many times for it to feel fresh.
Image after image, and even videos, spread like wildfire across online forums.
[Shocking! Thrilling Radiance footage-Yaxing imperial escort warship lifts off from Water Blue Star!]
[Humanity has finally entered the interstellar age!]
[The Alliance's top-secret superweapon deploys!]
Topics like these rapidly climbed the trending lists.
As a fine young man of the new Alliance era in 2054, Zhang Cheng fit right in.
Dressed in loose blue pajamas, Zhang Cheng lay bored out of his mind on a bed with white sheets and a white quilt.
He held an ultrathin phone with a white back in both hands, scrolling through the news. A plain white wardrobe, desk, chair, bookshelf, and other furnishings made his thirty-square-meter white bedroom simple and clean.
Sunlight poured through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, scorching a broad stretch of floor. Temperatures had fallen for several years running, but it was still a daunting forty-one degrees outside.
"Oh... what-are you kid-mmph."
The handsome Zhang Cheng made an indistinct mumbling sound, a wooden stick held between his pale lips.
His tongue pushed the lollipop from his bulging left cheek to his right, then swept up a mouthful of sweetness for him to swallow.
He stared intently at the high-definition photograph on his phone's 6.57-inch screen, its body only three millimeters thick.
It showed an elongated warship climbing toward the azure sky, blue flames pouring from the thrusters beneath it!
His sharp eyebrows rose, and he blurted out, "Isn't that a standard Aubran Empire cruiser? Who's stirring things up with fake videos?"
His expression turned serious. He turned his head, his dark brown eyes settling on a fully enclosed black helmet with flashy red patterns on the bedside table.
[Virtual Reality 3.1]
Meanwhile-in the data world.
After pulling out every trick he knew, the duplicate finally shook off the cyberpolice. The whole ordeal could have made a blockbuster.
He found a poorly defended personal terminal and broke into it. The screen in Zhang Cheng's hands suddenly went black, drawing his attention back. He immediately pressed the power button!
This thing had cost him a full hundred meal vouchers, even if it was a refurbished model from seven or eight years ago.
"Shit! Crooked bastards! Your mothers should've raised you better!"
Zhang Cheng could only curse resentfully. He set the phone on the bedside table, reached back for the [Virtual Reality 3.1], and put it on his head.
He was better off going into the game. To handle the third-generation Viper armor better, he had worked himself into a hulking, muscular man!
Zhang Cheng flipped his pillow over to expose the recess on its underside, then settled his helmeted head into it. Glowing green letters had already appeared on the black glass before his eyes.
"Log in to virtual space?"
Zhang Cheng concentrated on confirming the login. His body immediately sank away from his awareness, and when he could open his eyes again, he was in a black virtual space.
The space was cylindrical, with all sorts of images displayed on its walls.
[War 1941] featured tanks with chipped, peeling paint and disheveled infantry.
Together, they formed a cover depicting a charge, with black smoke shrouding the battlefield behind them.
It depicted the history of Water Blue Star's second war between East and West, which had lasted nine years, and offered massive real-time battles involving over ten thousand players.
But it sat in the farthest corner, suggesting its owner was not particularly fond of it.
Other games of the same sort included [Prehistoric Civilization], [Machines and War], and [My Empire].
There was also a compact pink bundle in the corner, marked with a large R18 label.
It radiated a teasing allure, with tiny titles on the cover including [Virtual Girlfriend] and [Conquer the World]...
At the very center, the largest cover belonged to [Radiance]. It depicted the entire Solar System, conveying the unfathomable depths of the universe.
Although it looked like a science documentary, there was always an inexplicable feeling that unseen monsters lurked in its dark background.
Excitement spread across Zhang Cheng's face as he swept his hand toward [Radiance]. The walls shattered into countless fragments that turned into data, and darkness swallowed the space completely!
A point of light suddenly appeared ahead, revealing a line of neat, silvery-white lettering.
[When you gaze into the sky, we are gazing at you too-Star River]
[Welcome back to Radiance-glory shall be ours, defeat shall belong to the enemy!]
[Published by Star River Entertainment]
That opening line still sent goosebumps over Zhang Cheng's entire body. He could not say whether he felt awed or shocked.
The glow of the lettering gradually became blinding, and Zhang Cheng immediately shut his eyes.
At the same time, sensations of gravity, his limbs, and even the short sleeves and trousers he wore rapidly reached his brain. When he opened his eyes again, he was inside a compartment.
A cacophony instantly assaulted his ears.
"Coming through, coming through! Keep blocking my way and I'll cut you a new asshole!"
"Hurry up! The warship's about to enter Planet 137's atmosphere! Marines, suit up and board!"
"Fuck, how long do I have to keep fighting before I get promoted to squad leader? Every time I die, I lose my character and have to make a new one. Shit!"
As Zhang Cheng opened his eyes, bright light panels shone from the metal ceiling. Men encased in forest-camouflage mechanical armor clanked past him.
They carried meter-long, desert-painted, large-caliber automatic rifles. Throughout the armory hall, even more people excitedly donned armor and equipped their weapons!
Zhang Cheng drew a breath, filling his nose with the smell of machine oil and rusty metal.
Every sensation here was almost identical to what he experienced in the real world.
Zhang Cheng patted his face. He was wearing a gray-green short-sleeved shirt and work trousers.
"Sometimes I really can't tell what's fake and what's real," Zhang Cheng muttered. Clearly, this operation involved joining an assault landing. He hoped he would have good luck.
He approached a locker engraved with his name and opened it using his access authorization.
Besides a full suit of yellow desert-camouflage combat armor with slightly chipped paint, it held a fearsome desert-camouflaged sniper rifle as tall as a person.
"Check the combat log," Zhang Cheng said as he took off his black high-top boots. A screen of light appeared before his eyes.
[Planet 137 resource development project: Fleet 12 of the Heavenly Alliance, an independent imperial guild, conducts a probe of zerg defenses.]
The Heavenly Alliance was a massive guild made up of hundreds of thousands of players.
From its guild leader to the marines conducting assault landings, almost everyone was a human from the real world.
Holding a senior position here required passing assessments and obtaining the relevant certifications. The game was extremely hardcore and closely mirrored real life.
The guild needed money to buy factories, research warships, acquire resources, and then sell them to recoup its costs and build up its fighting power. Repeating this cycle allowed it to keep expanding.
Of course, the rank-and-file assault troops serving as ground-level cannon fodder only needed basic combat training.
The resource planet's designation, 137, had been assigned arbitrarily. The important part was "resource": all the safe planetary regions had already been thoroughly explored.
The guild fleet could only probe deeper into the space zerg's territory, and no one knew how many planets had already been discovered along its borders before this one.
Some planets had so many Insectoids that forced development was impractical. Others had few resources and few Insectoids, but the guild was not picky.
All Zhang Cheng needed to do was be a good grunt. He was here to enjoy the weapons of individual combat.
Actually taking exams to become a commander or a fleet captain sounded boring just thinking about it. If anything went wrong, the guild's senior management could even remove him from his post.
Zhang Cheng put on his black hood. The unoccupied Viper 3 Desert Armor automatically stepped out of the equipment locker, opening its entire front to reveal the pilot compartment.
Zhang Cheng turned around and backed into the armor's cockpit. The entire suit of Viper armor quickly sealed around him.
"Suit-up complete!"
Before you continue